About a year before Windows Mobile 7 begins shipping on new handheld devices, Microsoft has released a second revision of Windows Mobile 6: Windows Mobile 6.5.  This release features some significant changes over WM6.0 and 6.1 with greater emphasis on touch control, Cloud-based service integration and general UI attractiveness.  However, at its core, Windows Mobile 6.5 is an evolution of the operating system rather than the totally revamped version that competitors like the iPhone, Android and Palm's webOS warrant. 

In this Pocket PC Central Product Brief, we'll explore some of the features of Windows Mobile 6.5. 

Most of this brief is dedicated to the touchscreen version of the OS, however we're told the styling and "workings" of both the touchscreen and non-touchscreen versions of WM6.5 have merged and operate the same.  More on this later.

 

The Today / Home Screen Windows Mobile 6.5 features significant updates to the Today (or Home) Screen, the screen you see when you power on a WinMo handheld. An up-down, left-right Zune inspired slider interface has replaced the dated lined system status sections from previous versions, allowing the user to move up and down to make selections and left or right to scroll through selection-based options.  The general look of the Today Screen has also been refreshed, with a focus on wallpaper and theme; as you can see, the toolbars are now transparent, which allows the wallpaper to show through. The Today Screen still provides quick access to email, calendar, voice mail, text messages, and more.  Presumably, it will also continue to support plug-ins and widgets from third party software to displays program-specific information.

Like most of the updates to Windows Mobile 6.5, the new Today Screen has a finger-friendly design with large active-touch areas which make finger selections easier and more natural.  As you will see, this focus on touch navigation largely defines WM6.5.

 

The Program Start Menu Along with an updated Today Screen, Windows Mobile 6.5 has a new Program menu which replaces the traditional drop-down Start Menu, organizing program icons on a full screen.  These icons were once housed in hexagon-shaped containers (seen left) which could be moved around the screen based on the user's preference.  The lines of the honeycomb were removed before the final release, but the icon layout remains.  As you can see in the screenshot, this new design allows programs to be selected with a finger more easily than was the case in earlier and current versions of Windows Mobile. Scrolling is now accomplished with a finger slide up or down the touchscreen. Also, the programs Start Menu is now an extension of the Today Screen with the selected wallpaper still visible in the background.

 

A New IE Mobile Windows Mobile 6.5 includes an updated (and seriously long overdue) Internet Explorer Mobile.  IE Mobile 6 provides a more desktop-like mobile browsing experience and should handle most web sites fairly well.  The look of IE Mobile 6 has been completely changed. Pages are rendered with fingertip-sized control buttons below, an address bar above and a zoom slider which allows you to zoom in and out of web pages for a better view of images or text.  All of these elements can be hidden for full screen viewing. The new IE Mobile also supports Flash and Ajax.  It should also be noted that IE Mobile 6 uses the same rendering engine as the desktop version of IE6, which is now three years old.  While a huge improvement over the current version of IE Mobile, it's not quite the improvement many had hoped for.

 

My Phone Over-the-Air Syncing

One of the most exciting features of Windows Mobile 6.5 is its new over-the-air syncing service called My Phone.  Microsoft's My Phone allows Windows Mobile to sync contacts, calendar entries, tasks, text messages, videos, photos, music, documents and more with the Cloud, so that the data is available online and so it's backed up in case you replace your Windows Phone.  My Phone will be a free service for Windows Mobile 6.5 users.

 

Microsoft provides users with 200MB of storage free of charge with My Phone.  The company also plans to offer additional storage (and perhaps features) for a fee.  Details on these options will be released later.

 

Windows Mobile Marketplace

The new Windows Mobile Marketplace works much like the iPhone's App Store.  It provides users the option to browse, purchase and download Windows Mobile software without the need to connect to a PC.  This is already possible through .CAB file installations, but the Marketplace will provide a single location for software developers to offer their applications.

Users will still be able to download and install software with a PC. 

 

Videos, Music, Photos & Documents

The media player has been updated in Windows Mobile 6.5, as has the bundled photo software.  Unfortunately, Windows Media Player Mobile has received only minor updates and features the same lackluster UI found on Windows Mobile 6.1 devices.

 

Hardware

Microsoft has set hardware requirements Windows Mobile 6.5 must have in order to run.  For this reason, all pre-2009 Windows Mobile hardware will not be compatible.

 

Touch & Non-Touch Versions

Clarification on this point should come in the next few weeks.

 

Release Schedule

Windows Mobile 6.5 is now shipping on several new Windows Phones.  Over the coming weeks, more information will be made available, both by Microsoft and its hardware partners.

 

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