Related
My beloved o2 mini was having a few 'issues' - dropping calls, bad battery life, periods of no network - it was time for an upgrade.
So I bought a Telstra branded touch dual off ebay from a company called 'viper technologies'. I discovered why it was called that when the parcel arrived with 'Mike Metcalfe' in the 'from' section - Mike Metcalfe was Tom Skerritt's *real* name as the head instructor of 'Top Gun', otherwise known as 'Viper'.
I'd done some prereading at xda developers and discovered the Telstra version is the 850, which is the NEON and not the NIKI. On the upside the 850 apparently has a larger battery, the ability to work on Telstra NextG, an FM radio, and the power button is in a different place (the same as the o2 mini fortuitously)On the downside it has the telescopic stylus, which is fine because I tend not to use it much. I found that the fact that it was in the bottom right corner took more getting used to than the fact that it was telescopic.
Anyways. First, that telstra branding had to go. I found the right spl uploader at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=377260>, and installed version 1.06.841.4 ROM on it.
The only issues with the flashing was that I missed a crucial step of unplugging and replugging the cable, as per the instructions (in capital letters even) in the aforementioned thread.
I made my own little startup splash screen to replace the windows mobile one and stuck it in the windows directory by making a 240 x 320 pixel jpg in photoshop and naming it 'welcomehead.96.png'.
Before that, of course I had to discover that ActiveSync 4.5 is the latest version for XP, and will always be, because Vista now has some other sort of thing to transfer to mobiles. ActiveSync 4.5 has behaved itself quite well for me, much better than I remember 3.7 ever doing with the o2.
I decided to make a partnership without syncing any data at first, because I knew I'd be connecting and disconnecting and didn't want to always wait for it to sync hundreds of files before it let me do anything. At this juncture the little rubber USB port cover on the bottom first began to annoy me, but more on that later.
OK, it was time to try and make this little fella do everything the o2 could - and more. Familiarising oneself with the new WM6 was fun - the o2 ran 2003 and while they haven't changed much, there were a few things that needed getting used to.
HTC HOME VS CLAUNCHER
My thinking usually centres around getting things done efficiently. And whilst it looked so cool, I came to the realisation that HTC home had to go. The clock? Too much screen real estate (and I have a watch anyway). The message/call/appointment notifiers? I wanted to see the actual appointments written there. The launcher? Only NINE programs? Please! The weather? Firstly I didn't seem to be able to get it for Australia, and secondly... I actually realised that I don't really care about the weather that much! Ringtones? Don't use 'em. Right.
So I stumbled upon a program called clauncher, which it turns out is incredibly cool and efficient. You can just load it up, select it as a plugin and then click and hold on the empty space to access a huge variety of settings. It comes with 8 tabs for categories, like Main, Tools, Comm, Games etc etc. One of the excellent things about clauncher is that you can just import your start menu folder into an empty category and then just cut them out into the right ones. It's easy to move them with a multiple selection function and 'move up' and 'move down' buttons.
I found that keeping the icons at their native 32 pixel size looked nicest, and it's also about the right size for a thumb. I gave them a 3 pixel space between them but then I put a large right margin of 12 pixels, because clauncher has a cool feature which flips icon screens when you touch the blank part. You can also set the total height. So the sizing above gave me five icons in two rows, with a blank portion on the right to thumb to the next page. I discovered also that you can get more screen space (and a neater look) by hiding the tabs altogether.
Earlier on I'd discovered a terrible problem with clauncher - The pop down keypad would only type the first letter or number in the boxes! So I had named the second tab '2' and moved on. The lack of keyboard became an issue when I wanted to add manual shortcuts etc. Luckily I stumbled upon the fix for it. Instead of press and hold for the settings, if you access them via the 'today items' control panel, it gives you the softkey bar at the bottom, and hence your keyboard options back again.
Currently I've got four screens - my most frequently used (vaguely) apps, less frequently used apps, communications stuff and then games.
All I need to find out now is how to anchor it to the bottom part of the screen.
I noticed that WM6 no longer puts your messages on the today screen - 'no unread emails' or whatever. But a shortcut to messaging was an easy fix with clauncher.
HARDWARE KEYS/LONGPRESSENDKEY/SLIDEACTION
The lack of hardware keys was something I didn't realise I'd miss so much. The o2 had phone buttons, volume slider, camera button, the normal nav buttons PLUS appointment, contacts, and voice recorder buttons. I used to run buttonmax on my o2 which let me map press, double press and long press to each of the extra buttons.
I thought I'd found a solution in AEbuttonplus - it was free, it let me map buttons - but the only buttons I could really map were the phone ones.
So I mapped a double click on the green button to close a window (when I'm thumbing around it's actually easier to get to the bottom part of the screen, particularly when using the sliding keyboard). It was working great - until I got a phone call. The green button seems to change purpose depending on what's going on. I had mapped its usual use to 'phone', but that didn't seem to cover 'answer call' or even 'send call' - I had to use the on-screen softkeys. I'd installed 'slide action' software which had been working great, but I realised it must simulate a 'press green button' or something, because it stopped working for phone functions too. So AEbuttonplus had to go.
The small consolation came with the 'longpressendkey' setting somebody thoughtfully put in the ROM - I can at least set my phone to vibrate with one key, which I could never do easily on the o2. I'd love to see 'longpressendkey' set up to allow any customisable link, and while they're at it, make BOTH the green and red keys mappable for single, double and triple press as well as long press. That would give six extra hardware key options and make up for the lack of them elsewhere. Anyways.
ACTIVESYNC/MACROREADER/CEREGEDITOR
Dang it, I stuffed around for a LONG time trying to solve this. On my o2 I had a hardware macro (double press contacts key) which would start activesync, and then another activesync specific hardware macro (hold contacts key) to connect bluetooth and start synchronising. And then to disconnect, I was running the Magic Button task manager and a tap on the X would disconnect and close activesync.
How to do it? I didn't have hardware keys, I didn't have macros, OR didn't I? I ended up discovering a little piece of software here:
http://vitotechnology.com/en/products/download.php?ID=1645&BID=23
in what seemed to be the VITO 'boneyard' where they keep all the seconds and dodgy stuff - I couldn't find a link to it on the main site. It was called 'MacroRecorder' and it comes with no manual or other information. But it works if you just want to record a tap-based macro. Next problem then - how to make a tap for starting Activesync always be in the same place?
You gotta love those registry hacks. I found a program called CERegEditor which lets you connect up the phone, and then edit the registry on your PC. Sure beats keying in all the weird info on the tiny screen using the tiny buttons.
I remapped the bottom left softkey to ActiveSync using the Key 112 registry entry, and now I had my solution to making a tap-based macro. MacroRecorder isn't that tricky actually - you just start the exe, click the okay screen, do your thang, and then press the little red square which has appeared in the middle of the screen to finish. It asks for a name and then creates a file in the same folder as the exe, which you can put wherever. I created an entry for it in clauncher, gave it the activesync icon (Windows\repllog.exe) and now I can start activesync and connect via bluetooth with one press!
While I was there in the registry I did a few other tweaks like making the scroll bars 15 pixels wide (the widest you can make them whilst keeping the 'settings' screen three icons wide) and making the date one line instead of two. There's a list of registry tweaks here:
http://www.ppcsg.com/index.php?showtopic=50029&st=0
Getting activesync to close and disconnect in one action was a bit trickier. None of the task managers I tried would close activesync down altogether, like magic button used to do on my o2. I found some trial software which advertised the ability to 'close activesync on disconnect', which it DID... but the only problem was that it wouldn't OPEN it again when you reconnected.
Given that WM6 now gives you the option of the OK button actually closing things rather than minimising, Magic button sadly had no use anymore. Goodbye, trusty software.
So it seems I've gained a step in making Activesync connection a one-click process... but I've lost my one-click disconnection. Oh well. There's some software which people talk about which was supposed to be able to automatically schedule bluetooth connections, but it sadly seems to have disappeared.
CONTINUED IN PART 2
PART 2
MS READER
I had been using MS reader for my ebooks and it worked fine on my o2, but for some reason it seemed to be painfully slow on the dual. I ended up converting my .lit files using 'convertLit' and downloading Mobipocket to read them. It's not quite as pretty as MS reader, but it's definitely faster to load, and it takes you to your last read book straight away instead of having to go through all the intro screens. Second shortcut in clauncher, then!
TOUCHFLO
Well that cubey thing is super cool - so I spent considerable time trying to get it to have the elusive fourth face. BUT then I asked myself, 'what does touchflo do that I can't do with one press in clauncher?'
About this time I had to hard reset and rebuild everything because I'd added in some irrepairable registry stuff and the cube was whacked out completely.
I left it as three sides, then. Now - it's not immediately obvious, but the 'quicktasks' screen that comes up when you open the slider is actually part of the Touchflo 'family' and it's settings are in the same place in the registry.
So it was relatively easy to replace the 'Email' on the third side of the cube with 'new email' from the APlauncher screen, 'SMS' with 'new SMS', 'Notes' with 'new note' and 'calendar' with 'new appointment'. That way the icons matched up just great.
The problem is that now that I've figured out the shortcuts, it's probably just as easy to put an icon in clauncher for them! So rather than 1. turn on, 2. swipe up, 3. swipe across, 4. press icon; you could eliminate the swipes...
I'm finding too, that new things involving contacts (SMS, MMS, email, phone calls) are best handled by sliding out the keypad, typing the first few letters, click down to them with the navigation keys and press the centre key. Then you get a screen with options to call any of their numbers, text them or email them.
If you go the 'new message' route, you have to access the contacts list in a far more cumbersome manner - smaller type entries which are harder to click with your thumbnail and that you either have to scroll to or type an exact match for it.
I've also found the following when using the touchflo features:
* to get the touch cube every time, start at the htc logo and sweep up with the thumbnail.
* you don't have to be 'twitchy' with the photo gestures. A slower and deliberate circle or half circle tends to make it do what you're asking a lot better - more nail, less finger for the photo stuff too.
* for scrolling, press quite firmly, and use a lot of finger surface area. Too much nail tends to make it click. I imagine I'm smudging stuff off my finger and that seems to work well. For long scrolls do a finger 'flick'.
THAT RUBBER COVER
After only a few days of activesyncing, I noticed the rubber cover on the USB port was starting to not close flush anymore. A bit of research turned up that it was an extremely common problem. So I bit the bullet and cut it off, but I cut it in a way that I could put it back on if I wanted, by slitting through one of the sections that anchors around the little pin, leaving the rubber in a hook shape to hold it in when needed. I tried putting it in the freezer for a time, but that seemed to have no effect, and I was already sick of pulling it off everytime I plugged it in to charge or whatever. So I trimmed that baby off, right next to the middle section, so that it was still held in at two points, but so that the USB port was now exposed. I then took the remaining bit and trimmed it right close to its anchor thing, and slotted it back as well. So now the USB port is exposed but none of the ugly holes which the rubber thing slotted into are. I shouldn't have to worry about wear (because I'm not taking it off all the time) or expansion bulging (because it has one free edge), and because of the way the curves sit it looks like a nicely recessed USB port. I'm not certain the tiny little piece will stay put, but if it falls off (and I can still find it) I could easily put a spot of glue on it - it doesn't look too bad without that little bit anyway. If I did it again I'd probably leave a little bit more rubber on the side closest to the centre, so that the USB port looks better centred in the hole. (see attached pic)
CLOSING THE CAMERA/ALBUM
I found that pressing the X on the camera only minimised it. Fortunately there's a registry tweak called ok_minimize which you can change to make it actually close the app.
IE
Internet explorer is a dog for scrolling big pages. Replace your webview.dll file and it's much better.
.lnk FOR 'PROGRAMS' FOLDER
If you make an .lnk to the programs folder normally, it opens in a file explorer window - not cool. The solution is to make it point to the HTC app 'folderview.exe' and it works a treat. 'Settings' is not so simple though. You can map to individual control panels but not the main one with them all in there. A bit of a weird one.
Anyway, all in all I can't wait to put my dual to work now that it's been primed and readied - my wishlist at the moment would be:
* map double/triple/hold functions to the phone keys
* get slideclose to send a 'close current app' command rather than just go back to today screen
* align clauncher to the bottom of today screen (easier to thumb, and looks neater)
* figure out an .lnk file for the 'settings' control panel (this seems surprisingly difficult - in fact I installed some software that remapped the start menu and I couldn't get into 'settings' to remove it!)
* find a taskmanager or utility that actually kills activesync while it's connected
* to get faster at typing with the dang half-qwerty keyboard!
* I reckon a taskswitcher that used the touchflo 'across' gesture to scroll between open apps would be really cool.
There you have it - hope some or all of that is actually helpful! Thanks to all you guys out there cooking ROMs, writing software and thinking outside the box.
Cheers
jbng
jesus christ are you competing for the longest post of the year award??
holy crap !! i read it from the very beginning and never read such a post before ..... well done dude !! and keep up posting ;-)
re : * find a taskmanager or utility that actually kills activesync while it's connected
i searched such a tool a long time ... never got something which lets me charge niki without syncing on the pc.
workaround: i placed the network connection of my niki on my xp taskbar . when i want to sync then i enable network connection - if not, disable . not the best solution , i know , however - it works and since then i got used to it.
cheers
I take my hat off for these post's! Great job man!
nice post, even better to know there are people out there that search for answers before posting question after question
jbngar said:
I found that pressing the X on the camera only minimised it. Fortunately there's a registry tweak called ok_minimize which you can change to make it actually close the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you try changing the setting in settings -> task manager -> button -> to end program by tapping x, works ok for me
WEEK 2
Week 2 of touch dual has been a whole lot of fun. I'm still looking for an absolute 'killer' of an app that will make anyone and everyone go 'oooh, aaaaah - that's SO much better than your o2 mini could ever do'... but I'm yet to come across it. The most impressive thing is the voice activation, but whenever I show someone and tell it to 'play track twenty' it always seems to try and 'ring jack henty' or something like that.
AEBUTTON PLUS
I thought I'd try a trial full version of AEButton plus. I began by mapping a double centre-nav press for 'ok/close' and several other cool things to the left and right nav buttons. Worked great, for a time, until I tried typing. It turns out the 'enter' key on the slider does exactly the same thing as the centre press, and so every time I'd make a new paragraph I'd close the window! Not to mention all the weird and wonderful things that would happen when I went to correct a mistake. Click back... click back... click and hold... and the screen is rotating and all sorts of applications are launching!
So I realised the reason that most button mappers don't let you map the nav keys.
The camera button had issues too - even though it was mapped to let a single press do the default action, it wouldn't take a photo. No good.
The red button wouldn't work for some reason either, I can't remember why, but all I know is that I was left with my button mappings on the green button only:
single press = default action, double press = ok, triple press = switch application, hold = close application.
3G, GSM, INTERNET and MMS
The big news this week was the arrival of my 3G sim card. Both of them. I'd ordered one from Optus about a week and a half ago with the promise of '2-3 days'. It didn't come so I rang again and was told 'there's no record of you being sent one, we'll send you another'. And they both arrived on the same day - one at work and one at home.
Then I rang at lunchtime thursday to activate it, and then spent most of the rest of the day restarting the phone to see if it had provisioned in the '15 minute to four hour' window they gave me. I ended up slipping the card into an old Nokia 3200 when I got sick of waiting for the dual to boot up and hang when it was looking for the network. The Nokia flashed up a much more informative 'sim card not registered' message, which it continued to flash up until I gave up late on Thursday night. But in the morning, wonder of wonders, it was working! My family breathed a sigh of relief because they didn't have to listen to the dodgy Nokia startup tune any more.
The first thing I did was try the internet and it performed very respectably. But MMS messages refused to work.
I made a couple of calls to Optus to get the settings and was told 'you have to enter them manually'. So I faffed around with that for ages. The problem seemed to be that MMS would work if 'mms' was the default setting, but then internet wouldn't work. If I changed the default to 'internet', then MMS stopped working. Rah!
Then I discovered in the connections settings an icon called 'network wizard'. I thought it was for WiFi or something. But after clicking it, selecting the provider and restarting, everything worked just fine! Thanks for the heads up, tech support guys! I'll be sending them an email shortly.
3G tends to use more battery, so I tried a tool called bandswitcher to easily change between GSM and 3G, but it didn't help my config problems. And I thought that if I lock it to GSM, if someone tries to video call me it won't work; and if I lock it to 3G, if I go out of coverage it won't switch over. So 'Auto' it was.
BLUETOOTH RANGE
The bluetooth range seems to be a bit paltry on the dual. I tried switching off 'secure connection' and it was marginally better, but I couldn't connect from the next room like I could with my o2. Once the connection is established it seems to be better, but I have to say activesync via bluetooth has been flakier than I'd like - with lots of dropouts etc.
KEYSWOP
Try as I might, the shortcut path '\windows\poutlook.exe calendar -new' that was working for 'new appointment' on the touchflo cube would not map to the right softkey using the registry. So I found a free utility called 'keyswop' which makes .lnk files and helps you to map them to the softkeys. So everything in the software side of the touchflo cube is now in clauncher, a softkey or something else:
* New SMS/MMS/email - open keyboard, press first few letters of name, press 'send message'
* New appointment - press right softkey, enter details
* New note - open notes from clauncher, press left softkey
* IE/comm manager - clauncher icons
CLAUNCHER
Speaking of Clauncher, since last week I now have 15 icons (3 rows of 5) and less screens. It's very seldom that my appointments push it off the bottom of the screen, and if they do it's easily scrollable.
Further to my last investigations about needing to access the options via the today settings control panel to get the keyboard, I've found that you ALSO have to use the bog standard WM6 'keyboard' option - the other HTC keyboards will only give numbers. This seems to be the case in some other applications like Visnotes too. Visnotes is an awesome free application for storing encrypted numbers like bank accounts etc which uses an innovative 'password' - you press three times on a picture in preset places.
TYPING and XT9
I tried out an application called 'touchpal' which advertised itself as 'typing faster than a hardware keyboard'. But I think the dual's 2.6" screen is just a bit small for it to be effective. I've decided to stick with the half-qwerty keyboard and just keep practicing - and it seems to be paying off. My goal is to get to the stage where I can type without looking at the keys with either two hands or one.
XT9 is actually incredibly intelligent software. It uses complex algorithms based on what keys were near the one you actually typed, and combines them with its dictionaries to guess what you were trying to type. And it does very, very well. Anything that can guess the word 'friend' from the keystrokes 'ddeuabd' or 'thorough' from 'ggoedoujgg' is pretty darn clever.
The issue I had was that the default keyboard kept going back to 'ABC' aka multitap. This was fixed by switching the registry key CarrierDefaultTextMode as outlined here:
http://www.ppcsg.com/index.php?showtopic=97265
A couple of other xt9 tips:
* I found I had to use thumbnails (not thumbs) for the keys to avoid double pressing etc.
* For two handed entry, the 'Alt' key is quickest to access numbers and symbols on the top of the keys. For one handed entry, pressing and holding does the same thing.
* every so often XT9 uses a strange default word. My issues were 'boy' for 'not', and 'st' for 'at'. You can fix this by typing and selecting the word you want three times in a row. This seems to 'teach' it and sets it as the first word it chooses each time.
* the first row of symbols can be quickly accessed by holding down * and the relevant number (e.g. *7 will give you a smiley).
I *wish* there was some way to change the symbol matrix. The first three in the first row are already on hardware keys (.,?!) and the next ones are smileys. I would like to at least put a hyphen in the top row so I could access it without leaving the hardware keyboard. I've found the easiest way to enter symbols is to scroll to the row and use their numbers.
ACB TASKMAN
This software tells you which actual PROCESSES you are running. Quite useful. I used it to close down AEButtonPlus when it was mucking up.
I think that's about it for now - the main outstanding issues are still a shortcut to the settings control panel, and a way to align clauncher to the bottom of the today screen.
Otherwise, enjoy!
PS. A fun app I found is called 'guesser' - it basically gives you random numbers for all sorts of things like heads/tails, yes/no, agree/disagree, A/B/C/D, alphabet, 1-100 etc. We were with some friends the other night and everyone picked a number between 1 and 100 and the winner was the first one to have guesser pick their number. Fun in a bizarre kind of way...
Blimey, Claunch is nice, but I swapped to Ultimate Launch, just for the Today plugins within Tabs and animations, plus lots of Icons for it. If you do swap, remove cLaunch first as it buggered up my UL when I removed it afterwards.
I can hardly believe it, but after returning 4 different Verizon XV6800's, giving up and trying their "Glyde" and "Voyager".....I'm back once again to the Verizon XV6800. It's still the best device (IMO) despite it's weird glitches of turning on ActiveSync all by itself and still no flashing amber light to notify you of a missed MMS Guess I'll just have to live with those stupid oversights that Verizon and UTStarcomm are unwilling to fix.
Anyway, I digress. I have HTC Plus installed on my device and it works great! I also have the default HTCHomePlugin that came with the device enabled so it gives me the icons at the bottom of the screen for "Adjust Backlight", "ActiveSync" and "Flashlight".
I would like to add additional icons to the HTCHomePlugIn at the bottom of the screen WITHOUT making any other changes to my Today Screen ('cause I'm happy with the way it looks), but I have no idea how to add any other icons. Anyone able to help me with doing this?? Thanks.....Mark
PinzPilot said:
I can hardly believe it, but after returning 4 different Verizon XV6800's, giving up and trying their "Glyde" and "Voyager".....I'm back once again to the Verizon XV6800. It's still the best device (IMO) despite it's weird glitches of turning on ActiveSync all by itself and still no flashing amber light to notify you of a missed MMS Guess I'll just have to live with those stupid oversights that Verizon and UTStarcomm are unwilling to fix.
Anyway, I digress. I have HTC Plus installed on my device and it works great! I also have the default HTCHomePlugin that came with the device enabled so it gives me the icons at the bottom of the screen for "Adjust Backlight", "ActiveSync" and "Flashlight".
I would like to add additional icons to the HTCHomePlugIn at the bottom of the screen WITHOUT making any other changes to my Today Screen ('cause I'm happy with the way it looks), but I have no idea how to add any other icons. Anyone able to help me with doing this?? Thanks.....Mark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to the HTC Home folder on the root of your phone and copy the entire folder to your PC. Open the folder and browse around. Open what you want to edit in photoshop and edit/overwrite. Copy those changed files to a new folder and then transfer to the HTC Home folder to overwrite those files. NOTE: turn off HTC Home from the today screen when trying to overwrite files.
EDIT: Sorry realized this was the plugin, not HTC home.
See this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=308250
The thread mentions that you can have only seven icons, but here's the 9 icon version:
popdog54 said:
See this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=308250
The thread mentions that you can have only seven icons, but here's the 9 icon version:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much. Exactly what I was looking for!!!!
Mark
To be honest, I tried the touch flo 3d, the home 2, but the only thing I like is the normal, clean windows mobile today screen i like it, its neat , organized, and the xperia wallpaper gives it an elegant look. I alos modified the left menu key to initiate a new sms
what do u think?
I like it's neat clean look, but I prefer using the SE Today Panel.
trezegol87 said:
To be honest, I tried the touch flo 3d, the home 2, but the only thing I like is the normal, clean windows mobile today screen i like it, its neat , organized, and the xperia wallpaper gives it an elegant look.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, a big fan of Winmo Today screen. When I jumped ship from Palm OS to Winmo, the Today screen really makes me forget I ever had a Palm OS device... Although the fond memories of rock hard stability creeps out now and then.
Currently Using itje's incredible Touch-IT v4.5 ROM. The Touchflo is nice, but more of a gimmick then anything else... Give me plain old Today screen anytime.
It just seems easier on the Today screen, that's why I have a lite rom installed, along with TF3d and panels.
I tend to always end up back at the default today screen. Something just nice about it.
Yeah I use it all the time now as it seems to be the most customisable without being fiddley and does all I want it too... I would like a today that is a combination of several of the panels but so far have found nothing that I like more than the normal today...
i use the today screen as my default screen when at work as i like to be in control of how many appointments are displayed, reminders, etc. it's nice to be able to switch to another panel for the weekends though ...
i'm a bit concerned about some of the screenshots for wm 6.5. does the today screen still exist ?
The standard Today just works. Give you access to what a PDA is for, PIM. There is a plugin called TodayAgenda which makes it perfect though.
glad you guys think the same way
btw, any idea how to make a shortcut for the start button? I downloaded a program, H button, that enables me to long press a key and a program comes up... but i want to access the start menu that way
trezegol87 said:
glad you guys think the same way
btw, any idea how to make a shortcut for the start button? I downloaded a program, H button, that enables me to long press a key and a program comes up... but i want to access the start menu that way
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you trying to assign a hardware key to Start Menu? If so, go to Start>Settings>Buttons
All this talk is making me want to use the Today panel more! I just tweaked it a little bit and I'm going to give it a try next week.
Does anybody know of a way to get more programs on it? Skype is on the list, and I think TomTom is, but I'd like a couple others.
I need to use the today screen to see the G-Alarm plugin, how much Internet traffic I had this month (SPB Wireless). Also I find it very convenient to use Elecont Dialer (a scrollable row of contacts to call or sms) and Elecont Launcher (a scrollable row of apps).
So I usually end up using it, even if SPB Shell is more touch-friendly. It just doesn't display all the information I need in one screen.
I always seem to go back to the spb panel as my default. its simple and looks clean i think compared with tf3d and point ui. im hopeing that when the new 3.0 shell comes out that it wont replace the spb x1 panel (although i know it will).
I've tried all the panels, shells etc. You name them, I've tried them. As said before, the Touch-IT v4.5 ROM is nice, but gimmicky. I admit I've installed it, but only to get GPS tagging of photos. I untick it in Start -> Settings -> Today -> Items immediately after it's installed.
I appreciate all the work that's gone into developing it, but its way too busy for me
My preferred interface is iFonz 2. The interface can be as simple or as 'busy' as you like. I prefer to have just a few icons of the programs I use regularly on screen as well as icons for the frequently called contacts. Also its very finger friendly.
For the programs that I use infrequently, it's no hassle to find them in Start -> Programs, and contacts are easy to find in iContacts
Caps
Hart and soul of my machine.
without it, I had never changed to a winmo device.
Maby it's time to start a thread : "show of your real todayscreen"
talbas said:
Hart and soul of my machine.
without it, I had never changed to a winmo device.
Maby it's time to start a thread : "show of your real todayscreen"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you post your skin and the programs used ?
Thx alot !
fotoingo said:
Can you post your skin and the programs used ?
Thx alot !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ArielBattery2.1http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=364278
PDC_clock http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-pocket-digital-clock.html
SpbWeather2 http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/weather/
ElecontLauncherhttp://www.elecont.com/launcher-for-pocket-pc.aspx
Inesoft Phonehttp://www.inesoft.com/eng/index.php?in=phone.html
PDAStatusFull http://corner-a.com/page.php?3---http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=3289885
good place to say thank you to the developers
some questions........
sorry made this post in the wrong damn thread!!!!
on the subject of todays screen check out
http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/products/pocketpc/WisBarAdvanceDesktop/
wisebar desktop is really amazing if you want to pimp out your today screen!!! (hit there fourms for free and custom skins!!!)
example of skins
http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15113
Hey friends, I'm with you. I think the today screen is one of the best inventions of Microsoft and is really underrated. It just makes sense to have active plugins share the most precious place on a mobile - the information screen after switching the device on. I think the iPhone is ridiculous in this regardö - just showing icons of the programs that can be launched is lame. Also, there are really powerful plugins available for Windows Mobile. I'm personally using the built in date/time and messages plugin together with PocketBreeze for all the organizer stuff and PocketPlus for system status (battery, memory), finger friendly app launcher and additional plugins as tab (spb weather actuall). Then I use the system tray as quicklaunch and for showing the currently selected phone profile from PhoneWeaver and my softkeys start Contacts and WM5NewMenu, with which I can very quickly place a new appointment, SMS, Email, Note and so on. With this setup, I can really use the device, not only play. Everything is just one or two clicks/actions away and I always have a good overview of what's going on.
I really don't understand why so many people want a better iPhone instead of a good Windows Mobile device. Windows Mobile has drawbacks but also strong points, of which the today screen is one of the strongest I think.
I am also a big fan of the Windows today page. I think it's the only one that can be entirely adapted to everyone's need, all other software are nice graphically, but not as effective as a well prepared today page.
Hi,
Only had my HD2 for a couple of days having come from iphone and have a couple of gripes with it. Maybe it's just me though as never had a windows phone before.
When using opera internet browser you have to zoom in quite a bit to press links, which I find a little annoying. I've tried skyfire which is much better, but you can't use pinch/zoom. Is there a browser that has the best of both worlds?
Is there a quick way to turn bluetooth on/off without having to go into settings?
Is there a quick link to profiles? I know if you hold the end call button you can select between vibrate or ringer, but not silent. I must admit, this is one thing I liked about the iphone, there was a simple switch to change from silent/ringer without having to turn the phone on and press buttons.
When making/receiving calls sometimes the screen comes back on and my ear presses other functions, or disconnects the call. Has there not been a fix for this issue yet?
The call quality isn't great, sometimes the caller distorts on certain words/letters
And finally, is there any way to change the vibrate? Can it be set to 'pulse' rather than just a continous vibration. Can it be set just to give one or 2 pulses when receiving a sms/mms message, rather than vibrating for the full length of the message alert? (I've personalised mine and goes on for about 10 seconds)
I think the phone is great, and these niggles aren't the most major of things (accept the screen turning back on during calls) but it would make the phone more of a pleasure to use.
Cheers
There are fixes or programs for most of your niggles, but they may not integrate with the HTC Sense interface! That's one downside of such a deeply coded front end, and one reason why I personally have stopped using it!
There is a file available which can allow links in Opera to be clicked when zoomed out- sorry, but I don't have time to link to it at present!
For profile and radio (BT/WiFi/Phone) switching, I'd recommend SBSH Phoneweaver . OK, it costs $15 but you can set any number of profiles with switching based on time, location, busy status etc, or manually. The pop-up menu also has a set of switches for the various radios. It can be launched via one of the 3 Program buttons on the front page of Sense, or via a small icon in the Taskbar. I'm, not sure if it can have the vibrate times defined or not!
NeilM said:
There are fixes or programs for most of your niggles, but they may not integrate with the HTC Sense interface! That's one downside of such a deeply coded front end, and one reason why I personally have stopped using it!
There is a file available which can allow links in Opera to be clicked when zoomed out- sorry, but I don't have time to link to it at present!
For profile and radio (BT/WiFi/Phone) switching, I'd recommend SBSH Phoneweaver . OK, it costs $15 but you can set any number of profiles with switching based on time, location, busy status etc, or manually. The pop-up menu also has a set of switches for the various radios. It can be launched via one of the 3 Program buttons on the front page of Sense, or via a small icon in the Taskbar. I'm, not sure if it can have the vibrate times defined or not!
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Thanks for your response. What are you referring to when you say radios? Please forgive my ignorance, I'm still learning
You say that you have stopped using the HTC sense interface so what do you use instead?
Just having a look at the phoneweaver, can this be used with the sense interface? Does it overide the phone settings?
Radios = WiFi, Bluetooth and Phone Radio. These are the things you see in the Comm Manager with the little green On/Off sliders
I'm now using a 'Light' custom ROm without the HTC Sense stuff. I prefer to use a plain 'Home Screen' (which you can achieve by going into Settings/Home (or Today) and selecting the Items tab. From there you can turn on or off any of the Today items or Sense itself.
A lot of the programs I use have their own Today screen plug-ins which suits me fine- Resco Contact Manager, Elecont Weather and Chronos clock/alarms, plus I use a Launcher program called Launchpad by Panoramic Software that is opened by tapping the top left of the screen; this has 40 definable 'Favourites' links plus a full set of Programs/Settings links.
Back to work now!
snerkler said:
Just having a look at the phoneweaver, can this be used with the sense interface? Does it overide the phone settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can take over all the phone settings and can be manual or scheduled, plus some other useful switching options. You can try it free for 15 days!
NeilM said:
Radios = WiFi, Bluetooth and Phone Radio. These are the things you see in the Comm Manager with the little green On/Off sliders
I'm now using a 'Light' custom ROm without the HTC Sense stuff. I prefer to use a plain 'Home Screen' (which you can achieve by going into Settings/Home (or Today) and selecting the Items tab. From there you can turn on or off any of the Today items or Sense itself.
A lot of the programs I use have their own Today screen plug-ins which suits me fine- Resco Contact Manager, Elecont Weather and Chronos clock/alarms, plus I use a Launcher program called Launchpad by Panoramic Software that is opened by tapping the top left of the screen; this has 40 definable 'Favourites' links plus a full set of Programs/Settings links.
Back to work now!
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Click to collapse
Cheers for your help
If you read this sticky thread you will find the answers to all of your questions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=583638
It should be pretty obvious since its the first and most talked about topic.
Enjoy.
lorin.bute said:
If you read this sticky thread you will find the answers to all of your questions:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=583638
It should be pretty obvious since its the first and most talked about topic.
Enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that thread, the trouble is I'm not a real computer/phone buff (yet) and so a lot of it goes right over my head. I don't even know what registry's are, and wy you need to edit them???
Ok, the concept of registry is quite simple. I'll put in a way so anyone can understand. Its a repository of stored key/value pairs.
Imagine a folder like structure, when you open a folder you will find a series of keys which, when opened, reveal the value.
Every key/folder is used by the OS or by some application. Its where all the back door settings are stored. So if you wanna make an app or the OS behave in a way you need to change the settings.
Using the registry is easy, but you have to make the first step... so what are you waiting?
lorin.bute said:
Ok, the concept of registry is quite simple. I'll put in a way so anyone can understand. Its a repository of stored key/value pairs.
Imagine a folder like structure, when you open a folder you will find a series of keys which, when opened, reveal the value.
Every key/folder is used by the OS or by some application. Its where all the back door settings are stored. So if you wanna make an app or the OS behave in a way you need to change the settings.
Using the registry is easy, but you have to make the first step... so what are you waiting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I bugger up the phone if I don't know what I'm doing?
You can always make a backup of the registry you are changing. In resco registry editor tap and hold and press export. If the changes you made are not good, go to the folder where you exported the backup and open it. It will automatically imported and problem solved. But if you follow the instructions you won't have any problems, just don't change the registry for something you don't know or never seen in any tip/suggestion.
You could affect stuff if you dont do it right... but if you follow the instructions carefully without any typing errors, you will be fine...
Use this to Turn off BT easily.... it also does a lot of other stuff... basically, your bottom left softkey will become an "action" button... prssing that will bring up the screen shown in the screenshots. Works really well for me... also give you soft reset options without opening the back cover or powering off
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=587493&highlight=action+button
I installed the custom 3VO rom, and I'm not blaming it, its brought a lot of neat features, but for some reason I can't seem to fix a few problems:
Everytime I write a text message, I get an INFO: Message sent. I tried disabling it through the registry editor and installing a cab, doesn't work. Seems like it doesn't have an option to disable it, because I went to Text-Messages-Menu-Options and then when I go to account, there is no way to disable it there either. Its windows mobile 6.5 I believe.
There is nothing wrong with CHome, except that the clock is disabled in the upper bar for whatever reason. How do I make it display that? I hate the clock bar, or at least start on a different slide? I came from blackberry, so if you could point me in the way of a QVGA theme that is similar to the today screen that would be fantastic as well.
Also wondering if there is an ability to quit an application instantly after I exit it rather than have it running the background.
Text sent was fixed with the replacement of the HTCMessage.exe with a blank dummy file. Would still like help on other issues if you would so kindly oblige.