Microsoft patch Windows Phone 7 – properly this time

Microsoft have updated Windows Phone 7, and it looks as if nothing has gone wrong this time. After a disastrous Windows Phone 7 pre update which hosed a lot of Samsung phones, the new update should fix many of the niggling issues with the mobile platform.

The ‘NoDo' update features the missing ‘copy and paste' feature, optimised performance in applications and games, and a better MarketPlace experience, with other performance tweaks and stability improvements.

The copy and paste feature is accessed through a contextual menu system that is accessed either by tapping a word and dragging handlebars or by tapping and holding the same to bring up the menu. Pasting is handled via an icon on the text suggestion bar.

Marketplace search has also been improved for better usability and Microsoft promise that large downloads will not be unstable anymore.

Here are a list of improvements:

Copy & paste: Tap a word and drag the arrows to copy and paste it on your phone. You can copy text from emails, text messages, web pages, and Office Mobile documents, and paste it anywhere you can type.

Faster apps and games: NoDo update cuts down the time it takes for apps and games to start up and resume.

Better Marketplace search: Marketplace search is streamlined to make it easier to find specific apps, games, or music. Press the Search button in the Apps or Games section of Marketplace and you'll see only apps or games in the results. Press Search in the Music section of Marketplace to search just the music catalogue.

Other Marketplace improvements: The stability of Marketplace is improved while downloading apps. The experience of downloading apps larger than 20 megabytes is also improved. Upgrading from trial apps to paid apps, using a credit card with an address outside the United States, sharing links to apps via email, sorting Xbox LIVE games by release date, and creating an Xbox LIVE account from within the Games Hub is much better with the update.

Wi-Fi improvements: The phone's Media Access Control (MAC) address is now displayed in Settings. Also removed the limit on the number of Wi-Fi profiles that you can store and reduced the time it takes to start your phone if you've stored lots of Wi-Fi profiles.

Outlook improvements: Improved the experience of viewing iPhone photo attachments you receive from a non-Exchange-based email account (such as a Google Mail, Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail account), using the Global Address List (GAL) when connecting to Exchange Server 2003 using Exchange ActiveSync, and working with email display names that contain brackets (for example, “David Alexander [Contoso]”).

Messaging improvements: Improved the experience of receiving Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages if your phone uses a PIN-locked SIM.

Facebook integration: Improved the experience of syncing Facebook accounts.

Camera improvements: Improved the stability of switching between camera and video modes.

Audio improvements: Improved the experience of using a Bluetooth headset to make calls when playing music or videos.

Other performance improvements: This month's update also includes software from several phone manufacturers that improves the performance of specific models. If you don't have one of the affected models, this portion of the update will not be installed on your phone.

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