Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Windows Phone 7: Have you ever tiled a window?

There is a pretty good review of the new WP7 interface:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-phones/review/2010/10/14/Windows-Phone-7--An-In-Depth-Guide/p1

I particularly like how they show you the expanded view when you slide over on the different hubs.

The icons you are used to seeing on the iPhone and Android are called "Live Tiles" in WP7. The "live" part of course is because they update in real time and do more than just show a number.

My question here is who does the naming conventions for components over at Microsoft?

I understand using the "live" moniker as that's what they are pushing across many of their products... but if you have a WINDOWS product... why not use something that's more related to a "window" than TILES? Like uh... maybe... PANES? Or even PANELS? But maybe because "pane" sounds like "pain", they didn't want to make that association. I do like the sound of "Live Panes" or "Live Panels" better though.

And I know in the Windows desktop OS, you can "tile" windows, but that's stacking them on top of each other, not next to each other. Maybe instead of Windows Phone 7, they should have called it Floor Phone... then "tiles" would make much more sense.