Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade available for Samsung Jack

The Samsung Jack.

(Credit: Samsung)

Fans of the Samsung Jack, I have some good news for you.

Samsung announced Wednesday that its Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade is now available for the smartphone. The upgrade includes Windows Phone 6.5 Standard Edition and a handful of software enhancements. Major improvements include:

• Windows Marketplace for Mobile: Provides access to secure shopping. You can download the application instantly to the phone.
• Internet Explorer Mobile 6: It delivers the same Web-browsing capability as Internet Explorer for a desktop computer, including support for multimedia-rich content like Flash animation, YouTube, and social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
• AT&T Wi-Fi integration: Samsung Jack users can now easily access more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots in the U.S.
• Vlingo for Windows Phone: This voice-command feature lets you send text or e-mail messages, call friends, search the Web, open native applications, etc., just by speaking into the phone.

The upgrade requires a 32-bit Windows computer running either Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 (for Windows Vista, 7) or ActiveSync 4.5 (for Windows XP). According to Samsung, the upgrade process takes between 5 and 10 minutes. Make sure you back up your phone data and sync your contacts with your computer before upgrading. The new firmware is available for free and can be downloaded from Samsung's Web site.