Windows Mobile 7 Preview - Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking
On the "Inside Microsoft Blog" someone has posted a overview of some new feautures of Windows Mobile 7. The story posted below is the work of Nathan Weinberg.
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Microsoft is currently developing Windows Mobile 7, the first revolutionary change to its mobile device operating system. Recently, I was given a document by a source inside Microsoft that details the touch and gesture plans for Mobile 7. This document is a confidential internal use only document, used to explain the plans for Mobile 7, and contains well over a hundred pages of designs, ideas, and changes to the way we interact with our mobile devices.
Below, you’ll find over 3,000 words detailing my notes from the document. I can’t publish the document here, at least not until after the product is announced, to protect my sources. I will provide the document to trusted journalists in order to share and show proof of this information. If there is anything I leave out, please don’t hesitate to ask and I will try to provide a screenshot or answer.
The document appears to be from the past summer, and some of the details may change before the product is announced. However, the touch and gesture plans appear to be set in stone, and will be the focus of Windows Mobile 7.
What's New?
Windows Mobile 7 will dramatically change the way we use mobile devices. It will emphasize the use of touch on the device, as well as motion gestures created by using the device. It is, absolutely, Microsoft’s effort to beat back the iPhone, and the iPhone is referenced several times in the document.
Windows Mobile 7 will use touch gestures, similar to how the iPhone does. You will be able to flick through lists, pan, swipe sideway, draw on the screen. A lot of emphasis has been put on making navigation easier and doing away with scrollbars, including a new scroll handle that allows for multiple ways of finding items extremely fast.
Windows Mobile 7 will use motion gestures, something the iPhone does not. It will not use an intricate and complicated series of gyroscopes and accelerometers. Instead, it will use the camera on the phone to detect motions and create appropriate actions. You will be able to shake, twist and otherwise manipulate the phone and get things done. The phone will be able to perform actions when placed face down on a surface, and it will know when it is in your pocket or bag.
Windows Mobile 7 will have an exciting locking screen, that will allow you to play around with it, draw on it, shake it and completely otherwise mess with it.
Windows Mobile 7 will have dramatically improved visuals, different from the iPhone and much more similar to the dark and futuristic visuals of Windows Vista. It will feature graphical transitions, subtle effects, and other things to make it more interesting to look at. This is not detailed in the document, but featured in the multitude of screenshots.
Windows Mobile 7 is designed to use the finger, not the stylus, though many devices will be required to include a stylus. It is designed to be easy to use with the hand, including one-handed, and to be fun to use and easy to understand. It is designed to be used on devices with no buttons, few buttons, lots of buttons, full keyboards, and devices without touch screens.
Windows Mobile 7 is clearly designed for better media playback, with screenshots indicating a much-improved Media Player and photo gallery application. There is talk in the document of a games mode. Mobile Internet Explorer runs full-screen web pages in a minimalistic interface, and has “tabbed” browsing, except you can switch tabs by shaking the phone.
The keyboard has been improved, but plans for a full touch keyboard, a la the iPhone, have been shelved until a future version of Windows Mobile.
Below are my detailed notes. Some of it is raw, some of it is very detailed. It is accompanied by screenshots direct from the document which show off other features planned for Windows Mobile 7.
Goals of the New User Interface.
Touch, gestures, scrolling, and direct manipulation. Also, animations, transitions, motion gestures, and codenames “Phosphur” and “Starburst”.
Goal: Finger optimized, best in class touch experience that users are comfortable with everywhere.
Requirements: simple, memorable and fun; consistent, predictable and interesting; natural movements, natural animations and transitions; and enhance the mobile experience, not degrade it.
Goal is to support hardware with buttons, hardware with buttons and touch screens, and touch screen-only devices. The Touch-only devices are specifically referenced as “iPhone compete”.
User experience requirements: consistent UI interaction across the device (up and down should always scroll up and down lists, not something else), should not be overloaded. The new UI will not be opt-in for applications, but required, so old applications will all get it. There will be a “game mode”, where games will be allowed to override the UI requirements and use similar movements for different actions, allowing games to have more complicated controls than the average app.
There will be audio and visual feedback, only where appropriate, like indicating the top and bottom of a list, which objects are touchable, and a “ring of fire” indicating where you press and hold down your finger.
Designed to be used by a finger, without a stylus. Microsoft Research is researching the size of the average fingertip/tap size. Currently, they are working with the assumption of a 7.6×7.6 millimeter fingertip size. The goal is a device that can be used almost entirely one-handed with the thumb of the hand holding the device.
There were plans to implement the Soft Input Panel (the on-screen keyboard) as a finger accessible portion of the UI (like the iPhone does), but it was cut for Windows Mobile 7.
Tap drills down in a list, but some lists will have you tab once to select, once again to drill down the list. Interface elements will be designed so there is no fear of users making a mistake and missing their target. It will be able to dynamically resize elements of the user interface, prioritizing them and making them easier to hit. Corners, like the close button, scrollbars, icons and the title bar/status bar, will all be able to grow to make things easier on the user.
A stylus will be required on devices meeting certain screen size, orientation, DPI and resolution marks. User interface elements will scale their size and be prioritized in order to make hitting them easier, especially scrollbars, corner elements, icons, the title bar and the status bar.
Touch may be the actual product name as it stands.
Gestures for scrolling (horizontal and vertical), task and menu access, press and hold controls, list items, press and drag, and launching shortcuts. The device will be able to detect finger velocity, scrolling further if the user’s finger moves faster.
They are considering the need for scroll bars when users are scrolling with gestures. Current plan is to show them on Touch devices when flicking through a list, but not show them on button-only devices when scrolling.
When a dialog is longer than the screen and needs to be scrolled horizontally, they are considering replacing the scroll bar with a visual indicator, like text fading off the edge of the screen. Pressing and holding launched the context (right-click) menu, as it does now.
By default in a list, tapping drills down items, but there will be visual and audio feedback if drilling doesn’t occur and the user is merely focusing on an item.
A stylus will be required for device makers to include, based on screen size, screen orientation, and screen resolution.
Microsoft is considering if it needs to support screens and drivers that do multi-touch, but multi-touch is not a base feature of Windows Mobile 7. Multi-finger touch is shown for cropping and rotating photos, but there is no indication if this is software based or requires multi-touch hardware.
Motion Gestures.
There will be various finger motion gestures, used for scrolling vertically and horizontally, task and menu access, pressing and holding on controls, list items, pressing and dragging, and launching shortcuts.
Some UI elements, called Spinner and Pivot, will have a gesture where you swipe them from left to right. In a Spinner, you have a single item with left and right buttons next to it, but instead of hitting the left and right buttons, you can just swipe to change the option.
There will also be motion gestures, where the user moves the device to invoke certain commands. Microsoft Research has a technology concept that uses the device’s camera as a motion sensor, enabling motion control while using the device. This means devices will not need accelerometers and other complicated gyroscopes to get these features, and that existing Windows Mobile devices could be upgraded to full Windows Mobile 7 functionality. These gestures will require the camera to be operating all the time a gesture may be used, which will affect battery life.
There would need to be support for gestures when the device is locked, including slider control, which hints at a similar locking mechanism to the iPhone. It will also support changing screen orientation when turning the device sideways, just like the iPhone does, but using the camera, not a gyroscope.
Windows Mobile 8 will support gestures in the auxiliary screen. Windows Mobile 7 will not.
Gestures shown include in music or a slideshow, shaking the phone left or right to go to the previous or next song or photo, and shaking the phone in order to shuffle it. Here’s an image, which may only be a mockup, or it is showing us what Windows Media Player will look like on Windows Mobile 7, as well as the picture viewer:
As you see, Media Player has an emphasis on album art along with other cool visual elements. Also notice the ever-present battery and signal strength indicators have been placed inside the soft key buttons at the bottom of the screen, saving screen real estate and making them a lot cooler.
Another gesture: When pressing the directional pad down in a full-screen media application, such as a photo application, you can move the device forward and backward to zoom in and out of the image.
The web browser will incorporate gestures for back and forward actions. Here’s an image:
Notice the differences in Internet Explorer. The interface is simpler and much nicer, with just an address bar and go button, the web page is a desktop version, just like on the iPhone, and the browser has tabbed browsing, used by gesturing through a series of graphical thumbnails. This is very impressive.
The camera will also cause certain actions based on light sensitivity. For example, if you put your phone in your pocket or in a bag, it will shut off the screen, and can even make the ringer louder or put it on vibrate, as directed. It can also turn the screen on automatically when taking the phone out, trigger the timer on the phone’s camera when the phone is placed face down on a surface, automatically activate the camera flash based on available light, snooze the phone’s alarm when waving your hand over the phone’s camera, taking a picture when anyone walks past the phone (or any other desired action, like making a noise), or remotely connecting to other devices when the phone sees them.
Waking Up and the Lock Screen.
Here’s an example of a gesture, shaking the phone to wake it up:
The document says that gestures should be distinct, convenient, easy to use, and they should also be fun and have feedback that responds to the user’s action. They shouldn’t be hard motion, but simple jiggles or shakes, with the screen reacting to the amount of shaking, the number of shakes, that sort of thing.
An example of the screen showing a transition from the device being asleep to awake:
As you see, it’s a very nice and detailed, but subtle graphical transition. Microsoft never cared about transitions before, but it looks like Windows Mobile 7 will be different.
There’s also a part talking about allowing the user to “doodle” on the screen (their word, not mine), letting users draw doodles on the device lock screen, as well as shake the screen to affect the wallpaper (like making water run, or blurring an image). The iPhone’s lock screen is an iconic part of the device, and Microsoft wants to have a cool lock screen without copying Apple, so the plan is to give you fun things to do on the lock screen.
Here’s an image showing the user doodling. Notice the use of two fingers, hinting at software-based simple multi-touch, or perhaps the image assumes the device has multi-touch hardware?
And a screen that has been shook or doodled on:
That makes for a pretty cool locked phone.
Touch Scrolling/Flicking.
Users will be able to flick their way through lists and swipe sideways for certain actions and pivoting views. When scrolling through lists, letters are shown to indicate as the user makes his way through the alphabet, as well as the addition of a scroll bar. There will be a visual bump when reaching the end of a list.
Besides flicking up and down, the user will be able to pivot sideways between different hotlists. The user can swipe to pivot between each, tap a selection in the pivot wheel, or hit an arrow to launch a pivot selector for all available pivots.
An example of pivoting in the Recent Programs menu:
Here’s a screenshot of Outlook’s inbox:
Also shown is flicking and swiping through an unnamed maps application, based on Windows Live Maps, and flicking based on the velocity of the user’s finger. Other types of finger gestures include the use of spinners and sliders, and unrestricted omni-directional movement.
A screenshot of panning in the maps application:
Those arrows on the sides of the screen are shown as being used in all applications, including IE Mobile, to let the user know when they are panning the screen.
When hitting buttons/icons on the screen, the UI will try to prioritize items and determine which one the user wanted to hit, so users who are sloppy with their fingers will still get the desired result. It will use this smart targeting when using your finger, but not when using the stylus, a very smart design decision. When using the keyboard, the letter enlarges and appears above your finger when you hit it, just like on the iPhone. When highlighting text, a zoom/edit box appears above it to show what you are highlighting. When in full page view in IE Mobile, if you hit an area with links it will zoom in with a bubble and help you choose from the links. Observe:
Notice Word Mobile. It has the Office 2007 Ribbon, but it appears to be lifted directly from Word 2007 and far too small to be used on a mobile device. Assume that this was put in for the mockup, and not an actual application screenshot, but also assume that they are going in the direction of a Ribbon-based user interface for Office Mobile.
There is handwriting recognition listed for OneNote Mobile.
An example of a context menu, activated by pressing and holding in an area (like right-clicking on a PC):
Other examples of what Microsoft calls Press N Hold UI elements include an application launcher and a quick scroller (for quickly moving through a list with a scrollbar and the first letter of list items):
Currently, when scrolling down a screen with the directional pad, the selector moves to the bottom of the screen, then scrolls downward one item at a time. In Windows Mobile 7, the list scrolls upwards as the selector moves downwards, acting in sync so that the selector does not reach the bottom of the screen until it reaches the end of the list. This gives the user feedback on how long the list is and where the user currently is within the list.
When the user flicks to scroll within a list, a scroll handle will appear on the side. If the user touches it, the user can drag the scroll handle up and down for faster scrolling. This replaces the scroll bar. The more the handle is moved, the faster the screen will scroll. A screenshot:
Scroll bars in Windows Mobile 7 will never be part of the screen, but rather floating transparent visual elements on top of it. They will only be used when necessary.
A filmstrip view is shown, with the music filmstrip clearly showing a Zune icon with the option to purchase the song:
There are many pages showing other UI elements, including radio buttons, Spinners, sliders, text entry boxes, combo boxes, drop down menus and such, that I have left out. If anyone desperately wants to see them, let me know and I can add screenshots.
There’s a list of gestures that are being explorer and may or may not make it into Mobile 7, including a gesture to dismiss an on-screen notification by shaking it off the screen, a gesture to automatically take you to a Smart Search notification panel, turning the phone like turning a key to unlock it, Pivoting by gesturing the phone sideways, moving through lists by shaking the phone up or down, switching the camera into black and white or other modes by shaking it down, adjusting camera aperture and shutter speed by rotating the camera, sending a file by “tossing” it to another device.
I left out most of these, but if there are any more you want to see, just let me know and I will try to accommodate. Here’s the camera gesture, just because the UI is so cool:
There’s a list of list view options that are likely cut, including expandable/collapsible headers in grid view (I also didn’t cover grid view), a carousel view (sort of like a vertical pivot), scrolling one item at a time with touch, accelerometer gestures.
Windows Mobile 7 will ship in 2009, according to the document. This makes sense with the Mobile 6.1 point release that is coming around now. Hopefully, Bill Gates will announce Windows Mobile 7 at CES tonight, but if not, you now have advance notice of what is coming next year. Microsoft clearly has a lot planned to make Windows Mobile 7 the revolution it needs to be to compete with Apple, and Mobile 7 is going to bring some cool and excitement to Microsoft’s smart phones.
God dammit MS Sold out to the iPhoney craze!!!
Mulit point touch yes is good (although how many fingers can you get on a screen that size) but they should have gone with a mobile style vista interface, from a marketing point of view they will now have 2 different product lines in the market place where they should have brought the 2 lines together more.
And functionally there doesnt seem to be much new.
Sigh i hope 8 is better.
Related
[WORKING] Software Multi-touch gamepad on Blackstone [DEVS HELP TO REFINE?]
For progress on the development of a gamepad for blackstone please go to the end of the thread.
was pondering the problem of playing non-touchscreen games on the hd and the lack of control options.
In a basic form what is needed is 8 way direction control and a number of buttons that can be pressed simultaneously:
There are three options that I think are worth investigating:
1) general g pad controls simulated by g sensor plus additional buttons created on a SIP or shell for the games.
2) a software shell that places a touchscreen dpad on one side of the landscape screen and have the light sensor and front camera on the other side as buttons. A keypress would be simulated when the ssensor is covered by a finger. Perhaps the back camera too? This would allow many games to be played, I think.
3) Calculated multitouch. When a resistive screen is multitouched I think this produces an intermediate result between the two touches.
If you created a shell that had precise positions of all the buttons worked out multitouches could be mathematically calculated and then sent as simulated keypresses... n effect creating a virtual and invisible keypad in the middle that only becomes active when more than one button is pressed.
For example pressing up and the (a) button creates a virtual touch in the red circles etc.
If actual touches are intercepted and only virtual touches sent as keypresses this could also work.
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My question is for the technical people out there who know much more about this device than me... is there any obvious reason you can see that one or all of these methods would not work?
Theoretically combinations could allow for great flexibility... for example - in a first person shooter - look direction could be controlled by the g sensor, actual body direction controlled by a virtual d pad and firing and jumping by simulated key presses. Or in a driving simulator left right accelerate and brake could be controlled by the g sensor and a gearstick and other controls by virtual buttons. Very versatile.
I'm working on it http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3373604&postcount=19 The current version has a fully functional dpad and mouse. I'm intending to make a specialised version for gaming, with just a dpad and maybe a couple of "A" and "B" type action buttons, probably customisable. V
Hey, this sounds really awesome! Keep it up!
Anyway all that games are 640x480 at most so we have 160 pixels to put software DPAD for playing them (instead of doing scaling) and I think that in the future when 800x480 games will come out there will be better solution to play those games . All we need is someone who is gonna write the codes for that software DPAD to fill rest of the screen.
This is my point... a solution to access the many great vga games. However the control system is problematic... hence this post to determine the best solution. A standard sip will not do.
vijay555 said: I'm working on it The current version has a fully functional dpad and mouse. I'm intending to make a specialised version for gaming, with just a dpad and maybe a couple of "A" and "B" type action buttons, probably customisable. V Click to expand... Click to collapse Looks great, mate. For your gaming version will it integrate with wvgafix?
vijay555, I may have just fell in love with you! We're getting closer and closer to being able to play emulator games, flash games, and all sorts of other games! Wheee!
Kizmet said: Looks great, mate. For your gaming version will it integrate with wvgafix? Click to expand... Click to collapse It would definitely be cool if that black space at the bottom that's not used when switching to VGA/QVGA could be used by the pad. Just out of curiosity, vijay, does the app you're working on simulate multi-touch like Kizmet is suggesting here? (Kudos to you, Kizmet, for illustrating this idea so wonderfully by the way!)
I'm investigating WVGAFix right now - I've been out of the scene for a while, and so much new stuff has come out, so it's the first time I've seen this app. I currently use a different solution which achieves a similar result to WVGAFix, but in a different way. When VJVirtualMouseWinFX loads, the screen will shrink up to make space for my control zone, in a similar way to WVGAFix. However, WVGAFix is very interesting, and possibly a better solution for fullscreen games, but it may interfere with receiving "mouse clicks" in the area of the screen that is made black, as that black area doesn't "exist" as far as the OS is concerned. Another problem is that WVGAFix won't work neatly with landscape orientations - unless you really want the DPAD control zone to be stuck on the right of the screen while playing in landscape. As I said elsewhere, I'm investigating some other neater layouts when in landscape. I may try to find a neat hybrid solution between WVGAFix and my method. The multitouch concept IS incorporated in another version - a dpad only version specialised for games (as you want more space so you don't accidentally click the mouse). The multitouch DOES work, but is not as comprehensive as the recent G1 hack for Android multitouch (well, as far as I know, I don't have a G1). Calculated multitouch on Windows Mobile works in some situations, but for instance the iPhone "pinch" gesture cannot be well emulated. However, "pinching" with one finger while leaving the other one still DOES work, so multitouch is about 80% functional. Also, simultaneously rotating two digits around a static centre point (eg Minority Report) also doesn't work well, but that's not a very comfortable gesture anyway! V
vijay555 said: I'm investigating WVGAFix right now - I've been out of the scene for a while, and so much new stuff has come out, so it's the first time I've seen this app. I currently use a different solution which achieves a similar result to WVGAFix, but in a different way. When VJVirtualMouseWinFX loads, the screen will shrink up to make space for my control zone, in a similar way to WVGAFix. However, WVGAFix is very interesting, and possibly a better solution for fullscreen games, but it may interfere with receiving "mouse clicks" in the area of the screen that is made black, as that black area doesn't "exist" as far as the OS is concerned. Another problem is that WVGAFix won't work neatly with landscape orientations - unless you really want the DPAD control zone to be stuck on the right of the screen while playing in landscape. As I said elsewhere, I'm investigating some other neater layouts when in landscape. I may try to find a neat hybrid solution between WVGAFix and my method. The multitouch concept IS incorporated in another version - a dpad only version specialised for games (as you want more space so you don't accidentally click the mouse). The multitouch DOES work, but is not as comprehensive as the recent G1 hack for Android multitouch (well, as far as I know, I don't have a G1). Calculated multitouch on Windows Mobile works in some situations, but for instance the iPhone "pinch" gesture cannot be well emulated. However, "pinching" with one finger while leaving the other one still DOES work, so multitouch is about 80% functional. Also, simultaneously rotating two digits around a static centre point (eg Minority Report) also doesn't work well, but that's not a very comfortable gesture anyway! V Click to expand... Click to collapse Exactly... calculated multitouch works on half the distane between the touched points.... a pinch gesture would essentially provide the same result all through the pinch. But in limited control circumstances it can work to simulate a dpad press and simultaneous firing press. I think your version of shrinking the screen may actually be more flexible than wvgafix... because it would allow you theoretically to have a shell on either side of a landscape screen.. right? This is what is needed.. dpad on the left buttons on the right. The spare space of 160 pixels may not be enough... so if the screen can be shrunk slightly then that may allow for better controls. Alternatively.. using the sensors (light and camera) as simultaneous buttons would give two available buttons with very little coding. But the question is how much battery does that drain and are the sensors sensitive enough?
Kizmet: yes exactly re the pinch. WVGAFix's solution is good for making other software compatible with WVGA, but my solution is generally compatible with normal Windows Mobile software. I think regarding fullscreen games, I envisage placing a dpad on one side of the screen, the A and B buttons on the other in the bottom corner, and these can be physically overlaid over whatever's on the screen. I think that feels quite comfortable. V
that sounds good. That may clash with some games and obscure something, though... perhaps semi-transparent controls may work?
@Kizmet: I have considered semi transparent, but it's a big amount of work. Windows Mobile doesn't support layered/alpha blended windows well, so the blending has to be done manually. This is CPU intensive, and so is likely to slow the game down. And even then, it's not very easy to achieve - VJVirtualMouseWinFX supported an alpha blended mouse pointer, but it was too crufty to rely on, and not worth the work, so I removed this feature. And of course - if your thumbs are covering the control pads, you can't see through them anyway on to the screen! I'll have to test how well, if at all, this can be achieved on a fullscreen high motion game. I have some other ideas how to implement the control mechanism, but I think we should all think of any other ideas of how to implement it. Personally, I'd rather lose say a 100x100 pixel square in each corner, than 100x480 rectangle on the left and right of the screen, so I think an overlaid control pad in each corner makes most sense. Unfortunately this screenshot doesn't demonstrate this well, but it's a mockup to give you an idea of what I'm thinking. V
I'm a little confused. If we had a game that would normally take up all 800x480 of the screen are you talking about keeping the game that size and then placing the controls on top of it (which would hide the image behind the controls) or are you saying you can shrink the application's display giving unused screen space on either side that can be used for the controls? Keeping in mind a game controller that would have a d-pad and left bumper on the left side, and 4 buttons and a right bumper on the right side I would say the shrunken display in landscape would be great. Too bad that transparent controls wouldn't work though since there's some wasted screen space. Although that's not a concern I suppose since most games/emulators/etc wouldn't use the full screen anyhow.
@sschrupp: obviously if all games are made in WVGA, then that would be great, but as some games are only designed to support a maximum of VGA, it means that we have blank space anyway, that's being wasted. The suggestion is to find a way to make use of the blank screen, perhaps by placing the controls in the blank areas. However, what I'm saying, is that whether the game is QVGA, VGA or WVGA, somehow, if you want to emulate a DPAD etc over the game, it needs to occupy some screen space, obviously. Whether we want to overlay those controls on top of the full screen game, obscurring the screen underneath, or shrink the game screen, either way we have to live with some inconvenience. Personally, given as many games will either be VGA, or will have some "chrome" already, ie will already have some non game space on screen, personally I think we just stick the dpad controls in some definable position on screen and hope we're not covering much (if any) of the actual game. V
sschrupp said: I'm a little confused. If we had a game that would normally take up all 800x480 of the screen are you talking about keeping the game that size and then placing the controls on top of it (which would hide the image behind the controls) or are you saying you can shrink the application's display giving unused screen space on either side that can be used for the controls? Click to expand... Click to collapse In this instance we don't need to worry about games that are already 800x480 - they will have been designed for devices with predominant touchscreens... so the control system will be part of the game. But don't hold your breath for too many releases like that. Without buttons the type of games available is limited. The need arises to allow some way for the hd to be able to play games already available for similar devices - these are typically in vga 640x480 but need hardware keys the blackstone doesn't have. So the question is how do we best utilize the screen space and how do we best emulate buttons? Answer these two questions without slowing down the performance and then you will have the killer shell that will make the blackstone an awesome gaming machine as well as multimedia device.
Someone needs to make something like this for the Touch HD... http://www.icontrolpad.com/
vijay555 said: @Kizmet: I have considered semi transparent, but it's a big amount of work. Windows Mobile doesn't support layered/alpha blended windows well, so the blending has to be done manually. This is CPU intensive, and so is likely to slow the game down. And even then, it's not very easy to achieve - VJVirtualMouseWinFX supported an alpha blended mouse pointer, but it was too crufty to rely on, and not worth the work, so I removed this feature. And of course - if your thumbs are covering the control pads, you can't see through them anyway on to the screen! I'll have to test how well, if at all, this can be achieved on a fullscreen high motion game. Click to expand... Click to collapse Although I think blended buttons would be lovely to look at.. as you say it's not very practical. The essence is speed here, I think. Speed and simplicity. I have some other ideas how to implement the control mechanism, but I think we should all think of any other ideas of how to implement it. Personally, I'd rather lose say a 100x100 pixel square in each corner, than 100x480 rectangle on the left and right of the screen, so I think an overlaid control pad in each corner makes most sense. Click to expand... Click to collapse I think we're just going to need more space than that. The control can't be too small otherwise it will be fiddly and hard to use. I did a couple of mock ups of two of the alternatives: Calculated Multitouch: A shell program that places a bar of 100 px on the left and 60px on the right... with buttons set onto it. Multitouches can be calculated and only touches registering at positions 1,2 or 3 (for example) would be sent to the program by the shell as button presses. An 8 way controller with 2 buttons would need 16 virtual centre points to be calculated (with some margin for error) they must not overlap but they can be tight against each other as they will not be used. Although it's called calculated - there is actually no need for calculation on the fly - positons would be stored in a simple look-up table. And thus it could be coded to be fast! It's also very flexible since there is theroretically no reason you couldn't have more buttons. However only two touches can be registered simultaneously. Sensor Method This is more of a quick fix to me since it only allows for two buttons... but if the light sensor and camera are up to it this is a faster and easier method: The control centre on the left is 160 px wide and the two sensors held to the right. Covering a sensor with a fingertip would register as a button press as would covering the camera. The question here is can the light sensor be polled fast enough? Does it drain battery too fast and is it sensitive enough? Same q's for the front camera... in fact the back camera could also be used if needed. This method is slightly less flexible but potentially faster and more accurate. The larger dpad this allows would be better for blokes with large fingers, like me. Now.. take either of these solutions and throw in a gsensor button simulator that calibrates on touching the d pad and then gives you 4 more directions with accelerations and you have a powerful game control system. Powerful enough to handle complex games like driving/air sims and first person shooters.
Jim_Fear said: Someone needs to make something like this for the Touch HD... http://www.icontrolpad.com/ Click to expand... Click to collapse Yeah they are cool.. I saw one shaped like a joypad with a hole perfect for the iphone in it. A software solution is going to becheaper and more practical, though.
Zoom Bar Hacks Wanted
I'm assuming that the zoom bar is just an extension of the resistive touch screen beyond the visible screen, so what are the chances someone will make a program/hack that will let you use it for other functions, like a dpad and a mouse? TD2 users already have it sort of working as a scroll wheel. I've been watching the M900 on Pocketnow, and while I'm not swayed, the potential of the navigation functions of the biosensor do wow me. It'd be a welcome addition I think. I'm new to xda-dev, but whenever I've come across the name/link, it's always with effusive praise and admiration. I figure if anyone will, it will be someone here.
Bump for this one!! As soon as I saw the zoom bar on the TD2 and TP2 and the limited functionality of usage only in messaging, web browsers and pictures, it just screamed hack hack hack I was also thinking gestures like the Palm Pre...
ooooh... I'm intrigued! I'd like to see what some developers can put together for this. That would be a sweet feature to hack.
evojulz said: As soon as I saw the zoom bar on the TD2 and TP2 and the limited functionality of usage only in messaging, web browsers and pictures, it just screamed hack hack hack I was also thinking gestures like the Palm Pre... Click to expand... Click to collapse Agreed. The zoom bar seemed like a good idea when I first read about it, given the multitouch zooming was a no go with the resistive screen. But then in the reviews, it just seemed so under-utilized. I'd love to have a configuration utility that let you use it in different ways in different applications, kind of like some screen rotating apps let you set up rotation differently for different apps.
Or like the Jog Dial on the hermes. (only wished the TP2 had that, and it would have been perfect. One handed control of the device...). But it will have to be pretty precise, and it isn't yet. If it can register touch pressure (tapping) I would like 2 see 4 sectors (up down left right)
quarintus said: Or like the Jog Dial on the hermes. (only wished the TP2 had that, and it would have been perfect. One handed control of the device...). But it will have to be pretty precise, and it isn't yet. If it can register touch pressure (tapping) I would like 2 see 4 sectors (up down left right) Click to expand... Click to collapse D2 Zoombar as buttons request asks for 3 buttons. Hopefully someone will do more.
Would LOVE to see 3 or 4 buttons on the zoom bar!! (And maybe sliding button 1 to the right or button 4 to the left still means scrolling)
Bright.Light said: Would LOVE to see 3 or 4 buttons on the zoom bar!! (And maybe sliding button 1 to the right or button 4 to the left still means scrolling) Click to expand... Click to collapse The main screen can tell the difference between a press and a flick, so I imagine the zoom bar could have assigned buttons and still scroll.
Hi All For my TP2, i'd really like to have Zoom Bar that zooms ....everything!! I would like to just zoom the screen (any screen) to a larger size. I did kinda think (or at least hope) that it was what it was going to do anyway, not just zooming pictures, browser etc. I would like the simple (??) funtion of being able to zoom any app, any screen, anything - to be able to read stuff maybe a little more easier. I do use glasses for reading only and it is a real drag to have to get them out to read a text clearly, or see whose calling or just to get a better look in daylight etc. A zoom 'anything' or 'any screen' would be really awesome and a supremely useful utilisation of something that is already there. Then you couild just drag the screen around to get to what you want to see better (yes, just like a picture, so basically i guess, the current screen becomes like a picture). The other ideas of buttons, d pads and so on all sound great too, but this would probably benefit so many people get better use out of their devices. I wonder if it can be done...???? Cheers and happy TP2ing. Jabberoo
jabberoo said: I would like to just zoom the screen (any screen) to a larger size. I did kinda think (or at least hope) that it was what it was going to do anyway, not just zooming pictures, browser etc. I would like the simple (??) funtion of being able to zoom any app, any screen, anything - to be able to read stuff maybe a little more easier. I do use glasses for reading only and it is a real drag to have to get them out to read a text clearly, or see whose calling or just to get a better look in daylight etc. A zoom 'anything' or 'any screen' would be really awesome and a supremely useful utilisation of something that is already there. Then you couild just drag the screen around to get to what you want to see better (yes, just like a picture, so basically i guess, the current screen becomes like a picture). Click to expand... Click to collapse Probably better than just magnifying the screen, for readability in text heavy apps at least, would be setting font sizes to the zoom bar--zoom up, Font Sizes get larger, zoom down, they get smaller. I think that might actually be enabled in some text apps already, but I'm not sure. The touchpad on my Acer Aspire One does this in some word processors. For things like Caller ID, a screen magnifier would be needed. I'm guessing you'd need a resident program to be able to do this anywhere and everywhere.
Thx fortunz All true, but wouldn't the simple 'magnify the whole screen' thing be a really (really) good thing to have - and logical too. Just an extension of the way it works for images. Just seems like something that it should do. I did notice on the HTC Manila 2.5 demo video from Germany, in the Settings area, under 'Other', there was a setting for 'HTC Magnify'. Uncertain of any further details, but it could be just what i am talking about, maybe! Cheers to all Jabberoo
jabberoo said: Thx fortunz All true, but wouldn't the simple 'magnify the whole screen' thing be a really (really) good thing to have - and logical too. Click to expand... Click to collapse I don't disagree at all.
zoom as scroll and on manila start screen not only inside
I just wish the zoom ball zommed in on pictures (going towards center of picture) rather than how it works in opera (the upper left corner)
Bump... Anybody anything?
i would be interested to know if this is possible too.
I would luv the zoom bar to wash my car and mow the lawns for me... any chance?
....LOL.... Yeah, the zoom bar is really under-utilized. I often forget it's there and go to screen -> larger text to increase my fonts... Guess it's because it only works in a few apps. Without realizing, I've gone to settings -> screens before I realize I have a zoom bar... Would love to see some gurus here hack this to a mini d-pad, or at least and up/down arrow. Currently, I have the vol up/down to do this using AEB.
i agree with all of these .. we need a genius programmer to make some kind of super aeb where you could have different button profiles and set a shortcut to profiles on the homescreen .. my perfect setup would be to have zoom be able to switch open applications and somehow map the back conference mute thing to play/pause in music player .. or have zoom button be able to switch songs for you (like with screen off/lock on) and hold for running applications list ... then have it all skinned pretty like some translucent palm pre thing .... lol .. just dreaming..
games they can also utilize in racing games like as steering wheel instead of touching the screen
WP7 Fast App Switching [Concept]
Hey everybody. I was browsing the usual sites and on PocketNow they had a quick article and their take on the rumored Fast App Switching that might be included in the big January update. *pocketnow.com/windows-phone/windows-phone-7-how-fast-app-switching-could-work Personally, I found their take to be sort of ugly, but I was intrigued by the idea. So I had some free time on my hands and I decided to make a quick-n-dirty photoshop concept that I think may be plausible. Considering the Metro UI heritage from the Zune HD, I remembered the pin list that you could easily swipe to on the left side. Now I don't quite think that would work very well on WP7, but I utilized the same idea for my concept. Picture 1 is a normal Start screen. Picture 2 is an example of a switcher that pops-up and fades the main screen out (like on iOS). Picture 3 is an example of an always-present switcher on the start screen. Picture 4 is the same as 3, but the switcher icons are faded out (to make the screen look less cluttered). 1 - *i56.tinypic.com/2yovkac.jpg 2 - *i54.tinypic.com/fz5gup.jpg 3 - *i55.tinypic.com/dqn4pi.jpg 4 - *i51.tinypic.com/2wfltoo.jpg I don't have that much time today to expand the concept further, like behavior in apps, gestures, etc. But I thought this would be a cool thread to share ideas and concepts. Tell me what you think, good or bad. EDIT: I forgot to mention closing apps. I don't have anything made yet, but it would either be a drag-off-the-screen gesture (like WebOS) or a hold-and-close action (similar to editing tiles).
[Q] Touch simulating app
This is coming from the following thread: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55899408 The request: Would it be possible to create an app, working 'on top' of samsung remote evf (another app used to remotely control samsung cameras), able to simulate serial, sequential touches within a selected area, in a brute force way? (I.e. left to right top to bottom, in given steps). I'd like to be able to drag a rectangle on top of remote evf (which is showing in real time what the camera 'sees'), and the app should start 'touching', say, with a 50 by 50 pixels shift to the right and, when it reaches the 'eol', it cape returns and starts again since it reaches the lowest opposing edge. This would require: - a selectable delay among touches (required to the camera for refocusing and saving the taken shot) - a selectable area with eg multitouch actions. Top would be a sort of 'lazo' designing tool to drag irregular shapes (think about takimg pics of a flower or an insect with this approach) - configurable 'stepping' distance among touches Is it possible? If anybody wants to do it, I'd be more than happy to betatest it. I'd like the app for free (for myself) but it could then be sold to other samsung camera users.
Question The Latest Features of Galaxy Z Fold4 Coming to Fold 3 with OneUi 4.1.1.
The Galaxy Z Fold series has always been about shapeshifting, with different ways to increase functionality, whether your device is opened or closed. With the new Taskbar, you can access and switch between apps faster than ever, providing a familiar PC-like layout that puts everything you need right at your fingertips. With drag-and-drop support straight from the Taskbar, multitasking5 on Galaxy Z Fold is easier than ever. Dragging an app to the edge now opens split view, while dragging it into the center will open it in pop-up view, giving you multiple ways to see your apps and easy switching between views. Sometimes the best apps come in twos and threes. If there are apps you find yourself using together, you can now add pairs or groups of apps to the Taskbar, allowing you to access your favorite app pairs all at once. Multitasking features are also more intuitive and easier to interact with now, thanks to new gestures. With simple swipe gestures, you can instantly switch full-screen apps to pop-up windows or split your screen in half for more ways to manage your tasks. The Galaxy Z series offers a truly versatile photography experience, making the most of its flexible form factors. With Dual Preview, you and your subject can see the shot at the same time before it’s captured by displaying the image both on the Main and Cover Screen. Now with full control of the camera right on the Cover Screen, you can take high-resolution selfies with the main camera using Rear Cam Selfie. Who needs Fold4 ? Source: Samsung NewsRoom
So, the same thing that you can currently do from the Edge Panel.