The sometimes-believable, sometimes-not fellows over at
DigiTimes are reporting today that Windows Mobile codename "Maldives" is going to break out as version 6.6 (a name we'd
previously heard associated with version 7) with native support for capacitive touchscreens next month -- a launch window that would line up nicely with Mobile World Congress, where
6.5 was announced a year prior. HTC's
HD2 has already proven that it's possible to cleanly support capacitive touch on a 6.x-based device, so it's reasonable to think that this is legit -- but what we don't yet know is how this dovetails with
6.5.3, whether they're the same thing, and if Microsoft is doing this simply to buy itself a few precious extra months to bake
WinMo 7 to a crispy, golden brown perfection. We'd already heard before that 6.x and 7 will
have an opportunity to coexist in the marketplace, so it's entirely possible that 6.6 is the version that'll carry that torch on the 6.x side of things -- but if this gets announced alone without a mention of
Robbie's ground-up rewrite at MWC, we'd wager there'll be riots in Barcelona.
posted January 14th 2010 2:22PM
@MattEL they need to abandon the mobile phone market and leave it to the people who know how to compete in it.
@Paul C Chapel
Seriously, I think it would be better if you abandoned Engadget.
Everyone here would be much better off without your spread of hatred.
These glass buttons are hurting my eyes.
Windows Mobile 7 better be something groundbreaking and while Windows 7 isn't groundbreaking in any way, it sure got a positive vibe - so perhaps 7 is the lucky number?
@Jakob
Lucky Number 7 has worked so far.
@Jakob
Looking at them now on my device, they are ok, but I prefer that they were square.
@LAY
Get EnergyRom from xda-developers.com
square buttons on 6.5.3
@l3it3r
Veeeeery nice!
@l3it3r Doesn't that use Livven's theme? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=578468
@ZSX same BS different day
Hope it isn't Windows Mobile 6.66, Oh Noes!
@LAY you can change the buttons to almost anything... the wizards at XDA have ALL SORTS of replacements.
Why don't they just use the ones on the ZuneHD?
They are round, not glossy, and look beautiful.
DigiTimes is the "source" on this? LOL
Actually.... It helps.
id rather see them finish 7 as fast as possible
@uck
I'd rather them take their time and do it right.
@Erb
they*
Engadget, please allow editing of comments for up to 2-3 minutes after they are posted. :P
@uck Why, when there is still room to put band-aids on WinMo 6!
@Erb I believe they HAVE been taking their sweet time.
Doesn't mean 7 won't come. I doubt Microsoft would support past phones with Mobile 7. Hence .6 update.
@kris120890
They don't allow the move from 6.1 to 6.5, so I'm going to guess I can't update my Touch Pro to 6.6. Fortunately, the XDA folks have me covered.
@mikeweezer
Some of the phones allow the move from 6.1 to 6.5. Usually all the HTC phone are upgradeable.
@mikeweezer
MS don't control upgrades - the carriers/manus do. The TD2 got an official 6.1->6.5 upgrade via HTC in my case.
I call bullshit on this story. It's been mentioned numerous times that WM7 will be discussed at MWC in February, and then more at MIX in March. Microsoft is not that stupid, with expectations so high, that they would not mention WM7 at MWC.
@lamerz
It's already been confirmed, I think on this site, so I'm not sure who is confused about this.
The thing that may actually confuse is that some people dont know that 7 is meant for higher-end phones, while 6.5.x is meant for lower power devices, and will both exist and be in development at the same time.
@LAY
I remember reading that but I think it's stupid. Regardless of the hardware of the phone Windows Mobile 7 needs to be the only option for future phones. I a WinMo user and really like it but it's no secret it has it's issues and even on powerful devices it's still pretty crappy, performance and consistency wise.
Maybe it would be okay for non-touch screen phones, but defiantly not with touch, especially on low-end devices.
Hope we can really ge to see something trully groundbreaking. So far, WinMo has been left behind by pretty much every single OS available today
@Zink
Other than personal UI choice or some aesthetic not being your style, I will ask for the 10000000000000th time...
Can you please tell us where this is the case where WM cant do what other mobile OS are doing?
@LAY
agreed. I havent found anything that winmo cant do, and in many cases show off things it CAN do over other OSes... dont give the app-for-that argument since all that is is advertising. winmo has had apps for everything for a decade. i love android and like the iphone enough to recognize that its a nice device, but winmo has features and capabilities that people dont see because ms is a company of programmers, not graphic artists.
@Zink: I'm with LAY and l3it3r
@LAY it's not necessarily a matter of can or can't do. It's also a matter of how well it is capable of doing the things it does. Case in point, Safari mobile in the iPhone is hands down the best browser while WinMo IE ranks at the bottom of the ladder, it is useless.
@Paul C Chapel
But don't they also have Mobile Opera, etc? It's not the stock browser, but in this case that's irrelevant.
@Zink
People are constantly saying "It better be groundbreaking or it will fail!" but they never say what that means or what groundbreaking thing they want it to do. They're just setting it up to fail by default when it does the same thing as every other OS.
So what ground breaking thing do people want? All these people are really saying, "I don't even know what I want the phone to do, but it better do it our I'll hate it more than anything else!"
@Paul C Chapel
Actually, no, that would be the N900's browser these days.
@LAY
I agree with the "how well it does things argument" because frankly WinMo does everything, but not very well and the look is usually unappealing. We can blame the hardware and software makers but really the OS is inconsistent, slow, and dated.
Don't get me wrong, I only use WinMo phones because I like the things it does but if you look at Blackberry, Andriod phones or the iPhone, it's a lot easier and faster to do things. It's especially bad when you have a WinMo phone with a keyboard and you are constantly switch orientations.
@l3it3r *applause* well said... "..company for programmers not for graphic artists"
Microsoft, now with more FAIL.
Whatever "strides" MS accomplishes with WM7 using these 3-4 more months of delay, it will be relatively outdated by Android and webOS. From what I've seen, Android is changing and "growing up" faster than any OS I've seen. So time is not on MS's side. The ONLY REASON why they postponed it is -just as I have suspected- WM7 was not impressive enough, and they felt the need to work more on it. Better delay is than lose stock, right?
@TareG
You are assuming that it won't be at MWC, and that it HAS been delayed. Which you would since, by the tone of your comments, you are obviously a WinMo hater. It's been confirmed that WM7 will be at MWC in Feb. Eff off.
@lamerz
I'm not a WM hater. As a matter of fact, I would LOVE WM to come back having "something from everything", customizable homescreens, widgets, notifications, cards...etc... I want the power of WM without sacrificing usability. But form the leaked WM7 screens, as well as this news (and othersites reporting a 2011 delay), MS hardly sounds confident about WM7.
@TareG
"Better delay is than lose stock, right?"
Yeah! I Can get behind that! Wait, what?
@TareG WinMo is a dead platform.
How Microsoft blew it with Windows Mobile
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/19/microsoft.windows.mobile/index.html
The Spectacular Failure of WinCE and Windows Mobile
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/50755EA6-A759-42FD-84ED-EBB5A060AF16.html
@TareG Microsoft rarely puts the UI changes in the alpha versions of any of its products. User Interfaces are easy to change and are more subject to trends than the underlying code. If you ever got a chance to play with the Alpha releases of Windows 7, you would have been hard pressed to find a graphical difference from Vista. It wasn't until the Beta was released that the new taskbar and start menu were included.
@TareG Your kidding right... Wm 6.5 is the best OEM homescreen hands down.. And has ALWAYS supported all of those features..
@Celz
Really? Can u plz link me to a website or video showing widgets, shortcuts and notifications on the WM 6.5 homescreen? (not SBP Shell 3.5)
I hope Winmo7 is good so that Microsoft can compete with Android, just like i hope Palm will be successful with webos versus the iphone. We need more competition. Having one or two dominant players in the market is bad for the entire industry. Having said that I am not very optimistic for Microsoft's ability to deliver the quality we expect on time. The only bright spot is Steven Sinofsky who seems like a smart guy. He did a good job with Windows 7.
@Bill Gates You have no more word in these matters, so go away!
so...when winmo 7 does come out, will it be great with only 1k apps currently in the market?
cause it will need to be SUPER to get dev support at this point.
i dont know, if MS promotes it good enough maybe they can get the consumers interested (it would have to be on verizon/at&t and tmobile simultaneously!). if not, its just not enough apps for me to go back.
signed,
7 year winmo vet (now a DROOOIIIDDD)
@aleis
You are a 7 Year WinMo vet that thinks there are only 1000 apps for WinMo?
LOL
That is hilarious!
@aleis
How that activey sync and MS office working for you on the droid?
How about Voice Commnader over bluetooth?
Well, Bach said it would not just be something evolutionary, but something that's completely different.
I don't see how a Windows Mobile 6.6 could not just be something evolutionary. Normally you don't increase the version numer of something by .1 if it's something completely different.
I've also never heard of WM6.6. Given that it is a WM6.X, it must be based on CE5.2, which means it can be ported to current devices and would have leaked to xda-developers if it actually existed.
In addition to that, Digitimes refers to it as 'Maldives', and that's in fact WM6.5.3, which is definitely just an evolution of 6.5.
So, what do I think? There's several possibilities:
- WM6.6 is really WM6.5.3 and Bach has lied, which means they're going to show only WM6.5.3
- WM6.6 is really WM6.5.3 and Bach has said the truth, which means they're going to show both WM6.5.3 and WM7
- Bach has said the truth and for some weird reason, they're calling a completely different system WM6.6 instead of 7, despite it being much more than an evolution of 6.5, and they're going to show this.