On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:42:59 -0400 "Steven Schveighoffer" <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:50:18 -0400, Nick Sabalausky > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Actually, it's a little too effective: It's impossible to reach down > > into my pocket and adjust the volume because it plain refuses to > > *let* me adjust the volume without taking it out, pushing "Lock" or > > "Home", sliding the touch-slider, and *then* using the damn volume > > buttons - which *still* don't even do what I want most of the time. > > If you want to adjust the ringer volume, yes. If you want to adjust > the volume of something that is currently playing (like a song), it > works without having to unlock. > > I find the silent switch more useful, I don't often change ringer > volumes. > What I *really* want is a master volume control. But there is none. At all. And there is no "app for that". For example: - When I go into a library, I *expect* to have *no sound*, period. And this is what Apple apparently expects you to do: Pull it out, press "home" or "lock", slide the slider, double-press "home", swipe the bottom row to the right, adjust that volume with the touchscreen control, and switch the "ringer/vibrate-only" switch to "vibrate-only". And guess what? Even that *still* doesn't disable all sound. And that's even if you ignore the fact that vibrate isn't actually silent. I don't even take the fucking thing into libraries, I just leave the damn thing in the car. Fuck it. It's not worth it. - I'm haplessly attempting to peck something out on the miniature non-tactile chicklet-keyboard (which only *sometimes* goes into landscape mode) and notice it's too loud. So I have to go find something that plays sound, ideally music, play it, *then* adjust the fucking volume (otherwise it adjusts the ringer volume instead), then stop the music or whatever it was, then go back to whatever it was that I was doing and *hope* that I like the new volume setting because if not, I have to do it all over again. - Luckily, I don't use it to play music (I have a *real* portable music player for that, with a sensible amount of storage). Because if I did, then changing the ringer volume would work like this: Stop the music, change the ringer volume, resume the music. Seriously? Talk about pointless coupling. And then there's the fun times when the stupid thing *thinks* audio is playing so it won't let you adjust the ringer volume even though no audio is playing. Of course, I constantly need to change the ringer volume because, being mobile, it's constantly either too quiet or too loud. What a complete, moronic, absolute steaming turd of a device. I'd HAPPILY put up with accidental volume changes just to go back to a master volume POT (and even those can be made in a way to drastically minimize accidental volume changes). And that's *just* volume issues alone. God, I *HATE* the fucking thing. Any time I use it, I just want to hurl the damn thing into the nearest concrete wall as hard as I can. But I can't, because it's not even mine, it's a loaner, and I unfortunately need it for development/testing (or at least *will* need it for such once we pay Apple their Developer Ransom). > > And there's > > a ton of other issues I have had with the devices, like poor > > accuracy (because my fingers aren't <=1mm in diameter and the damn > > thing won't even register touches from anything that's actually > > more accurate). > > There are styli for capacitive screens, they aren't that great, but > better than a finger. But no place to store them on the phone. I > think Samsumg has a stylus-based capacitive screen phone called the > Galaxy note. > Right. Basically capacitive stylus is a hack solution. And the thing is too, I already *have* no less than *ten* styli built right into my fingers. But they're incompatible. And so is my knuckle (mostly), which is annoying when my fingers are messy. > But I have not had much of a problem with accuracy. In certain cases > when I'm browsing the web, I have to zoom in to accurately tap a > link. However, my touch screens that I had with my palm Treo, and > Windows Mobile 6 phones both sucked at accuracy. I spent so much > time "calibrating" them, and even then, I couldn't click on anything > near the edges. > I never had any accuracy problems with my Visor Deluxe or my Zire 71. Granted, they still *could* have been more accurate than they were (even though I never actually found it problematic), but the capacitive devices are far *less* accurate just because of the whole "finger" thing. Most people just don't notice the inaccuracy because they're using something (big beefy finger) that, unlike a stylus, they intuitively/subconciously expect to be inaccurate. > My Windows Mobile phone I completely gave up on using the touch > screen at all, I got very good at using the keyboard shortcuts. The > only thing I ever used the stylus for was playing solitaire, and even > then, I had trained myself to offset my tap locations based on what > part of the screen I was on. I literally knew exactly where to tap > if I wanted to move whatever card to another pile -- and it wasn't > uniform! > Hmm, yea, I've never actually used any of the WinCE PDAs. I wouldn't know about them.
