Earlier today Sony Ericsson announced the Aspen, the first official Windows Mobile smartphone to run version 6.5.3 of Microsoft’s mobile operating system. What’s different compared to other versions of Windows Mobile? Mary-Jo Foley from All About Microsoft, arguably the best Microsoft related blogger out there, went ahead and asked Microsoft and without any hesitation they sent her this list:
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
Not the most exciting update, but capacitive touch screen support is a big one. Lots of people complain about resistive screens, so this should shut them up. With only 13 more days until Mobile World Congress, we’re still left wondering what Windows Mobile 7 might bring to the table. Will it give Apple that swift kick in the ass they deserve?