My experiences with my mobile (Android) as PC replacement - General Topics
Hello,
as I was looking for this kind of topic information for a long time and searched through many various topics that are by nature really sounding similar, I though I'd share my experiences on using my mobile as home PC replacement.
This thread is intended as a guide to those that want to do the same. As an idea to those that never considered it and as a collection of issues and workarounds found in the daily use.
Again: This thread does not cover anything like Android ON a Desktop Computer but using your mobile phone as a desktop computer.
In those regards, I'm using one or the other software that is what I found doing its job, but I'm very open to improvements and ideas.
Setup:
My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (2,2GHz quadcore, 3GB RAM, SM-9005) and Android Kitkat (Slimkat custom rom) runs on it. USB is MHL compatible.
Other Hardware: Aten CS533 a physical keyboard->Bluetooth Adapter, such that you can use your desktop keyboard and mouse on your Mobile. Which is how I'm writing this text by the way.
If you already know everything or don't care for the rest, read the second and the third post.
Daily driver?
As some custom roms describe their status.... I'm using it as daily driver. I have to rethink many things - the UI being the biggest part. Automation helps to get the connection and screen rotation things off your head.
The phone is being charged while I'm connected to the screen as the Adapter wants to have a power supply.
A big change in UI is that the touch based OS is not working too well with the mouse wheel. In this thread I'm writing I cannot scroll up using the mouse wheel. I'll scroll up the page only. I have to press and hold the mouse (=touch) and pull the content to where I want it.
Deleting characters works as well, but here rather slow. It is better to use CTRL+Shift and cursor buttons to highlight words.
You may also forget about marking text with the mouse as you're used to.
You have to press (=touch) a word and then pull the text markers to whereever.
What works well is the CTRL+X, C and V.
Currently I'm logged into XDA and writing and correcting this text with my external keyboard in firefox.
Which brings me to the most important thing... APPS:
Also there are many differences.... I'm using firefox because it happily accepts keyboard commands - CTRL+T opens a new tab, CTRL+W closes it.
Firefox has one issue which I would bring to the developers... When opened, the shared screen is blank. You can see it on your phone, but not on the TV. Workaround: Switch apps to some other app in foreground, switch back to firefox.
Many apps are better than their web-counterparts. And actually faster. But they often cannot do exactly the same, be aware of that. They offer some features and make it easier to use, but some features you may have been used to, are not available. Example: in the ebay app I can't print out shipping documents.
Roughly mentioned - printing:
There are printing apps included in most OS, you can find them in the store. Mine works fine and I can print on my network printer (don't ask me about USB-printers, I doubt, they work well...).
From my office applications (those accept CTRL+P) I can directly print on my printer, once found. That takes some time, because I switch my printer completely off when not in use.
Chats:
work fine. I can switch, use the mouse to get to the statusbar and open the chat notification, switch back to XDA using ALT+TAB.
Emails:
I was using thunderbird and this one I really miss. I has an unmatched search function. It cans earch globally and it can additionally filter text. Very quick. I have one email account since 13 years. Some emails collected. Here I have troubles.
I want to be able to see all emails offline. This can be difficult as many mail applications don't really give you a choice how many emails to download. K9 and the related kaiten offer this. They can download all mails. However.... This makes the operation in that account slow. Searching doesn't work well and deleting mail leads to app crashes. I'm working with it, because I didn't find a good alternative. Not many people possibly care for that though.
So you see, there are upsides and downsides.
+ Upsides are certainly the purpose driven apps, you have plenty for any kind of purpose. Even you can change the OS layout (If you know linux this is possibly normal anyways )
+ You save money and energy
+ You always have your PC with you
+ One UI everywhere
+ Beter than anyone else you know how to connect your phone to a beamer and do a presentation
Downsides:
- It is a mobile PC. It is using its resources much more efficiently than its desktop alternative. Because it doesn't have many. I wouldn't dare doing video encoding here.
- Surfing is slower - sometimes it seems that is actually because of my phone. I've seen other phones with weaker configurations performing faster than mine. Dolphin seems to perform much faster than Firefox.
- Rethink your input
- Desktop Applications are not possible. If you have one specific type of application you'll have to find an alternative on Android or forget it. Games, Photobook applications, Thunderbird, Blurays, are all kind of difficult...
Additional notes:
There are some interesting projects like Andromium OS that want to change the UI appearance, like a launcher that resembles the desktop Windows/Linux with a start menu. At the current beta state, I personally like my old way better, but it is looking good.
Your choice to accept the downsides. I mostly do.
Sorry for this long and splitted post, but it seems like XDA has a maximum letter count when posting but the post warning doesn't tell you so.
This is the second post, to show some details of the journey...
From the beginning:
Why?
I had a desktop PC, in fact a tablet PC, 18" and was satisfied with it. Linux ran on it quite fine. Over time I noticed that I normally use it for surfing. Not even for something useful. Most things I was using on the PC I found I was using in parallel on Android. For example, ebay, banking, sometimes the browser, funny additions like xkcd, dilbert, chats... List goes on...
Since I know my phone supports MHL, that is using an adapter to get video mirror from phone to TV over HDMI I was looking for a keyboard replacement. Also I heard before keyboards can be used on android.
Soooo I forced myself to actually to that. I sold my PC and while ebay was running I tried to get the needed hardware.
Doing:
In fact it was very easy to find the MHL adapter. I have already a cheap one with a long cable, but sometimes the screen turns blue. Normally that happens when the screen is on, and the device is idle. I thought of buying an original Samsung Adapter.
There is actually no difference, using the Samsung or the cheap one. It seems to be related to the Apps which are in foreground. Here, it is firefox, no issue with it. These days, I don't see that issue anymore. It seems that it is not related to the power supply. Anyways it worked.
A problem was that I want to use my expensive silent keyboard and not buy another bluetooth keyboard. As you may know that if you search for android hardware keyboard you'll find possibly a million ways to use your phone keyboard as input method on the PC (what the heck?). There are a few breadcrumbs leading you to something useful. Once I found a keyboard adapter that translates only my keyboard to Bluetooth, but since my mouse was futile then, I didn't want it. Same reason why I don't want to use OTG. And I'm already using the one USB port on the mobile for the screen mirroring.
Later that evening I found my current solution, working rather good, the Aten CS533. I small docking station like thing that can get two input devices to bluetooth which I can connect the mobile to.
Be careful when using it: My original Logilink mouse didn't work well with it. Scrollwheel moved the pointer up and down. Any mouse movement moved the pointer down, left and right. Sicne it didn't move up, that was, well pointless. I changed the mouse to some generic Dell mouse and this works fine.
Experiences:
SCREEN: Using some automation software normally keeps my phone working well; since the screen on the mobile is always displayed readable on the TV, meaning not upside down or so, the screen if in portrait, fills only the middle third of the TV. To use it properly my automation software says IF connected to the adapter THEN turn on screen rotation. The phone normally lying horizontally. Since this phones resolution matches the TVs, 1080p it looks pretty good.
Look and feel:
It is Android, a touch based OS, unlike Windows or Linux. So your touchscreen is not imitating a mouse, but your mouse is imitating touch input. My mouse buttons all work as touch. Clicking means touching. As far as I know there are no shortcuts here. To start an app you have to do the same actions with your mouse as you would with your finger on the screen. From the home screen open the app drawer by the button, possibly swipe to the app by clicking, holding the mouse button and moving the screen accordingly.
The keyboard is a different thing. I don't know about others, but here are some shortcuts.
The ESC button is my home button, the context menu button maps the phones menu button.
Surprisingly alt+tab work in Android as task switcher, even though I only have the last 8 apps in there and the behaviour is a bit different from the PC. Alt+tab to open the menu, another tab to switch to the second app. And there is some waiting time of possibly half a second.
The keyboard works fine; page up/down, end, pos1, del, backspace, enter work fine. CTRL, alt, Shift are normally mapped. You can use TAB to change input fields as well.
Missing so far is.... the "back" button. I have not found an equivalent of the back button on the keyboard. Since my phone isn't far away, I normally press the phones back button if I need it.
As you see, operating works, even though you have to get used to it. On the other side, it didn't take me too long...
for more details go on with the third post.
Input:
A word on input is required. Keyboard input. What? Again? Well... this is about the keyboard apps you're using. In my case I use swype and I like it most. I hate all software keyboards because their interpretation is weird and their grammar interpretation is often wrong, especially in german.
Swype however recognizes the external keyboard and displays an extra line on the bottom of the screen with the word suggestions I'm typing. Since I'm using a real keyboard I don't want corrections. Since I use the phone often without keyboard, I don't want to switch swype off completely either.
I have another issue which is that I'm typing korean from time to time and up to here I hadn't even thought about it. Swype can do that but still I didn't want to have that extra correction bar. Plus... no idea how to switch the input. The swype input switcher is missing since I'm only having the correction bar.
Quick idea was that I know a very small korean keyboard app so I could possibly switch from swype to the other, while connected to the CS533. Didn't work so well since I still have no way of switching other than the settings - but at least the correction bar is gone.
Here I found the app "External Keyboard Helper" which was written for exactly that. It seems like some people already did what I'm doing, so I wonder why you don't find so many descriptions. Anyways... that app allows you to write normally and change layouts using keyboard shortcuts. Here I'm using CTRL+Shift*space to change to korean layout: 안녕하새요 (Hello)
Anyways... that app allows you to write normally and change layouts using keyboard shortcuts.
I haven't completely looked through the app, but it seems you can get in some keymappings.
So I could map the "back" hard key from the phone to the otherwise useless Windowsbutton. My audio app is rewinding with a keyboard keypress and using shilt+alt+m I can start my mail app.
So now via automation I'm switching the input method to the external keyboard helper, when connected to the CS533 and back to swype when the connection is lost.
This was the last post. Hopefully it is useful for some that are trying to do exactly the same and get sick of those PC remote control apps...
:good::good::good::good:
And this works to. Partly a bit weird to connect.....
But:
From mobile via
OTG
To an sd/hdmi/usb adapter
Hdmi to tv, sd not tested and from
USB to another active usb hub:
The hub connects Gamepad, keyboard and mouse to the android. This is like a cable spider with one plug for the phone. A diving station.
Nice!
Best experience I had with the Dockingstation from Samsung EDD-D200.
Here the phone charges upwards while in use, I have 3 USB ports and Keyboard is recognized well.
HDMI only works at max [email protected], or [email protected] Using apps you can rotate the screen when docked.
Biggest difference is that I REALLY have a docking station. leave HDMI, USB plugged and then just connect the mobile. It should then directly work and the screen is shared to the TV. This is now much more comfortable.
Word of advices:
-for that docking station you'd better have a 5.3V power supply. 5.0V will not make USB or HDMI work.
-there is for the Note 3 another interesting docking station by Samsung, EE-MT800. It has an ethernetport and USB, flexbile connection cable. But the docking station only seems to work on a few tablets, which is a bit sad. It didn't work on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3, even though the MHL3 Adapter from Samsung works flawless ([email protected]).
I used a knife to alter the stand if that docking station so I can place my mobile with the protection cover in it. Works fine now.
Don't get the idea that there's a nice cable in the station which you could extend. It is an extension of the PCB and it is fixed.
I commissioned to Samsung why their docking station ee-mt800 is only compatible to a few tablets. And why you would want to connect a only stand type docking station to a horizontal TV of monitor, resulting in a vertical picture.... And 2/3 blank screen...
Related
Thinking of getting O2 xda iq
I've currently got both an xda2 and an xda2i. I'm thinking of changing to the iq when its available ( I believe it a re-labelled tornado). Has anyone else done this - changed from touch screen pda phone to a similar phone to the tornado and if so what do you think, pros and cons of each type. Also which software works as add ons ( currently use tomtom5, sprite backup, pocketmax phonealarm to name a few). Thanks in advance.
Hi petest! I didn't switch to a tornado, but I got to play with one for a couple of days, and after being used to Pocket PC interface, and touch screen, the limited Smartphone platform seemed really annoying and frustrating. Here are my impressions: - Getting around start and options menus is a pain, since you can't scroll directly through the whole menu, but have to press 'more' to see the options that don't feet on screen. - The file browser is also problematic, as you have to change views to see the files and you cant type a file name to get to it quickly. - Typing is a problem since you only have the numeric key pad, even with T9 function. It makes the PPC on-screen keyboard look great. - Finally, shutting down a program, to free up memory is a pain as well, if it doesn't have an exit option. On the positive side: - It is closer in size to a regular cellphone then most PDAs. - The screen is protected, and not as vornable to scratches and various damage as a touch screen. - The numeric keypad makes one hand usage easy. Well that's my opinion, but as you might have noticed, the touch screen and the comfort it brings is a big issue for me, so I might be bias against Smartphones in general...
Thanks for the reply levenum. Like yourself I find the touch screen good on the pdas and they're all I've used for the last 4 or 5 years so I'm used to the features of them. It would be useful if I could borrow one (xda iq / imate sp5) for a couple of days to play with and see how i get on - I might just get one on a new contract and if i don't get on with it trade it in. Thanks again.
Fuze Questions
I'm an iPhone 2g user looking to upgrade. I had a Tilt that I had to return because of some soft-reset bug it had. I called HTC and they said it was hardware related, so I sent it back for the iPhone. I love my iPhone. It does everything I need it to do very well. I love safari (although flash would be nice), I love the Music player, and I love the quickness of the interface. That being said, however, I'm a pharmacy student, and I need certain software for class and internships. The iPhone does have epocrates, but it's limited in what it can do... I played with the Fuze today, but it couldn't connect to the network (The employee told me the manager messed something up???) I didn't get to try out some of the key features I wanted to. Some questions I have: 1: Touchflow. when is started using the phone, touchflow was SLOOOW. I was able to pan my way over the the Photos tab, but once there, there was no more scrolling. I could tap icons to move to the next menu, but it was very very sluggish??? I found there were a couple of programs running in the background, and once I closed them out, it was responsive again. But, how many programs can be running before it is unusable??? 2: Touch screen: The touch screen had some selective response at times. I noticed that when using the stylus, it sometimes didn't pick up my input. This was especially evident in the upper right portion of the screen (when I wanted to X out of programs). Is this a common issue, or is it something wrong with the device? Or is it just me not knowing how to use a stylus?! 3: Hardware question: I wasn't able to make, or even pretend to make a call because it couldn't connect to the network, and because it had the security wires on it. But, how usable is the volume rocker switch mid-call? are there issues using it because of the sliding keyboard? Also, is there a proximity sensor on the phone, to dim the screen in a call??? 4: SMS/MMS: The 2nd main reason I'm considering the fuze over the iphone 3g is the MMS. Anybody have any pictures or description of how the Text messages are handled by the fuze? I'm not familiar with how windows mobile manages them! 5: Email: I'm no power email user, but I do read them on the road. How does WM6 handle emails???? I have a gmail account... 6: Opera: I've heard good things about the browser, but again, no network = no opera use. how is opera? Does it support flash? 7: Malware??? Are windows phones prone to malware??? 8: One handed operation? I love how the iPhone is mostly 1 handed. I take the trolly to school daily, and sometimes i only have 1 hand free. does touchflow allow me to operate the phone completely 1 handed??? Can I type up a text message using the screen and no stylus??? 9: Media player: Will I need to buy a new iPod to listen to my media? Or does the Fuze's onboard stuff allow me to play my music well enough??? 10: FM radio? The Sony Xperia has an onboard FM radio program. Is this something the HTC can do as well??? I have more questions as well, but I'll start with this. Thanks for all your help!
gizzygone said: 1: Touchflow. when is started using the phone, touchflow was SLOOOW. I was able to pan my way over the the Photos tab, but once there, there was no more scrolling. I could tap icons to move to the next menu, but it was very very sluggish??? I found there were a couple of programs running in the background, and once I closed them out, it was responsive again. But, how many programs can be running before it is unusable??? Click to expand... Click to collapse Need to flash a cooked ROM. All the ROMs I've tried so far has better response time for Touchflow and actually makes it usable. I would say this is just the stock ROM with all the bloated "stuff" making it unusable. 2: Touch screen: The touch screen had some selective response at times. I noticed that when using the stylus, it sometimes didn't pick up my input. This was especially evident in the upper right portion of the screen (when I wanted to X out of programs). Is this a common issue, or is it something wrong with the device? Or is it just me not knowing how to use a stylus?! Click to expand... Click to collapse Same as above. Mine is very responsive. 3: Hardware question: I wasn't able to make, or even pretend to make a call because it couldn't connect to the network, and because it had the security wires on it. But, how usable is the volume rocker switch mid-call? are there issues using it because of the sliding keyboard? Also, is there a proximity sensor on the phone, to dim the screen in a call??? Click to expand... Click to collapse The screen can be dimmed while in a call or you can disable it. The volume keys at the side works well... don't use them much. 4: SMS/MMS: The 2nd main reason I'm considering the fuze over the iphone 3g is the MMS. Anybody have any pictures or description of how the Text messages are handled by the fuze? I'm not familiar with how windows mobile manages them! Click to expand... Click to collapse Not sure about this. I just use SMS, no MMS, although I have tested it and it works fine. 5: Email: I'm no power email user, but I do read them on the road. How does WM6 handle emails???? I have a gmail account... Click to expand... Click to collapse It has several ways of configuring emails. I am checking my emails via IMAP, including GMAIL and it works fine. I have 3 email accounts I check via IMAP and I have no issues with it. 6: Opera: I've heard good things about the browser, but again, no network = no opera use. how is opera? Does it support flash? Click to expand... Click to collapse Works fine and does support flash. 7: Malware??? Are windows phones prone to malware??? Click to expand... Click to collapse Never ran into this or thought of looking. 8: One handed operation? I love how the iPhone is mostly 1 handed. I take the trolly to school daily, and sometimes i only have 1 hand free. does touchflow allow me to operate the phone completely 1 handed??? Can I type up a text message using the screen and no stylus??? Click to expand... Click to collapse You can use it 1 handed but not sure coming from the iPhone how it would compare. The best thing I can recommend to you is to order the Fuze and test it out. You have 30 days to return it. If you don't like it and it doesn't meet your requirements then no need to keep it. I don't have any experience with the iPhone so I can't offer you any comparison. I had the Tilt before and liked it a lot. I had it to a point where it did everything I needed and VERY quickly. I also have the Fuze setup the same way and I'm happy with it. Good luck.
9) Yes, handles media well. You can get 16GB memory card for about $30 to have as much storage as your old iPhone (and no need to mess with ITunes). The only gripe about media I have is that the unit doesn't have a 3.5 audio jack (though it comes with an adapter) 10) The stock FUZE rom doesn't have the radio app, but it's an easy .cab to find. The headphones have to be connected for radio to work, as it uses the headphones as an antenna
stevieraveon...you've found a 16gb microsd for $30? If this is true, and you're not confusing it with regular SD, i'm sure myself and several others on the forum would love to know where!
Fuze Complaints? I was curious as to what to expect before ordering my Fuze. What kinds of issues / complaints are Fuze/Raphael users having??? (For example, on my Tilt, there was a soft-reset issue. On my iPhone 2g, there's a sub-par earpiece speaker, recessed headphone jack, no copy/paste/MMS, etc).
Questions for fuze owners 2 Questions: 1: Music: Is there a way to skip songs while the phone is in "standby mode" (or whatever the blacked out screen shows)? On my iPhone 2g, I can either use the headphone's mic as a button, or I can double click the main button, and guestimate where the Skip forward button would appear on the touchscreen. (Both tricky things to do when walking)... 2: Syncing: How many computers can you sync a windows mobile device with? My main computing machine is a Mac, which I love. However, I'm aware I may need to use a PC for syncing some things (like software). Can I have the phone sync to two machines? (The iPhone only likes one...)
I really have no complaints about the Fuze other than the stock at&t ROM. If you really wanna enjoy your phone, your gonna have to flash a cooked ROM; the AT&T one is just way to slow to use. Besides that the phone is great. You MAY have problems with the GPS, but if you do flash the .28 radio you should be fine. Hope that helps
being able to control music while in standbye depends on whether you use third party software or not. i use conduits pocket player and it allows control via headset and avrcp while in standby. you can sync the device with two comps at the same time so you should be fine
gizzygone said: 2 Questions: 1: Music: Is there a way to skip songs while the phone is in "standby mode" (or whatever the blacked out screen shows)? On my iPhone 2g, I can either use the headphone's mic as a button, or I can double click the main button, and guestimate where the Skip forward button would appear on the touchscreen. (Both tricky things to do when walking)... Click to expand... Click to collapse if i remember correctly u can still use the D-PAD when the phone is in standby to skip, FF, rewind and pause ur music like right for skip, hold it for FF, left for backo and if u press it in it will pause gizzygone said: 2: Syncing: How many computers can you sync a windows mobile device with? My main computing machine is a Mac, which I love. However, I'm aware I may need to use a PC for syncing some things (like software). Can I have the phone sync to two machines? (The iPhone only likes one...) Click to expand... Click to collapse i used to have an old desktop that i used as a media center with all my mp3s on there so i used to sync everything on my laptop, contacts, calender... but on my desktop when i setup my device with active sync, i olny chose to sync music. now on the fuze has an extra option, i believe you can connect the fuze to any pc or mac and have it show up as a mass storage device!!! like a flash drive, so u dont need any software (activesyc, iTunes) or any drivers to transfer files!!! (very office friendly)
the phone has some issues, but i think all of them have been addressed, including new 3d drivers! look around here, this is why we have this website ( to solve problems)
mkalbouneh said: the phone has some issues, but i think all of them have been addressed, including new 3d drivers! look around here, this is why we have this website ( to solve problems) Click to expand... Click to collapse I realize it's to fix problems, and I'm aware all phones (or electronics for that matter) are prone to issues. I was kind of hoping, though, that people would chime in and make a list of the biggest known issues with the Fuze. For example, I heard rumors that fresh out of the package, there's an issue with the speaker being too quiet.
mkalbouneh said: if i remember correctly u can still use the D-PAD when the phone is in standby to skip, FF, rewind and pause ur music like right for skip, hold it for FF, left for backo and if u press it in it will pause Click to expand... Click to collapse Can anybody confirm this???!!! In my eyes this would make the media app on the fuze more powerful than my iPhone. I frequently skip through songs, but having the lack of buttons on the iPhone means I need to reach for my neck, to use the headphone button...take the phone out of my pocket (not good in the rain...).... or double click the home button in my pocket, and tap around on the screen until i discover the SKIP button... Also, while you're confirming the D-pad, can you tell me if the volume toggle works to manage the music volume as well??? (For directly connected headphones (Wired) or bluetooth headphones (Wireless))
gizzygone said: Can anybody confirm this???!!! In my eyes this would make the media app on the fuze more powerful than my iPhone. I frequently skip through songs, but having the lack of buttons on the iPhone means I need to reach for my neck, to use the headphone button...take the phone out of my pocket (not good in the rain...).... or double click the home button in my pocket, and tap around on the screen until i discover the SKIP button... Also, while you're confirming the D-pad, can you tell me if the volume toggle works to manage the music volume as well??? (For directly connected headphones (Wired) or bluetooth headphones (Wireless)) Click to expand... Click to collapse 1. For just using the phone, in Windows Media, in it's settings>buttons there is a toggle screen (I set it to hold left since I don't use previous) and I can use all the buttons after I toggle screen (Turns screen off). 2. For wired and wireless headsets, do the same as #1 or buy a headset that has music buttons and is an A2DP headset, those can change songs and volume and everything even when the pphone is in standby.
Syncing with multiple computers is no problem, but you can only sync mail/outlook with one computer. Had a WM device synched with with 3 machines before. Active sync will have different profiles/names to each computer you sync it with. Not sure what the limit is. Syncing with exchange server is pretty awesome though. Too bad my companies security cert expired though... active sync doesn't like that. Need to have net admin get that updated cert as for music I have an a2dp stereo bluetooth headset with controls and it works great, with the screen on or off. It does cause the youtube app to lag though, not sure why...
Well autocorrect/autocomplete seems to be broken but this is prolly rom related. Still looking for a way to nix out that xt9 junk... voice command also seems to be partially broken, but again rom/software related. I miss having a tab button on the keyboard seems to be the only key/button that I really miss having, it was nice having a mail button but mail is easy enough to get to with TF3d. Left and right on the dpad seem to have a sweet spot. Of course it is a fingerprint disaster, really wish that the back wasn't glossy it looks great when its clean. All in all no major complaints.
gizzygone said: I was curious as to what to expect before ordering my Fuze. What kinds of issues / complaints are Fuze/Raphael users having??? (For example, on my Tilt, there was a soft-reset issue. On my iPhone 2g, there's a sub-par earpiece speaker, recessed headphone jack, no copy/paste/MMS, etc). Click to expand... Click to collapse I think the D-Pad or whatever you refer to the directional controls at the bottom of the Fuze only reliably work for up and down. Left seems to work better for me than right (probably because I'm right handed). But overall, using the D-Pad is irritating. Trying to use the D-Pad around the middle button for playing games sucks. Also, with some older apps, I'm running into a situation where if I switch from the old app (for example, PocketAtari) to the main screen TF3D or accidently hit the key that brings up the main screen, I can't switch back to pocketatari, and I can't really use the main screen either, it's like they switch back and forth and I can't really get either application to become the focus or active window. Anyway, as usual, the stock ROM with the FUZE is meh. Best bet is to replace it with either the NATF ROM or romeos. I'm using romeos 1.40.1 right now, looking to flash to 1.50 when that stabilizes. overall, I miss my tilt in a lot of ways. Even the gimmicky tilt feature is better to have than not to have. The bottom buttons on the front of the kaiser/tilt are way better in my opinion that those on the Fuze. I don't understand what HTC was thinking. Change to a VGA screen and add a G-Sensor to the kaiser, and you've got a sweet device. Oh and use the newer MSM7200 series chip running at 528MHz and keep that FM radio feature turned on too... pretty sweet kaiser/tilt that would be. Keep it simple, stick to what worked... To sum up: D-Pad: crap. only good for up and down. not good for games. MicroSD slot requires taking the back plate off to access. Not a huge deal, but I liked the kaiser's little cover at the bottom. Fingerprints- yeah. get a screenprotector for sure. even with a protector, fingerprints all over the device (not just screen). It slides the other way (for those of you with 8525s I guess it slides the "right" way?) Personally I like the kaiser slide direction and am used to it. the cool: it's faster than the kaiser. seems noticably faster than the kaiser when compared side by side. (both using custom roms) video with you-tube pretty cool, smooth. G-sensor is sorta neat, not always that responsive, but the Teeter game is great in my opinion. lotta people find it really addicting for awhile. hTorch is awesome. the LED light on the FUZE/Touch Pro is really actually very useful with that hTorch app. battery life is meh. Kaiser seemed better and seemed like it has a bigger battery, the battery on the fuze is freaking tiny. True VGA screen is probably the main reason I went with the fuze... it's better than QVGA. Hope that helps. At least you know what you are getting into. It's the next step in the evoluton of HTC/Windows Mobile devices.
When I turn the screen off on my Pro it shuts the music off for some reason!? Any clues how to change this?
As an aside question: If you reflash to somebody else's rom, Is it possible to go back to the factory rom easily??? I'm just a little wary about modifying something to that extent! I don't have the $$$ to replace it if I brick it!
Off the bat, plan on running HardSPL and getting a new ROM. I'd suggest going with the one in my sig. If you start from scratch, you will like the phone a lot more. It is stable and awesome without TouchBlo. It SUCKS with TouchBlo. Other than that, it's a fingerprint magnet. You can revert to factory SPL and ROM easily. The Fuze's D-Pad sucks. If you liked to play emulators on your Tilt, you might as well get the Fuse on a second line and keep it around as a Game Boy, or get used to watching movies on your phone instead.
This thread has some good, honest feeback: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=446520 Fundamental flaw - TF3D couldn't mask WM's 'touch unfriendliness' heh... WM just depends on the stylus too much to get the job done, in it's current iteration.
Real HDMI: Finally able to Control your HDMI!!
*Credit to gman!!! for his work enabling more control over the X's HDMI port. "Real HDMI" is now on the android marketplace for $1.99 NO ROOT REQUIRED, WORKS ON 2.1 AND LEAKED 2.2 Finally get control of your HDMI port on your Droid X. This is rev 1.0.3 of the app and will be continuing development down the road. What is Does: When HDMI is enabled it sends the output that would normally going to your phone to the HDMI output port. It unfortunatly doesn't allow mirroing of the display. But does let you watch content on your big screen. Ability of content to display properly depends on the ability of the app you are using to scale to large size of TV screen. If uses absolute coordinates for its layout it might not scale properly. Am going to be putting together a list of what apps work and don't as I get reports from folks. Quick Help - Enabling HDMI Output Hook up your cable to the phone. When connected the “DETECT” button should change to an “ON” button and “HDMI Detected” status should turn to “Yes”. If it does not, click on the DETECT button and check your cable and TV Settings. Once the green button displays “ON” you can click the green button to turn the HDMI output on. Alternatively you can go to the notification bar, and when it says HDMI = OFF, you can click on the notification icon to turn HDMI ON. - Disabling HDMI (returning to seeing content on phone) There are 4 ways to disable HDMI output. #1 When Real HDMI application has focus, you can change orientation of the device. #2 You can unplug the HDMI Cable #3 When Real HDMI application in on the screen on your TV, click appropriate location for red OFF button on the screen. #4 With HDMI on, go to notification bar and click on the notification - Using Dock Modes The Application provides the ability to simulate the doc modes for your phone. Selecting the Car Dock will enable the Car Dock Home screen. Selecting the Media Dock will enable the Media Dock Home Screen. Clicking Dock Off will restore phone to non-docked status - Application Problems Some applications will have problem displaying video to HDMI as they are build with assumptions about screen sizes. They are using fixed layouts and not proper auto sizing layouts as per Android developers guides. Only way to fix those issues is to have the app developer of the application fix their application. Enabling or Disabling HDMI out while a video is playing can have strange results as the rendering surface size ends up changing mid video. Stop and Start the application and it should be fine. EDIT: things to look forward to as this is early in development! - Independent control of audio out (mute, hdmi audio only with no video, etc) - better HDMI on/offcontrol. Things like shake for on, shake phone for off. Timed enable of HDMI. HDMI on/off based on proximity sensor(I like this one the best so far) - "snapshots" - idea being to perodically take a snapshot of HDMI out frame buffer and output to the phones screen. to at least give you some better input interface - the whole "live dual view" thing - screen orientation issues (getting home screen to be horizontal)
So does this mean blockbuster app might actually be worth a s#*$. Too bad they are filing bankruptcy...wait on netflix app Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
yeah! haha, too bad! goo netflix! ohh! and emulators work awesome!
I've BEEN PUTTING OFF PURCHASING A CORD FOR THAT REASON. Might get one now....thanks for the work!!!!!! 1 N 5 PEOPLE R MENTALLY UNSTABLE. IF YOUR FOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS SEEM NORMAL....THEN ITS YOU.
AWESOME!! Been waiting for something like this!
Blockbuster app is currently a no go as they did somethings in the app to make sure it won't work with HDMI on. Am still looking into it. My app doesn't support "Dual View" or "Multi-view" or whatever folks choose to call it. This is basically a limitation in the omap3 chip as it only has one LCD controller in it and can either control the HDMI output or the LCD but not both. App only works on Droid X as its a specific solution to controlling the hardware/gpu on the droid x. And am doing my best to get around the limitations in the hardware such as the inability of the gfx overlay to do surface scaling. My goal was to get out an app that worked for everyone without having to root their phone. Now that I have done that am working on features specific to users with root. For time being my semi-official support thread is over on droidxforums.com under the app section. Over the weekend hope to get a website setup where I can better posts faqs, pictures, tutorials etc.
It is a shame that blockbuster is set on self destruction. I remember going there as a kid... Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
[Moved reply to another thread]
How come this isn't in the android market? I searched for "HDMI" and "Real HDMI" and nothing comes up.
xoxidine said: How come this isn't in the android market? I searched for "HDMI" and "Real HDMI" and nothing comes up. Click to expand... Click to collapse The authors web site explains why http://www.gmanapps.com
[Q] is there any app for managing external BT keyboards
OK. So I just just got a BT keyboard, which does not come with Android software (the packaging marketed it for iPhone). I think the brand is "FunGear", but that might be a no-name / Shanzhai / OEM thin. Anyway...it works pretty well. I just wrote out a 3 page business proposal on my Samsung SGS (with Froyo) at Starbucks using the keyboard. However, there seem to be some bugs. When I use the keyboard, my phone tells me I need to use the default Samsung Keyboard. Its pretty basic. Furthermore, there are weird things that happen, like: *it stops responding when Gmail does an auto-save *sometimes it goes into all cap-lock mode and won't get out until I hit that on the screen. *some characters seem wrong. *there is screen down / screen up alt keys, but they don't seem to work. The keyboard uses what's called the HID profile. My question is: is there a utility or software keyboard which was made specifically for working with bluetooth keyboards which allow customization?
I havn't come across one but rather i found a edited keyboard.xml file that helped with my kb and its custom keys.
[Q] Touch issues when using pen-enabled apps, anyone?
So, I really really wanted to love this tablet. The disappointments have been many, but this focuses on the most severe and frustrating one. Whenever I am using Dabbler, Skecthbook Pro, ArtFlow, or any other pen-enabled apps, the weirdest things start to happen. It works OK for a while, but then the tablet only starts receiving input from the stylus. Not even UI elements are usable with my fingers. PLEASE NOTE: I do know the tablet has a stylus-only mode, and this is NOT enabled. PLEASE ALSO NOTE: No, the stylus-only mode in the apps is not enabled either. After a fresh reboot, I open the drawing app and everything works. Palm-rejection is gorgeous, pen accuracy is spot-on, multitouch gestures as pinch to zoom and panning work flawlessly. But after a while, or after I exit the app and return, it starts progressively degrading performance. At first it only accepts pinch to zoom like 50% of the time. Then it gets worse, until I can't do a thing without the stylus - not even the back, home and multitasking buttons. I spoke with an nvidia tech support rep, and after a back and forth of emails (mostly me giving him info about the proof of purchase, serial number, etc) he told me to contact the seller (Amazon) and ask for a replacement. I was about to go ahead and replace it, but I wanted to know if any of you are getting the same issues. On the latest official ROM, can everybody use Dabbler, Autodesk Skechbook, etc. for PROLONGED periods of time, and with a high tablet up time, without issues? Is this issue device-specific? THANKS so much for any help and sorry for long post.