Okay so I just have a few general questions. I have searched around. Spent a lot of the past few days looking around. But just some general questions.
1) Is there anyway to make the start menu anything sort of organized? I just don't know what to do with that thing. It's getting very full, lol.
2) I have read plenty of stuff on different keyboards. I know there's the swype keyboard and a few others I guess.
a) But is there anyone who's made a keyboard, or anything, to just have the regular keyboard without the arrows, lol?
b) Is there any better way to get to specific parts of text without the arrows? Like the iPhone Magnifying glass or something?
3) People all the time say that they can pretty much find an app for anything. Well I'm not a business professional. I have O-Market installed. But are there any other places to look for just some cool apps and time killers?
Edit (4) Umm, is there anything to be done for messaging. I've done some reg tweaks and stuff, but what bothers me is when I click on a new message in the messaging tab (the one where you can scroll through your 25 most recent messages) and I HATE how I've either got to start typing and then get interrupted when it selects the message I clicked on, or I have to wait for it to select the message and then start typing...
Any way to make it NOT select the message, lol? I already know what message I'm responding too dang it, lol.
Hopefully I can get some answers, or links to answers for these. Thanks a lot guys .
4) You can flash your ROM to Energy ROM and it'll eliminate that problem.
I keep going back to Energy after experimental flashing with other ROM, but I go back to Energy for that reason alone.
1) Start Menu is something I don't really use, ever.
Cookie's Home Tab allows you to have more than 1 apps panel, up to 5 panels, I think.
I have 3 4x4 panel tabs I can just access from home screen, nearly every program/contacts I use are on it.
Awesome. If I could get any responses to the other questions that would be great .
But thank you very much. I was looking at Energy, I will probably flash to that. I have CHT right now, so I might have to think about some more tab pages.
Do all roms do that with messaging?
Related
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
Hi,
The last two phones I had have both been Blackberry's.
I tried an iPhone recently (1 week) and just found myself pausing to do things that I would do on the blackberry very quickly.
It was almost like I had to completely stop what I was doing and give all my attention
and thought to navigating my way around the iphone, where as with the bb, I seem
to be able to do many tasks with one hand and dont have to think about the task
too much.
I'm wondering if I switch to a G1 how will I go on. Will I find myself waiting for the OS to catch up, continually opening the keyboard to do simple tasks etc?
I like the idea of placing shortcuts on the home screen to dial numbers etc, are there other shortcuts like this?
One task I find myself doing on the bb a lot is taking a quick photo and sending it to a single email address. (the same address every time).
Would this be possible on the G1?
I press the side camera button which opens the camera app,
take the photo by pressing the trackball,
move the trackball to the right and press once.
This gives me the sharing options, "send as email" is the top one.
Click the trackball which adds the photo as an attachment,
type my two letter alias in the To field,
scroll to the subject, type something.
Click the trackball once more and press send.
It sounds a lot when you read it but its pretty quick and simple. Any way of doing this without opening the keyboard?
Thanks
Mike
The camera after taking a pic will offer 4 options, Save/Set As/Share/Delete.
With SnapShotPro you get these options, Save/Delete/Share/Edit.
Touch Share and it will give you a list of options....Gmail/Email/MMS/Myspace/Picsay...the more apps that are able to use your camera the more options...
You only need to open the keyboard to start typing the contact and it will autofind the name for you. But you will still need to open it since there isnt a onscreen keyboard for it yet.
I love snapphoto.. but jesus it's slow to save a photo.
Dirky said:
Hi,
The last two phones I had have both been Blackberry's.
I tried an iPhone recently (1 week) and just found myself pausing to do things that I would do on the blackberry very quickly.
It was almost like I had to completely stop what I was doing and give all my attention
and thought to navigating my way around the iphone, where as with the bb, I seem
to be able to do many tasks with one hand and dont have to think about the task
too much.
I'm wondering if I switch to a G1 how will I go on. Will I find myself waiting for the OS to catch up, continually opening the keyboard to do simple tasks etc?
I like the idea of placing shortcuts on the home screen to dial numbers etc, are there other shortcuts like this?
One task I find myself doing on the bb a lot is taking a quick photo and sending it to a single email address. (the same address every time).
Would this be possible on the G1?
I press the side camera button which opens the camera app,
take the photo by pressing the trackball,
move the trackball to the right and press once.
This gives me the sharing options, "send as email" is the top one.
Click the trackball which adds the photo as an attachment,
type my two letter alias in the To field,
scroll to the subject, type something.
Click the trackball once more and press send.
It sounds a lot when you read it but its pretty quick and simple. Any way of doing this without opening the keyboard?
Thanks
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The biggest hindrance to super quick operations on the G1 is the lack of on screen keyboard. Without one you'll be much happier on a BB.
hopefully we will get an on screen kb soon. Perhaps with cupcake or it ported over from another phone. It would be so useful for small simple tasks like thsi
axion68 said:
hopefully we will get an on screen kb soon. Perhaps with cupcake or it ported over from another phone. It would be so useful for small simple tasks like thsi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm being drawn to the G1, an on screen keyboard for occasional use will be very nice.
I'm not keen on the G2 as this will only have an on screen keyboard so it seems?
IMO the real problem is developers making user workflows that require using a keyboard. In many cases I feel that if an app is written properly the need for a keyboard (flip-out or onscreen) should be minimized unless you're doing heavy data entry. As the apps get better over time it's my hope this situation will improve.
Does any one know how to stop the small on-screen edit button from appearing everytime you go to start a new sms/email etc. I had this over six months ago on my xperia and for the life in me i can not remember how to stop it, i have searched and searched for the answer, It is so annoying and gets in the way of some text. Many thanks.
mind posting a screen shot?
can't see anything on mine that could be what you describe.
Thanks for the reply, here's the screen shot, the edit box is at the top right of the text box. If i click on it a pop up box appears and gives me options like, cut, copy, paste etc.
Ahh i assumed you meant in HTC messaging, not the windows messaging, thats why i couldn't see it.
10 minutes later - OK, sorry, i cant seem to find how to start win messaging on the cooked rom i'm on, , , sorry.
Thanks anyway, think i'm gonna try a different rom, bit bored of this one now.
Hehe, ahh yea, thats usually my answer too
After installing the update from TMO, The little bar that flips between mail, home, internet, images, music, etc. "shrinks" into a little black tab in the middle of my screen at the bottom.
This is super super annoying because it takes an extra effort to click on the damn thing and then slide my finger to scroll. This also requires a second tap on the screen when i go to browser because the first one simply 'collapses' the little thing and the second one will actually respond to the internet icon you're tapping on.
Tell me there's a way to turn off the collapse of this stupid thing. I tried looking on here but I don't know what keywords to use to search this out. Something like 'htc sense update hd2 registry change' yields nothing.
TIA
nyvram1 said:
After installing the update from TMO, The little bar that flips between mail, home, internet, images, music, etc. "shrinks" into a little black tab in the middle of my screen at the bottom.
This is super super annoying because it takes an extra effort to click on the damn thing and then slide my finger to scroll. This also requires a second tap on the screen when i go to browser because the first one simply 'collapses' the little thing and the second one will actually respond to the internet icon you're tapping on.
Tell me there's a way to turn off the collapse of this stupid thing. I tried looking on here but I don't know what keywords to use to search this out. Something like 'htc sense update hd2 registry change' yields nothing.
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds to me like you have cookies home tab enabled?! That is strange are you sure you didn't flash to a custom rom?! I have that one my phone and I have the update but the only way I was able to get that was with CHT. I have attached examples.
Yep! I do have cookies home tab installed! Dang..so is the setting in that to change it? :bangs head:
I'll take a look.
WTHAT A MORON. Thats its. The 'retractable slider' setting. I can't believe I didn't realize that was cookie and not HTC.
Thanks a million for pushing me in the right direction.
Awesome! Glad I could help! I had that enable for a while but it became a little annoying so I took it off! Hahahaha it does make it look really cool!
Hey, thanks for the info. I'm glad I learned about that.
I also have Cookies, and didn't know about that.
Now I have just enabled that feature. Why? I don't find that "ribbon" at the bottom very useful, as it is not very customizable. Nice to have the settings button there at the right, but one can also do that with a Quick Link. I like the music app, but one can also do a quick link for that. Withouth that ribbon, there is room for another row of quick links. (I find it unfortunate that that "ribbon" is so uncustomizable. You cannot choose what is in it, but only what to remove (other than settings and home). (I don't really need that home icon either, because there is a hardware button for home.) I don't like how that "People" tab goes to "HTC People". I'd rather go straight to the regular contacts list. But it can't be changed (AFAIK), only removed.
So by retracting it, I remove the whole thing (can slide it back if I want), but can put the links I like in that ribbon into quick links, for which there is now more room.
Thank you.
First of all, how awesome is this forum !!!
I consider myself a pretty "upright" forum user as in I usually read the pinned, "read this first", Q&A, and search before I make new posts. Whenever I come upon people who don't do that, I kinda frown to my computer screen but beyond that seems like nothing much can be done? The "Here are the similar threads we found:" section is just pure brilliance.
Sorry about the rambling but I will start with a tiny background story first.
So once upon a time, I got warned thru my gmail that my account apparently was "compromised". After I did some preliminary verification to make sure they are not spams, I decided to try the google "2-step verification" process. And I bet most of you knew what comes next: I keep getting bad password popups. After some hours of frustrating struggle, I fixed my gmail on my phone. But Gtalk would not let me do that 1-time psasword verification thing, and thus my play store won't work. (God really who designed them to be linked!? I did not launch Gtalk once in my life.) Before this happened, I was happy with my stock launcher from Samsung and always have the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" motto. In the end, I decided it is "certified broken" and I thought this might be a good time to look into upgrading to Jelly Bean.
hm.. i think i'm making this post unnecessary long so I will just cut through the chase. I never thought "stock" stuff would come in any quality. But amazingly in my first day experience of CM10, I am already missing a bunch of features that I used to take for granted. I have no desire to go back to the last launcher (as this in theory should be a step up overall, i believe). So if anyone have tips for me to how to get these features back, I would very much like some pointers! Thanks in advance.
Just some clarification in case this matter: I bought my phone unlocked in Hong Kong. So there is no service-provider-associated stuff that came with the stock launcher I got.
EDIT: I used the 11-02 nightly build of CM10 and its corresponding Gapp package.
1) Contact list
+ Improved: To my amaze, my chinese contacts got sorted by their pronunciation in english! The original stock launcher lumped all of them in the end of the list.
- What I missed: Slide left on names will message the contact and slide right will call them.
# What I tried: Of course my first solution is to search on App store to find a replacement. For some reasons, only two (with good rating) showed up. Did the search got dumber? Or it got smarter but just not doing what I want?
Go Contacts: I think i remember trying it and personally not a big fan of the GO packages. I didn't give it a second try.
Contants+ with a penguin icon: There's a function that lets you "Hold" on a contact to call them. This is very much inferior to the slidings : ( I need recommendations for contact list app.
2) App drawer
+ I like how the widgets got attached to the horizontal pages. Much nicer option than Homescreen-> menu and keep scrolling through the 1x4 area LOL. I love widgets and I have a lot of them. Yes it was painful.
- You can't custom organize the drawer. You can sort by Name or Install Date and that's it. I used to organize them by functionality. I have over 160 apps on my phone. I don't use all of them all the time but I would say I use close to 70% of them at least once in a while. So while my homescreen is really reserved for Widgets, App drawer is where I launch my less-used apps. I really like the "menu -> edit" function in my old launcher. I can create new page, move the apps around and even uninstall the app right there (with a minus sign on the top right corner of the app icon. Yes I didn't use to understand why one would even need uninstaller app from the store). Please don't hate me if you really just rather sort by Name.
# Funny the problem this time is not about how I can't find a suitable app from the play store to do a better job with the drawer. It's that I CAN'T move the original app drawer icon of the launcher from the bottom middle area. I imagine there's probably a way to replace it but it's obviously not a readily available option or I am missing something.
3) Task manager?
+ I think it's just recent launched apps (or apps in the background) now. It's in a way good that it goes beyond the last 6. Not that I find that old limit bothering really.
- Where's my task manager? I'm a bit OCD when it comes to ram usage and processes/services. Oh how i missed the Hold home button -> recent app screen with a task manager button -> Kill all task. LOL It's not much but it shows just enough: total ram usage, running apps, processes, and even storage space. Scratch that, it's actually very much.
# Right now I am resort to Auto Memory Manager with a blue fish icon. It's sufficient. But I can't access it anywhere.
4) Misc. stuff that I missed and would like help to find them. Note: these have nothing to do with the launcher.
- I used to have this "Windy Weather" live wall paper (or what i believed it was called). There were some wind turbines running on a grass field. It reflects the current weather. I scour the store and I couldn't find anything remotely like that besides having to go back to the GO family or you have to pay. I know it's not recommended but I tried titanium back up to restore it from my old system - no luck.
- Ap news widget. The widget was 2x4. It does not refreshes on its own and only do so with a tiny refresh button on the bottom right corner. It cycles through headlines with pictures that fully stretches the whole 2x4 window (beautifully). Can't find it in the store.
- Pinch on the home screen zooms out and gives you a quick view of all 7(now 5, but I can live with that) pages of home screen.
- That's all for now. I think I am still missing a few things I wanted to mention but I forgot what they are at the moment
anyway, sorry about some of the ranting. Here are some features i like:
+ File Manager is awesome.
+ Camera is great as well. And I love the quick browse gallery. It's weird that the actual gallery don't even have to pinch function while they put it here.
+ The pull down menu is clean. I kinda missed the "auto-rotation" quick set. But it's minor. I usually don't allow auto rotation anyway. I also like the setting button in there. But I used it so much I have to put a short cut on the home screen anyway.
+ The animation when you turn off the screen is COOL
+ The lock screen which gives you direct access to the camera is very convenient as well.
There is no sammy like app with swipe unfortunately.(edit :didnt know ex dialer has it sry_
Try apex launcher,nova launcher,adw ex launcher(i prefer this at the moment,pletora of settings)
autorotation ,play with toggle settings in system settings menu.
Don't bother with ram,free ram is wasted ram.
That windmill wallpaper i think go has something similar to it but i dont use it as it is a huge battery hogger .I just use a plain wallpaper.
I suggest u stay playing a bit with the lockscreen/system settings
Hi, i use ex dialer and it have slide right to call and slide left to sms.
Cheers!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
For dialer I recommend Dialer Ex from Play. I also missed the swipe to call & message function from Sammy roms. This app does it(it also has other great features like theme support etc.!)
Sent from my premium potato
1) ExDialer. You will never look back. You can customize it to your taste and it has the features you ask.
2) You need to use another launcher for that, but in my case I got accustomed to search for apps instead of looking for icons. It's easier and can be done from everywhere in your launcher if you click and hold the Menu key. You can also have folders in the Home screen, that's also a nice way to organize. Why I ended doing this? Because other launchers have too many options.
3) You shouldn't care about running apps. You can kill them by pressing Menu key on the Home and selecting manage apps. There, in "Running" you have the apps that are currently working on the background, the memory they use and you can eventually kill them. I'm against that unless you have an issue with an app (like Media Scanner going rogue).
4) GO Weather. You can download it from the web if it's not on the store and side-load it. But I have it available. I can't help you with the news widget as I never found one useful enough to my usage patterns. I don't think the default launcher can show you all Home screens at once.
Thanks for all the help guys. You are quick to reply : )
android manages ram efficiently u dont need to free ram if u still want to have a kill apps button on recent apps its part of aokp and if u want to have it on cm10 try pacman rom