Tom Warren just dropped a hint that tattoos/background designs are coming to Windows Phone 8.1!

Squachy

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Im starting to think that you cant really put a background image to replace the black/white.....unless its gradients or something that is NOT an actual image. Because you cannot see a damn thing on the start screen since the tiles pretty much cover everything. If they work similar to how the photo hub deals with image backgrounds then we may have something.

In terms of the whole reskin tiles, it could look pretty cool, howeverI think only certain types of image styles works with it. It doesn't appear that full on pictures work well at all. The twitter pic looks not too bad but theres hardly anything there (since its a sky with a few clouds sprinkled around). The other leak or chop where it showed that default soccer pic looks absolutely terrible though.

MS better provide both because the skinnery style does not work well with certain types of pics.
 

Moiz Mian

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Im starting to think that you cant really put a background image to replace the black/white.....unless its gradients or something that is NOT an actual image. Because you cannot see a damn thing on the start screen since the tiles pretty much cover everything. If they work similar to how the photo hub deals with image backgrounds then we may have something.

In terms of the whole reskin tiles, it could look pretty cool, howeverI think only certain types of image styles works with it. It doesn't appear that full on pictures work well at all. The twitter pic looks not too bad but theres hardly anything there (since its a sky with a few clouds sprinkled around). The other leak or chop where it showed that default soccer pic looks absolutely terrible though.

MS better provide both because the skinnery style does not work well with certain types of pics.

Look at the picture right above your comment! It looks perfect in the background.
 

Squachy

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Look at the picture right above your comment! It looks perfect in the background.

Yeah and that's because its very minimalistic. Its almost just just a color change from black to blue aside from those 'tattoos' at the top. And that's what I was getting at. IF the background could be changed just by colors or gradients it'd be fine, but photos wouldn't work because the tiles dominate the screen and you would barely see anything between the cracks in the tiles.

-Solid tiles and photo background? Will not work. Couldn't see anything behind the tiles. Could work on app list, but start screen would be a complete waste.
-Solid tiles and colored background (colors, gradients)? Will work. Perhaps even customizable tile colors too.
-Transparent tiles with borders and photo background? I think this could work...
-Photo skinned tiles with solid background? Doesn't look like it'll work that well (seems to be highly dependant on the photo used to skin the tiles)

I believe the middle two options would be the best way to customize WP. Heck they should just give us all available options, that'll solve everything :)
 

meddyrainzo

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For some reason I cant post links but (for those interested) there's a picture on WMPoweruser (take it with a grain of salt cause that site is not trustworthy) of the WP8.1 start screen
 

poiman

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For some reason I cant post links but (for those interested) there's a picture on WMPoweruser (take it with a grain of salt cause that site is not trustworthy) of the WP8.1 start screen

ImageUploadedByWPCentral Forums1393689947.565806.jpg

These. But these are not what we have been asking for. They don't look bad as they are but the problem is when live tiles flip. Tiles like the photos app will show random pictures that will look like mess in the middle of the tattooed tiles. Also, live tiles will loose their "identity". Some developers actually take time creating live tiles that are useful and integrate well the app experience... For what? To have some skin messing up their tiles?

Just give us the backgrounds, how can that be so hard?
 

linking1990

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Im starting to think that you cant really put a background image to replace the black/white.....unless its gradients or something that is NOT an actual image. Because you cannot see a damn thing on the start screen since the tiles pretty much cover everything.

What if they added the ability to categorize your start tiles into groups (similar to Windows 8 and my mockup below)? Combined with Semanticzoom, this is what WP needs the most, an experience deduced from Windows 8 and is also functional.

My mockups:

PLEASE enlarge any of those photos before giving your opinion on them (by pressing on any).

Start mockup.jpg Start mockup 2.jpg

Start mockup 3.jpg
 

poiman

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What if they added the ability to categorize your start tiles into groups (similar to Windows 8 and my mockup below)? Combined with Semanticzoom, this is what WP needs the most, an experience deduced from Windows 8 and is also functional.

My mockups:

PLEASE enlarge any of those photos before giving your opinion on them (by pressing on any).

View attachment 58421 View attachment 58422

View attachment 58423

I just don't like the buttons inside the live tiles. The rest is perfect!
 

Squachy

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What if they added the ability to categorize your start tiles into groups (similar to Windows 8 and my mockup below)? Combined with Semanticzoom, this is what WP needs the most, an experience deduced from Windows 8 and is also functional.

My mockups:

PLEASE enlarge any of those photos before giving your opinion on them (by pressing on any).

View attachment 58421 View attachment 58422

View attachment 58423

IF they did that the backgrounds make more sense because of the amount of 'gap space' available. Plus the experience would be far more consistent with Win8 than it is now (since WP is just a unending scroll of tiles with no categories, while W8 has 'column' gaps that separate by category). With that said, those mockups SHOULD be what WP8 strives to be because its so damn similar than Win8 and is perfect for their whole convergence ideology. However, I also do not like the in-tile buttons, they look out of place.....
 

meddyrainzo

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View attachment 58414

These. But these are not what we have been asking for. They don't look bad as they are but the problem is when live tiles flip. Tiles like the photos app will show random pictures that will look like mess in the middle of the tattooed tiles. Also, live tiles will loose their "identity". Some developers actually take time creating live tiles that are useful and integrate well the app experience... For what? To have some skin messing up their tiles?

Just give us the backgrounds, how can that be so hard?

I understand what you mean @live tiles but if you look closely at the last 3 tiles in those pictures, you can see that the second picture has the tile flipped but still it matches with the background picture chosen. I don't know why they went with this direction but maybe, just maybe, it will work. Let's wait till we see it in action before we make the final verdict
 

poiman

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I understand what you mean @live tiles but if you look closely at the last 3 tiles in those pictures, you can see that the second picture has the tile flipped but still it matches with the background picture chosen. I don't know why they went with this direction but maybe, just maybe, it will work. Let's wait till we see it in action before we make the final verdict

Works for tiles that flip to text, but what about tiles that flip to other images? Like games for example.
 

meddyrainzo

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Works for tiles that flip to text, but what about tiles that flip to other images? Like games for example.

Well, this is gonna be a tough one. Seems like they have gone far into this to go back on it. Don't know hold your breath on a background behind the tiles though but I would be happy if that happens as well. More options = more joy
 

CSJr1

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There are many apps in the store (Wiztiles, Groupy) that already give the option to add category text to a group of files. So if Microsoft does enable an image ( nice if it were a moving gif or moving Bing image) behind the tiles, more of the image would be seen if you used one of these apps to categories your tiles.
 

meddyrainzo

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There are many apps in the store (Wiztiles, Groupy) that already give the option to add category text to a group of files. So if Microsoft does enable an image ( nice if it were a moving gif or moving Bing image) behind the tiles, more of the image would be seen if you used one of these apps to categories your tiles.

Lol, I like your signature
 

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