Shadow Homescreen

re: Shadow Homescreen

Angus — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:55:55 GMT

Jay,

Nice review, where did you hire the models for your fave 5?

re: Shadow Homescreen

coxy — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:10:11 GMT

This looks cool; I was hoping for a download link at the end so I could 'upgrade' my smartphone - but evidently not.

I'd love to see this running on my HTC S710.

re: Shadow Homescreen

Liam — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:22:55 GMT

It looks pretty much like the Orange homescreen - but shiny =S

re: Shadow Homescreen

badbob001 — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:23:57 GMT

I hope third parties can add their own plug-ins to this interface. Is this plug-in resolution/ratio fixed? If I have a traditional home screen plug-in that I want to see (weather), can I reduce the neo plug-in's height and add my plug-in above it?

re: Shadow Homescreen

m@ — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:24:49 GMT

Why didnt someone blog about the TPP interface on the Palm 500v (Otto)?

re: Shadow Homescreen

Avi — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:59:55 GMT

Looks great! What did you use to capture the video?

re: Shadow Homescreen

shagerott — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:05:59 GMT

Any plans to release this plug-in, or other home screen enhancements, for use on other phones?

re: Shadow Homescreen

Brian — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:23:10 GMT

Very Cool...!! What did you use to do the trasparency and effects and animations? Are you using a direct screen buffer or is that all device context programming in a standard Home Screen plugin..??

re: Shadow Homescreen

GoodThings2Life — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:30:37 GMT

I'm among the others here wondering if this will be released publicly for other WM6 users or if it's strictly a T-Mobile exclusive.

In any case, it's a very cool design, and I hope to see more design options in the next release of WM.

re: Shadow Homescreen

Tariq Bamadhaj — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:23:53 GMT

This is definitely an interesting feature and hopefully something more OEMs would integrate into future devices.

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:45:25 GMT

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Let me address a few comments:

This is T-Mobile exclusive, especially the MyFaves portion. The plugin won't be available on other phones. It was designed for the Shadow so the resolution/ratio is fixed.

badbob001 - You can't just plugin an existing homescreen - because Neo rotates up/down, you won't be able to leave it once you enter it.

m@ - someone _can_ blog about the TPP interface. However I didn't work on it so I can't comment. Given that, I do know the people who did so I can ask them.

Avi - I tried using Pocket Controller first, but the fps was too low to capture the animation. Therefore I ran this on an emulator and used a desktop capture program. In hindsight I might have been able to get away with using Pocket Controller to mirror the device and use a desktop capture program on that window (maybe next time).

Brian - We're writing directly to the window. We're using GDI APIs to do the effects/animations, and we're using an internal graphics engine to aid in calculations.

re: Shadow Homescreen

Mike — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:01:20 GMT

I have a Motorola Q9m on Verizon. How do I get this Neo?

re: Shadow Homescreen

Sagitario — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:22:31 GMT

Jayongg, I'm a bit confused. Your last comment states this will only be available for t-mobile phones so you could say NEO's life ended there.

When the blog states: "Be on the lookout for more personalized experiences" you then mean more manufacturers are looking to bring their personal options that would not be NEO?

Cheers!

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:19:09 GMT

Hi Sagitario, I can't get into specifics - but Microsoft will continue to focus on user experiences in Windows Mobile devices.

Thanks!

re: Shadow Homescreen

Sagitario — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:24:00 GMT

I understand, one thing I forgot to ask is if these new UI experiences will also be available for Windows Mobile Professional touchscreened versions?

Cheers!

re: Shadow Homescreen

indiekiduk — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:29:46 GMT

I can't get the video to play.

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:29:52 GMT

Hi Sagitario, I can't talk about what's coming up in future releases (or what will come out for Professional vs Standard). Thanks!

re: Shadow Homescreen

sportsunit — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:55:02 GMT

This is easily the most interesting looking interface on the market right now, iphone included. With the advanced features of window mobile lurking in the background of this gorgeous UI, it was a no-brainer to order mine day one. It's currently in transit via UPS. My Q, which is currently behaving badly will get a proper funeral.

Microsoft needs to also upgrade the generic home screen that is still shipping on so many devices today. Every carrier will not go with these personalized, and presumably more expensive, UI's for every windows smartphone. Therefore, the generic homescreen needs an upgrade overall to improve it from the archaic form that it is currently in.

re: Shadow Homescreen

virtualtrevor — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:57:51 GMT

I have the Shadow (love it) and a myfaves account (and sim) but I don't have the myfaves plugin or its not working. If I replace the homescreen with anything else, I see myfaves and it works.

The plugin worked wjhen I got the phone but doesn't now for some reason...any thoughts or help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Windows Mobile Team Blog : Shadow Homescreen

{ The Smoking Code } — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:59:04 GMT

Windows Mobile Team Blog : Shadow Homescreen

Mighell's Mobile Blog — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:47:15 GMT

Molto interessante come progetto. Peccato che, come si legge nei commenti, si tratta di una cosa (IMHO

re: Shadow Homescreen

T-Will — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:13:00 GMT

I know NEO is customized for the Shadow, but is there a way to change the color in the registry or some other behind the scenes way?

re: Shadow Homescreen

Prabhu — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:31:47 GMT

Hi,

I recently saw Motorola 9M device which has the media player application running on the Home screen. As far as I know it is not possible to handle UP/Down key events in SmartPhone plugin. But how is it handled in this application running in 9M devices.

Is there anything done specially in these devices or even individual developers like me will be able to do it!?

Building native applications for a platform VS. building for the web

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:45:50 GMT

Since Google launched Android, there's been lots of speak native applications built for a platform versus applications built for the web that can be leveraged anywhere, regardless of device. As a developer its much easier to have one code base and not

re: Shadow Homescreen

Prabhu — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:43:21 GMT

Hi Jayongg,

Thanks for the quick reply. Actually I am able to handle Up/Down key events in PPC but not in SP. I am not able to find the key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Home\Notification]

If possible can you please send me the code snippet or link that has an example of plugin for SP handling Up/Down events.

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:39:13 GMT

Prabhu, Actually I spoke too quickly. We don't support a way for plugins to intercept and handle up/down events.

re: Shadow Homescreen

Prabhu — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:18:58 GMT

Thanks for your reply Jayongg. So in case we cannot handle Up/Down events in SP plugin how is 9M and Neo plugin able to do it!? Is there anything specially done for these kind of plugins?

re: Shadow Homescreen

JonnyG — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:42:07 GMT

sorry i meant this 3d carousel code:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=73646

re: Shadow Homescreen

Wayne — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:17:54 GMT

Just as a note. Windows Mobile still sucks as an operating system for SmartPhones. I have the Shadow and it is very laggy. Sometimes it takes a long time to open the sms application. I also get random text message alerts, but when I look there is nothing new.

re: Shadow Homescreen

Mike — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:27:33 GMT

I also own a new T-MO Shadow and compared to the MDA this is so much useful and stable. Kudos to T-Mo, HTC and Microsoft for making this work. I look forward to more customization like adding Tasks and other WinMO functions for NEO. If you think about it, this is almost the same Crossbar interface for PSP and the PS3. Nicely done!

re: Shadow Homescreen

alYsa — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:56:47 GMT

Very nice.

I have old imate K-Jam (upgraded with WM6) and iPhone, and iPhone can not match my old WM device, just because of customization options that are available.

With WM6, I am using HTC Home screen and SPB Diary - very nice config and very usefull.

Neo looks super-good. I am eager to updgrade to new WM device, just waiting for some good touchscreen (like HTC touch), fast processor and some nice hardware. Hopefully I will not have to wait for too long...

re: Shadow Homescreen

Plinydogg — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:10:31 GMT

This is nice, but I wish that you all would focus a little bit more on filling gaping holes in this otherwise excellent operating system. See this for a more detailed complaint in this regard:

http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=27&p=2296&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more2296

Thanks!

re: Shadow Homescreen

Jeffrey KNight — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:01:59 GMT

My comment is specifically about the layout of this new homescreen.

Yes the UI is nice eye candy. Nice work there.

But didn't you guys run this through user acceptance testing, or some sort of "click testing" ?

Unless I'm missing some way to customize the order of applications on the homescreen (believe me, I'm looking!), it takes no less than SEVEN button clicks using this homescreen to get to into a new outlook email:

Down, down, left, left, left, click, click.

Start->Messaging->outlook is 3 clicks, but that bypasses using this spiffy new homescreen.

So while this home screen looks great, it needs some serious work in terms of usability. For the order of applications under "Message Center", you have:

1) Text Messages

2) Picture Messages (does anyone use this?)

3) Voice Notes (cute, does anyone use this on a regular basis?)

4)Outlook E-mail (the one thing a power user probably uses the most on the entire phone)

So I have to scroll past 1-3 every time ?

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:10:55 GMT

Hi Jeffrey,

The user interaction was designed with T-Mobile and whom they expect their demographic to be. Right now it is not customizable.

re: Shadow Homescreen

Kevin — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:37:34 GMT

Why is the Shadow's homescreen animations so choppy? To me, it looks like the artists knew what they were doing. But, it looks like the programmers had to animate something that doesn't like to animate. Probably using Windows GDI? Can MS please provide a better presentation API that doesn't attempt to mimic an API created in 1982?

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:48:20 GMT

Hi Kevin, I don't think the animations are too choppy (though I understand this is subjective). Given that, there were design decisions made based on battery life, processor speed, and graphics drivers.

re: Shadow Homescreen

badbob001 — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 07:38:45 GMT

I just got the Shadow myself and also one for my wife. Before I begin, I have to say I really like it since it's very sleek looking and very functional, but don't stray too far from the charging cable. Sure beats the mpx220 it is replacing.

From using the Shadow, it feels like the wheel really serves no purpose but to give the user the illusion of analog controls (a la zune's circular control or nintendo's nes max controller). Is the wheel limited to being an alias to the dpad's up/down/left/right or is it really a true analog input (a la ipod) but the operating system is limiting the input to digital only?

Since NO part of the operating system or the NEO interface treats the wheel as another axis of control but limits it to being another way of inputting up/down or left/right, I suspect that Microsoft had either no early access to the hardware, the pre-production hardware did not have the wheel, or the wheel provides no new functionality to code for.

It would be nice if you can use the wheel to page up/down in IE, zoom in / out in Live Search maps, or even scroll faster. The wheel only registers something if you move the wheel at least a quarter of the way around... it gets tiring using it and it's much faster to just click the dpad. It's like biking in the wrong gear.

Also, I mean, for being the 'official phone of fun', I would expect more than the usual solitaire and jawbreaker! Didn't someone at MS look at the wheel and instantly think of breakout or pong?

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:13:47 GMT

Hi badbob, I'm glad you like the Shadow's look and functinoality. You are right in that the wheel is translated into the up/down directional pad movements. Windows Mobile does do different things through various parts of the OS if the wheel is used as opposed to whether or not the dpad is pressed (e.g. the wheel will move differently in the Start menu, instead of going up and down).

You have great ideas on using the wheel to zoom in/out in live search and page up/down in IE. I'll see if those teams would like to take advantage of the wheel that way. For something specific to this hardware though, we generally work off of OEM/operator requests.

As for the catchphrase "official phone of fun", that was from T-Mobile, not Microsoft (I didn't know about that tagline until it was released). But for the apps/games on the device, we rely on the OEM to bundle those types of extras.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the Shadow :).

re: Shadow Homescreen

Ran — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:38:39 GMT

Interfaces are looking great. But you didn't mentioned what's the difference in core development. All fetures are supported by all mobile handsets. Please talk about some core features..

re: Shadow Homescreen

badbob001 — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:11:31 GMT

jayongg, are you confirming that the wheel is only capable of four input states? Very disappointing.

It's pretty annoying that the wheel and the dpad share the same functions since I find myself accidentally moving the wheel and throwing off an item selection. It's like touchpads on laptops where I accidentally move the cursor when I type. I have added to pocket outlook the extra commands 'mark all read' and 'delete all'. Wouldn't it be fun to select 'mark all read', brush the wheel, have the selection changed to 'delete all' right when I press the action button?

When Microsoft can make microsoft mobile portable to other MW device ?

cgigate — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:15:20 GMT

the Shadow Home screen is only designed for T-mobile shadow.

is there portability to another MW devices ?

re: Shadow Homescreen

badbob001 — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 02:01:43 GMT

In your Gadgetnutz interview, there were some rather nice concept renderings of the neo interface with nice and large contact photos. The final product seems to only show contact photos in missed call notifications and though they are double the size of the normal contact photos, they are blurry and ugly.

In the interview, when asked about larger contact photos, you say, "Well, the dialing/callerID screens are not part of the homescreen (thus not part of Neo). Microsoft does provide hooks for OEMs to hook into, and they have the ability to make the caller ID screens bigger/better/nicer."

I think the reason OEMs haven't taken up the task to make the contact photo nicer is because they can't! I mean, it appears to me that the contact database will automatically downgrade any photo to 72x72 in size so making the photo bigger will only make it look more ugly. Even your NEO interface couldn't overcome the limitation of the source data. Care to discuss this and other NEO compromises that you had to make?

People have also found hints of an RSS feed feature that I guess never made it into the final build. And I found an icon for composing a gmail email that wasn't used. Things left out due to deadlines, the desires of t-mobile, or something more political?

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 02:45:33 GMT

Hi badbob001, I'm not sure where GadgetNutz got the images on their website - I didn't provide them. About the contacts images - I see what you mean, yes Neo had to do the best that it could do with the source images - we upscale to fill the space (it was either that or show a small thumbnail on the big screen).

As for the features that made it (or didn't make it) into the software, the requirements were driven by T-Mobile.

re: Shadow Homescreen

jeff — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:36:46 GMT

see this is just more of the whole Microsoft effect. you guys just choose to ignore that you could be pumping out such better and easier to use products than this. windows mobile 5 is horrible. it should bring shame to each and every one of you.

this new shadow is nice looking, but I'm more than sure these are all things you ALL knew you could make, distribute, and improve upon at least 4 or 5 years ago.

when are you going to just start making good products regardless of if you can wait it out and squeeze more money from it?

re: Shadow Homescreen

Mikehill33 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:55:05 GMT

This looks pretty sweet.

Any chance this can be released as either a skin or an update to WM6?

I have a T-Mo Wing and would love to roll this UI.

Nice job!

re: Shadow Homescreen

Phillipe Enault — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:15:23 GMT

Hi,

When you say "using an internal graphics engine" , does that means device internally has some graphics hw which GDI/graphics driver make use of that. If YES ,then aren't there issue to use hw with GDI as GDI calls are synchronous ones and mostly graphics HW works in asynchronous manner and also without no memory management(they can work only images stored in video memory(physical contiguous) not in system memory (may not be physically contiguous).

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:23:37 GMT

Hi, the graphics engine is just a library that we use internally in software.

re: Shadow Homescreen

LGSilva — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:57:51 GMT

Hello jayongg.

The NEO interface is really nice and works fine when your priority is talk > sms > internet

That would be nice to be able to customize it with different colors and icons. It would be nice to change the responsiveness of the scroll wheel as well.

I have a question but I don't think you can answer that but here it is anyway: As a developer, do you have the NEO interface on our phone?

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:21:14 GMT

Hi LGSilva, the NEO interface is only available for T-Mobile users. Right now there is no supported way to customize it.

re: Shadow Homescreen

Ahmed Essam — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:03:57 GMT

Peace be upon you

I would like to work in such thing , please if there is any SDk for such thing , please guide me to it

thanks for your time :)

re: Shadow Homescreen

Freesc Huang — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 20:55:03 GMT

NEO is pretty cool!

Expecting for ur sharing the technical details in NEO's development!

Thanks

re: Shadow Homescreen

st8ic — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:14:33 GMT

It's still not so clear if it's avaliable to 3-rd party developers to change homescreen so deeply?

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:24:45 GMT

Hi st8ic, it is not possible for you to add new functionality to the Neo homescreen. However it is possible for third parties to create their own homescreen.

re: Shadow Homescreen & WM6 homescreen

Tim Toennies — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:41:51 GMT

This is a bit off topic but you are discussing homescreens & making changes. Is it possible to remove the Messages (0) display from my homescreen to indicate that I have 0 text messages? If I have 0 I would like the entire display to be removed (just as it does to report when I don't have any emails). Thanks very much.

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:49:20 GMT

Hi Tim, you would have to modify the homescreen XML in order to do that (I believe). Look in the Smartphone SDK for homescreens. You may also find some samples on the web.

re: Shadow Homescreen

Marco — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:29:01 GMT

It looks pretty much like the Orange homescreen :)

re: Shadow Homescreen

tommy — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:33:41 GMT

can u download different home screen lay outs? lemme know nettdawg1984@yahoo.com..... ive been looking but cant find any thing.... thanks any one....

re: Shadow Homescreen

Nishanth — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:37:23 GMT

Actually, on xda-devs, someone has been able to port the plugin over to the HTC Tornado(T-Mobile SDA), I'm trying and failing miserably at porting it to the HTC Wizard(T-Mobile MDA). You can also add stuff and customize the Neo interface with regedits and also using the cab files that Freddy Reyes made (www.freddyreyes.com)

re: Shadow Homescreen

Stephano — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:40:10 GMT

This looks pretty sweet.

Any chance this can be released as either a skin or an update to WM6?

I have a T-Mo Wing and would love to roll this UI.

Nice job!

re: Shadow Homescreen

jayongg — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:25:55 GMT

Thanks Stephano!

I can't talk about future releases for T-Mobile devices, unfortunately!

What's the deal with Windows Mobile?

Paul's SuperSite blog — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:39:12 GMT

Watching Microsoft twist in the wind as the iPhone steals its thunder in the smart phone market is interesting

re: Shadow Homescreen

djcurly — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:15:18 GMT

Hi, i was wondering if there is an update or a code that i can enlarge the caller ID picture because it is very small when someone calls me and their picture comes up. Let me know

re: Shadow Homescreen

paulerling — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:28:06 GMT

A couple of oversights I see on the Shadow:

1. The Brown background makes it very difficult to see which icon is selected, particularly in sunlight. It would be an obvious fix to allow a user to chose a different color scheme.

2. I would echo the frustration about browsing through submenus to get to a particular icon. Also because shortcuts are limited to a folder, and it is hard to access Quickdial, it really doesn't work well.

3. There are odd restrictions on users managing permissions for applications.

Otherwise it is a reasonable phone.

re: Removing Jawbreaker registry from windows mobile

Keerthi — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:46:26 GMT

Our staff are adicted to play Jawbreaker game in the Hand Held mobile scanner (PDA). I know that the game is in ROM adn will not be able to remove. But Anyway I want to delete the registry of Jawbreaker. Please help me out.

Re: Shadow Screen

drekualo — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:38:57 GMT

Hi hayongg. Windows Shadow does not allow to use the phone as a modem (does not have modem drivers). For example: In order to use Outlook SMS Add-in, it is required to have a modem (mobile) driver installed and configured to send SMS through MS Outlook. Can THC or NEO will work on it?