WM5 AKU2 Update in March?

[AgentXXL]

I attended a Microsoft Technet seminar last Thursday and a good part of the seminar was about enabling a mobile workforce. Of course this all revolved around M$ products, but it did provide me with some fairly useful info.

Most interesting was the M$ rep stating that OEMs would be releasing the AKU2 update for WM5 'sometime this March'. A number of us asked if this could be confirmed for any specific vendors but the response was that most OEMs were on target for a March 2006 release. Basically it comes down to the fact that each OEM must customize a WM5 release to work with their devices - a X51v update could indeed be different than a X51. Not news to many of us, but just thought I'ld share it for those that haven't heard it before.

Of other note was the question about the possibility of a 'centralized update mechanism'. If M$ can support multiple hardware devices and platforms through Windows/Microsoft Update, why can't they do the same for Windows Mobile? No real answer was given other than it was being investigated.

Let's all hope that someday we can ActiveSync or browse to Windows Mobile Update. And that the OEMs (ESPECIALLY DELL) do indeed release the AKU2 update this March.

sry what's AKU2?

[Mazzani]

Same question, what is AKU2?

[cng]

Adaptation Kit Update 2.0? Lol, I think I'm pretty close. Its basically sets of updates for WM5. Right now A06 uses AKU1.1.

[AdamaDBrown]

AKU2 is Adaptation Kit Update 2.0. It's an upgrade pack for Windows Mobile 5 that adds push email, remote security, and Bluetooth headphone support.

As I understand it, the Windows Mobile developers have been working towards a plug-and-play system for updates, but it's not there yet.

[silkshadow]

Its the bluetooth spec that basically allows you to use a stereo bluetooth headphone with the device. It does other cool stuff too ;).

Edit: Oops posting at the same time as someone else who has better knowledge ;).

[shady]

Does AKU2's Bluetooth support will be much better than the current one? Will it be like Broadcomm's ? If not, I would have to return my axim and ask for full refund since it's a useless device with crippled Bluetooth.

[dvmed]

There is no guarantee that the missing profiles (like A2DP, audio gateway, PAN) are going to be implemented in AKU 2.0 . Microsoft added these profiles since AKU 1.1, Dell just didn't implement them. And even if they did I doubt we will be seeing anything that will come close to the Widcomm bluetooth manager.

[AgentXXL]

As others have stated, AKU2 is an update to Windows Mobile 5. Sort of like SP2 for Windows XP. If you are a Technet subscriber and have access to the CTP (Community Technology Preview) downloads, there is a version of the WinCE 5.0 Device Emulator that has a fully implemented AKU2 feature set. Alas it's only an emulator that runs on your Windows PC, but at least you can play with it and see if the profiles you want are supported.

As also mentioned, even if they are supported, there is no guarantee that Dell will implement any of them. We just have to keep our fingers crossed.

[cng]

There would be much BT features but wont be presented in an easy to use interface like other BT stacks. None the less, with a bit of tweaking, the new MS BT stack is going to fix up many BT problems and would be able to do almost anything.

Will x50v work with wm5 installed on it?

[dvmed]

There would be much BT features but wont be presented in an easy to use interface like other BT stacks. None the less, with a bit of tweaking, the new MS BT stack is going to fix up many BT problems and would be able to do almost anything.

No disrespect, but I don't think you realize how inferior the X51's bluetooth service manager is compared to the Widcomm bluetooth manager. Most of those who are familiar the previous bt manager will miss it terribly due to it's ease of configuration. I don't think any amount of tweaking will be able to set the baud rate, flow rate, force com port number, authenticate, allow or disallow each particular service without messing with the registry. That's just not the way it should be done.

[Saklander]

I want/need the aku 2.0 give it to us ms and dell!!!

[nemattoad]

For the 10000000th time Dell is NOT the OEM of the x51v. HTC is. Dell can only pressure HTC for a ROM update, they do NOT make it themselves.

[netsyd]

For the 10000000th time Dell is NOT the OEM of the x51v. HTC is. Dell can only pressure HTC for a ROM update, they do NOT make it themselves.

I'm sorry... Could you repeat that? I'm still confused.