Database Develop

Request/Ideas for Apps Go Here!!!!

It would be awesome if there was an application to use the MBW-150 bluetooth watch on the G1. Is anyone developing one?
-Tyler

I'll bite. I'd buy one if I didn't have to use a sony ericson phone to use it.

[IDEA]A new contact app(2 preview screenshots)
Does anybody think the built-in contact app is not easy to use?
I'm working on a new contact app called aContact which provides a new UI to access to contact data and some more features.
So,anybody has any idea about this new app or found the disadvantages of the built-in contact app??
THANKS
I will post the scrrenshots after I finished the first version.
Thanks again for your advices!
---------------------------21th December added---------------------------
There are two screenshots.Any advice?

The best contact manager I've used was the one built into SPB Mobile Shell for Winmo.

thefoss said:
The best contact manager I've used was the one built into SPB Mobile Shell for Winmo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK.I'm now using the htc touch diamond.I will try SPB Mobile Shell.
Thanks for your advice

nice idea even though i dont mind the g1's contact app i know it can be better.
some things i think you should add:
-ability to view contacts in groups or categories
- if possible assign ringtones to group
- have the number/letter show up when scrolling like the icontact for wm
- integrate it so that when someone send you a number you can long press and add number to you contact manager or you can make it retrieve contacts through google.
- have birthday

haitiankid4lyf said:
nice idea even though i dont mind the g1's contact app i know it can be better.
some things i think you should add:
-ability to view contacts in groups or categories
- if possible assign ringtones to group
- have the number/letter show up when scrolling like the icontact for wm
- integrate it so that when someone send you a number you can long press and add number to you contact manager or you can make it retrieve contacts through google.
- have birthday
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes!I am strongly agree with you!
The built-in contact has no birthday records!
BTW,I think iContact is a nice app on WM.

[REQ] Android App Ideas
hello android users,
I am a developer on the windows mobile side of things (see the M2DC thread for an example of my work) and I am thinking I might like to move over to developing for android.
I have a few problems, first, I don't have a device, this is not a huge deal at the moment because I can just use the SDK emulator for now, but I will be purchasing a device later on if I like developing for this platform. The second problem is that I need help with ideas for some simple apps... since I do not have a G1 to handle on a daily basis I don't really get the chance to feel things out and discover where an app might come in useful.
So my request is this. Does anyone have any ideas for "simple" android applications? Anything they wish the phone did better? Or a simple functionality that they wish the phone had? Reading through this forum it looks like there is a demand for OCR and possibly something to make applying new themes/skins easier? Or the TextTwist Game?
Of these 3 the game sounds the most interesting, the theme changer sounds good too because that is what my current development in windows mobile does, and the OCR is most likely out of my league at the moment.
I am open to any app ideas, I'm just looking for something to get me started and get me interested in the platform.

A few apps i would like to see as follows
1. A reboot option in shut down menu "if possible".
2. Digital Clock for homescreen
3. Screen Capture
4. Camera Zoom option
5. Checkers
Hope this helps a bit, good luck!

An application that kills tasks running in the background (although most folks say it's not possible right now), video recorder, night mode for camera, or Sirius/XM internet streamer similar to SiriusWM5 (I'm not sure that one is possible at the moment either...). Of course, you could create widgets (something more simple) but the source code won't be available to next year allegedly.

- Office suite (word and excel file editor)
- Youtube downloader from phone (like iphone mxtube)
- Super Mario Chronicles !!!!!
- FlightGear portable
- compiz fusion !! (not important but just tto test phone power to my friend that have an Iphone)
- More widget

haitiankid4lyf said:
nice idea even though i dont mind the g1's contact app i know it can be better.
some things i think you should add:
-ability to view contacts in groups or categories
- if possible assign ringtones to group
- have the number/letter show up when scrolling like the icontact for wm
- integrate it so that when someone send you a number you can long press and add number to you contact manager or you can make it retrieve contacts through google.
- have birthday
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can view contacts in groups - Contacts - Menu - Display Group (created on GMAIL page).
Ringtones to groups would be nice, but for now you may just display a group and assign them all a ringtone
The long press to dial/save numbers in SMS has been addressed and should be in the final version of Android 1.0.
A birthday? Ehrmm.... Would personally prefer that to stay where it is (in my calendar).

I would like it to integrate the Dialer and searching for contacts, so i can just start typing a name or a number and it would show me the matching contacts. (I think SpellDial does this but is not very robust).
Thanks

Need view sort by last name, company, etc.

jhales said:
Need view sort by last name, company, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK.I'm working on this.

ye11ow said:
OK.I'm working on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is tougher because the gmail contacts (web) only has one field for the name...
--M

Thank you very much for the input guys, I really appreciate it. These lists are definitely getting the creative juices flowing... I will see what I can put together.
If possible I will open source the beta version of my first program and post the beta packages here on xda for everyone to use without charge... I am still learning the whole process so we will see what happens in the end
Thank you for the suggestions, and I am still open to hearing more

I guess "simple" is also relative to your level of proficiency in Java and mobile development. As far as holes in the shipped operating system that could use fixing, there are many points to attack. Some could be done in the JVM, others would have to be done in native c. Examples include:
An office suite
Video recording
Touchscreen text input (API will expose this in 09Q1)
A simple but high-quality word or puzzle game would be great tho.
Edit: welcome aboard the Android side too ;-)

jashsu said:
I guess "simple" is also relative to your level of proficiency in Java and mobile development. As far as holes in the shipped operating system that could use fixing, there are many points to attack. Some could be done in the JVM, others would have to be done in native c. Examples include:
An office suite
Video recording
Touchscreen text input (API will expose this in 09Q1)
A simple but high-quality word or puzzle game would be great tho.
Edit: welcome aboard the Android side too ;-)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you 100%, the system stuff sounds good, but of the posted ideas and from what I have seen there is a small demand for "simple" games, and this is the direction I plan on going initially, games are fun to make and they should give me a decent overview of what is involved in throwing together an app.
As far as my java proficiency... I can definitely get by. I have a few websites that rely completely on the google web toolkit, and my bachelors degree was typical of an early 2008 CS curriculum, 2 years of java to learn what OO programming is, and then 2 years of C to learn about the fun stuff (pointers, threads, compilers, OS's, etc...). but like I said before I am just looking to make a traditional application, and I think that it is going to end up being a game of some sort,
I don't have a device yet, if I get one it would be pretty much a development only device, so I am trying to get my feet wet with an app or 2 before I decide to get one. I did manage to get a few minutes with a G1 today and I must say that the device feels so much better than my Titan, that capacitive touchscreen is awesome.
Once I get something going I will startup a new project on google code so I can take advantage of the free svn server and start posting my progress

fun stuff (pointers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to admit that might be the first time i've seen the word "fun" and "pointers" so close together ;-)
I did manage to get a few minutes with a G1 today and I must say that the device feels so much better than my Titan, that capacitive touchscreen is awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Capacitive touch screens feel great and and quite responsive but they do have their caveats too. The main one is that accuracy of input is lower than with a stylus. You'll have to keep that in mind when you design the UI. You can scale the size of the emulator on screen to match an actual G1's physical screen size (emulated pixels might be mangled though).
Once I get something going I will startup a new project on google code so I can take advantage of the free svn server and start posting my progress
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking forward to it There are some specific android development communities you can check out too for more relevant talk on android java programming. anddev.org I think is a popular site.

Best Paid Software for PPC?

Whats the best software you can buy for the pocket pc especially for the fuze / touch pro / diamond.
Freeware is awesome there is a ton of cool stuff out there but unfortunately not many people talk about the things you have to pay for.
Any advice? Price is not an issue, quality is the importance. I am more interested in things that take advantage of the built in gsensor and light sensor but in general I am just wondering what you spend your money on as far as PPC applications go to spruce up your phone.

FlexMail, BeeLineGPS, WMWifiRouter, AEButton Plus, abcTaskMan.
Very good thread to start btw.

I like pretty much everything that has come out of SPB Softwarehouse.

I am very impressed with PocketArtist. Oh and how could we forget CorePlayer?

Coreplayer is very good. Also a lot of people talk about Tom Tom (GPS Software) One of the few programs where you can store the maps on your storage card instead of downloading while you go.

thumbs up for thumbcal! i recommend it...

Thanks for the recommendations I might add one or two of my own:
TomTom 7 is a great program
iGO8 is fantastic with a very sleak GUI
Resco Bubbles is a good game that takes advantage of the g-sensor.
Wifirouter for those times I need to uhm.. Not Tether to my Notebook?
Coreplayer is one of the best fully released media players for PPC.

phoneAlarm - it controls how the phone behaves (profiles), gives you a weather panel, quick launcher, photo dialer and more (top half of screen shot) - all finger friendly
SBSH Pocket Breeze and Pocket weather - because they fit well together (see the bottom half of the screen shot below) - again - finger friendly
Core Player
Pocket Informant - use it as my agenda and contacts application
TouchPal keyboard
List Pro
eWallet

I have always used Pocket Informant
They always update and support their product

Is it safe to assume that some of these programs you all are listing here don't work with the TF3D interface? Or will they work with TF3D?
Since that's basically the point of having the Diamond or the TP/Fuze, etc., then I wouldn't want to give up TF3D. lol

mark72501 said:
Is it safe to assume that some of these programs you all are listing here don't work with the TF3D interface? Or will they work with TF3D?
Since that's basically the point of having the Diamond or the TP/Fuze, etc., then I wouldn't want to give up TF3D. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PI can incorporate with the calendar from the home tab to replace the built in calendar,

mark72501 said:
Is it safe to assume that some of these programs you all are listing here don't work with the TF3D interface? Or will they work with TF3D?
Since that's basically the point of having the Diamond or the TP/Fuze, etc., then I wouldn't want to give up TF3D. lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use secondtoday, TF3D on one today screen and whatever you want on the other.
http://www.chi-tai.info/cs_wm_tools_im_cs.htm

software that I've paid for and use on a regular basis -
Pocketshield
spb mobile shell
slingplayer mobile
kinomi play
resco media suite
aebutton plus
tomtom
spb backup
flexwallet

I like memmaid/sktools, tomtom 7, slingbox, and or anything spb. All worth the $ in my opinion.
dschoenike

BabyMonitor
I'm using the trail version for burglar alarm, and it rocks!
http://www.babymonitor-mobile.com/index.htm
BabyMonitor for Windows Mobile is a software, which allows you to use your smartphone like a burglar alarm. This way, you’ll receive a call if there is a noise in the guarded object.
BabyMonitor comes with noise suppression technology, that can ignore environmental sounds and focuses on the defined noises . This software also silences the phone’s ringer, in order to avoid detecting the smartphone when you get a phone call. Once sound are made, the handset will call a preset number.
Key features of BabyMonitor burglar alarm
1.
Mobility, cheapness, reliability
2.
Unlimited radius of action
3.
Radio noise insensibility
Example
When we leave home for holidays we usually feel nervous about abandoned property. Just place your smartphone in the car or house and if unwanted sounds are detected the handset will call a preset number and you’ll be able to hear what is happening in the guarded object. Remember to turn on power supply to your smartphone when you leave home for a long time.

Sounds interesting but my phone NEVER leaves my side.
Anyone else have a list of programs that you've purchased and rely on to get through your day that have good synergy with the Fuze/Touch Pro. Keep 'em coming it's good to know what programs are good to buy.

b
My list...
WMWiFiRouter...best money ever spent on PPC software
SOTI Pocket Controller...I tried MyMobiler, but this just seems to work better. When in my office, it's nice to be able to access my phone right from my PC
Salling Clicker...kind of a remote control of my laptop from my Fuze...works great when presenting a PowerPoint as I can use my Fuze to step through slides...
SPB Offerings...with the Fuze, I'm using SPB Imageer, Insight (RSSHub is comparable but needs link to download images for offline viewing), Backup and Time (like the snooze on the alarm)...some are better suited for non-TF3D, so considering SecondToday as I miss the standard Mobile screen sometimes...Weather, SPBPocketPlus, etc...all their stuff seems great.
acbTaskManager, SKTools...for diagnostics/troubleshooting, just in case

My best are SKTools, Pocket Breeze & SPB Backup...
Greetz
Boris

xhypnotik said:
BabyMonitor
I'm using the trail version for burglar alarm, and it rocks!
http://www.babymonitor-mobile.com/index.htm
BabyMonitor for Windows Mobile is a software, which allows you to use your smartphone like a burglar alarm. This way, you’ll receive a call if there is a noise in the guarded object.
BabyMonitor comes with noise suppression technology, that can ignore environmental sounds and focuses on the defined noises . This software also silences the phone’s ringer, in order to avoid detecting the smartphone when you get a phone call. Once sound are made, the handset will call a preset number.
Key features of BabyMonitor burglar alarm
1.
Mobility, cheapness, reliability
2.
Unlimited radius of action
3.
Radio noise insensibility
Example
When we leave home for holidays we usually feel nervous about abandoned property. Just place your smartphone in the car or house and if unwanted sounds are detected the handset will call a preset number and you’ll be able to hear what is happening in the guarded object. Remember to turn on power supply to your smartphone when you leave home for a long time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what??? sounds like a good idea, but i don't want my baby to be exposed to harmful radio waves at such a young age. but using it as a housealarm is a good idea, but who wants to leave their phone at home... maybe a spare set i suppose...

Could you guys give brief descriptions of the apps and if possible, links to a reputable seller? Thanks!

I Need Ideas - Raphael Programming

Hello all,
I recently started a course here at Purdue University on Mobile Software development (Windows Mobile).
I need some ideas for programs I should write. Please reply to this thread or PM me if you'd like.
I have experience with C#, VB, C++, and C, among other languages.
Thanks
Jason Flittner

how about a dedicated xda forum app?

How about a sports ticker. I'm still surprised there isn't one yet.
BTW, I think I saw a xda app when I was poking around the other night.

I'm trying to think of ideas but my minds drawing a blank...
Here's the XDApp

Gonna expose my nerdiness here, but you asked...
How about an app that accesses the D&D Insider online compendium of rules and data? Not sure what would be involved, but I'm betting that there's no API available, so it'll probably never happen.
OTOH, it would be nice to see a really high quality dice-rolling app that takes full advantage of the g-sensor and the hardware accelerated graphics...something that looks like dice inside a tumbler, you know? Maybe start with a really slick Yahtzee-style game, and build up to polyhedral dice for us game-geeks?
I'd be happy to provide you with some guidelines for building. I'm sure we could find you a suitably good graphics guy, too, if you're not up to that part (I could do that, in a pinch).

I want my phone to do this:
But until then, I would like to see an ap like Skype, but for mobile that will easily switch you from cellular network to VOIP.

I have two ideas:
#1 - I don't know if this is even possible, but an application that turns on WIFI and/or Bluetooth in a receive only mode briefly every few seconds and listens for user selected devices in range and then performs user selected actions.
The idea is that the it would use less power than leaving WIFI and/or Bluetooth on all the time, but when I get in range of my wifi router at home, it turn WIFI fully on and sync my phone. Or when I'm in range of the WiFi at work, it could turn my ringer to vibrate. Or when I get into the car, it detect my Bluetooth stero, connects to it, and opens the music player.
#2 - Probably simpler than #1, a program that turns WiFi and/or Bluetooth on automatically when the phone is plugged into a charger and then performs specific user defined actions, similar to idea #1.
I don't know if programs like this already exist, but I haven't found them.
Dylan

I like these ideas, please keep them coming. I am not sure what the requirements will be as far as our programming projects are concerned but from what I understand I have alot of freedom in project choices!
I am in another robotics programming class working with the iRobot Creates and I was thinking it would be really sweet to program something that could allow the 2 to interact in some way/shape/form!
I am also very excited about GPS technology I wouldn't mind programming something that would utilize the GPS or triangulation!
Thanks for the contributions all, please keep them coming!
~JFlitt

With all that programing skill you could create some pretty neat apps.
Ive always liked the windows desktop interface.
How about a windows xp-like launcher?
Complete with movable desktop icons, windows, etc.
I am aware that wisbar advance desktop allows you to do this, but alot of those skins are a hassle, and they are not very complete. Plus they dont exactly take advantage of any 3d graphic drivers..
But anyways back to the point, with a windows xp desktop like interface it would be easier to use the phone.
I would not have to stretch my thumb all the way to the top left of the phone.
Oh and you could possibly utilize the touch pros capacitive touch panel for controlling the mouse.
You could also get google android working with more functionality. I am aware that there is work being done on it, but someone with so much programing knowledge could really speed up the project.(Im android crazy)
Or, if all that is too much to complete in limited time, then how about an application that will allow multi touch using the touch panel?
And also, resistive touch screens are supposedly multi touch capable.
I hope i gave you enough ideas.
Good luck.

madfatter said:
how about a dedicated xda forum app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ye s a facebook like app
But would love to see a app recreate the zoombar
on my tp

VOIP
Hi,
I have an idea and it is possible.
how about having an app on your phone to configure your SIP provider settings in it ( 5 different proxy ) and then when you want to dial a number, you can right click on it and chose " voip dial ".
Skype already gives you a the menu for skype calls when u right click on your contact .
if you can add a menu to TF3D settings->communication->VOIP and we can add 5 different proxy in it and we can activate more than one proxy at the same time in order to RECEIVE AND DIAL voip calls from our phone it would be awesome since microsoft is not allowing this kind of apps on marketplace .
Tnx
Thunder

a good "made for raphael" nes or snes emulator would be great since all the other ones out there are out dated and seem to work grat on old phones but are horribly laggy on the touch pro...wierd... the only good one ive found is a jap build of nester (nesterj4u) built for an hp phone or pda im not sure but the keyboard slides out to the right so landscape mode is upside down when i want to use the keyboard >_<
a good streaming media app thats a bit easyer to use than the one that comes with the phone would be great with some tv links on it like surfthechannel or tvdome would be great.
a youporn app to copliment the youtube app would be awsome
hmmm a good compass that simply points north (true or magnetic) with degrees would be awsome for when i drop mine on the roof trying to point my sat.
a simple freeware level would also be awsome since ive only found trialware levels so far
an hourglass would be a fun pointless app for when i get bored of pouring digital beer.
a goofy clip art picture editor could be fun just to mess with. maybe with some fish eye lens and carnival mirror opptions would be fun.
a free streaming radio app would be cool too....
sorry for the long list cant sleep ... figured the more ideas the better
ps. im not sure if any of these already exist havent checked lately so if anyone know if they do feal free to point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated

ok, I'm gonna try to have this make sense, but no guarantees. how about a simple titanium plugin framework? something that **doesn't** use mortscript? as mscript is good for certain things, it's not for others. this way there is an easier way for developers to make new plugins for it without having to use a slow scripting language. does that make any sense?

How about a talking GPS
I was out on my mountain bike today. I have a Garmin unit on the handle bars for navigation and listening to music from my Touch Pro in my pocket.
I was riding a fast downhill section through the some trees when I realized I was taking my eyes off the trail to make sure I was still on course.
I've used this http://www.basicgps.co.uk/ for Geocaching but it can only take you to one waypoint at a time. You can't use it to follow a route.
How about making an application which can steer you along a route using voice commands.
(Tomtom and others can only do this on roads, not off-road)

mixture of gps and accelerometer
well can u create an app the tells u ur speed while u are travelling like there is one app which does it in i phone it uses motion sensing and gps there are apis for both you can code it in c# with .net fw 3.5 and if u require help i am available i too know c# .

sound control
What about an app. that would control all of the sound feature such as the ear speaker,speaker phone speaker,and possibily microphone independitly,like bass,trebl,vol. That way a person could tailor the phone to sound the way they want it to sound when they are talking on it or whatever.
Just a thought.

Programing Ideas
A project that I have been toying with is a "Now" button for the calendar. Those of us in consulting need a simple and quick way to insert the current time in the Start Time and End Time field, which ever is selected. I've not been successful so far.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HARDWARE: AT&T HTC FUZE (Raphael)
Hard-SPL: AT&T
ROM: AT&T
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How about that app the iPhone has where you can transfer contacts by putting the phones next to each other and shaking it to transfer or sliding it across to the other phone.
All for now will think of more
*edit* Forget this its kind of pointless when we can send contacts via sms/IR beam

How about the ability to use our Fuze's as remote controls like you could with PDA's, open your garage door, turn on your 360 or TV, forgot to turn your laptop off, send it a signal to shut down from anywhere

There're some cool applications on Android. One application changes the ringtone based on GPS location. It sets ringtone to loud at home, lower the volume in office and automatically sets the phone to vibration when you are in a theater.
Another application is about setting alarm based on location. You can set an alarm about buying some stuff in a store, next time when you pass by the store, alarm goes off.

what is the point of the live tiles?

What does the peoples live tiles do besides drain battery? I notice it only shows certain profile pictures

ariel123 said:
What does the peoples live tiles do besides drain battery? I notice it only shows certain profile pictures
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if ur a kid or a face book addict, you set up your face book account and get updates on your friends, you know spy and stalk them
For the rest of us, nothing, messaging tile, phone tile, email tile, all do the same thing as every phone out there does of telling you on home page that you have a message or missed call or email, so in my eyes not much advancement here.
Tiles are bigger, take up more space and the color options were given again confirm that they are designed for teens. Nothing better then a nice pink tile right right
Once you go over to the side to view you apps, call me a moron, but hasn't the advancement of multi columns to see more on one page developed in the past 100 years when displaying data not known at MS? I dont get why they just line them up in one column? They advertise it as simple phone, yet by the time u tag all you need to home page, because the the size of these tiles, ( non adjustable size) i have to scroll down just as long to find what I need as I did tapping with other phones.
Just my two cents

Couldn't say it any better

rysky007 said:
Well, if ur a kid or a face book addict, you set up your face book account and get updates on your friends, you know spy and stalk them
For the rest of us, nothing, messaging tile, phone tile, email tile, all do the same thing as every phone out there does of telling you on home page that you have a message or missed call or email, so in my eyes not much advancement here.
Tiles are bigger, take up more space and the color options were given again confirm that they are designed for teens. Nothing better then a nice pink tile right right
Once you go over to the side to view you apps, call me a moron, but hasn't the advancement of multi columns to see more on one page developed in the past 100 years when displaying data not known at MS? I dont get why they just line them up in one column? They advertise it as simple phone, yet by the time u tag all you need to home page, because the the size of these tiles, ( non adjustable size) i have to scroll down just as long to find what I need as I did tapping with other phones.
Just my two cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the Live Tiles were one of the selling points of the OS.
The grid layout will scream it is an iPhone clone, and the home screen customization will scream an Android clone, and you know MS is trying to be different.

The last thing that went through my head when I first saw the tile interface was this being an iPhone copy.. my first thought was iPhone finally got pwnd.
Steve Jobs MS has no style, they do have now

lqaddict said:
I thought the Live Tiles were one of the selling points of the OS.
The grid layout will scream it is an iPhone clone, and the home screen customization will scream an Android clone, and you know MS is trying to be different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In theory yes, but its the same concept that I will wear a bucket on my head to look different, but it doesnt make it efficient or practical.
No matter what they do they will all look similar, just like windows and mac and linux, they all have the same style, look diff but same format to follow, and that is because that format works.
Like cars, they all have an engine, and wheels and seats, they just dress them up differently to stand out.
What WM did here is take away what is needed and gave us a shell of a car, and said hold on, we might get u teh wheels and doors later.
yly3 said:
The last thing that went through my head when I first saw the tile interface was this being an iPhone copy.. my first thought was iPhone finally got pwnd.
Steve Jobs MS has no style, they do have now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HD 2 was different then anthy thing out there, and I liked the home screen, it showed me all i need on once screen with no scrolling needed. Then droid adapted it from HTC so now WM wants to look diff and I think they went the wrong way personally. It not efficient at all, have to do more scrolling now then before.

rysky007 said:
In theory yes, but its the same concept that I will wear a bucket on my head to look different, but it doesnt make it efficient or practical.
No matter what they do they will all look similar, just like windows and mac and linux, they all have the same style, look diff but same format to follow, and that is because that format works.
Like cars, they all have an engine, and wheels and seats, they just dress them up differently to stand out.
What WM did here is take away what is needed and gave us a shell of a car, and said hold on, we might get u teh wheels and doors later.
HD 2 was different then anthy thing out there, and I liked the home screen, it showed me all i need on once screen with no scrolling needed. Then droid adapted it from HTC so now WM wants to look diff and I think they went the wrong way personally. It not efficient at all, have to do more scrolling now then before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually find the live tiles helpful and with one flick of the finger I get the info I want. The problem with the HTC Sense UI (although they have pioneered the ideology of glancable information on the mobile phone), is that it also required add-ons to make it workable (Cookie home tab or maxsense) because navigating wasn't always that straightforward.
The Live Tiles are supposed to be big to display info (look at how Weather Channel App is using the live tile) and to be glancable. Another problem I found with the HD2 was that everyone was trying to shove way to much info on one screen, there are limited.
Going back to the original question, the live tile is really just the Contact Tile, it provides no real information (from what I can see) other than it is easy to spot on the phone amongst the other tiles. Since this is one of my main ways of contacting people, the visual changes (it animates more than any other tile) helps me get to people without hunting for it.
I reallt don't see why this should be deemed a "Teen" feature?
Anyway my final point is, some will like and some won't.

rysky007 said:
In theory yes, but its the same concept that I will wear a bucket on my head to look different, but it doesnt make it efficient or practical.
No matter what they do they will all look similar, just like windows and mac and linux, they all have the same style, look diff but same format to follow, and that is because that format works.
Like cars, they all have an engine, and wheels and seats, they just dress them up differently to stand out.
What WM did here is take away what is needed and gave us a shell of a car, and said hold on, we might get u teh wheels and doors later.
HD 2 was different then anthy thing out there, and I liked the home screen, it showed me all i need on once screen with no scrolling needed. Then droid adapted it from HTC so now WM wants to look diff and I think they went the wrong way personally. It not efficient at all, have to do more scrolling now then before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the hd2 fit your needs so well, why did you jump at launch to a brand new OS that all of us knew was going to be missing a couple of features???
As for the live tiles, the point is to give you info at a glance. Yes currently, only weather apps, and contacts tiles are really taking advantage of it, but that is going to change. Beezz twitter app today will use live tiles to give you mentions and direct messages. Other programs hopefully will follow suit.

The live tile is a tool. As with all tools it can make things that are useful and useless.
The standard tiles maybe unnecessarily big but tiles like Weatherbug that display information without having to run the app are great.
They can also be fun. It's nice to see album art from the last Zune artist you played or your Xbox avatar or pictures of friends.
They also allow you to do things you can’t do on other phones. You can pin a specific FM radio station to the start screen, or a web page, or a map with directions or a favourite album. With one tap you’re exactly where you need to be. It doesn’t get more efficient than that.
Personally I'd like to see an option of grouping four tiles into one. I don't need massive tiles for things like IE, messaging, hotmail and Marketplace. That would free up space for more useful tiles.

digime said:
The live tile is a tool. As with all tools it can make things that are useful and useless.
The standard tiles maybe unnecessarily big but tiles like Weatherbug that display information without having to run the app are great.
They can also be fun. It's nice to see album art from the last Zune artist you played or your Xbox avatar or pictures of friends.
They also allow you to do things you can’t do on other phones. You can pin a specific FM radio station to the start screen, or a web page, or a map with directions or a favorite album. With one tap you’re exactly where you need to be. It doesn’t get more efficient than that.
Personally I'd like to see an option of grouping four tiles into one. I don't need massive tiles for things like IE, messaging, hotmail and Marketplace. That would free up space for more useful tiles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice point which I agree with, I have 4 emal addresses, so after the phone tile, people tile, messages tile and then 4 diff email address tiles, i have to do a lot of scrolling to see other things, so having a small icon for sms alert, and email alert and missed call alert would free up an entire page for me.
If i was developer of this OS, id give an option to either have it tile mode, or smaller active tiles as app launchers like we had on HD2 along with time and small notifiers bottom of screen, give ppl options to customize.

digime said:
They also allow you to do things you can’t do on other phones. You can pin a specific FM radio station to the start screen, or a web page, or a map with directions or a favourite album. With one tap you’re exactly where you need to be. It doesn’t get more efficient than that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how's that different from shortcuts on Android?

lqaddict said:
how's that different from shortcuts on Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
amen every one that has been praising this phone i dont get, i dont see what is so special, hardware might be nice but OS is nothing different

rysky007 said:
amen every one that has been praising this phone i dont get, i dont see what is so special, hardware might be nice but OS is nothing different
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, last time I asked about the usability of the OS, and without getting a clear answer the thread went into a flame war.

just something else i thought about.
Many saying that MS wanted to develop something different.
How does putting the lock and unlock button up top JUST LIKE IPHONE has had for a while now, make this phone diff?

They sereously went the wrong way. . . This BS OS can not be compared to Android. The Android OS is 99% customizable. . . This. . . I can't even describe. It's like the Apple OS, just uglier. . . Good work Microsoft. . . They should have called it VistaMobile instead of WMO7. . . Now the question is, will they just give up and bail on this OS or actually make it better.
Too bad, the hardware is so nice.

samson_420 said:
They sereously went the wrong way. . . This BS OS can not be compared to Android. The Android OS is 99% customizable. . . This. . . I can't even describe. It's like the Apple OS, just uglier. . . Good work Microsoft. . . They should have called it VistaMobile instead of WMO7. . . Now the question is, will they just give up and bail on this OS or actually make it better.
Too bad, the hardware is so nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the past week everywhere I went and pulled my phone to use it everybody was like "wow such a nice phone" so I am pretty sure there will be success sooner or later. And Microsoft didn't put so much money in this to just give up after a few months because some people with much better phones and so infinitely more freedom than any WP7 who need to play Linux Brotherhood on their device 24/7 would say different.

Live tiles are similar to widgets in android, they offer information at a glance without having to go into the app. For example, weather bug shows the temperature and current weather of your location from the homescreen. ITN News displays a picture of the latest news article.
Some tiles also have animations making the home screen look better.
The difference between Widgets and Tiles is that Tiles get information using Push rather than Pull. When you receive a new message it will be pushed to the tile so that it displays a 1, when new news hits ITN the image is pushed to the tile.
This, rather than the traditional way of polling a source ever x amount of minutes ensures that connection is only made when need to thus saving battery.
Other advantages tiles have over competitors is the fact that all tiles are uniform, in the same format and style meaning nothing looks out of place on the homescreen.

rysky007 said:
just something else i thought about.
Many saying that MS wanted to develop something different.
How does putting the lock and unlock button up top JUST LIKE IPHONE has had for a while now, make this phone diff?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously, what are you on about? If you are referring to the physical unlock button on the device then this quite clearly has nothing to do with phone manufacturers and not Microsoft. Also, on/off buttons have been at the top of most devices since God knows when.
lqaddict said:
how's that different from shortcuts on Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It isn't, it's just a different approach. All OS's have copied from each other in some way or another. Whilst the same, the Microsoft way does have some advantages which I've highlighted in my post above.

My friend just ditched sprint and the evo for the hd7. I think ms did a great job with this os. Yes we are currently missing a few features but I think ms is trying to market to the noobs in the smart phone community. Making this a easy phone to use. Slowly within time they will make this os more customizable. I hear there already meeting with the guy who's been working on jailbreaking the os to make his apps official through market place. You guys have to remember that 90% of smartphone buyers don't even know the true features of a smartphone. Why do you think apples sells so much

ariel123 said:
My friend just ditched sprint and the evo for the hd7. I think ms did a great job with this os. Yes we are currently missing a few features but I think ms is trying to market to the noobs in the smart phone community. Making this a easy phone to use. Slowly within time they will make this os more customizable. I hear there already meeting with the guy who's been working on jailbreaking the os to make his apps official through market place. You guys have to remember that 90% of smartphone buyers don't even know the true features of a smartphone. Why do you think apples sells so much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm one of them, I ditched my evo for the HD7, so far so good, the interface is a refresh and looks "new" compare to the rest.
I have use all major platforms and they all have something over the others, to be the more the merrier
Sam

[Q] Several questions about WP8 and Nokia 920

Hello every one,
I just acquired a Nokia 920 yesterday. So far the handset is about the finest thing I have ever held, It just begs to be used when its in your hand. All is not perfect though, I have some questions. Any recommendations for solutions are greatly appreciated.
I started using PDA's in the early 90's, my first smart phone was a Blackberry, I switch to Android when they dropped the ball. I am of the opinion that the win8 ecosystem is the future for enterprise and productivity. Basically I expect a lot from a smart phone, I expect it to be a top notch PDA, a phone, and a good device for killing time.
1) How do you turn off the haptic feedback on the three hard buttons? I can't overstate how much I hate haptic feedback, this has me on the edge of returning the phone. I want to throw the phone across the room every time I feel it.
2) How do I turn off the touch points on the keyboard? I find having a little flag pop up with the letter I just pressed is annoying. Better yet, where can I get a decent keyboard? The installed keyboard is as bad as the iPhone one - crap. I can span 13 keys on a piano, I want my keyboard to span the screen, I want it to have alternate symbols accessible by long pressing, and it would be cool if it was skinnable, though the built in skin is nice for me. I tried the market place and all I could find was foreign alphabet keyboards.
3) Color coded emails. I did figure out how to merge both my calendars and my email accounts to a single tile. It would be nice to have some kind of color coding for the inbox so I don't have to open the email to see what account it is from.
4) recommend a good calendar. The default one only shows events for the same day. It would be nice to have the live tile show upcoming events in the future. The app must be able to let me make appointments as well. Did not find anything nice in the store.
5) A decent music player. As near as I can tell, Nokia music is just MS music re-skinned. When I hit the music tile, I want to see what I am currently listening too with buttons to skip/pause/etc. and a link to my library to change artists. Nokia Music is pure bloat, I have to navigate past market place stuff, then navigate around to find a pause button. Pretty much sucks to use. The mixer is buried inside the setting menu, so when I change music styles, I have to navigate down through the settings to change the mixer, then navigate back around to the music player. This whole set-up is about as crappy as anything I have ever seen. To make matters worse, the mixer is not pin able. I would love to have something comparable to PowerAmp.
Thanks in advance. I've used XDA for years, and always found my answers buried somewhere in these forums.
P.S. anyone who can get the sexy Samsung voice ported over to Nokia Drive deserves a special prize

joshua43214 said:
Hello every one,
1) How do you turn off the haptic feedback on the three hard buttons? I can't overstate how much I hate haptic feedback, this has me on the edge of returning the phone. I want to throw the phone across the room every time I feel it.
2) How do I turn off the touch points on the keyboard? I find having a little flag pop up with the letter I just pressed is annoying. Better yet, where can I get a decent keyboard? The installed keyboard is as bad as the iPhone one - crap. I can span 13 keys on a piano, I want my keyboard to span the screen, I want it to have alternate symbols accessible by long pressing, and it would be cool if it was skinnable, though the built in skin is nice for me. I tried the market place and all I could find was foreign alphabet keyboards.
3) Color coded emails. I did figure out how to merge both my calendars and my email accounts to a single tile. It would be nice to have some kind of color coding for the inbox so I don't have to open the email to see what account it is from.
4) recommend a good calendar. The default one only shows events for the same day. It would be nice to have the live tile show upcoming events in the future. The app must be able to let me make appointments as well. Did not find anything nice in the store.
5) A decent music player. As near as I can tell, Nokia music is just MS music re-skinned. When I hit the music tile, I want to see what I am currently listening too with buttons to skip/pause/etc. and a link to my library to change artists. Nokia Music is pure bloat, I have to navigate past market place stuff, then navigate around to find a pause button. Pretty much sucks to use. The mixer is buried inside the setting menu, so when I change music styles, I have to navigate down through the settings to change the mixer, then navigate back around to the music player. This whole set-up is about as crappy as anything I have ever seen. To make matters worse, the mixer is not pin able. I would love to have something comparable to PowerAmp.
Thanks in advance. I've used XDA for years, and always found my answers buried somewhere in these forums.
P.S. anyone who can get the sexy Samsung voice ported over to Nokia Drive deserves a special prize
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I have not yet seen a Nokia 920 yet, but in Samsung Omnia W/Samsung Flash, you can go to Settings->Extra Settings and remove it from there, check if you have a similar setting, you can request Nokia to add such a setting as its possible in Samsung and should be possible in Nokia too. If they get similar requests they may add it soon
2) AFAIK you cannot install another keyboard, but long pressing many keys you can have alternate symbols coming up. Did you try long pressing some keys? You can change the language of they keyboards via settings.
3) Dont merge the emails and have 2 separate very small tiles instead. Should solve your problem.
4) & 5) not sure yet. But since the SDK is updated with calender access soon you should get many apps with calender.

my question
does the lumia 920 or any win phone 8 device have FM radio??? if it doesnt, is it supported in win phone 8??

monotheist said:
1) I have not yet seen a Nokia 920 yet, but in Samsung Omnia W/Samsung Flash, you can go to Settings->Extra Settings and remove it from there, check if you have a similar setting, you can request Nokia to add such a setting as its possible in Samsung and should be possible in Nokia too. If they get similar requests they may add it soon
2) AFAIK you cannot install another keyboard, but long pressing many keys you can have alternate symbols coming up. Did you try long pressing some keys? You can change the language of they keyboards via settings.
3) Dont merge the emails and have 2 separate very small tiles instead. Should solve your problem.
4) & 5) not sure yet. But since the SDK is updated with calender access soon you should get many apps with calender.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply
Only thing in the Nokia extra settings is phone info, no actual settings at all.
Long pressing gives some alternate letter forms like hats, or umlauts. It does not work on all the letters, and you don't know what the long press gives you until you try it. Stuff like beta is on the lower case s, not the upper case. Like I said its a crap keyboard
I actually use 5 email accounts, though only 3 feed my calendar. Thanks for the suggestion though.

All devices support it as far as I know, but the software didn't made it to RTM. It will be in a upcoming update.

It's widely heralded as one of the best and most responsive keyboards ever...

- There is no built-in option to turn off haptic feedback on those keys. Manufacturer needs to develop an app (with interop level or higher access) to disable it, Microsoft needs to update the OS to add such an option, or someone has to hack the thing to turn it off. Considering that the first two probably won't happen in a timely fashion, and that WP8 has yet to be "hacked", don't expect this to change anytime soon.
- Keyboard cannot be changed. As someone mentioned, its actually heralded as one of the best keyboards on the market, and I agree. Once you get used to it, its a joy to use and is tons better than anything on Android, and as good as, if not better than the iOS keyboard. Seeing as how you said this is your first time in Windows Phone land, it may take some time for you to adjust to it, but it really is a wonderful keyboard. I do understand that it isn't for everyone, and unfortunately there is no way to change it if you happen to hate it. You also cannot disable the letter flags that appear on the screen when you tap on the keyboard.
- No color-coding for a combined inbox... yet. Not sure if this is something they are considering, and I don't think I've ever read someone suggesting it, but it makes sense, and I'd love to see this happen.
- Considering developers only really just got Calendar access with the WP8 SDK, I doubt there will be anything useful in the Store just yet. This a brand new platform that just launched, so its gonna take some time for people to figure out what they can or cannot do, and then put it on the Store for us to use.
- Xbox Music or Nokia Music will be as decent as it gets currently. Apps are able to pull from your media collection (like Nokia Music does), but I have not seen anything mind-blowing yet. I'm more than happy with Xbox Music, as it fulfills all my needs. I don't watch videos aside from stuff on YouTube though, so while I don't care for video codec support, I can understand not having total codec flexibility like you can on more open platforms or on apps like VLC.
It really sounds like that you, coming from Android, are expecting a lot more than Windows Phone 7/8 was designed to do. Windows Phone 8 can do a lot, but this OS was built from the ground up to be rather different than your typical PDA operating system. You will not get the same kind of flexibility on Windows Phone 8 that you would with Android.
For comparison:
- Windows Phone 7/8 is more like iOS. Relatively stable/reliable, curated store, locked down, relatively consistent.
- Android is more like old Windows Mobile. Infinitely more customizable and flexible, open market, relatively nonrestrictive, not very consistent, not completely reliable/stable.