Database Users

Programs that scroll with a visual aid of some kind?

Hi,
I didn't know in which forum to place this post, hopefully this is the right one.
I have had Hermes for a couple of months now and I use many programs to read stuff like RSS feeds and books on it. I am very disappointed with how scrolling to the next page is solved in these programs.
I dread turning pages because I always lose track of the sentence I am on. The programs that use the scrolling wheel to jump through links are especially unergonomic because you can never predict where they will jump. But those that simply turn the page are just as bad.
This problem could easily be solved by having the last line on the screen turn yellow or blink or something when you push the page down button. That way when the new screen is rendered you would still know where you are. This would speed up reading for me immensly and also make it more enjoyable. If someone knows of a program that has scrolling implemented this way please let me know.

Eh? what bout setting your jogdial so when you click it down, it scrolls it down to the next page. That's how I have my iSilo setup.

Even so you have at least one moment that breaks your concentration: when you reach the last page a page down doesn't move an entire page down, but less. When you read RSS-ed articles which are usually 1-5 pages long this gets really annoying really quickly.
At least using the standard RSS reader. I'm hoping there is something better out there.

[Q] browser settings for archives.newyorker.com??

Hi,
Has anyone found a browser that allows you to read the on line archives of the New Yorker magazine? The built in browser only shows part of each page and does not let you move the screen around to see the rest of the page. Have tried all the UA strings but no joy.
I did find that I could read using the Dolphin browser as long as I use the URL of archives.newyorker.com/ipad and set the UA string to ipad though the display is still less than ideal. Sometimes portrait mode single page display shows the full page but reduced in size to about 75% of normal so it does not fill the screen and the type is quite small. Other times it does actually fill the screen but has a flashing white bar at the bottom.
Perhaps someone who is more familiar with Dolphin can suggest what adjustments to the settings in Dolphin will optimize the view. I'm perfectly happy using the built in browser for everything but the New Yorker and Dolphin for only the New Yorker if I could just get it to display clearly on a consistent basis. In Dolphin's page content settings, I have text size set to Large and Default Zoom set to Medium. I switched the ipad applet settings so that portrait mode shows a single page - just wish I could get rid of the flashing white line at the bottom.
On the other hand, clearly the people at the magazine don't care about Android users since the display in most Android browsers has been garbled since the first time I checked, a year or more ago but they were quick to jump on the iApple tablet bandwagon with a page optimized just for the iApple. Even the archives on DVD don't display properly when saved as a PDF since they're actually djvu files so I can say New Yorker hasn't exactly been technology-savvy or else they just want to keep selling dead-tree magazines even though they finally have a chance to ditch the paper, ink, and distribution/postage costs with a digital model if they could just embrace modern browsers and tablets.
Rob
Rob

[Q] Browser panning sticks.

Hi, has anyone noticed that when you scroll or pan in the browser (and also gmail occasionally) the view 'sticks' at a certain point, and then jumps to catch up to your finger?
It's not a performance thing - you can do it really slowly and it still happens. It almost feels like it is trying to stick to paragraphs and object edges, but I've had it when just viewing and image as well.
Also, is there a bug tracker we can use, or a list of known bugs for the SGS2? If not I will start one in the wiki.

Mine doesn't and I consider myself a pretty heavy browser user. I'm stock on KE7.

search please.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1072471
hit the thanks button

Haha, look who started the thread you linked to blickmanic.
This is a different issue.

oh; sorry haha my mistake.
try clearing cache, or change some of your reflow settings

EPD x keyboard = outdoor word processing?

Can somebody please tell me whether it is possible to use the yotaphone 2's EPD as a (small) display to do some basic word processing outdoor out in the sun? I.e. to attach a keyboard/mouse to it (e.g. via bluetooth), to open some simple word processing app or even sthg like google docs, and then to just start working.
I have actually been looking for quite some time for some way to do this and I can't for the life of me understand why there aren't better solutions out there. I am always pleasantly surprised when I type notes on my Kindle Paperwhite. Of course it's a lot slower than on an LCD, but I am not a fast typer anyway, and I could live with some lag - if that's the price I'd have to pay to finally be able to work outside. I have thought of the Raspberry Pi x Kindle solution (but you can only type on sthg like vim); of ebook readers with an open OS that you can attach a keaboard/mouse to (like Onyx Boox that runs on Android 4.0 - and I'm still thinking about that); or of an e ink monitor (too expensive). But it is time for me to change phones, and if this works, I might actually consider it.
If anybody has any experiences or thoughts or - better yet - videos to share on this, I'd be very grateful... Thanks!
-Stephan

I haven't tried this personally, but I am fairly certain that this would work. Android supports bluetooth keyboards. The only limitation would be that you have to use mirrored mode, because there are no proper word processing apps made native for the EPD. Plus the system might not enable external keyboard for EPD apps only. Not sure on the latter though, I don't have any bluetooth keyboard/mouse to test this with.

Jeopardy said:
I haven't tried this personally, but I am fairly certain that this would work. Android supports bluetooth keyboards. The only limitation would be that you have to use mirrored mode, because there are no proper word processing apps made native for the EPD. Plus the system might not enable external keyboard for EPD apps only. Not sure on the latter though, I don't have any bluetooth keyboard/mouse to test this with.
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Thanks Jeopardy. Can you (or anybody else) tell me whether there is an active developer community working on those EPD apps? And also - if you have to use mirrored mode, does this mean you have to open the phone and the AMOLED screen has to be 'on'? On can all of this just stay in the 'background'? And does mirroring to an additional lag beyond the usual - and much slower - e-ink refresh rate? If anybody has any first-hand experience with this, I'd really be curious... Thanks!

sdspieg said:
Thanks Jeopardy. Can you (or anybody else) tell me whether there is an active developer community working on those EPD apps? And also - if you have to use mirrored mode, does this mean you have to open the phone and the AMOLED screen has to be 'on'? On can all of this just stay in the 'background'? And does mirroring to an additional lag beyond the usual - and much slower - e-ink refresh rate? If anybody has any first-hand experience with this, I'd really be curious... Thanks!
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Well there are some developers, myself included, working on EPD applications. But not a lot. There should be more once Yota releases the device in USA around mid-August.
Mirrored mode does not need the color screen to be turned on. Of course behind the scenes it will wake up the system to similar state as if the AMOLED screen was on, but that's handled automatically. This means more battery use, but you should get a lot more out of it than using the color screen, especially on static apps like word processors which don't update often.
You can handle everything from the EPD. You can, for example, create a shortcut on the EPD for a word processing app, which will automatically enable mirroring and open that application. The lag on EPD when mirroring should be about the same as on native EPD applications, but of course you will notice it more because you can easily compare it to the non-laggy color side. There's only a few extra algorithms for turning the color image to nice greyscale, and some logic for creating additional "flashes" to fix ghosting when switching between apps etc. Should be fine for word processing, especially on external keyboard, provided you can write without constantly checking which letter you just pressed. The refresh rate on the EPD is about 8 frames per second, or one frame every 0.12s.

If you're seious about outdoor word processing may I suggest a rooted Nook Simple touch? It is small and light and a fraction of the price of a Yotaphone... as well as having a much bigger screen! You can pick these up for around 40GBP in good/new condition and although it will be a fair bit of messing around with rooting you are unlikely to come totally unstuck, and there is a lot of support on XDA to get you help if you do. With the NST device, you use the OTG USB mode to attach a bluetooth dongle, hard wired full sized keyboard or whatever to your desire. Pop over to the NST forum and there are many threads on this topic, but to whet your appetite here's someone who is doing that with a solar panel to power the setup!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nook-touch/general/nook-simple-touch-solar-power-t3068849

Touch screen issues - my final solution

Use your warranty and ask for a touch replacement.
I struggled with phone for half year and finally decided to send it to service.
My phone lagged pretty much from first day. With updates lag become less noticeable but unwanted tap events (clicks) were main problem that persisted whole time. I couldn't scroll through gallery without opening picture almost on every scroll. Scrolling web pages was often resulted on visiting links I didn't want to visit. Facebook page was pretty interesting because phone was clicking Like button on it's own and also was sending friend requests on its own.
With new touch my phone feels like a completely different device. No lag, no unwanted or missed taps.
P.S.
Video I recorded earlier (lag problem): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jttoOoC8k_Q

tomtomhr said:
Use your warranty and ask for a touch replacement.
I struggled with phone for half year and finally decided to send it to service.
My phone lagged pretty much from first day. With updates lag become less noticeable but unwanted tap events (clicks) were main problem that persisted whole time. I couldn't scroll through gallery without opening picture almost on every scroll. Scrolling web pages was often resulted on visiting links I didn't want to visit. Facebook page was pretty interesting because phone was clicking Like button on it's own and also was sending friend requests on its own.
With new touch my phone feels like a completely different device. No lag, no unwanted or missed taps.
P.S.
Video I recorded earlier (lag problem): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jttoOoC8k_Q
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Click to collapse
That video just shows a badly optimised web page lagging, which it does on mine, but I have no touchscreen issues and no missed or unwanted taps. If I use a page which is well written with less ads, it's silky smooth.

Jonathan-H said:
That video just shows a badly optimised web page lagging, which it does on mine, but I have no touchscreen issues and no missed or unwanted taps. If I use a page which is well written with less ads, it's silky smooth.
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I could agree that web page is badly optimized but on my old phone (Galaxy S4) scrolling works ok and worked earlier when I recorded video. Now, after touch replacement G4 scrolls is it even better.
Ok, some minor lag occurs but only when page loads more content on scrolling down (same is on every device I own). Lag on video was not caused by content loading but because of problem with phone and I'm happy now is resolved. As I told earlier, it feels like totally different (better) device now.
I could record video to show difference.

Jonathan-H said:
That video just shows a badly optimised web page lagging, which it does on mine, but I have no touchscreen issues and no missed or unwanted taps. If I use a page which is well written with less ads, it's silky smooth.
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Click to collapse
That site simply *is* smooth as can be on my G4 (5.1.1 / UCBrowser) :good:
Note: of course using an adblocker as ads can really cripple your phone, speed-wise... And this page has lots of ads, considering all the empty white spaces I see...