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What are the craziest things you can do with an XDA or XDAs?
For example, anyone tried making a cluster with them, installing PVM software, programming the IR port to control the TV etc...? Doesn't necesarily have to make sense to do it...
Shoud be interesting to see some ideas!
All have been done, search and search again and you will find.
Lets just say, one touch of a button, I turn on my LCD, Reciever, and my lights to the room.
(A hint, for home automation such as light, find a remote program with the learn feature)
There is an app (I don't remember it's name) that turns your device in to a ruler. That's right, it displays various measurement marks on the screen so you can use your XDA to measure stuff. And it's not even freeware - go figure.
I am thinking of making a barcode generator program so when I go to Kmart I can put a bitmap on my sd card of a cheap price of a similar item then go to the photo counter and print it on sticker paper.
Barcodes?
Here is a starting point:
http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/barcodectl.asp
I wrote a generator that is font based some time ago - the fonts were free (I think).
Google "3 of 9 barcode" for more info. Of course, doing what you said would be bad....
Great! I think we would love a barcode program. There's one right now, but to expensive. I remember my treo having it. Probably thats the only thing I miss from treo
levenum said:
There is an app (I don't remember it's name) that turns your device in to a ruler. That's right, it displays various measurement marks on the screen so you can use your XDA to measure stuff. And it's not even freeware - go figure.
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Click to collapse
Here's the ruler, suprisingly called Ruler
Wow, it's been almost 5 years since I used a windows mobile device. Still, can't help it now that HTC Touch Pro and SE Xperia X1 bombards the scene like bat out of hell and I decided to pick either one.
Anyway, since I read stellar reviews between both devices, it just boils down to one thing...
I'm an avid ebook reader, as such I'm looking for a capable device that allows for convenient ebook reading experience. I search prior postings and basically they just talk about which application is best to use, which is the third thing on my list.
The first point is how the device is used to read those ebooks. I used to own Sony Ericsson M600, and reading ebooks/pdf files is a heaven with the jog dial navigation. Now the X1 has the optical sensor, and every video review I saw showcases navigation with sensitivity... Now my big question is, can the optical pad navigation be used to scroll an ebook/pdf reader? What I mean is to literally move the whole page with the pad when I slide my finger on the pad, not just using a pointer to drag a scroll bar. If can, I don't want to touch the screen at all because I have an extra greasy fingers and I prefer not taking out the stylus.
The second point is how the screen handles text? With such high pixel density ratio, would it just kill the font sizes? Sure I can just zoom in but would it have any adverse effects?
Pardon these silly questions, it's just that I have been to long out of touch with windows mobile scenes. The X1 is a heart stealer, but a friend offered me his Touch Pro used for US$600, although not quite a steal, it's still US$200 less than the money I already prepared for the X1... So it's basically boils down to one
I too am an extremely avid book reader, and like you the ability to read books on my phone was a huge thing...
Point no.1 - with ms reader you can use the optical to navigate and it works well... I also use ubook and for that one you can go back a page quite well but to go forward it seems to enable the auto scroll (that could be a setting I need to change somewhere, still working it all out), I also use ae button to change the volume up and down to page up and down on one click which works a treat....
point 2... imho the text handling is freaking awesome... not only is it very very clear with small size text in English, its the same in Chinese (which was a huge deal maker for me).... making text larger just makes it bigger and I havent noticed any adverse effects yet...
your other point re readers, I use ms reader alot for my huge collection of .lit books but have found that ubook reader (by gowerpoint http://gowerpoint.com/uBook_down.html ) is pretty good for some file types, you can also get mobi pocket reader http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp?Language=EN and tiny ebook reader http://classic.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=10380 which are ok... it seems that it is really really difficult to get a book reader that can read all the different file types e books come in.. shame really...
to sum up, reading on the x1 is awesome...
Shadowdh said:
to sum up, reading on the x1 is awesome...
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That my friend... Is a deal maker.
But what about text handling in term of zooming in and out? Is it possible to use just the hardware button to do it? The side volume buttons seems awfully fit to have that description... If possible I'm not touching the screen at any time.
TBH I am not sure if the hardware buttons can do the zooming, I guess they probably can (esp if you use ae button or similar to map them) but I havent got that far in the tweaking of my baby yet...! And to tell the truth I have found that I have not had to zoom yet as the text is very readable...
The X1 is rather heavy and the screen is quite small.
Well I've read 6 novels so far on my X1 using mobipocket.
The optical joystick is too sensitive (I use the d-pad)
Other than that this thing is excellent for reading on (This comes from someone who was primarily reading on a sony 505 eInk reader)
I do like to set the background to blue and the text to white though, find it easier and less straining than black on white
ivanlwk90 said:
The X1 is rather heavy and the screen is quite small.
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It's better than the other device that the OP is considering, however.
If I had to pick between the Touch Pro and the X1, it'd be the X1.
ivanlwk90 said:
The X1 is rather heavy and the screen is quite small.
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I dont find this at all... in fact its smaller and lighter than my Kaiser/TyTN II/MDA Vario III but the screen is easier to read and much clearer...
i think my x1a is rather heavy (in a good way for me) and the screen is small tho the resolution is sharp.
if you like to read on a small screen then i say go for it. as i mentioned, the screen is small but sharp, only thing i find is that its hard to read when my eyes are tired.
Agree .. the screen is small, but otherwise good. Touch HD would be better. But then you can have problems with turning pages.
I use Halli reader.
As for PDF .. is there anything better then Adobe ?
Shadowdh said:
And to tell the truth I have found that I have not had to zoom yet as the text is very readable...
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This is what I want to hear especially from a user, and I think it's all set I guess, X1 it is... Now to search for that uncrackable batch...
Oh, and about how small the X1 screen is, the Touch Pro would be lesser joy to have then.
Its a 2-year-old concept design from Lenovo. Touchscreen, decent keyboard, widescreen. Just put the guts behind the screen (like the current Athena) so the keyboard can stay at home at times, and make sure it has a private earpiece and vibrate and I'd be all over it.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/16/lenovo-leaks-pocket-yoga-mystery-netbook-pics/
Htc Thoth ( codenamed )
Bro ,
Yes , i saw this on Gizmodo too , very nice n pocketable too , best if made with a normal speaker earpiece on middle of right hand side and a mic hole on the left side - this will make the next athena replacement to be a very saleable pda device and will retain it's status as Pda King again .... Htc chief designer for Athena have probably seen this or thought of it before , however whether he like to follow the crowd or not , it's another matter , somehow these high ranking designers - they have weird thinking and sometime the end result can be funny or out of place or down right impractical ! Let's see how this taiwanese designer will fare , i saw one picture gsmarena and the next replacement is only a bit cosmetic changes - still with magnetic slim keyboard but pda itself may have bumped up inside of everything overall , still this lenovo design is quite good - just like nokia communicator - i think ... thks for reading , cheers
jimmunsw
yeah, I've seen the pics of the Thoth and its the same old, same old. A shame, our platform really needs an overhaul. Going with the 16:9 aspect ratio (like the Lenovo in my link) instead of the 4:3 like on the Athena would have several advantages.
1. Easy to hold as a phone; the Athena can be held as a phone but its not comfortable or natural.
2. Full-width browsing; you could see 1/4 of a page vertically at a time... and all of it horizontally. No horizontal scrolling necessary.
3. Proper aspect ratio for many movies.
4. The same total screen area for applications (4"x3" screen vs. 5"x2.5")
edit: adding #5
5. A much-better keyboard, maybe with seperate numeric and punctuation keys
Also with a wide screen like that one can have two views at the same time (for eg in calender or a browser).
Wish list
Dear Santa Klaus,
For Thoth, I'd like
- 16/9 is definetly more usable for a mobile device
- USB host 2.0 (no proprietary connector)
- At least 1024x768 VGA output (720p maybe)
- HDMI or DP would be nice for 720p
- D-pad at the back of the device
- 1 external SDXC slot and 1 internal (could be microSDXC)
- mechanical connection to the keyboard if that could save 40g
- no slylus
Xie xie
I began to do the majority of my pleasure reading (commercial non-fiction books were in very short supply back then) on my Palm m500 back in 2003, and now I do the vast majority of all my reading on handhelds. The biggest advantage back then was never having to choose what book to carry around with me -- I could take my entire library on an SD card. The next biggest advantage was the backlight -- I experienced a dramatic reduction in eyestrain for night reading. I now purchase 2 or 3 paper books a year, and 30-40 ebooks a year.
I think e-ink is the most over-rated screen tech in existence. Once Pixel Qi ends up in a decent tablet, I might get one of those. But spending $200 on a device that is so limited, can't have a real backlight (ah the "joys" of having to lug around a friggin booklight) for night reading, and most of the cost is in the screen is insane. Especially when you can get most of the same benefits out of a cheap LCD (adding only some reflective layer tech) while preserving other media tasks like video. Until then, my TP2 is my primary reading device.
Book form
I hadn't anticipated this little advantage before I bought a TP2, but I'm becoming attached to it. When reading, I typically hold it in what I now consider to be book form (a little Nintendo DS terminology). Keyboard out, screen slightly tilted, index finger in gap between back of screen and base of device, leaving my thumb to rest right on the device's arrow keys, software used to keep the screen in portrait mode even though the kb is out.
For me, this particular form means easy page-turning and one handed reading while laying down before I go to sleep. Previously I tried assigning the volume slider for page turning, but found it not entirely comfortable. I assigned one of the lower face keys to page turn, but that wasn't any more comfortable than screen tapping (errant screen taps in both my reading applications also potentially bring up menus, which I find annoying).
If you have software that allows you to rotate the screen 180* or 90* (as Rhodium Keyboard Controller allows you to do manually), you can switch to the left hand if you like as well. You'd need to assign another key for page-turning on the opposite end of the keyboard, but RKC will allow you to assign letters to "up" and "down" for that application only, so it wouldn't affect usage outside your preferred reader application.
Software:
I've been using eReader (owned by B&N, managed by fictionwise, formerly palm digital media and peanut press) for 7 years, as that was my initial source of books. But when I switch to windows mobile, I hated the changes they made to their application and how much space WinMo's top and bottom bars took up (especially in widescreen mode). I instantly began requesting feature changes to it, but I doubt they'll ever get anywhere. WinMo isn't the hottest platform and they originally dev'd this one years and years ago.
I used Freda almost exclusively until upgrading to XDAndroid. Originally I just got it for some free sources like the baen free library, that use epub since Freda is one of only two epub readers on the market. But the full screen mode is so fantastic I've decided to go all in.
Now I use Moon+ reader, which still allows me to go fullscreen, choose a black background with green text, lock the screen in portrait and has a wide variety of other customization options. I do believe the TP2 is the best ereader using Android.
Color scheme
One thing I sort of liked about eReader for WinMo was that it allowed you to use textures as a background. They had pre-made marble and papery background images you could use. But when I start using Freda and had access to the full screen mode, I began experimenting with other plainer themes. I accidentally tried a black background with a sharp green text, and suddenly it was like I was reading on my old m500 again.
The advantages to this, especially for night time reading in fullscreen mode, are that 1) I've got a lot less white or whitish light pouring into my eyes making them uncomfortable 2) I can achieve better visibility for low light reading with a lower backlight level meaning I get longer battery life and 3) I'm comfortable reading smaller fonts with this particular setup than I was with lighter backgrounds (though I don't entirely understand why), meaning less frequent page turning.
You can do this with any reader, but doing so in the winmo ereader app kinda sucked some of the advantages out of it because there's no fullscreen mode, so I still had white light pouring off the top and bottom bars.
Extras
I use GSPlayer while I read, mainly because it has a sleep timer (I'll probably upgrade to microfi-nitrogen someday). So at night, I do my reading, then just as my eyes are feeling tired enough to sleep, I flip over to GSP and turn off the display, and then fall asleep to the relaxing mp3 of my choice. My TP2 is the last thing I use at night, and with G-Alarm, it's also the first thing I use in the morning. On XDAndroid, Mortplayer fills in for GSP.
What about you?
Do you eread with your TP2? How much and when? What's your software, book source, preferred colors and fonts? Widescreen, portrait, do you use book form? Do you page turn with keys or screen taps?
eReading is one of my primary mobile computing tasks, and has been for years. I think the TP2 is about the perfect mobile device for it at the moment (about the only thing better would be a TP2 + an HD2 sized screen... with Pixel Qi), but I haven't noticed a ton of people here talking about it. I'd love to hear from other big ereaders on their methods.
Mobipocket Reader is what I use. I touch the screen for turning pages.
iSilo all the way
I've been using iSilo from the beginning --all the way back from when they use WinCE? ok.. maybe Windows Mobile 2003 or something like that.
Best thing with iSilo is
1) Reader is free (you can use the free with limited functions, but does not hinder reading 'books')
2) iSiloX convert is free (convert any *.txt, *.htm, etc to iSilo format). There are various converters to convert your *.doc or *.pdf or what have you to *.txt to convert with iSilo.
3) iSilo has a very small foot print as compared to similar *.txt or *.doc files.
4) Easily configurable on all aspects from fonts/colors (foreground, background) to various keys to turn the page. When I switched to the Rhodium, I used the lower 50% or the screen to turn the page and the top to scroll up (back).
5) Easily install the iSilo.exe executable on the SD card and has catalogue-ing features.
Lastly, they've got iSilo versions for the Blackberry, Palm, Android and the iPhone (should you need it).
But don't take my word for it: http://isilo.com/
PS. Been reading ebooks on the PocketPC platform before even Kindle came out. Why spend $200+ on a standalone ebook reader, I could never figure out.
Opps, forgot to mention conversion. calibre is the ultimate tool in ebook conversion and organization. I don't think isilo is one of its many formats, but for anyone looking to do conversions to growing formats like epub, it's fantastic.
Thanks Fortunz for starting this thread, ive been considering using my TP2 to read, but not really known what progs to use etc..i'll try some out now
Cheers
free books
Some free (legal) book sources: baen free library (commercial authors, mostly scifi and fantasy who release the 1st book or so in their series hoping you'll get hook and buy later versions -- I recommend David Weber), manybooks (downloads gutenburg project texts in many formats), smashwords (a lot of indies, not all free), http://www.feedbooks.com/, and you can also find a lot of indie authors freely distributing some of their work at mobileread et al.
osrix25 said:
Thanks Fortunz for starting this thread, ive been considering using my TP2 to read, but not really known what progs to use etc..i'll try some out now
Cheers
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It's really a fantastic device for reading. Let me know how you like it.
fortunz said:
Some free (legal) book sources: baen free library (commercial authors, mostly scifi and fantasy who release the 1st book or so in their series hoping you'll get hook and buy later versions -- I recommend David Weber), manybooks (downloads gutenburg project texts in many formats), smashwords (a lot of indies, not all free), http://www.feedbooks.com/, and you can also find a lot of indie authors freely distributing some of their work at mobileread et al.
It's really a fantastic device for reading. Let me know how you like it.
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Thanks for the links. I use MobiPocket Reader, and I agree, the TP2 (Tilt2) is an excellent device for reading.
personally I use microsoft Reader, I have a ginormous .lit collection. hundreds of titles to choose from, if not thousands, good features as well.
fortunz said:
Opps, forgot to mention conversion. calibre is the ultimate tool in ebook conversion and organization. I don't think isilo is one of its many formats, but for anyone looking to do conversions to growing formats like epub, it's fantastic.
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What format do you convert your ebooks to for use with ereader with this program?
Which reader can read PDB extension books rather than Isilo?
The calibre program he posted can but i'm lost on what to convert it to.
Overproof said:
The calibre program he posted can but i'm lost on what to convert it to.
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Overproof said:
What format do you convert your ebooks to for use with ereader with this program?
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If you have ebooks in a non-pdb format that you want to read in eReader for WinMo, you convert them to .pdb. After you choose to convert books there's a little dropdown in the upper right-hand corner for output format. If I misunderstood your question, please do post back.
meromar said:
Which reader can read PDB extension books rather than Isilo?
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Mobireader and haalireader can both read pdb files. Haalireader was very good but hasn't been updated for some time and really needs a dpad to control it. It was great on my Diamond but Mobireader is better on the TP2
Thanks!!!
Oh man, this is great! I've been looking for a decent ebook reader forever. I use to use MS Reader back in the QVGA days, but it is really not optimized for large, high-res screens like the TP2. And every other program was made 5+ years ago, has crappy Windows-3.1-esque visuals, and has a UI meant to be used only with a stylus.
Freda is AWESOME!!! Finally something as good Stanza on my iPod (or at least close). Thank you so much for sharing!
I have a huge collection of books in .lit format so have been forced to use MS Reader. Alas, it hasn't been updated in years and is showing its age.
My biggest gripe with Reader is that on my Tilt 2 I can't touch the tiny little page-turning arrows with my finger, so have to either use my stylus or open the keyboard and read in landscape mode and use the arrow keys.
Thanks to an earlier poster, I found calibre. I'm going to use that to convert my .lit library to a different format so I can use a different e-reader.
jlmwrite said:
I have a huge collection of books in .lit format so have been forced to use MS Reader. Alas, it hasn't been updated in years and is showing its age.
My biggest gripe with Reader is that on my Tilt 2 I can't touch the tiny little page-turning arrows with my finger, so have to either use my stylus or open the keyboard and read in landscape mode and use the arrow keys.
Thanks to an earlier poster, I found calibre. I'm going to use that to convert my .lit library to a different format so I can use a different e-reader.
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Same here. I'm at work and couldn't wait to try this out, so a little googling also turned up this site: www.2epub.com.
It's an online converter that will do conversions between .lit, epub, etc. I'll probably install Calibre on my home computer, but that site was helpful in a pinch.
fortunz said:
If you have ebooks in a non-pdb format that you want to read in eReader for WinMo, you convert them to .pdb. After you choose to convert books there's a little dropdown in the upper right-hand corner for output format. If I misunderstood your question, please do post back.
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Let me try this out and see, thanks in advance!
bedoig said:
Freda is AWESOME!!! Finally something as good Stanza on my iPod (or at least close). Thank you so much for sharing!
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I love Freda too. It's written by a guy who was very unsatisfied with current reader options, much like you and I. Personally, I only use it in full screen mode and page change with the arrow keys, but between screen tapping and making the soft buttons page turners, it's very friendly to a variety of users with different UI preferences.
He just emailed me a new version to test, so I expect sometime soon there will be some extra features to enjoy.
jlmwrite said:
Thanks to an earlier poster, I found calibre. I'm going to use that to convert my .lit library to a different format so I can use a different e-reader.
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Click to collapse
Calibre is wonderful, not only for conversions but also for organization of large book collections, which I have.
Be forewarned though, it doesn't typically handle DRM, so if your .lits are DRM'd, you might have to deDRM (there are a lot of projects to handle that, and you can take their output and have calibre put it in your format of choice) them before you convert them.
I have been using uBook http://www.gowerpoint.com/ for years. First on my Ipaq, then Axim x51v and now on my TP2. I has improved greatly to a great touch screen eReader that supports all kinds of standard file formats HTML, PDF, TXT and any of these can be in ZIP files.
jlmwrite said:
I have a huge collection of books in .lit format so have been forced to use MS Reader. Alas, it hasn't been updated in years and is showing its age.
My biggest gripe with Reader is that on my Tilt 2 I can't touch the tiny little page-turning arrows with my finger, so have to either use my stylus or open the keyboard and read in landscape mode and use the arrow keys.
Thanks to an earlier poster, I found calibre. I'm going to use that to convert my .lit library to a different format so I can use a different e-reader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use a zoom bar hack in Advanced Configuration, you can flip pages with the zoom bar. If you have AC on your TP2, go to menu > more settings > smarttouch, then add Microsoft Reader to the supported applications list. The hardest part is getting the right wheel sensitivity so that when you scroll you only flip one page. I'd tell you what the best number is but I just flashed my ROM and I forgot the correct setting But once you figure it out, it gives you a nice lil page turning feel to your ebooks.
I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread for sharing screensavers for the STR's lovely Pearl screen.
I'll start: these are some photos of Mies Van Der Rohe's 'Barcelona Pavilion', taken about 2 years ago. Of all my images, these really show up best on the e-ink screen, which seems to deal much better with light greys than it does with darker ones.
I've not added any watermarks to the images so as to be as useful as possible; please respect the fact that these are my own work. Feel free to use them for personal use -- just don't let me find them on DeviantArt, etc!
Enjoy, and, I look forward to others sharing
EDIT: Oops, it seems the forum resizes images and converts to jpeg... go for the zip for the proper files.
Very nice. I grabbed a bunch of public domain images off of Google (mostly Albrecht Durer, since the woodcuts really look good on the e-ink screen), and use those for my screensaver. I would think Japanese woodcuts would look great as well, but I haven't downloaded them yet.
For those that don't know, you just need to greyscale the image, resize to 600 X 800 (or close to, and then crop to size), and load onto the main memory in a new folder. You can then select that new folder in preferences.
Here are some good Star Wars screensavers I found on the internet. Don't know the author nor their origin.
And another Star Wars screensavers. I will add also not SW ones
Demo Mode!
I was looking around in the NST filesystem and found the images for the demo mode! (You know the pictures you see on the nooks on display at the store) I also found the images for the default screen savers. (authors and nature) Funny thing about nature, is that one of the pictures is of Potter Marsh, very close to where I live!
Torimu.Joji said:
I was looking around in the NST filesystem and found the images for the demo mode! (You know the pictures you see on the nooks on display at the store) I also found the images for the default screen savers. (authors and nature) Funny thing about nature, is that one of the pictures is of Potter Marsh, very close to where I live!
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Very interesting. Could you also upload the default ones? I recently ordered NST and I want to use these on my old iRiver Cover Story for a while. Thank you!
scio said:
Very interesting. Could you also upload the default ones? I recently ordered NST and I want to use these on my old iRiver Cover Story for a while. Thank you!
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Sure, I'll upload authors and nature.
Thank you! Here are another wallpapers (mainly from games).
Default Screensavers
I have attached the default screensavers. Authors and Nature.
Inspiring Nature and Art screensavers
I've made a large set of inspiring screensavers for my Nook and all Nooks I have rooted and personalized for friends and family members. I hope you like them.
For quotes to be viewed properly, use Nook Touch Mod Manager to turn off the screensaver banner.