Some new info from Microsoft

[Anthony Caruana]

Hi all

I'm involved eith the Melbourne PPC User Group. We had the Mobility product manager for Australia there tonight and he talked a little about some of what's coming from MS in the near future.

First, he mentioned that the iPAQ 6000 (quad band device) is still "some time away" Approval issues seem to be the main problem. It made me wonder whether this device will see the light of day. But we wait in hope.

Second, MS are putting lots of effort in an OS update to Windows Mobile 2003. It's likely that an OS upgrade will be avaialble (to OEMs?) by the middle of the year and it will include lots of bug fixes but possibly some new functionality like VGA and landscape support. This won't be a full OS update - that's slated for next calendar year at this stage.

Visit www.melbourneppc.org for a fuller run down

[arnage2]

not a full os update? does that mean it wont have wireless direct x or mmx?

[Myrddin]

Good news!

On a side note, the site menu at the Melbourne PPC users group site does NOT work in any browser other than IE :(

[Kowalski]

landscape mode?! this what i was waiting for! i am happy with the way wm2003 operates and addition of landscape, my device will rock!

[Godsongz]

wonder if additions like vga & landscape mode will be device-limited. Its going to make a world of difference on devices like the Toshiba e805, but will it work (or if it does, will it be any good) for those of us with non-vga PDAs like my 2215 and 3835?

[dmacburry2003]

Landscape mode would mean new themes. Has anyone seen a today page in landscape? The pic is cut off and the lines just run into the abyss 8O

[Janak Parekh]

Landscape mode would mean new themes. Has anyone seen a today page in landscape? The pic is cut off and the lines just run into the abyss 8O
Actually, the solution is to use a wallpaper that's 320x320 (for 240x320 screens) or 640x640 (for 480x640) screens. You won't see all of it at any given time, but it switches pretty gracefully that way on existing WM2003 devices.

--janak

[Kowalski]

i want the landscape option and dont care about the diffuculties i will face!

[tsb_hcy]

i want the landscape option and dont care about the diffuculties i will face!

Get an e805, you can have hardware landscape now. 0X

[Fishie]

Makes sense, so it will be like an update from PPC2k to 2k2 then.

Windows mobile´s apearance didnt change all that much from 2k2 but the underlying OS has changed a lot so now the changes will be made with the same underlying OS(wich can handle a lot more then we are getting with PPC´s)