Windows Mobile v5.0: In The Wild

Microsoft released Windows Mobile v5.0 (aka Windows CE v5.1) to manufacturing on Tuesday, in conjunction with Bill Gates' keynote at the 2005 Mobile & Embedded DevCon. Notable advancements over Windows Mobile 2003 include:

• Increased 'plug-in' platform flexibility to, for example, enable partners to implement push-to-talk and videoconferencing features
• Support for UMTS cellular data networks and Wi-Fi for Smartphones
• Persistent memory storage support to better utilize available internal flash memory
• PowerPoint Mobile, joining the renamed Excel Mobile and Word Mobile office applets
• Hard drive and USB2 support

Coincident with Windows Mobile v5.0, Microsoft is upgrading ActiveSync to v4, an update that disappointingly removes the ability to sync a Windows CE-powered device to a Windows-based client PC over Wi-Fi (a feature which I personally use quite often with my Dell Axim X5 Pocket PC).

For more information, see the following resources:

• The Pocket PC Thoughts and Smartphone Thoughts websites are comprehensive one-stop-shopping portals to everything related to Windows Mobile v5.
• The Microsoft press release page also offers links to an audio-video stream of Bill Gates' keynote (which I'm listening to as I type this).
• Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5 homepage is a good jump-off spot for related areas on Microsoft's website.
• Chris De Herrera's Pocket PC FAQ site offers oodles of screenshots, for both Pocket PC and Smartphone proliferations of the O/S.
• Pocket PC Magazine has a writeup.
• Pocket PC and Smartphone v5 SDKs are available for download, along with SDK documentation.