[Windows Mobile Software Development] Forsaken:
Hi there,

since i'm searching for a fast and customisable ui since months (90% of them use sense what makes them kind of slow). So I decided to start such a Project on my own.

My main targets are:

- Speed (!!!)

- User-friendly design

- Customizable Widget support

- High built in application support (native support of different music players, browsers and more)

I am going to use .NET Framework 3.5 and delop it using the WM home plugin system.

Since this UI is going to be freeware i'm going to try out this graphics libary (WMGL):

http://www.mobilityflow.com/products/wmgl/

The following shows the current progress and prioritys for planned features.

Current information:

- 2010/10/08 -

I will start development this weekend, for the beginning this will be a solo project. After development of the base system I would be glad about some help, but at that time there will already be progress that shows work on this project really makes sense ;)

- 2010/10/10 -

Spent almost the whole weekend with coding and it was worth it! For now there are already 3 Desktops (configurable via XML) with different wallpaper modes (raw, fit, panorama). In panorama mode the image will be scaled (keeping proportions) over all 3 desktops. Basic widget engine is almost done, already got a first button widget that displays a free scalable graphical button (you can define a border width that will not be completely scaled). Also there is a label element to output text on a widget (the button label).

Here a few seconds of demonstration with 3 different scaled and positioned button widgets and a 1024x768 default windows desktop in panorama mode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ2zCN2BNno

And it will be independent to the device's resolution, like seen here it already works with other today plugins together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22f3GClKC94

- 2010/10/11 -

Finished and optimized a lot of things today, most important changes are lots of font settings (color, bold, underline, italic, size, h-align, v-align), basic mouse events (down, up, click) and a few actions for those events (show/hide image, open url/file, open ui-dialog). Here a short video of the current version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk1Mgmj4HAg

- 2010/10/20 -

Debugged and cleaned the whole code, couldn't find any problems with the current features anymore. Also improved the performance a bit. Added icon's as source for widget images for application shortcuts (icon not scalable! size depends on the device, the wm5 emulator uses 32x32 modern phones usally 64x64). Added a small pager that displays the active desktop. Replaced the button graphics by high-res one's (I know they're not that beautyful :p). Here's a video snapshot of that version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4KQ5s-NxtQ

- 2010/10/24 -

Done some pretty effective performance optimizations and increased the desktop scroll speed some. Replaced the button graphics again but I'm still not that happy with it. Added the most common status widgets (calls, texts/sms, mails) including the matching shortcut. Added a first small digital clock widget (160x80) somehow the clock was not correct when using the emulator, when using my own phone it works perfectly. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2Ur4PrBsSA (reuploaded video, working now)

- 2010/11/03 -

Replaced the graphics again, this one will be the base for the first (stock) skin. The battery icon will be replaced by a black one later. Further added 3 status widgets showing the battery state, signal strength and memory usage. To give a better view (without problems caused by the emulator) I made a video of it running on my HTC Touch Diamond 2 (Topaz). Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cIdAYtKnPA

Implemented features:

Desktops

3 Desktops (configured using xml) with independed wallpapers. (Still some todo's)

Widgets

Alert widgets (Calls, Texts, Mails)

Status widgets (Battery, Radio, Memory)

Digital clock widget (One small and one large)

Graphic button widget with text label and/or icon. (URLs, files, applications and a few system functions)

Planned features:

Desktops

(HIGH) 3 freely editable desktops with unlimited widget count / variation.

Widgets

(HIGH) Alert widgets (Calls, Texts, Mails, News!)

(HIGH) Contact widget (different layouts, supporting displaying multiple contacts and filtering)

(MID) Mail- and text-widget (incl. browsing and marking them read)

(MID) News widget (RSS)

(MID) Music widget (with multiple player support)

(LOW) Social widgets (Facebook, twitter, ....)

Tools

(HIGH) Tool for layout backups

(LOW) Update checker

PS: I know there are already many UI's out of there and coding a new one won't make sense for some of you, but imho there is still no really good one out there (at least not for a reasonable price). The most close one is MaxSense, but that mod still drains tonns of memory for sense and is also a bit buggy and limited. (e.g. there is no way to add the same widget twice)

Since i'm not expecting a fast port of WM7 to older devices this is going to be optimized for WM6. Anyway all WM5+ devices should be capable of running this UI.

Best regards

Forsaken