Microsoft shows off the new music features of the Mango update

Windows Phone 7 is a great starting point for a mobile operating system. But with certain industry-standard features missing, Microsoft has failed to convert the Android and iOS lovers. While Microsoft's earlier previews touched on features like multitasking, conversation threads, and Internet Explorer 9, multimedia was left out.

Now, via a blog post, Microsoft has posted more details about the music features of the Mango update. One of those features is Smart DJ, which functions much like Apple's Genius. Smart DJ will assemble playlists based on a single song, album, or artist, and find new music in the Zune catalog for download.

They have also added native podcast support. With the current build, you need to transfer the podcasts from your PC via Zune. With Mango, you can search, download, and enjoy podcasts from a dedicated menu within the Marketplace. There is also the option to stream the podcast, instead of downloading it. One very cool addition is how WP7 will manage automatically downloaded podcasts. To save battery, it will only do so (automatically) if you're connected to a power supply. And to conserve data usage, it will use Wi-Fi as the default method for download.

There are a number of other little visual tweaks and reorganizations. Check out the Microsoft link below for the full rundown. Is Windows Phone 7 capturing your interest yet?

source: Microsoft via Electronista