Smart DJ, Podcast Integration, More Changes to Music + Videos Hub Confirmed for Mango

  

Yesterday, Microsoft took to the Windows Phone Blog and gave us one of the first looks at a new Mango feature, with many more promised to come in the next few months before Mango's launch. That Mango feature is one we've been looking forward to for a while: a refreshed Music + Videos Hub.

First we'll start off with something we're all familiar with now, which is the deeper podcasts support to be included in the update. Gone are the days of waiting for podcasts to download on your PC and then waiting again for them to transfer over. Instead you now have the option of downloading, subscribing, and editing your settings for that podcast series straight from the Hub, something that we will definitely be making use of in the future. They also confirmed that video podcasts are in fact supported and can even be streamed directly from the Marketplace instead of waiting for the download to complete. Another important option they mentioned was that podcast downloading (and presumably streaming) would default to Wi-Fi only but users will have the option to remove that limit and use cellular data as well. Finally there's the question of what will actually be managing your podcast subscriptions, the phone or the PC? Well you choose one or the other "to make things as simple as possible" in Microsoft's words. There are quite a few more features, but if you want to know more we suggest you read our take on the feature in our hands-on with the Windows Phone Mango emulator.

  

Now we can get to the new stuff like the highly-anticipated OG smart playlist system, Smart DJ which is also confirmed as an included feature of Mango. Of course, Smart DJ works best when paired with Zune Pass because you have an unlimited playlist tailored to what you like. Pretty snazzy. As to where the Smart DJ feature is going to be included in the Hub, Microsoft's Josh Phillips described it best:

We’ve sprinkled the Smart DJ feature all over the Music + Videos Hub: It’s available from artist cards, the music player, and every artist, album, and song in your collection via the tap-and-hold menu. Since we have a hunch that you’re really going to like Smart DJ mixes, we’ve add them to the History pivot and made them pinable to the Start screen, so you can quickly find favorite mixes again.

So as you can tell, Smart DJ is poised to become a big part of your Windows Phone music listening experience, and adding those playlists to the History pivot should really encourage you to go back to those and listen again to find new music.

Speaking of the History pivot, there have been a bunch of additional nip and tucks around the Music + Videos Hub. The History and New pivots are now vertical scrolling lists instead of wide panoramas and will also now show up to 25 items in each section compared to the previous 8. Also the Shuffle All Music button that was previously found next to the 'Music' section in the menu pivot of the Hub can now be found in an appbar below in order to make it stand out more (far left screenshot above). Also the playback controls in the Now Playing screen have been moved around for the same reason, so now Like, Shuffle and Repeat live alongside the album art (middle screenshot). The drop-down controls have also been tweaked, which now features larger buttons and more information;  tapping on the song/artist will now send you to directly the Now Playing screen. Also the lock screen will now feature always-present controls when playing music and are transparent to be on top of your background. Speaking of the lock screen, artist images can now be set to the background image and the artist images themselves have been improved by making them slightly darker in order to see the controls more easily. Also the now playing queue will include the artist names of any songs coming up and you can also now create and save playlists on-device.  Zune Pass users will also see a new icon to tell them if they're streaming music from the service. Finally, the default video player will include a full-screen mode and video scrubbing for full control of your watching experience.

Wow that is seriously a ton of new stuff in just one Hub. Are you excited for the new-and-improved Music + Videos Hub?

Source: Windows Phone Blog