HTC's CDMA devices invited to Windows Mobile 6.5 cookout

[Via WMExperts]
mogul posts

Though both have had less-than-official upgrades floating around for ages, Sprint and HTC have finally seen fit to bless the Touch and Mogul with the real deal. In the case of the Touch, the Windows Mobile 6.1 update includes Sprint Navigation, EV-DO Rev. A, integrated Opera, and a new on-screen QWERTY keyboard, so it seems more than worth the few minutes you'll spend downloading it and getting it all going. The Mogul gets Sprint TV (yay?), but unfortunately, no patch to magically morph it into a Touch Pro. Seriously, we'd pay good money for that.
Here's a deeply philosophical question for you: if an official ROM is released unofficially, is it official? We don't know, and frankly, we don't care -- the important thing is that a shipping-quality cut of Windows Mobile 6.1 for Sprint's Mogul has found its way onto the interwebs courtesy of the wizards over at xda-developers. It's not clear when Sprint or HTC might make this just a little more official than it already is and release it through one of their support sites, but in the meantime, at least we still have a shot at nabbing the goods through "other" channels. Let us know about any trials or tribulations you face getting your units upgraded, alright?
Whoa now, hold up there -- yes, we know HTC's got some serious equipment in the works for Sprint this year, but we can't put that Mogul out to pasture just yet. Fortunately, Sprint and HTC both seem relatively committed to keeping the flagship Windows Mobile model up to date, and we now have an official beta firmware floating around that adds Sprint TV and the real prize, Windows Mobile 6.1. Naturally, due caution must be observed when dealing with prerelease wares, but let's be honest, Mogul owners: every single one of you are going to give this a shot, now aren't you?
The clever souls at PhoneNews seem to have cobbled together info from dcd's posts at XDA-Developers and other places on how to get gpsOne -- this technology uses both satellite and your provider's network to determine location -- up and running on CDMA HTC Titan sets. Once your handset -- including PPC-6800, XV6800, Mogul, P4000, and likely others -- is tweaked, applications like TomTom, Google Maps, and other GPS tools will be available for your navigational enjoyment. This hack will require that you unlock your handset, update the device's software, and then update the baseband radio firmware to get at the goods. Instructions and all the files you'll need -- software updates are listed for Alltel, Sprint, Verizon, Bell, and Telus -- are available by hitting the read link. Of course, this'll likely blow your warranty away, so fiddlers beware and if you're even a little concerned, it may be patience will pay off as a provider update could bring this in the future.
Sprint Mogul owners dreaming of a day when they can pop open Google Maps on their handset and get a GPS lock could end up having a very satisfying weekend here. Some sort of pre-release ROM upgrade (that is to say, not cooked -- a beta build of an official upgrade) has leaked out into the public domain, and the big draw here appears to be GPS support. Rev. A -- a feature promised by Sprint to be enabled at some point in the future when the Mogul was first released -- is also apparently going to be prominently featured when this update officially hits, but it's either flaky or switched off altogether in this particular build while the devs are still hammering out some last-minute issues. If all goes well, it seems Sprint's trying to get this thing pushed out in March, but the impatient among you can have a crack at the prerelease cut now. Enjoy, be careful, and good luck!











