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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:57 am 
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One more thing, I'd love to see this in Cyan LCD.

Oh, and logic would say put the battery down on the bottom left cluster as it's a system thing and not a clock thing. Match up with the rest with an LCD icon.

I know, I'm picky.


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:10 am 
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Attachment:
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Food for thought


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:14 am 
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ChrisW wrote:
Plus one more small thing, reduce the glow on the off crystals on the bottom left cluster, it's confusing to the eye imho.


You're right, done.

ChrisW wrote:
One more thing, I'd love to see this in Cyan LCD.


You can already select the LCD color: Alarm Manager -> Options -> LCD Style Color


ChrisW wrote:
Oh, and logic would say put the battery down on the bottom left cluster as it's a system thing and not a clock thing. Match up with the rest with an LCD icon.

I know, I'm picky.


Picky you are, and it can be a good thing. The battery line balances the date at the left, though. Plus, by the same logic, weather info would be moved to the bottom too. :-P

EDIT: Oh boy, just saw your mockup eheh. So, you placed the Weather info right where the Snooze and Close buttons are going to fade in. ;)

Anyway, I'll think about the battery suggestion.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:51 am 
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Maybe for your buttons you could sketch up a physical place for them.

OK maybe I'm getting carried away but I just dropped your icons on a bar thing lol

Attachment:
idea.png
idea.png [ 281.96 KiB | Viewed 18837 times ]


OK I must stop, but a skinnable themeable clock could be cool hehe...I promise, I'll stop, this will pass...lol

Attachment:
idea2.png
idea2.png [ 330.1 KiB | Viewed 18836 times ]


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 2:02 am 
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LOL!

I really like the first LCD frame though. Hand it over, this is a stick up. ;)

Oh, wait... rounded corners... no can do, it has to be rectangular on the outside.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 2:05 am 
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It is fun shooting ideas though eh? Creativity...you gotta love it.


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 2:06 am 
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Love it! :)

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:50 am 
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winstep wrote:
vectornut wrote:
Jorge, I like the first one better, but I think the Snooze and Stop buttons and weather look totally out of place in the otherwise LCD looking screen.


Yes, I understand, but this is an analogy, and, as all analogies, you can't take it too far. LCD screens don't have buttons and LCD style buttons (whatever that might mean) would look like crap anyway.


I know the OUTSIDE has to be a rectangle, but you could always put a little "bezel" at the bottom of the LCD for the buttons (the screen itself doesn't have to be rectangular) and then make the buttons look like real buttons. Just a thought.

winstep wrote:
vectornut wrote:
Also, every LCD clock I ever owned didn't waste crystals where it didn't need them. So the first digit on the percents would only have two vertical crystals to make a 1, since the value can never be higher than 1. And the first digit of the time would be missing one crystal, since the value can never be anything other than blank, 1, or 2.


Hey, you're right, but you're also nitpicking now. :)


Who, me? I would never . . . ;-)

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:54 am 
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winstep wrote:
So, do you guys like it better like this? . . .
. . . the weather icon matches the LCD style and there is also textual weather info.

I might still make it a bit bigger though.

I actually think this icon fits better with the overall LCD theme. And bigger probably would be a bit better.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:57 am 
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ChrisW wrote:
Maybe for your buttons you could sketch up a physical place for them.

OK maybe I'm getting carried away but I just dropped your icons on a bar thing lol

attachment=1]idea.png[/attachment]

OK I must stop, but a skinnable themeable clock could be cool hehe...I promise, I'll stop, this will pass...lol

attachment=0]idea2.png[/attachment]

And to think I posted about a physical button BEFORE I saw this. :D

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:09 pm 
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vectornut wrote:
I know the OUTSIDE has to be a rectangle, but you could always put a little "bezel" at the bottom of the LCD for the buttons (the screen itself doesn't have to be rectangular) and then make the buttons look like real buttons. Just a thought.


Yes, that is an idea. Only one problem everyone seems to be forgetting: the LCD alarm has a full screen version (it's actually the very same code, but scaling objects up), and in full screen there are no bezels, just the central LCD display.

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:49 pm 
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Two thoughts for you here...

1. You wouldn't use LCD fonts for parts of the display that do not change characters, the manufacturers would normally have a complete static cut shape that would illuminate, like you have done for the icons. See the AM/PM LCD shapes and days in my image below. This would mean of course paying attention to the fontwork for the Date as the font you've used is not an LCD array with parts lit, it's bastardised to make characters.

2. Bezel/Curves - You could cut and curve the corners of the frame, not the screen to achieve a cool curvy bezel effect. See mock up...

Attachment:
IDEA4.png
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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:20 pm 
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Actually, to be precise, a manufacturer would be more likely to have solid cut shapes if it was illuminated LED/LCD (like the AM/PM) rather than individual characters lit (like the days shown above) due to complexity and cost.

In any event, even more likely is that an LCD clock would not have illuminated characters at all - rather the backlight would illuminate and activated LCD shapes would block the light like below...

Attachment:
idea6.png
idea6.png [ 118.26 KiB | Viewed 18813 times ]


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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:31 pm 
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ChrisW wrote:
2. Bezel/Curves - You could cut and curve the corners of the frame, not the screen to achieve a cool curvy bezel effect. See mock up...


I've already tried to explain why you cant' do that, although it looks a lot cooler to have rounded corners on the bezel: the LCD display is actually semi-transparent - you can see through it - and is blurred with Aero glass.

Try making a windowed LCD alarm there and dragging the window around: you will be able to see whatever is behind the window, but it will be blurred.

Now, under Vista/Windows 7 having rounded corners would not be a problem, because we can define irregular 'glass' regions (the glass blur is automatically applied by the Desktop Windows Manager, all you need to do is tell it WHERE to apply blur in the window).

This was really great for semi-transparent dock backgrounds too, as the semi-transparent parts could blur the background, thus alleviating a lot of the visual confusion of semi-transparent docks against a busy background.

Unfortunately, Microsoft decided that disabling glass on Windows 8 was a really great idea: I think it's the first time I've ever seen recently added - and popular! - functionality being literally ripped out from one version of the OS to the other. The APIs are still there, but they just do not operate as expected.

Under Windows 10 glass eventually made a comeback - this time they call it 'acrylic' lol - but with a MAJOR drawback: you can no longer do irregular shapes. You can either apply glass *to the whole* rectangular window (and Windows will blur whatever is fully or semi-transparent in that rectangle) - or not at all.

So, if I told Windows to apply glass to an Alarm window with a rounded corner bezel, under Vista/Windows 7 it would be fine, but under Windows 10 the fully transparent corners of the window right after the rounded bezel corners would be blurring the background too.

There are only two possible solutions that are simple to implement: either make the LCD screen fully opaque (I'm open to that at this point) and you are then free to use bezels with rounded corners, or NOT use rounded corners in the bezel.

ChrisW wrote:
Actually, to be precise, a manufacturer would be more likely to have solid cut shapes if it was illuminated LED/LCD (like the AM/PM) rather than individual characters lit (like the days shown above) due to complexity and cost.


Yes, I know that, but as I told Paul (Vectornut) already, I am not trying to emulate a real LCD screen here, that is not the purpose. The purpose is simply to make it look like an LCD and it does exactly that - it doesn't need to be perfect in every detail. :)

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 Post subject: Re: So, what's next after v18.1?
PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:42 pm 
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ChrisW wrote:
OK I must stop, but a skinnable themeable clock could be cool hehe...I promise, I'll stop, this will pass...lol


I think that would be going too far at this point (or maybe not lol) BUT we could kind of compromise: your mockups are actually making me want to give the user the choice of a handful pre-selected bezels.

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