Database Users

Best size for perfect caller id

Recently I took a pic directly as a contact pic .to check the quality and
Of the pic when some 1 gives me a ring and noticed the resolution is aweful
Does any one know the perfect fitting resolution for the best caller id ?
Thank you

It's a bug! Unfortunately, there isn't any specific resolution that'll fix this problem.

I use Facebook integration, thus all my contacts' pictures are from their default profile pictures.
When they call, the Caller IDs are gawd damn ugly. Pixelated and stretched.

Yep I've tried various things...
FB pics, my own contact pics etc
It's a widely reported issue, basically the thumbnails are stored as a tiny picture and stretched when used for a caller ID picture...
Maybe a custom rom will fix the problem as HTC won't be!

This has been an issue with HTC for ages... started on the Touch Diamond with TouchFLO and is still there with Sense.
Only way I think to try and get a fix is to bombard HTC with complaints. Their marketing materials show lovely high res contact pics... their handsets do not once you have synced to Google or any other service.
It would be simple to fix, the Sense UI creates two thumbnails, one for syncing (small) and a larger one for the call / calling picture.
Tweet them at @htc too.

Contact Picture Quality

I'm probably not the first to 'complain' about this... but I thought I'd put it all together in one post and see if anyone was having the same issues, or same results...
So...
Trying to 'Sync' Facebook contact pics with my x10 contact pics - tried a few apps, and while most of them did the job to some degree, with varying results, but mainly the same level of disappointment, one thing I found with all of them was that the resolution was abysmal to say the least...
I found also that if I opened Facebook, I could view any of my own profile pics, and I was given the option to assign them to a contact – great (sort of) providing the only people I know are myself. Friends pictures were ‘locked’ such that the assign to contact option did not exist - silly, really.
Now, while fiddling with my phone, I discovered that the some of the Facebook contact syncing apps actually downloaded a full quality pic to my device – perfect – now let me see if I can open them and assign them to a contact... nope, no luck – interestingly, they were ‘locked’ just like they were when I opened them through Facebook – no option to assign them to a contact.
Now, I move them to another folder (one which had pics that I could assign) and all of a sudden, they were unlocked... funniest thing was that pics left in the original folder I took them from were also unlocked... odd... good too, but odd.
So happily assigning all these full definition contact pics, I then had a look at them, and the resolution was again abysmal... WTF...! Anyway, one last go, and instead of going via the picture to assign it to a contact, I went through the contact then assigned a picture to it... Success...! this time proper resolution...!
So from this I assume that going through the picture, or any syncing apps, you’re only getting a contact pic as good a quality as the Android system expects. However, if you go through the contact, the x10 is getting a contact pic at the full quality it knows it needs to display...
Anyway, take what you will from this, but I thought it was interesting...

same over here, the pictures I assigned to my contacts are very high quality and they all look like sh#t on the phone when some one calls me.
It is full of noise and extremely blurry. Really don't understand why...They can't be made this for such a low quality so I assume we do something wrong, but I can't figure it out. Do we need very big resolution pictures to get them proper on this phone? But thanks for the tip, working the other way around does work good, but it keeps being strange...
Cheers.
Arnold

Consider that a phone call needs to pop-up right away. Why waste the processing speed to show a full resolution image?
Note: I think an update that went around to some regions cleaned up the resolution a bit.

iead1 said:
Consider that a phone call needs to pop-up right away. Why waste the processing speed to show a full resolution image?
Note: I think an update that went around to some regions cleaned up the resolution a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not the brazilian update.

I'm willing to swear that it's a donut issue... mainly because going the Android way in is ugly, and the SE way in is on the money...
You'll also notice the Android way gives you a square pic, and the SE way gives you an elongated pic to fit with their interface...
iead1 said:
Consider that a phone call needs to pop-up right away. Why waste the processing speed to show a full resolution image?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed that it might be low res for this reason, but the x10 can handle the hi res just as good - and considering the contact pics are so large, you definitely want them full res.
Hopefully SE do some updates to improve this... Hopefully...

k1sr said:
You'll also notice the Android way gives you a square pic, and the SE way gives you an elongated pic to fit with their interface...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem is, I don't wan't the elongated pic or the square pic.
With WinMo I could put any pic format.
Why should I be restricted in Android?

Picture ID size?

Is there anyway to make picture id size bigger?
This phone has such a beautiful screen, but I feel like I am not utilize it fully whenever I got call and see small picture id on my screen.

No way to currently resize the caller-id picture and I totally agree with you. The caller-id pic is way small for this device. Hopefully Samsung will realize and provide a bigger size caller-id picture in Froyo update.

Doubt it will be apart of the froyo update but I also agree that would be better. Maybe we can get a dev to work something out.
Sent from my awesome Vibrant using XDA App

Yes, the picture ID is so small, and it downgrades the photo a lot!!

One of the reasons it is so small is that the google contacts will resize the image and that is the max size image for a google contacts. Not sure if contacts created and stored locally on the phone (i.e. not created as a google contact) will have a bigger pic.
In the end... Google seriously needs to triple the size of contact images in google contacts on their servers... it makes android seem a bit cheap sometimes.

clarkeismine said:
One of the reasons it is so small is that the google contacts will resize the image and that is the max size image for a google contacts. Not sure if contacts created and stored locally on the phone (i.e. not created as a google contact) will have a bigger pic.
In the end... Google seriously needs to triple the size of contact images in google contacts on their servers... it makes android seem a bit cheap sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can agree with that.

[Q] A couple of issues:Email, Swype tap sounds, GPS, resolution of pics, system sound

This is my second post as a new Android and Epic user. As my first post, I suggested a new name to a ROM developer here!
Alright, I have the Epic in my hands now and I am really enjoying it, especially after being on a small and not-very-user-friendly-and-slow touch screen on HTC Fuze (HTC Touch Pro) from AT&T. As I mentioned, I am new to Android and new to Epic, and I am facing the following issues, which could very well be user errors:
- I had seen several reviews on YouTube noting how good the camera on Epic was, but the pictures I have taken on Epic seem to me like they are from a 1.x megapixel camera!
I recently took a pic in a dimly lit restaurant and I was absolutely appalled by the quality of that pic. I couldn't even send it out to folks in the pic due to the low quality of the pic. The Fuze has a 3.2 megapixel camera and the pics on that phone are WAY better than the pics on the Epic with a 5 megapixel camera (I am aware megapixels are not everything, but still).
I took a few pics in my house, with more light, and the quality didn't improve at all. I couldn't find any posts related to low-quality pics on Epic. I installed Camera 360; the pics taken using 360 are 30% better than those taken with the default camera application on Epic. So, the hardware can do much better.
I was expecting the pics on the Epic to be really crisp and clear, but they are not, by miles. Am I doing something wrong?
- I changed the volume levels in "Sound and Display," but that's the only change in settings I have made. Now, I don't hear the sound that we hear after unlocking the phone by dragging the lock icon upward. What could be wrong?
- In Swype, I changed the setting to disable the haptic feedback, but enabled the tapping sounds. But I don't hear any tapping sounds when I tap on the keys. I am completely lost on this one.
- This is more of an issue due to my newness to Android and TouchWhiz. When I receive a notification about a new e-mail(s), and I click on the e-mail icon at the bottom of the screen, I see a list of all my e-mail accounts. How do I know which account received the new e-mail (out of the five accounts I have configured)?
- I have configured a default Gmail account for my Epic. I tried to send some pictures by using the "Share" feature and selecting my default Gmail account as the "sending" account. A small and short-lived pop-up said "sending message" but the "receiver" account received nothing, even after several tries. Although, I was able to send the same pics using other Gmail accounts on my phone. What could I be missing with the default Gmail account?
Sorry for such a long post, but I would really appreciate your help on the issues (or user errors) I am facing. Thanks!
P.S.: I am not planning to root my Epic just yet, as I would like to experience the phone as is for a month or so.

For the camera problem make sure you have the size set to 5 megapixels and the quality to superfine.
When you get an email slide down the notification bar and click on the alert, it will take you straight to the emails.
When I turned off the noise for selecting things on the screen it also stopped the lock screen noise.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

tatoniss said:
For the camera problem make sure you have the size set to 5 megapixels and the quality to superfine.
When you get an email slide down the notification bar and click on the alert, it will take you straight to the emails.
When I turned off the noise for selecting things on the screen it also stopped the lock screen noise.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. I have already set the resolution to 5 megapixels and the quality to superfine, but the pics still are subpar.
I am aware of the sliding down the notification curtain to go to the e-mails directly, but I was wondering if there was a setting or mod to indicate which account had new e-mails.
It explains that the turning off the tab sounds for the screen would also disable any tap sounds for the unlocking screen.
I am still open to input for my other issues, if someone knows how to solve them. Thanks.

why don't u take a pic of something and post it here so we can tell u if something is wrong?
here is a pic I took few days ago with max settings, what do you think of the quality?
if the quality isn't like this, then perhaps u need a new epic. if the quality is around that, then that's how epic takes pics
Uploaded with ImageShack.us

razorseal said:
why don't u take a pic of something and post it here so we can tell u if something is wrong?
here is a pic I took few days ago with max settings, what do you think of the quality?
if the quality isn't like this, then perhaps u need a new epic. if the quality is around that, then that's how epic takes pics
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I was initially planning to take a picture and post it for other members' review, but when I posted my first post, it was around 4 a.m. in the morning, so I couldn't find enough daylight to take some pics.
I am linking to a picture I took a few minutes ago, in low sunlight. The quality of this picture of outdoors is acceptable. I am also attaching a picture that I took at a restaurant; this picture - a cropped part of the pic with no modification to the quality of the pic - is just to show how grainy and washed out the picture is.
I understand the lighting in the restaurant was low, but still, even with the flash, the quality of the image leaves a lot to be desired. I took that pic with all the default settings, meaning I had not selected the "Indoor" scene mode (I am not sure if that would have improved the picture vastly). Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks.
Edit: I just took another pic of the outdoors using Camera 360 to compare the quality of the default camera application on the Epic to that of Camera 360's. This pic is sharper than the one taken by the default camera application on the Epic.

I noticed something about the signatures for the e-mail accounts. I changed my signature on one gmail account and it changed my signature on all my gmail accounts and my Exchange account. Shouldn't I be able to change the signatures individually?

For camera quality: are u tapping the screen and letting the little box turn green to focus?
Sent from my Epic 4G

ravizzle said:
For camera quality: are u tapping the screen and letting the little box turn green to focus?
Sent from my Epic 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I am focusing before taking pictures. I got my phone swapped today and the new one's camera looks better. Although, how true is the notion that installation of apps can slow down the phone (quite natural) and this can affect the quality of the pictures because of the delay?

incisivekeith said:
Yes, I am focusing before taking pictures. I got my phone swapped today and the new one's camera looks better. Although, how true is the notion that installation of apps can slow down the phone (quite natural) and this can affect the quality of the pictures because of the delay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true at all. If u have many process intensive apps running I can see some some lag, but just installation of apps won't do anything.
Sent from my Epic 4G

ravizzle said:
Not true at all. If u have many process intensive apps running I can see some some lag, but just installation of apps won't do anything.
Sent from my Epic 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is what I thought. It doesn't fit that the lag on the phone can actually reduce the quality of the pictures taken by the camera.
On another note, I have imported contacts to my phone via a vCard file. I also have a default Gmail account configured on my phone. Can I sync the contacts on my phone with the Gmail account? And, can I sync contacts from my phone with Outlook Express or Outlook on my PC? I have been reading a lot of opinions on this, but none has had a definitive answer.

To sync the contacts stored on the phone to your gmail account, first you need to export your phones contacts to your sd card, then you import them right back in, but when given the choice, choose to import them to gmail account (all done through Settings->More->Import/Export, even if you already know some future reader may not )
When you have accomplished this, you will have multiple entries for each of your contacts, so you will want to go and either go to Settings->Display and deselect either the phone or gmail contacts, but I would suggest hiding the gmail, then deleting the (now duplicate) ones stored on the phone, then of course unhiding the gmail contacts. If you somehow delete one that didnt get uploaded to google properly or something, at least you already have a full backup on your sd card that you can reimport.

[Q] A few questions about and issues with the Epic from a new Android user
Koadic said:
To sync the contacts stored on the phone to your gmail account, first you need to export your phones contacts to your sd card, then you import them right back in, but when given the choice, choose to import them to gmail account (all done through Settings->More->Import/Export, even if you already know some future reader may not )
When you have accomplished this, you will have multiple entries for each of your contacts, so you will want to go and either go to Settings->Display and deselect either the phone or gmail contacts, but I would suggest hiding the gmail, then deleting the (now duplicate) ones stored on the phone, then of course unhiding the gmail contacts. If you somehow delete one that didn't get uploaded to google properly or something, at least you already have a full backup on your sd card that you can reimport.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your response. I haven't had the time to apply the workaround for the contacts, but I will certainly post the result here.
On another note, I was wondering about the following:
- Why doesn't the voice activated action take place automatically? When I say a voice command, instead of just performing the command, the device pops up a list of options (including an exact match of my voice command) matching my voice command. If I am required to select what I want to do from the pop-up list, what's the purpose of the voice commands?
Edit: The above functionality works that way, it seems.
- My battery indicator (and GPS Status app) shows the batter level at 97% when I receive a message on the device that the battery is full. How come? I read about this on the forum, but didn't find a solution or the cause for this. And interestingly, if I keep the phone plugged in a little longer, the indicator shows a charge of 100%, but as soon as I unplug the phone, it reverts to 97%.
I miss little things on Stock Android on the Epic such as the option to see the duration of calls. Shouldn't Stock Android (not the apps) have widgets similar to those on the Today Screen in Windows Mobile?
Any thoughts from the community? Thanks.
Edit: I just found out the the in-line controls for the headset for the Epic don't work reliably at all. I am not able to end a call when the screen is off. A couple of days ago, I was at least able to press the in-line control button and bring up Call Log on the phone; I am not able to do that today. Also, is it true that the in-line mic is faulty, too? I found some comments regarding the in-line controls and issues similar to mine in these threads (thread1, thread2), but no solution. Why are such basic functionality missing from such a good phone? Is there a solution to this?

I would appreciate some input on the issues I am facing, either saying there is no solution to some of them, or point me in the right direction. Thanks.

i get the same charging thing it will only charge to 97%. i bought two extra batteries and also came with an external battery charger, if i charge with the external charger and pop in the batteries they show 100% so it must be the phone isnt charging it to 100.

As far as the charging goes, I find that if I have it plugged into a lower power charger, like charging from a usb port on my computer, sometimes it will charge all the way to 100% and stay there when unplugged. Otherwise, I can get my phone to charge to 100% if I have the screen on full brightness while charging. I dont know if it is because it stops charging when it reaches a certain voltage or what, and if the screen is drawing power while charging, it isnt getting charged as fast, so it wont 'trip' the sensor saying the battery has a full charge as soon because the power draw keeping the voltage a little lower. Of course this is just speculation on my part.

Q: Blurry contact picture when someone rings

I love my omnia 7 but I have noticed if someone rings me and I have their picture on my phone it shows up blurry on the ringing screen
I used a picture this evening which was stored on my phone on someones contact (took with camera) and it still shows blurry
anyone any idea's have to solve this ?? I know its only cosmetic but its damn annoying

i have this problem too. my contacts have pictures from windows live and facebook account and they allways show up blurry, when taking a call.

Are you sure the facebook photos show up blurry too? The main problem here is because of Gmail, which uses a pathetic resolution for the contacts (96x96?) and therefore, when you have GMail sync enabled, all the photos are replaced with lousy low-res versions, immaterial of whether you uploaded a hi-res version in the first place.
This has been discussed on several threads in GMail support, *WITHOUT* a solution:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=166e27ae27e71c7a&hl=en
Are you sure your WL and FB contacts are not showing their GMail pics? (I think WP7 defaults to facebook when available).
If GMail is not your problem, you might want to just do some removal/addition of the FB/WL accounts to see if it by chance fixes the problem.

i don't use gmail, so the issue is caused by something else.

I have noticed that images from facebook are displayed at decent (sharp) quality but if I allocate my own custom photos from the phone or taken by the phone camera, they appear blurry if a Google Contacts account is used.
If you use the Windows Live option, the image appears a lot nicer. In fact, I only did this test after reading this post and i'm going to deviate from using Google Contact and instead move them to Windows Live! Pictures are very nice.
Also, this affects the tiles if you pin the contact to the home screen.
Vozdra phobius

I previously had a LG Optimus 7 and this issue was there too--so unlike the Wiki states, this doesn't look to be an Omnia 7-only problem.
Anyway, I'll consider moving my contacts to Windows Live and see if that makes a difference.
EDIT: I recently updated to Mango--the pictures were still blurry. I re-added the contact pictures from photo albums (still saving them as Google contacts) and now the pictures are sharp! So it looks the this problem was fixed in Mango?

BakedGoodsX said:
I previously had a LG Optimus 7 and this issue was there too--so unlike the Wiki states, this doesn't look to be an Omnia 7-only problem.
Anyway, I'll consider moving my contacts to Windows Live and see if that makes a difference.
EDIT: I recently updated to Mango--the pictures were still blurry. I re-added the contact pictures from photo albums (still saving them as Google contacts) and now the pictures are sharp! So it looks the this problem was fixed in Mango?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen that even if you choose a photo you shot from your Omnia, because of the google sync, it gets downscaled. I have heard that people have succeeded by disabling the photo sync on google (don't recall how), but it did not work for me.
BTW, have you updated to Mango beta or the RTM? And, is it worth the effort (assuming it's not too easy to apply the official update after this upgrade).
Thanks!

karthikraman said:
I have seen that even if you choose a photo you shot from your Omnia, because of the google sync, it gets downscaled. I have heard that people have succeeded by disabling the photo sync on google (don't recall how), but it did not work for me.
BTW, have you updated to Mango beta or the RTM? And, is it worth the effort (assuming it's not too easy to apply the official update after this upgrade).
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you're totally right, Google Sync downscaled it. Damn.
I'm not sure the difference between the Mango beta and the RTM (I bought my Omnia unlocked and unbranded). I followed Duck's instructions in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1203948
Personally, I didn't have to do the firmware flash so it was very painless. In fact, it was no harder than running "update.bat" then updating the phone threw Zune. Considering almost no effort it's definitely worth it. Mango is faster, IE9 is much better, some of the additional features are nice (some multitasking, alphabet app-menu, etc).
I'd say, if you don't need to flash the firmware it's totally worth it (only took me 10 minutes). If you have to flash, I might reconsider (I have a lot of game saves, etc. that would be annoying to lose).