Photo of reported in-the-wild device illustrates the challenge of making a device running Windows Phone 7 look good A newly revealed picture of what appears to be a Windows Phone 7 production prototype from Asus, reportedly snapped in Pakistan and spread via Twitter, is offering techies the same sense of excitement as photos of celebrities wandering the streets or beach sans makeup (or clothing) titillates pop culture enthusiasts. In both cases, observers have a chance to ogle goods that haven’t benefitted from touching up, airbrushing, and other enhancements for masking unsightly blemishes. (The original tweet has since been taken down, but a cached version of the message is available.)The image of the Asus isn’t high-resolution, but it provides a decent idea of what a forthcoming Windows Phone 7 device might look like. Unfortunately for the hardware makers, the monotonous blue-box-riddled UI of Microsoft’s new-and-not-so-improved mobile platform is clearly an aesthetic drag on even the slickest-looking device.The hardware has bits and bobs that will be standard on forthcoming phones. At the bottom left is the Back button, which is self-explanatory. The middle button with the Windows emblem is Menu/Home, also self-explanatory. The magnifying glass button at the bottom right, as you might expect, is for search, but it might not function as you would expect. The rumors vary. It will certainly perform Internet search via Bing. Will it be capable of searching the contents of your phone for a specific file? Not clear, though one would hope so. According to some dev forums, it may perform search for Microsoft apps — but not for third-party apps. Who uses non-Microsoft apps anyway, right?That reminds me: One of the little blue boxes on the UI appears to say “Google Mail,” not “Outlook” as has appeared in Microsoft-provided screens I’ve seen.At the top right of the phone, meanwhile, are two doodads with unspecified functions. A camera lens would be a safe bet, along with, perhaps, a microphone. Or maybe a light sensor, as suggested by Pocketnow.com? It’s probably not a laser. This particular model does not appear to have any kind of physical keyboard, a la the iPhone. That’s not a ding at all: Vendors will roll out devices with and without to appeal to users’ preferred method of input.At the top in the center is, of course, a number. That wouldn’t appear on a production model you’d pick up at the store. Rather, it’s a tracking number, which could be used for, say, tracking down the user of the phone in the off chance that pictures of it ended up all over the Internet.If this indeed a real production prototype from Asus, the company has evidently put in an effort to make its phone look slim, sleek, and shiny, what with the brushed-metal base and all. But while the hardware itself says 2010, the UI makes it look, well, dated. This story, “Windows Phone 7 UI drags down Asus prototype’s slickness,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on important tech news with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. Technology Industry