The First 48 Hours With WP Tango

Here we are again, another summer with Windows Phone 7 and everyone is anticipating the next OS update.

Tango.

Well, actually, most all of the anticipation lies on the even newer 7.8 update. That is, those of us without our eyes and minds fixated on Windows Phone 8. So many updates and advances in the OS on our minds right now!

For the purposes of this article I’ll discuss just the update closest to our grasp. Most of us are currently without this “Tango” update, or as its professionally called, the 7.5 Refresh. It’s been about 48 hours since I plugged into Zune and got that update notification we all know and love. I’ve compiled a super short list of some of the changes that I’ve noticed or used over these past 48 hours.

The very first thing I noticed was the SMS enhancements in Tango. I send/receive A LOT of picture messages (MMS) all throughout the day mainly from work, friends and my lady. When you’re in the SMS chat between you and the other person and you press the paperclip icon on the bottom menu bar, a screen pops up with the prompts to choose “picture or video” or “voice note.”

I haven’t tried the video MMS because I’m not a video person at all. I did try out the voice note feature and it worked well. I sent it to a friend who has an Android phone and he heard me just fine! So essentially, there’s no need for the Voxer app that some say is a crucial, must have app. It’s integrated into our beloved OS now! Also, I can now send multiple photos in one single message. This comes in handy and it’s quite convenient.

I have yet to use the SMS Ringtone feature, nevertheless it is there.

I’ve noticed a few of the overall optimization enhancements that are system wide. They might not be actual software tweaks, it could possibly be due to the actual update process clearing out log file memory, stored process data, temporary files and what not. One of the optimizations I don’t like that I noticed right away is the start screen scrolling speed. The WP team seems to have slowed it down, put governor on it so to speak. I can’t flick my thumb and super scroll down my organized assortment of live tiles to the bottom. Instead, it’s a much more paced journey, almost a tour of my own start screen.

A surprising find is my apps which have been updated for Tango seem to work MUCH better than after 8107 update. For example, when the Foursquare app was updated to 8107, it worked horribly. There were all sorts of weird stuff going on such as false GPS location, check-ins not registering properly, having to manually refresh to find local spots, etc. I uninstalled and reinstalled it several times to try and make it work. I was seriously considering writing a strongly worded tweet and/or email to the dev team behind it! That is until I updated to Tango. Works just like it should now. Awesome stuff!

That’s about it, so far. There was an HTC update as well which probably brought more hardware optimization and compatibility with the .8773 update.

For the majority of users I’ll keep the summary short and sweet. Three words, “No big deal.” Unless you absolutely need the SMS enhancements, you’re not missing out on anything vital.

I’d like to hear your questions or comments on this. To those of you who got the update as well, what changes or features have you noticed? Is there anyone who feels they desperately need this update? If so, which of these or other enhancements do you need?

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