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SO, I'm a simple iPhone user, aka these 5 home screens and moving backgrounds confuse and fluster the hell out of me. While I try and downloads hoards of apps to put the the phone I still can't quite figure out what the hell to do with 5 home screens, in reality I have only filled one page and even still its only really my phone and weather widget.
Are there any apps / widgets / clocks / keyboards ya'll would say are "required" for the nexus? I really don't know where to look some one should make a suggested app thread.
look forward to hearing your responses.
JG
it all depends on you decorate it to your liking
for me on my main screen i have my
Mainscreen
-flipclock from beautiful widgets
-Most used apps: gallery, aim, maps, camera, gmail, browser and market
Second Screen Left
-Search bar on top
-picture frame of me and my girlfriend in the middle
-A folder for games and a folder for tools on each side of the frame
-and the power control on the button
and then on other screens i have my friendstream(facebook widget), favorite contacts, end all task widget, flashlight widget, music player widget, bookmarks widget, news widget
oh and im using the the desire rom btw but there are equivilant widgets on the market
You don't to have to have live wallpapers, and on the iphone don't you get how many screens you need to compensate for the amount of applications you have installed? So unless you had a minimal amount of applications, wouldn't you have more (or equivalent) than five screens? So how come now it is confusing you?
Ok, back to the matter at hand. Usually I just decorate my home screens with applications that i need, apps that are not used regularly stay in the app wheel thingy (its not really drawer anymore). Really your homescreens will be determined by your needs, and likes. Decorate with the most essential applications that you need, and expand on that by adding widgets and etc. I'm sure others could recommend apps for you, I've been an Android user since the G1 (which isn't long really), but apps just come to mind without hesitation.
On my main screen I have a nice clock and my most used programs. The screen to the right has toggles for various settings. To the right of that is speed dials. To the left of the main screen is weather and news plus a few more program shortcuts and to the left of that is my music player widget.
I only use 3 screens, centre is big clock and most used apps, to the right is a bunch of regularly used apps. to the left is some widgets and speed dials.
I keep the other 2 blank for some reason.
Rock3nrenigade said:
Are there any apps / widgets / clocks / keyboards ya'll would say are "required" for the nexus? I really don't know where to look some one should make a suggested app thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the love of god please use the Search button!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=620092&highlight=apps
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=617667&highlight=apps
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633104&highlight=apps
+ a dozen other of the same threads
.
So I just noticed there is no calendar or music widget? What do you use or is there a way to get them?
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant.
You get them the same way you get other stuff you don't have. You get them off the Internet/Android Market.
I use MusicMod for my music widget. I don't use calendars so perhaps someone else can help you there.
I don't use a music one because it's built in to the lockscreen if I'm listening to something. For calendar I use android agenda widget
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using XDA App
Here is the stock 2.1 music player with widget. Just transfer the apk to your sd and install.
I use the widget on the lock screen. Why clutter up your home screen + waste resources when there's one already built in to the lock screen?
Another great option is "cubed" in the market. Best player IMO, but there's nothing wrong with the stock one.
Calendar widget, I don't know. Never really thought about it! I agree, it should have one built in.
For a good calender widget find "jorte" has tons of options.
Catchin' the VIBE on the XDApp
The daily briefing can be used as a calendar widget if you use google calendar.
romanonly said:
I use the widget on the lock screen. Why clutter up your home screen + waste resources when there's one already built in to the lock screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you get the music widget on the lock screen?
Pure Music Widget and Pure Grid Calendar are both great! Pure Grid is like the HTC Sense calendar.
ultra spikey said:
How do you get the music widget on the lock screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should come stock on the vibrant open your music player and start playing a song then when you lock the screen it will be on the lock screen when you go to unlock it.
I also use the controller in the lock screen. Instead of a widget they put the quick controls in the notification put-down. You just have to open the music player initially.
I use the Calendar Clock widget. It's ok.
doubleTwist is a good player and has a widget.
when my phone is unlocked i drag down the notifications panel when music is playing and there are music controls. also in lock screen mode you can drag down a little window pane while locked with music controls (phone remains locked).
The player in the notification menu while the phone is locked is no good for people who like to lock their phone with a pattern. doubleTwist has a good widget, but only pause and skip forwards buttons, no skip back. And I have as yet been unable to make the widget background transparent...
Try the app called 3, search Filipe Abrantes in the market.... It has a pretty sweet widget and its a bad asz music app...
I thought I just throw it out here since there are so many people complain about how bad touchwiz is.
What do you like about TouchWiz interface on Galaxy S?
One thing I really like is how music players stack up onto the pull down taskbar as well as on the lock screen where you can stop, change track and play your musics without unlocking your phone.
I only like the lock screen missed call or missed sms notification.
Other than that it's crap.
I use adw for everything else.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
is there any way to change it to something better without rooting or anything like that?
kcharng said:
I thought I just throw it out here since there are so many people complain about how bad touchwiz is.
What do you like about TouchWiz interface on Galaxy S?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sliding across the notifications bar to adjust brightness.
The Touchwiz Corporate Email client is MUCH better than stock Android. Much.
The Notification panel is the best stock panel on Android, and nothing aftermarket even comes close.
The stock Clock application has a great "Smart Alarm".
Task Manager, which is just a long-press of the Home button away.
Built in "My Files" application, no need to download something like Astro.
Memo and Mini Diary are quite useful.
Very solid SNS integration into Contacts, complete with pictures.
A pretty damned good stock dialer.
A pretty good stock keyboard (and Swype too!)
The best stock Music Player IMHO. Equalizer presets!
The best stock Video Player, bar none. Divx, MKV, AVI, it plays them all.
AllShare actually works, and is actually useful and fun.
Ability to change system fonts on the fly, and to download or create your own.
Road SMS just for ****s and giggles.
Integrated Calendar (Exchange, Google, etc.)
Car Home and Desk Home launchers are nice.
How friendly TW3.0 is to 3rd party launchers.
I'm sure there's more, but the long and short of it is, TouchWiz 3.0 is pretty damned good. I don't use the TWLauncher either, but most of that is habit, having used ADW and LauncherPro for months.
kcharng said:
I thought I just throw it out here since there are so many people complain about how bad touchwiz is.
What do you like about TouchWiz interface on Galaxy S?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love TW3.0 I've tried all other launchers and they dont really compare to the functionality that TW3.0 offers altho most of the launchers are just home screen and application drawer replacements.
My only gripe is that samsung should have added a msg counter on the messaging icon like on the wave... everything else is great for me!
Nothing of these things have to do with touchwiz. Im on launcher pro and can do the same. The only thing missing are the samsung widgets.
Ps. On launcher pro you get msg and call counter in the dock icons
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
What i like in TW3.0 is that apps are divided to pages. I don't like scrolling, scrolling and scrolling to find my apps in other launchers. I know on which page i have app that i need right now so i jump quickly there and launch it.
I tried ADW Launcher and LauncherPro but don´t like them. They feel a lot more incomplete and slower compared to TW3. I can´t complain about the speed of TW3 and i really like the the Screenlock, and the notifications for missed calls and sms
Twlauncher isn't the only part of the phone that's changed by TouchWiz, as listed above.
I also use LauncherPro, mainly because I prefer its vertical sliding application list, but the notification icons and integration with media players is nice. I have no argument with the lock screen either - again, the music player integration is useful. The Task Manager in newer builds is also pretty decent and good to see in a stock ROM.
The TouchWiz customisations you can't remove/bypass are pretty good, and because you can change default handlers in Android, it's no big deal to use alternative launchers and applications. I was concerned about not having HTC Sense, but happy with this.
I currently switched from LauncherPro to TouchWiz recently, just because I like variation. I might use ADW instead next week. There's nothing bad about TouchWiz to make me not use it. Nice to see other people supporting the stock software.
TouchWiz 3.0 is Good!!
I am not sure why there is so much of TouchWiz hate. But once one would come out of the "only Sense/ADW is good", they would really see what all functionalities have been added to TouchWiz to make it look good and actually work well.
I really like it.
And I really wonder if Sense can do this much!!
kcharng said:
One thing I really like is how music players stack up onto the pull down taskbar as well as on the lock screen where you can stop, change track and play your musics without unlocking your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This works on Launcher Pro too, it's not unique to TW
d3a said:
is there any way to change it to something better without rooting or anything like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just download an alternative like Launcher Pro or ADW and Home Switcher to easily switch between them.
Croak said:
Built in "My Files" application, no need to download something like Astro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's just an application, irrespective of the launcher. Switch launcher and that is still there.
Memo and Mini Diary are quite useful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As above, stock applications, not launcher specific.
A pretty damned good stock dialer.
A pretty good stock keyboard (and Swype too!)
The best stock Music Player IMHO. Equalizer presets!
The best stock Video Player, bar none. Divx, MKV, AVI, it plays them all.
AllShare actually works, and is actually useful and fun.
Ability to change system fonts on the fly, and to download or create your own.
Road SMS just for ****s and giggles.
Integrated Calendar (Exchange, Google, etc.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto, all stock, not dependent on launcher.
[/QUOTE]
yrizan said:
Nothing of these things have to do with touchwiz. Im on launcher pro and can do the same. The only thing missing are the samsung widgets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed!
I like certain aspect of TW, sort of like the horizontal scroll applications page but wish there was a way to reorder things alphabetically without clearing the data. Manually sorting applications according to type etc. is useful but then sort of duplicates what the home screens are for. Like the icon display on TW as well with their button backgrounds as opposed to plain icons in Launcher Pro.
I think touchwiz is pretty good, one cool feature is sliding your finger left or right on a contact either calls them or composes s message! Until someone ports Sense to the SGS ill stick to touchwiz
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I don't "like" touchwiz, but don't hate it either. The widgets that come with it are pretty cool. I like the people(social networking) and the yahoo finance widgets in particular.
MAMBO04 said:
I think touchwiz is pretty good, one cool feature is sliding your finger left or right on a contact either calls them or composes s message! Until someone ports Sense to the SGS ill stick to touchwiz
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a feature of the contacts manager, not Touch Wiz. It works the same under a different launcher.
No greyish pull up tab underneath? Never liked that bit.
Croak said:
Sliding across the notifications bar to adjust brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you, but what do you mean by this? How do you adjust the brightness from the notifications bar?
This is probably some new addition like the task manager, right? I'm still using the JF3-firmware...
Think the touchwiz is pretty well thought out. I actually like it better then Sense tbh even though I figured I would miss sense after switchin to the sgs.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
I love touchwiz that when I slide, if I touched the app icons first for like 0.2 sec and slide, it will still give me a slide.
If I do it on ADW or LauncherPro, it will act like I'm holding that icon. Like I hold icons from drawer to place at home screen.
I don't know how to explain this, my english is not very good. Hope you understand.
Always seems to be a ton of threads about why people hate touchwiz and how eager they are to get rid of it but...what do you like about what Samsung did different?
I absolutely love the pulldown menu modifications
I love the music/call controls in the pull down, and like the power widget there. This is something I really wish that Google would adopt/roll into stock android later on (or at least Cyanogen).
I also like the shortcut to adjust your phone's brightness (rolling finger across the top bar).
I personally prefer the way this phone handles making a call on a 2nd line and conferencing people in...it's much better than stock android (I came from a Moto droid and conferencing in a new # was always kind of a pain in the ass).
I personally prefer the way they redid the calendar to stock (I seem to be in the minority here though).
I use google voice for all SMS, so I can't really comment on that.
I use LauncherPro, so the actual look of the launcher doesn't bug me...
Actually, the only thing I truly hate about the modifications Samsung made was the damn alarm program..it's way worse than the droids, and it's way too easy to turn off...and the snooze button is hard to differentiate from the turn off alarm button.
Overall, Samsung has some nice stuff if they just abandon the cartoony iPhones look of the launcher and work on a few of the performance hickups here and there.
hydrogenman said:
I absolutely love the pulldown menu modifications
I love the music/call controls in the pull down, and like the power widget there. This is something I really wish that Google would adopt/roll into stock android later on (or at least Cyanogen).
I also like the shortcut to adjust your phone's brightness (rolling finger across the top bar).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than the calendar (which is a near-total fail for me; maybe others' calendars don't have the same bugs as mine - which is a scary thought, b/c it makes a global "fix" seem less likely), I really like TouchWiz - particularly the features listed above. The "Power Control" Android widget (or whatever it's called) - which is normally crucial - becomes almost unnecessary, provided you're OK with using the pulldown for toggling GPS, Wifi, etc.; and sliding finger for brightness. (The only Power Control item you can't toggle using pulldown is "Sync," which I almost never turn off anyway).
I like how the TW icons look; and I dig the app drawer, b/c I prefer the "list" view that it offers. I may try another launcher someday, but right now I feel no need -- I'm digging TW (and much prefer it to stock Android).
Don't care for the Samsung widgets at all, but their functions can easily be bested with stuff in the Market.
pavvy said:
Other than the calendar (which is a near-total fail for me; maybe others' calendars don't have the same bugs as mine - which is a scary thought, b/c it makes a global "fix" seem less likely), I really like TouchWiz - particularly the features listed above. The "Power Control" Android widget (or whatever it's called) - which is normally crucial - becomes almost unnecessary, provided you're OK with using the pulldown for toggling GPS, Wifi, etc.; and sliding finger for brightness. (The only Power Control item you can't toggle using pulldown is "Sync," which I almost never turn off anyway).
I like how the TW icons look; and I dig the app drawer, b/c I prefer the "list" view that it offers. I may try another launcher someday, but right now I feel no need -- I'm digging TW (and much prefer it to stock Android).
Don't care for the Samsung widgets at all, but their functions can easily be bested with stuff in the Market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never once used any of the TW widgets...that's one thing that was a bit of fail
BTW, you can get the TW style of app drawer on 3rd party launchers
I was rather pleasantly surprised with TouchWiz. I think it's much better than Stock Android. I'm not sure exactly why people are complaining about it.
What I like about it.
1. WebOS like UI controls for Music and Toggles in the Notification drop down.
2. Paged scrolling of apps in the App Drawer. I hate inertial list scrolling.
3. Some of the widgets like dual clock and calendar clock. If there is no place to add a widget on that screen, it finds a screen with space. Buddies Now is a nice widget, but it's slow and buggy.
4. The interface to add/remove screens and move screens around.
What I dislike.
1. It syncs all contacts instead of just "My Contacts". Of course this is not the launcher, but the app. But other than this, the contacts and dialer are much better than stock.
2. Pressing the Home button, sends it off to Screen 4 on my phone instead of the center screen. Very annoying.
3. There is an Android bug that prevents folders from being opened. With LauncherPro, I can restart the launcher which fixes the problem. No such ability in TW.
4. Can only change two of the 4 icons at the bottom.
Likes:
Messaging/calling through contacts.
Power control in notification drawer
Launcher is starting to grow on me
The interface when a call is in progress
Puzzle piece notifications
Dislikes:
Music player can't distinguish between songs and ringtones
Nearly the same issue with gallery and album art
Can't set the home screen when less than 5 screens
Lock screen but that's purely cosmetic
The media scanner, but I don't think that's TW specific (Be awesome to have it scan on demand)
I really don't like how all the Samsung widgets want to take up an entire screen.
hydrogenman said:
BTW, you can get the TW style of app drawer on 3rd party launchers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's good to know... I'll have to try 'em sometime, I know they have lots of fans around here.
I actually prefer TW to LauncherPro or ADW. So far everything works pretty well.
I do wish that the samsung widgets were re-sizeable so they didn't take up the whole screen. I like the app drawer, it is just copying the iPhone, but I don't visit it a whole lot thanks to the FolderOrganizer widget. That widget should have come stock with the phone IMHO.
i really like some of the modifications that samsung has added, especially in the dialer and contacts apps (they have already been mentioned). i found another one last night in the calendar app, if you add a location to an entry it shows you a map of the location from the calendar entry.
wolfvgang said:
I actually prefer TW to LauncherPro or ADW. So far everything works pretty well.
I do wish that the samsung widgets were re-sizeable so they didn't take up the whole screen. ......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey. If I do understand you correctly, you are using ADW or LauncherPro and mention that 'everything is working pretty well, also referring to 'samsung widgets'?
How do you access 'samsung widgets' from say ADW Launcher - ESPECIALLY BuddiesNow ??
I can only access it from the default launcher, but do prefer ADW also - but am stuck
Thanks for your help or ideas.
I don't understand anyone wouldn't use LauncherPro.
The scrolling dock is genius. I have about 15 apps that I use regularly, so the dock does a really great job to accommodate that. Also, you can easily add your own custom icons, and do away with the default ones that come with TW and LP.
I also hate that on TW, you have the home screen # indicators at the top, giving you a lot less home screen space.
The app drawer, though not as easy to use as the Applications viewer in TW, is at least original. This phone already looks like an iPhone, so having a very Android-esque applications viewer is refreshing.
TW does a lot fantastic things, some of which you guys mentioned, but the general layout of it is pretty ****ty, and LauncherPro is just about perfect... and free.
I like the toggles on the notification pull down. I don't like how the brightness slider has no visual feedback to determine what the current bright is set at. If there was a slider widget attached to the bottom or a popup when the slider is in use that would make it easier.
I like the swipe on contacts for the call/sms.
After loading JI6, I tried using the TW launcher again, but I couldn't find any of the TW widgets compelling so I'm back to Launcherpro.
Just found this out, if you dislike the iPhone style of the app drawer, left to right, changing it to Alphabetical list gives me the normalish way we are used to the app drawer working, up and down.
Now if we could just remove the annoying outline on the icons I'd be set
Coming from an iPhone, Touchwiz was a bit too iphone-ripoff for me. I personally use Launcher+ but TW did have some good points.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
my biggest dislike is that contacts and dialer are no longer the same application. I never had a dialer shortcut on my phone before because I could just use contacts, now I have to use up 1 more space for the dialer.
Owenv said:
my biggest dislike is that contacts and dialer are no longer the same application. I never had a dialer shortcut on my phone before because I could just use contacts, now I have to use up 1 more space for the dialer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can access the contacts from the dialer, would be an extra click if you really want to not have that extra icon
z0phi3l said:
You can access the contacts from the dialer, would be an extra click if you really want to not have that extra icon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but as far as I know you can't get to dialer from contacts, and I'm used to having the contacts icon on my home screen. I know I could just change it but you know what they say about old habits. however it isn't a problem since I have another contacts app that solved it for me.
My favorite feature is the dialer. I love the fact that it has speed dial unlike stock android. I also love the predictive dialing. These two are the biggest for me.
I dont understand what some of these devs are thinking when they develop mp3 players software/widgets
1. Every widget out there sucks. None of them can move the slider over to a different location of the current track, all they can do is move to the next track or back and pause, but nothing else. Sucks.
2. The actual payers in full screen mode also blow chunks IMO. None of the have visualizations. Even Winamp, the founder of visualizations on the PC, does not include any in its android player. Sucks
3. Its even worse with android tablets. android tablets need widgets with far more functionality than just moving to the next track and pausing a song. Its pathetic IMO.
Winamp? I've never had a problem with winamp
Sent from my TBolt using my f***king thumbs...
sonami said:
Winamp? I've never had a problem with winamp
Sent from my TBolt using my f***king thumbs...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you even read my post?
5thElement said:
1. Every widget out there sucks. None of them can move the slider over to a different location of the current track, all they can do is move to the next track or back and pause, but nothing else. Sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lets think about why there is no timeline slider on a widget. When you place your finger down on your android homescreen, on a widget, an icon, or empty space and slide it side to side, what happens? Your homescreen starts to move to the next one. So what do we want to break in order to have a timeline that we can slide? Should we not be able to swipe between homescreens? Honeycomb does have the ability for a user to swipe down and up on Widgets to make them do something, but some of the Gingerbread roms like cm7 have customizable gestures like swipe up and swipe down. So should we break a feature in order to guarantee we could have a vertical timeline? I dont think so.
If these apps/widgets are as bad as you say then SOMEONE should step in and make a nice one... Hint hint hint
From something awesome
What happens when you swipe your home screen depends on where on the screen you swipe.
For example, in GO Launcher swiping up a dock icon launches a custom app. I have five icons in my dock from which I can launch five different apps by swiping up. Swiping up anywhere outside those 5 regions toggles my notification bar on/off.
The same can be done for horizontal swipes: swiping the timeline of your music widget vs. swiping anywhere else on the screen.
It may not work with the stock launcher, but how many here on xda do not use a custom launcher?
Everybody already said what I would say about the widgets...
for the visualizer thing, it isn't fair to say that anything without a visualizer "blows chunks." there must be reasons, I too have wondered why there are no apps with visualizers but that shouldn't be something that makes every option suck no matter how great the app might be.
Sent from my MIUI SCH-i500
and you say "poor quality" in comparison to what? no mobile device has any of the things you say are required for it to not suck. you should do some research, find some great music apps like ubermusic, playerpro, poweramp... they look good and have good features. they have good widgets as well which realistically use what they can... (which to add to the widget argument, it is not simply developers who choose not to, it is a restriction of android and/or launchers that widgets can't swipe sideways.) and for a phone, a visualizer would really be useless... when I play music on my phone I press play and put it in my pocket. I'm not going to waste the battery watching a spectrogram or something.
Sent from my MIUI SCH-i500