Windows Phone 7 “Mango” Preview

The feature set for the “Mango” release of Windows Phone 7 was officially released today. This finally brings Windows Phone inline with iOS in terms of functionality. Next week it’s Apple’s move.

Some of the new features include:

• Internet Explorer 9
• New Bing capabilities – including Local Scout, Bing Vision
• Read aloud SMS messaging and spoken replies
• Linked Inboxes (bring multiple email accounts together)
• Pinning of email folders to the home screen
• Impressive Hubs: People, Office, Xbox
• Custom Ringtones
• Full Skydrive and Office 365 Support
• Twitter integrationIntegration of Instant Messaging (IM) with Text Messages (SMS)
• Multitasking
• Email conversation view
• Group IM and SMS
• Facebook chat
• Skype app
• Spoken Turn-by-turn navigation (in some countries)
• Visual Voicemail
• Album art on lock screen
• Rights Managed email access
• Ability to rollout apps to corporate users (bypassing the app store)
• New APIs supporting many new capabilities such as direct access to camera/video stream
• Ability to share beta apps with up to 100 users
• SQL CE and Linq to SQL
• Combining of XNA and Silverlight in a single app

UPDATE: Here’s Joe Belfiore showing off Mango.