Database Users

xda2 hints and tips

these are just a few hints and tips please feel free to add more
xda2 gprs switch off
this is a little known feature, but one which is very very useful. if your xda2 for some reason connects to a gprs connection you can easily turn it off again by pressing the red button (phone down key) for 2~3 seconds. avoiding the problem of having to switch off and switch on the wireless connection.
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xda2 speaker phone
when in a call, you can activate the xda2 speaker phone by pressing the green button (pick up phone) for 2~3 seconds.
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xda2 camera
when using the camera you can press the top left button on the handset (contacts button) to change the orientation of the icons on the screen.
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screen brightness
the screen is a very bright one, squeeze more life out of the battery by turning it down. go to start - settings - system - power : click on the word back light at the bottom and adjust to about half way for when running off the battery. half way is a very usable brightness, you can go lower if you don't mind it being slightly dim.
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accidental pressing of buttons
by default pressing any button on the xda2 will switch the machine on. you can stop all buttons activating the xda2 (bar the power switch) by going to start - settings - button lock : select lock all buttons except power button.
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sending a video clip via mms
to send a video clip via mms you have to change the format to which it is saved. go to start - programs - camera (or just start the camera). click on the screwdriver and wrench icon. click tools - options : click the video tab. in the capture format drop down box highlight H.263 - this is the standard 3gp mobile video phone format.
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adding your own sound to a xda2 action
you can add your own sounds to xda2 notifications, like receiving an sms, by simply creating the sound you want as a wav file. you can do this on your main computer (sound recorder in "start - programs - accessories - entertainment - sound recorder" is a simple piece of software to do this). then pass the file onto the xda2 using activesync / email / etc... you must copy the file into the "my device - windows" folder using file explorer. next go to settings, choose "sounds & notifications". click on the notifications tab, choose the event you want to assign the sound to e.g. "inbox: new sms message". make sure play sound is selected with a tick - now choose the sound that you have just copied into the "my device - windows" folder from the drop down box.

Nice one..
One or two i didnt know...
Thanx...

ignoring incoming calls
A helpful one:
When u receive a call that u don't wanna answer, instead of rejecting it by pressing "ignore or the red phone button, u can push the volume button up or down putting the ringer off. The caller won't get the busy signal and won't know u deliberately rejected his call. :wink:

When Phone application is active, pressing the 5-way navigation key
Up: goto call history
Down: goto speed dials

When sound is turned off (ie X) then pushing volume slider up once will take it to vibrate mode, and pushing again takes u back to normal sound levels.
Doesn't seem to be a way of doing the reverse though?

battery saving
install software that you use often on your XDA storage and NOT on an extra SD storage card. This saves much battery (less card-IO).

Abroad meeting/appointment alerts
If you travel a lot for meetings in different time zones, don't creat the calendar entry in your current time zone, instead, change the time zone to the destination, creat the calendar item then get back to your time zone. Otherwise the reminder will not set off properly.

1. pressing and holding the power button for 2-3 sec toggles the backlight on/off
2. Hold the Action Button and tap on the clock at the right hand corner of the screen; It will pop up a menu with the Run Option. Then you can use the run as your command prompt.
3. how to:
http://www.pc-counselor.8m.com/How_to/index.htm

Hi, I could not find how to decrease or stop the volume of reminders' notification. I find it so irritating when it rings increasingly, and so difficult to stop as I must first open the screen before being able to press the screen and stop it.

Cool... Nice one dude!

Capture VK_OFF Button

Hi,
another question (seems I'm diving deeper and deeper into Windows Mobile...): Is it possible to capture the VK_OFF button event for, e.g., disabling powering off the device?
I've already managed to set a hook (SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL,...) and to define a callback function that is called whenever a low-level keyboard event occurs. Thus, I can manage to capture various hardware buttons of the device, but the power off button does not cause the callback function to be called at all.
I'm programming a HTC ARTEMIS, using MS visual Studio 2005 (native c++)
Regards,
Günther

You can also get a notification about power(RequestPowerNotifications) and you can prevent power off I think.
You need disable power toggle or use power button?

o.k., I'm now able to receive power notifications. What I want is the following: There is a running thread from my application that reads out GPS data and sends them over GPRS to a remote serve.
When the device goes to suspend state, these tasks also stop - and this I'd like to avoid. Do you think I can work with SetPowerRequirement()? But for which devices would I have to manually set the power requirement, and how are they named?
Or what to do when the Message Queue receives a notification from RequestPowerNotification? (Moreover, it seems that when the Suspend-notification arrives, the watching thread has already been suspended and does not do any more action...)

http://htc-devs.com/forum/index.php?topic=158.0

Thanks, that was a great site - so I understand that it is not possible to intercept power button pressed before the OS gets notified and takes an action
But I think, I could implement a workaround as follows:
1. Requesting power notifications
2. When a notification arrives, immediately SetSystemPowerState() to POWER_ON (without checking the type of notification as this obviously could not be done before the system goes into suspend mode)
3. Process all messages in message queue (in order to prevent from getting into an infinite loop)
4. Wait for next power notification (goto 2.)

Disable hardware buttons for incoming call

Anyone know how to disable the hardware buttons for the incoming call screen?
I only want to answer/reject calls with the slider, not the hardware buttons as I sometimes touch them by accident while getting the phone out of my pocket.
I've tried PocketShield but didn't like it, although it was able to disable the hardware buttons. Any other suggestions?

Have you already tried s2u2? The slider can receive/reject incoming calls and you also have options to disable the hardware buttons. Works great on my elf.

I tried it some days ago, couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it to, mainly because I don't want to use the locking part. I always lock my device with the power button and I only wanted to have the ability to disable the hardware buttons for incoming calls.
After your message, I decided to install it again and give it another try. Changed some of the settings and I think I finally managed to get it working the way I want to!
It's a bit of a memory consuming app for just disabling the hardware buttons for incoming calls, but hey, it works
Thanks!
If anyone finds a solution without using S2U2, please let me know!

Ok, I have uninstalled S2U2 again. Even though it did do the job, it was also a memory consuming application just for disabling the answer/reject keys during incoming calls and I want to keep my device as clean as possible.
I have searched for hours trying to find a solution to this what I think is a very common problem. How many of you have accidentally accepted or rejected calls because of the hardware buttons? In my opinion, HTC should have thought about this and provide a solution for it.
Anyone with a better solution than S2U2?
Thanks for your input!

New version 1.40 of S2U2 uses MUCH less battery. I almost don't notice, it's running. Great program at least for me.

Since your previous post S2U2 1.4 has been released. This is supposed to address the issues you mention.

can you tell me how you have set your settings for just disabling the hardware buttons for incoming calls in s2u2 ? Thanks

I've used AE Button Plus to disable the 'Answer Call' an 'End Call' hardware keys as I had the same annoying problem of accidentally rejecting a call when taking the device out of my pocket. This works well for me and have now enabled the keys to turn wifi and bluetooth off and on with 3 taps.

Thanks everyone!
I wasn't aware of the latest S2U2 version and I almost gave it another try until I read Anfloyd's post.
I did look at AE Button Plus before, but didn't think it was capable of doing what I wanted: disable the hardware buttons during incoming calls, but still have them functional when there isn't an incoming call (such as showing the phone dial screen which it does by default).
When I looked at the AE Button Plus website, I noticed I couldn't configure the buttons based on the current active screen/program. So, even though I knew I could disable the hardware buttons, I thought I would then loose the whole functionality of them..and that would make the answer and reject buttons on my device useless.
BUT, after reading your message Anfloyd, it got me thinking..I don't need to configure it based on the current screen/program. I can just disable the buttons for 1 tap..and assign programs for them for 3 taps for example.
So, now I have this:
- 1 tap: do nothing. This way, both the answer and reject buttons are not working during incoming calls and I can only use the slider to accept/reject calls.
- 3 taps for answer button: start the phone application.
- 3 taps for reject button: nothing yet, but I'll find something
This is a solution I can work with! I have only tested it for a short time, so if it turns out that AE Button Plus is causing problems I'll give the latest S2U2 another try, but so far this seems to be working just fine.
Thanks again for your input!
ChrisVDD, those options can be found in the S2U2 settings. I don't have S2U2 installed anymore so I don't remember the exact settings. I just disabled all locking features that I didn't need, selected to disable the hardware buttons and chose to use the slider. Give it a try, you should be able to sort it out. If you can't, let me know and I'll install S2U2 again to see what settings you need.

My config in AEBplus
left hardware key
1 tab do nothing
2 press green key
right hardware key
1 tab do nothing
2 press red key
3 rotate display

PhaseIV said:
My config in AEBplus
left hardware key
1 tab do nothing
2 press green key
right hardware key
1 tab do nothing
2 press red key
3 rotate display
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you so kind please and tell me how to configure more than 1 actions to a button.
When I choose green phone button i can only say disable, but dont now how to get another function to work with same button.
I would like to have :
tap 1x = do nothing,
tap 3x = start phone application (normal behaviour.

Would you so kind please and tell me how to configure more than 1 actions to a button.
When I choose green phone button i can only say disable, but dont now how to get another function to work with same button.
I would like to have :
tap 1x = do nothing,
tap 3x = start phone application (normal behaviour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, select and hold "Green Phone button".
Then do this from top to bottom:
3. Handle by AEBPlus
1. Single press
1. None
..and select Ok
Then select and hold "Green Phone button" again.
Do this from top to bottom:
3. Handle by AEBPlus
3. Triple press
13. Press Green Button
..and select Ok
Then File > Save and Exit
That's it

GryphonLeon said:
First, select and hold "Green Phone button".
Then do this from top to bottom:
3. Handle by AEBPlus
1. Single press
1. None
..and select Ok
Then select and hold "Green Phone button" again.
Do this from top to bottom:
3. Handle by AEBPlus
3. Triple press
13. Press Green Button
..and select Ok
Then File > Save and Exit
That's it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your fast reply, now It works like I wanted it to do.

Is it possible to end call using red hardware button but not to ignore it before answering? I tried AEBplus and it works like it should but that's not all I needed.

danum said:
Since your previous post S2U2 1.4 has been released. This is supposed to address the issues you mention.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem I have with s2u2 is that I cannot mute incoming calls... The voulme buttons are locked... the touch screen is locked and mute on face down also does not work....
Maybe A_C will allow us which buttons to lock in the next release...

Prevent "answer" button from dialling

The Take-Call/Answer button appears to haveseveral functions:
It switches to the phone app (Good)
It answers an incoming call (good as prevents having to use the slide)
It dials the last number in the Calls list display (bad)
I keep finding that I double-press the button by mistake and end up dialling someone without intending to do so.
Is there any registry hack that can eliminate this last function. I have tried using Mobile Magic to assign the key to "switch to phone app" but then I can't use it to answer an incoming call which is a bit of a pain.
Or do I need to find an alternative dialler?

personally I find that disabling the green button from answering calls is a good thing - it means that you don't accidentally press it when taking it out of your pocket for example! you could try AE Button Plus and set long press of the green button to "press green button" and short press to "launch program" -> "phone" that way if you accidentally double-pressed the green button it wouldn't call the person, but would still load the phone dialer and could still be used to answer calls, just holding buttn instead of pressing...
Closest solution I can think of...

Sounded promising - thank you. Unfortunately I can't get a long keypress to generate an "green button press". I have decativated the usual long-keypress action but still no joy.
I even tried implementing a "double keypress" for answer but it only works sporadically.

Slider for Calling?
The Take-Call/Answer button appears to haveseveral functions:
* It switches to the phone app (Good)
* It answers an incoming call (good as prevents having to use the slide)
* It dials the last number in the Calls list display (bad)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after my touch hd didn't make an international phone call of several minutes today from my pocket, I didn't realize how right were your words.
So, I unbinded the Green Phone Button with AEB Plus and I reassign "Key 1 (Press)" to act as Green Phone Button. From now only pressing for a while the talk/send button will actually call the dialer.
However, the most gentle touch on a contact in the default dialer will make a call... which most of the times really annoys. What would be really cool and solve many problems is to use a slider for making the phone call (not only for answering). I searched conscientiously in the forum and I found no solution.
An alternative solution would be to use other contact manager, like Yota Contacts, for example. But, having a slider for making a call would be so cool

Tasker

Can I set Tasker to send SMS to a predefined number with a predefined text when I press 4 times on volume-up while my phone is screen on but lockscreen (with pattern)? Also, the command must be canceled if 2 seconds have passed since the last volume up key action (for example, in case I used it for simply volume-up music). That means to trigger command, I must press again 4 times quickly.
Who can help me?

Dear @VALYYYY
The tasker can't detect the volume button presses.
If you are willing to use another app.
Check the app called QuickClick in Play store by "Blor" developer.
The other way around is to make tasker detect the volume changes (4 consecutive increase/decrease).