WP7 Future: Multitasking, IE9, Skydrive, Twitter integration
At yesterday's Mobile World Congress keynote, Microsoft shed more light on future Windows Phone 7 features. CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about and demonstrated a few features that are in the pipeline as far as WP7 for smartphones is concerned. Windows Phone 7 users can look forward to IE9 browser, multitasking support, SkyDrive and Twitter integration later this year.
Ballmer said an immediate update to WP7 smartphones is due in early March, this update will bring copy paste function and enhanced performance to WP7 devices.
Multitasking: WP7 phones currently supports multitasking with only Microsoft's Zune music service while using other apps. That will change with an update to WP7 OS later this year. Microsoft demonstrated the upcoming multitasking feature in WP7 by streaming music from Slacker radio app while moving over to other apps on the demo phone. There will also be a slight tweak to the future WP7 interface, post the multitasking update, to make it easier for users to know which apps are running and switch between them.
IE9 with HTML5: A version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Web browser will also feature on WP7 later this year, and the browser will be hardware accelerated to utilize WP7 device's graphics engine. Since IE9 is HTML5 enabled, WP7 will run videos natively off the browser.
SkyDrive: Another enhancement to future WP7 phones will be the ability to login to SkyDrive. It's Microsoft's online storage service to save and access Word, Excel and PowerPoint files online, and the update will allow you to save and access these SkyDrive files from your WP7 phone.
Twitter integration: The WP7 update will integrate Twitter into the People Hub tile on WP7 phones. Right now you only see your friends' Facebook updates, in the near future you'll see their Twitter statuses as well.
WP7 phone as Xbox controller: At the MWC 2011 keynote, one Microsoft executive showcased a video where an Xbox game involved players playing with a Kinect controller and WP7 phones also used as controllers. Microsoft didn't say when the technology will be made available for WP7 phones.
At yesterday's Mobile World Congress keynote, Microsoft shed more light on future Windows Phone 7 features. CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about and demonstrated a few features that are in the pipeline as far as WP7 for smartphones is concerned. Windows Phone 7 users can look forward to IE9 browser, multitasking support, SkyDrive and Twitter integration later this year.
Ballmer said an immediate update to WP7 smartphones is due in early March, this update will bring copy paste function and enhanced performance to WP7 devices.
Multitasking: WP7 phones currently supports multitasking with only Microsoft's Zune music service while using other apps. That will change with an update to WP7 OS later this year. Microsoft demonstrated the upcoming multitasking feature in WP7 by streaming music from Slacker radio app while moving over to other apps on the demo phone. There will also be a slight tweak to the future WP7 interface, post the multitasking update, to make it easier for users to know which apps are running and switch between them.
IE9 with HTML5: A version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Web browser will also feature on WP7 later this year, and the browser will be hardware accelerated to utilize WP7 device's graphics engine. Since IE9 is HTML5 enabled, WP7 will run videos natively off the browser.
SkyDrive: Another enhancement to future WP7 phones will be the ability to login to SkyDrive. It's Microsoft's online storage service to save and access Word, Excel and PowerPoint files online, and the update will allow you to save and access these SkyDrive files from your WP7 phone.
Twitter integration: The WP7 update will integrate Twitter into the People Hub tile on WP7 phones. Right now you only see your friends' Facebook updates, in the near future you'll see their Twitter statuses as well.
WP7 phone as Xbox controller: At the MWC 2011 keynote, one Microsoft executive showcased a video where an Xbox game involved players playing with a Kinect controller and WP7 phones also used as controllers. Microsoft didn't say when the technology will be made available for WP7 phones.
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