Even better Windows Mobile 2005 screenshots
posted Mar 22nd 2005 5:27PM
So last night a ROM and a few blurry screenshots of the
next version of the Windows Mobile OS, Windows Mobile 2005 (aka
Magneto), started floating around
the interweb, and today we're seeing some of results of that ROM being out in the wild—even better screenshots,
including one of the Today screen, have turned up on xda-developers.com. Ok, maybe Windows Mobile 2005 doesn't look all
that different from every other version of Windows Mobile we've ever seen, but from what we've heard all the big
improvements in Magneto are under the hood, not in the GUI.
Anyway, like we said yesterday, it's just a beta that's out there (the final version of the OS supposedly isn't due
out until August or September), so don't even waste your time trying to "update" your Pocket PC or Smartphone unless
you've messed with this sort of thing before. And maybe not even then.
[Via PhoneMag]
Looks amazingly like the Palm OS aside from the windows explorer style browse window.
What's new in this version?
Does anyone have a Dell Axim X3i port?
Well it looks like it'll run Pocket Plus, but I am trying to figure out the "looks like the Palm OS" comment. To me it looks like Windows Mobile...
Give me:
A mobile phone sized ppc (smartphone) with, 20 hours battery life, high quality screen, 1+ megapix camera (> than webcam quality please), 1gb storage.
I believe some european markets have this. Us Yankeess don't get the cool stuff.
This looks like it is running Spb Pocket Plus... I wonder what it looks like without Spb. For those who don't know, Spb is a desktop manager for Pocket PCs, it makes the desktop very different from the standard one, therefore what is in the picture is not really the standard Pocket PC 2005 one.
See the text ("notification" & "contacts") below the screenshot? I believe this can be accessed by left and right action buttons like in the Smartphone OS. It looks like Magneto can be operated without a touch screen. And since smartphones can have QVGA screens (same pixels as normal Pocket PC screens), Magneto can be used in future Smarphones aside from Pocket PC's. Question is, can you run both PPC and Smartphone Apps because of the merging of interfaces? Or is this just speculation?
That background looks very similiar to the default Mac OS X background. With infinite possibilities to choose from, wonder why they picked one so close to Mac OS X? We all know MS loves following Apple's lead, but come on, this is getting ridiculous!
#6 - why would they put hardware buttons for these when u could just press the buttons on the screen.
and yeah, it prob is to make it compatible for devices without touch screen. you can already run most smartphone apps on pocket pc and you end up with just the 2 menus - this would enable the other way around, and a streamlined experience.
just hope upgrade comes eventually for my Blue Angel...
ps: #1 - y don't u go down to microsoft and say that to their faces... they'll prob tell you that a lot of good stuff is going in to this version!
#8, why whould they put a hardware button when u can just use the screen? Ah, you must be one of the "windows virgins", that is, you have never used anything but a windows based PPC device. That's cute that, but for anyone that has actually used a "smartphone" (as in a Treo650 or Treo600) the reasons for *not* just having buttons on the screen is so obvious (and nice for that matter). It's called "true one handed opeartion" which a quick ergonomics usability lab would show that MS might actually be starting to get the idea about how to design these things so they are useable.
Yeah Blademonkey looks pretty Palm-ish to me to, but that's a good thing. Looks like Magneto spells the end of Palm OS, but I think their downfall is their own doing.
On the other hand the only people I see with PDA's these days are middle aged businesspeople ... its a niche.
Nothing new here. Obviously this is a screenshot from T-Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition device (notifications and contacts). Other snaps show nothing but a couple of changed system icons. I would like to see the screenshots from a standard phoneless PocketPC without that SPB PocketPlus app, Start/Settings/Connections window and Start/Settings/Connections/Connections.
#13 You'd be surprised how many other non-middle aged businesspeople have PDAs these days. For example, the O2 XDA II mini has been a hit with the university crowd and even some teenagers!
I upgraded my O2 XDA II ROM to WM2003SE without any hitches when it first came out...must check out this new version on XDA Developers...
XDA-Developers.com is where this all broke out. Someone got given a phone with this Alpha version on, didn't know what to do with it and people there helped him get the ROM off it so that they spread it around, and also helped him use his phone!
Pete
#13 What's new with the OS is more touchscreen-less operation as seen at the lower end of the screens which shows dual menus (probably activated by left and right action buttons like in Windows Mobile Smartphones)...
Now that's what I'm betting at.
#14 - not neccessarily true that that would involve hardware buttons since u could one handedly touch them since they r at bottom of screen - instead they are touchable versions (at least) of smartphone ones - enabling more compatability between ppc and smartphone since when u run progs on each the difficulties are those buttons and screen sizing which they are aiming at fixing by supporting different resolutions anyway (and put into WM2003 SE under pressure by hardware companies).
Many things need to be improved from current version (2003)
- Need battery indicator in main window (maybe near the clock), same as mobile phone battery indicator is OK.
- Need minimize button (not only close X button),
- And can access minimized applications easily.
- Need better active sync (now still many problems, such as cannot copy multiple cascading folders)
- Do not limit menu to 12 only. use cascading menu if needed.
- Option to remove programs which built in in windows but not needed by user.
- Better word and excel file size. I try to change little things using pocket word (example just the header font size), but the file size jump to double from the original size.
- Need password for folders.
- Better Contact and Agenda.
- Built in good image vewer.
- Upgradeable from older version (and not so heavy for 250-300Mhz processor, and 64 Mb memory). or we can install to old hardware. example Toshiba E400.
- How about built it Pdf reader ?
- How about built in Divx ?
And others (please add your suggestions)
Thanks
Additionals (6 jan)
- Options to install country specific language word completions, and options to choose which to use.
- Word completion drop down is better than current word completion which only single.
- Word completion editor, now we cannot edit the word completion if we want, example there is error on sometmes, which must be sometimes
- Zoom for word and others better if 100, 125, 150, instead of jumping from 100 to 150.
- Text size view in Help
- Sand clock is missing, example it is needed when I open 500Kb Word documents, opening 300Kb HTML, etc.
- Make Home as default screenview, instead of current screen view which less usefull like now.
- Release activesinc 4 for windows mobile 2003 first to solve many problems such as cannot copy cascading folders, many word and excel conversion problems, HTML not working correctly, etc.
- Add Screen capture and image editor.
and many others.
Additional ( 8 January)
- Better File explorer: now the file name length is not enough, we need option to show longer name, and option to hide the date which maybe most people did not needed.
- Activesynch need to be able to create folder in the PDA from PC, not must create on the PDA.
- Better memory management, it look like there maybe memory leak, which make my memory run by time. without even adding more data, and I already close the running program,
ETC.
I hope I can get windows mobile 2005 beta PDA so I can give more suggestions.
Report based on Win Mobile 2003, on Toshiba E400.
originally posted on
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=266874&st=0