Windows Phone Thoughts: End User Update 3 Coming Soon

EUU3, the third service pack for the Pocket PC, has been released by Microsoft to the various OEMs. A timeline for release aren't known at this time - most OEMs have to customize certain elements (typically drivers), but based on the timeline for EUU2, we should see OEMs releasing this in November. What does EUU3 add? The biggest addition is Windows Media Player 8.5, and it brings 9 Series Windows Media support with it. I've been told there are performance improvements (I believe in the form of Xscale optimizations), play list management improvements, and integration with Connection Manager. Pocket Internet Explorer now supports moving form fields using the Tab key, and the new default theme is "Bliss". There are also a "bunch of new fixes" that I have no further details on.

I'm most excited about the Windows Media Player 8.5 release - previously code-named "Salsa", the support for 9 Series Windows Media comes in advance of the 9 Series tools being finalized. If you've used the 9 Series Media Encoder (make sure System Restore is turned on before install!), you'll see that it has Pocket PC templates included. If memory serves, there are two new templates - one for the standard-sized playback window, and one for landscape 320 x 240. That's right - true full screen. The bit rate of the full screen files are around 250 Kbps, so the quality of the video is decent, but not spectacular. Once it's released I'll do some testing with the encoder to see what kind of limits there are. I find it strange that in the encoder there's no differentiation between an Xscale Pocket PC at 400 mHZ and a StrongARM unit at 206 mHZ.