MIX '11

To say this week was huge for Windows Phone 7, and Microsoft in general, would still be a massive understatement. There were announcements left and right starting from Monday morning until Thursday, with a few spilling over to today.

If you were under a rock, getting drunk in Florida for spring break, flying around the world in 80 days, or whatever other obscure reason you had to miss this event, catch up on all of that news below:

MIX '11 Windows Phone Keynote: Mango Details & Improved Developer Tools
Since MIX'11 is a developer-centric event, we saw a lot of news today for what kinds of updates the development tools would be receiving. With that in mind, Microsoft announced a slew of new features on the development-side of WP7 and the biggest takeaway from the presentation was the promise of tigther integration between apps and the OS.

Did You Miss The WP7 Keynote? Watch It Now!

We've already covered the end-user highlights with Joe's 14-minute interview with Channel9 but if you want to experience Mandalay Bay filled with tech nerds talking about a huge software update for a beautiful OS, check out the full video!

Ringtones, IE9, App Searching and More Shown Off
The bulk of today's announcements from the MIX'11 Developers Conference in Las Vegas were mostly for developers and hinted at beefed-up apps coming in the near future...but that doesn't mean features that users were expecting to see were overlooked!

Internet Explorer 9 In Action
Internet Explorer 9 was once again shown in a browser speed test at MIX '11 today.

Joe Belfiore Demos New WP7 Features in 14-Minute Video
This is a brand new video coming out of Channel9 today in which Joe Belfiore, who delivered today's Windows Phone 7 keynote, does a personal demo of all of the cool new features you'll find in the upcoming Mango update.

Will Mango Be Called Windows Phone 7.5?
Daniel Rubino from WPCentral, who is live at MIX '11 right now in Las Vegas, managed to snag a picture from the Windows Phone 7 keynote that happened earlier today. The picture in question is part of a slideshow and it specifically refers to Mango as "7.5"

Mango Will Feature Parental Controls for Apps & Games
WMPoweruser is also live at MIX '11 right now in Las Vegas, and they've brought word of a new feature in Mango that might ease recent controversies over adult content in the Marketplace. Namely, that Mango will bring along with it a new content rating system from Microsoft and parental controls through which to enforce those ratings.

Angry Birds Will Be Available on May 25th
For one reason or another, Joe Belfiore decided to announce at MIX '11 that the highly-anticipated Windows Phone 7 port of Angry Birds now has an official release date: May 25th.

Watch Brandon Foy's WP7 Ad and Help It Go National!
Imagine that you made an advertisement about your favorite smartphone platform. Then the video went viral and since its debut received over 100,000 views on YouTube. Pretty sweet so far, right? Then imagine that the same company that owns the platform called you up and asked you to make another ad, this time to be shown at the beginning of their huge annual developer conference. Not only that, but the company also promises you that if the video receives over 200,000 views it will go live on national television. That's freaking awesome!

Chassis 1 Requirements Updated with New Chipsets & Gyroscope Support
Before you get your hopes too high: calm down! This is not the next-generation Chassis (expected to launch this Fall) but Microsoft has decided to introduce a few new hardware features to their original Chassis 1 specs.

New Trailer for XBL 'Must Have Games', Starting in May
Microsoft unleashed this brand new trailer for the upcoming Must Have Games program for Xbox Live.

Official List of New Countries Supported
Despite having a worldwide launch, Windows Phone 7 hasn't been nearly as feature complete in other countries as it has been in the United States. However, Microsoft announced earlier yesterday that they were adding 35 additional countries to their support list for Mango and yesterday WPCentral got their hands on the specifics.

More Info On New Mango Features
WPCentral and WMPoweruser have been absolutely killing it with their live coverage of MIX '11, and I would be a fool not to use them as a valuable resource. While at the show, both outlets spied plenty of new features in sessions that weren't mentioned in-depth during the keynote presentation on Tuesday.