Ever notice that Word Mobile truncates file names it creates from the first line of text? Word automatically creates a filename based on the first line of text. Unfortunately, it truncates the name to the first 21 characters of the line (and adds a .doc suffix). This may seem like a lot compared to the good ol’ 8 character DOS file name length, but seems pretty short for a 21st century system. You can, of course, change the filename to avoid name collision. But, I would have preferred having at least 64 or even 128 character file names since I do a lot of writing using Word Mobile which is later copied over to my desktop.

I was just reading Jason Langridge’s blog (Microsoft’s Mr. Mobile) about a bunch of devices that have had announcements about the availability of an upgrade from Windows Mobile 5 to 6. One of the announcements was for the very cool HTC TyTn. But, apparently the upgrade is only available to HTC e-Club members who claimed someplace in or around the EU as their homebase. If you joined as a US-based member, no update is available. I’m guessing it has something to do with FCC clearances or some other such red-tape type reason. Fair enough.

But, it made me wonder what people think about regarding Windows Mobile devices and whether or not an upgrade is available. For example, I bought a T-Mobile Dash after the WM6 upgrade was announced for it. But, there is little hope for a WM6 upgrade for my i-Mate K-JAM. And, there is no hope for an upgrade for my T-Mobile SDA. Dell used to be pretty good about providing an upgrade path for at least one generation. HP was pretty spotty. For example, the iPAQ 2215 (the last iPAQ I bought with no plans to ever buy another HP iPAQ device) never had an upgrade path.

If your device is less than, say 24 months from its release (not necessarily when you purchased it), do you expect an upgrade path for it? Just wondering.