14 replies to this topic

[l3v5y]

[teaser]

  
In the latest builds of Windows Mobile 6.5 (provided by XDA-Developers Da_G), there have been consistent improvements (towards finger friendly interaction). The latest build (23034) is no exception, and perhaps includes the most radical of changes compared to earlier builds. (warning, lots of screen shots)[/teaser]

The changes to the "Today" screen of old (Now called "Home") are pretty evident. The start button has moved, the OK/Exit button has moved, the soft keys have been enlarged, and the title bar has been resized down.

This leaves the total working area almost identical in size, but makes all the buttons you normally hit much much easier to use with your thumb - no longer must you stretch to the top of your screen to close whatever you happen to have been looking at.

This is approaching what we saw on some of the WM7 screen shots, and is falling in line with the other popular mobile OSes, with a much smaller region at the top for information.

Unlike both the iPhone (which gives you very little more information than what's displayed at the top) and Android which requires a little flick to get anything detailed, 23034 requires just a tap, and then a selection of what you want (it does look pretty similar to HTCs notification enhancement ).

Other areas have also seen improvement, the Clock/Alarms for example are now much easier to change with just a finger, admitedly this must be fairly beta as the controls are all quite ugly.

The changes don't stop there either, with the Calendar getting a refresh to match the rest of the OS. The buttons (like "Today" and "next/previous") have all been made larger and more accommodating, though the information displayed, and all the functionality still remain.
Tapping on the Date in the top bar also brings up a nice big date picker to jump around to whatever date you want.

Another change for the better, is the replacement of the old Calculator (with it's infuriating rounded buttons, and Windows 3.0 like UI) with a newer, more stylish replacement, with glass effect buttons.

The following have been around for much longer (most have been there since the first few WM6.5 builds in fact)
Kinetic scrolling is now system wide, making long lists in file explorer or Messaging much easier to navigate, and the larger sized controls found in lists are much easier to hit. The context menus have all been enlarged, much like HTCs MenuEnhancement. "Swipes" in Messaging, Photos/Videos, and Media Player also have a next/previous effect allowing for more finger friendly interaction.

A folder of screenshots for WM6.5.1 build 23034 can be found here
A video with some of the new functions can be found here

[Koofteh]

What happened with the redesign of the tabs, where they moved them up to the top and made them more finger friendly? Looks like they've gone back to the old style like the tabs in Microsoft Excel.

All these changes are so confusing, they keep adding and removing things and I keep flashing my phone... I wish there was an easier way to go back to the stable releases after trying out these new builds but alas it doesn't seem like there's anyway to truly backup your ROM.

Edited by Koofteh, 23 August 2009 - 12:45 AM.

[Chad Petree]

great! finally some real improvements, this make us see how crappy windows 6.1 was!

[l3v5y]

Koofteh, on Aug 23 2009, 01:45, said:

What happened with the redesign of the tabs, where they moved them up to the top and made them more finger friendly? Looks like they've gone back to the old style like the tabs in Microsoft Excel.

All these changes are so confusing, they keep adding and removing things and I keep flashing my phone... I wish there was an easier way to go back to the stable releases after trying out these new builds but alas it doesn't seem like there's anyway to truly backup your ROM.

The buttons/tabs are gradually being updated to "pivots" instead, they juts haven't finished all the applications.

It would be nice to have some kind of TFAT+IMGFS backup, but I'm not sure if that's possible.

[thelondonthing]

Having seen the full set of screenshots and video of the latest builds, all I can say is "yuk".

There's no consistency in anything - there are giant bright blue pop-up menus, big finger-friendly buttons with light blue backgrounds, translucent round icons in PIE, translucent icons of different widths all over the bottom bar, tabs in some places with 'slide' gestures in others, and the Zune-style carousel on the homescreen which fits in with no other elements of the OS.

The whole thing is a horrible, horrible mess.

I can only hope that this visual fiasco is part of the development process, and that the actual final release will see a more polished product.  If 6.5 is released with such a clumsy mixture of control points, interfaces and UI elements, I may just sell all of my WM devices - after nine years of using WM phones - and give in to the Apple beast.  *shudders*

[l3v5y]

thelondonthing, on Aug 23 2009, 03:32, said:

Having seen the full set of screenshots and video of the latest builds, all I can say is "yuk".

There's no consistency in anything - there are giant bright blue pop-up menus, big finger-friendly buttons with light blue backgrounds, translucent round icons in PIE, translucent icons of different widths all over the bottom bar, tabs in some places with 'slide' gestures in others, and the Zune-style carousel on the homescreen which fits in with no other elements of the OS.

The whole thing is a horrible, horrible mess.

I can only hope that this visual fiasco is part of the development process, and that the actual final release will see a more polished product.  If 6.5 is released with such a clumsy mixture of control points, interfaces and UI elements, I may just sell all of my WM devices - after nine years of using WM phones - and give in to the Apple beast.  *shudders*

6.5 is what's seen in the emulator images. This isn't 6.5, this is 6.5.1, or something similar to that. This is very much still in development (it took about 20 builds to move the start button down after moving the OK button down). Yes, this build is inconsistent, but they're actively developing it, and making it much nicer to use.

[Koofteh]

thelondonthing, on Aug 22 2009, 19:32, said:

Having seen the full set of screenshots and video of the latest builds, all I can say is "yuk".

There's no consistency in anything - there are giant bright blue pop-up menus, big finger-friendly buttons with light blue backgrounds, translucent round icons in PIE, translucent icons of different widths all over the bottom bar, tabs in some places with 'slide' gestures in others, and the Zune-style carousel on the homescreen which fits in with no other elements of the OS.

The whole thing is a horrible, horrible mess.

I can only hope that this visual fiasco is part of the development process, and that the actual final release will see a more polished product. If 6.5 is released with such a clumsy mixture of control points, interfaces and UI elements, I may just sell all of my WM devices - after nine years of using WM phones - and give in to the Apple beast. *shudders*

I'm very much annoyed with the inconsistencies as well so I keep flashing back to the builds with the old UI when I'm done playing around with the new stuff, but you have to keep in mind that these aren't being released publicly so it doesn't have to look good at all. They're changing a lot of the layouts and stuff so it's being done very gradually, and doing the themes and polishing it up is probably one of the last steps after all the coding is done which it isn't since for instance we just saw the start button move to the bottom.

I'm curious now as to which build is going to be the release candidate for 6.5 since post 23022 seems to be 6.5.1.

Edited by Koofteh, 23 August 2009 - 03:32 AM.

[l3v5y]

Koofteh, on Aug 23 2009, 04:29, said:

I'm very much annoyed with the inconsistencies as well so I keep flashing back to the builds with the old UI when I'm done playing around with the new stuff, but you have to keep in mind that these aren't being released publicly so it doesn't have to look good at all. They're changing a lot of the layouts and stuff so it's being done very gradually, and doing the themes and polishing it up is probably one of the last steps after all the coding is done which it isn't since for instance we just saw the start button move to the bottom.

I'm curious now as to which build is going to be the release candidate for 6.5 since post 23022 seems to be 6.5.1.

The build that's going to be 6.5 RC is pretty much the same as the emulator image. There may be a few tweaks, but nothing radical.

6.5 is getting released soons, so OEMs would be pretty annoyed if 6.5 had major changes like this done to it at this point of the development cycle.

[CroatianOmnia]

looks awsome,but i tested a omnia rom,just like this one,it is good,but there is no app to really close with the x button,and i ditched that rom becouse it had MANY bugs. if it gets fixed and if someone develops a close app,it will be great. i will stick to my current rom.

[philly-d]

Despite my initial thoughts, having the buttons at the bottom of the screen really works!

[Alex (nedge2k)]

Yep, especially having the start menu at the bottom for devices which don't have a flag key and have a large screen (hd for example).

[Vegeta™]

is video call, wifi, bluetooth or the others work perfectly on this room if i use for omnia i900?

i flashed my dopod 900 before into wm 6.1, but that think didn't working again.

[Koofteh]

Vegeta™, on Aug 25 2009, 07:13, said:

is video call, wifi, bluetooth or the others work perfectly on this room if i use for omnia i900?

Most things work (not sure about video calls) but if you're looking for 'perfect' you should wait a little while longer since these new builds seem buggy. They're getting better but people are still reporting somewhat widespread issues.

[Vegeta™]

Koofteh, on Aug 25 2009, 14:27, said:

Most things work (not sure about video calls) but if you're looking for 'perfect' you should wait a little while longer since these new builds seem buggy. They're getting better but people are still reporting somewhat widespread issues.

oww, i think so, thank you for the answer

[black.rose]

l3v5y, on Aug 23 2009, 14:19, said:

The build that's going to be 6.5 RC is pretty much the same as the emulator image. There may be a few tweaks, but nothing radical.

6.5 is getting released soons, so OEMs would be pretty annoyed if 6.5 had major changes like this done to it at this point of the development cycle.

Your idea is so interesting and useful !Thanks for your sharing .

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Edited by black.rose, 26 August 2009 - 03:54 AM.