Database Users

Xperia with existing games

Hi folks,
Just wondering how would xperia handle the screen res of some existing games that has fixed screen res.
I love Orions and would definitely be very sad if xperia cannot support Orions cos of the 16:9 format. And if xperia supports, I would hope that instead of stretching the game, making everything look fat. I rather that it has side black columns, like how you are watching standard def TV programs on a widescreen TV.
Anyone any info on that?

This is a question everyone has, but I haven't seen it answered yet. Most people just say "because the HD has the same resolution there will be plenty of software available", but I think that's accepting the fact that applications made for other resolutions will not work. This is only my speculation, I don't have any hard proof. Anyone who owns the device care to help?

That's the problem.
But I don't think normal apps will have any problems as most apps will just scale properly without the elements being affected by the screen res.
Just that games, as they are usually coded against the screen res/size.
Really hope that folks who had the privilege of playing with an eval unit or folks who recently bought it will be able to comment.

in my opinion, some applications will have problem, some not. I had three PDAs at the same time. one had 240x240, second 320x240 and third 640x480. some apps worked correctly on all of them, some not. for example iGo had problem on that smallest display, but on bigger worked correctly. so we will see.

Omnia has WQVGA instead of QVGA and has some problems in some programs...
maybe Xperia will have the same

Well at least HTC is coming out with more phones with this res. so developers will start to code for it correctly from now on...

mkent_barbados said:
Well at least HTC is coming out with more phones with this res. so developers will start to code for it correctly from now on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but see, that's not good enough. If it was good enough to simply have NEW applications and not worry about the ones we've used in the past, everyone would get Android because it's the easiest to make new apps for. The reason people are afraid to switch is because of all of the software they already have for Windows Mobile, but if this phone won't be compatible with it then there's no point in hanging on.

But i think the screen res problem will affect Andriod too, being open source does not mean being easy to program on.
It is painful to migrate platforms esp if the developer does not include a migration tool. I think its the lack of that prevents people from switching platform.
I remember that is what happen to me when I switch from Palm to PPC. I literally have to export everything to .txt and even some to pen & paper. It is a painful process that I do not wich to go thru again.

Well I'll just install android on the xperia if it turns out to have awesome apps and then it will kick G1's ass.

Kloc said:
Well I'll just install android on the xperia if it turns out to have awesome apps and then it will kick G1's ass.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol! That's another thought.

HTC HD mini T5555

I am not sure that this is the most suitable forum to discuss my issue, but I do think that it doesn't really matter.
The HTC HD mini is indeed a new phone - BUT SHOULD GET ATTENTION AS THE OTHER SMARTPHONES.
There are no applications/games/whatever that are suitable to this small great phone.
The problem (according to my non-professional view) is the small screen.
I am sure that an easy application would addapt the screen to all WM6.5/HD2 applications.
Can someone take an action?
Please - all other HD mini users - say your thing!!!
YL

Maybe if there's enough users, sort "critical mass", then developments will fire up.

It's like the treo pros and i780s. They were quite popular when they came out. But soon, very soon, better phones came quickly. Thus for the low number of SQVGA apps and themes. It's the same for the HD mini. Why get a HD mini when you can get a HD2? The HD mini is probably going to be forgotten soon.

firetiger you are totaly wrong.
The HD2 has about the same properties as the mini. The mini is (!!) just smaller. It is the only smartphone (with touchscreen) that feets to your pocket!
Again, I am sure that there is a simple way to re-define the screen of the mini to make it work like his bigger brother.
I think bart3385 is right - like I said - HTC mini owners should rise their voice.
Or maybe HTC should work on it.....

The HD mini has an odd screen resolution (in fact it seems to be the only phone with that screen size... HVGA is a stupid res between QVGA and VGA)... This alone makes it a poor device. Every informed user should have known it was a bad product before they bought it.
I have a Samsung Omnia (WQVGA... was kind of popular in France if I got my facts right) and in the beginning I found that despite the screen being similar to regular QVGA (with just an extra 80px in height) a few apps didn't work (WVGAFIX came to the rescue later). Of course with the HD mini it's much worse... Its screen size is just a dumb move (HTC should have gone with a more standard res like VGA but once again they left the users to pay for their poor judgement).
Many (if not most) WinMo apps are designed for specific resolutions and don't dynamically scale... That's why so little apps work in your device. Seeing the ever decreasing popularity of the OS, the verge of WP7, the fact that this is the only phone with this screen res and the not so high popularity of the device I'd say there's not much hope... It's like asking for every app to be rewritten for the sake of one phone in a phasing-out OS... Sorry pal.
I don't think that a WVGAFIX approach would be as easy for this phone but it could be the best option (scaling your screen to WQVGA or QVGA...). I seriously don't believe that HTC will provide such a solution (so your only hope is once again xda)... But for the foreseeable future it seems like your limited to whatever comes in the phone and the few 3rd party apps that work.

HD mini has a better size, while maintaining a good enough screen size. And it's easier on the pocket, both physically and price-wise. It's got a very good, clean and simple physical design and back cover. The back cover material is ideal; add to it the exposed screws for an attractive industrial design. Its capacitive touch keys should last longer than the mechanical keys of HD2.
It would have been nice to give a VGA resolution to HD mini. But i guess the main point of a lower HVGA resolution is to allow the miserly 600mHz processor to keep up. For today's generation of smartphones, 600mHz is quite anemic. I'm guessing it could have a hard time if paired to higher resolutions.
For me, HVGA is not bad for this size of phone. Most apps will do fine. But I'm certainly not satisfied with the broken and severely restricted Sense UI that comes with it.
If we want restricted phones, we can easily go to Apple Store for an iPhone. The main point, or should i say, the love of sticking to WinMo is exactly its unrestricted flexibility OS. HTC missed this concept.
HTC, please fix your broken Sense. Make this phone what we all expected it to be.

So your reasoning is that the HD mini is a good phone because it's pretty and has a sensible size? I most agree with the latter (most new devices are gargantuan). Also real hw buttons is something not to be dissed. HTC phones were a lot better when they had their older circle/dpad button (at least they were a lot more functional... g-sensor and multitouch fall short as appropriate game control methods... not to mention HTC should have implemented a g-sensor d-pad emulator to increase usability of older apps).
The problem is not that the phone has a new screen size per se... It's the fact that having a non standard screen size introduces new problems and incompatibilities. As always the priorities were in the wrong place. VGA should have worked quite fine in a 600mhz cpu (older models worked fine in slower cpus).
If companies coded better they wouldn't need 1+Ghz cpus... Sense is a senseless waste of any phones resources for the sake of look n feel. By far not worth the resources it consumes. If it were a well coded C++ shell it'd be a good interface but since companies work in a cost effective manner they always prefer the easy and fast approach. That's how we end up with this sort of crapware (really a shell in Lua? that sucks even in the PSP homebrew scene!). Sensible resource usage trumps looks anyday in my book (hence why I already consider Windows Phone 7 a major fail... .NET and Silverlight... and it's not even pretty! Microsoft what the hell were you thinking!?).

My opinion is that it has good sensible size. But not necessarily good in every aspect. Like you, i have an axe to grind about the Sense UI. It's mostly broken, not thoroughly tested, not properly coded, and prioritizes eye-candy over real functionality. I'm also not happy about how HTC removed some of WM's core functions and replace them with their own broken software. HTC placed a lot of restrictions on this phone that is really pissing me off.

Hardware manuals/how to vids
Does anyone know where I can find a hardware manual or a "how to" vid on how to change the digitiser (zer for all you americans) on a HTC HD mini T5555?
I have the new parts and the tri-wing tool, just want to make sure I'm not breaking anything when going into it.
Cheers

[Q] Best Android phone for camera app development?

Hello Everyone,
I will be working on an Android application for a lab group I'm working with. The application requires the ability to "fine-tune" the camera on an Android phone. A little bit about the project:
1. Need to take about 50 pictures a minute for 3 minutes
2. Turn off Auto-focus
3. Turn off Auto-gain
4. Set exposure time
5. Images are preferred in gray scale
6. Control LEDs outside of phone hardware
I'm familiar with embedded Linux but very new to the Android platform. Looking at the API, it doesn't look like I'll be able do some of things easily. Might have to get into the camera driver?
I was wondering what would be the easiest phone to develop something like this? Could someone point me in the right direction?
Thanks in Advance!!

50 pictures a minute for 3 minutes is essentially video...? Or would you just throw these images away?
I'm really new to java and the Android platform and all that too. I don't think there is really an easy or easiest phone to develop on. But you should probably design for medium-density phones (such as, my HTC Hero, even though it's old). Medium density phones are the most common. Otherwise, just download eclipse and the Android SDK and get to it.
By the way, I don't think you have to get into the camera driver or anything. I think you just need to declare what resources you will be utilizing.

kszup said:
Hello Everyone,
Could someone point me in the right direction?
!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you just dug yourself a pretty big hole there. It depends on the android device you already have, Keep in mind a few things:
1. Which android device is going to be your test device (can't use the emulator).
2. Which platform do you want to support (1.6, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc)
3. What flavor of ROMs will you support.
We use Nexus one and an array of phones for our application development. We've played with cameras (augmented reality apps). Cameras behave differently on different phones. Cameras' viewable screens are also different on 4:3 vs 16:9 screens. They are also different on Sense UI ROMs vs stock vanilla roms.
This is my advice: Pick a phone that you think it'll help you most. Having the latest test phone (ie Nexus S) helps. but keep in mind that not everyone is on Gingerbread soon and they will not be on GB soon. Some of the GB features do not work on Froyo etc.
Good luck with your project. Just pick a phone, and run with it (and cross your finger and hope they all behave the same). Google says all androids are created equal right? But I quote Orwell and say "All androids are created equal. Some are more equal than the others."

Thanks for the input. The application is far from being something for the general public. I just need to have it work for one phone as a proof of concept.
I'm looking at Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy S, and HTC Dream. Any +/- to programming for these?

[Q] HD2 Hardware Mod Thread

I want to start a thread for hardware mods because of two compelling ideas that have arisen:
1) Swapping in the Super LCD of the HD7S into the HD2. Would it be possible to swap this improved screen into an HD2? I love the fact that I can dual boot android and WP7 in HD2 but that device really NEEDS a better screen. From what I can tell, the previous gen HD7 used the same hardware design as the HD2 including the exact same screen, so the HD7S seems like they just swapped in a better display. There are some guides on youtube that show how to replace the HD2 screen, so a modification like this isn't impossible but pretty difficult. Any comments?
2) NFC into the HD2. This didn't seem like a neccessary feature at first, but a post on engadget about using wireless NFC for android devices seems like a compelling option. I am not too sure about this mod though, don't know how hard it would be. I know somebody successfully created a wireless charging system for the Evo (I think) but an NFC system is a completely different ball game.
Post any thoughts or comments on these mods and propose your own mods as well. For the sake of intelligence try not to post mods without having some backup in terms of feasibility of the modification. What I mean is don't say stuff like "Lets put in a slide out keyboard, an SLR camera on the device and add playstation control buttons". Unless of course you legitimately found a way to do such a monstrous mod!!!! =P.

Well what you propose with the changing of the screen would be awesome, I have to say it would be one hell of an accomplishment. But you not only would have the actual physical hardware to contend with, but you have to ask is all other needed components in the HD2 compatible to work with the proposed adopted screen. Another thing will the actual size of the screen and digitizer for the HD7S as far as the thickness of them together. The questions and obstacles would no doubt be numerous if not to many to overcome or to large to overcome.
Then you have the fact that even if you did succeed in getting the screen installed you would have to modify the IPL of the bootloader to even be abale to use it. Plus probably a whole slew of other software related things would have to be modded. But this is XDA after all
Cheers

really cant see the point, the HD2 screen is already very good, well mine is anyway. That being said though I had a new screen fitted by HTC about a month ago and I am sure it is better than the original one.
hmm.

it won't be necessary to build the native NFC to HD2... they are coming with NFC SD cards, it will be pretty easy for us

Belovoj said:
it won't be necessary to build the native NFC to HD2... they are coming with NFC SD cards, it will be pretty easy for us
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and nfc sims
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/16/nfc_sim_again/

Well about screen..
U may have measured the width and height. And may be same. But what about depth? And what about position of the flux cable?
Thats a hardware thing.what about software? And the display driver section? More/ less volts to backlight leds, display ram and the display itself? Any way give a try..
About nfc.. yap we got the software in every android os for it. Coz all or most of them are ports from phones having nfc( i think so)
But from the hardwre view.. its about making a radio module whith accelerometer support.. and its should be tiniy enough to put into the phone.. so its a realy hard thing..
The wireless charging dock is a simple one.. connecting both through the old technology.. mutual induction. Old wine in new bottle.+ unwanted losses too.+ dustortion to sensitive devices. Well that might be helpfull if u hav a 100% sealed device( water,dust... etc. Proof) and with out connectors which opens the inside world to the outside world!!! For charging a device like dat u can use wireless electricity. Or what else it may be usefull? Its a pure analog circuit. Every dude with a little electronics knowledge can rip a normal stepdown transformer and can make it.
But nfc is not that.. u may get the point..
send from my hd2 @ miui 1.12.2

Galaxy Tab 7.7 Phone Mode..

Hi everyone. I have been fighting with the Galaxy tab 7.7 since I got it over the issue of its design as a tablet and not a "large phone". The 7.7 screen is too small to be usable as tablet and despite all sorts of attempts to change fonts sizes etc, the reality is an endless list of the apps I use are poorly displayed n the screen with items too big or small, check boxes out of place, ridiculously small areas of the screen and other too big or everything just plainly a gigantic mess.Coming from an original Galaxy Tab 7 and now using a newer 7 Plus, both these units display every item on the screen perfectly proportioned and as it should, because they handle everything as large phone display, NOT a tablet.
How can I have the 7.7 behave the same? Originally with Honeycomb all attempts to fix the issue were a disaster and the only thing I was successful was in tweaking the DPI enough to make some items legible but not too much and then loose the bottom task bar that automatically vanishes past it gets a certain size. Now with ICS, the problems seems to be the same.. the 7.7 is still in tablet mode and not in phone mode like its 7.0 siblings.
I tried editing my build.prop, removed the lcd density line altogether, and changed:
ro.build.characteristics=tablet
to
ro.build.characteristics=phone
But still no luck. Can someone guide me to a proper and easy way to covert natively, the display of the 7.7 to phone mode like the 7.0 and 7.0/2 and Plus?
Thanks a lot in advance for the advice

There are many who would agree with you, but there doesn't seem to be a simple answer to increase the size of the fonts in a workable way. I had hoped ICS would fix this issue, but it didn't. Mind you, some people seem to like the small fonts.

But the issue is NOT one of fonts! I dont care about fonts! I care about that in many applications elements are all so displaced and badly proportional that they are unusable. Dolphin browser? Almost cant type on the address bar because of its size and menus! FoxNews? The thumbnails are so small you can hardly select the video you want to see while the rest 80% of the screen space is just white with nothing! CnetTV? Each video selection is millimeters in size while most of the screen is just a black blob of unused space. And the list of apps foes on and on. It just doesn't work and when U compare screen arrangements and filling from a galaxy tab 7, 7/2 or 7/Plus you clearly see something is terrible wrong on the 7.7. Its just disaster to use! This makes no sense.

Screenshots?
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium

have you tried different browsers to view your favorite sites? and also switch between 'mobile' and 'full' site views in each browser till you find one that can be the lesser of the evils.
i believe the stock Samsung ICS browser has a 'force zoom' option for site controlled views too.... might want to try that out.
good luck...
and post your results here too.. keep us updated with your solutions.
thanks.....

VeEuzUKY said:
It just doesn't work and when U compare screen arrangements and filling from a galaxy tab 7, 7/2 or 7/Plus you clearly see something is terrible wrong on the 7.7. Its just disaster to use! This makes no sense.
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Click to collapse
Sorry for the off-topic but I am tired of seeing the same topic and hate statement again and again. You should have seen what Honeycomb looked like on this device before buying it. I believe more people agree original GT 7 has had wrong interface, a.k.a. Big Phone. And the GT 7.7's tablet-style interface is correct for this size.
Posting numerous times how un-*****-usable and horrible and trash it is will not change this. Just stop it already or sell your tablet.