The security features are really more like anti-piracy measures, but that’s developer stuff — what about us consumers? Well, the new online portal seems like a solid idea, albeit one that implicitly acknowledges that app browsing is not that great on a WinMo 6.5 phone. You can access the portal from any browser, taking advantage of your computer’s larger screen and faster loading to find apps that much quicker. They’ll be downloaded as soon as you open the Marketplace app on your WinMo device. The site looks nice, too — cleanly organised and easy to use. It’s not a substitute for a good on-device app store, but it’s a nice feature to have. [Windows Team Blog via Engadget]

Warning: Elevator/porno music accompanies this video. It’s not NSFW, but we could well see it accompanying material that is.

The Omnia II has a huge AMOLED touchscreen measuring 3.7 inches, but why Samsung chose to go resistive instead of capacitive for the screen is anyone’s guess. Performance in the video seems okay, but the slight lag is disappointing given the Omnia’s 800MHz processor. The interface seems nice enough if you’re tired of HTC’s TouchFLO UI, I guess, and the phone’s specs aren’t too bad (5MP camera, up to 16GB storage, good video codec support). Overall it should be a fine addition to Verizon’s lineup, but it’s bound to get overshadowed by the upcoming Android releases. [Ai.rs via Engadget]

In this segment of my exclusive interview series with Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer, I brought up the sore subject of Windows Mobile 6.5. After defending it, he cited another product that did well but suffers mounting criticism: Nokia smartphones.

As you can see in the video, Ballmer acknowledges that Windows Mobile 6.5 is receiving negative reviews, but I never get him to actually admit that the platform still needs work. He says, “reviews aside”, he’s happy with what Windows Phones (running 6.5) can do now.

And faced with competition from the iPhone, BlackBerry and others, he contends it’s currently “kind of a horse race”. The only clear leader, market-share wise, is Nokia, and they’re losing ground. When I said that Nokia was another developer currently lambasted by reviewers, Ballmer replied:

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what the critics say, it matters what the customers say.

Perhaps given the power of advertising (still mighty, even if it’s on the decline), there may still be a way for a product to get positive sales despite negative reviews. But the internet has changed that landscape, and the lines between critic and customer blur more every day. We all share knowledge in order to make better choices. So who, in the end, is this customer, who is so different from the critic? Not anyone who reads Gizmodo, that’s for sure.

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions) over the next day, and then the full uncut interview video late Friday.

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?

The shots are branded Windows 6.5.1, but as PocketNow says, we know what 6.5.1 looks like and it definitely doesn’t share the modern, finger-sized aesthetic of these shots. The screenshots cover basics like the call screen, contacts list, mail and onscreen keyboard, and all in all it looks substantially more modern (read: Similar to Android, iPhone, WebOS) than WinMo ever has before. Interestingly, the trademark Windows Start button appears to be a no-show: Is this a conscious choice to move away from the WinMo of the past? [PocketNow]

Apparently, these minor improvements (slider, toggle switch, soft keys) were initially slated for WInMo 6.5.1, but so far they have not shown up in the build. Again, these shots are only a rumour at this point, but some of the elements do seem to be in line with earlier leaks. [WMExperts via WMpoweruser]

Some of the especially jarring UI elements, like the Windows 3.1-esque radio buttons and aging contacts app, have been given a bubbly, antialiased skin, which, like it or not, is at the bare minimum less retro than what was there before. The start menu has been pulled from the top tray to the bottom menu, and the formerly text-based contextual buttons, present since 5.x, have been awkwardly iconified. If 6.5 was elective plastic surgery, 6.5.1 is a new suit.

Microsoft’s given no indication as to when 6.5.1 is due to ship, or what the final product will look like—a while back I posed the question to Robbie Bach directly a few weeks back, and it was immediately deflected. Even more to the point, there’s no guarantee that it’ll ever come out, and that these aren’t just escaped beta-chunks, slotted into cooked ROMs by eager homebrewers. Even if 6.5.1 shipped tomorrow, though, to the WinMo fans who’ve stuck it out this long, it’d be a pittance. [IStartedSomething via Download Squad]

The Browsers: Even if the latest version of Mobile IE isn’t spectacular, Window Mobile is still a great OS for browsing the web. Opera Mobile, now in 9.7 beta, renders pages about as well as the best WebKit browsers on the iPhone, Android and the Pre, and promises compressed rendering for faster pageloads, as well as some Flash support. Skyfire can play back Flash videos without a hiccup. You don’t have these kinds of options anywhere else, at least for now. Bolt and Opera Mini both optimise the hell out of your pages, helping them load amazingly quick.

The Hardware: I’ve seen my fair share of clunky Windows Mobile hardware. I’ve also seen the OS powering some of the most spectacular handsets in the world, like the Toshiba TG01. Even disregarding the really sexy stuff, the average customer has a lot to choose from, from touchscreen-only devices to sliding QWERTY phones to candybar-style messaging devices. And given some of the latest from HTC, there’s plenty more to come.

There aren’t a whole lot of fans of the stock Window Mobile interface. It feels old, to put it gently. Handset manufacturers do all kinds of interesting stuff with alternative interfaces, skinning Windows Mobile until you can barely recognise it. This keeps things interesting, but so do the fantastic third-party shells like SBP Mobile Shell and PointUI Home 2, which anyone can install. These are total transformations you can apply in a matter of seconds, which is basically unique to WinMo.

Tethering: We’ve been grousing about the lack of tethering on other platforms for a long, long time. All the while, Windows Mobile has had a dedicated settings panel for enabling tethering built right in. [Pic via MakeTechEasier]

Infinite tweaking: Over the last few years, hobbyists have reached deeper into Windows Mobile’s guts than it seems Microsoft has, and they’ve come up with some impressive stuff. Just about anything can be changed swapped out or customised. Want a new onscreen keyboard? A different system font? A entirely new homescreen layout? Deep changes to power management, processor control or memory allocation? Automatic orientation controls for all apps? Voice controls? It’s all just a matter of installing a .CAB file or two.

Open apps: This is a double-edged sword. Windows Mobile’s new Marketplace doesn’t have a whole lot to offer yet, and without a good centralised source, it can be a pain to find apps, to find out if they’re compatible, and to get a decent deal. That said, there is literally nobody between you and your apps. If someone wants to make a VoIP app that uses your carrier’s network, they can do that. If they want to stream live video over the air, they can do that too. You might face a reckoning with your carrier, but that’s fine: at least it was your choice.

Q3 financials are in, and they show nothing but pain:

Smartphone maker HTC Corp reported Tuesday an 18% drop in third-quarter net profit… The company, the world’s largest maker of phones using Microsoft Corp.’s operating system by shipments, said its net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 fell to NT$5.76 billion (US$179.0 million) from NT$6.99 billion a year earlier.

This is worse than predicted. So OK, let’s think: What could it be? Look closely:

The company, the world’s largest maker of phones using Microsoft Corp.’s operating system by shipments

Ah, right, this. As much publicity as HTC’s Android phones get from the tech press, they’re still a Windows Mobile company at their core, a fact which is becoming more ballast than fuel. That, combined with all the money they’re spending on changing that (i.e. marketing their Android push) makes being HTC right now a pricey proposition. Pull through, guys! Then you can put Android on the Touch HD2 and we can all go home happy. If that’s not your plan, somehow, then kindly sulk off and die. [WSJ]

Today, Motorola’s Christy Wyatt said that Motorola would be waiting for a next generation version of Windows Mobile before developing a new product for the platform. Instead, the company is focusing on “two strategic platforms” — one of them confirmed to be Android.

But wow, WinMo getting turned down by Motorola is pretty much the equivalent of asking the school’s most shunned female outcast to the dance, only to learn that she’d prefer to sit in misery at home rather than dance in public agony with you. [phone scoop via MobileCrunch]

But, from here on out, he says that with Windows Mobile the “pace of innovation is gonna accelerate dramatically going forward” so you’re going to see a “set of speedy innovations from us over the next 6, 12, and 18 months”.

We really hope so.