Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Quoting style on HTC Dream
On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 04:29:49PM +, James wrote: My son wants a droid phone. I'm pushing him towards the HTC droid as I think we can customize it, if not eventually run embedded Gentoo on this phone. I have a G1, normal model, not flashed. I too wanted it because of its physical keyboard, but then someone developed a pay program ($5 I think, well worth it) called Better Keyboard which has been so good that I don't use the physical keyboard any more and no longer consider it a necessity, at least for Android. Friends who have an iPhone say this Better Keyboard is better than the iPhone's soft keyboard. I would also look at Nokia's open source phone, Maeomo I believe, which actually runs Debian, much much closer to true open source. Android apps HAVE to be written in their subset of Java, at least on the normal phone -- I don't know about jail broken ones. The Maemo can take programs from anything -- perl, python, etc, no doubt plain old C and even assembler if you want to. No doubt you could put gentoo on it. One problem with the G1 is its small memory, making it possible that it won't be able to use the 2.0 features. It can take humonguous SD chips, but the internal program flash is just too small. Plus it does not have multitouch like the iPhone or the new Motorola Droid, which would be a big improvement. I have not looked into these new phones much because my G1 is only a year old, still runs fine, and still has a year to go on the danged contract. But if I were looking for a new phone today, I would start by investigating the Maemo, then look at other Androids which don't have a physical keyboard but do have multitouch, and finally at the Droid. The physical keyboard adds complexity and cost and bulk and weight, and Better Keyboard is so good that I don't use mine any more. (for the record :-) Here are some of the things I like about Better Keyboard: Vibrate feedback on each keystroke. Long press on a key pops up a small window with all the extra chars on that key, such as accented keys. Side swipe brings up alternate keyboards, such as 2 chars per key like a cross between standard num pad texting and a real keyboard, or a numbers-only keyboard, or symbols-only. Lots of different themes which are useful, making it easier to find one that your eyes are happy with. Easy to invoke -- just tap in any text area and it comes up. Switches horizontal and vertical layouts as you switch the phone. Provides a list of possible words as you type, and you can build up your own local dictionary. All of these are configurable, near as I can tell. If you have a chance to try Better Keyboard on someone else's phone, you might find it so good that you won't insist on the physical keyboard. The biggest problem I have with the physical keyboard is that since it is half depth on the G1, the very right side keys are hard to get sometimes, with my fingers banging into the right side of the G1 which is full height. This may not be so on other Androids. And don't forget that the physical keyboard does not rotate 90 degrees as you rotate the phone, unlike the cirtual keyboards. I find Better Keyboard almost as easy to use when crammed into the vertical position as when horizontal. -- ... _._. ._ ._. . _._. ._. ___ .__ ._. . .__. ._ .. ._. Felix Finch: scarecrow repairman rocket surgeon / fe...@crowfix.com GPG = E987 4493 C860 246C 3B1E 6477 7838 76E9 182E 8151 ITAR license #4933 I've found a solution to Fermat's Last Theorem but I see I've run out of room o
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Quoting style on HTC Dream
On Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:21:06 -0800, fe...@crowfix.com wrote: I have a G1, normal model, not flashed. I too wanted it because of its physical keyboard, but then someone developed a pay program ($5 I think, well worth it) called Better Keyboard which has been so good that I don't use the physical keyboard any more and no longer consider it a necessity, at least for Android. Friends who have an iPhone say this Better Keyboard is better than the iPhone's soft keyboard. I'll give that a try. The Android soft keyboard is OK, but nothing to write home about... or with. One problem with the G1 is its small memory, making it possible that it won't be able to use the 2.0 features. It can take humonguous SD chips, but the internal program flash is just too small. I believe it's already been stated that 2.0 won't be pushed out to the G-1. Plus it does not have multitouch like the iPhone or the new Motorola Droid, which would be a big improvement. That's a software limitation, the touchscreen supports multitouch and I've seen a hacked G-1 with multitouch working. I have not looked into these new phones much because my G1 is only a year old, still runs fine, and still has a year to go on the danged contract. But if I were looking for a new phone today, I would start by investigating the Maemo, then look at other Androids which don't have a physical keyboard but do have multitouch, and finally at the Droid. I had more or less decided to go for the N900 when my contract expires in a few months, then Motorola confused things by releasing the Droid. Now I'm as confused as a baby in a topless bar. Here are some of the things I like about Better Keyboard: Is this in the Market? If so, I'll give it a try as you can get a refund on paid programs within the first 24 hours. -- Neil Bothwick IBM - I Blame Microsoft signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Quoting style on HTC Dream
On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 09:30:42AM +, Neil Bothwick wrote: On Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:21:06 -0800, fe...@crowfix.com wrote: Plus it does not have multitouch like the iPhone or the new Motorola Droid, which would be a big improvement. That's a software limitation, the touchscreen supports multitouch and I've seen a hacked G-1 with multitouch working. The hardware supports a limited multitouch sort of by chance. It loses track of fingers too close to the vertical or horizontal so if you want to pinch or spread for zoom, you have to do it at an angle. Rotation doesn't work thru a vertical or horizontal, altho a clever program could make a guess. Here are some of the things I like about Better Keyboard: Is this in the Market? If so, I'll give it a try as you can get a refund on paid programs within the first 24 hours. Yes, I think $5. I had tried the builtin virtual keyboard and found it barely better than nothing, but nowhere near as good as the physical keyboard. I was reluctant to try Better Keyboard but it turned out so good that I wondered if Google would incorporate many of its features into some later version of Android, maybe even buy rights to it if not just plain copy. -- ... _._. ._ ._. . _._. ._. ___ .__ ._. . .__. ._ .. ._. Felix Finch: scarecrow repairman rocket surgeon / fe...@crowfix.com GPG = E987 4493 C860 246C 3B1E 6477 7838 76E9 182E 8151 ITAR license #4933 I've found a solution to Fermat's Last Theorem but I see I've run out of room o
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Quoting style on HTC Dream
On Saturday 14 November 2009 11:30:42 Neil Bothwick wrote: I have not looked into these new phones much because my G1 is only a year old, still runs fine, and still has a year to go on the danged contract. But if I were looking for a new phone today, I would start by investigating the Maemo, then look at other Androids which don't have a physical keyboard but do have multitouch, and finally at the Droid. I had more or less decided to go for the N900 when my contract expires in a few months, then Motorola confused things by releasing the Droid. Now I'm as confused as a baby in a topless bar. hehehe, I know that feeling. I eventually had to draw a line in the sand and make a decision. Consider that I'd been mulling over what smart phone to get for 4 years, I figured it was time :-) Here in South Africa, we get all the mundane phones almost as soon as everyone else. Top of the line gear though - we wait 12 months at least usually. So the G1 was the best choice for me from what was available right now. So far I'm happy, even though I completely understand the G1 was more of an experiment than anything else, even though the enter key is not as accessible as the rest of the keys. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Quoting style on HTC Dream
On Friday 13 November 2009 23:35:21 James wrote: Alan McKinnon alan.mckinnon at gmail.com writes: Do you mean droid as a synonym for Android? yes, Verizon is offering the HTC ERIS (DROID) phone, in addition to the Mot DROID phone: http://www.htc.com/us/product/droideris/specification.html Nice phone, looks a lot like the Hero available here To flash it you need root privileges which is a trivial hack; carrier-provided phones usually have this disabled but this too has been hacked around. Then followed Google and HTC's own docs on the flash procedure http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Dream http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Main_Page HTC images available at http://developer.htc.com/adp.html This page describes how to install Debian so gentoo will also be possible: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=507291 Nice links but do they relate to the Mot version of the DROID, or just the HTC? Mot put a very fast Cortex-A8 arm chip in their phone.. Sorry, but I really have no idea. It might turn out similar to trying to run 686 code on a 486 Will flashing work with the Verizon HTC Eris phone like yours? Not sure by my googling results. Everything I've read suggests that flashing either works or it doesn't, and if it doesn't then you can roll back to factory preset. But that's a big if, so you might want to wait till some of the more experienced hackers show if it can be done. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
[gentoo-user] Re: Quoting style on HTC Dream
Alan McKinnon alan.mckinnon at gmail.com writes: It's not an iPhone and Apple's psychosis doesn't enter the picture, I can install any user-space app I feel like. The warranty is already invalid though, for a different reason - I flashed it with an OS and firmware that's far superior to the one my carrier thinks I should have OH BOY, My son wants a droid phone. I'm pushing him towards the HTC droid as I think we can customize it, if not eventually run embedded Gentoo on this phone. I'd be most interested in the details of the exact model you purchased and what resources and howtos you are following, so I can customize this phone for him, aka linux style... You are using Verizon as your cellular service? I'm stuck with Verizon for a variety of reasons Also could they have picked a less masculine-sounding name (perhaps the HTC Twilight)? The one were looking at is call the HTC Eris, I believe James
[gentoo-user] Re: Quoting style on HTC Dream
Alan McKinnon alan.mckinnon at gmail.com writes: Do you mean droid as a synonym for Android? yes, Verizon is offering the HTC ERIS (DROID) phone, in addition to the Mot DROID phone: http://www.htc.com/us/product/droideris/specification.html To flash it you need root privileges which is a trivial hack; carrier-provided phones usually have this disabled but this too has been hacked around. Then followed Google and HTC's own docs on the flash procedure http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Dream http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Main_Page HTC images available at http://developer.htc.com/adp.html This page describes how to install Debian so gentoo will also be possible: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=507291 Nice links but do they relate to the Mot version of the DROID, or just the HTC? Mot put a very fast Cortex-A8 arm chip in their phone.. Will flashing work with the Verizon HTC Eris phone like yours? Not sure by my googling results. James
