New features in Windows Mobile 6.5.3

Sony Ericsson Aspen is the first mobile with Windows Mobile 6.5.3, the latest update to version 6.5 which is optimized for finger touch with various updates to the UI. It’s the first version of Windows Mobile to natively support capacitive touch displays ( HTC HD2 with Windows Mobile 6.5 has a capacitive display too though), finally bringing it up to date with competing mobile operating systems. Internet Explorer performance has also been updated, but I’ve seen most Windows Mobile users deeply in love with Skyfire.

There’s not much information ( read: none ) to be found on the Windows Mobile website for version 6.5.3:

imageLuckily, Mary Jo Foley from All About Microsoft has a list of improvements and additions in Windows Mobile 6.5.3:

Ease of Use features

* Capacitive touchscreen support
* Platform to enable multitouch
* Touch controls throughout system (no need for stylus)
* Consistent Navigation
* Horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs (think settings>system>about
screen)
* Magnifier brings touch support to legacy applications
* Simplified out-of-box experience with fewer steps
* Drag and drop icons on Start Screen

IE Browser Performance

* Page load time decreased
* Memory management improved
* Pan & flick gestures smoothed
* Zoom & rotation speed increased

Quality and Customer Satisfaction features

* Updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5, SQL CE 3.1)
* Arabic read/write document support
* Watson (error reporting) improvements and bug fixes

While these improvements to Windows Mobile are much appreciated, I’m sure everybody has their eyes set on the Mobile World Congress, which starts on 15 February in Barcelona. Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows Mobile 7, the much hyped mobile OS that should be a savior for them against the likes of iPhone and Android. Only time will tell if Microsoft delivers what’s being expected of them.

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