Mango-nificent Love

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” –Mother Teresa

Could both hungers be satiated with a little mango?

I love my Samsung Focus as much as one can love an electronic device, but that is not what this blog entry is about.  I have a developer unlocked device and thus, I have Microsoft’s test version of the latest iteration of Windows Phone, codenamed “Mango”.

This writing is not 100% mango centric.  Many of the apps are available for any major smartphone platform.  There are some features that are built-in to Windows Phone Mango and I’ll point those out.

Find love with the Plenty Of Fish app

PlentyOfFish.com claims to be the largest dating website in existence.  Add to that, the fact that their Windows Phone app is free and all single people should be installing and looking for love on their touch screens.  (Brings a whole new meaning to letting your fingers do the walking.)

I have issues with POF, starting with their busy, confusing and inefficient website.  It was always just too much work to navigate.  The simplicity of the app is more appealing.  I also hate that the site wants personal financial information.  That’s not going to happen, but they limit some features if you don’t participate in handing over your income data.  I haven’t noticed those limitations with the app.

I’d love to see OKCupid.com jump into the game, but they seem determined to ignore Windows Phone.  They don’t even respond to questions about future support of the platform.  Note to OKCupid: People looking for love don’t like to be scorned and have long memories.  Think about it.  Heck, you are now owned by Match.com and they have a WP7 app, just ask them how to do it and you’re good to go.

BING for an awesome date.

If you don’t know what Bing is, it is Microsoft’s search engine.  I’m not suggesting that you search for amazing pick up lines, but the mobile version of Bing has some amazing features that just might help you out.

• Music – much like Shazam this feature listens to and tells you what a song is.  It will also let you grab that song from the Zune Marketplace.  What it doesn’t require is opening an app, it’s as close as the search button.  So when you are gazing into each other’s eyes and a song comes on that you just know needs to be “your song”, Bing it.
• Scout – Have you ever been out and didn’t want the evening to end, but either didn’t know the area very well or just couldn’t come up with an idea.  Well, hit the Scout button with Bing and you’ll get instant, local recommendations in the following categories: eat+drink, see+do, shop & highlights.

Bing has some other great new features like indoor maps for places like malls and Bing Vision for scanning barcodes (without an app) and book/dvd/cd covers, etc.  I’m not sure how those will help you find love, so I’m not writing out any scenarios.

 

Mango a new person into a group

This was always a problem for me; I’d meet someone great and then struggle with putting them into my Contacts list.  I was always worried that if I didn’t remember her name in the morning that I’d never find her.  One of the new features in the People Hub of Windows Phone Mango allows you to create Groups.  They designed it to help you keep track of family and work contacts, but I see it as a bonus for dating and networking.  I will now just create a group and when I meet someone, I’ll add her to that new group and it will be easy to find her.  This is one of those Mango features that keeps on giving. 

LOVE IT!

 

iKamasutra for…uh…you know

Eventually, you’re going to advance to a level where this could come in handy.  There really, truly is an app for that.

The app itself is elegant and presents its information is a non-creepy way.  I wouldn’t recommend whipping it out (or the app) on the first date!

 

Apps for “My Place”

If you are going to invite someone over to your place, they have a reasonable expectation for food and drink.  There are other app choices, but I have come to count on these two:
Food – BigOven
Drink – Cocktail Flow

Good luck out there and nourish your game with a little “Mango”!