Windows Mobile 6.1 gets pictured, detailed

So this weird Motorola Q9 that Boy Genius Report came across is turning into quite a gold mine. First it revealed AT&T's apparent intention to let its guard down just a tad and start bringing more devices into the WiFi fold -- despite the obvious risk to data revenue -- and now it turns out that she's dressed to the nines with none other than Windows Mobile 6.1. A fleeting glance at most of the screens doesn't indicate any obvious changes from 6 (it is a .1 release, after all), but the devil's in the details: goodies like threaded SMS (Yahtzee!) and cut-and-freaking-paste on Standard (double Yahtzee!) alone should make it a worthwhile upgrade. 'Course, it's up to the carriers and manufacturers as usual to ultimately decide whether to push updates to existing devices, but it would be pure, unadulterated torture if the lion's share of devices didn't see official releases. Seriously, we'd cry.

[decypher44 @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:23PM]

So, hopefully there are some other items "fixed", but these are a couple of good ones. I've been looking at jumping on the Sprint Q9c, and the only reservation I have is no MMS. I know that's a "Sprint" thing, so 6.1 wouldn't fix that.

[Daren @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:29PM]

i hope Samsung updates their i760... I just got it and the phone itself has only been out since late October...

[Neeko @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:29PM]

Umm ive had threaded SMS on my ancient sprint PPC6700 for over a year now. But i did update the OS to a hybrid WM6. Cmon E get with the program this has been out for a while now. But the new GUI does look nice.

[Chris Ziegler @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:31PM]

Neeko, this is an official Windows Mobile cut from Microsoft, not a solution from Palm or a third party. That's what it makes it so notable. All Windows Mobile devices will feature threaded SMS in the future as a result of this.

Chris

[Jonathan Keim @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:30PM]

Do editors always get highly ranked, or do they do that themselves ;-)

[Abuzar @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:05PM]

Ryan Block gets low ranked most of the time, so I guess they Don't do it themselves.

[San @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:36PM]

Boy Genius report site seems to be dead :(((
any other alternate site i can check out the pics?

Cheers!
San

[HERM @ Dec 4th 2007 5:22AM]

Not on the standard version. Get with the program please.

[Spyvie @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:40PM]

WM6 has had "cut-and-freaking-paste" all along

[Jaxbulls @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:56PM]

On the touchscreen WM they had cut/paste but not on the Smartphone version which is what is getting it now.

[Russell @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:01PM]

FWIW Smartphone is also getting office mobile editing support.

I may consider trading down from the i760 as one of the main reasons is I needed to add up some stuff to an excel sheet every day, and I now do that on the i760.

[acabtp @ Dec 8th 2007 1:12PM]

read, comprehend, think, THEN post reply
"cut-and-freaking-paste >on Standard< (double Yahtzee!)"

[Hung @ Dec 3rd 2007 10:51PM]

@Russell

Standard comes with mobile Office support with editing.





Ummm, you're a douchebag too?

[Angus Hedger @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:42PM]

I do rather like WM, I cant wait to get this running on my old BA.. well.. wait for someone else to make a rom.. then get it running :P

I don't see why they hold off on the OS updates.. this phone came with WM2003CE which is really junk compared to WM6.. and the phone even works faster..

*sigh* I suppose they want you to buy the newest and best.. which sucks as most of the new WM phones have crippled hardware.. just in terms of slow and low end specs.

[Carlos @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:44PM]

GUI still looks like its from 1995 - got to love that block letter font

[Ruben @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:51PM]

Actually, this is an interface from 1995:

http://www.motorola.com/mot/image/15/15325_MotImage.jpg

(Really, 1996, but you get what i mean).

[applefreak @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:43PM]

my first reaction was gosh this UI looks crowed, then I realized that was the boy genius symbol

[blade417 @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:48PM]

@ ruben

You almost got me caught not working at work.
I laughed soooo damn hard.

We're not allowed to laugh here :(

[Jeff @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:47PM]

I've had threaded sms on my 8525 for a while now. It was a modified cab ripped from the treo750 rom.

[TurboFool @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:50PM]

Someone else misses the point. This is official, and integrated into the OS. Not an illegal rip of another company's intellectual property shoe-horned into another device. I run the exact same thing on my Mogul, and I love it, but that doesn't mean an official, built-in solution isn't a welcome improvement.

[Jeff @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:10PM]

Whoa slow down turbo....I was just making a general statement that threaded sms has been available. WinMo Threaded sms has been available since WM5. I am excited about 6.1. But YOU know as well as I do that when WinMo Rom cooking community gets 6.1 they are going to make it better. And the fact that YOU are USING a ripped version of threaded sms now proves just that.

[Abuzar @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:08PM]

No love for Jeff?

[Homeboy @ Dec 3rd 2007 2:49PM]

Doesn't the battery meter empty from the bid no the bottom rather then the opposite??

[Jonathan Sundy @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:01PM]

Doesn't the windows update feature included in 6 eliminate the concern that this update won't get rolled out to all 6 based handsets?

[Angus Hedger @ Dec 3rd 2007 6:33PM]

Has anyone ever got any updates via that?

[iofthestorm @ Dec 3rd 2007 6:59PM]

Really? That's awesome. I may get a WM phone next year then, but it depends on how Android looks when it actually materializes and whether they have a phone with touchscreen and keyboard.

[Randy @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:12PM]

Wonderful, this is how it will go down:

(Those following the BJ WM6 tirades on at&t's forums will know what I'm talking about)

Jan-may2008: at&t will not announce any supposed update.

may 2008: Samsung will tell people that the update has been released to at&t for an 8 week testing session.

june2008: a leaked rom will emerge with the update. and will be mostly usable. people ask at&t when the update will be made avaialble. at&t will not speak on it.

oct2008: at&t says the update will be available "soon"

Nov2008: at&t announces the BJ3 with the OS update.

dec 2008: People (with BJ II's) still waiting for the update and by then MS will unveil WM7.

lather, Rinse, repeat for 2009. Increment phone +1 rev.

[harma41 @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:37PM]

Maybe this will help fix the biggest problem, WM6 itself. This has to be the most annoying, slow, cranky, and buggiest phone OS I have ever had the displeasure of using. I cannot believe that Palm OS Garnet is still better than Windows Mobile, and it hasn't been updated in about four years.

Yah, I am looking at you T-mobile Wang!

[jason @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:42PM]

If you have no missed calls, why on earth would you want a giant red handset with an orange exlamation point for the icon (while you are viewing the missed calls)..??

It's like "YO! HEY! LOOK HERE! NOTHING TO SEE!!"...

*shrug*

maybe they will design something to be intuitive and from the ground up for some release, instead of designing it to fit old paradigms.

[booticon @ Dec 3rd 2007 3:59PM]

it looks as though that would be the screen you see when you're going through your call logs. The deadly orange handset w/ the exclamation point is just the /icon/ for missed calls.

Oh, and am I the only poor soul who's noticing that the Boy Genius website is SLOW as hell?

[Langdon Alger @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:00PM]

I'm pretty sure the icon of the handset with the exclamation mark is there to quickly identify the type of "calls menu" you're in. This particular icon denotes the missed calls. A handset with an arrow pointing toward it would be incoming calls, one with an arrow pointing away from it would be outgoing calls, etc. The icon is not there to signify "no missing calls in history".

In this particular screenshot, there is a lot of redundant information (header, icon, "no results" message, etc). The icon will make a lot more sense when there are actual calls listed and the screen is "busy". The icon is good short-hand notation for what you're looking at.

[Nubaeus @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:01PM]

There's a quest on the handset...

[bernard @ Dec 3rd 2007 4:43PM]

I thought Engadget was under NDA to reveal aything about WM6.1

[Matt @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:18PM]

They're not revealing anything, just reporting that Boy Genius is revealing it. No NDAs broken.

[choyk1 @ Dec 3rd 2007 5:50PM]

Good to see St. Louis arch here.

[Spyvie @ Dec 3rd 2007 6:23PM]

I don't remember the word "standard' being there when I first posted.

I could be wrong...

[Matt @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:03PM]

Ohh how I long for WM6. Sprint is still focing me to use WM5 on my Treo. Come on Sprint push out that update for me already!!!!!

[kL @ Dec 4th 2007 6:46AM]

"Missed Calls... no, wait, no missed calls!"
Fantastic UI. No space wasted, no information noise. Windows Mobile usability at its best.

[judit @ Dec 6th 2007 10:01PM]

if you know how can i do for rescue some pictures that i deleted some days ago please is very important for me tanks for you help.

[Howard Wilton @ Jan 26th 2008 3:19AM]

I discovered a very reliable threaded SMS client for Pocket PC Phone. It handles both square and rectangular displays. It has some good configuration options for the display and has an excellent popup notification functionality too.

http://www.pocket-sms.com

Downsides are that it only runs on WM 5.0 or better and the license needs to be activated.

Otherwise, a nice simple application which is not so hot on graphics and presentation but has good functionality/setup opions.

[LV @ Mar 1st 2008 2:08AM]

So when is this going to be available, it's almost the end of February? Any new information?