[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam ROM Development] schaps:
Hi all! After 6 months of hard work, here is a preview of the exclusive user interface which is going to be released soon in my next ROMs.

For more information: http://www.touchxperience.com/

TouchMenu is the first part of the UI, this is probably the most powerful and customizable menu for Windows Mobile. As an example, it originally replaces WM Start Menu, but it can as well replace many of HTC applications (Cube, Task Manager, Comm Manager, RSS Hub, ActionScreen, Large Start Menu, Long Press End Key, ProgramView, Contacts) and offer a quick access to e-mails, SMS, contacts, appointments, tasks, call log, favorite websites or programs,... all in a small executable!

TouchMenu supports finger scrolling and gestures, for example you can switch from a menu to another by sliding your finger left/right, or display context menu by a long press on the screen. Each menu has four different views (large list, small list, large grid, small grid). As the rest of the future user interface, TouchMenu has a nice Vista/WM7 look.

TouchMenu has various built-in menus :

· All Programs (Start Menu replacement)

· Active Programs (Task Manager)

· Recent programs

· Favorite programs

· Settings (Control Panel)

· Documents

· Favorite websites

· Contacts

· Messaging (E-mail & SMS)

· Appointments

· Tasks

· Calls

· RSS feeds

· Recent documents

· Today (day events & actions)

But you can do much more by creating your own custom menus where you can add contacts, program shortcuts, website links, system actions (for example: reset device, rotate screen, sound profile, clock, brightness backlight, WMP status,...) or links to other menus. You can also replace icon for each program/folder/contacts/menu with a custom image.

You can personalize menu order and transitions, and each menu can be called from command line. That means you can associate a different menu for each action on the device, for example: press Start > Programs menu, long press on top-right corner > Active Programs menu, left SoftKey > Appointments menu, right SoftKey > Contacts menu, E-mail button > Messaging menu, long press Call button > Calls menu, long press Power button > Power Actions menu, long press End button > End Actions menu,... You can even associate menus to finger gestures and active corners using FTouchSL. Possibilities are unlimited!

As I said, TouchMenu is only a part of the new UI, I am also working on other developments, for example a Now screen (like SPB Mobile Shell but with fully customizable elements, layout and graphics) and a finger-friendly control panel (a bit like WM6.1 Standard Home plug-in) for a quick access to most common mobile settings. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of work and all couldn’t be ready for integration into the next ROMs, so I will include only TouchMenu in the next “Full” ROMs, the rest will come later.

Don’t hesitate to tell me if you have some interesting idea to develop concerning the new interface.

I will prepare soon a private beta for next ROMs (first for Kaiser device, then Hermes), so I am looking for some people who have some time and good WM cooking or development knowledges, to test and help me improving my builds. If you are interested, let me a post here (explaining in what you are good, if I don’t know you) and I will contact you by PM if you are selected. A public beta will be released a bit later if there is no major issue.