Hello all,
I am looking into getting an HTC Flyer, but strangely I find it a little hard to get precise information as to what I find its most original feature : its stylus.
The thing is, years later, I am still using my good old HTC Blackstone/Touch HD1, its winmo os and its resistive (!) screen.
The reason is, I find using a true, really accurate stylus, as opposed to finger control, is far more comfortable in many cases and, most importantly, brings many functionalities.
I was wondering if you could help me figure if I will get this from the Flyer.
Questions :
1) Is that correct ?
- as an hardware, the stylus/digitizer is very accurate. (I am thinking approx. 0.5mm large selections like the blackstone).
- no handwriting recognition exists at present for the Flyer nor has been announced.
- there is no advanced drawing app for Android that would make real use of such a pen
2) May I :
- disable capacitive sensor when writing or drawing with the pen, so that my hand won't interfere
- make use of really accurate selection, such as :
clicking small items (ex : one small button or link while other are close) on a more or less zoomed out webpage
While editing text, select specific word parts or insert the cursor precisely
- use a Palm OS emu and get its stylus-based features like handwritten letter recognition ?
Thanks for any help/comment on these
fgandcher said:
1) Is that correct ?
- as an hardware, the stylus/digitizer is very accurate. (I am thinking approx. 0.5mm large selections like the blackstone).
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It is quite accurate in that where you press the stylus is where the mark appears. Pressure sensitivity is also very good. It's far better than a normal capacitive stylus.
- no handwriting recognition exists at present for the Flyer nor has been announced.
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Correct. FWIW, Lenovo has handwriting recognition.
- there is no advanced drawing app for Android that would make real use of such a pen
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There is a note-taking app where you can draw to your heart's content, but I wouldn't describe it as "advanced".
2) May I :
- disable capacitive sensor when writing or drawing with the pen, so that my hand won't interfere
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Then the stylus is near the screen, capacitive sensing is automatically disabled, but it's not perfect. Especially when the stylus has a low battery, you will still accidentally get a touch input here and there.
- make use of really accurate selection, such as :
clicking small items (ex : one small button or link while other are close) on a more or less zoomed out webpage
While editing text, select specific word parts or insert the cursor precisely
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Click to collapse
In Gingerbread (which currently ships), whenever you try to use the stylus in a non-stylus app (gmail, browser, etc), it just takes a screenshot and lets you draw on that. However in the Honeycomb leak, the stylus will act like a very small finger in apps that don't have specific support for it.
In general, I'd say no, with the caveat that it might work in Honeycomb. However in an app like Notes, I think it'll still just add a drawing, not select text.
- use a Palm OS emu and get its stylus-based features like handwritten letter recognition ?
Thanks for any help/comment on these
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That might be possible in Honeycomb where the stylus can work like regular touch input if you use a third-party graffiti-style input method. (There are some on Android Market) In Gingerbread, I don't believe that would be possible.
There's what I assume to be a bug in Android 4.0 and 4.1, where the virtual buttons will cut off the bottom 100 pixels of any app. It hides a pretty key feature of my app (a notification bar-like toggle falls into that 100px dead range) so I need to be able to adjust it.
As I continue to pollute the airways with my crazy ideas simply because I see a lot of deficiency when it comes to multitasking on a smartphone vs laptop, questions:
Is there a way to change the pinch zoom, so the location and the gesture would be in a specific spot with specific motion to zoom in (go up) and zoom out (go down) like this:
http://i62.tinypic.com/ose3cp.jpg
and it would zoom in and out in the middle of a the screen kind of like google maps
If there is way how about presetting the zoom percentage so if my gesture idea worked I can preset the range of zoom . Would this work across the board or needs programming in each app?
I can see this very useful when holding a pen in right hand and doing quick zoom in and out with left hand.
If impossible maybe there is a way to use a pie control where each section of the pie is mapped with a zoom function so you can progressively zoom in and out.
Cheers
TL;DR: No function keys (F2, F3, etc.) makes this keyboard less useful for work (using Epic, Excel, etc.). However, this is the best case/keyboard solution around, which is why I would still recommend it as long as you know the limitations.
So this tablet and keyboard combination is ostensibly supposed to be a laptop replacement, but the keyboard lacks the function keys that would allow it to do that. While the keyboard itself is well-built, holding the tablet well, and the keys actually feel good to type on (despite being not full-sized), not having the function keys (F2, F3, F4) makes it so that working in Epic or Excel is impossible. Samsung customer service confirmed that there is no way to access those keys from the keyboard.
In Epic, you can customize hot keys onscreen to simulate key presses, to include the function buttons, so I just do that and it isn't too bad, since poking the screen at the F2 is about where the actual key would have been...still way worse that if they had included some function keys. No easy solution in Excel that I couldl come up with. You can pull up other virtual keyboards with the buttons, but that gets in the way of workflow.
I'm typing this review on the keyboard right now and touch typing works decently, with the exception being the top row is so condensed that I will mistype the symbols above (need too shift my finger reach a litte to the left for each one).
There ARE keyboard shortcuts! Many are actually context specific (Home screen vs Samsung internet, etc). Hit the Magnifying Glass + / and you'll get a nice list of what you can do. Ironically, some of them refer to using the F4 and other keys that don't exist on the keyboard...
I do use this on my lap quite a bit, but I really wish it had one additional position to lay more flat like my TabPro S.
I thought that I would hate the S Pen holder, but it actually works really well and isn't as annoying as I thought it would be. It is important to push the S Pen into the holder until it clicks.
I set mine up to not launch DeX on docking, as it tends to be less useful for my multitasking since my main work app (Epic) is not optimized for DeX. Detaching from the keyboard automatically sleeps my tablet, not sure how to change that setting.
I do use it folded back pretty often, and the keys on the reverse side don't bug me too much, but that's likely to be a pretty personal preference.
I've tried some keyboards from Amazon that includes a touchpad, but I can't use it on my lap Folding Keyboard I do really like it though for desktop use! It has function keys
Cons:
- Lacks function keys
- No backlight
- Only one position on the stand
- touch typing the number row is hit or miss
- No touchpad/pointer control
- heavy/bulky
Pros:
- Build quality
- Compact size
- Customize tablet attach/detach actions (mine does not activate Dex)
- S Pen holder is actually pretty good
Hope this helps!
Today I’m going to bring a little bit of magic to your Wear OS watch.
As you know from the earlier post, Android Pie has introduced a new public API for using your Android device as a Bluetooth HID Device (e.g. mouse, keyboard, gamepad, etc.), so I built a simple app that demonstrates one of the possible ways you can use this API. Also, see below for a little surprise regarding compatibility...
So, you have probably already guessed from the title what the app does: it allows you to control the mouse pointer simply by waving your hand. It is compatible with any Windows, OSX, Linux (including Raspbian), Chrome OS, Android (including Android TV) device, as long as it has a Bluetooth radio; no root, no “server” software required. Just launch the app, perform Bluetooth pairing, and then you’ll be able to:
Use it as an intuitive pointer for presentations (and also click through the slides using cursor keys);
Play Fruit Ninja with your arms (e.g. by sideloading it on Android TV, or installing it on a Chromebook from the Play Store);
Control a media player from the sofa (e.g. when using a computer connected via HDMI);
Use it as a VR controller in some Cardboard games to walk around (not for Daydream though, since it has its own controller);
Impress your friends with some telekinetic powers.
Control your DeX-connected phone;
Download
Play Store
Source (Note: the source code doesn't include the Oreo hack)
How to use it
The app features three input modes: air mouse, cursor keys and keyboard input.
The air mouse mode is pretty straightforward. It has two on-screen buttons for left and right click, a top drawer to adjust motion tracking for the way you’re wearing your watch (on your left wrist, on your right wrist, or holding it in your hand like a laser pointer), and a bottom drawer for some extra functions: click and hold (a.k.a. Fruit Ninja mode) and middle click. If your watch is equipped with a rotating crown, you can use it for scrolling as well.
The cursor keys mode is simple enough: tap on the sides of the screen to trigger corresponding keys, double-tap in the center to trigger the Enter key, long-press to quit, and there are also swipe gestures for Escape, Backspace, Space and Tab keys.
Finally, the keyboard input mode allows using either an on-screen keyboard, or voice input. Note, though, that the text you’ll see entered on your connected device depends on your keyboard layout. Only US English is supported at the moment (I can add some more, but that will require you to manually switch the layout both in the app and on the device every time).
If your watch has some extra keys, you can use those to quickly switch between the input modes.
There are also some settings available. You can choose to stabilize the pointer movements (this will smooth out smaller motions like hands shaking), enable diagonal movements for the cursor keys (which is useful for those Cardboard games), or reduce the data rate (which is helpful when you use the app with some older Nougat-based Android TV box, and the mouse pointer just can’t keep up).
A word on compatibility.
Like I said, the API was made public in Android Pie, but (as a belated Christmas present) the app will work on any watch running Oreo as well. That is, when reboot your watch, and after the trippy dots animation you see a big colorful “W” and “Wear OS by Google” instead of the “Android Wear” logo, you should be fine. The API was introduced in Oreo, and it was a bit different (and also hidden) at the time, but before Pie is was only enabled on watches by default. There is a way to enable it on phones as well, but it requires root.
A few tips for troubleshooting.
If you connect and see that the mouse pointer is moving once per second in a really janky way, try turning Airplane mode on your watch on and off, and then reconnect. Looks like there is some occasional issue with power management in the Bluetooth stack…
If you want to adjust the “sensitivity”, please look for the pointer speed setting on the connected device, not in the app itself.
If you are using the app with a device that is connected to a TV, you’ll probably want to switch your TV to the “Game” picture mode. This should turn off any post-processing that may cause a lot of lag on modern TVs.
I also recommend turning off wrist gestures in your watch’s settings when you use the air mouse mode, otherwise there’s a high chance of triggering the “back” or “go home” gesture.
This looks great!
By chance is it possible to have an app that connects to the computer and when it disconnects it locks the PC!
c_86 said:
By chance is it possible to have an app that connects to the computer and when it disconnects it locks the PC!
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Depends on what you mean.
If you want to make an app that sends Win+L (or Ctrl+Alt+L) when you press "disconnect" on your watch (or maybe connects, sends the key press, then immediately disconnects), then it should be easy enough to implement.
If you mean that the PC should lock itself when your watch disconnects (e.g. goes out of range), then obviously you'll need to have something on your computer to do that. Then again, Windows 10 has a feature called Dynamic Lock that does something similar based on your phone nearby presence.
Idea - Does it possible to implement the same functionality for Smartphone with Android 8? And after that to create Wear app for smartwatches with lower Android version, where the new API is missing - it will act as a remote for the companion app on the smartphone
bobybc said:
Idea - Does it possible to implement the same functionality for Smartphone with Android 8? And after that to create Wear app for smartwatches with lower Android version, where the new API is missing - it will act as a remote for the companion app on the smartphone
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So, you mean, use a phone connected to a computer (or a TV, our whatever) using this API, then stream motion data from the watch using the phone as a proxy?
Technically it's possible, I wonder what the latency would be though.
Also note that a phone running Android 8 has to be rooted to do this (unlike watches), whereas Android 9 should just work.
Yea, you're right for the lag...
Then i think that it will be useful to have app with the same functionality for a smartphone
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bobybc said:
Yea, you're right for the lag...
Then i think that it will be useful to have app with the same functionality for a smartphone
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It's not just lag, but power consumption as well.
This API makes use of the low-power mode of the Bluetooth radio called Sniff Sub-Rating (SSR) specifically designed for sending rapid bursts of tiny data packets, whereas watch-to-phone connection would have to be fine in a more generic way.
Making a phone app is really easy, you can pretty much use the same source code, with a few simple changes (mostly deletions). The Android Pie upgrade for your Note 9 is going to arrive pretty soon, which will allow you to experiment with it all you want.
I need the apk since I have a Moto 360 1gen so & cannot look at it on Googleplay