HTC HD2

[kkloh]

My device needs replacement and I am checking out the latest HTC HD2. As it comes with a capacitive screen (like the iPhone), I wonder if my present Pleco 2.0.3 can support finger handwriting without a stylus.

Please advise. Many thanks.

kkloh

[mikelove]

Haven't had too many reports on the HD2 yet, but the few we have had seem to suggest that the handwriting is OK - some HD2 owners might want to chime in here, though.

[chao-ren]

According to this shop, mainly selling blackmarket phones and the 水货 HTC HD2, finger handwriting input (手指输入) is definitely possible. Did some business before with this shop BingDianShouJi( 冰点手机)http://m.pconline.com.cn/bingdian/pid:2588808/product_detail.html, in Shanghai, setup by a bunch of U-grads, definitely reliable people.. so if they say they have tried it, it is definitely possible.

Page down half way to the link and you get this:
" 至于输入方式，HTC HD2除了内置的全键盘输入和手机输入模式外，还内置了点讯输入法。值得一赞的是HTC HD2的手写输入模式配合宽大的屏幕，操作起来非常舒服，而且识别率也相当高。" As to input methods, HTC HD2 apart from full Qwerty keyboard input, keypad input, also comes with touch input. worth complimenting is HTCHD2 comes handwriting recognition input and big screen, ...very comfy to use, and character recognition rate(识别率) is very high ...etc...

[daniel123]

I bought a HTC HD2 some weeks ago and sent it directly back after a few days. The handwriting of Hanzi works better than I expected. Some things inside Pleco work better than I expected. But better than expected still means worse than on my old device.

Some things on the HD2 works quite good, other work very bad and some does not work at all.

For example writing Pinyin or English in the sketchbox for learning flashcards (if you use this sketchbox for this) does not make fun. I can say it does not work. By the way, regular handwriting in WM notes are also not really possible. Writing Chinese strokes seem to be much easier doing with a finger than writing an English sentence.

Also not possible is selecting different flashcard categories in a flashcard session or in Manage Flashcards if you want to use and mark subcategories. Maybe a bug of the HD2 firmware. But I am afraid it does not work until Mike or HTC change anything. Instant Access also did not work at the moment.

Sometimes the HD2 inside Pleco have very slow reaction that it did not not make fun to use it until I did a soft reload.

Often it is difficult or even impossible to touch the correct small Character with the finger for getting Popup Definition. Specially (but not only) if it is near to the scrollbar because the scrollbar slider immediately hides it before I have the chance to touch it. But even on other positions this is much more difficult than simply using a stylus.

I ask myself more and more why I should not use a stylus. Just because Steve Jobs said a Stylus is bad? I think this should be decided by the customers. I guess many many people in Asia prefer to write their characters with a stylus than with their finger. But Steve Jobs cannot know because he just writes English. Maybe he do not see the big market he excludes. It is a little frustrating that all the other vendors follow him.

After a few days I thought on HD2 using Pleco and using all my existing WM software make much less fun than with my cheap iPaq 114. I do not want to spend so much money for a WM device now, where I have to wait some months (maybe 2, maybe 3 months, mabye more) until Mike release a new version where everything works better or HTC release new firmware.

If I compare the display sensitivity of the HD2 with my old resistive screen device the only thing that works really much better is the scrolling with one finger. For other cases using the finger in windows mobile software (I think for example the difference inside Pleco) is not a big advantage as I thought. With my iPaq I can also use my fingernail which is after some practise nearly as precise as a stylus. This is impossible on HD2 because of capacitive screen. Therefore finger using with capacitive display on HD2 for my software and my usecases on WM feels worth than with a good resistive touchscreen. And of course on a resistive touchscreen I additionally have the chance to use the stylus whenever I deceide to need, whenever I decide it makes sense.

In my opinion to have an advantage with capacitive display under WM it needs for minimum to have different software. And I mean not the Touchflo things but all my WM software that already exists (including some user interface parts of Pleco).
But I think WM 7 take probably one more year before you can buy a device for that (that works properly). We do not know how much time it will take until Mike will start and finish a redesigned user interface for Pleco on WM.

Anyway I decided before I spend so much money for a device I will wait until most of the things work really good.

Of course this was my subjective point of view. Maybe for you it can be different.

[phillean]

I just installed Pleco on my HTC Diamond Touch 2, most things work fine, dictionary , handwriting recognition, sounds.

But when I try to add a character to flashcards it says "
"Sorry, the flashcard could not be created because your flashcard file could not be accessed - please exit Pleco and try again.

When I go to "modules" and select "open flashcards" I get the message "Sorry, the flashcard system failed to initialize correctly, please exit Pleco, soft reset (reboot) your handheld and try again.

So far I can't get flashcards to work. I am missing some step ? Or, is this a HTC issue ?

[mikelove]

daniel123 - sorry I didn't respond to this before now. We're going to try to get an HD2 in here at some point in the next few months, and once we do we should hopefully be able to resolve some of these issues, but for right now it sounds like at least until HTC gets through a couple of ROM updates the HD2 may be a less-than-ideal system for running Pleco.

phillean - Sorry for the slow reply - this would actually be better suited to the regular Palm/WM version forum.

Anyway, it sounds like your flashcard file has been severely corrupted somehow. Exit Pleco completely by choosing Quit from the Dict menu, then go to Start / Programs, open up "File Explorer", and delete the "Pleco Flashcards" file (should be in the first folder you see; if not, navigate to \\My Documents and it'll be in there). After that, reopen Pleco and the flashcards should hopefully work again.

[phillean]

Thanks I deleted the file

It is working now

[mikelove]

FWIW, there's now an official capacitive stylus for the HD2 from HTC - http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/official-htc-capacitive-stylus-for-hd2-now-shipping/ - so that may improve the situation with handwriting / text selection a bit.

[daniel123]

Does anyone has some experiances with this official stylus?

When I tested the HD2 about two monts ago I also bought one capacitive stylus. Not the official but another one. The experiance was really disillusioning. The stylus worked much worse than using the finger and you had to give so much pressure to the display that I could say it does not work.

I am very curious if the official stylus works better. Specially because WM 7 decvices probably will have capacitive displays. And maybe this stylus also could be used for the iPhone. The question is if it really improves handwriting.

[daniel123]

[...]
Also not possible is selecting different flashcard categories in a flashcard session or in Manage Flashcards if you want to use and mark subcategories. Maybe a bug of the HD2 firmware. But I am afraid it does not work until Mike or HTC change anything. Instant Access also did not work at the moment.
[...]

I have to write an update to this main two problems I wrote about above in this thread. Both seem to be problems of WM 6.5 (not of the HD2) and they occur probably in all actual WM devices. There are workarounds for the first problem (for example double clicking to the category select box).
Instant Access should work when using it via taskbar icon.

I think if the new stylus works well, there is probably no reason not to use the HD2 with Pleco.

[Shadowdh]

I will be getting my HD2 on monday and will play around with it... I am hoping that it handles Pleco well and I wont have any trouble with it as it has a heap of features that I will find most useful... also will look at getting one of the official (or Dagio (sp) styluses to make it more pleco friendly (plus notes etc...)... will let you know how I get on...

[fischer]

Hi, have you tried to disable finger scrolling for WM6.5 / Wm6.1?
I had similar problems on my phone (not HD2) with WM6.1 and WM6.5, by going back to WM6 all problems disappeared and pleco was much faster. However when I installed FTouchSl to use finger scrolling, all the problems came back. That is why I believe this could be the answer?! Maybe someone can find a way to disable that for certain apps.

[mfcb]

hi fischer, ftouchsl config can handle exceptions for certain apps. you even can exclude just the scrolling for the app, and leave the other functions on

[fischer]

Correct, and when I do so ... all problems disapear, but if not ... than I have similar problems as described earlier

[Shadowdh]

Ok after a major amount of mucking around I have finally received my HD2 and its the dogs... the screen is excellent, clear and responsive. Writing in pleco is no problem although to be fair its a bit fiddly writing in the box in flashcard mode... reading is excellent, copying and pasting great and the pop up defn in the reader works a treat... over all I am really impressed so far and pleased with this device... I had to install some chinese fonts and a couple of Chinese friendly input devices to make it more Chinese useful...