Windows Phone 7 Update

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer launches Windows Phone 7 in October 2010 Microsoft's Steve Ballmer launches Windows Phone 7 in October 2010.

Windows Phone 7 owners in the UK will have to wait until next week to update their handsets with Microsoft's "NoDo" (no doughnuts) software version which adds cut and paste and other features.

The delay to the update has partly been caused by the networks' requirement – imposed on all handset manufacturers – to test the update thoroughly to ensure that it will work with their individual systems.

Among the features the Windows Phone update will introduce are:

• cut and paste functionality;

• faster app launching;

• improved Marketplace search and stability;

• Wi-Fi improvements, including display of the phone's MAC address in Settings, which is sometimes needed to join networks that use MAC address filtering, and removal of limits on Wi-Fi profiles;

• improvements when you receive an MMS if you have a PIN-locked SIM;

• better Facebook integration;

• more stability when switching between still and video on camera settings; and

• improvements to Outlook for viewing photo attachments from Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo mail accounts when using Exchange Server.

The number of different phone models that run an operating system therefore complicates the update process. There are five different Windows Phone 7 handsets available in the UK, and new ones being prepared, each of which has slightly different firmware and so which has to be checked against the software update. That does raise the question of how the update that bricked the Samsung phones passed the approval process – but has meant that the networks are more cautious than ever about rolling out Windows Phone updates.