Database Users

Xperia Panels - Whats the use if you cant run them concurrently

Hi all Xperia owners,
As a owner of this hyped phone, it has comed to my greatest astonishment that the Panels cannot be "used" concurrently.
For example:
If I wished to activate the multimedia panel to listen to some MP3 while at the same time do FaceBook panel , there is no way this can happen.
Or, whats the point of just staring at the FM Radio panel when I could be viewing some photos in the photo album while having my favourite FM Station running in the background?
To further add salt to wound, Sony did not bother to put these programs to be executable from the native Windows/Program folder.
Am I missing a point here from Sony as in this multitasking windows environment, they have decided to make their Panel technology run serially? Or maybe i did miss out some important settings ?

I agree with your statement above, panels are not multitask-friendly. My guess is that it was an attempt from SE to make their winmo distro more stable, preventing these processes from overlapping each other and taking up memory. I've noticed that the video playback performance is better on the Sony media experience panel than coreplayer (go ahead flame me) although not as flexible. Something similar happens with the popular iPhone, if you've ever messed around with one you'll notice it's basically unitasking, one app at a time, the only apps you can multitask with are the ipod and phone, but rarely crashes.

Actually, I was thinking about this. I, like many people, thought that the panels would just sit there, with nine different apps running side by side. Obviously this isn't the case. Could it be that this is just the first stage in the panel interface, a kinda test run? What about the next Xperia? X2 or X5 or whatever it's gonna be. Maybe it'll deliver what most people expected from the panels...

I think you guys are missing the point of panels.
If that's the case, you don't need panels, you just need applications running concurrently.

zenkinz said:
I think you guys are missing the point of panels.
If that's the case, you don't need panels, you just need applications running concurrently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally have found the SE media panel to be the most useful of all. For everything else that I don't demand high system priorities for, just run them as regular apps concurrently.
zenkinz, in your opinion, what's the point of panels? Please read my post above about what I think they are for (stability and performance).

if they were there would be much much less ram and cpu juice left
the arm cpu's are not as powerfull as computer cpu's
so believe me if they were you would suffer

wrong thread... edited out.

Which in actuality proves my point that the Panels are nothing more than fancy graphics or multiple "todays" screen.
Any WinMo/Symbian device today without Panels can definitely do Media browsing and FM Radio/Music and MORE without the slightest sign of sluggishness while Xperia with its powerful processor and available RAM lacks multitasking due to its much talked about "Panels"?
Strip its Panels and a slightly longer (but not wider) display , Xperia does not even come close to the Touch Pro with TF3D, G-Sensor, better sound and built quality

cmloo said:
Which in actuality proves my point that the Panels are nothing more than fancy graphics or multiple "todays" screen.
Any WinMo/Symbian device today without Panels can definitely do Media browsing and FM Radio/Music and MORE without the slightest sign of sluggishness while Xperia with its powerful processor and available RAM lacks multitasking due to its much talked about "Panels"?
Strip its Panels and a slightly longer (but not wider) display , Xperia does not even come close to the Touch Pro with TF3D, G-Sensor, better sound and built quality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Xperia was designed by HTC based on SE's standards. What I did with mine was flash it with one of the cooked roms in the roms section which gave me the TF3D and it's pretty fast. I also added the panels, but for the sole reason of the SE media experience panel which I like for playing smoother video. In the end, it's all software, and it doesn't lack multitasking, only among panels. The rest is all good old winmo.

yeah, panels are a disapointment, the should let do some multitasking or at least run panels as an application (facebook one for example).
anyways, I think we currently have a "beta" rom in our xperias, since it's from august/08... maybe next mont we get a big update... let's hope...
this, or just a cooked rom without problems

The thing about Panels is that they allow you to change the look and feel of your device. On one hand i have a simple Today screen, on another i have the detailed today screen... then i have an SPB screen... and now we have Touch HD's TF3D as a panel too! Soon... we'll have more panels, like a home screen that allows you to navigate with ease (navigation panel). The main point is that regardless of the panel of your choice, you have access to all the windows mobile software along-side it.
I think panels are a really powerful feature of the phone! And as far as multi-tasking is concerned... you can run media player or the more famous core player and write messages, etc. and work with your selected panel of choice without much lag. And this to me is very powerful. not taking into consideration the likes of iPhone, but going straight to Symbian... Symbian too is powerful, but i consider windows mobile to be further ahead. What you can do with symbian, you could do with a simple windows mobile phone without panels or TF3D or gadgets and so on...
In my opinion; Xperia delivers what it set out to do... a powerful experience. Sure there are lags at certain times... but overall it is the perfect windows mobile device!
Sure two panels don't run simultaneously... and it would be awesome if in a future update we do get something like that... but overall it works great!

rpereira said:
I personally have found the SE media panel to be the most useful of all. For everything else that I don't demand high system priorities for, just run them as regular apps concurrently.
zenkinz, in your opinion, what's the point of panels? Please read my post above about what I think they are for (stability and performance).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the point of panel is to offer different "theme" of Today screen based on your primary usage of your phone at that particular point in time.
It's always good to have quick access to your next appointment, or tasks, but really you probably only do that when you are in meeting, or while you are working. When you are at outside office hours, you probably be spending time listening to music, watching video, or just simply idling. You may get a new email notification, or have to reply an incoming sms, but after taking action for these sporadic events you will be back to the 'Today' screen that offers you the theme you are in..
That's why I came out with the idea of Car navigation panel, where I need not worry about fumbling with new email notification, or having to switch to media player to change albums, as I can always go back to 'Today' screen easily.
In anycase, that's just my view (or maybe how I like to think that way), because if it's meant to be a concurrent active desktops, you might be better off with just running the programs and using taskmanager to switch from process to process.

I'm very happy with the panels too
maybe the real questions is one of expectations
if people belived they were getting 9 pda's they could switch
between it would likely be an disappointment
but it's not likely to be the last with these pda phones

cmloo said:
Which in actuality proves my point that the Panels are nothing more than fancy graphics or multiple "todays" screen.
Any WinMo/Symbian device today without Panels can definitely do Media browsing and FM Radio/Music and MORE without the slightest sign of sluggishness while Xperia with its powerful processor and available RAM lacks multitasking due to its much talked about "Panels"?
Strip its Panels and a slightly longer (but not wider) display , Xperia does not even come close to the Touch Pro with TF3D, G-Sensor, better sound and built quality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
to each his/her own.
I find Touch Pro no better than my Xperia. TF3D is just a flashy interface that offers limited function. The tabs acts like a panel, but there's so limited you can do within the tab (e.g. music player, stock quote or photo browser, they are just plug-in rather than full blown application)
TP is also nowhere near (imho) to Xperia in terms of performance (Xperia is so much responsive and fast), design (curvy body versus brick design) and keyboard ergonomic (many would disagree, I go for overall experience over total number of keys)
Just my own opinion only

Rudegar said:
I'm very happy with the panels too
maybe the real questions is one of expectations
if people belived they were getting 9 pda's they could switch
between it would likely be an disappointment
but it's not likely to be the last with these pda phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agree, and also, it's one thing about providing 9 active panels with 1 glance (as some folks are frowing over lack of the capability), it's another being able to consume all the information offered by all the 9 panels at one go, not to mention the miniature fonts you have to handle ..

Makes sense. If i were depending on my navigator to show me the way while driving, it would really suck to get random notifications from other programs, so I think your panel idea will be quite useful.

I'm also sideing with the "Panels are good" guys.
I love the versatility that they give me, and am just patiently waiting to see what comes out of the Panel Development Competion, S.E. are supposed to be running.
I have had as many as 5 different UI's set up on different panels, as much to test them out, as to give me different screen "looks" when i felt like a change.
My latest way is to use different panels as "software themes". Like, I can set up a multimedia panel with all my video, and audio players shortcutted into it. A navigation panel, with all my sat nav style apps set up .
etc. etc.
It can only get better, in my opinion.
I do think 50% of people are missing the potential of Panels, tho.

i dont mind the panels too much. however what i am unhappy about is that sony ericsson advertised the panels as being active. therefore theoretically you could press the xpanel button and the 9 panels shown would update in realtime. currently the panels are little more than shortcuts to some fancy apps or homescreens

msalmank said:
The thing about Panels is that they allow you to change the look and feel of your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more and I am satisfied w/ the panel too.
One important fact many people forget about is WM as of right now has a max limit of 32 processes (including background that run your phone). Some tricks can be done to workaround this issue but there's still a limit and the OS will close some of the non active processes if you reach that. It doesn't matter how fast your CPU or how many ram you got.

I'm coming to believe that the applications runing on Panels are just on top of another layer instead of running straight on top of the OS.
iPhone and BB have no problem filling the "desktop" with icons that are no more that a call to the program. Functionally they are more efficient to reach any where that even Touchflo 3D
What's the purpose to have a whole panel to run a program. That's stupid. for exmaple FM radio or FaceBook.
The Panels are not more that an ill conceived idea, with some BS marketing ideology behind them. All they did was destroy one one best smartphones ever built.

iFonz 1 Vs iFonz 2

Choose you favourite version!

iFonz 2 is King!
Yes, I do not understand people, who like better iFonz 1. Yes, it was very good, but iFonz 2 demonstrated improvement, is faster and more sensitive and also intuitive.
Thank You.

I love the bottom bar and button press animation in iFonz 1, but I like the speed, settings, and ability to have the task bar in iFonz 2. For me, if those features could colliade into one release it would be perfect. Just my opinion. Thanks for all of your work!!

12gage said:
button press animation in iFonz 1, but I like the speed, settings, [...] in iFonz 2. For me, if those features could colliade into one release it would be perfect
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me. Also, i did like ifonz1 continuos pages (as i have already told you). And mostly, the ifonz1 smoothness: speed was low, it's true, but with ifonz1 i never (never) launched an app for mistake, while with ifonz2 i launch a bunch of apps sipmly swiping to change pages.
Also, i'm not sure, but seems the new iFonz is more memory hungry than the 1st: i never happened to see #1 closed by autokill (the f***king thing shuts down apps also when disabled), while ifonz2 is regularly shot down when other apps are running (and i'm on HD, with 64mb free program memory)

but
Mostly both. At once. The thing is that the real Iphone menu works and look great for a phone but not for a smartphone. The iphone emulating menus make my phone look good but feel stupid. Kinda like a dumb blonde.
Sorry man but none of them felt like the real thing and if the Iphone feel is the goal here, none is quite "there". The iphone sells because of its looks, not the functionallity. I wish that you kept the idea and changed the icons and designto something of your own. To continue comparing this to the real thing will make you loose. Take away the iphone look and add your own. Put the "functionallity" above the "look" if you get my point. I got/had an idea for a layout the first time I saw your app. I'm an educated designer and would share my idea with you if you want. use the PM for that

I like Ifonz2 better
Ifonz2 is a beautiful piece of software, and the speed is so much better than in ifonz1

Hey this Ifonz2 has come along great... Im sure a few config options will come along, but its excellent now... The thing that is best about this kind of a program, is that you're getting the best of both worlds, the iPhone look and feel, but still get to be on Windows Mobile... and better than the iPhone still between the clock, shortcuts, and notifiers (including the windows titlebar ones) on one screen and still other screens of icons for additional apps... You can't beat it... I like the power of a smartphone and the business OS behind it, but I love the eye candy too...

ifonz 1 for me
Hi, iFonz 1.1.2 is my favorite for me because
1) it's more polished (since iFonz2 is still very much an early in-progress project)
2) It's a simple interface that just works, and that's what I was searching for
3) unlike iFonz 2, it supports square screens without me having to configure anything
I tried iFonz 2 a few times but unfortunately I could never get it to fill in the whole screen of my Samsung Epix (whether I was running RealVGA at 96 or 128dpi).
There are a few bugs (the minimize animation seems to kick in and loop once in a while) in iFonz 1, but until iFonz2 works well with my phone or an alternative interface that runs well on my phone arrives, I'll be sticking with iFonz 1.1.2.
Thanks!

[Ideas] Windows Application Skinings [Long - Rant Material]

Hey guys,
I've hadmy HD a while and think it is by far one of the better phones I've used. Though like many reviewers and people have said the interface could do with a face-lift of sorts.
It just occured to be that maybe this would give the HD more appeal and with XDA being the largest resource of designers and coders for Windows I don't see why it can't be done.
Basically here are a few of my ideas, not all of them are applicable and I'm not a programmer as such and nor do I know the major workings of Windows mobile and I know there are alternative applications for these things but some of us just want a new skin not a new program.
Ok let the ideas flow:
SMS/MMS: This one I truly find depressing. I don't feel there is a need for a seperate program but if someone could just skin the display it would make sending messages that extra bit more 'entertaining'. I know people here dislike the iPhone I don't blame them but just have bubbles around threaded messages could really make a difference and improve communication. If I recall a lot of these edits can be doen through XML files. I've seen a cab which increases the size of the message box so it looks like atleast some change is possible. So adding more colour and imgry I think would be of benifit here.
Calendar/Tasks: Both I feel could do with a major new modelling but I use Calendar Touch so I've found my alternative. Though I think just making the display match Outlook on the PC a bit more of just making the buttons and fields bigger if possible would make the applucation more usable.
WMPlayer: I've tried MortPlayer and Pocket Player, the former crashed my HD as it wouldn't unistall so I had to hard-reset and the latter I left was good but just needed to appear more complete (some menus didn't match the styling of the player skin - also very confusing to use at times). Enter good old WMP, I enjoy using the skins already available, but the menus are still small and the fact I have to click the song then 'Play' I think is backwards, where on earth is double click! Is it possible to skin the menu to be bigger and look more user friendly?
These are obviously my thoughts and opinions but what I'm look/hoping for is for someone to code something that modifies these problems. Ofcourse this is open to discussion and people please do discuss.

haha, I had the exact same idea. I thought of some htc style cover for the wm interface and new apps for sms, notes, calendar etc.
going to move my thread to this section, will probably get more attention.

WONDERFUL!
It's good to see people with on a similair though pattern.

Any views, opinions or ideas?

[Idea]-to have glass borders,scrollers etc.

My idea :
To actually have all the menus, scrollbar, default program backgrounds,the dropdown menu(the 1 on whcih we click when in File-explorer to jump from My Device to Storage Card),the Contacts Background,the Messaging Background..etc.
All of them transparent like Glass..This is just a Personal thought as in to change the feel n look of the OS.
WM6.5 all ready has titanium with the kind of glass panels m talking about.
Due to which it enhances the Wallpaper used i mean u can use almost any wallpaper.
And about the Visibility issue which will occur in almost everyone's mind after reading this post i think we can make it translucent the same way it becomes when we click on start menu..the icons r very much visible even with a complete white background.
So i think the backgrounds in the programs like file-explorer,windows media player-library,my pictures,SMS,Contacts etc. can be made the same.
I Wish some expert graphic designers and Programmers make my imagination come true and give all us Windows users a completely new interface.
I think for this .pngs & .jpgs of the system will have to be altered or replaced with the new ones and program them accordingly.
I am not at all good at programming and neither Graphics and i dont even know whether my idea can actually be implemented or no?

so many views n no single reply..

I am no coder, but Windows Mobile does not support transparencies like that. Only specific applications that are contained in themselves (aka titanium renders over itself so it has transparency. Mobile shell renders over itself so it has it too, etc.) But i could be wrong.

i don know either even m not sure about my concept..but i think .pngs can be useful...lets c..i have just put forward an idea..

Ive always wanted that feature too, part of the reason why I like Titanium so much, but as Shadowline pointed out, I think it's a limitation of the OS itself, even WM 6.5.
Then again, hope someone can prove us wrong.

yaah hoping for the same!!

Let's flood microsoft with this so they put it in wm7.

Review: Infinity UI with my HTC Touch Pro2 (WM6.5)

Acknowledgement: Infinity is in a very early development stage,it's not yet a finished application,this review doesnt reflect the final completed software,the purpose of this review is to let devolopers and would-be users to contribute ideas in order to make final completed software more perfect.
please see full review with pictures in the following link:
http://forum.ageye.de/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1461&p=7600#p7600
The Infinity v0.2.1 is apparently not compatible with WM6.5 very well, I even cannot set background picture for the desktop,so there must be some buttons missing.
Generally it looks very promising,compared to Touchflo 3D,it’s much more customizable,you can put any shortcuts and widgets in anywhere of the desktop,this is the feature millions are looking for;Compare to SPB Mobile Shell, the Infinity looks very similar but more agile and you can set everything neat and usable immediately.
Like SPB Mobile Shell,the Ageye Infinity let you do two most important things:
One,you put all your most important shortcuts and widgets on the desktop,NOTE any location of the desktop. While for Touchflo 3D,you basically cannot do much about the desktop, this sucks badly and I am suffercating every time I see Touchflo 3D.
Two,you put less important or less frequently used shortcuts in Favorite Folder (in SPB Mobile Shell,it’s called Launcher,in Infinity,it’s the middle button I saw when I tested it in my HTC Pro2 with WM6.5 rom).
As I didn’t see the Infinity Manual,it took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to use it, I should say it’s more or less close to SPB Mobile Shell when it comes to customization of desktop and Favorite Folder.
The difference is,for example,you want to place Contacts in the desktop,first you need to add “Shortcut” in the desktop,this Shortcut is an empty icon,then you click on this Shortcut icon to find the path of the Contacts.
If you are interested to try out Infinity v0.2.1,please download(probably need registration):
http://forum.ageye.de/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1369
Install to your main memory,then in programs you can find a Infinity program icon,click to run.
Suggestions to developers:
1. how to set the background for desktop,the default background is not-so-good-looking,there is no button that can set this,please update based on WM6.5.
2. where is the general configuration? How to set Infinity to replace Today? How to change language? How to set the number of pages of desktop?
3. how to change the size of icons in the desktop? In SPB Mobile Shell,it got this feature,you can make the icon small,big,professional,transparent etc etc.
4. about the right and left soft key configuration,it seems that the option is very limited,can we assign any programs and widgets for the right and left soft key?
5. For Infinity own widgets, I suggest you to add Task Manager, this is most often used tool,In addition,if we can put this Task Manager in the right soft key,that will be very convenient! I saw SPB Mobile Shell has a great Task Manager widget,users can use Shell extension tool to put it beside the Launcher.
Looking forward to your great update soon!

INFINITY is an alpha release

karandras24 said:
INFINITY is an alpha release
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! And it's already pretty amazing.

This UI seems to be alot like PointUI.. I dont know a lot about coding but it seems like a very early version of the same UI
I dont doubt that it is entirely different that's just my two cents from screen shots of Infinity.
Pointui you can use tons and tons of different themes and wigets etc as well.
ie:Pointui Sense, Nexus One, Mac OS... the list really is endless.
Just some food for thought. If you like Infinity you should definaly give pointui a try. That said...... if you're the developer and just trying to spread the word about Infinity.. My bad! I looks promising!

Aaron McCarthy said:
This UI seems to be alot like PointUI.. I dont know a lot about coding but it seems like a very early version of the same UI
I dont doubt that it is entirely different that's just my two cents from screen shots of Infinity.
Pointui you can use tons and tons of different themes and wigets etc as well.
ie:Pointui Sense, Nexus One, Mac OS... the list really is endless.
Just some food for thought. If you like Infinity you should definaly give pointui a try. That said...... if you're the developer and just trying to spread the word about Infinity.. My bad! I looks promising!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not really like PointUI - it doesn't crash as often
No, I've tried (bought) PointUI and other than the PointSense theme (which has been abandoned by its developer) there's nothing much about PointUI to get excited about Add to that the fact that PointUI hasn't seen an update from its developers in a very long time...
I think that Infinity shows more promise than both SPB Mobile Shell and PointUI combined. People are forgetting that what they've seen so far is only an ALPHA version!

About the task manager, try to press on the top bar...