We know, today is totally
Android 2.0's day to shine, but what would a Friday night be without a little diversity?
Windows Mobile 6.5 officially landed on a gaggle of
Windows Phones back in early October (a month ago to the day, in fact), but by and large, all of 'em have seemingly drifted off into some forgotten corner while Motorola's DROID has taken over the hype. Still, we've got a feeling at least a few of you loyalists went out and gave Sir Ballmer a few more of your nickles, and now we're eager to hear if you're loving or regretting that choice. Is 6.5 really a worthy update over 6.1? Are you waiting for WinMo 7 instead? What would you change about 6.5 in order to make 7 the best mobile OS
of all time? Sound off in comments below!
posted Nov 7th 2009 12:59AM
why the hell would you guys ask a question like that knowing damn well what you have just started
FOR THE LOVE OFF GOD ( an i usually don't say that cuz im atheist)
*of
thank you
Am i the only one who feels the lack of apps for android and the abundance on winmo would drive many towards it?
Two words: UNICORN HEART.
They'll know what that means.
Replace it with secure *nix OS and talented UI designers that understand usability and can follow standards like CSS and HTML 5.
This would mean saying good bye to Windoze and IE.
How bout making phones more open so if I wanted I could get WinMo 6.5, WinMo 7, Andriod, or even WebOS on my phone.
You know, make them like computers.
Nothing is better than a news site wondering why a certain story doesn't seem to be getting hype.
As for the real question - what would you change ... I'll be real curious to see the responses. I bet 90% of those commenting on improvements have never used WinMo 6.5. This post will turn into a thread of people barfing up crap they have read here and on MacRumors. Most of which is total BS.
As someone who has been using 6.5 since very early builds I can honestly say the OS is top notch. I like it better than the UI on my iPod Touch. I like it better than Android 1.5 (which I also run on my phone). For people who are serious business users or tech enthusiasts WinMo offers more flexibility and customization than any other platform. It really is in a class by itself. It may not be the simplest OS or the most finger friendly. However, 6.5 represents a huge step forward and should get folks really excited about the possibilities with 7.
Add support for screens with more colours.
I mean, look at the banding in that screenshot!
^ Or perhaps introduce a simple dithering algorithm for the limited palette.
Better default browser, better onscreen keyboard, better UI guidelines and help for developers to implement said UI guidelines, update the graphics, standardize the OS and abstract it from the hardware so you can update the OS without waiting for XDA-devs or manufacturer to cook up a new ROM and most importantly of all: better responsivity to user actions. I don't want to sit there and debate whether the phone has heard me or not.
Oh and standard edition? You can die now.
@pa1.annoy.nymous: No you're not the only one - I love the look of all these new mobile OS's especially webOS, but there's just no apps for them (that I want anyway). So I'm sticking with my WinoMo 6.1 Treo Pro for now which my apps: GPS plotting, Internet Radio, Geotagging and Sirius, http://amirite.net ?
Zune Layout. Thats It.
I do use WinMobile.
Honestly, other than getting updates directly from MS, and not have to depend on lazy OEMs.
And...
Maybe upping the eye candy transition effects to make it more Zune-like.
I dont really find anything that needs to be changed. It does everything iPhone, Android, and BB does. All of the software that runs on those platforms can easily run on WinMobile.
For me I think that MS should stop messing around with WM6.X and hurry up with WM7. The hardware is already here (HD2) just finsih the godamn software now. http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2009/10/09/windows-mobile-7-rtm-in-spring-2010/
RTM in spring is too late (would mean ship in Q42010)
@superhobo The screens already support more than 65K it's a software limitation though (well MS said a couple of years ago that it wasn't and it was OEMs who chose to only support 65K lol). Should be lifted in WM7 tho.
Chao_Sama:
WinMo 6.5 has the Zune interface. The screenshot above is just the main Home screen, which honest to god, nobody ever uses, because as you can see, it's totally useless.
As for what I would change, the tiny little X button in the top corner is my biggest pet peeve, but that's fixed in WinMo 7 from what I understand. (All those interface buttons are now thumb buttons on the bottom.)
Also there is no good way to lock the phone. There are apps for it, but they all require you to actually open the app to lock the phone, or switch to it. There's no just "lock" on the "Today" screen, which there should be.
Uh... woops :)
I forgot to look at the screenshot.
Ok, there is no "lock" on MY WinMo 6.5 phone for some reason :)
"WinMo 6.5 has the Zune interface. The screenshot above is just the main Home screen, which honest to god, nobody ever uses, because as you can see, it's totally useless."
That is not the main home screen, that is the apps screen.
"Also there is no good way to lock the phone. There are apps for it, but they all require you to actually open the app to lock the phone, or switch to it. There's no just "lock" on the "Today" screen, which there should be."
Click on the Windows logo, and at the bottom you see "Lock". See the image above.
Do you even use WinMobile?
@Tiptup300 For what it's worth, Windows Phones are really the only phones that are close to that. Android has been ported to a number of phones (not perfectly, yet, but definitely usable on several phones), and RIM has an unreleased app called BlackBerry Application Suite that lets you run a virtual BlackBerry on top of WM. So on my Fuze, theoretically, I can choose between three different different OS's. Apple definitely doesn't have an app for that!
Hit the start button and then there is a lock on the botom left, Jeff. I prefer one on the today screen, but two buttons is pretty simple.
i'm almost certain winmo still doesn't offer gpu acceleration support. i'm sure it would make touchflo 3D and other video apps run like a champ if id did. fiddlesticks
The lock softkey only shows up on the "Home Screen" Unsure why, but I only discovered it a few days ago.
continuing what varun said,
It's worth emphasizing speed and response again! You shouldn't be waiting for your phone, the phone should be waiting for you. We should be having speeds like this(except for the calender this is an alpha released yesterday):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUGMalo8a3g
Also, it needs a better task manager to allow switching between all apps/windows from anywhere (wktasks attempts this by implementing something similar to desktop os taskbar, htc has this too)
A calendering app that supports more calenders and better way to view all the appointments description without having to click on them (webos does this well) even integrate tasks into it...
If these are the minimum hardware specs of WM7...
And if WM7 is going to have the same code base as Zune HD, MS shouldn't spend ANY more time on WM 6.5. It already works well, but it's unspectacular.
WM7, with the Zune media goodness available beyond the US borders, with Tegra/Snapdragon hardware, would be awesome. I know it's not due out to the licensees until Q1 2010, but they need to expedite this.
If not, just hand all the design work over to HTC. HTC is leaving everyone in the dust when it comes to mobile interface design. It's the main reason I've stuck with WM (well that and the flexibility, especially when you roll in the amazing things various devs at XDA-devs and PPCGeeks have done).
Windows Mobile has demised! Why would people go to graveyard and dig? Let's move on!
Why change it? Just get rid of it. No need to. It's getting rid of itself all on it's own. It's becoming one of Steve Ballmer's famous rounding errors. Rounding itself down to zero.
I'd change it to iPhone OS
Look at the image above of the WM screen. Now try and use your finger to touch any of the icons across the top. Now try that on a real one where the screen size is half or less than that of the image above. Good times.
What I would change,
A fully functional and working PhoneCanvas which properly locks the touchscreen. No more having to use HTC's, just make it natively functional.
Stop outsourcing the innovation and improvements of your platform to your ODMs. In-house resources and expertise is always better. The fact you spent almost a decade outsourcing it really shows, and since none of your ODMs really share, you're the only common denominator -- the lowest and crappiest part of the platform.
By making it die a painful death, involving Vin Diesel and your mother
Flamebait/Trollbait article
@Manuel
Funny, I'd have said the same thing about you.
@ Look_Around_You
Thank you for explaining that to him. I'm just to lazy to.
Vin Diesel and Manuel would be an overkill ... but who knows "anything that can be killed, can be overkilled"
Turn it into Android
Why? I never owned win 6.5 mobile before, so i'm not going to be judgemental.
Even though i would like it to make any girl i date into a supermodel...or cook me breakfast...or actually make michael bay movies watchable...
I wanna de-rank you to the point where your words aren't visible.
I'm speachless... An Android fanboy, nay, any fanboy comment for that matter, before a "make it an iPhone" comment!?
I'd turn it into a full desktop OS. Screw mobile, run XP
Nay...nay...NAY I say.
I said no way
To the nay you say.
And like the light of day
This ain't no Cray™
And It's not served on a tray
yep lets have our phones running a ful OS that requires 2gb space to install and requires 3rd party programs to use a phone. /sarcasm
rub mobile OSX! lol jk
MULTI TOUCH, real multitouch and make it simpler not that technical
RUN* not rub lol
I definitely agree. I see countless people throw away their WinMo phones because they just dont know how to utilize it. Its just way too technical for the average joe. If they can just simplify everything, I think that would be one hell of a step towards the right direction
Jesus Diaz, go back to Gizmodo. Nobody wants you here.
@Jesus
Is a simple hierarchy of organised folders too difficult for you to grasp? Or are you one of those people who prefer viewing everything in a 4x5 grid of icons?
Can I hide the Icons to show off my wallpaper? Because that's what I want.
That's why I like Android: folders. Does WinMo allow you to make folders? If not, then that's how I'd change it. Add the ability to organize shortcuts into folders.
Of course you can!
Native Capacitive support and FULL Zune integration. Also better apps and WILL SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE AN AMAZING EMAIL APPLICATION FOR A MOBILE PHONE!!!
Try Seven Mobile please. Works great
Give it an awesome media player. One on par with Windows 7's media player with wide codec support. Then I'm sold. That's all ANY mobile OS has to do to get me onboard.
Have you tried core player? The very best.
Seven is what I use and it's GOD AWFUL. The only reason I use that it's the only way to get push email from multiple accounts, but in exchange for that I have to give up a bunch of the features from the regular stock email application (which hardly has any features in the first place) because Seven really just uses that anyway. You can't even specify your name for an email account when using Seven. How f-ing ridiculous is that?
I've tried every winmo email option that I've seen mentioned, and they are all terrible compared to anything on any of the main competitor mobile operating systems.
Make it WinMo 7?
Winmo 6.5 needs to go to puppy lake.
You stole my answer!
oh boy, this is going to be a big list... but for now, i'll say let HTC take over all operations in the winmo division.
That was going to be response. The Sense UI takes a waz all over any work on the graphics that MS did between .1 and .5.
Oh, and my other bugbear is making sure every device has a proper video driver to exploit the available horsepower from today's modern chipsets.
Yeah honestly the only thing I wish 6.5 had was a perfectly stable and functional (in all orientations) Manila 2.5 interface (the one seen on the HD2 demos) that managed to totally reskin stuff like the e-mail and text message inboxes.
Give us Windows Mobile 7 already. Really 6.5 is nice, but everyone that uses WM is waiting for 7 with some nice powerful devices.
(so to change it release the new version... hmm).
nothing more is needed,everything is fine,everything in its right place,yesterday steve was sucking a lemon and i dont remember more detail,i thing tom cruise was there too,steve again sucking a lemon,everthing in its right place
+1 internets for Radiohead Kid A reference
yeah old times,happy times
there are two mobile OSes in my head??
Support for multiple Exchange accounts.
and have real-time access to your global address book so I don't have to "check names, company directory" for people from my company when creating an email.
Dang - good point - I can't believe I forgot to mention that - multiple exchange accounts!!!!!! (Too bad Outlook still has the same limitations - you can have a second e-mail account open or use pop or imap but it still doesn't really have FULL multiple exchange accounts unless you close one profile and open another - not sure who people are at MS who only have one exchange account)
make it do my homework and im fine :D
make an amazing app store. if i get a windows phone it will be an htc anyway so i would be on sense anyway. just need the apps to be great like androids, which i am currently on, on my hero. maybe have some developer contests like android does and throw some money to android developers to bring their apps to windows phone. also, keep the stuff cheap, if not free. the OS is pretty good, very underrated. only thing that kept me from getting a touch pro 2 over the hero was the android market (and maybe the 5MP camera, but there is the diamond 2 for that).
I have not upgraded to 6.5 yet, I've been waiting for Verizon to update their Touch Pro2 in lieu of a cooked ROM, because honestly I like the way my phone works, I am hardly ever in the WinMo UI thanks to HTC's Touch Flo3d UI. What I did do, was install Marketplace onto my phone so I could start using it in 6.1.
@daveb
Good comments, good suggestions. They really need to step up their game with the Windows Marketplace. The fact that I had to cobble together a working version of Pandora from a .cab installation, replacing the .exe file, and manually changing the TCP value; that alone annoys me. If they start getting better apps together I think it will make a world of difference.
If I had 6.5, I might be able to make some more useful comments, hopefully VZW gets a move on.
I don't really understand all the fuss about App Stores. There are thousands, probably tens of thousands, of WM apps. If I want one, I just download it and install it. Easy. Why do I need to take up valuable phone storage with an app to download apps? Okay, I'm being a little dramatic, I can understand the value of the store to get the app to the masses who don't even know you can install apps on a Windows Phone, but is this really what Microsoft needs to hit the ball out of the park?
I could have sworn I read that HTC actually provided an official ROM with 6.5, but I don't see it on their website. I have an original Touch Pro and didn't think the upgrade to TP2 was quite worth the bank. I'm holding for something HD2 similar... I am just so damn sketchy about on screen keyboards. I ran 6.5 on my TP and it was bogging it down. Of course that IS a cooked ROM so that could be party at fault, seemed to me though just a little too much flashiness for the hardware.
@Carl
I don't think an App Store will be the thing to hit the ball out of the park, that's for sure. I honestly think having an App Store is handy, instead of having to scour sites for different Cabs to install. I actually removed some cabs I had installed and reinstalled from the Marketplace because it automatically looks for updates to my installed software. So, I guess, most of my gripe isn't with the Marketplace in particular; I'm more looking forward to apps for WinMo of better quality.
It would be good to see a decent Pandora app for WVGA devices, a good email program, a better Facebook app than the current one, a Remeber the Milk App (tho I just found Evernote), and some other annoyances that I have. There are plenty of good apps that I have installed that I really like, so I know its possible to make great apps. I do have to say, some of the best apps I have are geared towards business and navigation, which speaks to how the OS is geared.
I really don't want to go on about what I think WinMo really needs to be better, especially because I am not running 6.5, so I don't have the right yardstick to measure by. But there are plenty of good comments that I have seen that are going in the right direction.
@jawxx
The Touch Pro2 upgrade form HTC is only for overseas phones, and I think only works with GSM, so it would brick mine in either case. There have been cooked roms for the GSM versions of the TP2, but only very recently have I seen cooked roms for the CDMA versions (they were waiting for the HardSPL unlocker I think). So, the carriers in the States that released the device on 6.1 are still coming up with their official ROM updates. Verizon said sometime around November... we'll see how that goes, lol.
put it on my phone
i like winmo 6.5 but i think that winmo 7 is gonig to make a big different on windows mobile OS and probably in all others mobile OS....i think for now that they should work more in the marketplace,,we need more reasonable prices and app.
Make it run crysis.
Remote Desktop Mobile, FTW!
Also, how about:
-Multitouch
-Proper contacts list with groups
-Multiple exchange accounts
HTC solved two of these already, how come Microsoft can't do it themselves?
It can run Starcraft if you want on WVGA
Make it versatile. Not everyone like all their data at their fingertips on the home screen. Some people like a little minimalism and "pretty." Make the way everything is displayed customizable to the T, and I think it'll be even better.
2 different UIs? Simple, and advanced?
id make it winmo 7.
So you're saying Windows Mobile 6.5 is fit to be branded as Windows Mobile 7?
Not in a million years.
how did i get low ranked when the guy ten posts above me got highest? :p
replace it with android!
Yeah, have HTC takes over the Windows Mobile division... I had a good chuckle from that post...
Or hire some of the talent over at XDA.
just let HTC or sony do the GUI design...
or SPB.
i know its insane but yesterday someone told me why windows mobile doesnt use windows ce gui? i said why the hell someone needs that win 3.1 style and he said it feels more nerdish
Add in window support for all programs, just like the desktop! And please keep the stylus, and stylus friendly UI for navigating and expanding the windows, or clicking on links when browsing (if I don't want to zoom in to tap on it with my finger). But I would still like to make calls and open applications with my thumb at the same time.
Having tried 6.1, 6.5, and 6.5.1 recently on my Touch Pro2. My Opinion is the "upgrade" from 6.1 to 6.5 is a joke. They have not made it any easier to use or faster. They added lines in between selections to make finger selection easier but requires more scrolling, and rearranged the start menus to icons that didn't help function either. Now 6.5.1 shows some improvement. They have finally moved all the soft keys to the bottom of the screen making much easier to navigate with your thumb. Instead of having to hit start in the upper left corner to open a program, then select options with the bottom soft keys, then hit the X in the upper right. Especially on a device with a larger screen this feature is actually a functional improvement. But the way they group things in the start menu still could use some work its so inconsistent between the versions and difficult to navigate. Yea one can get used to it but there is plenty of room for improvement.
The future is a capacitive/resistive hybrid. Give us the ability to use a stylus for certain apps, but build the OS around touch and capacitive as much as possible.
Give the user options to switch the OS from touch centric to stylus centric. Make everyone happy.
But seriously, someone needs to get on the whole pressure sensitive capacitive stylus thing. That will SO be the best of both worlds.
Make it support Android OS so I could browse d web better.
WTF.
That was a reply to Poached.
Okay, WinMo suggestion: Never let the team who designed the Engadget comments system near it.
Get the Zune UI team to tear it a part, and then build it again.
I wish my luck lasted the better part of 30 years...
Microsoft is such a reactionary company. It got lucky with DOS and that's about it.
Let's see. It got caught off guard with the internet so it stuffed IE and killed netscape. Once netscape died it let IE rot until whoa, firefox came along and challenged it, but it's too late now and I don't know who uses IE.
Zune - a poor reaction to iPod.
xbox - reaction to PS2.
Vista - in certain ways copied OSX.
Now WinMobile. I think there was a time when WinMo was all there was for "smart" phones. Now you got the awesome iPod and the open android platform. Why would anyone put WinMo on their device when android will do it for free and better?
Have you seen corporate computers ? They don't run any browser except IE. Make no mistake I love Firefox and that is my default browser, nut in the last 3 weeks I have had to use IE four times to open certain webpages that would not render on chrome or FF.
IE is very much alive.