Updated Windows Mobile 6.5 to bring new keyboard, more capacitive friendly UI?

Windows Mobile 6.5 is really just a stop gap killing time before Windows Mobile 7.0 gets released next year. This means that there is plenty of things that can be improved, like the QWERTY keyboard for instance. The guys at XDA have found what looks like a new QWERTY in a DLL file for Windows Mobile 6.5 28002 which the guys at XDA are calling 6.5.3. While we have seen much better solutions from HTC and other manufacturers, if the new keyboard is released as part of an upgrade, Windows Mobile 6.5 users may end up with a choice between a couple of good QWERTY keyboards.

Now that the first Windows Mobile handset with a capacitive touchscreen has been released in the form of the HTC HD2, the OS needs to be able to be compatible with the finger friendly display and be reconfigured for a world with no stylus use (although as we reported yesterday, HTC is about to launch a stylus designed for capacitive screens on devices like the HD2). It seems that a Microsoft representative talked a bit with Mordy Gilden from Mopocket and said that the leaked photos of a Windows Mobile UI you see below are genuine work by the Redmond based firm and are designed for a version of the OS that will be friendlier toward capacitive screens. All clickable buttons are removed from the top bar which shrinks in favor of a bottom bar that holds everything. Now the Start button, X/ok button, left & right softkeys as well as theon-screen keyboard toggle switch are all on the same bottom area making it easier to click with your thumb.

It might not be the next upgrade of Windows Mobile, but a finger friendly build is in the cards as such screens on Windows Mobile phones replacing resistive touchscreens seem to be the future. The Microsoft rep-who asked that his name not be used-said that the upgrade will not be entitled 6.5.1 and continued to say that there might not be any upgrade at all and there could be an alternative version for ODM's to be used with different types of displays-like capacitive touchscreens. Whatever the future brings, at least it appears that Microsoft is aware that changes need to occur in the QWERTY keyboard and in the UI considering the apparent death of the resistive screen for Windows Mobile smartphones.

source: Xda-developersforum via pocketnow (QWERTY),  Mopocket via the::unwired (UI)