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Apologies if this has been thoroughly covered, I went back 4-5 pages in each forum but didn't see anything.
From what I can gather from reviews and youtube videos the D-pad on the Touch pro works like a standard D-pad, and when in opera can be used to zoom in by circling it with a finger like a click wheel on an Ipod. Is it possible to modify it to work as a scroll wheel instead of a "zoom wheel". I know this isn't an option out of the box, but is it something that's possible, or being worked on?
I'm considering from the tilt, and while I've convinced myself that I don't need the hard left and right buttons, or the email & browser buttons, I'm not sure I'll be able to get used to working without any kind of jog dial/scroll wheel.
I think it's been asked and the answer is not yet.
The D-pad is one of the things I really don't like about the phone though, the buttons are all on the same plane, not separated in any way, and that makes it very difficult to differentiate the d-pad from the home/back/send/end buttons. I didn't find it was a problem until playing games, when I kept minimizing the window by hitting the Back button.
oh... the touch pro has a d-pad??? omg ive had the phone for almost a month and i only just discovered it. i thought it was just a scroll thing. its really hard to press though..
Black93300ZX said:
I think it's been asked and the answer is not yet.
The D-pad is one of the things I really don't like about the phone though, the buttons are all on the same plane, not separated in any way, and that makes it very difficult to differentiate the d-pad from the home/back/send/end buttons. I didn't find it was a problem until playing games, when I kept minimizing the window by hitting the Back button.
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Well I don't really play a whole lot of games on my phone, but I do read a lot of really long email threads, and more importantly, when I'm bored I read sites like overheardinnewyork.com which is basically a lot of text to scroll through.
I'm getting the feeling that I'm going to have to find a way to "play" with a TP and see if I love it or not. I went 8125, x01ht, tilt, and now I'm looking to upgrade. but if this phone isn't going to rock me, I'll hold out (for what I don't know).
As much as I like flashing new roms to my tilt, it seems all anyone does is try to rip the best features from other phones...so at some point I might as well just get the other phone.
Diamond Tweak 0.5.3 allows you to enable d-pad scrolling for some applications.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=409540
(you need to soft-reset after you have changed options)
dougalls said:
Diamond Tweak 0.5.3 allows you to enable d-pad scrolling for some applications.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=409540
(you need to soft-reset after you have changed options)
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Hmmm, looks promising. Have you tried it? I just can't imagine I'd ever use the zoom feature, although up to now I've used opera mini, so perhaps after switching to opera mobile I'd change my mind. But I'm still pretty sure I'd prefer to double tap the screen to zoom, and have another means of scrolling.
I have tried it and it works well for contacts (useful), programs etc but does not work with my Yahoo inbox (possibly due to the ROM I am using - ROmeOS v1.22) and it does not replace the zoom in opera. You can set up custom applications in DiamondTweak so it may be possible to overcome any differences between ROM's by setting up a custom application. I do use the zoom in opera so wouldn't want to replace it.
You can still double tap to zoom in/out on opera, as well as the wheel - the wheel lets you zoom in/out in small increments, double tapping toggles between full page and zoomed in.
DesCo said:
Hmmm, looks promising. Have you tried it? I just can't imagine I'd ever use the zoom feature, although up to now I've used opera mini, so perhaps after switching to opera mobile I'd change my mind. But I'm still pretty sure I'd prefer to double tap the screen to zoom, and have another means of scrolling.
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Think about this, with Opera Mobile you'll only have 2 levels of zoom ("in" or "out") unless you use the wheel to zoom. I liked being able to use it to fine tune and get things to look just right, but that's me. Try it out and see what you think.
With newer versions of Opera Mobile, there is now an on-screen zoom slider that adds a "tap and slide" button for incremental zooming. Now I find myself wanting an alternative to scrolling, since my finger otherwise covers up part of the screen and might accidentally click a link. Unfortunately the arrows and dpad don't scroll the page but instead jump from link to link.
This has been one detail (although a minor detail) that has made be begin to consider replacing my TP with the X1, since the X1's optical sensor dpad apparently provides scrolling functionality.
DesCo said:
Hmmm, looks promising. Have you tried it? I just can't imagine I'd ever use the zoom feature, although up to now I've used opera mini, so perhaps after switching to opera mobile I'd change my mind. But I'm still pretty sure I'd prefer to double tap the screen to zoom, and have another means of scrolling.
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use advance config 3.3 ........search for the link
go to options, click smart touch and it allows you to add any application, where in touch wheel (above D Pad) can be used for scrolling......i use it for contacts, file manager, program, call history, phone window, mails, messages and its really usefull and very cool........i dont use it for opera and internet explorer and use it for zooming as put in default
~
Kingjack
Thanks for the info. As I said, I haven't picked up the TP yet, I'm holding out for the Fuze (or a reasonably priced GSM model).
To change gears a bit, I'm curious, what kind of difference do people see in using cooked Roms on this device. I only ask because as a Kaiser user I'm used to using Roms because they incorporate features from the latest equipment. But as this is among the newest models out, and a "flagship" phone so to speak...is there much of an advantage over say a stock ATT rom minus the bloat? I enjoy high level of customization, and being able to pick my features, but as this is a relatively new device, I don't want to go through the trouble of unlocking and flashing if there isn't going to be a real gain in performance/features, or if it's going to impact performance (like trying to run Manilla 2d on a Kaiser, and pretending that a 5 second screen rotate time is ok)
PS: just for the record, despite my incredibly low post count, I've been lurking on the board for ~2 years...I'm not some (I hate this word) newb asking "what rom is best" or "can someone explain to me how to XXX reading the Wiki is too much work"...just wanted to throw that out there.
Volume buttons for scroll
Review on wmexperts of Sprint Touch Pro has the information below in the comments area. Looks like the reviewer followed up with the statement that he used AE Buttons to remap the volume buttons on the side, where the scroll wheel is on 8525/Tilt to scroll up and down with each click. I don't have Fuze, but it seems like this would work on it as well, I don't think it's a free softare though.
http://www.wmexperts.com/reviews/smartphones/review_24_hours_with_the_sprin.html
Buttons: I have successfully used AE Buttons to successfully remap the volume up and down buttons. I have the volume down button set at one click to scroll down and a log click for OK/Enter. The volume up button is set at one to scroll up and the log click Alt/Tab Wisbar's switch utility. I have also remapped the Back button to OK/Enter. The Home button now brings down the Start Menu on a single click and Email when I hold it down. This has made life a lot easier and has in virtually increased my available hardware buttons to a more comfortable level of usable buttons.
cparkhorn said:
Review on wmexperts of Sprint Touch Pro has the information below in the comments area. Looks like the reviewer followed up with the statement that he used AE Buttons to remap the volume buttons on the side, where the scroll wheel is on 8525/Tilt to scroll up and down with each click. I don't have Fuze, but it seems like this would work on it as well, I don't think it's a free softare though.
http://www.wmexperts.com/reviews/smartphones/review_24_hours_with_the_sprin.html
Buttons: I have successfully used AE Buttons to successfully remap the volume up and down buttons. I have the volume down button set at one click to scroll down and a log click for OK/Enter. The volume up button is set at one to scroll up and the log click Alt/Tab Wisbar's switch utility. I have also remapped the Back button to OK/Enter. The Home button now brings down the Start Menu on a single click and Email when I hold it down. This has made life a lot easier and has in virtually increased my available hardware buttons to a more comfortable level of usable buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How have you managed to get AEButton working on your home button?
I found that the home and back buttons seem to be "hard coded" to do their tasks, and AEbutton only assigns an *additional* task to each button. In other words, when I press Home for start menu, it first goes home, and then opens start. If I map the back button to Camera, it first goes back an application screen, then launches camera. Very annoying. The only buttons I found AEButton works with is the vol up and down. Is there a trick I'm missing?
New Fuze user and new user to WM in general. I like the device, but it's been a bit overwhelming trying to get things together and tweaking it.
My biggest gripe right now is the sensitivity of the 4 way directional pad. Up and down work pretty well, but left and right are tricky to hit and I usually wind up going home, canceling, or going back. It's quite frustrating and I'd much rather use the directional pad than peck on the touchscreen in many situations.
I'm a bit befuddled: is navigation via the directional pad touch sensitive or is it a physical button? Is there anyway to adjust the sensitivities or sensor zones/regions so as not to accidentally hit one of other hardware buttons?
Thanks.
Got the same issue. The up / down navigation works fine, but left and right is just horrible. It would almost be better if you could use the touch sensitive part, rather than having to press the buttons fully down.
yup its a problem on all i think
lbhocky19 said:
yup its a problem on all i think
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Wow, how did this get pass R&D and QA? The lack of responsive and accurate left/right keys is abysmal (makes me unable to use Calendar). I sure hope there will be some remedy ....
Yeah, I agree, the d-pad is sorely lacking. It seems to be getting a little easier as I get accustomed to it, but the d-pad from my 8525 was much better.
I agree 100%. And like vexingv said, this is particularly annoying in the calendar application. The D pad on my 8525 was far easier to use.
And all this time i thought i just kept messing up. I have the same problem also.
calendar is where the problem really does shine
This is the WORST part about this new phone redesign. It's almost as if MARKETING came up with this idea than actual engineers.
I wonder if we can just cut the surface so we get the d-pad left-right back and so it's not shared with other buttons.
Thanks a lot HTC! You now have THREE buttons that do the same thing instead of 2 last time on the Kaiser:
Home goes back to Home
Back (formerly OK), goes back to home anyways
Hangup goes back to Home anyways already!
So hitting left or right you have 66% of it going straight back to HOME.
Then, you take away the scroll-wheel capability and replace it with rocker buttons for volume that only do that and nothing else.
Genius by HTC.
NuShrike said:
This is the WORST part about this new phone redesign. It's almost as if MARKETING came up with this idea than actual engineers.
I wonder if we can just cut the surface so we get the d-pad left-right back and so it's not shared with other buttons.
Thanks a lot HTC! You now have THREE buttons that do the same thing instead of 2 last time on the Kaiser:
Home goes back to Home
Back (formerly OK), goes back to home anyways
Hangup goes back to Home anyways already!
So hitting left or right you have 66% of it going straight back to HOME.
Then, you take away the scroll-wheel capability and replace it with rocker buttons for volume that only do that and nothing else.
Genius by HTC.
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Click to collapse
Well, the scroll wheel does work, but its ability is to zoom/decrease the text size, which for most intents and purposes is a waste.
For clarification, is the directional rocker currently touch-sensitive or is there a physical button that is being depressed (albeit poorly).
If this keeps up, how about mapping some of the other 4 hardware buttons to provide some L/R functionality?
Okay guys. Here is the weird crazy part. I had the same problem, I just flashed the original stock att rom back (Well, tried to freeze in the middle to return ) but I had the att rom on it, I tried to re-install via the microSD card, and after it went through all the customization, I was so suprised that the left and right were working, it blew me away. I was like, "wdf? Is this the same phone." I have no idea what happened, but they seem more responsive. No tricks. At first I thought it was just me, but I started to use it more and more and it was working much better than before. No idea what fixed it, but I'm a happy camper
Here's some pictures of a guy who dropped it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2904011&postcount=1
Looks like distinct buttons. We just need to keep the face plate from sharing the presses.
Stock rom here... Moving 'left' seems to work okay but 'right' either hits Call End or Back. And here I thought I was doing something wrong.
NuShrike said:
Here's some pictures of a guy who dropped it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2904011&postcount=1
Looks like distinct buttons. We just need to keep the face plate from sharing the presses.
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Seriously! Whose idea was it to make all those buttons into 1 face plate! stupid idiot designer. At least they could've separated the d-pad somehow, maybe a very precise circle.
Yeah with the new excitement with touch interfaces, HTC seemed to have left their minds/brains elsewhere. But judging from the pictures in the linked thread above, it seems like none of the 4 directions have physical buttons.
Count me in on this problem...
For the Calendar I just open the keyboard and use that D-pad on the bottom right.
SOLUTIONS...
I propose someone should create software to do 1 of 2 things:
1) Use the G-sensor to control scrolling. This function would be activated by touching, not pressing/clicking, the center of D-pad. Similar to how you focus the camera. This action would activate the software thus allowing scrolling in all 4 directions by tilting the device.
2) Change the input so we only have to Touch the D-pad (like how we zoom in on pictures/Opera) to move in the desired direction.
So who's up to the challenge of developing some software to make this happen? I will gladly donate $$$ as the D-pad is the ONLY thing I dislike about the Fuze/Touch Pro.
it took me 10 days to realize how to left and right buttons work (sprint).
Hmm...maybe the designers/engineers meant for BOTH hardware buttons on either side to be depressed nearly simultaneously in order to register navigation to either the left or right?
Eg.: Placing the tip of my right thumb parallel with the end the bottom of the phone between the two hardware buttons (farther away from the D-pad than one normally would) such that both buttons depressed, I was able to get much better accuracy navigating to the right. Can get the same response on the left side, but it's not as feasible due to the awkward positioning of the hands/fingers.
I got tired of this problem before so I used G-controller. It works.
[Link]
The buttons are both touch-sensitive and physical buttons. The problem is if your thumb is touching any of the big buttons, it will prefer that over the directional click. Add to that the fact that the area the phone considers to be part of the non-directional buttons is much bigger than what it considers to be the directional buttons and it is a problem.
I wish people would stop following Steve Jobs's design ideas. Fewer buttons does not a better product make.
I used to touch type on old candy bar and slide phones without having to look at the screen, by feeling the dialpad keys I knew what button I was on and using the T9 dictionary it was easy, I really miss this in new phones now.
I wanted to buy a dialpad phone with Android as a 2nd phone but there are none being made so I think they are going the way of the dodo.
There is no feesable way to touch type on new phones, qwerty keyboards have too many keys, haptic feedback is in its infancy, so I propose a full screen T9 keyboard for touch typing.
The whole display would be filled with 9 or 10 buttons representing 0-9 like a standard dialpad.
This wouldn't be the main input method, I think it would be good for it to activate by pressing the volume down button twice while in a text field and deactivate by doing the same thing. Hopefully it should be possible to touch type without haptic feedback when the whole screen is filled with only 9 buttons.
Let me know what you guys think.
why the full screen??? my htc hero has softkb with t9, fills half the screen. I never use qwerty. Works like a charm. you can get the htc_ime.apk and use that.
I havent heard of anyone being able to touch type on a touchscreen phone yet, ie writing an sms while driving without looking at their phone.
If it is literally filling the whole screen it may be possible on a 3.7" screen the buttons will be big, you are either pressing one of the corners, middle or sides.
If it is filling only half the screen it becomes a lot more difficult if not impossible.
I have issues with the use of the OEM on-screen keyboard of the HTC HD2. It registers the keys next to the ones I press if my finger even begins to slide a little when pressing the desired key.
I would like something much more stable than what it's equipped with. Does anybody know of a better keyboard for the HTC HD2?
MartyLK said:
I have issues with the use of the OEM on-screen keyboard of the HTC HD2. It registers the keys next to the ones I press if my finger even begins to slide a little when pressing the desired key.
I would like something much more stable than what it's equipped with. Does anybody know of a better keyboard for the HTC HD2?
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Click to collapse
try finger keyboard or fingerkeyb...google the forum for it...it works great for me...tried it even on qvga..and still it kicks butt
farukb said:
try finger keyboard or fingerkeyb...google the forum for it...it works great for me...tried it even on qvga..and still it kicks butt
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Click to collapse
Excellent! Thank you. That worked out just fine. It is better than the OEM KB. It also looks better. Is there a touchscreen sensitivity setting somewhere for the HD2, do you know?
EDIT -
Unfortunately the Fingerkeyb has a bug in landscape mode. Pressing the spacebar often brings up the menu because it is so close to the bottom of the screen.
EDIT 2-
Eh...I spoke too soon. The landscape mode doesn't work properly. I thought it was limited to the same size as the portrait mode because that's what shows up when pulling up the keyboard while in landscape mode. But after tapping the small arrow beside the KB selector, and then choosing Fingerkeyb, the landscape mode comes up. Which isn't all that appealing because it separates the keyboard at the middle, putting the directional arrows in the middle, rather than providing larger keys like the OEM keyboard does.
Hopefully the creator of this keyboard will will see these issues and deal with them. I guess I'll just stick to the OEM board for now...much less complex to pull up.
Me thinks this is wrong forum...
And I suggest Swype. It should be on the forums here somewhere.
Well...All is well. I had the 2.0 version installed and found the 2.1 version from a post speaking about it. Googling fingerkeyb brings up a link to the thread in xda with the 2.0 version. After specifically Googling fingerkeyb 2.1, I was able to get it.
2.1 resolves the issues I had and is much nicer too.
I just can't get over how things go wrong when I speak of something working well.
The letter "b/B" is dead in the fingerkeyb. Tapping it does nothing. It doesn't register.
I suppose it's just in the default skin, red/black. I loaded another skin, gray/black, and it now works. Also, the "b/B" works in the default skin if the option to "Show bar" for landscape mode is selected. The "b/B" works fine either way in the default skin in portrait mode.
as already mentioned, google for Swype mate, trust me you'll never use another keybord again
One of the cooked ROMS has a cab for swype within it. Not sure on the legalities of it as it was only released for the Tmobile HD2, but if someone confirms its ok I'll tell you which ROM to save you digging about.
Actually if you are happy with the keyboard and its just the sensitivity issue then take a look at this post...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=604831
I had majoy issues with the keyboard and pressing of buttons etc but this CAB worked a treat!
Moved as not software release.
for as long as I've had my phone, which, of course, is as long as I've had it rooted, my messaging app has acted extremely odd.
Using the arrow keys and the back-space key causes strange, and often app-breaking, behavior. it seems to be registering the key presses in at least 2 other areas of the app. it always scrolls to the top of the conversation, it highlights conversations in the main message window, and it highlights options in the menus before I even have them open. it seems that the window that lists the conversations, as well as the options menu, are still listening to key presses, even when I'm writing a text. often, the arrow keys and the back-space key stop working all together until I back out of the text-input and re-open the keyboard. this happens litterally every time i write a text message, which is a lot.
all I want the arrow keys to do when I'm in a text field is move the cursor, not jump the highlight to the send button, not scroll through auto-complete options, not jump to the conversation window and scroll through individual texts, and certainly not control the selection of items in windows and menus that I don't even have open.
Also, when pressing 2 keys in quick succession, it often only registers one, TH, especially. I'd say its just registering the second press as a movement of the first contact point, istead of a second touch, like old laptop track-pads, but this device is more than capable of registering multi-touch. also, if you hold one key, and press another, the letter from the first appears on the second key for a brief second...
I'm using virtuous ville v.1.4.0 stock, but I've installed and uninstalled a couple other keyboard apps, can I re-install the stock ICS keyboard? is it a sense keyboard? is this happening to anyone else with this rom or with the 4.0.3 os?
thanks for your help
-Peter
god I miss my G1... stupid friggin slabs. this was the first, and will be the last phone that I ever buy without a real keyboard. this touch-screen only nonsense is ridiculous. it would be fast if it were possible to be accurate and keys weren't literally touching each other. why can't I tell it how much space I want between the keys, so I press nothing, instead of the wrong key? there would be no haptic feedback so I knew to press it again, and I wouldn't constantly be pressing the shift, space, and num keys, which the auto-correct doesn't account for in the slightest, instead of the A key or any of the bottom row of letters .I'm tired of sacrificing so much functionality just so phones can look slicker and break easier.
Don't know why it fails, sorry.... The stock ICS keyboard is not a sense keyboard, there is one on market looks like this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/....android.inputmethod.latin.ice_cream_sandwich
Or you could grab a keyboard from any CM9 or AOKP rom zip file, it's named Latin-IME.apk iirc. The jellybean keyboard is similar but nicer somehow, possible it works on ICS. Also SwiftKey is really good.
Thanks for the suggestions! I do, in fact, have a sense keyboard and I do need arrow keys, which the non-sense keyboards, including the jellybean apk don't seem to have. I still can't fathom why anyone would ever prefer these to a real keyboard and a d-pad... also, the jellybean keyboard still has the same trouble with TH's. has anyone here, who shares my frustration with soft keyboards, found a decent keyboard app?
I wish there were decent quality, mini keyboards, too. Wireless or micro-usb would both work, as I'd probably make a case to hold it with my phone. I've only seen a couple, and they're either too big to be practical, or poor quality.
I apologize for my negative attitude. this is just frustrating, as texting is my main form of communication, and I post to forums from my phone quite often, so typing is important to me.
thanks again
-Peter
This is what SwiftKey 3 looks like if you activate the arrows and the Holo theme... One month trial.