A bit negative?
@Bunglebear: That's because there's been a lot of info floating around about WinMo 6.5 for months, so none of it's really new news. In fact, given that HTC's TouchFlow (and the already-mentioned PointUI) have been wrapping up WinMo in a (slightly more) usable GUI than MS's efforts for months shows what a poor effort this is from the folks at MS.
The fact is, you can see from the screenshots already released that there are still 16x16px icons dotted around the place, meaning you'll still struggle to use the devices effectively with chewed fingernails and a lack of stylus.
But ironically, the fundamental problem with WinMo is not actually the GUI; I have a TyTN2 and manage perfectly well using the hardware keyboard and softkeys most of the time, with the odd well-placed fingertip for the exceptional circumstances.
No, the problem with WinMo is the underlying OS is still flawed in so many ways. It regularly slows down, hangs, crashes, reboots and is generally shonky (see, they've had the 'real' Windows experience on mobiles for years). I get sick and tired of missing calls because of the lack of proper pre-emptive behaviour which means that if a call comes in while I'm doing *anything* on the phone, by the time it's responded to my wild finger-stabbing, the voicemail's kicked in.
Some galactically stupid design decisions mean that functions which could be hugely powerful (such as ActiveSync) work in such a counter-intuitive way that they prevent the device from being really useful. The fact that you have to install Resco Explorer (or similar) to get proper network connectivity (access to UNC paths, etc) just shows that the OS is behind the times, and I don't expect 6.5 to be much better than a GUI refresh.
WinMo 7 shows hints of being what WM6 always should have been, but by the time that's out it'll be way too late. I suspect that by then the market will have polarised into the iPhone ('consumer') market, for people who just want a stylish phone which works and does a bit of email etc, and Android ('geek'/'pro') market, with a more open development platform and better hardware support (i.e., lots of different individual handsets, all pushing the platform to its limits), leaving WinMo trailing as the "what might have been" option.
It still astonishes me to think that MS have been dicking around with this Mobile OS for 15 years, and yet they've only now realised what they need to do with it. A little foresight, and they could possibly have challenged all mobile platforms - and not just Apple et al in the smartphone arena, but Nokia, etc too.....