Microsoft may be rolling out an incremental upgrade to its Windows Mobile operating system for PDAs and cellphones, but it's up to device manufacturers and wireless carriers to decide whether to offer Windows Mobile 6.1 to existing customers. And it looks like HP has decided that customers who have already bought current generation iPaq devices can live without the update.

One of the things that has long set mobile operating systems apart from desktop OSes is the fact that users can't just walk into the store, but a software upgrade and apply it themselves. In the olden days, OS upgrades came on ROM chips and you literally had to update a device's hardware in order to update the OS. Now most Windows Mobile devices can be upgraded via a software-only update process. But because the OS is typically customized to run on various devices, it's up to the device makers to decide whether to release an update.

HP apparently has decided to offer Windows Mobile 6.1 on new units, but will not be offering an upgrade option for current iPaq owners. Of course, when hardware makers don't step up, we've often seen that 3rd party developers will come up with their own solutions. Will we eventually see an unofficial upgrade path for iPaq users? Only time will tell.

Experts such as Brian Livingston, editorial director of the Windows Secrets newsletter, say Microsoft is intentionally allowing a loop-hole to exist, which enables more advanced users of Microsoft's operating systems to upgrade to Vista SP1 without having the necessary previous versions of Windows.

The loop-hole exists in the Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition, which requires a previous install of Windows 2000, XP, or Vista but the upgrade edition will install even if they're absent. The Vista SP1 Upgrade Edition retails for about $110 less than the full version of Vista SP1, which means users can save money on upgrading to Vista by purchasing the cheaper upgrade box.

Livingston believes Microsoft supports the hole since the upgrade edition installs over itself in Vista SP1. Although it may seem absurd at first, Microsoft may benefit from such software pirates -- if they can be called that anymore.

The theory behind this is already at play and has been at play for many years. As more and more users install some version of Windows, others will see it as "the standard", and then they will buy it -- or they'll pirate it and indirectly influence others to buy it.

You already know that Apple wants you to buy a new iPod or two pretty much every year. That's why the company keeps coming out with skinnier/cleaner looking devices that have more and more storage. Since 98.9% of the US population already owns an iPod, the company needs to keep pushing out products that make your MP3 player look like a Sony Walkman so that you'll be ashamed to walk around with your ancient technology.

But there's a price to upgrading (beside the hundreds of dollars you spend to, you know, buy a new product). It turns out that if you've purchased games designed for playing on previous versions of the iPod, you'll have to buy the same games again to play them on the latest generation.

On the upside, you get some minor improvements in the new versions of the games. They've been "reformatted" for the new devices. Updated games include Tetris, Soduku, and Ms. Pac-Man. The games will all run on the new iPod Classic and Nano. 15 more games will be added soon. Games cost $5, and may be obsolete next time you buy a new device.

[via Engadget]

Earlier this month the hackers at the XDA-developers forum managed to port Windows Mobile 6 to the discontinued but still popular Dell Axim X50v PDA. But anyone who had gone out and bought the newer (but also discontinued) Dell Axim X51v were out of luck. Until this weekend that is. Another hacker has released an unofficial version of Windows Mobile 6 for the X51v.

This update is only for early adopters who are willing to void their warranty. There appear to be several issues, including:

• Problems connecting and staying connected to the internet over WiFi
• One user reported that they could not compose, forward, or reply to emails when Yahoo! Go was installed
• Windows Live will not work after installation

As with the X50v, there are ways to downgrade your X51v after installing Windows Mobile 6. You'll want to make sure you have an X51v ROM and bootloader loaded onto a FAT32 formatted SD card. Then you press the wireless, power, and reset buttons simultaneously.

Check out the XDA-developers forum to find a ROM you might want to use. Remember, the ROM has to be for the X51v, not the X51, or X50v.

What do some US based company's lack? Versions made especially for other markets, especially countries where they are getting large amounts of traffic from. Of course it takes time and a team of dedicated experts in the geographic location to pull it off in a reasonable amount of time, but it is expected from larger companies like Google or Yahoo.

Flickr has managed to pump out an additional seven languages for its user base today. French, Germany, UK and Hong Kong Chinese. Flickr's current user base consists of 55% that are actually residing outside of the US. This is a hot global product, and Flickr has recognized this with this massive upgrade. This new language entry will surely see Flickr's 525 million photos grow substantially over the next little while.

If you're running a pre-release version of Windows Vista, you might want to upgrade by May 31st. Anyone running Vista Beta 2 RC1 or RC2 will begin to receive warnings in a few weeks telling you that your operating system installation is about to expire.

If you don't upgrade, you could wind up losing data stored on your computer. Here's what happens if you decide to ignore the warnings:

• You'll be able to logon for 2 hours in order to retrieve your data, but after 2 hours your computer will automatically reboot without giving you the opportunity to save your work.
• Come August 28th, even these 2 hour logon sessions will be disabled

If you've been participating in the preview you don't get a discount on a Windows Vista purchase, but you are eligible for an upgrade disc instead of a full installation disc.

In today's mobile Minute, we'll take a look at some of the latest news and software related to Windows Mobile devices.

RIM announces BlackBerry software for Windows Mobile

BlackBerry makers Research in Motion have announced plans to create a program that brings Blackberry software and services to devices running Windows Mobile 6.

The software will include email, phone, calendar, address book, tasks, memos, browser, instant messenger, and other applications developed to run on BlackBerries. Since the application will work like any other third-party Windows Mobile program, showing up on your screen as an icon you click to launch the suite, you'll be able to flip back and forth between the Windows Mobile calendar/email etc and the Blackberry suite.

The new program will enable push email on Windows Mobile devices (something you can already get for free through emoze), and allow companies to deploy software that will run either on BlackBerry or Windows Mobile devices. You'll also have a more input methods than on a traditional BlackBerry, with support for QWERTY keyboards, 5-way navigation buttons, or stylus support.

Not only will Palm be offering Treo 750 users a chance to upgrade their phones from Windows Mobile 5.0 to Windows Mobil 6, but the company won't charge for it.

That means support for HTML-formatted email, Office 2007 file formats, and HSDPA support. There's slightly less memory available on a Treo 750 running Windows Mobile 6, but the folks over at Mobility Site got a chance to play with one at CTIA, and they say it seems just as responsive as a Treo with Windows Mobile 5.0

There's no word on when the update will be available or how current Treo users will be able to sign up for it.

Just so we don't get your hopes up: no, it isn't a Windows Mobile 6 update, but Samsung has found it within themselves to issue a ROM update for the Cingular BlackJack (Samsung i607) Windows Mobile 5 phone. However, unless you're having issues with roaming, especially internationally, there isn't much else to this update besides some new icons for some apps that come bundled with the phone.

Speaking of something to not get excited about though, check out Samsung's update process. We haven't seen this many steps for updating a device's software since... well, probably ever. The update process requires a functioning ActiveSync connection to work, and we haven't even tried this through alternative syncing systems like Missing Sync for the Mac yet, but venturous updaters be warned: this update completely erases your BlackJack, resetting it to a factory default software state.

That said, go forth and update ye old BlackJacks, especially if roaming has given you more than one headache since the phone debuted last November.

[via Smartphone Thoughts]

When you buy a PC, it tends to come with an operating system pre-installed. But whether you're running a Mac, Linux, or Windows-based machine, odds are you've been able to reinstall, update, or change that operating system. That hasn't typically been the case with Windows Mobile devices (unless you count attempts to port Linux to various handhelds).

Early Pocket PCs had the OS built into ROM, and the only way to get an upgrade was to buy a new chip from your PDA manufacturer -- if they released one. Most modern Windows Mobile devices store the OS in flash memory, but updates tend to be device specific. And that can be expensive for PDA makers that have had to buy licenses from Microsoft, customize the new OS, and test it before sending it out. The result? Getting an official OS update for a Windows Mobile PDA has been the exception rather than the rule.

It looks like Microsoft's making it a little bit easier for manufacturers to release updates to Windows Mobile 6. The company is giving free licenses to any vendors who issue upgrades for their devices. Just because the license is free doesn't mean manufacturers won't charge the consumer. Customizing Windows Mobile 6 for each device is still a lot of work.

But does that mean we'll see updates issued for Dell Axim or HP iPaq models anytime soon? I wouldn't hold my breath. But it's possible.

If you are using any of the Adobe products and have the itch to upgrade to Windows Vista, you might want to check out the How Adobe Products Support Windows Vista document (pdf alert). Adobe applications are listed with their current status concerning Windows Vista support and any workarounds that might be needed until official support is available. Adobe plans to keep this document updated as product support for Vista evolves. OS upgrades are so much fun.

Are you running Vista? Which version are you running? Do you like it? I just bought a new PC with Vista pre-loaded, and it's nice. It's not completely perfect but, not completely sucky either, which in my mind computes to "just right."

For anyone who doesn't yet have Vista, but want to know about the ins and outs, there are a lot of new features, yet not a ton of truly "new" features. In an attempt to find out what Vista works like and plays like, I will be writing a bunch of Vista-related stuff over the coming weeks.

So, you've upgraded to Vista but the songs you purchased from the iTunes Store have decided to stop working. Thankfully, Apple has made an iTunes Repair Tool available that should alleviate any problems you might have after the upgrade. They recommend that folks delay upgrading Windows until the next version of iTunes is made available, which should be within the next couple of weeks. Additional compatibility issues with iTunes 7.0.2. may include:

• iTunes Store purchases may not play when upgrading to Windows Vista from Windows 2000 or XP.
• iPod models with the "Enable Disk Use" option turned off may be unable to update or restore iPod software, and make changes to iPod settings.
• iPod models configured to Auto Sync and have the "Enable Disk Use" option turned off may require being ejected and reconnected to resync.
• Ejecting an iPod from the Windows System Tray using the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature may corrupt your iPod. To always safely eject an iPod, choose Eject iPod from the Controls menu within iTunes.
• Cover Flow animation may be slower than expected.
• Contacts and calendars will not sync with iPod.

Check out Apple's complete Vista upgrade recommendations here, or grab the iTunes Repair Tool utility here.

Ooh. Here's a bit of an "oops" for Microsoft: It turns out it's possible, with no hacking or advanced skills required, to make a full-blown clean install of Windows Vista from a Vista upgrade DVD. Seeing as the upgrade disc costs about two thirds what the full version does, that seems like a pretty big oversight. DailyTech has the scoop. The process is very easy, but takes a bit of legwork. Here's the basics:

1. Boot from your Vista upgrade DVD.
2. Don't enter your product key when prompted; click "Next" instead, which will install a 30-day trial version of Vista.
3. Once your new trial boots up, launch setup from the DVD again, from within Vista.
4. Enter your product key when prompted, and then choose Custom (advanced) to do a clean install (yes, you're installing Vista a second time).
5. Congratulations, you've got Vista!

According to Paul Thurrott, all of this info is actually contained within internal Microsoft docs, so it's kind of amazing to me that Microsoft shipped Vista update discs with this capability. Regardless, doing this is almost certainly in violation of your license agreement, so don't try it at home (but if you do, let us know if it works).

As with all new things, especially something as huge as an operating system, adoption of Microsoft Windows Vista is slow. It has been commercially available to businesses for about a month now, but that month has come and gone with too much stirring the pot by enterprises. It isn't hard to see why, the adoption of a new OS is painful, even if the thing is rock solid. There is the user's learning curve to consider, the IT staff and time to install, support, and manage the new operating system, and tons of other factors like interoperability with peripherals, driver issues, proprietary systems that must be rewritten to play nice. Once Vista is adopted in enterprises, it will yield some benefits for those who take the leap, but many companies don't want to put their people through that until Vista is stable, and patched with at least a service pack or two. That could take years.

The theory that Microsoft released Vista in November so that they would have time for vendors to develop solutions that would work with Vista might be close to the truth, maybe Microsoft is hoping that by releasing Vista now the drivers and updates will be ready by the time Vista hits the world's stage and comes to a PC near you in February 2007. Wouldn't it be nice if the OS was at least a bit closer to having lots of stuff work with it when you get it in your mailbox or at your local PC hardware store?

Why software is released and when is always tricky to predict, so here's to hoping that there is some good reason why Vista is out now, and perhaps there will be a slightly brighter light shining on kick-off for consumers. It would be nice. When are you planning on upgrading to Vista, or are you planning to upgrade at all? Let me know what you plan to do below: