New WinMo 6.5 build shows fingers even more love

Windows Mobile 6.5 has already started to take baby steps in the all-important direction of finger-friendliness, and the latest leaked build is showing a seemingly innocuous addition that's actually really, really exciting: big, ugly soft buttons along the bottom. It's not clear whether this is some experimental feature, something Microsoft plans to shoehorn into the 6.5 RTM or a future AKU, or an addition that was intended to be left on the cutting room floor, but anything that the team out in Redmond can do to make 6.5 a little less stylus-dependent will be more than welcome. Are the buttons down there pretty? No, but at a glance, they look awfully functional -- and as platforms go, WinMo may express the "form follows function" mantra better than any other.

[Via pocketnow.com]

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 10th 2009 8:25AM]

As godawfully ugly as it is, its about time MS realized that these devices are used more and more often with your finger. Welcome to 2009 MS.

I cant wait to try these buttons out, now if MS could just eliminate the random lag/ freezing I'd be happy.

[216 Posted Aug 10th 2009 8:32AM]

So wait....is it safe to use Windows Mobile again?

Ever since I used WM5....WM has always been a no-no. But it looks like maaaaaaaaybe it might be safe to hop back in the WM Water again

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 10th 2009 9:21AM]

I don't see why the don't just implement their own little touch flo styling with a toggle.

Think of the two types of control panels in windows OS, 'normal' and 'classic'. Just set in 'itty bitty things to click on mode' so the geeks can use their styluses, or 'giant icon mode' for the rest to use their fingers.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 10th 2009 10:01AM]

@216-

WM6.5 is nice so far, but there's still plenty of bugs since most of them are internal beta builds. There are a few stable builds that got leaked, but they don't have all the features posted here.

WM6.1 can be really stable if you use the right ROM. XDA has some great chefs that have made some really stable ROMs.

If you use the right one, you can go for weeks without soft resetting it. I know when I had WM5 on my Treo 700wx, I was soft resetting it like everyday.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 10th 2009 11:59AM]

Care to tell us your favorite 6.1 ROM, or are you just going to be very general?

[George Posted Aug 10th 2009 2:13PM]

I know this sounds like a fanboy comment, but I own no apple products, and I am not a fanboy of apple, but apple seem to have made truly the only logical interface for touch screen devices.
What was windows thinking with those 8x8 pixel call and decline buttons on the bottom of the screen that you could barely touch? who ever designed that is a massive idiot.
And what the hell? Transparent top bar with a nice look, and an ugly solid black bar with shitty buttons on the bottom?
What the shitdick

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 10th 2009 2:46PM]

In their defense they are trying to gradually move away from stylus driven navigation. I agree though, as it stand there is a great deal of need to switch from finger (convenience) to stylus (precision).

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 10th 2009 7:03PM]

@Gareth i agree with both of ya'll for the most part but one thing that you said i disagree with while there is a need for a stylus on some phones the iPhone (and some other Great touch screen phones) has multi-touch so you can zoom in and get a bigger target to touch. I am by no means an Apple Fan-boy though

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2009 5:31AM]

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