Jaxbot's Windows Phone 7 Series Theme now available in beta (video)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted March 13th 2010 11:57PM
posted March 13th 2010 11:57PM
Even if your handset of choice won't be eligible for upgrade to Windows Phone 7, there's no reason you can't enjoy the look and feel of Microsoft's latest and greatest with a well-executed skin, right? Looks like Jaxbot's Windows Phone 7 Series Theme is available in passable beta form -- great news for any and all of you jealous WinMo 6.5 users who might be reading this -- and it can be had right now (as in now!) at the XDA Developers forum. Want to see it do its thing? Peep the video after the break.
cool stuff. dont forget to turn your clocks ahead engadget!
then again... all our sick tech probably does it for us huh, lol
@skyblaze
I just finished installing and then uninstalling this app on my HTC Touch Diamond. Thankfully it wasn't a full blown ROM and just a CAB file or I would have never wasted my time...and waste my time I did. Other than the initial screen it pretty much ran just like you see in the video...like crap.
I have learned my lesson already running the 6.5 ROMs and in the end realize that the stock ROM is usually best if you don't want a phone that always has a few issues and just works.
@DaveBach
I think for a beta release by one fella alone, it's pretty darn impressive. Props to him and for trying at least, I'm sure he'll be taking feedback to heart and improving it. Instead of whining like a b!tch for something you weren't forced to use nor try and clearly says a beta on the post, we appreciate the effort, it looks quite nice. Thanks Jaxbot!
@DaveBach The point is that this demonstrates 8 months early that XDA members will have a WP7 hack. It was not meant to please self-appointed armchair critics.
I guess he could have kept this to himself and not released it until it was ready for prime time, but I like that he let us see his work in progress. In a sense we are seeing the cooked ROM process, from concept to finished product in the months ahead. That's uber cool in my book.
The person has talent and it's amazing what he has achieved at such an early stage (that is, early in the context of what we know about WP7.) Sure it's easy to sit back and criticize, but your criticism is misplaced since this was not billed as an OS or finished product.
Your criticism begs the question, what have you done lately in the mobile OS arena? Also, what did you expect, a full blown hack of WP7 or a product ready for sale?
This is a shell or theme and I am sure complete OS will be here soon enough. In the meantime I suggest you not download anything that pops up on the Net. That seems pretty foolish to me. You are lucky you did not brick your phone. If that happened you would have been SOL and instead posting on here "Don't download, it bricked my phone."
Hmm... come to think about it, please continue to download anything and everything that shows up on the Net. And tell us how it went. :)
@skyblaze
Touch Pro...*shutters*
@Almo
Thanks for your thoughts but the fact is it still is crap. Now that we have a crappy video of it circulating of it on the web too I'm sure others with start formulating skewed opinions on the real thing. If I was Microsoft I'd be looking to shut this guy's crappy operation down sooner rather than later.
@TonyMontana2367
I miss my Touch Pro. If it didn't go all wonky on me, I never would have bought an Omnia II. And if the Omnia II had a keyboard and actually ran fast, I wouldn't have replaced it with a Milestone...
BTW, anyone wanna buy an Omnia II?
@shogunmaster
Hell yes! How much for it?
@TonyMontana2367
I've got a Touch Pro as well (Sprint) - worst piece of tech I've ever owned. Sluggish, unresponsive garbage. So bad in fact I usually leave it at home and go without a phone.
It is that bad.
@SolidSnake
$450 would do it. It's locked to Bell but you could unlock it to something else for about $15 or so. I bought my Milestone from Telus and unlocked that so I can use it on Bell. Let me know if you're serious, otherwise, look for it on the 'Bay...
@DaveBach You're missing the point. There's a reason why it was labeled as a beta; citing performance issues is an invalid criticism to make.
I agree that the guy did an amazing job for what little we know so far about WP7S; you shouldn't be so quick to criticize.
I think Microsoft should be flattered that someone out there thought their new creation cool enough to make into a theme for an unsupported platform; what right do you have to deprive others of something they potentially might want?
Oh Lordy
@Jehryan
Exactly, the bloat of Windows 6 with a poorly developed theme, and then to port that theme onto different phones?
OH LORDY!
I really feel shafted after buying a Samsung Omnia 2 around last September. I just hope there are enough loyal fans still around for this phone when the new Samsung projector phone comes out because that has Android 2.1 and the exact same hardware, bar a little more ram, as the Omnia 2.... hopefully i can get a port!
@guideXD
This is where you need to be:
http://www.modaco.com/category/425/verizon-samsung-sch-i920-omnia-ii-cdma-rom-discussion/
Custom ROMs galore that will speed up your phone and get you to the latest leaked build of WinMo.
Also, in the Omnia II GSM forum, there is an Android project going on that should also work on your phone (there is one for the original Omnia that works on both CDMA and GSM).
As for this skin, I tried it and it's fairly useless for now. Also crashes a lot (to be expected); still I have high hopes for it in the future.
That looks absolutely painful!
@MadonnasManOne Thats what I thought last night when I went to the AT&T store last night to check out the Moto Backflip, Animations in the OS is jumpy and not smooth and with a little delay, still a work in progress.
It needs work, but very impressive for the time being.
I can't imagine what they can do in 6 months.
I have no doubt that the'll somehow manage to get WP7S eventually working on all WM6.5 handsets.
@hellojoaquin
I would also like to see my battery and signal strength.
Yes, yes. I know this is a beta. Nonetheless, I am very impressed.
@hellojoaquin
I'd hate to burst your bubble, but there is little to no chance they'll get WP7S series running on all 6.5-running handsets.
Where WinMo 6.x only contains code that still is backwards compatible with legacy (and with legacy I mean oooold) ARM-chips, WP7S requires some more advanced functionality only found in Cortex-series chips and their siblings.
It'd be like saying they'd be able to port 7 to a Pentium-class chip. Only difference being that Windows 7 can also run without graphical acceleration, where WP7S can't. So you would sooner find Windows 7 running (or crawling, to be more exact) on a Pentium 133 than you would find WP7S run on all WM6.5 handsets (including each and every one that has a ARM11-based SoC, which are many).
They've chosen for a reason to keep on selling and developing WM6.5 for the lower end devices.
@graey
And what exact feature ARM11 lacks? Linux 2.6 run fine on a PXA270, which is an armv5tel, w/o hardware float. I don't think Snapdragons with MMU, FPU, tons of RAM and ROM fail to run WP7 smooth enough, even without GPU. It's because M$ just don't want to provide support for it (read: manually re-flash glossy bricks with JTAG for free).
CE5 sucks btw. would xda do some android porting for minor PHSs...
Digging the Babbs background music haha..
I'm sure this would perform better on a newer Winmo phone. right now it's unusable though.
@jellotime91 Do you know who it's by or what it's called? I like it. :)
Doesn't look anything special.
@jaffreywali
Do you understand what a beta version is.. Do you think someone just thru together the iPhone or Web OS interface in one night and everything worked smoothly and pretty.. He is not a software manufacturing company, he is not selling this for use as an everyday homescreen..
If the average person is too ignorant to understand how beneficial this is too WM users and the Smartphone community as a whole maybe WinMo does suck...
But I will go back to using a phone designed for WM 6.1 w/ Touch Flo 3D1 and use WM 6.5.5 and Touch Flo Sense Landscape and switch to Android 2.1 on the weekends when I wanna download some cool free games....
kudos to human ingenuity
omg! copyright! they'll ban it from the app store man!!
o wait.
This is why WinMo rocks. These guys cranked out a custom UI in a month. Sure it's slow but I'm constantly amazed at what the folks over at XDA can do.
will the speed be faster on HD2 or for Touch Pro 2 for example? My mom has Touch Pro 2 and I will steal it for a moment and try this. She will be like, "What did you DOOOO!!!!"
@mikmik111
I wouldn't waste your time as the video is as good as this thing gets...it's garbage.
I gotta go though...we're trying out some new tires and fuel injector turbo juice on my dads new Cadillac while he's sleeping.
@DaveBach Look at that I just checked and it's just a 3.2mb .CAB file. Plus it runs like a program so my mom will not be angry at me!
It's not garbage at all! You get it for free and have a closer (yet still far) UI experience to WP7. I'll take it!
stay on the speed limit btw
Animations look painfully slow!!! like ~8fps
The choice of using Memories as the soundtrack for this video seems appropriate, since this .cab looks like it takes up all of your phone's memory.
@mykie242 Funny, but it really doesn't. Uses maybe 6MB of RAM and not that many MB on the device storage.
it could use some work but I am impressed non the less.
This video makes me appreciate the speed of my Nexus One that much more... ;)
Now how about someone make a video of this running on a European HD2?
@Johnny Rockets
Hey stupid. This is something that has been made by 1 guy in a month. It's a huge task for 1 person, to do that on his spare time. I made a similar thing a couple of years ago, and I know it takes a lot of work.
i want WP7S nao plz
Wait, so does that mean the HTC Touch Pro can't have Windows 7?
@pyehac
no this is just a program.
I hate you resistive touchscreens. I hope you die and burn
I just downloaded it and tried it, and it's a great start. There's a room for a LOT of improvement, but the proof of concept is there, it works, and now just needs some fine-tuning. On my eXpo, everything runs pretty much as it does in the video, so it feels more like the software itself needs some tweaking as opposed to just more processing power. Jaxbot, props! Looking forward to a future release.
those xda guys should really know where to stop... I mean even 6.5 for touch pro is trouble/laggy/buggy enough...
very cool. going to try it on my hd2
I hope that Jackbot, Genesis from http://www.wp7genisis.com and others that work on a Windows Phone 7 theme for wm6.x can all come together and help each other. Keep up the great work guys.
Ugly no matter how you dress it
I definitely commend the effort, especially since it's very involved and only written by one guy. But I think we're all forgetting one thing here.
It runs HORRIBLY.
There is no way in hell I would release something that runs that slowly on a Touch Pro (old, but by no means archaic). Just me, but the Touch Pro has fantastic 3D acceleration (look how smoothly Manila and SPB Mobile 3 run); if he can take advantage of this, it would be awesome. Until then, undercooked at best. A great effort, but this could by no means be used as a daily shell.
Always nice to have new stuff to play with on our phones. Good work!
Thanks to the developer that made this app, but I'd just call it a proof-of-concept... a sort of doing it for doing it's sake. It's not practical at all.
The beauty of WinMo7 is it will be sleeker, trimmed down and efficient. This interface may emulate what that interface may look like, but it's running on bloated WinMo 6.x and on a Fuze (Touch Pro) without graphics acceleration and slow processor.
Effort: 8 Useability: 3
This is definately something for all win 6.5 users to look forward to as it develops. Currently running it on my device, it might be buggy, but it's a start of something good.
why show it on a fuze? Theres a perfectly good video of it on an HD2.......... http://pocketnow.com/tweaks-hacks/jaxbot-s-windows-phone-7-series-theme-released