Apt 2.0

Apt 2.0

jibanes 03 Mar 2009 12:25

Apt 2.0 was released earlier today, there's a few minor changes:

- It's now entirely free.
- It can be downloaded here
- Version 3.0 will be a major rewrite, I welcome your ideas, first, I'll prioritize items in the todo list, and later implement a scripting language, which, hopefully, will make automated tasks easier.

Sincerely,
Jerome Ibanes

Last edited on 03 Mar 2009 12:32 by jibanes Show more

Re: Apt 2.0

technical1 02 Sep 2009 15:48

Jerome,

I just had an idea, based on a long standing annoyance I've had w/Blazer or Web on my Centro.

It seems that if I inadvertantly press the Green call button while entering text, I get immediately escorted out of the screen for email / forum posting & get the contacts app running… since Apt does not have anything assigned to this hardware key, it might be nice if it could be included - if for no other purpose than to be able to disable that key in a given application (rather than including whatever amount of code it would take to use it as a trigger to do other things like launch apps, etc.) & Web / Blazer would certainly be the first place I'd use it…. I've lost so many emails-in-draft b/c I accidentally hit the Green phone h/w key….

Can Apt be made to do something like this?

Thanks in advance,

technical1

Re: Apt 2.0

technical1 (guest) 03 Mar 2009 16:23

Jerome,

Welcome to Apt!

I am excited that you have taken over where Pent left off & that we will be getting more development of this fine app.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Pretty please, for us Treo users, (I love my Centro) see if you can add other 'types' of triggers like OptKey+letters, ShiftKey+letters, MenuKey+letters (maybe lock release triggers too, but that may be a bit of overkill at this point). As it is, the only Treo oriented triggers are Opt+HrdKey & there are obviously only 4 of those, even w/the ability to have 0 Opt+Hrd1, 1 Opt+Hrd1, etc. Adding Opt+LetterKeys etc., will give much more flexibility & power to Apt if we can assign triggers with Shift+LetterKey, Opt+LetterKey, Menu+LetterKey combinations. Now that 'standalone' PDA's have been EOL'ed by Palm, use of Treos will obviously increase (who knows what will be w/the Pre, it hasn't been released yet & not all cell providers will have it until after 2009).

1a. Please see if you can add per-instance exceptions for key (or key-combo) triggers that users will define, b/c other "already existing-on-user's device apps" can require use of certain key combos & the only solution is to try to tweak Apt Priority in Menu->Settings, which would affect all other apps; so this seems like it would be a good solution - to have the ability to disable i.e. (Opt+) AnyGivenLetterKey in a given app, so that the 'hard-coded into the pre-existing app' default will still work & we won't have to play with tweaking; or have to bite the bullet & partially or totally disable Apt for that app…

I am using " (*) Let Fill Name " in Datebk6 to pop up a list of apps w/names that have the 1st letter of whichever letter I press… but in some app, there might be some letter-press hard-coded into the app that might conflict w/Apt…

2. I don't have specifics to recall, (but you can always check the forums here & 1src.com forums & search there on "lock" in Apt-related threads) it would probably pay to take a look at lock Center key & Center + other key combos; Pent & I had lots of fun w/those.

Also, I'm unclear on how long to Press 'n Hold the combo of Opt+HrdKey to release the lock trigger if I use the following: 2 Opt+Hrd2 ? It seems that the " _ " dialog button pops up, but does not simply release the lock, it waits to see if you will hold it down for any more time & then gives you an X to show that you entered an incorrect trigger. Maybe it'd be best to limit lock release triggers to key &/or Opt+key combos & to disable the Press 'n Hold, 'cause the time thing is imho too critical to be of practical use….

'nuff said for now, I'll keep playing w/the new version.

Final recommendation (for this post anyway), you should try to get forum announcements about the new version & your acquisition of Apt on 1src.com & mytreo.net

All the best & I look forward to lots of beta testing of the new version(s), & I wish you & Apt good success.

technical1

Re: Apt 2.0

technical1 (guest) 03 Mar 2009 16:27

Oops, forgot to mention in the beginning of comment #2 above that I am talking about lock trigger releases…. sorry. Don't know why I wasn't automatically logged in, I am a registered user of this forum & Firefox has this stuff saved…

technical1

Re: Apt 2.0

jibanes 03 Mar 2009 16:38

"As it is, the only Treo oriented triggers are Opt+HrdKey & there are obviously only 4 of those, even w/the ability to have 0 Opt+Hrd1, 1 Opt+Hrd1, etc. Adding Opt+LetterKeys etc., will give much more flexibility & power to Apt if we can assign triggers with Shift+LetterKey, Opt+LetterKey, Menu+LetterKey combinations."

I have never thought about that, but that's an interesting idea, but I have to ask first, have you tried to use strokes? I use Apt on my Centro and T|X and automated some tasks to be launched whenever a stroke is performed and this appears, at least to me, to be a better solution. I will look into the keyboard option however.

Jerome

Re: Apt 2.0

technical1 03 Mar 2009 21:35

Jerome, thanks for the speedy reply. I love it when developers are responsive. I have to admit, that since my TX days are over, I have left the idea of using strokes behind; the Treo has been known to be a 'no need to use the stylus' platform. I have even bought an app that allowed me to hilight text using the keybd, rather than stylus (TopSelecText by Ranosoft). It is much easier to let the keybd do the walking…. ;-)

Also, I have to admit that I didn't get too much success out of using strokes on the TX & the Opt+key, Shift+key, Menu+key combos can give lots more & do it in a much more methodical fashion (read user-friendly, it's easier to remember key combos than stroke locations, they are kinda amorphous & thus less tangible, but that's just my opinion). But… I will give strokes a shot, just to see how it goes on my Centro w/2.0.

BTW, I submitted & had published a simple announcement about the new, full freeware version & new developer over on Palm Addicts site (Sorry, Jerome, I spelled your handle as jibanez instead of jibanes…, but… the publicity can only help.

Re: Apt 2.0

jason (guest) 03 Mar 2009 21:44

I have to admit, that since my TX days are over, I have left the idea of using strokes behind; the Treo has been known to be a 'no need to use the stylus' platform.

I end up myself using the T|X more than the Centro, mostly because of Wifi; I guess there's no perfect device, there's just perfect users with perfectly understandable (yet different) needs.

I will give strokes a shot, just to see how it goes on my Centro w/2.0.

Well, it doesn't have to be complicated, for instance, I use a stroke which is to slide the stylus from the top right corner to the top left corner, and that takes me to the previous application (sort of DA launcher). And other similar things, I have some other that pop up a RPN calculator, you get the idea.

Jerome Ibanes

Re: Apt 2.0

technical1 05 Mar 2009 15:25

Jerome,

I found that after playing a bit w/Strokes - after leaving them behind w/my old TX, I got the 'handle' of using them on my Centro & it does work for me. Woo hoo! I now have a way to do things that I would have to use stylus for anyway & in a much simpler fashion. I have a new level of functionality & I'm enjoying what Apt can do for me all over again!

For instance, I was able to uninstall the PowerHero shortcuts for things like 'toggle IR, & Brightness, & phone on/off'; so I save a little RAM (every byte helps) & get simpler functionality. So using Apt Strokes is doing it better for me.

Other point: Why would wifi on TX be better than internet on Centro? I can only guess it is a cost thing, but in my area wifi is pitiful.

Anyway, thanks for re-opening my eyes to the benefits of Strokes in Apt & I'll look forward to more new & good stuff fm Apt whenever you get it out the door & feel free to enlist my Apt beta testing experience…

Last edited on 05 Mar 2009 15:29 by technical1 Show more

Re: Apt 2.0

jibanes 05 Mar 2009 18:31

I found that after playing a bit w/Strokes - after leaving them behind w/my old TX […]

Strokes can certainly save a lot of time, Apt also has an option to keep them visible which helps tremendously.

Other point: Why would wifi on TX be better than internet on Centro? I can only guess it is a cost thing, but in my area wifi is pitiful.

I don't have a data plan on my T-mobile account, just a personal choice.

Thank you for your feedback!
Jerome

Re: Apt 2.0

Pent 03 Mar 2009 16:43

Hey t1, give the poor guy a chance to settle in and get comfortable :-)

Edit: I also had to relog to post BTW.

Pent

Last edited on 03 Mar 2009 16:43 by Pent Show more

Re: Apt 2.0

technical1 03 Mar 2009 21:42

Pent,

I DID give him a chance to settle in & get comfortable.

In the first line I welcomed Jerome, then gave positive feedback about how he has "taken the ball & started to run with it" & then I wrote only a couple of suggestions - which he did ask for in the 1src forum - & I quote: "Please don't hesitate to give us a constructive feedback and let us know how you use Apt" & most significantly, I only wrote a few relatively short paragraphs!!! ;-)

What's a beta-tester who's been having withdrawal pangs to do?

All the best,

technical1

Last edited on 03 Mar 2009 21:48 by technical1 Show more

Re: Apt 2.0

ChasTreo (guest) 05 Mar 2009 22:16

Just to add to the strokes items above.

I use Graffiti Anywhere on my Treo 680 so that I can write on the screen. This tends to make using strokes within APT difficult.

I did play around with a stroke to turn off GA, so that I could then turn it off, make an APT stroke and have APT turn GA back on during a macro. However the Turn Off stoke sometimes caused a reset due to GA losing the ink/stroke.

APT on my 680 tells me my "device does not support this feature" if I tap the Graffiti button in Prefs, even if I have GA installed and On, I assume this is correct ?

But APT is quite happily lets me tap DIA & Orient, even thought they are not possible with the 320*320 hardware?

Looking forward to updates :)

Re: Apt 2.0

freddy (guest) 06 Mar 2009 20:18

I tried APT 2.0 on my LifeDrive. I have just one issue.
I configured a long center button press to switch off my device.
After that a short center button press in ZLauncher did not do what it did before (position to the upper left application-icon with the possibility to choose applications with the nav-buttons).
I tried to override this with target ZLauncher but without success. Both features together did not work.
Did I oversee something?

Re: Apt 2.0

ChasTreo (guest) 07 Mar 2009 09:56

re ZLauncher problem.

You need to disable the Apt setting for your Centre button while in ZLauncher

Try, in Apt make a 'profile' for ZLauncher and try:
Cntr Apt T- Cntr

Would that work?, not sure but give it a try.

Re: Apt 2.0

freddy (guest) 13 Mar 2009 20:50

re ZLauncher problem.

Thanks you for the tip. Unfortunately it did not help.

I tried to disable the Cntr-Button-Trigger for Z-Launcher but it did not change anything.
If I switch off all triggers for ZLauncher (Prefs+), the Cntr-Button starts working in ZLauncher. But that does not make any sense, because I want to use APT in ZLauncher as well.

If I disable the short-press for the Cntr-Button at all for ZLauncher
0 Cntr -
the Cntr-Button starts working in ZLauncher. But the long-Press does not switch off the device even if I define a long press trigger for ZLauncher.

Re: Apt 2.0

Keng (guest) 20 Mar 2009 08:41

On my TT3, button setting for navigation key left, right and center are not functioning, other keys are working properly.

Re: Apt 2.0

technical1 20 Mar 2009 16:05

Keng,

Is that for all apps? What kind of settings do you have set in your Apt.db? I guess they are working when Apt is not enabled, right?

Please advise.