Related
My wife and I just got the T-Mobile Dash (s620, Excalibur, among other names) and we like it. However, we still have the following issues.
Can't turn off the backlight. (I think your right, I can deal with this.)
Backlight doesn't come on all the way in bright sunlight. (same here)
Can't find a slim, inward facing, plastic belt holster? (still looking)
Speed dial list isn't easy to get to (mapped to 2 - OK for now but would rather put this on my wife's Today Screen).
The 'touch' volume mechanism is silly. (will try setjogbar-free to begin using it as scroll instead, thanks caramelzappa and phonealarm -not free for vol ctrl, thx sergiopi)
Can't I just set the phone volume to as high as possible by default while I am on the phone and perhaps set hard buttons to control this? (thx again)
Can't modify the today screen. (still no great solution here)
Can't create Excel files. (will try Modaco-free but can't find it, thx sergiopi or Documents To Go-not free)
Can't set more than one alarm. (will try phonealarm not free, thx sergiopi)
Unlocking the keypad (press unlock > then *) is a bit of a nuisance. (I'm surviving)
Internet costs $20.00 - this is a rippoff, even at $6.00! (turning tzones into full internet access from the instructions found here.
Any assistance with some of these items would be greatly appreciated.
trpenner said:
My wife and I just got the T-Mobile Dash (630, Excalibur, among other names) and we like it. However, we have the following issues.
1) Can't turn off the backlight.
2) Backlight doesn't come on all the way in bright sunlight.
3) Can't find a slim, inward facing, plastic belt holster?
4) Speed dial list isn't easy to get to.
5) The 'touch' volume mechanism is silly.
6) Can't I just set the phone volume to as high as possible by default while I am on the phone and perhaps set hard buttons to control this?
7) Can't modify the today screen.
8) Can't create Excel files.
9) Can't set more than one alarm.
10) Unlocking the keypad (press unlock > then *) is a bit of a nuisance.
Any assistance with some of these items would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Why? just in settings>power management choose the backlight time out!
2) If you live in Antarctica during the summer this could be a big problem!
3) just drop it in yout pocket, is strong enought!
4) ???? Set it then press the number you sat for a couple of seconds... done
5,6, 9) I agree, I use phonealarm, it does the job an much more!
7) This is your fault, not excalibur's fault, Home screen is fully easy XML and there are hundreds home screen already done for landscape WM smartphones on the net
8) Modaco has the freeware solution to create word and excel files on the dash-excalibur
10) IMHO I fount it safe and easy
and remember GOOGLE IS THE BEST n00b's friend!
1) Why would you need to turn it off manually? You can set it to after a while, or you can hold the end call button and just lock the phone.
2)Why do you need the backlight in the sunlight?
3)Save yourself the humiliation and put your phone in your pocket.
4)Holding down a button is difficult? Seems the same as speed dial as any other phone.
4)Search for setjogbar, makes the touch pad much more useful.
5)Just set it to the highest volume and don't mess with it anymore. If you install setjogbar you can make it so it only controls volume in call, and works as a quick launch/scroll strip otherwise.
6)Search for homescreens. There are plenty available, caurasal is a nice one that last time I checked is on the front page of this forum.
7)There are programs that are available. Remember, it's windows mobile, and it relies on programs to do things the same way as windows does.
8)I don't know about your alarm problem, I don't use them.
9)How is the unlock sequence different than any other phone? A soft key and then * is pretty common for unlocking phones. The only difference perhaps is that the dash has smaller keys than most, but you get used to them quickly.
and btw, just because I can...its called an S620....not a 630, thats the uber cancelled HTC Cavilier...so HA!!
ashasaur said:
and btw, just because I can...its called an S620....not a 630, thats the uber cancelled HTC Cavilier...so HA!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
point taken, thx ash.
I have noted what I am still looking for. Thanks for everyone's help with my newbie list.
sergiopi said:
Modaco has the freeware solution to create word and excel files on the dash-excalibur
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not finding this one.
you could also update your ROM to WM6, you could then use Office Mobile...which lets you create docs, excels, whatever on your device.....and also, you can goto www.madbeetle.com, they offer a free homescreen makeing application that lets you make a homescreen(today screen aka) from scratch using a nice GUI...that may help you a little..
ashasaur said:
you could also update your ROM to WM6, you could then use Office Mobile...which lets you create docs, excels, whatever on your device.....and also, you can goto www.madbeetle.com, they offer a free homescreen makeing application that lets you make a homescreen(today screen aka) from scratch using a nice GUI...that may help you a little..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ash, thanks. I'll try madbeetle and and see how that works. Documents to Go won't as I can't find the crack for it. I am using WM6 and just went back into the Excel it comes with and can't figure out how to do a new Excel doc. Perhaps I am missing something?
Yeah, what you need to do, is first make an excel document on your computer...name is like blank.xml or somethin, whatever you want, and leave it blank, then on your Dash...open Excel Mobile and select your Excel doc, then click on Menu, the Save As, then rename it to something else, and it will create you a new file with that name, in addition to the one that you already had. Not real elegant, but it works with the software that you already have...no cracks or anything required!
ashasaur said:
and btw, just because I can...its called an S620....not a 630, thats the uber cancelled HTC Cavilier...so HA!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the S630 is cancelled? Why do I have it on my desk as we speak?
Very limited release my friend, HTC sent *some* out, but then decided to work on different products such as the Touch 2 and crap instead of focusing on another smartphone...go figure, since the S620 is like their best selling WM smartphone ever.....
ashasaur said:
you could also update your ROM to WM6, you could then use Office Mobile...which lets you create docs, excels, whatever on your device.....and also, you can goto www.madbeetle.com, they offer a free homescreen makeing application that lets you make a homescreen(today screen aka) from scratch using a nice GUI...that may help you a little..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi have WM6 ROM 1.33 without Office Mobile 6. I then installed Office Mobile 6 found in one of the thread, and tried to create a doc, but i don't think it would let u. can u walk me through how to do it ash, thanks a bunch (sorry 4 my noobie)
Sure, it's not elegant, but it gets the job done. What you need to do is first using your desktop PC, make a Word, Excel, Powerpoint file etc, and name it something like NEW DOC MAKER or the like and leave it blank. Then, transfer it to your device. Now open up whichever program you created it for(Word, Excel, PP etc) and wait for it too load. Once its loaded, press MENU, then select SAVE AS....and name it something else..like FOODZ or the like and hit SAVE. It will then create a new blank document called what you just specified in the same directory or folder as the original document. Hope this helps!
trpenner said:
My wife and I just got the T-Mobile Dash (s620, Excalibur, among other names) and we like it. However, we still have the following issues.
Can't turn off the backlight. (I think your right, I can deal with this.)
Backlight doesn't come on all the way in bright sunlight. (same here)
Can't find a slim, inward facing, plastic belt holster? (still looking)
Speed dial list isn't easy to get to (mapped to 2 - OK for now but would rather put this on my wife's Today Screen).
The 'touch' volume mechanism is silly. (will try setjogbar-free to begin using it as scroll instead, thanks caramelzappa and phonealarm -not free for vol ctrl, thx sergiopi)
Can't I just set the phone volume to as high as possible by default while I am on the phone and perhaps set hard buttons to control this? (thx again)
Can't modify the today screen. (still no great solution here)
Can't create Excel files. (will try Modaco-free but can't find it, thx sergiopi or Documents To Go-not free)
Can't set more than one alarm. (will try phonealarm not free, thx sergiopi)
Unlocking the keypad (press unlock > then *) is a bit of a nuisance. (I'm surviving)
Internet costs $20.00 - this is a rippoff, even at $6.00! (turning tzones into full internet access from the instructions found here.
Any assistance with some of these items would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found the freeware Schedy Mobile for creating multiple alarms with your own sound and display messages, check it out HERE
Does anyone know of any good Personal Information Management software for Windows Mobile? I am not asking a whole lot. Just be able to search for a key word among appointments, todos, notes shouldn't be too much to ask for, is it? The current Calendar and Task applications can't even do that.
Thanks!
there are a ton of them, google PIM, windows mobile and your search will come up with Pocket Informant, Agenda One, and a bunch of others.
thanks!
dmd1272 said:
there are a ton of them, google PIM, windows mobile and your search will come up with Pocket Informant, Agenda One, and a bunch of others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I have done a google search before. Like you said, there are a ton. Perhaps, I should change my question to which PIM is better for the WM 6.1.
thanks!
i have been using agenda one - works for everything I need and I am kinda picky. If theres something better fill me in. Download the free trial and see if you like it.
PIM
Try Papyrus or Agenda One - both are among the best
Agenda One not working very well
[email protected] said:
Try Papyrus or Agenda One - both are among the best
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the suggestions! I downloaded the trial version of Agenda One - supposed to be full featured with time limit. I tried several searches - some search all, some search only in appointment, or only todos. None of them worked. It looked like the program tried for a while, then it simply terminated (not the search, but the entire Agenda one program). It kicked me back to the today screen, and the process no longer listed in the task list
Try the recently released Papyrus 2. It's frakkin' amazing
try agendus over at www.iambic.com
Agenda One is no go
anewbie said:
Thank you for the suggestions! I downloaded the trial version of Agenda One - supposed to be full featured with time limit. I tried several searches - some search all, some search only in appointment, or only todos. None of them worked. It looked like the program tried for a while, then it simply terminated (not the search, but the entire Agenda one program). It kicked me back to the today screen, and the process no longer listed in the task list
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I signed up at Developer One support forum, and tried to post this question. It's been a couple of days, they don't even show my posting in the forum. I tried to ask the same question again, still blocked by the moderator. Oh well, moving on to Papyrus 2 trial now.
Thank you all for the suggestions! I thought I'd spend a few words sharing my opinions on the products I've been trying out:
Agenda One - in spite of the awards the company claims they have received, I find this product adds very little value to the existing WM 6.1 PIM functionality. Some pretty colors, that's it. When I started my quest for a better PIM, all I was looking for was a search function. Agenda One has it. I had made many variations of attempts to use it, search all, search in appointments only, search in todos only, search whole word, partial word, any words .... Not once did it ever complete the search with any result. Every single time, the function started, try for a while, then the program crashed. It simply terminate. I submitted the question to the company's support forum, the question itself didn't get posted until 5 days later - as the moderator has to screen every single post. When it did appear, other user indicated same problem on other smart phone as well. I'm not the only one.
Edit: the forum blocked my complaint, and finally come back with a question - it remotely sounds like it cares, but the question is useless. If they read my post, they would have found the answer there. I feel like dealing with a communist government official - sensor everything, sloooooooooow to respond and defend every criticism ...
Papyrus 2.0 - the calendar layouts are reasonably flexible, so you can customize how you want to see all the activities. The search is very fast, even if I have more than 30 matches, they show up as soon as the program finds them. There is one thing I don't like, but I suspect I may be able to figure out a way to change, that is, I only want to see todos that are not yet completed on a daily basis. Even though I have that specified, it is still showing me the todos that are already marked complete (not all of them, just the ones that have no dates associated with). To me, they are done, they are done. Why would I want to look at them everyday just because their complete dates were not marked? Other than that, everything seems to be pretty good. They've got nice colors just like Agenda One, and price is about the same.
Agendus Pro - Agendus Pro has a rich set of nice features - in addition to the regular calendar/todo/contact views, you can also access call log, email, quote of the day, day in history, weather forecast, and stock quote all from this application. I didn't think about these before, but, they are very nice to have. The cost of this product is no more than the others. Another nice feature - there is a tool bar (either on top or bottom of the screen) you can use to select the format of display (day view, week view, month view, list, contact, email, etc, etc. With the other products (Agenda One, and Papyrus), you have to press the view soft bottom, which brings up another screen that let you select the format. Agendus layout is more intuitive and direct.
Having said all of that, I do have a couple of complaints -
- Agendus Pro take up 3.7 MB, whereas Papyrus - 700 KB, Agenda One - 966 KB. These are the cab size, I know that Agendus Pro includes several language supports, which contribute to the bigger CAB size. Nevertheless, the memory foot print is still the biggest among the 3.
- my 2nd complaint is that when you load the program just to look at some details in an appointment, the program starts and you don't see anything in the calendar - it tells you that you don't have any activity. Then, a little box flashes "initializing ...", "initializing ...", "initializing ..." ... My screen went out 4 times before I can finally see the content of my day's calendar. If it takes less memory, I may just keep it running, which would not have the "initializing ..." problem. Since the program takes up so much memory, I don't want to keep it in the memory. This is a deal killer for me. It's too bad. I like the features a lot.
Edit: Since the above was written, I've tried two more software packages. Nothing stood out. One fenomenal ability make Papyrus shine among all the others is how fast the search function performs. Everyone else wait, and wait, and wait until they've collected all the matches and put them on the screen all at once. If you have a sizable database (mine has about 2000 entries), you'll be staring at a blank screen with a spinning wheel forever, the screen saver would kick in multiple times. Whereas Papyrus' search shows you the match results as it progresses through the database. Maybe the match I am looking for is the first couple out of 50, why would I need to wait until it finds 50 before showing me first two? That's just a simply logic. I don't get what the other developers were thinking ....
Needless to say, Papyrus 2.0 becomes my choice. Their forum is great, too! Very happy about this decision
thanks!
Hello again all,
I posted a few days ago about how I was going to move from MS to WAD2.
The thing about MS is although it's stable, and it works well..it's not configurable/customizable without great pain.
WAD is very configurable, but kills my battery in less than a day (with MS I can easily get 2 days or more). It's also very sluggish and doesn't seem to link directly into things eg, in MS hitting the SMS icon takes you into your sms folder, in WAD it takes you to the messages list where you have to select the sms folder adding additional clicks to get to what you want isn't really desirable. This is the same with the email icon.
So I thought I'd try winterface...which is far too complicated and just doesn't seem to be very user friendly
Is there anything else left to try? are these the top 3 that people are using?
Thanks
twisted-pixel said:
Hello again all,
I posted a few days ago about how I was going to move from MS to WAD2.
The thing about MS is although it's stable, and it works well..it's not configurable/customizable without great pain.
WAD is very configurable, but kills my battery in less than a day (with MS I can easily get 2 days or more). It's also very sluggish and doesn't seem to link directly into things eg, in MS hitting the SMS icon takes you into your sms folder, in WAD it takes you to the messages list where you have to select the sms folder adding additional clicks to get to what you want isn't really desirable. This is the same with the email icon.
So I thought I'd try winterface...which is far too complicated and just doesn't seem to be very user friendly
Is there anything else left to try? are these the top 3 that people are using?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can configure WAD to go to anything mate. The reason it is going to messaging when you want SMS is because the theme you are running links it that way. You can link to individual files, folders or .lnk files. THe .lnk files are great because you can pass parameters inside which is how the MS sms link is working anyway. There is no "sms" program, it IS the messaging program with a parameter passed upon execution.
I dont get too bad of battery life from WAD but I am nto really runnign aything else that would drain my batter so that may be helping me. There is nothing out there that can even shake a stick at WAD from a customization perspective. I say you stick with WAD and customize the themes yo ualready love with the links you desire.
ok I wanted to go grab more info for you about the sms thing. when looking at the sms.lnk file I created for my iphone theme, properties shows that to bring up sms directly you need to have
"tmail.exe" -service "SMS"
tmail.exe is just the messaging program and the rest tells it what service to start in. I believe setting to "MMS" also works as well as putting the account in the "". If you named you email Yahoo then "Yahoo" would work and th elnk would take you to the inbox of your yahoo account you set up
ok..that's a huge help as despite it's sluggishness and battery hungryness....I love the fact that I can do anything I want with WAD.
If only there was somewhere that told me about that command!!..I've downloaded the manuals etc, and there's no mention in them about how to use such commands, or how to make a meter, etc etc..
and I hate asking people too many questions.
twisted-pixel said:
ok..that's a huge help as despite it's sluggishness and battery hungryness....I love the fact that I can do anything I want with WAD.
If only there was somewhere that told me about that command!!..I've downloaded the manuals etc, and there's no mention in them about how to use such commands, or how to make a meter, etc etc..
and I hate asking people too many questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol i hear ya. I learned from here and other forums. I dont know all that much either. I just get an idea, assume it is possible and go search for ways to make it a reality
Hello XDA Community,
@DEVELOPERS: I need some developers with other devices to make things (at least parts of advanced explorer) work on other devices (i have a htd hd7). !Programming & Testing!
Please PM me
To bring all together what xda achieved for WP7, i wrote a helper app for the following tasks,
- File management
- Registry management
- Copy files from desktop to phone
- Copy files from phone to desktop
- Set max unsigned apps
- Provision any given XML
If you post in this thread how any of those features could be implemented on other devices, i will maybe implement them. You can always send me a modified version and i will maybe update this post with the new version!
Usage/(Release-)Notes on the website!
If you encounter any errors, or wanna give some feedback => just leave a post here or use the idea page or write me an email (go to contact on the homepage)!
I included the source code, so that anybody can modify it at will but do not use anything here for commercial purposes (contact me first).
Homepage for this project:
http://sites.google.com/site/yaafdevelopers/projects/advanced-explorer-for-wp7
You can give feedback / bugreports:
http://advancedexplorerwp7.codeplex.com/
(Go to Discussion or Issue Tracker)
You will find the latest version and the Release-Notes there. I will continue to watch this thread!
Because some people asked how to support/donate me:
I appreciate every donation! Thank you!
reddragon
He that is great stff... i am glad you added the source i was thinking about how this could work having had a little peek at the code in the samples that Ms provided.
wings over a thanks too
Question...If you send a file, where does the device dump it into the computer? I was getting an error sending the file to my computer at first, but then I configured correctly and it sends fine, but I don't know where it is...
Edit: Nevermind, I got it. Upload/Download Root folders. Good work on this app man. Pretty nifty. Uploaded a .doc from my laptop to the phone, copy/pasted it into My Docs and it appeared and opened on MS Office Word perfectly.
nice ! but ...
Nice app !
But can't send from \windows directory ?..
Re: can't send from \windows
Hey,
like i said in my first post i brought together what was achieved...
Im using the HTC app COM dll files for file system access. Actually you can send files from \windows but not all. (in usage or no access)...
If somebody knows a better way, or something for other devices => just implement and send it, or post here!
The problem: Now it works on my device, so I can do what i wanted to do (coping .pdf and other stuff on the wp7) I have not the time to search & wait for other devices.
I tried to code it very generic and emulated the System.IO namespace, so everybody can add his results or replace it with better results.
Just contact me and I will check the code and update the first post.
reddragon93
eternalemb said:
Question...If you send a file, where does the device dump it into the computer? I was getting an error sending the file to my computer at first, but then I configured correctly and it sends fine, but I don't know where it is...
Edit: Nevermind, I got it. Upload/Download Root folders. Good work on this app man. Pretty nifty. Uploaded a .doc from my laptop to the phone, copy/pasted it into My Docs and it appeared and opened on MS Office Word perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually you can double tab any file and it should open from any folder.
To get PDF working I copy the file to the PDF reader (most likely the app will crash if Adobe reader is not installed), but you will not see anything as PDF reader just pops up with the file
Just like always contact me if there are file types missing!
cool app, ty
how long did it take?
hi reddragon93, thank you for your work, i've an lg optimus 7, is there an eta for explorer for other device?
i need it!!!
thank you so much!
gianlucarugby said:
hi reddragon93, thank you for your work, i've an lg optimus 7, is there an eta for explorer for other device?
i need it!!!
thank you so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really can understand you because I needed this for myself (that's why I coded it in the first place)
But the answer is NO, because we have to wait until somebody finds a way to get access on other devices and shares the info (i will observe this thread for new infos).
And by the way you should not ask for ETA in developer forum (forum rules), but it's OK for me. Hope you will be the only one after my answer
I answered this question in my first post:
"If you post in this thread how any of those features could be implemented on other devices, i will maybe implement them"
Hope I answered your question.
reddragon
thanks, you were very kind,
apologize me for the ETA, i did not know, i'm just a student not a developer!
good work!
EDIT: I can't figure out how to mark a post as useful yet, so let me just say THANK YOU!!!
Awesome app. However, there are a few things that would be nice in terms of file types:
Any chance of getting support for loading .mobi files (Kindle ebooks)? I'd love to be able to sideload books that aren't in the Amazon store.
Currently, .log files won't open. Copy/renaming them to .txt should work, or a simple text reader/editor could be built-in.
Possible bug: the "Max unsigned apps" field in Settings is showing "Not set - (can't read from registry)" Setting it from within the app seems to work, though (and be remembered).
Feature request: ability to search the registry
Small change request: pressing Back on an Exception could do the same as OK (rather than exiting).
Overally, much thanks for an awesome tool!
Thanks for feedback
GoodDayToDie said:
EDIT: I can't figure out how to mark a post as useful yet, so let me just say THANK YOU!!!
Awesome app. However, there are a few things that would be nice in terms of file types:
Any chance of getting support for loading .mobi files (Kindle ebooks)? I'd love to be able to sideload books that aren't in the Amazon store.
Currently, .log files won't open. Copy/renaming them to .txt should work, or a simple text reader/editor could be built-in.
Possible bug: the "Max unsigned apps" field in Settings is showing "Not set - (can't read from registry)" Setting it from within the app seems to work, though (and be remembered).
Feature request: ability to search the registry
Small change request: pressing Back on an Exception could do the same as OK (rather than exiting).
Overally, much thanks for an awesome tool!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your feedback!
(1) I really needed the app for myself (real pdf support) so... The Thanks Button is only visible with 5+ Posts
(2) i will pm you maybe if i find some spare time. This is most likely pretty simple to implement. Can you edit your (or create a new) post and describe what happens if you double tab a kindle book with the current version?
(3) yeah i saw this before but didn't thought it is important enough to implement. I don't have the time for the own Editor (you have to handle really big files for example) but i can do the renaming thing behind the scenes (remember renaming = copy+delete until a better solution is found).
(4) on first app start i have really no solution in determining how the value is set (no access on this key). So my solution was to set this text ("Not set - (can't read from registry)" until you set a value => then i save this value local to the app, and set it every time the app starts (It gets reset every time i connect the device to the PC anyway)
(5) "search the registry": I thought on this one... But this will not be of much use as we have not really much read access
NOTE: The Problem with the registry is that we have FULL WRITE access trough the provxml method but not very much READ access (HTC COM .dll)
(6) really? I'm satisfied with the current behavior. Without searching I don't know if this is a small change maybe it is, maybe not. At least it looks like one but that doesn't mean anything
reddragon
Thanks for the response, reddragon. I'm at work right now, so the .mobi thing will have to wait. It's a very common request among WP7 users around here, though.
I've found that selecting the Edit context item will open any file in Word, which is typically sufficient for viewing and even editing purposes! True plain text files open fine regardless of extension, and even binary files will usually have enough ASCII in them to determine useful info. You can also send any file (via email) from Word, if you want to email an attachment rather than just transfer to a PC.
Unfortunately, I've found that XML files just... don't work. Double-clicking them opens IE, which complains that it can't handle that file type. Selecting Edit on them looks like it's opening some Office app, but the app then closes and drops back into Advanced Explorer (no error). This is the currently problematic filetype, as a *lot* of data is stored in XML.
The "Registry Editor" app already provides registry search (and despite the security restrictions on read it *mostly* works) but without system copy-paste it's tricky moving data between apps. I enjoy being able to pan between the FS and registry... hell, I want a Windows (desktop) app that does this, now.
It looks like there's FS search (an option on the command bar, and a text box that appears) but I can't get it to do anything. Pressing Enter has no effect, tapping either Refresh or Search again just reloads the page. Am I using this right? It would be great to be able to either scroll long folders (\Windows) or find a filename behind a bunch of GUIDs.
Some files show as "0 b" size, even though they almost certainly aren't. Is that just because some program has an exclusive lock on them and their size can't be read in that state?
Any chance of the ability to create folders in the GUI (I think I see how to do it with provxml files, but that's not exactly convenient)?
Thanks for the explanations on the registry. I was wondering how you could write to locations that you can't read from... Also, I didn't know the sideload limit resets itself. That's something I'll have to watch out for, as I'm near the nominal sideload limit already. Hmm... maybe I should look into writing an app that lets the phone install a .XAP directly, to minimize the amount of PC connecting that's needed.
Sorry, I know that's a lot of comments and questions. If it helps, I showed this to a couple of other HD7 owners today, and the immediate response of both of them was "I've got to get that!" This is a great app, super-convenient and good for making the occasional Samsung Focus owner jealous ;-D
Actually, I'm a developer myself (mostly C/C++, but I know C#). I'll crack a look at the source when I get a chance (probably this weekend) but would you be interested in a patch if there's something I can improve? One thing I might add is an optional "Did you mean that?" prompt on the Back button, as it's a little too easy to hit and knock you clear out of the app (optional of course, as I understand some people don't have such problems).
Thanks again!
does anyone know the latest ETA on compatibility for samsung devices?
Some Answers
GoodDayToDie said:
Thanks for the response, reddragon. I'm at work right now, so the .mobi thing will have to wait. It's a very common request among WP7 users around here, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said: I will pm you most likely, today or this weekend.
GoodDayToDie said:
I've found that selecting the Edit context item will open any file in Word, which is typically sufficient for viewing and even editing purposes! True plain text files open fine regardless of extension, and even binary files will usually have enough ASCII in them to determine useful info. You can also send any file (via email) from Word, if you want to email an attachment rather than just transfer to a PC.
Unfortunately, I've found that XML files just... don't work. Double-clicking them opens IE, which complains that it can't handle that file type. Selecting Edit on them looks like it's opening some Office app, but the app then closes and drops back into Advanced Explorer (no error). This is the currently problematic filetype, as a *lot* of data is stored in XML.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the best way to handle the edit mode would be an editor inside the app, but that's quite some work i guess... So if somebody is willing to write such a control just contact me!
But the current workaround is quite simple: Upload your file, edit it with the powerful editors you know and send it back to the phone...
In fact what i did was send the complete windows/applications folder and all files that where successfully send can be edited (on the others you have no access anyway).
GoodDayToDie said:
The "Registry Editor" app already provides registry search (and despite the security restrictions on read it *mostly* works) but without system copy-paste it's tricky moving data between apps. I enjoy being able to pan between the FS and registry... hell, I want a Windows (desktop) app that does this, now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I think it's not that difficult to implement a search for registry. It's funny to say that all the time but I thought on this one too and if you look on the source code you will see that i positioned the search/filter text box out of the explorer pivot to use it for registry search or other purposes. If you find it really that useful with the current read restrictions... yeah I should just implement it...
GoodDayToDie said:
It looks like there's FS search (an option on the command bar, and a text box that appears) but I can't get it to do anything. Pressing Enter has no effect, tapping either Refresh or Search again just reloads the page. Am I using this right? It would be great to be able to either scroll long folders (\Windows) or find a filename behind a bunch of GUIDs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact this is a filter function so that large folders can be loaded much faster. Just enter "a*" and make the keyboard disappear (tab anywhere else) and you see only the files/folders starting with "a". I don't know why "enter" on keyboard doesn't do anything, I will look into this. I should update the usage in my first post, thanks.
GoodDayToDie said:
Some files show as "0 b" size, even though they almost certainly aren't. Is that just because some program has an exclusive lock on them and their size can't be read in that state?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep.
From the htc COM call i get 0 bytes....
GoodDayToDie said:
Any chance of the ability to create folders in the GUI (I think I see how to do it with provxml files, but that's not exactly convenient)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hehe, i thought on this one too as it is already implemented (just create a folder in UploadRoot drop a file and start downloading it to the phone => the folder gets created). I will look into this.
Can you (or anybody) provide me with an example on how to rename a folder via provxml. And in Yaaf.WP7.NativeAccess.IO.File i have in the "Move" method some code commentated. Can somebody please un-comment, debug and tell me why the hell this provision-xml is invalid / not working, thanks.
(ProvisionXml is completely new to me as this is my first smartphone)
GoodDayToDie said:
Thanks for the explanations on the registry. I was wondering how you could write to locations that you can't read from... Also, I didn't know the sideload limit resets itself. That's something I'll have to watch out for, as I'm near the nominal sideload limit already. Hmm... maybe I should look into writing an app that lets the phone install a .XAP directly, to minimize the amount of PC connecting that's needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't look into that but i think it is not enough to simply create the guid folder and drop content there... Anyway you can use the "NativeAccess" Projekt to get all the access i used in the Explorer. But you have to create links from your main projekt to the COM-dlls so they get included into the xap file.
GoodDayToDie said:
Sorry, I know that's a lot of comments and questions. If it helps, I showed this to a couple of other HD7 owners today, and the immediate response of both of them was "I've got to get that!" This is a great app, super-convenient and good for making the occasional Samsung Focus owner jealous ;-D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what keeping me up i guess
GoodDayToDie said:
Actually, I'm a developer myself (mostly C/C++, but I know C#). I'll crack a look at the source when I get a chance (probably this weekend) but would you be interested in a patch if there's something I can improve? One thing I might add is an optional "Did you mean that?" prompt on the Back button, as it's a little too easy to hit and knock you clear out of the app (optional of course, as I understand some people don't have such problems).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm always interested in any patch especially support for other devices (I have a htc so I can't debug stuff for other devices :/ )
Yeah there could be an option for that. It's pretty easy to implement so... But i don't have this problem so i didn't realised that one.
GoodDayToDie said:
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your feedback
Muzzy777 said:
does anyone know the latest ETA on compatibility for samsung devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I answered this on the first page of the thread already, thanks.
EDIT: I updated the program and my first post and implemented some of your feature requests
reddragon
Configuration Service Provider Reference for Windows Mobile Devices
Have you used the forum-search? You'll find a post which describes you how to get these books to your phone (it's by me). I can't give you the link because I send this from my HD7.
really great app. Also like the pc<->phone feature
I use it now very often, so I think it needs:
-2 Filebrowser Tabs
-or an option to "bookmark" certain folders
diboze said:
really great app. Also like the pc<->phone feature
I use it now very often, so I think it needs:
-2 Filebrowser Tabs
-or an option to "bookmark" certain folders
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I talked to other people, at first this feature looks awesome, but after some time you would see that you don't use 2 tabs!
The bookmarking thing is a good idea...
Elerador said:
Have you used the forum-search? You'll find a post which describes you how to get these books to your phone (it's by me). I can't give you the link because I send this from my HD7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking into amazon kindle... what i can do for sure is copy the file into the kindle folder and start amazon kindle...
But i forgot how to start a program via app-guid. I remember that i saw an COM.dll which can do that.
__ow said:
Configuration Service Provider Reference for Windows Mobile Devices
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know that link but i don't see how you can move folders (if it is possible)
reddragon
Love the update! Thanks for cluing me in on the workings of the filter; I wasn't trying wildcards and it therefore looked like it was always empty.
That said, a bug report (reproed on the older version too):
Registry manual mode can crash with a System.ArgumentException "Invalid fullpath".
Start Advanced Explorer
Pan to Registry
Tap "edit manual"
Observe exception
App crashes on hitting OK
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.