iTablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Ok.

Since a bunch of versions came out in the last days, I think it makes sense to start a thread where all Versions can be Discussed (even if it makes sense to stick to the actuall version *g).

So I've downloaded an installed the Version 0.08 Experimental Alpha on my Nokia 770 with OS2006 and python 2.5.

The most pain in the *** was to get python after reflashing from os2007HE back to 2006.

I've read the post on "Random Musings of A Useless Geek" about what should become of itablet.

And I like the ideas!

So let's continue...

The next feature I'd like to see in 0.0.9 or 0.1 would be:
naming the Buttons (at least in the Configuration-menu).

:)

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

*smack face* Why didn't I think of that -_-

That's a great idea (naming the buttons). Hmmm, I'm gonna be a nitpicky bastard for a secon and point out the the I in iTablet is lowercase and the T is uppercase :D

Will work on the button naming

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Hi, I've posted some comments on Tyler's blog, but I think here it can be better discussed if any one is interested:

The app has a lot of potential, but if you want it to be useful and actually used by other people here is some suggestion that you can put somewhere in the app's roadmap:

* Integrate it with the home screen (as you mentioned). You can make a desktop plugin with iTablet embedeed, I believe it is not hard to do. You can get an idea of how to do it here http://maemo.org/maemowiki/HildonDesktopPluginHowto and http://blogs.gnome.org/lucasr/2007/0...ildon-desktop/

* Do not make the app show in fullscreen (this is a pre-requisite for the home screen I guess)

* I don't known how the actual iTablet launchers work today, but it should work with .desktop files, following the specification of freedesktop.org (http://standards.freedesktop.org/des...est/apa.html);

* As user interaction method, I suggest the following:
- One tap lanch the application;
- double-tap edit the launcher;
- drag-and-drop move the launcher;
- some sort of scrool (not a gtk scrollbar) to roll trough the launchers when there is not enough room for all of them;

Take a look at this images/mockups to have an idea of what I'm talking about

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9...ionattadv2.jpg
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/8...ionattaul1.jpg

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileAndEmbedded/UserInterface
I hope it helps.

Keep up the good work.

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

1. Python desktop plugins are not available yet, he was using the experimental ones from Sardine

2. Freedesktop standards link does not work

3. It'll be fullscreen by default because I intend it to replace the desktop, not go on it ;)

4. Drag n' drop it a great idea, I just have no idea how to implement it ^^'''

5. Double tap edit would be great, too... Hm! That is interesting...

Thanks a lot, much appreciated :D

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Glad to see it is still moving toward a "front-end". This will have more appeal, IMHO, than anything else.

To that end, K I S S is the best bet.

One button one app launched...
If you want the time, it launches the desktop clock widget, centered on the screen with the surrounding screen blacked out. The same goes for RSS reader, FM radio, Internet radio, simple launcher, etc.

You could allow each app to be reduced and run in the background but if this is implemented (music playing while in clock display for instance) you may have to limit the amount of apps open.

Also, allowing multiple buttons to launch the browser to specific URL's may add to the programs appeal as well.

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

I've been using iTablet for about a week now, and I'm really starting to like it. I was skeptical at 1st, but now I'm beginning to think that it could really turn into one of the apps that sells ITs, like maemo-mapper. I have some suggestions for its growth path that I'll submit for comment. I only have a few apps that I use regularly, so I only need one page of icons.

I'd suggest --
-a single 4x5 matrix of buttons.
-one tap to launch the app.
-Tap and hold to edit the button.
-Text label, icon, or both displayed in the button postion

Also, I noticed that source isn't avalable for download on maemo.garage.
Is that because the python code is stored in ASCII instead of being tokenized. like Basic? (I haven't checked)

regards,
Leon

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

I agree it would be ideal to have iTablet as a resizable applet. That way you could have iTablet take up the whole screen, or share space with other applets. Of course you'd want to edit desktop.conf to eliminate the existing task navigator. But as Aisu mentioned, unfortunately Maemo doesn't support Python applets.

It should have the option of running full-screen, and I think many people would use it this way. I love that it launches apps in full-screen mode.

I think this is the link you meant to use:
http://standards.freedesktop.org/des...atest/apa.html

I like the idea of having finger-scrolling, but I wonder if it would just be easier to have a separately-launched application for editing the iTablet layout.

Very cool. I like just about everything I see, but the Hildon Panel looks pretty useless. Would it be possible to get rid of it? It does not look finger-friendly, and it takes up space. It would be better to replace it with regular desktop applets. If you really like it, you could create an applet that looks just like the Hildon panel.

To be able to select from all possible applications, (basically replace the application menu), I think there should be a separate full-screen application that allows you to browse all applications. People could write their own applications to do this in whatever ways seem best.
This application could be launched by the physical button that launches the application menu now.

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Physical button bring up the app menu is a great idea!!! Oh dear god perfect! *smacks head* I can't believe I didn't think of that.

The sources are here at the garage for browsing: https://garage.maemo.org/plugins/scm.../?root=itablet

And the editing on right-click (hold) is definitely a great idea, I just need to figure out how to recognize one in python ;)

Finger scrolling may come, but doubtful...

I'll be getting back to iTablet soon, but have another project in the works, look forward to it ;)

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

That version of hildon-desktop is in Chinook, and therefore OS2008, isn't it?

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Really? That's awesome, I'll have to look into that, Andrew. Much appreciated :D (Although I don't have anything that can run 2008, yet)

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Im not sure if this is the thread to post this but here we go..

Im intrested in trying this, cause the app launcher is a bit dumpy (imhop) but once installed clicking the iTablet in the launcher does nothing, from the shell I get the following error:

Traceback 9most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/iTablet" line 4 in <module> import gtk
Importerror: No module named gtk

I get this and some other odd errors the most common is when an app tries to open a new shell window, the system bawks about the command 'xterm' not found, an alias osso-xterm = xterm didnt do anything, but thats a whole other prob...

Im no linux guru, but Im not tatally new to *nix systems either, but Ive had my n800 for a week and its leaving me feeling pretty stoopid.

If anybody has had this prob and fixed it I'd love to hear how ya did it.


bhang

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

I see you found the other thread, hope it works :)

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Very nice app, I am using 2006 os on 700. I tried both 0.7 and 0.8, and I found the email is not working, it doesn't save the account information or link to the account information from the main system, so I have to enter it every time I use the mail service. Please check. Other than that, I found the program very useful, and I love it. Thanks.

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Ah, no problem, thank you :)

I don't know why the email does that -_- Another user reported this also, the program doesn't accept command line arguments, and the way that it normally starts is out of the question for iTablet... so, I don't know what to do with the damned thing :(

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

I have the same problem.
Neil

Bug found
 

I edited the camera button in settings. Now, I want to change the image associated with button. When I go to the settings mode and click on the "camera button" all I get is one large box that says "Save Preferences" instead of two rectangles that say "Select Image" and "Save Preferences"

??????
Neil

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

... that is odd... hmmm... Are there any quotes in the command? Can you post it here?

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Don't know what you mean. There is no command...just a big gray box that completely fills the settings window that opens when I click camera button to try and edit it. I was able to edit it before. I made "quiver" the program it opens.

What is it you are asking me to post?
thanks,
Neil

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

The command you set for quiver, please post it here, it should be recorded at /home/user/iTablet/photo.txt (photo, image, or camera, I forgot the exact filename)

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

I'd be happy to but I do not know exactly how to do that. What should I do?

Neil

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Ehm, ok, lemme see, the easiest way would be to open x-term and type in

vi /home/user/iTablet/photovar1.txt

And just type what it says (I hope that's the right file, anyway ^^"''')

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

OK, I just did that. It says,

/user/bin/quiver

Neil

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

OH! I see what it is, mine is like that to, it's my fault -_- Damnit, typo in my code, ugh, I can't release another package at the moment, but you can change the command by editing that file if you'd like (don't ask me how to work vi, though, I can barely handle it ^^''') Sorry bout' that, will see to it when I get home.

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Out of curiosity, have you considered using the python evas/edje bindings? It could make for some fancy launch animations. Gustvo Barbieri has this very nice demo of an application launcher. Source code is provided with the cvs link, you need edje_cc from the edje-bin package to compile the .edc file to .edj. I tried it and it works very well on n800, but you'd probably lose the older 770 OSes.

BTW, chinook doesn't seem to support python desktop plugins, it says something like "unknown plugin type: python". I guess this will only be in the next major release (os2009?).

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

I need to learn those bindings!

^^''' Thanks for the link, will look into that, but iTablet development has been stopped for a while to make room for the next big project. ;)

I shall try to incorporate nice effects like that into the next one, if I can :D

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

What do you need to run this? I've isntalled 0.7 and 0.8 (separately) and neither works. If I try running iTablet from the command line, I get "iTablet: not found". It's definitely there, I can find /usr/bin/iTablet. It seems to be looking for something that doesn't exist. But what?

[edit] Okay, never mind. Looks like Python hadn't installed after all, I hacked my respository to point to stage.maemo.org instead of repository.maemo.org and it all works now. Very cool! Now I just need to figure out what all these buttons do... :)

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Oh, well, you can see the commands that each button has from the config screen (click the icons with an apple on it twice) Glad it works :D

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

I've tried searching for adding buttons and combining apps but have not found anything useful.

I've not paid enough attention to this thread but perhaps the iTablet is what I need.

And I did not want to start a new thread.

I want to be able to mash a button and have the following happen:
the gps fire off
acquire sats
beep when GPS is locked on
fire of Maemo mapper
center on my point
start tracking
fire off bluetooth connection
connect to my headset
start playing tunes from my "walking" directory.

Then when I'm done with my walk, I mash the same button and turn it all off and save the tracking info in a file with the date/time.

I've other apps that I would like to combine also.

Is this doable?
How difficult?
I can do basic scripting and some PERL.

Thanks in advance

Battery draining with iTablet
 

I've been running iTablet for about a week now. I leave it on as my "homepage" as it were. I never turn off my n700; I just plug it in at night to juice it up. Before I starting running iTablet, I had never had a problem with the battery charge not lasting at least all day and night...sometimes two days and nights if I forget to plug it in overnight. Now, I have had two occasions when the low battery indicator started beeping and the battery was drained within 8 hours. So, I've stopped using iTablet as my "homepage" (ie, iTablet always on)

Has anyone else noticed this battery drain effect?

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

I realize that this merely opens up applications in a nice visual way but I think I'd use this if it somehow was able to read iPhone web apps like this one
http://www.apple.com/webapps/news/iactu.html

Why can't we get our browser to read these kind of web pages?

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

This thread on changing your browser's user agent string to that of the iPhone may help you.

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Aisu,

Would you think adding a button for changing USB port mode (Host/OTG) would be useful? At simplest form you can just execute echo command, or if iTablet can not execute commands with root mode privileges, just call the scripts I made few days ago...

You can find all the details from the wiki page.

More sophisticated version could be that you have only one single button that toggles the setting... You'd need to keep track on your software what mode the USB port is currently and then execute the proper command. (And maybe you can change the icon at the same time.. like having text "OTG-->Host" and "Host-->OTG".)

Just to throw in some ideas... :)

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Hey Aisu,

Has development stopped on this app, I was looking froward it getting to replace my desktop with something easier to launch apps and switch. I am not criticizing the lack of a current release, this is just a little encouragement.

Great apps, thanks.

Re: Itablet (all Versions) Thread
 

Aisu,

I attempted to run the latest version of iTablet(ver 0.08) on Diablo, but got "execution failed" message.

Any idea of what I would do to resolve the problem?

thanks,