Microsoft confirms accuracy of old, pre-'reboot' Windows Mobile 7 leaks
By Chris Ziegler 
posted March 15th 2010 7:35PM
posted March 15th 2010 7:35PM
posted March 15th 2010 7:35PM
powered by gdgt
Microsoft Windows Phone 7
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OMG!!! I totally forgot about the leaked pictures. Much rather have the new WP7S
Prefer the current look by a mile, but this would have been good for the business class models. The WPS7 Metro would be exclusive to Multimedia/entertainment and top tier smartphones.
WM7 looks good but it still sucks because it will be closed just like the IPHONE ugh.. If I own the phone why cant i do whatever i want with it :( ?
The old version looks boring, the new version looks messy and quite clearly is style over substance. Sure, on the surface it looks fun and interesting, but wait until you all get to use it. Spent a couple of minute watching a youtube video of it and you'll see how cluttered and unintuitive it is.
@macmann: "Spent a couple of minute watching a youtube video of it and you'll see how cluttered and unintuitive it is."
I spent about one minute looking at this post:
http://gizmodo.com/5493682/windows-phone-7-apps-first-video
...and decided that I don't believe you.
@macmann
Yes, because 11 homescreens of identical 4x4 icons truly defines an intuitive UI. Nay, I tell you, it is not at all reminiscent of an ancient, endless Win95 start menu that lacks so much as an Android-esque spotlight feature. The daughter of efficiency, it is.
@Kyang
"I spent about one minute looking at this post:
http://gizmodo.com/5493682/windows-phone-7-apps-first-video"
Oh man, that's a terrible example. You know what I love about that video? You have no idea where you are, and when swiping onto another screen you have no idea where it's going to take you. Real intuitive.
@schismal
"Yes, because 11 homescreens of identical 4x4 icons truly defines an intuitive UI." Err.... did I even mention the iPhone?
Anyway...
You may not like the iPhone UI and icons, but I've never seen a person that hasn't been able to pick it up and instantly know what they're doing with it. I'd like to see the same with Windows Phone Series.... I mean Windows Series 7.... sorry, I meant to say Windows BMW 7 Series Phone Special Edition Blue Tiley OS.
@macmann
Pretty sure I knew exactly how to work both my Zune HD and the accompanying media software with no learning curve. Case study fail. And yes, you salivate over Apple in every other comment, so my extrapolation to the iPhone/Pad UI was hardly unwarranted.
@macmann: snore... Apple fanboy complaining on an MS thread...
This 'style over substance' meme you're repeating is nonsense. The design is clearly PART of the substance... Swiss style lettering bleed off compels the user to move through the interface by the fact that it IS cut off.
@Alan Strangis
Yeah that's all well and good. But there are no cues telling you what you're linking to when to swipe to another screen. So I swipe not knowing where it's going to lead me.
My dad. He would kill a man with his bare hands in order to get WinMo to stick around for another 10 years or so.
He's a bit of a tech/gadget guy too, I just don't get it, but he sure do loves him some WinMo.
@xeper
Sounds like my ex-Grandpa in law. Granny said she would find him hiding in his shed playing with his HTC and sniffing poppers.
That was just the start. He moved onto a cruel cycle of rom upgrading and cocaine abuse that left him a shell of the man he once was.
Last time I saw him he was standing on the street talking into his Touch Pro but the battery wasn't even in. I think he is now running with gangs, looking for unsecured hotspots and 'tweaking' his installation just to 'tide him over'. My ex-Granny worries that WP7S will be the hit that finishes him off.
knock knock...
no.. no no no noo noo noo no hell no no nooo noo I refus.. no
ahh... I don't know! there's some screen that looks better than today, for me. I love how they made this "recent program" menu http://www.engadget.com/photos/is-this-windows-mobile-7/#561266
i think that can still happen not everyone likes a touch screen phone like my self. i thought i would give it a try but didnt like the touch screen phone.
that windows can be put into the devices like candy bar phones blackberry qwerty kind or nokia e71 kind.
i have moved back to an e72. i like the simplicity of the phone and software and the touch of physical keys.
they can still sell it as a business phone software
anything less than what they have presented with series 7 and microsoft might as well have shut down their mobile division. im glad they decided to start from scratch, this is some seriously amazing stuff.
I just thurped.
MS should have just modernized the "6.5 Classic" apps and update the window management and shell. It would allow for backwards-compatibility, power-user features (XDA crowd), and match the new features of newer smartphone platforms. In other words, take 6.5 (I REALLY dislike 6.5.x's lower menu buttons), use a larger screen with larger screen elements (so that the same amount of buttons and features on the screen is the same), put animations and transitions into the interface, and integrate the built-in apps better so as to be a role-model for developers.
you know it would make a good windows mobile 6.5.3 to windows classic upgrade....just a thought
This could always be the Windows 7 Phone Home Starter Basic Edition.
Don't like the Metro UI at all. Love the apps and features they're announcing for WP7, but I don't like the UI. I like this old UI better but neither compares to webOS. I think webOS has the best UI out there and I really wish that Microsoft was following Palm's lead instead of following what Apple came up with 3 years ago.
UglyPhone7... ugly ugly ugly ugly ugly
I would've liked it... at least along side WP7S (Since we have 6.5.3 as "Starter" devices, why not have Photon starter devices?)
Believe me, ALL the hardcore WM fans are disappointed with WP7S and would have done anything for this leaked version to make an appearance.
I think this old pre-reboot version would have sent me straight to Google's Android without looking back...
As a "hardcore" fan of the existing Windows Mobile, I would definitely have stayed with Microsoft if they hadn't decided to "reboot". Now I'm seriously considering Android or WebOS.
The only problems I have with Windows Phone 7 Series is the lack of multitasking and the lack of a secondary source of software (IE the internet)
This should be the windows phone classic :D
I prefered the old way... Becuose that is not a windows phone... It a zune phone, and is obviosly made just to Piss on the iPhone and say "We have one too!!!!"
I liked that leak..... I was sure that was going to be it.....
Wow the old Win7 UI looks soooooooo much better. The new UI is a joke...it's just a bunch of squares that don't fit on the screen with some awful color schemes. Hopefully you can theme the Win7 phone OS.
I do think that this was kind of a step backwards... not to say that metro is moving in the right direction. To be honest and to censor myself a tad i think that metro looks like a clusterblank. I want my information on one screen... I also dont see the point of having your own picture on your main screen... are there people out there that are that vain? maybe that is something that you can delete like a android widget.... i dont know though.
I would have liked the old WM7. WM 6 and before was more like the old PDA operating systems, and I loved those. It was more like a computer in a very small form factor, not a toy like the iPhone.
It would have been good to have the option. The old UI had many advantages for business users, not many for home consumers. Of course, since the iPhone showed users they could have their cake and eat it too, Microsoft trashed the old one.
I wonder if all the business productivity stuff that was going to be in the unreleased UI ended up in the Metro UI.
Anyone else think the home screen looks flat and boring.. like purposely trying to avoid looking like the iPhone home screen.
@robrbecker With Apple on a frenzy to sue everyone, that's not a bad thing...
Don't miss the old UI, but do miss not having a competitive winmo phone in my hand for the past 2+ years.
Hopefully they will turn this into Windows Mobile 6.6!
I don't know... I think that I might have, if they'd polished it up a bit and it was backwards-compatible with the army of .cab files I already have for my WinMo 5/6.1/6.5 devices of yore. As it stands, while I applaud Microsoft for taking a very different direction not just from the old Windows Mobile but pretty much every other smartphone OS in terms of design, I'm not sold on it yet. And the HTC HD2 is some awful sexy hardware...
Topic jack:
XDA-developers have Windows Phone 7 code, 8-months before release
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/03/15/xda-developers-have-windows-phone-7-code-8-months-before-release/
No, not at all ...
I think it really comes down to who they are trying to target.
The old WM7 before the fresh would appeal more to existing WM users and the ones who are die hard WM fans. But that number has been drastically shrinking if you look at the numbers.
If they are going to go after a larger market share they are/were not going to get it with a slight evolution and slight UI tweaks to the existing platform. Just my opinion.
WP7 seems like a platform that is looking to drastically make a splash in the consumer market.
Yes! WP7 Series, so one with Metro and the other one with the old 6.x core...
to be honest nope ,but to be fair,it would be impossible to tell for 100% as there is no way of us taking this old version for a test drive(at the moment),but judging it as a upgraded form of winmo6.5 ( i knwo not fair as its not the same ,but closest we can)i would still pick new metro,not just because it better ,but because its time for a change time to evolve,its time to choice,(gman accent),but i choice new metro
i'm not that fussed about how it looks actually, it's all snazzy graphics and all that...BUT...whilst they did need a complete overhaul, the way they have gone about it, simply sawing out whole chunks of what made winmo great (multitasking - REAL open app development - business centred) has essentially seemed to me like a giant F*** YOU to the large base of current winmo users. this is very much an apple strategy - upgrade or get stuffed. personally, i've always relied on xda and to some extent htc to make my winmo phone a great device, now since that has been taken away from both developers, i can't see me upgrading in the near (or distant) future. F*** Me microsoft??? F*** YOU!!!!
No. I think that whole style is puke-inducing shininess.
Now let's fix desktop Window's UI...
I'll pass.
I actually would prefer this as an option in the WinMo space and have it as the "classic". I can tell from these older leaked screen shots that this version would have kept many of the small (but very useful) features that have kept me with Microsoft since Windows CE 2.x days. Copy/Paste, VoiceCommand (incredibly useful), auto-complete and auto-correct text features. None of these features made it in the final 7.
Windows phone 7 series looks great, but it lacks many small and useful features that made 6.x and previous versions so useful.