Ok everybody, grab your phone and TURN IT UPSIDE DOWN. notice how easy it is to use the joystick/thumb navigation button. in fact, this works nicely for any bar-style phone or device. the screen remains visible next to your palm and thumb. this is such an obvious idea once you think of it. I once wanted to patent this. but somebody already had a similar idea. please, if you use this idea, try to give me credit. call it the Bessler upside down phone or something. anyway, can someone make a program that will flip my screen upside down? wm5 only has two landscapes and a portrait. Thanks
wow...
here there's a program that flips the screen upside down when you click on it multiple times. only problem is the buttons don't switch direction.
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-Cupertino/2039/
And here's one that rotates 180 degrees in one go:
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=15332
There's three readily identifyable problems with holding the device up side down, though.
1. I'm not sure how ergonomic it really is. I've attached pictures of me holding the device up side down, and upright. You'll notice that in the first up side down picture, my thumb is relaxed, but as a result obscures the screen. To make it not obscure the screen, I actually have to bend my thumb which, other than eventually inducing pain, leaves you with less control as you're navigating with the top of the side of your thumb. Maybe I'm holding it entirely wrong though
2. The buttons issue. 'nuff said. This probably a programmatical error, though - must me some manner of telling the operating system that you rotated the screen, and that the buttons should follow suit.
3. ClearType. ClearType assumes the ordering of your LCD is RGB. If you rotate the screen, the ordering is BGR - but ClearType still assumes RGB. The result is that your screen becomes very difficult to read when using ClearType. The solution here is to disable ClearType, but who would want to do that? %) Images of what this looks like are attached as well. Note that I actually had to cheat the images, because if you rotate the 'up side down' wrong order screenshot back to normal, the ordering becomes RGB again and it looks fine. You can try it for yourself to make sure my screenshot isn't bogus, though
ok so, ive noticed recently that my TMO MDA, takes a while to load correctly on an incoming call, because it has to rotate the display, even tho i put it in normally.
turns out...
my case has magnets at the top, and no matter how i put the fone in, it will pick up that magnet, and rotate itself, then rotate back. WHY?????????
i was thinking that i could just like basically find the component ( if ur looking at the back, its toward the bottom left, behind the stylus holder) and remove it.
but maybe theres a better way?
any thoughts?
wouldn't it be easier to take the magnets out of the case? replace them with velcro or something? I certainly wouldn't alter my phone so it works with the case.
That's because the sensor is a reed switch. When the keyboard slides out, a magnet on the keyboard moves close enough to the switch in the other half of the phone to activate it.
Removing the switch (even if you found it - they can be really tiny) would result in phone screen not rotating with keyboard slided out, and you probably wouldn't want it, would you? I'd say to modify the case with velcro or some diffrent locking mechanism, or get another case instead.
that would make sense
ima try to modify my case then. thanks for the immediate response!
From some searching, it seems that the Hermes uses a magnetic sensor to sense the keyboard being slided out, rotating the screen to the right by 90 degrees.
If there is room inside the Hermes, is it possible to put a super tiny mercury switch or accelerometer or something, positioned/configured to trigger the sensor when the Hermes is held rotated to the left by 90 degrees?
I guess you better buy a device with a built in sensor.
I cant imagine putting a tiny mercury (or similar) "sensor" inside my hermes with the risk of leaking inside.
Asign a non used button to make the trick.!
i still say someone makes the camera auto rotation thing.
i swear i was playing with an LG Dare and the rotating in messaging and pictures wasnt so smooth and didnt always work.
so i think the LG Dare uses the camera.
EDIT: nevermind.
it in fact DOES have an acceleromter
I recently replaced the screen in my 6800 - (I'm out of insurance replacements, and I don't like the Touch Pro Verizon offered me very much.)
The dissasembly and re-assembly went swimmingly - except for the fact that my phone now reverts to Landscape every time it wakes up, as if the switch that detects the sliding motion is broken or disconnected.
Does anyone have any details of where this switch is and how it works? I have heard mention of it being a magnetic reed switch, but I also see a little tab of metal in the slide mechanism that looks like a contact closure point for this.
Any ideas or information?
I know this isn't probably the best answer, but have you looked into software that will rotate the screen? You could then assign that software to a button and rotate that way.
Yeah, I have "Screen Rotate" mapped to the messaging button, but it still reverts to landscape every time the phone goes to sleep, even if I set the screen mode to "portrait" in the settings.
I took it apart all the way again last night, I still can't find any sign of the mechanism it uses to detect open/close.
There are some metal ground clips on the lcd side that I think it uses to sense its location. If you slide the phone out you will see a gold colored clip in one of the slide groves.
sometimes my phones touchscreen becomes unresponsive when its flat on its back on a table for example. I unlock the screen with the trackpad or power button so that the screen comes on. Then when i try to slide the lockscreen it doesnt do anything. When i begin sliding the bar from the total edge of the screen it sometimes works.
Usually i just have to pick up the phone to get the touchscreen working again. actually, when i even lift up the phone the slightest bit, it works again.
Weird right?
anyone else experiences this issue ?
I assumed it was designed to work like this. Makes me move my phone rather than just slide to snooze the alarm then go back to sleep.
Same here. I think it has to do with the capacative toucscreen.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
wileykat said:
I assumed it was designed to work like this. Makes me move my phone rather than just slide to snooze the alarm then go back to sleep.
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Click to collapse
you're saying you move your phone to snooze the alarm? didnt know it could do that, gonna try that out tomorrow morning
forgot to mention the issue is not ROM specific. I have witnessed it on virtuous, CM, MIUI, stock
Ive had this problem as well. Slightly annoying!
I don't think its a design issue..
you don't have to lift your phone to get the screen to respond.
notice that it is enough just to touch the body of the phone to make the screen responsive again..
for me its very annoying, especially not being able to snooze the alarm in the morning
Let me point out that this happens with my G1 also so its not just the G2.
Yeah, there are a few discussions about this on the forums already. It's most likely a capacitance issue. When your phone is just sitting on a table and you touch the display, you may not create enough capacitance with the touchscreen for it to register as a touch (as opposed to resistive touchscreens which needed only physical contact but were less accurate as a result). Touching the body of the phone basically creates a common ground or voltage reference point for the phone, allowing your finger to create the needed amount of capacitance (in technical terms, no longer a floating ground). Whenever I touch the screen while the phone is lying on a table, I just always make sure to rest either my thumb or ring finger on one of the edges.
A lot of factors will also come into play---whether or not your phone is in a case, type of material the phone is resting on, the level of humidity in the air, even potentially the type of shoes you are wearing. This is why sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
ianmcquinn said:
(...) Touching the body of the phone basically creates a common ground or voltage reference point for the phone, allowing your finger to create the needed amount of capacitance (in technical terms, no longer a floating ground). (...)
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Click to collapse
yes! I just figured this out myself. merely touching the body of the phone makes the screen respond to my fingers.
well in that case its not really a big problem. from now on i just touch teh body with my middle finger while sliding with my index finger =D
liory said:
notice that it is enough just to touch the body of the phone to make the screen responsive again..
for me its very annoying, especially not being able to snooze the alarm in the morning
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will give this a go tomorrow, I hope it doesn't work!!!.... I'm gonna be forever snoozing with 2 fingers now!!!
This seems to be temperature related (and it doesn't happen on a mytouch 3g)
I live in Minnesota and I deliver pizza. When I would need to call a customer to get into an apartment building, I would set the phone on top of the pizza bag and dial with one hand.
When I first got my G2 (early november) I had no problems doing this, then one day it wouldn't respond at all to touch. I still had my old mytouch 3g with me because the old number wasn't ported yet, and I was able to use that to make the call. It wasn't until later that I realized that the problem was caused by the cold and that I needed to touch the metal part to make it work, so I thought that the touchscreen on my 2 week old G2 had just died.
At room temperature the touch screen always works (I can silence the alarm while it's sitting on the table), but temperatures below 50F cause problems
I started noticing this as well. Sometimes I'll hit the power button to turn my phone on from idle-state and then I'll drag the unlock button with to no avail! But then again, I do use my thumb to do it so maybe the capacitance by using the thumb isn't good enough to unlock it.
I use my phone at work a lot so in order to text while being discreet, I usually have the phone in my right hand and text / unlock the phone using my thumb. I doubt it is a defect but it had me worried too. Guess I'm not the only one experiencing this. (Although I must say, dragging my thumb to swype and using the side of my thumb probably is the reason why it sometimes doesn't work)
Back when I had my g1 it did the same thing and experience this on my g2....if its laying down its like it thinks its just on in your pocket so the touch seems limited
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
Elegy said:
sometimes my phones touchscreen becomes unresponsive when its flat on its back on a table for example. I unlock the screen with the trackpad or power button so that the screen comes on. Then when i try to slide the lockscreen it doesnt do anything. When i begin sliding the bar from the total edge of the screen it sometimes works.
Usually i just have to pick up the phone to get the touchscreen working again. actually, when i even lift up the phone the slightest bit, it works again.
Weird right?
anyone else experiences this issue ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not weird. TOTALLY normal and expected.
It is because it has a CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREEN.
This means that when you touch the screen, your finger is actually COMPLETING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
When the phone is lying on a table and you touch it, you are NOT completing the circuit since you are NOT touching the phone's body.
When the sensor is on, there is an electrical difference between the surface of the screen and the body of the phone. When you touch BOTH, you alter the electric field in that localized area of the screen. The sensor detects the change in voltage and determines the location of the contact.
dhkr123 said:
Not weird. TOTALLY normal and expected.
It is because it has a CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREEN.
This means that when you touch the screen, your finger is actually COMPLETING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
When the phone is lying on a table and you touch it, you are NOT completing the circuit since you are NOT touching the phone's body.
When the sensor is on, there is an electrical difference between the surface of the screen and the body of the phone. When you touch BOTH, you alter the electric field in that localized area of the screen. The sensor detects the change in voltage and determines the location of the contact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how do I adjust the sensitivity? As I understand it I could increase the voltage to the screen making it easier to complete the circuit...such as through thin gloves.....
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
dhkr123 said:
Not weird. TOTALLY normal and expected.
It is because it has a CAPACITIVE TOUCHSCREEN.
This means that when you touch the screen, your finger is actually COMPLETING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
When the phone is lying on a table and you touch it, you are NOT completing the circuit since you are NOT touching the phone's body.
When the sensor is on, there is an electrical difference between the surface of the screen and the body of the phone. When you touch BOTH, you alter the electric field in that localized area of the screen. The sensor detects the change in voltage and determines the location of the contact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is mostly true.
Put the phone on the table and dont touch it and try to swipe to unlock.
No touch a finger on the phone body and do it again, itll work.
Doesn't seem to always fit that behavior, but more often than not.
TheNewGuy said:
So how do I adjust the sensitivity? As I understand it I could increase the voltage to the screen making it easier to complete the circuit...such as through thin gloves.....
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Click to collapse
You don't. You should NOT even if you could. It would not work as you expect since it is NOT a matter of sensitivity, but of CONDUCTIVITY.
klmsu19 said:
This is mostly true.
Put the phone on the table and dont touch it and try to swipe to unlock.
No touch a finger on the phone body and do it again, itll work.
Doesn't seem to always fit that behavior, but more often than not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not "mostly" true, it is PRECISELY true.
dhkr123 said:
It is not "mostly" true, it is PRECISELY true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No reason for the condescending tone in every post (or if it's not your intention to be condescending, you may want to restrain your constant use of caps). You had stated:
dhkr123 said:
This means that when you touch the screen, your finger is actually COMPLETING AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT.
When the phone is lying on a table and you touch it, you are NOT completing the circuit since you are NOT touching the phone's body.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone was just pointing out that if this was "precisely" true as you put it, then the screen should never be responsive if you aren't touching the phone's body (since the circuit is, based on your reasoning, still broken). This isn't the case though since it does work sometimes. How could your statement be precisely true if it's known to be false sometimes (hence the "mostly true" comment)?
And it's actually not true. You are not completing an electric circuit. No current flows from your finger into the screen and no components within the phone are electrically coupled because of your touch. As you stated, you are altering the electric field when you touch the screen. This results in a change in capacitance in that area. Note, this change occurs even when you are not touching the phone's body, just to a different degree. Touching the phone will typically increase the amount of capacitance as opposed to when you are not though (since you are basically "grounding" yourself to the phone). The more capacitance there is, the easier it is to measure. If there is too little capacitance, the touchscreen's microcontroller will not register the change at all. Even if it does register the change, there will be additional filtering that occurs to that raw data either in the microcontroller itself or in software (or both).
This is why the screen works sometimes when you touch it without touching the rest of the phone. You are still causing a change in capacitance. The amount of change depends on numerous factors (this is what I stated in an earlier post). These factors effect how grounded both you and the phone are relative to earth ground (in the electrical sense, not geographical). Typically speaking though, if you are relatively close to earth ground, then you will be able to use the screen without touching the body of the phone. For example, someone stated earlier that the screen doesn't work when it's cold. Cold weather results in lower humidity/drier air and you being less grounded (basically why people see an increase in static electricity as well). Chances are that the touchscreen would work again without the touching the phone's body if you had physically been touching a large piece of metal with your other hand (to help ground you).
So in response to the other question posed, yes, technically by raising the voltage level to the touchscreen, it may result in a more sensitive screen since there will be a larger increase in capacitance when you touch it. It may also reduce the life of the touchscreen though, if not damage it completely, so not a good idea. It would be better to figure out the filtering mechanism if possible and adjust that in software. Not sure if any devs have looked into it (though my guess is that if it was simple, it would have been done already).
I am so happy I found this thread..
Lately I thought my touchscreen was broken because I was unable to snooze my alarm in the morning (just as some of you seem to have been trying to do).
I think it's temperature related as suggested by the person who mentioned pizza delivery.. and I think this because it only happens on mornings where I've left the bedroom window open and it's very cool. My phone is often on a cold wooden surface. however even picking up the phone doesn't seem to help (I'll have to pay more attention next time) but after a few moments of struggling it eventually works (probably warms up in my hand and gets a better circuit).
I can also vouch that the screen works great with just a single finger on a flat surface, provided it's room temperature. I don't need to touch the body at all, and I do this a lot without issues (aside from cold mornings waking up to my alarm).