Chatter over
Windows Mobile 6.5 has grown into a deafening din the past few weeks, strongly suggesting we'll all be treated to the next WinMo release at
MWC in a couple weeks -- but how does that translate a device that we can hold in our own two hands, exactly? We'd previously heard Microsoft was targeting the third quarter of 2009, and "sources" of
ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley are right in line. In a nutshell, she's saying manufacturers will have access to the gold code in April and the first 6.5 devices will hit the market in September (okay, tail end of the third quarter, but that's how the cookie crumbles), but she doesn't stop there -- she goes on to say that beta
Windows Mobile 7 code will be in the wild in November of this year, with the first handsets following on in April of 2010. That's a long-ass time from now, yes -- but on the flipside, that's a record for releasing two major WinMo versions in rapid succession. Can't blame us for trying to find the silver lining.
posted Feb 4th 2009 9:52PM
About that antialiasing...
It only shows like that if you take a screencap. the actual image on the device screen would be normal
I was going to mention the ugly ass text too. If it really is only screen grabs, well... Why? The background works just fine. Does it turn the fine text rendering off to grab the screen quicker or something?
Microsoft and Apple are both American companies. I want them to dominate all the world's phone operating systems.
Make it so no one even trusts linux or android.
looks to me like a VGA image poorly downsampled to QVGA, even without AA letters wouldn't look like that in native QVGA
I'm not sure what your reply has to do with Haikibutsu's comment, but android is run by Google, who is also American, and plenty of other linux projects are based in America, not that it should make a difference anyway
It looks like poor ms paint chop.
@ flashpoint
"what a nice thoughtful,intellectual and bright comment that one of the most famous commenters of Engadget"
Now go watch this video and every time you hear the work village replace it with Engadget !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNBNqUdqm1E
i think i am going to start a trend here in Engadget.
my bad sorry.
"what a nice thoughtful,intellectual and bright comment that one of the most famous commenters of Engadget made"
work= word
It's so obviously fake.
Do you not see the Ostrich's eyebrow overlapping the menu bar at the top? lmao.
Seriously, not only have modern commercial OS benefited from open source initiatives such as Linux, but they continue to leverage on the work and brilliance of open source (think apache).
Now in regards to windows mobile. I will never support it, until they get rid off that double bar interface, it is never been appealing to me in the past, and much less will it be in the future. I vote for a complete redesign of the interface, for a more intuitive, smarter, user friendlier windows 7.
I meant "mobile" .. guess I have had way too much 7 lately : )
Is Flashpoint unaware that Google is an American company too? They're about 6 miles from me, where Apple is a whopping 12 miles away and hence less local.
Also, didn't they promise Windows Mobile 7 for around April of *this* year, just a few months ago?
gah'd flashpoint, why are you ALWAYS such an idiot
@ Technophile
That's not an eyebrow. It's a piece of another image that's displayed on the lock screen and Honey comb menu:
http://gadgetmix.com/index/?p=3214
I'm guessing it's a beta issue.
"Make it so no one even trusts linux or android."
Hahahahaha. That will never happen. I mean think about it. Vista Ultimate is like 150$ right? You also need a fairly good computer for it to run well. Linux = 0$ (most at least) and can even run on the shittiest hardware ever.
Funny, i made a comment but it didn't go through.
Now it works =(
dude, i'm gonna click BOTH of your green boxes...
where did you get your profile pic from?
Thanks for the hight ranks. As for the pic i found it at a site listing something like the top 20 firefox wallpapers
The reason for 6.5 is to fill in the time gap between 6.1 (2008) to 7.0 (2010) so that they could have a completing OS until WM 7 in 2010.
I'm guessing that WM 7 will be built from the ground-up due to long development time
winmo 6.5 is pretty screwed (thanks to the pre) for now but wm7 should be pretty good. that said the pre is my new phone this year (finally retiring my wm5 moto q). i will be interested in whatever comes out of windows mobile after my pre contract is up. hopefully by then all the cool remote stuff is off the ground.
Too bad no one will care about Windows Mobile by the time 7.0 devices see the light of day.
Just like no one cared about Palm.
IF Windows Mobile 7 is good, it will turn heads, no matter how crap past iterations have been. People will always be buying new phones so it will have a user base. Plus Microsoft has the money to push it, so they will, again, no matter how crap.
@ALCie
Finally a smart comment...
So let me get this straight: because Palm pulled off a successful Hail Mary play to salvage their brand, you expect Microsoft to do the same with WM? How does that make any sense? Of course anything can happen--Palm proved that. That doesn't change the fact that they're the exception rather than the rule. And Microsoft is at a disadvantage because unlike a desperate Palm, they won't be willing to completely scrap their current model in favor of a fresher one. They still have customers that will be resistant to changes (especially cosmetic ones) that require them to alter current practices significantly. So it will still be Windows Mobile, which is a bad thing all around (and I speak from experience).
Well... First OFFICIAL 6.5 Devices.
I can bet any money that within weeks of the code going live, I'll be able to get a 6.5 ROM from XDA for just about any WinMo 6.1 phone.
non-touch screen seem to get the short end of the stick sometimes.
They always do.
The interface options are limited since you control it with they keys.
You, sir, are my hero for using the term "long ass time" on the front page. I was going to apply to Engadget and Joystiq, but there is no need to anymore. There is already someone better, and he goes by the name "Chris."
What is the "long ass" time you speak of? Is it merely a case of an un-capitalized proper noun, such that "Long Ass" is in a time zone +/- GMT? Or is this something like "Metric Time"?
=]
WebOS? Timing is everything.
WebOS? What can we say about it outside of what we've seen in controled demos.
Windows mobile is still the most robust, customizable, and STABLE mobile OS out there. I’m glad it’s finally getting a IU update.
I agree that WM versions prior to 6.0 were buggy, but the sheer number of applications available is orders of magnitude greater than all the other mobile platforms (save for Linux based ones technically). I also really like the interface of all versions of WM. Oh yeah, nearly seamless .NET development... I've written apps that run on WM5+, and all Win32/64 desktop platforms with the .net framework installed. I'm sorry but the iPhone is a piece.
Yeah, but all those apps are so.....ugly.
Will 6.1 users get the update? And...yeah...why is it that no one (from the select few who apparantly can get any at all) can get decent screen grabs? First impression: mucho fugly...
you're telling me you haven't chucked your WinMo phone yet? Good god.. You're going wait until late 2009 for this crappy phone, and you're still not sure if technically you will be able to get the update to work?
*stunned..........................
Wow 8 months!by then iPhone will have smartphone domination here in USA. Winmo u just 2.5 years too late. Stay home
2.5 years? I'd say 4 years behind. And WM7 better be damn good to cut things under 3 years.
There is absolutely nothing to see here. MS is not an option in the handheld arena
By your comment, iPhone (yr 1) iPhone 3G (partially - with addition of round edges and a tiny radio that has the number 3 and minor software updates), and iPhone (3.5G - with possibly a slide out keyboard and another tiny radio to make all your flattery fanboism to cry to joy.... go ahead whine whine n whine...
Come back here when you can multi-task (w/o the crappy Push stuff) and do really simple tasks like copy/paste and avoid crashing of Safari in just 20mins of use...
Hey, it's "Outloo," everyone's favorite crappy e-mail program.
Can you change the color of the font?
I might be wrong but:
Take note of the images Engadget uses when referring to WinMo. Then go to other Tech sites and take note of the images they use.
Is Engadget using crappy images on purpose? WTF. You know one could reach the conclusion that Engadget is just biased against WinMo.
Just my opinion based on what I see at other sites such as Cnet.com, Gizmodo.com and BoyGeniusReport.com compared to what I see here at Engadget (by the way I enjoy coming to Engadget over all other tech sites, but still....).
Trust me, a slightly better image doesn't improve this UI.... I know from experience. :-|
Personally, I wouldn't want that bird staring at me all day.
Chances of Q3 release: good
Chances of it not sucking based on that screen shot, and not even taking the crappy scaling/anti-aliasing into account: not so much!
This is like Rod Balgojevich trying to prove his innocence. Just give up already.
So where does that leave Tegra? Will it be powering WM6.1 devices?? That's a huge letdown.
I can't wait till someone figures out how to abuse that OpenGL ES 2.0 support on the Palm Pre.
Funny how devices running a supposedly "dead" platform outsold---you guessed it--the iPhone last year.
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=2569
Windows moble is here to stay.
Up until now I thought that background was a badger with a helmet (lotr edition).
Then I realized it was an ostrich.
I've used 6.5 for a couple of weeks now. I cant say it's all that different to 6.0 unless you count the today screen plug in that you see in the image above. Whilst it looks nice in person, HTC offer some better launcher apps and that is what MS should be trying to beat. The plug in they do include isn't much better than a menu from a 5 year old nokia..
As a Windows Mobile user turned Palm Pre drooler... I have this to say about Windows Mobile 6.5:
Too little, too late. Goodbye, Windows Mobile, and good ol' HTC Apache? I loved you. :)
My HTC Touch has WinMo 6.1 and it is really buggy. I have to restart several times a day sometimes. I hope WinMo 6.5 will be better. I can't believe it's taking so long to release it.
hahahahahaha. windows mobile!?? Hahahahahahahahaha. Try getting it right on a desktop first. Way to go burger king of the OS world. iphone, blackberry, Android, Palm, leapfrog, 2 cans and a string then maybe....maybe this piece of shizzaat.....