Microsoft has sent its next iteration of the Windows Phone software to handset makers, as it wraps up the operating system’s features and software code ahead of a launch in Fall 2011.

The so-called Mango update, unveiled two months ago, promises a number of fixes and updates to the original Windows Phone, which looked great when launched late last year but had an uphill struggle taking on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS devices. …

Nokia’s first Windows Phone device using the “Mango” version of the Microsoft software looks almost identical to the recently-launched N9, according to a seemingly leaked video of the Finnish phone maker’s CEO demonstrating the much-awaited gizmo to staff.

Codenamed Sea Ray, the new device is like a twin of the N9 that runs on Meego, which Stephen Elop showed off at Singapore on Tuesday, except that there are the three Windows Phone buttons at the bottom of the screen.

The video, which seems to be shot a day later, actually had Elop telling folks in the crowd to turn off recording devices so that the “super confidential” gizmo would not be leaked to any blogs. …

UNWIRED, Singapore’s first and only independent wireless and mobile conference, returned for a second run last Thursday, and saw the attendance of top-level executives from the relevant industries from across Southeast Asia.

Opened by the Infocomm Development Authority’s assistance chief executive Khoong Hock Yun, it featured half a day’s discussion on hot topics affecting the industry and its users.

From Singapore’s expected move to next generation mobile broadband (4G/LTE) to the rise of mobile computing and winning features of a mobile operating system, the conference was packed with fresh insights from a who’s who list of the country’s industry experts, who fielded a number of questions from the audience. …

Nokia E6 (left) and X7 (right)

Here’s the funny thing about Nokia phones: Pictures never do them justice. You can’t know how a Nokia phone really feels in real life just by looking at photos, and this sentiment is best exemplified in the Finnish mobile giant’s newly announced phones, the E6 and X7. Both phones will be launched with the latest version of Symbian, which features of slew of improvements that could possibly bring it up to par with other current smartphone platforms.

Techgoondu had the chance to give these two babies a quick hands-on and came away impressed. Put simply, these are Nokia’s best phones yet, and it’s not an overstatement to claim that they are the Symbian phones we’ve all been waiting for.

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Just days after Nokia and Microsoft joined hands in a bid to rein in the momentum that Google and Apple have rolled up in the smartphone market, the first piece of bad news has hit home – the first Nokia-branded Windows Phone devices won’t be out until 2012.

The news came from a Finnish interview with Nokia’s board chairman, Jorma Ollila, who contradicted his CEO Stephen Elop’s earlier estimation that the first such phones would appear by the end of this year. …

In the few hours after technology behemoths Microsoft and Nokia unveiled one of the most dramatic partnerships in years to take on rivals Google and Apple, terms like MicroKia, Noksoft and NoWin have quickly become popular sarcastic phrases for tech pundits predicting a doomed marriage.

As if the two new allies needed reminding, the jokes are a measure of how uncertain the future is for two companies playing catchup in the smartphone game, despite a deal that seems, on paper, to be joining their still considerable powers to crawl back their rivals’ leads. …

If you haven’t heard already, Nokia has announced a partnership with Microsoft, making Windows Phone 7 (WP7) their “primary smartphone strategy”.

Nokia will also integrate their existing ecosystem into Microsoft’s. For example, Ovi Maps will become a core part of Bing’s mapping services and Ovi’s apps will be, through some way, brought into the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. Watch the following press conference:

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It’s no surprise to market watchers, tech pundits or even just the average Joe that Nokia has been languishing behind competitors in recent years. Just ask the average Singaporean which phone they own and chances are that it is not going to be a Nokia one.

Falls in global market share, threats by Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s to cut Nokia’s credit ratings on fear of their uncompetitiveness, and bad execution of good ideas all contribute to Nokia falling off the cliff.

But it is surprising to hear Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop berate and chastise Nokia’s attitude in a brutally honest and candid internal memo. Few corporations would be so directly straightforward, unless the situation is dire.

Stephen likened Nokia to be a “burning platform”. The question is do you have the courage to jump (and possibly survive) or get immolated in a blaze they “poured their own gasoline” on? A riveting read.

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Nokia has stopped the music on its year-long unlimited song downloads that come bundled in phones in all but six countries, as the world’s largest cellphone maker readies for a tough 2011.

The service, launched to much fanfare as Comes With Music in Singapore in early 2009, enables users of selected phones to download as many songs as possible from the Nokia music store, for a year.

However, the phone maker has now said it will stop the bundling in 27 markets, including Singapore, and will keep it going in only China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa. …

This article was updated on Mar 19, 1100 SGT.

Nokia announced today that the N900 can be pre-ordered in Singapore from now to Mar 26 from http://www.nokia.com.sg/n900/preorder

Available for S$999, the Maemo-based device has a ARM Cortex-A8 processor, up to 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration. It comes with 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB with a microSD card.

Local bloggers were given a quick hands-on with the device recently and most walked away impressed by phone, including the speed at which the phone handled multitasking and full Flash support from the phone’s Mozilla Firefox browser. …