Definitely superior to Apple's iPhone user interface

Jan 9, 2008 14:47 GMT  ·  By

This article is based on a leaked concept, posted by Natahan Weinberg on blognewschannel, although we're not sure if it's a fake or Microsoft's future Windows Mobile 7 will actually include at least some of the features described below. With the iPhone seriously taking the lead on the mobile market, Microsoft intends to 'clone' all Apple's new techs included in their handset, then improve it and add even more of these. That's no news as both companies, Apple and Microsoft, 'borrowed' some of their innovations from one another.

How much utility and functionality will bring the new Windows Mobile 7.0, and how fast and stable will it be? These questions will get their answers no later than the next year (2009), when Microsoft intends to launch the 7th sequel of its operating system. Unfortunately, the upcoming version 6.1 that will be officially launched next month is almost an updated version of the 6.0, thus it doesn't come up with any real changes.

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Anyway, what's Windows Mobile 7.0 after all? Nothing short to an entirely new reshaped operating system that will blow you mind the moment you start using it. At least, that's what Microsoft intends to do with this new OS that will totally change the way we are using our mobile devices (less iPhone users?:). WM 7 will strongly focus on touch and motion gestures, but to a degree that will not leave too many things to add, keeping it to a certain level of simplicity, just like Apple did with iPhone's interface. How much they will succeed remains to be seen the moment we have something official and not some Photoshop-ed screenshots (even if made by Microsoft's designers).

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It seems that one of the goals of the "mockup" OS is to support devices that doesn't feature touchscreen and stylus, but also those that feature both or those that are touchscreen dedicated (referred as 'iPhone compete':). The new user interface won't be optional for old applications, but rather the applications will get support for the new interface. There's also a promising "game mode", that will make games 'miss' UI requirements and use similar movements for different actions, thus allowing user to control the game much easier than a standard application.

Microsoft took it to the next level and intends to make a research that has the size of the 'average fingertip' as subject, just to make touchscreen devices without a stylus more easy to control. That way users will be able to scroll up and down with no fear of doing something else. Tap drills down in a list, but some lists will have you tab once to select, once again to drill down the list. Scrollbars, corner elements, icons, title bar and status bar will all be stylized and resized, so it will be easier to tap on them. It seems that, in Windows Mobile 7, scrollbars will rather float as transparent visual elements on top of any application, rather than being part of the screen. They will only be used when necessary.

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Furthermore, there will be gestures for scrolling, task and menu access, press and hold controls, list items, press and drag, and launching shortcuts. The device will be able to detect finger velocity, scrolling further if the user's finger moves faster. Even more motion gestures will be included like those codenamed Pivot and Spinner. In a Spinner, you have a single item with left and right buttons next to it, but instead of hitting the left and right buttons, you can just swipe to change the option. The device will also 'clone' the locking feature of the iPhone with slider control. The same motion gestures will be able to start various applications or simply execute a wide range of commands, depending on the number of "shakes", the track of the movement or simply by the duration of the motion. Some of these commands include: changing a song into the media player or the change of a picture in a slideshow (from left to right or vice versa). You can zoom in or zoom out a picture when in full-screen, by simply moving the device forward or backward.

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All these will be possible thanks to a new technology concept that uses the device's camera as a motion sensor, enabling motion control while using the device. Unfortunately, that means that the camera will need to be turned on every time a gesture may be used, thus sucking the battery life. The same camera will trigger some predefined action based on the light sensitivity. The moment you put your phone in your pocket, the screen will be blanked and the device will enter into standby mode. You can also set the device to automatically change to Silent mode (Vibration ON) or to simply turn the Ring to louder volumes.

A new especially redesigned Internet Explorer browser will be included, one that seems much simpler, 'cleaner' and easier to use. As you can see in the screenshots there's only the address bar and Go command available on the screen. Also, notice the network signal and the battery life meter which are both placed above the soft keys of the device, thus considerably enlarging the screen for Internet browsing, but also for the rest of the applications. The new Internet browser will feature tabbed browsing, used by gesturing through a series of graphical thumbnails.

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There are also different motion gestures that are meant to wake up the device. How can that be possible? The new user interface will be able to recognize a specific gesture, which should be kept very simple and very easy to identify, that will wake up your phone from the 'slumber'. The difference stands in the actual transition from the sleep mode to awake mode, which looks like nothing we ever saw before coming from Microsoft.

Other highlights of the supposedly Microsoft Windows Mobile 7 include: a gesture to dismiss an on-screen notification by shaking it off the screen, a gesture to automatically take you to a Smart Search notification panel, turning the phone like turning a key to unlock it, pivoting by gesturing the phone sideways, moving through lists by shaking the phone up or down, switching the camera into black and white or other modes by shaking it down, adjusting the camera aperture and shutter speed by rotating the camera, sending a file by "tossing" it to another device. These seem to be listed as "exploration" by the leaked document, so they may or may not be actually integrated in the final version of the operating system.

For more in-depth coverage of the subject please see Nathan Weinberg's original post on blognewschannel.