With an endless chain of leaks
dating back several months, the suspense factor might not be there that Microsoft had been hoping for -- but for what it's worth,
Windows Mobile 6.5 is now official. The latest rendition of Microsoft's mobile platform puts an emphasis on touch-friendliness with a honeycomb-style main menu that the company says is easier to finger than a traditional grid layout; a new lock screen that can be slid on different alerts to automatically call up texts, voicemails, and so on; a thoroughly-restyled cut of Internet Explorer Mobile that features a touchable zoom slider and frequently-used commands; redesigned menus that don't need a stylus to actuate; fingerable home and contacts screens, and more. It's not the thorough gutting of the platform many were hoping for, but for anyone thinking that Windows Mobile 6.1 can stand another facelift without ending up looking like Joan Rivers, 6.5's clearly your baby. Sadly, Microsoft's saying that no devices in the market today will receive official 6.5 updates, but don't pull out your wallets just yet, though -- the first devices with Windows Mobile 6.5 preinstalled should be available in the fourth quarter of the year.
posted Feb 16th 2009 9:01AM
who are MS kidding leaving the release until Q4?!
i thought Q4 09 would've been winmo7 - at this rate it'll be Q4 2010! The industry will have left them behind!
This is the stepping stone between 6 and 7, hopefully 7 will have much more improvements.
I honestly think this is alot better than 6.1, but not enough for me to buy it.
I'm sticking with a Blackberry Bold or a Nokia E63, ta-ta for now windows mobile!
cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That looks really really great,.. That said I'm seriously disappointed that they're not going to update existing devices. I am literally days or maybe weeks away from pulling the trigger to buy a Fuze (depending on how much AT&T wants to retain me as a customer)... but not I'm not sure that's a good idea anymore.
I mean the touch pro 2 looks great, and would probably come with WinMo 6.5 but I don't want to wait a full year to get a smart phone :(
i have to agree.... im still rocking the wm5 moto Q because i was locked into a contract and wm6 was never offered as an upgrade. this upgrading issue has plagued windows mobile for a very long time now with every version (this is one thing a zune phone could have solved very nicely). thats one of the reasons im going to try a pre this time and see how it handles upgrades.
Touch Pro has enough specs to run WM6.5
You should be okay getting the Fuze now. It already runs the betas.
I don't think the Verizon Touch Pro will run WM6.5 since Verizon crippled the memory
xda-developers.com
And now, a conundrum for myself.
Do I get a Touch Diamond2 for the 6.5 upgrade, the super hi-res screen and sexy styling... or stick with my tried-and-true Omnia which I love to bits, and hope that someone will manage to port all of 6.5 over?
Because 6.5 has made WinMo relevant again. The sliding panels are beautiful, I love what they've done with menus, tabs, the keyboard... heck, even IE is good!
Finally Microsoft. Now get this out the door ASAP, before you're left behind by the others. You've just scraped in this time, and we won't be this lenient again.
The Pre is still tempting me.
i'd ditch the omnia if i were in your shoes. i'm not 100% sure if you device has hardware graphics acceleration or not, but if it doesn't...dont even think about flashing a port onto it. every device i've seen that is non hardware accelerated has said it runs like molasses. anyways, there are a lot of cool features on the touch pro 2/diamond 2. i was thinking of skipping the touch pro 2 because it still isn't a big enough jump for me hardware wise over my tilt (was hoping for a 600+ MHz processor and 512 mb RAM...) but the HUGE 3.8" WVGA, dual speaker, dual mic etc sold me on it. Oh yeah...and they brought the tilting mechanism back. i love that.
Great, but how will it look on landscape oriented devices? Or is that being scrapped?
Still, another 6-9 (more like 12) months before its official release. Does WinMo development only have 3 developers within MS or something? As far as I can see, this is isn't exactly a massive leap forward and surely wouldn't take THAT many man-hours re-writing, unless there is hithero unreleased vast rewrites of the code. 64 bit? :)
Android is calling me. My 2 year abusive WinMo relationship is nearing the end...
My only issue with WinMo 6.5 is having to wait 'til Q4, that's a hell of a long wait, even more so when you consider the Palm Pre will be coming out in the summer....you have to wonder if waiting so long is really a good idea. Still I guess if the hardware or software aren't ready yet then what can you do.
Thank God for ROM kitchens. I can pull off a bunch of the OEM crap so I don't have to reboot my crippled VZW Touch Pro every three hours.
So - is 'face lift' the only new feature in WinMo 6.5?
All the realistic a stable Technology and Employment lies in "Realtime Memory", the Google Phone is the first "Completely Realtime Memory" "Broadband Phone" Registered out from the "Commercially Offered Business Technology Support Industry" utilized with "Mobile Multi-Media Devices". This means that you "centralize" the "Program Database" into the "Infinit Domain" of "Realtime Memory" with the mobile device acting as a phone and "Program Remote". It is literally storing information in electricity, all Hardware Specifications having been derived completely by and through Nanotechnology. This optimizes corporate expenses by 50%-60% once instituted. Memory costs alone are very costly in the records keeping Industry along with paper.