Hi folks,
As a participant in yesterday's 9.1 presentation, I'd like to
give some answers based on presentation content and my own
research:
* Unit compatibility: The 9.1 upgrade, according to HW, is
strictly for Apex units since majority of features relate to
utilizing availible hardware resources on the Apex and the new OS
services. I'm sure there would be a version for mPower (perhaps
8.1 or something).
* License file: According to HW, you do need a product key
(although HW labels it as a license file) before you can install
9.1 upgrade (which, again according to HW, will be released in
February).
* Word support: I'm sure there will be some words about no
support for docx. I understand that HW needs to keep up with
mainstream standards. However, in my opinion, this support
cannot be implemented unless there is a solid foundation for
supporting formatting under doc files - how can a programmer add
support for newer features when there is inadequate foundation
for it? At this point, I'd say HW's decision is wise - supporting
docx is now the matter of finding a suitable driver (or writing
one) and working with compatibility porting formatting support to
Word 2007/2010 docs. Besides, with tables support, we are
slightly ahead (if I got the impression right from HW's words).
The other thing raised during the presentation was writing tables
via BN - and I'm sure HW would consider this feature later.
* Hardware features: According to what I found (based on
presentation and from reading about OS differences), there will
not be WPA2 support on the mPower unless there is a driver
supporting this feature and if the G card supports it. WPA2
support came with CE6 - and now HW is taking advantage of this
service. So is AES support: it came with CE6. For users of
competetors, by now you'd be asking, "why not us?" In order to
support WPA2 and AES, the company must provide a firmware
upgrade, as CE5 requires an update from Microsoft to enable this
feature when CE6 already includes it.
At least that's my impression of the presentation. As for
assessing its impact and grading its features, I'm sure we'll get
verifiable results by March when users would have used it for a
while (if February release happens). Until then, at least we
know what's coming...
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Joseph
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