Does this look nice? I like the Screen a lot but when I get to this menu, it just doesn't feel right... It looks Web 1.0ish... It may not be important but it doesn't mix with the main screen much... Shane, you said you guys plan not to follow iPhone, well the menus are kinda like iPhone's screens...
-A list is a list, we've been flogging lists since the first Home release, we actually went out of our way to make everything a list to prove a point. Not sure what Web1.0ish is but its Reveng25ish. Web2.0 is overrated and a bunch of things I can't say, its the Web there is no version unless your trying to get funding. The greys are the most complimentary for the themes, Apple/MS normally use white. The reference to Apple is more in line with fundamental interactions for core phone functionality, eg a screen with info, a fun way to have contacts (instead of a list), a keypad is universal but we don't have it as a popup where there is a list behind it.
Shane, if you are free, can you explain the more about themes and the file extension.pkg?
I'm not free but I'll still answer you ;) They are made up of at the moment a colour palette text file for the random colours. In the future we may look to have the blocks done with graphics. The themes are made up images muck like Home 2 only we have very little alpha and overlays of images. This means the buttons are composited as whole up and down states with backgrounds. This is done purely for performance, we had some pretty aggressive targets for framerates. Put it this way, its not Home 2 so you're not going to get as much freedom, I like to look at it as a challenge.
I would probably implement a softrest menu in setting for ease of use.
-Good suggestion
Q: Why is the setting is in a different page where you could probably have it on the same screen with squarish background?
If you have a ground that you have lay everthing there with a new concept, why would you go back to some old cheesy method.
- Cheesy, nice... Its a random list of things, some launch off to other list screen screens and some toggle the values in place. The code on a canvas screen could be done well but its easier to put them into a list and add as we go, its how we did it on Home 2 so it kind of felt right also. The formatting is nicer now that we have a proper two lines
Q:I am sure that this might be part of your roadmap but are there squares going to move in the future? like 6 of them open up and your setting menu is right under them?
- Not sure what you mean
My ferris wheel is running...
Be glad, Melbourne's is broken
Just a couple of thoughts from my side. I would love to have a button for saving new numbers which a dial, like the pointsense dialer has. When somebody gives me his number, my first thought goes to the dial pad, to dial the number. This is the fastest way to dial the number. I consider going to the agenda, then opening new contact and finding the phone field as being a lengthy process, and the people in front of me does not have al the time the patience to see me pulling out the stylus in order to input and save the number. A save to contact button , with two options, save to an existing contact and save as new contact would be really helpful in this direction. This thing is already implemented in Home2, so I think it will not be very hard to do it also fore Phone.
- This functionality is planned, it would actually work where the number you enter on the keypad is the first text area and the text area below that would show an + and SMS button.
On my device I see a strange behaviour. I open Phone, send it to the background with the windows flag button and it stays there for some time, but after some time it crashes. Nothing brings it back, - an incoming call, the green call button or tapping on the link in start menu. The only way to have it back is to reset the device. Does anybody else saw this?
- No but we're keen to know more
One more thing. Maybe it is not bad to have something like a way of choosing the content of the incoming call screen (or choosing between two way of displaying the screen). I would love to have a bigger picture of the caller, and some more info about him (bigger font for phone number, company name maybe). In my opinion one look over the incoming call screen should be enough to decide if you answer the phone or not, and more info can help you take that decision.
-Bigger pictures would have been really nice, could have done some nice slicing of the image to overall make the face up but alas, MS stores a small crappy image so we're left with either a blown up pixelated image or the small image chopped up like crazy (but cool crazy)
Also, the idea of sliding to answer is nice, but why not keeping the possibility of answering and ending the call using the hardware buttons. I tried to see if they work , but unfortunately on my device only ending the call works, and not the button for accepting the calls. The whole process of identifying the caller, answering and rejecting a call should be made straight forward. Of course, visual appeal is one problem which everybody is crazy about, but the functionality should come first in this matter.
- Problem one, the phone rings and its in your pocket. Suddenly your testicles are having a conversation with someone. Answer, hardware buttons possibly but we liked the idea of a more elaborate way to interact with the phone. Yes its been done by Apple and the people who copied them, we actually had the gesture upward to relfect picking up the call but the canvas animation and future functionality meant it was better to get left to right.
I was really hesitant about this phone skin, since it seemed too random to be useful. Once I tried it though, most of the layout made sense. I wish the contacts were handled a little differently, but other than that, it is great. If the WinMo 6.5 beachball could get sorted, this would be my primary phone screen.
-The random is the colours, its actually a simple layout keypad, info and fav contacts but I guess we did a good job giving the impression we're crazy. We lined up the fav contacts area. The bookmark scrolling will return in the future. A contacts screen has been added. Beachball should be fixed now.
I was wondering if the version released was close to how you envisioned the final version, or if there was still a roadmap you guys have to changes. Were you guys thinking of changing the contact screen to be a little more hierarchical, incorporating the settings to the phone canvas, etc?
- We'll make some additions and fixes but 1.0.06 is getting really close to a first paid release. Not sure what you mean by hierarchical re the contacts.
Pointui Phone also appears to launch whenever the phone signal is lost or found. This is unnecessary.
- Fixed
Other than that, continued testing has not thrown up any new issues for me. I'm really enjoying using this.
As for which theme, much to my surprise, I find myself using zun3 rather than classic. I find classic a bit too cold and also lacking in contrast. I wonder whether more of a primary colour-based theme would work better, but guess I can wait for custom themes to come along for this.
- We added the fav text to be black on light colours now so that should help the Classic users
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Closed. New version available.
http://community.pointui.com/topic/phone-build-1006-community-beta
closed
