Even before
6.5 got official, the Windows Mobile community has been toying around with post-RTM leaked builds that really amp up the finger-friendliness -- thing is, no one seems to know what it is, what it's called, when it's coming, who will get it, or how it meshes with the upcoming release of
WinMo 7 next year. For now, it's being informally called 6.5.1 -- sounds like a fair name to us -- and new mockups floating around suggest that Microsoft really wants to bridge the gap and make major user experience modifications to 6.5; the pre-7 platform hasn't yet reached the end of the road, apparently. Big buttons at the bottom of the screen look like they should be usable by even the fattest of fingers on a resistive display (and indeed, we've seen various forms of these in leaked builds) and interface elements throughout the OS have been spruced up to finally put the stylus to bed. We'll take it, but we would've been happy to take it in lieu of 6.5, too.
posted Oct 22nd 2009 5:48PM
Looks ugly without HTC.
No, no, that's the new hotness, son.
Let's be honest and call it what it is! It is WinDINOSAUR Mobile! Okay?
"Let's be honest and call it what it is! It is WinDINOSAUR Mobile! Okay?"
Well enlighten us as to why? And in the future try to refrain from thinking you know how we should all look at anything.
"WinDINOSAUR"
Really? That's the best you could've done? They've created a functional mobile OS; you can't even come up with a good pun.
lets be honest...if someone (and mostly the anti win phone pro iphone/anroid fanboys) played around w/ this w/out knowing this was from redmond, they'd probably say it was pretty slick. the slider interface on the homescreen and the layout of things seemed pretty slick, and all together made for a nice looking UI.
Tell those same ibots and droidboyz that that its winmo and they instantly go batshit and say its the worst thing since gazpacho and communist russia. grow up guys.
i for one think it looks great, and can't wait for more of these near 6.5.1 stable roms to hit XDA. tilt 2 was out of stock, but mine finally shipped today, and i'm looking forward to that behemoth 3.6" WVGA screen
I wouldn't say it looks "ugly". It looks a little plain, but then it is aimed towards business use. I'd imagine they'll keep the WM 6.X looking plain like this(though increasing the user friendliness and touch friendliness like this looks like it does) and bring out the hotness for WM7, which seems as though it'll be more consumer oriented. With all that, Windows 7 better blow my(and everyone else's) socks off the same way the Zune HD did, if they want to reclaim market share.
@Detox Chapel.
If you are just here to troll, then go find some Apple story to play in.
You are so good looking.
now they're not even trying since windows 7 is just around the corner
now they're not even trying since windows mobile 7 is just around the corner
I don't know, I like the rounded corners look in the screenshots.
feels oddly soothing...
I hate WinMo. Why can't they come up with something totally original and cutting edge. Here are my suggestions.
1. Place a bunch of icons on a panel. Maybe 4 across by 4 down.
2. Have a black background that a user cannot change.
3. Make sure none of the icons are widgets. We want all users to have to open an application to see the content. Don't you dare list the time, weather, stock price or calendar events on a panel screen. Users don't want this information readily available. If it's important they will open up an app to see it. Of course, they will have to quickly exit the app because this OS shouldn't provide simultaneous app usage.
That sounds like a real solid UI. Oh and don't forget - you can move from panel to panel by swiping your finger left or right. Amazing stuff I know.
Not bad. Hopefully they'll continue to upgrade it as time goes by.
OH WOW
Those context icons look disgusting.
is this the next Windows Mobile release Steve Ballmer integration into the Zune that he was talking about? I was thinking of WinMo 7.
interface looks better, but the colours, colour shades, aqua buttons, menu bar, task bar etc look like parts of other mobile operating systems tack together and dont flow together
Have a look at the HTC-skinned ROMs based on these 23xxx builds. Those look way better, e.g: http://bit.ly/2EC4Lq
Ugly buttons.
This stylus is not outdated for everything. It's just outdated for quick tasks such as dialing a number or navigating through settings.
I would prefer a stylus for certain applications, such as drawing, navigating through the internet (don't like zooming in to those tiny URLs) or games that resemble ones on the desktop, such as RTS games. I was actually a little disappointed that the HTC Leo didn't have a stylus, but I hope HTC changes that or comes out with a separate stylus that will work, since they have one patented.
I've had some of these roms on a Touch Diamond and I must say that moving the X button and Start button to the bottom of the screen was a major plus for usability.
You can change 99% of that, I'm running that on my Touch pro currently, and normally you can change every button, icon, and bar's color/icon/shape. Also you can freely use any backgrounds some panoramic backgrounds are being integrated soon, so when you scroll up and down the back ground will change with it.. Also available is the ability to change the looks of the default panels with some minor tweaks/theme editing.
Also the UI should be modded for phones with a hard windows button, such as the Imigino, and newer Winmo 6.5+ phones.
Either way you can load the current Sense UI, or Mania 2.6 from the LEO leak's once they convert the installers to cabs if you don't like the default winmo 6.5 look.(should be any day now).
Solid effort, but...
Any WinMo user who doesn't at least try an 'alternative' GUI is really missing out.
HTC's TouchFlo/Sense UI design is not only great to look at, but extremely functional, and SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 transforms WinMo into (arguably) the finest mobile phone experience available today.
TouchFlo and Sense are nice, but those others, like SPB and Winterface just seem to get in the way.
I will grant that older versions of SPB Mobile Shell had some usability gaps, but the latest one (I think it's 3.5) simply kicks ass. The slide gestures, large buttons, customizable gadgets and overall slick feel make 6.5 look dated. But hey, at least MS got rid of those microscopic 'OK' buttons.
ROFL are you F***ing serious????
Somebody needs to take you out back and shoot your ass for being so stupid.
You can't honestly believe what you're saying right?
Personally...
I never tried SPB Modile Shell prior to version 3.5, and Winterface was trying a bit too hard to look/feel like my (boring, though functional) iPhone OS.
I really like HTC's TouchFlo/Sense UI, but found its customization options lacking.
Installing SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 completely transformed my WinMo 6.5/HTC Imagio into a highly customizable platform that's quick, efficient, and pretty awe-inspiring to use/look at.
For me, WinMo 6.5 is a very stable OS in need of a serious visual makeover, and SPB MS 3.5 fits the bill perfectly.
I agree, SPB Mobile shell looks real slick.
This is the part where I've been scratching my head from the get-go.
SPB Mobile Shell has been the best solution to Microsoft's lack of finger usability for years. With each release it has gotten better (personal experience) and added more features. Granted I'm sure Microsoft has learned many lessons from SPB, but I've always wondered why Microsoft didn't just out right buy the rights to SPB and just better integrate the SPB front end UI into the WinMo firmware.
The level of customization is near endless. And I will say that though I still occasionally pull out my stylus, Mobile Shell lets me do 90% of my daily actions on my HTC Titan without the stylus. Not bad for a phone that was definitely designed to be manipulated with the styles the majority of the time.
(yes feel free to bag on the stylus now)
Personally I don't like either SPB Mobile Shell or HTCs Touchflo/Sense, but you're right in how good the customisability options of the Today screen in WinMo is. The availability of completely different Today screen through Touchflo, SPB, ThrottleLauncher, PointUI, WisBar Desktop, rlToday, XIAMultiTheme etc. plus hundreds of individual Today items (widgets if you will) is one of the great things about WinMo. There's no one perfect Today screen setup, but with all the possibilities on WinMo you can create the perfect one for you.
Well that was ironic. Im just about done with my EnergyRom 6.5.1 download.
Cool beans.
I hope the ROM for my device gets updated for this.
Make it so, XDA.
What device do you have? Because most have been kept fairly well up to date. I'm one of the people that have been cooking for my device (the Opal-Touch Viva-whatever you wanna call it) and that's the version I'm using.
iPaq hx2000 series.
A new rom is on the way, but I wish I had the talent to do it myself.
You know, I was thinking about this leak today. Steve Ballmer just got done saying "next release" for Zune integration into WM. So either 6.5.1 will have Zune integration, Windows Mobile 7 is coming out insanely soon, or he was completely mistaken. Of these I'd say the most likely is 6.5.1 having Zune integration or Ballmer being wrong about that but the whole thing just seems odd.
I'd say that the default Titanium UI, aka Windows mobile default UI is one of the most user friendly, and finger friendly interfaces on the market today. It's not business class in any way, but it keeps the essentials close by and easy to access such as text, music, email, internet. Only down fall is It doesn't have that next gen feeling like the Sense UI/TouchFlo/Android are pushing so it "seems" dated all ready. Also weather isn't default either.
I got sick of tweaking my OS, flashing new ROMS onto my HTC, and having applications lockup... so I bought an iPhone and never looked back. Best purchase I've made in a long time.
What's the fun in that?
@DJSwan
So? You act like you accomplished something noteworthy.
Cool story, bro.
so you got an iphone and essentially lost the ability to fully customize your phone because you are dumb and ruined yours? noob ass fanboy get lost
If that's the best purchase you've made in a while, I can only imagine the amount of 'indoor sundial' and 'microwave safe popsicle sticks' you've bought recently.
Don't you know that you don't have the right to be dissatisfied with a product from Microsoft?! I am so downranking you, dude, and I'm sending a harshly worded letter to your mother!
Disgusting, simply disgusting!
@Annoying Poster - I was once like you... name one thing - just one - that you can do with that WinMo phone that I cant with my iPhone... hows that WinMo app store doin btw?
@Annoying Poster - I was once like you... name one thing - just one - that you can do with that WinMo phone that I cant with my iPhone... hows that WinMo app store doin btw?
Load our own apps without having to go to a store. App rejection is just an annoyance, not the end of the line.
Remove the battery from most models.
Have a choice in hardware configs.
Not have customization be seen as an illegal act.
Until recently Cut & Paste.
Flash.
Use of different web browsers.
The question is what functionality is in the iPhone do that WinMobile devices dont have?
Oops.
"The question is what functionality is in the iPhone do that WinMobile devices dont have?"
The question is what functionality is in the iPhone that WinMobile devices dont also have?
@ DJ,
If you didn't jailbreak your iphone, then I don't know what you could possibly be bragging about.
OOTB Mobile OSX is pretty gimped..... compared to a custom JB'd FW anyway
I recently went from a (hacked) Touch Pro on a $30mth SERO plan to a Palm Pre on the 450 data plan with a 20% corporate discount. I now have free mobile to mobile on any network, Sprint TV and Sprint Navigation included. Each and every month I open up the bill and pay that $12.00 extra, I think to myself “My God, why didn’t I switch sooner?”
I passed on my SERO plan to my daughter, so it’s not completely gone. :)
TouchPro was good in it's day, but newer phones like the hero or pre are going to be so much nicer just based on screen size alone. Still waiting for that HD2. but this droiddoes thing might get me lol.
I went from a Verizon XV6800 and picked up the Imagio when it came out. The TouchFlo 3D UI is definitely finger friendly compared to the bare OS. However, it seems that I might as well just wait for something better at this point. The Imagio will most likely be returned within the 30 day period as I want to check out the Droid when it is available. But if that does not impress me, I may hold out for WinMo 7. Needless to say, it will be hard to back to my XV6800 while I wait to see what else comes out.
Much better I would say, at least more finger friendly. The stylus is dead!
MS might not make the pretties Mobile OS, but it sure is popular amongst the community...oh and wait....it's fully customizable!!!
http://www.modaco.com/content/i910-specific-omnia-rom-discussion/294151/evidence-mastergreeny-sharp-and-precise-rom/
I always tell ppl how impressed I am with the iPhone. Apple has brought high level mobile computing to the mass populace and has made it look very attractive. But as always, MS is all about business/Corp world which Apple will never be able to fully compete with. But with that said, MS has had some influence....take a look at Win7.
I love the TouchFLO interface on my one year old HTC TouchHD and in 9 days time, when my new HD2 should get to my adress I know that I would love even more its newest incarnation on a 4,3" capacitive screen.
But I love even more the SenseUI+Android on my (other phone) HTC Hero.
By the way , the reason I got the Hero is that last spring, when it came out, I bought an iPhone 3Gs and I got so disappointed that I brought it back to the shoput unfortunately just 2 days after the 15 days that would permit me to get a full refound, the shopkeeperowever noticing that my 3gs was still new allowed me to exchange it with the Hero and since that day I have become an Android convert (as long as SenseUI is present too): That thing is just too cool to describe, do yourself a favor an try it, you will not regret it.
why the hell not call it 6.6?
some tech companies are so bad with version numbers, worst was AOL, 9.0, 9.0a, 9.0b, they always had the decimal but never used it
Y'all are certainly drinking the koolaid today..."Ready for what???" and I AM a Windows Mobile user.
and why is MS wasting time on incremental updates to an incremental update when they should be working on WM7!!!!
The team working on this is relatively small. And their only doing it because most devices wont be able to upgrade to WinMo 7. WinMo 7's core is changing to drastically for most devices to be able to upgrade. It's jumping from WinCE 5 (WinMo 5.0 - 6.5.x) to WinCE 7. That drastic change will bring forward all sorts of new things but it will also break all driver compatibility. To give you a taste of whats to come is these feature lists:
WinCE 6:
* Some System components (such as filesystem, gwes, device driver manager) have been moved to the kernel space.
* The system components which now run in kernel have been converted from EXEs to DLLs, which get loaded into kernel space.
* New Virtual Memory Model. The lower 2GB is the process VM space and is private per process. The upper 2GB is the kernel VM space.
* New Device Driver Model that supports both User Mode and Kernel Mode Drivers.
* The 32 process limit has been raised to 32,768 processes.
* The 32 megabyte virtual memory limit has been raised to the total virtual memory (Up to 2GB of private VM is available per process).
* The Platform Builder IDE is integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 as plugin (thus forcing the client to obtain Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 as well), allowing a single development environment for both platform and application development.
* Read-only support for UDF 2.5 filesystem.
* Support for Microsoft's upcoming exFAT filesystem.
* 802.11i (WPA2) and 802.11e (QoS) wireless standards, and multiple radio support.
* CE 6.0 works with x86, ARM, SH4 and MIPS based processor architectures.
* New Cellcore components to enable devices to easily make data connections and initiate voice calls through cellular networks.
WinCE 7:
– Dual Core Support (SMP, ARMv6)
– Visual Studio 2008 Plug in
– WIFI Positioning System
– Bluetooth 2.1
– Cellcore
– DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)
-DRM
– Media Transfer Protocol
– IE7 Rendering Rich Media Plug-Ins
– NDIS 6.1 support
– UX C ++ XAML API using technologies like Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight for attractive and functional user interfaces
– Touch Input
That's what we're gunna be looking at in WinMo 7
Windows Mobile 6.5 ready for primetime failure.
Save for a few niche corners, no one in the general consumer market has any use for this crap.
Better off with Android, Pre or an iPhone 3GS.
Detox already beat you to the finish line of the troll 500 meter dash.
You really ought to try harder next time.
heeey it Mr. MS fanboy Look_Aroun_You! how are you buddy?
So you getting a front row seat to the catastrophic failure of WinMo eh? Fantastic.
So how much do you think WinMo will shrink by the end of this year? I suspect somewhere in the low 8% or even 7%. And to think that WinMo used to have north of 25% adoption.
Looks good. But it must be skinnable for my take.
Isn't that one of the advantages of WinMo... the fact that it isn't locked-down to much of anything.
There's nothing worse than paying exorbitant amounts of money for a phone/service plan and then being told that You Can Not/Will Not customize the GUI to your liking without the threat of voiding the warranty (on a phone that doesn't even offer an insurance policy in the 1st place).
Want TouchFlo/Sense on a WinMo handset = Done! Want SPB Molbile Shell 3.5 = Done! Want Winterface = Done... No Problem.
Choice Is Good...
I have been using this UI for a month, it's finger friendly, and maybe a larger screen is preferred.
WinDINOSAUR!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think i understand now what microsoft's going to do.. they said that they were going to run 6.5 and 7 side by side. This could very well be a 6.6 or something. This OS could continue to evolve into different 6.x releases for power users of WinMo and run on resistive screens, but have the touch-friendliness present on 7. Meanwhile, they could be putting WinMo7 out as a capacitive, easy to use, multitouch apple competitor and appeal to both markets. both for the new WinMo adopters and veterans of the platform. just a thought.
That would sound like a good deduction, but I think it's far too late by now if Microsoft intended this. Windows Mobile updates, even the 6.x ones are only accepted by the carriers/hardware makers and they usually don't let other phones upgrade unless it's a recently new one. So users being able to upgrade to 6.6 when WM7 launches isn't likely. Seems like this was just something they couldn't get out the door sadly.
the irony? while this is a step forward, this could be remedied by one thing-a d-pad. seriously, if windows made part of the professional spec a mandated dpad or optical mouse pad ala samsung, it'd alleviate so many issues.
I actually like this. Its what WinMobile should have been from day one. Now if only it (a) performs well and, (b) actually LOOKS like this by the time it gets to market. Oh, and don't forget the "exit" command on apps this time, K M$?
looks very similar to the zune interface.
two thumbs. great design.
but i can't get my eyes off android.
The article failed to mention one of the best updates to this new version of WinMo. The icons in the start screen can be moved anywhere on the screen. This should have been included in the 6.5 version.
I tried HTC Pure for couple days. Man WM 6.5 sucks. I liked PocketPC, WM5, WM6, but that was in the past. Nothing seemed to change big. Compared to ipod touch 2nd gen 8GB that I have been using for emails, WM 6.5 is totally junk. They still don't support multi language out of the box. I wish they made a better product, but I had to return it.
I played around with 6.5.1 on a NRG rom on my HTC Fuze and damn it was slick and gorgeous.
The problem is that we've been building windows mobile and pocket pc applications for years assuming the taskbar would always remain at the top, now that it is moved to the bottom a lot of stuff is broken. Pocket RAR is unusable, the resco suite works but has a few things blocked by the moved taskbar.
I like the touch friendly interface, the more free ram on boot, and the faster response times. That taskbar just feels like it's change for the sake of change.