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Ahtut

Tutster – Because I Can

Thanks to all of you who have been writing in giving your valuable comments and support for tutLaunch. I have created a separate page just for future tutLaunch update.

New features:

1) Move shortcuts

2) Move between ‘pages’ with arrow keys

3) Quick launch with keypad

Download

tutLaunch is a Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition FP1 which means it’s for Nokia phones with Symbian OS v9.2.

It allows you to store shortcuts and launch them without having the trouble of navigating to the program itself. It works similar like the Shortcut plugin on the Standby screen, except that the Standby Screen only allows you to have 6 shortcuts. For optimum use, you can assign one of the Standby screen keys to launch tutLaunch and so that you can easily access the shortcuts stored in tutLaunch.

ps: You will need to sign the sis with your own cert

Download

I am jumping on the band wagon with inspirations and all the hype on what touch screen can do.

I have had a Windows Mobile device for years and have lived with the crappy input system provided thus far. There are many alternative SIP around all trying to address the issues on inputing on Windows Mobile devices; especially for those who yearn for 1 hand (or 1 thumb rather) operation like what Symbian and conventional phone devices provides. Yes, so that we can all text when we are driving.

What I am trying to achieve to allow user to easily input text with 1 thumb. The common problem encountered with these SIPs are

• You don’t know what key you are pressing – Often your thumb will cover your line of slight, and with no textile feedback, you don’t know which key you are pressing
• The buttons are too small for 1 thumb operation – I have fat thumbs. Go figure what’s the problem
• Screen assets – The WM device does not have the luxury of having big buttons for problem 2
• Buttons on the edge of the screen is hard to press

To solve these issues, my SIP (hence now TutThumb) have limited number of buttons so that I can have big buttons on the screen. It follows the conventional phone key pad system (1 key for 3 letters etc) to select different letters tied to the key. The first prototype I have came out with maps 9 characters to a button. To select a individual character, you press the button and slide your thumb to the different direction. For example, the letter ‘a’ is mapped to the first button. To select the letter ‘a’, you press the button and slide your thumb to the left and release your thumb. This will select the letter ‘a’. If you want the letter ‘A’, press the button and slide your thumb up-left (diagonally).

Usability problem

I designed such that area for interaction should not be too closed to the edge so that you can still access it with your thumb. However, after using the prototype for just a few seconds, I realise sliding your thumb sideways may prove to be a challenge as compared to sliding your thumb vertically. I figure this has to do how you hold the phone and the gripping of the phone

With your thumb touching more then 1 surface of the touch screen, I finally realise why we need multi touch screen (d’oh)

Technical Issues

Deploying the SIP on actual device is harder/more troublesome then I thought. Because the SIP is coded as a COM object, there are times I need to reboot the device to make sure it gets unloaded properly. I am still new to COM objects in general, and sometimes my SIP doesn’t load and I would think I made a mistake somewhere. But apparently, the device just didn’t load it properly. Anyone who have better clues in debugging SIP, I will appreciate if you can drop me a note

Tested XCM Cable on XBox 360. The component quality looks the same

Composite

XBox 360 Default Component Cable – Top

Xbox 360 XCM Component – Bottom