Image Gallery: Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots
Summary: Microsoft announced Windows Mobile 6.5 at Mobile World Congress 2009 and this gallery includes a few screenshots of the operating system update. The focus is on the user interface and making it more finger friendly, at least on the top couple of layers. Manufacturers have been adding these types of interfaces for some time now and Microsoft is now taking it to an OS level. Most of the updates appear to bring what we see already in WM 6.1 on non-touch screens to the touch screen devices.
Image 10 of 13

This is what the new email program looks like when you are reading a particular email.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
At least it still has a Start button
And I really like those big hexagons separating all the app icons. Don't want them too crowded on that small screen.
Love the "Move to Top" and "Move Down" menus! So much easier than using a finger swipe.
But the Boat Picture is what really sets this OS apart from previous iterations.
You crack me up...
-- Olderdan
thanks for the laugh (nt)
RE: Moving around icons (Image Gallery: Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots)
RE: Moving around icons (Image Gallery: Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots)
RE: Moving around icons (Image Gallery: Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots)
RE: Moving around icons (Image Gallery: Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots)
The issues that got me to sell my windows mobile Treo after 3 months will probably still be there, apps that stay running and eat memory, Will have problems running third party apps for previous versions - and very few new apps out when the new OS shows up on new phones, and no way to update on older phones.
My palm treo went through three OS updates, and could still run apps form back when I had my palm III
RE: Moving around icons (Image Gallery: Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots)
And that "hex" menu screen? You gotta be kidding me. My iphone can hold 16 icons (20 if you count the 4 quick picks at the bottom and WM 6.5 can only show 10 Max with 2 halfway in and out. I understand the "fat finger" thing, but I don't know anybody who's fingers are THAT fat.
Some have fingers that are THAT fat....
don't know anybody who's fingers are THAT
fat."[/i]
Haven't you ever seen a "well hung" lesbian???
LOL!!!
RE: Moving around icons (Image Gallery: Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots)
Leave it to Microsoft to implement a context-menu for something so simple as moving icons around on the home screen... *sigh*
While I like my Touch Diamond, it's Achilles heel has always been the underlying Windows Mobile OS. Microsoft, with its immense resources and experience, should have released a truly intuitive, finger-friendly mobile OS by now. If that's going to be WM 7, well, they're *already* a year late, and getting later. This 6.5 "point" update seems to at least be a genuine improvement, but the incrementalism is killing their platform.
Why is Microsoft so unable to simply play with some iPhones and Android phones, have an "ah HA!" moment, and design an interface that has the fluidity of the iPhone, coupled with the (immense) functionality buried in WinMo's deeply-nested menu screens...
Honestly, Steve Balmer should either be firing someone, or be fired himself; with a really revamped OS (even just a very revamped UI, honestly), along with aggressivly-low pricing, Microsoft could own a big chunk of the exploding smart-device market. Instead, they're pitching another very modest update to an OS that still pays far, far too much homage to it's stylus-based PDA origins.
I'm sorry, Microsoft - I'm a developer on .Net and Windows (luv Win7!), but WM 6.x has been a horrendous disappointment, bordering on pathetic. You should be kissing HTC's rear in gratitude for their hiding the WM interface from users as much as possible (along with Samsung, et al), since they're the only reason WM is still relevant for consumers in the non-Enterprise space.
Kirk Davis
blog.hackingbangkok.com
RE: Moving around icons (Image Gallery: Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots)
Clutter
Looks OKAY ...