[OT] Was: totally satisfied :D

[Nick Sabalausky]

On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:42:59 -0400
"Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:50:18 -0400, Nick Sabalausky  
> <SeeWebsiteToContactMe at semitwist.com> wrote:
> 
> > Actually, it's a little too effective: It's impossible to reach down
> > into my pocket and adjust the volume because it plain refuses to
> > *let* me adjust the volume without taking it out, pushing "Lock" or
> > "Home", sliding the touch-slider, and *then* using the damn volume
> > buttons - which *still* don't even do what I want most of the time.
> 
> If you want to adjust the ringer volume, yes.  If you want to adjust
> the volume of something that is currently playing (like a song), it
> works without having to unlock.
> 
> I find the silent switch more useful, I don't often change ringer
> volumes.
> 

What I *really* want is a master volume control. But there is none. At
all. And there is no "app for that". For example:

- When I go into a library, I *expect* to have *no sound*, period. And
  this is what Apple apparently expects you to do: Pull it out, press
  "home" or "lock", slide the slider, double-press "home", swipe the
  bottom row to the right, adjust that volume with the touchscreen
  control, and switch the "ringer/vibrate-only" switch to
  "vibrate-only". And guess what? Even that *still* doesn't disable all
  sound. And that's even if you ignore the fact that vibrate isn't
  actually silent. I don't even take the fucking thing into libraries,
  I just leave the damn thing in the car. Fuck it. It's not worth it.

- I'm haplessly attempting to peck something out on the miniature
  non-tactile chicklet-keyboard (which only *sometimes* goes into
  landscape mode) and notice it's too loud. So I have to go find
  something that plays sound, ideally music, play it, *then* adjust the
  fucking volume (otherwise it adjusts the ringer volume instead), then
  stop the music or whatever it was, then go back to whatever it was
  that I was doing and *hope* that I like the new volume setting
  because if not, I have to do it all over again.

- Luckily, I don't use it to play music (I have a *real* portable music
  player for that, with a sensible amount of storage). Because if I
  did, then changing the ringer volume would work like this: Stop the
  music, change the ringer volume, resume the music. Seriously? Talk
  about pointless coupling.

And then there's the fun times when the stupid thing *thinks* audio is
playing so it won't let you adjust the ringer volume even though no
audio is playing.

Of course, I constantly need to change the ringer volume because, being
mobile, it's constantly either too quiet or too loud.

What a complete, moronic, absolute steaming turd of a device. I'd
HAPPILY put up with accidental volume changes just to go back to a
master volume POT (and even those can be made in a way to
drastically minimize accidental volume changes).

And that's *just* volume issues alone. God, I *HATE* the fucking thing.
Any time I use it, I just want to hurl the damn thing into the nearest
concrete wall as hard as I can. But I can't, because it's not even
mine, it's a loaner, and I unfortunately need it for
development/testing (or at least *will* need it for such once we pay
Apple their Developer Ransom).

> > And there's
> > a ton of other issues I have had with the devices, like poor
> > accuracy (because my fingers aren't <=1mm in diameter and the damn
> > thing won't even register touches from anything that's actually
> > more accurate).
> 
> There are styli for capacitive screens, they aren't that great, but
> better than a finger.  But no place to store them on the phone.  I
> think Samsumg has a stylus-based capacitive screen phone called the
> Galaxy note.
> 

Right. Basically capacitive stylus is a hack solution. And the thing is
too, I already *have* no less than *ten* styli built right into my
fingers. But they're incompatible. And so is my knuckle (mostly), which
is annoying when my fingers are messy.

> But I have not had much of a problem with accuracy.  In certain cases
> when I'm browsing the web, I have to zoom in to accurately tap a
> link. However, my touch screens that I had with my palm Treo, and
> Windows Mobile 6 phones both sucked at accuracy.  I spent so much
> time "calibrating" them, and even then, I couldn't click on anything
> near the edges.
> 

I never had any accuracy problems with my Visor Deluxe or my Zire 71.
Granted, they still *could* have been more accurate than they were
(even though I never actually found it problematic), but the capacitive
devices are far *less* accurate just because of the whole "finger"
thing. Most people just don't notice the inaccuracy because they're
using something (big beefy finger) that, unlike a stylus, they
intuitively/subconciously expect to be inaccurate.

> My Windows Mobile phone I completely gave up on using the touch
> screen at all, I got very good at using the keyboard shortcuts.  The
> only thing I ever used the stylus for was playing solitaire, and even
> then, I had trained myself to offset my tap locations based on what
> part of the screen I was on.  I literally knew exactly where to tap
> if I wanted to move whatever card to another pile -- and it wasn't
> uniform!
> 

Hmm, yea, I've never actually used any of the WinCE PDAs. I wouldn't
know about them.