real subtle, jason, real subtle.

Okay, I'll take a step back from my list of blogging commandments.

Commandment VII - Thou shalt not describe something as "awesome" or use a variation of "awesome" unless your name is jason Chen and/or you wield a Mighty Banhammer

This is probably a very obvious question, but is this UI usable without a touchscreen-enabled phone? Or is it for touchscreens only?

What artist/song was used in that movie clip?

Although I'm sure this fixes many of the touch screen issues, does it really feel as good as the iPhone?

The big difference I've noticed between WM devices/all touch screen devices I've used and the iPhone is that the iPhone's capacitive touch screen doesn't require pressure. It really makes a huge difference in how you interact with the screen.

How would you rate this iPhone-like application for WM compared to Freestyl?

(freestyl can be found at www.whoneedsaniphone.com)

It's amazing what a good skin can do to a program.

This is awesome!! Can't believe it's free too, my Windows mobile is almost usable now.

This is a great app but needs much work. Very buggy first build. Simple and quick but a bit hard to get used to. Wait on this one.

@andrewthemacfanboy: Hey man, at least someone is trying to help the Micro$oft Machine. At least if they get wind of this, they could buy his idea and try to incorporate it into Winows Mobile X. I mean EVERY major cell phone company OS including RIM, Apple (Who I wouldn't even consider major except for the point made earlier with them having 25% of smart phone market share in 5 months when its competitors have been in the business for 5-7 years), and Google are all doing circles around Micro$ofts growth over the last 3 years. RIMM, AAPL, and GOOG all grew over 250% while Microsoft p... They aren't dying, but they sure are slowing down. Go Vista!

what artist is playing on this video?

Okay I'm sold. Awesome. What model phone was that demo done on?

@gatornut: Sprint Mogul

@Joseph: But the old saw still goes "Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft" - meaning that as long as IT departments keep buying Windows and Office licenses, there will always be Mr. Softee.

I'll take that over the Goog's volatility or RIM quixotic showdown with the US Patent Office (which cost it a patent)

I installed this on my Sprint Mogul and it makes the phone A LOT more usable. I can't believe that a skin could make such an improvment over a really bad os.

Let's get real here. NOTHING will make windows mobile usable. NOTHING.

the up and down scrolling seems very counterintuitive, (you slide up, screen scrolls up)

"Who the fuck knew that Windows Mobile supported this?!"

3rd party development has always been one of WM's strongpoints.

Won't even open on my Tilt.

I'll wait until round 2 as it looks like it could be OK...especially once it supports more 3rd party apps.

Wow, just wow. It actually works like a champ on my 6700.

I tried it. It ended up making my Kaiser LESS usable. Seriously, it abstracts way too many things. Using this UI it takes 3-5 taps to do things that with a standard setup should only take 1-2. I also hate that instead of fitting >10 list items on screen, they've found a way to only fit 4.

What's up with you guys using the stylus on your device? I have fairly large fingers, and I only break out the stylus to play Bubble Breaker.

Winodws Mobile has some usability problems but the iPhone UI goes way too far in the wrong direction. There is a happy medium out there, but nobody has found it yet.

Is there a non-touchscreen version?

For those asking about the music its : Nujabes - beat lament the world

pretty impressive... thanks for the tip!

This is too Apple-y for me. I like my HTC interface on my AT&T tilt. I don't want a background that looks like OSX, or a skin that acts like an Iphone, I want a windows mobile phone that acts and does what a windows mobile phone is supposed to act and look like. That's the reason I bought my Tilt, not to imitate an Iphone (Which isn't even a real smartphone if you think about it, it's more of a media phone.)

Is it just because I am a wiz with a stylus or because I have precise, dexterous digits that I find no problem with the WM UI ... and I am rollin' with 5 baby.

I can get anywhere I want to pretty easily and quickly so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.

@Jasoncscs: It must be your soft, girlish hands. (i keed, i keed)

@EnochLight: The song is "Nujabes - Beat Laments the World"

The song is the instrumental version of "Shiki no Uta" (四季ノ唄) by MINMI. It is the ending song to Samurai Champloo.

WOW.... makes me love my t-mobile Wing again!! and convinced me to sign up just so I could say thanks for this!!

@DarkMirage:

Yep, it is. Sheer win.

@Kyang:

Ignore my previous comment...

I loaded it up on my Verizon XV6800 and it pretty much rocks. Granted, it's an early beta, but right now I'm lovin it. There are a few things that need to change, but over all it looks like something that I'm gonna stick with.

Nice, definitely something to look forward to if one was to make a jump to WM phones anytime soon.

And kudos for having Nujabes playing in the background, easily one of my favorites in Hip-Hop beats ^_^

HTC 8525, works with most things it's still missing certain function on my phone. As another poster said, some things take longer here. For the most part it is a great design and as soon as they manage to get it to recognize other function it will be more than replaceable. If MS even decided to modify their system it better look at this prgm as it does certain things that MS still doesn't, mainly looks wise.

At the end… it is just about software.

neat.

interesting software, but good luck trying to uninstall it. 1. it's a huge pain in the ass, and 2. when you do uninstall it your left softkey will be broken.

Not to mention, 90% of PointUI is useless eye candy (can we say Apple?).

While the vid looks great, what really killed me, the the song in it was just playing in my foobar as well in perfect sync... I'm just a little freaked out right about now.

@DC_DESTROY,DARKMIRAGE,ENOCHLIGHT,NERDELPHIA,KYANG

While that's the song used in "Shiki no Uta", MINMI was the vocalist on that piece. Nujabes did the original beat. On the 2003 album Metaphorical Music, the original song (and the mix you're hearing in the video) is called "Beat Laments the World". He reused and rejiggled the track for "Shiki no Uta". The differences in the tracks are subtle, so it's easy to get them mixed up. :)

@xxdesmus: It's better than your entire smartphone being broken after you smash it in frustration because the UI is poorly thought-out.

"sits on top of Windows Mobile 5/6".. I find this a problem.

Would be better to have a workable linux clone that actually fixes a lot of the underlying problems.

ps: This software doesn't work on the ipaq wm5 yet.

wow, the guy who done that surely spent a lot of time coding.

@xxdesmus:
I didn't have any problems uninstalling, it did keep hold of the soft key though. I have this applet installed so it wasn't a problem to fix.

[www.dotfred.net]

I tired it on my T-mobile MDA, a pretty low powered phone, and it ran like a champ. I agree that when looked at as a beta version it is very impressve. It's not quire ready for full time use, but it does make a great example of the potential. A little customiziability and not over-riding the harware buttons and it should be even better.

@OMG!!! Ponies!!!:

Nujabes + Fat Jon = CLASSIC

Good taste!

i installed it yesterday and played around with it on my HTC Apache, but subsequently uninstalled it -- the applet bar at the bottom isn't customizable yet (i don't use the media player that much), and i'd like to have an app launcher accessible from the home page -- i'll watch it like a hawk though -- good eyecandy!

Check out FreeStyl at [www.whoneedsaniphone.com]

It is similar.

(I'm not related to the site in any way.)

D.

@OMG!!! Ponies!!!:

The problem with PointUI right now is that the "today" screen is way too limited. It doesn't show enough information. I use SPB's Pocket Plus and Mobile Shell...and it's wonderful. All of the info that I need is presented in a clean and quick to digest way. PointUI has a great deal of potential, but they have significant work ahead of them.

@draconis2941: Thanks for that applet/software. That's exactly what I was looking for.

@yotoad: agreed. I want to customize the bottom applet bar. I don't use email (just txt messages), and I hardly use media player. Customizability would help a lot.

It's bizzare to me that they chose to do vertical scrolling reverse from the iPhone... you can see in the video that the demonstrator keeps swiping one way & then remembering to swipe the other. Worse yet, horizontal scrolling works the iPhone way so it's a total mess.

Otherwise, works pretty good on my 8525... if a few folks are able to give this away for free you have to wonder what the Microsoft WM6 folks were smoking... or NOT smoking, I guess.

Can it be overlayed on non-touch WM5 phones?

Yikes, this software is garbage. very buggy and not customizable.

I just fooled around with this on my mogul... I'm leaving it it on.

When or should I say IF they finish this...

G O L D

It does need to be a total WM6 cover up tho'.

No dialer no deal, and I cant even shut down my 3g connection without leaving the program and going back too Windows Mobile 6. IF they could fix those two issues it would Rock HARD!

@vorostatz: most WM phones will shutt down 3g/gprs connections when the "hangup" (red) button is tapped twice.

Long process to get to installed programs or settings.Ocassionaly encountered problems with pockettv(blurred) and camera won't start.Soft reset is needed to overcome the problem. Installed Pontui using CAB file and after uninstalled using WM6 Remove programs, the software remained under /program files.Manually deleted pontuis folder, but the icons remained under programs.Unable to delete them. At bottom tray/bar, can't delete Home(used to be tray/bar for Phone).
Any advise to remove them?TQ