Guest Paul (MVP) Posted October 27, 2006 Report Share Posted October 27, 2006 Over in this thread at GPS Passion, you'll find the first leaked screenshots of Crossbow, the next release of Windows Mobile, on Smartphone (pics also posted below). Interesting points to note... - Slightly modernised designed, Vista'ised icons - Integrated Office support - Windows Live Messenger / Windows Live installed in these screenshots - MS Voice Command for Smartphone installed in these screenshots Crossbow isn't expected to hit the ground until well into 2007. What's your thoughts? Is a fairly subtle lick of paint good enough to keep the Smartphone OS fresh? P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Animefan Posted October 27, 2006 Report Share Posted October 27, 2006 first! :rolleyes: And damn it looks cool! I wish I could have it on mine ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sonicr360 Posted October 27, 2006 Report Share Posted October 27, 2006 You could get a theme if you want fancy icons. I hope the devices are up to the job of running this; Nothing worse than a fancy "look", causing slowdown on the physical device. My opinion = nothing new to see here. Not impressed yet. Early days. Is there not an ICON creater for PPC ? Or is it Wisbar that gives you a fancy shell (aka Vista Theme?) Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GraviticVortex Posted October 27, 2006 Report Share Posted October 27, 2006 Better than current ancient icons, but still way behind of those used on symbian phones. Btw, will crossbow have 65k color limit fixed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mini_man Posted October 27, 2006 Report Share Posted October 27, 2006 Yummy! is all I can say lol! Would love too some screen shots of what office mobile is like! Im also assuming they are using different voice command software because that looks awefully similar to that leaked Voice Command software to smartphone icon. My views Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nickcornaglia Posted October 27, 2006 Report Share Posted October 27, 2006 OfficeMobile, Voice Command, Live/messenger....all great news. As for the UI....if I were them....I would have changed the whole thing to something more flashy...more unique...more cool! Maybe something like the XBOX 360? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aquilo Posted October 27, 2006 Report Share Posted October 27, 2006 Personally, I'm not all that impressed. The icons, while their overall theme has been updated, still lack antialiasing (As a result of the relatively low-colour screens, I'm guessing). Heck, even a drop shadow behind the Windows Media Player icon would've helped. The fonts still seem just...well, boring. Both of these facts really do go against the whole modern feel they're no doubt trying to project with the glossy titlebar. In my honest opinion, it would be better if microsoft pushed for the Crossbow Smartphone platform to have the features I mentioned above, rather than it's simply glossy title bar and the promise of a pretty new homescreen. Function should come before form, in my opinion. That said, I'll still be upgrading to Crossbow, when it eventually appears (Can't sit on a C550 forever, can I? :rolleyes:), and that title bar sure is glossy :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thelondonthing Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Am I the only person to have noticed the "Windows Update" icon in there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest james_h_winters Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 when this comes out, i wonder if i can upgrade my sp5m to this... hmm... the thought of having a built in excel on my smartphone is very appealing... the built in file explorer is not to good. i'd prefer resco's or smart explorer anytime. connectivity... it'd be great if they had updates in that area as well (perhaps faster bt, ir, or whatever. if they don't got a2dp in the package already, that'd just not be smart.) but i guess more details will come in the weeks/months to come... :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sonicr360 Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Seeing as there is a WU Service (supposedly) into this new core OS, my feeling is probably not. As mentioned, if they are going to give this an overhaul, then it may well be, certain devices may not be compatible with it :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Socrates Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Am I the only person to have noticed the "Windows Update" icon in there? That was the main thing that jumped out at me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest roma0803 Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 I've seem to have read somewhere that a first "Crossbow" device will hit the market somewhere in the first two months of next year. I'll see if I can dig it up again but I've read it at several sites (which doesn't make it true, but still a gooooood rumor). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ingvarr Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 (edited) That was the main thing that jumped out at me. Actually, this functionality already was present in WM5 for smartphone, it just was called "download agent" or something like that. It was supposed to be used for software updates too. But did somebody actually use it? No. :rolleyes: Edited October 28, 2006 by Ingvarr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest w411y Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Oooo new homescreen plugins. When can we expect to see this and on what device/s? I'm debating whether to upgrade to a WM5 running device now or wait. Those glossy bars are sweet but I bet they still aren't skinnable :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nedge2k Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Gigabyte i200 is the first device announced to have Crossbow :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest loki_f Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Icons still look incredibly jagged, some alphablending would be good... Also I want to see the home screen, as I don't spend nearly as much time looking at the menus. Finally what's the feature set? improvements to connectivity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ingvarr Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Jags is due to enlarged screen - monitors have lower DPI. On real smartphone device screen (2.0-2.2'') jags is not as noticeable. Since Crossbow is just a second edition of 5.0, it does not support any kind of alpha-blending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Crispy Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Looks to me there's nothing new under the sun other than a few new icons and some programs that should've been there all along. I'm sure most people would agree that the thing MS phones definitely haven't had going for them is the GUI and general nice look 'n feel. I simply don't understand why they don't do something major about that area. As mentioned; full skinability, alpha blending - the list is long! ... I mean, is this supposed to be innovative??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ingvarr Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 (edited) You will see a full list of new features when it will be out. About half of it is app development changes, not noticeable to usual user. Dont expect any groundbreaking changes - remember, this is just upgrade of 5.0 branch. In scale its somewhere between AKU updates and true new OS version. "Crossbow" is not a new major WM version. Think of it as "WM5 Second Edition" "Photon" will be the next WM version ("WM6"), using CE 6.0 kernel, but its a lot more of work and it will be out a lot later. Edited October 28, 2006 by Ingvarr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sonicr360 Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 I am with Crispy on this - I gave my views earlier - does shock me how many people seem "impressed" by the icons lol - unless the comments are from people who have yet to move to a WM5, which I could possibly understand. Yes, second addition would sum this up nicely - aka Win98 Second Edition... new icons, few "extra" features (which maybe should have been in the 1st edition), and possibly the need to run on better hardware. But is it an "upgrade" to allow us to upgrade our current "WM5" devices? Or is it an "upgrade" as in this will be the next release of WM PPC / Smartphone when you get a better device? Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest argh Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 In my opinion, Voice Command and Office Mobile is a huge thing for Smartphone. Now, when are PPCs going to get a nice skinnable home screen like the Smartphone. The Today screen isn't a patch on it, in my opinion. I wonder if MS only keep it around because some of the biggest software vendors for PPC wouldn't be happy about it being changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 I agree, i'd love to see the whole Smartphone Home Screen concept available on PPC. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest w411y Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 I agree, i'd love to see the whole Smartphone Home Screen concept available on PPC. P Surely somebody with the right knowledge can conjure up something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gyos23 Posted October 29, 2006 Report Share Posted October 29, 2006 You will see a full list of new features when it will be out. About half of it is app development changes, not noticeable to usual user. Dont expect any groundbreaking changes - remember, this is just upgrade of 5.0 branch. In scale its somewhere between AKU updates and true new OS version. "Crossbow" is not a new major WM version. Think of it as "WM5 Second Edition" "Photon" will be the next WM version ("WM6"), using CE 6.0 kernel, but its a lot more of work and it will be out a lot later. Just curious...where'd you get that information from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ingvarr Posted October 29, 2006 Report Share Posted October 29, 2006 (edited) But is it an "upgrade" to allow us to upgrade our current "WM5" devices? Or is it an "upgrade" as in this will be the next release of WM PPC / Smartphone when you get a better device? I think it will be counted as "new OS" in terms of distribution (not as AKUs which were available to manufacturers with no additional charge). So most likely it will incur additional licensing costs to manufacturers (not sure how big though). And considering the fact that manufacturers didnt rush with even "free" AKU updates, probability of "upgrade", as usual, not big. Although its a lot bigger then probability of WM2003 => WM5 was, due to lot less structural differences this time. gyos23, its not "secret" information in any way, it was already available for quite a time, just dispersed. And I've just condensed it :rolleyes: For example, Microsoft declared officially long ago that versioning of Windows Mobile will be updated to match the version of Windows CE kernel it uses (when it went from WM2003 to WM5), and also they officially declared that Crossbow won't be using CE 6.0 yet, so you can easely figure out things :( I think its even in Wikipedia now :) Edited October 29, 2006 by Ingvarr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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