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Do you want an additional 'THREE' customizable homescreens on your Hero? Well, there's an 'app' for that! HA!
First, I'm not sure if doing this has any bugs or inherent problems, and I am not responsible for any problems you may encounter doing this! BUT, I haven't experienced any so far myself.
Anyway, I stumbled onto this by using the Home Switcher app. When I saw how it launched the original Android Home app, that gave me an IDEA.
Using an application called 'Bar Control', I setup a Taskbar ICON to launch the native Android 'Home' application which, if you ask me, 'extends' the Hero with an additional three homescreens. I simply pull down the Taskbar and tap Home to launch the original Android Home app which gives me access to three more homescreens. AND, a simple tap of the Home button takes me back to HTC Sense.
So, I now have TEN (10) homescreens!!!!! These additional native Android homescreens are where I put some Android widgets (non HTC Sense widgets of course). And get this, the two Sprint widgets, NFL Mobile Live and Sprint TV, are available too! The Hero uses the same Wallpaper for both HTC Sense and Home, but it unlocks the native Android wallpaper gallery too.
Steps I did:
1. Downloaded Bar Control from the Market.
2. Launched Bar Control and waited for it to scan all the programs.
3. Scrolled down to the app called, 'Home' and selected it.
4. Selected an ICON of choice. (I used the same home ICON)
5. Pulled down my Notification Bar, tapped 'Home, and WALLA!
Simply hit the Home button to return to HTC Sense.
Note: To get rid of this Home ICON in the Notification Bar, simply perform the first three steps above again which will remove it.
OK, now can anyone tell me of a simple shortcut app that can be set to launch the native Android Home app without having to go through the Taskbar via the Bar Control app in my example above?
So, I believe this is the GREATEST HERO HACK so far!
When two unused screens just aren't enough lol, nice find.
Not really an hack if you ask me... why don't you install a few extra homescreen replacement apps (like openhome) so you'll even have more homescreens
this is not a hack at all. installing apps and using them as intended is as far away from a hack as could be. please change the title, this is so lame...
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?
kendong2 said:
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to know this as well, I sort of wonder why htc didn't design it like that.
DaWeav said:
5. Pulled down my Notification Bar, tapped 'Home, and WALLA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[PEDANTRY-MODE]
It's "Voila" not "Walla"!
[/PEDANTRY-MODE]
Sorry, couldn't resist - to me, it's like fingernails on a black board!
Regards,
Dave
lol, the same happens when you install any theme app such as open home, dxtop, etc...
What happens is, the default for the home button is cleared of it's default (HTC Sense) giving you the option which home screen you want to fire up after holding down the home button.
You could probably just clear the default yourself in App settings, limiting the need for another app all together.
Downloading a home screen app equals hacking your phone?
give him a Break it was his first post.He was over zealous on his find..LOL
well atleast he let us know about his find.sum peeps probably wouldnt had even shared..thx DaWeav
Yup, just to elaborate on what N0J mentioned:
menu/settings/applications/manage applications/HTC Sense
tap "Clear defaults"
Now, every time you push your "Home" button you will be presented with the options "Home" and "HTC Sense." As long as you don't check the default box you will always have a two-touch access to either interface.
Alternatively, for those that prefer vanilla Android to Sense, check the default box and hit "Home." Your phone will no longer load the Sense UI. This can be reversed by going to Home in manage applications (above) and again clearing defaults.
cgraunke said:
Yup, just to elaborate on what N0J mentioned:
menu/settings/applications/manage applications/HTC Sense
tap "Clear defaults"
Now, every time you push your "Home" button you will be presented with the options "Home" and "HTC Sense." As long as you don't check the default box you will always have a two-touch access to either interface.
Alternatively, for those that prefer vanilla Android to Sense, check the default box and hit "Home." Your phone will no longer load the Sense UI. This can be reversed by going to Home in manage applications (above) and again clearing defaults.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said and thanks for the detailing the steps out for me!
Dang. I thought this was actually going to be some useful information that could lead me to getting rid of the 4 unused homescreens
This isn't a hack and not much of a discovery but if it makes you happy...
Would be kind of cool if Sense had 10 screens of its own.
nice find! But yes, 7 home screens is a little much. until we find some better widgets.
kendong2 said:
this is not a hack at all. installing apps and using them as intended is as far away from a hack as could be. please change the title, this is so lame...
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GDE Home Screen does this
edit: by the way this is a dumb "hack"
I'm assuming this works for vanilla android as well? One of the most annoying things about my Moment that my Hero does is only having 3 screens.
Does anyone know how to REMOVE any of the homescreens from sense?
My hero is so slow!
I really hope that as part of an update to Sense that they make it so you can have any number of screens so long as it's 2X+1. (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11)
Personally, I only really use 5, so I would just drop the last 2 screens and have the little indicator get a tiny bit larger.
Hi there,
wondering if there is a way to get the back-button finishing the app.
When i'm at contacts or writing an sms or surfing, i want to go back to desktop as fast as possible...but when i'm at contact/details, i have to press the back button 5-6 times to go back trough all the previous screen.
Is there a way/hack/app telling the back-button (have to be a hardware button) to end the tasks completly when holding it, for example?
THX THX
Press the home button? That will take you back to the desktop.
If you need to you can then use task manager to end the task.
Would be nice to see a hack/fix to add the back button to kill functionality though
IakobosJ said:
Press the home button? That will take you back to the desktop.
If you need to you can then use task manager to end the task.
Would be nice to see a hack/fix to add the back button to kill functionality though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I miss this from my oxygen rom'd desire
Pkplonker said:
I miss this from my oxygen rom'd desire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's already in in MIUI and most probably will be also in CM7.
well the back button does kill apps.
if you start, say, the browser and press the home button, then enter task manager, the browser will still run. if you start the browser and press the back button and open the task manager, it will show that the browser is not running anymore (actually, the browser was a bad example, since after a little bit of browsing you'd have to push the back button quite a lot since its primary function is to go back). the same goes for many more apps, whatsapp, facebook, twitter, angry birds...
Pkplonker said:
I miss this from my oxygen rom'd desire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me too. adamG has apparently got a SGS2 though
Thinking about it, I would also like this functionality although it isn't so urgent for me. If more people show interest maybe I'll attempt it as my first android app For such a simple app my opinion is that it should be free and not packed with admob spam, but if another dev wants to attempt it that's their choice I guess.
My thoughts:
It should be quick to develop a simple app providing this functionality. Just have it bind to an event which fires when the back button is pressed long, and have it kill the app whichever is first in the foreground window Z-order (I'm fairly new to the Android API, so I use Win32 API terminology here for example only). The only complexity may be to make the event bound globally (in all apps), as opposed to only bound in the app itself - hopefully that doesn't require root! I guess it should be a background service which runs on boot, and perhaps a very simple gui app to control that service (in fact would there be anything to configure at all? What do you think?).
sl9 said:
Thinking about it, I would also like this functionality although it isn't so urgent for me. If more people show interest maybe I'll attempt it as my first android app For such a simple app my opinion is that it should be free and not packed with admob spam, but if another dev wants to attempt it that's their choice I guess.
My thoughts:
It should be quick to develop a simple app providing this functionality. Just have it bind to an event which fires when the back button is pressed long, and have it kill the app whichever is first in the foreground window Z-order (I'm fairly new to the Android API, so I use Win32 API terminology here for example only). The only complexity may be to make the event bound globally (in all apps), as opposed to only bound in the app itself - hopefully that doesn't require root! I guess it should be a background service which runs on boot, and perhaps a very simple gui app to control that service (in fact would there be anything to configure at all? What do you think?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would need to be in the framework of the rom, I think
Chef_Tony said:
well the back button does kill apps.
if you start, say, the browser and press the home button, then enter task manager, the browser will still run. if you start the browser and press the back button and open the task manager, it will show that the browser is not running anymore (actually, the browser was a bad example, since after a little bit of browsing you'd have to push the back button quite a lot since its primary function is to go back). the same goes for many more apps, whatsapp, facebook, twitter, angry birds...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it does, but you have to press and press and press...would be cool, if you can "hold down" the button for a sec and it will end the task.
Example...when i'm at handsentSMS > SMS > keyboard open...
Pressing BACK > close keyboard
Pressing BACK > closing SMS windows
Pressing BACK > closing handsentSMS
3 times pressing this button after every SMS suxx...sorry
Yeah i can press the HomeButton, but then its in my mind, that the app is running in background...isnt that bad at android-OS-structure, but its a bad feeling to me...
yes that's true. i was reading over your original post again and the first time through i must have overread the part where you named sms and the browser as examples. you are right, in that case, it does not work very well. an alternative way is to hold the home button, then press task manager and kill the app instantly. but that takes even longer. i guess your best option is to actually let it run in the background, if you want to get out of it fast.
pulser_g2 said:
It would need to be in the framework of the rom, I think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspected this may be the case, really hope it isn't but I understand the Android security model needs to enforce a certain level of isolation for each app in the VM I'll do some further reading of the documentation to find out for sure, since a simple non-root APK providing this functionality for users would be very welcome.
I'm too used to other less-secure API's (Win32) in which any app could basically do whatever it wanted to other apps and the OS; I guess thats why virus authors love Windows so much
yeah just for anyone not totally in the know, there is a difference in android between pressing the BACK button and HOME button to leave an app. using the back button to leave an app and go back to the home screen basically "kills" the app. it puts it in a state where it can readily be killed by the OS in an instant.
when just pressing HOME to leave an app, the app is technically backgrounded. the OS will keep it around longer or in a different fashion.
so backing out of apps with the back button is always the way to "exit" any app.
It has been confirmed now.
I was wondering how on-screen buttons are supposed to work alongside capacitive/physical buttons on the note?
... and other discussions.
I'm sure Samsung will touch wiz the onscreen buttons right out of the ROM...
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
It's possible to remove onscreen buttons with default launcher.
If a device has physical buttons the on-screen buttons will not be used by ICS. This has been covered many times in reviews and direct statements from Google.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA App
galaxytab1 said:
It has been confirmed now.
I was wondering how on-screen buttons are supposed to work alongside capacitive/physical buttons on the note?
... and other discussions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was confirmed a week ago.....
xAnimal5 said:
It was confirmed a week ago.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When i say now, it was setting up the context for further discussion and not breaking the news.
there is one on screen button i want them to keep in - the multitask button. that button would save me from having to use a task switcher app, and makes app/ram management a lot easier.
one thing i am curious about though, since ICS features the ability to freeze apps integrated into it, is it possible to freeze touchwiz and revert to generic ICS? (im a bit of a nubb as to the complexities of android).
Souai said:
there is one on screen button i want them to keep in - the multitask button. that button would save me from having to use a task switcher app, and makes app/ram management a lot easier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you know this and just don't think it's enough, but have you tried using the already built in multi tasking feature? Just long press the home button and a menu with shortcuts to your six most recent apps will appear. Here you can also enter the task manager to shut down apps and clear RAM
Sent via Tapatalk on my Galaxy Note
Forget about that, touchwiz is full intigrated into the android framework. You cant even boot without it.
Send from my Galaxy Note
BaconDanny said:
Maybe you know this and just don't think it's enough, but have you tried using the already built in multi tasking feature? Just long press the home button and a menu with shortcuts to your six most recent apps will appear. Here you can also enter the task manager to shut down apps and clear RAM
Sent via Tapatalk on my Galaxy Note
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know about long press home, but that only shows recent apps, it doesnt tell you which ones are still open and which ones are closed. id rather have something that tells me which ones are running, rather than which ones ive used recently which may or may not still be running.
on my old n900, there was a visual task switcher built into the UI. tap the button, and it shows all active windows. you can see a preview of what each one is doing (including seeing a video play in realtime) and you can close each one directly from this screen, no need to go into a menu or three just to find out which ones are open and which ones are closed.
there was a visual task switcher on android that was similar, but it only runs on android up to froyo. the next best thing ive used on android is the smart task switcher, but it doesnt help that the only button i can assign it to on the galaxy note is the home key. on my atrix, i had it assigned to the search key. it also doesnt do previews like the n900, but it does tell you how much free ram you have.
call me picky, but from my experience, multitasking is one thing that nokia does better than android, even though nokia lacks a dual core device. hopefully the task switcher in ICS changes that.
Souai said:
i know about long press home, but that only shows recent apps, it doesnt tell you which ones are still open and which ones are closed. id rather have something that tells me which ones are running, rather than which ones ive used recently which may or may not still be running.
on my old n900, there was a visual task switcher built into the UI. tap the button, and it shows all active windows. you can see a preview of what each one is doing (including seeing a video play in realtime) and you can close each one directly from this screen, no need to go into a menu or three just to find out which ones are open and which ones are closed.
there was a visual task switcher on android that was similar, but it only runs on android up to froyo. the next best thing ive used on android is the smart task switcher, but it doesnt help that the only button i can assign it to on the galaxy note is the home key. on my atrix, i had it assigned to the search key. it also doesnt do previews like the n900, but it does tell you how much free ram you have.
call me picky, but from my experience, multitasking is one thing that nokia does better than android, even though nokia lacks a dual core device. hopefully the task switcher in ICS changes that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
webos also has good multitasking.
You guys don't think Samsung will just place the multi task app for that?
Long press the home button and that should bring up the new ics app mananger. I think that would be the most logical route for them.
Sent from my GT-I9100
Souai said:
i know about long press home, but that only shows recent apps, it doesnt tell you which ones are still open and which ones are closed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm confused... besides the recent apps, there's a task manager button there that does show only the open apps. Or is it just the fact that it's an extra button press?
The task manager shows the apps that are running. The pop-up (long press) is recently opened apps/fast task switcher. If you for example open the XDA app and exit from it, it will still be in the recently opened/fast switcher pop-up.
The videos I've seen of ICS running with Touchwiz has you just hold down the Home button to bring up the new multi-tasking app switcher menu or whatever you want to call it.
LordManhattan said:
The task manager shows the apps that are running...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, and isn't that what they were asking for?
I answered your question.
"I'm confused... besides the recent apps, there's a task manager button there that does show only the open apps. Or is it just the fact that it's an extra button press?"
LordManhattan said:
I answered your question.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, no, I'm still confused about what everyone's issue is.
You said:
The pop-up (long press) is recently opened apps/fast task switcher. If you for example open the XDA app and exit from it, it will still be in the recently opened/fast switcher pop-up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that. But as I said in my original message:
besides the recent apps, there's a task manager button there that does show only the open apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you click that task manager button, it takes you to a screen that shows only the running apps, and lets you switch between them. Isn't that what people are wanting to do?
NV30 said:
It's possible to remove onscreen buttons with default launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
should be and hope ne
dscline said:
I'm confused... besides the recent apps, there's a task manager button there that does show only the open apps. Or is it just the fact that it's an extra button press?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you cant access the task manager in android from every screen, you need to go through a few screens to get to it. on ICS and on my nokia n900, you could get to it at the push of a button, makes multitasking much much easier and much much faster. faster is always better, just like if samsung's custom browser for the note used tabs like dolphin and firefox instead of the new window thing, im sure people would love it more.
Hello there!
I would like to try it by myself, but unfortunately I cant. So, someone who tried the SDK, have you noticed changes in multitasking system?
Right now the only way to resume an app is using fast app switch. But I really dont like it. I rather just use the homescreen icon instead. Right now it relaunch the app.
Any changes on that? (oh please)
Thank you so much!
mikeeam said:
Hello there!
I would like to try it by myself, but unfortunately I cant. So, someone who tried the SDK, have you noticed changes in multitasking system?
Right now the only way to resume an app is using fast app switch. But I really dont like it. I rather just use the homescreen icon instead. Right now it relaunch the app.
Any changes on that? (oh please)
Thank you so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows Phone apps can never resume via the homescreen like iOS, due to the addition of the hardware OS back button.
To illustrate why; imagine you have an app that has start page and a settings menu. When a user goes to the settings menu, they can only go back to the start page by pressing the hardware back button (this is standard Metro design).
Now imagine a user opens the app, goes to the settings menu, then exists the app by pressing the Home button. They then do a few other tasks and then resume the app. They are now stuck in the settings menu and can't get back to the app start page; the back key will take them back to the WP8 Home screen (this is how the WP OS backstack works).
To get around this issue, Microsoft specify that starting the app from the front page always has to start a fresh instance, so the user can never get "stuck".
iOS has software back buttons on every page, so all apps can resume however you launch them. Android had the same problem with their back button (actually worse, as their backstack can be altered by the OS choosing to kill memory-intensive apps); to get around this, from ICS onwards Android apps are meant to have a software back button in the top-left, to go back within the application (hardware back key is still OS backstack).
Aphasaic2002 said:
Windows Phone apps can never resume via the homescreen like iOS, due to the addition of the hardware OS back button.
To illustrate why; imagine you have an app that has start page and a settings menu. When a user goes to the settings menu, they can only go back to the start page by pressing the hardware back button (this is standard Metro design).
Now imagine a user opens the app, goes to the settings menu, then exists the app by pressing the Home button. They then do a few other tasks and then resume the app. They are now stuck in the settings menu and can't get back to the app start page; the back key will take them back to the WP8 Home screen (this is how the WP OS backstack works).
To get around this issue, Microsoft specify that starting the app from the front page always has to start a fresh instance, so the user can never get "stuck".
iOS has software back buttons on every page, so all apps can resume however you launch them. Android had the same problem with their back button (actually worse, as their backstack can be altered by the OS choosing to kill memory-intensive apps); to get around this, from ICS onwards Android apps are meant to have a software back button in the top-left, to go back within the application (hardware back key is still OS backstack).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it sucks so bad! They should review this. I hate to use the back button, and I hate to not resume the app. Using a common app, for example, WhatsApp. I was in a chat with someone. Then I hit Windows button and Im at start screen. Then I receive a message from the same person I just left the chat. What I do? I can open from the toast, can open from fast app switch (back button), or open from start screen icon.
If I open from toast, that will depend on what the app was meant to be. In WhatsApp it would take me to the chat, because of deep toast notification. But, right now, it needs to reload the whole app to open just the chat.
If I open from fast switch, it will resume the app right away. Nice. But in any other platform the message would be there waiting for you. Right now, in WP, it takes a lot to refresh the chat. You keep like 10 seconds staring at the screen waiting it. Its even faster to just reopen the whole app.
And if I open from start screen, its almost the same effect of toast, but it dont take me to the chat, but to the start screen of the app.
The point is, the fast switch is not helping that much. In fact, it would makes sense to change the fast switch to open when holding the Windows button instead of back button, and whenever an app is open, opening it from start screen icon just resume it. Actually, a lot of people doesnt even know, or even knowing, doesnt even use fast switch. Im not a common smartphone user, and even so I dont use fast switch.
For me, its the worse problem of platform. And I dont care about CE or NT if it works, but I care about it working at all. Doesnt make sense to put a whole computer in my pocket if it cant resume a single app.
i don't like the idea either to relaunch the app when you just have put it in background. then again, i also hope we will be able to close apps from the fast-appswitch-screen. and add an option to the gesture lovers out there: pinch out on homescreen to launch multitasking. or swipe from edge like w8. or anything like that. it would add to UI experience and would eliminate that 2-seconds-pause when pressing and holding down the backbutton.
Was the question not about Windows Phone 8?
Windows Phone 8 is supposed to behave differently, since true background processing is supposed to be enabled. I haven't played with the SDK yet, but I suspect that for non recompiled apps, things will behave as they do on Mango. But, I think that things changed to target WinRT and set to be able to run in the background will be able to resume right where you left off.
It wouldn't make sense for an app that is running and processing things in the background to restart when the tile is pressed.
It's been a while since I used Mango or wrote any apps for it. But, when an app is suspended, the dev has a specified amount of time to save the state.
That way when it is relaunched, the app can resume where it left off, by processing the saved state on launch. I thought with fast resume the app stayed in memory, but that was done through a registry hack and not directly made available by any carrier.
After doing some reading, the multi tasking enhancements might only add gps and voip to the currently supported background processing.
JVH3 said:
But it sucks so bad! They should review this. I hate to use the back button, and I hate to not resume the app. Using a common app, for example, WhatsApp. I was in a chat with someone. Then I hit Windows button and Im at start screen. Then I receive a message from the same person I just left the chat. What I do? I can open from the toast, can open from fast app switch (back button), or open from start screen icon.
If I open from toast, that will depend on what the app was meant to be. In WhatsApp it would take me to the chat, because of deep toast notification. But, right now, it needs to reload the whole app to open just the chat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tapping the toast to re-open the chat is the correct behavior here. I guess it's just bad coding that makes it take so long to resume; it should just be able to go straight to the conversation and skip all the "loading contacts...connecting" stuff.
JVH3 said:
Was the question not about Windows Phone 8?
Windows Phone 8 is supposed to behave differently, since true background processing is supposed to be enabled. I haven't played with the SDK yet, but I suspect that for non recompiled apps, things will behave as they do on Mango.
But, I think that things changed to target WinRT and set to be able to run in the background will be able to resume right where you left off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure you're not thinking of Windows 8? For Windows Phone 8, no changes have been announced regarding multitasking or background tasks, *except* that a few select APIs (VOIP, location) will be able to run in the background, similar to iOS (not true backgrounding like Android)
Also we are talking about resuming, not background processing. In the WP8 SDK emulator, apps built into the OS don't resume; Therefore it's safe to assume 3rd party apps are not going to either.
JVH3 said:
It wouldn't make sense for an app that is running and processing things in the background to restart when the tile is pressed.
It's been a while since I used Mango or wrote any apps for it. But, when an app is suspended, the dev has a specified amount of time to save the state.
That way when it is relaunched, the app can resume where it left off, by processing the saved state on launch. I thought with fast resume the app stayed in memory, but that was done through a registry hack and not directly made available by any carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When an app is closed the developer is meant to save the state, so that it can be reloaded if it is quick-resumed. However, once the app leaves the backstack (the 5 apps that appear in when you hold the back-button), this state is supposed to be discarded.
This is not a technical issue; it would be trivial for app developers to save the state and make their apps resume. The issue is that Microsoft's publishing guidelines (to get your app published on the WP app store) specifically says that an app launched from the home screen must launch showing it's introduction page, i.e. it can't resume. It could save some state, so a web-browser could still have all the recent tabs open, but it couldn't show the last one seen (ironically IE9 does resume it's state - guess Microsoft are allowed to break their own guidelines).
I agree it doesn't make sense to restart an app that is performing some background task; but then how to you avoid users getting stuck within a certain page, as in my example above? If WP8 includes a hardware back button, they can't change this policy.
Well, thats a shame. I hate reloading the app everytime I need it. Its so meaningless. I dont need VOIP, I dont need Skype running all the time. But I do need apps to be fast.
It really depends on how exactly the developers save their app state when the app is sent to background/tombstoned.
I, for one, use a text file to save data ( a lot of data) and proceed to loading the app as usual, and the moment the user presses a button, a pop up asks him weather he wants to restore or start anew.
I'm guessing that not every app will do this, as it is up to the developer to implement this.
Devoting a soft key exclusively to recent apps seems ridiculous to me. Is it a Motoblur thing or stock ICS?
Is there an app that will allow an unrooted user to program a shortcut to the key that is of some use? Maybe on long press?
I installed Google Launcher and noticed that accidentally hitting that key shows recent apps but then takes you out of Go Launcher and back to Motoblur. Any way to avoid that?
That's pure ICS, not Moto. Actually was there in honeycomb too. I never understood removing the search key and menu key to put in the far less used recent apps. If there is a mod out there to convert it's function to a menu button I'd be on it too.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app
Any shortcut would be preferable. I thought it would be a nice button to open phone dialer or dolphin browser.
I'm really surprised you guys don't find it useful. There's plenty of times where I'd rather have that button than hit the home button and go back to the home screen or hold the home button for a second or more to get that popup on my Nexus S.
I find that I'm swapping back between texting, web browsing, the music player / pandora and facebook quite often
snowmanwithahat said:
I'm really surprised you guys don't find it useful. There's plenty of times where I'd rather have that button than hit the home button and go back to the home screen or hold the home button for a second or more to get that popup on my Nexus S.
I find that I'm swapping back between texting, web browsing, the music player / pandora and facebook quite often
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Thank you, I agree as well. Not to mention, the menu and search are legacy buttons. People need to let them die and embrace the design direction Android is moving forward in...but I guess old habits die hard (and painfully). Why so much resistance towards the death of the menu button?
UserDemos said:
Thank you, I agree as well. Not to mention, the menu and search are legacy buttons. People need to let them die and embrace the design direction Android is moving forward in...but I guess old habits die hard (and painfully). Why so much resistance towards the death of the menu button?
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Yeah, I can definitely do without the menu button since every new app has been building it into the application. It's a button that I'd hardly hit while interacting with most applications.
I do miss the contextual search though. I got used to tapping the search button in Contacts or Chrome and searching within that context. Only searching globally when I was at the home screen. Well now with the changes (at least to the Nexus S) the search button brings up Google Now and there's no in-app search unless they specifically build in a button. Most have done that now, so it's not really a problem, just a habit that I got into.
I understand it's benefits but those apps I use quite often you speak of are already shortcuts on my home page. Using the recent apps button adds another key press to open it. I've only used it when I can't remember the name of an app I recently installed.
For me personally, useable? Yes. Useful? Not really. Especially when it gets bogged down with tons of recent apps and my finger already knows where the shortcuts are.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app
Hey look I'm the OP and said nothing about making it a menu button. What I want is a programmable button to do what I want and you could have one to do what YOU want. Now you tell me NOOOO.., I should embrace the direction of Android. That sounds suspiciously like Apple philosophy.
I never have had any use for a recent apps button and still don't. I don't care what apps I have used recently. Since there is a key there I would like it to be useful. Personally, I would like short press to be Opera and long press to be Dolphin. Now shall I look forward to be scolded for not embracing Chrome? I thought the whole point of Android was personal choice. Android users don't have to be sheeple imo.
Zodwraith said:
I understand it's benefits but those apps I use quite often you speak of are already shortcuts on my home page. Using the recent apps button adds another key press to open it. I've only used it when I can't remember the name of an app I recently installed.
For me personally, useable? Yes. Useful? Not really. Especially when it gets bogged down with tons of recent apps and my finger already knows where the shortcuts are.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app
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You've got to admit though that closing applications by swiping them "off" at that quick switch menu is kind of nice. I like that a little bit better for closing off high RAM applications quickly compared to the CM method of holding "back". Then again, I'll admit it's a very rare thing where I want to kill more than one application at once haha
Sorry, no I don't admit it. (not for me anyway) Never have done it. Never will. I prefer not to force close apps. I let Android handle it.
Dolphin and Opera are in a folder on my desktop so it takes two keypresses to access them while that utterly useless recent apps key sits there doing nothing. In fact it does harm if I am using another launcher and hit it by accident.
There was an app I used to use that allowed you to program the search key (which I also never used) and double tap of home key (which normally produced something else I never used). I think it is called Home to Shortcut. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated to use the recent apps key.
I also think Moto should have made the navigation bar transparent so we could see the entire screen like Nexus. I hope somebody figures out a way to do that too.
Give it time for custom roms and you will be able to do loads of stuff with that bar, including changing the icons and uses. Aokp is great for that.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
I don't think swiping from the recent apps menu is an FC function. Just a history. To check it I FC'd a bunch of stuff from the proper menu and opened the recent apps. Sure enough everything is still there. Clicked on one of the apps and sure enough it had to start up.
I generally don't use app killers but there are always rogue apps that will give you problems. Netflix is a bad one for me where I'll watch an episode and when it's over Netflix develops Alzheimer's whether there are more episodes. Does the same on the Roku and tablet so I'm sure it's a Netflix thing. The only way to slap sense into their servers is an FC and restart.
Sent from my Droid RAZR HD MAXX using the XDA Developer App
robstunner said:
Give it time for custom roms and you will be able to do loads of stuff with that bar, including changing the icons and uses. Aokp is great for that.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
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I can't wait. I was spoiled by the super developers for Tbolt.