[Touch HD Windows Mobile ROM Development] MartinNr5:
Edit: Crap! I searched for 10 minutes for a thread about this and found nothing. 30 seconds of browsing turns up this thread though. :( Mods, could you please merge this post with that thread? Thanks.

MOD EDIT - POSTS MERGED

Hi all.

After some digging around I'm not really sure where to post this but as the 2.5 version was mentioned here I'm giving this forum a try. Mods, feel free to move it to a more appropriate forum if needed. ;)

First off; I'm not even sure what the correct name is to describe the latest version of TouchFlo 3d (2.5). Miri calls it "Manila 2.5" but I've seen mentions of Manila 3.0 on this forum elsewhere. As far as I can figure out the correct name would be TouchFlo 3D/TF3D 2.5 but I'm not sure.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share my experience with the version I'm running so that others can make an educated decision about running it or not.

The version PocketPC (I think) reviewed hung numerous times during only a couple of minutes but I've had great success with my device (knock on wood).

The only issue I've run into is the "SMS Blackout" where no messages are shown in the TF3D view of the messages. As mentioned this can be worked around by using the WinMo SMS view ("All messages" button in the TF3D interface).

What I'd like to see improved (as I'm sure HTC reads these forums, it'd be foolish of them not to ;) ) are the following things:

More pages of application shortcuts

Better concistency with the UI

More pages with favourite contacts

Quicker access to company directory

Agenda view in the calendar as default view

Much better e-mail management

More info on home page

Let me elaborate...

Application shortcuts

Putting the application shortcuts on the home page is great but I need more than 9 of them. Just let me add more pages as I see fit, scrolling up/down to access them.

UI concistency

This is also a problem with the WinMo UI (even in 6.5) but I'm not faulting HTC for that. :) As it is now soft buttons "move around". A very annoying example is the "Dismiss" button that sometimes are assigned to the left softbutton and at other times to the right one.

Just go through them all and sort it out, thanks.

More favourite contacts

Just as with application shortcuts; give me as many pages as I want/need.

Company directory

As I use my phone in an corporate environment (connected to an Exchange server) I use our company directory for all my internal numbers. Getting to them requires me to go to the "All people" view and then open the menu. It'd be very convenient to get to the directory directly from the menu in the default view.

A very minor issue but still. :)

Agenda view

I'd like to be able to set the "Agenda" view as my default view when I select the calendar.

E-mail management

This is the biggest flaw as of now.

Managing e-mail has not changed since previous versions of TF3D and is just to gimmicky. Flipping up and down is fine for music and images but I get so much e-mail that I need a proper view of them.

Give me a list of them, just as in a "normal" mail client. Not just the inbox either but all my synchronized folders with some indication of what folder the mail is in. (As an option, this could be done with colors - I assign a color to each of my synched folders and then this color is applied to the list item).

I should also be able to switch between my synched folders without having to endure the crappy WinMo interface (just my synched folders, mind you, as these should be seen as my "favourite" folders).

Writing and deleting e-mails can be done in the WinMo interface though, it's decent enough for that.

Home page

Having a clock that takes up 1/3d of my screen is plain stupid. Give me a smaller clock as well as weather info, profile management (vibrate, headset, meeting, etc) and more info about my schedule instead.

Conclusion

On the whole it feels as if HTC realises that TF3D was to gimmicky and in this version contact magament is on par with SPB 3.0 (and that is high praise). There's still to much flash and bling left though for me to take it 100% seriously.

I'm still using it though but I'm probably going to switch back to SPB 3.0 at one time or other and wait for TF3D 3.0 to see if HTC has adressed these issues by then.

Thanks for reading and please share your thoughts on this version. :)

I started a new thread about this version by mistake. Until the mods have merged that thread with this one you can read my thoughts here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=539822