Today was the “big” launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 and unfortunately it looks like passing without much fanfare and the reason looks like being a disappointing Windows Mobile release. I played with some earlier builds of Windows Mobile 6.5 on my old Treo and while I could see there are a couple of nice changes there was nothing major and nothing that could bring some life back in to the very old looking OS. Looking at the screen shots of the released version it doesn’t look like there have been major changes since the beta and I have to say I feel a little sad over the state of WinMo. I have had Windows Mobile based devices since it was Windows CE back in 98 and innovation on the platform seems to be at a standstill, which I find strange given how great the Zune HD is.
There is no way I could recommend Windows Mobile to anyone any more with platforms like WebOS, Android and the iPhone around and I find that very sad
Lets home the Zune team gets some input on Windows Mobile 7 and it looks more like the Zune
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Amen to mixing things up with the ZuneHD ! ZuneHDPhone would be the sweet spot for a lot of people.
I plan to pick up a Touch Pro 2 (AT&T Tilt 2) because no other platform offers as good a mix of flexibility and features (including the best Exchange support) as WM. There’s more to a good phone than a pretty UI.
There is more to a phone that the UI and that is also a problem with Winmo. The browser, the apps and even exchange support is better in other OS
My G1 has better Exchange support than any of my winmo phones
Not to start a flame war, but I use exchange and love it on my WinMo.
I’m a flash-aholic from XDA-devs. I keep all my pics/videos/notes on my MicroSD. All my contacts/email/tasks/calendars are on exchange and sync up perfectly after a fresh flash.
What does the G1 do better? That’s not a loaded question, I’ve never played with G1′s exchange support.
You can flag messages and managed out-of-office from Android? What’s missing from WM that you can do w/ the G1 on Exchange? What was your last WM phone, was it 6.1?
PIE is crap, but Opera on WM is as good as Safari.
Other phones do have a better application management experience, but I can run anything I want on a WM phone w/o crazy hacks and much of it is free. And if there’s something missing, development is much easier on WM than iPhone.
- Getting content, on and off a WM phone is simple both programmatically and through explorer
- Can be paired w/ multiple PCs
- Add TCMP to play anything (including MKV w/ chapters)
- BT and USB tethering
- SDHC support
- Huge pool of devices
I have an iPhone, and find it to be an incredibly frustrating device.
I have an HTZ Fuze with a nice build of WinMo 6.5 + TF3D 2.1… it’s actually pretty nice.
Now, I would never recommend it to a “normal” person, but for power users (and more technical people) who want flexibility and are OK giving up some simplicity for power, I can fully recommend the Touch Pro 2.
For most, I still recommend the iPhone, because it’s the smartphone for “the rest of them” — the vast majority who just want things to work and not to be or feel technical.
Hint to MSFT: The key to great user experiences is in the transitions.