Is this Windows Mobile 7?

Not all the big news is coming out of CES today: thanks to Nathan Weinberg's InsideMicrosoft blog, we were able to check out a purported internal document detailing the revolutionary new input methods planned for Windows Mobile 7 as well as a ton of supposed screenshots. If this information is, in fact, accurate, it looks like Redmond is planning at least three methods of interacting with the device aside from pressing the usual buttons. First, as you might expect, is multi-touch capability á la the iPhone or Microsoft's own Surface, but it looks like WinMo 7 handsets will also be controllable via shaking and rotating the device, and even at a distance by way of camera-based gesture recognition. Again, no guarantees that any of these features will be included in the final version or that any of this info or images are even legit, but as you can see from the rather large gallery below, the mounting evidence is extremely compelling. Specifically, you'll definitely want to check out:

• New on-screen keyboard
• Gesture control
• Camera gesture recognition
• Touch-based photo editing
• Media player

Gallery: Is this Windows Mobile 7?

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[paperless @ Jan 6th 2008 5:06PM]

It sure looks pretty.

[ARealOG @ Jan 6th 2008 5:08PM]

You can say that again. Looks better than the iPhone's interface.

[Andrew @ Jan 6th 2008 5:27PM]

Even if you're a Microsoft Fanboy you have to give Apple props for kicking the industry into gear - you wouldn't be looking at these screenshots if it wasn't for the iPhones revolutionary interface. Don't forget that MS would have been perfectly happy selling all of you Windows Mobile 6 for the next 5 years.

It's just like Microsoft to take what Apple made popular and cram a shit load of redundant buttons and icons into it. Have fun with it guys - I'll stick with my iPhone that I can actually use right now.

[Jeremy @ Jan 6th 2008 5:32PM]

It's always better to have competition. I have an iPhone and really like it, but I'd be happy to see Micrsoft's take on it to see what features turn out to be useful. Ya know, like copy and paste...

[Scott @ Jan 6th 2008 5:36PM]

@ARealOG

Compared to an iPhone this interface looks very, very cluttered much like WinMo 6. Hopefully 7 means no more tedious manually closing applications to avoid the dread Out Of Memory errors.

The "gestures" should be interesting.

[michael @ Jan 6th 2008 6:20PM]

@Andrew:

As much as I like some aspects of both WinMo and iPhone, there's no need to be putting down one side like an anchor, and gloat about the other side.

Kind of like saying, "Oh, I'm better than you just because I look slightly better, even though we do exactly the same thing. And without me being there, you would never have tried improving yourself for a long time, because I like to make assumptions that you've never been at all successful as I am, and never will."

That said - gloat and putting down somebody just isn't cool.

I heard WinMo 8 is suppose to have a really different interface than we've seen before, and if this is really WinMo 7, WinMo 8 must be really something. Because I'm just a bit amazed by how it looks based on these screenshots.

And being an owner of both before, I still kind of like WinMo more, because where you have to hack the iPhone to put stuff up, you can download many skins and extra features for WinMo without a worry.

But like you said, competition is great, and I can't wait to see WinMo 7 and the next iPhone.

[Charlie Calhoun @ Jan 6th 2008 6:43PM]

I have to agree with Andrew... kind of. The last thing I am is an Apple fanboy, in fact the opposite. Point is, whoever started it, this time... again... Apple, they make a device, looks pretty good, people fall in love and buy it, then another company makes a smaller better easier faster device (or not, you never know at these stages). Point being, competition makes the devices better and the prices lower, good for us consumers.

[PSM @ Jan 6th 2008 6:52PM]

The iPhone and WinMo both leave a lot to be desired. The iPhone makes doing nothing seem very exciting, and WinMo does everything but makes you miserable while you try to do it.

I fully encourage Microsoft and Apple to steal from each other at will until one of them gets it right. I'm currently a WM user while waiting for the iPhone to improve, and I'm very excited by the look at WM7. But I expect it will sort of look Apple-esque but not actually be as easy to use, and is also probably farther away than a more capable iPhone. But this competition is the best thing to happen to the PDA/smartphone world in years.

[Ireland @ Jan 6th 2008 7:05PM]

"Looks better than the iPhone's interface."

It is the iPhone interface, well 2 years ago that is. :D

[E71 @ Jan 6th 2008 7:10PM]

It looks Ace, but I wish there were some shots of the Pocket PC (Professional) version.

[SimbaDogg @ Jan 6th 2008 8:10PM]

@ Andrew
i guess you're not @ all familiar w/ the HTC touch interface which apple blatantly modeled their interface after.

[michael @ Jan 7th 2008 12:17AM]

I just realized something. I would really love to believe the above screenshots are real, but...

The Media Player screenshots don't look real. Or they don't look 'finished'. It's interesting how they might offer the Zune twist interface into Media Player, but why no big play/pause button in the center? And you would think it could have looked more cohesive with the other shinier UI elements of the screenshots.

I'm just hoping the Media Player screenshots were taken when that part was in development.

Just thought I'd say something.

[jagowar @ Jan 6th 2008 5:08PM]

alot of this looks very freaking cool.... it looks like it may do quite a few things better than the iphone. will be interesting to see how long this stuff is going to take though. we will know alot more after their press conference.

[CKMBA @ Jan 6th 2008 10:26PM]

It's going to need a cpu faster than the iPhone's Samsung 667mhz chip to run all those features.

[Eldiablo @ Jan 6th 2008 5:09PM]

Huh, who'd of thunk it, Microsoft stick with a barely improving UI since the year dot, then all of a sudden a fruit company gets all above its station and starts making phones with fancy interfaces, and ohh look, here they are suddenly reinventing their wheel. Lets hope this gets out the door nice and quick, and the xda developers do their magic...

[Andrew @ Jan 6th 2008 5:31PM]

Big question will be how it will run once its on Windows Mobile devices - I have a feeling it wont be as smooth and flawless as the iPhone. I just keep thinking of how buggy and slow the Moto Q was with WM5.

MS needs to nail down the basics before adding gimicks like gesture, twist input, shaking - haha - hey look at me I can find my contacts by spinning my phone like a top!

[michael @ Jan 6th 2008 6:21PM]

@Andrew:

I don't want to put you down again, but I still don't really find the iPhone without it's flaws. Smooth, yes. But the iPhone didn't come without it's flaws. Like I'm a person that loves to download extras, but I hate how Apple really has to make it hard to appreciate that right. And I know several other iPhone owners who've had other issues, and I wouldn't say the iPhone is flawless.

And you have to agree, Microsoft has a tough time really integrate the OS with a TON of different hardware configurations. Every manufacturer might have this spec, or this feature, and others might now, and it's hard to really make WinMo integrate with many different devices. Apple has it easy.

Just give that a thought.

[Alan Partridge @ Jan 6th 2008 5:11PM]

Finally!

[Matt @ Jan 6th 2008 5:11PM]

Holy shit, gesture based mobile computing a la wiimote style input. Now that's innovative.

I really hope this comes out sooner than in 5 years.

[Aaron @ Jan 6th 2008 5:41PM]

So innovative that it's already available on the Nokia N95 via third party software.

[Matt @ Jan 6th 2008 5:17PM]

Looks very Vista-y, nice. The gesture control looks interesting, but I don't know how well it would work in practice.

[iuqiddis @ Jan 6th 2008 5:17PM]

the interface looks like the twist interface from the menu screenshots

[Sam Zebian @ Jan 6th 2008 5:21PM]

Maybe this is what they are going to announce tonight at Bill's last keynote??

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jan 6th 2008 8:03PM]

I put down the FAKE card. anyone notice internet explorer is missing the P

[nxtiak @ Jan 6th 2008 5:22PM]

Twist interface on Windows Mobile would be awesome!

[dylanzznz @ Jan 6th 2008 5:29PM]

The names shown in the address book demo all check out as actual Microsoft employees, most of which have been used as names for screenshots/demos before. I'd say this is legit.

[Michael @ Jan 6th 2008 5:29PM]

Finally indeed! Now make it come true!

[caubeck @ Jan 6th 2008 5:29PM]

NBC's Journeyman could have traveled quite some years into the past with any version of Windows Mobile and never get funny looks. But with this...

[JLTate @ Jan 15th 2008 9:45AM]

Not anymore... Journeyman is gone... :(

[Chris Aubeck @ Jan 15th 2008 9:58AM]

Live in hope.

[james @ Jan 6th 2008 5:33PM]

Will it be able to hookup to the Zune Marketplace ???? Another feature the iphone has up on Windows Mobile. Why this hasn't been done already is beyond me.

[Staticoranges @ Jan 6th 2008 6:37PM]

Why would you want to hook it up to the Zune Marketplace? I'd rather it hooks up to the wifi iTunes store, since the iTunes Store > Zune Marketplace

[james @ Jan 6th 2008 6:46PM]

Ok, so both then but I'll settle for the zune marketplace at the min. since that's a bit more realistic since this is a MS product.

[wixostrix @ Jan 6th 2008 8:46PM]

hooking it up to the zune marketplace would be awesome. i think it should be a must since MS products should be able to interact with each other. plus, with subscription you'd be able to download music str8 to ur phone, but i guess that would be a problem for say Verizon and Sprint's music download services (and whoever else)

[james @ Jan 6th 2008 9:30PM]

Your right about "Verizon and Sprint's music download services" however, MS should have the ability to do this to compete with apple otherwise, apple has an unfair advantage and given AT&T does not have this service... its only fair.

[Duscrom @ Jan 6th 2008 11:14PM]

If Zune marketplace was integrated into WinMo7, MS would get slapped with a lawsuit faster then you could blink. BECAUSE of Sprint/Verizon and other's mobile stores.

I had an iPhone. and was happy to upgrade to a WinMo 6 phone. WinMo may make it hard to close an app, but iPhone closes them for me w/o asking... And all the hacking needed to install basic apps, like an IM or MMS program. I was more then happy to give up the pretty responsive interface for one that let me actually DO stuff.

[Tid @ Jan 6th 2008 5:34PM]

"congratulations you have no unread messages"

Is this some big achievement?

[Matt @ Jan 6th 2008 5:41PM]

When you get about 300000000 emails a day like I do from idiot clients, yes, it is a big achievement to have actually found the time to read them all.

[cereal @ Jan 6th 2008 5:45PM]

I can't believe they give you congratz.

http://www.engadget.com/photos/is-this-windows-mobile-7/561256/

[MearWolf @ Jan 6th 2008 5:36PM]

It's like a pretty mobile vista, all i have to say is, I WANT!!!

[aaron @ Jan 6th 2008 5:40PM]

Cool I'll take it. But I still want 6.1 on my Q Global.

[Julian Bond @ Jan 6th 2008 5:40PM]

Can someone explain to me what the point is of Windows Mobile?

[JaXX @ Jan 6th 2008 5:44PM]

Looks like they at last built a web browser ! which will respect MS-Standards of MSHTML and MSCSS and MSHTTP :-)

Oh, and how do you click on the microscopic icons in office mobile ?

Anyways... they might catch up... one day, in a few years, to todays technology...

[dj-kenpo @ Jan 6th 2008 5:50PM]

as someone with the ipod touch, I do alot of emails on it, I don't find the letter popping up over your finger all that useful. I ignore it actually.

that's the thing about copying, alot of times you're so focused on copying, you don't stop to think about whether it was a good feature in the first place. but maybe everyone loves it, who knows.

remember back in the 386 days when everyone copied the 'ibm style' crt? every single crt had that ugly grey-brown face bezel, the blue dials. it wasn't the best way to do things at all. but everyone still felt a need to do the same damn thing.

if ms wants to copy iphone,etc great, winmo has sucked for the last 8 years as it's no idfferent than it was 8 years ago on my casio 150mhz ppc, so it's time for an update...

but be selective when copying for gods sake.

[ericdano @ Jan 6th 2008 5:54PM]

Microsoft has no shame. Really. Blantant copy of the iPhone, except not as good. As usual.

They should really focus on getting Vista working right.

[scott @ Jan 6th 2008 5:56PM]

I'd like to play Wii Sports with my WinMo7 phone. It DOES do shake control..

http://www.engadget.com/photos/is-this-windows-mobile-7/561233/

[-Tj- @ Jan 8th 2008 3:04AM]

A little late to the comments on this one, but I, too, would like to play Wii with my WinMo!

http://wii.gamersmafia.com/storage/tutorial/381/baseball.jpg

[James @ Jan 6th 2008 5:59PM]

coolio! it looks like it adopts some of the zune stuff, like the twist interface and the flick thingy for menus :)

[David Clark @ Jan 6th 2008 6:01PM]

?? But this is not Photon? Or is 7 = Photon?

[Michael LaFramboise @ Jan 6th 2008 6:01PM]

If this is real, this is damn cool- can't wait for it... I'd just like Microsoft to improve those crappy congested fonts that they always use on mobile devices :(