Other Applications

Windows Media Player Mobile remains another strength of the Windows Mobile platform.  Any device running Windows Mobile 5.0 will be PlaysForSure compatible, and will support all WMA audio and WMV video content.  In addition, if you have a Media Center PC, you can transcode your recorded television onto your Windows Mobile device.  Given that prices have fallen sharply on 1 GB and 2 GB flash memory cards, these iPod-for-free features are a great plus.  This functionality was previously available only to Pocket PC 2003 SE users.  Anyone with a subscription music service or Media Center PC should be tempted by Windows Media Player Mobile.

Windows Media Player Mobile 

Windows Mobile 5.0 also adds OS-level GPS support, making it easier for both manufacturers and third-party apps to create GPS-aware products.  Although third-party drivers were available for Pocket PC 2003, native GPS support will allow applications to easily take advantage of GPS features through the built-in API.

GPS Settings 

Internet Explorer Mobile is also an important part of Windows Mobile, particularly for devices with built-in Wifi.  IE Mobile is capable of rendering most pages well, although it appears that there is minimal javascript support so complex pages can be a problem.  IE Mobile should work well for most sites, however, here you can see BentUser rendered faithfully:

Internet Explorer Mobile 

Persistent Storage

One of the biggest problems with previous Pocket PC and Palm devices is the lack of truly persistent storage.  If you forget to recharge your device and the main memory loses power, any data not synced to a computer or copied onto a memory card is toast.  HP offerred an innovative feature that allowed you to store files onto persistent internal storage, but it was not available on low-end models, not to mention on the products of other manufacturers.  Windows Mobile 5.0 has built-in support for persistent storage at the OS level.  However, hardware manufacturers may not be required to use it.  Dell, for example, is offerring free WM 5 upgrades to owners of some of its Axim models - models which do not have the necessary built-in flash memory - an early indication that Microsoft will not be mandating that this feature be supported.