Windows Mobile 6.1 Is Go!

Microsoft announced the official launch of Windows Mobile 6.1 yesterday, bringing a fresh update to the mobile OS. After listening to customers (or watching the competition, more likely), Microsoft has added Flash and Silverlight support, streamlined texting to feel more like Instant Messaging, cleaned up the interface, and made the entire deal easier to set-up. All welcome changes.

The biggest change, however, is the new Internet Explorer being released with the 6.1 update. Taking a cue from the iPhone's Safari and Opera Mini, the new IE Mobile will render cull websites for the first time. You will be able to zoom in and out of sections of the page to make the readable, similar to Opera Mini. And with the new Flash and Silverlight support, you can expect more pages to load a bit more solidly.

Now the big question is whether this is truly enough to keep WinMo floating until version 7 releases. Not many of us here at Homotron are big fans of WinMo, but it does seem they are taking a few proactive steps with this release. Personally, I've been looking at picking up the Pantech Duo or the AT&T Tilt, which are both able to receive this update, and this release makes me creep just a little bit more toward one of those phones..

To see if you're WinMo phone is able to receive the upgrade, check out the Official Press Release.

[via: Ars Technica]