On Monday, Feb. 15, Microsoft announced their new, highly anticipated update to the aging Windows Mobile platform. The new operating system, called “Windows Phone 7,” is supposed to be Microsoft’s answer to the well-established Android and iPhone operating systems. Keep reading to discover some of the cool new features of the new operating system.

One of the first noticeable differences from previous Windows Mobile offerings is the impressively re-imagined user interface. The OS features high contrasts, simple and large lettering, and a new interface addition called “live tiles”. Live tiles acts as a sort of real-time window into the various applications and allows the user to view data in real time without actually opening any applications. The live tiles are also user customizable.

All of these cool user interface tweaks really wouldn’t mean much without an intuitive way for the user to interact with the interface. Microsoft promises full multi-touch capability within the new operating system, including pinch to zoom, swiping and other Apple-esque multi-touch gestures.

In addition to live tiles and multi-touch, the operating system also features — what Microsoft calls — hubs. Hubs are designed to be a panoramic view of the application the user can swipe through and view all of the information in a cleanly designed, efficient way.

Hoping to differentiate itself from competitors, Microsoft is also bringing a rich personal experience by having the phone handle music, photos, videos and Web very well, but also by bringing business support to the phone. They hope to do this by having great Microsoft Exchange support and seamless syncing of Microsoft Office documents through Microsoft’s cloud service, utilizing businesses servers or through a user’s personal computer.

Windows Phone 7 is also expected to have great gaming capabilities with a built in XBOX Live application that will sync a user’s Xbox Live account and allow for game downloads through Xbox Live Arcade, but no games were announced at the press conference Monday. Microsoft is expected to announce more about the development kit, a release date for the operating system and featured phones in the coming months.

Check back soon for more updates as more details are released.

microsoft, mobile, smart phones, tech, windows 7 mobile