Flash + VB.NET : embedded Flash way to big - Windows Mobile Software Development

Hi there,
i have just recently upgraded to an HTC HD2 phone from an age-old-phone.
Now i wanted to create my own application but i found it very hard to step into mobile-development. After downloading a bazillion tools and trying to do stuff with flash and VB.NET it took me two days to even get the simplest of app to be working. I still find it weird that there is no real solution to simply create an app that looks nice and still works out of the box. VB.NET does not support transparencies unless you write own controls for it (which i am not experienced enough). Flash can not really create an app that runs in itself (or can it - there was this beta-thingy that git cancelled?)
Anyway, what i have settled for now is a VB-APP that does some of the work i want to achieve and embeds a WebBrowser-Control that launches Flash for the main UI. I even got it to work, but, for whatever reason i can not get my flash-swf to fill the webbrowser-control. Setting the flash movie to 100% lets me only see roughly 25% of the upper left corner of my app. The same happens when setting straight pixel values. The closest i get to Full-Screen is with a width-setting of 28% and a height of 50%, which i am certain will not even look half decent on an other phone.
Does anoyone have a solution for this? Maybe it is real simple but i can't see it.
Thanks in advance.

Related

can i be of any help?

i reckon a majority of programs/applications here are developed with technologies like c++/java. however, as a 6+ years developers in .NET, i'm wondering if anyone might want to find ppl talking about .NET stuff and developing some stuff with .NET framework?
dunno if this is the right place to say this. sorry if it's bothering.
I could do with a bit of a hand with my first ever vb.NET app if you have a spare minute....
I managed to 'lay my hands on' a copy of VS2008 and have installed the SDK's from M$ and have been messing about with it for about 2 months now with some success.
I've managed to program a simple alarm clock app which uses a SDF database for the alarm functions which works well (but still needs more work before I release it).
The main problem I have right now is that I cannot get the phone to wakeup from a standby state when the alarm is supposed to sound (as all programs are suspended when the device goes into standby).
I found this article on MSDN about the 'CeRunAppAtTime' function and have placed it in my code with a calculation for the milliseconds needed (until wakeup occurs) The milliseconds-until-wakeup are calculated using the hours and minutes between the current time and the set alarm time, converted to Integers using the built in time functions of VB.
The problem is that this does not seem to wake the device from standby when it's supposed to.
I've scoured the web for any info on this but have been stuck at this stage for about 3 weeks now, messing with the code so much I've lost track of what I've tried.
Is there any alternative to this function call or am I stuck trying to work it out?
I would post that section of my code but it's on my other PC which I can't get to right now....sorry.
I think you'll find the answers you're looking for here:
http://www.koushikdutta.com/2008/07/cerunappattime-cesetusernotificationex.html
A while back I found a c# compiler that worked ON THE DEVICE -- it was totally cool to compile and mess around with c# on the phone.
That compiler only supported the compact framework 1.0, and the developer seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth without releasing his source.
It would be cool if someone knowledgeable soul could make a version that supports CF 3.5.
Understand that there was no IDE here, you simply loaded your c# source into it, told it to compile, and you got an EXE.
godefroi said:
I think you'll find the answers you're looking for here:
http://www.koushikdutta.com/2008/07/cerunappattime-cesetusernotificationex.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link but I'm not quite sure that this gives me what I'm after.
I don't want to have to schedule a system notification to wake the device as other devs on other sites have reported issues with the dialogue and not being able to assign a sound to it other than the default one for notifications.
CeRunAppAtTime would do the job but I just can't get it to work.
Anyone got any working VB code using this API?
...problem finally solved and the Alarm clock is available for download here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5551369#post5551369

Transparent/Translucent Forms & Controls

So I have been searching these forums a bit each day for the past week, and I have yet to see a working solution for SmartPhones AND PPC's alike. I have tried P/Invoking AlphaBlend, SetBkMode, etc. but to no avail. I am not a great coder, so I may be using them wrong.
If anyone knows how to get this to work on SmartPhone's and PPC's, could they please share their knowledge
Thank you!
Cyclonezephyrxz7 said:
So I have been searching these forums a bit each day for the past week, and I have yet to see a working solution for SmartPhones AND PPC's alike. I have tried P/Invoking AlphaBlend, SetBkMode, etc. but to no avail. I am not a great coder, so I may be using them wrong.
If anyone knows how to get this to work on SmartPhone's and PPC's, could they please share their knowledge
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly do you want to do?
I want to be able to make forms / controls that have Opacity less than 255 ... (I want to do this in C#) ... take, for instance, SMSBubbles, it displays a small bubble at the bottom of the screen about a new text message...how would i be able to achieve that and still maintain the background to be transparent. Also look at SmartToolKit, when you pop open the Start Menu, the back (what is not covered by the menu) remains updating (etc.) but you still get the menu..
I want to do something along those lines...
any help is greatly appreciated
Have you checked out this blog entry?
blogs.commentor.dk/post/Transparent-Controls-in-NETCF.aspx
Or a library: http://beemobile4.net/?sitecateg=products&productID=5
Thanks for the replies, the first I tried implementing, but it didn't work as I would have hoped (The second, well I don't want to pay 45+$ for it...heh)
So I re-tried P/Invoking SetBkMode in the onPaintBackground method:
Code:
protected override void onPaintBackground(PaintEventArgs e)
{
setBkModeCE(e.Graphics.getHDC(), BkMode.TRANSPARENT);
}
I also made sure to P/Invoke
Code:
SetCursor(IntPtr cursor)
...main loop starts here...
SetCursor(IntPtr.Zero)
to get rid of the wait cursor.
While this works perfectly in terms of eliminating the background, it doesn't actually make it transparent. What it does, i can do by taking a screenshot and applying it as the bg (It doesn't update). I suppose I can use a timer and have it update the background on Events of all sorts, on user-activity, and every minute, but that seems like it is a hassle.
That may be the only way to actually do it, I don't know, but it just seems that there is a better way to do it (and be able to conserve RAM).
I used this library in one of my apps: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/uiframework
Sourcecode is available, written in C# so its easily adaptable to your needs too.

[Project] CTaskManager - Spicing up UI [Android-Like]

Hey Everyone...I haven't been around these parts often, but I conceived a pretty good idea [I think]...
My friend recently got a Droid phone, and of course he was flaunting it to me...I love Android, honestly...but I love Windows Mobile too. SO! I thought "Why not merge the best of both worlds?"
Well obviously, I cannot make windows look 100% like Android...that would take tooooooo long. So instead, I thought "What about the Task Switcher!"
So I introduce to you, CTaskManager
Right now it is just a P.o.C (Proof Of Concept), but I have done my research and found pretty much all the API calls I will need [minus one or two, but I'll find those]. It will be fully in C++, and if I can get it working correctly, will be activated by the HOME button.
Attached is a proof of concept image [100% Photoshopped, not real at all].
In any case, this is how I forsee it working:
This will appear on top of any window
Activated by pressing [and holding?] HOME
1st Box will always be the Home Screen
2nd Box will always be the current Window (unless it is the HomeScreen)
You can switch between apps with 2 easy Clicks
First Select the Number of the Dialog
Second, Press CENTER or SPACE to switch to it, or press DEL to quit that app
The program's layout will vary depending on the number of Open Windows
Should be light, fast, and easy to use
Hopefully, since I forsee this to be a really easy project, I will have a release by later today! I am making it for my Excalibur users FIRST, because I owe it to this whole forum [And because I will be switching to an HD2 this upcoming monday, and I want to start a project up for a phone I use NOW]
-Until Later: CycloneZephyrxz7
sweet...thanks..will wait for your release and then will added to the sticky.
I am very pleased that the ONLY component I have yet to get working is getting the screen captures [and window titles]. I need to investigate this ... For some reason, I am getting the same window drawn OVER and OVER again. I think it is because the window handle I am getting from some of the methods is invalid...Its very odd ... I have to figure it out. I should be able to do this winthin the next hour or so
seems cool so its like a multitasker? or somthing
alexrodri0 said:
seems cool so its like a multitasker? or somthing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
So this is the update:
I got the program to run on Home-Key Press ... Now I am going to just modify it and add a timer or something to get it to run on Home-Key Long Press [since just a press interferes with Smart ToolKit]
An odd bug I have encountered is that when I run this, and wait, the Smart Toolkit taskbar shows up (as it should), and the whole phone locks up...I think it is because both are competing for Keyboard privilages. [I have to use a Keyboard hook to get this working, and it is all undocumented APIs]
I have yet to get the actual Task part working Haha. I can't confirm whether or not it is working, because for some reason my Debugger is acting weird, and all the images are of the current screen. As it turns out, it is impossible to take a snapshot of a minimized / partially visible screen. It will take the screen coordinates, and take a picture of whatever is there right now. I will get that fixed [I am talking to another Dev to see if he will let me in on how he does it in his task manager].
I got the "back" key escape working. Relatively simple.
I have planned out Layouts. Such that when you have JUST the HomeScreen open, it will NOT run. When you have the HomeScreen and 1 OTHER window open, the two will be split on the screen [Maybe make each like 150x113]. When you have 3 to 4 total windows (Including HomeScreen), they will make a 4-quadrant layout. Where each will be around [120x90]. When you have 4 - 6 open, each will be [92x69] (as shown in the ScreenShot) and have a 6-block layout. When you have more than 6 (if that is possible on the Excalibur haha), it will make a second page, and the second page will adapt to however many excess processes there are.
I have to work on getting the Translucent Background working ... that shouldn't be too hard, I just have yet to look into it {I think I have to use AlphaBlend or TransparentBlt}.
In any case, there is actually very little that doesn't work yet haha, but of course it is the most essential parts that don't work.
I will keep you all updated
sweet
looking forward to this, my phone will live on!!!
Thanks to a bunch of help from another Dev, I confirmed that getting the image of a non-visible window is IMPOSSIBLE on windows mobile. [Although it gives me an idea to try to 'fix' that haha ... maybe after this]. In any case, I think I have figured out how to do it. Tomorrow I will write up the code, test it, and hopefully have an Initial release.
The way I see it the releases will be as follows:
1) Initial Release [Basic]
2) Fix-Up of any Bugs
3) Add some Effects
4) Add some customizations
5) Fix-Up of any Bugs
6) FINAL
Hopefully, I can do this in 6 or less releases [And in the meanwhile, adapt it to work on my new HD2 i will get on Monday ]
*PS: For those of you following my projects: Once I get my HD2, I am going to make a fixed up release of FFP_LS, and then open-source it. Thereafter, i won't work much on it anymore. This is so I can start working on my SUPER-HUGE project called "CMessage" ... Here are the contents of the 'sticky note' i have on the desktop reminding me of it:
Suite of Programs:
1. Transport DLL (Send/Receive SMS/MMS/EMail)
2. T-Mail.exe Client (Compose/View SMS/MMS/EMail)
3. Notifier (When new Message Arrives, Display Alert)
4. A new DLL for the HomeScreen [it probably won't be compatible with the old one]
5. API Docs (For future use and adaptation)
6. Sample Programs (I.E. HomeScreen Panel, SMS Games, etc.)
7. Filter Rules Program
8. Macro Program (Get Message ... Do Action)
9. Environment Set-Up DLL/Exe [Cache Contacts, create Message Stores, transfer over old stuff, etc. etc.]
It is going to be a VERY large project. Hopefully, it will also be a very successful one Say bye-bye to CE MAPI?
Cyclonezephyrxz7 said:
Thanks to a bunch of help from another Dev, I confirmed that getting the image of a non-visible window is IMPOSSIBLE on windows mobile. [Although it gives me an idea to try to 'fix' that haha ... maybe after this]. In any case, I think I have figured out how to do it. Tomorrow I will write up the code, test it, and hopefully have an Initial release.
The way I see it the releases will be as follows:
1) Initial Release [Basic]
2) Fix-Up of any Bugs
3) Add some Effects
4) Add some customizations
5) Fix-Up of any Bugs
6) FINAL
Hopefully, I can do this in 6 or less releases [And in the meanwhile, adapt it to work on my new HD2 i will get on Monday ]
*PS: For those of you following my projects: Once I get my HD2, I am going to make a fixed up release of FFP_LS, and then open-source it. Thereafter, i won't work much on it anymore. This is so I can start working on my SUPER-HUGE project called "CMessage" ... Here are the contents of the 'sticky note' i have on the desktop reminding me of it:
Suite of Programs:
1. Transport DLL (Send/Receive SMS/MMS/EMail)
2. T-Mail.exe Client (Compose/View SMS/MMS/EMail)
3. Notifier (When new Message Arrives, Display Alert)
4. A new DLL for the HomeScreen [it probably won't be compatible with the old one]
5. API Docs (For future use and adaptation)
6. Sample Programs (I.E. HomeScreen Panel, SMS Games, etc.)
7. Filter Rules Program
8. Macro Program (Get Message ... Do Action)
9. Environment Set-Up DLL/Exe [Cache Contacts, create Message Stores, transfer over old stuff, etc. etc.]
It is going to be a VERY large project. Hopefully, it will also be a very successful one Say bye-bye to CE MAPI?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can't wait!
This program is actually bugging me...haha [get the joke?].
In any case, it is becoming rather tough to get this actually working. Correction: To get it working efficiently. The dev making the 3D iManager app over in the Development/Hacking forum told me how he is doing it, but to me it just seems terribly inefficient (every 5 seconds, check for Foreground Window....LOTS OF BUGS). In any case, I am using a registry notification now, since Windows Mobile has a value that tells me the currently active program and the previously active program [and it updates!] ... this works out because then I can take a screenshot of the new-ly active program, AND check to see if the old one was minimized or closed. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be working as I would have hoped.
I don't have much time today for developing [Hooray for a 50 Page AP Government Outline] ... so I will probably get back to this tomorrow [NEW PHONE], or maybe tonight if I get a really good idea/inspiration to finish this!
Cyclonezephyrxz7 said:
This program is actually bugging me...haha [get the joke?].
In any case, it is becoming rather tough to get this actually working. Correction: To get it working efficiently. The dev making the 3D iManager app over in the Development/Hacking forum told me how he is doing it, but to me it just seems terribly inefficient (every 5 seconds, check for Foreground Window....LOTS OF BUGS). In any case, I am using a registry notification now, since Windows Mobile has a value that tells me the currently active program and the previously active program [and it updates!] ... this works out because then I can take a screenshot of the new-ly active program, AND check to see if the old one was minimized or closed. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be working as I would have hoped.
I don't have much time today for developing [Hooray for a 50 Page AP Government Outline] ... so I will probably get back to this tomorrow [NEW PHONE], or maybe tonight if I get a really good idea/inspiration to finish this!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
keep the good work man and again thanks for your effort in developing new stuff for the dash.
Cheers,
So I finished my work
But that isn't pertinent to this forum. What it does mean is that I can work on my developing for today!
Counter-to-my-prior-plan, I am going to release a pretty flawed version of the program ... errr ... rather an Alpha that will run much less efficiently than the final product.
I hate announcing a project, thinking it will be easy, then taking forever with it ... so this is what I am going to do:
I will use the same timer-based approach that iManager 3D uses, but I might make it update more often [3 second intervals maybe] ... it won't be AT ALL battery efficient, but it should be pretty memory efficient. It will serve as NO MORE THAN A PROOF OF CONCEPT OF WHAT THE FINAL PRODUCT WILL BE. The final product should not have a major impact on battery life, and should leave the end user unaware that it is actually running when it is!
I am re-installing Visual Studio because it has been acting up, but once that is done, I should be able to pump out an ALPHA VERSION.
EDIT: Computer Issues ... Expect a release in the coming days. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Cyclonezephyrxz7 said:
So I finished my work
But that isn't pertinent to this forum. What it does mean is that I can work on my developing for today!
Counter-to-my-prior-plan, I am going to release a pretty flawed version of the program ... errr ... rather an Alpha that will run much less efficiently than the final product.
I hate announcing a project, thinking it will be easy, then taking forever with it ... so this is what I am going to do:
I will use the same timer-based approach that iManager 3D uses, but I might make it update more often [3 second intervals maybe] ... it won't be AT ALL battery efficient, but it should be pretty memory efficient. It will serve as NO MORE THAN A PROOF OF CONCEPT OF WHAT THE FINAL PRODUCT WILL BE. The final product should not have a major impact on battery life, and should leave the end user unaware that it is actually running when it is!
I am re-installing Visual Studio because it has been acting up, but once that is done, I should be able to pump out an ALPHA VERSION.
EDIT: Computer Issues ... Expect a release in the coming days. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great! This sounds awesome! And yeah, we finally get more interests and development in non-touch devices! Good luck with building the program and don't forget to contact the News-Writers when it's ready!
This is actually quite upsetting ... I tried re-installing Visual Studio, because it was no longer giving me the 'code suggestions' for C++ ... [like if I typed in a function, it didn't tell me what the parameters were] ... and now it isnt set up for Windows Mobile 6 Standard/Pro anymore. So i tried reinstalling those SDKs .... no joy....I am going to uninstall EVERYTHING OF IT and start all over [backing up my projects of course ].
Hopefully I will get my computer in working condition by tonight.
I got my new HD2 [TMOUS] today I am very happy with it already. BUT I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON MAKING THINGS FOR THE DASH. Non-TouchScreen phones are highly under-appreciated, and I hate that so much [let alone the fact that WinMo is underappreciated] .... I NEED YOUR IDEAS TO MAKE THIS PHONE [Exca] BETTER! So toss me a PM with even the wildest Ideas, and I will try to figure something out
Cyclonezephyrxz7 said:
This is actually quite upsetting ... I tried re-installing Visual Studio, because it was no longer giving me the 'code suggestions' for C++ ... [like if I typed in a function, it didn't tell me what the parameters were] ... and now it isnt set up for Windows Mobile 6 Standard/Pro anymore. So i tried reinstalling those SDKs .... no joy....I am going to uninstall EVERYTHING OF IT and start all over [backing up my projects of course ].
Hopefully I will get my computer in working condition by tonight.
I got my new HD2 [TMOUS] today I am very happy with it already. BUT I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON MAKING THINGS FOR THE DASH. Non-TouchScreen phones are highly under-appreciated, and I hate that so much [let alone the fact that WinMo is underappreciated] .... I NEED YOUR IDEAS TO MAKE THIS PHONE [Exca] BETTER! So toss me a PM with even the wildest Ideas, and I will try to figure something out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
congrats with your new phone!
"Non-TouchScreen phones are highly under-appreciated, and I hate that so much [let alone the fact that WinMo is underappreciated]!" Yeah that sucks, that's also why I keep developing Apps and ROMs!
Hope you can get VS working again!

[NST][Home replacement] EpubBrowser [11/04/2012]

Hi,
I did up a home replacement for my Nook simple touch, thought I would share it. This is an initial release, no doubt there are bugs, incompatibilities, etc, you were warned. There are no checks for other devices at this point, NST only.
Thanks to the nook community for the noogie.img file, touch nooter, and relaunch for source code ideas and various threads regarding quick refresh and e-ink support.
Disclaimer: Now, what I am using currently is the bare minimum, I have tried quite a bit of the work in this forum and it works well, but I wasn't satisfied or 100% confident and I wanted less installed. So, I restored my nook to stock, used noogie and copied over a rooted ramdisk. That was it, no touchcolortools, nooktouchtools installed, adw minimal this or that, or button saviors. I am sure they are great programs but I don't know enough about them or have the interest/time to do research on them to want to keep them installed.
For me, the point is to keep things simple and maintain battery life. It's an e-reader not a tablet after all. I just want to read books, check email, check a website or two, get some more use out of wi-fi since I don't live in a B&N supported nation.
​To install:adb install EPubBrowser.apk
Optional:
I also installed Email.apk and set up my gmail from there, no certificates required or a million google app files and plucking a chicken on a Tuesday after jumping on your left foot crap. No offense to those who like chicken plucking.
adb install Email.apk
Done and done.
I can do up a CWM zip upon request, but last going off I have a continuous reboot after installing the latest version and if you know enough to get the Nook's CWM installed you should be able to use adb.​See attached files.
What is not working:
Since Android doesn't really know about multiple external storage locations (at least for the Nook's 2.1 and/or my knowledge of android) EPubBrowser is unable to detect when the internal storage has been remounted, there is no notification of that, just notification of external storage. So if you plug in your usb cord to the computer the list of books will be empty even when you remove it. So if you don't have an sdcard you will have to hit the back button and launch home again to refresh.
Also, B&N books are not listed, whatever is in My Files will be scanned only. That applies to internal and sdcard storage. You can still use B&N's Library to access those.
I don't have any option of uninstalling apps either. adb uninstall works fine or you can just delete files from /data/app via adb shell.
What is working:
Launch of EPubBrowser via nook's home button, without use of nooktouchtools, it duplicates how the B&N home app works.
The notification icon for resuming reading goes through the app. As long as the book was launched from EPubBrowser it can remember the last book, otherwise the main display will show up. Reason being that for whatever reason the last page read doesn't work with the B&N home screen if it's not a book bought from B&N. But if you are just using the B&N Reader app it's not a problem.
When you are prompted which home you want you can select EPubBrowser and hit default. This may not stay set and will go away the next time you reboot.
How to use:Left / right swipes to go to the next 6, previous 6 books, no indication of the current page is displayed, (e-ink and aesthetics).
Touch a book cover to launch a description of the book, swipe up and down to scroll through the description, touch the cover displayed there to start reading. Hit back button on top of screen to exit without launching a book.
To bring up the list of apps installed, swipe a clockwise circle starting at 10 O'clock. Touch an app to launch it, left or right swipe to go back to main screen.​That's it for now.
If you have any ideas for improvements, bug reports, please provide as much detail as possible, and when you have done that add some more detail.
Cheers!
Updates:
2/19/2012:
Added screensaver for last read book. (Jpeg 75%) Settings->Display->Screensavers->EPubBrowser
11/4/2012:
Added src project
Looks nice! I'll give it a shot later when my Nook's charged.
Thank you for making and sharing, i am going to try tomorrow and tell you,
Improvements
First of all, thank you for creating this cool launch screen. I love the simplicity of it. Here are is brief list of improvement that you can perhaps easily implement.
-When on the homescreen with the covers of all the books, I am not sure if I am suppose to scroll down or to the right to view the rest of my books.
-When on the page with the details from the book, there is no back button to take you back to the homescreen. I end up using the button savior back button.
-The circle gesture that takes you to the apps does not feel very responsive to me.
Anyhow, great job. Can't wait to see how you plan on improving it
OW MY EYES
I installed this, and everything just kept flashing. GO Locker and GO Launcher are both broken, and the only way I could fix it was by getting into ADW and closing the task. Did I install it incorrectly? I put it onto an SD card and used ES File Manager to install it.
ChunC said:
First of all, thank you for creating this cool launch screen. I love the simplicity of it. Here are is brief list of improvement that you can perhaps easily implement.
-When on the homescreen with the covers of all the books, I am not sure if I am suppose to scroll down or to the right to view the rest of my books.
-When on the page with the details from the book, there is no back button to take you back to the homescreen. I end up using the button savior back button.
-The circle gesture that takes you to the apps does not feel very responsive to me.
Anyhow, great job. Can't wait to see how you plan on improving it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback.
You swipe left to go to the previous page of books. You swipe right to go to the next page of books, assuming you have more than 6 books. Personally, I know what books I have on the device so it's not a problem knowing how many are left to see for me.
The back button should be on top of the screen in the middle, not sure why it wouldn't be there on yours. I will give it a think, maybe remove the scroll control in the book description and just use gesture detection and scroll the text via code.
Responsiveness and speed will likely improve over time, I am using the gesture library, maybe there are some optimizations there I can do.
Cheers!
Googie2149 said:
OW MY EYES
I installed this, and everything just kept flashing. GO Locker and GO Launcher are both broken, and the only way I could fix it was by getting into ADW and closing the task. Did I install it incorrectly? I put it onto an SD card and used ES File Manager to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Noted, so it doesn't work with GO Lancher/Locker. Never tried GO stuff, so that wasn't tested. It was tested with ADW and relaunch, and I had all the rest of your typical touch nooter install there without problems, android market, etc.
I have run it with Home.apk renamed to Home.apk.bak and that works fine as well.
As for your other question, if it is installed it is installed, there are no configurations to modify, however you get it there it should be fine.
Cheers!
WANT
Noted that it does not work with go, will have to get rid of that first.
From the screenshots, I can already tell you put time into polishing! Good job!
NFHimself said:
Hi,
Noted, so it doesn't work with GO Lancher/Locker. Never tried GO stuff, so that wasn't tested. It was tested with ADW and relaunch, and I had all the rest of your typical touch nooter install there without problems, android market, etc.
I have run it with Home.apk renamed to Home.apk.bak and that works fine as well.
As for your other question, if it is installed it is installed, there are no configurations to modify, however you get it there it should be fine.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try it again without the GO software, but it was making everything just keep flashing, like the lock screen.
@NFHimself, any plans for taking this to github? It is very close to what I always wanted but I was also looking for:
- some kind of usage of Calibre data
- library filtering for series, highly rated, etc.
- tracking of books that are clicked to maintain sort of recent read filter
- sorting options by rating, series, and other Calibre properties
- option to display 6 or 12 (smaller) book covers.
I hope it already does use intents for selecting a different epub reader for those who have no defaults and multiple ones installed.
I know its a long list, and I have some Android experience. I am sure there would be other developers here so a combined effort might help.
Screenshots looks good, but on the Nook - only flashing screen like Googie2149 said
tazzix said:
@NFHimself, any plans for taking this to github? It is very close to what I always wanted but I was also looking for:
- some kind of usage of Calibre data
- library filtering for series, highly rated, etc.
- tracking of books that are clicked to maintain sort of recent read filter
- sorting options by rating, series, and other Calibre properties
- option to display 6 or 12 (smaller) book covers.
I hope it already does use intents for selecting a different epub reader for those who have no defaults and multiple ones installed.
I know its a long list, and I have some Android experience. I am sure there would be other developers here so a combined effort might help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I use Calibre as well, I just connect via adb and calibre picks up the nook and I copy books over and it converts on the fly, cool program. Using Calibre data is an idea worth looking into, if I can fit it into the theme of no preferences, no extra buttons or config. There are plenty of those kind of home apps already. Relaunch for one is great, just missing a graphical front end, I was going to mod that, but decided that I didn't really need so much stuff and I wanted to learn more android API.
I did up the app using pretty straight forward epub standards (note the plural), it works with most epubs I have run across, not sure if looking for extra xml is a good functionality vs performance tradeoff. I haven't been using EPubBrowser for very long myself, so when I add more books and find something annoying I will probably make changes to fix it. I want to keep things simple, if I need a preferences menu, it is already going the wrong way.
I am not specifying any class, just a regular launch this epub file intent, so it should work with any reader. I like the stock reader myself, cool reader seems to dislike some epubs I have above a certain size, and I didn't want to deal with it.
I may github it, I am kinda time limited these days.
Cheers!
AgentSlash said:
Screenshots looks good, but on the Nook - only flashing screen like Googie2149 said
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
More details are needed to figure that out. What device do you have? What do you have installed on it?
Cheers!
I just wiped then manually rooted my Nook, and this works now. Although I'm having some trouble with getting to the apps page after the first time I did it. Could you possible change how you get to the apps page? Maybe change it so you have to click the menu key to get to apps.
Edit: Now that I've added my books, it shows me two books, one empty, and another book. Now it just flashes and removes/re-adds the last book. :/
Edit 2: I found that there are a few books that just don't like this launcher and cause the entire Nook to start flashing. I've been adding my books one by one to see which work and which don't and I'll try and find similarities between those that don't.
Great launcher replacement.
Running right now, but after the second page, I get sent back to the first, regardless of left-to-right or right-to-left swiping. Ideas?
Also, any chance for a page up/down use for scrolling through books?
I took a quick vid. It looks like when I swipe again from R to L, it tries to redraw the next books, but gets confused?
http://youtu.be/K1ukWFK0syg
ace7196 said:
Great launcher replacement.
Running right now, but after the second page, I get sent back to the first, regardless of left-to-right or right-to-left swiping. Ideas?
Also, any chance for a page up/down use for scrolling through books?
I took a quick vid. It looks like when I swipe again from R to L, it tries to redraw the next books, but gets confused?
http://youtu.be/K1ukWFK0syg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I'm busy painting the baby's room, but it looks like it is resetting, perhaps one of your books is crashing the app and it is being relaunched as the home screen. Or could be some other bug, how many books are involved, if you remove one or add one, does it go away?
If someone could open the e-pub (it's a zip file) that causes the error and paste the contents of the .odf file (it's an xml file) , that would help.
Cheers!
NFHimself said:
Hi,
I'm busy painting the baby's room, but it looks like it is resetting, perhaps one of your books is crashing the app and it is being relaunched as the home screen. Or could be some other bug, how many books are involved, if you remove one or add one, does it go away?
If someone could open the e-pub (it's a zip file) that causes the error and paste the contents of the .odf file (it's an xml file) , that would help.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've gone through and removed / added ebooks, and still the same problem.
Sorry, been kinda busy.
I need to be able to see the bug on my end to work on it. Maybe I've been lucky with the book selections I have made or converting using Calibre has set them all to have the same kind of format, vs the variety you might see in the wild from multiple sources.
Does the error happen with no books?
What happens when you have just one book?
How many books do you have on your nook? (If it's something like 1000 then yeah, maybe you'd have issues, no checks in the code for being out of memory.)
What firmware are you using?
Are there any hardware differences? (Can't imagine that being a problem, but I am using a NST, not the original Nook.)
What can I do to reproduce this error on my end? What are the steps?
Cheers!
NFHimself said:
Sorry, been kinda busy.
I need to be able to see the bug on my end to work on it. Maybe I've been lucky with the book selections I have made or converting using Calibre has set them all to have the same kind of format, vs the variety you might see in the wild from multiple sources.
Does the error happen with no books?
What happens when you have just one book?
How many books do you have on your nook? (If it's something like 1000 then yeah, maybe you'd have issues, no checks in the code for being out of memory.)
What firmware are you using?
Are there any hardware differences? (Can't imagine that being a problem, but I am using a NST, not the original Nook.)
What can I do to reproduce this error on my end? What are the steps?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, it doesn't matter how many books I have, it's just a few specific books that crash, independent of the other books in my library, and some books are more severe than others (one makes the entire Nook start flashing (all software), others make only this app flash).
I have the same problem as the people above but I can't get past the first page. I can't seem to narrow it down to a certain book making it crash. It's a shame I love this home screen, but hopefully we can get this fixed and running great.

First time with....well everything almost.

I've been with Sprint for almost 9 years now, and before my Evo 4G in 2010 all I had were the old Nextel i95's...so needless to say I'm at a complete loss with WP7. I tinkered and tailored with Android ROM's for years now and have loved a lot about the OS...but I just couldn't pass up this deal for the Lumia 900 on AT&T. I'm beyond satisfied after having set everything up and loving how tightly knit and integrated a lot of the features are. But I still have some questions:
1) Can i screen capture with the stock rom? I don't want to have to unlock this phone (That was one of the reasons I left Android, you needed to unlock to do ANYTHING)
2) Are there any apps beyond the 3 that use a double tile? Is this a setting somewhere that I'm missing on? Kinda like resizing widgets?
3) Are there different themes, beyond the color switching pallete, that can be used with WP7? And while we're at it, is there a different lockscreen or anything else that can be done from it besides unlocking it? (Such as unlocking to text, email, custom app?)
4) What's up with the notifications disappearing after a while before I get a chance to check em? Is there a way to check them besides going to their respective clients to see what I missed?
5) Can you guys point me towards some alternative apps or settings to replace some of the stock feaures?
6) Besides having to login to AT&T all the time, is there a different way to monitor my data usage? A simple app perhaps?
7) Oh and how could I forget....do I have to go all the way to the settings every time to see what the percentage on my battery is? I found a couple threads saying that you have to unlock the phone for this feature but I refuse to believe that something this simple needs a workaround like that.
Thanks in advance guys, loving this OS and looking forward to some of the changes.
1) Unfortunately not. Most screen captures you see on the net are done using the development software.
2) Tiles sizes are determined by the developers. I wish there was a way of making them single or double too.
3) The colours are the only customisation you can do right now without unlocking the device other than changing the lock screen. The lockscreen I like, as it unlocks to the "desktop" when there is no notifications but if you unlock it as a notification happens then it will take you the application required to see the notification.
Also for some awesome lock screens go to the deviantart website.
4) This is my one and only gripe with WP7. Having said that after unlocking the notication is either facebook or twitter (the only ones not shown on the home screen) and both of those show on my "ME" tile. So really if I want to see anything I missed I go to the "ME" tile and slide across to notifications.
5) What stock features do you need help with?
6) Im not on AT&T and my phone provider has an app to do this so I would be contacting AT&T about this.
7) They do not show a % because its not very accurate I think. This is something I at first hated but I don't care that much any more. This is not like my Samsung Galaxy II which wouldn't last a day. I usually get over a days use out of my Lumia so I don't have to look all the time and be worried. When the love heart goes on the battery I know its getting low but still I have HOURS left.
In terms of number 5 I just meant is there an alternate keyboard, browser, gallery, search feature/marketplace etc. Not that I have a problem with any of these (although I do miss haptic feedback on my keyboard) I just wanted to know if there were alternatives.
EDIT: I do have a problem with ONE of those things I mentioned. The marketplace...it seems too cluttered and feels like the phone is always zoomed in with the way everything looks...but that looks like it was done on purpose.
You.can get two off your list with a Developer unlocked device. Think of it this way. Nokia is giving you a $100 credit because of the data issue. Use it to purchase a legitimate Dev key from Microsoft. Can sideload apps, and also develop with it.
1) can do it with homebrew Screen Capturer app.
2) Only Microsoft or OEMs can develop double wide tiles.
3) Need to have an interop unlocked device to add colors, etc. More involved than dev unlocked and not yet available for the L900.
6) The AT&T myAT&T app will give you the info you need. Nokia is also releasing a data tracking app. Coming soon.
7) Homebrew Battery Meter app. Updates a Live Tile every 10 minutes. Pretty accurate. Good history charts.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express
There are a few other browsers and such but they are all just front ends for the existing apps supplied with the device. There is also a few marketplace apps which you might find better. I use AppTastic every now and then purely as it shows what's on sale. There might be an app which I don't think is worth $5 or $6 after the trial but would happily purchase to support the developers for a few bucks.
iiDeadSeriousii said:
In terms of number 5 I just meant is there an alternate keyboard, browser, gallery, search feature/marketplace etc. Not that I have a problem with any of these (although I do miss haptic feedback on my keyboard) I just wanted to know if there were alternatives.
EDIT: I do have a problem with ONE of those things I mentioned. The marketplace...it seems too cluttered and feels like the phone is always zoomed in with the way everything looks...but that looks like it was done on purpose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, there are alot of the things that are different. Can't/Won't say if its better because thats a personal choice. I've grown to love the look and feel now. So has my daughter...but my son hates it. I gave them both 2 weeks to like it or I would buy them their next phone. My daughter converted...my son did not, and did not want new phone. But, with that said, there are some things I miss from Android....not much, but some. I do wish Live Tiles were a touch more customizable. I wish I could have some more color schemes instead of the just the current ones. I'd love to have a Black/White and/or Grey/white combination of colors also.
Otherwise....its a matter of just trying and getting used to it. I think it took my daughter 3 days to get used to the tiles and groupings of the hubs and what they are designed for. Her original list of must haves went away....
Thanks for all the help guys, yea I figured that most of my complaints/issues could only be solved with an unlock phone but I figured I'd ask. I've got another question, do apps auto update or do I need to manually check em every time?
Your marketplace tile will have a number on it showing the number of updates available. So no you never need to go check but you do need to initiate the update manually when you see that there is some waiting for update.
Again thanks guys for getting me started with the phone. Just a few more questions:
1) Is there a way to set a tile to immediately turn on/off either Bluetooth or Wifi? Or am I stuck with the default settings tile?
2) Can I save a setting where I don't have to download my pictures every time I open an email? I used to just pit "Always show pictures" on the Android GMail client.
3) I've looked and looked and still cant find a tile to just show battery. Can someone link me to an official one that I don't have to side load?
4) Is the app Bandwidth the only app for network speed test? Its kinda glitchy for me.
5) Is there a way to get that HTC Hub on this Lumia or is that another thing where I gotta unlock the phone? I really like the look of it.
6) Someone mentioned that you can change the lockscreen, or at the very least the wallpaper, how do you do that?
Thanks.
iiDeadSeriousii said:
Again thanks guys for getting me started with the phone. Just a few more questions:
1) Is there a way to set a tile to immediately turn on/off either Bluetooth or Wifi? Or am I stuck with the default settings tile?
2) Can I save a setting where I don't have to download my pictures every time I open an email? I used to just pit "Always show pictures" on the Android GMail client.
3) I've looked and looked and still cant find a tile to just show battery. Can someone link me to an official one that I don't have to side load?
4) Is the app Bandwidth the only app for network speed test? Its kinda glitchy for me.
5) Is there a way to get that HTC Hub on this Lumia or is that another thing where I gotta unlock the phone? I really like the look of it.
6) Someone mentioned that you can change the lockscreen, or at the very least the wallpaper, how do you do that?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont know if someone mentioned this, but you're in the droid mentality right now. Like Apple, alot of the framework is locked down. Even with sideloads, alot of the framework is not available. HTC Hub is one of those. MS did not want that kind of screen and they don't allow it. WP is based on Live Tiles and they are sticking with it...for now.
You can change the lock screen pic by going to settings and Lock+Wallpaper. You can change the timeing settings and the picture. If you have a picture you want to use, go to your pictures hub and simply long press on the pic, use as wallpaper is an option.
But mostly, do not expect alot of hack/modding on these phones. For the most part, most of Windows phones, were Android phones at 1 time...ie the Samsung focus line. HD7 was the HD2 line which has been successfully ported to Android and WP7. If you want android type functionality in terms of look and feel...probably not gonna get it here. Of course, I could be wrong....but...who knows.
iiDeadSeriousii said:
Again thanks guys for getting me started with the phone. Just a few more questions:
1) Is there a way to set a tile to immediately turn on/off either Bluetooth or Wifi? Or am I stuck with the default settings tile?
2) Can I save a setting where I don't have to download my pictures every time I open an email? I used to just pit "Always show pictures" on the Android GMail client.
3) I've looked and looked and still cant find a tile to just show battery. Can someone link me to an official one that I don't have to side load?
4) Is the app Bandwidth the only app for network speed test? Its kinda glitchy for me.
5) Is there a way to get that HTC Hub on this Lumia or is that another thing where I gotta unlock the phone? I really like the look of it.
6) Someone mentioned that you can change the lockscreen, or at the very least the wallpaper, how do you do that?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have answers for all of these, but here's a few (and fwiw I agree
with alodar1). But before I begin, not sure if you're aware of the Marketplace online (http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/marketplace) - might make searching easier as you're starting out.
1) "Settings Tile" is 1 such app (I don't use these, so I can't recommend which one to install, but I've seen this one recommended... *shrug*) http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/102014a6-156e-4604-8f1a-2a86e4edf191
2 & 3 don't know, sorry
4) TestMyNet works decent: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/a25ec139-fc33-4571-9425-cf031a3312bb
5) No, sorry (I had it and never really used it...)
6) Answered above =)
You may also want to check out 'AppFlow' (http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/578ef361-c265-46b7-b6f4-63cbd7fbefe0) or some similar application recommendation app.
alodar1 said:
Dont know if someone mentioned this, but you're in the droid mentality right now. Like Apple, alot of the framework is locked down. Even with sideloads, alot of the framework is not available. HTC Hub is one of those. MS did not want that kind of screen and they don't allow it. WP is based on Live Tiles and they are sticking with it...for now.
You can change the lock screen pic by going to settings and Lock+Wallpaper. You can change the timeing settings and the picture. If you have a picture you want to use, go to your pictures hub and simply long press on the pic, use as wallpaper is an option.
But mostly, do not expect alot of hack/modding on these phones. For the most part, most of Windows phones, were Android phones at 1 time...ie the Samsung focus line. HD7 was the HD2 line which has been successfully ported to Android and WP7. If you want android type functionality in terms of look and feel...probably not gonna get it here. Of course, I could be wrong....but...who knows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I realize I still kinda am in that mentality. It's just there's so many little things I took for granted that I never realized were there until this happened. I love this platform so far though, I have no major complaints, just small issues with it. But thanks for the tip, yea I know about the HD2 cause the first thing my brother did when he got that a couple years ago was have me put Gingerbread on it lol. I'll stick with what I've got for now tho, this is a ridiculously smooth experience and if I've gotta make some sacrifices, oh well. I still get everything done that I want throughout the day...I just wished some apps were better supported.

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