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< Esato Forum Index > Sony Ericsson / Sony > Symbian phones > (P990i) Flip removed and hardware buttons - rant / wishlist. Bookmark topic

Hi everybody!
I've been the happy owner of a P990i for a week now, coming from my loyal and trusted P900.

I decided to post this because, on the one hand, I'd like to share this thoughts with other P990i owners and get feedback about it, and on the other hand, I secretly hope SE people (and 3rd party developers, for that matter) read this and come up with brilliant solutions!

First of all, I don't know anything about the technical aspects of symbian or UIQ3. This is purely an end user assessment of usability. It's probable that I will say somethings that will sound as nonsense to people who know the inside workings of the phone...
Second, I will only speak about the phone with the flip removed, but I guess some of this would apply to phone with flip. (on a side note, I used my P900 for almost 3 years WITH flip, and now I decided to try the alternative... not bad at all!).

So, on with the ranting and wishing...

To sum it up: why can't we customize the hardware buttons more?! And I mean MUCH more!?
For a start, the ones that CAN be customized (MULTIMEDIA and NET) should have more options in doing so.
And what about the other ones?
The BACK button becomes useless when you reach the standby screen (there's no "going back" no more...), so you should be able to assign some function to it in that situation (launch application, call voicemail, turn on speakerphone, etc, etc).
The CAMERA button is a waste of effort because you still have to open the lens cover to use it as the camera shutter button, so why not be able to assign some other function to it when the camera app is NOT LOADED!?
Even the QWERTY keyboard is under-used when not in a text input situation... OK, most keys will summon Contacts when held down, and SPACE will summon Phone, but there so many other wasted keys there!

Of course, the ideal situation would be the possibility to customize the hardware buttons on an application basis... All applications... And if not all, at least for some major functions this should be possible (meaning: all buttons would have some function when the Phone app was on, and then another set of functions when in MediaPlayer, and another in Camera, for instance...).
Heck, I would welcome ANY improvment in the customizability of the hardware buttons in flip removed mode... The difference in usability would be enormous! And mind you, I'm a guy who really likes using the stylus, hence the flip removed...

Oh well, I guess that's it... I think that either SE or some 3rd party developer could/should look into this. I remember in my P900 I had a very nice app called KeyMapper that addressed this same issue.

What do you guys think? Any other ideas?
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Posted: 2006-09-10 12:54:18
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Sorry for the double post! Moderators, please delete the other one...
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Posted: 2006-09-10 13:35:55
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Any thoughts at all?
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Posted: 2006-09-12 13:18:43
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i guess the keymapper thing might be created for the 990 eventually as it took a good while before it was available for the px00.

you might find it comes as part of some other software if they spot how to do it - i forget now but there was something like sman that also did it as a spin off feature.

im kinda the other way around - i have always used my p800/p900/p910i without a flip, and im not looking forward to having a whole raft of buttons in front of me. i love the p910i's massive screen, with no keys to press.
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Posted: 2006-09-12 13:22:20
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It also annoys me that you cant customise the applications on the stand by screen, you can do it on the m600i. For me thats the deciding factor between flip on and flip off...it just takes too many presses to enter the messaging app.
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Posted: 2006-09-12 13:34:02
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your gonna see a real slow down in the creation of 3rd party apps an games for this handset as its based on Symbian 9.1... theres a new security measure built into the OS and this is causing probs as all progs have to be symbian signed to work fully!!!

How do i know this? Well i have been using a Nokia N73 for bout a month now an Nokia users are having these probs and this handset as well as a few more r based on the same Symbian version an research has come back to say the above... So jus hold tight an lets see what happens!
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Posted: 2006-09-12 18:21:19
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@ Gabster:
Yeah I agree... but again, customizing the hardware buttons would let you choose a more convenient way to access, say, the messaging app!

@ Andy_P:
Actually, the reason I decided to switch to flip removed was the realisation that the ONLY things I did with my P900 without opening the flip were: making a call, accepting a call, and reading sms. I've always been a stylus lover for everything else, and so far I'm not disappointed in my choice! Why have a much more bulky device just to perform 3 actions (even though they're basic ones...) ? Furthermore, for those basic tasks, one-handed/hardware-only use is great. It's all a matter of combining qwerty keyboard (input number, search contact, swith on phone app) and jogdial (accept call, terminate call). Even the handling of sms is quite possible and easy...
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Posted: 2006-09-14 15:50:44
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Hearing that it will be a long while before 3rd party tweaks are released because they have to be digitally signed is the icing on the cake for me.

Everything mentioned in the first post of this thread are excellent ideas but why does it take a member of the public to realise this? Should SE use their common sense and come up with these ideas independantly when designing the phone or do they have crap software engineers? It frustrates me. We should not have to want these extra things. They should be in the phone from the start.

Argh!
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Posted: 2006-09-14 16:21:55
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Quote:
....though they're basic ones...) ? Furthermore, for those basic tasks, one-handed/hardware-only use is great. It's all a matter of combining qwerty keyboard (input number, search contact, swith on phone app) and jogdial (accept call, terminate call). Even the handling of sms is quite possible and easy...


How do you perform firmware updates with flip removed? ... since the "c" button needs to be pressed in order to start the process....??
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Posted: 2006-09-14 16:43:36
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I'd guess at pressing the 'C' key on the keyboard?
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Posted: 2006-09-14 16:56:33
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