After looking at some blogspot pictures I've noticed that various OS dialogs may be to large for Origami. System Properties dialog is 420x480 and navigation buttons from the bottom of the dialog can be covered by the task bar. Display properties are a little smaller, but Outlook Options dialog is 440x485 which makes it to large for the display. Do you work with internal developers on fixing this issue (e.g. patches for UMPC devices for Microsoft products)?

Regards, Ryan

Over the past three weeks I haven’t done much else that sleep, eat and follow the origami project I couldn’t tell you where but I know I’ve seen shots of it running Microsoft Outlook.

 

-Andrew K.

Ryan, there is a UMPC Display Emulator (beta) available for developers to test their applications. (All the usual cautions about installing a beta. Make sure you read the known bug list in the readme file and email in bug reports.)

The native resolution is 800x480.

Thanks Lora for your answer. I already have the emulator and I'll play around with it perhaps even today. The problem is that despite Microsoft guidelines for dialogs sizes (IIRC there are 3 sugested sizes for windows dialogs) some system dialogs are of a different size and shape. Some of them have greater height then the size of UMPC display. My concern is - are you going to redesign various dialogs for UMPC's XP, or perhaps we're condemned to use scaling function? ;)

Regards, Ryan

Auto-scaling will come in handy with some apps/dialogs, and others will work fine at the lowest resolution. We're also working with numerous teams and ISVs on making sure their apps work great on UMPC's.

im fine with the auto scaling, if they can patch the programs to allow them to be viewed easier is also fine.

Ryan,

you are right!! As you can see on the following screenshots made on my Vaio U with standard res of 800x600, Qutlook2007 itself still looks good, but the Options dialog window fills up the whole screen vertically!!!

<a href="http://floodguy.blogzine.jp/weblog/images/Purrint002.jpg"> Purrint002.jpg (150.1K)</a>

<a href="http://floodguy.blogzine.jp/weblog/images/Purrint003.jpg"> Purrint003.jpg (123.4K)</a>

Is this scaling feature available for particular windows (selectable) or the whole screen? Does it turn on automagically or not?

TIA, Ryan

It's whole screen (quick toggles screen resolution), and only scales when you choose to do so.

Sears:

Auto-scaling will come in handy with some apps/dialogs, and others will work fine at the lowest resolution. We're also working with numerous teams and ISVs on making sure their apps work great on UMPC's.

Sear, why you don´t post two screen shots of an application with Auto-scalling and without it. I´m concern about for example, running Visual Studio in a UMPC. The only thing that I can think that will make this impossible is the 800x480 resolution, that´s why I would like to know more details about this new concept of auto scaling.

You might want to give the UMPC emulator a try. That'll give you a pretty good feel for the screen real estate in 800x480. I don't have VS running on any UMPC's here (plus we're doing a lot of testing, so they get re-imaged quite often).

http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/tabletpc/umpc/umpcbeta/default.aspx

ctitanic:

Sears:

Auto-scaling will come in handy with some apps/dialogs, and others will work fine at the lowest resolution. We're also working with numerous teams and ISVs on making sure their apps work great on UMPC's.

Sear, why you don´t post two screen shots of an application with Auto-scalling and without it. I´m concern about for example, running Visual Studio in a UMPC. The only thing that I can think that will make this impossible is the 800x480 resolution, that´s why I would like to know more details about this new concept of auto scaling.

ctitanic,

here can you see two screenshots of VS2005 Express (VS2005 is the same) running in 800x600 on my Vaio U. If one is patient enough, it can be used as mobile workspace on the road. The red zones marking to 120px difference of the UMPC. With 480px height, VS is unusable, unless you like scrolling around, exdpanding and minimizing toolbars etc.

<a href="http://floodguy.blogzine.jp/weblog/images/VS01.jpg"> VS01.jpg </a>

<a href="http://floodguy.blogzine.jp/weblog/images/VS02.jpg"> VS02.jpg </a>

I really want to see that scaling/zooming feature. I remember, the earlier Vaio U1~U101 had zooming feature (hardware button) which was in a locked to the display properties. One button touch, and you could switch between 640x480px up to 1024~768px and more if one used an external monitor. The cost was of course the font got smaller on the screen was less unreadable.

On my Vaio U, switching the display resolutions higher than 800x600px, changes on to some kind of virtual desktop, were I can scroll or drag around the screen only.

I wish someone could show us the zooming/scaling feature of the UMPC.