Today Microsoft officially announced the new Windows Phone OS Windows Phone 7.1, codename Mango. This is the new OS for the upcoming Nokia Windows-based phones as well after both companies signed the partnership agreement in April 2011.

The official release date of Mango has yet to be announced, but Microsoft is committed to release it to all new and existing Windows Phones in Autumn 2011.

Let’s take a look into the new features added to Windows Phone 7.1 (Mango) :-

• Multitasking
  Allow fast applications switching and support background processing, audio and file transfer.
• Copy & Past
  Yes, this missing feature that is so critical for a smartphone OS will be available in Mango.
• Better social integration
  Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter & Linked-In are integrated into the contacts, making emailing, SMS-ing and instant messaging a lot easier.
• Groups
  This is a new feature in People Hub that allows you put together related people into a grid of live tiles and put tagged pictures of those people into the groups.
• Smarter keyboard interface
  Word prediction will be available when you are typing. For example, when you type “happy”, and the phone will display “birthday” for selection.
• Improved Live Tiles
  One of the main attractions of Windows Phone OS is the Live Tiles so it’s further enhanced to hold more information, including push notifications via Live Agents running in the background.
• Hands-free messaging
  Text-to-voice and voice-to-text engines allow for easier SMS and chatting. Android & iOS already have this feature, so I guess it’s not too late to have it in Mango too.
• Internet Explorer 9
  IE 9 will be the new built-in browser. It provides support for HTML5 and full hardware acceleration. On top of that, the rendering engine of IE9 mobile version will be the same as the desktop version.
• Better Bing Search Engine
  Mango provides new ways to search including Bing Vision, Bing Audio and voice. It offers location specific results such as nearest restaurant, events happening nearby, etc.

Take a glimpse of what Mango can offer you in the videos below :-