EPIX Tips and Tricks

[jwebb56]

Figure every phone discussion needs a thread like this. I don't have one to offer at the moment but I'd like to learn good ones from others.

My most burning question is how can I get a simple up/down scroll capability without changing the touchpad mouse?

Background: I love the EPIX's mouse feature and would not change it. However, about 10% of the time I'd like to be able to just scroll up or down easily. Ideally there'd be a way to make the volume controls do the trick.

 

[TopDog]

I'm using a small utility that toggle Finger Mouse Mode between 4-way and Mouse. You can change the mode immediately with this by mapping it to a hardware button.

I've mapped it to the cam-button.

You can find it at the Modaco forum in this thread.

 

[questionfear]

AEbutton can map the volume keys to up/down buttons. The nice thing is that it knows to return them to volume control when you are on a call.

Here's a question: is everyone experiencing the bug where emails don't trigger notification sounds (only an LED flash) if the phone is in standby?

 

[jwebb56]

questionfear: Dowloaded and installed AEButton, it looks promising
TopDog: My virus detection software lit up when I went to access the site you linked

 

[TopDog]

TopDog: My virus detection software lit up when I went to access the site you linked

I'm a Mac-user so viruses don't bother me

...although that is strange, Modaco is one of the oldest WM forums out there.

 

[Pearl_Diva]

I got no virus notification from Modaco. Is yours sensitive, even with normal usage that SEEMS like it's dangerous but not? Like Zone Alarm is, one reason I had to quit using that one.

 

[jwebb56]

It was actually McAfee SiteAdvisor that lit up with a message stating that in their test the site tried to load some software that might give unauthorized access to your computer. I gave it another shot today and it opened without the warning. Go figure.

 

[jwebb56]

I really like the AEButton solution but it appears to revert back to the normal volume control after the phone app is opened up for a call. I thought it was supposed to take control of the buttons back. Any thoughts or advise?

 

[empire29]

I really like the AEButton solution but it appears to revert back to the normal volume control after the phone app is opened up for a call. I thought it was supposed to take control of the buttons back. Any thoughts or advise?

You can use the free software called SmartSKey to change how the volume rocker works. You can download SmartSKey for the Samsung Epix here.

 

[jwebb56]

Thanks, I may see what smartkey offers later on. For the moment I'm staying with AEButton because I found the setting that restored the slider to an up.down arrow. Turns out that in the options menu under volume restore, you need to make sure "if phone is active" is checked and not "during a call."

 

[jwebb56]

GPS Settings

If you are having touble getting your internal GPS to support a 3rd party GPS app, try this:
1. Open the External GPS Settings (Settings - System Tab)
2. Set the Com port to COM4 (Programs tab)
3. Set GPS hardware port to COM9 and Baud rate to 4800 (Hardware tab)
4. Ensure Manage GPS automatically is checked (Access tab)
5. Click OK
6. Open your GPS app and make sure it is looking for GPS data from COM4 and that the baud rate is also set to 4800 (if applicable)

That's it. One caveat, a different baud rate setting would work but others have stated there is no need for any setting >4800. Still, if you feel there is a lag in your app, then by all means experiment with a different baud rate. Just make sure any baud rate setting in your GPS program matches your new setting.

 

[jwebb56]

One other caveat on the EPIX aGPS chip. It seems to require a cell signal in order to initialize and acquire the satelites. Not sure if it would continue to work if you went out of the range of a cell tower AFTER the satelites were initially acquired. That'll be an interesting experiment for another day.

 

[jwebb56]

Here's a site (My Samsung EPIX) that has a few pretty cool EPIX specific hacks for download.
http://www.mysamsungepix.com/category/hacks-and-mods/

The hacks include: application unlocker, camera silencer, change ring and talk volume, remove startup and shutdown sounds/animation, remove AT&T Fn shortcuts and use EPIX as a wireless modem. The last one is a registry hack that removes AT&T's adds so that you can use Internet Sharing the way its supposed to work.

 

[jwebb56]

If you are looking for a third party GPS navigation program but having a hard time finding one that supports a square screen and has up to date maps, you might want to try iGuidance 2009. They explicitly state 320x320 screens are not supported but I did get it to work very well (with a little help). The trick is explained in this thread:
http://forums.wmexperts.com/showthread.php?t=174830

My caution is I use RealVGA with 96 dpi fonts and don't know if that is required to make it work. I suspect RealVGA helps it render properly but think there's a fair chance it'll be usable without RealVGA. iGuidance definitely will not provide any technical support though and they'd probably be unwilling to provide a refund if you were unhappy with the product.