WM 6.5 Start Menu: What Was MS Thinking?!?!
In the eternal search for the ideal mobile phone set-up, I have flashed up to EnergyROM 3.0 with WM 6.5. The new OS is great: fast, stable, and mostly functional. But I have to ask Microsoft a question: What were you thinking when you designed the new Start Menu?!?!?
But I get off track. This post is about another significant irritant, namely, the inability to readily customize the arrangement of the icons on each screen (e.g., Start Menu, System, Utilities, Tools, etc.). MS offers us a Move Up or Move Down option, but there is no control over how far up or down. Not only that, when you choose Move Up from a subfolder, for example, Tools, it moves the icon up to the Start Menu. Just plan stupid!
There is a happy ending though. Farmer Ted turned me on to Showaco’s re/START app which allows you to arrange your icons in every folder in your start menu. It’s quick and easy, and it offers alternative icons as a bonus.
While I’m in B&M (Bitch & Moan) mode, let me tell you a few more beefs I have with 6.5. Thankfully, they nuked the ugly honeycomb design before it hit the market, but the current zigzag pattern of icons is visually difficult to process and select. Also, the 4-across pattern makes the icons too small for my eyes. As for navigation, to have to go to a folder and then press back if I want to return to the previous screen is just plain inefficient. And when I do open an app and then close, it sends me to back to Today, not to the previous screen.
I know there are a lot of iPhone haters here, but, in my view, no one does it like iPhone with clear and simple icons and swipe movement from screen to screen. I can’t believe that MS hasn’t come up with something better. I have had great success with iPhone Today combined with Manila Today Page as an alternative. Here’s a link to a previous post by Christian Hughes about iPhone Today and one by Super Doug about MTP.
Sorry about the rant, but I feel much better now. And there were actually some solutions in this post too!
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The start menu is the least of their problems. Check out this thread from the microsoft mobile forum. I have an LG Fathom Marketplace was working fine for the last 4 months since I got it. Now all of a sudden it won’t work anymore. None of the solutions offered on the forum work for me. And now since I reset the phone I can’t reinstall apps that I purchased. And microsoft won’t give support for mobile 6.5 and microsoft no longer allows windows mobile 6.5 users to purchase apps online and sync them to their phones. I really don’t see what the point of the last move is, other than to completely screw over owners of the older windows mobile os.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/winphone/forum/wp6n-wpmarketplace/unable-to-sign-in-to-windows-marketplace-app/550168d7-a75f-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5?page=1&tm=1320556762192