Database Users

Change Scroll Bar to Left Side of Screen?

As the subjects states, is there a registry edit that will move the scroll bar from the right hand side of the screen to the left? Being left handed, it is quite a pain to cover the screen with my hand when scrolling.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Bump - Anyone? Any ideas?
This is a possible deal breaker for me.

I think I just saw this feature in 8125. You could change the layout so that the scroll bar is on the left side and not right.
Check Display...

I've got two ideas - not exactly what you want, but hopefully better. One should work. One should be very very cool. But time frame is some way off - I'm working on one or two urgent things first. I apologise
But I'll be working on this once I clear my decks a little.
V

Thanks for your assistance. The 8125 does have a "Left Hand" mode, but only for Landscape. Since I use my 8125 90% of the time in portrait, it makes it very difficult for web browsing and scrolling email.
Thanks everyone for your help. I look forward to any ideas that you come up with (anything will be better)

General question: do you guys use your scrollbar with a stylus or thumb?
V

Thumb. Mostly because my stylus falls out if i put one in, so I just dont even bring one with me anymore.

Stylus

I ask because at some point I'm considering a third party solution to the problem, and I need to think about how big to make it graphically.
Evidently both thumb and stylus need to be considered.
V

Yeah, I gotta imagine there are alot of other Lefty's out there like myself that are running into the same issue. A 3rd party application sounds like it would be very useful.

A New User Interface Idea

A new user interface idea. I have created this new user interface though i have no coding skills i do have the the skills of ideas...hope u guys make it come to alive i will add more images on how it shud work and..the graphics behind it.

Desiflare999 said:
A new user interface idea. I have created this new user interface though i have no coding skills i do have the the skills of ideas...hope u guys make it come to alive i will add more images on how it shud work and..the graphics behind it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That looks like it could be accomplished with Wisbar Advance Desktop. At least I think you could get real close.

well..im talkin about a whole new ball game, meaning for example: the arrow on the bottom can be pressed and drawn up by your finger to display things like programs running or etc. its lyk using one of the cube roll type, and while the arrow is being pulled up other menus such as the one on the right will automatically go right and the clock menu will go left to make space for the Arrow screen. The arrow screen will also be lyk a notification screen, lets say a new call came, the arrow screen will automatically go up to display an incoming screen but this time it will be transparent. The left menu will work like this: Lets say the music icon is chosen, the icon will light up and that menu only the box will move left and while its moving to the left the other menus that was with will move to the right, and the clock menu will move to the left, the arrow menu will go down. and it will expand to take over the entire screen to display the music player. The orb will roll to the right. and to exit music all the user gotta do is scroll their finger from left to right the opposite direction it came from.

Desiflare999 said:
well..im talkin about a whole new ball game, meaning for example: the arrow on the bottom can be pressed and drawn up by your finger to display things like programs running or etc. its lyk using one of the cube roll type, and while the arrow is being pulled up other menus such as the one on the left will automatically go left and the clock menu will go right to make space for the Arrow screen. The arrow screen will also be lyk a notification screen, lets say a new call came, the arrow screen will automatically go up to display an incoming screen but this time it will be transparent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be hot!!

so you've just invented..WisbarAadvancedDesktop NG.

nothin said:
so you've just invented..WisbarAadvancedDesktop NG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lolz..i used photoshop

In order to truly make this a reality, you'd have to use native C code. I mean, wisbar, and flash can do it, but at the expense of a lot of system resources. If no one takes it up, maybe I'll put aside some time to code it, especially if you give me more motivation by rolling out some more screenshots of your ideas .

thundershadow14 said:
In order to truly make this a reality, you'd have to use native C code. I mean, wisbar, and flash can do it, but at the expense of a lot of system resources. If no one takes it up, maybe I'll put aside some time to code it, especially if you give me more motivation by rolling out some more screenshots of your ideas .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes I will post up more images but sad thing is I don't have much experience in creating flash images but I will post images. Well thundershadow I would be glad to assist u in this project because I seen wat u can do lolz I seen ur pocketmelody and extremely impressed keep up the good work

If you post up enough images, I can give it a whirl. No promises at all, cuz I'm pretty committed to PocketMelody. But I've been dieing for a new interface that is independent of wisbar and flash, and it is my opinion that user interfaces aren't generally so dazzling that flash is a MUST use application. Most of the animations etc are simple yet effective. And the strength of their looks is in good CLEAN LOOKING static graphics (which I'm no good at making).
So, what I'm saying is, if your ideas inspire , I'll set aside some time, but again, no promises.

help
Even if i'm not so god in programming, i'd be proud to help you, whatever te way I could help
(maybe as beta tester)
don't hesitate to ask !!!

i've post some of my ideas in the Elf's forum
here's some preview
another idea i called "colour"
more samples here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=349583&page=5

it looks to cartoon like.

The above ideas can be 90% completed with pre-existing software.
Wisbar Advanced Desktop and possibly Mortscript to help with some of the multiple dock hiding/showing. A new version might exist that lets you slide/fade in and out docks...that'll make everything visually more appealing. Once you get to that point all you need to do is create a today plug-in to show you the current running programs as icons. The today plug-in will need to have an option to create height and width settings so that it'll be perfect in a slide in dock controlled by the up arrow.
The main thing that will be missing from your idea is the touch-style movement. The up arrow will be something you click on instead of the desired finger slide.

SeanFromSoCal said:
Wisbar Advanced Desktop and possibly Mortscript to help with some of the multiple dock hiding/showing. A new version might exist that lets you slide/fade in and out docks...that'll make everything visually more appealing. Once you get to that point all you need to do is create a today plug-in to show you the current running programs as icons. The today plug-in will need to have an option to create height and width settings so that it'll be perfect in a slide in dock controlled by the up arrow.
The main thing that will be missing from your idea is the touch-style movement. The up arrow will be something you click on instead of the desired finger slide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Granted, but if you really want to make it usable to a wider range of devices, you can't beat coding it natively. I've used WA/WAD on my Wizard, and after a while it gets too slow.

Lol dat looks hot

Trigger9407 said:
Lol dat looks hot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy WAD2.
The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.

[Idea] Improve touch screen accuracy through software

I have an idea that I think is unique; I can't seem to find anything related to it on xda or google, so forgive me if this already exists and is just too obvious for me to find it. Also I’m not sure if this is posted in the appropriate place since I’m not actually offering anything other than a simple idea. I am not a programmer and would have not way of testing or implementing this concept.
I often find myself repeatedly hitting little check boxes and links on my Windows phone. Even on a perfectly calibrated screen, it can be difficult for my fat finger to find the right spot. I particularly have problems with X/OK button and the Start menu at the top corners of the screen. I’m assuming that soft-buttons, text fields, etc in windows mobile have a defined border that accepts touch input. If the screen detects your touch outside of this box, it will not register. I propose a software solution to this.
I’ve included a simple illustration that hopefully makes this clearer. Also, anyone feel free to tell me this won’t work, that it’s already been done, etc. Rather than having a single box that is awaiting a single touch input, imagine if there were dozens of boxes surrounding the soft-key, each with an assigned value. As the boxes radiate out, the values would decrease. Input happens when the values add up to a predefined amount, which equals a touch. This way, if you click close to the box, but not quite, the screen will register where you are actually touching and make a decision (by adding up the values) of where you were actually trying to touch.
Hopefully the picture helps. I mentioned my lack of programming ability, and that applies to graphic design as well
All feedback is appreciated, and if anyone has the skills and knowledge to do this, let me know if you’re interested. I’d love to see the results.

That's pretty smart, actually; sort of like making our resistive touchscreens emulate capacitive ones.

I am another person who feels this is rather clever.
Sadly i am too a bit naff at programming :/

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I've made a better mock up now that I'm at home and have access to something besides MS Paint. I'm hoping to run across someone with the know-how, willingness, and energy to work up a proof-of-concept.
As a clearer example, in the new image, the red circles could equal 50, the green squares 25, and the blue squares 10. An equation taking sensitivity into account would be better (hard touch equals higher value with a multiplier for the closer circles). Say 100 was the thresh-hold for the screen to register a click on the box. Two reds, one red and two greens, and so on, anything that adds up to 100, would register. There could also be multiple boxes close together, each with their own set of concentric circles.
Another useful way of thinking about this is the elementary difference between accuracy and precision
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_and_precision
Screen calibration takes care of precision; I think this would provide accuracy.
Edit: I also wanted to add I was thinking of probability clouds when I came up with this. What can I say, I have a boring job.

Wow. Great idea, but I' not the one to program it! I'm surely someone will be up to the task though.

anything that makes hitting the stupid ok button easier is great in my book!

This won't work. There are no "boxes" like you speak of. The touch screen gives the OS the POINT where it was pressed. The OS converts that into pixels sees what is under the pushed pixel and selects that. Very similar to how a desktop works. The mouse only clicks one pixel and those interactive touch screen things you see at stores where you can see the moues move to where you pressed further illustrate it.
Multi Touch screens report that area that was pressed instead of just one point, but no WinMo phones have multi touch.

petard said:
This won't work. There are no "boxes" like you speak of. The touch screen gives the OS the POINT where it was pressed. The OS converts that into pixels sees what is under the pushed pixel and selects that. Very similar to how a desktop works. The mouse only clicks one pixel and those interactive touch screen things you see at stores where you can see the moues move to where you pressed further illustrate it.
Multi Touch screens report that area that was pressed instead of just one point, but no WinMo phones have multi touch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is helpful; thanks for the insight. I tried to find info on exactly how resistive touch screens worked, but it tended to be technical specs rather than how the OS used them. If it is narrowing it down to a pixel, then I see what you're saying: it won't work. If the point of contact was read as a larger, single area (as opposed to one pixel), it would be possible. Couldn't a GUI simply draw a circle around that single point? Then the area contained in that circle could be used to predict the button/icon you're trying to press using the values of the "boxes" or circles underneath.
Again, I was bored at work and was thinking about how hard it is to hit the OK button sometimes. Oh well, it killed about 2 hours

New home screen manager

Someone needs to develop a new home screen manager. One that instead of just moving left to right moves up and down as well. This way screens are always just one flick away instead of 2 or more depending on where you are at. It would be like a cube where the main homescreen is in the middle and the other 4 screens would each be in a direction (up, down, left, right). Moving from one of those screens in a direction (up, down, left, right) would result like moving from the home screen. So more than just a cube. A little more complex. I'll develop it if someone can help me along. Just an idea i had when looking at the linear movement of the ui.

Unfortunately I don't have any of the required skills or time to match even 1% of the ability of the Android development community but I'd definitely second this request. A very unique idea and I really like it.
BTW, a big thanks to the devel community. Without you guys fulfilling my gadget whore needs, I'd be buying a new device every week!

This is cool..maybe even an option in the notification bar to switch screens while in an app? Like the Linux desktop cube?
Sent from my Floyo Tazz using XDA App

Rather than write something from scratch, maybe you could try to contribute this as an option in ADW.Launcher?

This has already been done before on a certain rom. I remember it being ported to the vogue android. I cant remember the phone it was ported from though. Blur or something.

Gde home had exactly this feature
~ The Nameless Creator

Actually there were a few Windows CE based home mangers that had this feature. I also would love to have this. I asked a while back and got no response as to if there is anthing out there that did this.

wouldnt it be kinda hard to keep track of which screen is in which direction? like it seems orientation would feel very complex. but maybe not, i dunno

SLOflatlander said:
wouldnt it be kinda hard to keep track of which screen is in which direction? like it seems orientation would feel very complex. but maybe not, i dunno
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could see something like dots on the edge of the screen kinda like how launcher pro does it.

SLOflatlander said:
wouldnt it be kinda hard to keep track of which screen is in which direction? like it seems orientation would feel very complex. but maybe not, i dunno
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait'll you see the home screen replacer I'm building based on a tesseract.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract
You just need to turn your head sideways to keep track of what face you're on.
Who doesn't want 24 home screens?

For a 4 or 5 way slide/cube desktop, look at Dx Top. It has not been updated for a while but is stable and can use themes built for many of the other desktop replacements.
I have been running it over many ROMs and it works on all so far. Was a little funny with the app drawer on SkyRaider, it kept rebuilding the icons for some reason, that might have been due to installing too many icon packs.

Thanks for the support on this guys and the answers. i'm going to do some research and see what can be done/ported or if needed then created. Just trying to do like most people and think outside the box. Its what makes android 1000x better than the iphone/ipod scene. They are so restricted. i mean come on. 1 button. But keeping on topic, i really appreciate no flaming on the topic.

[Poll] Does anyone really use the trackball for anything?

was just wondering, i rarely catch myself using it, atleast.

Taking pictures, going through screens. But it's most practical use for me is usually selecting small links in web pages when I'm too lazy to zoom in.

I use it every day for:
-Recovery
-Answering / ending calls
-Selecting text / moving cursor / other text functions
There are plenty of other things I use it for, but less frequently.

That goofy little track pad is one of the features I miss most on my Tbolt. Instead, I get HTC's standard arrows to do the same job, and it sucks and doesn't work in Clockwork. I used it for editing text mostly. I wish you could adjust it's sensitivity like on a BlackBerry. I came from a BlackBerry so it felt very natural and useful. For many tasks, it simply the fastest, easiest way to get the job done. I gave up the case I was using on it for a while so I could use it more effectively.

I use it for Recovery

I'm constantly using it for stuff like navigating recovery and clicking on links in the browser. I got big hands and constantly click wrong links even when zoomed in, so the track pad is a life saver.

That is what's keeping me from getting another phone! Ha ha
I use it for recovery, track advance for music, cursor, taking pictures, you name it.. Very useful to me.

I used it for text fields and recovery. There was also one game that had a trackpad control scheme.

Moving around in text is all i use it for.

loonatik78 said:
I wish you could adjust it's sensitivity like on a BlackBerry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the right kernel, you can:
chad0989 said:
As for the OJ, you can adjust settings at /sys/devices/platform/curcial_oj
There's lots of settings but the easiest way is to increase normal_th and sensitivity will go down
just:
echo 4 > /sys/devices/platform/curcial_oj/normal_th
and replace 4 with whatever value you want. Higher value = less sensitive. You'll have to put it in a script in /etc/init.d if you want to set it on boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

byrong said:
With the right kernel, you can:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish I would have know that a year ago, but I was all over Ziggy's kernels. My girlfriend hardly messes with it so I'm not going to screw with it. Thank you for the post though.

I love my trackpad. It's keeping me on this phone. No other phone feels right without it and I constantly search for it on any phone I use.
Sent from my ADR6300 using xda premium

I use to use it all the time, but CM7 never got the driver working quite right for it, with out gingersource at least.

copy pasting

byrong said:
-Answering / ending calls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no idea you could do it this way. Saves more trouble than waiting for the screen to turn on and then end the call.
I mostly use it for moving the cursor, it's a huge help because a lot of times it just doesn't go exactly where I want it to go when I press the touch screen- so I move it over 1 or 2 characters via trackball. I use this pretty frequently too.

Mostly for Recovery navigation and selection, but for cursor movement, too. And before the proximity sensor worked right, for the answer/end call thing, too. But now it seems to always know when to turn the screen on or off, even in the dark... That's with MIUI.us.

POQbum said:
I had no idea you could do it this way. Saves more trouble than waiting for the screen to turn on and then end the call.
I mostly use it for moving the cursor, it's a huge help because a lot of times it just doesn't go exactly where I want it to go when I press the touch screen- so I move it over 1 or 2 characters via trackball. I use this pretty frequently too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I LOVE the trackball and use it all the time for moving the cursor and copy/paste. I am reluctant to get a new phone without one.

I use it a good bit - flipping through screens, moving cursor - but gained some new tips in this thread!

I use it ALL the time to move the cursor because I make typos all the time in portrait mode. I guess my fingers are too big for the screen keyboard.
When I switch to my iPhone, I am constantly looking for the trackpad when I make a typo. Trackpad is much better than iPhone's crappy magnifier.

I use it to move the cursor to edit something I mis-swyped. That's about it.