… is for Microsoft to fix Windows Phone. :)
But since that’s not happening anytime soon, a reader email about a related topic just triggered an interesting idea: How about someone makes some high-quality Windows Gadgets, for Windows Vista and 7, that resemble Windows Phone live tiles? There could be a stock set, like Hotmail, Windows Live Calendar, and so on, and even some based on third party apps—like Weatherbug—would be pretty interesting. Plus they’d look awesome—and very WP-esque—lined up on the right side of the screen.
Just a thought. :)
Merry Christmas!
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Something close to this exists, although one must have rainmeter installed: http://fediafedia.deviantart.com/art/Omnimo-3-1-for-Rainmeter-158707137
Oh my god I would love to do this…
but alas, I have no Windows Phone 7 to use as reference. Would you want them to expand to like the full app, or work only as tiles? If only tiles I might not need a phone for reference :3
(Hit me up on Twitter, @Navarr)
Strictly not a widget, but it does its job – http://fediafedia.deviantart.com/art/Omnimo-UI-for-Rainmeter-158707137
Will January at least bring us copy and paste (and hopefully Camera settings you can save?) If I could just get that for now, I’d be a little happier.
Already exists :)
http://lifehacker.com/5504465/how-to-transform-your-windows-desktop-with-an-amazing-windows-phone-7+style-hud
Exactly Paul,
I’m in complete agreement about the fixing. It’s almost like they worked so hard to get WP7 out on time, and then someone said.. great job guys, take the next couple months off. In this environment, with this level of competition, I don’t think there is much time to relax. The gadget idea sounds good to me. I actually like sidebar, but for whatever reason the developer community for it never really materialized.
I really wish there was some way to backup and restore phones. You cannot re-download an app through the Zune client. For some reason, the app is listed as ‘Already Purchased’ and I only have an option to cancel. I know I can search for the apps, but the marketplace search absolutely blows. I also lost all of my OneNote notes that were supposed to be synced with my SkyDrive account.
Are you going to CES Paul? I really hope MS has a steady rollout of updates through 2011 and not just one minor update in Jan and then nothing for 6 months. That would be a big mistake, even if the 2nd update is a huge one there is no need to try and put everything together in one big kitchen sink type update.
No, I won’t be at CES. I’m doing a focus group that week at home.
http://lifehacker.com/5504465/how-to-transform-your-windows-desktop-with-an-amazing-windows-phone-7%20style-hud
Old link that I read a while ago. I used this for about 2 months and then turned it off though :-(
Paul;
I’m sure a lot of people have commented on this, but I use a Rainmeter skin called Onmimo 3.1 that turns my desktop into a Windows Phone 7 interface.
There was one skin released for the desktop for Rainmeter long before the Windows Phone 7 devices were even released.
I will send you a screen capture of my desktop from a separate account so you can see what I mean.
It is a fun and creative way to skin the desktop without making a bunch of permanent changes to the Windows 7 computer desktop. You can turn Rainmeter on and off with a click, but it doesn’t use much system resources. I’ve been very pleased with it.
I run Windows 7 64-bit on a home built i7 920 CPU with 6GB of RAM.
Here is the link to Rainmeter:
http://rainmeter.net/RainCMS/
And here is a link to see the Windows Phone 7 skin I currently use:
http://fediafedia.deviantart.com/art/Omnimo-3-1-for-Rainmeter-158707137
It takes some time and fiddling around to get all the settings right, but the tiles update live and it is fun to use.
- Mike
Off topic question re- sharing Zune Pass with my wife. I re-listened to the WW 185 episode where you mentioned the workaround while we wait for a potential Zune Pass Family Edition. I understand I can simply create a new Live ID and associate my Zune Pass with it. Does this work with an existing Zune Pass? If not, I understand there is a more complex way to achieve this by changing it on my XBOX? Do you think it is good idea (considering my follow up question below)?
In either case, I assume that both our phones need to be set up with the new Live ID. How will XBOX LIVE games’ achievements work? Will those go to the dummy account for both of us, or is there a way to associate our XBOX LIVE account to individual ID’s?
This doesn’t run on the Windows Gadgets platform, but it’s still an option for those of us who aren’t ambitious enough to use Rainmeter. ;)
http://www.htchome.org/en/metro/