Let's remember Windows Mobile 6.1 !

[muneshyne21]

Found my Omnia II and charged it up. Fell in love with it all over again. If it just had more ram and a better cpu... In my later days with it, I flashed an iphone-like layout to minimize ram usage and complexity. It was better than SBP mobile shell and a night and day difference from touchwiz. IT asked me if I wanted to activate it. I was tempted...


What was soooooo funny at the time was when friends would ask me why THEIR iPhones took crappier pictures, couldnt do panorama or actions shots, couldnt tether data, had crappy reception, didnt come with a built in stylus, had crappier speakers (WOW HD sound was ridiculous on this device), had a smaller non-amoled screen...etc...

 

[tgp]

I nearly forgot about one of my favorite features of WM; very simple USB tethering. There was an app in the Marketplace called Internet Sharing or Internet Connection Sharing (IIRC). I would activate the app and plug the USB cable into a PC. Like magic, the PC was online! I didn't have to do a single thing to the computer, except I believe the device drivers had to be installed. There was no installing tethering software or turning anything on. It really was that simple.

 

[muneshyne21]

Plus cell companies were charging for tethering back then. WM was the original Android in that the open source community created apps that worked around that. I think I used Wifi Tether or something. Worked like a charm. It was great since data was unlimited too.

 

[tgp]

It was great since data was unlimited too.

Yes it was, but it was also slow. I remember being elated when Verizon upgraded from 1x to EVDO! A continuous connection might have gotten you a gig or two a month...

 

[trwrt]

I had a Palm Treo Pro too. Great phone. I got really good at tapping with my thumbnail so I didn't have to use the stylus. Even the smallest UI elements were a cinch after a while, and it allowed you to put so much more stuff on the screen compared to today's fat-finger interfaces. And God, do I miss having a D-pad...

 

[muneshyne21]

One thing I really miss is the physical call and end buttons for the phone. It really made a smartphone feel like a phone instead of a little computer with phone capabilities.

 

[jargonz]

I've owned 7 Windows Mobile (previously called Pocket PC) devices since the year 2000. My devices and the year I bought them were as follows:

• 2000: Compaq iPAQ H3630
• 2002: Compaq iPAQ H3870
• 2003: O2 XDA II (HTC Himalaya)
• 2005: O2 XDA IIs (HTC Blue Angel)
• 2006: O2 XDA Exec (HTC Universal)
• 2008: HTC Touch Pro
• 2009: HTC Touch Pro2

 

[dkediger]

Moto Q9C. Non-touch, but the key/scroll nav worked pretty well.

And that Metallic Lime Green! Ahead of its time......

 

[lawalhu]

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 is a good windows mobile phone. The keyboard is excellent as it has most of the features of a PC. Control+A highlights a doc; control +c copies; control+v pastes; control+x cuts etc. The predictive text feature is excellent. In fact, I was a little bit disappointed when windows phone 7 came without most of the excellent features of its supposed predecessor. And despite all the noise about its being the what Microsoft was all along planning for out was jettisoned in a little over a year after it's debut. It was actually a terrible mistake that eroded the confidence of a number of Microsoft's phone about the reliably of the platform. Gladly, Microsoft has now fulfilled it's promise of upgrading windows phone 8 to windows phone 8.1. This indeed was a confidence building strategy. It's only hoped that the company would relentlessly continue to work towards making windows phone a dream phone.

 

[Pacus1x]

My last WM phone is the Samsung i907 and is still working... back then Samsung was kind of cool for me, before the flood of Galaxy series. The phone came with WM 6.1 but i was able to install WM 6.5



I installed a icon based menu, the original WM menu was uncomfortable for me.

Pros: Very sturdy phone like a brick, good battery life, call quality good, micro SD slot. Ok performance.

Cons: The resistive screen is almost useless even with the pen, the WiFi range was mediocre, kind of ugly design. The camera barely usable.

 

[muneshyne21]

At first I actually preferred resistive screens because I could use gloves but after a while I like the responsiveness of capacitive screen tech.

 

[AngrySprintUser]

HTC Mogul. At the time I loved it.

 

[fatclue_98]

I can only imagine what WM would be like with today's dual-core CPUs, multi-gig RAM and HD screens. Anybody who had an HD2 or an LG Fathom knew what the OS felt like with the 1 gig Snapdragons. I know it was too little, too late, but all that functionality with today's hardware and cameras. Wow.

 

[muneshyne21]

I can only imagine what WM would be like with today's dual-core CPUs, multi-gig RAM and HD screens. Anybody who had an HD2 or an LG Fathom knew what the OS felt like with the 1 gig Snapdragons. I know it was too little, too late, but all that functionality with today's hardware and cameras. Wow.

Thats sort of the irony of WM6.5. It had all the features and flexibility but the hardware sucked. Now the hardware is available but their new OS is lacking features because it was a ground up revision. All in all though if they stuck with it, it would be exactly like Android but with a bad reputation.

 

[fatclue_98]

Thats sort of the irony of WM6.5. It had all the features and flexibility but the hardware sucked. Now the hardware is available but their new OS is lacking features because it was a ground up revision. All in all though if they stuck with it, it would be exactly like Android but with a bad reputation.

How much worse reputation can you get? I'm the first one to admit that Jelly Bean is the best iteration of Android but it still carries the ghosts of FroYo. The HD2 proved what could be done with a good (at that time) CPU and a modicum of RAM (512mb). WM could have been cleaned up mostly by eliminating the endless menus and sub-menus. That and the beautiful fonts employed with WP7/8 is what makes this UI so special. I'm not big on the live tiles because I don't need that much info hitting me at once, my ADD simply doesn't allow it. Since getting the Dev Preview, I've eliminated all tiles except phone, SMS, Outlook & calendar. Now I have a nice wallpaper and 4 tiles to give me relevant information. In other words, my home screen looks pretty much as it did when I had WM.

 

[muneshyne21]

Dont get me wrong, It took Android a while to really hit the sweetspot but there is this ingrained hatred for Microsoft among the general public that wont allow for any mistakes. When Android came out people were more forgiving and patient. This is why they couldnt just be on par with Android. WM was doomed not because it wasnt capable or didnt have potential, its because people were just tired of old Microsoft. Its going to happen to Apple and Google eventually but it may take 5-10 years.

 

[rQvsnaps]

If only I had a mini usb cable somewhere I'd boot it for you too..
Had a diamond - upgraded to touch hd - then hd2 with wm6,5 (but running android from sd card)
Ahh good times

 

[fatclue_98]

View attachment 69772
View attachment 69773
If only I had a mini usb cable somewhere I'd boot it for you too..
Had a diamond - upgraded to touch hd - then hd2 with wm6,5 (but running android from sd card)
Ahh good times

Good times indeed. To think the TP2 could boot Android from an SD card and run it well with only 288 megs of RAM! My favorite device was the HTC Imagio on Verizon. If it had a flash on the snapper I'd probably be using it today.

 

[FinancialP]

Oh the glory. I remember 6.1 bringing us threaded messaging!

 

[FinancialP]

Remember the pulsing light!

My Touch Pro still has a custom rom on it.