With the introduction of the Sony Ericsson Aspen, Windows Mobile took a small jump forward to version 6.5.3. This latest version includes a few notable features, including capacitive touchscreen support which will cause all non-HD2 owners to toss their stylii into the air and jump for joy. Other changes include:
- 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 to bring touch support to legacy applications
- Simplified out-of-box experience with fewer steps
- Drag and drop icons on Start Screen
- Browser page load time decreased and memory management improved
- Browser pan & flick gestures smoothed and zoom & rotation speed increased
- Updated runtime tools (.NET CF 3.5, SQL CE 3.1)
- Arabic read/write document support
- Watson (error reporting) improvements and bug fixes
Thus far, the Aspen is the only handset to run this latest version of the Microsoft’s mobile operating system and we may have to wait until MWC 2010 for additional 6.5.3 handsets to emerge and updates for current handsets to be confirmed. Until then, Windows Mobile 6.5.3 is an SE exclusive.
