By John Chan
02/04/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,62039660,00.htm

Microsoft's mobile operating system (OS) may have a significant market share these days, but it has never been lauded for its user-friendliness. Though the company makes it familiar for those used to Windows on desktops, many of the things you want to do on a handheld or smart phone are just too cumbersome in Windows Mobile. Enter Windows Mobile 6.1 (WM6.1), an update to WM6 which looks to address some of the criticisms made about the interface of this OS.

The most obvious changes have been applied to WM Standard for smart phones without touchscreens. WM Professional has not been left out, receiving a few useful updates though they may not be as apparent as the enhancements on the Standard version. Here's an overview of some of the new and improved features in Windows Mobile 6.1. After that, go over to our Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade calendar to see if your device is slated for an update by the manufacturer.

To see a live demo of the new features, watch our interview with Microsoft's John Starkweather, director of product management for Windows Mobile. In it, he also gives us an idea of how Microsoft feels 6.1 stacks up to the competition.

Improved Home screen

The most obvious change can be seen on the WM6.1 Standard Home screen with a rotating panel interface. Moving up and down will bring you to various main categories like Photos, Messaging and Calendar. Within each panel, you can scroll left and right to perform tasks within that category. For example, after scrolling down to the music panel, you can then start to play music, navigate between tracks and even view album art without having to leave the Home screen.

Applicable to: WM6.1 Standard.

Easier initial setup

One of the main complaints about WM is how difficult it is to get everything set up. For example, to perform tasks like setting up an email account, pairing a Bluetooth headset and choose a ringtone, you need to start the process from three different locations within the user interface. With WM6.1, there is a Getting Started tab found on the Home screen. This lets you perform all those tasks right at the point when you first receive your brand new handset. Once all the settings have been put in place, you can then choose to remove this Getting Started tab.

Applicable to: WM6.1 Standard and Professional.

Threaded SMS

Made popular by the Palm on its line of Palm OS Treo devices, threaded SMS has been pushed further into the limelight when Apple implemented it on the iPhone. This feature is now standard on WM6.1. So now, messages are stored as if they were instant messaging chat sessions. This makes it more convenient to monitor the flow of an SMS exchange and makes the Inbox less cluttered. Searching for messages has also been simplified--just type in the first few letters of a recipient and those will be filtered out from the rest.

Applicable to: WM6.1 Standard and Professional.

New Internet Explorer Mobile

At the same time, Microsoft has released a new version of its browser for WM6.1. This new version is more suited for viewing Web sites designed for desktop browsers thanks to its ability to zoom out and give an overview of the page. The user can then choose which part of the page he wants to read and zoom back in. As with the threaded SMS, this is not new. It's a feature that has been found on Nokia's Series 60 browser and more recently, on the iPhone. This update will only be available to device manufacturers in Q3 2008, and so it may find its way into the hands of consumers only at the end of the year.

Applicable to: WM6.1 Standard and Professional.

Aside from these key improvements to the interface, Microsoft has also added security features and tweaks to other aspects like Live Search and the Calendar application. If you haven't already, head on over to our video interview with a Microsoft representative as he goes through some of the features in a demo.