Develop Bugs

Form size

Hi, i have a simple chat style sms application i am using on my T-Mobile SDA and i would like to port it to T-Mobile DASH. What should be the Form size so that it would fit the DASH screen?

The screen on a Dash is 320x240 pixels large, and after the browser steals viewing space the user gets about 300x220ish or so in usable space. If you need to do specific testing simply PM me and I would be more than willing to help out and give screen shots on how things look. If you wish to work independently you might want to look into the Microsoft emulators which have been made by Microsoft so people can emulate smart phone devices for testing programs and sites for this exact purpose.

thanks for the quick reply I will try to create blank form and PM you ASAP. I have just bought my excalibur online and havent received it yet so i cant test it on an actual unit.

Is this app a 'replacement' for the messaging account in outlook? Or will the messages continue to go to the existing inbox. Also, is MMS supported? I have waited so long for an app as good as the Palm Messaging beta, created specifically for a smartphone.

Orientation Aware Control
Hey oldsap,
I'm a mobile developer by trade and if you're looking for a flexible way to handle resolutions etc to make you're app a little more portable, take a look at the Orientation Aware Control that microsoft's patterns and practices group created:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480471.aspx
It can be downloaded from codeplex. Basically, you create a single form and it uses a resource file to store settings for various resolutions (control layout etc). No more need to make multiple copies of a form for each resolution you want to support. Good luck, hope that helps!
- Brian

curtislanham said:
Is this app a 'replacement' for the messaging account in outlook? Or will the messages continue to go to the existing inbox. Also, is MMS supported? I have waited so long for an app as good as the Palm Messaging beta, created specifically for a smartphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for the time being, ive created this to intercept all incoming sms so that they wont go to the inbox. But i can re-code it so that when a new sms arrives:
1. sms wont go to the existing inbox
2. sms will go to both the application AND inbox
it's not a perfect chat style application but it works well for me.
im still waiting for my DASH to arrive (ordered it from ebay) When i have ported it to DASH, ill post it here

windsorguy13 said:
Hey oldsap,
I'm a mobile developer by trade and if you're looking for a flexible way to handle resolutions etc to make you're app a little more portable, take a look at the Orientation Aware Control that microsoft's patterns and practices group created:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480471.aspx
It can be downloaded from codeplex. Basically, you create a single form and it uses a resource file to store settings for various resolutions (control layout etc). No more need to make multiple copies of a form for each resolution you want to support. Good luck, hope that helps!
- Brian
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip sir. I'll read about this. Im just a newbie programmer and can only create very very simple applications

I would have to say that a threaded SMS app is not simple!

curtislanham said:
I would have to say that a threaded SMS app is not simple!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i refer to my application as "simple" compared to PALM's threaded sms because it only uses Textbox instead of XML. It doesnt use colored fonts to distinguish sent and received sms. But it does have other features like save chat window, group sending, sms sent counter, sms filtering, etc

Contacts Manager Professional for TOUCH HD?

How a topic, exist one program for HTC that can custumized your contacts? I mean in my N95 i can choose one contact in my phonebook then select the sound that i want for this person and or if i want that when this person contact me the phone going to mute or silent.

I use agenda one which is excellant as it allows me to link appointments to people. It does allow specific ringtones for individual contacts, i think that outlook does as standard. As for answer mode I don,t think it can. One thing I would like would be to customise the contact info list so that you do not have to see telex numbers work address etc. I have asked several times but it seems to be a fault with the underlying outlook.

photo contacts pro 5.1 Enjoy~
*MOD EDIT*
No warez here!
Do it again, get banned.

"My first 10 days with Windows Phone 7"

I found this post on WP Central from a user by the name of "StrkerGT" and I have to agree with his findings and needs.
StrykerGt:
I jumped on the wagon on November 8 and got the Samsung Focus. I sold my iPhone 4 and I decided to keep it knowing that there are a lot of things missing on this OS but I know (if Microsoft really cares) will fix as soon as possible… Here is my list on the things that I consider missing in the telephone. I put them in order of FIX THIS NOW!!! to what I like in the future.
FIX THIS NOW!!!!!!!
• Visual Voicemail – Whoever decided to release the OS to the market without this should get fired right now! Come on Microsoft it is 2010 (almost 2011) this feature alone makes the phone look outdated. Please fix this a.s.a.p. I love to show off the telephone until someone asks to see the vm. This is inexcusable on this type of smartphone. Shame on you Microsoft!
• Global Address List - we have an Exchange Server 2003 (We have plans to upgrade to 2010 next year) in my company and it’s a pain to look for the contacts. Try to tell your boss about how awesome is the Windows Phone 7 OS and then tell him that in order to access the contacts on the GAL he has to put the address manually! This is something like the Visual Voice that has to be fixed now!
• HTML 5 – When I noticed that Microsoft put an already obsolete version of IE on the new Windows Phone 7 software without support for HTML 5 I said like in the WP7 ads, “Really?!” How come Microsoft that is telling everywhere that they are committed to HTML5 didn’t include it on the WP7 OS. Again, Microsoft, Really?!
• VPN Support - again come on!
• Marketplace Search – Hey Microsoft how about this, on the Marketplace put an option in Bing to filter what you want like apps, music etc. I hate to do a search for an app and get a bunch of other stuff like album, artist, song etc. The way you do it on the games hub is excellent please do the same in the Zune hub. I don’t go to the Zune hub to look for apps.
• Some kind of multi-tasking is much needed on this telephone Microsoft, get to work on this.
• SkyDrive Access I love the Skydrive concept but is completely ridiculous that I can put the files on the cloud but there is no way to access my documents directly on the phone. Something like Dropbox would be great.
• A favorite list for your contacts is a must, I really like the way this phone organize the contacts, but you always have that special list with contact you use more like family, friends etc. I don’t like to scroll to several work and business contacts to get what I need.
• Back Up/Restore – Please do something quick about this, there is no way to back up your settings, saved games, outlook configuration (certificates) downloaded apps etc. You have to re-download and re-configure everything every time that you reset your phone.
• Save Camera settings – It’s absurd to set everything every time that you use the camera. I feel like I have to put a flash bulb every time that I use the camera.
The things I want to see soon:
• I noticed that the telephone only vibrate once when you get a phone call. This is not good Microsoft. It should do both in case you have your telephone in the pocket or in a place with too much ambient noise.
• I’ll like to see the battery percentage on the notification bar. (I know the telephone already shows that information through one of the hacks but it will be great if I can see it easily.)
• Easier way to find the IP and MAC address. Again, (I know the telephone already shows that information through one of the hacks but it will be great if I can see it easily.)
• Add vibration to the Alarms
• Disable keys when playing games or at least pop a menu asking if you want to quit the app like the Facebook app.
• Run downloaded app directly from Marketplace
• Open file from any applications - example, open PDF files from Homepipe
• Unified Inbox or a mail Hub
• IE Address Bar in landscape mode
• Answer phone call when swipe up the lock screen
• Drop-Down notifications
• Outlook notifications (notification bar at the top, i.e. like receiving text messages)
• Volumes controls for Music, Notifications, Games, Alarms, etc.
• Market Place updates need to show what the update changes are.
I think that’s all for now, I’m planning to keep this phone because I know that this platform has a lot of room to grow but there are some things that have to be addressed now to put this platform on par with what other are already offering.

wsantiagow, your list is interesting and I agree with the vast majority of your points.
Especially this one:
wsantiagow said:
• SkyDrive Access I love the Skydrive concept but is completely ridiculous that I can put the files on the cloud but there is no way to access my documents directly on the phone. Something like Dropbox would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But I think most of them are on the way.... (I hope so)

wsantiagow said:
• Global Address List - we have an Exchange Server 2003 (We have plans to upgrade to 2010 next year) in my company and it’s a pain to look for the contacts. Try to tell your boss about how awesome is the Windows Phone 7 OS and then tell him that in order to access the contacts on the GAL he has to put the address manually! This is something like the Visual Voice that has to be fixed now!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine works just fine. If you hit the search button in the People Hub you have an option to search the Exchange server. The same option appears when you're addressing an email message. We use Exchange 2007. Maybe it's 2003 that doesn't support it.

jeffgeno said:
Mine works just fine. If you hit the search button in the People Hub you have an option to search the Exchange server. The same option appears when you're addressing an email message. We use Exchange 2007. Maybe it's 2003 that doesn't support it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No 2003 does not support it. Only 2007 and 2010 does.

...
• I noticed that the telephone only vibrate once when you get a phone call. This is not good Microsoft. It should do both in case you have your telephone in the pocket or in a place with too much ambient noise.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Really?"
10 char...

Visual voicemail as #1 missing feature? Really? What does it even do? I have an iPhone 4 at this time, and don't notice anything special about voicemail here. Am I stupid or what?

vangrieg said:
Visual voicemail as #1 missing feature? Really? What does it even do? I have an iPhone 4 at this time, and don't notice anything special about voicemail here. Am I stupid or what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiKi - "Visual voicemail is voice mail with a visual interface. Such an interface presents a list of messages for playback and may include a transcript of each message."
You may not notice anything special about it but try having a telephone that does not support it and you are trying to find a message from 100 voicemails. Non visual voicemail phones have to dial a number to get your messages and go one by one to find the one you are looking for.

wsantiagow said:
WiKi - "Visual voicemail is voice mail with a visual interface. Such an interface presents a list of messages for playback and may include a transcript of each message."
You may not notice anything special about it but try having a telephone that does not support it and you are trying to find a message from 100 voicemails. Non visual voicemail phones have to dial a number to get your messages and go one by one to find the one you are looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny how we survived before visual voicemail was available...

efjay said:
Funny how we survived before visual voicemail was available...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah and it's even funnier how we survived before smartphones were available...
Thanks to the op for post this here.

StrykerGT said:
Yeah and it's even funnier how we survived before smartphones were available...
Thanks to the op for post this here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe here in the US visual voicemail is a carrier feature. T Mobile has it and my wife and I hated it. Some people love it, but we are not two of them.

addicus said:
I believe here in the US visual voicemail is a carrier feature. T Mobile has it and my wife and I hated it. Some people love it, but we are not two of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on T-Mobile. How do you get visual voice mail?
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

Maybe it is a carrier feature because I don't have anything of the sort on my iPhone here. I can get a text message notifying me about who just left a voicemail and a number to tap and listen to the thing. Can't imagine when this wouldn't be enough. Rarely even have voicemail on - if I'm not available people text me, send emails, or use a gazillion of other methods to keep in touch.
Guess the love for answering machines is just a local US thing.

addicus said:
I believe here in the US visual voicemail is a carrier feature. T Mobile has it and my wife and I hated it. Some people love it, but we are not two of them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are Windows phones 7 right now with this feature on other carriers? EU or in the US? If that true then I'll change the list and put the blame on AT&T. I just hate to have to dial a telephone number hear a recorded message with options, press key to hear the voicemail in sequencial order press more keys to delete o hear it again. This is ridiculous, its the same method of any cheap flip phone out there since the last 15 years. AT&T support this on the iPhone since day one so I don't see why they won't allow it for this telephones.

vangrieg said:
Guess the love for answering machines is just a local US thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the contrary, I hate them, that is why I don't want to go through one everytime I get a message.

hicube said:
I'm on T-Mobile. How do you get visual voice mail?
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should be preloaded on your HD2 if you still have the stock rom, otherwise you need to find a cab for Windows Mobile, however if you have Android on your HD2, then it should be in the market place under Visual Voicemail, has a magenta colored logo

StrykerGT said:
On the contrary, I hate them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just turn voicemail off completely then.
Trust me, your life will only be better. Those who really need to tell you something or have you call back will easily find a way to communicate. Those who just waste your time won't do it.

wsantiagow said:
WiKi - "Visual voicemail is voice mail with a visual interface. Such an interface presents a list of messages for playback and may include a transcript of each message."
You may not notice anything special about it but try having a telephone that does not support it and you are trying to find a message from 100 voicemails. Non visual voicemail phones have to dial a number to get your messages and go one by one to find the one you are looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
$2.99 a month for this on Vzw ? I guess I'll stick with the old method.
After insurance, Data, text messages, taxes and all the other crap vzw charges me with...

I like my Focus but the iPhone 4 kicks it ass in every way except reception. I can't imagine Microsoft is sitting on it's collective hands doing nothing and hopefully there's an upgrade that's pretty inclusive of everything you've mentioned, hopefully it's soon and hopefully we don't get jerked around by the carriers again, as usual. Patience is a virtue, especially when you own the latest and barest. That having been said, however, with a little more than 2 weeks left to evaluate the Focus, I think I'm keeping it and selling the iPhone, the main reason being potential. The iPhone is close to running out of steam while WP7 has a huge amount of potential.

wsantiagow said:
WiKi - "Visual voicemail is voice mail with a visual interface. Such an interface presents a list of messages for playback and may include a transcript of each message."
You may not notice anything special about it but try having a telephone that does not support it and you are trying to find a message from 100 voicemails. Non visual voicemail phones have to dial a number to get your messages and go one by one to find the one you are looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you even want to save 100 voicemails? Listen to voice mail......delete voice mail.

TomH123 said:
Why would you even want to save 100 voicemails? Listen to voice mail......delete voice mail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Often for business you need it as "proof"...at least with the company and customers I work with...

[Q] Contact Groups

Does anyone know if there's a way to create contact groups for quickly texting or emailing a group of people?

greener88 said:
Does anyone know if there's a way to create contact groups for quickly texting or emailing a group of people?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1.................

i wish they did integrate categories (which outlook desktop offers). but anyways, the best work around i've seen is to create a text message (which is what i'm assuming you want this for) and add all the people you want to that message. then when you send it, and view the sms inbox, you can see the text you sent and it will say "x recipients". you can then reuse the list by clicking on it and writing a new message that way.
not the best approach, but it's works for the time being.

have you checked the marketplace?
I have seen sms apps in there like one called group sms or something to that effect.

We need more feature rich sms app, stock sms app horrid

Is anyone else disatisified with the sms app on our wp7? There's no contact photo of who you're talking too, the conversation does indicate who said what, such as my name isnt on one side and the other persons isn't either, just the contact name in big ol huge font at the top. I wish a developer would create a more feature rich sms app that shows contact photo facebook and twitter status updates and more copy and paste access such as copy and pasting entire strings of conversation that include the date and time. and last but not least
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE improve the mms application, it is so lacking does not play video nor gifs and whenever a funny ha ha mms with music is recieved it plays the music file first then shows you the image, its just awful

The sms client is bad and halfway done (no video support). we know that already... Yes they need to fix this issue... its a pita yo communicate with no decent I'm and half an mms client.
But you could have searched and bumped one of the other ten threads.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Gateau Noël said:
Is anyone else disatisified with the sms app on our wp7? There's no contact photo of who you're talking too, the conversation does indicate who said what, such as my name isnt on one side and the other persons isn't either, just the contact name in big ol huge font at the top. I wish a developer would create a more feature rich sms app that shows contact photo facebook and twitter status updates and more copy and paste access such as copy and pasting entire strings of conversation that include the date and time. and last but not least
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE improve the mms application, it is so lacking does not play video nor gifs and whenever a funny ha ha mms with music is recieved it plays the music file first then shows you the image, its just awful
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To the OP,be careful mate,M$ fan boys are watching you.your thread title might hurt their fragile heart.Then,they will start trolling and ask you do more researches before you buy a phone.
Anyway,i'm not a M$ fanboy,same here,wish they can add in more features to the stock sms app.
I wonder why there are homebrew sms apps for iOS such as bite sms&ireal sms,but why not this happen in WP7???weird....
cheers mate.just wait until fall,then your question might be answered or maybe...lets hope or just sell the device.

sylau90 said:
To the OP,be careful mate,M$ fan boys are watching you.your thread title might hurt their fragile heart.Then,they will start trolling and ask you do more researches before you buy a phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sylau90 said:
I wonder why there are homebrew sms apps for iOS such as bite sms&ireal sms,but why not this happen in WP7???weird....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd imagine because the API's are not yet available for Developers, like many others...

Gateau Noël said:
Is anyone else disatisified with the sms app on our wp7? There's no contact photo of who you're talking too, the conversation does indicate who said what, such as my name isnt on one side and the other persons isn't either, just the contact name in big ol huge font at the top. I wish a developer would create a more feature rich sms app that shows contact photo facebook and twitter status updates and more copy and paste access such as copy and pasting entire strings of conversation that include the date and time. and last but not least
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE improve the mms application, it is so lacking does not play video nor gifs and whenever a funny ha ha mms with music is recieved it plays the music file first then shows you the image, its just awful
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think there's anything inherently bad about the SMS app. I know who said what because there are only two people in the conversation, and I know what i've said Plus my texts are on the right and the others are on the left. Easy.
What you are listing aren't features, those are design considerations which don't suit your tastes. They suit mine. It's impossible to appease everyone.
BUT, this all boils down to the lack of APIs. If we had these APIs, someone would make an SMS client that you do like. If Microsoft keep going this way, they are going to realise that people won't sit around and wait forever for Microsoft to update. It is much easier to let the community do the work!
Now the MMS, from what I have read that does suck. I wouldn't know because I have an unbranded device and therefore am not allowed to enter my MMS settings...apparently.

i guess an improvement that can be made to the sms client would be to differentiate the sender and receiver by colours, as well as the left/right orientation.

Let me say this, I don't want to hurt or upset anyone's feelings on here, I'm pro Microsoft love all things from Redmond, I am a wp7 cheerleader!
I feel bad that I didn't look to see if any other threads had been started regarding the sams subject. My apologies.
I thank everyone for their opinions and input, it gives me a better understanding of why things are the way they are if that makes any sense.
With all the additional features coming to the mango update, I only hope that SMS client gets in on the juicy goodness
Sent from my HD7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

The call history, dosent show call duration, which is my biggest disappointment after ****ty battery..

I like the simplicity of the SMS app, true it would be nice to add video, but its elegant.

just like he said

To the OP: ah, I see you've never used windows mobile. You don't know what a horrid anything is.
ROARRRR I want my phone to fly a plane and do somersaults!!!!

The Windows Mobile SMS client was threaded and similar to the Blackberry SMS client, which is not a bad thing. It also supports full SMS Backup and Restore via Microsoft MyPhone (including MMS, IIRC). It was decent on a well-spec'd QWERTY device or a decently modded capacitive touchscreen device with the right OEM modifications. It is more than usable on the HD2, but its hardware support does stifle the Snapdragon SoC and Camera (Which is capable of HD Recording, IIRC).
The only thing I feel bad about with so many other Windows Mobile device users is that they had such crappy devices (WM minimum specs were so low, that you ended up with OEMs putting up ridiculously bad devices devoid of RAM/Storage and processing post). That never helped it...
@ OP if you don't know who's saying what in an SMS conversation then I dunno what to say. The chat bubbles are descriptive enough to let you know where stuff is coming from quite obviously, and that bubble type is used in almost every type of smartphone.

MS can make any improvement they want. I am happy with what i am having right now... Since i don't text much and the only thing i need is something that i could send and receive messege. I bought the whole new phone not for texting only.

Correct, but a dumb phone is a whole phone and they're cheaper to buy and service than a smartphone...
The issue for some users is that there aren't many good IM apps (if any) on the platform at the moment so you're really relient on SMS and email for textual communications (SMS is superior to email due to the fact that it's pushed irregardless of what type of phone the person has - feature phone IM clients often use encoded MMS). So, it makes issues with that particular application a bit more apparent.
Not that I think they are issues. I think it's kind of hard to not know who's saying what in the SMS client because the chat bubbles are clearly pointing in the correct directions. However, the lack of Voice/Video MMS does leave a functional black hole that even SMS clients on the platform do not fill.
The SMS client has issues, but those issues have nothing to do with the chat bubbles.
P.S. Tons of people who buy smartphones actually use the data connection more than they use it as a phone.