Database Users

converting apps to VGA using res2exe

Ok, I have an obsession to get a VGA resolution web browser right now on my MDA PRO. The only thing I came up is using an MS developer tool called res2exe and using with existing Internet explorer or Opera. I have seen a post where the user has I guess recompiled the opera broweser with res2exe, however to do this you need Visual studio.net and the Windows mobile SDK.
would anyone be able to give me a hand on how to do this in plain english? Alternatively would anyone be able to post the recompiled exe ?
I dont think I can rest until I get a VGA browser !
Cmon guys this must be on the top of everyones list?
p.s the best thing MDA owners can do is flash with the IMATE ROM, the T Mobile ROM is the biggest pile of cack and the UI customisation is awful.

jackson_112 said:
I dont think I can rest until I get a VGA browser !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope so... I'm dying to get one working myself. They just recently released a new version of Minimo and it has full VGA support, but it's painfully slow on my Jasjar... looks beautiful, though.
I spent some time trying to get Pocket IE to run in VGA mode, but the problem is that it technically *does* run in VGA mode... the fonts and larger graphics are displayed in VGA. For some completely stupid reason though, it quadruples the size of smaller graphics... this prevents web sites from displaying properly and keeps us from getting as much as we want on the screen at once.
The Opera for smartphones that some people have gotten working doesn't interest me at all because it doesn't support the touchscreen. I'd rather browse in non-vga mode than loose the touchscreen.
Right now, most of the time I just deal with Pocket IE as is. If I need to do a lot of browsing I'll use the registry hack to enable VGA mode on my Jasjar and use Pocket IE that way... which does support VGA mode the way it should. Unfortunately it requires a soft reset to get into VGA mode and a soft reset to get out of it, plus there are problems with a lot of other programs when the device is in VGA mode, so it's not a pretty solution.
Brett

jackson_112 said:
I dont think I can rest until I get a VGA browser !
Cmon guys this must be on the top of everyones list?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't agree more - I was stunned when browsing didn't feel any better than my XDA, and it took a bit of time to understand what was going on. I really don't understand why Opera is not doing an WM5 version. I've got my money ready to pay the SECOND someone comes up with a VGA browser for us.

which vga hack?
Brett, I agree with your comments. Can someone point me in the right direction of the jasjar VGA hack ? these seems to be a number of them.
I am sure this has been covered, but the annoying size of the friggin soft buttons bar/menu bar at the bottom of the screen is such a waste of our new found screen real estate. the bar could be smaller. or at least should be able to hide. ......this is not a fair comprmise between screen estate and menu navigation.

Re: which vga hack?
jackson_112 said:
Can someone point me in the right direction of the jasjar VGA hack ? these seems to be a number of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any of the ones for WM2003 (SEVGA, OZVGA, or simply editing the registry) work to get the Jasjar into VGA mode. The problem is that as of right now, no one has figured how to get WM5 to display icons correctly in VGA mode. You lose all of the symbols at the top of the screen that show signal strength and connection status and such, and the icons displayed on the today screen and in Programs don't actually apply to the programs that they're associated with. Some programs (such as contacts and calculator) simply refuse to run in VGA mode, so it's not something that works as a full time solution. However, Pocket IE does run in VGA mode, and when it's in VGA mode it doesn't do any of the horrible image stretching that it does in 'normal' mode. That's why I go back and forth ocassionally. There's another thread here that was started by Rilot that talks about this a bit more.
I am sure this has been covered, but the annoying size of the friggin soft buttons bar/menu bar at the bottom of the screen is such a waste of our new found screen real estate. the bar could be smaller. or at least should be able to hide. ......this is not a fair comprmise between screen estate and menu navigation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would love anyone who could figure out how to shrink those buttons... that's something that's also been bothering me.
Brett

WisbarAdvanceDesktop kills the buttons.
Thanks for the Rilot link - I'll track it down now. I tried ozVGA and my screen wouldn't respond to any taps.

craigiecraigie4 said:
WisbarAdvanceDesktop kills the buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does is provide some other way to access those functions? The messaging app, for example, needs those buttons... I was hoping for something that could just shrink them
Thanks for the Rilot link - I'll track it down now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you haven't found it yet, here's the link...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=28169
I tried ozVGA and my screen wouldn't respond to any taps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used ozVGA on my Jasjar and had no problems with screen taps... there may have been something else going on with your machine.
Brett

And there was me content with going into the IE menu and setting text to smallest

[ConnState V1.3] Connection State plugin - Localization added

Maybe someone could find this interesting...
While I find cumbersome to find out the (for instance) IP addresses assigned to the device, or frustrating when Internet Explorer cannot find any web page because the current connection is the WRONG one...
... I ended up writing my own Today Screen plugin to display more information on the active connection. Yeah, I know this is not quite a "common" requirement, but maybe someone finds it useful... or even can suggest further improvements - that will be of course welcome!
I've attached some screenshots of it running on both a WM5 emulator and my real Hermes running WM6 - thanks Schap!
Please, feel free to use it, redistribute it, add to a ROM kitchen, or cook it into any ROM...
Updated August, 13th...
More changes with the 1.3 version. Now localization has been added. I'm currently shipping this version with English (native) and Spanish languages. I've also added a ZIP file with a little document where you can find instructions to localize/translate ConnState to your preferred language and a template localization file for English.
Hasta la vista!!!!
Version History:
V1.0
First version released.
V1.1
VGA screen support added (enough to make it usable)
V1.2
Completed VGA screen support.
Added expand/collapse button - per popular request
V1.3
Localization support. ConnState currently ships in English and Spanish languages.

Thanks!!! Good work.

Thanks, PPCNUT... now let's see if someone likes it!!

dpduser said:
Maybe someone could find this interesting...
While I find cumbersome to find out the (for instance) IP addresses assigned to the device, or frustrating when Internet Explorer cannot find any web page because the current connection is the WRONG one...
... I ended up writing my own Today Screen plugin to display more information on the active connection. Yeah, I know this is not quite a "common" requirement, but maybe someone finds it useful... or even can suggest further improvements - that will be of course welcome!
I've attached some screenshots of it running on both a WM5 emulator and my real Hermes running WM6 - thanks Schap!
Please, feel free to use it, redistribute it, add to a ROM kitchen, or cook it into any ROM...
Hasta la vista!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, man... Great work.
One sugestion, you can make the plug-in shorter, or with + icon to show all the info, to save today space
Regards.

jcespi2005 said:
One sugestion, you can make the plug-in shorter, or with + icon to show all the info, to save today space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course... in fact, why didn't I think about that in first place? :$ I was thinking about leaving the plugin "collapsed" (the size of "no connection") and add a right-hand minibutton that expands the thing up to its size... And even allow tapping you on it to open another window with full details on the connection...
This weekend will be fun
Thanks alot for your comments!!!

This is actually very nice work and I would use it, once you were able to condense it into a smaller amount of space.

Dont work in VGA screen (
(tested on Universal WM6)
Hope you fix it soon.

Nice. I would definitely use this if it was 'shorter'

Totally not for noobs but if you are are a road warrior, or on the road a lot sniffing WiFi hotspots then this is really a great add on!

thanks a lot.

dpduser said:
Of course... in fact, why didn't I think about that in first place? :$ I was thinking about leaving the plugin "collapsed" (the size of "no connection") and add a right-hand minibutton that expands the thing up to its size... And even allow tapping you on it to open another window with full details on the connection...
This weekend will be fun
Thanks alot for your comments!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks to you for make this piece of software
Regards.

New Version! - VGA screen support!!
Mountain King said:
Dont work in VGA screen (
(tested on Universal WM6)
Hope you fix it soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, man... As I wrote it for myself, I tend to "hardcode" certain things Now, version 1.1 supports VGA screens.
Check first post for updates - and thanks!

New version 1.2
jcespi2005 said:
One sugestion, you can make the plug-in shorter, or with + icon to show all the info, to save today space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maevro said:
This is actually very nice work and I would use it, once you were able to condense it into a smaller amount of space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
blitzwurst said:
Nice. I would definitely use this if it was 'shorter'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To all of you that took the time to try this little toy, I have just released version 1.2. Take a look at the first post with the new CAB and screenshots.
Thanks all for your comments and suggestions!
Cheers!

improvement suggestion
would it be possible to display the proxy info? this would be very useful for the Cingular users (pie does not work via cell connection without proxy and wifi does not work with proxy). thanks

dpduser said:
To all of you that took the time to try this little toy, I have just released version 1.2. Take a lot at the first post with the new CAB and screenshots.
Thanks all for your comments and suggestions!
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, man.... i'll give a try later... Congratulations

Nice one, @dpduser - that's staying on my Today screen!!!
As it's a today screen plugin, can you make the Options button in the today screen configuration give us access to the things we wanna see displayed in the plugin?? I'm thinking of having the MAC addresss displayed, but wouldn't necessarily want it all the time - same goes for the connection being used; if I'm at home, then I'm usually using Wi-Fi.....you catch my drift??
Sorry if I'm talking out of turn, just my $0.02 You can probably tell, I'm not a programmer, just a netadmin with a deathwish
Mark.

VGA rocks!!!
It would be nice to have localization support in 1.3 release.
Please confirm it
Regards,
Mountain King

Feedback & ongoing work
First, thanks to all of you that took the time to play with ConnState!!
For the "improvements" part, and as I have read from your feedback:
- Regarding an "Options" dialog to configure somewhat more "advanced" features, yes, I'm working on it - It just takes a little longer than expected because now I'm trying to do a more compatible component, that must support QVGA & VGA screens and has to do so both in portrait and landscape orientations (if you do it, do it right, isn't it? ) BTW... anyone out there with a SQUARE screen device?
- MAC addresses? Yeah, I guess it's feasible... I'll try to add both MAC & PAN addresses. Not obvious, somewhat tricky but absolutely feasible!
- Show proxy information: regarding this, I was amazed at how tricky it is to discover the current proxy configuration for a connection! In first place I have to deal with WM's Provisioning and do that in XML (so an XML parser has to be placed in!)
- Localization!! Of course YES!!! Now I have two options to do it: one could be to maintain a single .DLL with embedded resources in a variety of languages or I could build a number of different DLLs each one built for a language... Hmmmm... Currently deciding on it!! I can do both Spanish and English versions... What languages are required? Would you, nice people, help me localizing this?

dpduser said:
First, thanks to all of you that took the time to play with ConnState!!
For the "improvements" part, and as I have read from your feedback:
- Regarding an "Options" dialog to configure somewhat more "advanced" features, yes, I'm working on it - It just takes a little longer than expected because now I'm trying to do a more compatible component, that must support QVGA & VGA screens and has to do so both in portrait and landscape orientations (if you do it, do it right, isn't it? ) BTW... anyone out there with a SQUARE screen device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
dpduser said:
- MAC addresses? Yeah, I guess it's feasible... I'll try to add both MAC & PAN addresses. Not obvious, somewhat tricky but absolutely feasible!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
dpduser said:
- Show proxy information: regarding this, I was amazed at how tricky it is to discover the current proxy configuration for a connection! In first place I have to deal with WM's Provisioning and do that in XML (so an XML parser has to be placed in!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have no idea for this feature.
dpduser said:
- Localization!! Of course YES!!! Now I have two options to do it: one could be to maintain a single .DLL with embedded resources in a variety of languages or I could build a number of different DLLs each one built for a language... Hmmmm... Currently deciding on it!! I can do both Spanish and English versions... What languages are required? Would you, nice people, help me localizing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm Vietnamese so that I like to see my mother language display on my PPC.
In addition, it'd be cool if I could translate the localization file by Notepad without creating a DLL file (just like Spb does).
http://www.spbclub.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10&sid=9f9d1e650a54130db66bea3db2dd9ad0
If you need translator (in Vietnamese of course ), feel free to write me. I will help you with pleasure.
Keep up the Good work!
Thanks
Mountain King

Installed, working great on Hermes, except the today plug-in isn't activated by default after install. Maybe this is because of the variety of devices enabling the today-plugins, i don't know.
What does CorrentDTPTNetwork mean?

Skyfire 1.0 Released

Skyfire 1.0 Released Today:
What’s new in Skyfire 1.0
Improvements specific to the Skyfire 1.0 release include enhanced navigation,
zooming and interaction as well as faster launch, power optimization, and new search functionality. Having previously delivered rich media and text readability on a small screen, the focus of this latest release was helping users get to the
content they want more quickly.
As the new version starts-up, users can type a search or URL in the Superbar
even while Skyfire is connecting in the network. After a web page loads, smooth scrolling and zooming – similar to an iPhone – helps users navigate the page more quickly. Likewise, now users can click on links on the first page load
without having to zoom first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to install this myself and I will report back shortly on whether or not they've made the jump to true VGA.
UPDATE: Skyfire has NOT gone true VGA, it is still a QVGA image stretched to VGA... Quite disappointing... The load time however does seem to be greatly reduced...
NOTE: See page 2 (post 12) for solution to
error finding authentication service.
please try again later
(10.100.120.130_3006)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

wow, great!!
I gonna try soon.
Thanks for sharing and reporting.
Best Regards

mine keeps saying:
error finding authentication service.
please try again later
(10.100.120.130_3006)
anyone else getting this?

Ganondolf said:
mine keeps saying:
error finding authentication service.
please try again later
(10.100.120.130_3006)
anyone else getting this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
odd, the 10.x.x.x block is reserved for class a internal addresses (similar to the 192.x.x.x block for class c), I wonder what it expects to connect to...

jhw549 said:
odd, the 10.x.x.x block is reserved for class a internal addresses (similar to the 192.x.x.x block for class c), I wonder what it expects to connect to...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried it over wifi and data, same message. turns off browser after u press ok on the message.
tried opera and it connected fine + have weather update and emails going to my phone.

yep don't work for my network and/or area too. This happened in previous version too. IMG]http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif[/IMG]
Best Regards

Ganondolf said:
mine keeps saying:
error finding authentication service.
please try again later
(10.100.120.130_3006)
anyone else getting this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup same thing here also.

Ganondolf said:
tried it over wifi and data, same message. turns off browser after u press ok on the message.
tried opera and it connected fine + have weather update and emails going to my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried a soft-reset?

What a piece of crap, no true vga or wvga resolution, can't work via activesync with a immediate termination of the browser ... lolol great for a v1.0 release...

onesolo said:
What a piece of crap, no true vga or wvga resolution, can't work via activesync with a immediate termination of the browser ... lolol great for a v1.0 release...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope it isn't the first release. I tried all ( 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4....... ) versions and none were worked in my area.

jhw549 said:
Have you tried a soft-reset?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes tried it, no change.
went to the offical forum and they tell u to close the program then delete the prefs file in application data and restart to fix it but dont work for me.
i have a sony x1 and i live in the uk (o2)

Had the same problem as well. Found a solution on the Skyfire forum.
Go into:
applications data/skyfire and rename the file "pref" to "_pref"
now restart Skyfire and it should work fine.
There seems to be a problem with the autorouting code which should detect which country the phone is currently in.
Hope this helps.

hanhha2000 said:
Had the same problem as well. Found a solution on the Skyfire forum.
Go into:
applications data/skyfire and rename the file "pref" to "_pref"
now restart Skyfire and it should work fine.
There seems to be a problem with the autorouting code which should detect which country the phone is currently in.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot, this works for me

hanhha2000 said:
Had the same problem as well. Found a solution on the Skyfire forum.
Go into:
applications data/skyfire and rename the file "pref" to "_pref"
now restart Skyfire and it should work fine.
There seems to be a problem with the autorouting code which should detect which country the phone is currently in.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its working now thanks. first impressions is that its fast but the picture quality is poor (wvga device)

CRACING said:
nope it isn't the first release. I tried all ( 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4....... ) versions and none were worked in my area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't said that it was the first release, but about the version 1.0
Thkx for the above fix. Now skyfire works
Is this browser based on firefox?? When I try to add an rss feed, it uses the same layout like in desktop FF

Not in the least bit, Fennec is the closest you'll get to Firefox on PPC, the closest working thing (and I used the term working loosely) is minimo...

jhw549 said:
Not in the least bit, Fennec is the closest you'll get to Firefox on PPC, the closest working thing (and I used the term working loosely) is minimo...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Skyfire uses Firefox on their servers to render things, or at least the Gecko engine.
As for the browser, though, I'm more and more disappointed. While it was my only real option on my old Q9H, on the VGA Fuze, everything in 1.0 looks blurrier than it did in the previous release and 0.9 wasn't exactly sharp either.

bangbang023 said:
Skyfire uses Firefox on their servers to render things, or at least the Gecko engine.
As for the browser, though, I'm more and more disappointed. While it was my only real option on my old Q9H, on the VGA Fuze, everything in 1.0 looks blurrier than it did in the previous release and 0.9 wasn't exactly sharp either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because the app is rendered in QVGA resolution then stretched to VGA, what you're looking at is 4 VGA pixels for every 1 QVGA pixel it would normally display. It IS still the best solution to the "How do I use flash sites on my PPC?" question...

The Good:
It's fast
Plays Flash
The Bad:
QVGA resolution only.
No tabbed browsing.
Bookmarks apparently need to be manually typed in.
Menu size is small (in general not finger friendly)
Zoom is clunky (default zoom is too small, max zoom is too small, zoom works by button presses instead of slider)
I'll stick with opera and my dedicated YouTube app for now.

Good looking out for this, wasn't able to get the 1.0 cab from get.skyfire.com

How to get the real ENGADGET on Opera 10 (solution)

Hi guys I was very frustrated every time I want to read Engadget on the new opera mobile 10 without using Turbo mode. I spend lot of time looking for a solution trying to spoof agent and others but no way to get the real version...instead everytime I get a text only version for wap devices.
Finally I found the solution:
In opera10 goto to the web page "OPERA:CONFIG"
goto NETWORK and scroll down for "HTTP Accept"
there put this text:
text/html, application/xml;q=0.9, application/xhtml+xml, image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, */*;q=0.1, application/youtube-client, application/x-obml2d, multipart/mixed
PS:This solution can be a workarround to others sites with the same problem too.
I hope this will be usefull to someone

it's a pain in the ass typing it all, but it's worth it thanx for the tip. now if there would be a fix for the text flow/break

My biggest issue is the crap zoom (needs at least a zoombar if pinch to zoom isn't an option) and camera not working with Opera running in the background.
Also, for engadget (I'm on there all the time), you can just scroll down and hit view desktop/full version. Also, you can add something like ?m=false (it's not that exactly, and I can't check it at the moment) and it will change the default mobile version to the full version.
However if your tweak works for all sites, then hats of to you! And I need to get on that later tonight.

You dont need to type it!
connect your HD2 to activesync, and go to the folder where you installed opera 10, got to the folder profile and then edit the file "Opera.ini" (in my case it is \Storage Card\program files\Opera Mobile 10\profile\opera.ini)
There, under [Network] add the text like this:
[Network]
HTTP Accept=text/html, application/xml;q=0.9, application/xhtml+xml, image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif, image/x-bitmap, */*;q=0.1, application/youtube-client, multipart/mixed
Save the file to the HD2 and that is
(I first do this the hard way...typing all in the HD2 grrr)

Svegetto said:
My biggest issue is the crap zoom (needs at least a zoombar if pinch to zoom isn't an option) and camera not working with Opera running in the background.
Also, for engadget (I'm on there all the time), you can just scroll down and hit view desktop/full version. Also, you can add something like ?m=false (it's not that exactly, and I can't check it at the moment) and it will change the default mobile version to the full version.
However if your tweak works for all sites, then hats of to you! And I need to get on that later tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true but only for the first page cause a bug on engadget dont remember the option and when you go to the "older post" its all text again.

shu8i said:
it's a pain in the ass typing it all, but it's worth it thanx for the tip. now if there would be a fix for the text flow/break
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you gimme a page with the text flow/break problem? I will try to find a solution to that too. (still none of the pages I usually go show this bug)

Thanks Shagratt.
BTW, to everyone worried about entering all that text, most of it is already there as the default, all you have to do is add the last part listed below to the end and save.
, application/x-obml2d, multipart/mixed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

xeebot said:
Thanks Shagratt.
BTW, to everyone worried about entering all that text, most of it is already there as the default, all you have to do is add the last part listed below to the end and save.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly, I think the most important one is removing the wap part (engadget must use this to detect mobile devices), but in my opera mobile 10 there was only a empty space, so I have to write all.

shagratt said:
Can you gimme a page with the text flow/break problem? I will try to find a solution to that too. (still none of the pages I usually go show this bug)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's present on almost every page.

Opera 9.7

I'm not sure if this has been already. covered... but i don't know exactly what to call it... but when i browse using opera.. and use eitherpinch to zoom or the double tap... the page on the screen starts shaking and moving.... like it jumps from one part of the page to another... has there been any fixes or tweaks to at least reduce it? and also do you guys even know what I'm talking about... thanks

hmm... can someone at least tell me the proper name for what i am experiencing so that i can research it myself?

let me answer your question. this problem is caused by text reflow. Period. thats it. that is the answer. you try to zoom on something,you get there, but then the screen jumps all the way to the left for some reason/ yeah. that is reflow at work. and it sucks.
i tried to find a way to disable it for many many days. re-bumping my thread again and again.
there is a way to disable reflow, but it comes at the cost of ugly webpages. usually text are aligned in a way that is not natural.
Search my threads. I am still trying to find a way, but I hoped i answered your question.
let me know if you find something better. =)

You need to download the newest build of Opera 9.7 from this forum. I have build 3600, and it is very smooth. Pinch-to-zoom works properly, text reflow doesnt cause the web page to jump all over the place either.
The update is just an exe file that you overwrite in the Windows directory.

try this. Worked wonders for me

I'm using the 3600 build as well, it's still not perfect in regards to the jumping but it is massively improved.

cj2566 said:
try this. Worked wonders for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly does this cab fix cj ?

Marct77 said:
What exactly does this cab fix cj ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would like to know as well. you say opera fixeS.what are the fixes?

I second that... would like to know first what the cab does before I install... although I do appreciate the help..everyone answers helped..thanks

ProjektFuze said:
I second that... would like to know first what the cab does before I install... although I do appreciate the help..everyone answers helped..thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this installed as well. Its is a conbination of registry hacks to improve the smoothness of Opera. But the main tweak is to change the virtual screen size to 1024 pixels wide. Although you would need to change it to 1020 pixels to ensure that double-tap continues to work in portrait view.
The cab previously posted comes from this thread and page: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=627441&page=6
Here is another link for Opera Smooth tweaks, which I also installed: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=626157
Maybe a combination of the above and build 3600 will change your opinion...