For a few years now, we have been reporting on Microsoft's concept of Mix View Live Tiles that "explode" when touched to reveal even more information. The concept was actually put into development for the McLaren flagship Windows Phone that was to carry Windows Phone into the next era before it was cancelled in July of 2014.
Now, a new video posted by Nokibar supposedly shows those Mix View Live Tiles in action including the 3D hover touch that was supposed to be part of McLaren's cutting edge (and problematic) technology.
Like all unverified videos this one could be fake, but the phone used in the video is an actual McLaren prototype lending credence to its authenticity.
In the video, we can see the user navigating over certain live tiles like the Phone app and Internet Explorer. The screen then goes black and the Mix View is revealed. Some select developers even had early-access to the Mix View SDK so that they could trial building apps. The smaller tiles would have been another template where devs could display information from the app increasing the usability of those Live Tiles.
At Build 2016 Microsoft noted they are still working on "interactive Live Tiles", but they note it is a challenging task due to discoverability issues, potential scrolling concerns, and general usability. While having concepts for UIs are always fun, it is not until you see people using them do you know if they are good or not. Microsoft says they want to "get it right" before making it a part of the OS, so presumably more research and testing is needed.
As to McLaren, sources close to us have said the 3D Touch hardware that Nokia chose ultimately proved to be its undoing as it was problematic. By the time, the issues were discovered it was too late to redo the PCB boards and phone while still hitting any particular release deadline. The phone was eventually cancelled and it is not clear either those developers did a lot with it during internal testing.
Hope springs eternal though that someday, something like what is in the video will become a reality. Microsoft did recently file a patent application on the Mix View technology.
Source: Hykos Wong (Nokiabar); via WindowsBlogItalia
