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While I was fascinated about the idea of a new UI for WM, the introduction of PointUI was a bit of a damp squib. The story of PointUI is like the story of the emperors clothes: its far from perfect but nobody wants to speak out against the overwhelming hype.There are a few things about the interface that irritate me. Hope fully the updates will take care of this:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
2. No app shortcuts. The first screenshots of the UI gave the impression that you could access shortcuts via pages which could be accessed through a simple left or right sliding motion. The current setup puts it just below a properly configured HTC Home with 6 tabs. Whats the point of seeing two versions of the time and the calendar?
3. Screen locking is ridiculous. In this day and age of slide to unlock programs with dpad unlocking and additional information displayed,it seems the prog prioritised being different rather than being practical, especially with the apparent lack of a clock.
Then again, I could be wrong....
hmm
i think PointUI are just in its early stages, however i do agreen with some of your points. We just need to give the developers some time. they have started off with a great base.
they have a fix for the first problem you listed
check the pointui forums for it
its still in beta..so i'm still awaiting how the final product will be
im sure they'll be making some major improvements and additions to it
Vukile said:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
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press title of the running program ... you get to the same screen as going through the running programs.
but with the rest i agree its very inefficent to start a program ... efficent handling has to be priored ... not just eyecandy. so i don't use it anymore...
if you are in a program tap where the start button used to be top left and you will get the option to force close.
I also find it better when changing the setting object navigation to slide navigation for getting to my apps.
however
One must admit that it does have an amazing UI. i feel is much better than the iphone UI
# 3 is also addressed by allowing 3rd party screen lock progs like S2U2. Their latest official build 1.01b enables this. I applaud their efforts. Not because its free. Not just cuz its new. But because it is pretty well thought out and performs more smoothly than any other shell app out there, esp w.r.t. animations and transitions.
I second that. I have good expectations for it.
jomo25 said:
# 3 is also addressed by allowing 3rd party screen lock progs like S2U2. Their latest official build 1.01b enables this. I applaud their efforts. Not because its free. Not just cuz its new. But because it is pretty well thought out and performs more smoothly than any other shell app out there, esp w.r.t. animations and transitions.
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If you like PointUI,then youll love SPB Shell. My main problem with this UI is that I can get better efficiency with HTC Home and a couple MortButtons shortcuts. I can access anything faster with that combination than with PointUI. Its not a revolution,its a fancy skin.
Does anyone else find the scrolling to be annoying? How it's inversed and extremely painful to scroll through large content?
chunga168 said:
Does anyone else find the scrolling to be annoying? How it's inversed and extremely painful to scroll through large content?
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Its supposed to be like that. Like you are grabbing the page and flicking it. Have you tried "flicking" its fun.
In fact, I don't like ftouchflo because it doesn't seem to allow me to flick like I want to.
Things I don't like about PointUI:
1) clocks, calendars all don't need to be on seperate screens. Would be nice to have a home screen that shows time/date/appoints/etc and the be able to flick over to application.
2) Not integrated (same problem I have with the cube). Along with the cube, its useful getting to stuff, but when you actually open the program it usually requires a stylus.
Thins I like about PointUI:
1) Smooth scrolling and animations. Honestly its amazing.
Vukile said:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
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Try the new patch on the point UI forum posted by the devolepers 2 test, it has the x buttom insted of the - minimise buttom and it closes the programmes ....
@ Vukile: Don't count me in the camp of people who need to have access to "everything in as few clicks as possible". I'd rather have a simple to understand, clean, uncluttered interface, even if it takes a few extra gestures/taps to do it. Very frequently used stuff should be quick, and less frequent, further away. While I understand how some want to have every function within one screen, I'd prefer otherwise. So, I actually like the promise of this more than SPB Shell...But to each his/her own.
@ Chunga168: I also intuitively prefer the iPhone/PocketCM type scrolling, however, the method they have implemented is actually better for long lists. If you have to "iPhone flick" to the bottom of a long list, it could take a while. Being able to have it scroll while holding is actually faster for some. It's a case of preferences IMO, so I hope (and expect) they will implement both and make it optional.
I dont know...ive been trying everything from spb products to all kind of invented cubes...but i guess i will stay longer with pointui because IMO its so interacitve and fast...but a hiccup here and there is normal...but the developer is going to take all of our [email protected] to improve...
Well I've really enjoyed Pointui. It's good that there are developers taking a good look at the Windows Mobile UI, although to be fair HTC themselves have been working on obvious improvements, and Lg might be worth keeping an eye on.
Pointui.Home is beautifully animated, looks good and feels good to use, the developer team seem pretty dedicated, and it has the potential to be an amazing phone interface.
However that is my niggle, see to me, my Artemis is not a phone with a PDA attached, but a PDA with a phone attached, and for all it's graphical loveliness Pointui.Home actually makes using my PDA more complicated. I enjoyed Spb Mobile Shell, it's NOW screens were great, and it's version of finger friendliness with big chunky thumbable buttons worked well. Funnily enough the reason I stopped using it was because it was bloated and buggy, and I wanted to give HTC Home a good run for it's money.
But to me Aesthetics are important, it's nice to use a good looking interface, and Pointui seems to be top for that, but I'm already tempted to remove it, and even tempted to forgive Spb's faults.
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
daverage said:
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
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I agree, it should at least give you the option of choosing what you put on the soft keys. It sits on the top bar anyway, why map it? Only seasoned users of PDAs will appreciate the need for simplicity before aesthetic,much in the same direction that Android is headed. Try this exercise for example : uninstall a program using the PointUI and then try it the old fashioned way. The old way is quicker.
does the calendar on the main screen suppose to highlight the days with appointments,etc.? If not, then the calendar is not very useful, and there should be an option to turn it off. Same thing with the analog clock.
A better app launcher is definitely needed. I have suggested in other posts having an icon based launcher a la iPhone when you press the botton down arrow button on the screen, or at least on the main scrolling screen, give us about 4 user definable icons for apps...or have BOTH.
PointUI has a pretty nice interface but is really not that time efficient.
Has anyone tried to remove this program?... Its a headache! I had to find various reg entries and delete them to fully remove it
daverage said:
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
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that is something you can easily change
Has anyone thought of/already produced a small Slide to Unlock bar that could be used as a today plugin for your home screen? That would be the bomb! Anyone agree or heard of something already? I know of S2U2 but that is more of a screen saver... could be a "slide to lock" and then "slide to unlock" type deal. Anyone feel me on this?
Some people have discussed a "transparent" S2U type of app. The PointUI guys said they may try to add that to their app at some point. THat's the closest thing that's been considered...
yeah :/ hopefully someone comes out w/ it soon, would rather it be independent from pointui...
That's a neat idea.
I"m having a hard time making s2u2 actually be useful for me, because i really want to use it. but i dont want to use the native lock function either, and the batterystatus locking functionality is boring! i want to sliiiiiiiiiiiide
yeah! i hope someone on this board with any type of programming experience picks this idea up, i'd be more than willing to work with them on the gui for it, if it is at all even possible.
bump... i refuse to let this idea die!!!!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=357415
helterskelter said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=357415
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yes i read through that but it isn't quite what i was inquiring about... hopefully that developer can cook something up
great idea would love to use
If there be a nice Graphic today >> Slide to Lock (instead of Lock) and call S2U2 would be very nice
if you're using ftouchflo, setup the left->right action to run S2U2. I find that to be a better solution so I can easily lock my phone no matter what screen I'm on and save my precious today screen space...
Nah, Personally, i'd prefer just an lock/unlock slider sitting on Today screen, so that i can see my Batterystatus and TodayAgenda all the time. The fact that S2U2 covers the Today screen (and my events/tasks with it) is the only thing that keeps me from using it.
What i would expect from such a plugin is the simplicity, ability to skin it, and customize its size.
someone please produce this, maybe we can get a paypal going for the author? i'd pay a few bucks for it forsure.
this is what your looking for...
for some reason this wouldn't come up in the xda search, had to do it directly in google... but this is what your after
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=376257
It's just an idea.. a screenlock application, little bit more interactive...
for those who like Mass Effect...
I know, I know... it could be too hard to unlock...
but you can always convert your files in Omnigel.....
cool idea...you can always add a slider at the bottom for emergency unlocking!
maybe even something like the screen unlocking shown on the android demo
how about the VDPIN from uplink:hacker elite
http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/lights.htm#desc2000
kinda like that but much more simple since its purpose should be just to unlock the phone, not solve a puzzle
oh and mass effect is AWESOME finished it a couple of times
all i can say is the Blue Oyster Cult were wrong,...... we should fear the reapers!!!!!
There is throttlelock.. Very nice app.. screenlock with protection.. works nice.. don't know about battery consumption, but still beta..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=419525
yeah! exactly the same of the Android's screenlock!
anyone can make it ?!
djind said:
There is throttlelock.. Very nice app.. screenlock with protection.. works nice.. don't know about battery consumption, but still beta..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=419525
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Hi there.
i am using throttlelock and is very very usefull !!! very light version, battery consuption is absolutely less than S2U2.
i have modify the skin and all the icons so it can fit my theme.
AND MOST IMPORTANT THINK.....DIAMOND IS TOTALLY LOCKED, including home button.
only one missing point for me, to run the application you need to manually put in suspend mode your diamond, i haven't see the possibility to match it with the backlight, but sure someone more smart than me can do it easily.
ciao
What I am looking for is a simple auto key lock, I am not the only one!
S2U2 I have tried and found to be laggy and unstable, essentially it is overkill, as are most auto key lock programs. I want something simple!
When pressing and holding the end key the keypad locks, all i want is a program to do this automatically after a set time delay, without any fancy tricks or graphics - surely this isn't too much to ask?
I am aware that the power button can put the phone to sleep and disable the keys/screen BUT they do not stay disabled if the phone wakes up (when getting a call/message etc.). Only the key lock does this.
As an alternative, does anyone know how to call the key lock software, where is it located in the windows folder? I can try and write something to do this?
I guess you don't want the password to be activated?
If you do want the password then you can easily do this via
Settings--Personal--Lock
and just specify the time before auto-lock happens
Here are a couple of aps that might help:-
LockWithPassword -I have this little app mapped to a shortcut on my today ...so I can instantly lock when needed ... thanks to slow23 right here at XDA
LockAndOff -does what it says on the tin ...again can be set up as a shortcut, and this one locks keys & turns the screen off (with a single click on the shortcut) but does not invoke the password
Got it from here:- link
Thanks jcsxda, LockAndOff is pretty close to what i want, now if it could be set to run after a short period of activity, or on device sleep/wakeup then it would be perfect
Im looking for the same thing.
A simple auto lock just like any other phone...
S2U2 is overkill and can miss up someother app.
it is the same as the device lock today shorcut?
sorry, my phone is in my car and im too lazy
VJDeviceLock can be used to automatically lock your phone when you switch it off (actually, when you switch it on but it amounts to the same thing).
You can assign any app to launch on power on, by using the events management functions built into the OS. Eg Memory Maid will let you run apps on power on etc.
V
Thanks Vijay for the great info. shutil.dll is responsible for the device lock on windows mobile when you press the today plugin for locking.
Do you know a command to use this DLL (to put in Memory Maid) ?
Is there a rundll32.exe like on desktops or something
VJ you are a star!
Exactly what I've been looking for. A little fiddly to setup, but shouldn't be a problem for anyone unless they are a total newbie!
Now it's setup it is perfect.
Thank you very much, donation on the way!
@jrg1967
Many thanks for the donation! For various personal reasons, I went cold turkey off XDA Devs for about a year, but I'm really glad to be slowly getting back into it. It's amazing how strong this community is, internationally!
@el_lo:
Although there is an API for enabling the lock, when I tried to implement it when WM5 first came out, for VJDeviceLock, it wasn't well documented, so VJDeviceLock does something else that I can't remember now to enable the lock.
I don't believe that there is a rundll32 type app on Windows Mobile. It wouldn't be hard to make one, but then you'd still be running an external app!
I believe that VJKeyPress can also be used to enable the keylock, and there are other 3rd party apps.
HTC may well have built in some function to enable the lock through ROM based software, but for me, VJDeviceLock serves me well.
V
@VJ, you have the makings of a commercial piece of software there- it is very hard to find a simple program to do this, as the poll bias shows. You just need a user friendly settings program to deal with the command lines and make it easy to use. I am sure it would appeal across the WM community...
yeh would be great for the phone to autolock after a set period of time like other phones. ok the screen turns off after 30seconds but it doesnt lock the keys. seems strange why this feature isnt already on the phone...
Ok, I'll put this out there:
If one was developing a (possibly commercial, but cheap) auto lock app, what features would it need?
VJDeviceLock is a very old app now, but it works fine and it still surprises me that autolocking on power off is not a standard feature, so I always install it. I understand that there is a registry entry on the newer non X1 HTCs that does something similar, but anyway:
What features would you need? First, auto locking after a fixed time.
What else?
In the interest of keeping it simple, don't ask for a slide to unlock replacement, as S2U is already fabulous, if that's your thing.
Also note that if you're interested, I can entirely replace the native unlock screen with a different interface, although again, I don't propose replacing S2U. I mean something more like a HUGE unlock button.
Give me ideas.
I can do gesture based unlocks, accelerometer based locking and unlocking (assuming I can do this on the X1, I don't have one, so someone feel free to give me one and I'll come and give your package a fondle).
Note that I'm busy on other stuff, so anyone else can code this, but for simple-ish features I'm happy to start working on it. Bigger stuff will take time.
It would probably be free because I can't deal with the hassle of getting rich
V
I'm using Auto Lock (CSDEVCTRL) works like a charm
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=386451
Hey Vijay, glad to see you around!
jcsxda said:
I guess you don't want the password to be activated?
If you do want the password then you can easily do this via
Settings--Personal--Lock
and just specify the time before auto-lock happens
Here are a couple of aps that might help:-
LockWithPassword -I have this little app mapped to a shortcut on my today ...so I can instantly lock when needed ... thanks to slow23 right here at XDA
LockAndOff -does what it says on the tin ...again can be set up as a shortcut, and this one locks keys & turns the screen off (with a single click on the shortcut) but does not invoke the password
Got it from here:- link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks..seems like the lock app i was looking for.
X1 is like a mini comp....anyone can mess around with it if u leave it unlocked
Hi VJ,
It's still working great! Don't make this over complicated, as you can see from the poll people want a simple solution. Now I have it setup it's working just as needed, the standard unlock screen is fine, but the setup was a pain! So, IMHO all that is required is a simple front-end allowing to choose the options, rather than having to enter a command line. More complicated solutions to this issue are already available, so keep it simple.
Options for keylock/password lock at sleep and/or after a set time interval is probably all that is required.
BTW, X1 does NOT have accelerometer.
just having the regular keylock automatically come on after x amount of seconds would do me. no fancy screensavers, passwords or swiping the screen or anything like that. i noticed on diamond tweak there was an option for the keylock to come on when the standby kicked in and the screen goes off, doesnt work on the x1 though but that feature would be ideal.
vijay555 said:
Ok, I'll put this out there:
If one was developing a (possibly commercial, but cheap) auto lock app, what features would it need?
VJDeviceLock is a very old app now, but it works fine and it still surprises me that autolocking on power off is not a standard feature, so I always install it. I understand that there is a registry entry on the newer non X1 HTCs that does something similar, but anyway:
What features would you need? First, auto locking after a fixed time.
What else?
In the interest of keeping it simple, don't ask for a slide to unlock replacement, as S2U is already fabulous, if that's your thing.
Also note that if you're interested, I can entirely replace the native unlock screen with a different interface, although again, I don't propose replacing S2U. I mean something more like a HUGE unlock button.
Give me ideas.
I can do gesture based unlocks, accelerometer based locking and unlocking (assuming I can do this on the X1, I don't have one, so someone feel free to give me one and I'll come and give your package a fondle).
Note that I'm busy on other stuff, so anyone else can code this, but for simple-ish features I'm happy to start working on it. Bigger stuff will take time.
It would probably be free because I can't deal with the hassle of getting rich
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can make it very simple.assign lock software to power off button.when you display is off you phone ll be locked.this ll be lovely.thank you
Hi Vijay,
I was also trying to develop a simple autolock program. Because I couldn't find any locking program that can prevent X1BC from capturing the keys. What I need is something that kills X1BC just before locking, and re-launches it after unlocking. Currently, I am able to lock the device and kill X1BC when the display dimms, but detecting the unlock is a problem. Do you have any idea how I can detect the unlock? (My program is using the lock mechanism of QuickMenu and that is using the built-in lock).
Cheers
Hello!
I am looking for a launcher. I don't want a panel, I don't want a today screen plugin - I want a regular program exe so that I can remap my x-panel button for quick access... Ideally it would be very customizable, look good, use next to no space or ram, cost nothing, and cook me pie. Mmmmm... pie...
Anyway, that is just idealism... bare essentials - I want a screen of icons, shortcuts to programs that I choose. It should be something along the lines of smaberg's action screen, only not using the power button and giving me the choice of what to put on it.
Anything like that out there?
Oh, and on a side note, great forums, really saved my bacon when the phones came with the dreadful Swedish all over them.
i use this :
http://www.fantasticbytes.com/products/launchmanager
not free though but i think there's a pie-making function in there somewhere ...
Hey thanks, that seems to do the trick! No pies though... but other than that, it works great.