Microsoft announces Windows Marketplace partners, tweaked policies, designer WinMo 6.5 themes
Details are starting to come into focus on some of the finer points of Windows Mobile 6.5's launch later this year after February's announcement at MWC, and if you had to boil the news down to just two words, they'd be "pretty" and "support." As "pretty" goes, it's been announced that Microsoft has partnered up with Design Museum London and the Council of Fashion Designers of America to offer designer themes for 6.5-based devices -- colors, wallpaper, and the like -- with the first designs coming from fashion dude Isaac Mizrahi. If that's not good enough for ya, the company will be releasing a Theme Generator later this year that'll let you customize colors of UI elements on your device, pair it up with wallpaper culled from your own photo collection, and send the batch straight to your phone.
Over to the "support" front, over 25 companies will be announcing their full support for the Windows Marketplace at CTIA this week, including EA Mobile, Facebook (pictured), Gameloft, MySpace, Namco, Pandora, and Sling Media. To help improve the Marketplace's public image, Microsoft is tweaking some policies, too: developers will now be able to issue unlimited updates to their apps free of charge, and users will have up to 24 hours to "return" apps they don't like (very cool). Notably, Facebook's new app will be available in April, offering direct video uploads straight to your wall if you're into that sort of thing (you know who you are).
Finally, Microsoft's issued a clarification regarding upgrades from 6.1 to 6.5: devices that are already out in the marketplace with a minimum of 128MB of RAM and a 400MHz processor or better are theoretically capable of being upgraded -- it's all up to licensees to decide whether they want to go to the trouble of offering the upgrades to their customers. Let's hope, shall we?
Over to the "support" front, over 25 companies will be announcing their full support for the Windows Marketplace at CTIA this week, including EA Mobile, Facebook (pictured), Gameloft, MySpace, Namco, Pandora, and Sling Media. To help improve the Marketplace's public image, Microsoft is tweaking some policies, too: developers will now be able to issue unlimited updates to their apps free of charge, and users will have up to 24 hours to "return" apps they don't like (very cool). Notably, Facebook's new app will be available in April, offering direct video uploads straight to your wall if you're into that sort of thing (you know who you are).
Finally, Microsoft's issued a clarification regarding upgrades from 6.1 to 6.5: devices that are already out in the marketplace with a minimum of 128MB of RAM and a 400MHz processor or better are theoretically capable of being upgraded -- it's all up to licensees to decide whether they want to go to the trouble of offering the upgrades to their customers. Let's hope, shall we?















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Harley3k @ Mar 31st 2009 12:13AM
looks sweet...
Shah @ Mar 31st 2009 12:15AM
Excellent..!
The Support stuff is really really good.. LOVE IT
PeterF @ Mar 31st 2009 12:16AM
WM 6.5 is really starting to shape up! I can't wait to see what they have for 7!
loginatnine @ Mar 31st 2009 12:19AM
Kudos to MS for these policies revision, the unlimited update should have been there since the beginning but it's good to see it there. And the 24h return policy is also awesome!
Tony @ Mar 31st 2009 1:10AM
Who needs our OEMs? Check out these screens 8-) running on my Touch Pro.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tonyfl/Wmscreens#
Pilotbank @ Mar 31st 2009 2:23AM
Yes, but will they get ActiveSync and the alarm working after all these years ...
TheAngryGamer @ Mar 31st 2009 9:10AM
It doesn't work? That's weird. Seems like it works just fine on my Omnia.
SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Mar 31st 2009 9:40AM
they both work but they do have some problems. like i know my phone won't sync if i have birthdays in people's contact information. it doesn't support that apparently so it just gives me an error and says it can't sync until i removed them.
frauhottelmann @ Mar 31st 2009 1:15PM
Both works perfect for me, don't know what you're doing...
Mark @ Mar 31st 2009 4:12AM
Typical MS I fear... too little, too late.
AmyFan @ Mar 31st 2009 4:45AM
Sweet, I'll be able to upgrade my Touch Pro to 6.5 (and hopefully 7 next year). HTC and at&t better offer the upgrade as soon as 6.5 comes out, I remember how long I had to wait to upgrade my original Blackjack from 5.0 to 6.0 it took a year after 6.0 was out... There's always gonna be the hacked ROMs, but I'd rather have the official thing.
Level 5 @ Mar 31st 2009 2:23PM
I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that one. Every smartphone I've ever had has suffered from carrier bloatware and other crap I didn't want. Luckily, kitchen ROMs to the rescue!
smover @ Mar 31st 2009 8:11AM
wow !
i found myself thinking : WinMo is getting hot !!
I was thinking of getting a new symbian or android phone, and now WinMo 6.5 may be a competitor too... it seems that people at redmond are waking up?!
Joel @ Mar 31st 2009 3:21PM
I've been running the latest WM 6.5 Beta for a few days now on my Touch Pro. Besides the Isaac Mizrahi theme, there are Vera Wang, Rock and Republic, and Ron Arad designed themes also. It's really shaping up nicely and is a much bigger update than originally eluded to.
Joel @ Mar 31st 2009 3:33PM
Oh I almost forgot Dianne Von Furstenberg.
Leo161 @ Mar 31st 2009 5:12PM
I guess it looks good, but that's probably the extent of it.
gunner23 @ Mar 31st 2009 10:48PM
Not a big improvement over 6.1. Hopefully they will get WM 7 right - innovative.