Fitaly 4 Beta Available

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.fitaly.com/board/winceforum/posts/2271.html">http://www.fitaly.com/board/winceforum/posts/2271.html</a><br /><br />Fitaly, probably the best soft input panel (or SIP) for the Pocket PC is now up to version 3.5, and the beta of version 4 has just been released. I haven't tried it yet personally but will do it this weekend when I have some time. I have been very anxious to get Fitaly on my K-Jam. 3.5 for some reason doesn't work right for me and I am hoping version 4 corrects that problem. Curse that QWERTY SIP! :wink:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/20060222-fitaly4preview-small.gif" />

[Darius Wey]

This is looking good so far. The updated slides feature is a very nice touch. :)

Just a word of warning - backup before you set Fitaly as the default SIP, or you might curse yourself later when your device decides not to boot up.

[Ed Hansberry]

Just a word of warning - backup before you set Fitaly as the default SIP, or you might curse yourself later when your device decides not to boot up.
that was a problem with 2.x, one you could only encounter by hacking the registry to get FITALY as the default. 3.x fully supported it. are you saying the problem is back in 4.0?

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I can say with perfect authority that setting 3.5 as the SIP on my Axim X51v crashed it like clockwork every single time, so it never really was fixed in the first place (or at least for all devices).

[Darius Wey]

that was a problem with 2.x, one you could only encounter by hacking the registry to get FITALY as the default. 3.x fully supported it. are you saying the problem is back in 4.0?

Yup, though last I remember, v3.x + Windows Mobile 5.0 produced the same result?

[gibson042]

It looks very cool. I can't wait for the final release!

[emuelle1]

The exclamation mark and the question mark are upside down. Am I doing something wrong, or is that just the curse of the beta?

[Darius Wey]

The exclamation mark and the question mark are upside down. Am I doing something wrong, or is that just the curse of the beta?

Are you referring to what appears when you press Shift? That was present in v3.5 too.

The correct ! and ? can be found as "half-keys" with 2 and 4.

Edit #1: It seems the "smart" opening and closing quotation mark buttons aren't working as expected. I think they're linked to characters that aren't defined in Windows Mobile's font library.

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/fitaly-bug.gif

Edit #2: Oh, and back to the question marks, you can also access the correct ones if you tap the 123 button.

[andbrown]

I have been very anxious to get Fitaly on my K-Jam.

I know how much you love Fitaly, Ed, but I can't imagine a scenario where it's useful on a device with a hardware keyboard built in. Two entry points (thumbs) have gotta be faster than one (stylus), travel time or not, right? And in both cases, you have to use two hands, and dragging the stylus out would seem to be at least as much effort as extending the slide-out keyboard.

What am I missing...?

[TMann]

I have been very anxious to get Fitaly on my K-Jam.

I know how much you love Fitaly, Ed, but I can't imagine a scenario where it's useful on a device with a hardware keyboard built in.

It's useful for people who are starting to get arthritic changes in their thumbs from all of that thumboarding...."Blackberry Syndrome", or whatever it's called. ;)

Seriously, though, does this latest version of Fitaly have any benefits for WM 2003 users? I am still happily using Fitaly 3.5 on my Dell Axim x50v with the old OS...

TMann

[Darius Wey]

It's useful for people who are starting to get arthritic changes in their thumbs from all of that thumboarding...."Blackberry Syndrome", or whatever it's called. ;)

If that was the case, it still might be hard to hold a stylus due to a weakened pincer grip.

Seriously, though, does this latest version of Fitaly have any benefits for WM 2003 users? I am still happily using Fitaly 3.5 on my Dell Axim x50v with the old OS...

Have you read this page?

http://fitaly.com/wince/fitaly%204%20preview.htm

It outlines all the new features in v4.x.

[TMann]

Have you read this page?

http://fitaly.com/wince/fitaly%204%20preview.htm

It outlines all the new features in v4.x.

Thanks, I hadn't even heard about version 4 until I read this thread.

TMann

[Ed Hansberry]

I have been very anxious to get Fitaly on my K-Jam.

I know how much you love Fitaly, Ed, but I can't imagine a scenario where it's useful on a device with a hardware keyboard built in. Two entry points (thumbs) have gotta be faster than one (stylus), travel time or not, right? And in both cases, you have to use two hands, and dragging the stylus out would seem to be at least as much effort as extending the slide-out keyboard.

What am I missing...?

There are some things that a SIP just works better for. In Pocket Informant I may just want to enter a quick task, 10-15 chars. It is faster to do it in FITALY than to turn the device sideways, slide down the keyboard, wait a second or two for the screen to switch, enter the data, tap on the other fields anyway (priorty, category, etc) then rotate back. Plus, things like passwords are easier to get right when they involve different cases, numbers and symbols. There are other scenarios as well.

To be sure, when it comes to pounding out emails or taking notes, the hardware keyboard is great, but it doesn't totally replace the need and usefulness of a good SIP.

[WorksForTurkeys]

I know its a 'beta' but its very strange: v4 won't run at all on my Atom (and I had to uninstall it by hand), whereas v3.5 works fine.

[Jean Ichbiah]

Just a word of warning - backup before you set Fitaly as the default SIP, or you might curse yourself later when your device decides not to boot up.
that was a problem with 2.x, one you could only encounter by hacking the registry to get FITALY as the default. 3.x fully supported it. are you saying the problem is back in 4.0?

We are working with Microsoft on this issue and hope to have a solution by Monday. As we have been suspecting for quite some time, MIcrosoft is leaving more leeway to its oems than in the past or on Windows XP. This means we need to test on more machines.

[Jean Ichbiah]

There are some things that a SIP just works better for. In Pocket Informant I may just want to enter a quick task, 10-15 chars. It is faster to do it in FITALY than to turn the device sideways, slide down the keyboard, wait a second or two for the screen to switch, enter the data, tap on the other fields anyway (priorty, category, etc) then rotate back. Plus, things like passwords are easier to get right when they involve different cases, numbers and symbols. There are other scenarios as well.

To be sure, when it comes to pounding out emails or taking notes, the hardware keyboard is great, but it doesn't totally replace the need and usefulness of a good SIP.

With Fitaly 4, you can add macros to that. There are currently only two macro-expanders on the PPC: the PenCommander of Calligrapher and the capability now offered with Fitaly 4. I can think of situations where a keyboard user would want to switch to onscreen Fitaly 4 to execute some macros.

[Darius Wey]

Anyone testing out Fitaly 4 can update to Beta 2, available here: http://fitaly.com/board/winceforum/posts/2321.html

[Ed Hansberry]

Anyone testing out Fitaly 4 can update to Beta 2, available here: http://fitaly.com/board/winceforum/posts/2321.html
b2 works very well. Some minor visual glitches, but very stable and being the default SIP causes no problems.

[WorksForTurkeys]

FYI: beta2 appears to be working fine on my O2 Atom, although it did require a reset after installation.