Nowadays we see more new devices equipped with touch-sensitive buttons (non-hardware buttons). I sometimes wonder if these touch-sensitive button actually are prone to a accidental touch (or press). If yes, they are, then does it mean that it's better to have hardware buttons instead?
I'm a bit confused regarding these kind of buttons. What do you think about this?
I used to have an HTC Magic, but now I'm using an LG Eve, and I seriously miss those hardware buttons... I constantly accidentally press the back and home keys, closing whatever I'm currently doing, or occasionally the won't respond at all, and I press them three or four times before they actually do something. Also, a trend I've noticed looking at the phones coming out, many phones with capacitive buttons seem to be missing the important ones, like the dial button, the end button, and the search button. Also, watch out for the type of trackpad. On my Magic I had a trackball, which is fairly standard, but the Eve has just a button that acts as a menu button, no scrolling possible. Look really carefully at the input methods when choosing a phone.
I've had some bad experiences with touch sensitive buttons. As jascayne says, I constantly pressed the buttons accidentally (motorola droid).
So I should never go for a phone with touch sensitive buttons.
So so, this means touch-sensitive buttons aren't reliable. next time when I buy a phone I'll pay attention to the type of buttons.
Exactly.
Related
I bought and used GScroll for a while and liked it... but ran into a few too many issues with that program active. Often when I wanted to hit a button and my finger slightly slid over the button, it would do a left/right movement or up/down movement.
I read of another app from here that makes the call and end buttons act as left/right buttons. But that application appears to only be designed for game use. As in, when you're done playing the game, you close the app.
Is there anything similar to that yet that runs all the time? I think the perfect app would replace the phone buttons with the following:
A long press of the green or red button would do the normal phone duties.
A quick press of the green or red button imitates a left or right press.
Is there anything out there yet that does that?
I have a disability so I have weak hands and limited finger dexterity. I am not able to hit the tiny hardware power button and volume button on the HTC EVO. It also seems most new 1ghz android devices have the same setup for waking the screen by power button only, so for many with disabilities like me, it will be a problem for most of the new capacitive screen phones.
Is there a way to modify the OS to wake the screen from touching the screen or the capacitive buttons?
Or a way to dim the screen 90% and go to lockscreen, to save on battery life?
Even better would be a voice wakeup home screen feature with a magic word like "Android" or "Droid".
I know turning on the screen by touching it or the capacitive home row buttons is not practical for everyone who puts their phone in their pocket, but many of us in power wheelchairs mount it to our chair so it is never in a pocket.
My wheelchair has 2 GRP-22 12V batteries, so I could get power for all day very easily. I know the screen can burn out at some point, but I usually upgrade every year or sooner anyway. Id just rather not have the screen lit all day.
I have at least 50 friends around the country with the same physical issues (MD) and there are thousands more, so this is a huge need for future smartphone users with disabilities.
I'd appreciate any input and if any of you programmers out there want a new challenge, I am glad to help test it!
Thanks!
Cyanogenmod roms have a setting for using the menu button to unlock the phone. You have to root your phone to install it.
Edit: strike that, it's late and wasn't thinking. It only bypasses the unlock screen. There is an app called no lock that will let you use the camera and volume buttons if that would be easier to unlock.
Sent from my Droid using XDA App
Yep, NoLock from the market can awake the phone with the volume buttons.
Yeah the volume buttons are not any easier.
I may be able to use the power button if I could flip the phone screen orientation around so the power button is at the bottom.
From what I understand, the capacitive home buttons are part of the screen so if the screen is off, the buttons off. So what I am envisioning is setting the phone to timeout to lockscreen and dim down 90-95% so the screen is dark, yet the capacitive home button will work. Any programmers think that is possible?
I've remapped some of the touch buttons to control buttons in emulators (ex: In a NES emulator, Search is A, Back is B.
The buttons work, however, when I press them they "disable" the screen and vice-versa. I'm thinking this is by design so you don't accidentally press a button while using the screen.
What I'm wondering is, does anyone know of a way to disable this?
I'm also trying to do it for SCUMMVM since many games are hard to play without right click. Right clicking is done by holding down the search button and then tapping the screen. And the Triumph only seems to let you use either the screen or the touch buttons, not both at the same time.
The phone is rooted by the way.
Thanks for any info!
Thoughts? Lot of wasted dead space between the buttons as well as failure to register presses seems to be a problem common to smaller-screen androids. Rather silly to have the phone vibrate because it registers you touched a button, but the button click doesn't actually happen-- ie you don't return to home screen, don't actually go "back", etc...
Is this something we could change?
Hi. Got Sidekick 4G a week ago and really like this phone so far, but there is one problem: system detects only 2 simultaneously pressed keys on qwerty-keyboard. Problem appears in 16-bit console games emulators, where I have to press 3 buttons at a time. Is that impossible on this device? It only detects 2 buttons and ignores 3rd press. I'm wondering, is this a hardware issue, or possibly could be fixed by firmware? I'm using GenericGinger 4.1
Thanks.
djh said:
Hi. Got Sidekick 4G a week ago and really like this phone so far, but there is one problem: system detects only 2 simultaneously pressed keys on qwerty-keyboard. Problem appears in 16-bit console games emulators, where I have to press 3 buttons at a time. Is that impossible on this device? It only detects 2 buttons and ignores 3rd press. I'm wondering, is this a hardware issue, or possibly could be fixed by firmware? I'm using GenericGinger 4.1
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're dealing with a hardware issue there.
The only other keys the device can register with two keys depressed are the hardware buttons that line the outside of the device (home, menu, jump, camera, and volume).
You can use this to your advantage.
One solution would be to map the back key to something else and map the back key where the jump key currently is.
That way, you will be able to press the trackpad and the (former) back key with your right thumb.
It's a huge tradeoff and I wouldn't do it, but it will provide a natural feeling game controller.
You could take it a step further and also remap the menu button as well..
Unfortunately, these new touchscreen phones do not have the d-pad the Danger Hiptop did. It sure makes designing software a pain in the ***.
It doesn't seems to be working either: when I'm holding two keys on qwerty keyboard and press Back key, nothing's nappening. So no matter what keys, only two keyspresses can be detected at a time. But thanks for reply anyway.