Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on December 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Vista’s Flip3D is one of the most notable features, and something you frequently see in demonstrations of the operating system. It presents a unique way to flip between your open applications, and for the longest time I didn’t think it would ever make me more productive. I was proven wrong when Logitech launched a new version of their SetPoint software that gave their mice a quick way to launch Flip3D without needing a keyboard shortcut.

I ran into a problem, however, when I was using my laptop’s Touchpad mouse which didn’t have such capabilities. It left me yearning for a way to launch Flip3D from my Touchpad so that I wouldn’t have to touch the keyboard, and after thinking about it for a minute I got an idea! Using AutoHotKey I could doing something similar to my middle-click Touchpad script.

Note: Vista is required for this to work. It is not a Flip3D clone or anything of that nature!

So what do you need to get it working? Download Mouse Flip3D and run it. There’s nothing to install, and the only indication of it running will be a Vista-like Orb in the System Tray. Anytime you press and hold the left mouse button, and then press the right mouse button you should see Flip3D come up:

If you want the program to start with Vista just copy it into your Startup folder, and you should be all set! Here are a few pointers on why this is great and how exactly the script works:

• One of the reasons that I never thought Flip3D was productive was because of how much time it takes to shuffle through all of the windows to find the one you want. With the mouse that is obsolete because you can click on any of the windows to bring it to the front! Go ahead and try it, and you’ll see just how fast it really is.
• If you decide that you still want to flip through the windows just use the scroll wheel on your mouse or Touchpad. Alternatively you can hit the Tab key to shuffle through the windows, and use Enter key to select the foremost application.
• You may not have realized it, but there are two different ways that you can launch Flip3D from the keyboard. The WinKey+Tab is the standard way that most people know about, but you can also launch it using Ctrl+WinKey+Tab. The difference between the two is that using the Control key makes Flip3D remain open until you click on one of the windows. That’s what we ended up using for the script. For the code junkies out there here is the entire AutoHotKey script for launching Flip3D with the mouse:
  

  ~LButton & RButton::send, {lwin down}{lctrl down}{tab}{lwin up}{lctrl up}

Some mouse gestures that you use, such as navigating forward in Opera, may not work because of the overlapping shortcut that is used for this script. Personally I’d rather have Flip3D at my finger tips than anything else, so I was willing to sacrifice that mouse shortcut.

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Related Posts:

AltTab Mouse ShortcutHow To Get The Flip3D Feature In Windows XPMicrosoft Redesigns The Windows Vista SiteHelpful Tip: Use a Keyboard to Move the MouseHelpful Tip: Right-Click in Boot Camp

Hardly the most exciting Palm news you’re gonna hear this week, but the company that still owns itself for the time being has just updated its WebOS software on Verizon to the extremely granular version 1.4.1.1. The helpful changelog informs us there are no new apps, but pinch-zoom now works correctly in Doc and PDF views, a lag in the camera shutter sound has been rectified, and forwarding videos uploaded to YouTube on to your friends via email has also been made to work as it should. The most important fix of all, though, is to a keyboard input issue whereby a single key press would generate a letter twice — both Pre Central and one of our readers report that this problem appears to have been consigned to the past. Good stuff, now let’s see it go global, shall we?

[Thanks, subzero and Sam F.]

WebOS 1.4.1.1 now available for Verizon subscribers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has friends in powerful places: The company has inked a patent licensing deal with Microsoft. The move will allow HTC to continue using the Google-designed Android operating system in its phones while mitigating its risk should Microsoft aim any patent lawsuits at the OS.

Microsoft and HTC did not disclose specific details of the agreement but they have said HTC will pay Microsoft an undisclosed sum for the patent rights.

“The license agreement itself isn’t as interesting as the fact that Microsoft chose to publicize it,” says Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, a research and consulting firm that focuses entirely on Microsoft. Microsoft has more than 600 licensing agreements relating to its patents.

Rosoff says the patent agreement is a signal that Microsoft is a company to reckon with in the smartphone business. It also suggests that Microsoft and HTC are likely to continue working together, he says.

“They want to let everyone know that Microsoft and HTC are partners and HTC is going to continue to create Windows Mobile-based devices,” says Rosoff.

HTC’s meteoric rise as a cellphone handset maker has largely been attributed to the company’s big bet on Android. HTC created the first Android phone for T-Mobile and Google, and the Nexus One phone that is directly sold by Google. HTC is one of Android’s biggest cheerleaders with more than six Android devices in its portfolio.

The rise of Android has also come at the expense of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform. And while HTC still produces Windows Mobile phones, they are fewer in comparison to its Android devices.

Meanwhile, HTC’s close relationship with Google’s Android OS caught the attention of Apple. Last month, Apple sued HTC alleging infringement of the former’s 20-odd patents relating to user interface and touch. That lawsuit was widely seen as an indirect hit against Google.

The patent agreement with Microsoft is unlikely to help HTC in its battle with Apple, says Allen Nogee, principal analyst for research firm In-Stat.

“There are two separate issues here,” says Nogee. “Apple’s lawsuit against HTC is largely about the user interface and use of touch, while Microsoft is concerned with the software stack used in the smartphone OS.”

In the past, Microsoft has said that companies that use Linux-based operating systems infringe on some of Microsoft’s patents. But it has never really disclosed details of its patents, says Rosoff.

Android, which is a Linux-based operating system, could pose similar patent-related issues, which is why HTC and Microsoft may have entered into an agreement, he says.

As smartphones get more powerful and turn into handheld computers, the software holds the key to the device, says Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing.

“Now the industry is in the process of sorting out what royalties will be for the software stack, which now represents the principal value proposition for smartphones,” he says in a blog post.

“In the next few years, as the IP situation settles in this space and licensing takes off, we will see the patent royalties applicable to the smartphone software stack settle at a level that reflects the increasing importance software has as a portion of the overall value of the device,” says Gutierrez.

Microsoft is also talking to other handset makers about its “concerns relative to the Android mobile platform,” he says. Motorola and Sony Ericsson better be prepared to hear Microsoft knock on their doors.

Photo: avlxyz/Flickr

See Also:

• T-Mobile, Garmin Announce New Android Phone
• AT&T Plans 5 Android Smartphones in 2010
• Android Fragmentation Declines, But Older Versions Still Rule
• New Phones Still Sold With Old Versions of Android
• Strapped to Android, HTC Takes a Dizzying Ride to the Top

Who says down necessarily means out? Despite our qualms with the JooJoo tablet, it looks as if the startup is pushing forward with plans to expand availability beyond US borders, as the Fusion Garage order page now clearly states that orders are being accepted from those with addresses in Europe and the Great White North. There’s no exact ship date listed for either of those nations (we’re guessing it’ll depart within 24 to 48 business hours), but pricing is pegged at $499 CAD with free shipping for our northerly neighbors, while those in Europe are being asked to pay €359 ($473) plus €13 ($17) in shipping fees. As to those user experience shortcomings, Chandra Rathakrishnan promises us a “robust software update” in short order that will apparently eliminate many of the widely reported problems with the device. You’ll be justified in retaining your reservations, but some hope is better than none, we suppose.

JooJoo now available in Europe and Canada, new firmware promised ‘shortly’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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An update to Simplenote, the iPhone note-taking application, has finally added a way to keep files in sync between your computer and your iPad. It will only work for plain text files, and only on a Mac (there is a semi-workaround for other platforms), but given those limitations it’s a seamless and easy way to make sure you are always working on the same copy of a file. Better still, it is free.

It’s inexplicable that Apple has not made it easy to keep files synchronized across devices. iWork is available for both Mac and iPad, and iWork.com should surely be the glue between them. But, if you try to shift a document back and forth between computer and iPad, you end up with a bunch of incremental almost-duplicates. Until Apple fixes this (and remember, it took two years to add copy-and-paste to the iPhone), then third parties will have to do the job. Here’s how.

First, get Simplenote for iPhone and iPad (it works on both). Set up your sync account from within the app. Then download the excellent, and recently resuscitated Notational Velocity for the Mac and input your sync details there, too. The two apps are made for each other, and are very similar. In both, you make plain text notes (NV will also do rich text and HTML), and they are stored in a very fast database. Search is instantaneous, and the interfaces are so pared down that you’d think Apple made them. Follow the links below to find out more about Simplenote. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you should download it now.

But so what, right? Why is this different from any other iPhone note-syncing app? Two things. One, a proper iPad version of Simplenote went live today and two, Notational Velocity lets you keep all those notes as plain or rich text files in a folder on your Mac (in the Preferences, Notes, Storage tab). This is big because you can point the application at any folder and it will use that for its home, using those files as your synced “notes”. And sure, you can work on them from within Notational Velocity for lightning-fast search and creation, but you can also use any text editor of your choice to edit these files and, when saved, the changes are instantly added to NV and end up back on your iPad upon your next (automatic) sync.

Simplenote’s update is notable for the lack of added features. You get the now-familiar two-pane list-and-document view in landscape orientation, with a popover of the notes list in portrait-view. Aside from a few bug fixes (and new bugs – note titles with a hash-tag at the front will crash the app) that’s it. Existing Simplenote users will be very happy.

If you use anything except a Mac, you can access your notes on the computer via a web-browser. It’s nowhere near as elegant, but better than nothing.

To finish, here’s an example of how neat this can all be. I could start my work day skimming news feeds on the iPad and then start drafting posts in Simplenote. When I finally drag my lazy ass out of bed, I wake up my Mac and open up these new files, fresh and ready, in TextMate, my editor of choice. Every time I save, the file drifts back across the the iPad (and iPhone), ready should I decide I need to go work on a park bench (my local park has free Wi-Fi, amazingly).

Sure, it would be nice to have this for pictures, Word Docs and everything else, but it’s a start. And like Instapaper and TextExpander, two other great cross-platform utilities, it seems likely that developers will work amongst themselves to make their apps play nice with each other. Oh, talking of TextExpander, did I mention that Simplenote supports it? I didn’t? It does.

Simplenote for iPad/iPhone [iTunes]

Notational Velocity [Notational]

See Also:

• Simplenote Update Finally Syncs iPhone Notes With Mac
• Hands On: iPhone Note Taking Apps Improve, But Still Not Ready …
• Preview: Instapaper Pro for iPad
• Instapaper: A $5 App That Justifies Your iPhone Purchase