Engadget has posted some thoughts about OE 2.0 after trying it out hands on at Microsoft’s CES booth. While there weren’t very many specific reasons given it doesn’t sound like they were too impressed saying “it certainly wasn’t an experience“, and “probably the least fun we’ve had with OE in a long time”. They were testing it on an HTC shift and said that everything seemed to work like it should, but they didn’t sound very excited about any of its features.

While they surely have their own opinion, looking at the screenshots it actually looks pretty nice. The picture password image is an underwater view of many fish, specifically the sides of many fish which would allow plenty of room for finger tapping. Playing back the right touch of each fish will enter the password and unlock the device. Also it seems like they have integrated a podcast catcher within OE in addition to the RSS feeder. The touch optimized web browser looks decent as well, hopefully it will include inertia scrolling by default and have large menus and not just large buttons. Click through to check out all of the screenshots.

[Engadget]