New Thoughts about Portrait

[JAmerican]

Today I deleted Portrait from my device. From what many have said before, I agree with now. Portrait to me is more troublesome then it is helpful. I'm sticking with landscape. What I've found is that portrait is only helpful in viewing AudioPlayer fullscreen and CO fullscreen. I don't use CO anymore and I'm gonna try using Media Launcher again, but I'm going to try and change the skin a bit to take away the Movie and Photo buttons.

Anyone else do this. What are your thoughts on Portrait.

JAmerican

[Cyker]

Man... that sucks...

All that whining and now you're gonna dump it?!! :eek: :p

j/k ;) :D

TBH, I found the same thing on my TH55 - I only use Landscape very very occasionally; This is partly why I wouldn't pay $20 for it ($10 OTOH is very reasonable, snapped it up for that! :)), but the fact that it's bound to the clock when I only use it very infrequently is a royal pain in the proverbials; I've already locked-up my TH55 a few times by accidentally dragging it instead of the Graffiti-collapse button or a down-scroll arrow.

For most things like reading iSilo stuff, working in Portrait mode is much better for me.

The only things I regularly use Landscape in is NetFront, ZdocJ, PalmVNC, SmartST and Tube.

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by Portrait is more troublesome than it's worth?
What sort of troubles is it giving you?

[shriek]

I never tried portrait and whenever I thought about giving it a try I end up trying to have any reason to use it. Lets face it: UX50 is usefull as a landscape PDA and I really can't find any usefull apps that needs portrait mode.

JAmerican: I find it funny that you're giving Media Launcher another try because after you translanted it to us I never quit using it! Only reacently I found that photos stored on MS do not display correctly and then I would use clié viewer.

[.PoNeH]

I may have to agree with JAm on this one. I don't see much use for portrait in the UX. All it has done is made me not able to play Bejeweled and Media Launcher. Also, I constantly switch the mode when scrolling in some apps. I might have to let it go until its more stable.

[ss4vegito7]

Hmmm, I always use my Landscape utility (i'm on the internet alot..)

[JAmerican]

...what do you mean by Portrait is more troublesome than it's worth?
What sort of troubles is it giving you?

There is an empty space on the statusbar that they assigned the Portrait switch to.

http://jamerican.net/1src/Portrait/portraitbutton.PNG
**I added the red square through MSPaint after the screenshot was taken, it was not originally there.**

In this pic, the red square is where the portrait switch area is. When I'm using the scrollbar in landscape, I sometimes am too close to the area and it causes me to switch to Portrait. In NetFront, this is annoying. While viewing my Palm Launcher Apps, this gets annoying. Also, when I'm in portrait and I enter FMP I have to exit FMP switch to landscape and go back into it. Due to the Statusbar is gone. This is also annoying. I've tried it out and to be honest, its not worth it for landscape users. For portrait users, its more useful.

JAmerican

[JAmerican]

I never tried portrait and whenever I thought about giving it a try I end up trying to have any reason to use it. Lets face it: UX50 is usefull as a landscape PDA and I really can't find any usefull apps that needs portrait mode.

JAmerican: I find it funny that you're giving Media Launcher another try because after you translanted it to us I never quit using it! Only reacently I found that photos stored on MS do not display correctly and then I would use clié viewer.

I stopped using it due to I grew a fondness for FMP and RescoViewer. I like MediaLauncher but it doesn't have JogDial support. I reinstalled it today and I'm gonna try to remodify the top skin to that the Movie and Photo buttons are not there anymore and the Music button is moved to where the Movie Button is.

JAmerican

[shriek]

unrelated...

JAmerican, I wanted to ask this for a long time: how do I use the font you're using on my ux50? I tried fontbucket and other font software and none works... what font is it?

[JAmerican]

unrelated...

JAmerican, I wanted to ask this for a long time: how do I use the font you're using on my ux50? I tried fontbucket and other font software and none works... what font is it?

:)

Handera 22 Bold

Use Font4OS5 :)

JAmerican

[shriek]

thanks for the tip :)

[.PoNeH]

I agree with JAm, the only thing I wish FMP had is a progress bar that u can jump around to a particular scene, somehting Media Launcher is good at.

[SonyStyle]

glad u all agree with me that portrait is not useful! what happened to that guy called "gwen" who was arguing with me last month that portrait is useful.

[.PoNeH]

Hehehe, we all were honestly.

[modernmystic]

Same here, already took it off, put it back on to try CO, didn't take to CO, and just got rid of it again after I found out that it was taking the proccessor down from 154 to 147 in landscape mode (I dunno). If mobile-stream could fix that flaw (or at least explain to me why it happened) and make it more compatible and stable, then maybe I'll put it back on...again.
-mm

[JAmerican]

Remember when I said in my second to last post that I would modify the Media Launcher Skin, look here...

http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85209

JAmerican

[.PoNeH]

Why remove the ability though? Don't you still need the same files there?

[.PoNeH]

Portrait uninstalled. Bejweled and Media Launcher, here I come.

[Cyker]

There is an empty space on the statusbar that they assigned the Portrait switch to.

http://jamerican.net/1src/Portrait/portraitbutton.PNG
**I added the red square through MSPaint after the screenshot was taken, it was not originally there.**

In this pic, the red square is where the portrait switch area is. When I'm using the scrollbar in landscape, I sometimes am too close to the area and it causes me to switch to Portrait. In NetFront, this is annoying. While viewing my Palm Launcher Apps, this gets annoying. Also, when I'm in portrait and I enter FMP I have to exit FMP switch to landscape and go back into it. Due to the Statusbar is gone. This is also annoying. I've tried it out and to be honest, its not worth it for landscape users. For portrait users, its more useful.

JAmerican
Ahh, *that*.
I have a similar annoyance with Landscape - The problem is they used an on-mouse-over style switch instead of an on-click, so if your stylus even grazes the hotspot it switches :(
I hope they add alternative switching methods at some point...

[Kappa]

I still believe the Portrait App is useful -- especially when I have longer lists e.g. in DateBk5 (with all the appointments and ToDo's for the day) or in Address Book. I like it that I can switch the UX from clamshell to tablet and then flip to portrait -- the whole unit is even sleeker. I'm happy that mobile-stream did it and just wanted to state this to show them that not everybody thinks their effort was useless! :) Thanks to mobile-stream, for building it! k

[palo1]

I still think portrait mode is an important option to have available, not that you have to use it constantly, but its nice to have it there :)

p

[.PoNeH]

It is nice, but a lot of program's don't function because of it. For example, Bejeweled 2 will give you crazy crashes; Media Launcher doesn't work properly; Clie Viewer doesn't go full screen; FMP has issues with it. Like JAm said, at the moment, it's more of a hassle than useful.

[frozerino]

i also like portrait, not that i use it that often, but its a great option.
only i think mobile-stream should make it more easy to use.
They should make an app in wich you can select how to turn on portrait (hardbuttons, button combinations, or the area on the statusbar).
and also i think you need to be able to select witch programs are allways used in portrait or allways used in landscape (so that the device switches itself if you start a particular application).
and a lot of bugs need to be killed (like wallpapers don't dislplay well in agendus in portrait and appshell has kind of the same problem).

[.PoNeH]

You see, but the problem is that every application has to be enhanced for portrait. There's not much that Mobile Stream can do in their end, since every application is different. So instead, I have gone back vanilla and I am not regretting it.

[JAmerican]

They will have a prefs menu in the late April release. I still don't like it though. I like landscape better. If the Prefs menu allows you to disable Portrait for certain apps, and fixes a lot of bugs with the Statusbar in screenshots and while using Soft Reset.

JAmerican

[.PoNeH]

I totally agree.

[golalmo]

i hope that mobile-stream are not reading this thread, otherwise they stop develop the portrait utility. to me its extreamly usefull, in addressbook, lists, eboks, netfront etc etc. some things are better in landscape and some in portrait.. i love being able to use my ux in one hand, and its very easy to change between ls/pr, just like in the t3/t5. yes, its still have some bugs but it mostly works just fine, and for now - its free. mobile stream - good work, keep that way.

[JAmerican]

i hope that mobile-stream are not reading this thread, otherwise they stop develop the portrait utility. to me its extreamly usefull, in addressbook, lists, eboks, netfront etc etc. some things are better in landscape and some in portrait.. i love being able to use my ux in one hand, and its very easy to change between ls/pr, just like in the t3/t5. yes, its still have some bugs but it mostly works just fine, and for now - its free. mobile stream - good work, keep that way.

I fully agree with you golalmo. I want them to continue their progress with Portrait. I just found a little things annoying. I want to be able to use both portrait and landscape for you never know when it will be useful in the future. I still have Portrait on my MS, just not installed due to the bugs.

JAmerican

[.PoNeH]

I agree...it's still good to have the option. Just don't think it's quite ready.

[SonyStyle]

told you portrait is not useful!

[SonyStyle]

wheres that dude that was arguing with me last month????????????????????????

[.PoNeH]

We all did...me, JAm, and others. It's just not as useful as I thought it would be. Makes you wonder why most PDAs are portrait rather than landscape.

[glassman]

told you portrait is not useful!


I agree, I had it loaded for all of 30 minutes.

I do like having Pocket Lingo fullscreen. If they fix the stability problem and offer it for <$10, I may buy it. I can't justify the purchase if it's priced any more than that.

[lmame]

We all did...me, JAm, and others. It's just not as useful as I thought it would be. Makes you wonder why most PDAs are portrait rather than landscape.

In fact I found landscape better in 90% of the softwares when I bought my UX50... But in some situations, I wanted badly to switch to portrait. For example some web pages in Netfront, Repligo documents, some doc to go documents, mails...

[shender]

I think we all had high expectations of what it could offer. When it came out, I was pretty excited and I had not seen that much action on the board in a long time. So, reality sets in...

Only place I could really see a benefit (in my usage pattern) was around the calendar, where I currently use Datebk5.

[antoinepierre]

... When I'm using the scrollbar in landscape, ...Instead of using your stylus to scroll, why don't you use Fn+Up/down arrows ?

[Cyker]

We all did...me, JAm, and others. It's just not as useful as I thought it would be. Makes you wonder why most PDAs are portrait rather than landscape.

It's funny... before Palm came along, ALL PDAs that I'd seen were landscape-oriented. A big reason for that was purely down to the keyboard (*drool* that sweet sweet Psion Series 5 keyboard *drool*), but all stylus-based ones are portrait.

I suspect this is because it fits the hand a *lot* better in a portrait orientation when you're trying to write something.

I tried writing something on my TH55 in landscape mode and found I couldn't hold it properly - In Landscape mode it's too wide for me to support the other side with my fingers, and so you're forced to hold it from the bottom or by gripping the side *really* tightly; Neither of which are good options.

[.PoNeH]

CMon, you can hold it...just takes some getting used to. Between holding a little more awkwardly and experiencing much better screen estate, I'd choose the latter.

[dks99]

First of all, I agree about 90% of the apps actually work better in landscape,

but I found Portrait to be a real improvement in two functions:
- any kind of LIST (FileManager, HandyShopper, CodeJedi Shadow app)
actually gives me more info at a time

- Mapopolis (in Navigation Mode), in landscape, the arrow and directions would take most of the usable screen,
The navigation screen seems best for a Portrait device.

Finally, I suspect that most PDA are made in Portrait because its easier to hold the PD this way, but that's just a side note :)

:)

[JAmerican]

First of all, I agree about 90% of the apps actually work better in landscape,

but I found Portrait to be a real improvement in two functions:
- any kind of LIST (FileManager, HandyShopper, CodeJedi Shadow app)
actually gives me more info at a time

- Mapopolis (in Navigation Mode), in landscape, the arrow and directions would take most of the usable screen,
The navigation screen seems best for a Portrait device.

Finally, I suspect that most PDA are made in Portrait because its easier to hold the PD this way, but that's just a side note :)

:)

I agree, I used Portrait for CLIEFiles, but I used Landscape for Palm Insider Pro. This is due to the dual list feature.

JAmerican

[mastershake]

I downloaded the beta the day of the release, and used it for a few hours, but I personally haven't used it since then, i guess the UX-50 is greatest in Landscape, but it was nice to make fun of my friend with a T5.

"Look Andrew, my T5 can change from portrait to landscape with one button...can your...oh yeh, it only has lanscape"
I hit the button with my stylus and the screen rotated to his amazement.

Haha, it was fun while it lasted, now back to my PSP! :D

~Andrew

[JAmerican]

I downloaded the beta the day of the release, and used it for a few hours, but I personally haven't used it since then, i guess the UX-50 is greatest in Landscape, but it was nice to make fun of my friend with a T5.

"Look Andrew, my T5 can change from portrait to landscape with one button...can your...oh yeh, it only has lanscape"
I hit the button with my stylus and the screen rotated to his amazement.

Haha, it was fun while it lasted, now back to my PSP! :D

~Andrew

Hey, I reinstalled Portrait and deleted it in about 15 min of use. This is due to Media Launcher Music is messed up with Portrait working. It expires tomorrow :(

JAmerican

[.PoNeH]

Well...hopefully someone from Mobile Stream read these comments and will work to resolve them. But like I said...its mostly out of their control. The incompatibility issues are issues of the individual applications and their devs need to handle those.

[golalmo]

well, it expired now, and still no new version avaliable.
after getting use to it, i now miss it.
mobile-stream: at least allow the old version to work until new one (if any) is out.

[rcxAsh]

Um... is there anyone out there who notices that if they tap the status bar... it still rotates into portrait? Interesting. golalmo, what does yours do now?

[JAmerican]

I don't use it anymore due to MediaLauncher and the bugs the software has. I informed them of my bugs and the left-handed compatibility. Lets see what they say.

JAmerican

[.PoNeH]

What do u mean left-handed compatibility?

[cliefreak]

I am currently loving the portrait app. It makes alot of apps that use lists very much more usefull. I use it with..

Audio Player
Netfront
Sometimes Clie Organiser just to play with it..
Clie viewer works beautifully
Photo editor works nicely
You can look at stuff totally upsidedown in picsel viewer
Vfsi
MEGA BOWLING!! works portrait very nicely
Sol Free is better portrait
So does Table Tennis
A5.. better
Matrix
Neo Calc is free kind of and looks beautiful portrait
Noah lite is way better
Pmol for chemistry
Clie files.. better
Filez.. better

Man I dont know why you guys would give up portrait.. other than the media launcher confliction which should be fixed.. i dont use my keyboard much and i see why that would suck but i think portrait is way sweet.
Im keepin it.

[JAmerican]

What do u mean left-handed compatibility?

That means those who use their devices with the statusbar on the left, can use portrait. If you switch the device in the Extensions > Silk Position > Left, then the switch position is still on the right, although the SB is on the left.

JAmerican

[.PoNeH]

Well those apps might work better in portrait...but the apps that don't work at all with it is superior than those. Those apps still work in landscape, which is all that matters.

[golalmo]

Um... is there anyone out there who notices that if they tap the status bar... it still rotates into portrait? Interesting. golalmo, what does yours do now?

nothing happend. the screen does not rotate.

[JAmerican]

nothing happend. the screen does not rotate.

Yea. It didn't work when reinstalled it on 4/21. But I put the date to 4/11 then reset and it worked again. Try it golalmo :)

JAmerican

[.PoNeH]

Ooooohhhhh....I'm teeellllinnggg..

[rcxAsh]

You know what's weird lol? Mine was still working the morning of the 21st. Though, when i tried it later in the day, it didn't rotate anymore.

Wouldn't it be a riot if they didn't test the expiration code, and it was buggy? lol :p

[.PoNeH]

Hahaha...that would suck...I hope they release a new version soon that fixes all the problems I've had.