Microsoft Updates Windows Mobile 6.1 Emulator Images; Includes Internet Explorer Mobile 6

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1A7A6B52-F89E-4354-84CE-5D19C204498A&displaylang=en' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&displaylang=en</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Windows Mobile 6.1.4 includes the new Internet Explorer Mobile 6, a full-featured browser for Windows Mobile devices that brings the same high-quality browsing experience to the user as desktop browsers. Internet Explorer Mobile 6 supports desktop-quality rendering and has the best compliance support of all versions of Internet Explorer on a Windows Mobile device to date. Several new features and improved support allows users to complete tasks quickly and easily."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/ppct/auto/1226506346.usr2.jpg" /></p><p>Microsoft has updated its <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1A7A6B52-F89E-4354-84CE-5D19C204498A&amp;displaylang=en" target="_blank">Windows Mobile emulator images</a> to 6.1.4. This release includes the new Internet Explorer Mobile 6 - which isn't exactly a stellar upgrade to this infamous browser, but a welcome one nonetheless. For a list of new features, check the <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2008/11/11/internet-explorer-mobile-6.aspx" target="_blank">Windows Mobile Team Blog</a>.</p><p>These images will appeal most to developers. For the end-users reading this, you know the drill: if you want Internet Explorer Mobile 6 on your device, you'll have to wait and hope that your respective OEM or carrier feels ever-so-generous and blesses you with an update.</p>

[Hooch Tan]

For those that are looking for a bit more detail of what to expect on Mobile IE 6, ArsTechnica did a quick look.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081112-hands-on-ie-mobile-6-is-better-than-current-ie-mobile.html

In brief so far, it's an improvement, but still nowhere near a proper desktop browsing experience. Personally, I'm also curious about load time performance, which I still find is lacking on ARM based devices compared to x86.

[alese]

I'm quite happy with Opera 9.5 on my devices. It makes browsing on Advantage's VGA screen usable, not great (yet) but usable.

So at the end of the day I don't really care about this PIE6, especially as it looks it's still not in the same league as the top mobile browsers.
But on the other hand I guess now that it's "released" for the developers it's just a matter of days before some genius on XDA-Developers makes a CAB for everybody to install.

[Hooch Tan]

I have to agree with you. Of all the browsers I've tried, Opera Mobile seems to be the best for WinMo devices. SkyFire is just too clunky for me right now.