So we can bring on WM6 - but why?

[F*SH]

Hi all

I just got myself sent a Hermes the other day and I was looking around here, my favourite XDA resource, for nifty things I could do with it. One thing that seems to be all the rage is upgrading to WM6. Now, I'm all in favour of upgrading and the amount of information and material here is, well, staggering. Overwhelming even. But, for all I read, I miss one critical thing: why do we upgrade to WM6? What does it give us that WM5 doesn't?

All I see, at the moment, is a swankier interface and a faster operation. But neither of those are big sellers in themselves and don't justify the bricking and incompatibility risks. So, what's the big appeal that I've missed? I guess I'm looking for an excuse to do this :D

Lastly, as I mentioned, there's almost too much information about all this. i can follow the guides and tools for installation but one thing will vex me if I was to upgrade - and that's which ROM to use. Now I'm certain every one of you has a favourite and so I'm not looking for a definitive recommendation, but what the hot ones that I should look into at the moment? As I see it, the "XDA Live" and "Black" see pretty popular..

Cheers!

[wywywywy]

Three reasons for me.

1. TomTom doesn't occassionally freeze
2. Easier to set as a modem
3. More responsive menus, button presses, etc

By the way WM6 is more like WM5 second edition rather than a brand new system.

[ronfin44]

Three reasons for me.

1. TomTom doesn't occassionally freeze
2. Easier to set as a modem
3. More responsive menus, button presses, etc

By the way WM6 is more like WM5 second edition rather than a brand new system.


Pretty much says it all. I never soft reset anymore. More memory, faster than WM5, better tweaks, and has some things WM5 didn't cooked in to the ROM. As for the risk of bricking, that's an extremely low risk, very minimal actually, if you follow the guide and wiki. :)

[.VIBE]

and html email is not to be sneezed at.

[JasenR]

Because we can! :D

[Sleuth255]

Mobile Office 2k7 can read o2k7 native formats. You will never see this on WM5 unless some imgfs God with a lot of time on his/her hands ports it there....

Native SD card encryption is Huge. The A2DP stack is a thing of wonder too....

[mikef1182]

Because we can! :D

exactly!!!!!!!!

[isomaniac]

My softbank x01ht came with WM5 and the only upgrade I did was the radio upgrade to 1.40.

May be it is my luck, but my x01ht seems really stable in its original ROM version (WM5 aku 2), I have never hard reset and the machine seems really stable. So my need to upgrade to WM6 to avoid system hang is not really existing.

Also, I use a lot of BUILT-IN functions such as Push Email, Wifi and Chinese support (my x01ht was flashed with a Hong Kong version 838 pro ROM before sold to me). If ANY one of such functions is WORSE in WM6 than in WM5, than WM6 is a no no for me. I can't stand any frequent freeze of the x01ht because I now depend solely on it for my daily phone/PIM use. If I don't have it working 100% normal, then I will lose many important phone calls.

[hardcore]

I see WM6 really as an evolution of WM5. In WM6, MS has fixed many bugs that were in WM5, for example:

- Crappy A2DP
- WiFi now supports WPA
- HTML email
- Faster and more stable
- I'm sure MS has updated little things here and there to make WM6 more telco-standards (GSM, etc.) compliant

[Oppressa]

Well, are you still using Windows 95 on your PC?

My reasons for upgrading have been for (in order of importance) the speed, bug fixes, better memory management, the X button actually closing the app not just minimising it, Office updates, better compatibility and usability in the new Internet Explorer, etc.

When I bought my TyTN I was shocked by how slowly it responded to user input compared to previous Pocket PCs I'd owned.

After the developments that started occurring here a few months ago, there really was no turning back. I upgraded and now the OS is quick and very responsive. WM6 has been a godsend. The phone application also doesn't take 3-4 seconds to load when I press the call button to answer a call like it used to!

WM6 also has a much more polished look to it I think.

[bingobob]

hold on, TomTom still freezes on mine with WM6 !

I still love it though (tomtom that is and wm6)

Let me know if this is solved will ya ?

ta

bb

[Ogier]

I did it simply because WM5 was a little unstable and I love experimenting / playing with stuff like this.

A side benefit which I didn't know I would get is the LVSW version that I installed allows WPA2 & WPA2-PSK authentication on the Wi-Fi. That meant I could run my Hermes at the same security as my network and didn't have to modify my wireless router and other PCs.

There's probably still a few other good reasons that haven't been mentioned in this thread yet.

Cheers, Oggy.

[Mac.uni]

Bug fixing, more speed,...

With WM5 I had issues like the phone applicatoin reacted too slowy on an incomming call. so i missed the call. Or sometimes it even didn't ring.
WM6 works in that point.

[pietrucci]

hold on, TomTom still freezes on mine with WM6 !

I still love it though (tomtom that is and wm6)

Let me know if this is solved will ya ?

ta

bbDid you install TomTom 6.03??? As of that version I never had freezes anymore...

[tomcat777]

I to have tomtom lockup and sloooooowwwww to get map directions. Please I miss my fast tomtom 6. I am using 6.03. I wonder if i did something wrong. I never had this problem with wm5.

[larsuck]

One benefit of wm6 is that the hackers, tweakers, rom cookers, and random slackers such as myself keep this hermes wm6 forum active (albeit sometimes unforgiving to newcomers). If you have a question about wm6 on a hermes, it is probably already answered here. Can as much be said for the wm5 forums?

[LazPL]

Personally I was about to ditch my TyTN. The default OS was infuriatingly slow, buggy, and had me resetting several times per day. If I hadn't stumbled upon XDA-develoopers and started flashing WM6, I would probably be a Nokia user again... WM6 just works. I've flashed maybe 10 different versions now, also the radio, and it's completely worth it. No big risk of bricking if you do your homework first.

[unwired4]

... faster operation. But neither of those are big sellers in themselves and don't justify the bricking and incompatibility risks. So, what's the big appeal that I've missed?



I don't think anyone with half a brain has bricked their phone doing an OS only upgrade (especially if they read the wiki etc etc)... and you answered your own question... who doesnt want a faster device?

[cuccureddu]

Personally I was about to ditch my TyTN. The default OS was infuriatingly slow, buggy, and had me resetting several times per day. If I hadn't stumbled upon XDA-develoopers and started flashing WM6, I would probably be a Nokia user again... WM6 just works. I've flashed maybe 10 different versions now, also the radio, and it's completely worth it. No big risk of bricking if you do your homework first.

I feel the same way as LazPL in that I was about to stop using the phone.

What I hated most about WM5 was a lack of real integration between the phone and contacts funtions, eg.:

. If you chose a call from the recent call list you could not access the contact directly (eg. if you just tried calling someone on their fixed line and wanted to try their mobile, you could not just click on the recent call you just made and select a different type of number, you had to select the name again from the list). In WM6 you can do this
. If you saved an unknown number from your recent call list it would automatically create a new contact, instead of giving you the option to save it in an existing contact (and choosing what type of number it was) or creating a new contact. In WM6 you can.

For me these 2 were just basic everyday usability features that I can find in the cheapest phones, and totally unacceptable to be missing in a €600 device. On the basis of these 2 alone, upgrading to WM6 was worth it.

In addition, my original Orange ROM had some bugs that were just pathetic (although these could have been cured with a newer ROM, or perhaps were due to the original radio ROM - which I also upgraded - and not the OS):
. Calls to busy numbers started blaring the busy tone through the loudspeaker (very loud)
. Trying to answer a call waiting would freeze the phone and require a soft reset

Hope that helps.

[Acuum2]

Pastings WIFI keys!!!

I've not been able to paste a wifi key in my WM05 ROM somone told me it was security...

rubish i think M$ to implement the copy/paste code.

Modem -> Bluetooth PAN is HUGELY more stable, my connection used to drop all the time in modem mode, i can now sit for 2 hours on my laptop at coffee shops and surf the web, whithout paying silly 1 day WIFI pass prices!

[mross]

Well, after several flashes (black, lvsw, custel, etc...) and several weeks of "wm6" on my stuff - I went back to wm5 :(
The only thing I have to say is: since 9th may 2007 I did NOT make any soft resets on my device. The reason is: I have not to. (it is the time of installing back wm5... )
After coming back to wm5 - my gps programms works, wifi works, internet connections (including umts and hsdpa) and vidocalls works, my bt car handsfree works... When I use hermes as simply office machine - it works...
Generally I have no problems which occurs all the time with wm6 :(
And what about "speed"? The answer is: did not noticed differences... maybe becouse I do not used precision chronometer... :P
And for the end... WM5 is ugly. I hate it. But I have to use it to prevent stroke on continous soft resets needs on wm6...
I admire people which fight with "next release of wm6"... Keep fighting... I'm too lazy, too old or too stupid for it... :)
Regards.

[id242]

Hi all
All I see, at the moment, is a swankier interface and a faster operation. But neither of those are big sellers in themselves and don't justify the bricking and incompatibility risks. So, what's the big appeal that I've missed? I guess I'm looking for an excuse to do this :D

Windows Mobile 6 is powered by Windows CE 5.2 and is strongly linked to Windows Vista, Windows Live, Microsoft Office and Exchange 2007 products. It has an excellent integration back into exchange and Exchange 2007 driven to the mobile devices. The Windows Mobile 6 form factor is another major improvement, and is much simpler to use.

* Based on Windows CE 5.0 (version 5.2)
* Supports 640x480 (VGA), 320x240 (QVGA), and 320x320 resolution.
* Advanced Business and Enterprise propositions
* Operating System Live Update
* Improved Remote Desktop access
* Faster, easier application development and distribution
* VoIP (Internet calling) support with AEC (Acoustic Echo Cancelling) and MSRT Audio Codec
* Windows Live for Windows Mobile
* Microsoft Bluetooth Stack greatly improved.
* Storage Card Encryption - Windows Mobile 6-based Pocket PC and Smartphone devices support encryption of data stored in external removable storage cards.
* Smartfilter to search faster through emails, contacts, songs, files, etc.
* Improved Internet Sharing to easily setup your device as a Laptop Modem.
* Outlook Mobile now supports viewing HTML email.
* Ability to search for contacts in an Exchange Server Address Book.
* Support for AJAX, JavaScript and XMLDOM on Internet Explorer Mobile
* Set Out of Office Replies from the device (requires Microsoft Exchange 2007).
* Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) support for selected Operators (like BT in the UK).
* Server Search to Search your entire Exchange mailbox from the device (requires Exchange 2007).
* .NET Compact Framework v2 SP2 in ROM.
* Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition in ROM.
* Office 2007 XML formats.