We all know the story. Windows Mobile 7 has been delayed time and again. For the Windows Mobile team, that’s usually par for the course: WinMo releases have typically been few and far apart, and that was OK. But as of late, Microsoft has not only received tough competition, but has been absolutely trounced in the Smartphone market by RIM, Apple, Google and soon a resurgent Palm. Par isn’t going to cut it anymore. To keep up with the big boys, Microsoft is gonna have to step up its game.

Oh sure, they’ve got some interesting things coming down the pipe: My Phone, Skymarket, Zune Mobile; but does anyone really imagine that these services will stop the exodus? Microsoft needs to do something big, and I think (hope?) they’re already on it.

The picture above is from (one of) Microsoft’s Windows 7 site(s). If you take a quick look at the red arrow, you’ll see Windows 7’s beta wallpaper on a Smartphone. What could that mean?

Now, it could be entirely innocent and mundane (it probably is, but where’s the fun in that?). Maybe Microsoft is implying that Windows 7 and Windows Mobile just Work Better Together™.

I happen to think it’s pointing to an as-of-yet unannounced version of Windows 7 – Windows 7 Mobile/Phone/Cute-Marketing-Word-Here.

When I first heard about MinWin, I imagined that Microsoft was pushing to slice and dice Windows into smaller and smaller pieces so it could build a phone-optimized version of their desktop OS, a la Apple and OSX. Then at D6, we got word that Windows 7 would support multi-touch, which, while only moderately useful on laptops (and gimmicky on desktops), makes a ton of sense for a phone. PDC gave us even more info on features that make oh-so-much sense on phones, including Location awareness, a sensor platform (accelerometer and proximity sensors anyone?), and OS-level support for connecting to 3G networks.

Then, just last week, we get this quote from Motorola’s CEO:

“…more of our effort and focus in 2009 is going to Android, but in 2010 when Windows 7 will become available, we will then participate in a more focused way in Windows Mobile 7 in 2010″ – Sanjay Jha, CEO, Motorola

I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but the amount of evidence for this hypothesis is surprising, and Microsoft desperately needs to overhaul Windows Mobile in order to compete against Apple’s iPhone and Palm’s webOS. And they very well could be. Perhaps the WinMo7 delays are Microsoft retooling, shifting from the struggling Windows CE ancestry to the more robust Windows kernel for Windows Mobile 7.

Will Windows 7 be the underpinnings for the next version of Windows Mobile? Even though Windows Mobile 6.5 is being foreseen as the hot topic next week, maybe we’ll still get some sort of answer on Windows Mobile 7.

I already mentioned the existence of Libraries. Based on what the technical fellows who used Vista Beta 1 know, if Libraries are anything like Virtual Folders, the feature will likely enjoy the frequent use and prominence that Virtual Folders enjoyed in Windows Vista Beta 1. Because of this, Libraries will likely be very well woven into Windows 7, thus making it exponentially more useful than Vista’s search folders. Examples of how this would be done:

• Libraries would be viewable and accessible as if they are normal folders. Whether this applies to applications as well as users is a good question, but if libraries could be treated by applications as normal folders, a whole host of possibilities would suddenly open themselves to developers.
• Paths could be relative or absolute, which trumps the usefulness of search folders altogether.
• It would be possible to manually add folders to libraries.
• A user will likely have default libraries for his pictures, videos, etc.

Integration would go beyond simple aesthetics. Logically, Homegroups could hypothetically support sharing libraries as opposed to folders simply because Libraries would inherently be more organized. A user may have many folders filled with pictures, but if all of those are in a “pictures” library, all of this user’s photos could then be shared over a homegroup just by sharing that one library.

On that wonderful note, since Libraries will likely be xml files interpreted by Explorer just like Virtual Folders were, let’s take a look at  what the basic structure of such an xml file could be after the break.

<Library>

<LibraryAttributes>

<!-- Examples of attributes:-->

<Tags>Example,Test,Pictures</Tags>

<ExcludeTypes>sys,png,exe,xlsx</ExcludeTypes>

<Pinned>1</Pinned>

</LibraryAttributes>

<ListOfLocations>

<DescriptionOfLocation>

<BasicLocationStuff>

<address>

<!-- One literal or relative path goes here.
Examples:
c:\folder
\\Bryant\folder
-->

</address>

<!-- Other stuff might be contained here as well,
such as dates accessed and dates modified
(example below) -->

<DatesModified>1221588862,1221588801,1221587292</DatesModified>

</BasicLocationStuff>

<ComplexLocationStuff>

<!-- More complex material might be kept in here, such
as different types of meta data and anything binary-->

</ComplexLocationStuff>

</DescriptionOfLocation>

<DescriptionOfLocation>

<!-- Rinse and repeat per folder-->

</DescriptionOfLocation>

</ListOfLocations>

</Library>

This structure would allow for multiple folders to be referenced, either via relative paths or direct paths, which would prove to be immensely useful

If Libraries really are a true reincarnation of Virtual Folders minus the confusion plus the enhanced integration, Microsoft might have a huge convenience prize winner on its hands. It’s about time, too.

Alright, so I talked about Windows 7’s pillars not so long ago. Paul, along with a member of our forums, recently mentioned build 6780 as Milestone 3. This post serves as my thoughts of what might hypothetically exist in this build based on what I saw in M1. I’ll start with the applications:

Based on the trend we saw in M1, The Sidebar the thing which really shouldn’t be called the sidebar anymore will be embedded into the desktop even further, eventually annihilating the concept of a sidebar in the first place. The gadgets might remain on the side, but for all intents and purposes, the gadgets might just stay on the desktop, ready and willing to be called to the front using a key combination (not different from what you see in Vista now: Win+Space to pull gadgets to the front in Vista). It will likely be more heavily integrated into the shell than we saw in Milestone 1. Besides these changes, I doubt M3 would have anything different for the user who takes a look. The gadgets thus far would most likely be the same, though I personally hope they switch to a better codebase for the gadgets.

Wordpad and Paint will likely have seen major overhauls to their user interfaces by this point. My suspicion is that they will probably have adopted an Office-esque look along with possibly some added tools and features for both, simply for the sake of consistency. Since adding tools to Paint and Wordpad likely isn’t the Windows team’s largest focus, one could expect to see two or three tabs for the ribbon. By this point, there likely won’t be any other major changes, though seeing feature additions in the future would definitely be in line. Update 9-16-08 8:39PM: Looks like I was right. Stephen has a screenshot.

Calculator in Milestone 1 saw a few minor functional and visual tweaks, such as the addition of programming and statistics modes. With this in mind, it’s reasonable to expect the calculator to be much more aesthetically pleasing in order to follow suit with the pattern likely established by Wordpad and Paint. After all, bundled applications will be seeing an overhaul in Windows 7, so expect them to look similar in terms of design. Calculator almost definitely will not carry an Office UI, as it isn’t a productivity application per se.

Windows Media Player likely won’t see much of an overhaul from Milestone 1 besides possibly being more organized and pretty. It will also start to take a shape of its own as it turns into Windows Media Player 12.

Milestone 3 could also carry rough implementations of various technologies which carried merely a footnote’s worth of importance in Milestone 1. Quick examples:

Homegroups might actually work by now! I suspect the Homegroups feature to be much more well integrated into the networking center as well as other functions in Windows 7 Milestone 3. Joining a computer to a Homegroup, for instance, would likely be something which could be done from the Network and Sharing Center as opposed to only being established during the OOBE what used to be called the OOBE as it was in Milestone 1. It might even be possible to join a computer to multiple Homegroups , though if you only have one home, I’m not sure what good this would do.

Windows Live integration will most likely have increased compared to the first milestone. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Internet Explorer 8 accelerators found their way into Windows 7, likely with shortcuts to make things easier (such as Microphone commands and quick access to accelerators via a taskbar toolbar, perhaps). Also, as has been making the rounds recently on sites such as LiveSide and All About Microsoft, certain applications present in Windows Vista will, by now, start being subtracted from Windows and dropped under the Windows Live designation.

Themes probably wouldn’t be such a discombobulated process for the user in Milestone 3 as it was in Windows Vista. As a part of the goal to make simple tasks easier to do in Vista, a number of quick thematic combinations (visual themes. Probably nothing fancy yet) will likely find their homes in the main Personalization page by way of an iconic representation of the final outcome. Customization would still be available to those who wish to choose something less standard, but the default combos would be helpful for selecting a mode on a glance, such as a high contrast mode for those who have difficulties seeing what’s on their screen.

Other minor visual tweaks will almost definitely exist, likely in the start menu and in typical folderview. However, features such as the “superbar” seen at D6 may not be available out of the box, if at all.

That’s it for my speculative extrapolation on what Milestone 3 of Windows 7 hypothetically could contain. Tomorrow, I’ll detail how one feature which I discussed in the first serving of yam dip might work in Windows 7.