Ask Microsoft

This column sponsored by Windows Mobile.

Microsoft recently announced the release of Windows Mobile 5.0 at the Windows Mobile Developers Conference in Las Vegas. This Q and A focuses on that release.

Q: From the consumer's perspective, what are the most important features of the new Windows Mobile 5.0 OS and software suite?

Windows Mobile 5.0 is the most exciting release since 2002 and offers a ton of improvements based on customer feedback. Below are a few of the great new things we have done with Windows Mobile 5.0 to enhance our mobile software:

User Interface:

Windows Mobile 5.0 offers a great new mobile experience for the end user. The primary goals were to make information more accessible and faster to access. One of the most significant improvements is the addition of softkeys to the Pocket PC, which support improved one-handed navigation and faster access to key functionality. The HTC Universal, the first UMTS Windows Mobile-based device that has been announced by T-Mobile in Germany as the MDA IV, is a great example of a partner taking advantage of the softkeys and improved support for integrated keyboards. We have also added two grid view options for the Smartphone Start menu (3 x 3 with no text or 3x4 with text) in addition to the traditional list view.

Windows Mobile 5.0 has softkeys at the bottom of the screen for making menu choices, etc.

Office applications:

Windows Mobile 5.0 offers outstanding functionality around the familiar business applications people use on a daily basis—Outlook and Office. Our dedicated team spent time improving this experience to enable people to be more productive with improved support for managing email attachments and making it faster to access information.

• Outlook Mobile Messaging—In addition to the rich icon support for email attachments and meeting requests just like Outlook on the desktop, we have added support for including high and low priority e-mail indicators, to help people quickly identify important messages. Outlook Mobile messages have a new design that clearly separates the header from the body of the message, and moves attachments like Word, Excel and PowerPoint files into the header.
• Word Mobile—Support for viewing tables, lists, and images from documents created on the PC. Now business customers can feel confident that when they open and edit an attachment, the document they attach and send back will preserve the original formatting when it is opened on the PC. The addition of softkeys offers an improved user experience, particularly with devices with integrated keyboards or in landscape mode with a BT keyboard (by the way, we've added a Bluetooth keyboard driver!).