Mobile-Review.com Reviews Windows Mobile 6 (Crossbow)

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/articles/wm-crossbow-en.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/ar...ossbow-en.shtml</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Today we are getting our readers to know the new mobile operating system by Microsoft codenamed “Windows Mobile Crossbow”. The most probable title for the commercial edition, though, is “Windows Mobile 6.0”, but it is the thing to remain veiled until an official announcement is made. Beginning from the previous version of Windows Mobile, the company has put into practice a new approach to indexing, so that now codenames are replaced by numbers, like “5.0”, “6.0” etc. Interestingly, the second digit in the index hasn’t been called for up until now, in other words, we haven’t seen Windows Mobile 5.2 or 5.3 yet, since all intermediate updates and patch-works have been introduced within various versions of AKU (Adaptation Kit Update) update packs...The new version of operating system is destined to fill the time gap between Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile Photon (Windows Mobile 7.0?). Truly significant updates are few, which, on top of that, are aimed at reacting to the change in the market environment. Early in 2007 Microsoft is thoroughly revamping its software range with Windows Vista, Office 2007, MS Exchange 2007. Therefore, against such impressive background an updated version Windows Mobile was simply bound to come out."</i><br /><br /><img src=http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/westfall-pic06.gif><br /><br />Juicy screenshots and information abound in this Mobile-review.com write-up. It was hard to pick out just one for the image above, but I decided to give you a sense of the new eye-candy we can expect in Crossbow. Out with old icons (and the old Phone ringer, sadly), and in with the new. For info on the superficial and the substantial, check out the write-up.

[Perry Reed]

I can't tell you how thrilled I am that they're finally fixing two of my biggest complaints about Pocket Outlook (the mobile app I use most): HTML emails and message flagging. Now, if only they'd let us categorize emails (and carryover the color-coding for the categories from Outlook), it'd be nearly perfect. Of couse, I'd love to see them fix IE as well. There are still sites I use that just won't run on Pocket IE because of its limited support of JavaScript.

Since Crossbow is still using the same kernel as WM5 and isn't a huge change, I hope that we'll see some upgrades for existing devices, although I'm not holding my breath. I sure like the form-factor of my PPC-6700 and I'd love to see it running WM6.

[JKingGrim]

I would love this on my 6700 too but do you really think so? There is already an update scheduled for dec, and I doubt it has crossbow in it. Do you really expect a third?

[Perry Reed]

I would love this on my 6700 too but do you really think so? There is already an update scheduled for dec, and I doubt it has crossbow in it. Do you really expect a third?

Do I expect it? No. But given that WM6 won't be a major change, I'd say that it is more likely to happen than the PPC2003->WM5 upgrades were. That was a very major change and there weren't too many upgrades available, with good reason. This one would be much easier for the carriers to do. But I don't expect many of them to actually do it.

[Jason Lee]

Windows Update?! wow. I wonder if some of those AKU features will be available this way?
It looks very nice. I was getting the urge to buy a AKU 3.2 device but i think i should make my 8125 last a little longer. :)

[whydidnt]

Didn't we have 3D styled Icon's etc on an early version of Palm PC or Pocket PC? I seem to remember MS changed to the flat look at one point saying that using less resources on eye candy was good for small handheld devices. However, maybe my mind is playing tricks on me, if not what's old is new, right? I tried to look at my old Casio E115, but can't find the charger and, of course, the battery died a long time ago.

Anyway, this looks more like WM 5.1 than WM 6 to me. Seems to be a couple of nice features, but not really a new OS. Just refining what we already had. Things I like-- the improved email app, but I notice a lot of the features are only available if syncing with Exchange. It looks like we can use whatever sounds, MP3s, etc we want for all notifications now which is good. Long overdue is the improved phone dialer for WM devices. Certainly doesn't require an OS upgrade for that does it? It also looks like they have added Hi-Res support to PIE, hopefully that means TrueVGA within PIE without the need for a third party app.

[eagle63]

Maybe someday they'll make alarms work in Windows Mobile? I suppose that would be too much to ask for by version 6 of an OS though...

[ppcsurfr]

Didn't we have 3D styled Icon's etc on an early version of Palm PC or Pocket PC? I seem to remember MS changed to the flat look at one point saying that using less resources on eye candy was good for small handheld devices. However, maybe my mind is playing tricks on me, if not what's old is new, right? I tried to look at my old Casio E115, but can't find the charger and, of course, the battery died a long time ago.

That was when they layered the images by shade... If you notice how Windows CE 2.01, and 2.11 handled the graphic interface, it would draw each shade first rather than use a flat image.

[Keep Walking]

Dear colleagues!

I'm located in Brazil and intend to buy a Pocket PC PDA in the near future.

After careful investigation on many brands and products available, I think that the Dell Axim X51v might be the best option for me (primary uses are personal organizer, VoIP through Skype, internet and e-mail).

However, I am not sure if it is the right time to make my purchasing decision, as Microsoft will probably launch Crossbow/Office 2007/Exchange 2007 until the end of next semester. At the same time, six months is quite a lot and I ask myself if the changes will be significant enough. Another possibility is that Dell update the OS and the other programs by the time of Microsoft's release.

Could you be of help with this issue?

I would really appreciate any information or suggestion you might provide.

Thanks in advance,
Keep Walking

[Keep Walking]

Where are the last messages, including the answer to my post?

[Keep Walking]

By the way, does anybody know if Dell released ROM updates for Axims when Windows Mobile 5.0 was launched?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

By the way, does anybody know if Dell released ROM updates for Axims when Windows Mobile 5.0 was launched?

For the x50v, yes they did. It was largely a disaster.