Database Users

Whats the compatibilty like with WM apps?

Might seem a silly question, (Forgive me if it is!!) but how do older WM apps work with the non-standard screen size of the X1? Will I find standard QVGA and VGA applications that will just fail to work?
If they do work... does it scale the displays in most cases to full screen, or leave "bars" top and bottom of screens?
This will help my decision on X1 or Touch Pro!

marcopolo007uk said:
Might seem a silly question, (Forgive me if it is!!) but how do older WM apps work with the non-standard screen size of the X1? Will I find standard QVGA and VGA applications that will just fail to work?
If they do work... does it scale the displays in most cases to full screen, or leave "bars" top and bottom of screens?
This will help my decision on X1 or Touch Pro!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i really want to know this too.

This is really difficult to answer. Every app that i ran on my touch pro works on my xperia with the exception of emulators but there is a fix for that. I haven't run into any problems software wise.

Some will and some won't... I know it's not a definitive answer, but finding any software that works first time is pot luck to be honset.
There are so many different versions of each piece of software that it's sometimes difficult to track down a version that works.
Most apps that don't run full screen work fine, like file explorers etc. Full screen apps don't always fare so well. Games and emulators usually work ok if they're made for a VGA screen, the ones that are updated frequently should be ok as the developers have already added functionality for higher resolution screens.
I've got the ScummVM emulator to work, and in landscape it leaves a chunk at the right hand side of the screen that still shows WM icons/whatever application you have running in the background.
There's a fix to blank out the bottom part so that it's black all the time, but even this leaves me with a couple of lines visible at the right hand side of the screen.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=442426

Oh wait i never got iGo8 to work on my device but i didn't really try that hard. Forgot about that one.

Bxsteez said:
Oh wait i never got iGo8 to work on my device but i didn't really try that hard. Forgot about that one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No issue w/ Igo8 on my side. Check my signature as I did some test and review on X1. So far, I don't have any real issue yet w/ lots of software I tested.

ScummVM - Play the classics on your Xperia

Hi,
In case you, like me, love the classic games such as the Monkey Island series, Broken Sword 1 & 2, and more... then you are also probably aware of ScummVM and how it allows us to play these games on our computers today as well as handhelds.
Though ScummVM does not support the wvga resolution yet, i posted the info on how to get it to run properly (with the ability to use the keyboard - finally) over at my blog: http://xperiancer.blogspot.com/2008/12/scummvm-on-xperia.html
Best Regards.
Salman Khalid.

I tried it and it has potential, however, running it in 640x400 just plain sucks.
Running it fullscreen at 786x480 with 3x Interpolation would be a great gaming experience.
But dont mind me, I just hate black borders, especially when its totally unnecessarilly. (ofcourse i know wvga wasnt usual "back then")

SomeoneSimple said:
I tried it and it has potential, however, running it in 640x400 just plain sucks.
Running it fullscreen at 786x480 with 3x Interpolation would be a great gaming experience.
But dont mind me, I just hate black borders, especially when its totally unnecessarilly. (ofcourse i know wvga wasnt usual "back then")
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know exactly what you mean... i don't like the black area either. And if it hadn't been the damn addictive games playable on this, i wouldn't be using the software at all.
Here's to hoping that ScummVM guys can get us a WVGA version soon.

msalmank said:
I know exactly what you mean... i don't like the black area either. And if it hadn't been the damn addictive games playable on this, i wouldn't be using the software at all.
Here's to hoping that ScummVM guys can get us a WVGA version soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stretched games don't look so good on widescreen displays, I think we need to stuck with 640x480 on these screens. Maybe the software keyboard could take up the place on the left or right side, so the black area disappears
Does the newest version support the X1's hardware keyboard?

@Norti
Like i said... once you make the app open to the side of they keyboard.. you can use the keyboard in any game possible. Even if the game uses no keys at all, i have set all shortcut keys on the keyboard (like pausing, saving, quitting, skipping, right-clicking, etc.)

msalmank said:
@Norti
Like i said... once you make the app open to the side of they keyboard.. you can use the keyboard in any game possible. Even if the game uses no keys at all, i have set all shortcut keys on the keyboard (like pausing, saving, quitting, skipping, right-clicking, etc.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I thought it was the ScummVM's software keyboard It's great then!

msalmank said:
Hi,
In case you, like me, love the classic games such as the Monkey Island series, Broken Sword 1 & 2, and more... then you are also probably aware of ScummVM and how it allows us to play these games on our computers today as well as handhelds.
Though ScummVM does not support the wvga resolution yet, i posted the info on how to get it to run properly (with the ability to use the keyboard - finally) over at my blog: http://xperiancer.blogspot.com/2008/12/scummvm-on-xperia.html
Best Regards.
Salman Khalid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for that
i cant get hte screen to face the right way- i have added that line at the end but it keeps getting rewritten without it.

norti said:
Stretched games don't look so good on widescreen displays, I think we need to stuck with 640x480 on these screens. Maybe the software keyboard could take up the place on the left or right side, so the black area disappears
Does the newest version support the X1's hardware keyboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do the math, 786x480 IS the original aspect ratio (if my speedy calculations where correct). With the current version it uses only 640x400.
How it is now it just looks wrong, it just sits there in the left upper corner with borders on both the right side and below it.
btw, to rotate the screen, click the left monkey.

nawfalah said:
thanks for that
i cant get hte screen to face the right way- i have added that line at the end but it keeps getting rewritten without it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Attached is my ScummVM.ini file. Just put it in your ScummVM folder on your Xperia.

SomeoneSimple said:
btw, to rotate the screen, click the left monkey.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That works too... but is annoying - you have to do it everytime you start ScummVM and you have to click it in the right place ('cos the clicks are off when opened other way around).
Editing the INI file is an easy and quick way to set it the right way.

how did you actually map the hardware keyboard keys?
if I click on MAP (for the current action e.g. pause) and then press a key on the hardware keyboard it wont work.
the only button seeming to work is enter (for action).
can you give me a brief info on how to get the keys working?
thanks in advance

hi everyone!
i have some problem with the scumm vm on my new xperia.
i show you some pictures, that you maybe better understand what i mean
first of all, what is the difference between scummvm1 and 2?
http://img4.imageshack.us/i/p1000285i.jpg/
then, do you have the same small screen?
http://img190.imageshack.us/i/p1000288u.jpg/
other problem: the scumm-bar below, covers the letters (also of the items).
http://img3.imageshack.us/i/p1000289.jpg/
http://img3.imageshack.us/i/p1000287w.jpg/
and i can start scummvm just for one time, when i would like to start it again, an error shows up.
http://img3.imageshack.us/i/p1000290r.jpg/
(means that there's an error with scumm and ask me, if i want to send the problem to microsoft)
so what's wrong with my scumm?
hope someone can help me.
thanks very much!
ps: sorry for my english, try my best

Which version should i download, I downloaded the Windows Arm CE but i couldn't run the .exe from my xperia, am i even supposed to? if not can somebody instruct me how to install it plz

My first application multitouch !

Hello everybody !
Here I made my first multitouch application which is simple to prove that it is possible!! I will not hide behind that there is a lot of work !!!!!!!!!!
If you want to see how it works go to the forum HTC-Touch-Diamond Developpement
Multitouch Prototype (Compact Framework 3.5)
Thank you! Tell me what you think!

COOL!!!!!!!!!!!

VERY COOL! works perfect for me! clicking at the same time, clicking one then the other!

What exactly does this do?
Screenshots/video?

its just a prototype. run the exe on your phone, it shows 2 green buttons and they can be "multitouched".

But I thought that was impossible on resistive screens?

And it is
Is unsing the capacitive one, the keys zone

Ikari said:
And it is
Is unsing the capacitive one, the keys zone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mmm no, it uses the actual screen.

From the link, it looks like it uses the fact that when multitouched, resistive touchscreens (from what I've seen) return the "average" position of the multiple touches. It works, but only with specific UIs. Another method would be to virtualise the second touch - for example, when you want to zoom in on a picture, start with one finger in the centre and move out, with a zoom in occuring as if there is a second finger moving in the exact opposite direction from the centre. Combined, these methods do eliminate the need for capacitive touch sensitivity pretty well, but they're still not quite as good as the real thing...
Anyway, nice work.
Now I can prove to ignorant friends that my phone has multi-touch...

I hope you can create an application that has multitouch or may possibly set multitouch for the whole system.....

Impressive work, I didnt know that there was a way around to have multi touch on Diamond, hope to see this employed in a software e.g. use both fingers to zoom in pictures
thank you

By running this app on desktop Win Vista and on phone, I know how it works now ^^
when you touch 2 points on your phone, the phone will treat it as touching one point, and the point is the mid-point of the 2 points.
Steps:
Drag one of the green button to the middle of the two buttons, and they both become red ^^(either run this app on Windows or on Phone)
though, nice app, and sorry for my poor English

What is WMob like without a stylus/direction pad?

i'm dying to get the HD2, but I've never yet had a phone that didn't have either a jog dial / rollerball / direction pad or some way of moving around the screen without just using touch...
you Blackstone owners are the guys in the know - i guess you've had the HD for a year or so - how do you find it? Do you wish you had a hardwarde key to scroll around the screen while browing etc? It always struck me that without a direction control a touch screen definitely became a two-handed device whereas with a jog-dial or similar one is enough for most things.
be great to hear some views - Thanks!

hey... I thought I will miss the direction pad when i first went for the HD, but I didnt... (maybe the first week only when I was allready used to use the D-pad on my Polaris)..
As far as the stylus is concerned, I hardly use it as well... I mean i use it only when i text somebody, simply because i want to text faster without pressing the wrong letters, but with a bigger display on the HD2 I can't see this being a problem... I don't text a lot so its not a problem for me... To be honest I used it a lot more on my Polaris on the smaller display...
Now you know is down to the individual and what you use on a daily basis... WM6.5 is created as such you will not need the stylus a lot... As for browsing I use it one handed, scrolling with my thumb.
take care

wilbur said:
i'm dying to get the HD2, but I've never yet had a phone that didn't have either a jog dial / rollerball / direction pad or some way of moving around the screen without just using touch...
you Blackstone owners are the guys in the know - i guess you've had the HD for a year or so - how do you find it? Do you wish you had a hardwarde key to scroll around the screen while browing etc? It always struck me that without a direction control a touch screen definitely became a two-handed device whereas with a jog-dial or similar one is enough for most things.
be great to hear some views - Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think most people would agree with me and state they wished the HD had a d-pad, however with the latest roms available and some extra apps installed like AEBPlus (for directional up & down) you can manage without a d-pad or stylus for everyday use. Unfortunately when it comes to games you are very limited and without this excellent sites dev's most games would be useless for the HD. Thankfully if you search the apps, software & games forums you should be able to find a d-pad usable for games.
I was however a little disappointed that the HD2 doesn't have a d-pad (or drivers) as I thought HTC may have learnt, obviously not

leftkats said:
WM6.5 is created as such you will not need the stylus a lot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true, but with the capacitive screen of the HD2, you can't use a stylus at all,so not needing it much is still a big problem. This is paticularly true if you use Office mobile a lot like I do or want to accurately cut and copy text.

Moandal said:
That's true, but with the capacitive screen of the HD2, you can't use a stylus at all,so not needing it much is still a big problem. This is paticularly true if you use Office mobile a lot like I do or want to accurately cut and copy text.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh yes... I forgot the cut and paste thing... I use my stylus for that as well... I am sure I will figure out something else to mask the problem...

leftkats said:
oh yes... I forgot the cut and paste thing... I use my stylus for that as well... I am sure I will figure out something else to mask the problem...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does cut&paste have to do with the stylus? Is there some feature I don't know of?
Fallen Spartan said:
Think most people would agree with me and state they wished the HD had a d-pad, however with the latest roms available and some extra apps installed like AEBPlus (for directional up & down) you can manage without a d-pad or stylus for everyday use. Unfortunately when it comes to games you are very limited and without this excellent sites dev's most games would be useless for the HD. Thankfully if you search the apps, software & games forums you should be able to find a d-pad usable for games.
I was however a little disappointed that the HD2 doesn't have a d-pad (or drivers) as I thought HTC may have learnt, obviously not
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well - I don't agree at all! Screen size is everything - and if the HD2 had a DPAD, the screen would have to be smaller... I can't think of a single situation where I would need a DPAD! What do you need it for?
And concerning the OP: I use the device with one hand most of the time as well... When texting, I can use my thumb (or both thumbs if I want to type faster) without problems. The same applies to scrolling. The only problem I have is with older WM builds with the start menu icon in the top left corner - it's hard to stretch the thumb all the way across the screen - but with newer builds (6.5.1) the start menu has moved to the bottom. So that problem is going to be taken care of!

MAMeingast said:
What does cut&paste have to do with the stylus? Is there some feature I don't know of?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is much easier to select text with your stylus in order to cut or copy text. It is more precise, as mentioned on an earlier post.

MAMeingast said:
Well - I don't agree at all! Screen size is everything - and if the HD2 had a DPAD, the screen would have to be smaller... I can't think of a single situation where I would need a DPAD! What do you need it for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you had read my post I was hinting at a d-pad for gaming.......everyday use I don't need it, but for gaming, thats a different matter for a lot of people.

An optical pad is not that big. No need to cut the screen size.
The difference is such like hard keyboard and touch keyboard.
quite some people cannot live without a hard keyboard.

leftkats said:
It is much easier to select text with your stylus in order to cut or copy text. It is more precise, as mentioned on an earlier post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah - ok! I thought there was some special way to copy and paste using the stylus. Yes: That's very true. Text selection is alot easier with the stylus. That would be an issue they'd have to address on the HD2. Isn't there some zoom & select feature on the iphone? That would make alot of sense to me...
Fallen Spartan said:
If you had read my post I was hinting at a d-pad for gaming.......everyday use I don't need it, but for gaming, thats a different matter for a lot of people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok - some games do require a DPAD. But many new games will not, specifically because devices like the HD and the HD2 do not have one. Also, as I've said: screen size is everything to me. I don't really care for games (there are enough good games working without a DPAD) and prefer a bigger screen. And that was my point: Your post began with the sentence "Think most people would agree with me and state they wished the HD had a d-pad" and I just wanted to reply: I don't!

I only use the stylus when I play solitaire and surf the web; clicking links could be quite an annoyance without a stylus.

MAMeingast said:
Ok - some games do require a DPAD. But many new games will not, specifically because devices like the HD and the HD2 do not have one. Also, as I've said: screen size is everything to me. I don't really care for games (there are enough good games working without a DPAD) and prefer a bigger screen. And that was my point: Your post began with the sentence "Think most people would agree with me and state they wished the HD had a d-pad" and I just wanted to reply: I don't!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No probs, but I actually agree with you. I don't really use the stylus at all any more and I'm not into gaming that much either, but there has been a lot of development in the software forum for a d-pad for games not specifically designed for the HD so there is still a demand for a d-pad.

Toss3 said:
I only use the stylus when I play solitaire and surf the web; clicking links could be quite an annoyance without a stylus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think this is were some of the improvements in the HD may really shine with the new capacitive screen. Hopefully this will make browsing more like the iphone experience...or hopefully better again. Only time will tell.

MAMeingast said:
Ah - ok! I thought there was some special way to copy and paste using the stylus. Yes: That's very true. Text selection is alot easier with the stylus. That would be an issue they'd have to address on the HD2. Isn't there some zoom & select feature on the iphone? That would make alot of sense to me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding the zoom thing.. I saw a video the other day where igo8 was running on HD2, and the guy would pitch and zoom on the map, but it seemed as the whole program was zoomed in, not just the map. If this is true and it can be achieved in other programs then selecting text won't be (that much of) a problem...

IMHO, having no D-pad is a major pain, particularly with single handed contact's selection and controlling music FF,play,pause,skip without having to pull it out of your pocket, turn the screen on and do it there.....it really is such a backward's step for what I've just said, its not even debatable in my eye's
Have tried a couple of games with the onscreen controls briefly and thats as much as I ever want to try it....I thought it was useless.....missing D-pad's is one of the biggest backward's step's with most newer model's for me.
Stylus is my reason for using WM, if it didn't have it, I wouldn't use it, high res screen's with small text and icon's, precision, clean screen, faster typing [for me]...stylus is windows mobile imo, although the shell's and interface add on's have made them much more useful without a stylus...what's the point, might as well buy one of the other three major mobile OS's as you lose the benefit's of point precision combined with dense data and high resolution.
The stylus is less of a pain on the diamond and HD because pulling it out also turn's the device on, although I would prefer it top mounted than the bottom.
My 2 cent's anyway.

Regarding text selection on the HD2:
http://pocketnow.com/software-1/selecting-text-on-the-htc-hd2

in that video he says that new text selection functionality is only available in the HTC Sense part of the UI, and not in the basic Windows Mobile bits... which is a shame.
The main use of a direction pad / rollerball for me is selecting links while browsing, esp where there is a long vertical list of links to chose from - using my G1 if i don't use the rollerball I am always hitting the wrong one (and I don't want to zoom in just to select a link!).
Having switched to Android, the only reason I feel like giving WMob another go is the specs on this thing - primarily the RAM, which is just awesome. I guess that given that most of the new ultra-high-end android devices that I am chosing between are similar in not having any other form of input other than the screen (htc rachel, acer liquid etc) I guess it shouldn't alter my choice much.
I think the real deciding factor is that the HD2 is going to be the first one that is actually going to make it to the market and the fact that i am eligable for an upgrade is burning a hole in my pocket!

Problem hitting links in Opera

Hi All,
I currently have a Touch HD and have been wondering about upgrading to a HD2. So I went into my local phone shop and asked if I could play with one. Everything was going well until I opened Opera and went to the website www.tvguide.co.uk (which I use a lot). It looked great but it would take me about 5 attempts to hit any of the links on the screen unless I zoomed them to be far larger than I wanted them to be.
Just to be sure this wasn't a problem with the particular handset I had I went to another store and tried another device. Got exactly the same problem. I have no such problems on my HD.
I have heard rumours that the capacitive screens are not as accurate as resistive ones but my experience was far worse than I was expecting.
Has anyone else experienced issues with accuracy of link tapping in Opera ?

dcoales said:
Hi All,
I currently have a Touch HD and have been wondering about upgrading to a HD2. So I went into my local phone shop and asked if I could play with one. Everything was going well until I opened Opera and went to the website www.tvguide.co.uk (which I use a lot). It looked great but it would take me about 5 attempts to hit any of the links on the screen unless I zoomed them to be far larger than I wanted them to be.
Just to be sure this wasn't a problem with the particular handset I had I went to another store and tried another device. Got exactly the same problem. I have no such problems on my HD.
I have heard rumours that the capacitive screens are not as accurate as resistive ones but my experience was far worse than I was expecting.
Has anyone else experienced issues with accuracy of link tapping in Opera ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a setting (in opera's config) that determines the minimum zoom level for links to work at. It was probably just that. The same was on the HD, so you'd at least have to double-tap before you could hit a link, but apps such as HDTweak could change that, so you didn't have to zoom.
Was it maybe that?
Also, when you've got your hands on one of these, you can do a screen align so that the device gets used to how you touch the screen, rather than some generic "lots of people press it like this" kind of setting.
Just a couple of thoughts that could explain your problems.

Browsing on the HD2 currently leaves a lot to be desired, or certainly in comparison to Safari on the iPhone and iPod Touch which is what I was using previously and is the benchmark other mobile devices have to live up to. However, that can and hopefully will be rectified as the available browsers are updated and made better.
The bundled version of Opera, despite supporting multi-touch, just doesn't seem fluid enough to me and, as mentioned in this thread, selecting links without zooming can be a serious pain in the arse even with the hacks and options set up to make it easier.

i thought that initially but then realised that i was trying to be too precise and maybe aiming a little off it.
now i just hit the link area with my big thumb and it seems to figure to click the link directly in the middle of where i pressed.
for example browsing this forum i find no problems at all with trying to click a page number

I dont think pressing the link was really much of a problem to me. If you double tap once and still can't hit the link, just hold down on the link for like half a second and it'll click through.

OK, thanks for the tips guys. I don't think it was the minimum zoom feature because at a fixed zoom level it would eventually recognize the tap after maybe 5 or 6 attempts.
However, I will try to get hold of another one, reset the minimum zoom, recalibrate the screen and then try pressing and holding with my thumb and see how I get on.
Cheers,
David

I have problems hitting links and scrolling through a combo box. When I try to scroll through the contents of a combo box with more than 20 entries, the whole page scrolls up and down...

There is a simple registry tweak in the sticky thread "hints and tips" that allows you to click links easily without zooming. I've found that it works very well, and I can click the very smallest of links. The only site I've found that doesn't work so well is this one for some reason
In the hints and tips thread it advises you to change the threshold to thirty something I think. I found this still didn't rectify this issue, so I cahnged it to "2" and it works brilliantly

johncmolyneux said:
There's a setting (in opera's config) that determines the minimum zoom level for links to work at. It was probably just that. The same was on the HD, so you'd at least have to double-tap before you could hit a link, but apps such as HDTweak could change that, so you didn't have to zoom.
Was it maybe that?
Also, when you've got your hands on one of these, you can do a screen align so that the device gets used to how you touch the screen, rather than some generic "lots of people press it like this" kind of setting.
Just a couple of thoughts that could explain your problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you perform the screen align?
Cheers