Develop Bugs

[IDEA - REQ] D-Pad and VGA-fix in one program

My idea is to make a program that acts like WVGA-fix, that is, reducing the display area ( by 160 pixels in height) in order to make VGA applications compatible AND, at the same time, using the space gained at the bottom for a virtual D-Pad.
That would make many 3D games compatible and playable (becuase of the D-Pad) but also applications like Realcalculator or the SPB suite.
Does anyone want to do this? I'd donate at least 20 bucks and I guess there are lots of other people who would appreciate a solution like this.

Nice idea, but what's the point in the WVGA screen then? Might as well get a Diamond!

also thought about that. tgere is someone working on it. search for the d-pad sip thread.
the idea is to program an emulator, wich opens applications in a 640x480px Frame this way its simulates a VGA screen. the 160px left can be used for virtual D-Pad. when pressing a button on the virtual D-Pad, the direction has to be send to the frame - to the application / game.

Koffein Schluck said:
also thought about that. tgere is someone working on it. search for the d-pad sip thread.
the idea is to program an emulator, wich opens applications in a 640x480px Frame this way its simulates a VGA screen. the 160px left can be used for virtual D-Pad. when pressing a button on the virtual D-Pad, the direction has to be send to the frame - to the application / game.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to go as far as having an on screen virtual keypad with the OS running at a lower resolution to accommodate it, I imagine this would need to be done through a replacement screen driver much like NYDITOT. If you've ever used NVD, you should know what I mean. They use a generic replacement for the screen/display/keyboard driver that then allows the OS display to be run at any resolution and then scrolled.
But since it replaces the entire screen driver (ddi.dll) with it's own generic version, this method is also a performance hit for more graphical apps like games. If someone can figure out something better and easier, go for it. I imagine you would only need to hack with the touch driver if you wanted an invisible on-screen dpad or something.

And it should look like this http://upload.csrune.com/files/dpadsip669.PNG ;-)

It's just another keyboard...
Hello, sorry to unburry this topic, but I consider the concept is of premium importance.
First of all, I think it should have nothing to do with resizing the screen, as it would just complicate the process and slow down the programs...
Games and other software using the HD's missing pad are generally already VGA (if not QVGA) sized (considering recent WVGA games can use the touchscreen or the accelerometer), so they already display black unused sections on the screen (and by the way, a lot of useful apps, such as WVGAFix or Hou Ming's Force Hires already manage the lost margin and/or resize QVGA to VGA).
So it should only be about using this otherwise spilled and already existing dead zone to display a pad.
There are tons of applications for such a pad, and not only games !
Just browsing through directories can just be so painful without a pad, as Windows Mobile massively relies on its presence.
For instance, you have nice thumbnails showing when you parse pictures, but they are rendered useless, as you can't browse through them ! As soon as you select the next one with stylus or finger, it pops opened (well, popping isn't really the appropriate word, if you consider how slow the process is )
Then the best way to browse a directory, is to open the SIP keyboard, but of course, not the Microsoft one, as it has no arrow keys (remember : Windows assumes a pad is present) : you have to open this nice, but oversized HTC one, you know, the one that has arrows, but no Ctrl key, and therefore is unable to copy and paste !...
As keyboard arrows do work in any situation, I really, really think we all lack a simple 4 direction pad (plus "action" button, the other four classical buttons being physically present, phew) that would take no room on the screen, and help us browsing files and menus, or playing games.
The virtual pad should be available in the keyboards and other input devices list, exactly the same way the others are.
Ideally, we could imagine a tiny one that would overlap the central button and take no room on the screen, but just occupy about half an inch in the center of the lower bar, plus the usual SIP input choice arrow, in order we can still change keyboards at will.
For older VGA ou QVGA games, a larger and more finger friendly version could be imagined, either just a thick line of buttons, or why not, a larger pad, as shown on Wolfenzi's nice picture.
Just consider that a lot of virtual keyboards are available, so It doesn't seem to be something impossible to do !
It would be just another keyboard, just having only 5 keys, and nothing else !!!
I actually really can't figure out why nobody seems to be interested by such a simple yet useful idea...
Oh, and as Maati, I'm ready to remunerate anyone who'd do the effort, too.

El_Mariachi said:
Nice idea, but what's the point in the WVGA screen then? Might as well get a Diamond!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, not as I see it, and support the need for such a utility.
This utility would allow older (no longer actively supported?) applications what were design for VGA and control (only!) thru the D-pad, to still work.
Of course, new applications will be written to fully use WVGA, and have control thru means other than the D-pad.

maati said:
My idea is to make a program that acts like WVGA-fix, that is, reducing the display area ( by 160 pixels in height) in order to make VGA applications compatible AND, at the same time, using the space gained at the bottom for a virtual D-Pad.
That would make many 3D games compatible and playable (becuase of the D-Pad) but also applications like Realcalculator or the SPB suite.
Does anyone want to do this? I'd donate at least 20 bucks and I guess there are lots of other people who would appreciate a solution like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+2 Ditto.

Z80-Man said:
Hello, sorry to unburry this topic, but I consider the concept is of premium importance.
First of all, I think it should have nothing to do with resizing the screen, as it would just complicate the process and slow down the programs...
Games and other software using the HD's missing pad are generally already VGA (if not QVGA) sized (considering recent WVGA games can use the touchscreen or the accelerometer), so they already display black unused sections on the screen (and by the way, a lot of useful apps, such as WVGAFix or Hou Ming's Force Hires already manage the lost margin and/or resize QVGA to VGA).
So it should only be about using this otherwise spilled and already existing dead zone to display a pad.
There are tons of applications for such a pad, and not only games !
Just browsing through directories can just be so painful without a pad, as Windows Mobile massively relies on its presence.
For instance, you have nice thumbnails showing when you parse pictures, but they are rendered useless, as you can't browse through them ! As soon as you select the next one with stylus or finger, it pops opened (well, popping isn't really the appropriate word, if you consider how slow the process is )
Then the best way to browse a directory, is to open the SIP keyboard, but of course, not the Microsoft one, as it has no arrow keys (remember : Windows assumes a pad is present) : you have to open this nice, but oversized HTC one, you know, the one that has arrows, but no Ctrl key, and therefore is unable to copy and paste !...
As keyboard arrows do work in any situation, I really, really think we all lack a simple 4 direction pad (plus "action" button, the other four classical buttons being physically present, phew) that would take no room on the screen, and help us browsing files and menus, or playing games.
The virtual pad should be available in the keyboards and other input devices list, exactly the same way the others are.
Ideally, we could imagine a tiny one that would overlap the central button and take no room on the screen, but just occupy about half an inch in the center of the lower bar, plus the usual SIP input choice arrow, in order we can still change keyboards at will.
For older VGA ou QVGA games, a larger and more finger friendly version could be imagined, either just a thick line of buttons, or why not, a larger pad, as shown on Wolfenzi's nice picture.
Just consider that a lot of virtual keyboards are available, so It doesn't seem to be something impossible to do !
It would be just another keyboard, just having only 5 keys, and nothing else !!!
I actually really can't figure out why nobody seems to be interested by such a simple yet useful idea...
Oh, and as Maati, I'm ready to remunerate anyone who'd do the effort, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hail to this simple, yet working solution.
and even include gestueres perhaps like windows and resco keyboard has.
why is it that we dont have this yet than??
sorry for my bad english

Hey, there's even worse than our good old Touch HD !
I recently tried a Touch HD 2 a friend wanted to show me (actually the guy who sold me his Touch HD ! ) and now there's an even biggest problem with HTC Sense (or maybe just Windows mobile 6.5) and the capacitive multitouch screen !
The good old scroll bars on the sides of the windows have been replaced by a thin line popping a slider when you press on it...
But, now it's all but precise !
As your finger now touches an entire area at the same time, it becomes almost impossible to scroll precisely to a desired position in a long list or directory (just try to go where you want in the Windows directory, and you'll go quickly mad) !!!
Maybe it would be better with a stylus, but there's no stylus provided with the Touch HD 2...
Or maybe it would be better using the arrows keys... The ones that should be on the pad if it was there...
Now you know why I told you that story !

Office Mobile running on HTC Touch HD

I'm really curious about how Office Mobile performs on HTC Touch HD.
As i tried it with HTC diamond i view doc file or pdf file in vertical way and can be ZOOMED easily. But when i tried it in horizontal way these two file types aren't zoomable ? Is it the same to HTC Touch HD. Is there any solution for it ? Can u show me your picture with the solution. Many thanx. That's the most important thing i really care about the HD because as u know it's very nice to browse web on HTC touch HD but is it the same to reading offline document (pdf and doc file i really hate to read in vertical way especially for pdf file)

I took some pictures of a pdf and a doc file, each in portrait and in landscape mode. I could zoom fine at all times in every mode. The Word doc is at 75% zoom in the pictures. For Word, you have the option of 50, 75, 100, 150, 200% zoom. I also included a picture with the keyboard showing in landscape, so you see how much screen it takes.
Keep in mind that when reading pdf files, there are two options:
1. If the file is "tagged", then it's text will reflow upon zooming. This means you don't have to scroll left and right to read a long sentence. It will just reflow to the next line, so you only have to scroll up and down. This is nice for reading, but the layout might be messed up depending on whether or not there are pictures, tables, columns etc.
2. If the file is not tagged, then it will look just like on your desktop pc. You'll have to scroll up/down and left/right to read.
I believe transferring a pdf through ActiveSync can (or will?) tag it in the process. I'm not sure, though. However, a pdf file transferred through normal copy and paste into a folder will not be tagged.
On your desktop PC you can also open adobe and select to view a file in tagged (=reflow) view. Just open a pdf, zoom in so that you can't see an entire text line from left to right. Then press Ctrl+4 or go to view--zoom--reflow.
I find that the search function in a pdf on a pocketpc is really slow. However, I must say that some of the pdf files I've tried it on are 700 pages long. I don't read them on my HD; they are more of a reference material.
I hope it helps.
EDIT: I FORGOT SOMETHING REALLY IMPORTANT..... Keep in mind that to rotate these files into landscape mode, you need third-party software like Gsen or Gyrator!

I noticed that there was no option for reflow on the Acrobart Reader LE built in my HD. However, I have found Adobe Reader LE Diamond version from the net and it can use reflow for all the pdf books I have tried so far. It has the option in both landscape and vertical orientations. One proplem I had was once you make full screen there is no way back. But still,it not a big deal. PDF performance has been increased a lot with this version and I have been reading huge sized boks since.
Micro olap chm reader is also perfect for CHM books and works very vell on HD

Correct, I don't see a reflow option in Adobe Reader LE on the HD either. I didn't know you had one on the Diamond.
As far as the full screen issue - when you are in full screen just tap twice on the screen to exit full screen mode.
Another suggestion is to convert your pdf file into an ebook. You can do it all for free. I have tried it out with MobiCreator and it worked okay except for any pictures and tables in the pdf. So, depending on the pdf file's contents and layout, you mind find it to work very well or only so-so. The nice thing about doing that is that the text will reflow quite nicely. Anyway, for someone who often reads pdf files on the HD, it would be worth it to give it a test-run. I'm sure there are other software options. I have only tried it with with Mobi. If anyone has any suggestions please post them. One downside here is navigation (unless you spend time creating a few navigation links).
Links:
MobiCreator (will work on Vista too)
MobiReader for the HD (download the second to last one on the list - name = "mobiread.arm.cab"). This allows you to read the created files.
I'll have to check Micro olap chm reader. I have some chm books I would like to load onto my HD. Thanks for the tip.

Thank you very much for your opinion. I'm considering to choose HD or Xperia but now I will buy HTC Touch HD when i go back to UK. Is there any recommend shop in uk which i can buy HTC Touch HD without contract? I found somepeople talk about www.clove.co.uk. Is it safe to buy there i mean in case my phone has any faults on design, software, screen ... Can i send back to the shop or i have to send it to HTC Europe warranty ??

I have tried double tapping of course Unfortunately, in this version with freeflow, it doesn't seem to work. Even if it cannot go out of full screen, acrobat reader le with reflow makes it ideal for reading and I cannnot really complain.
I am attaching the version with reflow but I really cannot remember from which forum/thread I have downloaded this and sorry about the missing credits.
Thanks for the tip regarding MobiCreator I didn't know it could convert from PDF as well.

using MS Reader and Mobipocket

I use the MS reader and mobipocket reader extensively but they both are designed for use with a d pad or atleast a scroll wheel to change pages... its impossible to use the mobipocket with the HD and very difficult with a tiny icon in the MS reader. would it be possible to assign the volume rocker in the HD as an up down button... any help pls

I have got this to work, tick enable line by line reading, set the buttons as forward and back (although back doesn't work now).
Then switch to fullscreen and you should advance a page with volume down. Works here.

In Mobi you have in setings a option to turn pages when you click on them (in the right of page for next and left for back)
In microsoft reader for next its necesary to click page number for me is big enough.

dhavalm said:
I use the MS reader and mobipocket ... its impossible to use the mobipocket with the HD... any help pls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For Mobipocket,
Menu-Options-General tab put a tick in the "Clicking on page turns a page" box.
HTH

Actually as others have noted... MobiPocket is very easy to use with the HD... once you know to turn on page navigation in options.... then just tap the side of the screen you want to flip the page to... works like a charm and much more convienent than the dpad option even for those phones that have one

Is that an activated MS reader?
dhavalm said:
I use the MS reader and mobipocket reader extensively...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My MS Reader won't activate (on WM6.1) and all I find on the Internet is other people complaining about the same. So, is yours activated? If so, how on earth did you manage to do that?

a little problem after installing MS Reader on HTC HD
after installing MS Reader the font in the facebook application and google maps get changed in windings, i think... uninstalling ms reader corrects the problem, but i'd like to use it...
please help...

We need a nice touch ebook reader!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX8PhY7Ca_Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9aeH99g-vM
Is there an ebook reader like this for Windows Mobile? If not, who want's to exchange his iPhone for my HTC Touch HD? I hate it, that the motherf***ing iPhone get's all nice apps i am waiting for. I like ebook reading on mobile devices (our HD has such a huge screen), but without dpad it's no fun (eg on mobireader, which is very powerfull on other devices).
Can anyone code this for WiMo? That would be perfect

I like reading books... not getting thumbswipe RSI !!
That's why I use ALreader,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1464812&postcount=2
BTW
Is it just me? or does that kid need a slap?

ubook reader
The best for me: ubook reader many skin, many languages
http://www.gowerpoint.com/uBook_main.html

thnx guys, a tried both of them but i dont like the interface. especially µBook is really strange and for 15 Bucks???? Not really intuitive for devices without dpad. Anyone else an idea?
perhaps amazon decides to release this kindle reader also for WiMo.

I use mobipocket which I first had on my Iliad ebook.
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/application.asp?device=WindowsMobile
It works fine on HD but I'm really waiting for PlasticLogic to launch at year-end.
Meanwhile, mobipocket is free but the books cost.
I also have AEB+ to map the volume buttons to up/down.

I believe this is what MobiPocket reader has done for years. Please give it a try and compare, if you need to touch on the screen to turn page, there is a function for that as well.
Oh, you can also create a prc file of your word document and read on ur device.
Cheers

The problem with mobi-reader and alreader tho is no support for .lit. i have a ton of lit files already. and yes theres converters but most make it look like rubish when they convert. and converting is a hassle. i want a good reader that support LIT and prc and mobi and additionally pdb would be nice.

Cheesy Dave said:
It works fine on HD but I'm really waiting for PlasticLogic to launch at year-end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will there be an app for Windows Mobile also or do you mean a real (hardware) Ebookreader? On the homepage i only see an ebookreader (wich looks really promising though).
I believe this is what MobiPocket reader has done for years. Please give it a try and compare, if you need to touch on the screen to turn page, there is a function for that as well.
Oh, you can also create a prc file of your word document and read on ur device.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mobipocket is a very nice ebook reader (i use it on my HD), BUT only for devices with dpad. The UI isn't very fingerfriendly (look at the videos at the first post, this is what i call fingerfriendly). It's a pity that most of developers have the iphone in focus, not windows mobile devices. Probably the HD is my last Windows Mobile device if this doesn't change.

Cheesy Dave said:
I use mobipocket which I first had on my Iliad ebook.
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/application.asp?device=WindowsMobile
It works fine on HD but I'm really waiting for PlasticLogic to launch at year-end.
Meanwhile, mobipocket is free but the books cost.
I also have AEB+ to map the volume buttons to up/down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does aeb+ work fine on touch HD ? when I saw the write up on it this wasnt mentioned but a big warning against installing on incompatible device was there
Jim

jcarey said:
does aeb+ work fine on touch HD ? when I saw the write up on it this wasnt mentioned but a big warning against installing on incompatible device was there
Jim
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AEB+ works well on Touch HD.

PelloG said:
Mobipocket is a very nice ebook reader (i use it on my HD), BUT only for devices with dpad. The UI isn't very fingerfriendly (look at the videos at the first post, this is what i call fingerfriendly). It's a pity that most of developers have the iphone in focus, not windows mobile devices. Probably the HD is my last Windows Mobile device if this doesn't change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think mobipocket works fine on the Touch HD, even though there is no DPAD. You just need to configure the program a bit.
My preferences (for reading books, which are mostly text and have little to no graphics) usually include changing the background to black and text to white (the white background hurts my eyes after a while).
Change the margins to very small.
Disable the popup menu when highlighting text.
That way you can easy browse through the book just by tapping the left or right sides of the screen.
Mobipocket on your PC will easily convert most formats. It doesn't covert .lit files, but you can use clit to break a lit file apart and just send the rtf portion over.

Microsoft Reader

Hello,
Is anyone else using Microsoft Reader? I can't get it installed properly. The installation and activation run through OK but the progrm does not appear in the "All programs" list. If I go to the Microsoft Reader directoy and click on MsReader.exe it runs fine, activated and everything....? Is there a way to create a "shorcut" for a file to point at from the "Programs" tab?
Grateful for any help.
Cheers/McHan

How strange
To manually make a shortcut: browse in file explorer to the msreader.exe file, long press, choose "copy", browse to my device\windows\start menu\ programs, long press or right soft button, choose "paste shortcut". If desired change name (long press on item)

Brilliant, worked like a charm. Could not get it to work in File Manager, but in Total Commander... Many thanks!/McHan

Hello, I've installed the latest version of the Microsoft Reader and the instalation was successful. But I have a different question. How do you page in it? There are no key arrrows, touch interface doesn't work and the areas on the display which function for paging (beside the page number) are too small to touch them comfortably. So far I've found following ways to use it, but I'm satisfied with neither:
- use stylus to touch the paging areas
- open the keyboard and use the arrow keys
- install the AEButtons application to remap the volume keys (in this case the the whole system became unstable and furthermore I was not able to read holding the device in the right hand
Thanks for any help

Hi,
I am a fan of ebooks and have used many ebook reader program on many pda devices. Just as you did, I also installed MS Reader and have some observations:
1. Ufortunately Ms Reader is basically designed for d-pad pda's. That is to say, it is impossible at this stage, for this version to change the page via touch or slide movement on the screen.
2. Other than that, MS reader installs a font called "wingdings" for itself, which conflicts with Advanced Config and HD Tweak. That's the reason you see awkward characters in these programs. With my TYTN II, I could delete or rename the name of this font and continue using both programs. However, it impossible to delete or rename this font even via Total Commander in Touch Pro 2. Because this file is accepted as a Rom file by the operationg system. Therefore I had to uninstall MS Reader.
3. I use MobiPocket for many ebooks; it has many good options; though I should say it needs upgrade too. Please look at this thread: http://www.mobipocket.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16032
4. I use a different program for lit files; but I can't remember it's name now since I broke the LCD of my screen and trying to repair it nowadays You can see it here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=534883
5. Microsoft should develop a new MS Reader version or we should find a way to use cleartype in Adobe Acrobat somehow.
Regards,
jahr said:
Hello, I've installed the latest version of the Microsoft Reader and the instalation was successful. But I have a different question. How do you page in it? There are no key arrrows, touch interface doesn't work and the areas on the display which function for paging (beside the page number) are too small to touch them comfortably. So far I've found following ways to use it, but I'm satisfied with neither:
- use stylus to touch the paging areas
- open the keyboard and use the arrow keys
- install the AEButtons application to remap the volume keys (in this case the the whole system became unstable and furthermore I was not able to read holding the device in the right hand
Thanks for any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yes, pretty much the ebook readers need a massive update.
One thread I found on the Microsoft Reader support site had one "semi-official" person saying they were working on a version for WinMob 6.1, but that was last year, and no further updates.
I found another thread that said that Microsoft had stopped support for Microsoft Reader.
So no idea what happens. I'm hoping hen WinMob 6.5 launches, there will be a proper touch-friendly ebook reader in the store, that can handle .lit files as well =)

eReader
eReader (fictionwise/barnesandnoble) is pretty sweet for commercial titles. And for non-commercial titles, manybooks.net brings gutenburg to the eReader format (as well as many others) without you having to do any conversion yourself.
I haven't used the winmo version yet (which allows you to purchase/dl books directly btw), but the old Palm version uses the dpad And the touchscreen for page turning, so I imagine it would use the touchscreen for the better supported winmo version as well.
If I had a library of .lit books myself, I'd consider converting it to something more universal.

Microsoft Reader now for WM 6.1
A couple of weeks ago Microsoft quietly introduced a new version of Microsoft Reader that finally works fully on WM 6.1. Long overdue.
Does this mean that they still see Reader as a viable product, and that it could be developed further in a growing and ever-evolving ebook marketplace?
http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.aspx

lmoritz said:
A couple of weeks ago Microsoft quietly introduced a new version of Microsoft Reader that finally works fully on WM 6.1. Long overdue.
Does this mean that they still see Reader as a viable product, and that it could be developed further in a growing and ever-evolving ebook marketplace?
http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.aspx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the news; however MS Reader still sucks; I have set up and used the program for trial with many of my .lit files; but I came across some annoying features:
1. The program installs a font called wingdings.ttf for its viewing purposes; the problem is this font interferes with many programs including Advanced Config and Manila 2.5! In the previous version it was possible to rename and disable this file in Total Commander; however it seems as a ROM file now and it's possible to get rid of this nonsense font.
2. It's still very hard to turn page in devices like Rhodium, where you do not have the D-pad.
3. The funny thing is, there was an common bug preventing the opening of .lit files inside File Explorer; we could get rid of it with a small registry trick. You can see this bug here: http://forum.soft32.com/pda/open-reader-files-WM5-file-explorer-ftopict66047.html
The funny thing is that silly bug is still there LOL after all these years. I think Steve Ballmer needed to fire some more crew
Therefore I have uninstalled the program again.
Regards,