Smartphone 2003 Screen Shots

[Robert Levy]

http://www.smartphone2002.info/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=203&mode=&order=0&thold=0

Smartphone2002.info has a nice collection of Smartphone 2003 screen shots. Check them out at the link above. In addition to those, I'd like to draw attention to two of my favorite application enhancements in Smartphone 2003.

First, let's look at Internet Explorer. As was done in Pocket PC 2003, Internet Explorer was completely rewritten from the ground up to add support for HTML 4.01, XHTML, CSS, JScript® 5.5, and WML 2.0. On top of that, a new feature was added which lets the user choose how the page is adjusted to fit on the small screen (this was surprisingly left out of Pocket PC 2003).

The new "Layout" menu (left) gives you 3 options: One Column, Default, and Desktop. Which one works best is different for each site you are looking at. Here we have Smartphone Thoughts in the Default layout (middle) and Desktop layout (right). Note the scroll bars in the Desktop layout.



This new option makes Internet Explorer a much more pleasurable experience and should put an end to the criticisms which claim that Opera does a better job on other phones.

My other favorite enhancement to Smartphone 2003 is the support for multiple messaging accounts. SMS, ActiveSync and each of your POP3/IMAP email accounts are kept seperate and you switch between them from the new "Accounts/Folders" menu. When you hit the left softkey to compose a new message, Inbox first prompts you to choose which account you would like to send from. Additionally, Inbox now has support for signatures (text that is automatically added to the end of outgoing messages) which is configurable on a per-account basis (including SMS).



Something else you will notice in these images is that all menus have numbers next to each item. These numbers are automatically added by the operating system so existing apps should get that functionality without requiring any modification. In Smartphone 2002, you can use numbers to select menu items but most users are unaware of this because the numbers are not visible. This small cosmetic change will go a long way towards allowing users to quickly navigate through menus.

[Robert Levy]

http://www.smartphone2002.info/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=203&mode=&order=0&thold=0

Smartphone2002.info has a nice collection of Smartphone 2003 screen shots. Check them out at the link above. In addition to those, I'd like to draw attention to two of my favorite application enhancements in Smartphone 2003.

First, let's look at Internet Explorer. As was done in Pocket PC 2003, Internet Explorer was completely rewritten from the ground up to add support for HTML 4.01, XHTML, CSS, JScript® 5.5, and WML 2.0. On top of that, a new feature was added which lets the user choose how the page is adjusted to fit on the small screen (this was surprisingly left out of Pocket PC 2003).

The new "Layout" menu (left) gives you 3 options: One Column, Default, and Desktop. Which one works best is different for each site you are looking at. Here we have Smartphone Thoughts in the Default layout (middle) and Desktop layout (right). Note the scroll bars in the Desktop layout.



This new option makes Internet Explorer a much more pleasurable experience and should put an end to the criticisms which claim that Opera does a better job on other phones.

My other favorite enhancement to Smartphone 2003 is the support for multiple messaging accounts. SMS, ActiveSync and each of your POP3/IMAP email accounts are kept seperate and you switch between them from the new "Accounts/Folders" menu. When you hit the left softkey to compose a new message, Inbox first prompts you to choose which account you would like to send from. Additionally, Inbox now has support for signatures (text that is automatically added to the end of outgoing messages) which is configurable on a per-account basis (including SMS).



Something else you will notice in these images is that all menus have numbers next to each item. These numbers are automatically added by the operating system so existing apps should get that functionality without requiring any modification. In Smartphone 2002, you can use numbers to select menu items but most users are unaware of this because the numbers are not visible. This small cosmetic change will go a long way towards allowing users to quickly navigate through menus.

[Wuss912]

i have a question for while i am waiting for my dev kit (thanks jason)
wiil there be an upgrade to 2003 for the dev phones?

[Robert Levy]

Originally Posted by Wuss912

i have a question for while i am waiting for my dev kit (thanks jason)
wiil there be an upgrade to 2003 for the dev phones?

I was told by an Everlink rep that they will make upgrades available. Details of that are not yet clear, but we'll let you know as soon as something is announced.

[Wuss912]

Originally Posted by Robert Levy

I was told by an Everlink rep that they will make upgrades available. Details of that are not yet clear, but we'll let you know as soon as something is announced.

thats what i love about the site (i was just wondering cause i didn't know)

[robcorn]

Originally Posted by Robert Levy

My other favorite enhancement to Smartphone 2003 is the support for multiple messaging accounts. SMS, ActiveSync and each of your POP3/IMAP email accounts are kept seperate and you switch between them from the new "Accounts/Folders" menu. .

Robert, are you saying then that there can be several (unlimited?) POP3/IMAP email accounts in Smartphone 2003? I have to check 4 email accounts several times a day and hopefully this will be easy for me to do.

Thanks!

[greenmozart]

This is just the kind of post that I love - helpful, informative and concise. Thanks, Robert! :way to go:

[Robert Levy]

Originally Posted by robcorn

Robert, are you saying then that there can be several (unlimited?) POP3/IMAP email accounts in Smartphone 2003? I have to check 4 email accounts several times a day and hopefully this will be easy for me to do.

Thanks!

It looks like the limit is 8 accounts. That gives you ActiveSync, SMS, and up to 6 email accounts.

[robcorn]

Originally Posted by Robert Levy

It looks like the limit is 8 accounts. That gives you ActiveSync, SMS, and up to 6 email accounts.

Robert, thanks for the info. It's either a Smartphone 2003 or WM2003 Phone Edition PPC for me. The big question is which will get here first??? Any thoughts?

[Robert Levy]

Originally Posted by robcorn

Robert, thanks for the info. It's either a Smartphone 2003 or WM2003 Phone Edition PPC for me. The big question is which will get here first??? Any thoughts?

Sorry, I don't know

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Robert Levy

It looks like the limit is 8 accounts. That gives you ActiveSync, SMS, and up to 6 email accounts.

It seems odd that they'd limit it to six email accounts, but that should be enough to satisfy 99% of the users out there. Way to go Microsoft! :way to go: Why wasn't this in the phone I'm holding right now though? :evil: