Database Develop

Feedback wanted

App now on the market, thanks for all your help.

great emulation. see my magic/sapphire device specs below...
no sound
very slow response to fire/shoot tap
...other than those issues, nice work.

Hi, great looking and I like the neat touches about adding 10p etc.
Comments - as posted above, no sound and the motion of the base is very slow either by motion detection or using the trackball. Though the trackball seemed to be very intermittent.
I'm running a T-Mobile G2 touch with the latest stock rom. All other background apps, had been disabled too.

Most gracious thanks for your comments. I think I've found the sound bug proper now. I've also found a vast improvement in speed after some GFX tweaks.
The control issues sound odd as both the emulator & my i7500 don't have these problems (but neither have a trackball, the emulator has no sensor), maybe the speed increase will fix things, as the phone was probably getting bogged down with unnecessary drawPixels.
Version 5 is available in the 1st post above, be grateful of any further feedback.
Edit: I've also updated the sensor updated time to maximum to see if that helps.

Great improvemnet.
Sound - now works, firing, explosions, flying saucer. Though the sound of the "invaders" moving is slow, but I am guessing that is as the original?
Movement - The motion sensor works fine now, though the trackball still does not function for left or right movement. If you try the trackball, the app says "motion sensor disabled", but the trackball does not move the player. The fire function works when you depress the ball though.
I love it, takes me back

Daft question but
Could this be used with other arcade roms?

Splather said:
Could this be used with other arcade roms?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, a limited few though, those what run on similar 8080 hardware (a few tweaks may be needed).
I will probably add these later.

OK, nearly at the finishing post. I reckon I've sorted the trackball issue, though I don't have a device with a trackball to test it on. I've also added the suggested full screen mode, though it runs a bit slow even after skipping a few frames, but I've left it in for the moment as it will encourage me to further optimize (will probably have a go at h/w acceleration in v2).
Version 6 Now available in the 1st post.

Trackball works fine now, not sure if it's just me but it seems slower than using the tilt method. Nice work.
I prefer the "bordered" view as it reminds me of the actual screen in the cabinet with the border around the black and white screen. Though on some machines they added coloured bands across the screen so that the invaders "appear" to change colour the lower they got. Maybe you could add that in?
"Edited"
Just a thought, not sure if you can do it, but can you override the "back" key functionality, then you could use it as a fire button and the trackball would be movement only. This way it is slightly more authentic in having the left right control and a fire button just like the original.

OMG that's slow!
Uninstalled... sorry
Love the idea, though

beaker656 said:
Trackball works fine now, not sure if it's just me but it seems slower than using the tilt method. Nice work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seem to have a problem there... read the new control instructions in version & to see if that helps. It's hard to sort until I get a real device.
beaker656 said:
I prefer the "bordered" view as it reminds me of the actual screen in the cabinet with the border around the black and white screen. Though on some machines they added coloured bands across the screen so that the invaders "appear" to change colour the lower they got. Maybe you could add that in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might be thinking of 'Space Invaders Part II' or 'Space Invaders Deluxe'
beaker656 said:
"Edited"
Just a thought, not sure if you can do it, but can you override the "back" key functionality, then you could use it as a fire button and the trackball would be movement only. This way it is slightly more authentic in having the left right control and a fire button just like the original.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can still used the touch screen when using the trackball.
I don't fancy overriding the back key
Henrikmand said:
OMG that's slow!
Uninstalled... sorry
Love the idea, though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried extra hard to speed things up a bit more in version 7.
Might be able to squeeze a bit more???
NEW UPDATE: v7
more speed
vibrator
control tweaks

U seem to just have increased the gamespeed, it still laggs like before.

Very slow and lag in sound.

Looks promising...

Hi guys and gals.
Long story... Gave my code a bit of decent profiling to see what was going on with the trackball. Seems like the cpu emulation core is taking so much time up that there is very little left for the main thread to pick up any events, and when it did, it bogged down the cpu thread. Trackball events have a huge time overhead with keyPressEvents the least, TouchEvents lie some where in the middle.
A nice solution would be to replace my java 8080 cpu source with native code (anyone want to help out here?), but my skills level is probably not up to it.
So, trackball support has now gone completely , replaced with screen buttons. Dpad will still work though, and touching almost anywhere on the screen, other than the left/right buttons will fire too (so your fingers aren't all over the place). Let me know what you's all think.
Found some extra speedups from the cpu core too, but had to butcher a lot of nicely structured code to get the gains.
Updated the first Post with the last version.
Thanks all.

Tidied up the GUI and while I was there...
Deluxe Support.
Catch the APK in the first post.
Could someone give it a final try to see if the controls problem has been fixed???
Thanks very much.

Now on the market. Thanks for all your help.

tonydoc said:
Now on the market. Thanks for all your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well thats fine but since you've edited the thread now we don't know the title of this thing anymore

[APP] JotPad -[U]- 7/Dec/2011

JotPad v1.1
Hi guys, I'm posting my app here, and I'd like you guys to let me know what you think about it, and what should be improved. Just post in this thread and I'll be notified and get back to you.
Here's a short description (so you don't get bored), for the full description just visit the app page.
Have you ever need a pen and paper to help illustrate your ideas during a conversation but couldn't find any? Someone is asking you for directions and you really want to do a sketch to help the explanation? Look no further, the JotPad app is what you need, use it to jot down anything you need!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some of the features are Live Tile and multitouch support, as well as various colors and image backgrounds and shake to clear.
Download Link: http://windowsphone.com/s?appid=dd496842-8119-4420-9bc6-1d39a58a6b87

I like it
How about allowing multiple drawings and saving items: inside the app, or as a JPEG, or share by e-mail.
Rated 5 stars

Oh thank god! I have been searching for a draw/note app that support zoom, and here we have it; have a thanks mate!

z_rudy said:
I like it
How about allowing multiple drawings and saving items: inside the app, or as a JPEG, or share by e-mail.
Rated 5 stars
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate! Yeah, I have the same ideas as well, but hadn't considered the share by e-mail option before, thanks for the suggestion!
fiinix said:
Oh thank god! I have been searching for a draw/note app that support zoom, and here we have it; have a thanks mate!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your support, I'll have more stuff added when I have the time (doing this on my free time). If you feel like the app is missing something just let me know and I'll try to implement it.

I love it too! so cool, clever and clear= best handwriting app by faaaaaaaaar!
shake to clear screen I rate your thread and your app on market place with
ps. can you set the pen active as default by start?

mirolg said:
I love it too! so cool, clever and clear= best handwriting app by faaaaaaaaar!
shake to clear screen I rate your thread and your app on market place with
ps. can you set the pen active as default by start?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!!
About setting the pen active as default on start, I will look into that. But I'll explain my rationale of why I did it that way. When you swap between apps the guidelines for app developers say that the app should preserve all of it's environment, so if you were erasing lines on my app, and then you went for some facebook browsing and then came back to my app you should still be in erasing mode since that is what you were doing when you left.
I suppose I could set the pen as active when you start the app and retain the drawing/erasing mode when just multi tasking?
EDIT: I just noticed you have a tablet with Windows 8. :-O Cool stuff, how does Windows 8 work on that? I've only used it on a regular laptop. What about the battery life, does it last long?

Good. I will have a try. It sounds nice.

glowwormccc said:
Good. I will have a try. It sounds nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, let me know what you think after you gave it a good try.

A simple but useful app~
very gd!

Hi works great in app, the live tile is a little wonky though, text gets cut off and moved up a lot of the time, ie if you write one word on a angle it puts it top left and cut off, or if you write 4 words underneath each other, can only see the bottom 2 the others have moved up (there is space below so room on the tile to display) other than that love it.

frakius said:
Hi works great in app, the live tile is a little wonky though, text gets cut off and moved up a lot of the time, ie if you write one word on a angle it puts it top left and cut off, or if you write 4 words underneath each other, can only see the bottom 2 the others have moved up (there is space below so room on the tile to display) other than that love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what you mean, I've made it like that because of the following problem. The drawing page is rectangular but the live tile is perfectly square. How do you fit something that's rectangular (to fit the 15:9 screen of the phone) into something that's square (the live tile is obviously 1:1)? I had 2 options, either distort the rectangular drawing to fit, or to crop a square from the centre of the drawing. I used the latter, I cropped a square from the centre. That's why the live tile is missing the top and bottom of the drawing.
One last option would be making the pages square so all of the drawing can fit on the tile, but I thought it would look weird and wouldn't fit the phone's screen. But if you do have an idea on how this should work by all means let me know ok? Thank you very much for your comment!

Note taking app

Is there a note taking app that supports stylus input (and possibly sync with Google Tasks)? I've heard that there's an app called Memo that's an alternative to S-Memo just without the pressure sensitivity except I can't find it on the store. I've found a few memo/note apps but they all seem to be typing input.

Notepad Apps
coolxal said:
Is there a note taking app that supports stylus input?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are many, but they may be hiding out as drawing/painting, or other kinds of apps. Try searching Google Play for things like draw, paint, notepad, chalk, blackboard, or white board.
My favorite so far is an app called "Draw!". It defaults to white on black, which is a bit hard on the eyes, IMO. You can get a dark color on a light background by changing the background color (called "Color" in Preferences, and not the "Color" listed in the main menu, which is a tool). Then, to get the background to update, touch the trash can icon. (Yes, it took me a while to figure that out!)

coolxal said:
Is there a note taking app that supports stylus input (and possibly sync with Google Tasks)? I've heard that there's an app called Memo that's an alternative to S-Memo just without the pressure sensitivity except I can't find it on the store. I've found a few memo/note apps but they all seem to be typing input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
depends on what you need, but my two favourite note taking apps are Papyrus (infinite canvass) and FreeNote (one of input styles decreases written letters ca. 4x, so you can fit more text on the page)
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

Ranting along

Since everybody seems to upbeat about the Nexus 4, here some things that REALLY piss me off.
For reference, I am coming from a DEFY / CM9 and have at the same time here a new HTC One S / CM10. And then there would be a Nexus 7, and a Kindle Fire / CM10/SGT7.
Why on earth couldn't they have the normal buttons on the bottom, and instead needed to waste precious screen real estate ? I do understand that a 7 inch tablet needs that as it's turned between landscape and portrait. But for a phone ... After all there is space on the device, which is unused now ...
This little microSIM tray is nifty. Especially if you are at an airport, just bought the prepaid microSIM and try to put it in. You have the tool with you, right ?
The new and improved camera app stinks like heck. The device support ISO settings, different focus modi, red-eye removal ... the works. But the default application fails to expose ANY of that. I cannot even set the JPEG quality level ... EPIC fail.
Tried to use 720p video recording ? 22fps stuttering ...
Lockscreen widgets ... why on earth would I want to have that ? And why couldn't there just be a simply settings entry to disable that ? (yes, I know that there is now an app out there that gets rid of it ...)
The good old clock. Nice work. Tons of features. Way too many. Why split this over-engineered mess into "Alarm" and "Watch" and whatever ?
Battery drain ... Looks like a lot of the new features (some which I cannot uninstall per default) are sucking up processor time, like the "Mediaserver" (got the same apps/settings as on CM9/CM10, where this does not happen).
This new pulldown quick settings is nifty. Takes me now 2 clicks and one slide to toggle wireless ... much improved over the one-click toggle in CM9/CM10 (and HTC Sense, and TouchWhiz, and ...).
Overall I feel that 4.2 is a step back from 4.1, because every new feature that should make up 4.2 seems to be more in the way than anything else. The toy needs sooo urgently CM10 it's not even funny.

I totally agree with all your points, it's definitely a turd. Wanna sell it?

To your first point, I have a feeling that Google will eventually rethink the use of on-screen buttons and come up with a solution that occupies less real estate. The back button is redundant and can easily be replaced in-app like the menu button was (e.g. click the icon in the upper-left corner to go back is already implemented in many apps) and its behavior is confusing and inconsistent; it's a carry-over from the past and poor UX design overall. The task switcher could quick easily become a hold and drag gesture from the home button or status bar with adding any additional steps to get to it.
Thinking something crazy like the tablet interface where the status bar moves to the bottom, gets a little wider, and houses the home button would be a good solution.

Why does... does... do you guys smell apples? I swear I think I do.

TheFiveDots said:
The back button is redundant and can easily be replaced in-app like the menu button was [...] and its behavior is confusing and inconsistent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What the... huh? Have you ever used android for longer than a few minutes?
The missing back button is the first thing I always cringe over whenever I have to handle an apple device at work, it's the best thing of the whole OS (well,at least it's pretty awesome)
And software buttons are the best solution in general, because they can hide and make place for more stuff on demand.
The "empty" space on the bottom of the nexus4 isn't because they thought they'd leave space there just for fun, there's space because it's needed for the hardware below.
If there were hardware buttons taking up the space the phone would be even bigger (or the screen smaller)

Instead of whinning about it why not try to do something about it.
Sent from Arkham

Yeah stop moaning and send it back.
Why keep a phone that "pisses" you off so much...

U mad bro?
Early adopter and complaining (very mad) that there are some updates needed............silly
Maybe u should sell it on eBay and make some money?
Or better......sell it to one of the great devs that are waiting for a device!!!!!!
Sent from my GT-I9450

muspel said:
What the... huh? Have you ever used android for longer than a few minutes?
The missing back button is the first thing I always cringe over whenever I have to handle an apple device at work, it's the best thing of the whole OS (well,at least it's pretty awesome)
And software buttons are the best solution in general, because they can hide and make place for more stuff on demand.
The "empty" space on the bottom of the nexus4 isn't because they thought they'd leave space there just for fun, there's space because it's needed for the hardware below.
If there were hardware buttons taking up the space the phone would be even bigger (or the screen smaller)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. I have. Thanks for your assumptions though. Despite your "cringing", Apple's implementation of a dynamic "back button" at the top-left of nearly every iOS app is much more consistent and predictable.
On Android, sometimes the back button takes you back to the screen you were on previously on the same level, sometimes it takes you up a level, and sometimes it closes the app which is always surprising and annoying if you were not aware you were already at the root level. The home button closes an app, the back button doesn't need to. Google is even well aware of this unpredictably and has gone as far to draw up guidelines as to how it should be implemented, but many developers choose to ignore it.
Unpredictable behavior is bad UX design, plain and simple. Having a place in-app that takes you back and a hardware/software button that does the same is also redundant and unnecessary. Navigating an app should be natural and intuitive and all within the app, in my opinion. Hardware/software keys should be reserved for OS-level tasks like Home, Task Switching, etc.
I agree the software buttons are the best choice, but it would be nice to see them implemented in a much more dynamic and space-saving way.

The sim eject tool, aka paper clip.

TheFiveDots said:
To your first point, I have a feeling that Google will eventually rethink the use of on-screen buttons and come up with a solution that occupies less real estate. The back button is redundant and can easily be replaced in-app like the menu button was (e.g. click the icon in the upper-left corner to go back is already implemented in many apps) and its behavior is confusing and inconsistent; it's a carry-over from the past and poor UX design overall. The task switcher could quick easily become a hold and drag gesture from the home button or status bar with adding any additional steps to get to it.
Thinking something crazy like the tablet interface where the status bar moves to the bottom, gets a little wider, and houses the home button would be a good solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I was thinking that the merged tablet interface would be a cool idea for the "Nexus 4". With CM10/SGT7 on the KF you also get a nicer notification panel, which might be reasonable for a device of this size.

MonsieurJohnny said:
The sim eject tool, aka paper clip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work. Paperclip is too big for that one (at least the 3 different ones I tried).

woody296 said:
I totally agree with all your points, it's definitely a turd. Wanna sell it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I might do (or simply return it), but for different reasons than just the SW I was ranting about (and being disappointed for now). Of course many issues I cited will be fixed with a CM10.1 custom ROM in about 3 months ...

I disagree with the on screen buttons. I had the gs3 and it was terrible for accidentally catching the buttons. The bezel is there for a reason, Samsung put real buttons on the bezel and it's terrible. This is best of both worlds, if an watching a video I get the full screen as the buttons disappear, yet for everything else the screen is a great size.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

I feel sorry for everyone and everything in your life.

I disagree. 4.2 is a major improvement, much faster and smoother. All these new things will be improved upon in future updates.
It sounds to me like some people would never be happy no matter what they do.
As for the on screen buttons, i love them after coming from a device that had a push button for home. It would be great though to make them autohide as they do for video.
sent via xda premium with nexus 7

Lol I love that all you fan boys bash the Op and make fun of him, but I hate to break it to you, everything in his post is true. The proper response is: "yes Google screwed some things up pretty badly here, but overall the good outweighs the bad."
Some of you people are worse than iSheep. No need to defend everything a company does. If you don't acknowledge the bad you basically give Google a license to never fix the problem it created because Google thinks you like those problems!
-Sent from my GS3 running CM10.-

I've been using it for a few days and I love the device . smoother than m gs3
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

This guy doesn't own one, he's just seen videos, it is pretty obvious.

People just love complaining, I think this is he's first android phone, probably bought it because it was so cheap, try to buy an iPhone for that price you'll probably just about pick up a second hand 4s, I've never seen a phone so cheap with so many features, first phone with 2gb ram, even the iPhone 5 has only 1gb ram.
send your phone back and go and buy an iPhone 4s from ebay!!!

Thoughts on keyboard position on all-screen phones

After a week of using the 6T, I noticed that my typing wasn't as accurate as it was on my Moto Z Play. My thumbs also were a little uncomfortable when typing for a while. I realized that because of the screen extending further down the screen on the 6T vs the MZP, I had to move my thumbs much more down the phone than before. After playing around with the floating function of the Google Keyboard, I found a position that is more comfortable (image attached), and my accuracy has improved as well. The keys are now in a more natural position, lining up right next to where my thumbs fall when holding the phone.
The other option is also holding the phone lower, thereby placing thumbs where the keyboard lies on this phone. The downside of that for me is that I have to shift my hands up and down the phone to get my thumbs to the top of the screen. Time will tell which solution I prefer.
Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if anyone else who is coming from a phone that had a much larger chin than the 6T has had the same challenges. It may be also that I'm just getting old, and my hands are less flexible.

how do you make the gboard float like that? I can't seem to find it in settings.

raing said:
how do you make the gboard float like that? I can't seem to find it in settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tap the g in the upper left, then the triple dots top right, look in the lower right?

This will be a necessity for me if I ever talk myself into upgrading my MZP to a 6T as well. My stubby, clumsy thumbs will have nothing to do with a keyboard all the way at the bottom of the device.
Actually recently got rid of nav bar for gesture nav on the MZP, and this helps in that scenario too.

I just got my OP6T today and I'm pleasantly surprised by the phone. Maybe the screen is not as sharp as my previous U11 but the difference is quite small so I think I can live with that for now. The secondary thing is like the OP mentioned typing on the keyboard. I tried using the phone with gestures and even though its really easy to navigate around the UI, writing is just horrible. Space bar is so low that I have to hold the phone really low in order to right properly. With standard navigation bar everything is ok. Tried floating keyboard but its so weird to type and look down to see what you are writing.
Also it's so funny that everyone is chasing the 99% front display ratio but at the same time interaction with the phone suffers a lot and we have to find ways to go around obstacles created but those almost full front display phones.

I use Minuum keyboard with adjustable spacebar height independent of the adjustable keyboard height.