Related
Is there any way to get rid of them or to make them transparent?
Something I have tried time and time again to find out. There was a program called Pocket Facelift, which either got rid of them or cloned the today screen and superimposed an image over the top without the lines. I've searched for registry entries, hacks and cracks. Everything. Never been able to find it.
I still wish someone would produce a low memory footprint version of a screen that say the later Nokias and Samsungs have, where all the information about the phone is held in the corners (battery, SMS, signal, etc), leaving the rest of the screen for the picture (without lines).
Cheers
Ant
Anton.Valleyman said:
Something I have tried time and time again to find out. There was a program called Pocket Facelift, which either got rid of them or cloned the today screen and superimposed an image over the top without the lines. I've searched for registry entries, hacks and cracks. Everything. Never been able to find it.
I still wish someone would produce a low memory footprint version of a screen that say the later Nokias and Samsungs have, where all the information about the phone is held in the corners (battery, SMS, signal, etc), leaving the rest of the screen for the picture (without lines).
Cheers
Ant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks...
Anton.Valleyman: when you say "low memory", I guess WDA is out of the question
I hadn't seen Facelift before. The page seems to suggest that Facelift may be a replacement Today plugin host:
Today screen scrolling is fully supported. The today screen plugins are resized in order to avoid covering information by the scroll bar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Resizing Today plugins requires some messy coding or hosting plugins yourself. That might explain how they get rid of the seperator lines - if you host the plugins yourself, you obviously don't have to draw the lines... that's just a theory though!
still wish someone would produce a low memory footprint version of a screen that say the later Nokias and Samsungs have, where all the information about the phone is held in the corners (battery, SMS, signal, etc), leaving the rest of the screen for the picture (without lines).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My unreleased VJEphemeris is entirely skinnable, and I'm trying to design it around a thumb friendly design. I want to use the corners in the way you described... but your idea is a good one, a nice clean full screen today plugin just showing basics, operator logo and a wallpaper is a nice idea...
For the lines, I just suggest you choose a color similar to your background. I use a plain white wallpaper, so easy for me
It might be feasible to do some hairy hacking to subclass the today screen and intercept the line drawing function, but I don't recommend it as an easy solution :shock:
V
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
Hi, after installing MarkVan's true VGA package in this link
http://www.jaml.com/MvRTrueVGA/, I have identified the following issues that I'm still unable to solved. I thought that a special thread to address specifically problems after this installation might be helpful.
I'll start by first listing what I've identified as problems:
1) setting>system>backlight screen could not be used. This problem is serious, as somehow by default, the backlight is switched off after just a few seconds in true VGA mode. Even if I try, using QVGA mode to change it such that backlight will not be switched off, as soon as I toggle back to the true VGA mode, it is switched off after 10 seconds again.
2)setting>system>clear storage screen is garbed. It is difficult to make up what the input instruction are in performing hard reset. Not critical but would be nice if the screen could be fixed.
3)setting>system>power screen is garbed due to wrong sized icon. This is minor problem.
4) Setting>system>TV out screen title has the wrong font. Minor problem
5) Setting>system>VueFLO screen title has wrong sized font. Minor problem
6)setting>connection>comm manager screen is garbed. Not being able to control the connection could be quite a problem. In this application, the Settins>Wireless LAN screen is also garbed. I can solve this problem by installing Commmgrpro to give exactly the same functionality, however. Therefore, I would say this is not really an issue. But would be nice if someone already know how to solve this.
7)setting>connection>wireless Lan heading and the screen is garbed. The screen could not be used. The font sizes within all tabs are of wrong sizes. Again, CommmgrPro solves this problem by replacing this.
8)setting>personal>phone (pin2 and "more" tab) are garbed
9) Phone. Although I've applied VJbigpohne, I'm somehow unable to get exactly the same effect as what vj has in his screen shot. His screen shot showed that the numbers are nicely sitting in the centre of the phone buttons and the phone stretches all the way to the bottom of the screen. Mine looks different and ugly. The numbers are sitting to the extreme right edge of the buttons and there is a blank space at the bottom of the screen. I would like to fix this to look good
10) Spb GPRS monitor plugin has wrong sized font. As a result, I cannot see the download speed of my connection. The main application itself, which shows in chart form the usage has no problem. I have been looking for another product that works fully under VGA mode to replace the Spb GPRS monitor, but none of them gives me the download speed (They only shows the total MB downloaded, but not the Kbps info)
11)Pocket music. In landscape mode the option and playlist buttons are missing. In portrait mode there is no such problem. edit: this is not the vga problem,as it also behaves the same way I'm qvga mode.
12) Software Input Panel, or the soft keyboards, are soooo small, that they are unuseable. The standard big keyboard was nice as I can use my finger to type it without covering up the screen. If it is not possible to use the original soft keyboard, then I would like to use the HiKeyboard, because this keyboard has the ability to also do the job the the Spb full keyboard, as well as provide a calculator keypad. I like Hikeyboard the best, among all the ones I've evaluated. However, with MvrTrueVGA, I'd be forced to use only the resco keyboard. I prefer not to pay for resco keyboard, and to pay for Spb full keyboard, when I can just pay for Hikeyboard. I also much prefer HiKeyboard over Spb Full keyboard because it has the option to reveal what you have typed without exiting the full keyboard. Coming to the worst I'd get the Resco Keyboard although it is not as good as the Hikeyboard, so I supposed this is not the most seriuos matter.
13) Quick GPS program does not display correctly, and at the bottom of the screen display does not reach all the way to the edge of the screen. It looks ugly. Also, you can't see vital date and validity information on this screen.
14) Pocket Mechanics - The icons are too big and the characters are too small. It look real ugly as compared to the QVGA appearance.
15) My VOIP client SJPhone does not stretch all the way to the bottom. In landscape mode, the bottom part of the applications are cut off, while it leaves a big hole on the right. EDIT: qvga display landscape mode is also faulty I'm the same way.
16) In QVGA mode, my H and G indicator for data download has disappeared under true VGA mode. In place of the H (which means HSDPA connection is available), it shows the "connection is active" indicator instead.
In place of "HSDPA is in use" indicator, it shows just the signal strength without indicating whether I'm on a UMTS or HSDPA connection.
There might be more problems with other applications which I have not listed, and if you know of any, please add them in as a repository for all of us to look at.
It is possible that some of you have got solutions to the above problems.
If so, let's post the solution here, quoting the problem number if you can.
Thanks guys and gals
I'm not sure (and I'm happy if I'm wrong) but I think the best answer is:
"Yeah, but what'cha gonna do..."
WM5 is not intended to be used in full 640x480 mode, roumors will have it that WM6 is. So let's keep our hopes up.
But you obviously have more problems than me. Most screens are good and readable for me, except the phone (before applying VJBigPhone), Clear Storage, QuickGPS and the G/E/U/H icons + signal level. Of all these, the GEUH and signal level indicator is the only thing I "need" fixed (I can live with the rest).
Moskus said:
I'm not sure (and I'm happy if I'm wrong) but I think the best answer is:
"Yeah, but what'cha gonna do..."
WM5 is not intended to be used in full 640x480 mode, roumors will have it that WM6 is. So let's keep our hopes up.
But you obviously have more problems than me. Most screens are good and readable for me, except the phone (before applying VJBigPhone), Clear Storage, QuickGPS and the G/E/U/H icons + signal level. Of all these, the GEUH and signal level indicator is the only thing I "need" fixed (I can live with the rest).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Moskus,
Thanks for the reply.
May I get more specific about what you're having?
a) You mean your soft input panel (on screen keyboard) is not too tiny? Are you using Resco keyboard to overcome the problem? Are you able to use the standard with no problem?
b) Your backlight adjustment screen is okay? Using the standard or replacement which consumes additional memory?
c) What about yout comm manger screen? Are you still using the standard or using a replacement which takes up more memory?
d) Your phone does not leave a hole at the bottom after VJbigpohne is applied? The characters on the keys are centered or also to the edge? I saw VJ555's screen shot and its as beautiful as the standard. Mine is aweful looking, although it works. Are you having the perfect looking screen just like VJ555's or are you putting up with the less than perfect looking screen?
e) Do you use SPbGPRS monitor? When you click the task bar icon, does the pop up screen display correctly? Or are you not using this?
f) Your quick GPS is displaying okay?
g) What is your ROM version?
h) What it your os language?
Thank you for sharing these information.
eaglesteve said:
Hi Moskus,
Thanks for the reply.
May I get more specific about what you're having?
a) You mean your soft input panel (on screen keyboard) is not too tiny? Are you using Resco keyboard to overcome the problem? Are you able to use the standard with no problem?
b) Your backlight adjustment screen is okay? Using the standard or replacement which consumes additional memory?
c) What about yout comm manger screen? Are you still using the standard or using a replacement which takes up more memory?
d) Your phone does not leave a hole at the bottom after VJbigpohne is applied? The characters on the keys are centered or also to the edge? I saw VJ555's screen shot and its as beautiful as the standard. Mine is aweful looking, although it works. Are you having the perfect looking screen just like VJ555's or are you putting up with the less than perfect looking screen?
e) Do you use SPbGPRS monitor? When you click the task bar icon, does the pop up screen display correctly? Or are you not using this?
f) Your quick GPS is displaying okay?
g) What is your ROM version?
h) What it your os language?
Thank you for sharing these information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think we have different "standards" for what the problems are.
a. I'm using the Resco keyboard, since the original is not showing up (as described in many other threads here and at the Qtek 9000 forum)
b. The backlight adjustment screen is OK.
c. The Comm Manager is "squished" but usable. I would prefer it if the icons were bigger, but I can use without any serious problems.
d. The phone does leave a gap at the bottom with the last displayed picture, and it would be nice if it didn't. But I can use the phone without problems.
e. I haven't tried SPG GPRS Monitor on this device. However, I do not have problems with the "home icon" that Magic Button is displaying in "Task Bar mode" and I can press/click on the other status indicators.
f. The QuickGPS application is also "squished" together as the Comm Manager is. But I can read when I last updated and I can find the "Update now" button without problems. I am able to use the program, but it could look nicer.
g. My ROM version is 1.25.409.2 (03/21/07).
h. My language is (not supprisingly) norwegian.
So TrueVGA is not perfect, and it probably never will be (until WM6 I hope). But I think the advantages (insert pun here) outweights the disadvantages. Using my Advantage without TrueVGA is not an option for me anymore.
I agree with you that it is not an option for many people. I guess I need to lower my expectation a little. It was just that after seeing the beautiful screen, the initial euphoria was somewhat dampened by the ugly screens for some places and for some program.
I'm using VGA mode most of the time, and use the largest font in the setting>system>screen>font selection due to the strain on my eye if I use other fonts.
One of the key problems that I had using trueVGA initially was that because I could not control the backlight setting, everytime I toggle to VGA mode, it revert to turning backlight off in 10 seconds. There is absolute no way to change it to stay on for longer time. So it was very frustration to look at an extremely dimmed screen which is totally unreadable outdoor. This problem seems to have gone away after two recent hard resets. With that problem gone, I guess I can live with the other imperfection
I had a simular problem with the backlight control --- I have installed "Todaywarrior" and I can control the backlight from the today screen now while in VGA mode.
leblancrs said:
I had a simular problem with the backlight control --- I have installed "Todaywarrior" and I can control the backlight from the today screen now while in VGA mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi leblancrs,
Thanks for this info. What can today warrior do? Does it let you specify the elapsed time before backlight is off?
what else can it do?
You have the website link?
Spb pocket plus can adjust backlight, but not the time elapsed setting, I think.
eaglesteve said:
Hi leblancrs,
Thanks for this info. What can today warrior do? Does it let you specify the elapsed time before backlight is off?
what else can it do?
You have the website link?
Spb pocket plus can adjust backlight, but not the time elapsed setting, I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google is you're friend
http://personales.ya.com/beemer/todaywarrior1.htm
leblancrs said:
I had a simular problem with the backlight control --- I have installed "Todaywarrior" and I can control the backlight from the today screen now while in VGA mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Leblancrs,
Downloaded that and tried it. Unfortunatley, this actually is not doing what I was talking about. While it provides a slider to control the backlight (which I can already do in many different ways without problem in VGA mode), it does not appear to have a facility to specify how many minutes must elapse before backlight is automatically switched off (battery and main would have a different setting of course). Or am I missing out something?
Well ive ordered one of these devices on the basis that Windows Mobile 6 offers VGA. Im pretty confident that is official not just hopeful but Microsoft have been known to dissapoint before.
If thats the case then I guess this device will be up on ebay pretty quick. Im not going through all the stuffing around for VGA like what you're all experiencing and like what I went through for Universal VGA. Despite the fact that converting to VGA seems to be a much easier process now.
Hhhmm
I have installed MW6 on my device and no native vga support I am afraid.
Oh well.
Those screens are way too small with VGA , like being blind!
spacecat said:
Those screens are way too small with VGA , like being blind!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's not. It's like seing alot!
It's absolutely excellent!
Moskus said:
No, it's not. It's like seing alot!
It's absolutely excellent!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used truevga for a while, although I didn't experience quite the same amount of problems as Eaglesteve I did have distorted comms and dialpad screens and was unable to change the brightness. There were a few other niggles but these were the prevalent one.
After getting over the novelty of tiny icons and lots of space on the today screen I eventually removed the program. Now IE and Opera support high resolution it seems like even less reason to use it.
There seems to be no REAL advantage to its use other than to view lots of icons at once.
Taking all the problems into account I can live with chunky icons - they're hardly offensive to the eyes. and I suppose didn't pay good money for a 5" screen to squint and have to get my pen out evey time I want to type something or navigate through menus.
Much as Microsoft DO neglect certain applications and functionlity with windows mobile I think that they have made a conscious decision not to use VGA and this decision would have been made for a reason, though we may never know it.
I'll install MVRTruevga again and give it another try now and see if my opinion alters......
leoni1980 said:
I used truevga for a while, although I didn't experience quite the same amount of problems as Eaglesteve I did have distorted comms and dialpad screens and was unable to change the brightness. There were a few other niggles but these were the prevalent one.
After getting over the novelty of tiny icons and lots of space on the today screen I eventually removed the program. Now IE and Opera support high resolution it seems like even less reason to use it.
There seems to be no REAL advantage to its use other than to view lots of icons at once.
Taking all the problems into account I can live with chunky icons - they're hardly offensive to the eyes. and I suppose didn't pay good money for a 5" screen to squint and have to get my pen out evey time I want to type something or navigate through menus.
Much as Microsoft DO neglect certain applications and functionlity with windows mobile I think that they have made a conscious decision not to use VGA and this decision would have been made for a reason, though we may never know it.
I'll install MVRTruevga again and give it another try now and see if my opinion alters......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are also a number of apps that look pretty strange with MvRTrueVGA. But I'll put up with some cosmetic defects for functionality. I just love being able to see a couple days of appointments, device status, weather info... plus an ilauncher strip, all on my today screen!
wgary said:
There are also a number of apps that look pretty strange with MvRTrueVGA. But I'll put up with some cosmetic defects for functionality. I just love being able to see a couple days of appointments, device status, weather info... plus an ilauncher strip, all on my today screen!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same excitement myself initially, though I found it difficult to press these icons with my fat fingers and inevitably decided that it was easier to just navigate to the program folder and leave essential apps for the today screen. I hope a new VGA solution is developed soon which makes the icons a bit bigger and throws up less garbled screens and program glitches.
In the interim does anyone have link for how to alter the sidebar/ softkey size so they look like thse in MVRtruevga? my internet is very slow on my phone today so searching is proving very frustrating.
Moskus said:
No, it's not. It's like seing alot!
It's absolutely excellent!
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Click to collapse
your opinion dude , in mine its WAY too small, its not like you need to see so much at once . Who needs the eyestrain
leoni1980 said:
There seems to be no REAL advantage to its use other than to view lots of icons at once.
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Have you ever tried editing an Excel-spreadsheet or Word-document using MrVTrueVga? It's a must.
spacecat said:
your opinion dude , in mine its WAY too small, its not like you need to see so much at once . Who needs the eyestrain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure it's my opinion, I was just commenting yours...
(To me) There is no eyestrain, so I don't "see" ( ) the problem...
Moskus said:
Have you ever tried editing an Excel-spreadsheet or Word-document using MrVTrueVga? It's a must.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is certainly easier to edit word and excel documents in VGA mode - I'm surprised MS didn't create a highres option for their office apps like the one in PIE.
You can change the default font size via the system>screen menu instead of switching to VGA for a slight improvement.
My beloved o2 mini was having a few 'issues' - dropping calls, bad battery life, periods of no network - it was time for an upgrade.
So I bought a Telstra branded touch dual off ebay from a company called 'viper technologies'. I discovered why it was called that when the parcel arrived with 'Mike Metcalfe' in the 'from' section - Mike Metcalfe was Tom Skerritt's *real* name as the head instructor of 'Top Gun', otherwise known as 'Viper'.
I'd done some prereading at xda developers and discovered the Telstra version is the 850, which is the NEON and not the NIKI. On the upside the 850 apparently has a larger battery, the ability to work on Telstra NextG, an FM radio, and the power button is in a different place (the same as the o2 mini fortuitously)On the downside it has the telescopic stylus, which is fine because I tend not to use it much. I found that the fact that it was in the bottom right corner took more getting used to than the fact that it was telescopic.
Anyways. First, that telstra branding had to go. I found the right spl uploader at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=377260>, and installed version 1.06.841.4 ROM on it.
The only issues with the flashing was that I missed a crucial step of unplugging and replugging the cable, as per the instructions (in capital letters even) in the aforementioned thread.
I made my own little startup splash screen to replace the windows mobile one and stuck it in the windows directory by making a 240 x 320 pixel jpg in photoshop and naming it 'welcomehead.96.png'.
Before that, of course I had to discover that ActiveSync 4.5 is the latest version for XP, and will always be, because Vista now has some other sort of thing to transfer to mobiles. ActiveSync 4.5 has behaved itself quite well for me, much better than I remember 3.7 ever doing with the o2.
I decided to make a partnership without syncing any data at first, because I knew I'd be connecting and disconnecting and didn't want to always wait for it to sync hundreds of files before it let me do anything. At this juncture the little rubber USB port cover on the bottom first began to annoy me, but more on that later.
OK, it was time to try and make this little fella do everything the o2 could - and more. Familiarising oneself with the new WM6 was fun - the o2 ran 2003 and while they haven't changed much, there were a few things that needed getting used to.
HTC HOME VS CLAUNCHER
My thinking usually centres around getting things done efficiently. And whilst it looked so cool, I came to the realisation that HTC home had to go. The clock? Too much screen real estate (and I have a watch anyway). The message/call/appointment notifiers? I wanted to see the actual appointments written there. The launcher? Only NINE programs? Please! The weather? Firstly I didn't seem to be able to get it for Australia, and secondly... I actually realised that I don't really care about the weather that much! Ringtones? Don't use 'em. Right.
So I stumbled upon a program called clauncher, which it turns out is incredibly cool and efficient. You can just load it up, select it as a plugin and then click and hold on the empty space to access a huge variety of settings. It comes with 8 tabs for categories, like Main, Tools, Comm, Games etc etc. One of the excellent things about clauncher is that you can just import your start menu folder into an empty category and then just cut them out into the right ones. It's easy to move them with a multiple selection function and 'move up' and 'move down' buttons.
I found that keeping the icons at their native 32 pixel size looked nicest, and it's also about the right size for a thumb. I gave them a 3 pixel space between them but then I put a large right margin of 12 pixels, because clauncher has a cool feature which flips icon screens when you touch the blank part. You can also set the total height. So the sizing above gave me five icons in two rows, with a blank portion on the right to thumb to the next page. I discovered also that you can get more screen space (and a neater look) by hiding the tabs altogether.
Earlier on I'd discovered a terrible problem with clauncher - The pop down keypad would only type the first letter or number in the boxes! So I had named the second tab '2' and moved on. The lack of keyboard became an issue when I wanted to add manual shortcuts etc. Luckily I stumbled upon the fix for it. Instead of press and hold for the settings, if you access them via the 'today items' control panel, it gives you the softkey bar at the bottom, and hence your keyboard options back again.
Currently I've got four screens - my most frequently used (vaguely) apps, less frequently used apps, communications stuff and then games.
All I need to find out now is how to anchor it to the bottom part of the screen.
I noticed that WM6 no longer puts your messages on the today screen - 'no unread emails' or whatever. But a shortcut to messaging was an easy fix with clauncher.
HARDWARE KEYS/LONGPRESSENDKEY/SLIDEACTION
The lack of hardware keys was something I didn't realise I'd miss so much. The o2 had phone buttons, volume slider, camera button, the normal nav buttons PLUS appointment, contacts, and voice recorder buttons. I used to run buttonmax on my o2 which let me map press, double press and long press to each of the extra buttons.
I thought I'd found a solution in AEbuttonplus - it was free, it let me map buttons - but the only buttons I could really map were the phone ones.
So I mapped a double click on the green button to close a window (when I'm thumbing around it's actually easier to get to the bottom part of the screen, particularly when using the sliding keyboard). It was working great - until I got a phone call. The green button seems to change purpose depending on what's going on. I had mapped its usual use to 'phone', but that didn't seem to cover 'answer call' or even 'send call' - I had to use the on-screen softkeys. I'd installed 'slide action' software which had been working great, but I realised it must simulate a 'press green button' or something, because it stopped working for phone functions too. So AEbuttonplus had to go.
The small consolation came with the 'longpressendkey' setting somebody thoughtfully put in the ROM - I can at least set my phone to vibrate with one key, which I could never do easily on the o2. I'd love to see 'longpressendkey' set up to allow any customisable link, and while they're at it, make BOTH the green and red keys mappable for single, double and triple press as well as long press. That would give six extra hardware key options and make up for the lack of them elsewhere. Anyways.
ACTIVESYNC/MACROREADER/CEREGEDITOR
Dang it, I stuffed around for a LONG time trying to solve this. On my o2 I had a hardware macro (double press contacts key) which would start activesync, and then another activesync specific hardware macro (hold contacts key) to connect bluetooth and start synchronising. And then to disconnect, I was running the Magic Button task manager and a tap on the X would disconnect and close activesync.
How to do it? I didn't have hardware keys, I didn't have macros, OR didn't I? I ended up discovering a little piece of software here:
http://vitotechnology.com/en/products/download.php?ID=1645&BID=23
in what seemed to be the VITO 'boneyard' where they keep all the seconds and dodgy stuff - I couldn't find a link to it on the main site. It was called 'MacroRecorder' and it comes with no manual or other information. But it works if you just want to record a tap-based macro. Next problem then - how to make a tap for starting Activesync always be in the same place?
You gotta love those registry hacks. I found a program called CERegEditor which lets you connect up the phone, and then edit the registry on your PC. Sure beats keying in all the weird info on the tiny screen using the tiny buttons.
I remapped the bottom left softkey to ActiveSync using the Key 112 registry entry, and now I had my solution to making a tap-based macro. MacroRecorder isn't that tricky actually - you just start the exe, click the okay screen, do your thang, and then press the little red square which has appeared in the middle of the screen to finish. It asks for a name and then creates a file in the same folder as the exe, which you can put wherever. I created an entry for it in clauncher, gave it the activesync icon (Windows\repllog.exe) and now I can start activesync and connect via bluetooth with one press!
While I was there in the registry I did a few other tweaks like making the scroll bars 15 pixels wide (the widest you can make them whilst keeping the 'settings' screen three icons wide) and making the date one line instead of two. There's a list of registry tweaks here:
http://www.ppcsg.com/index.php?showtopic=50029&st=0
Getting activesync to close and disconnect in one action was a bit trickier. None of the task managers I tried would close activesync down altogether, like magic button used to do on my o2. I found some trial software which advertised the ability to 'close activesync on disconnect', which it DID... but the only problem was that it wouldn't OPEN it again when you reconnected.
Given that WM6 now gives you the option of the OK button actually closing things rather than minimising, Magic button sadly had no use anymore. Goodbye, trusty software.
So it seems I've gained a step in making Activesync connection a one-click process... but I've lost my one-click disconnection. Oh well. There's some software which people talk about which was supposed to be able to automatically schedule bluetooth connections, but it sadly seems to have disappeared.
CONTINUED IN PART 2
PART 2
MS READER
I had been using MS reader for my ebooks and it worked fine on my o2, but for some reason it seemed to be painfully slow on the dual. I ended up converting my .lit files using 'convertLit' and downloading Mobipocket to read them. It's not quite as pretty as MS reader, but it's definitely faster to load, and it takes you to your last read book straight away instead of having to go through all the intro screens. Second shortcut in clauncher, then!
TOUCHFLO
Well that cubey thing is super cool - so I spent considerable time trying to get it to have the elusive fourth face. BUT then I asked myself, 'what does touchflo do that I can't do with one press in clauncher?'
About this time I had to hard reset and rebuild everything because I'd added in some irrepairable registry stuff and the cube was whacked out completely.
I left it as three sides, then. Now - it's not immediately obvious, but the 'quicktasks' screen that comes up when you open the slider is actually part of the Touchflo 'family' and it's settings are in the same place in the registry.
So it was relatively easy to replace the 'Email' on the third side of the cube with 'new email' from the APlauncher screen, 'SMS' with 'new SMS', 'Notes' with 'new note' and 'calendar' with 'new appointment'. That way the icons matched up just great.
The problem is that now that I've figured out the shortcuts, it's probably just as easy to put an icon in clauncher for them! So rather than 1. turn on, 2. swipe up, 3. swipe across, 4. press icon; you could eliminate the swipes...
I'm finding too, that new things involving contacts (SMS, MMS, email, phone calls) are best handled by sliding out the keypad, typing the first few letters, click down to them with the navigation keys and press the centre key. Then you get a screen with options to call any of their numbers, text them or email them.
If you go the 'new message' route, you have to access the contacts list in a far more cumbersome manner - smaller type entries which are harder to click with your thumbnail and that you either have to scroll to or type an exact match for it.
I've also found the following when using the touchflo features:
* to get the touch cube every time, start at the htc logo and sweep up with the thumbnail.
* you don't have to be 'twitchy' with the photo gestures. A slower and deliberate circle or half circle tends to make it do what you're asking a lot better - more nail, less finger for the photo stuff too.
* for scrolling, press quite firmly, and use a lot of finger surface area. Too much nail tends to make it click. I imagine I'm smudging stuff off my finger and that seems to work well. For long scrolls do a finger 'flick'.
THAT RUBBER COVER
After only a few days of activesyncing, I noticed the rubber cover on the USB port was starting to not close flush anymore. A bit of research turned up that it was an extremely common problem. So I bit the bullet and cut it off, but I cut it in a way that I could put it back on if I wanted, by slitting through one of the sections that anchors around the little pin, leaving the rubber in a hook shape to hold it in when needed. I tried putting it in the freezer for a time, but that seemed to have no effect, and I was already sick of pulling it off everytime I plugged it in to charge or whatever. So I trimmed that baby off, right next to the middle section, so that it was still held in at two points, but so that the USB port was now exposed. I then took the remaining bit and trimmed it right close to its anchor thing, and slotted it back as well. So now the USB port is exposed but none of the ugly holes which the rubber thing slotted into are. I shouldn't have to worry about wear (because I'm not taking it off all the time) or expansion bulging (because it has one free edge), and because of the way the curves sit it looks like a nicely recessed USB port. I'm not certain the tiny little piece will stay put, but if it falls off (and I can still find it) I could easily put a spot of glue on it - it doesn't look too bad without that little bit anyway. If I did it again I'd probably leave a little bit more rubber on the side closest to the centre, so that the USB port looks better centred in the hole. (see attached pic)
CLOSING THE CAMERA/ALBUM
I found that pressing the X on the camera only minimised it. Fortunately there's a registry tweak called ok_minimize which you can change to make it actually close the app.
IE
Internet explorer is a dog for scrolling big pages. Replace your webview.dll file and it's much better.
.lnk FOR 'PROGRAMS' FOLDER
If you make an .lnk to the programs folder normally, it opens in a file explorer window - not cool. The solution is to make it point to the HTC app 'folderview.exe' and it works a treat. 'Settings' is not so simple though. You can map to individual control panels but not the main one with them all in there. A bit of a weird one.
Anyway, all in all I can't wait to put my dual to work now that it's been primed and readied - my wishlist at the moment would be:
* map double/triple/hold functions to the phone keys
* get slideclose to send a 'close current app' command rather than just go back to today screen
* align clauncher to the bottom of today screen (easier to thumb, and looks neater)
* figure out an .lnk file for the 'settings' control panel (this seems surprisingly difficult - in fact I installed some software that remapped the start menu and I couldn't get into 'settings' to remove it!)
* find a taskmanager or utility that actually kills activesync while it's connected
* to get faster at typing with the dang half-qwerty keyboard!
* I reckon a taskswitcher that used the touchflo 'across' gesture to scroll between open apps would be really cool.
There you have it - hope some or all of that is actually helpful! Thanks to all you guys out there cooking ROMs, writing software and thinking outside the box.
Cheers
jbng
jesus christ are you competing for the longest post of the year award??
holy crap !! i read it from the very beginning and never read such a post before ..... well done dude !! and keep up posting ;-)
re : * find a taskmanager or utility that actually kills activesync while it's connected
i searched such a tool a long time ... never got something which lets me charge niki without syncing on the pc.
workaround: i placed the network connection of my niki on my xp taskbar . when i want to sync then i enable network connection - if not, disable . not the best solution , i know , however - it works and since then i got used to it.
cheers
I take my hat off for these post's! Great job man!
nice post, even better to know there are people out there that search for answers before posting question after question
jbngar said:
I found that pressing the X on the camera only minimised it. Fortunately there's a registry tweak called ok_minimize which you can change to make it actually close the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you try changing the setting in settings -> task manager -> button -> to end program by tapping x, works ok for me
WEEK 2
Week 2 of touch dual has been a whole lot of fun. I'm still looking for an absolute 'killer' of an app that will make anyone and everyone go 'oooh, aaaaah - that's SO much better than your o2 mini could ever do'... but I'm yet to come across it. The most impressive thing is the voice activation, but whenever I show someone and tell it to 'play track twenty' it always seems to try and 'ring jack henty' or something like that.
AEBUTTON PLUS
I thought I'd try a trial full version of AEButton plus. I began by mapping a double centre-nav press for 'ok/close' and several other cool things to the left and right nav buttons. Worked great, for a time, until I tried typing. It turns out the 'enter' key on the slider does exactly the same thing as the centre press, and so every time I'd make a new paragraph I'd close the window! Not to mention all the weird and wonderful things that would happen when I went to correct a mistake. Click back... click back... click and hold... and the screen is rotating and all sorts of applications are launching!
So I realised the reason that most button mappers don't let you map the nav keys.
The camera button had issues too - even though it was mapped to let a single press do the default action, it wouldn't take a photo. No good.
The red button wouldn't work for some reason either, I can't remember why, but all I know is that I was left with my button mappings on the green button only:
single press = default action, double press = ok, triple press = switch application, hold = close application.
3G, GSM, INTERNET and MMS
The big news this week was the arrival of my 3G sim card. Both of them. I'd ordered one from Optus about a week and a half ago with the promise of '2-3 days'. It didn't come so I rang again and was told 'there's no record of you being sent one, we'll send you another'. And they both arrived on the same day - one at work and one at home.
Then I rang at lunchtime thursday to activate it, and then spent most of the rest of the day restarting the phone to see if it had provisioned in the '15 minute to four hour' window they gave me. I ended up slipping the card into an old Nokia 3200 when I got sick of waiting for the dual to boot up and hang when it was looking for the network. The Nokia flashed up a much more informative 'sim card not registered' message, which it continued to flash up until I gave up late on Thursday night. But in the morning, wonder of wonders, it was working! My family breathed a sigh of relief because they didn't have to listen to the dodgy Nokia startup tune any more.
The first thing I did was try the internet and it performed very respectably. But MMS messages refused to work.
I made a couple of calls to Optus to get the settings and was told 'you have to enter them manually'. So I faffed around with that for ages. The problem seemed to be that MMS would work if 'mms' was the default setting, but then internet wouldn't work. If I changed the default to 'internet', then MMS stopped working. Rah!
Then I discovered in the connections settings an icon called 'network wizard'. I thought it was for WiFi or something. But after clicking it, selecting the provider and restarting, everything worked just fine! Thanks for the heads up, tech support guys! I'll be sending them an email shortly.
3G tends to use more battery, so I tried a tool called bandswitcher to easily change between GSM and 3G, but it didn't help my config problems. And I thought that if I lock it to GSM, if someone tries to video call me it won't work; and if I lock it to 3G, if I go out of coverage it won't switch over. So 'Auto' it was.
BLUETOOTH RANGE
The bluetooth range seems to be a bit paltry on the dual. I tried switching off 'secure connection' and it was marginally better, but I couldn't connect from the next room like I could with my o2. Once the connection is established it seems to be better, but I have to say activesync via bluetooth has been flakier than I'd like - with lots of dropouts etc.
KEYSWOP
Try as I might, the shortcut path '\windows\poutlook.exe calendar -new' that was working for 'new appointment' on the touchflo cube would not map to the right softkey using the registry. So I found a free utility called 'keyswop' which makes .lnk files and helps you to map them to the softkeys. So everything in the software side of the touchflo cube is now in clauncher, a softkey or something else:
* New SMS/MMS/email - open keyboard, press first few letters of name, press 'send message'
* New appointment - press right softkey, enter details
* New note - open notes from clauncher, press left softkey
* IE/comm manager - clauncher icons
CLAUNCHER
Speaking of Clauncher, since last week I now have 15 icons (3 rows of 5) and less screens. It's very seldom that my appointments push it off the bottom of the screen, and if they do it's easily scrollable.
Further to my last investigations about needing to access the options via the today settings control panel to get the keyboard, I've found that you ALSO have to use the bog standard WM6 'keyboard' option - the other HTC keyboards will only give numbers. This seems to be the case in some other applications like Visnotes too. Visnotes is an awesome free application for storing encrypted numbers like bank accounts etc which uses an innovative 'password' - you press three times on a picture in preset places.
TYPING and XT9
I tried out an application called 'touchpal' which advertised itself as 'typing faster than a hardware keyboard'. But I think the dual's 2.6" screen is just a bit small for it to be effective. I've decided to stick with the half-qwerty keyboard and just keep practicing - and it seems to be paying off. My goal is to get to the stage where I can type without looking at the keys with either two hands or one.
XT9 is actually incredibly intelligent software. It uses complex algorithms based on what keys were near the one you actually typed, and combines them with its dictionaries to guess what you were trying to type. And it does very, very well. Anything that can guess the word 'friend' from the keystrokes 'ddeuabd' or 'thorough' from 'ggoedoujgg' is pretty darn clever.
The issue I had was that the default keyboard kept going back to 'ABC' aka multitap. This was fixed by switching the registry key CarrierDefaultTextMode as outlined here:
http://www.ppcsg.com/index.php?showtopic=97265
A couple of other xt9 tips:
* I found I had to use thumbnails (not thumbs) for the keys to avoid double pressing etc.
* For two handed entry, the 'Alt' key is quickest to access numbers and symbols on the top of the keys. For one handed entry, pressing and holding does the same thing.
* every so often XT9 uses a strange default word. My issues were 'boy' for 'not', and 'st' for 'at'. You can fix this by typing and selecting the word you want three times in a row. This seems to 'teach' it and sets it as the first word it chooses each time.
* the first row of symbols can be quickly accessed by holding down * and the relevant number (e.g. *7 will give you a smiley).
I *wish* there was some way to change the symbol matrix. The first three in the first row are already on hardware keys (.,?!) and the next ones are smileys. I would like to at least put a hyphen in the top row so I could access it without leaving the hardware keyboard. I've found the easiest way to enter symbols is to scroll to the row and use their numbers.
ACB TASKMAN
This software tells you which actual PROCESSES you are running. Quite useful. I used it to close down AEButtonPlus when it was mucking up.
I think that's about it for now - the main outstanding issues are still a shortcut to the settings control panel, and a way to align clauncher to the bottom of the today screen.
Otherwise, enjoy!
PS. A fun app I found is called 'guesser' - it basically gives you random numbers for all sorts of things like heads/tails, yes/no, agree/disagree, A/B/C/D, alphabet, 1-100 etc. We were with some friends the other night and everyone picked a number between 1 and 100 and the winner was the first one to have guesser pick their number. Fun in a bizarre kind of way...
Blimey, Claunch is nice, but I swapped to Ultimate Launch, just for the Today plugins within Tabs and animations, plus lots of Icons for it. If you do swap, remove cLaunch first as it buggered up my UL when I removed it afterwards.
Hi guys,
I am using Titanium as my default GUI and was wondering if there is a way to make the clock panel sort of "default", meaning that if you return to the home screen from an application or from the start menu, whatever panel was active (expanded) the clock will expand and the other panels will "condense" (cpr file language, I'm sure you all know it already).
There is this app floating around that will refresh the home screen. It's called CHomeRefresh.exe and if run it will expand the clock panel even if the active panel was another one and also some threads here talk about the refresh of today screen in detail - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=533788 .
To sum it up, I wonder if it's possible to:
- refresh CHome screen when it is activated (start>home or when returning from an application, etc)?
- refresh CHome every 10 seconds if no other window covers it, so in case some panel was active and left like that, the clock panel to become active => a more elegant look of the Titanium GUI?
I know this is tricky and involves a good knowledge of winmo internals, but I'm eager to read some answers from the knowledgeable guys here. I'm sure I'll get some "can do" answers.
Thanks.
Perhaps this could help: the system already has a no-activity timer when it dimms light after a specified time. Could that mechanism be triggered to activate a CHomeRefresh if the start page is active (no other window covers it)?
I am no programmer and I so rely on you coders as Titanium interface is pretty dull and needs needs a more consistent looks.