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Square screen (320x320) on WM device, any experience?

I'm currently looking into getting a new handset, i have been carrying around both my XDA Orbit and my HTC S710 (Vox) for a while now, and want to move onto just having one handset. My criteria was simple, keypad or keyboard with dpad and touchscreen, gps and wifi. I found the perfect phone, the HTC Touch Dual. Which I assumed was perfect until I heard it had no wifi! (God damn HTC, silly mistake!, and although it also has no gps, i could easily just use my keyring gps!). So, reluctantly I had to find another handset and thus I did, the Samsung i780, its all perfect, BUT it has a square screen (320x320)! So I was wondering, does anyone here have any experience with square screens? For example what works well program wise and what doesnt? ect ect. Thanks in advance xda-developee's.
(Note to mods: If this is in the wrong section please feel free to move it, thanks)

320x320 is better than 240x240, but it's still an oddball. App compat is a problem. Attached is an app snap in 320x320, to give you an idea.

My main disappointment from the pics I've seen is that WM seems to treat it as a 240x240 square screen for compatability, so you still get 30% less lines on your today screen than you would on QVGA.
So, upgrading the screen from 320x240 to 320x320 actually gives you LESS text and icons on the screen! Only in the world of WM...

i managed to get my hands on a 320x320 device, and it doesn't like most of the apps that I run. so i have now seen a new hp phone im after, the ipaq 614c. hopefully it will be out soon.

I am also anxiously waiting for the HP614c. Any news by when we can expect it to become commercially available

I'm considering buying a i780, but this problem with WM treating it as a 240x240 screen is a bit troubling. Does anyone know if this will be the case in all applications (like IE, Opera, E-book readers etc.)? If it's only the today screen it's not too big of a deal (at least for me), but if other applications are affected it would be pretty bad.

Here's an interesting read on WM Team Blog about 320x320:
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2007/03/02/320x320-revisited.aspx
Turns out they have a 128 dpi (versus 96 dpi on QVGA and 240x240 Pocket PCs).

I guess the question then becomes weather the DPI will affect other applications, or is it only the today screen that's affected? Is it possible to somehow change the DPI to 96 (which makes a lot more sense to me)?

Questions about HTC Cruise

I recently switched from using the ATT Tilt to the Cruise (mainly because it's smaller/lighter to carry around) It's mainly working ok, but I have a few questions:
1) Does anyone know of a decent handwriting recognition software out there I could use? On the TILT i got used to the "block-recognizer," as the lesser of evils, but i would LOVE to find software that can use the whole screen. I use these devices a lot, so after a while that lower left corner becomes all scratched up (even using a screen protector) , and then you have to pay about $200 for a new screen, since the characters no long respond well to Block Recognizer. I"ve tried the "Transcriber" that comes with Windows Mobile 6, and it seems awful, as do the several other programs i found online, such as Pen Writer and Caligrapher, i think they're called? Back when i used Palm/Treo devices, i really loved the Teal Script program, but it doesn't seem to work for W Mobile? Anyone know of anything that could work??
2) Some things worked better on the Tilt, i guess becuase of the ATT software? For example, on Tilt you can use the word completion software in the Calendar mode, but on the Cruise it doesn't come up. And the word completion software "remembers" two-word or longer phrases in the ATT Tilt software, but not in the Cruise. Is there any work-around to be able to do this on the Cruise too??
3) Is it worth trying to upgrade to 6.1 on the Cruise, through some kind of cooked ROM, or better to wait until HTC finally (hopefully) releases the 6.1 ware??
Thanks much!!
Daniel

1. sounds like transcriber
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...familyid=a8b343c3-2eee-41e3-9339-f7b303f4b386

Sorry, but Transcriber is already on the device, and it seem terrible to use?!! Isn't there ANYTHING out there that works ok??
Thx much!
D

Anyone coming from the TyTN II or Kaiser?

How is the new experience with the TP? Is it worth the money for the average Joe? Which features are notoriusly superior? Thanks for any details...I´m on the fence about the upgrade....

asolano895 said:
How is the new experience with the TP? Is it worth the money for the average Joe? Which features are notoriusly superior? Thanks for any details...I´m on the fence about the upgrade....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a similar thread asking the same/similar question - do a search.

1. Missing key mapping, kaiser can map a hardware key u want, TP cannot. (no app support remap hard key on TP)
2. Slow, rearly slower than kaiser, may be 640 x 480 device more hungry?
3. Keyboard miss "win" key & "ok" key.

Yana said:
1. Missing key mapping, kaiser can map a hardware key u want, TP cannot. (no app support remap hard key on TP)
2. Slow, rearly slower than kaiser, may be 640 x 480 device more hungry?
3. Keyboard miss "win" key & "ok" key.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 can be done through registry editing or using a program like (AEBPlus) I think it was?
3, the American version has that. :O
Oops, just realized the OP is from CR, so the American version won't help him much.

asolano895 said:
How is the new experience with the TP? Is it worth the money for the average Joe? Which features are notoriusly superior? Thanks for any details...I´m on the fence about the upgrade....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not for the average joe I guess lots of eye-candy goodness for VGA, but still slow imo when using touchflo3d. Still need to get used to TomTom in VGA.. it's renders the streets really small compared to my tytn II before!

asolano895 said:
How is the new experience with the TP? Is it worth the money for the average Joe? Which features are notoriusly superior? Thanks for any details...I´m on the fence about the upgrade....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am pleased with TP, as it open up more options for VGA and G-Force appliaction. I used to flash a lot of ROMs since I was using Kaiser, but I am quite satisfied with TP original rom, only doing some tweaking here and there...
I agree that the speed is slower than Kaiser, but I believe with more people using TP, there will be better solution in XDA. Would everyone agree on this?

Black93300ZX said:
1 can be done through registry editing or using a program like (AEBPlus) I think it was?
3, the American version has that. :O
Oops, just realized the OP is from CR, so the American version won't help him much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AEButton Plus can't map more than a few hard keys on the face and sides of a device, as far as I know (and I have it installed on my Mogul)

I don't regret going from my Kaiser to the TP at all.
After following some of the "Tweaks" suggested in the below threads and installing most of the programs to my memory card I honestly don't feel a speed difference.
I just see the TP as the Kaiser done properly - OK anything running on WM will have small bugs, but as ecoline said the more poeple using the TP the more we'll clear the bugs and improve the TP's performance.
Raphael Tweaks
Advanced Configuration Tool v3.2
Tweak collection for the HTC Touch Pro

Another thing I want to add-- TP is like Kaiser buffed for VGA processes. Bigger images to render = more power and memory to do it. All of my contacts in my Kaiser has a full screen contact picture for S2U2, and checking them in TP they've been reduced about 1/3 their size. It was fast browsing them, but as soon as I changed the pictures to match the size of my TP screen browsing them was slow. S2U2 for VGA needs more memory than the QVGA.
So it's like using Kaiser but VGA. Still slow in my standard, but lots of VGA goodness

I found the Kaiser with Touchflow 2D installed (along with the other cabs for all the other apps that are on the Touch Pro) was actually a lot nicer to use. The screen updated instantly (e.g scrolling left and right on the tf bar, you could see the cursor under your finger and the screen always kept up); whereas on the Pro you see the cursor follow your finger and the screen update is about 12 frames a second.
All in all, with the Kaisers screen update and finger following speed makes Touchflow a nicer experience.
But.... the Touch Pro screen is fantastic and in VGA which makes everything so crisp. The keyboard is even better than Kaisers and has full querty 5 lines. The look of the phone is sexy for once. The size of the phone is much better even though it is only 1cm shorter (a couple of mm thinner and it would be perfect). The camera actually takes good pictures that I actually keep, the first for a camera on a phone for me, though the LED flash is just like any other - bit of a gimmik. Everything else hardware wise is at least as good as on the Kaiser or better.
In my first week I found the Touch Pro to be very buggy and slow. It's crashed a couple of times, freezed for no apparent reason (from 1 to 20 seconds), the screen update in the interface is slow and annoying, the finger detection sometimes seemed to miss now and then making it annoying to use at times. Typing messages would freeze randomly at about 100 typed chars intervals and then come back 10 seconds later!!!
Sounds bad doesn't it?
But, I have since fixed most of the problems. Have since upgraded to the DXS v15 ROM, done a few of the tweaks from this forum, fixed the typing freeze bug by turning WiFi power to "best performance" (strange but it fixes it). I'm hoping the WiFi power setting fixes other freezes I've experienced.... time will tell. I've even managed to stop it auto connecting to GPRS data with Pocket Toolman 2 (I have have to pay for data on my contract), prefer to use WiFi, this should be an option in Windows Mobile but isn't.
Now, after a lot of fiddling the phone seems to be very usable, dare I say very nice to use. My main gripe is that the interface doesn't run quicker with fast screen update and have better finger input accuracy from being faster. I can't see why this can't be fixed, if the Youtube app can show videos at 20fps (or whatever it is) whilst downloading & decoding mpeg and read the touch screen, why doesn't Touchflow manage to display 10 2d image at a decent framerate (as you finger scroll the bar to select the view, all it is doing is displaying static screens to show which you have selected).
Oh, and there are a couple of things missing or wrong with the Touchflow apps too. For instance, the 3d email view is very nice but there is nothing to show which emails in the view are unread; And there is no way to tell if you are at the first or last email.... or any other. The image view needs an option to rotate the image (it rotates if you turn the phone, but if the image is wrong and needs rotating, it will just rotate to the screen orientation and still be wrong). The email view does really need updating as it is like a dumb blonde - pretty but useless, you end up having to go into the normal email list view to actually manage your emails.
I'll conclude with this though: At the end of the day I wouldnt go back the the Kaiser, the Touch Pro is much sexier, nice to hold and show. The usability is pretty good after you update and tweak it. I can only see things improving with updates. And as for worth the money, Vodafone do the phone free with 600 mins & unlimited texts on a £35 contract..... great value to me.

Having never dared to change my device's rom for warranty reasons, and not having been able to do any official upgrade as my kaiser was an operator version ( SFR aka Vodafone ) I must say I am very satisfied with my touch Pro. I find it superior to the Kaiser in EVERY aspect comparing two official roms : so much better battery life, much better performance even if the resolution is much better, instant landscape to portrait switching...
The GPS is said to be worst (but I didn't ever manage to make it work correctly on the Kaiser anyways).
There are some small issues compared to the Kaiser :
- the softkeys are missing (right and left keys above internet and mail keys on the kaiser - an issue for some games but in fact it was a windows mobile 5 phone edition standard and has been deprecated, so recent software work perfectly without these)
- no scrollweel on the left side and that's a real loss. The central button can be used as a "virtual scrollweel" as it is touch sensitive but it only works with opera and is not very comfortable to use. However some third party utilies can map the volume slider, not very useful in my opinion, to up and down keys.
- The four front pannel keys and directionnal keys are physical but behind the same big plastic cover, which means the whole bottom half cover of the phone presses on a button. This means the directional keys, wich are in the center of this plastic cover are nearly useless...
Reminds me of some Apple mice...
BUT
- Touchflo 3D is an extremely good addition, eye candy and actually really useful (the preview of the mails for example is really excellent). A lot of great software additions compared to Kaiser.
- Having an FM radio too is a nice feature...
- Everything looks so much better in VGA... Even QVGA apps (games) are filtered so that you don't see big ugly pixels. And it's not just a question of look. Excel can actually be used with this resolution, and web browsing - with opera - is actually possible. On the kaiser it isn't, not just for a question of software or speed...
- The new keyboard is WAY better, specially if you need to type special caracters like in french.
- I had a Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Look 720 before buying the Kaiser, the idea being not to have a phone and an organizer in my pockets all of the time, but I was disgusted with this phone which wasn't up to my expectations, inferior in many aspects to my FS pocket PC, I found it ugly, slow, too much power consuming, with a horrible screen, and of bad material quality: one of the small plastic clips of the battery panel got quickly broken... Not to mention those missing hardware drivers.
I thought I would never buy an HTC ever again.
But I did, and now I can get rid of my Fujitsu Siemens pocket pc which was so good but is now in every way inferior to my new phone (well apart from the big screen - but that's not good for a phone - and the 3.5 jack)

pfcsabre said:
Not for the average joe I guess lots of eye-candy goodness for VGA, but still slow imo when using touchflo3d. Still need to get used to TomTom in VGA.. it's renders the streets really small compared to my tytn II before!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tomtom already has software specifically made for the VGA/touchpro screens in beta, will be released sometime in November according to them.

Tomtom Navigator 7 posted here actually leaked (extracted) from HTC Diamond since Jun 20, 08. The newer version 7.451.9033 (VGA and QVGA) is available also.

Yup its like a Kaiser with everything fixed, looks better and is more usable in daily use. Very happy with mine.

HTC Touch Pro or HTC Touch HD?

Hi guys,
I'm trying to pick between the two. The main problem I'm having is whether I'll miss having a physical keyboard. As I wont be able to have a play with either of these phones before I make a purchase I want to be completely sure that I'm picking the phone I'm going to prefer.
So whats your opinion? Is the HD's keyboard suitable for you?
Do you miss playing silly small games on your HD? How are games on the Pro?
Also another important thing for me is the performance, I heard the Diamond can be quite laggy (With the Touchflow, which I plan on turning off anyway) but I would still like to know if the Pro is just as bad as the Diamond, and whether the HD is a significant improvement!
Cheers,
Luke

diamond rocks
There is a small lag , BUt it again depends on wether the ROM is a light one or a packed one . There are many out here , lighter ones ..for eg V7 , and there is one other fact about these phones , that if you do have a lot of calender enteries and contacts ...it lags a little ...

Calender entries aren't a big deal, don't tend to take full advantage of the calender. Though I do have 60+ contacts.

Have Diamond and I like it but wish I'd waited for the HD. I don't miss the keyboard from the hermes much as I expected.

Keyboard
I'm using a Herald. During some days I used the Diamond keyboard SIP, but after a hard-reset I did not install it again.
I'm using the physical keyboard when sitting or stopping in a comfortable place (office, train, restaurant) and I must work a lot (i.e. writing some project memories or preparing some lectures); on other cases, I usually try to use the stylus. When at building, I fear about missing the stylus (or maybe missing myself) in some concrete reservoir or some hole, so I liked to use the Diamond keyboard SIP, to write some small notes. So, my experience is I use keyboard about 30% of my time.
Looking the HD and the Pro specifications, I suppose they don't defer more than in design and small details.
If you need to work as "at home", I suggest you to get the device with built-in keyboard.

Thanks for the replys guys.
As I do a fair amount of blogging and web browsing I have been thinking that the Pro might be best suited for me, but on the other hand I do use remote desktop a lot (From work to my home PC) so being able to use remote desktop "On-the-go" would be rather handy especially on the large screen of the HD.
Another question I have is how often do you Pro and Diamond users make use of the D-pad? It doesn't seem like it would have very much use on a touch screen WM device.

D-Pad? Hardly ever.

Capacitive Touchscreen Applications

Hey everyone
I was just wondering, with the first Windows Mobile Capacitive touchscreen device (HTC Leo / HD2) will older windows applications still work, as they are obviously designed for resistive screens?
I read somewhere (but cannot remember where) that only specific applications designed for capacitive screens will work on the new HTC Leo.
Just wondering because I will be purchasing a HTC Leo when it comes out, and I wouldn't like to find that all my old applications don't work lol.
Thanks..

Whatever you have heard is nonsense.
The application has no idea what type of screen you're using, it just knows that the OS told it "the user clicked here". That's the entire purpose of things like operating systems and device drivers, to abstract all of this stuff away so the appscan "just work".
The Leo WILL run all the same apps you get on any other 6.5 device.

prank1 said:
I read somewhere (but cannot remember where) that only specific applications designed for capacitive screens will work on the new HTC Leo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you read was probably that only specific applications designed for the Leo will support multi-touch (e.g. pinch-zoom).

Lol thats exactly what I thought... but you know people and their silly rumors
And it definately was about 3rd party applications lol.
I just wanted to be 100% sure before I spend over £500 on a device!
Thanks for your help. Maybe it will clear up a bit of confusion for others aswell.