Related
As it seems, M$ introduced a mod into new WM5.0 ROMs, so that a Battery Indicator is displayed at title bar instead of the tradicional clock.
It is also possible to configure the device to display the time/clock in all applications, but it doesn't happen while in Today screen.
In opposition to what happened with previous OS builds.
A Reg hack allowed and still allows to change the 'time', to 'date' or 'time&date'.
However with some combinations now, the icons overlap each other into the Title Bar...
Nobody seems to be happy with this new "feature", and likes to live with the alternative of having the time/clock displayed into a Today plug-in.
Also it seems no one succeded to hack and get rid of this. Any ideas?
It is in fact a very annoying indicator!!!
Who wants a Battery Indicator that means just one of three things: 'battery full'; 'battery half full' (or half empty); 'battery empty'...
And look bellow, how strange it could get...
Two battery indicators at the Title Bar (both from M$), and with different lookings...
lol
That's pretty funny, 2 battery meters in the taskbar, with no third party tool to do so? :>
I just wonder who came up with this stroke of genius... was it really Microsoft, or was it HTC, or was it iMate/Qtek (haven't seen any other branded ones yet..)?
Having the Time in the Today Item is one thing... it's a shame it takes up 2 lines, but I guess some people can live with that. Others, like me, think that's pretty messed up and would prefer a better solution ($100 is still available for the person to create said solution - search around the forums for the bounty thread).
But to automatically remove the clock from the expected location is just horrible ergonomics. Imagine having that in real life... you have a watch on your wrist, and wherever you are, you look at your wrist because you expect your watch with the time to be there. Now you get to the office, and there's one of those cheapo round wallclocks on the wall. You look at your wrist to check the time: hey, wtf - your watch is gone! But as soon as you step outside the door *ploink* your watch is back on your wrist. Ooookay.
The battery meter is an entirely different issue altogether. It's almost the lamest and least informative meter ever*, it takes up an icon in the task bar, and I guess it actually disappears when you switch to an app? What's the point? Battery meters like "Batti" are where it's at - MS/whoever should take a page out of their book and learn.
( * the lamest are actually those which are onlu applications. Start an application to check the battery level? double-you tee triple-ef. No offense to those who coded one )
And you thought that was funny!? Look at this!!! OMG LOL!!
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!! OMG 3 Battery indicators!!! LMAO!!!!!
M$ ARE STUPID AS ****
lol
how'd you end up with -that- happening ?
You sure that extra bar that's obscuring your today items isn't a third party thing? I suppose it might be that tray_icons.exe (wrong name, technically - as it's the taskbar, not the tray) ?
ZeBoxx said:
lol
how'd you end up with -that- happening ?
You sure that extra bar that's obscuring your today items isn't a third party thing? I suppose it might be that tray_icons.exe (wrong name, technically - as it's the taskbar, not the tray) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL...
This bar pops-up when you have more than one notification in queue to acknowledge, and you tap ballon at Title Bar.
In fact it is the combination of the two images I posted, with the events queued
Great work M$...
Waitting for the day we can get rid of the battery icon on the Title Bar.
[>_<]
I hope Qtek's ROM makers end up reading all these complaints about the iMate one (and their own earlier test one) and fixes it before they release theirs. I know a lot of people are anxious for push e-mail (and then go asking how to disable it because it runs up their bills.. *chuckle*) and A2DP (not included in iMate) and overall improvements, but this is one non-improvement I'll stick to an older ROM for
You are really right. it is a sh***.
Always they come with these fantastic ideas. i don't know nobody of the developpers saw all complains about the device in all forums discussing the good and the negative points.
i hope one will come with a batch correcting these mess.
FWIW the recently released Orange ROM does this too. It is very annoying indeed.
Has anyone discovered a way to disable this useless battery indicator on the Title Bar?
It would have been nicer too if they at least made the date, day, and time pug-in as one line, and not the date and day taking 2 lines.
wisbar advance 2 makes the time stay when on the today screen,
when i can i'll post a pic but i have
wisbar advance 2 + vga skin
pocket breeze, contact breeze, pocket weather and ilauncher all setup to use only the 1 today item,
clock stays all the time
and im pleased with the speed, its still just as fast even at rotating
more accurately.. last time I checked.. wisbar advance places its own clock there %)
Not quite the same, and means you do have to install another app which permanently takes over your task bar, etc. - which isn't all bad, wisbar advance is pretty sweet. still, I didn't find any particular need for it.. so if the battery meter can just be removed, that'd be preferable %)
I must be the only one who thinks this is quite useful then! But it assumes that you have the clock plugin on the Today screen, and don't like to waste space on an extra battery plugin.
However, it would be nice to have the option. If no one comes up with a reg hack, it might be possible to hack the system to force it show only the clock I guess.
V
Carnivor said:
wisbar advance 2 makes the time stay when on the today screen,
when i can i'll post a pic but i have
wisbar advance 2 + vga skin
pocket breeze, contact breeze, pocket weather and ilauncher all setup to use only the 1 today item,
clock stays all the time
and im pleased with the speed, its still just as fast even at rotating
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How much memory does Wisbar take? Can we install this to the SD card or better yet, the Ext ROM?
You might want to check out the recently released WisBar lite. No skinning engine built in for faster operation. I've never tried it though.
V
vijay555 said:
I must be the only one who thinks this is quite useful then!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*gasp*
et tu, vijay?
vijay555 said:
But it assumes that you have the clock plugin on the Today screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mistake #1
vijay555 said:
and don't like to waste space on an extra battery plugin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mistake #2.1. In my case icon wastes more space than 2px high indicator line. *pats Batti*.
mistake #2.2. Assumes that you don't already -have- a battery indicator. /me points at the dozens of battery indicators out there. Say yours of choice is a taskbar icon as well. Except it's cooler (more features.. whatever). Now you have two - but you can't get rid of the built-in one. Yay!
vijay555 said:
However, it would be nice to have the option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mistake #3
vijay555 said:
If no one comes up with a reg hack, it might be possible to hack the system to force it show only the clock I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
request #1 as soon as this ROM popped up - get rid of the da*n battery icon
request #2 and restore the clock %)
I do suppose it's some silly registry thing, or just a file that you need to remove, or if need be some file that you need to hack about.
vijay555 said:
You might want to check out the recently released WisBar lite. No skinning engine built in for faster operation. I've never tried it though.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just checked out Wisbar Lite http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/products.php?prod=WisBar+Lite as you and Carnivor mentioned, it does take care of the time issue on the today screen. I am afraid to try it though, for I am running Small Menu and Magic Button at the same time, their combination is absolutely perfect in the Universal.
Me too - I use smallmenu with VJOkButt. I wouldn't use Wisbar just to replace the clock.
V
have the same problem, defies the whole purpose of having the date/time if it overlaps.
no way around it?
I just upgraded the ROM on my JAMin and its the same, battery meter on the top right hand corner in place of the clock.
Have we found a solution to this battery icon problem yet? I've not been able to find one.
Cheers,
Steve.
The new rom works really great and I wouldn't wanna change back to the old one, but I really miss having the clock in the title bar.
With Pocket plus, Agile Messenger and Pocket player there really isn't enough space left and the date/clock just takes up too much.
Is there really no way to get the clock back in the title bar? It would be much appreciated.
Or does anyone have another solution? Eg an analog or digital clock icon that can be used with pocket plus.
Qtek 9100 + miniSD 1Gb
Levenum's clock/date project will put a clock on the taskbar and reduce the date/time space to one line
here http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=45084&highlight=
Thanks, I'm trying it out now. Though I would rather have the clock only in the taskbar but this is still an improvement.
Or you could get Wisbar Advance which will remove the battery icon and replace it with date / time. I really don't know why more people don't mention this program. Its really amazing.
rumpnet said:
Or you could get Wisbar Advance which will remove the battery icon and replace it with date / time. I really don't know why more people don't mention this program. Its really amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably because it does more than just that - it's an entire task bar replacement. To some that's great, to others - well, they may want to stick to the original or whatever other third party taskbar enhancement.
Think of it like this - somebody puts a sticker on your red car, and apparently you can't easily remove it. You could wait for something to come along that makes it easy to remove, or you could paint red over that small sticker, or you could paint your entire car green. If you wanted a green car anyway - go for it
( p.s. I hate car analogies %) )
Well I managed to minimize another program a little so everything fits now when the date is only on one line. Good enough for now... but I would still rather have the clock in the taskbar where it takes up no space at all.
I agree with you, at least I would have removed that stupid battery indicator, it only shows 3 stages. 100%, 60% and 20%. How stupid is that.... Any way to get rid of it? I like the SPB pocketplus battery indicator on top of the taskbar, looks more like a regular phone battery indicator.
Daddy_Spank said:
Any way to get rid of it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only in AKU2.2 - Microsoft acknowledged that many people preferred the clock (though even more people preferred a battery meter - they don't understand why the battery meter was made with such 'low granularity' by the developer either though).
Other option (if you don't have AKU2.2 yet, which is very possible as it's only been sighted on the O2 Atom) is to read up on some of the clock threads - one of them places a clock over the battery icon (and the volume icon - volume's still tappable though).
There is an interesting article that can be found here on the topic
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/04/28/586453.aspx
Pardon my ignorance but I notice this is a very "flammable" topic but I can't figure out what exactly you are all trying to do..
Are you just trying to get the clock back in the title-top bar on the Today Screen? I'm asking because I'm running the IMate 2.17 ROM and I have the clock in my title bar at ALL times except when on the today screen.
Don't see the issue there either because in the Today Screen it's available as a Today plug-in.
I'm probably missing it but I still don't get the big deal...
mobilehavoc said:
I'm probably missing it but I still don't get the big deal...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are what the MSDN Mobile blog guy would probably call "A battery person" Or an agnostic.
It comes down to personal preferences, for the most part. Some people simply -prefer- to see the clock there, instead of a battery, for whatever reasons. You may or may not agree with those reasons
Here's some factual bits, though...
the clock
Microsoft replaced the clock that was always visible in one fixed location with another element (the battery) when on the Today screen
This in and of itself isn't a good development. Again, here's a simple analogy - you have a wristwatch, and if you need to know the time, wherever you are, you need only look at your wrist. Now you get home, and *poof* your wristwatch is gone. Strange? Yes.
Microsoft provided no method to let the user change this behavior.
This in general is just silly, as they could have easily anticipated from trial runs that a subset of users, even if it is a relative minority, would prefer the clock there. Microsoft have corrected this for AKU 2.2.
the today item
Microsoft did, however, add the time to the 'Date' Today Item on the Today Screen.
Given the behavior of the clock disappearing from the Taskbar when on the Today Screen, it seemed like a good idea to add the time to the 'Date' Today Item instead. And yes, you are right, that's where a user can look instead. Back to the analogy though - instead of looking at your wrist, where you can always expect to find the time, you now have to look at the clock on the wall. It's more of an annoyance than anything.
This in itself added a new qualm, however - a lot of people did not like the fact that the new 'Date and Time' item takes up 2 lines of Today Screen space (again, no way to switch back to just the Date on 1 line). Some users have an overly full Today Screen as it is, or would just prefer that other items have more space. Many have found solutions to this in one of two new date/time Today Items whose coders have created threads on this forum.
For AKU2.2, this will be even sillier, as users may use the registry tweak to get the Clock back on the Taskbar - but then they'll have the clock on the Taskbar -and- on the Today Screen. Again, those users can use one of the two third party Today Items, but it's silly that they would have to.
the battery indicator
Microsoft added a Battery indicator that cannot be removed
Okay, so now we have a Battery indicator that could be displayed on all screens. However, you may already have a Battery indicator that does this - either using the same type of method (an icon), or by ways of a graphical bar (Batti), etc. Now you have 2 Battery indicators, but you -can't- remove the Microsoft one. So you're stuck with 2. Again, AKU2.2 at least resolves this by switching back to the clock.
Microsoft added a Battery indicator with too low granularity
You might wonder why somebody wouldn't just disable their third party Battery indicator, then. The reason is simple, and the MSDN Mobile Blog guy even agreed: the MS one is horribly low in granularity. What is meant by this, is the following: there are only 3 states. 2 bars, 1 bar, no bars for 60% and 20% thresholds. Not only is this non-linear and non-obvious, for most people this is simply not enough distinction. Even the most humble $25 pas-as-you-go mobile phones have 4, 6 or even 8 bars, as does the MS SmartPhone WM5's battery indicator (also in the taskbar) So even "the battery people" aren't all happy with this switch from the clock to the battery, as the battery indicator is less-than-optimal.
Now for perhaps the silliest thing of all:
There was no need whatsoever to replace the clock with the battery - they could have lived side-by-side.
There is ample space on 240x240 and 240x320 (and certainly the 480x480 and 480x640) devices for extra icons. For example, currently I'm showing 'new message / missed call', [G], 'signal strength', volume and the clock. There is room for at least 3 more icons to the left, although they would be obscuring the application title. This already applies, however, as even this low amount of icons obscures a good portion of longer titles.
Alternatively, there is room to the right on the Today Screen as well, as there is no OK/Close button. When on the Today Screen, the battery indicator could have been placed there, leaving the clock intact. Depending on the user's "Show clock in all applications" setting, either the battery indicator would then be gone in all other applications (if the aforementioned setting is set on) or it would simply slide over to where the clock would otherwise be (if the aforementioned setting is set off). This is a less elegant solution, however.
Zeboxx,
Excellent explanation. I couldn't have said it better myself! That about sums it up.
In my today screen I have Ilauncher so I can start my favorite programs really fast, Pocket Breeze so I can see my upcoming appointments and "to-do's", the controls to an mp3-player and a profile program so I can change the ring tone and vibrator settings swiftly.
This setup is perfect for me and I've even downloaded a program to map the device lock function to a button so I don't have to have it on the today screen. My today screen is packed and I don't want to lose any more space.
Ilauncher, as well as other similar programs like Pocket Plus, provides a battery meter at the top of the display that spans the entire screen and is a thousand times better than the new battery meter and it's full/half/empty status.
Personally when I hear that folks hardly use the today screen it feels like they haven't yet understood the full potential of the phone. I'm continuously trying to make improvements and tailor it to my demands.
AKU2: Date overwriting battery ind./sig strength
Hi all,
I've been searching all over for this, so please bear with me.
Posts regarding the AKU2 battery icon have revolved around how to remove it. I mistakenly set Tweaks2K to display the date, and now have either that overwriting the battery ind/sig strength, OR when I set Tw2K to not display the Date/Time, a blank spot overwrites the battery/part of the sig strength.
Any ideas on how to get rid of the blank patch?
Thanks,
paul
Re: AKU2: Date overwriting battery ind./sig strength
fuzzyclam said:
Any ideas on how to get rid of the blank patch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably just need to set it back to just the clock?
Try the registry tweak "Change the display of the clock in the taskbar" in http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=WM5_Tweaks_Other
JNGold said:
Zeboxx,
Excellent explanation. I couldn't have said it better myself! That about sums it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sums it up very well, however there is one explanation that has been overlooked. What if you were the owner of a huge money grabbing organisation who wanted to ensure that certain elements of software were unhackable? A small test item would do the trick. Something that was small but very annoying, like a very poor battery indicator that wouldn't look out of place on a zxspectrum?.......
If there was a way then some fine forum member would have done it by now! And it is almost certain that said organisation would be avid readers of sites such as this to chart the progress!
Next stop microsoft WORLD MOBILE DOMINATION!!!!!! :evil:
Come on guys there has to be a way.
NOTHING IS UNHACKABLE! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
There's already many parts in WM5 that are 'unhackable' unless you want to go around replacing binaries/editing binaries. There's no need for Microsoft to 'experiment' with this battery/time issue for that.
Microsoft simply got word from their OEMs that their clients wanted a battery meter on the taskbar that could be displayed at all times. A developer at Microsoft added the battery meter, replacing the clock with it, and the thing was OK'd. Whether the Microsoft Windows Mobile QA team did a particularly good job of reviewing this change before OKing it is another matter entirely, but it would be highly unlikely that they explicitly made this change, in this manner, just to irk 'hackers'.
As for nothing being unhackable - true. But some things are as easy as a registry change, while others require a binary file change, and yet others take so much effort that it takes weeks just to figure it out (see SIM unlocking the various branded HTC Universals for example - and that is still on-going).
Given that users can...
A. deal with it
B. get one of the clock replacements that will overlay on the battery
C. get or wait for AKU2.2
...I don't think you'll find many developers willing to spend a lot of time on trying to hack this around anymore. If it were simple, it would've been done already.
JNGold said:
Zeboxx,
Excellent explanation. I couldn't have said it better myself! That about sums it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sums it up very well, however there is one explanation that has been overlooked. What if you were the owner of a huge money grabbing organisation who wanted to ensure that certain elements of software were unhackable? A small test item would do the trick. Something that was small but very annoying, like a very poor battery indicator that wouldn't look out of place on a zxspectrum?.......
If there was a way then some fine forum member would have done it by now! And it is almost certain that said organisation would be avid readers of sites such as this to chart the progress!
Next stop microsoft WORLD MOBILE DOMINATION!!!!!! :evil:
Come on guys there has to be a way.
NOTHING IS UNHACKABLE! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
dupe post? Read up
Icon gone?!
Try this one
Can some one tell me if we can have battery % on manila 2d.
Thx.
Do you use quickmenu? If you use quickmenu you can play around with the settings to get it back. It will be in the middle of the taskbar, but it will be back. If you can't figure it out let me know. Many people have overlooked the setting.
thx a lot.
Quickmenu work fine and I can see my battery %.
sdlopez83 said:
Do you use quickmenu? If you use quickmenu you can play around with the settings to get it back. It will be in the middle of the taskbar, but it will be back. If you can't figure it out let me know. Many people have overlooked the setting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this setting in QuickMenu. It did work to see percentages, BUT because it sits over the voice/text/email notifications, it stops them from being marked as read. (The yellow light keeps blinking.)
If anyone knows how to get around this, I'm all ears.
I use ariel battery its freeware, i got it from this forum so do a search
VistaHide Battery Gauge
Hi,
in the past I took WKTask to have a battery bar on top of the screen.
But this application has a task manager additionally on board - wasted memory.
So now I'm using VistaHide Battery Gauge. Same bar like WKTask but only 1kB memory usage. Great tool.
AF
I use QuickMenu and VistaHide Battery Gauge. The only thing I miss with TF2D is the ability to see how much memory I have left, so I'll know when it's time to reboot.
hi, just few basics please...
how do you know when the battery is fully charged ??
probably really dumb but i didn't really figured it ou exept going in the battery section of WM
thanks
The LEDs will stop flashing (if you had them enabled whilst charging)
ok thanks, and one last crappy question,
do you think that to have the ''self controlin brightness'' of the screen enabled is slowin down the system speed ?
what are (if they exist) the best cache values in xperia tweaker ?
thanks
"do you think that to have the ''self controlin brightness'' of the screen enabled is slowin down the system speed ?"
doubt it
i dont even believe it require actions from the os at all it could be don in hardware
and if it does use the system it's not rocket science equations it have to calc
bill'o said:
hi, just few basics please...
how do you know when the battery is fully charged ??
probably really dumb but i didn't really figured it ou exept going in the battery section of WM
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The obvious way is checking Start-->Settings-->System-->Power. (but you probably know that already, and anyway, it's a mission )
I use homeplusplus (or home++), which has a today screen plugin which gives you lots of indicators (including battery percentage (100% is fully charged)).
Search for the cab (if not in the sticky in this forum) on the Kaiser forum or Rapheal forum, and the best part is it's free.
When you install it, it has two icons on the Today screen (bottom) by default. Click and hold to get the options, and in there include extra rows as well as task bar icons. 10 points to the developer of that software.
A potentially better way of seeing battery percentage is to install SPB mobile Shell, which also has a today screen row (with useful icons and menus alongside the battery status on the main screen). But you got to pay for that.. spbsoftwarehouse.com.
The light sensor polls by default every 200 milliseconds (if I'm not mistaken), as already said - the system load for the polling is negligible.
BUT if you are worried, then there is an option in Start-->Settings-->Power-->Lighting-->Auto Adjust Backlight which you can tick off.
Doubt you will notice any performance gain by doing that.
Good luck!
Cheers
Does anybody know if it is in anyway possible to have both the battery indication and the time, shown on the task bar?
Standart it will only show one, depending on your choosings on showin the time in the taskbar at all times.
However, I would really like to have both on there..
spb pocket plus can do the job, though it's roughly 4/5mb for just an extra icon in the titlebar, thought pocket plus has some other feaures besides that, but i am only using it for the battery icon.
Thanks! I will consider this option then..
But if anybody knows if there's a registry setting that will enable both, I'd love to know about it..
This should be possible as standard on the so-called WM 6.5.1 - at least it was possible on the builds (at least 23081) I was using with my Touch Pro2. So if you can wait so long that HTC will release a ROM update using these new builds, you don't necessarily have to purchase a third party program to do the trick. This official ROM upgrade should be available sometime in H1/2010 (or unofficially earlier, if the wizards of xda can come up with HardSPL =) ).
wktask puts a thin battery meter at the top of the screen.