Windows Mobile 6 released

Microsoft's Windows OS for mobile devices called Windows Mobile, has been upgraded to Windows Mobile 6. It was just announced at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona. Palm's Treo 750 will be upgraded with the new OS as is shown in these pictures below. The pictures come from the Engadget blog:







According to Treo Central,

The new OS also brings with it new naming conventions, gone are "PocketPC Edition" and "Smartphone Edition." Instead we have the more simplified:

* Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition - for non-touchscreen smartphones
* Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition - for touchscreen smartphones like the Treo
* Windows Mobile 6 Classic Edition - for non-smartphone, touchscreen Pocket PC devices.


Many people feel that this is an evolutionary upgrade rather a revolutionary upgrade, that it should be called Windows Mobile 5.5 because it fixes some stuff from Windows Mobile 5. But apparently it does add some new features listed below (also coming from TreoCentral):

* Built-in Windows Update(!) - Will the carriers stand for this? I know that Palm spends months testing the most minor of bugfixes so the carriers won't have a bird.
* Built-in memory card encryption and the ability to do remote-wipes.
* HTML-formatted email (I don't want this, but others do).
* A neater feature is "SmartFilter," which automatically filters your emails as you type just like most contacts applications filter your contacts. SmartFilter also works on your music collection.
* Better Live Mail (nee Hotmail) integration, including contact integration.
* 320x320 Screen Resolution support - Palm, I expect a new WM Treo yesterday with this screen resolution.
* Windows Live goes out of Beta and will be built-in
* Direct Push now standard (has been for awhile on WM5, but I know some of you are still stuck without it)
* 3rd party software should still work fine - just in case you were wondering.
* Microsoft Office Mobile updated - now full edits documents on all editions of WM6!
* Pocket Internet Explorer to be faster, they're saying 30% faster - let's hope! Also new, "Mobile AJAX standards"
* Better Vista integration
* Enhanced Calendar, including a "ribbon."
* Improved Security
* Built-in VOIP(!) - no, not really, but they added support for it "under the hood", according to cnet.
* A ton of smaller tweaks, changes, fixes, improvements, etc.

Vista integration and Microsoft Office integration, along with Windows Live Mail (now to be renamed Windows Live Hotmail to not lose the current Hotmail branding), and of course Windows Mobile media player, it's part of the Microsoft ecosystem of the Windows family. First, Microsoft conquering the desktop, now they want a chunk of the web. And why not, right now Google is beating the pants out of them!

On Technorati: Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft, Treo 750