Related
Always seems to be a ton of threads about why people hate touchwiz and how eager they are to get rid of it but...what do you like about what Samsung did different?
I absolutely love the pulldown menu modifications
I love the music/call controls in the pull down, and like the power widget there. This is something I really wish that Google would adopt/roll into stock android later on (or at least Cyanogen).
I also like the shortcut to adjust your phone's brightness (rolling finger across the top bar).
I personally prefer the way this phone handles making a call on a 2nd line and conferencing people in...it's much better than stock android (I came from a Moto droid and conferencing in a new # was always kind of a pain in the ass).
I personally prefer the way they redid the calendar to stock (I seem to be in the minority here though).
I use google voice for all SMS, so I can't really comment on that.
I use LauncherPro, so the actual look of the launcher doesn't bug me...
Actually, the only thing I truly hate about the modifications Samsung made was the damn alarm program..it's way worse than the droids, and it's way too easy to turn off...and the snooze button is hard to differentiate from the turn off alarm button.
Overall, Samsung has some nice stuff if they just abandon the cartoony iPhones look of the launcher and work on a few of the performance hickups here and there.
hydrogenman said:
I absolutely love the pulldown menu modifications
I love the music/call controls in the pull down, and like the power widget there. This is something I really wish that Google would adopt/roll into stock android later on (or at least Cyanogen).
I also like the shortcut to adjust your phone's brightness (rolling finger across the top bar).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than the calendar (which is a near-total fail for me; maybe others' calendars don't have the same bugs as mine - which is a scary thought, b/c it makes a global "fix" seem less likely), I really like TouchWiz - particularly the features listed above. The "Power Control" Android widget (or whatever it's called) - which is normally crucial - becomes almost unnecessary, provided you're OK with using the pulldown for toggling GPS, Wifi, etc.; and sliding finger for brightness. (The only Power Control item you can't toggle using pulldown is "Sync," which I almost never turn off anyway).
I like how the TW icons look; and I dig the app drawer, b/c I prefer the "list" view that it offers. I may try another launcher someday, but right now I feel no need -- I'm digging TW (and much prefer it to stock Android).
Don't care for the Samsung widgets at all, but their functions can easily be bested with stuff in the Market.
pavvy said:
Other than the calendar (which is a near-total fail for me; maybe others' calendars don't have the same bugs as mine - which is a scary thought, b/c it makes a global "fix" seem less likely), I really like TouchWiz - particularly the features listed above. The "Power Control" Android widget (or whatever it's called) - which is normally crucial - becomes almost unnecessary, provided you're OK with using the pulldown for toggling GPS, Wifi, etc.; and sliding finger for brightness. (The only Power Control item you can't toggle using pulldown is "Sync," which I almost never turn off anyway).
I like how the TW icons look; and I dig the app drawer, b/c I prefer the "list" view that it offers. I may try another launcher someday, but right now I feel no need -- I'm digging TW (and much prefer it to stock Android).
Don't care for the Samsung widgets at all, but their functions can easily be bested with stuff in the Market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never once used any of the TW widgets...that's one thing that was a bit of fail
BTW, you can get the TW style of app drawer on 3rd party launchers
I was rather pleasantly surprised with TouchWiz. I think it's much better than Stock Android. I'm not sure exactly why people are complaining about it.
What I like about it.
1. WebOS like UI controls for Music and Toggles in the Notification drop down.
2. Paged scrolling of apps in the App Drawer. I hate inertial list scrolling.
3. Some of the widgets like dual clock and calendar clock. If there is no place to add a widget on that screen, it finds a screen with space. Buddies Now is a nice widget, but it's slow and buggy.
4. The interface to add/remove screens and move screens around.
What I dislike.
1. It syncs all contacts instead of just "My Contacts". Of course this is not the launcher, but the app. But other than this, the contacts and dialer are much better than stock.
2. Pressing the Home button, sends it off to Screen 4 on my phone instead of the center screen. Very annoying.
3. There is an Android bug that prevents folders from being opened. With LauncherPro, I can restart the launcher which fixes the problem. No such ability in TW.
4. Can only change two of the 4 icons at the bottom.
Likes:
Messaging/calling through contacts.
Power control in notification drawer
Launcher is starting to grow on me
The interface when a call is in progress
Puzzle piece notifications
Dislikes:
Music player can't distinguish between songs and ringtones
Nearly the same issue with gallery and album art
Can't set the home screen when less than 5 screens
Lock screen but that's purely cosmetic
The media scanner, but I don't think that's TW specific (Be awesome to have it scan on demand)
I really don't like how all the Samsung widgets want to take up an entire screen.
hydrogenman said:
BTW, you can get the TW style of app drawer on 3rd party launchers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's good to know... I'll have to try 'em sometime, I know they have lots of fans around here.
I actually prefer TW to LauncherPro or ADW. So far everything works pretty well.
I do wish that the samsung widgets were re-sizeable so they didn't take up the whole screen. I like the app drawer, it is just copying the iPhone, but I don't visit it a whole lot thanks to the FolderOrganizer widget. That widget should have come stock with the phone IMHO.
i really like some of the modifications that samsung has added, especially in the dialer and contacts apps (they have already been mentioned). i found another one last night in the calendar app, if you add a location to an entry it shows you a map of the location from the calendar entry.
wolfvgang said:
I actually prefer TW to LauncherPro or ADW. So far everything works pretty well.
I do wish that the samsung widgets were re-sizeable so they didn't take up the whole screen. ......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey. If I do understand you correctly, you are using ADW or LauncherPro and mention that 'everything is working pretty well, also referring to 'samsung widgets'?
How do you access 'samsung widgets' from say ADW Launcher - ESPECIALLY BuddiesNow ??
I can only access it from the default launcher, but do prefer ADW also - but am stuck
Thanks for your help or ideas.
I don't understand anyone wouldn't use LauncherPro.
The scrolling dock is genius. I have about 15 apps that I use regularly, so the dock does a really great job to accommodate that. Also, you can easily add your own custom icons, and do away with the default ones that come with TW and LP.
I also hate that on TW, you have the home screen # indicators at the top, giving you a lot less home screen space.
The app drawer, though not as easy to use as the Applications viewer in TW, is at least original. This phone already looks like an iPhone, so having a very Android-esque applications viewer is refreshing.
TW does a lot fantastic things, some of which you guys mentioned, but the general layout of it is pretty ****ty, and LauncherPro is just about perfect... and free.
I like the toggles on the notification pull down. I don't like how the brightness slider has no visual feedback to determine what the current bright is set at. If there was a slider widget attached to the bottom or a popup when the slider is in use that would make it easier.
I like the swipe on contacts for the call/sms.
After loading JI6, I tried using the TW launcher again, but I couldn't find any of the TW widgets compelling so I'm back to Launcherpro.
Just found this out, if you dislike the iPhone style of the app drawer, left to right, changing it to Alphabetical list gives me the normalish way we are used to the app drawer working, up and down.
Now if we could just remove the annoying outline on the icons I'd be set
Coming from an iPhone, Touchwiz was a bit too iphone-ripoff for me. I personally use Launcher+ but TW did have some good points.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
my biggest dislike is that contacts and dialer are no longer the same application. I never had a dialer shortcut on my phone before because I could just use contacts, now I have to use up 1 more space for the dialer.
Owenv said:
my biggest dislike is that contacts and dialer are no longer the same application. I never had a dialer shortcut on my phone before because I could just use contacts, now I have to use up 1 more space for the dialer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can access the contacts from the dialer, would be an extra click if you really want to not have that extra icon
z0phi3l said:
You can access the contacts from the dialer, would be an extra click if you really want to not have that extra icon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but as far as I know you can't get to dialer from contacts, and I'm used to having the contacts icon on my home screen. I know I could just change it but you know what they say about old habits. however it isn't a problem since I have another contacts app that solved it for me.
My favorite feature is the dialer. I love the fact that it has speed dial unlike stock android. I also love the predictive dialing. These two are the biggest for me.
Hi to all
I'm a new owner of a Nexus 7...nice device...BTW...
I don't understand why with a stock JB 4.1.2 ROM, the soft key bar auto hide itself only with the video playback...
if I playgames the bar is always there...
It's a waste of precious pixel for me...in games like shadowgun I always have this ugly bar on bottom...
I know that some cooked ROM has this feature but I'd like to know if I can installa an hack or something to make it avaiable on stock rom...thanks a lot
Oh another question: do you think that it's better to root the device and install a cooked rom like CM or Paranoid? how does it could be better than the stock rom on such a powerful device?
thanks
I don't believe you'd be able to flash a hack to do this because I believe it requires a lot of changes to the framework. Flashing a ROM is great, but not necessary on our tablets since they're so powerful. The only reason why I do it is so that I can get the extended power menu and edit the notification widgets. I also just got back into using tablet mode again on Cookies and Cream.
It won't work, the API for it is designed for videos. If you are playing a game, you will most likely have to tap the screen, whereas when you watch a video, you don't have to touch the screen. Touching the screen enables the soft keys, I think you can see the problem here.
Beamed from my Grouper.
Um take notes from the kindle fire. It has a perfect auto hide for the soft key menus. While in apps, it puts a little tiny tab in the middle edge that when touched, brings back the full keys. Works perfect. This should be implemented in jellybean by default. Wasting screen space is so annoying.
Sounds like a good idea, however it would be a bit different than with video since you are touching the screen. I do find myself bumping the buttons during game playback, perhaps if they instituted a swiping motion to bring it up?
I think in aokp you can completely disable it and use a long press of the power button to access the buttons.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Guys! Just try GMD Gesture from play store and you would be able to hide the soft keys with finger gesture and bring them back when you want them.
Hope this helps!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
ghostaa said:
Guys! Just try GMD Gesture from play store and you would be able to hide the soft keys with finger gesture and bring them back when you want them.
Hope this helps!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just installed the lite version which does not enable this feature. However, it says it will show/hide the status bar... are you sure it works on the soft keys also? I don't want to buy it and find it only works on the status bar. I guess I can also email the app developer and report back.
EDI: Found the XDA thread through the app's play store info... appears to hide the soft keys also. I think it will be well worth the $5. Thanks!
The soft keys are, for me, one of the most annoying 'features' of Jelly Bean. Why waste all that screen space?
There is a reason why nexus 7 is 1280x768 not 1280x720. the additional 48 pixel is for the navigation bar.. Otherwise it won't have16:9 ratio.
I don't mind the nav bar, but I find it wasted space that so few buttons are there. I miss the search button especially... Wish the stock rom was a bit more customizable there. Still, it's a great device overall...
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Something which has been really annoying me is how the virtual navigation bar does not disappear when using apps. It disappears when watching videos etc but on all the apps I have used so far, Vice city, temple run, BTD, Dead trigger etc it stays there taking up a fair bit of the screen.
Does anyone know if this is because the of the app developers or is it something android or sony might change soon. Or is there anyway we can already get rid of it?
How are you going to go back to home if the bar is gone?
Sent from my C6603 using xda premium
Drag from side/bottom to bring back navigation bar? two fingers required so you don't accidentally do it.
Glen101 said:
Drag from side/bottom to bring back navigation bar? two fingers required so you don't accidentally do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two fingers required for this stupid thread.
AW: XZ Navigation Bar when using apps
nvm.
it is feasible to do it, we have it on the one set of tablets, but I've never been able to get the framework code working on other devices.
Full screen, and the nav bar goes completely. swipe up from off the bottom of the screen and the nav bar reappears.
this predated what the PA Roms do btw by quite a few months.
It works a treat
however what the OP is asking for sounds more to me like one of my pet hates with this rom, the icons disappear in selected apps but not all,
the nav bar is still there but replaced by dots, when you tap the area of the navbar the icons reappear.
some of the apps I use I know do full screen and specifically call that feature, but are ignored so the standard icons remain on screen at all times.
Glen101 said:
Something which has been really annoying me is how the virtual navigation bar does not disappear when using apps. It disappears when watching videos etc but on all the apps I have used so far, Vice city, temple run, BTD, Dead trigger etc it stays there taking up a fair bit of the screen.
Does anyone know if this is because the of the app developers or is it something android or sony might change soon. Or is there anyway we can already get rid of it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use full!creen on Play Store or fullscreentoggle to hide navigation bar & status bar (requesting root). Good luck!
It's possible to hide the Nav bar in CM ROM's. Hold the power button and press "hide nav bar" or something like that, and it's the same procedure when you want it back.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
There's also button saviour, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smart.swkey
For when there's no navbar
full!creen works really well, I even brought it I'm that impressed!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2056208 for the original discussion..
Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 2
fards said:
some of the apps I use I know do full screen and specifically call that feature, but are ignored so the standard icons remain on screen at all times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Youtube does it, DICE Player manages to do it, yet QuickPic doesnt/cant.
I am under the impression that my LT30p equipped with JB which is very similar to the Z's fw could not do it at all, I could be mistaken though.
I really like the look and feel of Ubuntu tablet. Specifically the large desktop. I hate the limited space on my nexus 10. It makes sense on a phone but I wish I could scroll like on a PC or Ubuntu when using a larger screen.
Anyone know if there's anything out there that resembles the Ubuntu desktop. I like stock jelly bean. This is just one of a couple of things that bugs me.
kosmab said:
I really like the look and feel of Ubuntu tablet. Specifically the large desktop. I hate the limited space on my nexus 10. It makes sense on a phone but I wish I could scroll like on a PC or Ubuntu when using a larger screen.
Anyone know if there's anything out there that resembles the Ubuntu desktop. I like stock jelly bean. This is just one of a couple of things that bugs me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't heard of any projects like this, which is I think why Ubuntu started developing Ubuntu Mobile.
Sent from my GT-I9210T using xda app-developers app
kosmab said:
I really like the look and feel of Ubuntu tablet. Specifically the large desktop. I hate the limited space on my nexus 10. It makes sense on a phone but I wish I could scroll like on a PC or Ubuntu when using a larger screen.
Anyone know if there's anything out there that resembles the Ubuntu desktop. I like stock jelly bean. This is just one of a couple of things that bugs me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also like a full desktop and use the following products to acheive that and also keep quick access to notifications and menu bar functionality.
full!screen - Hides both the notification and menu bars. You set a button (can be invisible), in one of the four screen corners, which has the ability to pop-up the notifications and other functions with a long press such as a last apps list. I liked this app so much that purchased fullscreen+ eventhough I do not use any of the enhanced features.
LMT - The PIE feature adds an autohide user definable menu where I have the menu bar navigation actions and a number of quick launch apps plus other functionality. This is a free app on XDA. Make sure to read the post's "Commands" documentation as it will help you understand how to get the most out of PIE . You access PIE on one side pf the screen or the other.
You need to be rooted but those apps work very well on Stock 4.2.2.
kosmab said:
I really like the look and feel of Ubuntu tablet. Specifically the large desktop. I hate the limited space on my nexus 10. It makes sense on a phone but I wish I could scroll like on a PC or Ubuntu when using a larger screen.
Anyone know if there's anything out there that resembles the Ubuntu desktop. I like stock jelly bean. This is just one of a couple of things that bugs me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sidebar pro, lmt launcher, and a ROM that can hide the status bar or an app like the one the user above told you. You can find all those apks on the googleplay or on the forum of xda.
Greetings.
Glovebox is an app that adds a shortcut bar that pops out from the side of your screen like Ubuntu Touch has.
If you have rooted device you can now hide soft keys (and keep notification bar) without modifications and reboots. Just try my new app:
GMD Hide Soft Keys
It also adds Quick NavBar - soft keys that can be opened with simple swipe from bottom and then autohide when not needed.
I like immersive mode and find it much easier to type when in it but the problem is swiping up to make the navbar appear often inputs text that persists when I reopen whichever app I'm in.
Just wondering if there's a way to have a button on the keyboard that either functions as a navbar within the keyboard, toggles the appearance of the status bar/navbar akin to a swipe down or up from the screen edge or simply minimises the keyboard.
Not very interested in using 3rd party keyboards. I like the look and feel of stock/AOSP keyboard so would prefer to keep it for the moment.
Thanks.
When does the keyboard go into full screen mode? I've never seen this happen and always retain nav button functionality. Couldn't you just slide from the top as usual?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
bblzd said:
When does the keyboard go into full screen mode? I've never seen this happen and always retain nav button functionality. Couldn't you just slide from the top as usual?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tasker enable immersive mode for me in some apps. The top of the screen is always so far away. Something at the bottom would be nice.
Maybe do expanded desktop through the power button and back to normal after using the keyboard
Sent from Badass Tablet
G8D said:
I have tasker enable immersive mode for me in some apps. The top of the screen is always so far away. Something at the bottom would be nice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell me how you did that? I also tried that but didn't find a solution.
Dryz_ said:
Can you tell me how you did that? I also tried that but didn't find a solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to download Secure Settings. The toggle you need is 'Expand Desktop'. It's easy to just list a load of apps that will toggle this.
Lastly you need to add an exit task to disable immersive mode.