Related
New Hero owner here... using it 3 weeks. LOVE the phone, love the 7 pages, love the widgets, love the screen, love SenseUI, HATE the capacitive screen.
Coming form windows mobile for past 5 years, i am expending at least 5x more time and energy to navigate or browse due to this "feature".
I am certain this has been hashed out here before, but I will settle for a short answer, even one that has a laundry list if you like.
All I ask is that you please tell me it has something to add other than MULTI-TOUCH. I could care less about pinch-zoom. Initially when seen on first i-phones it had a wow factor. But very soon on WM, with OperaMini, Netfront, Skyfire, Iris and other browsers, pinch-to-zoom was rendered irrelevant, as all of these browsers provided way more efficient way to zoom in, out, and frame the area of the screen you want to look at. One tap, or two taps, or grab a square positioner (netfront) and tap.
Regardless of marketing, not only were these solutions fantastic, I alos didn't feel any sense of loss.
Now that I HAVE multi-touch on Hero, it's way beyond "yawn". It's more like, "what in the world is the advantage here. all I see is that a capacitive screen is far inferior to a resistive screen for easily 25 reasons. I listed them elsewhere on an XDA "general" forum. Typing: worse. accurate hitting a target: worse, but not just worse, horrible. Tap-hold context menus, require twice as long to press in order to instruct the OS you're indeed pressing for the purpose of holding, vs pressing just to try to make contact. Takes twice the tap impact to activate GO and other action buttons.
So I am dying to hear what is the advantage I have been given on this fantastic $500 USD phone I bought?
2nd question: I am currently using the device straight out the box, with just maybe 25-50 aps or widgets form android marketplace -- which has been fantastically smooth user experience, with perfect degrees of feedback on what access each app will give to the phone etc... very reassuring.
Has the truly amazing world of XDA-devs made some of my major usability complaints above go away, or lessen (after rooting the phone and using a custom ROM)?
Sign me: Baffled and Dismayed in San Francisco
Are there no replies here because this has been previously beaten to death? If so, wold someone please point me to the best thread discussion on this subject matter?
Thank you.
personally, i love a capacitive screen for typing.. as long as you can hit the buttons. For me i have no problem in the horizontal view, but they shouldnt have used a "qwerty" keyboard in the horizontal view, i despise it aha.
for the browsers multi touch, personally i just think its kinda cool, but as you say not very productive.
so really to me, i just love the feeling of capacitive touch screens...when they work of course!
and i know that companies "try" to put capacitive screens on as much as possible (because the iphone and ipod touch are so popular) but you can only really have it on bigger screens. The hero has pretty much the "bare minimum" screen size, and thats why we have some problems!
sorry i didnt really answer your question, just my thoughts but i guess the advantage is (was ment to be) that iphone touch screen experience, but capacitive screens work much better when the buttons have space between them (on bigger screens!)
THis was very helpful thank you. I know what you mean that the glassy smoothness is elegant and competes, I guess, with the look & feel of the Apple handheld devices. But also you seem to be answering my question, which is really the essentiual thing wanted to know:
Apparently there is ZERO added-value that capacitive brings over resistive screen than pinch-zoom... and that glossy glass feeling.
Is this correct, though? Can it really be that the primary reason for running Android on a capacitive screen is its sexiness factor in comparing to glossy look of the iphone?
I know there MUST be threads galore at XDA regarding the value of stylus for rapid composing, and more rapidly scrolling thru a long list on contacts, going into something like 2x or 5x speed flashing through the letters of the alphabet, then slowing down to land on desired contact...
The HTC Leo thread addressed this quite a bit, with both groans and raves for that WM device...
xsirhc6x said:
personally, i love a capacitive screen for typing.. as long as you can hit the buttons. For me i have no problem in the horizontal view, but they shouldnt have used a "qwerty" keyboard in the horizontal view, i despise it aha.
for the browsers multi touch, personally i just think its kinda cool, but as you say not very productive.
so really to me, i just love the feeling of capacitive touch screens...when they work of course!
and i know that companies "try" to put capacitive screens on as much as possible (because the iphone and ipod touch are so popular) but you can only really have it on bigger screens. The hero has pretty much the "bare minimum" screen size, and thats why we have some problems!
sorry i didnt really answer your question, just my thoughts but i guess the advantage is (was ment to be) that iphone touch screen experience, but capacitive screens work much better when the buttons have space between them (on bigger screens!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well i used apple as more of an example but i dont think i was very clear before sorry!
Although the screen is glossy and well glass, but i ment that alot of people like having that "touch" not "tap" feel. like how with capacitive you can barely touch the screen and it responds whereas resistive you have to push on the screen. so this makes companies want to use capacitive so there putting it on alot of the bigger touch screen phones
quicksite said:
Coming form windows mobile for past 5 years, i am expending at least 5x more time and energy to navigate or browse due to this "feature"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well here is your problem. and I know exactly how you feel, having some PDA and SE P1 also with resistive touch. you'll have to get used to it, there is no other way. it looks similar, like, it's a touchscreen! but difference in technology makes it hard to shift your way of using it
same thing as forgetting clickable keyboards where you can feel edge of each key and you KNOW exactly what you have pressed... and believe me, when you get that feeling with almost microscopic P1 keyboard, first few weeks of brand new high tech on-screen typing makes you smash that phone into wall next to you... but it gets better with time
This is the correct answer. Most people prefer the touch feel of capacitive compared to the press needed for resistive screens.
xsirhc6x said:
well i used apple as more of an example but i dont think i was very clear before sorry!
Although the screen is glossy and well glass, but i ment that alot of people like having that "touch" not "tap" feel. like how with capacitive you can barely touch the screen and it responds whereas resistive you have to push on the screen. so this makes companies want to use capacitive so there putting it on alot of the bigger touch screen phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I moved from an Omnia i900 (WM, resistive screen) to the HTC Hero (Android, capacitive screen) and I am really enjoying the sensitivity of the Hero's screen. Everything is activated with a feather-light touch which really adds to the experience of using a touchscreen device.
On the Omnia, when I tried to halt a scrolling list with my finger, more often than not, I would end up choosing an item instead of stopping the scolling. This got irritating enough that I ended up using the scroll bars most of the time. On the Hero, the scrolling list amazingly stops when my finger makes contact without any unintended item selection. This probably has to do with the sensitivity of the capacitive screen but whatever it is, it works brilliantly.
The only time when I miss the resistive screen is if I need to accurately touch points on the screen due to poorly designed software but this can generally be avoided. Copy and paste could potentially have been a pain with a capacitive screen but the Hero has a trackball which gets the job done quite well.
I agree that multi-touch is nice to have but not critical. It is the sensitivity of the capacitive screen that really makes my day !
IMHO the capacitive screen is one of the best parts of my Hero (the other is not having to use clunky Windows Mobile anymore). It makes it so much more user friendly - and that attribute is what has made the iphone the best seller it is.
It is so much easier to scroll through my emails, texts, contacts, apps etc without accidently clicking on one and opening. And the same applies when scrolling between screens. In my last phone (HTC Touch Diamond) I was forever opening apps and windows I did not mean to when trying to scroll up down or sideways.
And scrolling long lists (I have over 200 contacts) is so easy. Just flick and let it run and then stop it with a finger. Try that on a non-capacitive screen and you are likely to open something you did not mean to open.
And, admittedly after a bit of practice, I have found the QERTY keyboard is no problem at all. It is almost as easy to use with my finger as my TD was with a stylus. And it is even easier when you are in landscape mode.
Still, each to his/her own. If, after giving it some time to get used to, you still don't like it I am sure there are plenty of alternatives out there - it always amazes me the number of different high-end phones HTC makes.
Resistive touch screen: You have to press harder to make it work better (Rinzai school)
Capacitive touch screen: You have to touch lighter to make it work better (Soto school)
Volker1 said:
Resistive touch screen: You have to press harder to make it work better (Rinzai school)
Capacitive touch screen: You have to touch lighter to make it work better (Soto school)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well somehow you faked me out with your zen-like branch differentiations. I clicked on Soto school first --- and I thought, therefore, that when I clicked on Rinzai, it would communicate more aggressive, harder. But it didn't!
Thus, i don't understand your analogy other than making it up in my head, with the meaning being:
Expend less energy and force, grasshopper, and all will be revealed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since the day of my posting this topic, I am starting to feel a shift by gentler tapping. In some cases, yes, I am seeing a difference in better responsiveness.
But I have to admit that this is not always the case. Leading to:
Dac0908:
well here is your problem. and I know exactly how you feel, having some PDA and SE P1 also with resistive touch. you'll have to get used to it, there is no other way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am starting to get it. Quick illustration: My sim card (my old one from t-mobile wing) happens to be going bad, I just discovered. So I had to swap it out from my HERO back to my WING just to see if I could make a phone call. I had not used the WING (resistive) for a while.
I immediately started making mistakes in the opposite direction. I wasn't pushing hard enough now, and was not activating my selection. So, young grasshopper may be getting the Zen of Capacitive Touch!
it looks similar, like, it's a touchscreen! but difference in technology makes it hard to shift your way of using it. same thing as forgetting clickable keyboards where you can feel edge of each key and you KNOW exactly what you have pressed... and believe me, when you get that feeling with almost microscopic P1 keyboard, first few weeks of brand new high tech on-screen typing makes you smash that phone into wall next to you... but it gets better with time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get your point exactly... So, sounds like the people in this forum who have had their HEROs for longer time... must think I am just whining! ha hah
Here are my conclusions thus far:
(a) lighter touch IS helping select more easily.
(b) I began to do as others have said on the soft keyboard-- aim your finger just a nudge above the keys. (because the point of tangency between finger and screen is quite a bit below the tip of the fingernail) (** me thinks they should provide a settings option called "Offset finger touch?" -- and I could select that to in fact shift all the target zones of the on-screen keys slightly below the way they display on-screen, thereby improving accuracy dramatically.)
(c) even with "getting used to" adjustments, the accuracy on the portrait-layout keyboard is still lower on those left edge and right edge keys... And thus I am finding that landscape keyboard is almost becoming required for me (and i have thin fingers!)
(d) On the WM resistive screen, I found that, when using handwriting via stylus, the system really did LEARN to compensate for the style of handwriting of an individual by going thru the alphabet to select the path of drawing each letter that best matches how I write... it absolutely improved handwriting recognition) (AND MAY AS WELL SAY: I miss that the most of all things: I loved being able to jot notes down with stylus and handwriting. I used that daily... SO I miss it)
Similarly, there is an OFFSET ANGLE adjustment on the WM input screen controls, which absolutely made a huge difference: I the natural positioning of a hand and fingers in resting mode on a flat object (a screen) has one's index finger aiming on an angle inward. Thus, the angle adjustment was a smart user interface setting, that I would guess WM came up with over time, as better recognition of this issue surfaced.
(e) I can't expect to use my capacitive screen phone in the lazy ways I used my WM phone with resistive: ie, laying down in bed and tapping out a message to send. When I try to do that with Hero, the angles of finger-contact with the screen are "off" from a standing or sitting alignment of where you hold the device and how you strike the keys. Trying to tap out a note using portrait mode, while laying in bed, and holding phone to its side (or any other awkward position) = probably 10% success rate of hitting the correct keys... Mostly due to that distance-factor between the tip of the finger -- the sight-targeting cross-hairs used for decades in pressing most things that need pressing -- and the underside of the finger, which makes the contact point lower than the tip by a somewhat predictable distance.
I still think there are some ways to go where various compensation settings could nail those issues and bring touch accuracy to much higher percentage, especially in those situations of at what angle you're holding the device in one hand, and tapping with the other hand, is "off", like laying in bed.
(f) Accelerometer: again, when laying in bed (lazy mode), the auto portrait-landscape shifting almost never occurs and i have to hold the phone parallel to the ground and flick it in order to get the layout adjustment, then continue at whatever angle it is I am holding the phone.
(g) WISHLIST #2: (after handwriting/ capacitive stylus is brought to market by HTC, etc) .. is: COntext-sensitive accelerometer.. such that it works in almost any hand-held 3d location, and a 90 degree shift = a shift layout command.
------------------
Okay, these are my responses from a Human Factors Interface Design professional background.
------------------
Maybe I will have to talk to "Charles", the guy in my nieghborhood in San Francisco, who just happens to be the designer of the original G1 for Google, both in form factor and user interface of android...
San Francisco can be pretty interesting in that way.. you never know who you'll bump into, just like in L.A. with movie stars!
kenkaw said:
I am really enjoying the sensitivity of the Hero's screen. Everything is activated with a feather-light touch which really adds to the experience of using a touchscreen device....On the Hero, the scrolling list amazingly stops when my finger makes contact without any unintended item selection. This probably has to do with the sensitivity of the capacitive screen but whatever it is, it works brilliantly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am starting to feel this now, too. So I am shifting mental gears in my head.
Copy and paste could potentially have been a pain with a capacitive screen but the Hero has a trackball which gets the job done quite well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is actually where I have the most problems.... way more than touching the screen, which I am becoming accustomed to, and now seeing what p[eople are saying about feathertouch responsiveness.
I have not been able to find any settings for trackball responsiveness, the kind you'd find on any laptop for the touchpad or mouse rate of movement -- from super fast to super slow. IS there such an adjustment?
I want to love the trackball, and I am getting better at it. But to me, this is almost just the opposite of featherweight touch on screen. My finger "wants" a more "sticky" or locked-on connection to the trackball, so i can control it better with micro-movements. For me, right now, it is so slippery as to super-slide way out of range, and shifting fields on form data entry, and , when I am using it on a slider bar such as for volume control or color mixing (chnaging color of a background), it's sensitivity is way too wild for even a light touch attempt to control it
QUESTION: I am not yet using any rooted rom from XDA... I am still experiencing the Hero out of the box. So, are there any added control settings that people at XDA have figured out and added to the custom ROMS?
thank you
I agree that multi-touch is nice to have but not critical. It is the sensitivity of the capacitive screen that really makes my day ![/QUOTE]
peterc10 said:
And scrolling long lists (I have over 200 contacts) is so easy. Just flick and let it run and then stop it with a finger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I a starting to feel this now. I was flicking too hard initially -- as part of my learning curve. I am now getting the hang of it and am getting the kind of control you speak of. nice!
it always amazes me the number of different high-end phones HTC makes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No ****. what an amazing company... and why I like how XDA-developers built up around HTC... This is a serious question: Is HTC a good stock buy? They seem like moreso than ever, with their new branding and direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns (at least in the USA, big time), ready to leap out as a huge brand in the way Samsung shot up from obscurity many years ago, into a top-5 leading brand of electrionics.
When I use the pen to annotate pdfs on the Flyer, the width of the ink is WAY too large, even when I use the pen menu to turn it to the smallest setting.
The ink width is so wide that it's unusable for me. I was really hoping to read/annotate on the Flyer for work, but this seemingly small issue makes it impossible.
When I zoom in on a PDF, the ink width scales up proportionally. Ink shouldn't do this! I want to zoom in so i can write a small footnote in the margin, but the ink just gets bigger the more I zoom in.
Anyone else notice this? Anyone using the pen to annotate PDFs, and if so, how is it working for you?
One more thing: I can't erase or undo my highlights in the PDF viewer.
chimpmonk said:
When I use the pen to annotate pdfs on the Flyer, the width of the ink is WAY too large, even when I use the pen menu to turn it to the smallest setting.
The ink width is so wide that it's unusable for me. I was really hoping to read/annotate on the Flyer for work, but this seemingly small issue makes it impossible.
When I zoom in on a PDF, the ink width scales up proportionally. Ink shouldn't do this! I want to zoom in so i can write a small footnote in the margin, but the ink just gets bigger the more I zoom in.
Anyone else notice this? Anyone using the pen to annotate PDFs, and if so, how is it working for you?
One more thing: I can't erase or undo my highlights in the PDF viewer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea. I have noticed this problem as well. It seems like the inking is only meant for highlighting or something. Even the choice of pens is limited in the application.
Yes, only one pen and even the smallest size is pretty big in PDF Viewer. Note that in Polaris office there is only one pen too but the small size is a nice small size and works well---problem there is portability. Ink does not show up in Word once inked on and sent to one's computer.
Here is what happens on mine in terms of erasing:
1. can erase if I have not yet saved
2. can erase if I save without flattening
3. cannot erase if I save flattened.
3Labs said:
Here is what happens on mine in terms of erasing:
1. can erase if I have not yet saved
2. can erase if I save without flattening
3. cannot erase if I save flattened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am able to erase ink under the conditions you listed, but I can't seem to erase highlighting unless I exit without saving. Same for you, I suspect?
I bought the Flyer to read and annotate my PDFs at university.
But with that thick strokes it's pretty unusable at the moment.
I would like to have the annotation feature (annotations at the right side) from the ebook-app in the pdf-viewer and a much thinner pen.
Do you think HTC is going to give us an update soon?
chimpmonk said:
When I use the pen to annotate pdfs on the Flyer, the width of the ink is WAY too large, even when I use the pen menu to turn it to the smallest setting.
The ink width is so wide that it's unusable for me. I was really hoping to read/annotate on the Flyer for work, but this seemingly small issue makes it impossible.
When I zoom in on a PDF, the ink width scales up proportionally. Ink shouldn't do this! I want to zoom in so i can write a small footnote in the margin, but the ink just gets bigger the more I zoom in.
Anyone else notice this? Anyone using the pen to annotate PDFs, and if so, how is it working for you?
One more thing: I can't erase or undo my highlights in the PDF viewer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had the problem when I zoom in. I am able to zoom in and write between the lines of text really well and when I zoom out I can still read it.
I haven't found a solution for deleting highlighting unless you exit without saving...
You can erase the highlight by clicking on it with your finger.
In the "Pop-Up" there are buttons to select the highlight-color and one button to delete the highlight (in my German Version it's called "Markierung entfernen" which means something like "delete mark").
Unfortunately i haven't found a way to delete all the highlight at once yet.
Not got one yet but have read (and seen on YouTube) that if you press harder the line is thicker and the lighter you press the thinner the line - Maybe that works in pdf viewer too???
Good luck
I tried it at bestbuy today. The freehand inking pen does not seem pressure sensitive. You can pick different thicknesses for the pen, and it stays at that thickness. The thinnest line is actually rather thick, like 10-ish pixels at the highest zoom level.
In the brush popup menu, there is one of the menus that allows you to undo/redo strokes.
BTW, can somebody upload an annotated pdf? I would like to open it in a few desktop pdf viewers.
thanks for all the comments thus far.
there is no pressure sensitivity for the pen in the pdf app for me, and the line is jittery, like the tablet is sampling the pen location too infrequently.
my view is that the pdf software was rushed for release and is in such an unfinished state that it is unusable. For me this negates the entire purpose of owning the Flyer.
HTC had better release a working version of their promised pdf annotator or they are going to lose customers and gain bad rep. on the other hand if they respond with updates in a timely manner.. they'll gain the kind of good publicity you can't buy.
as it stands, i will be telling my colleagues to stay away from HTC.
to those looking for good pdf annotation for android, try an app called ezPDF.
anyone have any other useful apps to recommend?
chimpmonk said:
thanks for all the comments thus far.
there is no pressure sensitivity for the pen in the pdf app for me, and the line is jittery, like the tablet is sampling the pen location too infrequently.
my view is that the pdf software was rushed for release and is in such an unfinished state that it is unusable. For me this negates the entire purpose of owning the Flyer.
HTC had better release a working version of their promised pdf annotator or they are going to lose customers and gain bad rep. on the other hand if they respond with updates in a timely manner.. they'll gain the kind of good publicity you can't buy.
as it stands, i will be telling my colleagues to stay away from HTC.
to those looking for good pdf annotation for android, try an app called ezPDF.
anyone have any other useful apps to recommend?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you report this to HTC? You're more likely to get a fix if you report it (and even more likely if lots of people report it).
I created two pdf-files with the same content. The difference is that one is saved "flattened" and the other one is save with "two layers". (HTC offers these two methods to save the pdf).
I was extremely surprised when i just tried to open the two files with PDF-XChange Viewer. There are NO ANNOTATIONS to see.
@solsearch: Yes, i wrote to the German HTC-Support yesterday.
At the moment the Flyer is nothing more than any other (cheaper) tablet.
The pen is nice but much more a gimmick than a useful feature for my purposes.
@Gathering: thanks for the upload! I opened both of them on Evince (linux) and Foxit Reader (windows) and both picked up the annotations. I was also able to manipulate the highlights in Foxit. The different highlighting colors looks good! I wasn't able to change color at BB yesterday.
The flattened and non-flattened appear the same in Foxit though. I can manipulate each individual annotation... don't know what the separate layer did.
I'm very interested in using the Flyer to replace my current ebook reader. I can compromise on the thickness issue as long as it's good enough in terms of general writing precision.
I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't add text notes to the pdf, but the software is actually made by Foxit, so I don't know how well updates will be for the pdf reader.
EDIT: has anybody tried out ezPDF reader? The video reviews look fantastic. Unfortunately it won't take advantage of HTC Scribe, but I'm definitely considering using it to complement the regular pdf viewer if I get the Flyer.
I do a lot of work through PDFs also, and I have no issues with how the pen interacts in PDF Viewer. The line with is a little thick, but it worked well for what I need it to do. Usually the notes are for me and I like the "pen and paper feel".
It would be nice to be able to type comments... I think that's what people miss. Because I tusually don't "write" notes into PDFs on my computer... No digitizer.
They are also readable in the default Adobe reader on Windows (it gives a small error message but everything showed up from what I could see), this means that anyone should be able to view the notes (since I assume the default Adobe readers on other OSs will also work).
Thickness depends on Portrait/Landscape
I too am frustrated by the pen thickness issue in the PDF viewer. Annotating PDFs was the main reason for buying the HTC Flyer. One thing to note though, the thickness you get also depends on whether you are in portrait or landscape. I get a thinner pen in Portrait than Landscape. I get slightly better annotations, therefore, when I use it in Portrait mode.
Same here, the ink gets too thick in the pdf documents
lawrennd said:
I too am frustrated by the pen thickness issue in the PDF viewer. Annotating PDFs was the main reason for buying the HTC Flyer. One thing to note though, the thickness you get also depends on whether you are in portrait or landscape. I get a thinner pen in Portrait than Landscape. I get slightly better annotations, therefore, when I use it in Portrait mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I encourage everyone to report this issue to HTC, and possibly reference this thread when you do.
As for me (the OP), I am not waiting around an indefinite amount of time for HTC to fix their broken Flyer PDF annotation software. After all, they have not even acknowledged it's broken or that a fix is coming.
I can't even "fix" the problem myself by writing a better annotator app because HTC hasn't released the Flyer ink SDK.
So I returned my Flyer to bestbuy, and exchanged it for a Motorola Xoom. You can annotated PDFs on the xoom much more easily than on the Flyer- just get a piece of software called ezPDF, or try Repligo PDF. Annotation on the xoom using these programs is much nicer than the Flyer's annotator, even though the Xoom does not have native pen support.
Xoom is roughly the same price as a Flyer +pen, but the Xoom is MUCH faster, has a much better screen, and runs honeycomb 3.1 right now.
If you are using a Flyer and you have never tried a Xoom, you don't know what you're missing.
I still love the concept of the Flyer, but unfortunately the implementation is half-assed.
I guess it depends on the way you are using it. While trying to annotate pages was useless I just zoomed in and everything was fine...
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk
I find it kind of difficult to write with the pen, because I want to rest my hand on the tablet like a sheet of paper which then opens the virtual keyboard. My old Gateway convertible tablet, which only had pen function, no touch, was nicer (IMO) for writing because when writing, I COULD rest my hand on the screen like paper.
I would like to see a funciton that when the pen is in use (Like when the pen menu is open in the corner) the touch commands turn non-functional.
This would, in my opinion, boost the use of the pen majorly.
Does anyone else find this problem?
Also, I'm a lefty.
so right...
using both hand and pen has its pro's but i agree with you - i wish i could make the jetstream only "feel" the pen in certain situations.
personaly, i'm using a piece of clotch on the corner of the Jetstream to cover the problematic area. its a poor thing to do, but it gets me by...
maybe someday, if we'll live to see ICS on the Jetstream things will be better.
it would be great if there was a button you could press to briefly switch off the capacitative touch screen, leaving only the N-trig input. if this could be automated, then even better!
I posted on the HTC website too, hopefully they will pick it up.
I think the best note taking software right now is Quill for our tablet which recognize the n-trig and knows to ignore my hand.
If we had the support and interest in the device here in the xda community (which i don't think we do), once root is achieved, then turning off the capacitative touch while the pen menu is out could be possible... right?
Easy fix, I would think.
The solution to your issue is to use Tasker to switch the keyboard from HTC touch input to null keyboard on apps which you use the pen on.
Creds to posters on the HTC Flyer forum who had the same issue.
the issue is not just with the keyboard panel. it's with the date/notification bar the pops up every now and then..
Thanks for the info on Tasker and Null Keyboard. This works great, although Quill will likely remain my go-to app for taking longer notes.
I have to push way too hard in the Quill app to get pen strokes to appear... Thats the only negative to me. There needs to be a sensitivity option.
typhoonikan said:
I have to push way too hard in the Quill app to get pen strokes to appear... Thats the only negative to me. There needs to be a sensitivity option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally difference for me, I think it's really sensitive... Or it could just be the pen. Sometimes my pen acts really wonky like constantly giving out input signal even when I am not touching the screen.
New solution for this:
using app like "no system bar"
does the trick, now the root is available
Maybe it's just me, but the inking in the tutorial window is very smooth and the te,t is nearly perfect and readBle. In the Notes app it is much rougher, jagged, and hard to read. Anyone else experience this?
dstrauss said:
Maybe it's just me, but the inking in the tutorial window is very smooth and the te,t is nearly perfect and readBle. In the Notes app it is much rougher, jagged, and hard to read. Anyone else experience this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same comment, but for the resolution of the scribble compared to the Notes app. The second smallest calligraphy pen on black in the Notes app has some really bad fringe near the edges. These (among other reasons) is why I'm unhappy with HTC's work in designing the pen integration.
Also: try the free Quill app, which renders the pen's stroke using vector graphics so the resolution is scale independent.
TSGM said:
Same comment, ...Also: try the free Quill app, which renders the pen's stroke using vector graphics so the resolution is scale independent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried Quill and the ink quality is much better. Sharing notes is not as transparent, but its the quality of the inking that makes this superior.
Quill is also great because it does what no other pen app does, and all should - it can ignore hand input, so you can rest your hand comfortably on the tablet surface - which makes it tons more effective than the native app, which keeps sliding out the on-screen keyboard whenever you touch the screen with your skin.
mr_pio said:
Quill is also great because it does what no other pen app does, and all should - it can ignore hand input, so you can rest your hand comfortably on the tablet surface - which makes it tons more effective than the native app, which keeps sliding out the on-screen keyboard whenever you touch the screen with your skin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed.
To me, it's absolutely ridiculous that these issues were not considered by HTC.
mr_pio said:
Quill is also great because it does what no other pen app does, and all should - it can ignore hand input, so you can rest your hand comfortably on the tablet surface - which makes it tons more effective than the native app, which keeps sliding out the on-screen keyboard whenever you touch the screen with your skin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it's a function of many active-stylus systems that any touchscreen interactions are turned off when the pen is in close proximity to the screen. The Flyer works in the same way. The awkward bit is that you have to put the stylus close to the screen FIRST, which is unnatural for most people and is probably the source of almost universal confusion about these systems. You can verify the pen turns off the touchscreen by hovering your pen (it doesn't need to actually touch) something less than 1/4" over the screen, and you'll notice you can't do anything with your finger. Lift your pen a little higher and touch turns back on. Palm rejection is really only necessary if you don't have an active stylus system, or perhaps to allay the issue of most people putting their palms on their screens first before the pen has a chance to turn off touch.
bluebear13 said:
...Palm rejection is really only necessary if you don't have an active stylus system, or perhaps to allay the issue of most people putting their palms on their screens first before the pen has a chance to turn off touch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using active digitizers for years, and frankly I like having touch turned off while writing. On my HTC, the screen is so sensitive I get a keyboard every time unless using Quill.
dstrauss said:
I've been using active digitizers for years, and frankly I like having touch turned off while writing. On my HTC, the screen is so sensitive I get a keyboard every time unless using Quill.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what bluebear's post was saying. When the pen is near the screen, touch is deactivated.
HTC could improve on this by allowing the user to adjust the time the screen returns to recognizing touch. Since I print, an increased delay would keep the keyboard from popping up. My current workaround is to touch the spiral bound portion of the screen which doesn't activate the keyboard.
Hey everyone, I've had this idea of trying to merge the use of my transformer prime with my business. I go out to several homes a day to take measurements for various things, as well as sketch rough drawings. Does anyone here use their tablet for something similar?
The reason I ask is because I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and the stylus that comes with that has a nice fine tip that I can create notes and drawings in Evernote pretty well with.. but that stylus won't work on the transformer. So I ordered the Wacom Bamboo stylus with the rubber end. But when I write numbers like "39 3/4" or something -- it looks like a 5 year old wrote it. Same goes for the simple drawings and the dimensions.
Are there any options available that can make the tablet useful for this type of work?
Thanks everyone,
An excellent app for Android for stylus-based notes and sketches is LectureNotes. It has a ton of features, and the developer keeps improving the app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acadoid.lecturenotes
Quill is also a pretty good writing/sketching app, but not as many features as LectureNotes:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.write.Quill
For styluses that have finer control, you may want to consider some of the following stylus makers:
iFaraday: has a dielectric micro-mesh surface, which is stiffer than than rubber-tip stylus. I have the Artist version, and it's great for sketching.
Adonit: the Jot Pro fine-point stylus, has a transparent disc so you can better see the point of contact. Good for handwriting.
DAGi: similar in style to the Adonit, in a variety of sizes.
Gary_O said:
An excellent app for Android for stylus-based notes and sketches is LectureNotes. It has a ton of features, and the developer keeps improving the app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acadoid.lecturenotes
Quill is also a pretty good writing/sketching app, but not as many features as LectureNotes:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.write.Quill
For styluses that have finer control, you may want to consider some of the following stylus makers:
iFaraday: has a dielectric micro-mesh surface, which is stiffer than than rubber-tip stylus. I have the Artist version, and it's great for sketching.
Adonit: the Jot Pro fine-point stylus, has a transparent disc so you can better see the point of contact. Good for handwriting.
DAGi: similar in style to the Adonit, in a variety of sizes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the recommendations! I did search quite a bit when it came to which stylus to order and I did see the Jot Pro. I was going to order it but I saw a few YouTube videos of people using it and it wasn't working all that great.
Basically my sketches would be very limited to some rather basic line drawings.. it's not like I'm sketching faces or anything elaborate. So I'd much rather have something more geared to neater handwriting.
As far as the apps go, do they themselves have anything to do with the responsiveness of the device? I know the answer is probably no, but I was wondering if their software tends to "correct" on the fly making for neater lines or whatever.. I'm not sure if that question is completely clear or not.
The reason I ask is because I like Evernote's interface and I like that you can synchronize accounts with certain notebooks, etc.
As far as a technical question goes -- do you know why my galaxy note's stylus will not work with the prime? I read that they are both capacitive touch screens.. but I guess there is more to it than just that.
Thanks again!
mmerlina said:
As far as the apps go, do they themselves have anything to do with the responsiveness of the device? I know the answer is probably no, but I was wondering if their software tends to "correct" on the fly making for neater lines or whatever.. I'm not sure if that question is completely clear or not.
The reason I ask is because I like Evernote's interface and I like that you can synchronize accounts with certain notebooks, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LectureNotes and Quill do not "improve" the quality of the writing, however they both have a zoom mode where you can write larger (and more legibly) and then this is unzoomed in the captured writing. LectureNotes has some fine-tuning options to improve the screen responsiveness to the stylus, and the apps have a palm detection feature so there is an area on the screen you can rest your hand and not have that detected by the screen.
You may also want to check out the Skitch app, which is from Evernote. It does improve or smooth out writing, and integrates very well with Evernote.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evernote.skitch
mmerlina said:
As far as a technical question goes -- do you know why my galaxy note's stylus will not work with the prime? I read that they are both capacitive touch screens.. but I guess there is more to it than just that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Galaxy Note devices have both a capacitive touch screen and an active digitizer screen that works with the special S-pen stylus. The S-pen stylus does not work on capacitive touch screens that come with most tablets (like the Prime) or smartphones. For capacitive touch screens you will need a standard capacitive stylus.