Windows Mobile 6.5 was just a
whisper on a Motorola phone chief Sanjay Jha's lips two weeks ago, but now that
Ballmer himself has confirmed that there's at least one more rev of WinMo 6 en route before
Windows Mobile 7 hits it looks like the floodgates have opened -- check out these hot screenshots, one of which seems to have been liberally dipped in Zune sauce. We're hoping that means we'll see some Zune integration with this next generation of handsets, but we're not going to get too worked up yet (cough, Xbox). It does look quite nice, though, and we've got our fingers crossed that this revamp is more than just a pretty new home screen and app launcher -- you're
way late to
that party, Microsoft. No telling on when 6.5 will actually get here, but Ballms said it'll be sometime next year, so we're guessing we don't have too long to wait.
Update: As several of you have pointed out, some of the icons are a little suspicious -- that "Today" icon is OS X's Home icon, for example. We're hoping this is the real deal and not just a user-made skin, but we wouldn't start making any long term plans here.
[Via
WMPowerUser]
posted Nov 12th 2008 12:06PM
I'm afraid that I don't like either interface much. The one on the left looks like the Zune 'twist' UI while the one on the right is a field of tiles which looks like it is little more than an app launcher. As I am reliant on my phone for scheduling, I like to have as much information visible to me at a glance (yay Pocket Informant).
Don't get me wrong though, choice is good, and I guess an improvment to the default home screen will help drive sales.
Fake.
Photoshop...
Man...if that was real, it would be nice...too bad it isnt. =(
It'd be great if they looked like this, but these couldn't be real (if they're from the same source) - the Windows logos are different and the reception and battery indicators are flipped compared to the other screenshot. Plus the icons aren't the same style, Youtube should be YouTube, and it should show the official YT logo.
The 2 real questions here are, Can i Use winmo 6.5 for more than a day without restarting? and can I add plugins to the today screen without crashing the entire phone?
It would have been a nice interface lift if these pictures were real. :(
One other obviously fake aspect here is, well, what both of these screens depict. They are both app switchers / home screens. They essentially perform the same function, that is to switch apps and provide a little bit of information. You'd choose one or the other. Why on earth would a single OS switch paradigms so dramatically and why would you have two or three ways to select an application. Of course, windows mobile is notorious for this, but I really doubt they'll be that stupid in a future version.
Also, both are obviously meant to be for WinMo professional because they have the "start" menu at the top and a 2:3 layout, but the Zune-based one seems only useful if you have a scroll wheel'ish interface and would be worthless as a touch interface (and thus, better suited for WinMo standard).
Overall, a really bad fake. Kinda pretty (both in their own ways), but really bad.
This should've been listed as a "Keepin' it real-fake".
They both look better than WinMo 6.
The part that leads me to believe they are fakes is the fact that the power and reception bars are reversed in each screen. I don't see any way that makes sense.