Guest MiG:uK Posted December 20, 2005 Report Posted December 20, 2005 Here is a program i am working on, that will provide step-by-step workings on how to create a QVGA homescreen. no coding is needed and the design will be previewed throughout the making. BG image selection: Author Information: (GUI should change in final release) Right now functionality is the key, and a better GUI will be implemented when the program is stable and creates themes. the program is currently working and can create the early stages of a theme, and mainly now i am looking into adding support for the following plugins: Facade Smartmonitor and any other plugins on request.
Guest w411y Posted December 20, 2005 Report Posted December 20, 2005 (edited) How you gunna go about colour scheme? WM2003 (ie C550) and WM5 (ie c600) would be different? Anyways, keep up the work :) Is it going to be free or not? EDIT: Whats the final product going to be saved as? Edited December 20, 2005 by w411y
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 20, 2005 Report Posted December 20, 2005 (edited) well you see, its pretty easy to implement this sort of design for Wm5 and wm2003 mobiles. i can implement different sets of code based on the users settings, eg whether they want to create a wm5 theme or not. im still debating whether it is going 2 be free or not. the final piece can either be just pictures and xml, or you will be able 2 make a cab file that installs the theme. Edited December 20, 2005 by MiG:uK
Guest w411y Posted December 20, 2005 Report Posted December 20, 2005 Will it support skinning extra screens such as Error, Volume etc?
Guest Jamma14 Posted December 20, 2005 Report Posted December 20, 2005 RJ shortcut and RJ time would be good ones to implement, (I assume you are including all the default ones like calendar, mru etc)?? Looks like it could be v good. Good luck with it. I think if you can implement some of the more advanced features of the third party plugins well, and show it how it'll look on the phone (with bgimages of plugins etc) then you should sell it, as you'll be doing more than ruttensoft ever did. If you need any help with testing or constructive criticism, I'd be glad to help out. :) James
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 20, 2005 Report Posted December 20, 2005 (edited) RJ shortcut and RJ time would be good ones to implement, (I assume you are including all the default ones like calendar, mru etc)?? Looks like it could be v good. Good luck with it. I think if you can implement some of the more advanced features of the third party plugins well, and show it how it'll look on the phone (with bgimages of plugins etc) then you should sell it, as you'll be doing more than ruttensoft ever did. If you need any help with testing or constructive criticism, I'd be glad to help out. icon_wink.gif James all standard plugins will be implemented, and i will try and work on RJ time and RJ shortcut. i am unfamiliar with these plugins so implementing those could provide hard for me. @Wally - i will have a go at implementing start-up screens ect but these are done with regeidts and need to be made as part of a cab installation so ill look into it when the first part of the program is done. @jamma - how much do you think a program like this is worth and how would i go about selling it ? And theme previewing will be done throughout and i am also working on a basic XML viewer for advanced users. EDIT - i will post a beta when the program is first due for a release. Edited December 20, 2005 by MiG:uK
Guest Jamma14 Posted December 20, 2005 Report Posted December 20, 2005 (edited) all standard plugins will be implemented, and i will try and work on RJ time and RJ shortcut. i am unfamiliar with these plugins so implementing those could provide hard for me. @Wally - i will have a go at implementing start-up screens ect but these are done with regeidts and need to be made as part of a cab installation so ill look into it when the first part of the program is done. @jamma - how much do you think a program like this is worth and how would i go about selling it ? And theme previewing will be done throughout and i am also working on a basic XML viewer for advanced users. EDIT - i will post a beta when the program is first due for a release. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well I reckon MoDaCo Fairdeal, and just mention it in the forums and stuff here - you'll be bound to get loads of people wanting it from that, and get a fair percentage of the money that way, without the fuss of doing it through your own site. Also, with the theme previewing, do you think you could try and include previewing with plugins the program doesn't recognise? ie. show the bgimage="" and other common plugin attributes, but highlight the height of the plugin on the preview and write "unknown plugin" or something over the section. This would be really helpful for advanced users. Also if the in the .xml viewer it wasn't just a text viewer but it actually parsed it for errors, telling you the line number etc. and you could + and - the sections in a tree like view. As for RJtime and RJshortcut you can find documentation about them on smartphone.peakin.com. And pricewise if you can include the majority of those features, considering ruttensoft are selling theirs for about £7, I'd sell it at £9.99, as people will appreciate all the extra features. James :) EDIT: On smartphone.net ruttensoft has had 103,905 downloads! So this could be very lucrative for you if you go about it in the right way. One thing I would say is change the GUI. I know it isn't what matters really, but the looks of things like software, phones etc are a big reason into why people buy them and with this you've got a chance to make some big bucks. Also, if you are serious about selling, I'd put some decent copy protection on the software, as it isn't too hard to find versions of ruttensoft floating around. ;) Out of interest what are you writing it in? VB .net?? EDIT 2: Reply to post below: No, if you sell it through fairdeal you get 80% of each sale - £8 a time! When you are a millionaire I think I'll deserve a cut for my sound business advice. :D Edited December 20, 2005 by Jamma14
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 20, 2005 Report Posted December 20, 2005 (edited) thnx for the comments. the xml parser would be kinda hard for me, at the moment im not even using xml, im using techniques that are easier and quicker than writing xml, and i should be able to create and highlight plugins that are shown and added. EDIT - the theme is in xml, just that i dont use the xml features built-into vb.net £10 sounds fair, i mean i would get around £2.50 from each sale im guessing, and 100 sales would give me a decent return. Edited December 20, 2005 by MiG:uK
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 21, 2005 Report Posted December 21, 2005 (edited) Update: - New Colour Screen with preview pane functioning. 8) Edited December 21, 2005 by MiG:uK
Guest Jamma14 Posted December 21, 2005 Report Posted December 21, 2005 Looking good.... I wait with bated breath :)
Guest w411y Posted December 21, 2005 Report Posted December 21, 2005 (edited) Update: - New Colour Screen with preview pane functioning. 8) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Looking good! I think theres more options available for the WM5 colour scheme but Im sure it wouldn't be a problem if you kept it that way. I would suggest using a different image of the C550 in the final GUI. Like the attatched image as it seems to be more of a straight on shot of the c550 Also, would be useful to include a colour picker as some may not be familiar with HEX colour codes. If that proves difficult then just add a link on that GUI for an online HEX colour picker such as -Colour Schemer Online- or -Dougies Colour Picker- Aswell as Jamma if you need another tester Ill be sure to help you out Keep up the work, keep us posted :) EDIT: If Ruttensoft has had 100,000 downloads and you are possibly offering more then lets do some maths... 100,000 x £8 (your share) = £800,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!c550.bmp Edited December 21, 2005 by w411y
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 22, 2005 Report Posted December 22, 2005 Looking good! I think theres more options available for the WM5 colour scheme but Im sure it wouldn't be a problem if you kept it that way. I would suggest using a different image of the C550 in the final GUI. Like the attatched image as it seems to be more of a straight on shot of the c550 Also, would be useful to include a colour picker as some may not be familiar with HEX colour codes. If that proves difficult then just add a link on that GUI for an online HEX colour picker such as -Colour Schemer Online- or -Dougies Colour Picker- Aswell as Jamma if you need another tester Ill be sure to help you out Keep up the work, keep us posted icon_biggrin.gif EDIT: If Ruttensoft has had 100,000 downloads and you are possibly offering more then lets do some maths... 100,000 x £8 (your share) = £800,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i already have a colour picker so nerr... lol. see the below screenshot: the colour picker converts the colour you pick into the hex code becuase that is the value i take for writing it into the xml document. also, the reason i used the c550 i did is because it is the only high res picture i was able to find, and i plan to preview themes at the full QVGA resoultion.
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 22, 2005 Report Posted December 22, 2005 ^ hehe yer. lol the preview screen is the hardest part of this dev, especially with 30 colours and then having to write the code to preview them. it would be a lot easier to just generate the xml. :)
Guest awarner [MVP] Posted December 22, 2005 Report Posted December 22, 2005 Don't forget you can sell your application via MoDaCo FairDeal :)
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 22, 2005 Report Posted December 22, 2005 Don't forget you can sell your application via MoDaCo FairDeal icon_wink.gif thanks for the offer, and 1 question, say it sold for £9.99 or £4.99, how much of that would i get back ? Thnx. MiG™
Guest Jamma14 Posted December 22, 2005 Report Posted December 22, 2005 (edited) £9.99 - about £8 £4.99 - about £4 You get 80% of each sale! So maybe you could aim for £4.99 or something cheaper so that people feel more inclined to purchase it. :) Not that I'm sure it won't be brilliant, but what do you have against generating .xml? Surely that way you are less likely to leave things out, and it'll be easier to incorporate support for more plugins and features in the future?? Jamma PS. Where's the beta? ;) :D Edited December 22, 2005 by Jamma14
Guest w411y Posted December 22, 2005 Report Posted December 22, 2005 Id sell it at 4.99. Very reasonable price and as Jammas says, cheaper attracts more customers. Ill be more than happy to test the beta and obviously provide constructive critisicm. If you would like me to test it out just gizza shout :)
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 23, 2005 Report Posted December 23, 2005 £9.99 - about £8 £4.99 - about £4 You get 80% of each sale! So maybe you could aim for £4.99 or something cheaper so that people feel more inclined to purchase it. Not that I'm sure it won't be brilliant, but what do you have against generating .xml? Surely that way you are less likely to leave things out, and it'll be easier to incorporate support for more plugins and features in the future?? Jamma PS. Where's the beta? the program generates xml perfectly well. :D and the beta is still in my hands until distribute it, which jamma and wally will recieve. ;)
Guest w411y Posted December 23, 2005 Report Posted December 23, 2005 Its like waiting for christmas ;) Keep us informed n keep up the work :D
Guest peekie Posted December 23, 2005 Report Posted December 23, 2005 big question my side is will it work with wm5 as nearly all of the homescreens made for the C550 DO NOT work on my SP5 , they appear jumbled up and the text does not line up as it does on a C550 :?:
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 23, 2005 Report Posted December 23, 2005 big question my side is will it work with wm5 as nearly all of the homescreens made for the C550 DO NOT work on my SP5 , they appear jumbled up and the text does not line up as it does on a C550 icon_confused.gif currrently i am focusing on the wm2003 side of things, but there will be an option to create themes for wm5 included.
Guest MiG:uK Posted December 26, 2005 Report Posted December 26, 2005 ive postponed work on the program since its christmas, and tbh i just built an awesome gaming rig so enjoying the benefits of gaming at 60fps+ @ 1280 x 1024 with 4xAA and 8xAF. i also posses a xbox360 premium edition and got it for 280 with a free game so im on that a lot 2. ;)
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