With the Windows Phone 7 Metro UI Microsoft created a very specific end user experience, really different from what you can find on iOS or Android. Some love it, others do not but in case you like it you’ll be happy to learn that the folks @ WP7Android are working towards offering many apps using the Windows Phone 7 look and feel on Android: a Launcher app, a Phone app, a Contacts app with Facebook synchronization as well as a Zune app are in the works.
More apps like Mail and Gallery will also be available when the first ones will be closer to completion. The apps are in beta right now and are not available unless you participate or donate to the project but it’s worth having a look as those apps look like the real Windows Phone 7 ones.
You can see the Launcher application running in the video below, it is quite impressive:
Here are some screenshots of the various apps (Launcher, Contacts and Zune):
More work needs to be done and those apps are still in beta but there is a lot already implemented [from WP7Android]:
Launcher
You can:
- Add static, live & custom tiles. Live tiles like weather and slideshow need there corresponding aps to work
- Manage tiles & uninstall apps
- QTA (quick tile access) - give access to extra features on pinching on tiles. Only messaging tile & slideshow tile do things on QTA for now
- Tile Preview - gives the user the ability to only show tiles by category in the tiles view. It's activated by pinching on different tiles
- Change fonts - this change will apply to the most part of the launcher. Fonts are loaded from a folder on the SDCard
- Tile notification for messages and missed calls
- Lots of options in the launcher menu & more to come
- Support for Wallpapers & Live Wallpapers
- Widget support
- Live folder tiles support
- Theme-able (subject to improvements)
- Add postit like tiles
- Contact tiles (you must pin them from the contacts app) with quick call and sms features
- Minor battery impact
- ... maybe other features that I'am missing right now
Contacts
You can:
- Sync contacts from SIM and Gmail
- Add new contact or edit existing one
- Search contacts by clicking search button. If one contact remains swipe up or click for edit contact
- Sort contacts by clicking all under people. You can sort by phone or email
- Chose own picture by clicking on the picture under the All/With Phone/With Email
- Quick search by letter by clicking blue letters. This opens the WP7 full onscreen Search Keyboard
- In Edit Contact: Swipe left for Call, right for Messaging
- Login to Facebook and Wall Post
Zune
You can:
- As with the Zune player, this player will save a play history of the music you listen to, save favourites and also display newly added tracks to the home screen of the player
- The home screen will have 3 sections: home, history and new
- The radio player works using the Android mediaplayer API and streams MP3 music from internet radio stations
- Users can save radio stations as favourites and easily jump to their favourite stations
You can get more information about WP7Android @ http://wp7android.com/apps/ and download the apps @ http://wp7android.com/forum/.
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