Develop Bugs

Anyone moved from XDA mini s? Hows the lack of keyboard?

Hi Everyone,
I'm using the xda mini s at the moment and love it. Would obviously really like to add integrated GPS though.
3G is of little interest to me, so the Orbit looks perfect.
Only problem...no keyboard. How have you guys got round that? I simply cannot be bothered to always use the stylus.....will it be pointless for me then? Or have they managed to create a good alternative.
Would appreciate anyones views and experiences.
Thanks
HPJ

well i dont have orbit however played with it for a while when my friend got one.
What can i say. Trackball and wheel solution are good, imo much better to navigate phone then normal joypad.
However. It doesnt have a keyboard
So already having external Bluetooth gps i see no reason why i would buy orbit instead of hunting for htc herald which is the same factor but with keyboard...
And that would be ( and in fact will be ) my choice. Of course question now where to get herald from as it retails for £300+... i would just wait until my upgrade time comes and buy something else and sell it in order to finance new herald.

I had a wizard before the Orbit. Have to admit that I do miss the "real" keyboard and havent really found an on screen keyboard that makes entering text as easy. I did only use it occasionally though and love the size and look of the Orbit so it seems to more than make up for it in my opinion.

Hi, I've recently upgraded from a Mini S to the Orbit.
I've not really missed the keyboard, but I guess it depends on how you use the device. I've installed the T9 phonepad .cab file that's available on here & I use that for sending text messages. Why the hell it wasn't included as standard I have no idea - seems daft cos if i remember correctly, it is included on the Mini S :s
If you use your device to enter a lot of text though, e.g. sending emails or using it to edit word documents, then you might find the on-screen keyboard very fiddly to use.

I manage to successfully type on the software keyboard with my two thumbs using the Xda Orbit in landscape mode, I make a few errors but I'm used to making and correcting those on a PC keyboard anyway so I get by. Something the same size of the Orbit with a slide out keyboard would be awesome but at the moment I can't see how it would be realistic.

The Orbit is SOOO much better. It's much slimmer so doesn't feel like such a brick (imagine the mini s minus the whole top screen section (the silver bit)
I also installed phonepad and it works well. Built in gps and slimmer phone are the key factors for me
It also has start menu and ok keys on the front, so 1 handed operation is good
If the keyboard was a real issue, I would use SPB full keyboard - check that out if you have concerns

Excellent feedback, thanks everyone.
Think it sounds worth it...think I'll make the move.
Also checked out that SPB keyboard. Looks great.
Will let you know how I get on (in case anyone else is in the same position)
Cheers
HPJ

I too am making the move from my mini s... gald to be leaving th bulk behind.
i am torn between the trinity or the artemis ... i was wondering on what you guys know about this sd card problem if you'd recommen going for the trinity instead... only thing it seems to lack is the fm radio!
any thoughts?

chickyd said:
I too am making the move from my mini s... gald to be leaving th bulk behind.
i am torn between the trinity or the artemis ... i was wondering on what you guys know about this sd card problem if you'd recommen going for the trinity instead... only thing it seems to lack is the fm radio!
any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD card problem is affecting all the devices You may check the forums.

I have just contacted O2 to send back my mini s (wizard) and
I am getting an orbit instead. My old phone is a magician, and when I got the mini s, I was really disappointed!
Obviously it has features such as wifi etc that my magician didn't have, but it was a big clunky plasticy slow monstrosity.
I realised that I actually preferred my magician, so I got straight on the phone to O2.
Ok, rant over. The point of this is that I didn't appreciate the keyboard on the mini S at all. I have spb fullscreen keyboard and spb pocketplus on my magician, and I never ever have to use the stylus. I set the icons on the pocketplus today screen to large, and use the soft keyboard for texting etc.
The keyboard for me makes the device practical, I don't think I'd still have a pda phone if I hadn't discovered it.
I actually dropped my stylus at my friend's house and wasn't aware that it was missing until she returned it to me nearly three weeks later...
By the way, I don't work for spb or anything lol!
If you read about the apple iphone, you'll see that they have done away with the stylus by using a similar interface.
Obviously the way to go!

I've always used the letter recogniser on XDA's find the on screen keyboards clumbersome.
My other half hates the bulk of the keyboard on her Mini.

I've moved from the Mini-S to XDA orbit. Full screen keyboard is ok, but I find it a little cumbersome.
I've just discovered the International T9 Phonepad from this very forum, and it works a treat, well, once I discovered "Tab" was "space" anyway!! Great for notes and calendar entries, and makes one-handed text entry a real possibility. Definately worth a try!

for rom chefs: things we'd like you to embed in your forthcoming works

I really do appreciate the efforts of all those people working hard to make our Diamonds better. Here I'd like to post a list of things we could suggest to them. Even if we don't know anything about rom cooking or progamming, we could post our hopes and maybe chefs could get good ideas for their future works.
My personal wishlist is
- using touch-sensing ring for up/down/left/right moves
- tilting left/right to switch Touch Flo 3D tabs and for back/forward in Opera browser
- haptic feedback when using virtual keyboards
- adjustable keypad light timeout
ps sorry for bad english

It would be fine if someone figures out the problem with the static navigation mode
of the GPS chipset! Before the Diamond I owned a Trinity, which had also an Qualcom chipset, but worked rather perfect without any noticable lag...
I've tried almost every well known navigation programs, but they all lag like hell.
Reception although is very impressive, I always get a fix in a few seconds!

massimax said:
I really do appreciate the efforts of all those people working hard to make our Diamonds better. Here I'd like to post a list of things we could suggest to them. Even if we don't know anything about rom cooking or progamming, we could post our hopes and maybe chefs could get good ideas for their future works.
My personal wishlist is
- using touch-sensing ring for up/down/left/right moves
- tilting left/right to switch Touch Flo 3D tabs and for back/forward in Opera browser
- haptic feedback when using virtual keyboards
- adjustable keypad light timeout
ps sorry for bad english
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you really want your TF3D to switch tabs every time you accidentally move your hand? i can't imagine anything more annoying.. haha

Think one of the most important is getting a 'today agenda' underneath the TFLO3D homescreen ...
So when swiping the clock upwards, a very rich agenda can be seen.
And changing/removing/reordering TFLO3D tabs
Put HOME in the middle

I think what massimax asked for is really great, these are the thing we need. Chefs seriously try to do these please.

Riel said:
Think one of the most important is getting a 'today agenda' underneath the TFLO3D homescreen ...
So when swiping the clock upwards, a very rich agenda can be seen.
And changing/removing/reordering TFLO3D tabs
Put HOME in the middle
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be nice for sure!

TML1504 said:
It would be fine if someone figures out the problem with the static navigation mode
of the GPS chipset! Before the Diamond I owned a Trinity, which had also an Qualcom chipset, but worked rather perfect without any noticable lag...
I've tried almost every well known navigation programs, but they all lag like hell.
Reception although is very impressive, I always get a fix in a few seconds!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second that. It'd really be wonderful if somebody could figure it out, the lags

+ 1
also, on my old E6, i was able to hold the answer key to enable max brightness...
and hold it again to return it to original
is there any way i can do this, is there a program for keymapping for this or will this need to be put into the rom
the reason i ask for this option is that max brightness makes sunlight legibility much better...

Why not make your own rom with these things done. It's a bit much just making a thread of requests, the cooks are all normal guys with jobs and families or whatever like the rest of us, they work out fixes and make ROM's faster, but making a list of things for cooks to do isn't right in my opinion.
Rory

rorydaredkign said:
Why not make your own rom with these things done. It's a bit much just making a thread of requests, the cooks are all normal guys with jobs and families or whatever like the rest of us, they work out fixes and make ROM's faster, but making a list of things for cooks to do isn't right in my opinion.
Rory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess a real user friendly ROM kitchen would make so much more possible from the people on these forums. At this moment many are still trying to figure out just how to cook your own ROM...

Opinions please....?

Wisbar Advanced Desktop 2 or Touch FLow 3D???
Ive had my HD for a week now and barely scratched the surface of this fantastic piece of kit, Im still running the bog standard HTC TF3D theme/homescreen, the thing is, the more WAD2 stuff I see, the more I like. I've checked out www.lakeridgesoftware.com and www.swampthing.net and I think Im going to go with WAD2. Just wondering what the general opinion is...pros and cons?
Thanks guys, great forum btw !

pros : you can do just about anything you want with WAD
Cons : steep learning curve I've found

twisted-pixel said:
pros : you can do just about anything you want with WAD
Cons : steep learning curve I've found
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok mate, thanks. Presumably by steep learning curve, it depends how far you are willing or 'able'(!) to go into it? There seems to be alot of info floating around here and other net forums.
Any more opinions?

I'm using WAD2 as of right now and love all the capabilities of the software. I agree that it is a steep learning curve but for us WM users, isn't that one of the pluses for owning these awesome devices? WAD2 outperforms TF3D as far as usefulness functionality.
The only thing I miss about TF3D is the weather animation...which I believe will soon be incorporated somehow in WAD2!

TF3D looks pretty to start with but it always seems to take me 1 or 2 taps/slides more than I would like to do what I want.
WAD2 lets me configure my home screen exactly as I want. I have my most common contacts, playlists, application shortcuts and notifications all in one place.
If you use Davideuck's ROM he also includes wkTask which works great for me alongside WAD2. I use WAD2 desktop mainly for notifications, agenda display, contact shortcuts and a few useful but less frequent application shortcuts. I use the downward swipe feature of wkTask to call up a launcher with my 12 most common shortcuts (which can be called up from anywhere). I'm sure you can install wkTask separately but I would recommend Davideuck's ROM as it's very stable and seems to fly along with great battery life.
Cheers,
David

Thanks for the answers guys, think I'll go with WAD 2.

xX SPION KOP Xx said:
Thanks for the answers guys, think I'll go with WAD 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let the configuring begin...Good luck!!!

Is there a way to keep theTouch Flo interface and just make WAD2 like a softkey shortcut on the homescreen of TouchFlo? It would be cool if I could switch interfaces on the fly like that

SnooPPP said:
Is there a way to keep theTouch Flo interface and just make WAD2 like a softkey shortcut on the homescreen of TouchFlo? It would be cool if I could switch interfaces on the fly like that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about that, it sounds like a good idea, I just think some of the WAD themes are the dogs bollocks! Maybe one of these guys can help, you done a forum search?

SnooPPP said:
Is there a way to keep theTouch Flo interface and just make WAD2 like a softkey shortcut on the homescreen of TouchFlo? It would be cool if I could switch interfaces on the fly like that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a search for "Second Today". I've heard that this program will allow something like this to be done... not quite sure how it work as I haven't tried it myself yet.

Pointui Home 2

Pointui Home 2 is Out.
Not testing yet, i just install it, but looks prety great!
http://www.pointui.com/

Runs and looks great, but things i dont like:
- Too much space at the buttom and
- i had to install it on the internal storage and not on the SD Card
But the rest is, as i said before, great. Good work i think.

Finally!
Looks and feels great - I think I would def upgrade to pro for unified messaging etc.
I am a happy bunny! Might just have to ditch touch flo 3d

Dont work for me Have a Swedish stock ROM.

runs great!!!

well it was running good until it locked up my device lol, soft reset time

I dont like it, something is missing

It looks really great and the animations are smooth. But it misses some features but I think they will come some time because it seems rather easy to write Apps for it. Not like Manila where you have many problems with adding your own stuff.

anyone know how to add a city?

mallman said:
anyone know how to add a city?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://community.pointui.com/topic/cities-and-wheather

Look here - http://community.pointui.com/topic/cities-and-wheather

beauty "skin" deep only. not impressed
configurable? look at all the trouble to add a city to the weather....
customization? not even unicode fonts
a thin layer of candy eye skin and after one touch...back to the old WM really, nothing to trade the tf3d for...uninstalled it after 15 minutes!

Raudi1 said:
http://community.pointui.com/topic/cities-and-wheather
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unfortunately none of that works. Even the folks on the forum are having problems. Looks like it isnt working correctly yet.... but it is still considered beta so ....... modding those files only makes all the weather disappear Guess I will wait on this one for a bit

KukurikU said:
beauty "skin" deep only. not impressed
configurable? look at all the trouble to add a city to the weather....
customization? not even unicode fonts
a thin layer of candy eye skin and after one touch...back to the old WM really, nothing to trade the tf3d for...uninstalled it after 15 minutes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes going to have to agree here. I am open to trying out new versions, definitely has potential with some additions and things you mentioned

No Thanks
I was a massive fan of PointUI v1 and had been looking forward to v2 being another huge step forward.
However, I have to say that it looks like a great big bag of crap next to TF3d (and I'm not a big fan of TF3d). Furthermore it seems to have limited functionality, is only a plugin and although it openly states it is a beta, the tone of the feedback in this site is distinctly mixed.
I think I would forgive the bugginess if it just looked better and brought something I thought was useful. But even the screenshots on PointUI's own site look poor quality.
Lastly, the 'Pro' version is paid for software - so how much? What will it do that Mobile Shell and WAD don't? Maybe the applet development will make it a must have...but it certainly needs a few good skinners on the case...
In summary...disappointed - just my personal opinion

iain.fraser said:
I was a massive fan of PointUI v1 and had been looking forward to v2 being another huge step forward.
However, I have to say that it looks like a great big bag of crap next to TF3d (and I'm not a big fan of TF3d). Furthermore it seems to have limited functionality, is only a plugin and although it openly states it is a beta, the tone of the feedback in this site is distinctly mixed.
I think I would forgive the bugginess if it just looked better and brought something I thought was useful. But even the screenshots on PointUI's own site look poor quality.
Lastly, the 'Pro' version is paid for software - so how much? What will it do that Mobile Shell and WAD don't? Maybe the applet development will make it a must have...but it certainly needs a few good skinners on the case...
In summary...disappointed - just my personal opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Not impressed at all...I'm sticking with WAD.

mmm
Yup aggred , instaled it .. and it was not as " smoth " as the 1.X, why have small buttons?.. why have news feeds?
I have a theme now for TF3D and it kinda looks goods... staying with that for a while .. sorry point guys

I quite like it, but it seems that I'm in the minority.
I've added my home town to the weather applet without any trouble at all, also local news in the today feed. Not sure why someone was having a problem configuring that. Pilot error?

barbapappa_86 said:
Dont work for me Have a Swedish stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is hardcoded. I have the same problem on my dutch device.It doesn't find the install path on localized devicesI didn't see any icon neither.
So I started it manually.

hendrixus said:
It is hardcoded. I have the same problem on my dutch device.It doesn't find the install path on localized devicesI didn't see any icon neither.
So I started it manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, me 2. Now its running and seems to work quite smooth. I´ll will look this up later on, now its just incomplete.

[Q] Is there some kickass Today screen?

Hey there
Could someone give a really good advice with link to themes for it so I can see...
I have tried so many plugins that my eyes are bloody already...
Maybe I just didn't find good combination of plugin/theme...please someone..
thank you.

Try this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=502056&highlight=theme+concept
if you know how to use WAD2. I think it's very nice.

Kick-ass Today Screen!!!!!
Yes there is.....Try the SPB 3.0....it out shines HTC home page!!!!!
Try the 30 day trial and if your lucky, you may find a serial for it too!!!!!
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/mobileshell/

Sopis said:
Hey there
Could someone give a really good advice with link to themes for it so I can see...
I have tried so many plugins that my eyes are bloody already...
Maybe I just didn't find good combination of plugin/theme...please someone..
thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may want post what you've tried already so the suggestions that come through won't be plugins that you've already written off.
I'm currently in the process of testing SPB 3.0.1. Still not sure if I like it enough to replace TF3D as it doesn't allow total integration with my other apps...Resco contacts, sms chat.

I guess you are right.
For starters, I have installed SPB 3 and WM7 black skin..it is very good..not the best but good, I like it
So far I have tried:
×Throttle launch (not good, graphics were blurry, guess it is more for VGA , but could be OK for VGA device)
×PocketPlus (too much stuff, didnt like it)
×HTC Home (I dunno why, but I guess this plugin did something bad to my phone, it acted weirdly, although it provided informaton I wanted, I did a painful Hard Reset and after that everything was OK)
×SPB 2 (I used this for very long time, but I got bored from the graphics and I liked and hated Now screen at the same time )
×PointUI2 (this was freaking awesome, very smooth graphics, but I lack WVGA skins and applets, good skins were VGA only and I couldnt switch to my today screen, which I do sometimes to check how much have I called already)
×rlToday (this one could be great, but It was very small on my screen, I could hardly see the clock )
×this is all I remember what I have tried
Now I am using:
SPB 3
HomeScreen++ (I use this only as a Call Timer, but would like to use it wider, but dunno how , does someone have an advice how to get a MAX out of this prog?)
And I have Spb Wireless monitor and Spb Backup on my todayscreen.
Thats it. So I guess I have tried a lot, but still am not absolutely satisfied.
What I really wish for is something like Omnia today screen..Ow how I would like to drag and drop widgets...I know FEWidgets can do this but I dont like how it looks...
And what I would like to have mostly is somekind of desktop with Icons and stuff...ust like a normal PC....
Thx for replies guys.

juice said:
Yes there is.....Try the SPB 3.0....it out shines HTC home page!!!!!
Try the 30 day trial and if your lucky, you may find a serial for it too!!!!!
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/mobileshell/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how do you know which version is the right one?
are there any pics of the software in action somewhere?

Well it sounds like you've tried just about everything lol! You didn't mention Wisbar Advance Desktop I see. This is the closest thing I've found where you can have the look and feel of your desktop PC.
Check out Mallmans Vista Theme here > http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=468153&highlight=Vista+Theme < Check out his site for more themes here > www.swampthing.net

Ow
You see, as I said I didn't remember
I tried WAD already, but again, some things are not to my liking.
I guess I am very demanding
thanks for your helps guys.
I guess I will stick with SPB 3 for some time.
Although Id like to make my own theme but dunno how.
I made a thread about this, hope someone will throw some letters in it
Thanks.