What is "Neo"?

本文译自Windows Mobile Team Blog：http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/default.aspx
What is "Neo"?

嗨！各位，我想简明扼要的向大家介绍一下在过去几个月里我的小组的工作成就，我们称呼他的代号为“Neo”！你们现在可以在商店中看到它。

Just a Shadow of the old homescreen left…

你们也许听说过T-Mobile的“Shadow”设备(我们可以叫它影子手机)Shadow是一款非常Cool的设备，具有20个主要滑式键盘，圆形滚轮导航键，以及大屏幕！但是，当你第一次开机，你可能不知道，“这是一部真正的Windows Mobile 吗” ？
回答是“Yes”！:)

With this phone you get a friendly homescreen experience and integration with your T-Mobile myFaves service.  For those who don’t know, the myFaves service from T-Mobile allows you to make unlimited calls to five designated people. From the homescreen, you can make changes to your five myFaves and get information about them.

For example, if you missed a call or text message, or if there’s an upcoming anniversary or birthday, little micro-icons will appear next to your myFave (in the accompanying image, notice the little birthday gift next to the upper left myFave).

“Cuddlier”?

Yup, that’s one adjective used by one reviewer, thanks to our daily group hug scrums :-). (I'm kidding)

Also, it’s not possible to see from the still image, but the homescreen is full of animations when one moves around on it.  I've included a video capture here.

There are linear and circular functions of not just position and size, but also alpha blending (fading in/out). These animations do a lot to give an organic feel to the UI. 

Hardware and Software Hand-in-Hand

Normally when Windows Mobile creates a release, we release it out to OEMs who then do their own customizations.  With this release, however, Microsoft worked with the OEM to create an experience that catered to what T-Mobile wanted. The OEM, HTC, had their talented industrial design team working on the hardware form-factor and wheel. Microsoft wrote the homescreen and worked out an interface for the myFaves information to bubble up for the user to see. We worked with T-Mobile to finalize the user interaction as per their requirements. For example, in the animation you can see the myFaves flying in and out - that was a T-Mobile feature request in order to enable user privacy (so you avoid the awkward "Why is my boyfriend on your Fave 5?!" moment). Finally, we presented various asset and color combinations to T-Mobile to finalize the look and feel. Li, our PM, spent many nights up with HTC and T-Mobile to match software colors with hardware, and now the Shadow comes in two hardware colors that match the UI. You can see the colors to the right (I know, I'm not much of a photographer).

The Default Homescreen and Neo

What’s different about Neo compared to Microsoft-shipped homescreens is the liberal use of the QVGA screen for images. Remember the Windows default homescreen that ships with every Windows Mobile Standard device?  It shows as much information on the screen as possible to minimize scrolling. It was designed for a user who wants to view things on the go without touching the device. The default homescreen puts as many plugins on the screen at once, but Neo does the opposite – each plugin occupies one full page. When you navigate up and down, the whole screen animates to the newly-activated plugin. In addition, there is a navigation bar on the left so you can tell which plugin you’re at.

As for the plugins themselves, we ship with eight of them (check out the animation, which goes through most of them): myFaves/Clock - Displays your five myFaves when you have a supported SIM, otherwise it displays a clock Notifications - Displays new e-mails, voicemail, missed calls, text messages, and MMS Message Center – Lets you launch into your messaging accounts. Compose a text, e-mail, MMS, or Voice Note from the homescreen itself. Appointments – Lists your appointments for today and tomorrow. Internet – Browse various web sites Music – Play and control Windows Media Player.  My personal favorite. Imagine seeing your album art in a big full screen image instead of in a tiny thumbnail! My Photos – Browse through the photos on your device through your homescreen. Settings – Access commonly used settings/apps – such as Profiles, Task Manager, and Wireless Manager

What's Next?

As you can see, Microsoft is spending more of a focus on creating a good user experience, and working with the operator to deliver for their customers.  Be on the lookout for more personalized experiences!