Something new brewing in WinMo 6.5?

Posted on Sunday, Jul 19, 2009 by Phil Nickinson
 
Filed Under: News; Tags: windows mobile 6.5, wm65

Whoa. Now we realize this is only the typical settings screen for a build of Windows Mobile 6.5, but there are a couple of things from the Windows Mobile Junkies blog [via and via] that have our interest piqued here: The first is the obvious finger-friendly changes. The tabs at the bottom have given way to buttons toward the top. It's about time.

The second is the build itself, and overall difference we're seeing. For the most part, Windows Mobile 6.5 has appeared to be a reskinning of 6.x. Sure, the Today Screen and the start menu have been changed. But after that, you get dumped back into typical Windows Mobile pretty quickly.

But this build is definitely starting to feel different. There are a few more pictures after the jump. And while builds of Windows Mobile 6.5 are a dime a dozen at this point, and we still have a few more months to go before WinMo 6.5 is released, this is a step in the right direction. Not a huge leap, but a step. And so, we'll posit the following:

  1. This could be the direction Windows Mobile 6.5 is going and could be what we all end up with this fall.
  2. This is just some random build that was played with but won't be released.
  3. Just yet another reskinning, a la TouchFLO 3D?
  4. This could be Windows Mobile 7. (I don't actually think that's the case, but we'll throw it out there anyway.)
  5. Perhaps there's an interim version being prepared between Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Mobile 7? This is a fairly big departure from everything we've seen so far.

Discuss.

 
 

Comments

Huess we're getting a bit of wm7's zuneness.

notice the little (almost 1 pixel) bars above & below the top bar?

wonder what they could be.....

There are at least 2 battery monitors I know of already available for Windows Mobile that do this.

battery meter maybe?

Let's see they moved the tabs from the bottom to the top and changed circular radio buttons into a diamond shape. It also looks like the dialog buttons are larger...so much larger that in the screenshot, the buttons render outside the dialog! Well done.

Somehow I don't think Apple is very worried about all this.

Yes, I'm sure MS is just hoping this puts the fear into Apple, just like they hope everything they do as a company does.

I have this on my diamond 2 courtesy of Tom Codons latest wm6.5 TD2 ROM at XDA Developers - it is very finger friendly!!

I just read a similar post over at engadget and it's nice to see people who appreciate WM over here as opposed to the onslught of "its terrible / why is it terrible" comments over there. I'm looking forward to the migration to 6.5 and eventually 7; and having used 6.5 (thanks to xda) I have to say that it keeps getting better and more finger friendly so much so that by the time it becomes readily available via official sources we wont need TF3D. Not to say I wont be using tf3d, but I wont need to use it for quick access to everything.

Remember that it is still work in progress(they only just begun working on those improvements) and may still change until it will be finally released so in the end it may look completely different from what we saw 6 months ago when first leaks came out.

If this is any 6.X other than 6.5, im giving up on WM and going over to android or something. At least HTC can make a decent UI...

Huh? yes, they can (HTC) and they make one for WM called TouchFLO3d why don't you try it?

This gets boring but I'll do that anyway because I think it's wrong when people spread misinformation...
You should put a little asterisk at the end of your statement and add a notice saying that TF (as well as any alternative UI overlay for WM) is an UI covering only for some parts of WM. So at the moment you can't escape from native WM UI unless you decide not to use some functions or install third party apps. So as far as UI consistency and usability is concerned WM is not a way to go.

Looks to be promising. I'm using 6.5 on my Mogul courtesy of xda and so far I'm liking it.

WM 6.5 has already gone gold. These new builds are testing out UI enhancements for WM 6.5.1, which should hit phones by early 2010.

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