Microsoft Surface RT Videos (Reviews, Tips, Apps) - Microsoft Surface

Hi all,
I am starting a series of videos that will look at every aspect of the Surface RT tablet. I do reviews on different aspects of the device, basic tutorials to learn how to use the device and app reviews on the best, most useful and free apps.
I have previously done very successful videos on the Asus Transformer Prime (150 videos) and the Nexus 7 (100 videos) but I see this as being my biggest project to date since Windows 8 is such a radical departure from previous version that I'll be posting many videos as I learn new and interesting things. Here are a few videos just to give you a flavour of my work.
I am literally scratching the surface (every pun intended) of this device and will be kicking out a couple of videos everyday for a good few weeks. I'll be updating this thread regularly. I hope you find them useful, entertaining and informative.
Thanks in advance,
vgjfelix

Cool - Couple of comments.
On the Tile Screen, if you drag one app way to the bottom, it will also shrink the size of the start screen overall, making it easier to drag long distances accross many groups. I am finding this crucial, since my start screen is getting really long - over 70 apps. Which brings me to my next comment - Hopefully MS or a 3rd party developer will come up with an option to group tiles into folders as you can do on Ipads and Android, as app management is going to be an issue with the current layout and no ability to group into folders
Regarding the charging cable - I am surprised you made no comment how tough it is sometimes to get the magnetic connection to seat properly and start charging even though it appears to be connected - I think MS failed on the design. Apparent in your video when you are using 2 hands to get it seated correctly. I had heard this can be fixed by filing the sharp edges of the connector but have not been brave enough to do it yet.
Other than that - Good job - Keep them coming . .

guitar1969 said:
Cool - Couple of comments.
On the Tile Screen, if you drag one app way to the bottom, it will also shrink the size of the start screen overall, making it easier to drag long distances accross many groups. I am finding this crucial, since my start screen is getting really long - over 70 apps. Which brings me to my next comment - Hopefully MS or a 3rd party developer will come up with an option to group tiles into folders as you can do on Ipads and Android, as app management is going to be an issue with the current layout and no ability to group into folders
Regarding the charging cable - I am surprised you made no comment how tough it is sometimes to get the magnetic connection to seat properly and start charging even though it appears to be connected - I think MS failed on the design. Apparent in your video when you are using 2 hands to get it seated correctly. I had heard this can be fixed by filing the sharp edges of the connector but have not been brave enough to do it yet.
Other than that - Good job - Keep them coming . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the comment. Thanks for the app drag tip. I am learning just like everyone else at the moment so whenever someone tells me something like this I think 'this needs a video' so I'll probably do one about it.
I have noticed since doing the plug review that is it a little tricky to connect up the charger. I might bring this up in a later video.
vgjfelix

Two more videos here.
First of all I know this review is completely out of number sequence, I just wanted to put this one up as soon as I did because this topic is important to me.
Font sizes. Once again another tablet fails to deliver when it comes to giving us the freedom to set font sizes how we would like. That's what we do a lot of the time with tablets, and you can always resize fonts in books readers. So why doesn't this extend to apps and the tablet (and I'm talking about tablets in general here) eco system as a whole. Well one app in this video proves it is possible with a brilliant feature.
And the second one: here begins my App-Snack videos. First one is a simple live clock and date tile:
vgjfelix

A quick look on my experiences (so far) of how the tablet lock and unlocks

If you use the legacy (non-Metro) control panel, you can adjust the DPI to enlarge text and everything in the screen. However, this may push the display below the minimum resolution to use metro-style apps.

This video is a quick test about using the tablet in a confined space:

Today is a quick look at an odd problem with the youtube reply button on the browser.

Just in case you didn't know. You don't have to get an official HDMI cable:

This is a video about some of my first impressions tile arrangement on the start screen:

This one is a quick look at the lack of uniformity when changing settings. Why is the same option accessed by different methods.

Another quick look, this time at frustrating experiences of the App store search function (am I really doing something wrong?):

As I start to get a grip on this operating system, more and more Basics tutorial videos will start to come out. In this one I look at the offscreen swipe gestures (on the startscreen).

Another quick look, this time at my shrinking storage:

Another quick look in this one regarding High Contrast Mode:

A look at an excellent Tech news app that's arrived early on Surface RT

A guide and impressions of the app store in this one:

In this video I show you how to quickly move tiles around your startscreen,

So the Surface RT is seriously telling me that it won't support the resolution of my television so I can't watch movies on it? Very disgruntled! Help someone!

A quick basic video about lock screen passwords.

Related

Settlers of Catan

Hey there,
There is a Settlers of Catan game for the iPhone. I'm wondering if anyone knew of that game being ported to Android any time soon? All I can find for Android is the 'Better Settlers' which helps with setting up the board.
Thanks in advance for any info!
Jeremy
shameless "bump!"
I would guess there would be copyright issues or some such :S
well you could try developing your own game..
I'd like to see settlers of catan on this platform too!
Me too, if someone is interested in doing the gameplay, maybe graphics, or whatever else. I would be happy to do the development.
Doesn't neccessarily have to be clone as such, it can have similar gameplay. Try playing something like Travian, it's similar but not exact.
It's a game I'd love to have on my phone . . . don't know it well enough to have a go at dev, but I'd be happy to alpha/beta/gamma test if someone gave it a crack . . .
there was a flash game i found a while ago - never got it working on my mogul though. Also I could help with graphics if a new game was designed
I'd love a SoC game for my Evo. Any new info on this?
Sent from my HTC Evo using Tapatalk + Swype
This would really be great. Id like a version where you could play with others on different phones via wifi/3g. It would be a lot of fun to play with friends and coworkers through out the day (or week as needed)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
mesasone said:
This would really be great. Id like a version where you could play with others on different phones via wifi/3g. It would be a lot of fun to play with friends and coworkers through out the day (or week as needed)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. This would be an awesome
Multi-player app especially if you could save and resume a game. You'd almost have to have one person host the game so the data is all housed on one SD card.
Other thoughts are the ability to change the rules before starting, built in chat and or push to talk functionality, bartering alerts, next turn alerts, review of score and previous actions, the list goes on.
If someone is serious about developing this then I am totally willing to help think it through and create graphics. Send me a PM.
Sent from my HTC Vogue FroYo using XDA App
Settlers of Catan Android game in the works
I've been having a dabble with android development and have been working on a Settlers of Catan game as it is such a great game and it's a good way to learn android dev.
I'm ready to admit that someone might beat me to it, whether by making the iphone version available to android or whatever, but still if anyone is interested in a) helping out on the project b) doing some testing or c) pimping the game, let me know! You can contact me on cettlersofsatan at gmail dot com.
It's currently in SVN online in a single user repository. But I would happily move it to Google Code or something if others were interested.
I'm as eager as everyone else to see this project pull through. And stone do NOT lose faith. It is always better to have an option then only one option for a game/app.
I have assembled a list of people who expressed interest in helping:
stoneskin - work in progress
niknah - dev
Willuknight - graphics
ii Candor ii - graphics/thinktank
DJGibbon - test
You guys should really get together especially with stone and get cracking! Heard some good ideas and plenty of offers to help. The XDA community NEEDS A SETTLERS!
Thanks guys!
I'd love to help too. I don't think can commit the time to help with development though. Real life is just too hectic lately. However, I'd love to help testing.
If the time opens up, I'm interested in helping with development.
As to graphics, just no skills to bring to the table. Although, I did have a thought last night on this subject. The game might be more playable with simpler graphics. Instead of trying to have an understandable picture of sheep/ore/... on the hexes, just use colors. Light green for wool/sheep, dark green or brown for lumber, goldenrod/yellow for wheat, dark grey for ore and dark red for brick.
Work in progress!
Gino, Latenk, thanks for the feedback. Here's the deal.
I agree, simple graphics to start with, I've uploaded a screenshot, but before anyone analyses it too much , let me state what I want from the project initially.
1) The basic game (i.e. no expansions) in full.
2) Multi-player (up to 4 initially) or single-player (with AI) on one phone.
3) Basic graphics, but a clean separation in implementation so that the graphics, special effects, zoom, board rotation, whatever the monkey-magic one wants, can be added ON TOP OF the rest of the app.
4) Game is free (shouldn't be any copyright issues right?) and would be great if it could get onto Android Market or equivalent.
5) Open source?
I hate graphics, hate the tweaking, fiddling, pixel-adjusting and so on, so I've knocked up the simplest GUI imaginable. I've slapped on a handful of buttons which as you can see, have rubbish little text labels - RD = Roll Dice (in one of the screenshots it's displaying the number rolled), BR/BS/BC are build road/settlement/city, MR = Move Robber, C=Cancel, D=Done, X=exit.
In these shots I'm not even playing a game, I'm in a test mode where I'm just free-building. My colour is white. So a hex-side is painted white for a road, the small circles are settlements, the large circle is a city. The large red circle is me selecting a vertices. As you can see, the current player (Bob) has no resources (free-building) but resources are laid out with shoddy little cards.
So the graphics are v. poor. But I'm not too concerned right about it right now.
Where have I got to?
I've got the basic 'model' in place. That is the game model that maintains hexes, vertices, hex-sides and their roads/settlements/cities.
I haven't even touched on AI, ports, trading.
I'm trying to build the app cleanly, so the views have no concrete knowledge of the game model, and any calls to it are interfaced out.
But this is my first Android app, so I'm learning from scratch, possibly comitting all sorts of Android crimes.
I'm a full-time .Net developer, so I'm kinda fitting this in around job/family and so on, so progress is slow.
Here are my thoughts. I'll aim to get this to a clean/stable state within the next week or so, then if others want to get involved in dev I'll create a Google Code project (or equivalent) and sort it out from there.
I'm currently building against 1.6 because I have an X10 mini. It would be great to support up to the latest API versions.
Ok, uploading the images now. Graphics ARE AWFUL but I'm focussing on the game at the moment.
By the way, if anyone knows what licensing/copyright issues there are with something like this please let me know. I've currently called the project 'Cettlers of Satan' 'cos that made me smile. If rights issues meant it can't go through market places then so be it, but would be great if someone could research this.
Haha, you know that is a basic layout but gets the job done! What you could do is have the game map be at least twice as large as say the resolution of a N1 screen. Enable finger scrolling and/or pinch to zoom (comlpex perhaps but a thought) and let people move around the game map as needed. That'd allow for better graphics, larger maps, and a larger feel to the game. The HUD could possibly go up either side of the game map. In fact I'd say make landscape mode MANDATORY so you have the extra real estate.
Check this out: http://games.asobrain.com/
That is what I envision this game like. That game is everything this game COULD be and he even found ways around copyright. Check that game out, play a round or two and it will give you plenty to think about/use as inspiration. Obviously no need to copy, but you can use it for ideas.
Lastly, the previous statement someone made about notifications is pure gold. Allow people to play their turns then pass to the next with a notification appearing. Great ideas.
I've been there before, but a while ago and he's closed all unactive accounts and stopped registration unfortunately.
If you are a member maybe you could upload a couple of screenshots or explain to me how the GUI works in more detail.
I love the idea of finger scrolling/pinch/zoom etc. I'm gonna give some of that a go tomorrow. But like I say, what I'm initially trying to achieve is
GUI
Model
in a clean separation. So any visual representation would be possible. I'll try and knock out some basic zoom/finger scroll effects just to convince myself that my rudimentary framework will hold together.
Thanks for the quick feedback mate.
This shows the basic layout, how it all works, the HUD and such. Again this would have to be adjusted for the handheld, but in general it looks and works great!
In the top left is a pane for the players in the game. It shows Player Name, Player Color, a count of the cards in the players hand, any held and/or played D cards. This pane can be hidden if the player wishes.
The pane on the bottom left shows all things the plyer can buy and what it takes for the player to buy them. (in the android version I imagine this being a tab you can bring up to buy/see what you need and have.
Below that pane is Played Cards, and Table cards which speak for themselves.
Of course along the bottom you see your hand.
On the bottom right you have 3 buttons, claim victory, trade, and end turn.
And of course you see the dice.
Top right is the chat box.
All of this again is simply for inspiration and not for copying. This gives you a great idea of a fleshed out game and how it could look on a handset.
This is a trade window.
Two things of note here. First notice the top left. WHen a player gets cards on a roll, they show up face up for a brief moment. GREAT idea if possible to implement something similar.
Secondly, bottom right is what appears to be a chart. That shows how many times a number has been rolled. This is more advanced than what we'd need, but an interesting idea and prob easy to implement.
Now on this one a couple things to point out. Look at how they do cities and roads. Similar to what you've suggested. I was thinking maybe circles with symbols on the top (kind of like tokens or markers). Of course maybe more intricate and detailed models could be added later.
Also, that speech bubble that popped up shows where the person played their road or city or settlement. This is ESSENTIAL in some form or another on this game. Plan to include SOMETHING like it.
And lastly, this picture shows what it looks like when a person trades succesfully. Again not necessary but certainly handy.
I must repeat again that I DO NOT CONDONE OUTRIGHT PLAGIARISM with anything Asobrain has done. This is purely for inspiration and research. This should give you PLENTY of ideas!
I've got tons!
This is a beautiful start. Couple thoughts.
- The desert color isn't clearly distinct from wheat.
- The name will have to be something other than "Settlers of Catan". I'd avoid the current name for two reasons. One, a lot of us will take some degree of exception to the Satan reference. Two, it's not really different enough to dodge trademark concerns.
- I despise needing to scroll around in a game to see everything. This is my main complaint with "Pirates & Traders".
- On such a small screen, keep the UI as simple as possible. AsoBrain is wonderful. But, it is designed for a largish screen. (BTW, I hate that he killed old accounts when closing registration. I was away for just about the exact period to get locked-out).
- As we proceed, I'd like to plan for a multi-device/network play. This game would be awesome in a peer-to-peer, networked model.
Thanks for getting this started.
P.S. I *REALLY* like how you did the board. The buttons: meh. The board: Wow!
GinoAMelone said:
This is a beautiful start. Couple thoughts.
- The desert color isn't clearly distinct from wheat.
- The name will have to be something other than "Settlers of Catan". I'd avoid the current name for two reasons. One, a lot of us will take some degree of exception to the Satan reference. Two, it's not really different enough to dodge trademark concerns.
- I despise needing to scroll around in a game to see everything. This is my main complaint with "Pirates & Traders".
- On such a small screen, keep the UI as simple as possible. AsoBrain is wonderful. But, it is designed for a largish screen. (BTW, I hate that he killed old accounts when closing registration. I was away for just about the exact period to get locked-out).
- As we proceed, I'd like to plan for a multi-device/network play. This game would be awesome in a peer-to-peer, networked model.
Thanks for getting this started.
P.S. I *REALLY* like how you did the board. The buttons: meh. The board: Wow!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Agreed, the desert should be a tan, and wheat clearly a gold.
2. Also agree. It cannot even closely resemble Settlers. We can worry about the name when we have a game worth naming (I was thinking something like Travista, or something resembling travelers).
3. That is why it'd also be prudent to include a pinch to zoom or zoom controls. Let the player get in close if they wish, or let them sit way back and view it all from a distance.
4. Agreed. Simple yet elegant/complex in its design is what I'd like to see. Again give the player the option of getting as complicated as they wish. This can be easily accomplished with tabs that the player can pull out as needed. The only thing that should remain on the screen is the players hand, and a few essential buttons. Look at a game called PocketEmpires, use that idea for assembling tabs. I do feel that certain tabs should be entirely devoted to one type of action (like a building tab).
5. Once you have a basic game framework laid, you can work on making it work across the board and with all devices. The dev should focus on getting it to work native first, then move onward. As for a p2p network GREAT IDEA! If there is a way we can link this either by device or via a server that'd be the best way. Allow players to run through an entire game, or let players take their turns and move on to another player (IE pass it back and forth via notifications, similar to how Scrabble works on the iPhone).
I only wish I knew any code/dev tools to help with. All these ideas and nothing to do about it!

[app requests]

I've seen a few App Requests posted as threads here, and I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread dedicated to act as a catchall for App Requests. I gather that we have Dev Dudes from major tech corps roaming around these halls, so why not have a list of apps we want as consumers easily available to them!
I'll kick things off with these requests:
-A good, integrated guitar/bass tuner with metronome and practice timer(s)
-Adobe Camera RAW interface
-Adobe Bridge for tablets
-VLC Player for tablets
-DJ mixing software that can use headphone output and HDMI [audio] separately for cue/mix output
Feel free to point us to apps that fill requests as they are developed or if they have existed before the request
Way to develop/compile your own android programs.... (or at least just do the developping/autocomplete, etc would be AWESOME!) and well. an app that could launch a ubuntu distro
sackofnoise said:
Way to develop/compile your own android programs.... (or at least just do the developping/autocomplete, etc would be AWESOME!) and well. an app that could launch a ubuntu distro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check this out: http://appinventor.googlelabs.com/about/
I'd like an app that you can instantly take a snapshot of the screen or take a camera snapshot and start to annotate on it right away, e.g you were browsing and came across something of interest and you want to add your own comments and underline or mark a specific area.
I know this can be done using repligo or ezpdf however it will involve a few steps to achieve using the Asus's in built snapshot feature and then converting the document to pdf in order to annotate but I want something instant without having to convert the file first, similar to htc flyers note taking app.
Can't you do this with Evernote? I just downloaded this last night but it seems really slick.
HasC said:
I'd like an app that you can instantly take a snapshot of the screen or take a camera snapshot and start to annotate on it right away, e.g you were browsing and came across something of interest and you want to add your own comments and underline or mark a specific area.
I know this can be done using repligo or ezpdf however it will involve a few steps to achieve using the Asus's in built snapshot feature and then converting the document to pdf in order to annotate but I want something instant without having to convert the file first, similar to htc flyers note taking app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want a great football (soccer that is!) game! Fifa 12 or something! or Sometihng like Sensible Soccer, I tried tiny football but its not that great.
npompei said:
Can't you do this with Evernote? I just downloaded this last night but it seems really slick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, you cannot annotate using evernote although it is fantastic for taking notes, i use it at work at meetings. I want to be able to take a snapshot of the meeting agenda which is usually printed and then start to add notes against agenda items.
I'm just going to make a list of the things I think will make this brilliant - I'm a very small time developer, and don't have the skills to do these, unfortunately:
Something similar to Microsoft Onenote - Drawing/notes/annotations all in one
"Phone Sync" where you pick up your tablet, and it also becomes your phone for SMS, MMS, Calls, and you can share clipboards between the two - This would be brilliant!
Decent Twitter and Facebook widgets
Modified Launcher with resizable widgets, folders - ideally, LauncherPro optimised for Honeycomb.
I'd like to see the Monkey Island games and some of the old Cinemaware titles such as Defender Of The Crown on Android.
TonyHarrison said:
I'd like to see the Monkey Island games and some of the old Cinemaware titles such as Defender Of The Crown on Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can play the monkey island games nicely using ScummVM.
http://www.scummvm.org/
I designed an Android app for tablet which I think would be pretty easy to make, UI, name, logo and all, but... I'm not a programmer. Also I believe this will be an app which would be handy for a lot of people.
Since I designed, thought of and branded the app I really don't just want to give the idea away to anyone, but if any app developer is interested feel free to contact me and I could explain the concept to them.
PS: I don't want a share of the profits or to get paid for it or anything like that, all I would want is to find a developer who could do justice to not only the concept but also to the design since there are so many well functioning but terrible looking android apps.
Excellent posts!
Thanks for the interest and the activity on the thread!
I'm watching a thread where a couple Asus dev dudes have actually weighed in on an issue users are having, so I'm gonna see if I can't point them to this one so we'll have some ears that can make a difference. Hopefully some [all?] of the ideas here will filter thru and become reality!
Kudos to everyone!
I'd like an app that can sync via bluetooth (not via the web/cloud), incoming sms messages/caller id/missed call info, from an android phone directly to the transformer with notifications.
I know there are lots which do it via the web, but this isn't an option for me (pre-pay sim not contract).
EDIT:
Another idea for an app, don't know if possible to implement or not. When browsing google search results it would be nice to have an app that lets you see how many kilobytes or megabytes a website requires you to download, before you accessed the page. So that mobile users can see how much data is required and can manage their free allowance better, or not be charged a fortune.
A media player app that can
1. have gesture controls like moboplayer
2. have good codec support like moboplayer
3. can stream from server
4. and can hide the honeycomb taskbar!!!!
Settlers of Catan map generator
Would be cool to see a Settlers of Catan map generator with support for Seafarers, Cities and Knights, Harbours and a roll counter.
did it ever occur to anyone that now that there is a keyboard and mouse capabilities that someone should port an fps to the transformer?
I would love an app/widget that monitored the battery of both the Transformer and the keyboard dock. It's almost impossible to tell how much juice is left in the keyboard. If someone knows of an app/widget or a built-in way to do that, please let me know.
Edit: I would also love to see a folder app that integrates data from the Market, so if I download a game, it automatically adds it to the Games folder, etc.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Eye-Fi for Android
I'd like to see a version of the EyeFi manager/control center for Android
still hunting for the torrent app to work with private torrents
alternate keyboard
since the dock is still in short supply it would be nice to have the ability to use my android phone as a keyboard/trackpad for my transformer through bluetooth or something. the entire screen could be a landscape keyboard that you could swipe down to access trackpad.

SUPER EXCITED about Android Open Accessory.......just dream; what is the future!

Did anyone else see the IO announcement? Lets just take a moment to dream of the possibilities of Android as a Open Development for Accessories and Open Devices Platform.
One of the examples was having a Alarm clock that slowly turns on the lights and stereo to wake you up.
Have a new notification? have a special red light in your room that alerts you, who needs a led light on a phone anyway??
What are some of the things you can think of doing??? What can you see in the future!
Well it would be amazing if you could preheat the oven while your at the store shopping for what you want or set your security system from work when you forgot to that morning.
Exciting news, I hope adoption blows up.
There is already hardware and software to do many things in home automation. Many of them have some kind of web based access to them which makes them "available" to mobile phones. Examples: I can log into a web page and view the feeds from my security system cameras as well as move and zoom the one at my front door. I can control my DTV DVR as well as view live or recorded television from my phone through the DTV app. There is hardware that allows the control of outlets and switches in my house that can be controlled via a web interface. This stuff tends to be expensive but it is out there.
The awesome thing about Open Accessory would be that the control of all of these things could be put into one convenient app that is specifically meant to work with my phone. No more fumbling with multiple web pages that were meant for desktop use. Wider adoption of such devices would also drop cost and increase support.
Time will tell.
drop cost is the best part!

Football Manager 2012 handheld for Android

For those who like the Football Manager series for the PC, the Android version has recently arrived!
http://www.sigames.com/news/14114/Football+Manager+Handheld+makes+Android+debut
http://www.sigames.com/news/14115/Football+Manager+Handheld+for+Android+out+now
I bought it earlier and I must say...very impressive, however...it only has a lower resolution and doesn't make full use of the 1200x860 resultion for the Galaxy Note but that is being considered by Sports Interactive!
the lower res is keeping me from buying it, for now.
and its rubbish
I didnt play it yet but the resolution is just crap!!!
Sent from my N-7000 using hands...
thanks for sharing
Thank you for sharing with us, but the video isnt about FH 2012...
I agree but for $9 I expect a quality product that at LEAST takes advantage of the entire screen.... Not some half assed compatibility
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
mauaus said:
I agree but for $9 I expect a quality product that at LEAST takes advantage of the entire screen.... Not some half assed compatibility
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats your right - I've done my best to ensure the game works on as many devices as possible, now the game is out we're looking to provide additional skins for devices during updates to the game.
I apologise that we couldn't get these ready for release, but to be honest we're still trying to assess which of the myriad of different devices/resolutions are the most important to support at present (I looked at automatically scaling the display to fill the screen but on a text heavy game it ended up rendering in a blurry manner and I felt it better to go with crisp text in a bordered window than give people headaches).
Marc Vaughan said:
Thats your right - I've done my best to ensure the game works on as many devices as possible, now the game is out we're looking to provide additional skins for devices during updates to the game.
I apologise that we couldn't get these ready for release, but to be honest we're still trying to assess which of the myriad of different devices/resolutions are the most important to support at present (I looked at automatically scaling the display to fill the screen but on a text heavy game it ended up rendering in a blurry manner and I felt it better to go with crisp text in a bordered window than give people headaches).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really didn't mean to come off as an ass haha I hope you will support the note, it sold pretty well and has a solid following.. Lots of people mentioning the note in the si boards and in Google play reviews.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
mauaus said:
I really didn't mean to come off as an ass haha I hope you will support the note, it sold pretty well and has a solid following.. Lots of people mentioning the note in the si boards and in Google play reviews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Note does appear to be popular and I hope that we will be able to support a HD skin for it in the near(ish) future - we're doing the utmost we can to support the game to the best of our ability and will be rolling out updates for the game as promptly as possible.
In case its of interest to people this is the current 'state of the update'' taken from the SI Games bug forum:
#3.4a - First Android Update
Improve alignment of text on dialog box (HD Skin)
Add warning if app is run on a device with inadequate resolution
Welsh Manager Performance Award Fix
Port Vale Point deduction
Fix rare issue in European comps if a minor club wins major competition
Fix for Vans Trophy issue if a conference club qualifies for Europe
Minor text fixes (grammar and translations)
Improve the manner in which players react to bankruptcy
Added apostrophe to keyboard
Fix crash if you slide out physical keyboard while scout search is happening
Improve accuracy of required storage space calculation
Fix very rare corruption of player history in long term saves
Hardware Back button now does 'back' in the game when applicable
(Please note we won't indicate any items on here until they're completed - this included new skins, so the fact that something isn't present doesn't mean it won't be done - just that its not completed at present)
I'm suprised you didn't develop for a tablet target screen and scale down. Rather than aim for the small screen and scale up. Alas though it doesnt quite fill the screen I have many other niggles with the game that irritate me a lot more than the res!
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA
davexeno said:
I'm suprised you didn't develop for a tablet target screen and scale down. Rather than aim for the small screen and scale up. Alas though it doesnt quite fill the screen I have many other niggles with the game that irritate me a lot more than the res!
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I looked at that approach but found that the different aspect ratios between the various devices available made it untenable - simply put as you scaled down the text became blurry and unacceptable for reading imho.
As such the safest approach was to implement skins for various resolutions and use them, the current HD skin works on all devices - but isn't optimal for the larger tablets at present.
If you have other niggles then please by all means post away - any constructive feedback you can give will help me continue to improve the game (I like people actively complaining about my products so long as they do so in a constructive manner ...people just saying 'its great' don't help it improve as much as someone explaining what I might do to improve it).
Marc Vaughan said:
I like people actively complaining about my products
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Well that must have come in handy over the years!
Very impressed with the level of support as always, Marc.
I will buy this but I might wait until there's a Note skin.
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A dream piece of functionality for a handheld FM game would be drawn 'playbooks' which would be perfect with the Note's pen input - tap two points to indicate a pass, draw a line to indicate a move and scribble to tell Pav to "just f-ing run around a bit" - that sort of thing.
JolyonS said:
A dream piece of functionality for a handheld FM game would be drawn 'playbooks' which would be perfect with the Note's pen input - tap two points to indicate a pass, draw a line to indicate a move and scribble to tell Pav to "just f-ing run around a bit" - that sort of thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I LOVE that sort of concept - but its a long term thing I'm afraid, it takes time to move an application forward, especially with a small team (the FMH team across all three platforms (Android, iOS and PSP) consists of me and Richard Jones as the only developers) ... I've lots of plans in this direction don't worry (along with various sketches of how I want the HD skin to eventually look.
Please bear with me - its a long journey to where we're heading, but I hope you enjoy the ride
Marc, between the SI forums and here (probably others too) I'm surprised you find any time for development. Appreciate the time taken to improve the game.
I'd like to have the option of telling players what to do at set pieces, both attacking and defending; 'cover the far post', 'pressure the keeper', that sort of thing. Also the option to give the team a right b0llocking at half time would be good.
Really enjoying playing FM again though, even with the black borders. Nothing else is getting a look in, game-wise, at the moment.
I shall update with my niggles when I get more chance to fully 'absorb' myself into the game. Little things like easily comparing player stats is one, but as I'm a bit of a noob to this game it could well be there's an option I've missed!
raines43 said:
Marc, between the SI forums and here (probably others too) I'm surprised you find any time for development.
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I'm not a big believer in sitting around idle while I wait for things, as a developer there are frequently times in the day when you're waiting for a build to be done or a test to finish ... when thats the case I often nip online and try and make a post or two.
Appreciate the time taken to improve the game.
I'd like to have the option of telling players what to do at set pieces, both attacking and defending; 'cover the far post', 'pressure the keeper', that sort of thing. Also the option to give the team a right b0llocking at half time would be good.
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Click to collapse
I know I'll be expanding the game feature set in the future HOWEVER its vital imho that I keep the game flow nice and fast and easy to pick up and use, its for this reason I'm not rushing to put such options into the game... this isn't to say I won't do it, but I want to ensure its done right and the speed and feel of FMH remains intact when I do so (ie. watch this space, but its probably not something I'll do quickly as part of an update).
Really enjoying playing FM again though, even with the black borders. Nothing else is getting a look in, game-wise, at the moment.
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Cool - glad you're enjoying the game
---------- Post added at 06:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:17 PM ----------
davexeno said:
I shall update with my niggles when I get more chance to fully 'absorb' myself into the game. Little things like easily comparing player stats is one, but as I'm a bit of a noob to this game it could well be there's an option I've missed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're correct that there isn't currently a 'compare' option in the game - its something I want to add in, but its the actual 'UI' approach to it which I haven't got down 'pat' yet .... once I come up with a system I think is intuitive and easy to use I'll definitely look to add that in.
Update is out for the game and it now runs at full screen (it's actually 1280x720 but you can't tell it isn't full screen). Haven't checked out everything else that the update does but what I've noticed so far: The ball animation is jerkier on the game highlights, as are some player movements. Also one of my players hit a shot over the goal and onto the roof behind but it gave it as a goal. That hadn't happened in the 5 seasons I've played before the upgrade. Still, happier having the full screen mode than not and still loving the game.
Another bizarre 'goal', my player kicked the ball out over the half way line (off the bottom of the screen) and it was given as a goal.
Have to ask why has the exit game button been removed from the main menu screen? To leave the game I now have to press the home button and then close FM2012 in the task manager. A bit clunky.
raines43 said:
Another bizarre 'goal', my player kicked the ball out over the half way line (off the bottom of the screen) and it was given as a goal.
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Click to collapse
I'll check into this.
Have to ask why has the exit game button been removed from the main menu screen? To leave the game I now have to press the home button and then close FM2012 in the task manager. A bit clunky.
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Click to collapse
The 'exit' button had to be removed I'm afraid as a very small minority of devices (5 reports) had problems with it working - the effect of these problems was severe for the individuals concerned (ie. crashed the devices or caused issues with the SD Card) and so I felt it was better to remove it as I couldn't track down the reason it was occurring for them.
I am however planning on including an 'invisible' exit option in the next update - ie. clicking the 'back' button on the game entry page will then bring up a 'are you sure you want to quit the app' option - hopefully that'll be the best of all worlds for everyone (he says optimistically ).
Thanks Marc, I've played quite a few more matches and nothing else weird has happened since the halfway line 'goal'. Unless you count Barnsley being 3rd in the Premier League as weird.

[APP][2.3+] Listener 1beta3.1

Since first when i heard about smartphones i always thought of them as small portable PC's. And on PC's i usually have lots of different apps and files which sometimes are a headache to navigate, so naturally i want to be able to only see what is essential most of the time but at the same time be able to quickly find and use the other things too. This in an as clean as possible presentation. To me, the Listener launcher embodies this kind of approach and i hope it will continue to do so. Meanwhile i would like to share this find with you fellow skyrocketeers.
You can find out more about this launcher here.
The screenshots attached below feature the white skin, the default one is black.

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