Application Request: TodayStats - Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General

Short version:
I got a little out of hand with this post, so a quick summary:
I'm looking for a developer for, or a PIM application which keeps custom set variables on the today screen, with easy access to modifying them, and in addition allows automatic calculations based on these variables, which can also be displayed on the today screen. Idealy, these numbers can be stored in a calendar interface whenever they are modified to make it easier to see their progression over time, but this is not essential. I can donate around 20 dollars to start.
Long Version:
I'm essentially looking to replace a tool that I have used for far to long, that takes up much more space than my phone. I am willing to donate to anyone willing to make this sort of app, but all in all, I think it's something everyone can benefit from.
I have this 'Pink Book' that I use to keep track of things, eating habits, spending habits, something I might need to be doing every day, etc. To do this, every day I will draw out a box and put the things from the day inside. What I weighed in, progressively added calories, if I exercised, if I spent more than 25 dollars on something, how much money I should have in my bank account, how many hours I was actually clocked in at work; you get the drift. I'd like to get rid of this book in favor of software.
The general idea would to be able to set an (infinite) number of variables with certain properties, and display them on the today screen. This application would need some sort of calendar backend. Idealy, a calander view could display numbers over the day based on a variable selected from a dropdown above the calendar.
These are the types of things that we would want this app to support.
Creating a variable:
~A variable~
Variable name:_______
Short name:____ (for calculations or today screen)
Icon:___ Associate an icon with the stat for the calendar and today screen, I can make stock icons for this.
Initial ammount:______
Type: (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, Infinite, etc: this determines, how often this variable is reset to the starting ammount; however, the data is always kept and stored on days that it is changed for review. This option exists for the sake of counts such as hours exercised in a day, bus rides in a month, bill payments in a month etc.)
Show on today? X
Meter? X (Display a meter on the today screen with a maximum and minimum)
Meter Maximum:___
Meter Minimum:___
Plus/Minus? (Plus,Minus,Both,None : A quick button that would appear next to the variable on the today screen, for quick addition or subtraction to the variable.)
Ammount: (The ammount that the quick buttons would move the plus and minus keys. for example, quickly adding 400 calories to a calorie counter, as the average small meal.)
~A note~
This would use the calendar backend to keep a note in your stats screen. A daily task or reminder. Or, we could also add more functions to the variable interface to make up for this, such as hiding a stat on the today screen if it meets a certain maximum; so a note would instead be a variable that displays no number, starts at 0, and will disapear if we make it 1. Example uses, pay the bill for this month; have you exercised today?; I guess this functionality is in WM tasks, but it would be nice to have in a central app.
~A calculation~
For advanced things, such as multiple bank account balances, here we could have something that is not recorded on every change, but will use simple math, addition, subtraction, devision, multiplication, to solve certain things that you might need to know often. For example, we stack these together to make a calculation for 'Your Next Paycheck' by making one calculation 'weekly pay bt(hours worked*current pay) and using this calculation with (weekly pay bt*.66) to adjust for Income Tax. Short names would be used for calculations.
Modifying a variable:
Idealy, the plus and minus buttons for the today plugin should be sufficient for every day use, but there are times when we need to get nitty gritty and change things thoroughly and precisely, plus and minus don't always work for that, so by taping the variable on the today screen, we should have a popup or full window for entering the exact ammount. we can use this as a place for a finger friendly dialog as well, by using a simple calculator style interface.
+,- 1234567890 <-. If plus or minus is not defined, it will set the absolute number.
While the calendar function is not entirely necessary, it would be helpful, but overall, the only things that matter are the ability to set a number to a name, calculate variables, and have a number reset after a certain repetition.
I can put down about 20 dollars at the moment, but I hope someone can whip something up or find something like this, as I'm sure the core idea of this is something that EVERYONE can use to keep track of SOMETHING. :3
Thank you for your time!

Related

converter program (finger friendly) need suggestions

Hi wanted to create my first program..
right now Im trying to make a unit converter that is finger friendly..
so far I've tested it and here is what I have so far..
any suggestions? regarding the buttons positions, the interface, etc?
thanks
Hi Providense,
Looks good so far.
Do you have a development schedule as to what it will convert?
Keep it up.
John
Provedence,
It seems that some people like to have a configuration facility.
So perhaps some suggestions:-
Favorites so that the list can be tailored to favorites for that person to save a more compact list of 'things to convert'
I would be happy to have any theme for now but cooks may prefer to add there own theme.
I have used this type of function with calculator type programs but they can become unweildy so one that is specific would be usefull.
Thanks
John
thanks Johny1fin
as of now these are the things i've done
Temperature:
degree Celsius
degree Fahreheit
degree Rankine
degree Reaumur
kelvin
Acceleration: (still doing it right now)
centigal
centimeter/square second
decigal
decimeter/square second
dekameter/square second
foot/square second
g-unit(G)
gal
galileo
gn
grav
hectometer/square second
inch/square second
kilometer/hour second
kilomter/square second
meter/square second
mile/hour minute
mile/hour second
mile/square second
milligal
millimeter/square second
still a long way to go. But the Acceleration should be done by today.
Then I'll add Area, Date/Time and etc
I like the idea of favorites. I'll see if i can implement that. Im still a beginner at programming. Using VB.net 2003 right now
oh by the way. Here's the main menu, where I will put all the buttons
providence said:
Hi wanted to create my first program..
right now Im trying to make a unit converter that is finger friendly..
so far I've tested it and here is what I have so far..
any suggestions? regarding the buttons positions, the interface, etc?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Providence,
It may be a limitation of the APIs but could the vertical scroll buttons be next to each other horizontally rather than vertically as this may produce larger buttons?
John
Look nice.. however, on the finger friendly issue, you may want to avoid the scroll list (on your first screenshot) and have another screen for the choice of (say) different temperature units. Something like, making a screen (of your second shot) for temperature units. If you get what i'm trying to say
thanks for the feedbacks i've changed how the scrolling works. Now im using a custom button for that.
Looking good providence
I am not sure if you like this idea, but I think it will be more useful if you can add:
- Currency converter
- Currency quick view (to view several currencies at once)
There is an example of a very nice and complete project with source code here:
http://www.codeproject.com/netcf/PocketCurrency.asp
Add option to have automatic currency update as well
[ x ] Update when connected to ActiveSync
[ x ] Automatic update every X hours
hi, well the main idea was to create a finger based Unit conversion program. To add Currency Converter would be a challenge for myself.
Since first of all, Currency changes daily, so there must be a way to update it. Secondly, im still learning how to program by self teaching myself on my free time.
By the way, Here's the latest screenshot of the program.
I fixed the buttons so its easier to use.
unfortunately, this will only work on PDAphones and not on smartphones. Since you'll need to use the touch screen as input method.
Here is an idea, as mentioned by one of the post above, instead of stacking your scroll button up and down, it may save you that more space if you were to stack them left and right.
From what it seems, the < and > , are buttons, which you use it to 'affect' your lists. If you were to (example) sandwish your list in between these two buttons, you would save like another 2 button height. Example.
Currently, you have the layout
Code:
. item1 <
. item2
. item3 >
. item4
if you can just do this (which is possible in VC, not sure about VB), instead
Code:
< .item1 >
.item2
So, instead of 4 item height, you are now only left with 2 items height.
ahh i see..
I tried doing it
< item 1 >
item 2
but i find it harder to navigate, since when you go back you have to drag your finger across the other side of the screen. And while doing that, you are blocking the item list with your finger.
I dont need to save space, i think i got everything in there..
by the way, here's the test i took
then again, if i put them on the sides, it makes easier for those who are left handed as well
The spaces you save, may able you to bloat up the keypad below.. from what it seems, now they are on the 'flat' side of it.
If you think the "left-list-right" is not very finger friendly, you can try the "list-left-right"? That is
.item1 < >
.item2
Hi thanks for the suggestions..
right now here is what i have, and will probably be the final change in the button positioning..
i got big fingers and I can use them without stylus.
Should have a pre-alpha version ready soon. As of now I've done temperatures and acceleration.
Will add more soon

Pedometer using Diamond's built in Accelerometer

=========================================
3/14/2009 Pedometer 1.42 is released.
What's new:
--Fixed "InvalidCastException" error for non-english regional setting.
NOTE:
1) If you want to keep your old jogging data, and customized sound file and background file, you need to save the "pedometer.sdf", "background.jpg", and "StepSound.wav" files, install the new version, then copy back these files to \program files\elitemway\pedometer folder.
2) !!! The pedometer is designed to count relatively accurately when you carry the phone vertically or horizontally around you left or right side of your waist belt. It may give you wrong result if carry your phone otherwise. Step detection algorithm that can handle all carrying position and walking/running conditions is very complicated and is beyond my knowledge. Step length and Calories conversion are unique for each individual and walking condition. There is no way that this can be very accurate. You may adjust these values in the "Setting" screen. The application is not globalized yet. Like all other xda developers, I have to find spare time working on this project. Thank you for your understanding!
==================================================
3/12/2009 Pedometer 1.41 patch is released.
What's new:
--Fixed the version number.
--When you set the distance unit to "mile", it still displays the distance value as km. This bug is fixed in the patch.
Copy the attached zipped exe to elitemway\pedometer folder, override the existing one.
12/25/2008 Pedometer 1.4 is released. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
What's new:
--The pedometer should also work when carrying in horizontal position. Please report if the counting is accurate enough.
--Added "Show toolbar" setting so that you can choose whether to show the toolbar on the main screen.
12/16/2008 Pedometer 1.3 is released.
What's new:
--Added battery threshhold setting. The program will pause pedometer, automatically save the current progress and then allow device to go into standby mode based on the Power setting when battery level falls below a certain value.
--Relocate the buttons from the main screen to menu.
--Display battery status on the main screen.
--You can change the background by replacing the default "Background.jpg" file.
12/15/2008 Pedometer 1.2 is released.
What's new:
--Step detection is a little bit better. It still has a lot of room for improvement though.
--While Pedometer is running, the screen will dim, but will not standby.
--The "Hide" button not only turns off the screen, it can also prevent the device from going into stanby mode. So you can let it run in the background for a long time. If you want to keep it running, do not use the Power button, instead using the Hide button.
--Pause button stops both time and step count. It will also stop the timer. So when it is paused, the device can be in the standby mode to save battery.
--I let it run around 7 hrs in office environment with fully charged batterry (1350mAh), with Blackberry connect and a few emails, no step sound, I still had about 45% left at the end.
--You can mute the step sound from the main screen.
--Now it has the HTC Diamond black transparent background. See the screenshot.
--The default step sound is shorter and "big foot" like. You can customize the sound by replace the default "StepSound.wav" file (do not use anything above 0.2 sec). Nero 8 wave editor and other tool is good for sound editing.
--Added error handling for possible decimal conversion error due to different regional setting. As a workaround, you can probably change you regional setting to English, then run the application, finish the setting, then change it back.
12/13/2008 Pedometer Release 1.0 summary
I searched extensively for a pedometer application that works on Diamond, but could not find anything. So I created one.
--It uses HTC Touch Diamond's built in Accelerometer.
--Only .Net CF 2.0 is required (comes with Diamond).
--You can pause and reset the step counter.
--It displays steps, distance, calories and time duration.
--You can use the Hide button to save battery.
--You can set the step length and calories per mile value.
--You can save, delete and view the historical data.
--The historical data is stored in Microsoft SQLCe compact database.
--It can play the sound when the step is detected.
--It can sound an alarm when the set distance is reached.
--Briefly tested with the US unlocked version of the Diamond and Sprint version of the Diamond.
--The sensor.dll is from http://www.koushikdutta.com/search/label/Sensor%20API
Tips:
--First, verify and set your preferred setting from the menu item.
--Find the best carrying position with the "Play step sound" option on.
--Use the Hide button to save battery.
--You can install on storage card, but it can break the application if you use the storage mode while the Pedometer application is running.
Known Issues:
--Step detection is not accurate sometime. The algorithm needs improvement.
--Hide mode does not prevent from going into sleep mode.
--After changing the setting, you need to close then reopen the application for teh new setting to take effect.
--It only works if the diamond is in the vertical position.
nice work buddy
Looks promising, thanks for the work!
any chance this would work on a touch pro? Also, if i wanted to leave it on all day just to basically see how many steps i'm getting in on a typical day, does that basically mean i'll have to recharge my phone everyday or is the battery footprint very low?
thanks!
this could be pretty useful. thanks
Nice work, I just came on here to look for one of these, thanks for the convenience haha
Thx for the ap, i was working on my one some time ago but stop after having bad etection when running, im going to test yours and given a feedback.
work well on Touch HD and Diamond but... i run for twenty steps but... it counted only nine.. (bouth diamond and touch HD was in vertical position)...
thank you
Step detection algorithm is hard to do. I will see if it can be improved.
fadywwf316 said:
any chance this would work on a touch pro? Also, if i wanted to leave it on all day just to basically see how many steps i'm getting in on a typical day, does that basically mean i'll have to recharge my phone everyday or is the battery footprint very low?
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if it will work on TouchPro. It should work though. This utility is still in early development stage. I do not have battery consumption data yet. The key is to find a reliable step detection algorithm. Thanks.
On my Touch Pro, RomeOS 1.51 :
When I try to run this APP.
Conversion from string "0.235" to type "Decimal" is not valid.
try changing your language options, there where any option to change the symbol of , to . or what else
Pedometer version 1.2 is released
Hi, All:
After some intensive efforts, the Pedometer version 1.2 is released. The HTC touch black transparent looks much better. Please post all questions in this thread.
I found this doc. It may be of interest to you in regards to your algorithm? Excellent work in any case.
http://www.embeddeddesignindia.co.in/STATIC/PDF/200810/EDIOL_2008OCT17_CORE_ETEST_AN_01.pdf?SOURCES=DOWNLOAD
Great App
thanks for great app. What would be really cool is if it would have its own TFlo3D tab.
doey_28 said:
I found this doc. It may be of interest to you in regards to your algorithm? Excellent work in any case.
http://www.embeddeddesignindia.co.i...08OCT17_CORE_ETEST_AN_01.pdf?SOURCES=DOWNLOAD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will look at at the paper closely when I get a chance.
Is there a message/signal that is sent out when Windows Mobile is about to die due to lack of power? Because twice now, while hiking and while on the tread mill, my phone happened to be on it's last legs WRT power, unknown to me. In the middle of the workout/hike the phone died due to lack of power thus losing the progress so far. Could pedometer instead be notified of pending death of the phone due to power and "save itself"
before all power is gone?
Either that or how about a resume feature where ever minute (5 minutes or whatever) pedometer saves the current progress such that if the phone died for any reason and pedometer was restarted, it would sense that it was in the middle of a recording and offer to resume where it left off of start anew.
It seems to me that either solution would solve my problem.
defaria said:
Is there a message/signal that is sent out when Windows Mobile is about to die due to lack of power? Because twice now, while hiking and while on the tread mill, my phone happened to be on it's last legs WRT power, unknown to me. In the middle of the workout/hike the phone died due to lack of power thus losing the progress so far. Could pedometer instead be notified of pending death of the phone due to power and "save itself"
before all power is gone?
Either that or how about a resume feature where ever minute (5 minutes or whatever) pedometer saves the current progress such that if the phone died for any reason and pedometer was restarted, it would sense that it was in the middle of a recording and offer to resume where it left off of start anew.
It seems to me that either solution would solve my problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In next release, I can add battery alert threshold, play the sound, then, save the progress automatically and allow device to go to standby mode.
Lightsailpro, any plans to make this a GPS-assisted app? I realize that once you introduce GPS, you're taking away from the entire purpose of using the accelerometer to measure actual steps, however, I would love to have an app that I could choose on a given occasion whether it uses acc. to measure steps, or GPS to measure actual distance.
Currently, I run with my Diamond (for music) and a GPS watch (to track my progress and calories). How great it would be to ditch the watch and combine all the functionality into the Diamond!
lightsailpro said:
In next release, I can add battery alert threshold, play the sound, then, save the progress automatically and allow device to go to standby mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds great! Thanks.
Now, it it's not too much to ask, a little better graphical design... I know, I'm no graphic artist either but I can steal with the best of them!

quirky things

so, I've been playing for most of the day, and it is certainly going to take some getting used to, however there are a couple of 'weird things'
1) if I reset my phone, and leave it powered up..after a minute or so, it goes to the alarm page..not everytime, but maybe 3 out of 5 times....very odd
2) when I get a new text and hit the tab, it doesn't take me to the new text, it takes me to the last conversation I was having (and I can't find a way to turn off the threaded sms, which I hate)
3) I'm not a fan of the contact page. I prefer to have a choice of what I do when clicking a contact image (send a text, call mobile, send email etc) and I can only set one option.
can HTC sense be disabled? so I could maybe install SPB Mobile Shell, just to see if I get on better with it
On the contacts page you should be able to click the contact name and it will open the contact instead of the default action...
Hi,
1 - I don't get
2 - I do get - weird!
3 - When you add a contact, the top option is to show the contact card. This gives you the choices you want.
even though I dont have it yet ... yes you can disable manila and use ex. SPB
sometimes when i lock my screen on the homepage, on unlocking it opens up a random tab, the calendar for example.
holding instead of tapping will open the contact instead of performing the default action.
Yes SPB can be installed, it's one of the first things I did. It's ridiculous the amount of shortcuts you are allowed to put on the default home screen, plus it takes longer to navigate than SPB (I don't use most of the tabs on the default, otherwise it could be good).
I think I'm going to try it then. I've always used Mobile Shell (for the past 3 years), but HTC Sense looked so good I figured it would be the thing to keep me away from SPB.
and some of the things are amazing, the animated weather is stunning, but some of the other things are just odd, and difficult to navigate.
might persevere with it...might not
A suggestion from someone who still doesn't have the HD2...I plan to stick with HTC's interface for 2 weeks, no matter what. I'm sure I'll be muttering under my breath a lot in the first few days. But since it's a radical change from my TyTN II and Spb Mobile Shell combo, I figure I should try to adjust my approach to the HD2 design. If, after 2 weeks, I'm still muttering to myself, I'll turn off HTC's interface and go back to Spb's. I set the same parameters when I switched from my PDA to the TyTN II, with a goal of reducing my use of a stylus to the absolute minimum. It was frustrating, but after a couple weeks (that was 2 years ago) I almost totally stopped using a stylus. Just proves you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.
That's my word for the day.
-Bob-

[APP][SVC][Mar 8, 2010] BattLineSvc V2.1 / Battery Indicator Line in Title Bar

Overview
You've seen these before -- the little green line at the top of the screen that indicates the current battery level. This app is really nothing new or revolutionary. The main difference of BattLineSvc is that it's a true Windows Mobile service, so it does NOT use one of the precious few 32 slots available for processes. You can find more information about services here. This app has been tested on Windows Mobile 5, 6, 6.1, 6.5, and 6.5.3.
CodePlex
BattLineSvc development is hosted at Microsoft CodePlex! http://www.codeplex.com/BattLineSvc
License
Ms-RL
Tip Jar
Like this app? Want more like it or quicker updates? Tip a buck (or Euro or Pound or whatever) or two to help the author out! Click here to make a safe donation via PayPal.
Current features
- Shows a nice bar along the top of your screen to indicate battery status.
- Color changes based on 'warning' and 'critical' battery levels, as well as when the device is on AC power (configurable).
- Immediately correctly resizes when the screen orientiation changes.
- The battery level is updated immediately when the device notifies listeners that battery status has changed (or you can specify an interval if your device isn't sending notifications.
- Can show a bar at the bottom, left, and right sides of the battery bar (if you want it).
- Can be offset from the left and right, if you need it.
- Height of the bar can be changed.
- VERY low resources used -- runs as a TRUE service and uses as close as 0% CPU as is possible by an app like this. So it's good for even older snail devices. :-D
- Has a configuration app (requires .Net CF 3.5)
- AppToDate support!
Recent Changes (See CodePlex or changelog.txt for longer changelog)
- (2.1) Fixed a bug where on system start-up, it would pop up a notification box to let you know the service started. Annoying! And fixed!
- (2.1) Fixed the styles in the notification boxes for start/stop service.
- Fixed bug where sometimes the line would not show up, even with the 90 second boot-up delay. This was due to the window being created too early (not actually delayed, even though the subclassing was properly delayed. Oops!
- Boot delay was reduced to 30 seconds from system start-up; so far no issues with it starting too early!
- Added a "right side offset" which works as the left side offset, but for the right side.
- Added a "right line" which works the same as the left line.
- Added a new color setting for when the battery is charging. (Default is a light gray-blue.)
- Battery status, by default, no longer refreshes on an interval, but instead by waiting for battery notification events. This makes BattLineSvc even more efficient! The interval timer is still there in case your device does not work with events only.
- Reduced the number of subsequent refreshes by requesting a synchronous status refresh; previously it would wait asynchronously which was less efficient since the update could take anywhere from a few milliseconds to several seconds.
- Removed a redundant battery status checking method which monitored the registry (no longer needed because the new power event-based system works better and is more efficient).
- Removed a few other old segments of code that were inefficient.
- Added user notification for starting/stopping the service with the start/stop apps.
- Added a configuration program (yay). Requires .Net CF 3.5. You can still edit the registry manually.
Registry
Look in HKCU\Software\Avian Waves\BattLineSvc
Colors are best edited as hex, using the following pattern: BBGGRR (seems backwards, but it's due to the endedness of DWORDS in CE). Your registry editor may not show leading zeros either, keep that in mind.
- TaskbarClass = (string) Don't change this unless you are 100% positive the taskbar is not named standard.
- Height = (int) Number of pixels tall for the battery line.
- LeftOffset = (int) Number of pixels from the left edge that the battery line starts.
- LowPercent = (int 0-100) What percentage of battery charged is considered low (yellow).
- CriticalPercent = (int 0-100) What percentage of battery charged is considered critical (red).
- ShowLeftLine = (bool) Show the vertical line on the left side of the title bar where the BattLine starts.
- ShowRightLine = (bool) Show the vertical line on the left side of the title bar where the BattLine starts.
- ShowBottomLine = (bool) Show a line on the bottom of the battery bar
- ColorForegroundSolidNormal = (color) For 'normal' (not low) battery charge, this is the foreground color, default is bright green.
- ColorBackgroundSolidNormal = (color) For 'normal' (not low) battery charge, this is the background color, default is dark green.
- ColorForegroundSolidLow = (color) For low battery charge, this is the foreground color, default is bright yellow.
- ColorBackgroundSolidLow = (color) For low battery charge, this is the background color, default is dark yellow / brown.
- ColorForegroundSolidCritical = (color) For critical battery charge, this is the foreground color, default is red.
- ColorBackgroundSolidCritical = (color) For critical battery charge, this is the background color, default is dark red.
- ColorForegroundSolidCharging = (color) For when the device is charging (on AC), this is the foreground color, default is light gray-blue.
- ColorBackgroundSolidCharing = (color) For when the device is charging (on AC), this is the background color, default is dark gray-blue.
- ColorLeftLine = (color) Color of the left line.
- ColorRightLine = (color) Color of the right line.
- ColorBottomLine = (color) Color of the bottom line.
- TimerIntervalSeconds = (int) How often do we look to see if the battery level has changed (in seconds)? NOTE: As of V2, set this value to 0 unless BattLineSvc is not updating on your device. Zero means disabled. This settings is no longer necessary as BattLineSvc now waits for battery notification events, instead of updating on a timer.
Download
CAB Installer: http://battlinesvc.codeplex.com/releases
Source Code: http://battlinesvc.codeplex.com/SourceControl/list/changesets
FAQ
Question: My battery life seems to be draining faster after installing BattLineSvc. Is BattLineSvc causing this?
Answer: Probably not. The current version of BattLineSvc has no active polling. This means that when there is no battery status change happening, BattLineSvc is 100% idle. In Windows Mobile, applications and services are event based. You can set up a "loop" type of system (loop over and over, constantly checking for something), but that's inefficient. Even in older versions of BattLineSvc that made use of TimerIntervalSeconds to update the battery status, the updates were done a timer. So, you see, when BattLineSvc starts, it sets itself up to listen to system events, then it explicitly goes to sleep and waits until it receives a message. This is all handled in the OS and it's the way efficient apps are written in WM.
Okay, so you are wondering, well maybe a lot of events are firing and it's causing more CPU and therefore more battery drain. BattLineSvc listens for battery events and also power change events (on to idle or idle to on). None of these fire very often, unless there is something wrong with your device or your ROM. Even if they did, it wouldn't matter unless they continued to fire when the device was asleep/idle. In WM, an app must request to stay awake when the device goes idle (users presses power button). BattLineSvc is set up to use unattended mode, which is the mode where WM goes into after you press power-off to turn off the screen, but before it's fully asleep. WM gives all apps requesting unattended mode 15 seconds to complete their task. If they need more time, the app must explicitly ask WM by reseting the idle counter timer. BattLineSvc never resets the idle timer! So unless another app is doing this, the device will fully sleep 15 seconds after you press the power button, which is normal WM operation.
Okay, so that's the long winded explanation. But you want answers! Well, I always would encourage you to A/B the situation by running BattLineSvc for a few days, then uninstall it and try it a few days without. I think this will persuade you in 99% of cases. Please don't post on this thread if you have done less than a week's worth of power testing. There are so many thousands of things that can cause battery drain, you can't tell with only a few hours worth of testing.
One thing that causes power drain, which is the TRUE reason most people think a new app did it, is your cellular radio. Sometimes, for random reasons (atmospheric interference, dead zones, cell tower glitchy/busy), your radio has to work harder to get a signal. In fact, sometimes you may notice your phone is warm while its idle and you know you aren't downloading or anything. That's the radio! I've had a fully charged phone go down while it was in my pocket doing nothing in half a day due to this. The next day, all is well. Zero changes on my part. It just happens. It sucks, but, well, there's nothing you can do short of turning off your cellular radio. Luckily its rare unless you know you are driving out of coverage area or something. Which is why apps are blamed sometimes. You install an app, then the power drains and you logically conclude it was that app. You uninstall it the next day, and all seems well. This is why you need several days of testing - to rule out these random things!
Finally, you must test from a full charge. You can't install BattLineSvc when your device is half full, then see the last half of the battery drain faster than your first half and come to any conclusions. Battery drain is not linear! It's subject to the nuances of the battery. Usually the last half of your battery will drain faster than the first half, but it all depends on the detection algorithm and the battery itself. The only true test is from full charge with exactly the same operating conditions (all other apps the same, usage the same, no background tasks like downloads/refreshes happening any different from the previous charge).
Good luck in finding your power drain and I do want to know if it is BattLineSvc, so please report it if you are having an issue, but don't post anything until you've done a full week of testing with BattLineSvc installed and BattLineSvc uninstalled.
Thank you. It seems to work well on my HD2. How can I get rid of the original battery WM6 indicator?
Stephen, search for reg settings called TBOpt and ShowTitleBarClock, You'd probably get Your answer.
What I really wanted to say is that the idea is REALLY nice, although I personally dismissed all the bars and stuck with QMenu's numeric display of battery and memory on the taskbar - tho it's a bit buggy. I guess I am a numbers' freak If someone could rewrite that to a reliable, small, resource-saving service, that I would really appreciate. To date I haven't found such app...
If You need any ideas what to develop, I would be glad to present my list
Good work and respect!
nice job - try to implement "breaks" in the line - like SPB Pocket Plus bar
(so that you actually get a feel of steps)
also looks nicer and feels like it measures something, not like there is something wrong with the pixels at the top of the screen
wm 6.5.5 (build 23540) Touch HD Blackstone
Works fine on said device and build, just changed height to 1 pixel.
Attached a screen shot but can't really see it that well, it's fine in reality.
NLS said:
nice job - try to implement "breaks" in the line - like SPB Pocket Plus bar
(so that you actually get a feel of steps)
also looks nicer and feels like it measures something, not like there is something wrong with the pixels at the top of the screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I probably won't be doing that, at least not soon. I have too many other tasks on my plate at the moment. After creating a config app for this service, I will probably shelve it for a while. It is open source, so feel free to add that feature and I'll roll it into the next version.
Beautiful app. I always admire developers who make the effort to really optimize their application and minimize resource usage. Well done.
I was not able to find any information as to whether ibattery and lvmtopbat (which ibattery is based on), also run as a service. Anybody knows?
thx1200 said:
Overview
You've seen these before -- the little green line at the top of the screen that indicates the current battery level. This app is really nothing new or revolutionary. The main difference of BattLineSvc is that it's a true Windows Mobile service, so it does NOT use one of the precious few 32 slots available for processes. You can find more information about services here. This app has been tested on Windows Mobile 5, 6, 6.1, and 6.5, but NOT 6.5.3. (Can somebody test for me?) There's no configuration app yet, so I hope you like editing the registry if you don't like the default settings. ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi thx1200
No issues so far on my device
Thank you
Currently running 6.5.5 with manila2d. It seems 90 seconds is not enough on my Tilt to startup correctly. If I restart the service it is great. Maybe it can be a parameter in the registry settings.
Thanks
I like it, works great on my Imagio so far. The only improvement I'd like to see would be an additional color to indicate that the battery is being charged.
Good job!
Works well on my Imate Ultimate 8502..
Good job!
good work!
gwinga said:
I like it, works great on my Imagio so far. The only improvement I'd like to see would be an additional color to indicate that the battery is being charged.
Good job!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this would be great. Thanks for making this so lean. Apart from this request, I wouldn't add anything else as it should be kept simple to be really useful.
A really tiny little tool. Will post a screenshot from mine...
One point i have:
It will be very helpfull when there is also a right side offset.
It means with newer skins we have round corners. And with
that the left side offset is wonderfull, but i need also the
right one.
Is this possible for the next version?
Hi
Being color blind, I want to change the colors to more contrast so I found a web Hex Color Chart but when I apply a color code the bar disappears, obviously I'm doing something wrong, can someone help me with this?
Is it supposed to run on smartphones (aka "WM Standard") as well? I don't get it visible despite the service is started after reboot. Do I have to use a different class name for this?
tito12 said:
Hi
Being color blind, I want to change the colors to more contrast so I found a web Hex Color Chart but when I apply a color code the bar disappears, obviously I'm doing something wrong, can someone help me with this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@ tito,
you have seen the default colors after the installation and before you have changed something??? Next point from 1st posting:
as sample:
color = green
standard hex = #00FF00
BattLineSvc registry value = ff00
You have done this in this way? The leading zeros are not supported. Otherwise the light goes on now?
Hint:
If you need the hex information for a color and you have further problems with your hex calculator, publish an icon 90x90 pixel and you will receive them.
@thx1200:
i am working on a DUSK skin for your tiny app. Looks good at the moment, but not ready because the right side offset .
tobbbie said:
Is it supposed to run on smartphones (aka "WM Standard") as well? I don't get it visible despite the service is started after reboot. Do I have to use a different class name for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi tobbbie,
i don't think that the app is running on smartphones. So far as i understand the soucre code after reading, is this app not compiled for smartphones. I also have seen for the *.exe this resourceppc.h and this Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC SDK (ARMV4I) and this Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK (ARMV4I) is used. That means it is for powerpc, or i am wrong thx1200?
drfno1 said:
Currently running 6.5.5 with manila2d. It seems 90 seconds is not enough on my Tilt to startup correctly. If I restart the service it is great. Maybe it can be a parameter in the registry settings.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know why this is happening and it will be fixed in the next version (with a much shorter delay).

[Q] Different date entry method?

The date entry scheme in Android, with its scrolling vertical numbers, is consistent with its time entry. But often I really miss a simple calendar approach. Yes, it's not difficult to say three weeks from today is the same as adding 21 modulo whatever the current month's length is - but selecting (for instance) the third Thursday of February of next year isn't really feasible with the current entry method (unless you memorize Conway's Doomsday Algorithm).
Any suggestions? Time for me to dive into Android code to write a freebie extension?
Jim Horn, Hood River, Oregon USA
You could always scroll through the months on the actual calendar.
True, but that means leaving the date entry field and the whole appointment you've already started entering, going back to calendar (vs agenda) view, scrolling around to find the information, going back to agenda view, reselecting what you've started entering, then entering what you've hopefully not forgotten while doing all this.
All of which defeats the purpose of having a computer in the phone to help you out rather than get in the way. In Outlook / Palm / etc. when you need to select a date you get the calendar view immediately and you tap the appropriate date. Simpler, faster and easier than vertical scrolling ribbons.
No offense, but I really don't see what is so hard about selecting the date before entering information. All seems pretty intuitive to me.

Categories

Resources