When the iPhone was announced last year, a lot of developers started to copy it’s interface, from their kinetic scrolling to the device lock. Now I am not saying that this is a bad thing, because these new applications really made our Windows Mobile experience a lot better. But I was hoping for some of these developers to embrace the idea behind the iPhone (and any consumer device for that matter) and create their own applications based on it. The idea, for those curious, is good-looks combined with even better user-experience. And Pointui did just that with Home.

There is not much information about Pointui in their About page so I can’t really say much about them. Their Home application came out in late December and was recently updated to v1.01b. For those wondering, this device is still free and it does not look like it will be commercial anytime soon. Instead, the developers rely on donations from satisfied users to keep them going.

First Look

Installation is pretty massive at over 1MB (I don’t really have much Main Memory space left) when you consider that it would be better to install it to Main Memory. You could try to place it on the SD card but with all the functions it does, I would not recommend it. Be prepared to lose your left soft key as well because it will be replaced with a shortcut to Home.

When you first run Home, you are greeted with a Help tour. This tour is pretty useful with all the animation to show you the various functions of Home. Unfortunately there is no Next or Previous buttons for you to press. Instead the tour goes from start to finish and you can only stop the tour and start from the beginning if you missed something. There’s a reason that the application tells you to get comfy because the tour runs for about 6 minutes.

Does Not Run On Startup

This was a bit of a downer for me. The application does not run on startup. I call it a downer because the software is like a replacement UI and when it does not run on startup, it kind of takes away some points.

A discussion on the forum suggests that you could create a shortcut to /Windows/Startup if you wanted Home to start after every soft reset but I would have preferred if there was an option within the program to do so. The developer says that the reason that they do not run automatically is because they can’t test with new devices being launched and thus took the safe path. Fair enough. But I still hope that they can add that option in preferences.

Lack of Preferences

That’s another thing that was pretty lacking if you ask me. There is no preference or options screen for you to tweak the application. When I first used the program, it pulled up the default calendar and tasks, even though I use Pocket Informant and have set that as my default. I later found out (from the forum again) that you could change the default programs but you would need to do it through a registry hack.

Again, I was hoping for something similar and I hope that the developers are working towards it. This is a really great program (and you will see why later on) but it’s small omissions like this that can really paralyze it.

Totally New UI

I have to admit, the user-interface (UI) is one of the best that I have seen. It’s nothing like the ones available that tries to mimic a certain device but instead stands on its own. What I look about Home is that, it’s not just a front-end application but it integrates well with other software and applications on the device as well.

The various settings	And your options

For example, instead of bringing you to the Settings, it has re-worked the menu so that you are presented with what you see above. All the options have their own buttons and when you click on them you are taken to the settings of your choice. This is really great because everything meshes well together and looks like one new UI instead of some patchwork.

The program menu	And applications

Even normal applications such as Word Mobile and Notes are somewhat skinned. When you launch any application, the top bar has been changed to reflect that of Home. The rest of the screen is what you would normally see. I would have preferred if the bottom bar was skinned too so as to add to the overall feel but I must say that it is a good start.

How Home skins applications	And its Task Manager

My suggestion for improving the UI is to have an option whether to close of minimize the software on the top right of the screen. I had some trouble figuring out how to close applications at the beginning. Instead of the top right corner that we are so used to, you have to click on the name of the application. There, you are presented with the option to Force Close. I feel that it would have been better if they could have added that option to the top right instead since we are so used to it (and it works). And I hope that when you close, it would bring you back to Home, instead of Desktop as it currently does.

Ribbon

Choose to have weather	Or calendar for ribbon

The ribbon is what you see in the center of the Home screen. Sliding left (or right) will present you with different options such as time (in both analog and digital), appointments, tasks, calendar and weather. The ribbon is more like a Today screen plug-in that shows you snippets of information and at the moment, the above list is the only thing that you can show. Maybe they will allow you to integrate with other plug-ins in the future? That would definitely be welcomed.

I found 2 issues with the ribbon which I hope get’s fixed in the next update. The first is with tasks. It seems to show only a limited number of items. This might not be such a good thing if you have a lot of tasks because it seems like you can’t scroll the list. The other issue is that it also shows completed tasks which is something I do not want to see. A preference option for this might solve this problem but we will have to wait and see.

The other issue that I found had to do with appointments. I am not sure why but when I have an upcoming appointment that is shown, I also get this entry below it for Sunday December 29th 2999. I doubt I would live till that long and I can’t find that appointment in Pocket Informant so I am not sure why it is listing it. Definitely a bug!

Icons Work Great

Tapping this icon…	Opens this menu

The icons that you see at the top are not just eye-candy. They are indeed functional. Tapping on the antenna pulls up your new connection manager where you can turn your various communications (such as GSM, Bluetooth and WiFi) on or off. You even have a button for Flight Mode which some would find useful.

Tapping this icon…	Opens this menu

The speaker icon brings up the volume settings for you to play with. Tapping on it is pretty much like tapping on the generic speaker in Windows Mobile as you cycle through On, Vibrate and Off.

Tapping this icon…	Opens this menu

The battery icon is a shortcut to power and backlight settings which I think is really intuitive. Tapping on it will also show you the current charge (in percentage) so you don’t have to wonder what the level is.

Tapping this icon…	Opens this menu

The cog wheel you see is the shortcut to Preferences. Now don’t be fooled because the Preferences in this case is mostly the Settings options that you have. There are several buttons related to Home but nothing in the form of an Option or Preferences for Home that we were looking for.

Tapping this icon…	Locks the screen

For those curious about the lock on the top left, tapping it will cause the screen lock to activate which is pretty cool. It used to be that when you wanted to turn on such a lock, you would have to turn off the device but not anymore. Unfortunately the screen lock is pretty basic and similar to S2U2. You could tweak it such that tapping on the icon launches S2U2 if you like and I think that’s what I am going to do.

Conclusion

This is a really great software that does not just look good but functions just as well. In fact, it makes navigating Windows Mobile a much better experience without any device slowdown. I can still run all my other programs with ease like TomTom Navigator and TCPMP so I doubt it is resource hungry.

If Pointui continues to develop Home, the days of launchers and skin programs might just be numbered. Pointui has done a great job of embracing the idea behind how consumer electronics should be and went on their own to create an application that is unlike any other. Their customer support in the form of the forum that they run is really great. Queries were answered and solutions provided.

With some tweaking here and there and adding of some missing features, Home could very well be the Application of Year! So what are you waitin for? Download your copy today!

Tags: free software