Hmm, I'm guessing that Gizmodo's John Herrman is not impressed with Windows Mobile 6.5...

Windows Mobile 6.5 Review: There's No Excuse For This

After reading that subject line, I hopped over to T-Mobile.com, logged in, and checked to see if TMo had a Windows Mobile 6.5 update ready for my HTC Touch Pro2. Not finding it there, I popped back to the article and continued reading.

Anyone who has been following Windows Mobile's decline from near-greatness (hey, it had its moments as a mobile platform leader a few years ago) won't be surprised by John's comments and assessment.

At best, Windows Mobile 6.5 is a last ditch effort to through thin sandbags at a rising river of superior mobile platforms like the iPhone, webOS, and Android. Microsoft had to throw something into the fray while it kept working on the much delayed Windows Mobile 7.

So, what am I hoping to get out of this apparently substandard release?

- A better web browsing experience. The current Windows Mobile 6.1 web browser is near useless. Yes, the IE6 based browser in Windows Mobile 6.5 is also ancient. But, it is less ancient that what I have now. And, if it does half as well as Skyfire, Opera Mobile or Safari Mobile, that will be ok (my bar is not set very high)
- I'm hoping the specific upgrade for the Touch Pro2 will break fewer apps. For example, Celio's Redfly beta driver locked up the TP2 to the point where I had to perform a hard reset. My perenial favrotes from Ilium Software, eWallet and Screen Capture, work at about 90% and 40% levels on the TP2 running Windows Mobile 6.1
- Better support for the TP2's crippled QWERTY keyboard (it is missing about a half-dozen important keys).