PocketCandy 1.2 (BETA) (Updated June 7th, See first post)

[Guest cysnotts]

Great work meh !!!

One more question, can TIMEPIECE be installed on the smartphone?

There seem to be some problem when I install TIMEPIECE. :lol:

[Guest motbe]

I don't think TimePiece will run on it. . Most of the skins are designed for 240x320 (the pocketpc screen). . Some of them should work ok though on the SmartPhone.

But, I don't think the screensaver will run (I think there are a few function calls it makes that might not exist on the SmartPhone).... I'm slowly porting all my screensavers to the SmartPhone (and trying to fix the bugs in the Matrix and Swarm that Hax mentioned), so I'll get to porting TimePiece eventually..

[Guest dinoalbert]

a bit OT here (please excuse :lol: ) :

@motbe how can I install or include the Aquarium screensaver in my PocketPC's PocketCandy? I copied aquarium.scr to the Windows directory but it wont run...

[Guest motbe]

You'll want to copy it to the Program FilesPocketCandyScreensavers directory on your device (or on your storage card, depending on where you installed it to). After doing that, you'll find it in the list of screensavers.

[Guest dinoalbert]

I did that and it is indeed in the list...but it wont run. Is it the same aquarium.scr file I used in my Smartphone? Do I need to copy also the .dll file for it to run?

[Guest StylishLemur]

Yes, you need to copy ".dll" across to sd card as well. :!:

[Guest garlando]

Also upon resuming to the home screen, a password protect would be great. That will keep curious noses out of my stuff.

Go to Settings--> Security --> enable phone Lock --> Lock phone after:

Set time and Password and it will password lock your phone after that length of time

[Guest dinoalbert]

Go to Settings--> Security --> enable phone Lock --> Lock phone after:  

Set time and Password and it will password lock your phone after that length of time

No I guess he was talking about a password protected screensaver, wherein you will be asked for a password to disable the screensaver :lol:

on a second thought, this could be a workaround (?)

[Guest motbe]

As far as Password protected screensavers go, I'm working on adding that functionality to the PocketPC version of PocketCandy, but I hadn't gotten that far with the ones on the SmartPhone...

The tough thing is that Windows (the desktop version) enables security on a per screensaver basis. Meaning that each screensaver handles its own security settings. I'd like to create a globally available security mechanism on the PocketPC/SmartPhone, so that it doesn't matter if the screensaver supports password protection or not, your device will still "lock" so that other people can't access it. When setting that lock feature on the SmartPhone, does it also prompt you to unlock it after you do a soft-reset?

And I am still working on tweaking PocketCandy, and fixing the bugs with the Matrix and Swarm screensavers, I've just not been in town much recently, and I won't be for the next week.. So after that hopefully a new version will be out...

[Guest fraser]

What's wrong with the inbuilt password stuff in the smartphone OS? I use it all the time, the phone requires a PIN to use after a full reboot, or ten minutes of inactivity. Ideal. The same code is also required to access the phone via ActiveSync, another important security measure.

I gave up on Pocket Candy yesterday, it seems to lock up the phone far too often when trying to enter the pin.

[Guest haso0on]

this program rocks!!

but i have a problem with it

it makes the phone freeze every now and then

and sometimes whn the phone gets lock (i made tht) and it goes to screen saver mod...thn i cant unlock it..(cant press any botton and light is kept on)

wht can i do

help...

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

Edited: Cough cough - nevermind 6/7 seems to be the 7th of june - not the 6th of july!

Dang british peeps!

[Guest Hax]

Edited: Cough cough - nevermind 6/7 seems to be the 7th of june - not the 6th of july!

Dang british peeps!

American I think you'll find :wink:

Hax

[Guest motbe]

Edited: Cough cough - nevermind 6/7 seems to be the 7th of june - not the 6th of july!

Dang british peeps!

Yeah, us americans write it that way.. :) I'll update it so all can understand a bit more easily.. I am working on an update though.. I've nearly completed rewriting the Space, Flying Toasters, Matrix, and Swarm screensavers using GAPI.. Actually, they are complete, but just haven't been compiled for the SmartPhone yet.. Hopefully I'll get a chance this weekend before I head off on my two week backpacking trip..

[Guest drblow]

Any chance of the backlight issue being addressed??

[Guest motbe]

Any chance of the backlight issue being addressed??

Yeah, I'm looking into it. I've been out of town quite a bit lately, so not much time for coding.. I'll be updating PocketCandy itself here soon, and improving that along with hopefully adding other timeouts, better configuration, and etc.

[Guest drblow]

NICE!!!!!!!! :)

[Guest mamep]

great tool for great screensavers :)

[Guest Coucou]

Great program motbe, I do have problems with it though, it stops working without warning; I've had to uninstall then re-install it a few times. It has happened a couple of times when trying to install other screensavers - Aquarium for one - and it happened earlier for no reason at all. Works beautifully until it stops! BTW what does the Log Events option record?

[Guest motbe]

I do have problems with it though, it stops working without warning

Hmm.. Not completely sure why it would just stop working. Anyone else having similar issues?

BTW what does the Log Events option record?

It's supposed to record things like the time that it launches a screensaver, or events that occur that keep the screensaver from loading (like when you press buttons and etc). I think I coded the SmartPhone version to include a few other events too, but I'd need to check the code again to get those details. It stores the info in a file in your My Documents directory named "PocketCandy Log.txt" or something similar to that. (I've been out of town backpacking for over a week, and haven't brushed up on my code again since then, so I'm not remembering all the details.)

[Guest Coucou]

I've found one more tiny issue, it's not really a problem but if the screensaver is on before I put the phone it the cradle it won't synchronize properly. I need to take it back off the cradle, knock the screensaver off and then put it back.

It seems to be slightly more stable now - hasn't stopped working for a whole day :) must have been 'one of those things' :roll:

[Guest motbe]

Okay.. I've not been idle lately, even though I haven't posted any updates. Work has been on PocketCandy and on other screensavers, and I've been doing other research.. I've added functionality to PocketCandy to now allow screensavers to be configured, and the Matrix config screen's been redone by moomoomoo so that it fits on the SmartPhone. I've still got alot to do on that whole note.

But, I've actually run into a bit of a dilemma. Requests have been made that I turn on the backlight when a screensaver is launched, and then have it turn off the backlight after a set amount of time (only when the phone is on battery power). Now, technically, I've not run into any solution that I can turn on the backlight programatically (trust me, I've asked around).. The one possibility at this point (unless I find another solution) is that I keep the backlight on for the delay period, then for the time that the screensaver's supposed to run, and then have it turn off. So in essence, if your phone waits for 1 minute before launching the SS, then waits for 10 minutes while running the screensaver, then turns off the backlight, it will have had the backlight on for 11 minutes. Now, the timer's would all reset once fthe user interacted with the phone again (thus turning on the backlight, and starting the process over again). Does that sound reasonable and along the lines of what everyone was thinking about this backlight option?

On a side note, I've also coded my own GIF library, so I'll be porting TimePiece to the SmartPhone, and adding support for GIF's and JPEG's to the skin files (i.e. animated gif's and etc)

[Guest drblow]

If thats the only way to do it then that'll work for me!!

I've actually switched my screen savers off ATM, just coz it seemed a bit pointless having them running when I can't see the screen! If we could get the backlight to stay on by any means, it would be better than nothing!!

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

This sounds really really nice! Can't wait for an update...

[Guest lonerjam]

cool.

just one question: i have the matrix screensaver running but i cant seem to unlock my keypad or turn the phone off, i have to remove the battery and put it back on to go back to normal. how can i stop it from hanging while running the screensaver? thanks.