Slide function replacing original MS scroll bar? - Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General

Is there a hack to replace native WinCE behavior on scrolling down with an iPhone like one?
Yes. I am aware there are lots of frontend applications like iContact etc. enabling iPhone look and feel. It is not what I really want. All the applications is a patchwork. It is heavy on resources, slow and basically disintegrated. Many applications are in development and lack of vital functions.
I am happy with the application set I currently have. It is stable, familiar and a-finger-operated. The only thing I miss is scrolling down like iPhone provides. One has to get stylus to scroll a scroll bar down/up.
Is there an option to replace the MS OS native library responsible for scrolling by a hacked one, which tracks the sliding finger behavior? (I am now with WM5)

if you use any ROM with TouchFlow, you'll propably forget about the scroll bars in most of the applications...
there is another programs, like FTouchFlo, which replicate the behavior of TouchFlow, with some add ons of course... you might want to check as well...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=338143
another thing you can do to get rid of the scroll bar (well most of it) is to change it's size to 1 pixel in width... so if you find your self in a situation where you really need the scoll bar, you just get the styus out and drag it on the edge of your screen....
I hope this will help....

duke911 said:
FTouchFlo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tested FTouchSL2.5. It works with limited success. For example it doesn't support MT Software TodayAgenda. Also the application side launch works bad. The function seems to be heavy on computation power and competes with today or requires a hard push and doesn't work with gentle gestures.
Is there aby option to post-update ROM with TouchFlow? How reliable the TouchFlow is?

kot_as_kot said:
I've tested FTouchSL2.5. It works with limited success. For example it doesn't support MT Software TodayAgenda. Also the application side launch works bad. The function seems to be heavy on computation power and competes with today or requires a hard push and doesn't work with gentle gestures.
Is there aby option to post-update ROM with TouchFlow? How reliable the TouchFlow is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Did you include some of those programmes to the exclusion list? Cos' some application comes with slide function on its own which may not work well with FTouchSL activated for it.
Also, you can configure the delay time for a gesture to work. If you like to use just a 'gentle' touch / slide to generate a quick response, try to set the delay to smaller value, e.g. 200 ms. etc.
I've no problem using FTouchSL and it's a must have for my phone.

Sian said:
include hose programmes to the exclusion list
set the delay to smaller value
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
smaller delay value did help to be more responsive. down-up slide launch works better now. all others launches don't. It seems the today interfere with the FTtouchSL. It is pity to say, but I didn't managed to exclude it. I couldn't find it as a program.

you can always use Spb PocketPlus 4, which has "smart scrolling" with a number of other features you might like. There is a fee for it though, but like I always say, if theres a will theres a way

You CAN exclude the desktop, you have to add it as a "window exception". Just manually type in either "Start" or "Desktop", I forgot which one

Azimuth21 said:
exclude the desktop as a "window exception"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this one was a good move. down-up gesture works like a charm now. (do not forget to enable gestures while except window) I am sure now, the program competed with desktop for resources to process the touchscreen control.
All other gesture movements don't work. It seems TodayAgenda still compete with FTouch

settings
what did you have for the Enable FtouchSL timeout:
how about the Gestures timeout:
i excluded the desktop. Click on Exceptions then add window title. in the window title, typed in desktop
is that right?

Related

New Applauncher idea

http://cre.ations.net/creation/dock
I was Digg'ing when I saw this little app. Can we do it so that it works on PPC and with any app and any launch icon (png preferably?)
The source code is in there... so this should be easy?
dferreira said:
http://cre.ations.net/creation/dock
I was Digg'ing when I saw this little app. Can we do it so that it works on PPC and with any app and any launch icon (png preferably?)
The source code is in there... so this should be easy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice !!!
Notice how fast it goes and no lagging
i wish someone can create a today plugin like this.. or a window based launcher.. i hate full screen apps..
it's possible to download it for my htc elf (wm06)
naillik said:
it's possible to download it for my htc elf (wm06)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, it won't work in any device except the iphone..
we are here to request some very good hearted and generous WM programmer to maybe find some time to create a similar application..
all other platforms are making very big leaps in terms of Menu Handling and Graphic User Interfaces.. these features makes or breaks a Platform's sales.. especially to those who are thinking of switching...
too bad Windows Mobile's base GUI is a decade behind the others..
so pleaaase.. pretty please? can someone look into making this? i may sound pathetic but if this is all i can do to make this slick launcher come to WM doorsteps and i'm willing to do more..
ytsejam_ said:
no, it won't work in any device except the iphone..
we are here to request some very good hearted and generous WM programmer to maybe find some time to create a similar application..
all other platforms are making very big leaps in terms of Menu Handling and Graphic User Interfaces.. these features makes or breaks a Platform's sales.. especially to those who are thinking of switching...
too bad Windows Mobile's base GUI is a decade behind the others..
so pleaaase.. pretty please? can someone look into making this? i may sound pathetic but if this is all i can do to make this slick launcher come to WM doorsteps and i'm willing to do more..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the other side, if it's just eyecandy, it's almost worthless.
I'm not convinced that this kind of GUI is really useful: one precise tap to move, maybe more, then on tap to launch. It appears to me that it's more efficient that one tap bring a menu, or like in PCM keyboard, one tap, 250ms later you can choose the right option.
tene said:
On the other side, if it's just eyecandy, it's almost worthless.
I'm not convinced that this kind of GUI is really useful: one precise tap to move, maybe more, then on tap to launch. It appears to me that it's more efficient that one tap bring a menu, or like in PCM keyboard, one tap, 250ms later you can choose the right option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes that's what i am aiming at.. maybe we could have a launcher icon that when you tap and hold, brings up a new set of icons, etc.. IMHO this is better that having bunch of little non-appealing tabs to click on, then click again to launch an app..
also, this GUI is more than of a today screen material for it displays a lot of shortcuts in one line, meaning more space left on today screen real estate.. so if you have a lot of shortcuts on your today screen, you don't have to fill the entire screen with icons or reduce the icon size to fit em all.. don't we all hate scroll bars on our today screen? with this, all you need to do is do a horizontal scroll (or maybe move D-pad left or right) to focus the offscreen shortcuts.. far better than tabbed launchers IMHO.. besides, finger scrolling is now easy to do and common to most new Devices due to Touch based ROMS..
Have you seen the MRU (Most Recent Apps) plugin on our WM Smartphones? this is the same concept, except that it launches specific shortcuts instead of shuffled apps, and navigation is controlled by a swipe movement..
Menu-based Launcher already exists
If you want to press a button to bring up a menu of icons, that already exists. Check out WM5NewMenu by saman-cz (this forum). It started off as a shortcut to add a new appointment or contact, but evolved into a program launcher with some really neat capability like nested menus and shortcuts for speeddial. Doesn't have icons though, just shortcut name (prob keeps the memory smaller).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=255580
I'd still be interested in a horizontal scroller for frequently used apps to replace cLaunch on the today screen if anyone can take that on...
tene said:
On the other side, if it's just eyecandy, it's almost worthless.
I'm not convinced that this kind of GUI is really useful: one precise tap to move, maybe more, then on tap to launch. It appears to me that it's more efficient that one tap bring a menu, or like in PCM keyboard, one tap, 250ms later you can choose the right option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tene I think your PocketCM is the general idea, instead of contact list and vertical scrolling you could make it shortcut list and horizontal scrolling.
Hello,
I lwould like to have an AppLauncher similar to the MacOSX bar.
in bottom U have small icons, if U are hove on one it becomes bigger and on releasing it, a Menu slides in the screen.
Im already trying to code such an app, in native C++.
But for a first Release ( just showing the GUI ) it' ll takes still a little time.
I have not so much in moment ( studying?!, moving into another house... ), also its my first Programm using the winapi....
So wish me luck....

(found) Cascaded programs-only menu

(edit) Quickmenu in english is out !
Hola amigos, since I don't use wisbar anymore I'd love to find such a launcher.
I want cascaded, direct access to the (initially submenu) programs list
I don't need to have recent apps or settings (builtin start menu already does the job quite well).
Cubes are useless to me (too slow, uncomplete lists, don't use the contacts fav. page)
Do you know something like that, or is it still to develop ?
Would you like it as well ?
And at last, does someone know how to make a shortcut that launch builtin start menu ?
Thanks for reading !
SmallMenu seems to be the perfect candidate for you. the start menu that SmallMenu uses is customizable, so you can take out the Recent Programs and Settings as you wish, as well as adding other items such as Running Tasks or Task Management Tools, among other things.
or WisBar Lite.
Thanks for your answers, I just tried both of them:
Wisbar lite is too slow at scrolling application list and can't directly display programs (one need to open the programs submenu).
SmallMenu is really cool. It's uglish, but it does its job well.
I may write another launcher to fit exactly what I need with a better look.
Meanwhile, thank you for the hint !
So, what you want is a pretty SmallMenu? How pretty you want it to be? I mean.. er.. care for a photoshopped of what you are having in mind?
Ok, I just played a bit more with SmallMenu & it's almost perfect.
Actually, I'm member of the Ban-The-Stylus association
Above all I want bigger buttons (I should have mentionned it before), for easy thumb operation.
Also a better look would be nice.
So I need a bigger font (that looks better), separators between each row and a gradient background for each row as well.
The ability to have running tasks displayed in a submenu is also great, and so would be the closing icon if it was, once more, bigger.
Or much better, if we could close the application with tap 'n hold !
I'd be glad to purchase if that wishlist is fulfilled, the problem is, I can't even find a Contact link on their homepage, while the development seems active. Weird.
Do you have an idea how to contact them ?
Small menu is great and all. But isnt there any program out there that can cascade the start menu and dosent give you all the extra stuff thats in small menu and wisebar lite?
I just want a program that cascades the start menu. no task manger, no soft reset, no battery meter and so on....
KidGixxer said:
Small menu is great and all. But isnt there any program out there that can cascade the start menu and dosent give you all the extra stuff thats in small menu ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can disable them. I don't think your concern is about 20/30kb storage space ?
I've been using SmallMenuPlus for a few months and find it too useful to be without. Organize your programs into like directories and it's too easy.
With it being an execute file you can link it to a hard button, cube, shortcut or even a FTouchFlo launch swipe
Now I have no use for the default WM Start bar except to get into Settings (SmallMenu seems to forget where this is on every S/R).
I have no problem navigating and selecting with my thumb, although slightly larger icons wouldn't be rejected.
Taping the small icon in the top left corner can be hit-and-miss sometimes so I made my own larger one and select it with the 'Use external skin for start button' option. This way I can't miss it but still leave a little room to get the default Start bar if I need to. Make your icon 25 high and any width, mine is 42x25.
No one is aware how to contact Small Menu authors ?
Do we get an email address to contact them when we register ?
I'd like to see if they can do something about my requests before I register.... but no forum, no contact form, no email, too bad
alternatively you could try psw indibar 2.7.0 for cascading menus, (have tried the lot and to me, this one's the keeper), and it tops up by giving ram and or battery meters on the top bar, or anywhere you want.
Customization is a pain in the beginning, but once done you;ll be happy
www.apoxsoft.com
lastnikita said:
No one is aware how to contact Small Menu authors ?
Do we get an email address to contact them when we register ?
I'd like to see if they can do something about my requests before I register.... but no forum, no contact form, no email, too bad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try [email protected]
how about "quick menu"... a totally free cascading menu supporting today themes without handicaping the original today menu....the only problem is...only simplified chinese version is available....
http://www.yonsm.net/read.php?358&page=6
note: the latest version is 2.7 which was released on 22/10
by the way, this is his email address: [email protected] egg on him to release an english version if you like quick menu as i do^^
Thanks a lot for both suggestion and contact link, I'll give them a try later tonight !
I have sent a mail to that guy. His other software is in english so I think we have a chance.
iiiox said:
how about "quick menu"... a totally free cascading menu supporting today themes without handicaping the original today menu....the only problem is...only simplified chinese version is available....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm giving up on trying it, too lazy ^^
Does it support font customization (size) ?
Lastnikita,
This is something I am very interested in, if that gives you any motivation.
I too used to use Wisbar but it was far too hit and miss for my liking. Sometimes it would load in, sometimes not. It all depended on teh theme in use at the time as it was sensitive to some, not sensitive to others. In the end I pulled it.
Will keep a watching brief on this thread to see how you get on.
Cheers
WB
iiiox said:
how about "quick menu"... a totally free cascading menu supporting today themes without handicaping the original today menu....the only problem is...only simplified chinese version is available....
http://www.yonsm.net/read.php?358&page=6
note: the latest version is 2.7 which was released on 22/10
by the way, this is his email address: [email protected] egg on him to release an english version if you like quick menu as i do^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yea this program rocks. I searched around for QuickMenu 2.6. from what i found out, he is working on an english version but having problems.
wacky.banana said:
I too used to use Wisbar but it was far too hit and miss for my liking. Sometimes it would load in, sometimes not. It all depended on teh theme in use at the time as it was sensitive to some, not sensitive to others. In the end I pulled it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to sound like a commercial but if plain old vanilla cascading start menu is what you want then why not use WA3 with the default theme which looks pretty much like the WM6 default and disable all the bells and whistles?
I've never heard of a case where the default theme wouldn't load -- it was usually the fancy aftermarket themes that added all of the extra graphics and sounds that caused the loading problems.
can't you just use wm5newmenu?

[2008-02-03] FTouchSL released! (former FTouchFlo)

Dear friends,
We are very happy to announce that FTouchSL (former FTouchFlo) officially released!
You can find it at the FTouchSL web-site: www.ftouchsl.com
At the moment FTouchSL available in 2 versions: trial and full. Yes, you understand right - it is not a freeware application anymore. We had to choose this way because otherwise we would need to stop development.
FTouchSL development team worked hard last few months and we believe you will like new Product available on the xDA software market.
With best regards,
FTouchSL development team.
WOW..so cool thanx alot..will try first
If anybody deserves to make money off software its efrost. What does the 'F' in FTouchFlo stand for? Ive always been curious,the possibilities are endless.....
Just ordered my copy. A note: maybe include in the website how we get it once we pay, I'm not sure if you're e-mailing it, or do I receive a key? Thanks.
Also note: I would suggest to you Efrost, maybe upload some of those videos here, that's what convinced me to buy, they look amazing.
**edit
My little review
I found the trial version very difficult to use between the popups. I was having a problem where *I think* then when I would set Up-Down to "minimize" it would freeze up and disable the "the Enable FTouchSL" checkbox and I couldn't find a way (using keyboard and hardkeys) to re-check the box (since windows touch was disabled): I think there needs to be a way to check and uncheck this using hardkeys.
with that being said:
I love the plugins. "Slide to lock" works great - You can assign Down-Up to lock, Updown to Minimize, Left-right to rotate screeen
It is a little harder to scroll a few lines at a top, you need to "chop" more, little chops with your finger otherwise teh kinetic scroll takes over and it scrolls too much, it's just a matter of getting used to it. Great product ,I recommend.
Hello!
Thank you for your order!
Please provide us (by e-mail) with your device identifier which you can find in the About box in the FTouchSL configuration utility.
You'll get your license key immediately by e-mail!
Best regards,
efrost
elgreek84 said:
Just ordered my copy. A note: maybe include in the website how we get it once we pay, I'm not sure if you're e-mailing it, or do I receive a key? Thanks.
Also note: I would suggest to you Efrost, maybe upload some of those videos here, that's what convinced me to buy, they look amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I somewhat had a feeling it will go commercial. And since it was a very good program I am not surprised. If you need help localizing it/or product webpage into Czech (just kidding ) or Slovak language, let me know.
first view, on the videos, it seems nicer than ftouchflo...is there any exclude config file for Apps you dont want FtouchSL to scroll ?
cAnArdtichAud said:
first view, on the videos, it seems nicer than ftouchflo...is there any exclude config file for Apps you dont want FtouchSL to scroll ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello!
Please look at the "Product info" page. It is possible to configure FTouchSL for particular applications: you can completely turn off FTouchSL, disable scrolling, disable launching, disable active corners or set up different actions.
Best regards,
efrost
KarhU said:
If you need help localizing it/or product webpage into Czech (just kidding ) or Slovak language, let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello! Thanks a lot!
Best regards,
efrost
Hello, guys! I need an answer! This aplication will be change the default TouchFlo app on HTC Touch, won't it?
Beaumont said:
Hello, guys! I need an answer! This aplication will be change the default TouchFlo app on HTC Touch, won't it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello!
There are options: you can disable original TouchFLO if you want or you can disable FTouchSL scrolling function and use original TouchFLO.
Best regards,
efrost
Just downloaded the trial... Latter I´m going to install and play with it!
I never tried this before so I loaded FTouchFlo on my att 8925. Original ROM on the phone. It locks up randomly and never did that before. Does FTouchSL work differently? I disabled TouchFlo to run FTouchFlo.
By the way, props to you for this, whether or not it works on my phone.
Eric29 said:
I never tried this before so I loaded FTouchFlo on my att 8925. Original ROM on the phone. It locks up randomly and never did that before. Does FTouchSL work differently? I disabled TouchFlo to run FTouchFlo.
By the way, props to you for this, whether or not it works on my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello!
Last few months we were improving the engine and fixing bugs. I hope you'll not have locks!
Best regards,
efrost
What I think about this...
Think I'm one of the few privileged 'early bird' who get to test out this greatly improved version of FTouchFlo by efrost! Most of us here at xda-developers are no stranger to FTouchFlo, as well as EfrostMinimize, two great programs which made our experience in using our PPC a much pleasant one.
For those who don't quite know about FTouchFlo, in essence, FTouchFlo allows PPC users to perform scrolling without using the default tiny scroll bar that comes with WM OS. It also allows user to append different programme (for the 4 directions - up, down left & right) which will be launched by the swiping gesture of one's finger on the PPC screen.
FTouchSL has brought the above functions to yet another level. Check their official website - www.ftouchsl.com for the details. As I was greatly 'blessed' by this application, I thought I should share with all my take of & experience in using this software. Hopefully for those who are still wondering what this is or contemplating on getting it will find my 'sharing' helpful.
Quick Start Tutorial
I find the 'Quick Start Tutorial', put together by efrost and team to guide users (especially those who are totally new) through all the functions of FTouchSL, was very well done and useful. It will launch after the installation. Try not to skip it.
Scrolling
The scrolling under FTouchSL is much better than FTouchFlo, especially with the newly added kinetic function (like the one in PocketCM and iContact), which is a nice touch to the scrolling effect, and making scrolling through long pages (e.g. Contact listing) a breeze.
In addition, you can freely roam about a big page (e.g. web page) by keeping your finger on the screen and just move around in the direction you want, horizontally, diagonally etc.
Gestures
Instead of just launching application/files, now user can also launch plug-in (e.g. Minimize, Suspend, Soft reset, etc) and send keys (feature that simulate key press of D-Pad) for the four directions!
Active Corners
This is something new, not found in FTouchFlo. Basically, one can assign applications/functions to be launched at the 4 corners, just like gesture.
Setting Panel
Setting Penal has all the features clearly listed, with nicely drawn icons which makes it clear which feature it is, at one glance. A picture does speak a thousand words!
You can really tell efrost and team put in a lot of effort to make the Setting Panel user-friendly. You can actually see the 'zone' (colored) which you can customize for gesture and active corners, and not just trying to second guess how big 40 x 40 pixels is!!
Configuration
Personally, I find the ability to configure (in depth!) the various features display how much improvements was done to FTouchSL as compared to FTouchFlo.
You can customize the delay time for scrolling, gesture and active corners i.e. how long your finger need to be in contact with the screen for 'scrolling/ gesture/active corners' function to kick in. I prefer 300 milliseconds (ms) for gesture instead of the 500ms, and a shorter 600 or 800ms for active corner, rather than 1000ms. Then again, this is really individual preference.
As mentioned earlier, you can also customize how big the 'zone' for gesture and active corners. For users with bigger fingers like me, we may want to increase from 40 pixels to say 50. Oh yes, the zone need not be symmetrical.
Exclusion
Ok, here's the most exciting bit - Exclusion. While FTouchFlo allows you to exclude applications from using FTouchFlo, FTouchSL allows more than that. You can actually customize, for those applications which may not require FTouchSL (thus you want to include them in Exclusion list), which feature to be excluded. Meaning, do you want to exclude everything, or just the scrolling, with gesture and active corners enabled, etc. Interesting right!? Wait, there is more!
You can actually choose which gesture and corner to be enabled!! And you can also customize a different set (from the main one) of actions/applications to be activated by gesture/active corners for each and every application!! So, FTouchSL can be set to launch different applications for the Down-Up swipe gesture for Inbox, ereader etc. just an example!
efrost has shared a good one - customize left and right gesture to activate send key 'left' and 'right' in tmail. When you are in your Inbox, you can switch to from SMS to MMS to Outlook, etc by just swiping left and right!
Think the possibilities are only constrained by one's imagination. Do share with us if you find some combinations to be really good!
Some Possible Enhancements
I also notice some possible enhancements (mostly cosmetic and presentation, rather than functionality) which efrost and team can consider.
1) The Setting Panel is a bit too small for my rather big finger. Making it bigger would be nice. My preference goes to something like the Config Panel for S2U2.
2) Also, the inverted triangle for the drop down list panel for customizing actions for gesture and active corner is a bit too close to the right edge for comfort use.
3) More write-up/description for each item in the Setting Panel would be helpful I think, especially for new users.
E.g. Instead of just a word 'Delay', how about a short line saying 'The time you need to press on the screen'.
4) Personally, I would like to see a 'cooler' icon for this product.
So far I have no problem using this application on my Trinity. Doesn't lock up my device nor causing it any problem after using it for days. If you're still hesitant or doubtful about how good this application is, just give it a try and I believe most of us will not regret paying a small sum for such a great improvement FTouchSL does to our experience in using our PPC!
Sian
thanks so much for developing such a good s/w for us.
going for trial fisrt!!!
Much respect for your hard work efrost! I will definitely purchase a copy.
Paid for and happy I did!
Here's my support mate!
Receipt ID: 2VG90842GH7292327
Many Thanks!
Here is my thanks to efrost for having me appreciate authors more on maintaining freeware through all stages of developement and final builds. I LOVE YOU ALL PointUI team, and especially Tene for pocketCM you are truely the support of XDA community.
Edit: BTW before any flames start, I thought I would point out that this is not to be taken in a negative view. Just awed on how they are able to maintaine thier life to something with keeping a finacial status a float?? Maybe someone can put these in better words.
Thanks.
efrost said:
Hello!
Last few months we were improving the engine and fixing bugs. I hope you'll not have locks!
Best regards,
efrost
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it didn't work for my Trinity! Ftouchflo was super stable. FTouchSL freezes it every minute. Had to disable FTouchSL after 5 frustrating minutes...

[App Request] Gesture controlled favorite contact today plugin

I would like to see a today plugin that features quick contacts (Kind of like the HTC home plugin).
The features I would like to see are:
* Today plugin
* Either use photo or set text for each contact.
* Opens contact in default contacts app, doesn't just dial (ie so you can choose to send an SMS)
* Vertical or horizontal list scrolled by gesture. Vertical or horizontal option would be nice, but vertical scroll probably more important - a lot of cube apps (eg ultimatelaunch) are controlled by horizontal gesture, if we could have this contacts app controlled with vertical gesture it would not interfere.
Please note that I mean a gesture controlled list WITHIN the today screen window, not as a seperate full screen app - plenty of things already do this.
* No add contact interface would be required, adding contacts to be included in dialer into a regular outlook category would be perfectly acceptable. Showing photo if contact has one or name if not would also be perfectly acceptable rather than an interface to select that.
V2R Photo Dialer 2 is almost exactly what I want but is controlled by horizontal gesture only. I tried to contact V2R to request this change but I received no response.
[Edit: Thinking about it, it doesn't need to be a favorites dialler, it could just have tickboxes for each category - if you want to use it as a favorite contacts launcher, just set it to the "favorites" category only, or you could leave all categories on to show the whole contacts list]
I'm using Face Contact which has all you've asking for, except horizontal but if you use Ultimate Launch then you can exclude the plugin from the gestures of Ultimate Launch.
http://www.cnetx.com/products/contact/
Nice app - I prefer it to the V2R one. I have emailed the author asking for the option of vertical gesture to scroll the list. I don't care if the list spins horizontally as it is, as long as I can spin it with a vertical gesture so it don't interfere with ultimatelaunch.
evilc said:
I would like to see a today plugin that features quick contacts (Kind of like the HTC home plugin).
The features I would like to see are:
* Today plugin
* Either use photo or set text for each contact.
* Opens contact in default contacts app, doesn't just dial (ie so you can choose to send an SMS)
* Vertical or horizontal list scrolled by gesture. Vertical or horizontal option would be nice, but vertical scroll probably more important - a lot of cube apps (eg ultimatelaunch) are controlled by horizontal gesture, if we could have this contacts app controlled with vertical gesture it would not interfere.
Please note that I mean a gesture controlled list WITHIN the today screen window, not as a seperate full screen app - plenty of things already do this.
* No add contact interface would be required, adding contacts to be included in dialer into a regular outlook category would be perfectly acceptable. Showing photo if contact has one or name if not would also be perfectly acceptable rather than an interface to select that.
V2R Photo Dialer 2 is almost exactly what I want but is controlled by horizontal gesture only. I tried to contact V2R to request this change but I received no response.
[Edit: Thinking about it, it doesn't need to be a favorites dialler, it could just have tickboxes for each category - if you want to use it as a favorite contacts launcher, just set it to the "favorites" category only, or you could leave all categories on to show the whole contacts list]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do horizontal scrolling photodial with my app, throttlelauncher.... It's free, so if you want to, try it . You can install it from http://www.throttlelauncher.com. After making the full instalation (use the exe setup or install both cabs) here you have a little setup cab for a theme showing only a contact row (if you're interested, you can have much more showing app's and other stuff in multiple pages). So to sum up:
- Go to http://www.throttlelauncher.com/
- Ensure you install everything on the same media (SD or device)
- Install both cab or use the desktop instalation in full mode.
- Install the cab attached to this thread.
- Enable throttletoday today plugin (it might take a little bit to load)
- Add as much contacts as you wish to the row .
Feel free to post any comments, requests or constructive critics . You can customize an xml to make the photos biger, order them in multiple rows, remove the ad delete icons, etc. Hope it matches what you're looking for....
Thanks for that, but the ThrottleLaunch PhotoDialer only allows scrolling of contacts via a horizontal gesture. I need to control it with a *vertical* (up/down) gesture. Also, ThrottleToday will not show inside ultimatelaunch - it will show if I put it on the main Today screen, but trying to add it as a today plugin in ultimatelaunch does nothing.
I did get an encouraging response from the makers of Face Contact yesterday though:
Hello,
thanks for your feedback.
At first thought, the idea of using a vertical gesture and having the list scroll horizontally appears a little bit disturbing, but we think we understand the rationale behind your suggestion.
We will indeed play around with UltimateLaunch to see if you can find out an option that is both intuitive and that allows Face Contact to be usable within their interface.
As it is now a possible solution is to exclude our plugin from being affected by Ultimate Launch gestures, so that when our plugin is active (and only in this circumstance) the left-right gestures will actually scroll the contact list instead than spinning the cube. Then, as soon as you apply the left/right gestures outside of our plugin, the cube will take control.
When developing Face Contact we left the door open to the possibility of having a vertical layout of the contact list, though, of course, this doesn't fit well with the current Today screen organization, which assumes all plugins are placed horizontally. In other words, it wouldn't be that difficult for us to layout the whole list vertically instead than horizontally,
So, we will definitely keep your comment in mind, as it is possible that within a different context (such as Ultimate Launch), we could actually provide both a vertical layout and vertical gesture, which would indeed make quite a lot of sense.
At this stage, having just released Face Contact a couple of days ago, we are currently gathering feedback to see how to move on with further releases and updates.
So, your feedback is very welcome: thanks again.
Best regards,
The CNetX Support Team
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded Face Contact last night, and so far I am liking it. The reason I went with Face over VR2 is the space issue. VR2 looked to take a lot of space up in the Today screen, and being on a 240x240, space is a big issue. Face seemed to take a minimum of memory and leave room on my screen. I have it in a Shell tab with the native Palm picture dialer. The only option I could think of adding is the ability to dial automatically when the picture is pressed. I know that can lead to a lot of mis-dialings, but maybe a setting like normal usage until the pic is pressed for a second or so, and then the chosen primary number is dialed. If that makes sense great, if not, please let me know and I will try to explain better!!
Here is a screen shot of where I have Face on my Today screen:
im using face contact. it does everything you are asking for. im also using ultimatelaunch, the two make beautiful music together. especially if you choose the "disable gesture" feature when you enable it in ul. ive played with this quite a bit, and it is very intuitive how smooth everything STILL works. especially for these to be a first version for both apps. experiment with it. the result is perfect
Lots of nice feedback here: thanks guys.
syrguy1969 said:
...
The only option I could think of adding is the ability to dial automatically when the picture is pressed. I know that can lead to a lot of mis-dialings, but maybe a setting like normal usage until the pic is pressed for a second or so, and then the chosen primary number is dialed. If that makes sense great, if not, please let me know and I will try to explain better!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if this is referred to Face Contact, or to other software you are using. If you are actually talking about FC, then please note that you can easily reassign the TAP and TAP & HOLD actions to trigger different commands, including CALLING the selected contact. Just check the "Action Settings" screen and you'll find the options there.
Also note that when Face Contact is the active plugin you should be able to CALL the selected contact by simply pressing the START CALL key of your phone. This is usually easier and less error-prone than having to tap or tap and hold. And, if you call by using the START CALL key, you can use the tap and tap&hold actions for other things, such as displaying the shortcut menu, or accessing the Face Contact Manager.
PS: we have included quite an extensive help file, with lots of tips and tricks and information on things like this. Maybe you may want to give it a quick look.
I guess I missed the tap+hold part, that is exactly what I was getting at!!! I guess this app has just about it all for me then, I will keep testing like crazy, but so far I am very pleased with it!!!
i'm using throttle now, but the pics look like garbage. I'm seriously OCD about the dumbest stuff, so I'm still looking for an answer. I just want face contact to have a transparent background, and I'd buy it.
J Shed said:
...
I just want face contact to have a transparent background, and I'd buy it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Shed, please have a look at my post concerning the plugin background in the Face Contact thread here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=378145&page=7
evilc said:
Thanks for that, but the ThrottleLaunch PhotoDialer only allows scrolling of contacts via a horizontal gesture. I need to control it with a *vertical* (up/down) gesture. Also, ThrottleToday will not show inside ultimatelaunch - it will show if I put it on the main Today screen, but trying to add it as a today plugin in ultimatelaunch does nothing.
I did get an encouraging response from the makers of Face Contact yesterday though:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi evilc!
Sorry for the delay on the answer. Vertical scroll on throttlelauncher is planned for a further release (probably 1.0), it's still alpha so many things are missing but I thought It will mach what you where looking for... Any way, I've install UL and find out why the plugin is not showing... seem's that UL doesn't work exactly like the today screen when hosting today plugins (probably to save some memory) so the today plugin exe is not launching. To sum up, to make throttletoday plugin show inside UL the only thing needed is running manually the ThrottleTodayPlugin.exe located on the throttlelauncher instalation path. At least that worked for me. Also as you've said the horizontal scrolling will interfer with the tab change gesture so disabling os setting a time out it is needed by now....
J Shed said:
i'm using throttle now, but the pics look like garbage. I'm seriously OCD about the dumbest stuff, so I'm still looking for an answer. I just want face contact to have a transparent background, and I'd buy it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi shed!
If contact photos don't look good you can try playing with the config.xml file to change the contact photo width an height values (I recommend to keep the 3/4 ratio if you use standar photo dial photos). The config.xml file will be inside the PhotoDialer1Row (or 2Row if you use this one) on your setups folder on your throttlelauncher instalation path. All you need to do is search for the allcontactswithphoto tag and play with it's height and width attribute.
Gabibbo:
I saw your post and had already replied. I'm just waiting for the version to show up.
APBilbo:
I have thinkered with that setting, the problem is in just how throttle scales the images. I don't recall the terms, but the scaled images are distorted.
@evilc .... I too use face contacts in a UL panel. When you use the disable gesture feature, It only disables the gestures from being passed to UL in the active plugin area. You can still spin the cube via gesture in an inactive area of the panel. Or if combined with something else, an area that does not otherwise respond to a gesture. Try it out.... In my case I have found that though it is a great idea, the vertical gesturing is not necessary for a fully functional solution.
J Shed said:
...
APBilbo:
I have thinkered with that setting, the problem is in just how throttle scales the images. I don't recall the terms, but the scaled images are distorted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, thanks for the info... I'll take a look at that... It's NET.CF the one scaling the images.... probably there's a smother method to get it...
nextpimp said:
@evilc .... I too use face contacts in a UL panel. When you use the disable gesture feature, It only disables the gestures from being passed to UL in the active plugin area. You can still spin the cube via gesture in an inactive area of the panel. Or if combined with something else, an area that does not otherwise respond to a gesture. Try it out.... In my case I have found that though it is a great idea, the vertical gesturing is not necessary for a fully functional solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I realised that a while ago, it is OK if you have something else in the UL tab without gestures disabled, so that you can gesture left in that area to spin the cube.
I think overall, the interface I would like would be gesture left/right between the faces, then up/down to scroll info on each face. I think for this interface, a vertical list would be more suitable than horizontal scrolling icons, it would just work better visually.
I really like the music browser in conduits pocket player - I would kill for one of those in a UL face along with a contacts list done in a similar manner on another face, thumbcal (with scroll month by vertical gesture) on another face... That would be nirvana for me.

[rel] Program Finder Today plugin

Hey!
I've built a small today plugin that someone may find useful as well...
Well, since its my first Today plugin, its not perfect... However...
Anyway, it requires a hardware keyboard to be useful.
The attached ZIP archive contains both the CAB and user's manual.
t9 works, gstupidinput works. have not tested button assigned sips..
nice!
świetny plug, respekt, jak zawsze.
mała idea: drugie pole z miejscem na wpis rozszerzenia(czy inna forma filtra typu plików..) - perfekcyjna metoda na dojscie do skrótów, na przykład.
(cudem byłaby możliwość menu na tap'n'holdzie z paroma pierdołami, jak np. stwórz skrót w menu start, czy usuń..).
tak się rozmarzyłem..hm.
Dude, this rocks! I've been wanting someone to develop something like Launchy (http://www.launchy.net/) for Windows Mobile, this is a really nice first step.
I'm guessing it would be much more difficult to have the application also search and suggest documents, files, bookmarked web pages, and settings screens based on the text entry right?
What about making this a stand alone app that could be triggered without navigating to the today screen? For example, if I could launch this app by mapping it to a hardware button and then begin typing to launch any app, setting, document, web page, etc on my device it would be pretty awesome.
I like the looks of this. Can't wait to try it out.
Yay, its good that someone likes it
Yes, I've been thinking about converting it to a stand-alone app.
Yes, I've been thinking about adding support for documents, bookmarks, etc.
Maybe in next release (actually I will have to rebuild it almost completely )...
Thank you for feedback, anyway
This app sounds totally awesome, will the next rev have touchscreen support??? Very interested.
fantastic app!
thank you!
It HAS a touchscreen supported, but since:
1) using SIP (software input panel) is not too effective
- and -
2) there is no SIP button on the Today screen
hardware keyboard is required.
"2) there is no SIP button on the Today screen
hardware keyboard is required."
look at this:
http://dalelane.co.uk/blog/?p=287&cpage=1
"# SIP support
This was asked for a lot. The Today screen doesn’t include the button to show/hide the on-screen stylus/finger keyboard. So if your mobile doesn’t have a keyboard, TwitToday wasn’t much use.
I’ve added a setting now that lets you programmatically show the SIP keyboard when you tap on the text box. "
galt said:
Dude, this rocks! I've been wanting someone to develop something like Launchy (http://www.launchy.net/) for Windows Mobile, this is a really nice first step.
I'm guessing it would be much more difficult to have the application also search and suggest documents, files, bookmarked web pages, and settings screens based on the text entry right?
What about making this a stand alone app that could be triggered without navigating to the today screen? For example, if I could launch this app by mapping it to a hardware button and then begin typing to launch any app, setting, document, web page, etc on my device it would be pretty awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, Launchy is awesome. This app could be quite similar to what the Pre does when you start typing ...
I can't wait for SIP support.
That's really great I was wondering why no one developed Launchy for PPC. Afterall, it's one of the best launchers out there
Unfortunately I have Manilla on my today.
_TB_TB_, you should definately develop it into a stand alone app
Thanks man! Great plugin for my Universal
Well, this is absolutely awesome! It somehow reminds me a bit of the search function in the vista start menu (one of the things I actually like about vista). It just speeds up starting apps
I've put it through some test yesterday and today and have found a few bugs:
1. The biggest problem I found is that it will crash if the screen is rotated or the resolution is changed. This is a potential showstopper for a lot of phones (all those phones where the hardware keyboard slides out to the side and the screen is rotated for input - like on my wing). What happens is that the plugin will not be painted any more after the screen is rotated and clicking on it just leads to an error sound. What is scary is that if you soft reset the phone after the plugin crashes, sometimes it won't restart correctly (that is the whole screen will look completely garbled) and will need a second reset.
2. It slightly changed the order of the today plugins on my today screen and for some reason I can't bring them back to the right order anymore now. When I try to change that now, the today screen will shortly hide some items, then an error sound is played and the order is reset to the wrong one.
3. The font size of the plugin is different to the standard font size of the other today plugins (in my case, the font size is 11px and I believe that's the standard size). I believe there should be a registry setting somewhere where you can read out the right size.
4. It will only find what's in the "Programs" folder and subfolders but it won't find all the shortcuts that are right in the start menu or in folders in the start menu. For example, I have put the Office Mobile folder right into the start menu and therefore can't launch the Office apps through this plugin.
merged with the post above

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