HTC Capacitive screen HD2
- Thread starter McSquatty
- Start date
garysaville
进士
Since HTC will be running WM on their tablet device, it would just require the regular Windows mobile version of the software.If you've already bought Pleco, you can just install it on the Leo and it will probably run fine. Windows mobile programs fit to the screen so it will look great on it, but I don't know if the cool web features of the iPhone version will be incorporated back into the WM version. It would be nice though. If Apple every do release a tablet. It sure would be great to have Pleco running on that platform, though it seems more likely that the Apple tablet will run a full fledged version of OSX, so the iphone port will not work.
Gary=-,
Gary=-,
An iPhone-like interface on Windows Mobile is definitely in the offing, yes - now that Microsoft is moving in the direction of finger-driven interfaces we'd be crazy not to provide such an interface for our WM version. In fact, if anything the greater flexibility / lack of any pesky Approval Gods telling us we can't do such-and-such because in their expert opinion it'll confuse users / etc means we'll be able to do even cooler things with our user interface on WM. And the Leo looks like a pretty darn spectacular system to run Pleco on.
We're planning desktop software for both Windows and OS X, so if the tablet does turn out to use OS X it should still be possible to get Pleco on it. Though I'm betting it'll run iPhone OS - since people seem to be willing to let Apple have that level of control there's no reason for them not to extend it to all of their products, by the time Mac OS 10.8 ("Norwegian Forest Cat") rolls around you may not even be able to run unsigned software on that.
We're planning desktop software for both Windows and OS X, so if the tablet does turn out to use OS X it should still be possible to get Pleco on it. Though I'm betting it'll run iPhone OS - since people seem to be willing to let Apple have that level of control there's no reason for them not to extend it to all of their products, by the time Mac OS 10.8 ("Norwegian Forest Cat") rolls around you may not even be able to run unsigned software on that.
At the moment using the finger on non capacitive WM devices means: sometimes it works and sometimes it does not work and I have to try it again and often again and again before I get the intended result. It takes so much more time for me than just using a stylus. IMHO the result of modern WM devices is disillusioning. Till now I could not find any good WM phone, with a good stylus and a big display (3.5 inch minimum) where Pleco really works well. As long as this is state of the art on WM I prefer using a stylus and also 5 way navigation pad. But the companies won't let me. More and more devices bring no stylus or a stylus for dwarfs (so that it is no fun to use it). No modern device (with big screen) has a navgation pad.
I think therefore the HD2 looks really interesting as an alternative for me to make finger usibilty really better. But I am afraid Pleco and probabbly WM 6.5 still needs a stylus. I think if there would be a stylus I would not hesitate to order it as soon as it is available. But there is not.
I do not know what the new PD iPhone interface looks like but the WM interface IMHO really needs a stylus in so many cases. For example using of Manage Flashcards screen definitely could not be used with out a stylus. Did you already ported it to iPhone interface in your lab?
Even if handwriting recognition on iPhone works without a stylus I do not know if the same is possibible on WM because it was originally designed to use a stylus (probably true even for WM 6.5). For example: is WM able to draw small lines just using a finger (as the iPhone probably can do as you have shown)?
Even though I am not optimistic about this topic I will keep an eye on the HD2 and Pleco usability because at the moment I did not find any device that is its money worth and at the same time is a good choice using Pleco well.
I think an solution to this dilemma would be really needed because:
1) iPhone is no alternative for me and many others: I do not like the closed environement that Apple dictates. At the moment it would be my last choice.
2) Waiting for WM 7 can be probably a year or more. To far away to wait for it or to speculate on it. It seems that a focus will be working on online apps like facebook or so that does not affcect Pleco as an offline application. This focus makes me a little bit afraid about the result.
3) An online version of Pleco is a nice to have but no solution to replace an offline version.
Hope very much during the next months anything will change to lead to a new solution.
I think therefore the HD2 looks really interesting as an alternative for me to make finger usibilty really better. But I am afraid Pleco and probabbly WM 6.5 still needs a stylus. I think if there would be a stylus I would not hesitate to order it as soon as it is available. But there is not.
I do not know what the new PD iPhone interface looks like but the WM interface IMHO really needs a stylus in so many cases. For example using of Manage Flashcards screen definitely could not be used with out a stylus. Did you already ported it to iPhone interface in your lab?
Even if handwriting recognition on iPhone works without a stylus I do not know if the same is possibible on WM because it was originally designed to use a stylus (probably true even for WM 6.5). For example: is WM able to draw small lines just using a finger (as the iPhone probably can do as you have shown)?
Even though I am not optimistic about this topic I will keep an eye on the HD2 and Pleco usability because at the moment I did not find any device that is its money worth and at the same time is a good choice using Pleco well.
I think an solution to this dilemma would be really needed because:
1) iPhone is no alternative for me and many others: I do not like the closed environement that Apple dictates. At the moment it would be my last choice.
2) Waiting for WM 7 can be probably a year or more. To far away to wait for it or to speculate on it. It seems that a focus will be working on online apps like facebook or so that does not affcect Pleco as an offline application. This focus makes me a little bit afraid about the result.
3) An online version of Pleco is a nice to have but no solution to replace an offline version.
Hope very much during the next months anything will change to lead to a new solution.
We're definitely planning to redesign the interface on WM to accommodate finger-driven input; we'd just like to get some idea from Microsoft about how the UI for this will work in Windows Mobile 7 before we proceed. So hopefully sometime soon they'll start to release screenshots / preliminary APIs / etc for that and we can go from there. I'd rather not have to redesign the user interface on Windows Mobile twice, but even if we had to work within the limits of resistive touchscreens I'm pretty sure we could put out something usable - you can indeed draw out single lines on WM with a finger.