The US Patents and Trademark Office has today made public a Microsoft patent application (serial no. 240,729) related to the graphical user interface found on the hotly anticipated Windows Phone 7 Series mobile OS. Filed in September 2008, this application describes a “contiguous background” that extends beyond the dimensions of the screen (either vertically or horizontally, but not both) with anchored “mixed-media” elements being littered atop it — all of which is to be served on a “media-playing device.” That should sound pretty familiar, given that it’s the central navigational concept of both Windows Phone 7 and the Zune HD , and as such it makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to seek to legally protect its uniqueness. Before you start wondering about potential conflicts with other UIs , take note that this requires a continuous graphical background rather than a tiled or repeating image, plus space-orientating graphical elements, which should make it sufficiently nuanced to avoid any more patently unnecessary squabbles should Microsoft’s claims be validated by the USPTO. Microsoft seeking patent for Windows Phone 7 Series panoramic GUI originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

Can’t wait for Windows Phone 7 Series , but can’t hack the emulator , either? Don’t lose hope, Windows junkies — you can still bring some semblance of WP7S order into your life with this Metro UI-inspired desktop HUD. Based on the open-source desktop customization platform Rainmeter , the “Omnimo UI” will overlay your desktop with a minimalist, tiled interface not unlike the one you’ve been drooling over for weeks, with live hooks into many useful services (including Gmail, iTunes, Steam, Twitter and SpeedFan) as well as the usual widgets and a host of program shortcuts. The best news of all? It’s available now for all versions of Windows since XP, completely free of charge; simply follow the source links or flit over to Lifehacker , where good folks will teach you how it’s done. Omnimo: desktop Windows given fashion makeover with Phone 7 Series flair originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:48:00 EST

Microsoft’s not going to allow HTC to cover Windows Phone 7 Series with its Sense UI overlay (which is going to be an interesting thing to watch in and of itself), but there’s no question that the homegrown user interface has made a-many Windows Mobile phones look and feel a whole lot better than stock. Sense is also gaining traction in the Android realm, a sector where it’s far more likely to either make a huge impact or be overlooked entirely. So, the question we’re posing here today is this: if you were granted an HTC badge for a day, how would you change Sense? Are you satisfied with the quickness? Does anything simply get in the way? Any quirks that you just can’t figure out

With more tablets being announced each day, there’s a lot of pressure on market entrants to stand out. A custom user interface is a great way to do that! The eviGroup Paddle ’s stop-the-ride-I-wanna-get-off Scale UI, less so. See for yourself: The Paddle actually looks like a decent little tablet: 10.1-inch multitouch screen, 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, up to 320GB of onboard storage, runs Windows 7. Yep, it’s all pretty appealing, until you get the the price— starts at $952—and the Scale UI, which simulates what I imagine car sickness to feel like.

Maybe it’s the lack of a banging soundtrack , but we’re finding ourselves somewhat underwhelmed by these first video appearances by the highly anticipated Symbian^4 user interface. What we’re shown is a now familiar layout for touchscreen devices, with a trio of home screens that can be customized with widgets and live information trinkets such as a clock and a weather app. It is, as promised , very touch-centric, but it is by no means revolutionary. Both videos are titled as mere “first glimpse” offerings, however, so the eternal optimist in us likes to believe that there’ll be plenty more to get excited about as we move closer to that early 2011 launch. See them after the break and let us know what you think

It’s hard to believe this homegrown home screen actually runs as quickly as the video demo (posted up after the break) shows, but even if it’s just 89.877 percent as fast, we have a good idea we’d be interested. TAT Home is a gesture-powered 3D home screen for Android , and it relies heavily on cascading windows and finger flicks in order to improve your navigational efficiency. Clueless as to what we’re referring to? Jump past the break and mash play, and then surf on over to the source link to sign up for the preview program. [Thanks, Jesper] Continue reading TAT Home: the gesture-powered 3D home screen your Android device has longed for TAT Home: the gesture-powered 3D home screen your Android device has longed for originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:40:00 EST.

I’m sorry, Cupertino, but Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future. The UI has the simplicity and elegance of Apple’s industrial design, while the iPhone’s UI still feels like a colorized Palm Pilot. That doesn’t mean that the Windows Phone 7’s user experience would be better than Apple’s. The two user interface concepts—data-centric vs function-centric—are very different, and the former is quite a radical departure from what people are used to. And if you’re not familiar with Windows Phone 7, check out our hands on and the post where we explain everything about it .

At this particular point, 50-something days away from the earliest iPad deliveries, we doubt too many people are up in arms about the iPad’s ability to act as a jumbo iPhone . On the other hand, if we told you you can take pretty much the entire iPad experience and distill it down to your iPhone OS device, well you’d probably care a lot more, wouldn’t you? To get that extra 3D flavor to your UI, including the fetching iBooks shelf and other iPad-specific touches, you’ll need a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch, access to the Cydia app store, and the manpower to click past the break for the full instructional video. Come on, you know you want to.

Some people want the Apple Tablet to run Mac OS X’s user interface . Others think its UI will be something exotic. Both camps are wrong: The iPhone started a UI revolution, and the tablet is just step two. Here’s why. If you are talking hardware, you can speculate about many different features

A Firefox developer has posted a handful of mockups of Firefox 4 ’s user interface redesign along with some explanations of this shiny new App Button we’re getting. Everything just looks oh-so-gorgeous and simplified right next to that old 3.5 design. The main focus of this new design is the App Button, a space-saving touch which will feel familiar to Windows 7 users. In essence, it “provides a unified location for menu items” and cuts down on all the toolbar clutter. You can check out Horlander’s site for plenty of details about the design and explanations behind some of the new elements, but before you go, tell me: Do you prefer this App Button sort of element? Or do you prefer the plain ol’ menus we’re used to