Database Users

Let's hear it for the nOOb!

Hi guys, I'm really glad i found this place, i just hope i can learn enough to help contirbute down the road as well! But for now....
so, i went to the wiki list of hacks and apps, and i decided to try downloading the phone pad program, just to try.
There's not much literature there to help you out, so i just downloaded it to my lappy, and unzipped.
THe setup file is an XML doc, and i don't know what i'm supposed to do with that to get it on my phone....
Thanks for lending a noob a hand!!

Dillsnik said:
Hi guys, I'm really glad i found this place, i just hope i can learn enough to help contirbute down the road as well! But for now....
so, i went to the wiki list of hacks and apps, and i decided to try downloading the phone pad program, just to try.
There's not much literature there to help you out, so i just downloaded it to my lappy, and unzipped.
THe setup file is an XML doc, and i don't know what i'm supposed to do with that to get it on my phone....
Thanks for lending a noob a hand!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the file was a CAB file then do not extract on PC just transfer the CAB file to the device and double tap it to run it.
Mike

Thank you, i got it on the phone and opened it....
now i just don't know where to get it or how to use it.
BTW, the program i was installing is the phone pad that is posted in the Wiki thread.
No info on it there...

Dillsnik said:
Thank you, i got it on the phone and opened it....
now i just don't know where to get it or how to use it.
BTW, the program i was installing is the phone pad that is posted in the Wiki thread.
No info on it there...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
This particular application installs an additional way for you to input text and numbers on large touchscreen keys (bigger than the ones on normal touchscreen keyboard)
So for example if you are texting somebody and you touch the little keyboard symbol at bottom of screen you will see a little arrow beside the keyboard symbol. (i.e. don't open the keyboard by tapping it - tap the arrow beside it) A list will pop up allowing you to select different ways to input your text, anything from handwriting to your newly installed Phone Pad!!
This option for the keyboard is now available for all programmes where you would use the on screen keyboard. Keys large enough to save you the bother of using stylus and just use fingers.
Any problems ask here or send PM/e-mail details below
Mike

THanks very much mike, i found it!
Still a little tricky to get used to...It's funny, with all that my new PPC can do, i am finding i miss some of the simplicity of my old flip phone for things like just calling and texting. Maybe ei need more getting used to it still
That phone pad is a little different than i'm use to for texting....its a little tricky figuring out how to just select the word you want...or for ex, if you hit 1 and you want an !, do you select it at the list at top or is there a button that scrolls through the choices? those buttons on the left are a little tight up against the side to hit cleanly it seems, although no real misses yet.

Dillsnik said:
THanks very much mike, i found it!
Still a little tricky to get used to...It's funny, with all that my new PPC can do, i am finding i miss some of the simplicity of my old flip phone for things like just calling and texting. Maybe ei need more getting used to it still
That phone pad is a little different than i'm use to for texting....its a little tricky figuring out how to just select the word you want...or for ex, if you hit 1 and you want an !, do you select it at the list at top or is there a button that scrolls through the choices? those buttons on the left are a little tight up against the side to hit cleanly it seems, although no real misses yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Being honest I agree WM devices aren't the easiest of phones and there is a bit of a compromise between getting all the other fancy stuff and the phone part of the device. You will get more used to it as you say. To be honest I'm never in so much of a rush to call someone that I don't have time to use the stylus on the full touchscreen keyboard. And just think there are all those thousands of freeware application downloads for WM5 out there - just waiting for you to try!! Mind you a lot of garbage as well.
One follow on thought just for info:
CAB files as you now know you install fromm the device
EXE files for WM5 you run on PC whilst connected via Active Sync and they'll install automatically.
If I have a choice I go for the CAB file as I store it on the SD card rather than cluttering up my PC. Also If I need to hard reset all my cabs will be sitting their waiting for a quick tap and their programmes are back on again. Although I do use Mobsync which is an addon for Active Sync that allows me to back up my SD card to my PC and anything I drop into the PC Backup gets put onto my PC card when I do a Sync.
Mike
Mike

Great tips mike....
You are right, i am excited to make the most of my new wonder with all the free (and not free!) ware out there. That is what i think it's probably all about, cause i feel like out of the box it leaves a lot left to be desired.
I need to get myself an sd card quickly for that! Only problem is, i'm sure i'll want/need a 2GB card. A 1GB card is like 20-30, a 2 gb is closer to $90!! i bought this in a large part for nav software and the map data should take up a lot of space on a card. I guess i could get a 1gb for now or even have two, but swapping will suck i'm sure. What do you have for yours?

I have just 1gb, but despite having maybe 20-30 apps loaded and a copy of their cab files, a few photos and usual odds and ends it's only one third full. (Mind you, I put on lots but end up removing almost as many so application numbers only grow slowly) WM apps are really quite small. But certainly nav software and and maps will take a considerable amount. Spotted a package the other day bundling a TyTn + Blue tooth GPS receiver and Tom Tom software all for a price £50UK less than I paid for the Device alone and no SDcard.
Makes yer sick dunnit!
PS In early days I loaded all apps onto device memory and a surprising number it took. BUT it began to seriously slow down device even with quite a bit of memory to spare. Now I load everything to Storage Card with the important exception of those things the device needs to start up. e.g. Phone skins and any programs that run on today screen. It is essential to load these things to device memory as folks have found the phone alarms may not ring or device will freeze when calls come in if something it needs to start is buried on SDcard. The main ring tone as well - although it will work from SD card may cause a ring delay if on SD card leaving as few as two rings for you to hear before voicemail comes on. Live and Learn!!
This forum contains a wealth of info - more than I will ever need. Getting to be too many multiple threads on same issue though which gets confusing as some appear to find no solution to a problem and yet another may have just the answer needed.
Mike
EDIT: By the way if you like paying for apps.!! I think Wisbar Advance and Wisbar Advance Desktop are great. BUT learning curve is quite steep and a bit of an on-going project but allows multiple desktops to hold all those today themes and gadgets that just won't fit on one today screen.

that's some good stuff to know, and it's nice of you to explain all that too me. really helps clear some things up so i'm not asking as many q's later or just generally in the dark.
i've heard of others speak of WA before. in your opinion, what are the biggest must have programs and also some of the best values out there? i'm willing to pay for a good program but I like a free one as much as the next guy!
FYI...I work in sales and managing accounts in different areas will be key for me. so if u know anything that lends well for that I'd be interested.
thanks,
dan

Dillsnik said:
that's some good stuff to know, and it's nice of you to explain all that too me. really helps clear some things up so i'm not asking as many q's later or just generally in the dark.
i've heard of others speak of WA before. in your opinion, what are the biggest must have programs and also some of the best values out there? i'm willing to pay for a good program but I like a free one as much as the next guy!
FYI...I work in sales and managing accounts in different areas will be key for me. so if u know anything that lends well for that I'd be interested.
thanks,
dan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dan
Here's a link to just some of the apps. I have on mine:
Look for the post by TCO who did a great job of finding all the links to the applications.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=283085
Here's a few mostly freeware application sites. Lots of rubbish in these but some maybe worth it. For anything specific for example if I wanted Excel on my device I'd just do a google search on: excel wm5. Freeware sites are everywhere but have your popup blocker on, some are good others are terrible. A google search on freeware WM5 will throw up lots of these. Also there can be the odd Java application that's good so may be worth a try.
I'm no expert in your work areas so guess you'll need to track down the good work related ones yourself though your kind of work would seem ideally suited to the typical tracking and accounting sorts of application. Some sites are nicely categorized.
http://www.pdagold.com/software/list.asp?p=1
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/tags.php?tag=clocks&order=date&page=2
http://www.getjar.com/software/universal/all/Applications/Email/set2
Mike

jumbled notes

Hi all.
I had been having problems with the drawing functionallity in the notes section of my JasJam. I use the notes section of the JasJam to record business appointments. I would do this in my own handwritting while on the phone using my bluetooth.
Sometimes the handwritten notes would work ok, but other times a box would appear around my drawn writing. The Box would state "drawing". I don't know why this box would appear sometimes and not other times. This was not the worst of it however.
After the box appeared and if I scrolled the note, often the note would become jumbled. Once jumbled the note was usually difficult to read and I could find no way to unjumble it. As you would expect this was an extremly annoying problem which made my phone a dam pain to use.
I was told on another forum that the problem was with Microsoft's Rick Ink. I have found a way to solve this problem. I post on this forum for the benifit of others who may also be over frustrated with this problem.
Indeed, Microsoft Rick Ink is to blame. The problem appears to be a part of the "Microsoft Active Recognizer." I discovered that if I delete the following registry key, the Active Recognizer stops. And guess what? No more jumpled notes! Horay!
The drawing box still appears, but the notes never become jumpled. Here is the registry key to delete:
Hkey_Local_machine\software\microsoft\richink\activeRecognizer
Some may be wondering what other effects this will have to their Pocket PC. I can say that personally I have not noticed anything major. I think the Recognizer is supposed to recognise a drawing and allow you to tap on it to select it and then to change it's size by dragging the selection.
From what I can tell, I now cannot select drawings in this fashion. I cannot change their size by dragging. For me this was a useless feature anyway. I never wanted to change the size of drawings.
Hope this helps those other few frustrated souls.
Cheers.

Hi
Well that's interesting information - particularly for those that just want to record handwriting without the drawing functionality.
The function you speak about is an official funtion of the notes package and does have it's uses if like me you want drawing functionality within notes. You just make your shape and block the rough area in order to have the shape recognised as a drawing. Even holding the stylus for slightly longer than normal has this effect. Of course once in drawing mode you can move the selected drawing around the screen. It sounds like you have been getting into the drawing functionality by accident - which can happen fairly easily I admit, when you did not want to.
Mike

Question on keyboard usability...

Hi, I recently read about a review of x7510 can allow some sort of touch typing on its attached keyboard.
Just wonder if anybody has actual experience on this. I am using a Shift... Excellent machine, great keyboard but the 2 hrs battery is not good enough for me and I don't really need Vista on my mobile tool. So looking at x7510 again... but would like to understand the negative productivity impact of the keyboard.
I am Asian having not so big fingers and was previously using Sigmarion III as my primary tool in office. Even comment on current x7501/x7500 would be useful to me.
Thanks much for sharing.

I'm have my X7501 for about 45 days and using mostly of the time the softkeyboard which is not that bad due to the increased size of it on the 5" screen. The detachable keyboard I leave in my backpack for when I have a table where I can place X7501 with the hardkeyboard. At hand I rather use the softkeyboard which can be improved using alternative software as you can check on this Forum. For serious work with long texting just get a slim USB keyboard which is very cheap and wide available and connect through the 4x1 cable. I'm also don't need Vista or XP during the day and rather work with a ligth set up like the Advantage. I had several other PDA's during the last years but the small screens were very frustating for real work. Hope you get one and enjoy!

Thanks RCF2 for your comment. Can you please share a little bit more on the attached keyboard on a desktop?
Is it touch typing possible for small fingers? Comparing to a normal keyboard, is it 50% or worst?

typing too fast... I meant when using the hard keyboard on a proper desk...

One more question, on soft keyboard, is it mainly thumb typing? Any possibility to use more than just thumb? It might sound silly... After doing texting/emails on various tiny WM devices for a few years, now having some problems with my palm (thumb typing motion) and doing accuputures... Looking for options to do thumb typing less...

Stanip, I would say that 50% is close to the correct figure on the hard keyboard on a table. Keep in mind that this depends on how fast you are on a regular keyboard. If you are really good with the 10 fingers you will takes much longer than twice on the X7501 for sure. One of the critics I heard about was they lack the tactil feel but the sound made by the typing is enough for me. The softkeyboard work well with the tumbs, never tried differently but if you find a proper way place the PDA/screen I'm sure that will work also. Again, if you need to produce long texts just get a cheap standard keyboard and connect.

stanip said:
One more question, on soft keyboard, is it mainly thumb typing? Any possibility to use more than just thumb? It might sound silly... After doing texting/emails on various tiny WM devices for a few years, now having some problems with my palm (thumb typing motion) and doing accuputures... Looking for options to do thumb typing less...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, not using the 7500 for typing much, but I guess I could learn typing with 6 fingers or so.
When typing a short message I dont even bother getting out the keyboard, I just use the softkeys, which work perfect considering the 5 inch screen.
You could attach an external keyboard if you use typing a lot, or some keyboard software to get a large touchpad keyboard on WM

Thanks for sharing Kowen and rcf2. This is very helpful.
Will wait for x7510 and give it a try.

You mentioned that you're an Asian. Do you need to input in an Asian lanaguage such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, etc? If the answer is yet, then you have to rule out using the hardware keyboard, I think. Software keyboard is so much more versatile. It can take so many different layouts and forms. For English software keyboad, I find Tengo to be the best. It is small enough to cover only a little space on the screen, but have the largest hitting key areas (sound like contradiction I know) to allow finger typing. It is possible to go to 60 words per minutes with this keyboard. I'm able to take Sermon notes as the guy speaks, not word for word, but the main points with Tengo.
I never miss my hardware keybaord.
The idea of carrying another separate bluetooth keyboard just for typing is hard for me to understand, I must say.

Eaglesteve, do you use your thumb on Tengo to get to 60 wpm? That's fast. I am trying to use less of my thumb due to some problems developed over the years... Are there other ways to type on tengo?
I input mainly on English but am too lazy to carry a BT keyboard around in the office too.

stanip said:
Eaglesteve, do you use your thumb on Tengo to get to 60 wpm? That's fast. I am trying to use less of my thumb due to some problems developed over the years... Are there other ways to type on tengo?
I input mainly on English but am too lazy to carry a BT keyboard around in the office too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally can't achieve that speed. To see others who can, visit the demo at Tengo website.

I´ve got an idea, check it out.

Hello!
Have you seen the optical sensor on the Samsung Omnia, when you use it a mouse pointer appears like on your desktop computer, then I thought of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3Owgcos_KY
The whole button area is touch sensitive, couldn´t someone make a program that activates the area as a "touchpad" so a pointer appears on the screen?
Best Regards Gustaf

Nice idea

I like that idea..! Could get pretty usefull ..

Why isn´t more people interested in my idea, wasn´t my description clear enough?

give me one situation where you actually need this?
i usually have my touch in one hand and using the finger from the other hand to type in commands.
i never have the device lying on the table.
useless for me actually.

1) this is old news, better had done a search
2) there are people working on this (touchxperience)
3) it is NOT multitouch but three singletouch capacitive surfaces.

I don't see any real use for this in every day use, like having a mouse pointer on screen is kinda worthless when you can use your finger on the screen instead.
However this could come in useful in a gaming or likewise situation with the use of finger guester's (spelling) to control things instead of button presses etc, especially as in a game you don't want your fingers blocking whats going on on the screen! Since the d pad on the diamond is next to worthless using this interface could in fact be quite good. Still can't think of an exact situation where it could come in useful mind!

there is no point in this as you already have a touch screen so that eliminates any use of needing a "pointer"
however, as said earlier, touchXperience is in development so check that out if you really wish.

I think it would be actually pretty usefull for text edition-correction or to copy and paste text on web pages.... that could be cool

I hate to use the stylus and a mouse pointer is alot more precise than my thumb. So navigating outside TF3D, Gaming, Showoff, textediting etc.

Everything I wanted to say is mentioned by other people already.
Useless, touxchXperience in dev, similar ideas, ...
Seems like a lot of people drop in and start of by saying: Hey you there! create this for me! and then change it to that ... and then ...

TouchXperience may make use of the area but not at all like my suggestion. I just thought that it could be useful for some....

aDosBox v0.2beta (with virtual keyboard) just released

Please help us test it out and report bugs/issues. Thanks
Just search "adosbox" in Google, I am not allowed to post external URL here.
Any kinds of help are welcome

Hi, i downloaded this last night for one reason and one reason only (for now anyway) - to play championship manager and i managed to get it start a new game it took over an hour to do it and then simple things like changing pages takes over a min so it esentially unplayable.
Other that great work and i wish i could be of more help but im afraid ive never done any software programming in my life

Wow, this is perfect so far. I just tried cyberdogs on it and it ran amazing. The program is really easy to get running. Is there a way to mount hard keyboards to the controls?

Just tried it. works like a charm.

Yep, works awesome.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

I am really enjoying adosbox right now on my Transformer, but lack of 3.1 mouse support has saddened me to the point where I compiled from source myself. I have it working sort of (on the java end), but because the build screen size doesn't match with the actual screen size, I am having issues with the mouse not following perfectly. I would like to get mouse support working better for 3.1 devices (and probably better emulation going for pre 3.1 devices), but I need to edit some of the C files for that. Unfortunately I have not done much native code on Android, so I am running into problems compiling. The ndk-build script seems to fail on me with an error of "missing separator" in the SDL-1.2 make file. Sadly I have never used make so I don't know how to correct it.
Today I saw the build_instructions.txt in jni/application/dosbox/. Are you building through this instead of the ndk (do I need to get gcc ARM cross compiling installed on my linux box)? In either case where does the dosbox-0.74-cfg-pelyaSDL.tar.gz come from?
Any help you could give me in getting the native part to build would be appreciated. Then I can focus on getting some usability stuff working and throw patches your way.
P.S. The feedback page is broken.

Hi. That's great news.
I love dosbox an I appreciate your work.
If you don't mind I will post some issues here.
I've installed adosbox 0.2.5 on my Desire Z.
I've tried to run some apps and games.
Dos Navigaror: Usable.
1. Mouse trackpad emulation works quite well, however it only moves in x,y axis separately. No intermediate directions (I suppose the hardware does not allow it). Any possibilities to solve this?
2. Touch screen mouse movement works quite well - however with delay.
2a. Well, sometimes there is no mouse. I swing on the screen with no effect.
3. It does not respond to screen tap as a left mouse click. Well it works sometimes. I have no control on that.
3a It does not respond to double tap (double click) at all.
4. No possibility to bind/emulate arrow keys. I can't find such function in dosbox menus. ---edit --- I could bind some keys but... see the edit part down there.
5. On PC I've been using config to autostart Dos Navigator with dosbox start. How to do it on Android? I couldn't find .conf file on my device.
System shock: starts but unplayable.
1. I've got a slide show. I've increased the CPU cycle to 1000 even to 2500 with no satisfactory effect.
2. On screen mouse movement works but the cursor jumps into different position when tapping.
3. With no option for binding keys this game is 100% unplayable.
Hocus Pocus: works but no arrow keys.
1. It starts nicely.
2. It reacts on "FN" key - the hero is shooting.
3. However no hardware arrow keys makes the game unplayable. Moving with trackpad sucks so much that the game is unplayable.
Oxyd Magnum: Playable but not exciting.
1. It react on taping the screen.
2. On screen mouse works well but with some ugly delay. This takes out most of the fun.
So the main issues I see are the cpu speed, mouse delay and the hw keys binding.
You are making a great job.
However making dos games being fun on the phone needs good controls workaround. Without that - no fun.
Thank you.
Don't forget we appreciate your work.
-------------edit-----------
Keys binding:
The .dosbox\mapper-0.74.map file (the file for binding keys) can not be found from the phone level. It must be done from a PC level. It's not a big issue but what to hide the file for?
After rebinding left FN, left shift and tab keys Hocus Pocus is quite playable.
It would be nice if you provide us the list of numbers for HW keys on some devices.
I can't bind "menu" as right arrow. And I can't bind search, sym, and the two shortcut keys. They are left useles.
And binding some keys as arrows disables trackpad!
Sound:
No mater what number I set for cycles I can't make the sound to play smoothly.
Any suggestions?

Someone knowns the makefile system for adosbox "libapplication.so"?
Ive been trying for a long time to recompile adosbox for mips, and i still unable to compile that file, not even for arm.

Hello,
I am using aDOSBox to run QBASIC (yes I know there are "better" and "faster" interpreters/compliers, but some have bad issues, see one comment about writting files on X-11 BASIC, others have a max file size) with an external keyboard (so I can see the screen while typing - can you make the virtual keyboard transparent?).
I have found that some keys do not work nor processed correctly in this version (freshly gotten from Google Play), namely the "." when shifted (I get ":" every time, all other punction keys appear to be fine). At first I though this was a KCM problem (had problems with mismapped keys on a Droid X), but while I was briefly able to rooted my tablet (someone please read/question my post/question about the Azpen A701 rooting) I was able to view the generic.kcm and other kcm files (lost root right after this) and those files define the shift period combination correctly. Also I get a ">" when I hit that combination in the 920 Text Editor.
Function keys seem to send to Android key processes (opening/launching other apps) instead of work in the program. Insert, Delete, Home, and End do not seem to be working at all.