The Midweek Download: July 27th Edition–Windows Phone “Mango” is Released to Manufacturers, Microsoft & SUSE Renew Interop Agreement, plus Hotmail, Messenger and SkyDrive

The big news so far this week is the release to manufacturers of Windows Phone “Mango.” Also this week, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith testified before Congress on the importance of education and immigration reform.

Windows Phone “Mango” released to manufacturers. On Monday, Microsoft announced that the next version of the Windows Phone mobile platform, dubbed “Mango,” has been released to manufacturers. This marks the point in the development process where we hand code to our handset and mobile operator partners to optimize Mango for their specific phone and network configurations. We now turn to preparing for the update process. The Mango update for current Windows Phone handsets will be ready this fall, and of course will come pre-installed on new Windows Phones. For the rest of this story, read this Monday post on the Windows Phone Blog. Next at Microsoft Blog Editor Steve Clayton also blogged about Mango on Monday while the Windows Phone Developer Blog covered application compatibility in this July 22nd post.

People Week, Version 2.0. Last week, Next at Microsoft Blog Editor Steve Clayton profiled people at Microsoft, with a special focus on designers. Don’t miss this profile of Andrew Phillips, head of biological computation at the Microsoft Research lab in Cambridge, England. His background is in theoretical computer science, with a focus on programming language development and his relationship with Microsoft began while studying for his PhD at London’s Imperial College.

The Need for Education and High-Skilled Immigration Reform. On Tuesday, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security at a hearing on “The Economic Imperative for Immigration Reform.” To read more about Smith’s testimony, check out this post on the Microsoft on the Issues Blog.

Microsoft and SUSE Renew Successful Interoperability Agreement. Microsoft and SUSE, an independent business unit of The Attachmate Group Inc., announced on Monday a four-year extension of the groundbreaking agreement struck nearly five years ago between Microsoft and Novell Inc. for broad collaboration on Windows and Linux interoperability and support. This relationship will extend through Jan. 1, 2016, with Microsoft committed to invest $100 million in new SUSE Linux Enterprise certificates for customers receiving Linux support from SUSE. Read this press release on the Microsoft News Center for more details.

Capgemini and Microsoft Plan to Offer Accelerated Cloud Services in 22 Countries. Capgemini Group, one of the world’s foremost providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, and Microsoft Corp. announced on Monday a global plan that will bring the expertise of Capgemini’s consulting, technology and outsourcing services to help deploy customer solutions on the Windows Azure platform. As part of the agreement, Capgemini will market and deliver services around Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, mobilizing Capgemini’s full life-cycle capabilities in orchestrating, designing, developing and running cloud-based application services. Check out this press release for the rest of the story.

Developers – Learn how to bring data from Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive to your mobile apps. With the recent release of our developer platform we’ve made it easy for developers on modern mobile platforms such as Windows Phone, Android, and iOS to easily integrate the ability for users to access their information such as contacts and photos from Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive in their favorite mobile apps and devices. Want more details? Read this July 20th post on the Inside Windows Live Blog.

Thanks for reading The Midweek Download. Stop by again on Friday for another installment of Weekend Reading.

Posted by Jeff Meisner
Editor, The Official Microsoft Blog

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