Hi there,
since i'm searching for a fast and customisable ui since months (90% of them use sense what makes them kind of slow). So I decided to start such a Project on my own.
My main targets are:
- Speed (!!!)
- User-friendly design
- Customizable Widget support
- High built in application support (native support of different music players, browsers and more)
I am going to use .NET Framework 3.5 and delop it using the WM home plugin system.
Since this UI is going to be freeware i'm going to try out this graphics libary (WMGL):
http://www.mobilityflow.com/products/wmgl/
The following shows the current progress and prioritys for planned features.
Current information:
- 2010/10/08 -
I will start development this weekend, for the beginning this will be a solo project. After development of the base system I would be glad about some help, but at that time there will already be progress that shows work on this project really makes sense
- 2010/10/10 -
Spent almost the whole weekend with coding and it was worth it! For now there are already 3 Desktops (configurable via XML) with different wallpaper modes (raw, fit, panorama). In panorama mode the image will be scaled (keeping proportions) over all 3 desktops. Basic widget engine is almost done, already got a first button widget that displays a free scalable graphical button (you can define a border width that will not be completely scaled). Also there is a label element to output text on a widget (the button label).
Here a few seconds of demonstration with 3 different scaled and positioned button widgets and a 1024x768 default windows desktop in panorama mode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ2zCN2BNno
And it will be independent to the device's resolution, like seen here it already works with other today plugins together:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22f3GClKC94
- 2010/10/11 -
Finished and optimized a lot of things today, most important changes are lots of font settings (color, bold, underline, italic, size, h-align, v-align), basic mouse events (down, up, click) and a few actions for those events (show/hide image, open url/file, open ui-dialog). Here a short video of the current version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk1Mgmj4HAg
- 2010/10/20 -
Debugged and cleaned the whole code, couldn't find any problems with the current features anymore. Also improved the performance a bit. Added icon's as source for widget images for application shortcuts (icon not scalable! size depends on the device, the wm5 emulator uses 32x32 modern phones usally 64x64). Added a small pager that displays the active desktop. Replaced the button graphics by high-res one's (I know they're not that beautyful ). Here's a video snapshot of that version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4KQ5s-NxtQ
- 2010/10/24 -
Done some pretty effective performance optimizations and increased the desktop scroll speed some. Replaced the button graphics again but I'm still not that happy with it. Added the most common status widgets (calls, texts/sms, mails) including the matching shortcut. Added a first small digital clock widget (160x80) somehow the clock was not correct when using the emulator, when using my own phone it works perfectly. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2Ur4PrBsSA (reuploaded video, working now)
- 2010/11/03 -
Replaced the graphics again, this one will be the base for the first (stock) skin. The battery icon will be replaced by a black one later. Further added 3 status widgets showing the battery state, signal strength and memory usage. To give a better view (without problems caused by the emulator) I made a video of it running on my HTC Touch Diamond 2 (Topaz). Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cIdAYtKnPA
Implemented features:
Desktops
3 Desktops (configured using xml) with independed wallpapers. (Still some todo's)
Widgets
Alert widgets (Calls, Texts, Mails)
Status widgets (Battery, Radio, Memory)
Digital clock widget (One small and one large)
Graphic button widget with text label and/or icon. (URLs, files, applications and a few system functions)
Planned features:
Desktops
(HIGH) 3 freely editable desktops with unlimited widget count / variation.
Widgets
(HIGH) Alert widgets (Calls, Texts, Mails, News!)
(HIGH) Contact widget (different layouts, supporting displaying multiple contacts and filtering)
(MID) Mail- and text-widget (incl. browsing and marking them read)
(MID) News widget (RSS)
(MID) Music widget (with multiple player support)
(LOW) Social widgets (Facebook, twitter, ....)
Tools
(HIGH) Tool for layout backups
(LOW) Update checker
PS: I know there are already many UI's out of there and coding a new one won't make sense for some of you, but imho there is still no really good one out there (at least not for a reasonable price). The most close one is MaxSense, but that mod still drains tonns of memory for sense and is also a bit buggy and limited. (e.g. there is no way to add the same widget twice)
Since i'm not expecting a fast port of WM7 to older devices this is going to be optimized for WM6. Anyway all WM5+ devices should be capable of running this UI.
Best regards
Forsaken
Developer Notes
In this section i will write down things that experienced users (and developers) might want to know.
XML structure definitions
desktop.xml
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<config>
<desktop>
<wallpaper file="relative\path.jpg" mode="raw|fit|panorama" />
<widgets>
<!-- If posx, posy, width or height are set to 0 these values
are taken from the widget.xml if available -->
<widget file="widgets\widget.xml" posx="0" posy="0" width="0" height="80" />
</widgets>
</desktop>
<desktop>
<wallpaper file="relative\path.jpg" mode="raw|fit|panorama" />
</desktop>
<desktop>
<wallpaper file="relative\path.jpg" mode="raw|fit|panorama" />
</desktop>
</config>
widgets\widget.xml
Code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<widget width="80" height="20">
<images>
<!-- Images are currently not positionable, if another mode than raw is
set the image will be scaled to fit the widget size.
The border attribute is optional and will only be used for fit_border -->
<image file="relative\path.png" mode="raw|fit|fit_border" border="8" />
</images>
<labels>
<!-- Labels are currently not positionable, too. ;)
The text is just centered into the widget. -->
<label text="About" />
</labels>
<events>
<!-- Coming soon ... -->
</events>
</widget>
+1 for sqvga!
This sounds great!
Looking forward to see your work
I wouldn't say they are slow because they "use" Sense (though I personally hate this tendency to write UIs emulating Sense... not everyone has an HTC phone!) they are slow because they are .NET/C# and unoptimized. If you ask me C# isn't fit for anything that needs to be fast or run permanently... Nothing beats native code in terms of performance. If you want optimization you'll have to go with C/C++... Good code eliminates the need for exaggerated phone specs.
As for renders RawFramebuffer seems to be the best generic bet (GDI is slow) it's not optimal there's no consensual best... Intel Xscale is the best for phones with good old CPUs (not HTC) and OpenGL ES is the best in most new phones.
Homescreen++ is C/C++ but renders in GDI... AFAIK it's the only free today screen plugin in native code (making it one of the lightest) while still being very flexible (though lacking some of the recent features in this sort of UI... which Mortscript can somewhat compensate for). One of my all-time favorite free apps (together with Mortscript, TCPMP, GSFinder+ and WKTask).
Just my 2 cents anyway...
Good luck.
..so this topic is about another manila/spb bs?
shame.
for conscoius users i can recommend: hs++ + mortscript.
rest - go and buy iphone/android.
I am going to use .NET Framework 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude, wake up. you must be fresh or kidding for bump.
regards,
nothin.
pupakota said:
..so this topic is about another manila/spb bs?
shame.
for conscoius users i can recommend: hs++ + mortscript.
rest - go and buy iphone/android.
forsaken said:
I am going to use .NET Framework 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude, wake up. you must be fresh or kidding for bump.
regards,
nothin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right about .NET 2.0, i will definitly need 3.5. And i won't use only .NET libarys, of course i will try to say native
About iPhone...
About Andoid, i dont have money for a new phone yet And it's about time for a free powerful ui
Only the behavior of the desktops is like andoid, i will definitly not just copy another system. Especially the widgets will be a lot different than those i saw so far.
Anyway coding is my hobby and i'm really motivated for this project. It's fun so far and I'm already making some progress. I got already 3 smoothly slideable desktops with a hard-coded wallpaper, even there is nothing on it yet
I also decided to support any possible resolution, maybe i will even get it working with other (smaller) today plugins together.
Since 2AM here i'll take a rest for now
Wish me luck for tomorrow, I will start to implement a XML-Parser for the desktop-configs and widgets.
Best regards
Forsaken
Good luck, then
And sorry for tone of my previous post.
Have you thought about your project license? If you decide to go open-source you could find TodayLife a big help for ideas/examples/code...
frmariam said:
Have you thought about your project license? If you decide to go open-source you could find TodayLife a big help for ideas/examples/code...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm it will definitly be freeware, personally I would like to go open-source but first I will have to check out the licenses of the two libarys I am going to use.
WMGL, a very fast graphics libary: http://www.mobilityflow.com/products/wmgl/license
Free to use with a linked hint that the app uses it. (For freeware)
A small native C++ XML Libary unter CPOL: http://www.codeproject.com/info/cpol10.aspx
I would be glad about an advise, regarding licensing I really don't have a clue yet
PS: Some first videos of my current status above The progress already exceed my expectations for those 2 days of work ^^
I'm wondering how you want to use .NET 4+, when for WinMo is available only .NET CF 3.5 (and something called 3.7?).
For this stuff, I'd really drop any .NET part and do it purely in native code. On the other hand, .NETCF isn't slow actually. What is slow, even in native code, is the GDI+. You MUST use OpenGLES, otherwise you'll fail pretty hard. TouchXPerience is all built in .NETCF using OpenGLES and it runs quite fast.
You can take a look at TigreSDK, but I found out that with few objects on screen, it runs slower (2D text object). I had working physics engine for that though. That's where I ended because of the speed of rendering. Next time I will go for native even myself.
OndraSter said:
I'm wondering how you want to use .NET 4+, when for WinMo is available only .NET CF 3.5 (and something called 3.7?).
For this stuff, I'd really drop any .NET part and do it purely in native code. On the other hand, .NETCF isn't slow actually. What is slow, even in native code, is the GDI+. You MUST use OpenGLES, otherwise you'll fail pretty hard. TouchXPerience is all built in .NETCF using OpenGLES and it runs quite fast.
You can take a look at TigreSDK, but I found out that with few objects on screen, it runs slower (2D text object). I had working physics engine for that though. That's where I ended because of the speed of rendering. Next time I will go for native even myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you're right it's going to be 3.5 ^^ I started to mix up the .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework. The project is set to the 3.5 version. I just corrected it in the main thread, too. Thx for the hint
good Luck!
Forsaken,
Good luck on this! I don't code, so feel like a leach sometimes. BUT, I am willing to sacrifice (dont tell the wife) my phone for testing, and have helped a few guys over here and currently am doing some testing as well with thier themes and UI's.
I am too old of a dog to learn a new trick (my last one was called COBOL!), but at least I can offer testing information.
With that said, if you ever need a tester for another phone, I am running an HTC Imagio with Stock Verizon ROM, running WM6.5 and Sense 2.1 on a WVGA screen.
Good luck, and looking forward to what you can come up with!
JerryA said:
Forsaken,
Good luck on this! I don't code, so feel like a leach sometimes. BUT, I am willing to sacrifice (dont tell the wife) my phone for testing, and have helped a few guys over here and currently am doing some testing as well with thier themes and UI's.
I am too old of a dog to learn a new trick (my last one was called COBOL!), but at least I can offer testing information.
With that said, if you ever need a tester for another phone, I am running an HTC Imagio with Stock Verizon ROM, running WM6.5 and Sense 2.1 on a WVGA screen.
Good luck, and looking forward to what you can come up with!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your kind offer, I will come back to that for sure
But for now testing won't make much sense, it's just too early.
-- Update:
I just finally finished another chapter (extracting the icon of other applications for shortcuts) and spent much time with cleaning and commenting the code.
Also added a more detailed update to the first post, for lazy one's here a video of the current state: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4KQ5s-NxtQ
Like the updates. Like I said, its just cool that you guys can do this stuff!
Thanks for keeping me in mind, drop me a PM whenever your ready. If I cange phones or anything, I will be sure to let you know!
Here I go again, did some bugfixes causing a high system load and made some new graphics again . Added 3 status widgets showing the battery level, signal strength and memory usage.
For more details see the first post, here the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cIdAYtKnPA
At the current rate I will release the first beta version in a few weeks. Until that I will have to figure out a problem that occurs after unloading / loading the interface a lot (desktop process crashes, regular restart needed to get it working again). While testing the normal usage this didn't happen so far. Further i will implement the remapping of application buttons before releasing a beta version.
For now those shortcuts are set up using the xml configuration file.
Hi, really appreciate your efforts, and I encourage you.
What I can tell as a user of TG01 and Acer S200 phones : WVGA phones with 256mo of ram doesn't run well because of lack of memory.
Everybody knows that WM built-in startmenu is very very RAM hungry, on WVGA devices, it can easily hit the 20-35mb of ram usage due to icons caching and other things... thats incredible!!!!
So in my mind, the must have of your UI is a complete WinMo UI replacement, that completely overhads startmenu and kills his memory usage, this would make your UI the best one.
looking good!
Forsaken said:
Here I go again, did some bugfixes causing a high system load and made some new graphics again . Added 3 status widgets showing the battery level, signal strength and memory usage.
For more details see the first post, here the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cIdAYtKnPA
At the current rate I will release the first beta version in a few weeks. Until that I will have to figure out a problem that occurs after unloading / loading the interface a lot (desktop process crashes, regular restart needed to get it working again). While testing the normal usage this didn't happen so far. Further i will implement the remapping of application buttons before releasing a beta version.
For now those shortcuts are set up using the xml configuration file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking good! Like the speed and smooth transitions. Again, keep up the good work!
May be too flippin early for this, and again, I can't code. But here is a sugestion regarding the battery and signal meters. What about making certain widgets or icons 'lockable' so that whenever you switch screens, they remain (like the signal meters or clocks?).
Like the advances so far, and really like that background image. Great to see how far you have come along!
any update for this great UI? is there posible to get rid the winmo bottombar later?
Related
Hi all,
I've been a reader (lurker) of this forum since the 8125. I have a Hermes 100 from Cingular which I have played around with, as shown on this forum. I am trying to create a fast, multimedia phone, that runs on the Hermes. I am not a techie, like many of you who know how to program, but I do admire what you've done. I could use your help......
Recently, post the last HTC upgrade, I added Black Satin, the Iphone Slider, and SPB Shell 1.5 , Diary and Pocket Plus 4.0, just to see how things work. Some thoughts (and the questions for which I seek an answer).
Do like the Black Satin add-ons, though Black was never really my color, and the HTC Shell and Diary are nice (though with Pocket Plus, gets very bloated)...still, it runs very slow....how can I:
1. Find a basic HTC shell?
2. If I wanted to ad in an interface, would you suggest the SPB Shell 1.5 + Diary or do you think Pocket Plus 4.0 is smooth, fast and multi-talented?
3. Opera or Explorer?
4. I still cannot watch Youtube, and some websites that require flash to show videos do not like Macromedia 7.0 Flash..they say "upgrade!" Thoughts?
5. I downloaded and installed The Black Shadow Video Dial Configuration, to use 3G video phone calls. But, as I am on the Cingular network, neither my brother (with the Tilt, unlocked) or my Hermes can make video calls on the network. Advice?! This would be super cool.
6. Are there "optimal" cingular internet settings that allow fastest access, or unblocked ports for 3G vid calling, streaming etc?
7. what is the best solution in terms of Iphone like scrolling and unlock? I know 4.0 Pocket Plus has it...its just "ok"...I tried to install Slide2unlock, didn't work for me.
8. I also used RealVGA, but didnt' notice a considerable difference. Is it not there, or am I dreaming?
9. Finally, should I just sell this Hermes 100 (its a "new" refurbished one from AT&T, got it yesterday) and buy a Tilt, or can I do everything I want on this baby!? I've had this type of phoen for a half a year now.....
Wow, a lot of questions, and I know you folks could say "read the 500 pages of the forum"...trust me, I've spent hours in these threads. I would appreciate your help, and I've honestly been trying, but it gets a little too technical for me past installing Cabs and following instructions, to be honest. So, any help you can offer would be VERY greatly appreciated.
All the best, George
Ok, here are answers to some points of yours:
4) There is no flash enabled browser for Windows Mobile. Only workarounds exist for watching the flash videos off Youtube and similar pages. So you will not be able to see those pages in near future.
7)iPhone scrolling - I use fTouchFlo - it works in all of the programs but has its flaws, I use s2u2 on my Hermes with no problem. One more thing to note is that Hermes touchc screen is different form iPhone touch screen and what we have (including SPB scrolling) are workarounds that still need a time to mature.
8) RealVGA? You are missing the point - both Hermes and Tilt have QVGA screen - there is no way to get it to VGA (simply because your screen has four times less pixels than VGA screen). It will not work because it is intended for VGA devices not for QVGA we own.
This is a developer forum - if you want less technical focus you can head to HOFO or other fora... I know lots of people in here read a lot... but they do not seem to think about what they read and then they tend to have really stupid questions. If all you want is media phone go for iPhone - there will not be 3G functions - but the scrolling works - there is no hassle with third party applications and everything can be done in only one way - the Apple way. The WM platform lets you do much more but it comes at price - in here I think you should get your feet wet in some basic techie stuff other than installing CABS. Hope I helped at least little...
PS: I had a hard time being new to the WM too - it needs time - I think right now you do not know what exactly you can expect from your device.
Well, first of all:
Thank you for your reply. True, it is called XDA Developers....and I am, in fairness, not. And as for an Iphone, wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft pool - I like the flexibility of this HTC WM6 phone I have...but frankly apart from some BASIC at the age of 9-11yrs, programming is not a forte ;-)
I'll try your solution to the scrolling.....and of course, I'll keep reading, but I figured (a. You folks know this stuff so well, and b). I can't be the first person to come in with these questions. After all, It's not like I'm not trying,...I flashed something like 20 roms yesterday testing them all out! - on that note, I love your benchmark thread.
Anyway, thank you for your help and the help of anyone else who gives it!
best, George
Ehhm to put some things straight...I know even less programming than you do I have a very same opinion of an iPhone - this thing can not be called "smart" phone at all. What you stumbled upon is the fact that there are two basic groups of users of our PDA phones - first ones are user tha want their phones just work - they are not interested why something does not work, they just want a certain standard to work and as long as it does they are happy. Second group is geeks like me (and the majority of users of this forum) that are just happy to upgrade their phones to whatever newer and try it out. The problem is that for example cooked ROMS have bugs/issues (not that official ROMs have none) - issues vary from small glitches, memory leaks, not functioning buttons to random hardresets. If you go way of the cooked ROMs usually you will have to spend more time with your devices than the first group of users just to fix glitches. The other thing is that cooked ROMs and applications there can enable you do much more with your phone - for example resource hogging HTC Home plugin was not intended for Hermes, touch scroll ability as well and we can continue - but folks over here made it possible - that is what makes this forum so great. Butif you choose to go this way you will have to read, read and read again - because nothing is perfect. Our devices have limitations too - hermes processor has computing power roughly equal to Pentium 100 MHz (that is over ten years old processor for desktops) - so some tasks are hard to be adapted (that is why most of the programs we use are watered down versions of desktop programs - as well as screen size is quite limiting for browsing and so on - if you want a VGA screen than you have to count with: your device being a tad slower (4x more data to be displayed over QVGA) and also bigger battery drain (4x more pixels to power up). Said that you can get some of the things you ask for in your questions, but some are still a challenge...
Use vtap for youtube viewing. Just google it.
Opera. Definitely Opera.
Well, AT&T does not support video calls so unless you go out of the country its useless to you. Besides, your phones dont even have the front facing camera, so it would be hard to do anyways.
Mcorrie:
Thanks, I think right now, I am at:
1. A Basic Shell for speed and customization (not sure which yet)
2. Web Browser: Opera
3. YouTube Browser: VTap
4. Scrolling: TouchFlo or s2u2
5. Additional Scrolling: Possibly Touch Commander
6. Maps: Google Maps
7. Wifi Searching: WIFIFOFUM
8: Microsoft Office
9. Phone Dialer (includes 3G Video??): Unknown
10. Camera/Video Program: Unknown
11. Media Player: Unknown
As for Video Calling, I figured there was a way to bypass the Cingular restrictions, but I have not found it yet. After all, it is a pipe...so it should be possible, right?
Some more from me:
4. Scrolling: TouchFlo or s2u2 (s2u2 is only for unlocking! no other scrolling so you can use both))
5. Additional Scrolling: Possibly Touch Commander or Slither's Flash cube (the same effect, but free)
9. Phone Dialer (includes 3G Video??): Schen's Kaiser dialer 2 (or something like this)
10. Camera/Video Program: CoolCamera - this one is commercial, but best there is
11. Media Player: TCPMP 0.81 - freeware plays nearly everything: audio video, with plugin even .flv and so on...
Karhu,
Dakujem for the additions: I am also adding Radio 1.48 as that seems to be the most stable for Brooklyn, NY according to a June report....I'm going to test myself, but as of now:
1. A Basic Shell for speed and customization
2. Web Browser: Opera
3. YouTube Browser: VTap
4. Scrolling: TouchFlo and s2u2
5. Additional Scrolling: Slither’s Flash Cube or Touch Commander
6. Maps: Google Maps
7. Wifi Searching: WIFIFOFUM
8: Microsoft Office
9. Phone Dialer (includes 3G Video??): Schen's Kaiser dialer 2
10. Camera/Video Program: CoolCamera
11. Media Player: TCPMP 0.81
Now, I just need to figure out what else needs to go in this thing! Trying to avoid bloat, but don't want to leave out needed functionality! I think maybe I'll find someone's mostly stripped down Rom and just add in - its a start.
More comments:
I think if you are looking for less bloated system you should stick with basic WM5/6 look - Wisbar advance that can customize the whole look of the system runs on the top of the basic shell and thus takes up some precious RAM space. The same goes for bells and whistles like s2u2 or slither's Cube - function of s2u2 is to lock/unlock the device - but a part of the program runs in background as a service and consumes 200k of RAM even when you use the device - it is not much but as you proceed to customize the device the amount of bloat grows.
I think you should also look for some decent task managers: I personally like wktask and Quickmenu, but pBar is also nice. HTC xButton is quite a bloat in this matter. You should think what is the main purpose you will use your phone for - CoolCamera is nice but due to hardware limitation of the Hermes those pictures will always look....like taken by a phone.
When it comes to extra lite ROMs beware - they tend to have memory leaks and some Super storage ROMs even random bricking - hardreset needed to make them work again.
Several other variants:
Peek Pocket in wifi scanner (just one small exe)
Core Player instead of TCPMP (Core player is the commercial succesor of freeware TCPMP)
You should also consider some backup program if planning to fiddle more with your phone:
If you want to save your messages, mails, contacts and stuff go for free PIM Backup.
Hope that helps a little
1. Find a basic HTC shell?
What do you mean? If you want HTC TouchFLO-like shell (the basic one is TouchFLO 2D), get ThrottleLauncher. You can install TouchFLO, but you need to flash your ROM. You also can use Spb Mobile Shell 2 with Diamond theme (search Diamond theme for Spb Mobile Shell in xda-developers forum)
UPDATE : Now it's possible, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=541750 It's the TouchFLO 2D from HTC Touch2 (HTC Mega).. Download the "PATCHED MANILA FOR WM6.1 and non-HTC devices" if you have 6.0 or 6.1
2. If I wanted to ad in an interface, would you suggest the SPB Shell 1.5 + Diary or do you think Pocket Plus 4.0 is smooth, fast and multi-talented?
Spb Mobile Shell!
3. Opera or Explorer?
I usually use Explorer for short time browsing, and Opera Mobile for long time or serious browsing, because we must wait for about 5 seconds for Opera to boot up
UPDATE : With Opera Mobile 10, the Opera is not slow anymore, I'm currently using Opera Mobile 10 as my only and favourite browser on my Hermes..
4. I still cannot watch Youtube, and some websites that require flash to show videos do not like Macromedia 7.0 Flash..they say "upgrade!" Thoughts?
Download the YouTube app, you cannot view on the Windows Mobile browser..
UPDATE : With SkyFire browser, you can..
7. what is the best solution in terms of Iphone like scrolling and unlock? I know 4.0 Pocket Plus has it...its just "ok"...I tried to install Slide2unlock, didn't work for me.
Upgrade your Windows Mobile to Windows Mobile 6.1 or 6.5
UPDATE : Use Slide2Unlock2 (S2U2), it works on my Hermes (running official WM6 ROM)
8. I also used RealVGA, but didnt' notice a considerable difference. Is it not there, or am I dreaming?
Hermes's screen is QVGA (320x240), so you cannot force Windows to view VGA (640x480)
9. Finally, should I just sell this Hermes 100 (its a "new" refurbished one from AT&T, got it yesterday) and buy a Tilt, or can I do everything I want on this baby!? I've had this type of phoen for a half a year now.....
No, I think Hermes' body is more sturdy than the Tilt (Kaiser)
Epic necro. Another month and a bit and you'd have had 2 years!
Timing is everything when replying to a thread. Especially when it's almost 2 years old!
All.... we have been working hard on CoreUI over the past 6 months. If your not familiar with CoreUI let me explain what it is. CoreUI is the Universal user interface (skins) behind CorePlayer. For developers think of it as a lighter, faster, smaller and more universal approach to skinning your applications compared to GTK or QT.
Even though we are still working on some of the design elements in CP. We are at the point now that we are comfortable to finally let skin developers start to work on skinning CorePlayer.
Now I want to say CoreUI is more then just a 'skin'... it is an XML based modular widget UI that gives you unlimited power to everything within CorePlayer.
So what will you need?
- Photoshop (or me with paint.net)
- XML experience is a MUST for skin designers
- Time to read through the 60+ page UI documentation
- Patience...
Anyone that wants the latest CoreUI skin documentation can email me ( info AT corecodec DOT com ) and I'll send it to them... as we want to work directly with the skin designers so, serious inquiries only.
Also I want to note... we are willing to pay $100 or more per skin! (now I got your attention)
Lets get to skinning!
get it from their website!!!
"500 - Internal Server Error"
Maybe too many people trying to MS 3
http://rapidshare.com/files/224018311/SpbMobileShell3.arm.cab
Final, 15 day trial, build 6411
The Spb site is really slow...
the bad news.......all the issues that I had before....are still there.
and SPB wonder why we were all so anxious to get our hands on the pre-release so we could test it and give them time to fix the bugs. It seems that they think they know what we want without actually asking us.
haven't experienced any bugs yet, although i fully tested it again.
spb wallpapers
what's about wallpapers for spb mobile shell????
SMS Issue
I have downoaded the trial and is great, really enjoy the way the interfaces works.The problem is when I recieve a text message all teh notifications work but if I try and open the message it won't let me. It gets as far as the in box and then will not go any further, only get to see the first line of the text. If I delete the text and do to deleted items I can then click on the message and it will open fully, alowing me to do whatever I want with it. I f I move it back to the inbox it again blocks me out. Anyone else suffering this?
danielng7 said:
what's about wallpapers for spb mobile shell????
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Click to collapse
The wallpapers included with MS3 are 960*748 - I guess, depending on your device, you can create a wallpaper with those dimensions and it should be fine. They can only be applied on the lifestyle homepage, but I am sure in time people will discover ways of having wallpaper for all screens.
How to change wallpaper??
wallpaer - and I love sbp mobile shell
bottom right hand side button on screen (grey), opens up menu at bottom, choose "change background"
I have to say I love this shell, I dispise titanium and TF3D, some love them but each to their own eh.
It even works with davideuk 6.5 rom, i love the use of widgets without having to install anothing else apart from this. It works well, very well in fact. Smooth, fast. Myspace contacts impletmentation works very well, no bugs found yet beyond, only problem is that there are too many ways to get into the same area, too many pages but you get used to it.. oh and if you go into the clock it does not appear to accept changes to date unless you come out and go throug the windows mobile settings page. I give it a 8/10
I have it on trial and will definately buy it when it has ended, it is important to support good developers.
Better and Lighter than touch flo
I insalled it (Trial for 15 days), its wonderfull and the Animation is very smooth that you can't imagine it !!! smoothness like iphone interface and very light and fast (consume less Ram than Touch FLO).
The features and gadgets are great, the weather integration is good but the Touch Flo weather provide Current weather status while this one gives you forecasting for (day, night, Morning).
Its not like touch Flo which is flash content added to the Today Screen as in ITEM ! this one is different and can go back and forth to the Today screen !!
I am now evaluating its stability and if there is no bugs , I will buy it after I finish the trial periods which is 15 days.
mine doesnt work so smooth, like an old Video Card \=
So far it works smoothly and without any problem, memory usage is good, for the battery I am not sure and still testing (IT might drain battery faster than Touch FLO).
I have one problem is I have to use Windows media as Touch FLO Music player is not a standalone program, for the windows media when I open it and play a song the memory usage goes up from 45% to 80% !!!!! very weird !!! I thing the SPB has installed some plugin for windows media and secrewed its memory management !!! when I close windows media memory usage return to normal !!!!
Any Help ?
Great app - small comment
I love it.
It's one of the best WinMo apps.
The only thing I don't like is the kinetic scroll.
I actually prefered those small paging arrows from version 2. They worked better for me, faster and more accurate.
Other than that - great stuff!
No issues so far. You can integrate SPB Weather 2 which offer a lot more info instead of the standard weather. I think the temp displayed is the current temp with that.
The media player stinks and I wish there was an integrated picture browser like TouchFlo. I even miss the stock page but can easily live without it.
I love having both the professional and lifestyle pages, and I love how the background scrolls back and forth on the lifestyle page. It took me about 5 minutes to customize it to a look that I really like.
Also, the scrolling is extremely smooth on my HD.
Everdog said:
No issues so far. You can integrate SPB Weather 2 which offer a lot more info instead of the standard weather. I think the temp displayed is the current temp with that.
The media player stinks and I wish there was an integrated picture browser like TouchFlo. I even miss the stock page but can easily live without it.
I love having both the professional and lifestyle pages, and I love how the background scrolls back and forth on the lifestyle page. It took me about 5 minutes to customize it to a look that I really like.
Also, the scrolling is extremely smooth on my HD.
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Click to collapse
Mobile shell Skins
Post here the skins please-----»»» http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=509416
waiting for more skins WVGA Skins please post here
Need Help more skins please
Many thanks
I like this a lot, it lacks the depth of functionality of TF3D, but hey since it can run with TF3D at the same time you can have best of both worlds.
(I did have to remove it from startup folder to get TouchFlo to start after a soft reset though).
BT52 said:
I like this a lot, it lacks the depth of functionality of TF3D, but hey since it can run with TF3D at the same time you can have best of both worlds.
(I did have to remove it from startup folder to get TouchFlo to start after a soft reset though).
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How do you get to the startup folder?
It OK I just found it in Windows/Startup.. Thanks
I've been playing with it for the last week and I love it!
One problem though: it drains my battery faster than Touch FLO.
It's a V12! any tips for getting a bit more battery life out of it?
Thank you all!
I was getting a little bored and irritated at the way Touchflo was making everything so hard to get to.
I put everything back to standard Windows for a while but it obviously wasn't particularly very finger friendly (although not as bad as everyone made out).
I tried SPB 3 but tbh it looks and feels amateur and the UI wasn't as clean as I'd have liked.
I then came across the free version of PointUI Home2 (http://www.pointui.com) and its a really nice replacement for Touchflo. (It also seems to use less memory and is definitely faster.
It has panels like Android which are actually usefull, ie.e displaying all email summaries for an account on homepage etc.
There is a big development community and there are many apps and themes that make it looks and work very nicely. Lots of sliding transitions, and an almost full graphical UI replacement for commonly used menus like start and settings.
If you haven't yet, check it out.
here's a fairly decent run through video (although it does look and work a little better on my TP2 and the default theme is nicer than on this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXIy_9fZBa4
All the Themes available (inc android, sense etc.): http://community.pointui.com/topic/themes-the-themes-store
All the Apps available: http://community.pointui.com/topic/applets-the-applets-store
Probably the best theme, PointSenseUI: http://community.pointui.com/topic/pointsense_s2u2
I used Home on my phone from 1.0 to soon after they released 2. The one thing I couldn't get over was the screen rotate lag on my Tilt. I'm sure that's less of a problem on the TP2 (or I hope?) but it drove me away from it.
That said, each revision from the PointUI team made the program get better and better. There are a ton of UGGGLLLYYY themes but of course there's a gem every now and then. I used the "Seven" theme, I think.
I think the coolest feature of Home2 is how anyone can make an applet. And while some are butt-ugly, some are really nice looking and amazing. It's worth checking out at least for the sheer number of cool apps people add to it.
I (still) don't have my TP2 but I'm going to give TF3D, Chome, and Home2 a fair run. Home2 is a really nice looking program and I don't care if it makes me 10% less productive on my phone, aesthetics can enhance my experience enough to make up for that.
Im finding it is very responsive and enhances my phone greatly.
I've paid for the pro version, and the threaded messages and message timeline feature is worth that alone. Basically you can have a timeline of messages, including all emails and sms all by time, brilliant.
It is very beautiful and i also use 7even. I don't have auto rotate enabled as i dislike rotating displays unless i pull out the keyboard but everything else is great.
WM Prof 6.1 - TP2 - T-Mobile
Trying to figure out what to do about the today screen. I have gone between HTC TouchFLow3d and WM and am not overly happy with either. Left HTC because their contact screen does not return you back to the previous selected contact. I am new to touch screens and it can be painful to finally get to the right contact. Then accidently select the contact above or below, click on back and be returned to the As. WM is just plain ugly.
What are some suggestions. I hear about sbd and cookie. What other interaces are out there and what do you use or suggest?
THanks
I disable Sense and use WisbarAdvancedDesktop 2 to get exactly the interface that looks like I want. There you can build the today screen nearly totally free. Look here for examples:
http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=60
SPB Mobile Shell: http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/mobileshell/
Inifinity: http://forum.ageye.de/viewforum.php?f=57&sid=2353928fca9fe6940d2bc2f845891662
Titanium (new Windows Mobile Theme).
I think you'll find that the SPB that burton linked to will probably be a lot more comfortable to use, it runs a lot leaner than Sense does, and is just a lot more approachable...but still very powerful when it comes to customizing. And, there's pre-built themes you can apply if you find one that suits you.
If you really like customizing and lots of functionality, you may like Pointui Home2 which I use. See my sig for details... it's memory footprint to comparable to Spb MS too. The theme/suite I use in Home2 is one I coded to look like WP7, but have real functionality not just look nice/flashy.
i am leaning towards a commercial, paid interface to replace TF3D. need it to be pretty stable. i have already spent so much time playing with this phone that my family is about to mutany. so betweem spb and pointui how would you rate their stability, ability to customize, and ease of customization - and anything else to compare.
wm 6.1 prof
tp2 - t-mobile
tf3d 3.0
thebrenda said:
i am leaning towards a commercial, paid interface to replace TF3D. need it to be pretty stable. i have already spent so much time playing with this phone that my family is about to mutany. so betweem spb and pointui how would you rate their stability, ability to customize, and ease of customization - and anything else to compare.
wm 6.1 prof
tp2 - t-mobile
tf3d 3.0
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Click to collapse
I honestly haven't used the pointui interface myself yet, but I can say that SPB is ultra-stable (especially compared to TF3D and Sense), and presents a nice small load to the system resources. It's been around for years, and even ran smooth and stable on my previous HTC phone, the Wizard, which had barely a third of the processor power and memory capacity that the TP2 has. It's also about as easy to configure as a phone GUI can be, and extremely flexible and customizable....there's literally dozens and dozens of themes and styles available for it, both here and across the net, all of which are extremely easy to apply and/or switch between.
I'm not saying anything bad about pointui, I just don't know it. However, I do believe that SPB will have more "ready-to-use" stuff to find than pointui, just based on how often I see them.
Also, SPB allows you a free trial version, so you can give it a try without committing
sirphunkee is correct about Sbp MS. Compared to Pointui Home2 it is much easier to hit the ground running with it and is more polished overall with lots of customization. Both it and Pointui are very stable on just about any device. Both can get away with low memory footprints since they offload larger sized images to storage memory, though I'm not sure if MS can, but Pointui allows you set the image threshold to either use more memory for speed or more storage if you need memory to run more apps or stay stable. I've used all flavors Pointui and all the other UI's and I aways come back to Pointui, since it's scripting engine is just as powerful (C#-based) as MortScript allowing for extreme customization and speed at the OS level. Sorry rambling... to sum it up there are many UI's/Today plug-ins that are great and varied. I'll list some, but besides TF3D/Sense, Titanium the most integrated for WM the 2 imho that are at the top are Pointui Home2 and Spb MS3.5.
Here some others to try...
1. HomeScreen++ formerly BatterStatus very powerful Today plugin and great for integrating standard today screen with most PIM info or just having single screen for all important info.
2. iLauncher
3. ThrottleLauncher
4. Infinity
5. And more...
Again to me MS and Home2 are the best and both have trial versions that don't really expire. Go with Home2 if you need more functionality (PIM-wise) and love to spend time customizing otherwise go with MS3.5 if you want instant eye-candy and shorter prep time customization-wise. Both have all the basics and more to start off and both have great support communities (I'm a community dev on Pointui forums). Whichever you choose, these two, or some other will be a great choice.