Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update now available to pretty much everyone

Microsoft is opening up the Windows Phone 7.5 firehose, releasing the latest version of its mobile OS, known as Mango, to the majority of Windows Phone users.

"Today we're fully opening the spigot—slightly ahead of schedule—and making Mango available to nearly everyone in the current delivery pool," Eric Hautala, general manager of Customer Experience Engineering at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft officially launched Mango in late September with a slow rollout to Windows Phone users. Unlike the first update to the OS earlier this year, which was marred by glitches, the Mango update went smoothly, prompting Microsoft to release it to 50 percent of eligible customers by October 3. Hautala said today that that effort has also "gone well," so Microsoft has opened the Mango floodgates.

Next week, meanwhile, Microsoft will deliver model-specific firmware from handset makers. "These updates are designed to activate new Windows Phone 7.5 features or improve your phone's performance," Hautala said. "Not everybody will receive or require one: It all depends on your country, carrier, and phone model."

There are a few delays, particularly with Orange in Europe, while some phones are still undergoing carrier tests. Hautala urged users to check out the company's "Where's my phone update?" page for details about the rollout on their particular phone. In the U.S., the page says Mango is being delivered to all phones except the Samsung Focus v. 1.4 and Dell Venue Pro on AT&T.

Among the various updates that came with Mango was a fix for a bug that collected a user's location data without permission.

This article, written by Chloe Albanesius, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.