[HTC Startrek] kingbear2:
Ranting and Raving

I have a few comments on Windows Mobile 6.1 and I figured that here would be the best place to voice them and see what you guys think.

Let's start with the things that I like.

1) The sliding Home Screen - very cool.

2) The ability to have recent programs show up first when you press start - even though I don't use this feature, because I manually set it in the registry, I still think it's a nice addition.

3) The ability to use smartdial (which is really smarttype) in Messaging is ultra-cool. For those of you who don't know, you can start typing a word while in the SMS screen for example, and it will narrow down the SMS's that have that word in it.

4) Built-in Copy/Paste. I like it, but the truth is I've always used the free VitoCopyPaste which I believe works better.

5) Battery Percentage as a Home Screen plugin.

Hmm... unfortunately, there are not that many more things that I can think of that I like, besides the updated UI which is nicer.

Now for the rants. If only MS could see this list. I'll start with things that specifically changed in WM6.1 and then move to more general things.

1) ActiveSync using Exchange OTA: It now no longer shows when the last sync was. I have to click Menu>Status to see that. Now why would they remove a simple thing like that? It now just says "Connected" which is weird becase even after a phone call, where I know for sure it's no longer connected, it still says that.

2) I don't like the new Call History icons. I would also love the ability to change the amount of recent calls to store. I know there's an option in the registry, but setting it to anything more than 350 has no effect.

3) I like how the new Task Manager shows more stuff and more information, but what happened to pressing "2" to be able to End All Tasks. Now I have to go into the Menu first.

4) Threaded SMS: I hate it - and I like it. But I hate it more than I like it. Occasionaly it's convenient to be able to see the thread instead of going into the sent items to see what I last wrote, but now with the ability to search through the text's, I would rather it not be threaded. And here's the thing. If MS wanted to make it threaded because people were requesting it, that's fine. But at least have the ability to change it to non-threaded. Why completely remove that feature?

5) In Messaging: I don't like that they replaced the left softkey with Delete instead of New. I write new messages more often than I delete them.

6) I do not like the new calculator. I could probably just grab the exe from the old ROM.

7) In Calendar, the left softkey is now "Reply" instead of "Edit". Now let me ask you...how often does someone send you a meeting request that you need to reply to? I would say rarely. So if it happens, I'll go into the menu to reply to it. Otherwise, I want that button to say Edit.

8) Maybe this is a bug, but sometimes my home screen will show multiple new text messages when there is only 1. Also, if you go to where it says 2 New Text Messages and press the center button, but don't actually read the messages, when you go back to the home screen it shows 0. That's a big problem for me.

More General Things:

1) It's about time WM came out with a usable File Manager. The one built in sucks.

2) Exchange ActiveSync has got to be re-written. With my BlackBerry, I always, always get my e-mails right away. If I'm on a call, when I hang up, I'll get the new e-mails before I even have a chance to make another call. But with WM, many times it just gets caught with itself and forgets to sync. If I'm on a long phone call, I almost always have to manually sync afterwards, because WM does not realize that I'm off the phone and it can sync.

There are other things that I can't think of right now. If anyone has anything else to add to the list, feel free. And if you think I'm right or wrong about the things I posted here, please reply. I'm curious to see what others think.