Windows Mobile 6.5 to officially "launch" on May 11
By Nilay Patel 
posted April 17th 2009 2:53PM
posted April 17th 2009 2:53PM
[Via Electronista]
posted April 17th 2009 2:53PM
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HTC Touch Pro 2 with this or that newly rumored Zune Mobile gig would be full of win.
I don't have a good feeling about this WinMo 6.5, especially the "zero point five". To me, it sounds like a half baked version 7.
How would you feel if the next iPhone is branded "iPhone 3.5"
Not different than now...
@tom
The iPhone already has subversions for its firmware. 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.1, etc
I thought the exact same thing..... Im excited.....
I am a proud iphone owner
I’ve seen WinMo 6.5 on a touch pro and runs fine, more responsive than I had anticipated (because of all the biased coverage). On a side note: the touch pro is the best designed device yet IMO. I really like the chrome finish, very sleek.
K, back to work.
Looks like MS didn't bother with a UI designer... That screen fails at so many basic tasks that it's really depressing :(
1 - Humans are very bad at parsing text. It takes a lot of mental resources and a lot of time. It took a few seconds to figure out that the guy has a missed phone call, some voicemail, a waiting SMS, and 4 emails. The text for the "superscripts" are in the same font as the menu item name itself. This really sucks.
2 - Depending on the state of the menu the location of vital information (e.g. emails, texts, as above) changes dramatically, making it harder to locate at a glance. This completely removes the user's ability to "skim" the main screen and make decisions.
3 - Humans associate images much more readily than text, having a text-only display slows down navigation dramatically.
Okay yeah, so the screen LOOKS cool, but I have major doubts about how well it would work. I hope the rest of 6.5 is better designed than its home screen.
@ Potato
tl:dr, because as a human I'm bad at parsing all that text.
"To me, it sounds like a half baked version 7."
Yeah, sounds just like Vista.
winmo what??... who cares. i hope they launch it into outer space, far from where it can infect the phones of humans.
Got it already on my HTC Kaiser thanks to xda-developers
It's just bits and pieces of 6.5
yeah, unofficial 6.5 builds have been around for a while now, and they're starting to look more and more read. Of course xda will be all over it when full stuff comes out. I'm not keeping 6.5 on my titan due to ram, but I'm going to get a free vogue soon, and I'll be running it there!
Thanks to XDA, I've been running WM 6.5 on my HTC Touch CDMA for about 2 weeks now. I'd call it a (mostly un-)qualified success, what with the OS level kinetic scrolling, finger friendly menus, and certainly faster email client (same device screen refreshes are way faster under 6.5 than 6.1)
Still there isn't a mobile device that comes close to the layout of HTC's user interface so I run TouchFLO on top of 6.5, but MS has done a good job improving the underlying performance, at least on my old phone.
There have been full builds of 6.5 for well over a month now. They have just been earlier test builds with bugs. There are a couple newer build numbers that are quite stable though (21198 and 21202).
People keep saying the scrolling is OS-level, but Pocket Outlook chunks as much as it did previously. I was also hoping to see support for Rich-text email. Oh well. There's always Windows Mobile 7.
Good god, that's an ugly background.
Oh my eyes!!!
Well engadget never fails to look for the worse picture of anything Microsoft! If you remember that post from yesterday talking about Apple biting back(lame by the way) they posted a picture of the mother and her kid buying a sony laptop, you would notice that they pick the worse picture possible making the women look like a wacko. But that's to be expected, Engadget writters wouldn't want a pink slip from El Jobso.
"What the heck was that?!"
"WinMo 6.5..."
"They've gone to plaid!"
@nick
They have a nasty habit of taking Microsoft-related people, mid movement which looks awkward, and using that to make an editorial point.
Cant remember the last time they did that with an Apple story. Only the opposite.
@ nick & look_around_you
it is a very big internet, go elsewhere with your unfounded Apple/Engadget conspiracies you whining babies.
Wow you guys are serious?
Sorry but it's not that serious you guys. I completely doubt that Engadget cares that much..
On the other hand you guys clearly do. Talk about conspiracy nutjobs. You guys take the cake.
As for WinMo 6.5 I only have one thing to say....WHY?
I mean why not just wait till WinMo 7? Unless they're planning on phones that come with 6.5 being able to upgrade to 7.0 easily thru some type of update or w/e.
If that's not going to be the case though I see no point in this? Unless MS is saying they're gonna take another 2 to 3 years to develop WinMo 7?
It just seems stupid to release this Mobile OS and then a few months or a year down the road release the full version.
@Skeezle
I know many reasonable Apple fans out there and they always give credit where credit is due. The fact that Microsoft scratch the right spot on the Apple fanatics tells me they are doing something good. I am well aware that it is a very big Internet but unfortunately i always find parasites like you that with their fanboism and you fail to recognize the improvement of what other companies of technology brings to us. I like Apple products and i think they do a good job, mainly on design. But that in itself does not mean that Microsoft is doing bad at all, on the contrary they have been doing great. Of course MS failed in some because they got too comfortable in some areas of their business but they are still leading the pact in innovations. They make great products and of course not everything will be a success but overall they are up there. I know engadget has given love to Windows 7 but even then they mention some idiocy about why is was bad, like the touch interface gesture features knowing that it was beta they treated it like a final release product. But if you read their take on Iphone 3.0 beta and other Apple beta products, on the failures in the beta stage, they claim that since the product is in beta it is to be expected. So i am sure even if you are a fanboy you see the double standard here which is not fair for non of us, because competition with features like copy and paste are the reason that Apple will bring copy and paste or else they wouldn't do crap about it. If anything the Apple fanbois should thank Microsoft for giving life support to Apple when it was dying and giving Apple a chance to get back in the game. If anything the reason Apple came back so strong as a company is because of that near death experience.
Oh, WAHHHHH! Engadget isn't treating my favorite monopolist fairly. I'm taking my ball and going home.
/s
Seriously, you guys are ignoring something fairly obvious. It is almost impossible to make an Apple product look bad. Even if you were to post the picture of a first generation iPhone in iPhone 3G posts, it would never look as bad as say, a first generation Zune.
Also, how easy do you think it is to find a picture of Steve Ballmer, as opposed to Steve Jobs? Not very hard, I can tell you that.
So, in other words, stop whining.
Wow, you guys are beyond pathetic! Ohhh, Engadget gonna getcha!
How much work was it to keep going back to low rank me?
Pathetic! You trolls should start your own blog since this one is so biased.
Oh, and Microsoft does suck teh ass, they make themselves look bad, Engadget doesn't need to do a thing.
Just show me where on the article cited (electronista) you find that background screen. Hint: you won't. Period. It's another b.s. gratuitous eyesore brought to you by engadget poltroons. Why? Why can't you use images from the article you cited?
@ Hamidxa
"There are a plethora of BEAUTIFUL WM 6.5 backgrounds available from the "designer" community.
They also did the same hitjob on the mother/child Vaio video..
Only an iDiot would be oblivious to these kinds of things."
First, all those backgrounds you posted are hideous. Looks like they put a 13 year old girl in charge of producing images. The 2nd one is mildly passable though. And as for your conspiracy theories, both Windows and Mac fans would see the amusement factor, only a paranoid imbecile Winblows fanboy would be capable of fabricating such things. Hey look up in the sky, it's a black helicopter!
LOL
If most people who come to this site are Microsoft lovers, explain why the Apple products got Gadgets of the Year in this post:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/30/the-winners-of-the-2008-engadget-awards/
You gonna say it's a conspiracy too? Oh, right, you already did. The Microsoft fanboys might comment more in the comments sections, but that doesn't mean that they reflect the readership here.
@Hamidxa
you are so very pathetic, in so many ways. Great for a laugh though!
- for Skeezle.
Guys, that's one of Microsoft's official designer WM 6.5 themes, from Isaac Mizrahi.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/31/microsoft-announces-windows-marketplace-partners-tweaked-polici/
And guess what? I actually like it a lot, which is why I used it. Take a deep breath.
@ Hamidxa
"You iDiots can believe what you want, but anyone who's been reading this blog long enough knows for a FACT that engadget skews towards apple's side as far as biases go."
Anyone who reads Engadget so obsessively as you, and writes hateful comments at every single Mac post without fail, seriously needs to get out of the house more and get some exercise and fresh air. At least go to the park and feed the pigeons or something. You're starting to imagine conspiracy theories and showing signs of delusional paranoia. Whatever you do, do not watch "The X-Files"!!
"You iDiots can believe what you want, but anyone who's been reading this blog long enough knows for a FACT that engadget skews towards apple's side as far as biases go"
They do all types of little, and big things to prove that:
The awkward photos of MS people, as opposed to the either stock company photos of Apple employees or "god" like image of jobs with a glowing Apple logo in the background.
Remember the last Balmer photo that was not posted just to ridicule him?
Censoring news of Apple recent sales drops, while in the past highlighting Apple sales gains.
All Apple reviews are either positive, or neutral, leaning positive. MS products have been subject to some of the most asinine reviews ever. Search for the infamous Ryan Block Zune2 rant and the epic backlash for example.
Never using a current Zune photo.
No matter how outrageous the statement from an Apple employee, Engadget finds nothing controversial about it. Now have anyone say something controversial about Apple...
Coverage of all Apple events. Rare coverage of Microsoft's.
Debunking FUD about Apple, while letting (or even promoting) FUD against MS slide.
You get the picture. I dont have to make this stuff up.
on the other hand you have to make up the idea that they dont.
the amount of fail in this thread is wildly amusing!
Look at the amount of typing these true fanboys have done, all to back up their claims that Engadget is out to topple Microsoft!
I usually don't come into these wank fests for Microsoft, but you have so little of a life that you had the time to do a scientific study on Engadget bias?
Dude, put the crack pipe down!
I think all of you guys are crazy, including the Apple fanboys.
Uh, maybe people don't like to come to Engadget anymore because of crazy people like you. Did you include that in your scientific data?
Whoops, looks like Hamidxa's comments got deleted. If you read the last few comments and it looks like I was speaking to myself, well, now you know why.
HALLOO NERDSZZ. HOW ARE YOUSE toDAIZ?? remember to get for some sunshine
I call it the People's Court shot.
Just in time to compete with iPhone Gen 3?
its frickin obvious they're waiting till windows 7 comes out before they release mobile 7 just cuz they wanna be cute and have them get the same name :\
cute but it will finally make more sense. at least to the average user, anyhow
Microsoft have been talking about having a seemless interaction with both platform and if they manage to do just that it would be an excellent marketing theme. I mean always pick clothing to match out style... so why not our cellphones and computers. if they get it right where i would just come home and everything syncs with my system without connecting any cable that would so totatally rock.
Yeah Microsoft has this new 3 screens philosopy, so yeah they're gonna go crazy with the marketing when Windows 7 arrives.
Can you get this as a free upgrade? Just got the Sony Ericsson Xperia. :D
Wheres the monster cables sucks part?
The hacking community has already satiated us. WinMo's been available for download on Xda-developers and Ppc-geeks for quite some time now.
WinMo 6.5 that is
So i can assume MS has embraced the future and got rid of the GUI made for a stylus, and has now made win mo fully touchscreen, all options . So i can really hope i wont have to find a stylus to press the X to exit a window. Seriously
So the future is less accurate?