HTC One uses Windows Phone panorama UI in an elegant way

Back in the days of Windows Mobile, HTC pushed the limits of their devices beyond what Microsoft even supported. For example, they had a capacitive touch display working before the OS even fully supported it. We now see the fantastic HTC One with some elements of the Windows Phone UI, but again making something from Microsoft even better.

Panorama user interface

One of the user interface elements in Windows Phone is panorama, where you swipe right and left to view the extended horizontal canvas. I know it bugs some people when partial page titles appear at the top to indicate a swipe left or right is needed, but I think it helps people understand how it works.

On the HTC One, we see some of these panorama controls, and I think it works well. One primary example is in the new dialer (screenshot included in this post) where you swipe right and left to view call history, the dialer interface (very cool looking, too), favorites, contacts, and groups. Partial words appear near the top to indicate what is off to the left and right. I find this interface to be a pleasure to use rather than having drop down menus or big ugly shortcut icons.

We also see panorama elements in the following:

• Calendar

• News & Weather

• Clock

• Email (very slick usage here)

• Polaris Office

• Weather

• TV

As you can see, we find it in most native HTC developed applications. I personally find it much easier to navigate with such slick elements. Gmail does not have this functionality, since that is controlled by Google. You also likely won't find this type of UI in third party apps.

Live Tiles and BlinkFeed

Some people have stated that the HTC BlinkFeed home screen looks a lot like Windows Phone's Live Tiles. I can see that at first glance, but BlinkFeed is focused primarily on content, where Windows Phone's Live Tiles are primarily application shortcuts with some content elements.

BlinkFeed is not an application launcher, and is really designed for you to browse through the pages and read about things that interest you. Windows Phone's Live Tiles at first are application shortcuts, and then have active elements to give you notification status and updated information. You cannot look at your WP Start screen and read all of your latest Facebook updates or the latest news.

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