Thursday, July 14, 2011

Microsoft promises Mango phones in September for Imagine Cup finalists

Another year, another Imagine Cup. The annual competition, sponsored by Microsoft, gives students the opportunity to apply technology to tackle hunger, poverty, and other global problems, thereby making the world a better place (for you and for me, and the entire human race). We'd say the finalists deserve a pretty cool reward for their efforts, right? According to a status update on the Cup's Twitter account -- an update that's conspicuously been pulled -- one of the prizes for finalists is a Windows Phone with Mango pre-loaded, a jackpot they'd receive by September. We're not completely certain if this will be a pre-release version intended for developers or if it's an indication that the final iteration will be ready for public use by this time; we've only heard that Mango's slotted for a fall release, so both are definite possibilities. Since many of these students are developers, however, it's entirely possible they'll receive a prototype device with an early version of the firmware. No phone could replace the warm feelings in their heart for such a great accomplishment, but at least they can share their joy with built-in Twitter integration.