Database Users

Four button support?

I'm wondering if there's an ap or kernel or something available that will turn the [RED] and [GREEN] buttons of my Wallaby into real buttons like a standard four button HPC. I want this for mobile gaming. I have a friend who has an iPaq and her device has practically identical hardware specs to mine, I've been finding all the best games for us but she's the only one who gets to enjoy many of them just because she has more "real" buttons than I do or whatever. I can run Tomb Raider but I can't bring up the menu. I can run Ultima Underworld but I can't jump, et cetera. I searched the forums and found an ap called AEBplus for the himalaya and magician that seems to be what I'm looking for but it's not compatible with the wallaby. The Morphgear emulator is able to map all the buttons but the standby, so I guess it seems feasable. The top two buttons are already proving to be kind of far apart for serious gaming so I'm considering modifying them and the ovular pad since I discovered "virtual" controls don't work very well since the device only registers being touched in one place at a time. Is this the case with all HPCs or only some? This is my first. Now I'm just rambling so I'll stop. Mad love to the Sysops, I love that no matter what I dabble in there's a group out there dedicated to it! The WM builds, the kitchen, the boards - All top notch! You make my blog weekly or more!

Considering the K-Jam... suggestions ?

I currently have a Jasjar, but I'm finding it too big...
I love all the features, but I want to be able to use it one-handed, throw it in my pocket, etc... the K-Jam seems like a good alternative.
The only things that I'm not liking about the K-Jam are:
- Lower rez screen (but it's smaller than the Jasjar, 3.6" vs. 2.8"... so its still pretty sharp... and I can't really see where I couldn't live without it)
- 2.5" headset jack, and on the bottom... (kinda annoying... but could use an adapter... but still a hassle because I currently plug my MP3 player into my car, my headphones AND speakers at the office, and I'll have to have an adapter sticking out of the bottom of my phone now...)
- Mini-SD card... (SD is much better to go above 2GB, even up to 4GB... and it's not exactly a well known or used format... SD is cheaper, and Memory Stick Pro Duo is coming down in price since the PSP came out... but what can I do)
Also, does it work well for one-handed use ?
Any ex-Treo users who care to comment ?
Any ideas ? Suggestions ?
Thanks !

The wizard is a solid device. Go for it!!
You will love the extra battery life and size. I really could not imagine having a universal clipped to my belt weighing my pants down.
I upgraded from an alpine and I could not be happier.
Higher screen REZ is not needed on a screen that small. The screen is much sharper compared to the alpine.
The OMAP cpu is just enough processing power to run everything out there.
Also, I noiticed you were in Canada so I doubt you were making use of the 3G power of the universal(probably another 5-7 years for Canada). The wizard is EDGE enabled so if you use rogers you will see great data download rates. I was lucky enough to already be signed up with fido and their $50/month unlimited data plan when rogers took over fido so i am paying $50 a month for unlimited EDGE use. I am quite sure FIDO does not offer this plan to new subscibers anymore.
My only compliants with the wizard are:
-HTC needs to make better use of the device by increasing screen size without increasing the size of the device.(all HTC devices)
-The stylus hole is a joke. My stylus hole wore out within 1 week and now my stylus slides out of the hole very easily. Soon it will probably be falling out. Didn't they bother testing this at all???
-no GPS.

hey audible,
thanks for the reply !
I am with fido / rogers as well and I signed up for the unlimited plan as well... are you in Montreal ? and where did you order your K-Jam ?
so yeah I'd be good using the EDGE support... I often use my p800 as a bluetooth modem with my laptop.
a few questions:
- that sounds bad about the stylus... is there a solution ?
- have you experienced any issues multi-tasking with the OMAP ?
- have you ever tried a VGA screen on a pda to compare ?
- how's the k-jams one handed use ? have you ever tried a treo for one handed use in comparison ?
- did you remap the explorer and mail buttons to something more useful ? like windows and OK ?
- does the 2.5" jack bother you ? do you use an adapter ?
- does the keyboard slide mechanism feel solid ? I'm worried now after what you said about the stylus...
thanks and look forward to your reply !
Posted from a Universal !

- that sounds bad about the stylus... is there a solution ?
I haven't had any probs with my stylus yet, except it may be a little looser than when I got it.
- have you experienced any issues multi-tasking with the OMAP ?
Nope, I can have several apps open at once (eg. Calender, Notes, Email, MSN, IE x 2 (using PPCPlus), TCPMP playing MP3) and its fine.
- have you ever tried a VGA screen on a pda to compare ?
It resembles the crispness of VGA screen because of its smaller size, but in no way matches the res.
- how's the k-jams one handed use ? have you ever tried a treo for one handed use in comparison ?
Haven't tried a treo, but WM5 is great for one handed use. I can do most things without the stylus. The Win and Ok keys on the keyboard make it even easier.
- did you remap the explorer and mail buttons to something more useful ? like windows and OK ?
You can, but I find their defaults good.
- does the 2.5" jack bother you ? do you use an adapter ?
I rarely use it, but yes when I do I use an adaptor.
- does the keyboard slide mechanism feel solid ? I'm worried now after what you said about the stylus...
I am happy with the slider. It seems pretty solid, and the screen definately feels like it will stay up when it is up.

Hey mitchello,
thanks for your feedback !
Audible:
Any comments ?

Wizard (imate K-JAM) is awesome!
Moving from a Blue Angel to the wizrd has so far been very pleasing. The smaller screen has been a little daunting, especially trying to use the "finger" stylus, but beyond that I highly recommend it.
Stability and features in WM5 are nice, and should not be discounted.
I'm on T-Mobile in the US, and EDGE is great at around 150kbs, compared to 30kbs via GPRS.

i upgraded from my IMATE PPC and i love the K-JAM , it is a little slow , but the battery is great.. i love the deviced , once you get used to it and all features you will love it..
i used adapter to play MP3 in my car and it work great...
good luck

i upgraded from my IMATE PPC and i love the K-JAM , it is a little slow , but the battery is great.. i love the deviced , once you get used to it and all features you will love it..
i used adapter to play MP3 in my car and it work great...
good luck

Hey rah,
thanks for the comments !
Good to hear someone else who uses it to play tunes in the car.
What about one-handed use ? Do you feel you have to do finger aerobics to do certain things, like open the start menu ?
I've heard of people mapping the Send Call button to the Start menu in the Today screen...
I'm wondering if I could map Send and End to Start and OK in every screen except for the Phone screen ?
Any comments ?

Screen size enough for meeting notes?

Hello,
If I buy a Hemes it should make a lap top obsolete, but I am worried that the screen will not be big enough for taking notes on meetings.
Does anyone here use it for meeting notes and what´s your experience from it.
Of course I will buy a foldable bluetooth keyboard to use it with.
/Danne

I often use my TyTN for taking meeting notes. It's certainly not as fast as typing on a laptop, but it's hard to beat the fact that I always have it with me

The TyTN isn't going to make your laptop obsolete. That's just crazy talk.
It is nice to have around, however.

richy240 said:
The TyTN isn't going to make your laptop obsolete. That's just crazy talk.
It is nice to have around, however.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you motivate your answer please?
I will of course still have my home computer still. But I don´t see any reason for having a lap top IF I can use it to take notes with.
Danne

Typing is cumbersome, but a Bluetooth keyboard might help with that. They're still kinda expensive though. Also, the screen is kinda small so referencing notes taken a moment ago might be difficult.
On the plus side, you wouldn't have to lug around a laptop (as if they're really that bad), plug it in, etc.
It just might work for these purposes.

I'd like to chip in here. I'm addicted to gadgets and the internet; I even took my laptop to the Christmas party.
I'm a trainer and I'm always on the move, going to people's offices. Now that I've got email and internet browsing set up, I'm using the TyTn more and more. It's almost become my primary device.
When I'm in my office all day, then yes the laptop comes out. But most days the TyTn gets used more. The key thing I've noticed is that at home for casual browsing I quite frequently can't be bothered to get the laptop out any more. There's a couple of sites I like to keep up with (mainly here and The Register) and I just check them out on the PDA from time to time.
I can't help you with meeting notes, Danne, as I don't do it. I would point out that you can load software to make your PDA act like a dictaphone though, which might help.
Overall I think the "laptop replacement" question rests on what you use the device for though. For some it's quite possible.

I have completely replaced my laptop with my TyTN. I have a ThinkOutside BT keyboard that I use when I'm on the road or in meetings.

Just record the entire damn meeting

Mouse
Sleuth255 said:
I have completely replaced my laptop with my TyTN. I have a ThinkOutside BT keyboard that I use when I'm on the road or in meetings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds good, do you use a mouse as well? Is it even possible to connect a mouse?
And I guess you never experice that the screen is too small.
/Danne

Thanks
...for your replies so far.
Sorry about the delay to ansvering, we have a different time zone in Sweden you know
Danne

Danne said:
That sounds good, do you use a mouse as well? Is it even possible to connect a mouse?
And I guess you never experice that the screen is too small.
/Danne
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have good eyesight, so I use small fonts to maximize screen realestate. ThinkOutside's drivers include BT mouse support but I've never tried it. I wonder if it actually places a movable mouse pointer on the screen?
The ThinkOutSide keyboard has built in shortcuts for the Office apps, softkeys, Today & start button and I use these alot. Most mark/cut/copy/paste functions are available on the keyboard as well. What's nice is that I have IM (communicator mobile) and DirectPush email going. With this setup, I can dynamically respond to emails and IMs without touching the screen while the meeting's in session then easily switch back to my notes (I use PW for note taking since it has text formatting capabilities).
Having PIE available for Realtime Googling (to check the Bullsh!t factor during Vendor presentations) is nice too

Ok, thanks. Hopefully I feel the same way about the size. A am not shure what PW stands for but Word or Wordpad will probably work fine.

PocketWord?

Jepp, I guess so I do not own a smartphone yet som I don´t know about the programs.

Emulators - Hermes vs Kaiser

Hopefully someone who has both the Hermes and Kaiser can tell me which is the better pda to use emulators with. I currently have the Touch which I am more than happy with except for the slower cpu and lack of hardware keys. I mainly use the emulators for the Snes, GBA and Atari ST.
As I spend 75% of the time trying to play emulator games on the Touch the speed of emulation and lack of hardware keys is a real problem sometimes. I had my heart set on getting a Kaiser but have recently come across threads in the Kaiser forum regarding problems with the Video/CPU drivers for the Kaiser. I assume this would affect the speed of emulation.
So I was not sure whether to look at getting a Hermes instead as it is a lot cheaper and possibly more compatible with Emulators. Do you think it would be much faster than the ELF and worth getting?
What would you advise me to do?
Thanks, meddle

yeah even my old himalaya works great with emulators
it have a 400Mhz

I've noticed that my Hermes battery seems to be eaten up very quickly when using morphgear - I mean a full battery will last about 45 minutes to an hour at most when playing. Is this normal?

i believe it is

One thing I didn't realize is that the Hermes has only a 5 way directional D-pad so there is no way to do diagonal moves. Funny thing is my Touch can do diagonal moves play Bubble Bobble for instance but I can only map "left, right, up, down" so I assume it can tell that both Up and Left are being pressed at the same time.

I find the d-pad on the hermes a bit fiddly for emulators. Especially for things like snes where there are more than 2 buttons (I use the message and IE ones as A and B on NES emulators), so I just use the keyboard and assign everything I need.
I gave up with morphgear because of the battery life though

Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard?

I was at OSCON a few weeks back and the thinkgeek folks were there. They had a Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard hooked up & I played with is for a few seconds.
Its a bit pricey, but has anyone tried it?

rickcaudill said:
I was at OSCON a few weeks back and the thinkgeek folks were there. They had a Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard hooked up & I played with is for a few seconds.
Its a bit pricey, but has anyone tried it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very well!!!

bt laser kb
Just sold mine on ebay, came with my kaiser
It's a brilliant ice breaker in pubs, girls love it, but it is rubbish to actually use.

Why so? The only thing i image being hard about it is that you have to rest your palm on the ground rather than an elevated surface.

A buddy of mine had one for a while...he had nothing but good things to say
about it but i have particularly long fingers and i was tripping the key recognition for the keys below the keys i was going for. so id go to type "ASDF" for example and id get "AZSXDCFV"... but that may just be something you learn to work around in time. seemed neat though

I used to have one for my treo. Takes some getting used too, but if you can get good at it, you can type really fast.
As far as responsiveness, and accuracy, never had a problem with it.
Only problem I ever had was drifting off the home keys and typing like a row off.