Mango. To some, it’s just a delicious fruit; to others, it’s the once-secret codename for an update Microsoft plans on pushing to Windows Phone 7 later this year.
We’ve known for a while now that Mango would bring multitasking for third-party applications and Internet Explorer 9, but Microsoft has just used their MIX 2011 Keynote to shed a bit more light on the other new stuff.
All-in-all, Microsoft claims that around 1500 new APIs have been squeezed in for developers to build on.
Amongst them:
Application multitasking for background processing, audio and file transfer, and fast application switching
Deeper phone integration so apps can, for example, take better advantage of the versatility of Live Tiles
Access to the camera and Motion Sensor library so developers can build apps that incorporate device hardware and build augmented reality experiences
That last one — the prior lack of direct camera/motion sensor access — is something that I’ve heard developers complaining about on multiple occasions.
