An early look at WM7's overhauled interface

John Chan | Jan 08, 2008

At the InsideMicrosoft blog is a long article about the touch and motion gestures that will be part of Windows Mobile 7 (WM7)--the next version of Microsoft's mobile OS for smart phones, handhelds and PDAs. In it, he has many screenshots detailing how multi-touch and physical motions applied on a device will affect what's seen on the screen.

Before iPhone fans start the "copycat" accusations, the source of the images and information are supposed to be from an internal Microsoft document, and the screenshots seen there may not be in the final product. In one of the images, the onscreen keypad has a text bubble which magnifies the letter being touched--just like on the iPhone. But right beside it, a screenshot showing the desktop version of Word is superimposed on the handheld's display. This just goes to show that some of these images have been created to illustrate concepts and ideas. We certainly hope the end-product will look significantly different from Apple's.

According to the blogger, this new version of WM will ship in 2009. Here are a few of the screenshots but head on over to the source for the full 3,000-word write up.