I think it’s fair to say that when Microsoft laid out details of Windows Mobile 6.5, more criticism than kudos hit the airwaves. Long Zheng thinks many folks dismissed any innovation from Redmond too quickly, and he offers a solid example why. It has to do with the honeycomb grid found on the upgraded mobile operating system.
“Contrary to popular belief, the tip of human fingers is not squared, but in fact circle-shaped when depressed against a hard surface like a touchscreen. When you’re space-constrained as you are in something like the applications menu – where there’s a fine balance between how many icons can be displayed at one time and how easy it is to hit the icons, large circular hitareas makes it easier for users to touch the desired icons and avoid accidentally hitting nearby icons.”
Long makes an excellent point. On older mobile devices with touch, my fingertip has often been stymied in a list or grid view of choices. At times like that, I remember whipping out a stylus for a finer level of choice. For me, that’s an epic fail because I expect a solid touch experience on a small device to use a fingertip, not a stylus. The exception would be for extremely precise activities such as true handwriting and character input.
Now I’m starting to wonder what other intelligent approaches are in Microsoft’s newest version of Windows Mobile. What else did I miss? Is there anything else under the covers? By the way, if you’re not reading Long’s blog, I highly recommend it for all things Microsoft and more.

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