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Comment by halo | Hacker News Reader

The UI makes both the iPhone and Android look incredibly dated. I have a few questions about discoverability and usage in practice and it looks a tad laggy in places, but on the whole it looks very nice.

The downsides are that it shares many of the problems with the iPhone - the lack of multitasking, no Flash, and I bet it requires iTu--the Zune Software. There's also unknowns on WM7 as a development platform, and whether it requires you to use the App St--Windows Mobile Marketplace. That said, from what has currently been shown I think the good massively outweighs the bad.

One feature I'm particularly happy to see is Wi-Fi Sync. I hope this gives Apple the kick up the backside they need to include it in the iPhone.

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That's a really interesting interface... my first impression is that it looks really cool. Finally someone is _not_ cloning iPhone.

One thing that is interesting is the comparison between (Mac, iPhone) and (Windows, Windows Mobile). On the Mac, it's unusual to have a window maximised, but on the iPhone that's the only mode of operation. On Windows, it's unusual to have more than one window on screen at a time, but WinMo7 seems to have completely abandoned the concept of windows. Interesting...

I'm going to second this, in a way. Some parts of this look nicer than my iPhone (e.g. bringing up a list of letters to skip around in your contacts), and the entire interface is their own creation (i.e. they're not aping Apple or Android in the visual style).

The contacts thing I don't know how practical it would be (it interrupts the flow of skipping to a contact vs. the iPhone's index sidebar), and I don't like the interface (compared to the Pre or the iPhone), but I have to give them credit for being original at least.

This new refresh of the windows mobile line is a very bold move by Microsoft. I'm really surprised they threw out all the existing winmo architecture and started fresh. The carrier network that supports WM7 will mean lots of choices for consumers as well. Not only that, they seem to really be emphasizing consistency across devices with the three buttons (start, search, back). This is undoubtedly uncharacteristic of how the winmo division has previously operated.

Most of all, todays announcement shows me they get it. I had always written off windows mobile as an OS, and after looking at things a bit, I'm considering WM7 for my next phone OS.

Will this phone play Microsoft Plays-for-Sure (TM) branded Microsoft DRMed music? Songs purchased for the original 5GB iPod will play on the iPhone.

Plays-For-Sure is almost dead. Even the Zune doesn't support it.

I think that was the point. Can we trust MS to maintain their platforms such that money spent now on media and applications isn't wasted when the device is replaced?

I think it is more of a point of the success of the platform. Plays-for-Sure was a failure, so it is being fazed out.

You have the same issue with any DRM'd media. I can only put my iTunes music to x number of mac devices. You bought a license, not the media. This is the whole reason why DRM sucks.

I disagree. From these screenshots it looks like Zune interface, which I always thought was ugly as hell (Especially that damn font). But that is my very short judgement. Some of these interface elements look really cool though (the viewport kind of thing especially)

Try using a Zune. From my experience, it's one of the best UI/navigation in a media device.

The impression I get is actually that they couldn't figure out how to fit a decent mobile UI on the screen. It looks good in the photos where the rest of the content is shown, but I don't think it would be so nice to actually use.

It's heavily inspired by the Zune interface, which is surprisingly a great experience.

I think that it is okay. I definitely see some inconsistencies when it comes to the UI. For instance, you have the home screen which is the blocks, then the zune-linke text-based interface, then you get into the trunks (cant remember exactly what they were called, but the games is an example) area and it is kinda zune, but it is missing the heading tabs. One has to assume that there is content to the left or right of the current view.

Now the iphone isnt perfect, but at least the interface is consistent across its built-in apps allowing people to to easily use them. As a matter of fact, if you use a mac, the iphone is very familiar visually. the same cannot be said about this 7 series, and windows 7.

But that is an opinion based on just some pics and vids, i need to use the thing.

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