Windows Vista comes with Windows Mobile Device Center which support only for Windows Mobile Devices. I thought that this should be changed, so I made this concept User Interface for my own application which I think should be bundled with Vista.
Presenting Windows Mobile Center, the solution to all your mobile phone & PDA needs. Everything you are about to see is made on a system running Windows Vista Ultimate with Photoshop CS3 & Axialis IconWorkshop 6. I have not made a single icon in this mock UI because everything is already included in Windows Vista. It is very easy for developers to make the back end of this application.
When you first start Windows Mobile Center this is how it looks like. A simple welcome screen telling you what Windows Mobile center is for & what can it do for you. Just click on "Select Device" to select the device you want to manage.
You now come to the second screen where you are asked to select the kind of device you have, whether it is a Mobile Phone or Pocket PC or PDA or UPMS. Just click on the type of device you have & click on "Next" or click on automatically Detect to search for all compatible devices.
After selecting "Mobile Phone", I am given a list of all the mobile phone Windows Mobile center can sync. This database is plug-in based & new phones can be added via simple Windows Update. Here for the article I selected K750i because like I said, that is what I have in my hands right now so easier to make this UI for me. You are given information for your phone & a photo which makes it easy to visually identify the phone from the list. You are also given two checkboxes stating whether you want Windows Mobile Center to automatically try to connect using the best & fastest available connection or whether you want to select a connection type manually such as Bluetooth or WiFi or IrDA or a Data Cable. For this article I have selected to connect automatically. Now click on connect.
Windows Mobile Center now automatically tries to find the best & fastest possible connection available. It searches & finds Bluetooth connection.
Once the connection is established it displays the status of the phone such as Phone’s name, battery left, connection type, free memory in memory card or phone itself, IMEI Number, firmware etc. It also tells you whether the phone is synced with Windows Mobile Center or not. Since this is the first time, it is not synced & it gives you an option whether to sync right now or not. Without syncing you cannot see the saved Phonebook, SMS, and Mail etc. You can sync the whole phone anytime using the green Sync button at the topmost toolbar alongside Configuration Options & Help button. Or in this case for the first time you can also sync using the options given below the notification.
You can also get advanced information using this window. Like clicking on Bluetooth Icon gives info in a new palette like which COM Port it is connected through, which Bluetooth device it is using etc. Same goes with battery
Once the phone is synced, you can start working on it the way you like. Some basic phone tasks are available in the right click context menu or the following toolbar button. You can mouse over the toolbar buttons to get information regarding what that button does. Let us go through all sections one by one.
Contacts Section. : After you sync the phone with the computer, Windows Mobile Center automatically copies all the contact to Windows Contacts folder through which these are also available in Windows Mail, Windows Calendar & other such Windows application like Live Messenger etc. Those contacts which are not in Phone but are there in Windows contacts are also synced to the phone.
The contacts are available in a list view depending in whether you have selected to show Phone contacts or SIM contacts. You can search for a particular contact using the search bar provided at the toolbar. You can simply right click on the column to show more info as required such as other phone number, fax, address etc. To copy a contact from Phone to SIM, either drag & drop it or simply copy paste using the keyboard or right click menu.
The toolbar provides access to some basic tasks available for contact list, like refreshing the contact list or adding a new contact to the contact list, editing an existing contact, deleting a contact or simply sending a message to your contact using the computer. You can also select whether the message is a SMS or E-Mail.
Suppose you want to send SMS to someone. Just click on the contact & click on the new Message toolbar button. You will be given a simple window to write your SMS which will be then messaged using your Mobile Phone. You either enter a number manually or select from contact list. If you enter an E-mail ID, the message will go as an E-Mail through your phone & GPRS/EDGE connection using the settings for E-Mail set in your phone. This is how the Message Window looks like.
The call logs section shows the recent call logs. It shows all calls, missed calls, answered calls or dialed calls as selected in the left hand pane. You can again perform basic tasks such as refresh the list or add an unknown number to your phone or delete the entire recent logs or send a message to a recent number. You can also search for a particular caller in the call logs.
The Messages section provides you a view at the SMS you have in your phone. It shows your phone Inbox, the saved messages, drafts, sent messages & Outbox. From here you can simply click on any message & either forward it to another number, or reply to that sender or delete the SMS or refresh the SMS list. You can also select to write a complete new SMS using the new message button in the toolbar.
The Files section gives you option to browse the phone’s memory or the memory card in the phone. Although the memory card is also available in Windows Explorer as a removable drive. The explorer is just like Windows Explorer & you can navigate or sort. You select the type you want to view the folders as, or simply right click in the Explorer area & select to view as large or small icons for folders. If you have selected to show thumbnail previews of files, then it will show the images as thumbnail by simply downloading them to computer in the background.
Using the toolbar, you can simply refresh the file list or go one up level, create a new folder, delete a file or download the file to a location in the computer or upload a file to the location in Phone. You can also install JAVA application using this Files view because K750i supports installation of JAVA Applications. You can also search for a particular file in the Phone or Card memory.Single clicking over a file or folder gives its information in the File Properties pane such as file size, location, type etc.
The Organizer Notes Part is complete. If your mobile phone or device supports notes, then you can sync them automatically with your Windows Notes Gadget or Outlook Notes. To access notes, click on the notes icon in the toolbar which will show you all the notes in your phone. Pressing the refresh button will sync the notes from your computer to the phone & vice versa. Here are the 3 views in which you can see your notes. I prefer the detail view though but since it is up to the user he can chose to look anyway he wants by clicking on the view type icon in Notes toolbar.
Thumbnail View
Details View
Text View
