By Adam Z. Lein

Microsoft unveiled the new Windows Phone 8 Start screen the other day and there are quite a few new features and extended customizability that users have been clamouring for.  You can now make tiles different sizes to show more or less data or just take up more or less room on the Start screen.

You’ll notice the little arrow that points you towards the app listing is gone now as is the bit of negative space along the right side.  Personally I miss the negative space as it really made the UI aesthetically pleasing and conformed to the beautiful divine proportions.  It turns out Microsoft caved into the pressure from all of the people that don’t understand design innovation and were confused by what they thought was wasted space.  So the new Start screen will become boring and symmetrical like you wanted it, but it will make more use of the full screen’s real estate.

So how do you get to the apps listing now?  There doesn’t appear to be any visual cue as to how to find more apps, right?   Swiping the whole screen to the left will still give you the app listing like it currently does, but we hear that the familiar arrow will also appear at the top of the Start screen’s listing if you swipe down.  In other words instead of just ending, it will reveal something more at the top that will give you access to the apps listing.  Could other controls also appear at the top when you reach the end?  Could this change be axed in the final version so that there is no arrow at all?  We don’t know yet.