Windows Mobile 7 shots leaked?
updated 12:30 pm EDT, Wed March 25, 2009
Win Mobile 7 Shot Rumor
Microsoft's long-in-development Windows Mobile 7 operating system may have been spotted in a pair of leaked images. Sent to WMPoweruser, the first shot portrays a radically revised home screen with a top row of quick-access icons, a new clock, and bottom-center button with an unspecified role. A second image shows a significantly new map utility with a touch-friendly menu and shortcuts for spoken directions as well as a shortcut to finding the phone's current position.
Whether or not the shots are accurate is still in question. However, the two are believed to reflect concepts Microsoft has said should reach its next major mobile OS release, including a much stronger emphasis on touch input. Development is still known to be early for Windows Mobile 7, though rumors have pointed to a rushed schedule with beta versions by late this year and actual shipping phones in April 2010 as Microsoft tries to improve the standing of its OS against more fluid touchscreen interfaces like OS X iPhone or Symbian S60 5th Edition.
Buttons
03/25, 01:17pm (1 reply) reply
Have a familiar top-down reflection...
kdogg73
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Dec 2002
is that
03/25, 01:44pm reply
magnification?
nat
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
an emphasis on touch...
03/25, 01:56pm reply
...how novel.
rtbarry
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Looks great
03/25, 02:08pm reply
I'm in the market for competition and this looks very well thought out and easy to use. One grip I have (and really hate) is the use of those icons up there... can't they at least change the shape??
MattJeff
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2006
b****** child
03/25, 02:18pm reply
looks like Windows Mobile got the iPhone OS drunk at a frat party and ended up with a b****** love child...
Salty
Professional Poster
Joined: Jul 2005
Feel the Clutter!
03/25, 02:34pm (1 reply) reply
iPhone OS... does it blend? Not very well, if these are accurate screenshots.
Gee, another Herculean GUI re-skinning effort from Microsoft.
JeffHarris
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 1999
...
03/25, 04:40pm reply
To cluttered, fingers will have a hard time interacting with it. iphone os is designed as a pure touch screen OS, this looks like its designed to be touch screen but on a traditional phone. The other question will be experience. Im sure it will run fine on a 1000 phone with the power to run it smooth, but I feel sorry for the poor b****** who will try and run it on a low end phone.
Apples advantage is again the control of the total package. The phone and software is designed to go hand and hand. Microsoft is trying to build a phone OS that supports lots of different hardware. This is limiting in nature.
Athens
Addicted to MacNN
Joined: Jan 2003
Here we go again...
03/25, 06:10pm reply
1995: "It's not the trash can, it the recycle bin! It's totally different!" "Our icons fill the desktop from left to right, not right to left! It's totally different!" "The Apple menu is in the upper left of the screen, the Start menu is in the lower left! It's totally different!"
2009: "Our 'home row' of buttons is on the top of the screen, the iPhone's is on the bottom! Totally different!"
phillymjs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2000