Database Develop

TouchFlo - Am I missing something?

I may be being totally daft, but I can't seem to find anywhere in the interface that has the supposed TouchFlo features. The contact app seems to be just the regular WM6 one.
Can someone please give me an example of where the TouchFlo features are used on the Kaiser?

It's pretty subtle, if you are in a long document, say contacts, you can touch the screen downward in a sweeping motion and the contacts should scroll down continuously. You should hear clicking like a roulette wheel, slowing down till it stops. (You can disable that sound). This works vertical and horizontal (if there is reason to scroll).
It's pretty subtle. Some have complained that it doesn't work well with IE and have loaded Opera-Mini to get that functionality to work better. I've tried both and they seem to work OK for me.

It's not very well implemented.
This is the difference between actually creating something useful and adding a feature just to have it on a checklist ("can scroll using flick like iphone") !

Thanks for the replies, I finally get it. It's pretty lame as-is, I really hope someone will manage to extend the functionality in a custom rom in the future.

Odie85 said:
Thanks for the replies, I finally get it. It's pretty lame as-is, I really hope someone will manage to extend the functionality in a custom rom in the future.
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It is not that lame, in my opinion. actually, it is rather more useful than the whole cube-thing implemented on the Touch. ie, if your in the car and try to get to a certain contact or scroll a word doc, it is a lot easier to just touch the screen with your finger rather than use the stylus to scroll using the scroll bars.
i like this feature and i dont consider it as a just-to-be-there feature.

I'm pretty sure my palm pda/phone from 5 years ago had Touch Flo
DLD

ionutz6 said:
It is not that lame, in my opinion. actually, it is rather more useful than the whole cube-thing implemented on the Touch. ie, if your in the car and try to get to a certain contact or scroll a word doc, it is a lot easier to just touch the screen with your finger rather than use the stylus to scroll using the scroll bars.
i like this feature and i dont consider it as a just-to-be-there feature.
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Click to collapse
Is Touchflo easier to use than the scroll wheel?

does down on the dpad not work?
eric b

RacerX10 said:
I'm pretty sure my palm pda/phone from 5 years ago had Touch Flo
DLD
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Click to collapse
Yeah.... and pigs might fly...

Is there a reg tweak to alter the direct of the scrolling...so when i wipe down the screen it scrolls down instead of up?
It seemes to me as though its the wrong way round.

Moaske said:
Yeah.... and pigs might fly...
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no, seriously .. i remember using my finger to scroll pages on it's browser .. Samsung SPH-i300
check this page :
http://www.palm.com/us/products/handhelds/e2/e2_blazer.html
and note :
Improved Usability
Drag the stylus anywhere on screen to scroll a web page. Increase viewable content on the screen with the small font option. Get essential starting tips through the Help menu.
Isn't that what TouchFlo does ?

J273 said:
Is there a reg tweak to alter the direct of the scrolling...so when i wipe down the screen it scrolls down instead of up?
It seemes to me as though its the wrong way round.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
imagine a piece of paper that you could only see though a small hole (screensize). if you pressed your finger down on the paper, and slide it toward you (down), the text on that paper would appear to scroll up, and vice versa...
by the time someone finds the reg tweak, we'll all probably be used to it...

zetajunkie said:
imagine a piece of paper that you could only see though a small hole (screensize). if you pressed your finger down on the paper, and slide it toward you (down), the text on that paper would appear to scroll up, and vice versa...
by the time someone finds the reg tweak, we'll all probably be used to it...
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Click to collapse
Yeah i know what your saying...But to me it just seems wrong which is why i pretty much don't use it.....Im pretty much used to now scrolling using the scroll bar.
and to me it would be much more useful if it was the other way.

J273 said:
Is there a reg tweak to alter the direct of the scrolling...so when i wipe down the screen it scrolls down instead of up?
It seemes to me as though its the wrong way round.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You want it to act like the scroll bar, basically.

TouchFlo=Iphone WannaBe Marketing Trick
Someone else said earlier and they were dead on: all these top of the line pocket pc /cell phone makers got blind sided by Apple's touch screen, which basically makes the Iphone.
So a smart alec at HTC said "let's whip out a touch flo phone, out comes the HTC Touch, and now let's plaster touch technology everywhere on each model as a marketing gimmick to keep up with the Jones' "
I mean 1 million Iphones sold since June 29th as of today...what choice did they have?
The reslut: Touch Flo technology a la cheap, not using the right screen (Iphone screens cost up the wazoo and are made by Balda of Germany) and is basically no different than the D pad...so NO, HTC phones do not have ANY touch tech. yet.

ionutz6 said:
It is not that lame, in my opinion. actually, it is rather more useful than the whole cube-thing implemented on the Touch. ie, if your in the car and try to get to a certain contact or scroll a word doc, it is a lot easier to just touch the screen with your finger rather than use the stylus to scroll using the scroll bars.
i like this feature and i dont consider it as a just-to-be-there feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if you are driving, you shouldn't be using your phone, either with stylus or finger.

KCMatt said:
Is Touchflo easier to use than the scroll wheel?
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Click to collapse
For me it is. especially if it is in internet explorer, where the scroll wheel jumps from link to link, while the touchflo scrolls pages. i know we can modify the scroll wheel behaviour to scroll pages as well, but as it came from the factory this is the behaviour.
plus, if u are driving, it is easier to just touch the display once rather than keep your finger pressed on the d-button or on the wheel.
just my 0.05USD..

bchau said:
Well if you are driving, you shouldn't be using your phone, either with stylus or finger.
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well, excuse me, mr. officer..

i love the touchflo...works just like the iphone especially when working with large spreadsheets.

I love the touchflo as well. VueFlo sux compared to TouchFlo

Autorotate screen via camera project...

so I downloaded the latest diamond album to my kaiser to try it out and I like it but I can't rotate the picture the same way I could with the htcalbum... So I looked at the help file and saw that to rotate the picture all I had to do was turn the phone.. WOAH.. but didn't work... obv. I've been doing some research and it seems possible that we could trigger the screen rotation by turning the phone. It uses the camera to figure out your position.. Now I'm not nearly good enough at this stuff to figure it out on my own, but I did find a little game that is supposed to move the snake based on the movement of the camera, this might be a good place to start, but I couldn't even get the game working.. it's called "CC snake" (attached below) Looking for some ideas, maybe ripping out the controls from the game is a place to start?
http://www.clutch-productions.com/ccsnake.cab
I can confirm that this program runs on my old SDA (wm5 smartphone)... still get an error when trying it on my tilt

Dunno if this is relevant or not but a short while ago, i saw a website where someone had used the camera on a Nokia mobile (i think the phone was a 6600) to create a wireless optical mouse. You had the screen in the palm of your hand and the two hardware buttons were left click and right click. I believe the data was sent over bluetooth. It probably uses a similar technique to work out the direction of travel as you would use to work out orientation.
I haven't been able to find the original website but i did find this
www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~sheridaj/publications/2005/PERMIDPointingDevices.pdf
which seems to be a paper about using a mobile phone camera as a pointing device. I haven't read it through as i'm at work but it could be useful?
I seem to remember the original site having code samples. If i find it, ill post the link.
(Tried to upload the pdf but the file is too big, sorry )
Edit: I believe i found some more info
here are some more links:
http://www.pyrofersprojects.com/blog/?page_id=41 - This guy reckons he's done it but he's not giving out the code
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT1h_ITR0G0 - The video i found, the related videos section looks like it might have some answers.
Please stop me if this isn't helpful!!

video looks bullocks...

slovoflud said:
video looks bullocks...
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yeah, it would have been more convincing if he showed the phone actually moving the cursor although the comments link to slashdot (I didn't read the article tho)

this seems to be interesting, too
http://www.gesturetekmobile.com/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v0srY37kkMw
you can control via motion - that's unquestionable. The problem with the 'mouse' concept is that the cam is right up against the table, so there's no light and hence no contrast, so, you can't lock.
if it is true though - i's cool, but in my mind, pointless. why not use a Mouse instead?

slovoflud said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=v0srY37kkMw
you can control via motion - that's unquestionable. The problem with the 'mouse' concept is that the cam is right up against the table, so there's no light and hence no contrast, so, you can't lock.
if it is true though - i's cool, but in my mind, pointless. why not use a Mouse instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
according to the guy's site, its for replacing a travel mouse or if you need a spare! pretty cool imo but i agree about the light source. Theres something not right about that video, did you check the others?

Shub-Niggurath said:
according to the guy's site, its for replacing a travel mouse or if you need a spare! pretty cool imo but i agree about the light source. Theres something not right about that video, did you check the others?
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Click to collapse
ok, here's what he says.
"Things didnt go entirely smoothly of course. The first thing everybody is probably saying is, but the camera only shows black when its flat on the mousepad! You are of course right, Light is needed. My temporary solution is to hold the phone about .6cm above the pad, letting light in the side. My camera picks up enough to see at this distance."
don't see him do that in the video, and the window which he moves on the screen stops for a couple of seconds right before the camera points at the phone. that's why i said it's bullocks. i'm no programmer, we've done a couple of games for eyeToy, so i know you need light and contrast. (that's obvious) notice in the link i posted the guys were wearing contrasting, flat t-shirts. (Blue t-shirt/yellow block etc) not sure that Monster of a camera on that Nokia can handle patternless black surface (mousepad from the video, even at 6cm).
EDIT : Ok - just noticed he sais .6cm , not 6 .
so, half a cm... .. i don't know...
anyway - i'm open minded... might as well be true.

so has anyone been able to get the game ccsnake to work on their kaiser? might be a place to start.

what about using a glow in the dark material as a mouse pad ?

Idea for the touch pro

Board, I am not a programmer, but I think a good idea would be to use the g sensor to allow you to scroll thru lists.
It would work by way of flicking the phone itself, like you would open a flip phone or shaking out a cigerette out of the box. That action (depending of how hard the flick was) would cause the list to scroll in that direction.
Is there any out ther like this?
Thanks for your time
Russell

I have to say what you're suggesting are quick subtle movements it would be next to impossible without excessive polling of the sensor, it would suck your battery in no time making it all but usable. It would also only work only on default windows scrollbar, not in touch optimized applications.
But I also have to say that things are impossible only so long before some oblivious fool stands up and do it

Already Exists...
A program like this already exists. I think its caled g-controller or something like that. Just google it

unlock with fingerprints?

Is there anyway to lock and unlock using fingerprints with the touchscreen on the fuze? I was just curious because that would be so sweet!!

jvar11889 said:
Is there anyway to lock and unlock using fingerprints with the touchscreen on the fuze?
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Click to collapse
oh yeah. that would be great. Stick this thread ;-)

By using biometrics? No, the screen it touch sensitive, it's not capable of actually reading data from your fingers.

I'm 99.99999% sure this is a no go.The phones that do have this feature have a dedicated fingerprint reader, not just the touch screen

GaZ said:
I'm 99.99999% sure this is a no go.The phones that do have this feature have a dedicated fingerprint reader, not just the touch screen
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Click to collapse
not really..the iphone has a touch screen and its capable of reading your fingerprint

Sorry man, but its not possible. I can also confirm that the iphone can not identify finger prints. You maybe talking about an app that I once saw, that made it look like it was reading your fingerprint, when in actual fact it was jus a trick to play on your friends and would work if anyone put there finger on it.

hellios said:
Sorry man, but its not possible. I can also confirm that the iphone can not identify finger prints. You maybe talking about an app that I once saw, that made it look like it was reading your fingerprint, when in actual fact it was jus a trick to play on your friends and would work if anyone put there finger on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ANSWERED
thread should be closed.

Then can someone make a Cab. file like the slide to unlock but this time you gotta like hold a certain area of the phone's screen for like, lets say 5-10 sec. and it unlocks the screen, we can put a fake fingerprint sections where you place your finger and it unlocks the phone..you know, make it look like it has a fingerprint scan unlocker..
and then there can be like a bar in the bottoms saying "scanning" or something, then access granted..lol
I dont know I would give it a shot if I knew how to make apps or cabs...

lol, lets get the gps lag fixed before we start making fake fingerprint scanners.

there is an app where you slide ur finger in a certain pattern to unlock the phone...kind of like what the tmobile g1 has..its called throttle lock or something..maybe thats what ur looking for

You can't use the screen to scan fingerprints. However, I suppose you could use the camera to "scan" a finger. It would be difficult to actually code the algorithm to detect a certain fingerprint everytime with any accuracy. But with a good enough pic (black & white, high contrast, etc), I suppose it could be done.
Probably more awkward than useful...but would definitely make a nice show-offy app.

Slide to Unlock software (S2U2) is already out there. Here's the post. It's not a fingerprint scanner though.

The touch screen and driver report events as PenDown(pixely,pixelx), PenUp(pixely,pixelx)
You'd be putting on a big ol show to claim to read a fingerprint from that

Oooooh very good point by Da_G, and a definite topic ender. We would need multitouch functionality for this to work. and even then it'd be a bloody struggle. I'm still sticking with my initial response of not possible

What could be cool is that you scan your thumbprint, make an image of it, make a locking app that has you press the screen at a certain pressure and unlocks 1 sec later, so when you slide your finger off, it shows the scanned image of your thumbprint I thought the phone can also sense the pressure?

Kraize said:
What could be cool is that you scan your thumbprint, make an image of it, make a locking app that has you press the screen at a certain pressure and unlocks 1 sec later, so when you slide your finger off, it shows the scanned image of your thumbprint I thought the phone can also sense the pressure?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't getting the same pressure all the time be really hard? Like you would have to basically set it to maximum pressure setting so that you can just press kinda hard on the phone? Maybe we can do what you said with image of the thumbprint and then make it so that you have to place your thumb in a certain quadrant of the phone for it to recognize or multiple quadrants with multiple variations of one thumb so you can say " oh it scans my finger three times for accurate analysis of my finger print" lol

There is a reason why there are devices with extra built-in biometric finger sensor.. even on touch screen devices like older iPaq Pocket PCs, some touch screen laptops (eg Fujitsu).. Touch screen is not possible to detect minute things like lines on fingers. Touch screen detects only area pressure..

and now we all wonder when touch screen will be able to detect the tiny lines on a thumb. Or if it would be easier to just have it detect the ph of your thumb and the phone registers that this person is my owner and unlocks. Or detects DNA... anyways, i believe nanotechnology will need to be implemented and atleast a decade for these to come about but when it does, it could be very interesting to see what people come up with.

Howler82 said:
You can't use the screen to scan fingerprints. However, I suppose you could use the camera to "scan" a finger. It would be difficult to actually code the algorithm to detect a certain fingerprint everytime with any accuracy. But with a good enough pic (black & white, high contrast, etc), I suppose it could be done.
Probably more awkward than useful...but would definitely make a nice show-offy app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to continue this thread the community doesn't seem to like to discuss, but that seems quite possible since there are photo-recognizing programs on the PC, but they are not very reliable from what I hear. Doubt it'd be much better on a phone.

Agent Blair said:
I hate to continue this thread the community doesn't seem to like to discuss, but that seems quite possible since there are photo-recognizing programs on the PC, but they are not very reliable from what I hear. Doubt it'd be much better on a phone.
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Click to collapse
A lil bit off subject but along the same lines... are there any programs out right now that I can use my camera and do OCR to make a text or pdf file? it'd be sooo useful to have an app like that.

Apache! Track Ball! Landscape View! (questions)

Any chance there's a way to run Apache Home Server on my CDMA Hero?
Not looking for anyone who wants to convince me not to, I would just like to know if it's possible/doable.
Also, rather than making a seperate topic,
Is there any way we can:
1) Make a pointer for the track ball? Even, at the very least, while using the browser? I mean, really... why has this not been done yet?
2) Make it so our Home Screens turn when the Accelerometer changes to wide view. When sliding the keyboard out on the Droid and (I believe G1) the viewing automatically changes to landscape. I would love this feature as well. Is this doable, possible?
Thanks in advance, any advice given is appreciated!

bump...
>.>

if you compile apache and all the libs and whatever it depends on for android then it should be possible. afaik there is a webserver for android out there, any reason why it needs to be apache? i think it is way to complex for android, a small lightweight webserver should be no problem in theory.
a trackball pointer might be possible, but not trivial. personally i don't see the reason, when using the trackball in the browser the selected link is highlighted green, what do you need a pointer for?
again, theoretically doable is also the rotated homescreen. you "just" need to redesign sense ui for landscape view. which might be really hard, as it is more than just a small app, and it is closed source (because it is part of htc's modifications, not part of the original android). tbh, don't wait for it to happen unless htc does it.
and last but not least: no offense, but give your posts a few hours, not everything is answered directly.

kendong2 said:
if you compile apache and all the libs and whatever it depends on for android then it should be possible. afaik there is a webserver for android out there, any reason why it needs to be apache? i think it is way to complex for android, a small lightweight webserver should be no problem in theory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't need to be Apache, I'm just more familiar with that particular server software. If there are other options I would be glad to explore them. There are a few things I would like to test that I think would be kind of cool depending on the type of webserver I can run.
a trackball pointer might be possible, but not trivial. personally i don't see the reason, when using the trackball in the browser the selected link is highlighted green, what do you need a pointer for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A track ball would help out in a lot of ways. If open to the OS it would let me select programs, etc. while wearing gloves. It would open up the option of navigating without having to actually use the touch screen in case the scenario presents itself (again, gloves).
If just the browser it could help with games and those types of things. One important thing I have noticed is that I can't scroll within a frame on the browser. If I had a pointer I could, at the least, be able to click and drag the inner frame down without moving the main browsing page. This is somewhat vital to me as my College's Blackboard System is completely based on these types of web pages.
again, theoretically doable is also the rotated homescreen. you "just" need to redesign sense ui for landscape view. which might be really hard, as it is more than just a small app, and it is closed source (because it is part of htc's modifications, not part of the original android). tbh, don't wait for it to happen unless htc does it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a shame. The one problem I have is the amount of rotating I have to do. I would prefer to have the home screens locked in landscape rather than how they are now. It's just a little ridiculous to be watching a video on the phone and texting someone... but every time you want to reply/text you have to rotate the phone. It just seems tedious and I'm a man of efficiency if I can help it.
Maybe I can convince HTC.
and last but not least: no offense, but give your posts a few hours, not everything is answered directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that. XDA is very popular and I assumed my post had already become lossed in the fray. I posted on my lunch break and bumped one hour before having to go home so I had hoped I would get one response before then.
Thanks!
And anymore information would be appreciated. Not just from you but anyone else who has any information.

fatkitty420 said:
2) Make it so our Home Screens turn when the Accelerometer changes to wide view. When sliding the keyboard out on the Droid and (I believe G1) the viewing automatically changes to landscape. I would love this feature as well. Is this doable, possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe this is being done in the 2.1 Sense that HTC have promised us...sometime.
But imo its really ugly, nothing seems to be the right proportions (I'm a designer, so it kinda bugged me)

fatkitty420 said:
A track ball would help out in a lot of ways. If open to the OS it would let me select programs, etc. while wearing gloves. It would open up the option of navigating without having to actually use the touch screen in case the scenario presents itself (again, gloves).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that can be solved, press menu on homescreen, from there on you can use the trackball to navigate to all programs and then navigate through the menu.
i got myself some gloves from north face, which have a conducting fabric on the tips of thumb and index finger, so i can use the touchscreen natively with them. works great, actually got them before i had the hero because they are cool anyway
for the rest: i see your point now, but can't help. and tbh i don't think htc will take too much interest in your concerns... but try anyway, at least they should know about it!

For the web server you might want to try PAW server for Android. Although it's still in beta, it has a lot of built-in goodies like call log, send SMS and so on.
And you can serve your own static or dynamic (BeanShell) pages.