Winterface 2.0 Sneak Preview

Vito Technology recently announced that their popular Winterface user interface was about to receive a major upgrade. We were fortunate to receive a pre-release copy of Winterface 2.0 and we’re going to share some screenshots with you. But let’s first tell you a little about Winterface 2. For various reasons, I was testing this on my 8525/Hermes. It’s clear that Winterface is light and efficient because my phone was flying with Winterface 2.0 running. Going from page to page within Winterface requires a swipe and it was amazingly responsive. In fact, I’m sure we’ve all tried to put our finger on the screen and see how far behind our finger the screen moves…well with Winterface 2 there’s no lag so even between screens everything moves in real time, which I can’t say about TF3D. It really makes the interface feel smooth and enjoyable. As I sit here and flick through 6 screens I’m still shocked how fast it goes. You should also know that Winterface 2 can be integrated into your current interface, so it can be a plugin on your standard Today screen or you can just make a shortcut to it to launch it. If you run it as a plugin then just tap it and it’s full screen with zero delay…not a flicker. It’s also very highly customizable and entirely finger friendly so no need to use the stylus at all.

But that’s enough talking, let’s get to some screenshots already so you can see it in action:

Here’s the two line today plugin which is large enough so there’s no missing it. Wow, I haven’t used this phone since 2007;)

One of the improvements to Winterface 2 was the addition of skins. So you can see various skins which change the icon style, layout and size. I’ve grown fond of the Google skin personally:)

As you can see, some of the icons have built in notifications, like the Tasks and Calendar icons. Tapping the calendar brings up a custom popup. 

You also get to add programs, settings, files, contacts and even direct links to webpages so you can quickly launch any of these with a single press. To move icons you just tap and hold on the screen until the icons ‘shake’ and then you can delete them,rename them or drag them around to where you want them to go. Obviously, you can make a full page of speed dials, a dedicated app page or mix and match as you feel.

If you add a contact to Winterface you are treated with another custom screen. From here you can quickly dial the contact, email them or send them a text message. Again, it looks great and is very intuitive.

The customization continues with the ability to add your own background and to toggle the program names (removing them gives you room to add an extra line of shortcuts as well).

Another nice screen is the profile page which lets you toggle the ringer with a finger friendly interface. The screen icon changes depending on the profile you choose so you can see the set profile without pressing it.

Several other icons are also ‘active’ icons like bluetooth status (which toggles bluetooth on/off )and when pressed the icon changes accordingly. The battery, clock and memory icons are also active icons that provide you with real-time information.

If you’re using a phone with a slideout keyboard then the icons will rearrange themselves when you slide it out and you get a bit of animation to go along with it. it’s all very smooth and even on my old Hermes, Winterface will rearrange the icons faster than you can rotate the phone.

Another custom screen is the ‘running’ screen which is a task manager. From here you can toggle between programs or kill all or some active apps.

So there we have it. Extremely finger friendly, fast and customizable. Again, this was a pre-release so you can expect a more thorough review when a final version is available and we’ll be sure to tell you when the final version is available for download. This should be enough to get your mouth watering for now though:)

And if you already have Winterface then this will be a free upgrade. That’s some serious customer appreciation!