Undocumented feature? Hidden button between scroll wheel and home button? - Page 2

dvdmon · #11 (**permalink**) 01-07-2009, 03:51 PM

auto_exec and stanglifemike: no offense taken.

cozboogie: all of two small responses requires a plea to get back on topic?

RicoRich196: Yeah, this might have helped, but I'm not going to be looking at some picture of the phone to figure out where stuff was, why couldn't HTC provide these on the phone itself. Actually, though, they are so close to the scroll wheel/dpad that I'm not sure they would have indicated to me to press a decent amount AWAY from the dpad...

orlandojumpoff · #12 (**permalink**) 01-07-2009, 04:27 PM

i too pressed around the circle at first cause it was a completely different form factor than the mogul... so i tried to make sense of it by associating where it would be on my old phone. a couple hours later i just got curious and started pressing everything on my phone and stumbled upon it... a day later i learned exactly how the capacitive panel works..
you're not the only one, i've seen threads where people didn't know either...
i would have hated it if we had to click close to the ring...
I bet it makes using the dpad so much easier now for u!

wavezero · #13 (**permalink**) 01-07-2009, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dole

the bottom portion of the screen (with hard keys) is capacitive, which means it can tell where you're pressing on the bottom portion and (i believe) it's just not hardware switches right underneath the home/back/call/end "button" on the screen. so when you press the home, call or left "buttons" on the left side, it's pressing the same button and it can tell if your finger's between the home and call buttons and interprets it as a "left". if you want to press "left", you're better off staying farther away from the rim of the center button than you think (especially for palm converts). rich's pic above was the one i wanted to find and reference. interesting the "arrow" goes all the way to the sides, though, didn't know that.

check the following link, may also explain things a little bit...
http://www.engadget.com/2008/08/20/h...t-not-how-you/

This is great. And with no technial knowledge of this but just experience, I would second this claim. I've known that the ring is a arrow d-pad the whole time, but have had a heck of a time getting the left and right to work properly (up and down was never a problem). Whenever trying to go left or right I would always inadvertantly hit the select (center) button. After reading this post- he's right, you can click almost directly between the home and call or back and end and it will treat it as a left or right. Very helpful!!

**chronster** · #14 (**permalink**) 01-07-2009, 04:37 PM

I actually had issues with my dpad for a little while. I thought it only did up and down, which was extremely odd.Tturns out, up and down worked best for me simply because of the design. They are close to the center button only because space permits it. The left and right respond much better when you go out farther, and not right outside the center circle. So for instance, go all the way to the right, and press directly in between the back arrow, and hang up button. It's so much easier to go right this way.

I know to some people this sounds amazingly retarded, but seriously, the dpad is poorly constructed and at first, it's most basic functions don't feel obvious.

tn_friend · #15 (**permalink**) 01-07-2009, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvdmon

Maybe I've been pressing the Dpad in the wrong spot all along then? I've been pressing basically right on the circle part. I guess that's why I keep having problems scrolling up and down in certain things. This makes a lot of sense. I just wish that it was a bit more obvious! They could have put dark gray arrow marks where the up/down/right/left buttons are supposed to be... Am I the only one who's been under the wrong assumption that I was?

Thanks for the info.......i thought my Dpad was not working right, I had no idea that you had to push left and right so far away, and up and down close to the Dpad.

r1_rydah · #16 (**permalink**) 01-07-2009, 04:49 PM

you guys really are nicer than the folks on other forums, a question like this would get answered on other boards, but they would have definitely given the o/p the business lol

dvdmon · #17 (**permalink**) 01-07-2009, 05:11 PM

Wow, this IS great info!

So here's a question for everyone. Would you prefer to have it so that you could press the dpad, and all the "hard" buttons in the same way as you press the screen - with a minimum level of force? I think for me that would be much preferrable that having to apply all the force I do now. Or maybe slightly more force. The current full press is just clunky to me. It would be one thing if these were INDIVIDUAL hard buttons that you could discern, but you are basically pressing one button and it only determins what to do based on where your finger happens to be. Usually that'll be enough, but it just feels bad to me compared to pressing a discernable button (or a touch screen).

n8mack33 · #18 (**permalink**) 01-07-2009, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orlandojumpoff

i too pressed around the circle at first cause it was a completely different form factor than the mogul... so i tried to make sense of it by associating where it would be on my old phone. a couple hours later i just got curious and started pressing everything on my phone and stumbled upon it... a day later i learned exactly how the capacitive panel works..
you're not the only one, i've seen threads where people didn't know either...
i would have hated it if we had to click close to the ring...
I bet it makes using the dpad so much easier now for u!

I had the exact same experience. I bet there are loads of people who don't know how to use the left and right buttons. I had a tough time figuring it out and thought my left button wasn't working at first because the right one seemed to work fine. But I was clicking way to close to the center button.