Comments on new version of "KeyguardTime+" ?

[tmt]

I've almost completed the prototype of my significant update to KeyguardTime (see thread here).

This new version will have a new name: "KeyguardTime+", but it will otherwise be a drop-in replacement for the original. It will work on both the Treo600 and Treo650, and it now has a graphical banner to show the status of key hardware.

The big new feature is the ability to map the popup display onto a button! I think people will really like this, since it's something that only the older CLockPop5 supports. The mapping can happen as a "sticky" function after a press, or a "pop" function which disappears after releasing the button. Pretty cool.

Currently, for the button I'm supporting Side (on the 650 only of course), Mail or Date. It could support others, for instance Phone, but this would cause the clock to pop up before going to the phone function. Would that be interesting anyway?

Here's a screenshot of the new prototype. I'm soliciting comments and/or suggestions. It should be ready for a first release sometime soon. Thanks!

(edit) OBTW - freeware, of course. 



For a little background, here is the text from the builtin "tips":

KeyguardTime is a Treo 600/650 popup which graphically shows the current date and time, along with the status of key Treo hardware, for a short period each time the device is powered on. With KeyguardTime, your Treo displays the time with the push of a key!

This version of KeyguardTime graphically displays the status of the following Treo hardware:

 o Battery level (percent or volts)
 o Phone on/off and signal level
 o Ringer/speaker mute status
 o SD card present
 o Infrared beaming enabled
 o Bluetooth enabled

The KeyguardTime display is an overlay for whatever screen is displayed on the Treo. So, you can see its display no matter what application is active. Also the Treo's keyguard does not cover the information when it appears.

This version of KeyguardTime can also be configured to pop up when the Treo's "side key" is pressed. It can display until you touch the screen or a key, or until the side key is released. In either case, when the popup is done, the Treo returns to the screen that was interrupted.

Settings are available on the page you used to bring up this help. Once enabled, KeyguardTime runs in the background and pops up as you like it. It requires no further interaction.

You can selectively enable the digital clock, analog clock and date indicators. The color of these display components can be changed to your liking.

Try setting the Digital Clock and "Day/month/year" to "<none>" for a graphical clock with Treo hardware status! Or, try setting the Analog Clock to "<none>" for a text-oriented digital display. There are sample presets available with the "menu" button.

KeyguardTime was originally written by "Palm Dev Software" but is no longer maintained by its author. This version was patched and significantly enhanced by TMT for the Treo 600/650, it extends many of the original program's functions and settings. Look for updates at http://mytreo.net.

[Tadd]

looks like great work...cant' wait to try it!

[MrByte]

Nice... when? when ?   

 .... and Congrats for the new Title

[Alli]

Need some beta testers?  Huh?  Huh? 

[100thMonkey]

its gonna be sooooo good

[e9]

Looks fantastic! Can't wait to dispose of ClockPop5.

Regarding the phone buttons, why not?  I have CP5 mapped to it, I never manually turn on/off the phone, and if one doesn't want to use it they don't have to.  My vote is to make all the hardware buttons mappable.

Update

How about these suggestions?

* Option to center either or both time graphics on the screen
* Option to place banner at bottom of screen
* Option to include next appointment/task as part of the popup

[tmt]

* Option to center either or both time graphics on the screen
* Option to place banner at bottom of screen
* Option to include next appointment/task as part of the popup

Good ideas! BTW, OK on the phone button. Maybe I can fit in some others too like volume, etc.

Centering the graphics - that's actually supported already, if you turn off one of the time options the other one moves over to center. Some screenshots below demonstrate.

Banner at the bottom - I considered putting it there, and it looks great but the problem is that Keyguard covers it up! If it's moved up to avoid this, then there isn't a lot of room and it looks ridiculous if Keyguard isn't there. I'm thinking maybe in a followon I could actually override Keyguard in the "show with Keyguard" mode and then moving the banner down would work great. Basically the program would take over the Keyguard functionality.

Next appointment/scheduled task sounds like a good idea. I'll give that some thought.

Here are a couple of ideas I'm thinking of too:

- "Screen saver" mode - when idle, pop up the display and refresh it ~once/minute. Nice for cradle use?

- "Powerup fixer" - if the Treo powers up for no obvious reason (no alarm, no button, etc), make sure it powers off promptly. I'm sick of mine coming on just because the radio signal glitched, and taking a minute or more to power off.

- Battery time estimator - my favorite. I wrote a hack for earlier PalmOS that did this and it was pretty useful. Problem with the Treo is that it isn't as predictable w.r.t power demand, mainly because of the phone. So the estimate might be a little fuzzy.

What do you all think?

-----

Here are the screenshots:

Analog mode (centered clock):


Digital mode (centered clock and date): (oops my hi-res large font attempt needs some tuning!)


The new setup screen:

[MrByte]

I like the idea of the Keyguqrd replacement. The nice thing about Clockpop is actually that it overrides the KG banner, so if you can implement that.....

[Snerdy]

KeyguardTime+

This is seriously awesome.

Perhaps you could make a very simple version of the pop up clock.  I don't know that this would make any differnce, but if the app itself would be smaller then making a version that just, say, pops up the clock and which doesn't show all the other stuff and which doesn't include any of the advanced features (like the "Powerup fixer," should that eventually be included).  Basically, I'd love to have a version that's as svelt and simple as possible.  KeyguardTime-, I guess.

Mostly, though, you totally rock for (essentially) taking over this project.

[e9]

Centering the graphics - that's actually supported already, if you turn off one of the time options the other one moves over to center. ....

Yes, but for the popup for the entire graphic(s) would still appear toward the top of the screen, and not centered vertically.

- "Screen saver" mode - when idle, pop up the display and refresh it ~once/minute. Nice for cradle use?

Great idea.

- "Powerup fixer" - if the Treo powers up for no obvious reason (no alarm, no button, etc), make sure it powers off promptly. I'm sick of mine coming on just because the radio signal glitched, and taking a minute or more to power off.

Great idea.

- Battery time estimator - my favorite. I wrote a hack for earlier PalmOS that did this and it was pretty useful. Problem with the Treo is that it isn't as predictable w.r.t power demand, mainly because of the phone. So the estimate might be a little fuzzy.

Great idea.

What do you all think?

Did I say these are great ideas?

[tmt]

Re KeyguardTime"-" :-) , it's easy but even the new version is only 36KB, and 1/3 of that is bitmaps and strings. I don't expect the features I mentioned to add much more, just a few lines of code, really. I'll think about a "simple mode" though...

[Tadd]

Truly nice work updating this program.  I'm psyched to use it and the free price is a big bonus.

Here are my four wishlist items (forgive me if any of these have been mentioned):

(1)  While in any application, I wish holding down the side button (or optionally one of the hard buttons) would cause the time to present itself.  I'd like the time to display only for as long as the button was held down, and to disappear when the button was released, just like in clockpop5.  I'd like to not leave the program I was originally in. 

(2)  I wish I could optionally have a background that covered the entire screen rather than just the small area around the numbers.  I'd like to be able to black out the screen and have the numbers show up in white, or have a white screen and colored numbers.  The white screen is nice as a flashlight, and also for when the numbers don't show up clearly against whatever backdrop the user might be running.

(3)  I wish the font was smoother.  I always thought about KGT that the font could be cleaner and more attractive. Is it posible to give the user a few choices of fonts?

(4)  Any chance you could show today's calendar items and to do's below the time? 

Keep up the GREAT work!

Cheers

[tmt]

Re button popups, that's what's in this new version. There will be two modes, the one you describe is "hold mode", the screen presents only when the button is held. I also plan to have a "press mode", where the screen appears on pressing the button, then disappears after a pen touch or another button press. Pressing the same button twice will cause the original button function to be executed.

The new version has a full-coverage stippled background, which I think is more readable. The hardware status banner is all-white for visibility of the graphics. I might consider color choices, but I think that might be unnecessary, see what you think...

The font will be smoother on the 650. It's a low-res font in the original, which gets jaggy when scaled. I have tweaked it somewhat. Same look on the 600 though.

Calendar/todo items are a maybe for a followon. See the thread above.

Thanks!

[AllGamer]

This is Great! 

I can't wait to put it on my 650 (as soon as it arrives  )

[albyrne]

All I would ask is the ability to customise not only the colour of the popup text (IE: the digital clock), but also the font style. Perhaps it's just me, but I really don't like the 'shadowed' text effect. It detracts from too much from the readability of the text. I'm just trying to keep my display as clean and simple as possible.

Al