New Mango productivity features revealed at Tech Ed 2011

Mango is probably the hottest thing in mobile space right now. Who would have thought a fruit would be so popular on interwebz? Relevant video.
Now back to serious business. We covered all the Mango features back at Mix 11 and some leaked features here and here. Today, Windows Phone Blog has posted some interesting new *business* features which were announced at Tech Ed 2011 targeting mostly the enterprise segment.

So what's new ?

• First and foremost, you can now connect to hidden Wi Fi networks on your Windows Phone device with Mango. Yes, finally. No need for the HTC Hidden Wi Fi app anymore ( it barely works )
• Pinnable email folders: Pin a folder to the start screen for quick access. This could be an email folder for a specific project, from a specific group or person (like your boss), or an RSS feed you’ve set up in Outlook.
• Conversation view in email: Emails in your inbox are organized by conversation, bringing replies to a thread into a consolidated view so it’s faster and easier to stay on top of the conversation.
• Server search: Search your email server (e.g. Exchange Server) for older emails no longer stored on your phone, giving you ready access to all of your mail.
•  Lync: Lync Mobile brings the Lync experience to Windows Phone customers by delivering Unified Communications capabilities, including instant messaging and the ability to see the presence of your co-workers. The Lync app will be a free download from Windows Phone Marketplace and will be enabled with support from your business organization.

More from the blog :

In addition to helping you stay productive, Mango also includes new capabilities for IT. With new features such as complex (alpha-numeric) password support, Information Rights Management support for protecting e-mails and Office documents, and support for access to hidden corporate Wi-Fi networks, your IT organization can stay on top of its game—providing you access to information you need while meeting corporate requirements.

Do tell us what you think. I hope you are as excited as we are. To follow all the mango related news, click here.

update : here is video of the features in action, via @Winrumors

By Rahul Mathur

Official Tech.Ed North America 2011 application now available in the Marketplace

19^th Annual Tech Ed North America, a four day event from May 16-19 will be held at Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Not much time left for the event to commence so hoping you have registered by now and if you haven't - don't sweat, registrations are still underway . Now for those who are attending the event either in person or virtually - Microsoft has released Tech Ed application called My Tech Ed to assist you on multiple areas.

More details below :

myTech·Ed is a social networking and content resource developed for the technology professionals that attend Tech·Ed North America in-person or virtually online. The year-round engagement with like-minded professionals provides members with opportunities to LEARN and advance their depth of knowledge with Microsoft technologies; CONNECT with Microsoft experts, partners, and community members; and SHARE information with peers - before, during, and after each event.
The myTech·Ed Windows Phone 7 App enables on-the-go access to your Tech·Ed schedule, contacts, discussions, locations and more. With this app, you can:• Connect with peers in the Tech·Ed directory, and send messages to or arrange meetings with other attendees.• Engage in conversation in technology-focused discussion forums.• Quickly build your schedule by adding sessions to attend and exhibitors to visit.• Receive alerts about important changes to your schedule.• Build an annotated Trip Report compiled of your sessions, contacts, discussions and exhibitors to share with your boss or colleagues.

The application is available for free on the marketplace. We'll be attending the conference virtually so we'll keep you up to date on for any Windows Phone related announcements.

Zune Download Link  

By Rahul Mathur