Database Users

Looking for something different for the Home Screen

I have read alot of posts and have found that the most popular home screen is HTC Home. There are others that prefer paid for applications. But here is my question. Has anyone ever ported a smartphone home screen for use on the Herald?
My daughter has a T-Mobile Shadow which uses a nice home screen and actually highly functional for average user. I have also seen a YouTube video of another home screen that was just gorgeous. Personally I prefer to keep my stylus holstered at all costs since I have damaged my screen with the elements in my area. Besides that whenever I hand my phone to anyone I have to give them a crash course in using my phone. I know it is simply tap the power button and press the green button but they will stand there forever trying to figure it out. I was just wondering if anyone has seen anything like I am talking about? It would be a nice change from HTC Home.

Nothing beats the HTC home screen in my opinion. do you have the cube feature?

I am not arguing the quality of HTC Home I have used it a while now. I would just like a change and I have a few little complaints about HTC Home specifically with the Music tab. It doesn't take focus on what button you are on while navigation using the directional pad. I take it most people use there stylus so it does not bother them and it is minimal so I have no problems with it.
As to the Cube no I do not have it installed and I again don't like to touch the screen I have already accrued enough damage and my finger tips are worse than the stylus. Thank you for your suggestions and interest in my post.

Is there a video or pictures of the htc home screen, I'm new to all this?

I like to keep my today screen simple and clean...
I really hated HTC Home... it was too big and clunky, didn't fit my needs and just got on my nerves!
I use Ultimate Launch to tab SPB Phone suite, SPB Time, SPB Weather
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..
..

There is also Freestyl and PointUI both are free but both are in Beta still.
,

Thanks for the suggestions duprade & pseudoproto. Both of your Home Screens are awesome and well put together I will say. After duprade's post I tried all the Today plugins I could find and none had the feel of stability to me. I am not complaining or knocking on their designs. I am specifically looking for a direct port from another windows mobile device at this time. Again thanks hope I make sense I think I want a Smart Phone on a Pocket PC how sad lol.

just try ultimate launch or spb pocket plus it works very good it is a kind of a cube on your today screen to launch some apps or something like that try it and i think it will be the right thing for you just google ;-)

hhh_www you may be right and I have tried it and it was fun. But I haven't a artistic bone in my body. So everything I put together looks like crap. I am just hopeful for a few specific details I see in my daughters Shadow. The WMP on the scrolling screen w/ Album Art. That is so appealing.
Here is a screen shot of that in action you might understand why I like it so much.

neiltoe said:
hhh_www you may be right and I have tried it and it was fun. But I haven't a artistic bone in my body. So everything I put together looks like crap. I am just hopeful for a few specific details I see in my daughters Shadow. The WMP on the scrolling screen w/ Album Art. That is so appealing.
Here is a screen shot of that in action you might understand why I like it so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ran across this site and thought of your post. Maybe something from here is close to what you want. Let me know if this helps.
http://smartphone.krisdoff.net/portfolio.php?g=3

Thank you will definitely give it a try!
Edit: I tried to use it but it appears you must have a smartphone to use this.

There's a thread. It's called "Post your todayscreen"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=360897
maybe you can look in there and see what you like.
There are tons of these "Post your todayscreen" type threads all over the forum. If you could find a few look through it, and see what you like.

Theme critique

I've been working on this... it will eventually be a full theme, skinning the today screen, cube, media player, ect.
This is how it looks right now..
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One of my favorite aspects so far is the theme can be easily "customized" by changing the background to almost anything else, and everything else still looks nice.
I'm trying to figure out how to change the top bar.. I'd like to change it to black, but still keep that kind of "3D" look that it has now unlike the other themes ive seen which have a flat black top bar.
The AIM icon can be fixed up a little bit, It came out a little more grey than i wanted.
What i'd like, but i dont know how it would work would be above the icons i have on the bottem id like a sliding bar (kind of hard to explain, it should look something like [ ] [ ] [ ] ) and each one of those boxes will be a picture that when hit will act a speed dial. Preferably id like the boxes to be greyscale till pressed and held down it turns to color.. Anyone know if this can be done?
Suggestions, Ideas, Feedback welcome..

Great!!
Keep up this work!

I like.... Keep it going!

excellent theme, very nice. for the bottom bar u can probably use throttle launcher? have u tried it?

salahnajm said:
excellent theme, very nice. for the bottom bar u can probably use throttle launcher? have u tried it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, not yet. It will allow me to set up that speed dial function? I'll have to check it out..
Thanks for the feedback guys

I don't know if that's what ur looking for, but throttle launcher is very highly customizable with the option to add contacts:
http://www.throttlelauncher.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23

I like it so far. I think that the clock text (12:06 AM) should look nicer if its smoothed out. The edges look really pixelated. Some way to make the text flow with the theme would definately be a plus.

i think it would look great with a flat black bar. also, if you integrated some sort of icon(s) showing if BT or wifi is on, this theme would be bomb.

Go for it bro....
My bless to u ....

grandpareza said:
I like it so far. I think that the clock text (12:06 AM) should look nicer if its smoothed out. The edges look really pixelated. Some way to make the text flow with the theme would definately be a plus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That can be done.. Thanks for the suggestion
aguas said:
i think it would look great with a flat black bar. also, if you integrated some sort of icon(s) showing if BT or wifi is on, this theme would be bomb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think im going to go for the flat black bar as kind of a last resort, It may possibly look fine. However, I like the bar that it has much better. I just want it to be black.
BT and Wifi icons can be done.. I will work on putting that in there.

thats looks real nice when you gonna release it? are you gonna do a big cab file with all the files or just the theme

Definitely worth developing, love how it looks!

Haskell304 said:
That can be done.. Thanks for the suggestion
I think im going to go for the flat black bar as kind of a last resort, It may possibly look fine. However, I like the bar that it has much better. I just want it to be black.
BT and Wifi icons can be done.. I will work on putting that in there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't remember exactly where it is, but to get black bars (black with the 3d effect) you need to change the "BaseHue" value to 160... I can't remember where in the registry that is, but it's somewhere! I'll dig it up when i have the time...

cjmedina said:
thats looks real nice when you gonna release it? are you gonna do a big cab file with all the files or just the theme
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once its finished, I'll just compress it with all the files. If people need it, Im sure i wont have a problem providing a .cab
l3v5y said:
Can't remember exactly where it is, but to get black bars (black with the 3d effect) you need to change the "BaseHue" value to 160... I can't remember where in the registry that is, but it's somewhere! I'll dig it up when i have the time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, If you could find that for me i'd really appreciate it. Thanks

Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Color]
"BaseHue"=dword:160
That should give you black bars, but without the flatness

l3v5y said:
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Color]
"BaseHue"=dword:160
That should give you black bars, but without the flatness
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying it now..

Haskell304 said:
Trying it now..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It'll also set all of the base colours to black...

very very cool. i especially like the transparency and 3D aspects.

Would you use this?

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help me dev it... i'll do all the graphics, if anyone wants it and knows how to implement it

Looks good, are trying to make this for rlToday?

i have no idea. i literally opened up photoshop and did my thing. i need all your know-how from here on out, if you guys would use it.

Not bad IMO - original concept/layout.

I'll tell you the easiest, and best way to customize this, would be the new WAD2. It's $10, you won't regret it, trust me.

Great design. I would use it, but the only issue I would have is the weather. I am in love with Rumball's weather icons so I like to use that in weatherpanel as my weather program.

Well, we could use whatever weather icons we want, I'd assume, right?
Let me know who can help.

What it'd look like on the Touch.
Come on programmers

skanndelus said:
What it'd look like on the Touch.
Come on programmers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to use WAD2 it is quite easy to use..just load all your images and done

i can add functionality to all the buttons and make the clock function as well?

not for nothing thats pretty sick! awesome job!
i personally dont use wad2 nor rltoday, due to personal prefrence..but if ur gonna do it, im pretty sure users will be all over it!

what's wad2 anyways, i see wisbar advanced desktop on their site but it is not 2.0... is there another program?

skanndelus said:
help me dev it... i'll do all the graphics, if anyone wants it and knows how to implement it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are the cresents on either side of the clock?
I can do the majority of this using rltoday. Only things I wouldn't be able to do are:
-alarm notification. I know there's a way to do it using mortscript but I don't know the code.
-the battery indicator can be done using sys-2-reg. not hard but another program to install.
-the volume button would just link you to the volume control or maybe toggle between mute/loud?
-the signal and connection indicators I couldn't do.
-there's a weather mort script on the rltoday site that I could use.
-the hour and minute hands on the clock would just be straight lines. I could use PNG files but for some reason doing that sucks up a lot of memory.
What else? Just need graphics.
EDIT: I think I just figured out what the cresents are!!! If they're indicators for the battery, volume, etc. then this is way out of my league.

yes they are meters... it's sort of like a hud. well... is there any way around using wad or rl to program this... are there any crazy programmers on this board even capable of something, or this just too extreme. i can give you the graphics, just tell me the formats you need everything in.

Looks promising.
I like today screen with many information displayed.
It would be fine if that could be used with SPB shell.
Really nice design skanndelus.
Cheers

skanndelus said:
yes they are meters... it's sort of like a hud. well... is there any way around using wad or rl to program this... are there any crazy programmers on this board even capable of something, or this just too extreme. i can give you the graphics, just tell me the formats you need everything in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that's for me then the files would need to be in PNG format.
The "HUD" is a great idea but no way would I be able to do that. I'm sure someone else can....
Actaully, if you can find, or make a font file that has those shapes I think it can be done in rltoday. Would need sys-e-reg though.
Now you have me thinking. Great!!!! I'm going to be up all night!!!!

Yes WAD 2 can do anything..you can set the path to the app and clock, weather, everything gestures also..WAD 2 is still in beta..so try it

ooo where do i DL

WAD 2 download on their site... or do i need to sign up, or pay?

skanndelus said:
WAD 2 download on their site... or do i need to sign up, or pay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=59
It is on RC13...so free for now, with an expiration date. It will likely be 9.99 US when released, but not sure. It is one of the best, easiest shell replacements. Simple click>hold>select item to add. Click and drag items around the screen. Here is what mine looks like right now.

[IDEA]WM6.5 Easy Hide Titanium

I'm not thinking something like my snapshots I photoshopped up would be possible, but it would be nice to have an easy-hide button for Titanium rather than going into the Today screen settings.
I guess the mockups are something I might have if I was a Microsoft 6.5 Engineer. Basically I just copied the Hide/Show Desktop Button from Windows 7, added some Arrows from the Lock Screen, and added the Lock Screen clock at the bottom.
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The idea is really cool

I'd like that!!

If this were the default lockscreen it would be much more original that than the iPhone S2U that Microsoft is trying to copy.
Think, if your alerts could shoot out of the arrow part and you could slide them up or down to retrieve them. To unlock the phone, just drag the arrows to the right. All with smooth animations of course. The arrow part could simply change color to let you know you have new alerts. When you tap it, the number of alerts slides out along with the individual alert slider.

michal_banszel said:
The idea is really cool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you.
atoz350 said:
If this were the default lockscreen it would be much more original that than the iPhone S2U that Microsoft is trying to copy.
Think, if your alerts could shoot out of the arrow part and you could slide them up or down to retrieve them. To unlock the phone, just drag the arrows to the right. All with smooth animations of course. The arrow part could simply change color to let you know you have new alerts. When you tap it, the number of alerts slides out along with the individual alert slider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never thought of making it a lock screen. I guess if someone were to create a whole new lock screen app like that, it would be possible to make one that was like my designs... But I am still interested in the idea of easily hiding Titanium.

Good idea.
It looks like S2U2.

i would love to get this on my phone if any one can develop it haha...great idea....... love it.... lets hope some one can make it...

support this great idea

Looks like something that might be available on "7". But would be awesome if we could get it here and now. +1 for notifications linked to the appropriate panel, ie. you get an email: the email hidden tab would blink/change color/show email icon and you could slide that tab out to check it.. brilliant concept.

danthman2000 said:
Looks like something that might be available on "7". But would be awesome if we could get it here and now. +1 for notifications linked to the appropriate panel, ie. you get an email: the email hidden tab would blink/change color/show email icon and you could slide that tab out to check it.. brilliant concept.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll attempt to work on the notification concept a bit in some more photoshop mockups. But thank you everyone for your good feedback.

such a simple idea....absolutely brilliant. I would love to have this

the closest thing to this now would be s2u2 actually. just a matter of skinning it to look like titanium. and you can slide and titanium would show!!! i know not what you had in mind but hey it's the closest you can get =D

i like it...but maybe make it a lock buten?? sory for my englisch

cool idea!!

it would be much nicer with this in touch in my phone

Nice idea!

very nice!
GR8 IDEA
but... mayde, why not it 3D?

Cool idea

Yeah that is a very good idea !!!

great Idea if someone could find a way to add page to Clock PANEL then You could just creat an exe to lock phone right?

No REAL home replacements?

I have been an Android user for several months now . I came over from Windows Mobile . One of the main reasons i came to Android was for the open source capabilities (which i suppose now were only in my head). I feel I could REALLY customize my WM phones. Through much work of course , but I really felt like they were MINE . This has not been the case for me thus for with my Moto Droid.
Sure , there are several home screen replacement apps out there , but they really all do the same thing , they all just put their own tweaks on the already "blah" UI . Dont get me wrong , I love my Droid , but there are some simply BEAUTIFUL themes and skins being made for other devices that we cannot come close to . There are Windows Phone 7 / Zune HD themes for iphone and windows mobile that are stunning . The only thing we have that is even kind of "outside the box" is Slidescreen Pro , which I am using now .
I suppose my question is why? Is the OS just too new for these kinds of things to be happening for us? Or are the devs anti everything but the Android look ? Have read a lot of people expressing interest in such themes , most are met with coy responses . Telling the thread starter to "buy an iphone" or get a "WP7 phone" . I love android , but i feel like Microsoft made a hell of an UI with their Zune HD / WP7 . I would like to see something like that for us Android users , instead of looking like SPB Mobile Shell that i was running on my WM phone 3 years ago haha .
If there are devs out there willing to work on this , I am more than willing to pay for it . Im sure other people would be willing as well . Im happy to drop a couple hundred bucks if we can get it off the ground and running . I put the EZune HD theme on my girlfriends iPhone the other day and was shocked at how awesome it was . Something must be done .. Thanks .

I agree with that. I thought that with android the UI customising will be much more easy and flexible and I expected to see a lot and different home replacements. But all are at the same pattern. The only app that I can compare with wm apps(wisbar advance desktop, pointui home, throttle launcher) is sweeter home, which unfortunately it's not so stable at this stage and a little heavy.
I would like to see more apps with this flexibility and ability to really change the look of android' s home screen.
And I think that generaly this happens in android developing. You can find a lot of apps of a kind but all looks and do almost the same things. I find more imagination and creativity in development of a close and unflexible OS as wm.

If you make one let me know

yes sweeter home has the most potential
sweeterskins.com
sweeterskins.net
For example, the obligatory LCARS theme
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Gotta say , i heard of Sweeter Home and just kept on moving . I got it today and it really does have potential . Some pretty cool outside the box themes . Hopefully it picks up steam . Good call guys .

Not a complete replacement, and still lacks quite a number of features, but SlideScreen is pretty nice looking

yes , slide screen is my favorite by far...

lucas.scott said:
yes , slide screen is my favorite by far...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They need to let you choose default apps, it keeps launching into the sense apps instead of Handcent, etc

the thing about sweeter home that is so cool is that is has a GUI system for creating themes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZwQez-dUdY

Are there any homescreens that are text-only? (looking for a terminal look, but not matrix)

ok they are really PNG's but the effect is the same. The 'text' can go over any background including live wallpaper.

I'm working on one now, some screenshots:

TREYisRAD said:
They need to let you choose default apps, it keeps launching into the sense apps instead of Handcent, etc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what do you mean by that? The only thing i have not been able to change what it launches is the twitter app .

lucas.scott said:
what do you mean by that? The only thing i have not been able to change what it launches is the twitter app .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I set handcent as the default texting app, but it still opens the stock one.

TREYisRAD said:
I set handcent as the default texting app, but it still opens the stock one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you're opening the handcent program itself. The icon for messages on the home screen is the shortcut for that program. Not always the shortcut for messages in general.
Also, go to application settings, find "messages" and click it to remove default settings. Now when you select handcent you should be able to chose it as default

More tests...
Do you think? what is your opinion?

looking good so far . I would like to learn how to make themes for sweeter home . Have some pretty good ideas , and lots of graphic designer friends . If i had the know-how , pretty sure i could pop out a really cool Windows Phone 7 skin .

It's not so hard. Sweeter home has a theme editor as part of the app. You can create a theme on the device. And there is a wiki with documentation on how you can make themes.
http://www.sweeterhome.com/
http://sweeterskins.net/

Here is a demonstration at MWC 2010 showing a suite of tools that allows you to design home replacements for Android:
Offsite link to electronics-videos.com
I hope that it is okay to post external links... ?
Mods please remove if needed
I would say that it adds potential to what Android could become...
L8r

don't forget to check out lemonnz's sweeter home videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/lemonNZ