What just happened? This is the neglected official blog of the Electronic Punk - http://www.electronicpunk.com - The as-of-yet-undecided-title-el-presidente of OSNN.net. He totally promises to blog more than twice a year.
Windows Mobile 6.5 Preview
Posted April 7th, 2009 at 4:26pm by Electronic Punk
I sent some screenshots of the new Windows Mobile themes over to Long Zheng (from www.istartedsomething.com ) two days ago and I can’t help be amused at how far they have already spread around the internet. Perhaps I should have posted them up myself, but I wanted to go a little more in depth and cover my experiences with Windows Mobile 6.5 and what we can look forward to with its release.
Windows Mobile 6.5 was, again, supposed to be a small upgrade but with the delay of Windows Mobile 7 to next year more and more features have been added to it, my interest peaked and I decided to start taking a look at it.
Sadly, this isn’t as easy as downloading a firmware and running it. Devices are protected to prevent illegitimate firmwares from being created or vendor specific firmwares from being installed on other non-branded devices, but once again the XDA developers have worked around this by creating a custom boot loader that will allow this process.
Having unprotected my device I downloaded Miri’s latest creation (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=493911 ) which has brought my device up to Windows Mobile 6.5 running CE 5.2.21202. The ROM is an amazing piece of work but it is important to stress that it is has been custom made from a beta firmware – but that doesn’t stop us taking a look!
The most publicised change in Windows Mobile 6.5 is the new interface visible from what is known as the today screen. Last year it was announced that the Zune would one day be more tightly integrated with Windows Mobiles and the start of this work is apparent as the interface seems to merge features of both the Zune and Windows Media Center.
The today screen doesn’t have everything you need available in one “touch” but does make it easy to see if you have text, email, appointments or if you have missed calls. It is fully designed to be easily used with fingers over stylus and responds to both upward and downward motions as well as sideways.
I gave some screenshots to Long earlier as this is the first build that includes some previously announced themes by well known (although it isn’t a scene I am overly familiar with) artists. While the screenshots only really show the wallpaper, they also include custom colours and could – with the release of the shipping versions –include sound schemes and different icons.
The first screenshot shows the default theme as it comes from Miri’s cooked ROM. I believe this is actually just the ‘Classic Blue’ theme with custom wallpaper as the menu colour’s are the same, however as I am a minimalist I am sticking with it.
As well as changing the look of the Today Page, Microsoft has also done some considerable work on the mobile Start Menu which Long has talked about it in detail here: http://www.istartedsomething.com/200...ple-ingenuity/
The lock screen has also had a nice update and features a similar style to the Iphone (I believe) where to unlock you must drag an icon to one side or the other. It also allows you to answer the phone. Many people prefer HTC’s implementation of the dialler but sadly we don’t yet have access to a version that is compatible with this lock screen.
Pocketnow have actually posted a video of both the home screen and start menu in action:
What they don’t seem to demonstrate is that you can move both the bar on the home screen or the background to select options, threw me for a second there but it is quite nice. Tapping a menu option actually highlights it. The video does however show the lock screen, which saves me doing it as I really don’t like or want to create my own shaky cam footage! The author of the video is using the same ROM I have been testing.
One of the applications that has made formatting my device so frequently or at least being prepared to, has been Microsoft’s My Phone service which I was fortunate enough to get into the beta of, but I believe it is now an open beta. You can check it out over at http://myphone.microsoft.com . The service allows 200 megabytes of online storage for text messages, calendar, videos, music, pictures and contacts. Generally the latter is dealt with by synchronising with Outlook but an online backup is a very nice, well, backup.
200 megabytes certainly doesn’t seem like much, but it has been more than enough to meet my needs. Previously I had been using the horrible Jeyo Mobile Extender. The application served its purpose – getting my SMS from my phone to Outlook and back if needed, but it caused so many issues with my Outlook (nagging registration every time I connected my device even though I had paid for it) which often resulted in me having to kill the process. An unexpected benefit included the threading of some really old text messages, from my old device prior to 6.1, that were previously unthreaded so ‘My Phone’ also tidied up my SMS – sweet!
The new Internet Explorer does allow for the use of Widgets however, these run in a rebranded minimalistic (or more so) version of Internet Explorer and I am looking forward to seeing more of these crop up. At this time, the ROM seems to have two different ones for weather and money. Both of these where actually part of Manilla, HTCs default home screen, in 6.1 but I guess they do make for the most interesting widgets.
Well I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at Windows Mobile 6.5, I would definitely encourage you to take a look at a cooked ROM in the various XDA-developer sections should your device support it. However remember that flashes Windows Mobile devices means a full wipe so any data on the phone itself will be lost. Not only that but you may also find you will need to flash to an unofficial SPL (boot loader) or radio so make sure you fully read the sticky threads of your chosen forum section.
I am a little unhappy at the formatting vBulletin blog came out with for this piece so I have attached the original Word 2007 document I wrote it in for your viewing pleasure!
| The Windows operating system for desktops and servers aren’t the only versions getting a new release this year as Microsoft are also releasing Windows Mobile 6.5 and rebranding the lot of them as Windows Phones. Windows Mobile 6.1 seemed like a minor upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0 and although the Standard version received an update to its interface the Professional (or touch screen) version did not. Changes included mostly things for Enterprise such as domain enrolment and compatibility with System Center Mobile Device Manager. 6.1 did however start attempting to simplify things for home users with threaded SMS and enhanced zoom in Internet Explorer but even with HTC’s implantation of Manilla (shown to the right) it still lacked the ease of use that devices such as the Apple iPhone have. |  |
Windows Mobile 6.5 was, again, supposed to be a small upgrade but with the delay of Windows Mobile 7 to next year more and more features have been added to it, my interest peaked and I decided to start taking a look at it.
| My current device is the beautiful HTC Touch HD and having heard some much conflicting news, I am pretty doubtful that this device will get a 6.5 firmware – officially at least. However there are many talented people over at www.xda-developers.com that can already reverse engineering updated ROMs to other devices and have already done so with the latest available version of Windows Mobile 6.5 so I decided to take a look. |  |
Sadly, this isn’t as easy as downloading a firmware and running it. Devices are protected to prevent illegitimate firmwares from being created or vendor specific firmwares from being installed on other non-branded devices, but once again the XDA developers have worked around this by creating a custom boot loader that will allow this process.
Having unprotected my device I downloaded Miri’s latest creation (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=493911 ) which has brought my device up to Windows Mobile 6.5 running CE 5.2.21202. The ROM is an amazing piece of work but it is important to stress that it is has been custom made from a beta firmware – but that doesn’t stop us taking a look!
The most publicised change in Windows Mobile 6.5 is the new interface visible from what is known as the today screen. Last year it was announced that the Zune would one day be more tightly integrated with Windows Mobiles and the start of this work is apparent as the interface seems to merge features of both the Zune and Windows Media Center.
| Even for a beta running on something it wasn’t necessarily designed for, the interface is working very quickly and is already very responsive. Comparing the images of what has been publically released the version I am using has either been customised or has not been given the PR lick of pain that the public images have. For example a shot for promoting Windows Marketplace has the action buttons “Alarm” and “Menu” whereas the build I am using shows “Contacts” and the unrefined “Set”. These are easily changed, but show that the product hasn’t yet reached the stage where things are nicely refined and tied down. |  |
The today screen doesn’t have everything you need available in one “touch” but does make it easy to see if you have text, email, appointments or if you have missed calls. It is fully designed to be easily used with fingers over stylus and responds to both upward and downward motions as well as sideways.
I gave some screenshots to Long earlier as this is the first build that includes some previously announced themes by well known (although it isn’t a scene I am overly familiar with) artists. While the screenshots only really show the wallpaper, they also include custom colours and could – with the release of the shipping versions –include sound schemes and different icons.
The first screenshot shows the default theme as it comes from Miri’s cooked ROM. I believe this is actually just the ‘Classic Blue’ theme with custom wallpaper as the menu colour’s are the same, however as I am a minimalist I am sticking with it.
| I don’t really understand who the target audience are for these wallpapers if I had to be honest. While the desktop versions of Windows include a wide variety of wallpapers many of these are very eccentric and I hope that some tamer versions are also made available. While the above shots only show the wallpapers, the screen to the right demonstrates the Isaac Misrahi purple theme a little more and you can also see a slight tint on the formatting bar. A theme generator will also be available once Windows Mobile 6.5 is generally available which will allow you to choose your own wallpaper, colour scheme and then create the theme package for you. |  |
As well as changing the look of the Today Page, Microsoft has also done some considerable work on the mobile Start Menu which Long has talked about it in detail here: http://www.istartedsomething.com/200...ple-ingenuity/
| Again the start menu is very responsive with both a stylus and fingers. Although I haven’t played with it extensively it is far better than what is available now. The only issues I have with it are that there is no apparently way (although I am sure there is of course some way via registry editing) to change the application display order, promote more frequently used applications or pin what you like. While Microsoft’s and perhaps HTC’s default applications also have some very nice high quality icons, others by third parties look very messy. It would be great to finally be allowed to easily manage the start menu, I would also then be able to hide that nested, useless old Vodafone pay-for-information button. Miri has actually removed some of the default shortcuts such as the link to the Marketplace, but as they are not yet functioning it really isn’t such a big deal. |  |
The lock screen has also had a nice update and features a similar style to the Iphone (I believe) where to unlock you must drag an icon to one side or the other. It also allows you to answer the phone. Many people prefer HTC’s implementation of the dialler but sadly we don’t yet have access to a version that is compatible with this lock screen.
Pocketnow have actually posted a video of both the home screen and start menu in action:
What they don’t seem to demonstrate is that you can move both the bar on the home screen or the background to select options, threw me for a second there but it is quite nice. Tapping a menu option actually highlights it. The video does however show the lock screen, which saves me doing it as I really don’t like or want to create my own shaky cam footage! The author of the video is using the same ROM I have been testing.
One of the applications that has made formatting my device so frequently or at least being prepared to, has been Microsoft’s My Phone service which I was fortunate enough to get into the beta of, but I believe it is now an open beta. You can check it out over at http://myphone.microsoft.com . The service allows 200 megabytes of online storage for text messages, calendar, videos, music, pictures and contacts. Generally the latter is dealt with by synchronising with Outlook but an online backup is a very nice, well, backup.
200 megabytes certainly doesn’t seem like much, but it has been more than enough to meet my needs. Previously I had been using the horrible Jeyo Mobile Extender. The application served its purpose – getting my SMS from my phone to Outlook and back if needed, but it caused so many issues with my Outlook (nagging registration every time I connected my device even though I had paid for it) which often resulted in me having to kill the process. An unexpected benefit included the threading of some really old text messages, from my old device prior to 6.1, that were previously unthreaded so ‘My Phone’ also tidied up my SMS – sweet!
| Windows Mobile 6.5 also comes with a new version of Internet Explorer 6 but honestly I cannot say I am a fan of what there is right now. The Touch HD stock ROM also comes with the far superior Opera 9.5 and while the new Internet Explorer could be considered as progress it is frankly too little too late. Fully zooming out as shown in the screenshot doesn’t seem to be fully out at all and I have to sideway scroll and while I believe I have coded OSNN.net to every compliance I can think of there seems to be issues in rendering the actual news articles. The saving grace is that I can tell Internet Explorer to be a mobile browser rather than a desktop one, so if I actually want a mobile site to render as if it were a mobile site I will use Internet Explorer, otherwise I am going to be using Opera for the foreseeable future! |  |
The new Internet Explorer does allow for the use of Widgets however, these run in a rebranded minimalistic (or more so) version of Internet Explorer and I am looking forward to seeing more of these crop up. At this time, the ROM seems to have two different ones for weather and money. Both of these where actually part of Manilla, HTCs default home screen, in 6.1 but I guess they do make for the most interesting widgets.
| Talking of Manilla, Miri’s version of the ROM does have it included although it is unknown at this time whether HTC will continue with it as it effectively replaces the new Microsoft homescreen. We shall have to wait and see. The good people of www.xda-developers.com will both back port it and maintain it though should it be necessary but for the most part the latest versions are already up and running. Newer Windows Mobile 6.1 devices do seem to include newer HTC applications and the beauty of cooked ROMs by ‘chefs’ such as Miri tend to include more recent versions of HTCs own applications than the official releases themselves – the screenshot shows a version of Manilla, with tabs I did not previously have, running on my HTC Touch HD. |  |
Well I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at Windows Mobile 6.5, I would definitely encourage you to take a look at a cooked ROM in the various XDA-developer sections should your device support it. However remember that flashes Windows Mobile devices means a full wipe so any data on the phone itself will be lost. Not only that but you may also find you will need to flash to an unofficial SPL (boot loader) or radio so make sure you fully read the sticky threads of your chosen forum section.
I am a little unhappy at the formatting vBulletin blog came out with for this piece so I have attached the original Word 2007 document I wrote it in for your viewing pleasure!
Total Comments 11
Comments
-
I have no idea how this digg stuff works, but I gave it a go anyway:
http://digg.com/microsoft/Windows_Mobile_6_5_PreviewPosted April 7th, 2009 at 4:48pm by Electronic Punk
-
I go to the XDA site all the time. I can't seem to find the section on this ROM, nor can I find if it works with my device.
I have the HTC Touch Diamond (EVDO version), does it work with mine? Can I get a link please!
Nice review, can't wait to try it out.Posted April 7th, 2009 at 6:18pm by Bman
-
Could be here perhaps:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=430Posted April 7th, 2009 at 6:42pm by Electronic Punk
-
And why does your blog get BOLD? lolPosted April 7th, 2009 at 6:54pm by Bman
-
Because.Posted April 7th, 2009 at 7:14pm by Electronic Punk
-
Looks nice.
Anyone want to buy a 9 month old iphone 3G so I can buy an HTC Touch Diamond 2?Posted April 7th, 2009 at 7:26pm by LordOfLA
-
I have had my Touch Diamond for awhile now. Love it, but hated the fact that because I am Canadian (NA) and have a random EVDO verison of the phone I had to deal with no extra products for it, and different support, harder to find information, etc. I would love to pick up a Touch Diamond 2, but I assume the same thing will happen, or there would be many steps to unlocking it for use here, blah blah.
It is also troublesum to get my current phone updated to 6.5, because of EVDO CDMA stuff, had to go linked to another phone site, and so forth....ARrrG!Posted April 7th, 2009 at 11:39pm by Bman
-
Originally Posted by LordOfLAThe touch diamond 2 is what I have my eye on too... Was going to get the same as EP but now I have a blackberry with work there is not the room in my pocket
Looks nice.
Anyone want to buy a 9 month old iphone 3G so I can buy an HTC Touch Diamond 2?
Posted April 10th, 2009 at 12:24pm by indyjones
-
OK EP you can un-bold your blog now - I keep thinking there's comments to read...
Originally Posted by indyjonesGet a bigger pocket?The touch diamond 2 is what I have my eye on too... Was going to get the same as EP but now I have a blackberry with work there is not the room in my pocket
Posted April 10th, 2009 at 2:26pm by LordOfLA
-
Rad, i just updated my q9m to the q9c 6.1..Posted April 13th, 2009 at 12:51am by failurbydesign
-
Have to update my phone this holiday season. New stuff is looking good.Posted August 13th, 2009 at 4:33pm by Terrahertz
Total Trackbacks 1
Trackbacks
Windows Mobile 6.5 impressions | Smartphone BloggingApril 27th, 2009
the upcoming release of windows mobile 6.5 by the end of this year. OSNN.NET posted an interesting hands-on preview for windows mobile 6.5, where you can check out the new features and first impressions based on a leaked beta rom.
Windows
|
