| Windows Mobile 5.0 - The first look |
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| By Gears |
So here it is, Windows Mobile 5. Lets look at these QVGA screenshots and the major changes....
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Hello Sony Ericsson ! :) Hehhehe - only joking. The menu has had a bit of a change. Icons and a very Pocket PC-esque menu screen are now showing, although it's still possible to have the old numbered view too. Some may say that this way is harder to use, but think about it - everything you could need on this menu page is only a maximum of 3 movements away (right, up, click for Windows Media Player or left, down, click for ActiveSync). You wouldn't believe the amount of people who don't use the numbered menus in Windows Mobile 2003 - they site and scroll down, down, down to get stuff. However - if you do use the numbered menus then don't despair! If you press 1, you'll get the first option (Internet Explorer) - 2 will get you the second (Tasks) and so on! :)
Here's the second page ...
It's worth noting something here. Check out the icons. Watch what happens when I move over them with the cursor...
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Above we have the "Games" folder selected. You can see the open folder and the cards - denoting Solitaire of course, which is included and played around the world by bored secretaries. On the right you can see that I've now moved, and "Voice Notes" is now showing a speaker, whilst the "Games" folder icon has now closed.
Sure, it's nothing too amazing, but it shows the growing similarity between this and Windows for your PC. |
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Contacts
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OK, so here I am adding a contact in Windows Mobile 5.0. The first page (left) is pretty similar apart from the new funky font. However, as you scroll down you'll see that the Custom ring tone has been moved up to make it more prominent and MS have now included a "Picture" option so you can easily allocate pictures to your contacts. Although this was done previously with the IA Album "Caller ID" software, it was always a "bolt on" application. This time, it's in the Operating System as default.
As you can see, I've already included a custom ring tone, so now I'm going to choose "Change Picture" to grab a picture. This then loads the "Pictures and Videos" program.
From here you can choose a picture that you want to associate with that contact. At present I don't have a shot of Bill Gates, so I'm going to use that waterfall instead. Oh, and incidentally, have a look at the picture quality on this QVGA screenshot...
Hopefully with the mega-pixel cameras becoming more popular we should all be able to take shots like this soon! :) Anyways, I'll add that picture against my contact. Now that's all done I can view my contact information below..
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Here's the newly developed contact sheet in all its glory. We have a photo of the person (or I would have if it wasn't for the waterfall!), along with a "Call Mobile" option and some funky new graphics. There's also a "Call Work" and a "Send Text Message" next to the appropriate numbers. This makes it easier to do everything from one screen, plus it makes it more obvious what each bit does.
On the next screen (right side) we can also see that the "Ring Tone" is easy to get to - you can play it here too with the left soft-key. |
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Pocket Internet Explorer
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Here's a look at the new Pocket Internet Explorer. This time we have the ability to resize the font. However, we still don't have frames support ... ho hum... :( |
| Here's another menu option, allowing |
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It's now also easier to send links to your contacts. |
Inbox
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Look - a character counter. It counts the characters !! It works too! Woo! :) |
| More options are now available allowing you to decide what to do after deleting or moving a message. |
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Oh, and yes - you can delete all the text messages easily..  But you can't seem to remove all messages in email accounts... 
Opening an email gives a more PC Outlook feel - note the HTML rendering baby!
Other stuff
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One of my main problems with Windows Mobile was always the alarm, and I ALWAYS moaned to Microsoft about it at every opportunity.
It was always tucked away in the second menu under "Settings" and was called "Date and Time". Now at least it's in the first menu of "Settings" and it's now called "Clock & Alarm", which is better.
Still no home screen notification that the alarm is on though!!! Ggggrrrrr!!!!! |
| Connections are now grouped together better and include beaming, bluetooth, dialup etc all under one menu. This makes more sense. |
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