JGUI crafts Vista skin, looks better than Crossbow

by Chris Ziegler, posted Feb 1st 2007 at 11:09PM

iPhone skins are pretty much a dime a dozen at this point -- Pocket PC included, much to Apple's horror -- so why not switch it up with something a little more... shall we say, in the "in the family?" Polish firm JGUI has thrown together a skin for Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PCs that mimics Vista (which we hear ain't bad looking) with a Sidebar clone complete with gadgets, Aero-esque taskbar, and a totally retooled UI for all of the phone's major functions. The screen shots look fabulous (with the possible exception of our mohawk-sporting contact here) and, from what we've seen, put Crossbow to shame in the eye candy department. Note to Microsoft: "Get your ideas for Photon here." The Today screen is freeware and the entire package is available for under $25 -- not bad compared to, say, Vista Ultimate.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Filed under: Software, Windows Mobile

Tags: jgui, skin, smartphone, vista, windows mobile, WindowsMobile

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

hesh @ Feb 2nd 2007 8:17AM

I wouldn't mind trying this out but it seems the developer says there's no reason to try it on phones with touchscreens since it doesn't take advantage of that and only uses the hardware keys. I would've liked to have tried this on my 8525. I guess I'll just have to put Crossbow on my 8125.

From the pocketgear.com site...
"This program was designed for Microsoft Smartphone devices with landscape screens, basically.
There is no reason at all, to not use it in other mobile devices with Windows Mobile system.
Specially, because it doesn't use touch-sensitivity screen for daily operating, but hardware keys only."

Neutral

Greyzzz @ Feb 2nd 2007 10:50AM

I tried downloading it to my DASH but it didnt work. Anyone use it yet?

Neutral

deano.public @ Feb 2nd 2007 3:18PM

This looks great except, why the heck is the day of the week so prominent? Do people forget the day of the week and need their phone to remind them that often? Seems that real estate could be put to better use.

Other than that I agree, shame on Microsoft.

Neutral

T-Will @ Feb 3rd 2007 11:51AM

I think you need to application unlock your phone in order for it to work correctly. Here's some additional discussion at the Smartphonethoughts forums: http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13430&highlight=jgui

Neutral

derF @ Feb 3rd 2007 3:41PM

Beyond the pretty home page, nothing but problems on my Sprint Moto Q. Like: can't dial phone nos, diasables speed dial, can't change profiles, not to mention a couple of freezes requiring a reset. Top that off with a master reset to get it completely off my phone. I have a name for obviously un-tested apps like this: CRAPWARE

Neutral

Norway-Lars @ Feb 5th 2007 5:34PM

I've just tried it on my new HTC s620 WM5 smartphone with landscape screen! It's super!! The freeware is working as a dream with cool sliding effects, animated backgrounds, weather, news feed +++ The fellow also have a nice free vista skin for mediaplayer on his website!

The design and layout is smooooth:-)

Neutral

John @ Feb 23rd 2007 1:00PM

I installed this on my Blackjack yesterday and paid the $20 to register it. The trial version is fairly glitchy - the registered version works quite a bit better.

That said, it definitely is taxing on the Blackjack's resources. I downloaded JGUI's gray simple theme to run as the actual system theme and keep theme overhead to a minimum (since this is really a program running on top of the actual interface, it's not just a simple skin). This helps considerably - don't try running a complex theme under this thing.

I have it set to cover up my standard home screen, but I had to disable the "cover up incoming call screen." The cover incoming call option uses too much of the system resources when someone calls and makes it so you can't really get the phone to respond to a command to answer the call.

The lack of resources also seems to make scrolling through the different screens (weather, news, etc.) fairly clunky. And that's with no programs running in the background.

Someone mentioned they couldn't dial numbers with this. You can, but you have to hit the green button first to bring up the dialing system. It's a little annoying and improvements to the integration would help a lot.

Other than that, it does look cool. The English could use some revision.

I think this guy is really onto something and should look into either getting Microsoft to adopt this as a native interface (although I don't see how he can sell them their own look and feel - if anything, he's infringing on Vista copyrights) or ditch the windows logo in the bottom left and get a larger-scale developer to back developing this into a more tightly-integrated modification for WM devices.

Neutral

toyatoy @ Sep 5th 2008 12:47PM

i downloaded it on my blackjack2 it installed and everything but when i launch the program all i see is a black screen nothing else. i am able to go into its settings but still all i see is a black screen..???? help y wont this vista interface ashow??

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