Certain user interface elements of the sundry
Windows Mobile 7 mockups we've seen floating around over the years have remained more or less constant -- a general gravitation toward better touchscreen usability and some positively bizarre bottom-aligned signal and battery meters, most notably.
WMExperts is showing off a newly-acquired document of some sort comparing screens in
6.5 and what was apparently supposed to be 6.5.1 -- the finger-friendly tweak of 6.5 that would precede 7 -- but those mockups on the bottom there have apparently been pushed forward and are now being repurposed as guidance for 7's visuals. For what it's worth, the mockups look so drastically different from 6.5 (and so similar to what we've seen prior 7 leaks) that we're inclined to believe this stuff was destined for 7 all along -- and it actually looks pretty snazzy, save for those dang meters down below -- but whatever, Microsoft, let's just get this moved to RTM already.
Update: pocketnow.com has some additional mockups posted, possibly from the same batch; it looks like they were playing with the appearance of elements, because the meters have a distinctly different appearance (though they're all still at the bottom). Can you tell we hate the fact that they're at the bottom?
posted Oct 20th 2009 8:31PM
I predict that win 7 will be released no later than the first quarter of next year. Microsoft knows Andriod is gaining momentum and more capacitive touch phone will start being made by sammy, lg, and htc. just my 2 cents of course.
Windows Mobile 6.5 will have been the shortest-lived WM update. Too bad handsets, PDA's, etc. can't upgrade from one version to another such as their desktop counterparts.
Yeah, except of course they can.
U can upgrade.. M$ has purposely leaked versions of Wm6.5 that arent available for purchase. And it doesnt void your warranty to try the newer versions. Im on wm6.5.1 now
I'm guessing that WM 6.5 will be the Vista of their mobile strategy.
The only question is will WM7 be good enough to keep them in the game. I've been really happy with WM overall, but that's mainly because of HTC. I'm still under contract until March, so I can sit tight...
I am done with windowsmobile. I have had them for the past 4 years and it has been the same. All these promises and everything is the same. Its pretty pathetic if you ask me. Thank god for HTC because if it wasn't for them, windowsmobile would be in gutter. I applaud HTC for their efforts. I love my palm pre. I just hope there's people out there developing for them.
I wanted a pre for a long time to replace my iphone, but then I found out (I think this is true) that you can freely install apps onto it. Its just like the iphone with its locked down app store. That killed all my interest in it.
@ k2snowboards88
that was the exact thing that killed the Pre for me too. one of the best features of WinMo and Palm OS were that they are almost exactly like a PC environment where you find programs where ever and install what you want. webOS locks that down to how the iPhone is and when i found that out, it put me back to WinMo and Android as my OS options (currently on WinMo).
You're right - there's SUCH a small number of apps available for the iPhone, just because of Apple's insane policy of locking down what apps can be installed. I'd definitely go for a platform which doesn't have any limits instead because there's bound to be vast oodles more apps available for it. And they're bound to be better as well, just because the platform's not tied down. And Apple's claim to do this so that the integrity of the platform isn't diminished is clearly SO fake.
Ideology over common sense every day - it's the only way to go!
Clearly there are so many apps in the Apple store that one couldn't possibly need to go elsewhere to find what they want. I mean Blackberry has an app store and yet it's almost a joke when compared to the amount of apps you can find for it online.
@ SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt)
this is fundamentally not correct. palm has decided that developers can completely bypass the app catalog if they so desire. this means that there will be no draconian apple app store situation. please see the link below:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/05/palm-throws-the-doors-open-review-free-app-distribution-over-th/
I read that before. What bothers me about it though is that they still need palm's permission. They may not have to go to the same app approval process but palm could still bar an app. It also seems to me (ged in law) that they could be legally liable for apps that some content holders feel is detrimental to their business or wireless carriers feel they don't want on their network. Someone will eventually twist palm's arm and force them to revoke a url or deny one outright. With windows mobile and android, this should never happen because google and microsoft have no part in at all in getting the app on the device.
@nick and patrick
Flash, different browser, rss agregator, podcast downloader (That one may have finally been allowed past the app store), multicodec video player, and old console emulators just to name a few.
How is windows mobile web browsing these days? I'm using an iPhone 3g now and really want to switch back to windows mobile with an AT&T Tilt 2, but only if the browsing as at least as smooth and convenient as it is on the iphone. I used to have a wizard and a tytn. Web browsing was terrible. The iphone was the first phone that I would use for web browsing even if my laptop was only across the room. Will windows mobile with opera allow me the same lazyness?
HTC phones (like the Tilt 2) ship with Opera Mobile which is a great, fully featured browser that is significantly better than Pocket IE. I suggest going into an AT&T store and trying out the browser on the phone; you will probably be pretty impress by it.
WM phones offer browsers made by many companies here are the ones I use
-Opera Mobile: This is what you would use if you love safari. This is arguably the best mobile browser available. Fast customizable and my favorite feature is it auto adjusts text column size depending on zoom level so you never have to scroll left or right when reading.
-Opera mini: The fastest mobile brpwser available. Since this uses server side rendering its much faster than Opera Mobile or WebKit EVER will be. But since the page is processed on a server in norway or somthing, it will never look quite as good as Opera Mobile or WebKit. And logging into mobile banking my trigger alerts because you will be seen as logging in from a different country
-Iris: A great browser right behind Safari and Opera Mobile. Its based on WebKit like Android or iPhone but not as polished. BB will have this soon as they recently bought the developer Torch.
-Skyfire: Very good browser the only one in my opinion that has a desktop level experience. Streams music and video great. Doesnt zoom and scroll as smooth as Opera Mobile or Safari.
-IE6: Works surprisingly good its just too slow for everyday. I find it to be the most stable of any high level phone browser including WebKit. Renders pretty good. Must have a wm6.5 phone or upgade to an unofficial rom
So you should have a good experience if you try these out.. best of all they are all free!
Holy cow there's full names and office numbers in that pic. It probably is real as the mobile guys are in those buildings. Someone's probably in deep trouble for this.
Anybody have any idea as to what "RTM" stands for?
Release to manufacturing. There's this amazing new thing called Google - give it a go some time when you want to know something...
@Nick:
Yes, because the number of apps is what's important. Not things like being able to install better web browsers or Google Voice apps.
This comment was supposed to be in reply to Nicks sarcastic comment earlier about the number of apps, ideology, and common sense.
Windows 7 Beta is pretty good. I have used it for a few months now. I noticed that When you have a lot of programs running it doesn’t lag. There are some good features that Microsoft introduced into Windows 7. It’s easier to use and faster. Windows certainly needed some improvement. I have written a report on my experience using Windows 7 Beta. Have a look at my article, hopefully it will be useful. Please let me know what you think by commenting there.
http://ketiva.com/Computers_and_Internet/my_experience_with_windows_7_using_the_beta_version1.html
We don’t know what problems may arise in the future for Windows 7 it’s still too early but on the whole it looks great.