While the blogosphere has been focused on supposed future Windows Mobile updates like version 6.6 or 6.7, and of course Windows Mobile 7.0, I've been trying to explain--via the Windows Weekly podcast, my article Microsoft's Plan to Save Windows Mobile, and an upcoming article in Windows IT Pro Magazine--that Microsoft has a plan to simply update Windows Mobile 6.5 in various point releases that add support for capacitive touch screens and improve the UI across the board in touch-friendly ways. And I've referred to these updates as Windows Mobile 6.5.x or 6.5.3 because, well, that's what they are.
Well, the first Windows Mobile 6.5.3 phone has apparently shipped. So Mary Jo Foley asked Microsoft a very simple question: What's new in Windows Mobile 6.5.3? Here's what she found out:
Ease of Use features
* Capacitive touchscreen support
* Platform to enable multitouch
* Touch controls throughout system (no need for stylus)
* Consistent Navigation
* Horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs (think settings>system>about
screen)
* Magnifier brings touch support to legacy applications
* Simplified out-of-box experience with fewer steps
* Drag and drop icons on Start ScreenIE Browser Performance
* Page load time decreased
* Memory management improved
* Pan & flick gestures smoothed
* Zoom & rotation speed increasedQuality and Customer Satisfaction features
* Updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5, SQL CE 3.1)
* Arabic read/write document support
* Watson (error reporting) improvements and bug fixes
So there you go. :)