On
Tuesday, Microsoft announced that U.S. wireless carriers have started
rolling out its latest mobile OS, Windows Phone 7.5 (WP7.5), formerly
known as "Mango," to Windows Phone customers. All users can expect to
get the new software by the end of October.
Windows Phone senior director of product management and enterprise
experiences, at the company's New England Research & Development
center in Cambridge, Mass.--aptly dubbed the "NERD" center. And Bryan
shared his opinions on the most valuable new, enterprise-related
features and enhancements in the WP7.5.
1) "Elegant" E-Mail Conversation Views
Windows Phone 7.5 features a number of e-mail related enhancements,
the most notable of which is what Bryan calls "elegant conversation
view," a cool, detailed way of looking at e-mail history. What sets this
new e-mail view apart from more traditional e-mail strings, according
to Bryan, is that it uses the conversation ID from Exchange to ensure
you see the full set of e-mail in a conversation.
"This includes replies from you as well as e-mail in other
folders." Bryan says. "E-mail that includes multiple replies shows a
vertical bar next to the message. With a single tap of the message, the
user interface elegantly expands to show the entire conversation, from
which you can select specific replies or the entire conversation and
take action such as mark as read, delete or move."
Bryan says this approach is better than traditional "group by
subject'" e-mail threads, because such threads often don't show your
replies and can miss e-mail messages if the subject line is changed in
the reply. The way the UI shows on Windows Phone 7.5--expanding the
conversation within the list of e-mails versus taking you to a separate
conversation view-- makes for a much more intuitive user experience
compared to some other smartphones, he says.
2) Microsoft Office 365 Integration
Windows
Phone 7.5 includes "auto-discovery" and "auto-provisioning" support for
Office 365 accounts, according to Bryan. WP7.5 users can set up
Exchange and SharePoint access quickly and easily by clicking on the
Office 365 links in the device's "Office Hub" and entering in their
associated usernames and passwords.
WP7.5 is the only smartphone with the SharePoint Mobile client built-in, so users can easily access, edit and synchronize SharePoint documents from Office 365 sites, Bryan says.
3) Support for Information Rights Management (IRM) via Exchange
Windows Phone 7 devices currently cannot view contents of messages
with Microsoft Exchange Information Rights Management (IRM) restrictions
tied to them, but WP7.5 adds new support for rights-protected messages
sent from Exchange e-mail accounts, Bryan says.
Recipients of protected messages who use WP7.5 devices now see a
small lock icon at the top of a rights-protected e-mail message that
indicates the message has some type of IRM tied to it. WP7.5 maintains
rights protection policies so if a message and its attachments are set
to "Do not forward," for example, the forward menu option is "grayed
out" so users can't click it, according to Bryan.
"And pressing on the lock icon provides the user with an
explanation of the policy applied to the particular e-mail," Bryan says.
4) Support for Alphanumeric Passwords
Windows Phone 7 only supports "simple," or numeral-based, passwords,
but WP7.5 adds new support for alphanumeric passwords so organizations
can employ more secure passwords composed of a combination of letters
and numbers, according to Bryan. And IT administrators can push
password-enforcement polices via Exchange that ensure users employ
alphanumeric passwords. (Unfortunately, individual users who aren't
connected to Exchange Servers still only have access to "simple,"
numeric passwords.)
5) Hidden SSID Support in Windows Phone 7.5
Windows Phone 7.5 now supports hidden SSID, which is the ability to
connect WP7.5 devices to a wireless network that is not broadcasting its
SSID. But this new feature is dependent on the chipset and drivers of
the device, he says, so it's not available on current WP7 devices. It
could be available on new WP7.5 hardware in the future, though,
according to Bryan
Bryan also notes that "[s]ome organizations use SSID so as not to
broadcast their wireless network information. However, it is widely
recognized that this does not provide a material security benefit."
6) Windows Phone 7.5 "App Connect"
A
new "App Connect" feature for Windows Phone 7.5 developers lets them
create complex applications that can be tied to various additional phone
functions, including search results, so if a user queries a specific
term that's related to an app, he could see that application, or a part
of that app, recommended as a result.
App Connect also let developers serve up "richer" content via "live
tiles," which users can pin to their home screens for customized UI
experiences. For example, a user who travels frequently could pin a tile
to his home screen that provides pre-specified information on an
upcoming flight, along with travel updates, etc., so he wouldn't need to
open up an app to find the information.
7) New Targeted Windows Phone App Distribution for Enterprises
Windows Phone 7.5 supports a new "targeted" application distribution
method for enterprises. This new app distribution method enables
organizations to submit mobile apps to the Windows Phone Marketplace,
Microsoft's app store, as any developer would for approval and eventual
distribution, but it differs in that businesses can now provide access
to the app through a "deep link," according to Bryan, and the apps will
not show up publicly through the Marketplace via search. This provides a
way for organizations to distribute enterprise apps to large numbers of
employees wherever they may be located.
"Security measures such as user authentication and authorization are handled within the app itself," Bryan says.
8) New App Switcher for Faster Device Navigation
Windows Phone 7.5 has a new software feature that makes it simple for
users to jump back and forth between recently used applications, which
is sure to assist busy businesspeople, Bryan says.
To access the new WP7.5 app switcher, you simply hold the "back"
button for a few seconds until the five last-used apps appear in
"windows" on your display. Then you just drag a finger along the screen
until you see the application you want and tap it to quickly re-open the
app.
