future of winmo: capacitive/finger friendly

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benzhen

进士
just though i'd raise this issue raise since it seems like a major shift. one of the most noticeable differences in recent winmo devices are the lack of d-pad. this makes it rather annoying for pleco navigation (especially in the reader). any ideas or strategies? seems like there will be a day when no winmo devices come with d-pads...

also with the first capacitive winmo device already out, could there be a need to adjust the interface some for that? just pondering.....
 
mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
We've been waiting for some guidance from Microsoft on this - hoping that maybe we'll see some more information released on Windows Mobile 7 at this year's CES expo - but barring that, the basic idea would be to add more thumb buttons; that's how we've managed to make the reader usable on iPhone without a D-pad, anyway. I'm getting so sick and tired of HTC's endless un-overrideable and poorly-documented user interface hacks / gestures that I'm not particularly inclined to go out of the way to support their own version of a capacitive touchscreen when Microsoft's official one is (hopefully) just around the corner, but that same basic thumb button approach would help with capacitive touchscreens too.
 
B

benzhen

进士
yeah i was thinking of trying to find a directional-button-only sip option. like a keyboard that is just a row of arrow buttons. but if you guys implemented thumb buttons in the reader itself that would be cool....yeah i find that every time i try a new touch-flo release i'm always switching back to spb mobile shell and the more stock winmo menus/notifications. hopefully some windows mobile 7 info is just around the corner.
 
D

daniel123

榜眼
On friday I got a new device. I think at the moment all new devices have the missing d-pad problem. I agree that this is specially annoying for using the reader. But many of the WM devices still have four hardware keys. I configured the two keys in the middle to go left and right. Works quite good for me. I mean as a workaround till Maik can change some thinks in any new newer version.
 
I

ipsi

状元
Hmmm.... Windows Mobile 7 breaking compatibility with existing applications? See Engadget, though take it with a rather large grain of salt. Comments don't seem to rate this as a terribly creditable source.
 
mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Nor do I, though even if it breaks compatibility on the UI side of things that wouldn't preclude a WM7 version of Pleco - we're planning to overhaul a lot of the UI for finger-driven devices anyway. But this is why we've held off on doing that so far, we don't want to go to the trouble of overhauling it once only to find out we have to do so again for WM7.
 
mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Probably, yes - we're actually working on the next WM and (probably) Palm beta update right now, since there are some changes to flashcards and user dictionaries that we'd like to get released / tested / refined a little bit even before we release the initial versions of those features on iPhone. Plus we want Palm/WM users to be able to benefit from the couple of refinements we've made to dictionary searches on iPhone. Though a lot more refinements should come after the first iPhone flashcard release.
 
F

fischer

秀才
Just an Idea for the D pad problem:
The most new phone does not have an D pad any more, however they have a G Sensor. I have the HTC x7500 that uses the G sensor to navigate trough websites with opera, what is kind of useful. I would like to buy the new HTC HD2 or an used HTC x7510 but both do not have an D pad.
Could you integrate the G Sensor to navigate trough text with Pleco? It should not be that difficult I think. It already exist some APPs that can simulate a D pad via G Sensor ... for example: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=466002 ... sadly I am not able to try it because the x7500 has an very early version of the G Sensor (2007) which other APPs can not recognize.

Cheers, Fischer
 
mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Sounds like it might be doable, but I'm not sure about using that as a navigation method - it seems like it'd be extremely easy to tilt it / scroll when you don't actually want to. Has anyone actually tried navigating through other applications with this?
 
F

fischer

秀才
I am using this method since a year now in opera. In the train, bus or sitting on the table it is very useful and most times I even prefer this method instead to use the D Pad. Even by foot it is a great method to navigate. If you change the viewing position you have to recalibrate the G Sensor, for this reason the HTC Advantage has an Hardware Key to change it easily, however if you change the viewing position often it could be annoying. I think if you would bound one hardware key to activate and calibrate the G Sensor it would be a great future.
Sincerely,
Fischer
 
mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Ah, that explains it - figured there had to be some easy way to enable/disable support for it. I'm not sure how we'd hook into that feature with our software, though - some weird proprietary HTC API, I imagine.
 
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daniel123

榜眼
I have heard of different software that uses G sensor navigation that just work on HTC devices. I think such kind of navigation does not help people who do not use HTC devices. So probably we need something more general.
 
M

mfcb

状元
i might be wrong, but i think i saw software, that uses the Gsensor (HTC) to emulates D-Pad presses.... no need for pleco to do some modifications (as long as there is enough memory/filehandles to execute both programs in parallel)
 
F

fischer

秀才
What about an Opera-like navigation trough text: Move text with your finger ... and if you want to select text - just double click the screen and you can select text for 3 seconds or 5 or ...
 
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