Windows Mobile 6.1 gets official

After much speculations over the past few weeks, Microsoft has finally gone and done it - it has made Windows Mobile 6.1 official at CTIA in the US. It's a refresher of the now aging mobile OS which will soon be replaced entirely.

Before you start jumping up and down with excitement though, err... don't. It is just about all you can expect from a .1 upgrade as Microsoft spends most of its efforts finishing off Window Mobile 7, which should see the light of day at the end of this year.

Most of the changes are said to be "skin deep" with changes to the home screen, improved settings area, updated Internet Explorer Mobile with IE6 tech and h.264, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight support. You have some new fonts and colors for theme freaks along with an updated camera interface and native threaded SMS abilities but the word on the street from the folks who have actually used it is that it is nothing special. Bluetooth will now also automatically try and connect up headsets when they are in range and enabled trying all known passcodes.

At the end of the day though, Gizmodo sums it all up very well by saying "Overall responsiveness isn't horrible, as it only seriously lags when trying to get back to the home screen. The 6.1 update is a slight improvement over its predecessor, but Windows Mobile still has some work to do."

You will also find a hands-on by Gizmodo along with details on device makers intending to deploy WM6.1 over at Engadget now in beautiful magenta.