WinMo 6.5 build 23022 caught on video, in all its finger-friendly glory
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted August 10th 2009 1:14PM
posted August 10th 2009 1:14PM
It's been a hot minute since we first laid eyes on those WinMo screen grabs featuring big ol' buttons at the bottom of the display -- signaling, we hoped, an all-around effort to minimize stylus use in the mobile OS -- and now we have a video for you that seems to further make the case. While WinMo 6.5 build 23022 is still pretty clumsy, those finger-friendly (well, at least, "finger-friendlier," or maybe "not as finger-hostile") buttons grace the bottom of the display, and there is an iPhone-esque magnifying glass option for zooming in on and editing text. Technical details for this build are available at the read link -- but first, make sure you peep the thing in action at the break.
[Via SlashGear]
[Via SlashGear]
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Get it together microsoft, release 7 already!
I'm not sure why so many people hate winmo. I've been using 6.5 in a productive environment for weeks now without flaw.
It depends on which phone you use it.
I often needed a styus too on my old Omnia 900 but I never touched it to use my HT touchHD, because the screen is big enough and because of the excellent Touchlo3 UI.
I recently bought a Nokia N97, which after numerous updates, tweaks, memory repartitioning, bloatware removing, downloads of apps , progs, and a decent theme (UI) is finally working as it's supposed to, but I just could'nt bring myself to get rid of my touchHD.
The combination of the hardware the TouchFlo and win Mob is just too good, versatile, flexible and easy.
Oh I forget, I got this HTC TouchHD after I gave back my old iPhone 3G few days after I had bought it. I could'nt belive how much that thing sucked.
I've disliked it since I bought the Tilt as a possible iPhone replacement. Long story short, insert the stupid things that people say to defend their MacBooks, and that's kind of why prefer my iPhone over WinMo, even though I'm the guy on the PC side saying "those things are stupid and don't matter!!!" to the MacBook guy. I think things like ease of use, simplicity, streamlined yet nice software and hardware, etc., are all much more important on mobile devices than on actual computers. When you are using a phone to do all of these different things now, like browsing the web, IM chatting, photo viewing, etc., they need to be achieved in a quick, easy, and enjoyable manner. WinMo just seems to be that old multitool in the back of the garage. It might get the job done, but it's just not enjoyable to pick up and use, and it's getting rusty in certain parts. Small things like viewing photos are just slow and kind of ridiculous on WinMo. It has far better customization and options than iPhone's OS, but being able to upload any sound file as a ringtone or alert tone isn't enough for me.
I really hate being "that guy" that talks about why he likes his iPhone better than whatever is in the article, but hopefully you didn't get any fanboy vibe from my explanation. You asked, I answered. :P On the same note, I think I would pick Android or WebOS over WinMo as well. WinMo just feels like a last generation mobileOS to me, and it's just not as enjoyable to use anymore. WinMo skins and UI's just mask the sluggish performance too, which is what deters me from getting another HTC WinMo phone.
WinMo 6.5 is looking really nice though. Does anybody know if 6.5 is just a 6 revision, and 7 will be a rewritten kernal? If 6.5 is a nicer looking 6 with the same sluggsh performance, I'll wait for 7, but if 7 ends up being a pretty skin for 6.5, I'll be let down.
MICROSOFT, on the cutting edge of "meh, good enough -the important thing is we'll profit"
I can't wait to give winmo the finger.
I can't wait to finger winmo
On of the feature - magnifier was there ages ago in Microsoft Research, Apple copied that concept with iPhone and everyone praised.
Here is just some of the taste.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=microsoft+shift&docid=1077105131865&mid=4EB615723B5FA10045124EB615723B5FA1004512&FORM=VIVR3
@Kit: Too bad they didn't implement it in any of their devices until now. If everything stays in Microsoft Research and doesn't make it into products people actually it essentially means the tech is useless. Apple didn't invent multitouch and many people didn't know about it until the iPhone, but they were the first company to make it useful and widespread. Also, the video you showed us was for WinMo devices with resistive touch screens and user interfaces that weren't touch friendly. The magnifying loupe was a 'solution' to a poor OS.
"Obviously this is very crude, it doesn't work too well"
lol
Yeah, taking things out of context is hilarious!
Yeah, I took it out of context. No, I didn't change his meaning. Where's the problem?
Nice!
I love WinMo for it's DIY open-ness and versatility, but yep, ya gotta keep a stylus around for those occasions where you break into the "lower layers".
That or be good with a fingernail.
This looks very encouraging.
It depends on which phone you use it.
I often needed a styus too on my old Omnia 900 but I never touched it to use my HT touchHD, because the screen is big enough and because of the excellent Touchlo3 UI.
I recently bought a Nokia N97, which after numerous updates, tweaks, memory repartitioning, bloatware removing, downloads of apps , progs, and a decent theme (UI) is finally working as it's supposed to, but I just could'nt bring myself to get rid of my touchHD.
The combination of the hardware the TouchFlo and win Mob is just too good, versatile, flexible and easy.
Oh I forget, I got this HTC TouchHD after I gave back my old iPhone 3G few days after I had bought it. I could'nt belive how much that thing sucked.
It's very slow and laggy.
Get it together, Microsoft. Third parties are releasing better, faster, more sensitive UIs for 6.1 than you can put together for 6.5!
It's an early build of new features. The zune-scroll Today screen (Titanium) and the honeycomb start menu both ran like crap on early builds, but they are extremely fluid now. I would expect them to be able to do the same with this.
I won't expect them to get it to run much faster than this if it's just retooled WinMo6. My interest in WinMo deteriorated when the Xperia came out and it's UI was sluggish as hell. This is why I'm really hoping WinMo 7 is a complete rebuild, or at least optimized as much as they optimized W7 for PC's. 6.5 is looking way nicer than 6, but I do agree that it will need to be more than a pretty mask for WM6 that runs smoother for me to want it.
I like the fact that they made the close button bigger and easier to access, sure it looked better in the taskbar, but I was constantly missing it and hitting the clock... This is a welcoming change :D
ditto
I'm just loving the fact that they got rid of the word "Start" next to the start button! I mean, really, on a space limited screen, they waste a good 1/5th of that top row on that word alone.
I welcome these additions. Anything that makes windows mobile better should be welcomed, not scrutinized. That said, I giggled when I saw "Ugh" entered in the Notes application. Looks like someone was a little frustrated with the keyboard.
I fully believe that WinMo's biggest problem is that it generally runs on underpowered hardware. Take care of that first, with minimum hardware requirements, then focus on the surface issues.
Have you seen the WinMo 7 hardware requirements? Microsoft has definitely solved that problem. Low end devices will be restricted to 6.5.
I've seen the rumored minimum specs but they don't mean a whole lot to me since I'm not that up-to-date on cellphone hardware. The only thing I know is that my Moto Q9c is vastly underpowered for running WinMo 6.1. Well, maybe not vastly, but it's quite sluggish.
WinMo/PPC has always been clunky. Even on the best mobile hardware available at the time-Intel Xscale era, and there have been several handsets in recent years (Kaiser) that had used the best Qualcomm chips available at the time. Even now WM 6.5 would still run clunky on Tegra, or the 3GS's CPU. It's not the hardware (Although it definately helps to ease the pain...low powered WinMo devices are really ugly). Windows CE's primary market used to be embedded systems with more powerful CPUs, so there was not much incentive to really optimize the experience for consumer mobile hardware. However with the explosion of the smartphone market, that has shifted and MS has been forced to go back to the drawing board for a lot of it. Sadly they were late to the game, and we are still waiting for WinMo 7.
"Even now WM 6.5 would still run clunky on Tegra, or the 3GS's CPU."
You know this how??
It looks like WinMo 6.5 and Symbian S60 v5.0 (it's interesting to see what Symbian^2 will look like) are about on par with touch usability - though, S60 has fancy transitions if turned on.
If they don't remove the need for stylus, consider WinMo dead.
I don't completely agree with this statement. Windows mobile has text recognition. You can write on it and it transcribes it into text. You can't get that kind of accuracy using your finger.
I like using my stylus over my finger for many things. Finger-friendly also means large and obtrusive, reducing the amount of the alreadly limited screen real estate for information.
Untill the technology for expandable mobile displays (rollable/foldable, holographic, projection, etc) comes into mainstream, I am pretty sure I will always prefer a hybrid system. Common tasks should be finger-friendly....making calls, browsing contacts, viewing appointments, SMS etc...but when you want to spend a few minutes to work on something on your phone, there's no reason not to have a stylus for precision. It's the same reason the touch screen hasn't ovetaken the mouse...human fingers are clunky.
When is microsoft going to stop screwing around and release windows mobile 7? Really now, with the traction that android is getting their mobile OS is on a fast tract to becoming obsolete. Any one know what's happening with the new symbian os that nokia is supposedly working on, and what's the deal with the Limo foundation?
Go to http://developer.symbian.org/main/source/platform/index.php and see. "Platform roadmap [PDF]" -link is a good start.
Windows Mobile 7 will be released in 2011 to replace 6.5. 2010 is slotted for the Zune Phone, which will basically be WinMo 7. The WinMo 7 UI will be more similar to ZuneHD than 6.5. A capacitive version of WinMo 6.5 will be released with this sort of UI, and potentially upgradeable to WinMo 7 (which won't support resistive). At least that's my theory based on various sources.
@Dogtown
I believe that is all wrong.
From what I know a zune phone is not ear marked at all. How can they produce a phone and then compete with their ODMs? It would be like MS taking on HP and Dell in producing its own machine. They would be essentially shooting themselves in the foot.
I believe WinMo 7 should be due first half of 2010 and will run along side 6.5. Someone at MS as said that WinMo7 will be on premium phone due to the hardware requirements and 6.5 will run along side on the current standard of phones at a lower price. This will ease the transition and eventually 6.5 will be phased out as more powerful phones become cheaper and more commonplace.
They have to get this right and soon as the smartphone market is only going to grow. If they wait until 2011 that would be too late as although 6.5 is good enough to stop current users from switching i'm not sure its going to win many new customers.
I would be excited for this if it was back in 2004. Heck, probably even earlier. Apple, Palm, Blackberry, even Android seem farther into the Mobile OS game than MS. I applaud Palm for reinventing their OS for the Pre. MS, please do something similar, and you will be in better shape. It's my honest opinion.
The Mobile OS UI game, you mean.
Good old Microsoft. Despite the obvious pilfering of Apples excellent iPhone and iPod Touch OS/UI, Microsoft stumbles again. Thats what happens when you copy, rather than innovate and create as Apple as has done with the iPhone/iPod Touch OS/UI environment. Microsoft the biggest "me too" company or should we say, wannabe company.
Your post doesn't make sense. What "obvious pilfering"? As touch screens gain prominence in the mobile market, WinMo has to be more finger-friendly. Apple wasn't the first to have a usable touchscreen phone.
Yes because adding copy and paste two years late is innovating.
So WinMo is copying apple? I could have sworn WinMo has been around for a decade longer at least, not to mention touch screen phones. Apple was the one playing catch up and WinMo didnt have real competition until apple finally released the iphone
Apple haven't copied any ideas, they just looked at the market and saw how rubbish interfaces were and made a better and MUCH easier one. And due to that it shined the light for everyone else and hence HTC's Touchflo etc etc. I don't care who copied who (IMO no one has) but what I do care about is the fact Apple changed the game and took it all in a totally different direction as it was a long time coming, so now everyone is ditching the stylus which is better for you, me, everyone!
I like how 6.5 is looking, just need to make things like the volume slider look prettier. But, by the time they launch it they will not only have the iPhone to compete against but a plethora of Android handsets too. Still MS has a massive following that should help it sell.
One area where Apple have innovated is the apps store, this was obvious as the iTunes store and iPod combo has given them tons of experience, and it's very nice to see everyone else following suite. Don't know about you lot but I got sick and tired sometimes of hunting apps or games down then buying them from a website that after would send me endless junk text.
Its funny how MS makes the Zune and they are copying Apple.
Apple make a Mobile OS and enter the smartphone market and they aren't copying anyone but now 3 years down the line every one is copying Apple?
I swear Apple followers have narcissistic tendencies.
Its just Mr. Softee being Mr. Softee.....
I can't believe that windows is only now coming up to scratch with the iPhone, and it still doesn't work as well as an iPhone!
Jesus, usually Microsoft get to copy most things within 2 years, looks like they need to head back to the iPhone copiers guide once more to get windows mobile 6.7 tweaked.
Funny you should mention 2 years, that's about how long it took for Apple to come up with the brand new never before seen iPhone features of copy pasting, video recording and voice control. Things that have been available on smartphones and even free-with-contract dumb phones for years before the first iPhone.
WinMo should never be compared to other phones especially to iPhone cuz they are completly different concepts WinMo is a pocket PC the name says it all it gives you the features aprox to PC so an iPhone can mean a single app on WinMo. The comparement of WinMo to other devices like iPhone is a mistake that people usually do. For a WinMo its important if it has new futures like enterprise ones, not ones that says ohhh great this thing has "Copy & Paste now".
This was from professionals view.
Bye
What?
A professional that says "cuz" is not a professional worth listening to.
The iPhone and WinMo are very comparable, they have slightly different markets (business vs casual) but they are slowly overlapping.
I finally got my iPhone after a year of using 6.1 and then 6.5 beta builds. The difference in UI was huge. I will never go back to WinMo until they release 7...and by then im sure Apple will have something better. Having to cater to a smaller non specialised market makes things so much easier. Just like WIndows vs Mac...Macs are able to dump legacy features and move forward dramatically quicker than Windows because they dont need to fear a backlash from their customers.
Ohhh boy... just another reason to stick with Android.
I really love how Microsoft "forget" about markets where there is no competition in.
Suddenly iPhone came along and they were 5 years behind, then Android came from behind and pushed WIMo all the way back.
Now Microsoft have to start all over because they are loosing grounds here with their shitty Mobile OS....
Remember back when Microsoft said IE6 was the final version of IE and there would no longer come updates or version to the browser.. ever... Then firefox came along.. and BOY... suddenly it became a major focus again.
Imagine if OSX wasent around.... then there would have been no windows 7 presumably...
Its a bad habit.
Hope they get 'a bit better' to treat us costumers 'a bit better' in the future.
And that right there is a perfect demonstration of why competition is so important.