I might honestly have to abandon this phone for just this reason. I am always exiting out of programs cause that damn right press button is so unreliable. And i've read where you should be pressing, but it doesn't help. it is so sporadic as to what actually happens. I need reliability, and this d-pad is so not. Coming from the hermes which had lots of hard buttons i could have lived with a dpad like this (cause it's easier to get back to where u were), but since this hasn't got any buttons i need the dpad that much more to be on point.
Out of 10 presses of the D- "right" button, how many times are you all hitting it correctly?
once i figured out that the you have to press pretty far compared to the up & down, i havn't misclicked at all.
But you are right, its a pretty stupid design and I find myself using the touch screen much more because of it.
Dillsnik said:
I might honestly have to abandon this phone for just this reason. I am always exiting out of programs cause that damn right press button is so unreliable. And i've read where you should be pressing, but it doesn't help. it is so sporadic as to what actually happens. I need reliability, and this d-pad is so not. Coming from the hermes which had lots of hard buttons i could have lived with a dpad like this (cause it's easier to get back to where u were), but since this hasn't got any buttons i need the dpad that much more to be on point.
Out of 10 presses of the D- "right" button, how many times are you all hitting it correctly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try using Gscroll. works great as alternative to a d-pad
Correct
I get the same prob.. I haven't got the thickest of thumbs but somehow I keep missing the precise point needed to get this button to function. Just add this to the growing list of flaws.
The area just outside the outer ring immediately beyond the < > keys should allow you to scroll. You don't need to try and scroll using the inner ring circle.
Are you saying its not working this way?
It works this way for me, but it's not reliable enough to hit it 100% of the time. I think HTC dropped the ball on usability here. If you're on the edge of the scroller and press that should be a right, left, up down etc... when there is no clear button it's hard to press...
I'd gladly give up the nice look of the smooth face for some real buttons like my TyTn had.
Someone needs to design a new Dpad for this device!
Rplace the whole bottom panel with something better. Ie- a real Dpad and real buttons.
The Palm Treos have really nice Dpads. And for further inspiration, you can just look at any Nintendo device or controller.
How hard would it be ?
Check this out: http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=1698
the_ozyrys said:
Check this out: http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=1698
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I meant in my post. However, showing it is so much easier like the article you posted. Good find!
I know exactly what you mean. I keep hitting the home button.
So now I just don't use the D-pad at all
Related
Right, I can't see an Issues list for this device yet so I'll start one:
1. A couple of times now, I've left my phone to charge overnight and woke up to an unresponsive device. Power button does nothing, screen is off and only way to get it device back up and running is to poke the soft-reset button OR remove and reinsert the battery.
2. Unresponsive buttons: every now and then the "right" button of the D-Pad does nothing, then suddenly it will start working again, same with the "Back" button though much more infrequent/noticable than the D-Pad issue I've experienced.
I did not expierence the first problem with the charging issue.
To close and app you can use the (arrow pointing left) key but sometimes i have to push it like 3 or 4 times before it respond.
Same with the touchscreen but i fixed that by increasing the touchpad sensitivity with a regedit.
My device has reset a few times while I been reading email or texts.
John
Guys. The whole phone besides the keyboard is touch sensitive. So the whole front keys and touchscreen. Increase sensitivity and it should work fine.
Kraize92 said:
Guys. The whole phone besides the keyboard is touch sensitive. So the whole front keys and touchscreen. Increase sensitivity and it should work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Erm, I'm sorry but that's not right is it. The D-Pad, Send, End, Home and Back buttons are actual buttons as opposed to touch sensitive.
The zoom wheel is obviously a "touch" area too. The issue I am descriping seems to suggest that the switches might be a bit flakey rather than anything else.
no he is right all the buttons are PRESSURE (he said touch) sensitive..when they unvieled the diamond the ceo of htc demonstrated that the keys are pressure sensitie and even the cameria button can SENSE when your finger is approaching to ready the zoom ..here is the youtube vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTd3SUPSJsMit
pazookie said:
no he is right all the buttons are PRESSURE (he said touch) sensitive..when they unvieled the diamond the ceo of htc demonstrated that the keys are pressure sensitie and even the cameria button can SENSE when your finger is approaching to ready the zoom ..here is the youtube vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTd3SUPSJsMit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry my bad. WM phones used to be called touch sensitve but in reality they're pressure sensitive. The only touch sensitive phones out currently are the iPhones and the Omni I would say.
Syphon Filter said:
Erm, I'm sorry but that's not right is it. The D-Pad, Send, End, Home and Back buttons are actual buttons as opposed to touch sensitive.
The zoom wheel is obviously a "touch" area too. The issue I am descriping seems to suggest that the switches might be a bit flakey rather than anything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the were actual buttons they would be capable of being pushed in which it's not possible to do
Issues:
HTC task man doesnt work properly.
Poor reception
Too many startup apps/services put on by htc to provide touch interface (which i hate)
why on eart you use operaloder on phones stratup just to get 2-3 more seconds fast load time for opera.
i think htc just over done this touch crap.
could anoyone access setupfiles on rom so i can use plain wm6.1
Kraize92 said:
If the were actual buttons they would be capable of being pushed in which it's not possible to do
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hang on, you clearly don't own either Touch Pro or a Diamond, the D-Pad, Call, End, Home and Back buttons CAN BE PUSHED IN. They are actual buttons.
Syphon Filter said:
Hang on, you clearly don't own either Touch Pro or a Diamond, the D-Pad, Call, End, Home and Back buttons CAN BE PUSHED IN. They are actual buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I'm sure of it. I have demoed both a touch pro and a diamond. I meant that they CANNOT be pushed in as you can on the kaiser. I know this for a fact and on every video you will see that it is mentioned as a pressure sensitive all around except for the keyboard. I'm sure of that. They are not real buttons. I guess you could push it in if it's just a piece of glass and paper underneath the actual pressure sensitive touchpad, but it wouldn't make it real buttons. I know what I'm talking about Unless HTC suddenly decided to make them real buttons which would kill their profits so I'm assuming that they wouldn't do that either. I demoed it about 2-3 weeks ago.
Syphon Filter said:
Right, I can't see an Issues list for this device yet so I'll start one:
1. A couple of times now, I've left my phone to charge overnight and woke up to an unresponsive device. Power button does nothing, screen is off and only way to get it device back up and running is to poke the soft-reset button OR remove and reinsert the battery.
2. Unresponsive buttons: every now and then the "right" button of the D-Pad does nothing, then suddenly it will start working again, same with the "Back" button though much more infrequent/noticable than the D-Pad issue I've experienced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 - Not had that problem - hopefully that'll go after your next hard reset or ROM update - these damn things always have, and always will behave differently for different people, it seems!
2 - My Back button missed my press once or twice, but I think it's more of a hardware issue than a software issue though (or possibly user error!). I'll tell you now though, hitting the "Right" button on my Diamond was next to impossible. It was extremely stiff, and would eventually register as a press on the "Hang Up" button. Drove me absolutely mental! But I think I was the only Diamond user who had that problem, and my Raphael is fine.
having got one in my hand - they are tactile push bottons - i.e you push them until it clicks before an action happens.
ardsar said:
having got one in my hand - they are tactile push bottons - i.e you push them until it clicks before an action happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then I must be crazy. Since all I have to do is touch the button and a action happens. But my pressure threshold is very high.
Kraize92 said:
No. I'm sure of it. I have demoed both a touch pro and a diamond. I meant that they CANNOT be pushed in as you can on the kaiser. I know this for a fact and on every video you will see that it is mentioned as a pressure sensitive all around except for the keyboard. I'm sure of that. They are not real buttons. I guess you could push it in if it's just a piece of glass and paper underneath the actual pressure sensitive touchpad, but it wouldn't make it real buttons. I know what I'm talking about Unless HTC suddenly decided to make them real buttons which would kill their profits so I'm assuming that they wouldn't do that either. I demoed it about 2-3 weeks ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not going to get into an argument over this but the 9 buttons (Home, Back, Call, End, Up, Down, Left, Right and the centre of the D-Pad) on the face of the Diamond and the Touch Pro are buttons which have a tactile feedback, a press will not register until you "feel" the button pressed. The only thing in that area that is a "touch sensitive" thing is the zoom wheel.
Just because the area looks flush does not mean they are not buttons. There's a single piece of material that covers that area but I can assure you there are individual switches under there that provide a tactile feedback. You HAVE to feel that feedback for the button to do anything, simply touching it will have no effect unless you are using the zoom wheel functionality.
If you believe anything else you are wrong.
Kraize92 said:
Then I must be crazy. Since all I have to do is touch the button and a action happens. But my pressure threshold is very high.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. What do you mean "my pressure threshold is very high"? Are you talking about the registry settings?
2. I thought you didnt have a Touch Pro or Diamond?
I said I didn't own one. Doesn't mean I don't have one in hand right now I have family members and friends that work for HTC america and AT&T.
Yeah. Registry settings/Advance Config for diamond
Kraize92 said:
I said I didn't own one. Doesn't mean I don't have one in hand right now I have family members and friends that work for HTC america and AT&T.
Yeah. Registry settings/Advance Config for diamond
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Ok.
Anyway, so you're saying that device you have in your hand right now has no tactile feedback on the front face buttons?
If have insiders at HTC why did you ask for donations so you could get a Touch Pro in the other thread?
Syphon Filter said:
Yes. Ok.
Anyway, so you're saying that device you have in your hand right now has no tactile feedback on the front face buttons?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT: Okay. Maybe I'm mistaken. It's only the d-pad that's pressure sensitive. The buttons are tactile even though they feel as if they are pressure sensitive because I don't push into it like I did with the front face buttons on my kaiser.
ah, you've seen the light. The button DOES push in but the panel is one solid "sheet" that covers all the buttons.
The "wheel" is the only touch sensitive bit. The 5 navigation functions of the d-pad (up down left right select) are all tactile buttons that work off little switches.
Syphon Filter said:
ah, you've seen the light. The button DOES push in but the panel is one solid "sheet" that covers all the buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually. I should show you the light I'm right.
[Link]
Click number 3 and read this caption: "Swipe your finger across the screen to scroll through contracts, zoom, and pan web pages, browse your music library, and more, or press the touch-sensitive buttons to navigate and control your phone."
So concluding to that original fact that I was indeed right
Has anyone come up with working solution for mapping hw keys?
I found this thread on Diamond, but no help:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=398280
I am using AEKMap to enable both latin/cyrillic input on my TP's hw keyboard. You may google it and give it a try.
There is no need for additional software, just follow this post and you'll get the answer. Worked for me.
Try AE Button Plus.
B.
I think you did not quite follow me here.
I dont mean to change layout of QWERTY, but hw-keys like "Back" and "Home" at front panel of TP.
This is becaus I find home and back quite useless and would much more prefer to have ALT+TAB (change program) and close program (REALLY close them, not leave running background as back seems to randomly do).
Taajuus said:
I think you did not quite follow me here.
I dont mean to change layout of QWERTY, but hw-keys like "Back" and "Home" at front panel of TP.
This is becaus I find home and back quite useless and would much more prefer to have ALT+TAB (change program) and close program (REALLY close them, not leave running background as back seems to randomly do).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And that is EXACTLY what i also want to know....
The total lack of hardware-keys on this device is already disturbing enough, but being locked out of the option to remap any of them is truely horrid...
Anyone know of any reg-hacks maybe?
I've got Spb PocketPlus 4 installed btw, and it's got a button mapping function as well...
But when i go into the buttons map, some weird black icons appear with no name attached to it. Can anyone make anything of this? As you can see i've been able to map one thing only: the Spb close-button-contex-menu, which allows me to switch task KW-buttons only....
But this is not enough for me, i need ALT-TAB aswell and off course a VoiceCommand button.
And regrettably the Rapael doesn't have that many HW keys to start with...
I want also to use Home/Back buttons for different purposes,but I didn;t found a solution yet.
Gotten a step closer to what i really need over this weekend:
In the button dialogue (with extra generated buttons by Spb PP+4) there was only one other button that had a name...
So i tried this one and go figure: it seems to be the " <= " (or 'back') button. In the dialogue it's called the OK button. I've got it set to the close contaxt menu now, and mapped Voicecommand to long-pressed answer key...
So far, this setup is to my satisfaction, and after two months of use this phone finaly behaves completely the way i want it to...
Hi, guys.
See my post here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2743845#post2743845
Hope this helps!
Cheers.
helped realy much !!! big thx for that nice instructions
You're very welcome, tk_berlin.
You be sure to let me know if anything in there doesn't make sense or you need any help with it.
Cheers from Canada!
ah cool to see a reply that fast ,)
hmm u got any further with finding out how to set the home button and the backwards button ?
Since the other htc user ,) wrote
In the button dialogue (with extra generated buttons by Spb PP+4) there was only one other button that had a name...
So i tried this one and go figure: it seems to be the " <= " (or 'back') button. In the dialogue it's called the OK button. I've got it set to the close contaxt menu now, and mapped Voicecommand to long-pressed answer key...
so it works with SPB PocketPlus ?
there must be a way to get it work wit the other tool
ah cool to see a reply that fast ,)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol. I was on my machine all morning and had XDA open in one of my tabs.
Yes, you can map practically any button in AEBPlus no problem.
hmm u got any further with finding out how to set the home button and the backwards button ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AEBP will also *learn* any keys it doesn't have. So you could use the "Add Button" option, press your Home key, and away you go.
The way I have it set up, holding down the phone key will activate voice command (default behavior).
But remember, assigning commands to the Home or OK buttons (that "Back" button is actually an "OK" button) doesn't unmap what they normally do so you will always go home first and then it will perform <x>-function that you assign.
Personally, I don't like to program the Home or OK buttons because I find that they are "trickier" to press. What I mean is, if you tap the OK button near it's center or close to the left, it doesn't register a press. If you tap it sort of with the long part of your thumb (which is more natural when holding the device in one hand), it registers it. I've tried this with two TP's now and the button behaved the same way on both. Due to this, I find it unreliable to map anything to it.
In any case, as I mentioned earlier, the Volume buttons, Phone and End keys will be unmapped once you attach AEBP to them but the others will not.
Oh -- I forgot to mention, you can map the directional pad as well if that is your thing.
so it works with SPB PocketPlus ?
there must be a way to get it work wit the other tool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does work, but it sends an OK command first.
I wrote a little utility for hard-coded buttons such as these for another Pocket PC I had (an ASUS P527) called "DoNothing.exe" but we can't apply that work-around here. What I would do is replace the EXEs of apps the hardware keys called with my DoNothing.exe, but in the case of the TP, we definitely don't want to replace START.EXE (which I believe to be the likely EXE (haven't tested this)).
If I find a way to map those buttons reliably, I will let you know, tk_Berlin. So far tho, I've been quite pleased with just using the four buttons I mentioned. The more I use this device and the more I ponder my decision to stay with TFL3D instead of the normal WM interface, the more I realize that I don't need half the add-ons I used to use prior to having TF3D. I am accustomed to very, very, very *heavily* customizing my device, but the setup I have now works great and I really haven't lost nething from my old WM world. In fact, prolly gained a few CPU cycles and memory to boot.
I don't miss the Today Screen at all!!! Now that I think about it, I never really looked at it.
Cya!
There used to be two onscreen button (Answer and To_Voicemail) on incoming calls on the G1/Android. See image 8 at http://www.helloandroid.com/node/258 . I dont see them on my G1. Is there some setting to enable them, or did Google take them away in their infinite wisdom?
yep they're gone. the link of pictures you provided was from the v0.8(?) sdk
It was kinda redundant as the answer/decline hardware buttons are right below the screen
Still it would be nice to have it. Its there is all WIndows Phone does your Phone have Hardware Button or not. It fact Pressing on Screen is easy rather then Hitting then Button Beyond Body level in G1
The phone has tiny hardware buttons, it would be a lot more convenient to have those large on-screen touch buttons. It was retarded for them to take that away.
Report issue at Open Source Android Site, They will answer that
jayandro said:
The phone has tiny hardware buttons, it would be a lot more convenient to have those large on-screen touch buttons. It was retarded for them to take that away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
make your fat ass fingers lose some cot damn weight, stop your cot damn complaining, it does not need those buttons on the screen.
We need that Large onscreen Buttons It very convenient to have Large Button to tap on screen Small Button like we have on G1 that to at surface level is hard to press from Left Hand while Driving
hetaldp said:
We need that Large onscreen Buttons It very convenient to have Large Button to tap on screen Small Button like we have on G1 that to at surface level is hard to press from Left Hand while Driving
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it is not hard to press, stop crying, on other HTC the answer and hangup button on the screen caused problems, trying to get the phoen out the holster and it touches one of those buttons, and maybe you didnt want to answer the phone for that person, i am glad the buttons are hard to press because i dont want to be answering the phone trying to get it off my hip to see who it is.
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Why is it so hard to push the left and right keys? they should have made it just like the up and down keys.
I want to play frogger and you just cant do it lol
Is there anyway around this?
I agree. It is SOO HARD
is there any way to "hard mod" it by like dremaling holes in the faceplate and just attaching little button nubs to the sensor? anyone tried this? i would rather it worked than looked pretty....seriously htc, what the heck.
just find the point between the home icon and phone icon an press it over and over on each side it really is a "sweet spot" as described in another thread. Once you get it it will come naturally, at least for me it did
SUPAstarr said:
just find the point between the home icon and phone icon an press it over and over on each side it really is a "sweet spot" as described in another thread. Once you get it it will come naturally, at least for me it did
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my Fuze since launch and it is still hit and miss. The bad thing is gaming, when you really rely on the buttons... you don't have time to look down and get the thumb placement 100% right. This is the problem.
What I would LOVE to see happen is to completely get rid of the Today and Back buttons, since I never use them anyway. The Red End key works as a Today button and I'm accustomed to using the X close button to minimize/close my apps.
With the Today and Back buttons disabled it would be much easier to use Left/Right because then you wouldn't have to worry about ending up at the today screen.
OR an even better solution would be to simply re-assign the Today and Back keys as softkeys (which could then be reassigned in the game's button mapping) or remap the hard keys to Left/Right for easy use. Either way it would work pretty well.
For the time being... I wonder if you could place a small circular sticker on the "correct" placement... thus fooling the sensor that every time it is pressed it "see's" the sticker thinking it is your thumb and triggers left/right actions.
OR if that doesn't work... what about finding the correct placement location and installing some kind of "dimple". Like a small half-bubble-like sticker that will enable you to "feel" where the correct spot is. This way when your playing, you could at least find the dimple, and press... all without looking.
Just a few ideas. I haven't tried any of them, so if anything works let me know.