With the official introduction of Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft also announced to finally support Widgets. Microsoft's Windows Mobile Widgets are interactive, HTML and CSS-based, JavaScripts tools that provide single-purpose services such as showing the user the latest news, the current weather, the time, a calendar, a dictionary or whatever; similar in concept to a Gadget for Windows Vista. Gadgets brought the wealth of experience of Web developers to the Windows Vista platform, and widgets will do the same for mobile devices. Dynamic HTML (DHTML) is used for dynamic presentation of data to produce a rich interface, while the XMLHttpRequest control is used to load data from the Web. Windows Mobile 6.5 Widgets are installed locally on the mobile device and, like Windows Vista Gadgets, widgets run locally but can use data dynamically accessed from the cloud.

And here comes the point: Beside a few preinstalled Widgets, Microsoft will start to offer Widgets with the launch of its new Windows Marketplace for Mobile but the guys from Fuze Mobility decided not to wait until Microsoft has launched the Marketplace later this year but they have started to develop 50 (yet simple) but very powerful Widgets for the Windows Mobile 6.5 platform:

In fact, they're among the most simplistic widgets that can be made but they do provide a 'chromeless' experience that have the feel of apps (and they install like apps). They do require an internet connection when in use (since they are grabbing data from the web) but I think the end experience is still a good one. If you enter your information it is remembered so on the weather widget, for example, it will remember your location. And more than anything, the goal is to bring widgets to the attention of more developers so more complex widgets can start to be released.

Thankfully the::unwired was invited to join as well and therefore we can present you today the first the::unwired Widget for Windows Mobile 6.5:

Remember, these 50 Widgets are compatible with Windows Mobile 6.5 Windows Phones, they are not working with any previous Windows Mobile versions but it's a good start if you plan to buy a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone as soon as available/plan to upgrade your current Windows Mobile device to 6.5.
Anyway, there's one downside: Microsoft decided that only Widgets, which are signed and downloaded from the Windows Marketplace, will work on Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. However, the smart developers from Xda-developers created a CAB file which allows to run any compatible Widget on a Windows Phone. This CAB file has to be downloaded and installed prior a Widget is installed.
Afterwards, installed Widgets can be found on the bottom of the Windows Start menu.

Cheers ~ Arne