Microsoft announces Windows Mobile 6.5 features

Microsoft is trying to reignite excitement around its mobile business with a string of announcements today at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Spain. Microsoft is set to announce a new version of its mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 6.5. The company also officially confirmed already public developments including a new version of Internet Explorer 6; My Phone -- a backup and recovery service for contacts, photos and other data stored on a mobile device; and a forthcoming Microsoft mobile application store


Windows Mobile 6.5 features a new user interface and "honeycomb" start screen with hexagonal tiles for each program that are designed to be easier to use on touch-screen phones.

The start menu can be customized with rich Internet applications, such as weather or stock reports, that are automatically updated. "Like if you go to the iPhone, you can go to the weather application, but you have to go into to actually make it update," said Scott Rockfeld, a director in Microsoft's Windows Mobile group.
The whole user interface is designed to be more "finger friendly," in recognition of the touch controls of many mobile phones running Windows Mobile, Rockfeld said. A new home screen looks "very similar to a Zune, which may be where from the rumors came from about the Zune phone, but ultimately we found from the Zune experience that this actually works for people," he said.
Another new feature of Windows Mobile 6.5 allows people to go directly to waiting voice mail, text messages or other information when unlocking their phones. "I should be able to take action immediately," Rockfeld said. "All I have to do is select an icon and it takes me right to the application and right to the action."
"Just compare this to the iPhone. You go to an iPhone and check a voice mail, first you bring it to life, then you unlock the phone, then you go to the phone application, then you hit voice mail," he said.
The new version of Internet Explorer Mobile is built on Microsoft's older PC Web browser, Internet Explorer 6. (The company is now finalizing IE8 for the PC.) The updated mobile browser will allow people to finish more online transactions, Rockfeld said.

Microsoft My Phone, announced earlier this month after news reports and speculation, is designed to back up contacts, photos, calendar events and other information stored on a phone to a password-protected Web site. The free service, which will start out in a limited, invite-only test form, competes with Apple's MobileMe and Google's Sync, among other emerging services for mobile devices. My Phone will also be available for phones running Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1.

Will this appeal to a wide audience? Most folk want to make and receive phone calls and texts on their phone. These are getting far too complicated imo!