Update: the release notes have been added at the end of the post
Update 2: updated links and added reduced price

Vito Winterface is a very nice Today screen replacement. It is perhaps not so popular as Spb Mobile Shell yet, but that might change. Today, Vito Technology has released a small update as version 1.2 (or 1.20 since last official version was 1.15). There are not so much new things at first sight, but there's at least one significant improvement over previous versions: it runs fine on the Treo Pro! 

Until now, I've had problems running Winterface 1.12 and 1.15 on the Palm Treo Pro (320x320 with Real VGA @ 96dpi) because for some unknown reason the battery was drained really fast. Power consumption increased by a whopping 50mA without the cpu being overly stressed (just a 5% spike every few seconds). I can happily say that this has changed with this new v1.2, gone are the power increase and battery drainage.

Before I give an overview of what has changed compared to older versions, I'll give a really quick introduction to Winterface.

The main interface of Vito's Winterface consists of one or more black panels (or pages), each with a grid of buttons on them. To switch to a different page, you swipe with your finger from left to right or vice versa. At the bottom you can see the number of pages and the active page indicated with small dots.

By tap-and-holding on a button, you activate the rearrange mode. In this mode you can move buttons to a different location or to a different page. To actually move a button around, you need to top and hold it and start dragging it to a new location. To put it on a different page, you drag it to the sides of the screen and the next page will come up. To stop rearrange mode, you just push on any dpad button.

The beauty of Winterface is that you can totally customize your screen to your liking. You could create a page of programs, one for contacts, another one for device settings and a final one for files. On the other hand, you could mix these up and create a first page with most uses programs, contacts and files, then use the subsequent pages for lesser used stuff. It's all up to you.

So what buttons are available to put on the pages? There are buttons for every installed program, every contact record, every device setting (personal, system and connections), and there are a bunch of built-in Winterface system buttons to display running applications, clock, battery, phone profile, etc. New in version 1.2 is the addition of Favorites to the list of buttons, meaning you can put your favorite websites like TreoProTricks.com on a button.

What else has changed? The Menu button (top left) has been divided into "Add items" and Options. Not that there are a lot of options to configure (Lock Screen and Language) but it is much clearer this way. 

There is a new Today plugin, it only shows a big Winterface button but still this is a major improvement. Normally you start Winterface by drawing a ^ gesture, however few people find this intuitive. In older versions, I added the Winterface application as a soft menu button, but this had the drawback of showing the introduction screen every time you launched it. The new Today button works really well and opens Winterface in a split second (if it is already running of course).

As a bonus, you can download the free Vito Weather applet which integrates automatically, and let's you define several different weather locations. The first location is also shown automatically on the weather button in Winterface.

Conclusion: Winterface is a great launcher application that has several advantages over its main competitor Spb Mobile Shell: it not only launches programs, contacts and system settings, but also links to favorites and any file on your device. It is very user friendly and it's operated completely without stylus. Although you can't define different themes yet (there's currently only a Touch Black interface), you can customize the whole application with just drag and drop operation. You do not need to replace files and edit xml to change the appearance. And best of all, it is also much snappier than most of its competitors. It works like a charm!

Download trial & update version: Vito Winterface 1.2 (CAB file)

Normal price: $19.95 $16.95 via VitoTechnology website

More information, screenshots and manual available on the iWindowsMobile website.

Update:

Here's a more detailed list of changes in Winterface 1.2, found on MobileTechAddicts.

New features in Winterface 1.2:

• Today plug-in
• Auto start after soft reset
• Option to add favorite web sites
• Portrait\landscape mode icon switch
• Screens rotation with joystick
• “Close All” button in “Running”
• Clock icon shows indicator when the alarm is on
• SMS-Chat icon shows number of new text messages
• Bluetooth status icon toggles Bluetooth on/off with one press
• Battery icon shows when there is low charge
• Alphabetic ruler for quick scrolling when adding a file

Fixed bugs in Winterface 1.2:

• Bug with notification not visible under the lock screen
• Bug with power icon on HTC Touch HD, Palm Treo Pro, Samsung i900
• Winterface lock screen no longer interferes with the default lock screen
• Day of the week is displayed below the date on Calendar icon
• The indicator of upcoming events doesn’t close the date