Lest you should think Dell Axim users are having all the fun, an industrious hacker has crammed Windows Mobile 6 onto yet another device. If you're using a Sprint PPC-6700 or Verizon XV6700 (which are basically the same device), and don't mind voiding your warranty and possibly killing your machine, have we got news for you!
PPCGeeks forum member helmi_c has managed to get Windows Mobile 6 running on the 6700 series. And he's released ROMs for pretty much any carrier you might have, including Sprint, Alltel, Verizon, Sasktel, Vivo Brazil, Telus, Bell Mobility, Cricket, Cellular South, New Zealand, Midwest, Reliance India, and Qwest.
The ROM inlcudes a lot more than just a Windows Mobile 6 upgrade. Helmi_c has also loaded it with some software to make your phone a bit more usable, including MS OneNote Mobile, MS LiveSearch, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player 7, WM5 Storage, TCPMP, PimBackup, Yahoo Go! 2.0, and a suite of HTC applications:
HTC Home Plugin 6tab v1.5.620.722
HTC CommManager with 10 Buttons
HTC Touch Dialer With working Smartdial and ## Codes
HTC Smartdial v2.5
HTC Task Manager v1.51.30229.1
HTC Voice Recorder v1.10.611711.0
HTC Streaming Media v2.20.615718.00
HTC Audio.Manager v1.2.614712.q
There are a few bugs, including one that messes up text messaging when you install the Palm SMS threading application. Although this ROM seems to be working for most users, as always, we have to warn you that you'll be solely responsible for killing your phone if anything goes wrong with this "upgrade."
Earlier this month Palm announced Australian customers would get an upgrade. The European version is available to Vodafone customers in the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
So far, there's been no word on a WM6 upgrade for AT&T customers in the US, although we assume it's just a matter of time. Of course, you know what they say about people who assume.
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
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.
Despite rumors that Dell might be working on a Windows Mobile-based phone, the company is pretty much out of the Windows Mobile business for now. And that leaves Axim X50/51 users pretty much on their own if they want to upgrade their devices from Windows Mobile 5.0 to Windows Mobile 6.
Overall, that might not be such a bad thing. Dell did an infamously poor job offering X50 users an upgrade from WM2003SE to Windows Mobile 5.0. The upgraded units ran slower and had more bugs than units running the older operating system.
But where Dell dropped the ball, the hacker community steps in. And after attempting to improve Dell's Windows Mobile 5.0 installation, one enterprising member of the XDA Developers forum has gone on to port Windows Mobile 6 to the Dell Axim X50v. Bear in mind, this upgrade is only for the VGA model. If you've got a Dell Axim X50 with a 320 x 240 pixel screen, this ROM will not run. Oh yeah, and installing any unofficial operating system upgrades like this could leave your PDA in an unbootable state. So this hack is not for the feint of heart.
That said, X50vs do seem to run much faster with Windows Mobile 6 than Windows Mobile 5.0. And you get upgraded versions of Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, Outlook, and other programs.
Update: If you've upgraded your X50v and are scratching your head trying to figure out how to revert back to Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows Mobile 2003SE, check out our article on downgrading from Windows Mobile 6.
As expected, Microsoft pushed out an updated version of Windows Mobile Device Center yesterday. WMDC 6.1 offers a few new features. For the most part, nothing flashy, but there's some good news in here for Windows Mobile 6.0 users or pretty much anyone who needs to synchronize files between their computer and PDA or Smartphone.
Enhanced support for Windows Mobile 6
File synchronization option added for Smartphones (you could already synchronize files with touchscreen devices)
Configure Windows Mobile 6 devices to open documents protected with Information Rights Management
Synchronize HTML-formatted mail
Acquire certificates through the PC when your mobile device is connected
There's still no option to resolve conflicts manually as you could with ActiveSync. You can only choose to have files on your mobile device overwrite those on your PC or vice versa when there's a conflict.
Windows Mobile Device Center is available for Windows Vista users who have a mobile device running Windows Mobile 2003 or later.
Microsoft announced two Windows Mobile updates today. First, a Japanese version of Windows Mobile 6 will be available starting in June on devices from HTC, Sharp, and Toshiba.
The bigger news is that Office Mobile 2007 will be available as a free download in the third quarter of this year.
It doesn't sound like there will be a ton of new features in the updated version of Office Mobile. But it will have one killer app: support for Office 2007 documents. You'll be able to open Office 2007 file formats like .pptx .docx and .xlsx.
Office Mobile 2007 will work with Windows Mobile 5.0 touchscreen devices and all Windows Mobile 6 devices. Sorry, no downloading Office Mobile 2007 for a WM5.0 Smartphone with the hopes of adding Office Mobile to a phone that didn't ship with it pre-installed.
From the "why didn't Microsoft just go and do this themselves" file: Hackers have liberated the Mobile Office features of Windows Mobile 6 and wrapped them up into a nice installer that runs just fine on Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphones.
Since Microsoft decided that Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone users didn't need word processing, spreadsheets, or presentations, the only way to get those features up until now was to buy a third-party program like Dataviz DocumentsToGo.
You can reportedly save memory on your device by using UPX to compress the executable files. You'll need .NET 2.0 Framework in order for Mobile Office to work.
And there's no option to create new documents in the smartphone version of Mobile Office, so the best thing to do is to create some blank Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents on your desktop and copy them to your device. Now all you have to do is open those blank documents, edit them, and save as new documents whenever you want to create a file.
Can't wait for T-Mobile to offer its official Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for the Dash smartphone? Better hit up those torrent trackers, because it looks like the ROM upgrade has been unofficially released to the wild.
The update includes all the Windows Mobile 6 goodies you'd expect, plus a couple of new surprises, including a Music Plug-In that lets you add a music player to your home screen, a new email setup program.
The upgrade takes about 10 minutes to complete. But again, we'll point out that the official release should be coming within the next week or two. So if you can hold out a few days, you're probably better off waiting for the supported upgrade, you know, in case you accidentally turn your PDA into a brick installing this update and void your warranty in the process. If your warranty is already expired, have fun!
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.
Not sure if your Smartphone manufacturer is going to issue an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6? Not to worry, the hackers over at XDA-Developers have managed to develop a ROM that runs on HTC Hermes smartphones. In the US, the Hermes is sold as the Cingular 8525.
Keep in mind, this is a completely unofficial port, and involves voiding your warranty and completely replacing the operating system on your phone. In other words, if your phone is useless after the update, there's no one you can call for help.
Get it while it lasts though, word on the street is that Microsoft has asked XDA-Developers to pull all of the ROM images hosted on their site.
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.
Windows Mobile 6 is the first version of Windows Mobile to include push email support without setting up an Exchange server. Of course, it only works with Hotmail, but it's a start.
Once you have a Hotmail account, all you have to do is:
Open Windows Live on your mobile device.
Enter your Live information and set your device to use Live services including Messenger, Mail, and Contacts.
Click on menu and selection options.
Select Sync Schedule
Under frequency, select "as items arrive."
Now every time an email is sent to your Hotmail account, a copy will be sent to your Windows Mobile device. You can even configure your phone or PDA to work with both Hotmail and an Exchange server, allowing you to receive push email from two separate accounts.
Okay, this is kind of lame. So Microsoft finally goes and puts a version of Office Mobile in the smartphone version of Windows Mobile 6 (now known as Windows Mobile 6 Standard). But for some reason, they've decided not to let you create new documents. You can only view and edit existing Word and Excel files.
Luckily Mike Temporale of Smartphone Thoughts has come up with a simple solution.
Using MS Office 2003 or earlier, create blank Word and Excel documents.
Save them to your desktop.
Change the names to something like "New Word Doc," and "New Excel Doc."
Right click on the files, select properties, and check the "read only" box.
Copy these files to the /My Documents folder on your smartphone.
Now when you launch Word or Excel mobile, you can select the blank documents from the open menu, edit them, and save them as new files.
You can perform this workaround in just a few minutes, and the solution takes up only about 42KB of storage on your device.
While details on Windows Mobile 6 (or Crossbow) have been leaking for months now, it looks like Microsoft has officially announced the next generation of its mobile operating system.
Here's some of the new features:
There's support for HTML email (using Internet Exlorer Mobile's rendering engine).
There's a new Windows Live client for Windows Mobile.
Office Mobile is included on the Smartphone version.
You can transfer files using Windows Live Messenger.
Call history is added to your contacts, so you can see when you last drunk dialed your ex.
There's a mobile version of Windows Update that performs a daily check for operating system updates.
Microsoft's also attempted to clear up the confusion surrounding its naming conventions. No more Windows Mobile Smartphone, Pocket PC, and Pocket PC Phone Edition. Now you've got Windows Mobile 6 Standard (Windows Mobile phones without touch-screens), Windows Mobile Professional (phones with touch-screens), and Windows Mobile Classic (no phone). Gee, that should be easier to remember.
Here's a roundup of reviews and first-hand impressions:
RIM announces BlackBerry software for Windows Mobile
