Notices

Handful, I was wondering if it might be possible to at least consider for future versions making the scrollbars in song mode actually work. Right now they seem to be just for looks, I guess so you can have a visual idea of how large lists are, but you still have to scroll through the list manually. This is a pain for long lists! Do you think that the scrollbar can be made real, or at least have the option for it in future versions? That's actually probably one of my biggest gripes with Canola so far.

CyberCat:

We were experimenting with this (in the first release) you could more or less touch here.
But they are really not scrollbars. they are just indicators of what you have.

We have a different idea for this problem, maybe you guys will like.. maybe you will hate.. but the thing is that we don't want to fall into the regular OS problems:
how to make a usable finger scrollbar without using ridiculous fat area for that?

That's the reason behind the kinetic.. not mimic iphone or something.

But the kinetics does bring problems about browsing through huge lists, for that we will have more or less a "track bar" on the bottom where you can :

Jump alphabetically to any point (if the list is alphabetically order) or just a track bar to jump to any point.. Also give you in the last item, some icons to jump for the beginning of the list etc.

I know you can always ask "Why? why not do just the simple scrollbar?"

Well, =) why be just like the normal UI if the concept is completely different?

=)

BR

as for me, portait mode for canola, as well for other apps would be great, however not every app needs portait mode.

as for one hand operation -> i'm afraid i have to agree with handful, i cannot fully operate my n800 with one hand+thumb. i just cannot handle it safely enough, i'm afraid it could slip out of my hand.

That might be the case with the N800, I didn't consider that. The N810 seems to have no problems though.

I agree and like the idea - Canola is reaaly shaping up well, and the UI is so intuitive, and yet so fresh. Just sticking with old notions of scrollbars (and menus) - why ? Its nice to see a fresh idea which works as easily or better than the old ones.

One suggestions - since I like the clean screen model of Canola - can the track bar at bottom be a hidden widget, so if user clicks on the bottomm area of screen (maybe a small arrow or finger to indicate pointing area to indicate a hidden widget), then the track bar pops up at the bottom, with the alpha listing etc. This is so that for users with small song lists (like me), we can stick to the clean interface as it is now, and if needed popup the track bar widget as required by a simple click.

Just a suggestion... Marcello, I want you to do as you think best - since so far I am a very happy camper with Canola's UI decisions.

Yes, am using a N810, and holding it in portait mode one-handed is as easy as anything, and well balanced in the hand too.

I would ceratinly love to see Canola in portrait also.

Hi Nil,

Yes, indeed that's why is taking so long, how to do it without blowing up... and most important, in a vertical list.. how to make it without making it look strange when scrolling something in vertical you have one indicator going up and down and other left - right.

: /

you know on the subject of kinetic scrollbar, it really isnt much of a choice, imo, because a scrollbar in the corner is nuch harder to scroll with, in general, the kinetic scrolling allows you to go through long list more easily and more pleasantly, and on the topic of a portrait style, its almost not an option to have anything else, as anything else would be a hassle looking through long lists, and things other than playlists (which btw i'm still wondering about a bit)
the kinetic scrolling is just the smart decision, personaly i have used WinMo, and Palm, Symbian(and others on phones) and they are much harder to work with because scrolling is a pain, kinetic scrolling allows you to just go through to find a song you want to listen to, without knowing before hand what it is, and if you do know, then you can jump to it, with a quick swipe. the track bar seems like something that would almost be required to use w/out kinetic, but when put together as you would here, they compliment each other so well, (wow it took a long time to get to that point)

side note about the portrait thing, try FBreader with a book sideways, it can be a little hard to read, so remember that you have a trade off, keep the same size text and see partial, or have it scroll across, or make the size smaller. that of course only applies to some people

another side note i guess, i think hiden widget does it well, for the trackbar that is, or at least thats what i think your talking about, but i may be wrong, and the undertaking of making canola portrait is no simple business, and in fact is very difficult in my opinion, but nonetheless i hope that you will endure and follow through with the idea

good luck

EDIT:
i dreged this up from somwhere

i notice the 5th icon...

Yeah, and it's in final test stage =) The guys are trying to make it find most of the upnp servers, boot fast.. and be stable of course..

And the best thing for the OS enthusiasts: fully open source =)

About the portrait mode.. yes.. there's a lot of small things to take care, and just "doing" can be a bit of a tragedy. (now that I have actually runned across my old designs again). The home menu is the first thing that would be needed to change to s aimsple grid. (too much iphone -like argh) but there's no other way to go, but in the player, and other views we would need to change the tabs to up and down, fit small titles to the top... re-organize a lot of screens that only make sense because of it's widescreen factor...

But of course, there are solutions for all those problems.. the problem is lack of time.. and of course : the software get's slower and we cannot afford that now =) we want faster not slower =)

Anyways.. I got your point... and I agree with it..

got my point... hmm, i was wondering if that was possible, cause there was a lot of pointless ranting, but its nice to see someone has done it

well, i understand, and i think i may have mentioned that somewhere, i wish you good luck, and i think you should have an open forum, for ideas