What's New in Windows Mobile 6.5.3

windows mobile is just not interesting. sorry.

"windows mobile is just not interesting" That cant be said enough.

I think Windows Mobile 7 can do for Microsoft in the phone space what Zune did in the music player space.

For the business/enterprise user, Windows Mobile is much more sophisticated and powerful that the iPhone OS, but in the consumer space, Microsoft has lost its way. I'm glad to see that Microsoft getting the features in Windows Mobile that will make it a credible player in that space as well.

"For the business/enterprise user, Windows Mobile is much more sophisticated and powerful that the iPhone OS" LOL

"How so? iPhone fully supports the Active Syn features to include enforcement of policies and remote wipe, I know, we have remote wiped lost iPhones. Apple provides excellent Enterprise management documentation and a Enterprise iPhone Configuration Utility that runs on both Windows and OS X, for IT people, so they can create provisioning and configuration profiles." I woudn't necessarily consider those to be enterprise only functions ... most have been around since the Palm days. I'm mainly talking about some of the more deep enterprise functions, like doing WCF calls natively, SQL Server hosting, ability to handle multiple types of hardware, to include processors, the ability to plug in multiple hardware devices (like the iPhone finally got a credit card reader, something Windows Mobile devices have had for years), ability to run mulitple resolutions ... I could go on.

Sorry "Enterprise" functions for any SmartPhone is the ability for the Corporation to control/lockdown the phone. Its mandatory for some corporations because of things like PCI and other regulations. Enforcing a password, how long before the screen locks and being able to remote wipe a phone are the most common "Enterprise" features. Blackberry had them first, then WinMO, then when Apple purchased the ActiveSync software from MS, they specifically implemented these features so the could get the iPhone into the corporate world. We recently had to tell employees NO, to allowing their new Droid/iris/hero phones access to our Exchange enviroment because the Android OS does not support these features. In fact they have massive problems with accepting meeting invites and other NO security Exchange related stuff. There are now 3rd party solutions appearing on the market to make up for Androids lack of Exchange support. However there require a server to run on, CAL's per user etc. Extra cost, extra admin overhead. Until Google fixes this the Android OS phones are a NO go in the corporate world, if you are serious about security. Of course Google wants you to replace your Exchange server with Google Apps Premium and so I dont see them fully supporting Exchange anytime soon.

I think WM6.5.3 is a nice step forward on the road to WM7, but considering phone makers and carriers take so long to get updates out the door it doesn't really matter much. Where's my Touch Pro 2 update Sprint?!

rr0de74@live.com said: "Sorry "Enterprise" functions for any SmartPhone is the ability for the Corporation to control/lockdown the phone. Its mandatory for some corporations because of things like PCI and other regulations." Those are obviously some of the things you need from an enterprise level, from control point. However, I content the enterprise level goes much deeper, than simply using a device as a phone. In some respects, we are speaking different languages; you seem to speak only to the "Phone" related usage, which is something the iPhone works well at. I'm referring to that, as well as functions that Windows Mobile has excelled at (not necessarily phone functions).

I am speaking of data. If you lose your phone, and you have sensitive email/contact information I need the ability to force a password after so much time (60 seconds of idle or whatever) then wipe it. Its just like losing a laptop. I dont care about the phone piece at all.

One thing people don't realize is that Microsoft still has money. It's not game over for Microsoft in the mobile space until Microsoft actually quits the market. Zune (and Zune HD) proved that Microsoft can actually design great UIs. Zune itself isn't doing that well, but a phone with a Zune like UI might be a different matter.

@rr0de74 - "Its just like losing a laptop." So, Apple is getting closer to the info security portion of deploying an enterprise class mobile device...that is important. Next is enterprise class applications...not just email and word processing, but applications that get the real work done in a hospital, financial institution, or other large, regulated industry. Apple should stick to the consumer space, they do that well. Jobs doesn't get the Enterprise...it's not cool enough for him, I guess. --tayme

@roteague: I understand what you say. Personally, I own an iPhone, but for enterprise use (and not just remote wipe, active sync functions), Win Mo rocks! It has wide accessory support (industrial), different hardware configurations based on needs, .net libraries to perform all the functions necessary in an enterprise, a kick-ass development environment that makes porting apps a breeze. It is important to understand that enterprise needs are very very different from consumer needs.

"Microsoft is once again promising, promising, promising, yet not delivering, delivering, delivering." Sounds like a certain fruity-named company.

"It's not game over for Microsoft in the mobile space until Microsoft actually quits the market." Don't tell logjamming that. He still thinks they are going out of business. "I have no idea where you are going with this? " Tayme knows what he is talking about here. When it comes down to the core competency of WinMo, it has always been enterprise and other vertical applications. As an example, Apple will never have a ruggedized device, and that's fine. As tayme said, they do extremely well in the consumer space. But let's not try to make it seem like that the enterprise market just needs ActiveSync and suddenly it's perfect for the enterprise space. ActiveSync is the bare minimum.

@dipshit admin "But let's not try to make it seem like that the enterprise market just needs ActiveSync and suddenly it's perfect for the enterprise space. ActiveSync is the bare minimum." Please go read my comments. I was responding to another poster that said that "For the business/enterprise user, Windows Mobile is much more sophisticated and powerful that the iPhone OS, but in the consumer space" I never said anything about any other part of Enterprise computing. The iPhone fully supports all of the "Enterprise" features of Active Sync and in that aspect is just as good as Windows Mobile. If you scroll up to the top, this blog post is about Windows Mobile, not Enterprise Security. Microsoft has NEVER built a ruggedized phone or any phone for that matter. Hardware vendors have chose to use WinMo in their reggedized hardware. The US Army is using iPhones, not sure whether they are ruggedized but i bet Apple is making them. http://www.newsweek.com/id/194623 http://news.cnet.com/us-military-enlists-ipod-touch-for-battlefield/

"Oh, wait: Apple did release a tablet. In fact, our Windows nutjob wrote four articles about it last week." Except that it's far from revolutionary, and certainly not magical. If you really believe what Apple says about it, you're as much a moron as everybody already thinks you are. It's a giant iPod Touch. whoop-dee-doo. Look at my enthusiasm: :-| BTW: I just got into the Lenovo Partner Program so I'm now authorized to buy (and sell) their gear from distributors. I cancelled my order for an x100e and decided to splurge a little extra on a ThinkPad Edge 13" with the stock 2GB and Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit (I'll just upgrade it to 4GB and a license of 7 Pro from my Action Pack). The system retails for $629(CDN), and it runs circles around the capabilities of the iPad. I'm gonna try the new version of Corel software on it, since the new ones support GPU encoding and decoding for video. I like the ThinkVantage software on this. It's not bad. I like that it shows the time that is required to fully charge a battery.

"It's a giant iPod Touch. whoop-dee-doo. Look at my enthusiasm: :-|" Have you ever been enthused with a Apple product? Not that you have shown it here ever. So at least your consistent. The negative comments about "a gaint iPod Touch" strike me as odd. So many people leading up to this tablet release wished for just that in many reviews.

" So many people leading up to this tablet release wished for just that in many reviews." Perhaps you haven't been reading certain gadget blogs recently then.... @Dave: Here's what we "know" about Windows Mobile: a) Windows Mobile 6.x will continue to exist after Windows Mobile 7 for low-cost phones, until phone hardware gets cheap enough for all phones to feature Windows Mobile 7. At the start, Windows Mobile 7 will be offered mostly just on "premium" phones. The super-discounted free or no-cost subsidized phones will still carry Windows Mobile 6.x instead. This is analogous to ultra-low-cost computers including Windows Vista Home Basic, and netbooks with Windows 7 Starter. Eventually the hardware [cost] will catch up to support the more mainstream Windows versions. b) Windows Mobile will be - at least according to Microsoft - something drastically different, and it's something that they are hoping and betting that "people won't be laughing at it". c) Developers will need to change their development habits for applications to work correctly on the new platform, but only if they don't already utilize the current .Net stack. Microsoft is not focussing on a dedicated Win32 or WinCE stack. d) It will leverage Silverlight, .Net Framework, and SQL technologies. e) Windows Mobile 7 will be designed to allow hardware manufacturers to custom develop UI's for business-use phones, or they can use a Microsoft baseline UI, while the consumer platform will have a unified UI made by Microsoft, but will still offer minor extensibility, and feature consumer-centric multimedia features. The idea is that business customers buy the phones with the feature set they need, while consumers experience something that is more uniform (if only minorly extended by the OEM). Here's what is speculated to happen: a) Windows Mobile 7 will have some kind of very baseline relation to the existing version of the NT kernel, thereby becoming the ARM version of NT that everybody says Microsoft should make. b) It won't have an Aero desktop interface. c) It will be easy for developers to port applications over from the desktop. d) Microsoft may introduce a compact DirectX runtime that includes a version of Direct3D that is at least on par with current versions of OpenGL ES. Games development will be not only easy, but will allow devs to do some very cool stuff with the hardware. e) Data connections will be abstracted from the file system. SQL databases will store actual data, making application development dead simple, and will allow applications to work locally, on the web, or remotely with ease. It will be somewhat of a testbed for the next file system for desktop Windows (a move towards a filesystem that WinFS was trying to be). f) It will also become a testbed for ARM development on new computing form factors. Applications that can be ported to ARM easily mean that Microsoft supports ARM just as much as x86 - but where the market is actually using each type of chip (ARM is being used in CE-type devices, whereas x86 will always rule the conventional PC form factors: desktops and laptops).

@rr0de74 - "not sure whether they are ruggedized but i bet Apple is making them." Wrong again - it seems that Foxconn is the current OEM and soon Pegatron may be added to the mix. Try again... http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/pegatron-on-board-to-make-next-iphone... --tayme

FYI: Pegatron is producing their own slate PC.

ooops here some links: http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/7-myths-about-iphone-exchange-polici... http://www.sophos.com/security/topic/iphone-blackberry.html