Microsoft pushing out copy and paste update to Windows Phone 7 handsets

Windows Phone 7 users who've been eagerly awaiting the ability to copy and paste might want to sit down -- Microsoft is pushing its 'NoDo' update out now. The company has updated its, ahem, updates Web page to outline the new features that will be waiting, post-installation.

The copy and paste feature is the most obvious one. In suitably user-friendly fashion, you tap words and then drag arrows around to select a chunk of text. The feature lets you copy text from emails, text messages, Web pages and Office Mobile docs and then paste it "anywhere you can type".

That's not all there is to NoDo though. Microsoft says it has "whittled down the time it takes for apps and games to start up and resume", while also tweaking the search function of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store, so you only see apps when searching in the apps section, music in the music section, and games in the games section.

Microsoft also reckons you'll notice improvements when downloading apps larger than 20MB, upgrading from trial to paid-for apps, sharing links to apps via email, and using a credit card with an address outside the US -- good news for us Brits.

There will no longer be any limits on the number of Wi-Fi profiles you can store on your Windows Phone 7 handset, and Microsoft claims to have "improved the experience of viewing iPhone photo attachments you receive from a non-Exchange-based email account". Crowds were celebrating on the streets as we typed that sentence.

The camera, Bluetooth audio and Facebook integration have also received improvements, while Microsoft says there are other performance boosts in the update for specific Windows Phone 7 handsets. NoDo will be rolling out over the coming days and weeks, although, as with Android updates, when you get it will depend on when your operator pushes the update through.

Underwhelmed by the features in NoDo? Microsoft is working on a bigger feature refresh for Windows Phone 7 for later in the year, adding Twitter integration, Internet Explorer 9, multitasking for non-Microsoft apps, and a feature allowing Windows Phone 7 handsets to be used as companion devices for Xbox 360 Kinect.