How I made my phone sexy... - 8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General

I hated my phone. I think that MS doesn’t know how to make a phone feel like a phone. That's my opinion and you know what they say about opinions... Anyway, thanks to the work of some fantastic programmers, I have gotten my phone to where it feels a little nicer. On to what I did.
I wanted to tackle making the phone prettier to use. I don’t like how the today screen background doesn't act as the background of the phone app. I think that's stupid. For fixing this, I downloaded a few dialer skins from Zombienexus. (http://www.zombienexus.net/portal/GH_ShowArticle.asp?HID=35&CATID=1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12) I'm not sure who this person is, but his dialer replacement is fantastic. I chose the "Springwood_BlackBars" theme. It's a dim picture taken of a rain forest. Looks really nice. Nice and professional. This took care of my today screen and my phone dialer. Now, both have a good (great) background.
Next up. I hate my contacts. I can't mash a letter corresponding to my contact's last name with my finger. My fingers are too fat. I don't like using the stylus for doing this because phones don’t' require stylus.... enter Contact Manager v0.10 (http://www.pocketcm.com). The guy that created this is freaking awesome. It's a contact app that pulls from your list of contacts and puts them into a list that makes them easy to select with a finger. If you drag your finger down, the list will spring down and continue scrolling with this elastic effect. If you drag your finger down one side of the screen or the other, a little tab will pop up following your finger from top to bottom with each letter of the alphabet in it starting with "a" at the top and "Z" at the bottom. Where you stop is where the list scrolls to, nice animation and all.
Now, this contacts manager is kind of plain looking off the bat. But, the creator gives you an ini file to customize. After thoroughly tweaking the ini, I now have my today screen background (the springwood) as the background behind my contacts. Though, in words this may not sound like much, but in practice, the phone is freaking sweet now. the only other thing I did, was use a softkey tweak (http://www.pocketpctweaks.com/pocketpc_tweaks/change_softkey_buttons.html) so that my contacts softkey invokes the new contactmanager app.
I wish I had screen shots of what my phone looks like. Showing it to friends has convinced them that wm5 phones CAN look like ... phones.
I'd love to see somebody "can" all three of these things together. I think a program that allows you to set the background for all three places would be very nice... What's best, all of the pieces I used are free (but, be sure and donate, these guys really out did themselves with this stuff).
Hope this helps somebody else make their phone a little more friendly.
Jason
NOTE: Contacts manager is a little funky when in landscape mode. It works, but display is a bit "off" and "tabs" no longer work. (but, who uses their phone in Landscape mode?)

Link to contact manager shows page not found. can you post fixed? Sounds interesting.

Sorry about that:
Links updated

armedmetallica said:
Link to contact manager shows page not found. can you post fixed? Sounds interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey Contact Manager v0.10 is made by one of our members @ xda developers, check out updates in the development and hacking forum.

Did'nt even know that. THat's cool... Great job Tene: ... here's link to that thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=314048&highlight=contactsmanager

Related

A New User Interface Idea

A new user interface idea. I have created this new user interface though i have no coding skills i do have the the skills of ideas...hope u guys make it come to alive i will add more images on how it shud work and..the graphics behind it.
Desiflare999 said:
A new user interface idea. I have created this new user interface though i have no coding skills i do have the the skills of ideas...hope u guys make it come to alive i will add more images on how it shud work and..the graphics behind it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That looks like it could be accomplished with Wisbar Advance Desktop. At least I think you could get real close.
well..im talkin about a whole new ball game, meaning for example: the arrow on the bottom can be pressed and drawn up by your finger to display things like programs running or etc. its lyk using one of the cube roll type, and while the arrow is being pulled up other menus such as the one on the right will automatically go right and the clock menu will go left to make space for the Arrow screen. The arrow screen will also be lyk a notification screen, lets say a new call came, the arrow screen will automatically go up to display an incoming screen but this time it will be transparent. The left menu will work like this: Lets say the music icon is chosen, the icon will light up and that menu only the box will move left and while its moving to the left the other menus that was with will move to the right, and the clock menu will move to the left, the arrow menu will go down. and it will expand to take over the entire screen to display the music player. The orb will roll to the right. and to exit music all the user gotta do is scroll their finger from left to right the opposite direction it came from.
Desiflare999 said:
well..im talkin about a whole new ball game, meaning for example: the arrow on the bottom can be pressed and drawn up by your finger to display things like programs running or etc. its lyk using one of the cube roll type, and while the arrow is being pulled up other menus such as the one on the left will automatically go left and the clock menu will go right to make space for the Arrow screen. The arrow screen will also be lyk a notification screen, lets say a new call came, the arrow screen will automatically go up to display an incoming screen but this time it will be transparent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be hot!!
so you've just invented..WisbarAadvancedDesktop NG.
nothin said:
so you've just invented..WisbarAadvancedDesktop NG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lolz..i used photoshop
In order to truly make this a reality, you'd have to use native C code. I mean, wisbar, and flash can do it, but at the expense of a lot of system resources. If no one takes it up, maybe I'll put aside some time to code it, especially if you give me more motivation by rolling out some more screenshots of your ideas .
thundershadow14 said:
In order to truly make this a reality, you'd have to use native C code. I mean, wisbar, and flash can do it, but at the expense of a lot of system resources. If no one takes it up, maybe I'll put aside some time to code it, especially if you give me more motivation by rolling out some more screenshots of your ideas .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes I will post up more images but sad thing is I don't have much experience in creating flash images but I will post images. Well thundershadow I would be glad to assist u in this project because I seen wat u can do lolz I seen ur pocketmelody and extremely impressed keep up the good work
If you post up enough images, I can give it a whirl. No promises at all, cuz I'm pretty committed to PocketMelody. But I've been dieing for a new interface that is independent of wisbar and flash, and it is my opinion that user interfaces aren't generally so dazzling that flash is a MUST use application. Most of the animations etc are simple yet effective. And the strength of their looks is in good CLEAN LOOKING static graphics (which I'm no good at making).
So, what I'm saying is, if your ideas inspire , I'll set aside some time, but again, no promises.
help
Even if i'm not so god in programming, i'd be proud to help you, whatever te way I could help
(maybe as beta tester)
don't hesitate to ask !!!
i've post some of my ideas in the Elf's forum
here's some preview
another idea i called "colour"
more samples here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=349583&page=5
it looks to cartoon like.
The above ideas can be 90% completed with pre-existing software.
Wisbar Advanced Desktop and possibly Mortscript to help with some of the multiple dock hiding/showing. A new version might exist that lets you slide/fade in and out docks...that'll make everything visually more appealing. Once you get to that point all you need to do is create a today plug-in to show you the current running programs as icons. The today plug-in will need to have an option to create height and width settings so that it'll be perfect in a slide in dock controlled by the up arrow.
The main thing that will be missing from your idea is the touch-style movement. The up arrow will be something you click on instead of the desired finger slide.
SeanFromSoCal said:
Wisbar Advanced Desktop and possibly Mortscript to help with some of the multiple dock hiding/showing. A new version might exist that lets you slide/fade in and out docks...that'll make everything visually more appealing. Once you get to that point all you need to do is create a today plug-in to show you the current running programs as icons. The today plug-in will need to have an option to create height and width settings so that it'll be perfect in a slide in dock controlled by the up arrow.
The main thing that will be missing from your idea is the touch-style movement. The up arrow will be something you click on instead of the desired finger slide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Granted, but if you really want to make it usable to a wider range of devices, you can't beat coding it natively. I've used WA/WAD on my Wizard, and after a while it gets too slow.
Lol dat looks hot
Trigger9407 said:
Lol dat looks hot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy WAD2.
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Anyone tried Pontui ?

http://pointui.com/Home.aspx
Its free and looks pretty cool... gonna install it when i get home (no cables here) if anyone has a play before the end of the day i'd appreciate opinions before i do the deed myself!
mark
Well, i gave it a try yesterday on my WM5 wizard.
Its overall look and feel is really quite impressive. All the animations are unbelivably smooth, even without any overclocking. The app is finger-friendly, but i dislike list scrolling method they used - it's not like the one in fTouchflo, or iContact, where you scroll the list as if it was a physical object and moves in sync with the finger sweeping the screen, but instead the list moves in the direction of the sweep: if you put your finger on the screen and move it down a bit, the list will start scrolling down at constant speed. if you move finger farther down, it will accelerate and again keep constant speed if finger is still. if you move finger up, it will slow down, move it u even farther, ant the list will reverse direction and scroll up. It's not very intuitive, not to mention that it's really hard to use to precisely scroll long lists. If they changed this one thing, the overall fell of the program would improve significantly.
Beside that UI is clean and well designed, gives you quick access to start menu, settings (control panel, wifi, BT, GSM module, sound volume), tasks, calendar, appointments and clock, it also has some customizable menus for accessing frequently used software.
The downside is that it replaces your Today screen, so you won't be able to use your favorite Today plugins.
Overall, it's worth a try, especially for a user who just wants a phone with a simple, yet really good-looking interface. More advanced users who like to be able to customize everything might find this a bit limiting.
Overall, the program really has huge potential, and let's not forget that it's just the first public version. It will certainly improve over time. I'd recommend giving it a try, just be aware that there are some uninstallation issues read the tread on pointUI forums for more info, or if you have something like SPB backup or other software that does FULL device backup, use it and if something goes wrong, simply HR the device.
By the way:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=355961&page=5
Given it a try, and was impressed by the smooth flowing interactive menu's. But I find its quicker and easier to use SPB Shell (yes it looks basic in comparison but its straight forward and easily customised) and have therefore unistalled the software. However do not be put off by my comments, give it a go.
tange.
prior to my phone breaking (http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=284 solutions on a postcard please) i used this UI for a few days and throught it was pretty cool. theres deffo a learning curve as some of the apps are located in strange places but overall i was very happy with it.
Impressive, but very bad support for non-English OS.
Give it time. Its a brand new and revolutionary program and those guys are doin it all in their free time so you got to give them time.
I'm running this on my wizard, Tried it and I liked it enough that I won't leave it alone.
Runs fast on my wizard, thumb approved, things are organized a little funny but after a day of using it everything is cool, I haven't looked yet but I would like to custom the 4 icons that lauch programs and some things are linked incorrectly but overall i'm impressed with the program out of box and I hope development keeps up.
i just wanted to ask
does the weather application on PointUI cost... if so.. .does any1 no how much
thanks in advance
weather is free
i think they get their weather info from yahoo/weather channel, free
PontUI
Been using this for 3 days now and I love it. This and pocketCM with a the pontUI skin is amazing. Also the Iphone a like skin works well.
The main screen is great with the middle ribbon allowing really smooth action to access Analogue clock, digital clock, Calender, Tasks, Local weather and appointments.
Main screen top contains from left to right; Lock, signal meter Carrier info, Volume, Battery and Cog (settings).
You can lock the device on lock icon, hit the signal icon and the screen flip animates to show all connections settings (Flight mode, phone status wifi things like that) Hit the Speaker Icaon and you can adjust phone and speaker volumes as well as mute. hit the battery icon (which show bat level) and you can see battery life and go to power settings and backlight settings (well I can't but hey it's a beta) Hit the Cog and too many settings to list but among them is update feature so you can get the latest version straight to your device, you can also exit PontUI Home from here.
You have four icon down the bottom of the main screen which are, left to right; phone icon for call history list, tap it then swipe right on a name to call or sms them. Envelope icon press this to go to your email account (can choose which one through new registry string) next is SMS icon tap it to go to standard SMS app. Then last is the WM Icon, tap to go to windows media player (can choose which one through new registry string).
There is also a bar with an arrow down the bottom which you tap this then gives you four options; New, from which you can create new Email, SMS, MMS, Appointment, task, document or spreadsheet.
Favourites which shows all apps in the start menu folder. Applications which allows to to smoothly scroll through all installed apps and Currently running which does what it says on the tin.
As this App evolves i'm sure these menus will become nicely configurable.
I 'm really loving this App and it's only BETA. I'm running HTC Trinity (orange M700) and it's just sooo smooth. I tried Freestyl, which is good and I've been following, but when I tried this, I was blown away.
It's kind of nice to have an App that seems to integerate well with the phone rather than being a kind of clucky overlay that you can tell isn't meant to be there.
I urge you all to try it and see what you think.
Cheers all.
Logicalstep
loving it
What i think they can improve are:
1 make the hardware buttons to work, now i can't take a picture, record any sound, or change the volume with the h-buttons.
2 a contacts app will be nice and as well a favorite contacts like the htc home
3 a way to close app on the currently running menu
4 a little bigger back button or more to the left cause when i try to pres the back button with the tumb i usually had to try 2 or 3 times couse is really near to the border.
finaly a way to select favorite app that don’t depend of the start menu
don’t get me wrong i think that app is amazing but this 5 thing will make it perfect to me
I am loving Pointui!

What I dont like about PointUI...

While I was fascinated about the idea of a new UI for WM, the introduction of PointUI was a bit of a damp squib. The story of PointUI is like the story of the emperors clothes: its far from perfect but nobody wants to speak out against the overwhelming hype.There are a few things about the interface that irritate me. Hope fully the updates will take care of this:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
2. No app shortcuts. The first screenshots of the UI gave the impression that you could access shortcuts via pages which could be accessed through a simple left or right sliding motion. The current setup puts it just below a properly configured HTC Home with 6 tabs. Whats the point of seeing two versions of the time and the calendar?
3. Screen locking is ridiculous. In this day and age of slide to unlock programs with dpad unlocking and additional information displayed,it seems the prog prioritised being different rather than being practical, especially with the apparent lack of a clock.
Then again, I could be wrong....
hmm
i think PointUI are just in its early stages, however i do agreen with some of your points. We just need to give the developers some time. they have started off with a great base.
they have a fix for the first problem you listed
check the pointui forums for it
its still in beta..so i'm still awaiting how the final product will be
im sure they'll be making some major improvements and additions to it
Vukile said:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
press title of the running program ... you get to the same screen as going through the running programs.
but with the rest i agree its very inefficent to start a program ... efficent handling has to be priored ... not just eyecandy. so i don't use it anymore...
if you are in a program tap where the start button used to be top left and you will get the option to force close.
I also find it better when changing the setting object navigation to slide navigation for getting to my apps.
however
One must admit that it does have an amazing UI. i feel is much better than the iphone UI
# 3 is also addressed by allowing 3rd party screen lock progs like S2U2. Their latest official build 1.01b enables this. I applaud their efforts. Not because its free. Not just cuz its new. But because it is pretty well thought out and performs more smoothly than any other shell app out there, esp w.r.t. animations and transitions.
I second that. I have good expectations for it.
jomo25 said:
# 3 is also addressed by allowing 3rd party screen lock progs like S2U2. Their latest official build 1.01b enables this. I applaud their efforts. Not because its free. Not just cuz its new. But because it is pretty well thought out and performs more smoothly than any other shell app out there, esp w.r.t. animations and transitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you like PointUI,then youll love SPB Shell. My main problem with this UI is that I can get better efficiency with HTC Home and a couple MortButtons shortcuts. I can access anything faster with that combination than with PointUI. Its not a revolution,its a fancy skin.
Does anyone else find the scrolling to be annoying? How it's inversed and extremely painful to scroll through large content?
chunga168 said:
Does anyone else find the scrolling to be annoying? How it's inversed and extremely painful to scroll through large content?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its supposed to be like that. Like you are grabbing the page and flicking it. Have you tried "flicking" its fun.
In fact, I don't like ftouchflo because it doesn't seem to allow me to flick like I want to.
Things I don't like about PointUI:
1) clocks, calendars all don't need to be on seperate screens. Would be nice to have a home screen that shows time/date/appoints/etc and the be able to flick over to application.
2) Not integrated (same problem I have with the cube). Along with the cube, its useful getting to stuff, but when you actually open the program it usually requires a stylus.
Thins I like about PointUI:
1) Smooth scrolling and animations. Honestly its amazing.
Vukile said:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the new patch on the point UI forum posted by the devolepers 2 test, it has the x buttom insted of the - minimise buttom and it closes the programmes ....
@ Vukile: Don't count me in the camp of people who need to have access to "everything in as few clicks as possible". I'd rather have a simple to understand, clean, uncluttered interface, even if it takes a few extra gestures/taps to do it. Very frequently used stuff should be quick, and less frequent, further away. While I understand how some want to have every function within one screen, I'd prefer otherwise. So, I actually like the promise of this more than SPB Shell...But to each his/her own.
@ Chunga168: I also intuitively prefer the iPhone/PocketCM type scrolling, however, the method they have implemented is actually better for long lists. If you have to "iPhone flick" to the bottom of a long list, it could take a while. Being able to have it scroll while holding is actually faster for some. It's a case of preferences IMO, so I hope (and expect) they will implement both and make it optional.
I dont know...ive been trying everything from spb products to all kind of invented cubes...but i guess i will stay longer with pointui because IMO its so interacitve and fast...but a hiccup here and there is normal...but the developer is going to take all of our [email protected] to improve...
Well I've really enjoyed Pointui. It's good that there are developers taking a good look at the Windows Mobile UI, although to be fair HTC themselves have been working on obvious improvements, and Lg might be worth keeping an eye on.
Pointui.Home is beautifully animated, looks good and feels good to use, the developer team seem pretty dedicated, and it has the potential to be an amazing phone interface.
However that is my niggle, see to me, my Artemis is not a phone with a PDA attached, but a PDA with a phone attached, and for all it's graphical loveliness Pointui.Home actually makes using my PDA more complicated. I enjoyed Spb Mobile Shell, it's NOW screens were great, and it's version of finger friendliness with big chunky thumbable buttons worked well. Funnily enough the reason I stopped using it was because it was bloated and buggy, and I wanted to give HTC Home a good run for it's money.
But to me Aesthetics are important, it's nice to use a good looking interface, and Pointui seems to be top for that, but I'm already tempted to remove it, and even tempted to forgive Spb's faults.
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
daverage said:
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, it should at least give you the option of choosing what you put on the soft keys. It sits on the top bar anyway, why map it? Only seasoned users of PDAs will appreciate the need for simplicity before aesthetic,much in the same direction that Android is headed. Try this exercise for example : uninstall a program using the PointUI and then try it the old fashioned way. The old way is quicker.
does the calendar on the main screen suppose to highlight the days with appointments,etc.? If not, then the calendar is not very useful, and there should be an option to turn it off. Same thing with the analog clock.
A better app launcher is definitely needed. I have suggested in other posts having an icon based launcher a la iPhone when you press the botton down arrow button on the screen, or at least on the main scrolling screen, give us about 4 user definable icons for apps...or have BOTH.
PointUI has a pretty nice interface but is really not that time efficient.
Has anyone tried to remove this program?... Its a headache! I had to find various reg entries and delete them to fully remove it
daverage said:
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is something you can easily change

Captions beneath icons on Programs screen?

I'm not sure about most of you but I have a hard time remembering what the Icons om my Programs screen all mean. No I admit, most are pretty clear but I'm not always sure, beneath each square-with-icon, there is some space left and I wonder why there's not a possibility to show a short description there. Are there solutions out there.
As this sort of ruins the nice clean display, I could also imagine a mechanism where one could touch an icon to see a description first, before e.g. touching again to activate and run, maybe taht would be more elegant.
Unrelated somewhat, I'm also wondering if the number of icons on this screen can be increased.
Dude, why do you have bubble breaker 2 times at your Programs Screen??
Man... you are sharp
I changed my screen with an editor as I had an application there that I didn't want to show to the world (nothing spectacular but, let's say, it wasn't 100% legal software. I know... I shouldn't do that but I'm still playing with apps to see which ones I like and which ones I don't. I did already buy the stuff that I do like).
So, summarizing: excellent observation but plse ignore, it's not real
My question still stands however.

[Q] Thoughts after two months

My wife recently bought a Galaxy Tab 7.7 and now after some hours of experience she has some questions:
1. When you turn off the sound it doesn't turn off everything, sounds on webpages still plays.
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
3. When you want to edit text in the web browser, for instance in a forum like this, and you put the marker where you want to start edit, the marker jumps 1 or more letters efter about one second. It's not a miss click, because you can see that the marker is in the correct place when you remove your finger, and then after about one seconde it jumps to another place. Extremely annoying.
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
8. The screen locks itself quickly when you make a call, in like 10 s, even though you have set it on 5 mins. Very annoying when you want to check things on the pad during a call.
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
11. I can't write é and ü which is used sometimes in my language, the signs ¨ and ´ just doesn't exist. But a ton of smiliys do...strange choice by Google/Samsung.... (yes, I have the local version of the OS)
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
13. The music player can't do shuffle
This was just the most important things, then it's alot of other annoying things that doesn't work correctly and that are just illogical.
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.
I m sorry to say. All of the above can be done/customize... u just haven't look in the right place or download the right Apps..... I guess it's your first smartphone.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using XDA Premium HD app
No, I've owned an Iphone, which had none of these issues.
But please give me some tips and hints, because I've looked around and have found nothing.
1) You need to turn down the media volume whilst in the browser.
2. Obviously clean the screen more often, what do you expect?
3. Its a bug with no fix. ICS should fix this.
4. With apps in general? Because ICS has started a trend for better resolution support. With notifications I suggest getting glasses. Also in the themes and apps forum there is an app to increase font size called Big Font.
5. That defeats the point of a reminder.
6. No but some custom launchers like go launcher provide this option.
7. I have a wifI only version so no idea. But the clock should always stay in the bottom bar.
8. Its meant to be this way. Its a feature from smartphones. It stops your face pressing buttons on the screen when you put the speaker grill to your ear.
9. No comment.
10. For the clock/alarm app?
11. Hold the letter e (é) and u (ü) down on the Samsung keyboard.
12. The play store offers alternative browsers like opera and dolphin hd, try some.
13. ICS upgrade should fix this. But again use the play store to find alternatives.
Honeycomb is buggy, numerous reviews have stated this. The ICS upgrade is set to fix most of these issues and provide a better overall experience. The ICS upgrade is meant to be set for May.
Its not meant to be a computer. Its meant to be be a media consumption device. You've come from an iphone which is simple. Android just takes times to get used too. You probably would have been better off with am ipad. Android tablets just aren't there yet.
Sent from my GT-P6810 using xda premium
ZacAttack said:
1) You need to turn down the media volume whilst in the browser.
Ok, but you have to agree with me that when you put the phone in silent, it should be completely silent.
2. Obviously clean the screen more often, what do you expect?
It becomes a mark after every time you log in. If they'd just had the grid in different places it wouldn't be a problem.
3. Its a bug with no fix. ICS should fix this.
I have big hopes for ICS
4. With apps in general? Because ICS has started a trend for better resolution support. With notifications I suggest getting glasses. Also in the themes and apps forum there is an app to increase font size called Big Font.
Mostly the webbrowser, even though you zoom max, it's very small text, and it's hard to highlight words. I will try Dolphin more extensively.
5. That defeats the point of a reminder.
It's just that you should have better options for the sound level (now it's a bearaly audiable "ding" or something), and it should also be a pop-up window or with a OK-button or so.
6. No but some custom launchers like go launcher provide this option.
Ok, will try that.
7. I have a wifI only version so no idea. But the clock should always stay in the bottom bar.
It doesn't, you have to go back to home screen to see the clock.
8. Its meant to be this way. Its a feature from smartphones. It stops your face pressing buttons on the screen when you put the speaker grill to your ear.
Well, it should be an option to turn it off since this is a 7.7 inch tablet and mostly you will use a headset.
9. No comment.
10. For the clock/alarm app?
11. Hold the letter e (é) and u (ü) down on the Samsung keyboard.
Thanks!
12. The play store offers alternative browsers like opera and dolphin hd, try some.
Will do!
13. ICS upgrade should fix this. But again use the play store to find alternatives.
Again, I have big hopes for ICS
Honeycomb is buggy, numerous reviews have stated this. The ICS upgrade is set to fix most of these issues and provide a better overall experience. The ICS upgrade is meant to be set for May.
Can't wait!
Its not meant to be a computer. Its meant to be be a media consumption device. You've come from an iphone which is simple. Android just takes times to get used too. You probably would have been better off with am ipad. Android tablets just aren't there yet.
I know, but they certainly have the hardware for it, they just don't use it properly.
If Apple had an ~7 inch tablet from which you could make calls, I would've probably bought that.
Sent from my GT-P6810 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply!
Open the phone app (not the mini dialer)
Logs - Long press a caller number- Add to contacts.
Marquzz said:
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---------- Post added at 09:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 AM ----------
"Stopwatch & Timer" from Google Play.
Marquzz said:
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Marquzz said:
It becomes a mark after every time you log in. If they'd just had the grid in different places it wouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will leave finger marks anywhere your grid was anyway, other still can figure your grid shape
So... just clean your screen or consider using password ^^
pa64 said:
Open the phone app (not the mini dialer)
Logs - Long press a caller number- Add to contacts.
---------- Post added at 09:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 AM ----------
"Stopwatch & Timer" from Google Play.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, can't find a option to add the number to a contact you already have, it only creates a new contact. Maybe I'm just stupid, only got 5 years of higher IT education...
What I need to do is choose to edit the phone number, and then add the phone number to a contact that way.
GOF007 said:
It will leave finger marks anywhere your grid was anyway, other still can figure your grid shape
So... just clean your screen or consider using password ^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, this is just one of those annoying things. If the grid randomly switched place, it could've been much harder to see the pattern. But it's not very important.
It's just that when alot of things annoy you, you just start to get annoyed on other things aswell
Overall she is very happy with the tablet, it's just that it has the potential to be much much better, it's just a matter of software.
This image shows how small text is when you write in a box on a web page (max zoom), it's just hard to put the marker where you want it, if you for instance notice that you have missspelled something:
Marquzz said:
No, can't find a option to add the number to a contact you already have, it only creates a new contact. Maybe I'm just stupid, only got 5 years of higher IT education...
What I need to do is choose to edit the phone number, and then add the phone number to a contact that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dial the number and press the icon next to the number where you can save it to any existing or new contact.
pa64 said:
Dial the number and press the icon next to the number where you can save it to any existing or new contact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I know it can be done. Just can't understand why a very expensive top of the line smartphone/tablet 2012 just isn't better than this.
I might have answers to some of your questions which I hope could be useful to you:
Marquzz said:
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As much as I hate to mention, ICS has face recognition unlock feature which doesn't leave any grease mark for James Bond; or if you are the impatient kind like me, you could considering getting the FaceLock for apps Pro (paid app) which as similar phone lock feature for non-ICS Android devices.
Marquzz said:
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have multiple questions in one go. XD
First of all you could really re-size the screen size on running application, you could find the corresponding option in the notification bar when the tablet detects it.
Reminders and other notifications is easily missed, yes...but you could try NoLED app, or FaceLock apps Pro I mentioned earlier. (Do not use both, I tried, and miserably failed)
Text can be resized with app like BigFont. I don't use it, as it messed up with the default calendar app (though you can circumvent that with third-party calendar app)
Marquzz said:
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could use the Linda File Manager (free app) to create desktop shortcut. In the rare event you would like to create script shortcut (e.g. instant reboot script), you could try SMWidgets.
Marquzz said:
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Overskreen (paid app) as my default browser. It can't move tabs, but the tabs doesn't reload when you switch between them (redraw, though). It has additional feature like floating browser, and background processing (such that you could listen to browser's streaming audio while phone is locked)
Yeah adding and sorting bookmarks is still a major harrass, especially when you utilize Google sync bookmark features.
If you like fancy features to impress your friends you could try Dolphin Browser (beta version only, and this version is not found in Play yet): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgC9qaOLmO8
Marquzz said:
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me, this tablet is the best you can get for business applications. Of course, it is very much depending on your needs.
Marquzz said:
No, can't find a option to add the number to a contact you already have, it only creates a new contact. Maybe I'm just stupid, only got 5 years of higher IT education...
What I need to do is choose to edit the phone number, and then add the phone number to a contact that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take it that you are trying to add a number from inside the phone app to an existing contact?
#1 If you are in Dialer, press the icon to the right of the number and you can either save it as a new contact, or add it to an existing contact.
#2 If you are in Logs, the trick is to long click on the entry in the left pane, select "Edit number before call", which will bring you to the dialer, and you to #1 above, where you can proceed accordingly. (If you select "Add to Contacts", it will be a new contact.*)
#3 Still in Logs, long clicking on the entry itself (on the right) will copy the number to clipboard. Which will allow other possibilities...
*This is peculiar to the Samsung phone app and I agree that they should not have done it this way. It's not how it works in Vanilla ICS on my Galaxy Nexus.
Hope that helps.
Marquzz said:
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Samsung stock calendar is rather basic. Try Business Calendar, which has advanced controls for notifications (include snooze).
Marquzz said:
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The clock shows on my bottom bar even in a phone call. See attached pic below.
Marquzz said:
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Alarm Clock Xtreme can do that.
Marquzz said:
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Dolphin HD. It solves the first and the last two problems. I'm not sure why but the browser sometimes reloads when you switch on the 7.7--it didn't do so (or do so as much) on either my Galaxy Nexus (ICS) or even on my old HTC HD2 running Android Gingerbread. Might be a Honeycomb thing.
Marquzz said:
13. The music player can't do shuffle
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ICS music player can do shuffle. If you are resourceful, you can install the apk. But again, there are better alternatives out there. For instance, Poweramp and PlayerPro. (I have the ICS player, but eventually settled on Poweramp.)
All the best!
Marquzz said:
Yes, I know it can be done. Just can't understand why a very expensive top of the line smartphone/tablet 2012 just isn't better than this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, ok...
1) Open the dialer
2) Enter a number
3) Click the 'add to contact' icon immediately to the right of the number you just entered
4) You are immediately taken to your list of contacts
5) At this point you have 2 options, click 'New" to add a new contact or click on any contact from the list
6) Upon clicking any one of the contacts in your list, that contact is immediately opened and the new number automatically added to the list of phone numbers for that contact...from there you can specify the number type (work, home, mobile, etc.)
I honestly can't imagine a scenario any more intuitive & straight forward than this. Please describe (if you can) what would be 'better than this'?
---------- Post added at 12:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 PM ----------
7. I have a wifI only version so no idea. But the clock should always stay in the bottom bar.
It doesn't, you have to go back to home screen to see the clock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong. The taskbar on the bottom is still there during calls, and the clock is still visible. I'm looking at it right now as I type this.
For someone with 5 years of "IT higher learning", you're not exhibiting much in the way of higher intelligence here in my opinion. You are aware that there's a thing called a search engine, right? Google is kind of a popular one. Millions of people from all over the world have been using Android for several years, and nearly every question/complaint you raised in your original list has been asked, discussed & addressed by someone at some point. Instead of jumping onto a forum and ranting off your list of 'problems', you might want to poke around a bit & see if there's already an answer out there.
1. When you turn off the sound it doesn't turn off everything, sounds on webpages still plays.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartandroidapps.audiowidget&hl=en
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
Seriously? Clean the screen frequently; Try a non-glossy screen protector; Use a PIN or a password to unlock the screen rather than a pattern.
3. When you want to edit text in the web browser, for instance in a forum like this, and you put the marker where you want to start edit, the marker jumps 1 or more letters efter about one second. It's not a miss click, because you can see that the marker is in the correct place when you remove your finger, and then after about one seconde it jumps to another place. Extremely annoying.
This is the one item on your list that I would call a real 'problem'. A bluetooth mouse helps if this is something you need to do very often.
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
Honeycomb is a smartphone OS first, and a tablet OS second. ICS bridges that gap much better, but there will always be some compromises. The Android phone market is bigger (much bigger) than the tablet market, so there will always be somewhat of a slant toward smartphone functionality-wise.
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitfire.development.calendarsnooze&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5iaXRmaXJlLmRldmVsb3BtZW50LmNhbGVuZGFyc25vb3plIl0.
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gau.go.launcherex&feature=search_result
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
Yes, it does.
8. The screen locks itself quickly when you make a call, in like 10 s, even though you have set it on 5 mins. Very annoying when you want to check things on the pad during a call.
This is by design, and another byproduct of honeycomb being a smartphone OS first and a tablet OS second. You may notice that the tablet does have a proximity sensor with related settings. If you make a call and pass your hand over the sensor it will blank the screen...remove your hand and the screen reappears. This mirrors the functionality you'd expect when you put the 'phone' up to your ear..again geared toward how you'd expect a smartphone to work. Honestly, I'm not sure that the target demographic for this tablet will use it as their primary mobile phone all that much. But for those that do, it's a pretty minor inconvenience...so you have to push the power button to get the screen back...just not that big of a deal.
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
Wrong. It's very logical and very intuitive. 2 clicks & done.
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
Who does this? Why? If you want to wake up 1 hour & 45 minutes later can you not just do some simple math in your brain and set the timer to what the time will be 1 hours & 45 minutes later?
11. I can't write é and ü which is used sometimes in my language, the signs ¨ and ´ just doesn't exist. But a ton of smiliys do...strange choice by Google/Samsung.... (yes, I have the local version of the OS)
Someone already answered this.
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
Numerous browser options in the play store.
13. The music player can't do shuffle
Numerous music player options in the play store.
This was just the most important things, then it's alot of other annoying things that doesn't work correctly and that are just illogical.
Wrong. In my opinion, you're just lazy. Android is not a kindergarten children's toy like iOS. If that's what you want or need, you should get an Apple. There's a learning curve with Android, but if you invest a bit of time, you will be rewarded with an experience that's ultimately more satisfying than iOS (at least in my opinion).
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
Return it & buy an Apple.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.
Marquzz said:
My wife recently bought a Galaxy Tab 7.7 and now after some hours of experience she has some questions:
1. When you turn off the sound it doesn't turn off everything, sounds on webpages still plays.
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
3. When you want to edit text in the web browser, for instance in a forum like this, and you put the marker where you want to start edit, the marker jumps 1 or more letters efter about one second. It's not a miss click, because you can see that the marker is in the correct place when you remove your finger, and then after about one seconde it jumps to another place. Extremely annoying.
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
8. The screen locks itself quickly when you make a call, in like 10 s, even though you have set it on 5 mins. Very annoying when you want to check things on the pad during a call.
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
11. I can't write é and ü which is used sometimes in my language, the signs ¨ and ´ just doesn't exist. But a ton of smiliys do...strange choice by Google/Samsung.... (yes, I have the local version of the OS)
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
13. The music player can't do shuffle
This was just the most important things, then it's alot of other annoying things that doesn't work correctly and that are just illogical.
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, this and so many more "little" things is what makes me hate android. This tablet was my first device and I can safely say I will never buy another android device again. I'll probably get an I pad 4 when it comes out. I'm just sick of finding out more things my tab can't do. Its really dissapointing as the reason I chose this over an I pad was the smaller screen size but its just not worth it
Marquzz said:
My wife recently bought a Galaxy Tab 7.7 and now after some hours of experience she has some questions:
1. When you turn off the sound it doesn't turn off everything, sounds on webpages still plays.
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
3. When you want to edit text in the web browser, for instance in a forum like this, and you put the marker where you want to start edit, the marker jumps 1 or more letters efter about one second. It's not a miss click, because you can see that the marker is in the correct place when you remove your finger, and then after about one seconde it jumps to another place. Extremely annoying.
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
8. The screen locks itself quickly when you make a call, in like 10 s, even though you have set it on 5 mins. Very annoying when you want to check things on the pad during a call.
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
11. I can't write é and ü which is used sometimes in my language, the signs ¨ and ´ just doesn't exist. But a ton of smiliys do...strange choice by Google/Samsung.... (yes, I have the local version of the OS)
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
13. The music player can't do shuffle
This was just the most important things, then it's alot of other annoying things that doesn't work correctly and that are just illogical.
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can make a similar list of annoyances or personal preferences for any tablet, so such lists are pretty useless for it is always a trade-off between annoyances and delights and for me the delights on the 7.7 far outweigh the annoyances compared to any other tablet. So rather than buy a tablet then whinge about it you should check it out first.

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