Reporters and bloggers in Barcelona seem to be responding favorably to Windows Mobile 6.5, the update unveiled by Microsoft today at the Mobile World Congress. Much of the attention is focused on the overhauled Windows Mobile home screen (pictured), featuring a touch interface for scrolling vertically through the menu, then horizontally to quickly access selected content in specific categories.

Gizmodo's initial hands-on videos provide a good overview of the interface, which is reminiscent of Microsoft's Zune device.

"From this first touch on, it looks like Microsoft is back in the game," says the influential gadget blog. "They don't have the upper hand yet, but they are clearly waking up. We will see what happens and how deep these changes really are once it gets released."

Some people commenting on the Gizmodo post noted that the software seemed a little slow to respond. I saw a demo of the new interface during a briefing in Redmond last week, and I noticed the same thing. But the version I saw was alpha software, so it's worth reserving judgment on the performance until the code gets closer to final release.

Phones based on the new Windows Mobile interface aren't expected to be available until closer to the end of the year, which is one of the major downsides for Microsoft at this point.

"Despite the improvements, Microsoft is still playing catch-up here. The iPhone, Palm's webOS and even Android out-gun Windows Mobile 6.5 in usability," writes Eric Zeman on InformationWeek. "The really bad news is that this new platform won't be in customer hands until the end of 2009. That's just too, too late."