An Overview of Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition

Ed Hardy · 03-24-2004, 12:29 PM

An update for Windows Mobile 2003 has just been announced. This brings some significant enhancements, including support for VGA screens and the ability to switch the screen orientation between portrait and landscape.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/Ov...03_SE?site=PPC

ctitanic · 03-24-2004, 12:35 PM

Here is the official press release in case you want to include the link in your article.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...tunitiesPR.asp

Mike Cane · 03-24-2004, 01:14 PM

I hope that by the end of this first day of that conference, we will be told if:

1) ActiveSync has been fixed

2) Double-tap/drag of text has been added systemwide

3) Alarms have been fixed

neuron · 03-24-2004, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mike Cane
I hope that by the end of this first day of that conference, we will be told if:

1) ActiveSync has been fixed

I know some people have, I never have this problem before.

Quote:

2) Double-tap/drag of text has been added systemwide

seems not this time

Quote:

3) Alarms have been fixed

Well, MS never admit there is alarm problem. So even they fix it quietly, ED won't get the info from the meeting.

neuron · 03-24-2004, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Those hoping for these improvements will have to set their sights on the next versions of the operating system which is expected to be called Windows Mobile 2005.

Is this official name or just joke? thanks

Mike Cane · 03-24-2004, 02:33 PM

Hey, Ed! Isn't this deja vu all over again? From what I've been reading and seeing, MS took the Sony Way out: Just as Sony's 320x320 for PalmOS was simply 160x160 with more dots, MS has made "VGA" into *QVGA* with this update.

This is progress?!

NewtonDKC · 03-24-2004, 02:53 PM

Well, I guess leaving out any improvements other than VGA and landscape support were what led to it being called 2003 2nd Ed instead of WM 2004. But since these features were originally touted to be parts of WM 2003, then I guess it's not a huge letdown.
If anything, I'm excited (I'm always excited by this sort of thing!). I'm glad that updates to existing Pocket PC's will at least allow the ability to switch to landscape mode easily. That is itself will be a welcome change.
I personally am hoping for a follow up to the 4150 that includes VGA, but should only larger models feature VGA to start with, then I'll stick with my 4150 but hopefully have a 2nd Edition Update to install the day of or soon after the intro! If Toshiba is offering upgrades in May (a shock in itself - "upgrade" and "Toshiba" in the same sentence without the phrase "not offering"!), then presumably HP would have one ready then too. Here's hoping! :-)

Ed Hardy · 03-24-2004, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by huangzhinong
Is this official name or just joke? thanks

I was told by a source in the handheld industry (but not anyone at Microsoft) that's what the next version will be called. I guess that goes in the "rumor" category but it's definitely a source I trust.

Scott R · 03-24-2004, 03:33 PM

These improvements are nice, and I'm hoping that HP offers an upgrade for my h4155 (and sooner rather than later), but it amazes me how MS still doesn't "get it" in terms of usability. Not only did they not fix some of the usability problems that have plagued the PPC OS since the beginning such as:
1) Having a tiny round "OK" button in the top right while having normal/better sized and placed rectangular "Cancel" buttons.
2) No built-in task switching or ability to kill tasks.

Fortunately, the first one could be fixed by developers simply ignoring MS' screwed up usability guidelines, and the second one can be fixed by installing one of several utilities (I use the freeware PocketNav).

Now, they've introduced a new usability problem: You have to go into the Settings panel to swtich between portrait and landscape mode? You've gotta be kidding me. I don't see why some developer shouldn't be able to develop a small hack to put an icon on the title bar to handle this, though. Hopefully, that will happen soon. But how could they not think of this? Unbelievable!

I'm not surprised that there isn't more meat behind the other new features, though I would have liked to have seen PIE get multi-window support. I suppose I'll have to keep using the freeware ftxPBrowser for that.

Scott

ctitanic · 03-24-2004, 03:35 PM

The fact that the guys from www.pdafrance.com got a copy of WM2k3SE running on a e80x makes me think that this update is generic like the EUU, this means that they come from MS and can be installed in any PPC (OEMs don't have to change anything on them)

http://www.pdafrance.com/articles/ar...ielsppc&id=351