[REQ/?] Widening the contacts letter chooser ? - Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV Themes and Apps

Hi there
Hope I'm not missing something obvious but nothing came up when searching.
Is there a way to widen the letter collumn in contacts as my fingers are way too big to fit ? I really don't want to use 3rd party unless neccesary.
And what about the top startbar - can you make that thicker?
cheers,
Jesper

Bump - sorry but someone must know how...

Yeah. What he said
Bump Bump!
I second that. I have somewhat large fingers and I swear I can never get the right letter in that list unless I use the stylus or fashion a stylus out of my thumb nail (not too attractive).

This would be great. Hoping someone has a solution

thestick00 said:
Bump Bump!
I second that. I have somewhat large fingers and I swear I can never get the right letter in that list unless I use the stylus or fashion a stylus out of my thumb nail (not too attractive).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i don't know how they expected up to use that... this phone should be called the touch (sometimes ) diamond

try to search for icontact.
the burt edition is good
it's better than default contacts anyway.

the sprint cdma version i got didn't even come with the letters on the side. Or the letters on the side when selecting a city for weather....sucked until I flashed to new rom.

I think icontact and for that matter PCM contacts are very good alternatives. But my my point is that windows contacts are fine for me except from the ridiculous small letter scroll option. I thought there might be a clever registry hack or something like it ......
Jesper

Related

Larger Buttons than the ETEN Dialpad

The ETEN Dialpad is very nice, but the buttons are still too narrow and not spaced wide enough.
Plus, the History, etc. buttons on top are touching the top row of numbers and are too easy to hit by mistake (getting you out of the keypad in the middle of dialing:-(
Is there something which provides larger, more spaced out buttons?
I see posts asking for it, but can't find any alternatives.
Thanks!
O.K., is it because it is a technical issue and it would be difficult to map large, separated buttons covering most of the screen, or is it that everyone is happy with the size of the buttons.
I doubt it's the latter, since I've seen a number of posts about it, but nobody has offered a definitive answer.
Anyone?
I hope its not an hardware issue cause i'd love bigger buttons.
Sorry to be a pest, but just wondering if larger and better spaced out buttons are at all possible?
The reason I am asking, is that even in ETEN it seems that the buttons are simply wider and appear larger mostly due to the fact that they touch each other and utilize the gaps between the standard dialpad's keys. I personally like the ETEN idea a lot, but find that without spacing between the buttons, dialling is actually a bit more error prone than with the original dialler (and I keep hitting History by mistake, since it touches the "2", which can totally screw up dialling fast in a car:-(
I would play with creating some larger bitmaps, if it's within my very limited abilities, but have the feeling that spreading the buttons on a larger are on the screen involves much more than meets the eye. Am I correct in this assumption?
Anyone who has an answer to this?
(Or even better, a solution?
I always thought the keys were big enough.... how big of fingers have you got?
xdame said:
I always thought the keys were big enough.... how big of fingers have you got?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Thats why I love coming here, thanks for the laugh guys..... Whew..
had you manage to do something with biger keys
Draw a mockup of what you need. I'm working on something new that might help. PM me it if you wish to hide your artistic abilities.
V
xdame said:
I always thought the keys were big enough.... how big of fingers have you got?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"If you need a dialling wand, please mash the keypad now..."
Guys! Just install Blue_E-TEN_M600_Dialer_Skin.cab (link below) and u'll have a BIG orange ETEN buttons in dialer// Nice, ha?
http://505.bootydick.ru/Blue_E_TEN_M600_Dialer_Skin.zip
could you post a screenshot?
kramerica2 said:
could you post a screenshot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very nice... you can even uninstall if you don't like it
I've the same and smart dialling works fine. Saw somewhere lots of skins
505 said:
I've the same and smart dialling works fine. Saw somewhere lots of skins
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like the work that Paulya does. Check it out http://paulya.com/dialerskins.htm
Thanks paulya! (jackaroe808) Glad to see some new stuff out there. Like the pocket portal as well!!
505 said:
I've the same and smart dialling works fine. Saw somewhere lots of skins
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why would you say smart dialing works, when it does not. At least not on mine, with this installation above.
I've seen the skin a while ago, but I was reluctant to install it because people said smart dialing was off, and now I'm stuck with it because I believed you.
krale said:
why would you say smart dialing works, when it does not. At least not on mine, with this installation above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you not uninstall it? Also, here's Eten dialer _with_ smartdial. Use it and love it...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=263579
i'd love to see a dialer that takes up the whole screen and only has the following
Call History
==== (Number Display)
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
* 0 #
Granted of course the call history button can be smaller to accomodate for a larger number display and keys.
jorge_culv said:
Can you not uninstall it? Also, here's Eten dialer _with_ smartdial. Use it and love it...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=263579
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate... Got that one workin' now...
lvlolvlo said:
i'd love to see a dialer that takes up the whole screen and only has the following
Call History
==== (Number Display)
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
* 0 #
Granted of course the call history button can be smaller to accomodate for a larger number display and keys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would be great.

stylus-free use?

Hi, I am quite happy with my Cingulare 8125, but I sometimes find myself in situations where I would rather not use the stylus, and then I wish there was a way to put the start menu and the OK button on one of the device's buttons. Also, if it is bright outside, dialing a number is a bit awkward. has anybody had the same problem and perhaps found a solution?
Yep, it's called Smartskey and it'll do exactly what you want. Do a search and you'll find all kinds of info about it.
Also look for FakeCursor. Works great!
markgamber said:
Yep, it's called Smartskey and it'll do exactly what you want. Do a search and you'll find all kinds of info about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that.
I also use WM5NewMenu and PHM TrayLaunch. Both of these let you arrange the menu/shortcut order to suit your needs and are navigable with the Dpad. With these two and smartskey my wizard is one thumbed use rather than one handed. I have managed easily without a stylus.
Regarding the visibility in bright daylight, try changing your theme/skin to something with more contrast or increasing the backlight settings. Alternatively use MSVoiceCommand or the standard voice dialer for existing contacts, I haven't had much luck with MSVoiceCommand recognising number strings correctly for new phone numbers though.
Thanks to all.
I have downloaded the smartskey and I'll give that a try. It seems to do what I want.
Regarding the dialing: As this is a phone, I'd like to see a dedicated number pad on it, or a remapping of the existing softbuttons to numbers. For example the DPAD (might) have 9 positions (if the corners are recognized differently than left or up), which could be mapped to 1-9. Add 1 other softbutton for 0 and you have a complete dialpad. Perhaps in another release ...
Brilliant
mikebode said:
Regarding the dialing: As this is a phone, I'd like to see a dedicated number pad on it, or a remapping of the existing softbuttons to numbers. For example the DPAD (might) have 9 positions (if the corners are recognized differently than left or up), which could be mapped to 1-9. Add 1 other softbutton for 0 and you have a complete dialpad. Perhaps in another release ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I think this is my first post, for I am a professional lurker and all, but I swear I jumped out of my chair when I read this. This is perfect. Perfect, brilliant idea, would solve the single greatest drawback of this phone IMO. PLEASE tell me that there is a way to make this happen. I know, for example, that smartskey remaps the d-pad buttons to open up contacts, recent call list, etc. So I'm guessing a little tweaking somewhere could make this happen? If not smartskey, a new program perhaps? Here is my promise: someone comes up with this program, and I'll make little numbers stickers to go around the d-pad (yeah, laugh, but I'll do it!)
brentrs
Cing. 8125
Cing. 2.25 ROM

Slide2Gesture?

Maybe this has been discussed before but no one tried to develop the idea.
well instead of S2U, i prefer to have a gesture that i choose to unlock the device... so no one can unlock it other than I... if im dont have these programming skills
anyone is able to do it?! it can be a modified version of A_C's S2U2...
karim099 said:
Maybe this has been discussed before but no one tried to develop the idea.
well instead of S2U, i prefer to have a gesture that i choose to unlock the device... so no one can unlock it other than I... if im dont have these programming skills
anyone is able to do it?! it can be a modified version of A_C's S2U2...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha! Shouldn't that been called Gesture2Unlock?
johanromijn said:
Hahaha! Shouldn't that been called Gesture2Unlock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
whatever G2U ...
I like the idea of this
Cool thinkin...
No passworded needed, just a gesture.
Someone needs to copy the Microsoft Origami thingy where you unlock by tapping a certain sequence on a picture of your choice, with more security gained by moving to a smaller grid size.
ell, honestly, if you delete the images from your S2U2 directory, that should accomplish the same thing. You would just have to remember where to slide from. Or use your DPAD.
lawmangrant, i think you're missing a handy side-effect of having G2U: you can still view the today screen. I imagine that you can view the today screen, but not be able to do anything until you gesture. If anyone uses PointUI, it's kinda like the builtin lock. You see the main screen until you tap, upon which the lock screen comes up. It's pretty nice (personally use s2u2 instead) but G2U has potential uses.
It's a good idea, especially if you don't have the instructions right on the screen, it's a good locker to keep people out of your phone.
It should be Gesture2Unlock (or G2U for short) and it was discussed in the Kaiser forum here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=362231&highlight=gesture
A_C, the author or S2U2 was contacted, but he didn't think he could do it, as you can see from the thread...
I still like the idea.
I have a program in mind that does exactly what you want...
hm.. not exactly...
you have to tap to 4 or 5 different points on your touchscreen to unlock your phone...
but I don´t know the name at the moment....
I´ll try to find it....
This is a great idea.......
strange !!! walking down the street today i had this exact thought
may be some day!!!!
This was good, but doesnt work anymore...
http://softava.com/archive/pp/otp_features.html#
interesting. Would be very similair to taking a biometric of a persons signature. presumably tho one wouldn't want the signature to be drawn as you gesture2unlock, but instead "draw" onto an invisible notepad.
its no easy process (have researched biometrics) as the important part if the learning/recognition algorythm which will probably involve some neural network coding (ouch but fun).
What you need is something like this!!!
http://bip.golana.pub.ro/~mmihai/sign/index.html.
I've emailed Mihail about this (the author), pointing him to this post. I will post his reply as soon as it arrives.
Here's my email:
Dear Mihail,
I came across your website whilst looking for clues as to how we might implement a fellow forum contributor’s idea on xda-developers.com (here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=370632&page=2)
His idea was to unlock a pda using a gesture on the touch screen. To my mind that mean signature which lead me to search for some algorithms on the net. Your implementation was particularly interesting as it seems quick to operate, has low memory footprint and could work on a low spec machine (such are many pda’s).
I was wondering if you implemented such a system, or if the algorithm you have developed has been release for others to use, commercially or non-profit.
Your input into the discussion would be highly valuable.
Best wishes
Sean
lawmangrant said:
ell, honestly, if you delete the images from your S2U2 directory, that should accomplish the same thing. You would just have to remember where to slide from. Or use your DPAD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Azimuth21 said:
lawmangrant, i think you're missing a handy side-effect of having G2U: you can still view the today screen. I imagine that you can view the today screen, but not be able to do anything until you gesture. If anyone uses PointUI, it's kinda like the builtin lock. You see the main screen until you tap, upon which the lock screen comes up. It's pretty nice (personally use s2u2 instead) but G2U has potential uses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see pluses and minuses to this approach as opposed to using s2u2 with the deleted slide graphics.
If you want true privacy when someone picks up your phone, you wouldn't really want them to see your today screen especially if it contains appointment and tasks info, etc. That's where I think using a modified s2u2 would be better.
If you don't have appointment info on your screen or nothing that is "dynamic" or constantly changing except the clock, then you could skin s2u2 to "match" your today screen and place the clock exactly where it is on your today screen. For example if you have HTC home as your today screen, you can skin s2u2 clock to match the position and font as HTC home and then take a screenshot and modify it to a wallpaper, cutting out the clock par. The tricky part is the missed call and sms counter. S2u2 has the potential to disply that info but to replicate that look of htc home would require major changes, probably requiring A_C's help?
Of course if our devices had the horsepower, we could modify s2u2 to just take the screenshot of the today screen and load it as a wallpaper everytime it starts up, maybe a mortscript, but it would probably would be too slow realistically.
Im glad that u liked the idea... A_C said that he doesnt have the skills to do it.. but im sure he can help...
i don't mind if the appointments info appears on the screen, but i prefer no one can access all other applications... typing a password takes time... especially when activated side by side with S2U2...
Why a signature recognition? How about a gesture system like the one found in firefox plugins:
https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/39
https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/12
They're based on eight directions - four sideways and four diagonal.
Directions are defined as:
U - up
D - down
L - left
R - right
7 - up/left
9 - up/right
1 - down/left
3 - down/right
So to program a gesture you just need to input the directions of strokes it consists of.
For example URDL would mean drawing a rectangle starting from bottom left, and then going up, right, down, left. You can also describe more complicated gestures that way - R2D1L7U9R would mean drawing a circle starting from its top point and moving right.
In my opinion biometric algorithms don't make much sense, since they would need a styluys to work - try to draw your signature using a finger
Simplified gestures should work with finger as well as stylus, and should still provide more than enough security.
Great minds think alike.
What I wanted was a way to use touch to unlock the device very easily without it being easy to copy. I also wanted data to be safe should the device be reset.
I thought of using the standard S2U and just using a skin which didn't make it clear how to unlock so as to deter casual snoops.
There must be a way to do this! If no-one comes up with something soon then I'll dust off my programming books and give it a try.
the new Ftouch Flo a.k.a FtouchSL has some new gesturing features ( like corners )..maybe this would be useful

Show keyboard while hiding SIP toolbar below

Hey,
I am developing for WM5 using C# ... is there any way that I can show my SIP keyboard but without the bar below it? I am running my App fullscreen and it just looks silly with the little bar below it... also it's a waste of real estate of the screen.
this is a pic of what I mean
Is there any reg key/COM usage/code/workarounds or anything I can do (not sticking something on the screen ) to hide this while showing the keyboard?
Mark
is this is an iphone keyboard??
i understand your pain. This is a design decision from Microsoft so that the user is able to switch on and off the keyboard at any time. But obviously they messed it up.
When I was trying I was not even able to draw something upon it to at least make it invisible. Anyway, if u are programming in C++ you could create your own SIP class. try this article from MSDN to help you out http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/02/10/370355.aspx
Hehe... yes it is indeed an iPhoney keyboard
I got it using the PCMKeyboard Here and then skinning it with this skin I actually found somewhere in xda dev forums
I have seen that link, that would allow me to create my own SIP keyboard and add it in... I like the iphone one and want to use it.. just without the stupid little icon. I'm happy to hack it off but ideally only when in my app... it'd be a bit annoying to lose it permanantly. I was thinking about some way to even force it offscreen... so it's "there" it's just not visible? ... might be a load of hassle as id'd have to catch the scrollbar everytime and only show it when the screen content was > screenheight + 20 px or something... but that might be an idea. Obviously I could write a keyboard controll but that's a lot of hassle to write and skin it.... unless there is already one in .net out there
Hope some xda dev genius can come up with a better solution though...
Resco Keyboard Pro also has iphone keyboard skin.
Yeah we work closely with Peter and the guys at resco with their mobile forms toolkit and co-design a lot of custom items... unfortunately that is just another SIP keyboard... so I would run into the same problem of hiding the evil little icon/toolbar.
There must be someone here who knows how to do this.. I mean I just watched videos of people proving they are smarter than HTC and writing OpenGL drivers for a phone!! lol... I might go and annoy a jr developer to make myself feel smart again as reading posts in this forum are no good for my ego
Not sure if there is anything in here for you. I can't see what your after, but I'll post it anyhow. You might be able to gleam something from it...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa182530.aspx
Ta
Dave
DaveShaw said:
Not sure if there is anything in here for you. I can't see what your after, but I'll post it anyhow. You might be able to gleam something from it...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa182530.aspx
Ta
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... nothing there, but thanks very much. I have created a menu bar and when I add more than 2 items to it the sip icon moves to the right hand side, so there is obviously something somewhere that can control this... if it is docked in that menu, I wonder if there is a way to hide the menu as opposed to removing it and possibly hide the sip thing too??! or the sip thing might exist "above" the bar and just appear to be on it....
Any more ideas would be very welcome!
Cheers for the help,
Mark
I'm no programmer so I can't help. But I remember when I was using PocketCM contacts (written by the tene who wrote PocketCM keyboards), during the sms screen the keyboard will popup but the little "evil" bar won't appear. You may want to ask tene how s/he achieved that.
wearefree said:
I'm no programmer so I can't help. But I remember when I was using PocketCM contacts (written by the tene who wrote PocketCM keyboards), during the sms screen the keyboard will popup but the little "evil" bar won't appear. You may want to ask tene how s/he achieved that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ooh... cheers for that! I'll post on the PocketCM forum and see if I can get an idea.. or is he a member here?
Can't believe how much hassle such a small thing is... unfortunately my plan to push the form 25px lower to simply hide the bar doesnt seem to be working....
Mark
I just saw the thing about the Q&A thread ... so sorry for doing this... but in for a penny and all that...
I have seen here what looks like the code to hide the sip button.. but I am unsure how to call that in c# anyone able to help?
markmcgookin said:
I just saw the thing about the Q&A thread ... so sorry for doing this... but in for a penny and all that...
I have seen here what looks like the code to hide the sip button.. but I am unsure how to call that in c# anyone able to help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im having a play, let me see what I find...
Dave
Cheers dave!
Much appreciated!
Heres a quick Port of what I need to do to show/hide the SIP.
Did you also spot the link to the C++ article at the bottom. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266244/EN-US/)
Ta
Dave
Dave,
Thanks for your help... that seems to just be the same as
this.InputPanel1.enabled = false;
and if you still click there it proceeds to appear. I really want the keyboard up.. but with no icon or space down there. (Tempted to say it's impossible just to spark peoples interest in a challenge! lol)
I have tried this and it's PERFECT for what I want... only in VB
So I am going to have a go at converting it to c# ... but we all know... this will never work... lol so I will keep you posted and put the solution up when I finish. (P.S - Please dont tell my boss I've spent all day on this... but you know what it's like when you come up against a problem that puzzles you!)
HORRAY!
We have success... this is based on the work from the link that the guys in the above post have done in VB... I won't lie I don't understand it 100% but I get most of it. I have ported it over to .cs and it works a treat!
the commented out line in the code is for me, I have a custom iphoney SIP with different dimensions in it. The project as is should work for the standard windows kb sip.
Thanks so much for all the contributions and help though!
solution is attached
markmcgookin said:
HORRAY!
We have success... this is based on the work from the link that the guys in the above post have done in VB... I won't lie I don't understand it 100% but I get most of it. I have ported it over to .cs and it works a treat!
the commented out line in the code is for me, I have a custom iphoney SIP with different dimensions in it. The project as is should work for the standard windows kb sip.
Thanks so much for all the contributions and help though!
solution is attached
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Grats Mark,
I was just looking at that code. What it does, is it gets the Handle of the Window of the SIP (keyboard and the bar your trying to hide) using Find Window, SipWndClass is the name of the SIP window.
And them moves them down, off the bottom of the screen.
Ta
Dave
I dont mean to bring up old threads but I just wanted to add a note for any one that stumbles across this on the intertubes(as i did). In fact, the sipbutton and sipkeyboard have different handles. To actually hide the sipbutton(and not just move the keyboard over top of it) you need to use the "MS_SIPBUTTON" class to get your handle instead of "SipWndClass".
i.e.
Code:
Dim h As IntPtr = FindWindow("MS_SIPBUTTON", Nothing)
MoveWindow(h, 0, Me.Height, 0, 0, False)
With Fingerkeyboard you have the option to simply not show the entire bar
Would it be possible to have this work only if your keyboard was in landscape position? I know Fingerkeyboard has this option but I would like to do the same thing with a different keyboard. Thanks in advance.
Oh wow.
I have been looking for this solution for a LONG TIME. I'd love to be able to have the same type of screen as using Pocket CM (keyboard at the bottom of the screen) in other programs, without losing the functionality of the screen buttons... like "Send" "Menu" in messaging.

Tile favorite contacts

Hi!
Does anybody know if there is a way to tile your favorite contacts in a grid instead of flipping them one by one? It would be great in touch flo 3d, but other external solutions would be great to.
I do not have the HD yet, but I'm a bit confused. I saw in some snapshots that the People Contact tab actually shows a row of contact pictures in the right side, besides a big one in the middle. The attached snapshot comes from the HD user manual.
I guess you actually have around 9-10 contacts show in the right side and I guess you can pick one of them directly by touching the picture.
You guys that have the HD, could you clarify this?
lie_ui said:
I do not have the HD yet, but I'm a bit confused. I saw in some snapshots that the People Contact tab actually shows a row of contact pictures in the right side, besides a big one in the middle. The attached snapshot comes from the HD user manual.
I guess you actually have around 9-10 contacts show in the right side and I guess you can pick one of them directly by touching the picture.
You guys that have the HD, could you clarify this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep - there is the main picture which you can flick through and running up the right hand side is a strip of smaller contact pictures which, if you click on, selects that contact for you.
Yes I know about this feature, but it's still a waste of space. It's quite hard to see and hit the right one in the right column. If you could have rows of maby 4 photos and unlimited number of rows to scroll, it would be much faster and easier to overview I think. Maby a bit like the progam menu.
Bathyon said:
Hi!
Does anybody know if there is a way to tile your favorite contacts in a grid instead of flipping them one by one? It would be great in touch flo 3d, but other external solutions would be great to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you don't use the program section you could use VJPhonetools to create shortcuts to the people you want to call and add them to program tab
yadvani said:
if you don't use the program section you could use VJPhonetools to create shortcuts to the people you want to call and add them to program tab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds interesting enough. Will try it out. Thanks for the tip. It would still be nice with a option to change the layout in the default application IMHO.

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