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Well when I first saw the reviews on the fuze, pretty much the primary gripe was the number keys weren't on top. I too was like woah...why in god's green earth would they do that. I previously had a verizon enV so that why i went to the fuze to begin with. Not to mention I had to switch to AT&T because everyone else was on it.
Now I thought it was extremely stupid of AT&T to mess with a cell phone's QWERTY keyboard, after all every cell phone with a QWERTY keyboard has a number row and I couldn't have imagined not having a number row. But now that I have been using the fuze I see why they would consider it.
Since this was beyond a typical smartphone and is one of the most advanced, the highest speced, and overall the fastest phone on the market (kicks the iPhone's behind in the RAM department) you begin to shift away from simply sending short bursts of information by texting, like on my enV, and more to doing things you would normally do on your laptop like going on forums, writing emails, etc. Thats when your like damn this is brilliant. Now that you are writing sophisticated messages that require punctuation and grammar, you use punctuation more often and have better grammar. I even notice that now when I text I put commas in my messages and question marks and basically write like I would on a laptop. After all, don't you use a lot more punctuation in your emails and even texts than you do numbers? I mean people use numbers for short texts on their keypads because it requires less characters. And it takes a lot longer to write out messages on keypads.
For example, "c u l8er
can i b ova 2nite"
And now that your 'sophisticated' with your snobby qwerty keyboard and touch screen keyboard (still kicks ass, one hand messaging ftw!) you don't write txts you write messages xD. For example us sophisticated fuze users we write messages like. "hey, i'll see you later. oh and btw, can I, please come over tonight? " (meh we are still too lazy to capitalize, next up is the entire bottom row as a shift key, jk)
Not only that but I personally think even inputting numbers is more comfortable on the fuze because its in a more natural faster keypad configurations. Everyone knows keypads are faster and heck every desktop PC keyboard has a keypad. So its a win win. Either way using the keypad and having to press fn is still just as fast, and more natural, than using a number row.
Just my little rant.
Btw. I am so happy with my fuze. i really think it is a better aesthetically than the touch pro. It feels a lot smoother and is a lot more original. Its very simple but at the same time the back is pretty nifty. I am especially happy with it because now that I have bodyguardz on my phone the back isn't a fingerprint magnet but its still nice and glossy and nifty. Overall I am not a big fan of the touch pros iPhonesque chrome. I think it look nifty on the iphone because its such a simple streamlined phone but the raphael doesn't really pull off chrome as well. I like the fuze better than the touch pro because its more hard lined, and more bold. It not the streamlined design of the iPhone and many other phones. It has hard lines and is not smooth, especially the back.
The fuze spits in the face of conventional designs. It is unique and wonderful. It is not made to steal iPhone users or be another "iPhone Killer". It is doing its own thing and could care less whether the other kids think its cool or not. Its got a small size factor and feels small but its design makes a bold impact. It feels solid and amazingly built. It is it's own phone and unlike other big name phones you can do whatever you want with it.
It's yours and you don't have to go to an "app store". You don't need to follow an "API" or an "SDK". Don't like the radio driver? Go try a different version.
Don't like the touchflo, just turn it off and install one of plethora of established today screen products. You can get a nice clean ROM (DA_G Clean Rom is fantastic btw) and install what you want. You can disregard the apps they give you.
PS: And the PTT button is awesome. Sure no one cares about PTT or uses it but it sure makes for an invaluable hardware addition. I remapped with AE Button Plus and now I got a button that is great just for launching little apps. I can put my browser, the camera, vibrate, and a task manager all on the same button. Trust me that little "worthless" button is great. The Raphael doesn't really have too many buttons so you really don't have any other buttons to use for apps. Sure you can use AE Button plus to map your buttons but its nice to have a little button that's doesn't do any necessary function. It's just yours. One man's POS PTT button is another man's interface enhancement.
Hi Guys,
First thank you all for such a great community. XDA truly "sold" me the HTC fuze...as I was very excited about such an excellent user base. I lurked here for a few days before I bought, and have lurked a few more days while I have played with the phone, so far with very positive experiences...
So here is my question...
I am an ex blackberry user...4 years running. Had the 7290 and the more recent 8800. I liked the phones but were frequently frustrated by things such as lack of home-brew software (or at least lack of software easy to find and well supported), lack of a decent web browser, lack of an attractive UI (albeit theirs was very functional) and lack of 3G (on att at the moment). Now I know that the BB Bold fixed some of this, but to me its the same ole blackberry tricks (do email real well, slack off on the rest), and I was really ready for a highly extensible smart phone.
Enter the HTC fuze...
I love the apps, love the idea of custom ROMS, love that it runs a very common platform (windows mobile, important as some companies write apps that only run on windows mobile), and love the sheer power of the HTC fuze (can easily browse filesystem, look at memory usage...its essentially a very small laptop), but I have one primary complaint...it does all these cool things, but IMO it does NOT do email/messaging/contact management well...and worse, I have not been as impressed with the web browser as I thought I would be (using opera, have not tried IE...also some of this is my fault, I am trying to use fat-client web pages vs mobile web pages, which are faster and just perform better). Now before I get flamed, let me clarify that I am using the Energy Rom 3.0, so some of my griefing may be self inflicted. That being said, here are some specifics of what irritations Ive ran into with messaging/email/contact management...ill list them out categorized in order of importance (can you tell I am an engineer?)
Email
1. No heads up display of new messages on the home screen (have to poke around to the email area to see if you have new messages)
2. Does not enter an @ and . symbol when hitting spacebar key while typing email address in "To:" field (ex-blackberry users will sympathize)
3. I get too many emails for the graphical envelope to be useful...it looks cool, but when I am 30 emails deep i really don't want to have to click menu to get to all messages, just let the mail icon take me right to the goodies please...
4. read/unread/replied messages are not well represented (could be that it is just different that the blackberry feel, but a different color or something would be nice...the standard is bold/yellow/dark is unread and light/white/shadowy is read...and replied as some sort of representation as well
There are a few others but those are the main ones
Messaging
1. Clicking the message, and then immediately beginning to type (as in to reply) will take you to the address book!!, in order to start a new message! It is beyond me why it does not just start entering text as a reply for your current message you are viewing, and this is a huge annoyance!
2. Found this the other day...replying to an MMS message by clicking gives an error (wont deliver) but hitting menu and then reply will then prompt for "MMS or SMS reply?" and the message goes through fine...irritating!
3. Tapping spacebar twice does not place a period, although not capitalizing the first letter in a sentence auto-capitalizes - this is a blackberry feature that is not here and i miss it :'(
4. Once again lack of proper heads up in the home menu....why is the clock giant??? Looks cool but waste of space...I would rather have a breakdown of my messages/emails/missed calls with limited details so I can see whats going on, on my home screen.
5. General slowness when going from the message browsing with the envelopes to the reply, detailed view.
Contact Management
1. Adding a contact is no where near simple...and there are too many "mines" you can accidentally click in the process which will do odd things like add an address book entry with no name in it, or call someone!
2. The "people" tab is useless...i removed it (not really a complaint as I fixed it...but I just don't understand that concept of favorites....that being said my background is in database administration so all data is good data to me, the more the merrier...explains my 500+ contacts, half of which i prob dont need but keep around just in case)
3. Last name first???? Blackberry was always first name last...further more, I entered a business the other day in my contact list, and it put the second part of the business name as the last name, leading to a very odd address book entry...I did not like that bit of assumption on the phones part.
So I guess you could probably sum up all my complaints into 3 things:
1. I am way too used to blackberry shortcuts and having a hard time weening myself off
2. There are 10 ways to do the same things and get to the same places on the phone, and some times a few of those ways are less buggy/intuitive than others...why not just have the best methods enabled only?
3. Too many buttons take you places you did not intend to be...its not one way in one way out of each module (mail, messaging, ect.)...its 5 ways in, 10 ways deeper, uh....im lost, how do I make a phone call? (I'm being facetious of course but you get my drift)
Anyways, I am not trying to slam the phone, it is slick, sexy, and free (refurb through an ATT deal), but I just need some ROM/tweak/psychological suggestions to make it "fit" me better.
Thank you all truly,
Crackberry addict in serious withdrawal
Ok, so piece by piece:
Email:
1. For a pop-up for new email messages, go to start>settings>sounds¬ifications>notifications. There you can choose messaging: new email message, and select display message on screen. This will give you a pop up at the bottom every time you get a new email. you can do this for all those other events that are in the drop down too.
2. Don't know of anything to do this
3. There should be a inbox button for your i think left soft-key. Two clicks isn't much more than 1
4. Don't know of anything
Messaging:
1. This happens jut because of lag in the system. You have to wait until everything loads up to start typing. Sounds like you need a cooked rom
2. Bug?
3. My phone does what you ask, although I am running 6.5. My settings in input have "enable auto correct" with a check mark next to them. Don't know if this solves the problem in 6.1
4. Regular Today screen. Try something like TouchFlo Detacher, which allows you with the soft key button to easily and quickly switch back and forth between the regular today screen, which would have all that info that you desire, and touchflo. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=480475
5. Cooked rom, bigger pagepool
Contact Management:
1. Sorry this is just winmo. Contact entry area is not exactly the most finger friendly menu. Try the stylus. I know what you mean, though.
2. Basically the people tab is just for people you call on a daily basis, and it looks cool lol
3. You can change that in the contact's settings where it says "file as"; I like first name first also, so I just changed it so that was the way it is displayed.
Overall Points:
1. It is difficult to go from blackberry to winmo, but everything does have a slight learning curve.
2. Most view this to be the beauty of winmo. You have infinite possibilities, since everyone likes to do things differently. If microsoft wanted to assume that everyone wanted to do everything the same way and that there was one, best, all-powerful way to do things, then they could just merge with apple
3. Lol don't understand this one
Any more questions, I'd be happy to help
thanks
hey,
thanks for the detailed reply. got most of the answers i needed...I am using a cooked rom (energy 3.0) which runs WM 6.5, but it comes with the Manila skin. After doing some research I think I need to ditch that and start from there...any other pointers?
You could try to use the default WM6.5 home plugin instead of TF3D, it may suit your needs better.
I work at a power plant and carrying around a clipboard to write down logs and numbers is getting old. It's a waste of paper and ink. There are about 12 of us that rotate on a 3 shift rotation and I already convienced 3 of them to use Android phones and one has an iPhone (wouldn't listen, now he regrets).
If I can get them to them to use an app for data logging, maybe my work center will push for Android powered phones in my shop vs the use of late 90's windows mobile PDA's they are trying to get us.
I'm not sure if the app already exist, if not, maybe I'll use my spare time to try and learn to dev one to my taste.
Basically what I want is to have is a spreadsheet type look. If you look at the attched picture, you can get an idea of what my sheets already look like. In the app, if I could just touch a cell and I can input a number, or a menu pops open for auto/on/off/out of service(OOS). Save it/export it and transfer data onto paper log sheets.
Now my ideas are kicking and maybe I'll have to look into making an app. Any ideas? Right now I use gmail compose and just write the numbers which is kind of lame.
Why not use Quick Office mobile and create sheets.
I created an expense sheet on my PC and moved it to my phone and keep track of everything on the go via my phone using Quick Office.
It'd be much easier, I'd assume, I write up a nice looking spreadsheet as apposed to an app..
Hello everyone,
So i thought I would go ahead and chime in with my own experiences and observations of the Asus Transformer (AT). I wanted to write an article that might help others trying to make a decision about replacing their laptop with the AT or maybe asking about a one vs the other. I wanted to stay away from a “VS” conversation and talk more about my experience. The long and short of it, is it depends. I think the AT can augment your business and maybe replace a netbook as a travel computer but i still need my laptop/desktop in the office. However, as you will see I am now using fully when out of the office my AT for all business needs and it works just fine.
Assumptions/Reasons for Buying:
So lets start with the reasons for wanting the AT. I wanted to find a solid replacement for my day to day use of my laptop while out of the office. I wear a number of hats one of which is application development, the other is as a Commercial Real Estate Broker. So needless to say this is for my brokerage business as i am pretty confident that there will be no Visual Studio use on the AT, well with the exception of a remote desktop of some kind. So, that all said what was i looking for? (Lets be honest we all want it ALL right but hey we can settle right?)
1. Email, this was first and foremost. A majority of both my businesses are relying on email as a main form of communication to my clients. Well, i didn't really need a tablet for this my phone handles it just fine, but typing anything longer than a paragraph is tedious , i have big hands and its just not the best experience, that said when i am out of the office most of my email replies are very short and so though i wanted/needed a better way to work with email the phone would have sufficed.
2. Document reading/generation: This one was a sticking point as we all know reading pdfs word docs and such is possible and works well on most devices, again the phone would work, but not for generation. I bought Docs to Go for my phone and it made things better but still no way was i going to get a "Word" experience. I know this is a debate by itself Microsoft "shop" vs opensource etc but lets be real, there is still a majority of the business working world that uses and will continue to use Microsoft office and so we just have to comply. (Yes you will service US Microsoft, resistance is futile)
3. Access to my daily files and work: So i also needed access to all my files and work related information. This was more a business choice than anything, putting information into the cloud, but i also had to think about how i was going to access so i am putting it in as a decision factor.
4. Browser media service: I wanted to be able to browse and access media whether at a clients to show them an article or news clipping or maybe a website etc. I also wanted something for reading surfing while having my morning coffee(We can be all work right?)
5. media entertainment Yes it has to be a "Fun" device to, watch a movie while travelling, or playing a game while waiting on my next appointent so this was on the list though not a major factor, as this gets us into an "apps" war and thats not the focus.
OK so there is more but that covers the major items
Decisions:
So I shopped and shopped borrowed friends ipads and a xoom, I really do like android in a lot of ways, it has its problems but I had an Iphone and was ready for a change. I am not going to bore you with the research but needless to say i chose the AT as my device to put this whole notion of Tablet for business to replace my laptop/netbook for work to the test.
REASONS:
1. Keyboard number UNO i wanted the physical keyboard cant live without it for major typing and work related stuffs. I tried the bluetooth one with the ipad and it wasn't bad, but the extra battery power in the AT was a bit of a topper not to mention all the expansions. ( I do think $150 is a bit much, but in the end, its what makes the Transformer a Transformer right?)
2. Expandability: Up to 64gigs of additional memory i can have a card with all my data a card with movies books music etc this was just too good to pass up. Yes i had already figured out a cloud solution etc but lets face it I wanted the kitchen sink with my device. The HDMI and USB were great additions as well. (A note my laptop took a dump one day and I was able to connect my external mouse keyboard to the AT and easily finish the day and deal with my laptop later)
3. Screen: yes as i mentioned it is going to be a bit of a "Play device" so it needed a great display and i liked this one over the xoom though the galaxy tab 10.1 i compared it next to was sweet and it had a keyboard, but the keyboard had no battery and had a lack of other expansion ports.
4. overall performace: this wasnt really to much of decision factor as all tablets are running tegra 2's for the most part and i wasnt looking at an ipad
THE PURCHASE:
I am putting this in because well it was an ordeal. I bought from bestbuy and got their 2 year replacement plan. Well i am on my 4th tablet and 3rd keyboard. Now I will be honest i wanted perfection and as was pointed out in a previous thread that just ain't gonna happen so really the first keyboard and tablet were it but i wanted a perfect no leak screen and a non discharging keyboard so back to the BB i went, again and again and again. Ok so now i have a series 60 tablet with a 50 keyboard and it all works, some light leaks but nothing that is earth shattering and doesn't bother me(Ok well it does but i got over it) So for those of you who think i just keep returning etc till its perfect, um take it from me, each one was worse, the second keyboard the space bar stuck, the 3rd keyboard was great, it does discharge but not a bad as the first. The tablet, on the second the light bleed was worse than the first and the 3rd one had huge dead pixel/flaws in the screen now the fourth some light bleed but in my opinion perfect as perfect can be. Moral of the story read the forums there are people here who are super helpful and will get you set straight but also be practical. If the little things really are going to bug you and you feel the need to come to a forum and write a post of Why i am returning my AT then its not for you, i knew the snowball i created with being picky and i got over it.
ONWARD!!!!!
OK THE SETUP APPLICATIONS AND PREP
1. First thing I did prior to buying anything was setup my business info and stuff to be accessible via the web. This required its own set of decisions which i wont get into, maybe a blog post about it later, but i migrated my stuff to google apps. (Hey i am going android so using google apps everything should all work right? it's all google, well sort of i will address it later)
a. Files and storage, i actually chose a combination of google docs and Microsoft live(25gigs of free storage how could i turn that down) I moved all the necessary files to the cloud and i was set
b. All my email addresses were migrated to my google apps and i was set there
c. Contacts moved to Zoho (I am debating this choice good for a later discussion)
2. Tested everything using my laptop and a web browser it all worked fine. I ran for about two weeks while i was doing more research on Android tablets apps etc, and I didn't have any issues.
3. Applications
a. Polaris Office/Docs To Go: I already had the later and the former comes with the AT so i was pretty much set for tablet handling of office docs. Its not a perfect solution by any means and would i like to have office on my tablet YES, do i need it not really. If i REALLY need to generate a word doc with high end formatting etc or i need that complicated cash flows analysis spreadsheet i can usually wait till i am back in the office in front of my computer. Remember this device is for travel/on the go and for THAT these apps are fine. (I am hoping they fix the keyboard issues with Office 365 because that will be IT and you will have it all)
b. Evernote became my note software, I REALLY miss onenote its my favorite office program but alas Android does not have support for it, mobile noter is not that great so migrated to Evernote. Evernote works well just takes a little bit to get used to as i had to change the way i organized my stuff, its different from onenote. (One thing i miss big time is pen input. I looked at the HTC Flyer because i really wanted to have the pen/OneNote experience. I found that this was one of those compromises. If i was still in school or in a job where i had to take copious notes in meetings, i would probably opt for a Tablet PC Fujitsu Q550 comes to mind so i could use pen input.)
c. With everything migrated to Google apps email was a snap put my google apps account info in and BAM its all there. I had already got Zoho synced with my contacts in Apps so they came down as well.
d. Using a combination of gdocs and the docs apps above is fine, though i really think google needs to "Finish" their products they have a habit of starting something putting it out there then never finishing or refine it. Google apps had a chance but with Office 365 available for a dollar more its gonna have troubles unless they step up their game. (We can have a google apps vs office 365 debate somewhere else)
e. To access my skydrive i use Sorami which is working well. The bad part is that i have to drag the file to the asus work on it here then push/send it, not ideal but it works. Quick note on collaboration, one of my sticking points on gdocs is that in order to collaborate on it and get all the functionality you have to convert it to a gdoc, i am not to keen on this as usually the conversion of complicated word docs with lots of formatting is horrible, hence Office 365 maybe the answer with the ability to use web apps and edit things in the native .DOC format. In any case its fine for on the go, and truthfully i don't know about others but my needs for generating complicated or highly formatted documents when i am away from my computer are pretty low.
f. For ZOHO i am limited to their mobile website they have an ios app now but android development is lagging, as it seems to with a lot of things, however i am hopeful they will come up with a native android app. I am still shopping on the CRM front so we'll see this may be a non-issue
That's the basics of apps i have the file explorers and a few games and other stuff but that's the basis of the business stuff.
HOW HAS IT WORKED
Now we get into the dirt of the article how did using the AT as a replacement for my daily out of office use workout. in a word GREAT but here is the skinny
THE GOOD:
1. Weight, wow being able to carry around my portfolio folder to hold documents etc and my AT was fantastic.
2. Access, i had access to all my documents when i needed them when i wanted them. (Let me clarify I know the AT is Wi-Fi so i tether it to my Nexus S 4G when i am not in range of a Wi-Fi hence my statement i can access everything) Yes its true i had that with just my phone but on the 10" screen with a keyboard i felt like i could really work with them when i needed and i could draft from scratch some pretty nice letters etc.
3. Email, yes i know we all have this with our phones but as i noted my hands are big so typing anything of length on the phone is tough for me, the AT made this a snap, take a few minutes between appointments to dock with my keyboard which is in my trunk not only does the pad get a top up, which it didn't need but hey some extra juice nevver hurts for that extra round of Angry Birds, and i can type up all notes etc.
4. Worth noting i did need to make a change to a .NET app for a client i was no where near a pc and this needed fixing now, i used splash top logged into my pc launched studio and made the change, was it horribly slow yes would i want to try and work that way HELL NO but was my client beyond happy and will i get a ton more business from him cause his problem was addressed right away OH YEAH. So i can do the same with office docs etc its not ideal but dang in a pinch there are work around’s.
THE BAD: (This i boil down to i would have been fine had i had a pc)
1. Well obviously programming, I did like having my laptop and being able to sit in a Pete's or something and work on some projects that had been lagging. So not being able to do my development is a bit of a downer, but its all about compromise right.
2. I mentioned earlier pen input. I REALLY like Onenote and I am an advid pen user, i replaced all the notebooks and post its around my desk with a Wacom Tablet and onenote. I did a tremendous amount of research, and business organization in Onenote, so putting this on the table as a “Compromise” was difficult. I downloaded EverNote and started taking notes via typing, and it wasn't so bad. Hence, my decision to make the switch. Again if Office 365 shapes up the way I think it will, i will be back in OneNote in a heartbeat.
SUMMARY
So for me the AT system will accomplish what i need and i think will only get better as android and apps mature. Email, doc reading editing and file creation, file access ebooks movies on and on the device is fabulous. For those thinking of going this direction, here are some thoughts. I look at my purchase of 700 which includes my 2 year replacement with BB and I compare that to what i can get in the PC world. Well the New Fujitsu Q550 i believe is about 700 and that is a full slate pc with about 6 hours battery has the stylus for writting runs office including one note (onenote + stylus = Heaven) there are a few reviews out there and this seems to be a nice challenge in the pc arena, if you want a PC for your work. The AT is not a pc so you have to adjust your thinking and try not to compare it to a netbook or pc thats why this is more of a "How i went about using the AT" rather than a vs because truthfully its not fair to compare apples to oranges. After making some changes to the way i do business i am able to successfully use the AT as a replacement for my day to day operations OUTSIDE the office i still have my PC and still use it. I think that moving forward online services like office 365 and google apps will level the playing field a bit to make comparing tablets to pcs a little closer but right now there are things that my tablet does that a pc is really hard pressed to do. Grab from my bag push a button read a book surf the net watch a video the list goes on. Maybe the new pc tablets will sleep/hibernate better and the gap will get closer I don't know. I miss some PC functions once in a while and with Tablets PC’s coming out as light as the Q550 I think the landscape is going to change, but take a look at your situation and see whats right for you. You can read “VS” articles all day but those are simply peoples observations/opinions. Take a step back and decide what you want and then mold your world to it.
Thats my experience please feel free to comment if we want to use this thread as a building block of Business “how to's” for getting people to undertand that tablets and pcs can live together it doesnt have to be an either or thats great. Maybe share some uses/apps things you do to leverage your AT in the work world.
The Rahl (Heh)
Why not use Splashtop HD to remote into your PC to do programming?
RTbar said:
Why not use Splashtop HD to remote into your PC to do programming?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He did mention that he did remote desktop to his comp for a quick fix. Its def not ideal, especially for a long time.
If you have your code stored on a Linux box, you could SSH into it and use a terminal-based text edit to do it. Yeah, not the most fun, but it takes less bandwidth/power to do.
i had thought about the linux box but truthfully if i need to program i will grab my laptop. My goal was to use the AT on the business side though i am finding new ways of doing things everyday. Though kind of wondering since i dont NEED an AT shoud i wait on next gen Tegra3. Heh yeah that opens the wholebcan of worms "if i wait ill get the newest and the best" youll never buy anything then butbyou cant help but wonder. Heh I think ifthey had some firm dates on tegra3 i might consider but since there are no firm dates ichosetheAT.
After discovering a lot of great features on my rooted E900, a new question made me using search function, but with not much help! So: is there any tweak in registry to change keyboard from full querty to keypad (like the physical keyboard from old phones, 1 to 9 with * and # and pressing three times on two for ex to write C letter) when you write a text message or text a web adress? I find this more handy when I'm driving, because with all that small letters from full querty is more dificult. Thanks in advance, and hope there is a solution, because when you write a number in the sms recipient, that keyboard appears.
I'm trying to think of a polite way to say this, and the best I've come up with is that, while I don't care terribly much about *your* car, I'm sufficiently concerned about the random people around you that the thought of making it easier to use your phone while driving is not even slightly appealing (for the record, it's illegal here, and for good reason).
For the record, I'm not so irresponsible so that I'm texting sms and driving, especially since I have a small baby in the backseat. When I PULL OVER and try to text something, the sunlight makes it harder to see the small buttons and I always hit the wrong button. I have pretty big fingers and that's why I want to use such a keypad.
And no offence, but I will never come to Seatle, only if I will win lottery and want to meet you personally, so don't be concerned.
The question still stays. Thank you
Please... Can someone help me with keypad?