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On Touch Screen Button Mapper??? Thank you!

Is there any program for pocket pc/windows mobile that allows you to map certain phone buttons to sections of a phones touch screen? I am using the htc touch and its' limited buttons make playing most games nearly impossible. Being able to map the bumper buttons to the bottom right and left of the touch screen would be a life saver. Thank you for any information.
-Greenfire

[Q] [q] soft keyboard at top of screen

Hello XDA-ers.
I have a Moto Atrix MB860 and I can never really find a comfortable way to hold the phone which allows me to single-handedly thumb navigate and type like I could on my old HTC Vogue. I think the issue (and it's the same for most of the candy-bar smartphones) is that the menu buttons and keyboard live at the bottom of the screen, which occupies most of the phone's length. When I grip the phone high enough so that it's not at risk of falling out of my hand, my thumb can't comfortably reach down to the bottom of the screen. If I turn the phone upside down - so the business end is near my fingers instead of the heel of my hand - I can reach the menu buttons AND the soft keyboard quite easily. The only problems with this are that everything is upside-down on the screen and the hard buttons, etc. are in the wrong place. Does anyone know of an alternate keyboard, or a way to configure an existing keyboard so that it lives at the top of the screen instead of the bottom? I can't imagine that there isn't a single implementation either by a third-party or by a handset manufacturer.
Thanks.

How is Surface RT in portrait mode?

How does Snap work while vertical? How about other functions?
How fast or slow is rotation? Is there a rotation lock?
Have you used the tablet in portrait mode for any use, say, as a reader? How comfortable is it to hold?
Is the on-screen keyboard usable in portrait?
TIA.

Snap requires more horizontal resolution than is available when in portrait mode, so snapped windows disappear. They come back when you return to landscape, though.
Rotation is pretty fast, taking about a second to complete the switch, but with just enough delay (and a starting animation) to let you know that it's about to happen, so you don't get it by accident.
There is an auto-rotate lock. It's on the Screen Resolution control panel widget (reachable by right-clicking on the desktop, or doing a search on "orientation" or "resolution"), right where you'd expect it from previous Windows versions.
It's very easy to use the tablet in portrait mode for reading books or web pages, although the 768 width is a little lower than most pages are written for. Holding it is extremely comfortable, although be careful not to hit the Start button by accident. Folding the Touch Cover behind the tablet while in portrait mode works great; the Type Cover works too but it feels weird to feel the keys move under your fingers. However, the keys and touchpad on either cover are disabled when it's flipped behind the tablet.
The SIP (Software Input Panel) is absolutely usable. I'm coming to love the split-keyboard mode for short amounts of text; it's designed to be used by your thumbs while your hands hold the tablet at the corners. I almost never use the "normal" on-screen keyboard. The handwriting recognition really isn't usable without a stylus, as expected..

Also just fyi, Windows button+ O is a hotkey for activating rotation lock.
Sent from my GT-I9305 using xda app-developers app

@nbates66: Not working for me. Win+o, or Win+Shift+O, don't appear to do anything (at least on the desktop). Auto-rotate still occurs. Win+0 just launches the tenth thing on the taskbar, as expected. It would be great if this is usable, though. Win+P, Win+E, Win+R, Win+L, etc. all work as expected.

[Q] Poll: home button: physical, capacitive or virtual

What do you think that is the best type of home button in a smart phone?

golemus said:
What do you think that is the best type of home button in a smart phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is especially interesting to hear opinions of people that have used many sorts of home buttons.
For long time I thought that I would prefer capacitive home button over physical but I see a few advantages with physical:
- it is a safe spot to rest your thumb without accidentally pressing a capacitive button
- it is a faster way to switch power on from a sleeping phone than trying to find a power button from the side of the phone.
About virtual home key I really don't have experience, but as a prejudicious tought I dislike the fact that it eats pixels from the screen. I really don't see any other good reason for virtual keys than saving costs of capacitive keys. If there is such reasons, please share.

I've used them all. I hate physical buttons, so I use GMD gesture control on my s3.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

gc84245 said:
I've used them all. I hate physical buttons, so I use GMD gesture control on my s3.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see GMD being better on a tablets.
But for the common 4-5" smartphone screen users most if not all functions are usually performed single handedly via the thumb, so something PIE CONTROLS would be a much easier method to execute commands requiring less than an inch of on screen GESTURES.
And since it also displays the time/date and battery life you also don't need to have a status bar take up the precious screen space.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jun.ace.piecontrol

I really like the capacitive home button on the HTC One X, but could also get accustomed to a virtual solution since it's way more flexible.
Especially using pie it seems to be a lot more space saving.

Capacitive, but I can use virtual also if the screen type != Amoled which thankfully is the case with Nexus 4/5. Wouldn't want a burn-in like the gnex.

isajoo said:
I can see GMD being better on a tablets.
But for the common 4-5" smartphone screen users most if not all functions are usually performed single handedly via the thumb, so something PIE CONTROLS would be a much easier method to execute commands requiring less than an inch of on screen GESTURES.
And since it also displays the time/date and battery life you also don't need to have a status bar take up the precious screen space.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jun.ace.piecontrol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip. I tried pie controls and it's pretty good, but I think I still prefer GMD. It has more options like turning off the screen or switching between apps. I usually use two hands on the phone anyways, though I could see it being useful if you had to use one hand.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

gc84245 said:
Thanks for the tip. I tried pie controls and it's pretty good, but I think I still prefer GMD. It has more options like turning off the screen or switching between apps. I usually use two hands on the phone anyways, though I could see it being useful if you had to use one hand.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also use PGM2 AKA touch control app to turn screen off by swiping the very bottom of the screen from Left to right or viscera and turning screen on by swiping up from bottom of screen gesture like on BB10 devices or double tapping the screen like on the LG G2.
Pie controls also has recent apps button for switching between open apps.
Only time I use more than 1 finger is for certain games in landscape mode.
Even zooming in/out can be done using an app like:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiumiu.ca.assistivezoom

Virtual
Sent from my Moto G GPE

Keep hitting capacitive keys in landscape mode

Hi,
When I rotate the phone to landscape I keep hitting the back button as I'm used to the iPhone where you can just grab the side with confidence since there is only a physical home button.
Is this a problem after say, a month, or do you guys never hit the capacitive keys by accident in landscape mode? I don't have a month to decide. I have only a week. It's kind of a bigger change than I thought to be careful everytime I go into landscape, which seems like I shouldn't "have" to be.
Thanks

If you're playing games then enable the game tolls and disable the captive buttons while playing games.

Just don't hesitate to rely on the home button as a safe touch region to grip it by. That's why it's a hardware button and not soft touch. It easily becomes second nature in a few days and works well. The signature mix of capacitive and hardware buttons is one of the reasons I prefer galaxy phones. It beats software keys which take up screen space and all capacitive which is really tricky to hold.

Linked Devices said:
Just don't hesitate to rely on the home button as a safe touch region to grip it by. That's why it's a hardware button and not soft touch. It easily becomes second nature in a few days and works well. The signature mix of capacitive and hardware buttons is one of the reasons I prefer galaxy phones. It beats software keys which take up screen space and all capacitive which is really tricky to hold.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK thanks for this. Hope I can get used to it. I suppose the upside of the Android layout is that the back button is at the bottom as opposed to ios where it's at the top left. I appreciate that feature much more often than I appreciate having the entire side being safe to grip in landscape, since I'm in portrait way more often.

supernova_00 said:
If you're playing games then enable the game tolls and disable the captive buttons while playing games.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is a game toll?

lamenramen said:
What is a game toll?
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Click to collapse
Sorry, game tools. Search the settings for game and then enable one or both of the options...I haven't played around with it to know what each one does but I do know what of the feature on the S7 was a game mode to disable notifications and the buttons while playing games.