Windows Phone 7 isn’t the hottest competitor we’ve seen enter the market, but it’s also not giving up any time soon. Like the Little Engine that Could, WP7 is chugging away, intent on pushing itself despite being a small player in the field. One of the ways they’re doing this is the release of a new OS iteration titled “NoDo.”
According to a report from Engadget —, NoDo actually stands for “no donuts.” It’s a potential reference to several different items, all equally obscure. First, that Microsoft doesn’t want to release a tiny, essentially worthless update — like Android famously did with their “Donut” release (Android OS 1.6). It could also be a prod at Android’s food obsessions (each of their operating systems is named after a food type — Eclair, Honeycomb, Gingerbread, etc.), although that’s unlikely, considering the upcoming WP7 OS update code-named “Mango.” However, the official statement is simpler: “A guy failed to bring donuts to a meeting after losing a bet,” said Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel.
The new OS version adds some crucial features, including copy/paste functionality and location data support. It also addresses a number of well-known bugs in the current WP7 OS.
While many were predicting that the OS would be released in time for Microsoft’s CES keynote address this week, there’s been no release just yet. Current speculation says that the operating system will be released in February, although nothing is solid yet.
Most people are more excited about Mango, the giant update that will be integrating HTML 5, Microsoft IE 9, Silverlight (which should make its browser capable of handling Netflix from the get-go), and more. Mango may well be the 7.2 OS update to the NoDo 7.1, but considering the lack of a public IE 9 release and the fact that build numbers for Mango are in the 7500s, it may still be a ways away.
