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Has anyone viewed the Hero demo clip on HTC.com they show the pinching method being done to zoom in and out
Yes, and I must admit that I like that. However I'm of the impression that this UI has not been enforced across all applications. Could anyone with better info confirm?
the multitouch only works in the browser and gallery that i have seen so far, think it also works in HTC Mail but not google mail
Edit: Confirmed it also works in mail
if you lot watch the "week with HTC Hero" videos from coolsmartphone, you will notice that Google maps isn't multitouch enabled, I'm assuming that it wont be implemented on other applications and that it's just a HTC thing.
it wont be implemented on the google apps as they are unmodified by htc
But it would work for games?
I think the best way to answer this would be to remember something important about xda-developers.com. Anything that CAN be done on a phone, and SHOULD be done on a phone, WILL be done on that phone. After it is done, it'll be here on xda for download. How long that will take, is anyone's guess. But you can rest assured that hackers'll find a way to get those multi touch elements into other parts of the phone's operation.
Don't be surprised if it ends up on the magic first, however, as people have already had their hands on the magic for a while now.
Caid.
444
From what I understand, multi-touch on the hero is done by HTC and not through the OS. That's something that needs to be remidied though because it means we will never see it on software since it won't work with other android phones.
What we need is Android to have default functionality and calls for features like multitouch, accelerometers, light sensors, proximity sensors, ect... (they may already for some of these) so that these calls can be made by a program and be compatible with any device. That's a major problem with WM right now. hopefully, android will remidy this quickly in future updates (2.0?) and HTC will update there software to use the system calls.
There are zero in the Marketplace.
Is there some kind of technical limitation of Android that prevents this most rudimentary of features of a computing device with a screen? I just don't get it at all. It can't be that nobody has asked for one. So there must be a limitation of Android that prevents a screenshot from being generated?
REQUEST: Can anyone write an app that solves this? I think there were would be great demand.
I think if it was possible, there would be one by now. Most likely it's not.
It can't be that nobody has asked for one. So there must be a limitation of Android that prevents a screenshot from...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you answered your own question; )
In order to take a screen print, data from the video RAM must be extracted. root access is required for this.
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
Yeah, you can pretty much rule out anything that requires direct access to hardware. Hardware access is limited to what is accessible via APIs. By the look of it, that does not include access to the video RAM. There are many other things (flashlight for example) which, although they seem simple, are not included in the standard APIs and therefore are not possible without root access to the device.
bcmobile said:
Yeah, you can pretty much rule out anything that requires direct access to hardware. Hardware access is limited to what is accessible via APIs. By the look of it, that does not include access to the video RAM. There are many other things (flashlight for example) which, although they seem simple, are not included in the standard APIs and therefore are not possible without root access to the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I'm not a developer so I didn't know these limitations existed. This OS has developed so fast -- less than 2 years old... and yet, I would have thought this kind of thing would have been handled long ago, just from end-user expectation: "I can print-screen" or screen grab on my full size computer, so i probably can screen grab from my hand held computer.
But re flashlight -- maybe there is one specific function/app you are referring to, but on my Hero, unrooted, thru the Market, i must have downloaded and tried about 6 different flashlights, all with basic function of using the white light of the screen as a light source... some that enabled you to change the color of the screen to blue, red, etc... One even has this cop-car alternating red-blue flashing light display.
I am probably misunderstanding you though.
I think ultimately I am just surprised certain things are not further along -- and it's a stark contrast to a thread I was just visiting way across the other side of the XDA forums universe -- called WP7 - epic fail --- in which many die hard WM developers lament the passing of an OS that gave amazing levels of access to devs, yet the UI of the OS itself was beyond dated, it was dysfunctional and impractical in today's world.
It's just interesting to read the perspectives of developers touting Symbian as the most open OS and most efficient (less battery drain) -- and last I knew I thought it was being killed off. Wrong again.
I'm extremely happy with Android -- but then there are these few blindspots where I have to say -- wow -- i could do THAT 5 years ago on my old T-Mobile MDA WM 5x phone ... like 100%-reliable voicetags for phone calling contacts, opening apps etc, vs speech recognition, ... like the abilities the resistive screen gave me in drawing elaborate sketch at a meeting -- or my being able the take really quick notes with -- yes -- a stylus -- not an alltogether stupid idea -- and have a 90% success rate at character recognition and conversion to text ... the precision of controlling a color slider bar on a resistive screen --- i understand that's not OS but screen properties -- but I am just collectively observing that while I absolutely loved my HERO, and now am discovering my DESIRE, there are still some very basic things I can't do with allegedly the best smartphone in the marketplace.
I'm very agnostic about hardware and software, never been a fanboy -- I'm a usability designer... so functionality rules, end users rule. And basic things like this -- a screenshot -- they may be very explainable by devs... And my question may sound like it's very annoying to some, and I'm just a dumb **** (not you, you were respectful), but I think, as a end user advocate, it's pretty stupid -- and seems senseless to me that this phone can do 1001 backflips with video, and yet it can't let me "record" what I see on my screen. I get it that it's not yet released by Google, but they're who I'm calling stupid for not solving something so elementary by now.
I have every right to say this without any android architecture knowledge.
I can see your point, but in all modern operating systems, there is no direct hardware control, for any purpose, no matter how benevolent the purpose might be.
This is done only through api programming and libraries of calls, which are also restricted most of the time.
The reason is simple and can be summarized to one word, security.
As phones are becoming more and more capable of doing sensitive activities like online banking transactions and on top of that hold every personal info one has,
security will become an even greater concern.
Windows so far, have been the least secure platform for every day use to date. This is also true for windows mobile.
I know it looks like you are getting less usability than you did, but at least in this case its not just to inflate someone's wallet with extra money, through proprietorial lock down of services and apis, which would be "opened" at a later date for some more cash.
I m sure that in no time we ll be seeing full blown firewalls and antivirus suites for superphones like the desire.
All it will take is a few more viruses-trojans targeting mobile platforms like jailbroken iphones or rooted android devices.
I guess the same limitations are to be blamed for not having a proper voice recorder, i.e. one that can record both parts of a phone conversation.
reason you arent getting a non root screenshot app(if memory serves correctly):
the screenshot app takes a dump of the display file in /dev/ and then uses image processing to output a jpg/png/whatever. At the momment we can see the contents of /dev/ with (adb shell ls /dev/) but any attempt to read/write/copy (adb pull /dev/lightsensor ./lightsensor)(yes i know that is the light sensor but couldnt remember what the display file was called) anything is met with a "permission denied".
Today at the Google IO keynote, Google announced the new features that Android 2.2 code named "Froyo" will introduce. Android 2.2 will be available via update for the super popular HTC EVO 4G phone this July.
One of the many improvements that Android 2.2 will bring is better performance when running applications. They have made improvements to how applications are compiled that allows apps to run more efficiently, which ultimately allows the applications to run faster and smoother than ever before. Android's web browser Chrome, has also been improved with a 2-3x javascript performance boost using the V8 engine which allows web apps to load a lot faster with Android 2.2. During the live demonstration using Sun's standard Spider javascript test, Chrome on Android 2.2 out performed the same phone running Android 2.1 and even outperformed the Apple iPad running Safari!
Google also announced that Android 2.2 will improve the Chrome browser by adding better HTML 5 support which will allow the browser to utilize features of the phone that were never possible in previous Android OS versions. These new features include the ability for the browser to utilize the phone's accelerometer in web based apps such as Google Maps to change the viewing angle instead of having to use on-screen controls. They also demonstrated how HTML 5 will allow you to use the phone's camera in web-based apps such as Google Buzz to take a picture and share it right from your web-browser! To top it off, Android 2.2 will be the first mobile operating system that will have native flash support. With Android 2.2, the Chrome web browser will have full Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support to allow you to view flash-based websites, play flash games, and more! This is something that not even the iPhone is capable of doing!
While many smartphones already support push notifications to receive email, instant messages, and other notifications instantly. Google is taking this idea to a whole new level with their Cloud to Device messaging API. This new feature allows users to send commands to their Android device to launch applications, perform tasks, and much more. For example, if a user is viewing Google Maps on his desktop computer, with one-click in his desktop browser, the phone will automatically launch Google Maps and open up to the same location that was being viewed on the desktop browser. This is going to be really useful for users who need to quickly switch from their desktop/laptop environment to their phone in a moments notice!
One of the most exciting features for our readers is that Android 2.2 will add a feature that turns your Android device into a portable hotspot. This feature will create a WiFi network that provides internet connectivity for up to 8 WiFi-capable devices using the 3G or 4G mobile networks. While Google didn't say if this will require an additional monthly fee for a tethering plan, we suspect that this feature will require the tethering plan on your phone which is usually an additional $30/month.
While Google said that there are over 20 new enterprise features, they only mentioned that in Android 2.2 there would be Microsoft Exchange support, including auto-discovery, integration with global address book, forced security policies, remote wiping of the device, the ability to easily move application data from one phone to a new Android device, and many more enterprise friendly features that would be announced in the near future.
If you are currently an Android user, you know how great Google's voice search is for searching the web using your own voice. While their voice search feature is already very good, they demonstrated that voice recognition has improved since Android 2.1 as well as a new feature that uses Google Voice called "intentions". "Intentions" is designed to work like a personal assistant, if you say "Call Fifth Floor Restaurant" it will search for the restaurant based on your GPS location, find the phone number for this restaurant, and automatically place the call for you. In Android 2.2 Google Voice also will have a voice translation feature that will translate and speak almost anything you say into another language. This is going to be a must have feature for anyone who travels frequently!
There are also going to be several updates the the Android Market Place including:
Automatic Updates - The ability to have all of your applications automatically update when new versions are available, instead of having to choose to manually update each application.
Google's Auto-Fill Search - Uses Google's Auto-fill search to guess at what you are trying to search for as you begin to type in your search keywords, just as you see on Google's web search.
Search within application data - Now allows you to search within application data such as financial documents, office documents, spreadsheets etc, so that you can find your personal information more quickly and efficiently!
Install/Move Apps to SD Card - With Android 2.2 you can move large applications to the SD card to free up internal memory, and you can even configure Android 2.2 to automatically install large apps to the SD card when internal memory is low.
Desktop Android Marketplace - You will now be able to access the Android marketplace via your desktop on your web-browser. From the desktop version of the marketplace you can view your Android devices, which apps you already have installed, and purchase applications. If you have an Android 2.2 device, when you purchase apps from your desktop, they will be automatically pushed & downloaded to your Android 2.2 device via 3G/4G connectivity without having to tether via USB to sync the application to your phone!
Google also announced a new feature to Android 2.2 that will allow users to access and stream their entire music library from their desktop computer or media center device to their Android device via WiFi, 3G, or 4G! Google has partnered with Sprint & HTC to provide the new HTC EVO 4G to all the developers who attended the Google IO conference. Google said the HTC EVO 4G will provide consumers with the best Android experience possible with it's 4.3in screen, 8mp camera, HDMI output, and most of all the first phone to use 4G technology to provide speeds up to 10mbit/sec!
July? Really? Do you have any other outside sources to confirm that? If so, that kicks some major ass.
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/05/20/htc-desire-incredible-android-2-2-froyo/
Thanks notown775!
Wicked!....if its true!
I doubt it will be in july, froyo may one out publicly and be pushed to the N1 in july but not to the evo, because of sense UI.
I would agree with July as some have mentioned that it might be released wth Froyo 2.2 on June 4th. Since that timeline is very near a July push is more than welcomed news. It's kind of like having a 1.5Ghz processor now instead of 1.00Ghz I think the improvement is going to be spectacular.
There will so many many new phones out and I will be broke by the end of the year
Too bad they were not all GSM based phones so I could just swap out my SIM card and have just one phone number or use the google voice and call it a day
Ummmm, "second half of the year" can be July, or it can be December. It doesn't mention anywhere that it's going to be July.
Judging by past HTC updates, I highly doubt it will be in July. And if HTC does get it, you can be sure Verizon/Sprint etc will be taking it before it goes OTA and disabling the built-in tether, delaying it even longer.
.....yeah its official, July 4th @ 7:05am it will be in my hands :-D
Sent from my soon to be replaced HTC Hero using Tapatalk
they keep mentioning the EVO 4g, so i wouldnt put it past them to have it ready by july.
that sounds to good to be true and too soon for the supersonic.where are you guys getting all the infos from anyway?
2.2 should run fantastic on the Evo hardware. Doubt the update will be allowed OTA on Sprint as soon as it's available from Google, if history is any teacher.
Hopefully WP7 takes a lesson from both Android and iPhone: regular OS updates that enhance functionality on a MOBILE platform.
Either way, whenever the update gets pushed down, it will be a good thing.
Well i doubt we will get the update in july, but engadget said HTC released a statement saying most 2010 phones will get the update. So n1, Desire, Incredible, and the Evo. Most phones by htc in 2010 have ran sense UI so i dont think that will be as big a problem now to get the update, not as much as Sprint pushing it to the Evo will be with the built in teether. engadget.com/2010/05/21/htc-most-phones-launched-in-2010-will-get-android-2-2/
I think the EVO will get priority from HTC since it is essentially their "flagship" device.
We can always hope.
Let's say there's a two or three month delay between Evo release and 2.2 availability - will 2.2 break ROM's created since the 6/4 release? Or any other apps?
That's what stinks.
Technically it should be pretty soon.
I believe the reason it took so long for the Hero to get 2.1 is because it was coming from 1.5 or 1.6 (I don't remember). Since HTC already has 2.1 running with Sense, upgrading to 2.2 with Sense shouldn't be all that difficult considering the bulk of changes are under the hood and have no changes made to the UI itself.
I wonder...what makes Android upgrades more difficult: changes in UI, or under the hood? Any developers out there that can chime in on this?
I think the major problem here is the carrier. I'm sure OS upgrades have to pass some internal control on the carrier, which explains why Nexus One users get updates immediately.
Nexus One got it so quickly due to the fact it didn't have sense UI. Like a computer getting upgraded windows or MAC or Linux, its easy to upgrade the OS but when you have UI its more difficult to keep everything working properly. And it would be a stupid move for HTC to not have this ready for Tue EVO 4g a few weeks, NO days after its released on the N1 !
khov07 said:
I wonder...what makes Android upgrades more difficult: changes in UI, or under the hood? Any developers out there that can chime in on this?
I think the major problem here is the carrier. I'm sure OS upgrades have to pass some internal control on the carrier, which explains why Nexus One users get updates immediately.
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Click to collapse
I believe the UI is the biggest problem. Look at CLIQ or Hero or xperia's phone. Also coming from 1.5 Sense to 2.1 Sense is probably a lot more work coming from 2.1 Sense to 2.2 Sense.
HTC offers the updates on their site I believe, not sure if it has anything to do with the carrier.
This one might, as 2.2 enables tethering and hot-spot capabilities. I'm sure carriers will have something to say about that - they have so far.
2.2 isn't as huge an upgrade from 2.1 as it was from 1.5 to 2.1. 2.2 Should be out a lot quicker, as i doubt sense will have to be updated that much
I have a question that is purely out of curiosity. I'm not a developer, nor do I have any desire to become one... at this time.
In the process of answering questions for my father about his new Android phone, I came across the Android Developers website. Being the infinity curious person that I am, I started to browse through it and came across something that I was particularly curious about, the "Forward-Locked Application" market filter. It states that an application in the market can be set to not be visible to developer devices and unreleased devices. What I'm curious about is why would a developer not want their app to not be visible to said devices? Wouldn't it be to their advantage to allow their app to be visible, installed, and possibly tested if the owner of the developer phone or new unreleased phone so chose to do, after all, this is potentially new hardware that the app developer may not have support for in their app. Now not being a developer myself, I'm sure there are valid reasons for the filter and I am just curious as to what they may be.
Because you haven't tested your app on a new OS build, and want ensure compatibility before offering it for sale. Other reason is that the new OS build either obsoletes, duplicates, or just plain breaks your app. An example would be the updates to the calendar API's in Android 2.2. Every calendar widget in the market that tied into the built-in calendar app ceased to function because the way it interacted with outside apps had changed.
So the lock is not in reference to developer or unreleased hardware, it pertains to developer or unreleased software or OS?
They would check build/version number in the build.prop or whatever they use... It's just like how FroYo builds couldn't see protected apps while it was in pre-release.
garfnodie said:
So the lock is not in reference to developer or unreleased hardware, it pertains to developer or unreleased software or OS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes this is correct. The developer phones have different software that allow native root access and this would be defined in the build.prop . That would also allow people to rip applications and pirate them.
That switch is mainly a quality assurance/anti-piracy measure.
ATnTdude said:
Because you haven't tested your app on a new OS build, and want ensure compatibility before offering it for sale. Other reason is that the new OS build either obsoletes, duplicates, or just plain breaks your app. An example would be the updates to the calendar API's in Android 2.2. Every calendar widget in the market that tied into the built-in calendar app ceased to function because the way it interacted with outside apps had changed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, those apps that broke, broke because they were using private APIs. As explained, if you stick to public APIs your app should not break when updating OS iterations because ALL APIs are frozen as soon as a release is cut.
Here's another question then, are app's allowed to do automatic bug reporting back to a developer with out the user consent, or even with the users consent. It seems to me that say Google is testing Android 3.0, and one of their in house testers decides to install your app, but your app does not support 3.0 for whatever reason, if there is automatic bug reporting, you could be made aware of a potential incompatibility with a new API and have time to fix it long before the new OS is ever released. This all could never happen though if you have the market filter set.
garfnodie said:
Here's another question then, are app's allowed to do automatic bug reporting back to a developer with out the user consent, or even with the users consent. It seems to me that say Google is testing Android 3.0, and one of their in house testers decides to install your app, but your app does not support 3.0 for whatever reason, if there is automatic bug reporting, you could be made aware of a potential incompatibility with a new API and have time to fix it long before the new OS is ever released. This all could never happen though if you have the market filter set.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bug reporting is going to be a new feature of 3.0. I dont think many if any apps have their own built in bug reporting. Also it really is on the developers side if their app doesnt work with new OS revisions. They should program their apps in such a way that they wont have to make drastic changes for updates. Google also give plenty of time for developers to make fixes before the first iterations of the new update goes out (almost 1 month in the case of froyo)
however some developers just dont care (e.g Co-Pilot)
This is combination of a gmail app question, accessory question and honeycomb OS question so I'll post it in general.
I received my Moto Bluetooth keyboard today.
This is a huge step forward in having this device be a laptop replacement for 90% of my non-work computer use. However, there are a few things missing:
1. Is there a keyboard shortcut to switch between active applications? Like alt-tab in windows? the dedicated app buttons are nice, but this means that I can only switch between certain apps.
2. Is there a way to change the behavior for the buttons? There is no "messaging" app in honeycomb. I would instead like this to map to gchat
3. Where are keyboard shortcuts in the gmail app? I want to be able to archive, reply, and forward by hitting y, r, and f.
4. in fact why do the arrow keys not do what I expect them to in gmail? They jump between links in the content of the email. I want them to be able to let me hop between emails not only within the current one. Perhaps this would be solved by keyboard shortcuts of j and k.
5. Why hasn't anyone made a decent office/productivity app yet? Is this that difficult? Is there a way to force my browser to not use the mobile version of google docs?
6. I hate to say it, but I miss blur. Only for the fact that motorola understands how to integrate with exchange well.
Blur can download attachments, reply to email, manage calendar invites, look up in the GAL, etc much much better than the crap support that google gives out of the box. And before anyone asks, TouchDown for Tablets has issues in honeycomb and does not work for me.
That being said, these are all minor software tweaks. I love the device and really hope that moto/google can address these issues.
If anyone has any known workarounds or solutions please let me know as well.
I don't have my Xoom (yet) and I don't have a keyboard. But I do have an OG Droid. And you can setup your shortcuts for it by going into Settings->Applications->Quick Launch. You might check to see if that option is there for the Xoom.
Android apps do not have keyboard shortcuts, period. The onscreen keyboard isn't meant for that and it's not designed to be used with an external keyboard (primarily).
Dang! While I was typing my thread someone else had apparently a similar question... could one of the admins/moderators please merge my thread with this??!!? Thanks!
Bauxite said:
Android apps do not have keyboard shortcuts, period. The onscreen keyboard isn't meant for that and it's not designed to be used with an external keyboard (primarily).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
android-tips.com/use-keyboard-shortcuts-to-switch-between-applications/
It does look like there are keyboard shortcuts, but some of them have been dropped in the move to honeycomb. This is odd because I would think that more people will be using external keyboards to do actual work with honeycomb.
bryz2 said:
5. Why hasn't anyone made a decent office/productivity app yet? Is this that difficult?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe the fact Honeycomb has been out all of 6 days...
You ever try writing a complex program such as that? No?! I didn't think so. Things like that take time. not even MS can pump out a copy of office in 6 days with their enormous development staff.
chaoscentral said:
Maybe the fact Honeycomb has been out all of 6 days...
You ever try writing a complex program such as that? No?! I didn't think so. Things like that take time. not even MS can pump out a copy of office in 6 days with their enormous development staff.
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Click to collapse
lol. Quite defensive.
1. the sdk has been out for a while. Ever think about why there were apps on launch day? Those companies must have millions of people!!!
2. Since you asked, I have written much more complex apps. I'm a systems engineer. Phone apps are relatively simple.
3. Android has been out for years now. There is still not a decent office app on any flavor of android.
bryz2 said:
3. Android has been out for years now. There is still not a decent office app on any flavor of android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There pops the bubble
zdnet.co.uk/news/mobile-devices/2011/03/02/asuss-eee-pad-tablets-show-off-android-30-40091991/#story
hopefully if they keep releasing devices with keyboards, keyboard support and office applications will only get better.
bryz2 said:
lol. Quite defensive.
1. the sdk has been out for a while. Ever think about why there were apps on launch day? Those companies must have millions of people!!!
2. Since you asked, I have written much more complex apps. I'm a systems engineer. Phone apps are relatively simple.
3. Android has been out for years now. There is still not a decent office app on any flavor of android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The API was finalized two days before the Xoom was released. Also the SDK is completely unusable without a Xoom to test on, so if a developer didn't have one there was almost no way they could start developing it before it came out unless google gave them a pre-production unit. This is why there are so few xoom apps right now, you could not develop for honeycomb without one unless you were okay with the emulator going .001 frames per second.
Google Suggests Google Docs. I think its very good considering it is web based.
We use it in our organization, publishing live statistical information about the operation every few minutes to shared spreadsheets, from which our users can interact.
Google Docs users can open, edit, share spreadsheets, Txt Docs with formating, and now Power Point without any issues from Android Devices, Apple, and any other web device.
I think Quick Office is also good for a small screen, and it has been out for years.
Or, Email moves docs around very nicely as well.
But in the end, Android is not Ubuntu. Andriod is not MacOS. Android is not Windows
If you would like to create complex documents, pick up a laptop. I hear they are available, and portable.
youngproguru said:
Google Suggests Google Docs. I think its very good considering it is web based.
We use it in our organization, publishing live statistical information about the operation every few minutes to shared spreadsheets, from which our users can interact.
Google Docs users can open, edit, share spreadsheets, Txt Docs with formating, and now Power Point without any issues from Android Devices, Apple, and any other web device.
I think Quick Office is also good for a small screen, and it has been out for years.
Or, Email moves docs around very nicely as well.
But in the end, Android is not Ubuntu. Andriod is not MacOS. Android is not Windows
If you would like to create complex documents, pick up a laptop. I hear they are available, and portable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly why I want a Google Documents app for Android tablets, since Google Documents doesn't load well in our browsers.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App