I've just been shown a nifty little trick that upgrades your Windows 7 phone to the latest update - even when it hasnt been released yet.

Microsoft have a strict release schedule and are sticking to it, however the updates that they have lined up for the next few months are all sitting on their servers waiting to be downloaded.

Just plug your phone into your PC, once Zune loads up, click on the phone icon in the bottom left, then click on 'Settings' on the Top right of the window.

Select 'update' and let it register what updates are currently on the server. It should say that you are up-to-date and have none to download.

Now leave this screen (click OK).

You now want to go back to this update screen, but as soon as you do, unplug your network/internet connection. It will sit there saying "checking of updates" for a few seconds and then, becuase its not being told to 'censor' the unreleased updates, it tells you you have updates to install

plug the network cable/internet back in and select 'OK'.

E voila, you now have Mango downloading to your phone as well as other updates which havent been released yet.

So you are the person who bought a Windows 7 phone

..and Windows upgrades are normally shaky enough when they are officially released - getting it before then seems a tad optimistic....

These arent beta releases, these are full commercial releases that are just awaiting their scheduled release date. There's no point releasing a load of new features if other developers haven't been given the time to make applications for it, so the updates sit there for a while, the dev editions get released but that's it.

so why upgrade if half your apps will have compatability problems???

becuase it's been 2 months since the Dev version was released and they're all updated already

I did this last week, it certainly is an improvement on the old "no-do" software. Though they really need to make it more customizable I feel!

Dragging this into the light again.

I was offered a very good deal on a Nokia Lumnia 800. (£70)!

So I bought it and the wife now has it to replace her Android HTC Chacha.

I must admit I am very impressed with Windows Phone 7.5. It has its issues but is so much better than Android. Amazingly the wife loves it too, even though she was against a touchscreen phone. The way contacts integrates with the social media sites is very slick and the tiles interface is both intuative and informative. I still prefer my Meego N9 at the moment but I can see with teh W8 devices comming out and a few tweaks to the OS, plus phones appearing with SD card slots, I could be tempted next year.

Wow that's bold!

I haven't used a windows phone but am very curious, quite like the idea of the surface with touch cover once they sort out the issue of it splitting.

Well to be fair Android was hampered on the HTC chacha due to the screen size, but having used some of the latest android handsets (galaxy s etc) I still prefer the WIndows 7.5 experience.

I can see that version 8 gets it close to iOS in fully integrated fucntions, and adds the live tiles which is something Apple need to sort with their next OS version. My daughters iPhone 5 is lovely but the "desktop" experince is just so dull now and has changed little sincee the first iphone.

I reckon the iphone won't ever have the evolution that steve jobs allowed through. It could have almost be described as art

Nothing has changed regarding the iPhone. It is not in need of any essential changes. Different systems, different methods.

Windows Mobile is a good product and a solid starting foundation. If Microsoft could actually see two minutes ahead they could be on to something.

Releasing a flagship phone that is unable to update to the latest version of Windows Mobile 8 then telling users that its bad luck and they should be happy with buying a shipping flagship phone that won't run the shipping version...

If they could just manage an upgrade schedule that didn't ignore all current devices and break compatibility the market would adopt.

Nokia make good hardware, some of it is questionable but the majority is excellent.

I find it really frustrating as they have done so well to create a fresh mobile OS but are missing the finishing pieces. They just need cohesion. But disorder and incompetence rains from the the top management at the moment.

Blimey Nick, sage words and I agree wholeheartedly.

Windows 8 could be realy good with very little extra effort IMHO. There are so many niggly issues that if addressed up front would have made the system so much better.

One thing I can not understand is MS Zune It is their attempt at iTunes, but why is it needed? Why not just have the device syne with teh windows equivalents of media player, outlook and office, just very strange.

Skydrive is their version of the apple cloud and again it is hampered for no reason.

But Nokia dumping Mego to get on the Windows 7 platform and bringing out a set of phones which are then obselete within 6 months is just a kick in the teeth to their customers.

Ok so there is 7.8 to tide people over but I expect a new phone to get updates of the current OS for at least 2 years after its launch, especially as that is the length of the average contract these days.