Late last week HTC quietly released the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for the S620. A few eagle
eyed bloggers posted about it. The first thing I found was that the upgrade process
doesn't work with Windows Vista, when it reboots the device into bootloader mode the
computer fails to connect. I had to run the upgrade from a Windows XP machine (where
it worked flawlessy). Upon rebooting I had a fresh clean Windows Mobile 6 device.
I noticed that HTC had left the default "Mobile Operator" screen during boot up, only
after running its initial setup was this removed. Everything was working great, I
was able to setup my exchange server in ActiveSync and get all my PIM data back onto
the device. The lock dialog is slightly altered in this release, rather than tapping
the right softkey to cancel you have to tap the right soft-key to open the menu and
select the second option (option 1 is "Reset Password" but is disabled). The reason
I often cancel this screen is because I just want to check the home screen for the
time / next appointment. The time can optionally be displayed on the unlock screen
but only for the key lock, I no longer use that because my exchange provider enforces
a password.
There are a few fancy UI features, the improvements to the calendar day screen are
welcome along with the ability to edit task items. Essentially there are few differences
to Windows Mobile 5.0 in the look and feel and layout of start menu and applications.
One interesting change is that the alarm can now be set to operate only on weekdays,
or every day. It's still not as flexible as other approaches, and the default sound
applied to the alarm is rather alarming to say the least!
With my initial success I then tried docking the device with my main Vista machine.
On this machine I'm running the latest Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1. When I connected
the S620 popped up a message telling me to upgrade to ActiveSync 4.5 or later on my
PC. Fellow MVP Jaap van Ekris was able
to point out a simple workaround. Just go to Start > Settings > Connections
> USB to PC and uncheck "Enable advanced network functionality". It now partners
correctly with my Vista machine.
Read the complete post at http://peterfoot.net/HTCS620WindowsMobile6UpgradeExperience.aspx