Database Users

New Line?

I know this probably seems like a stupid question, but where's the enter button?
When typing in certain applications like sms for instance, the "enter button" is replaced with the "smiley button".
I always separate my texts with new lines but I can't seem to find the button.

I'm also curious about this. I'd like to find a way to make the keyboard never display the smiley button, and always display the enter button. I'd also like to find a way to make it always display a row of number keys at the top, even if it means making the letter keys smaller . . .
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Yeah I'd like to get rid of the google voice button for the comma. I think google forgot we don't have an alternative hardware keyboard when they made the keyboard =P
There are some major flaws with such common features, like no battery percentage indicator. iPhone 1, N1 nill, i'm afraid; and I hate the iPhone with a passion. (slow, no network reception, overly-simplified)
hmm, perhaps there are other keyboard alternatives, but I think most if not all do not yet support the the N1 resolution...

Antiskunk said:
Yeah I'd like to get rid of the google voice button for the comma. I think google forgot we don't have an alternative hardware keyboard when they made the keyboard =P
There are some major flaws with such common features, like no battery percentage indicator. iPhone 1, N1 nill, i'm afraid; and I hate the iPhone with a passion. (slow, no network reception, overly-simplified)
hmm, perhaps there are other keyboard alternatives, but I think most if not all do not yet support the the N1 resolution...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its possible to get rid of. just go into keyboard settings.

melterx12 said:
its possible to get rid of. just go into keyboard settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that helps.
I'd still like an enter button though
I'd also like to turn off the auto-space without turning off the other options in that settings bundle, like auto-input etc.

How would you improve SE UI

Hi all,
Since it is very clear that rooting this phone is almost impossible and we might not be getting it sooner, I say we give Sony a review of their UI. If SE gives us 2.1 by Q3, then its good, but we better tell them what we did not like and they should change them.
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Other Improvement: Since we don’t have a call button, like htc devices, we should have a UI like ADW launcher; where there is always two quick launch buttons. The digital clock in the slide screen is bigger and perfect for the 4’’ screen, but in home screen it is pretty small. There should be a color change option for it too. Tethering app included.
Please put your improvement ideas of SE UI too. We could send this to SE and hope to get them soon.

Bikram said:
Hi all,
Since it is very clear that rooting this phone is almost impossible and we might not be getting it sooner, I say we give Sony a review of their UI. If SE gives us 2.1 by Q3, then its good, but we better tell them what we did not like and they should change them.
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Other Improvement: Since we don’t have a call button, like htc devices, we should have a UI like ADW launcher; where there is always two quick launch buttons. The digital clock in the slide screen is bigger and perfect for the 4’’ screen, but in home screen it is pretty small. There should be a color change option for it too.
Please put your improvement ideas of SE UI too. We could send this to SE and hope to get them soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good list of things to be told to SE, i think they should include flash player also for web browser , make more than 3 homescreens , change the blue theme to a one that is suitable with most of wallpapers or make an option to change this blue theme , and finally port some options that is included in froyo roms ,if they are not planing for a froyo update

My one wish for SE to change their looks would be simple. Ship with a default, like it is now and then add the option "Enable customisation" which would leave the OS stock Android without the added SE bits.
Majority of people would stick with the default, just look at how few "non-geek" people even change their wallpaper. Let alone going all out to change their UI. But it'd be an awesome option for us powerusers and would take minimal effort on SE's behalf. Give us that option and we'd probably turn in to a great PR machine since the HW is pretty excellent.

Make the volume rocker not increase/decrease the ringer volume when I'm on the home screen. I would make it more like original Sony Ericsson phones and have it bring up the phone's status.
Put some effort into the dialler. My last 3 Sony Ericsson dumb phones have had smart dialling features, this Android Smart phone has the dumbest dialler since the Nokia 3310.
The least they could do is plagiarize the dialler from their own phones.

Simple.
Sony Ericsson = Sony, so they should have gone with XMB from PS3
I like that interface. The only thing is screen. So maybe something like LG Crystal but then in XMB (Xross Media Bar) style

In Mediascape, I would like to be able to set "Music" to always go to my playlists.
Actually, even better would be to have separate mediascape shortcuts for music/video/photo on my homescreen and be able to set what each one defaults to.

Bikram said:
Hi all,
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used it a bit but found useless and confusing, so I disabled it. I don't think that any improvement would help. I would like to just get rid of it.
Bikram said:
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is actually the best media player I found on Android. I just would like to have a more finger friendly interface and some minor fixes.
Bikram said:
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly: again the problem is a more finger friendly interface. I also would like to get rid of Timescape things I don't use in the Contact screen.

.
I would like an option to access the media-volume from the home screen, atm i can only access phone-volume and it annoys me
They should also implement a virtual "Accept" or "Deny" button when you receive a call rather then a slide bar, like the iphone for instance.
And of coarse ... the interface! more userfriendly please.. bigger buttons, less text buttons..
Also i am very disappointed with the Top bar on your homescreen, some time ago i was used at using windows mobile and when you tapped the Bar on top with (battery, Signal strength etc) you could actually tap one of these features and you would go directly to the settings for it, for instance with windows mobile if you tapped the Signal strength you went directly to a menu where you could manage your 2G, 3G, GPS, Wifi, bluethooth etc with just one tap and now you cant, or even if you pressed the time you went directly to your alarm, clock, calendar and i would like this to be possible with SE aswell
And one more thing, since we are using a 1ghz processor its obvious we have spare power most of the time and there should be an option to set your device to Low-medium-max performance just like Windows mobile, this will save us tons of battery.
I know i'm whining about windows mobile, but to be honest that were the only 2 features i like about it

What I would like to see improved..
Okay I've had this phone for a while so I feel qualified to speak on this.
1.) I actually love timescape but recognize performance and more options such as changing the background to more animated backgrounds or figuring out a way to add more filters to it (i.e picassa , myspace,etc )
2.) I also like how the messages appear in the infinite screen on a contact and wished it stayed in that view when responding to messages.. That would be hot!!!!
3.) Also the best improvement they could do is allowing pictures from facebook to be saved to the contact when you don't have the contact picture assigned already. That would be helpful and windows mobile had that feature on my prior xperia devices.

clintax said:
They should also implement a virtual "Accept" or "Deny" button when you receive a call rather then a slide bar, like the iphone for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually that they did, if you press the power button it denies the call. I know that's wiered right?

[Poll] Does anyone really use the trackball for anything?

was just wondering, i rarely catch myself using it, atleast.

Taking pictures, going through screens. But it's most practical use for me is usually selecting small links in web pages when I'm too lazy to zoom in.

I use it every day for:
-Recovery
-Answering / ending calls
-Selecting text / moving cursor / other text functions
There are plenty of other things I use it for, but less frequently.

That goofy little track pad is one of the features I miss most on my Tbolt. Instead, I get HTC's standard arrows to do the same job, and it sucks and doesn't work in Clockwork. I used it for editing text mostly. I wish you could adjust it's sensitivity like on a BlackBerry. I came from a BlackBerry so it felt very natural and useful. For many tasks, it simply the fastest, easiest way to get the job done. I gave up the case I was using on it for a while so I could use it more effectively.

I use it for Recovery

I'm constantly using it for stuff like navigating recovery and clicking on links in the browser. I got big hands and constantly click wrong links even when zoomed in, so the track pad is a life saver.

That is what's keeping me from getting another phone! Ha ha
I use it for recovery, track advance for music, cursor, taking pictures, you name it.. Very useful to me.

I used it for text fields and recovery. There was also one game that had a trackpad control scheme.

Moving around in text is all i use it for.

loonatik78 said:
I wish you could adjust it's sensitivity like on a BlackBerry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the right kernel, you can:
chad0989 said:
As for the OJ, you can adjust settings at /sys/devices/platform/curcial_oj
There's lots of settings but the easiest way is to increase normal_th and sensitivity will go down
just:
echo 4 > /sys/devices/platform/curcial_oj/normal_th
and replace 4 with whatever value you want. Higher value = less sensitive. You'll have to put it in a script in /etc/init.d if you want to set it on boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

byrong said:
With the right kernel, you can:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish I would have know that a year ago, but I was all over Ziggy's kernels. My girlfriend hardly messes with it so I'm not going to screw with it. Thank you for the post though.

I love my trackpad. It's keeping me on this phone. No other phone feels right without it and I constantly search for it on any phone I use.
Sent from my ADR6300 using xda premium

I use to use it all the time, but CM7 never got the driver working quite right for it, with out gingersource at least.

copy pasting

byrong said:
-Answering / ending calls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had no idea you could do it this way. Saves more trouble than waiting for the screen to turn on and then end the call.
I mostly use it for moving the cursor, it's a huge help because a lot of times it just doesn't go exactly where I want it to go when I press the touch screen- so I move it over 1 or 2 characters via trackball. I use this pretty frequently too.

Mostly for Recovery navigation and selection, but for cursor movement, too. And before the proximity sensor worked right, for the answer/end call thing, too. But now it seems to always know when to turn the screen on or off, even in the dark... That's with MIUI.us.

POQbum said:
I had no idea you could do it this way. Saves more trouble than waiting for the screen to turn on and then end the call.
I mostly use it for moving the cursor, it's a huge help because a lot of times it just doesn't go exactly where I want it to go when I press the touch screen- so I move it over 1 or 2 characters via trackball. I use this pretty frequently too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I LOVE the trackball and use it all the time for moving the cursor and copy/paste. I am reluctant to get a new phone without one.

I use it a good bit - flipping through screens, moving cursor - but gained some new tips in this thread!

I use it ALL the time to move the cursor because I make typos all the time in portrait mode. I guess my fingers are too big for the screen keyboard.
When I switch to my iPhone, I am constantly looking for the trackpad when I make a typo. Trackpad is much better than iPhone's crappy magnifier.

I use it to move the cursor to edit something I mis-swyped. That's about it.

One hand use

Hi!
I'd like to know if anybody actually uses Samsung's features in order to help using the phone with one hand?
I myself make only use of the (not convincingly thought through) gesture which allows me to shrink the screen.
The assistant menu:
quite customisable, but much too big and slow for my taste.
Side key panel:
the other way round, quite comfortable to use, but nearly no customisation at all.
All in all I'd say lots of options, but not really thought through. What do you think?

Like you, I find the side key panel quite useful- eliminates the thumb stretching for the "back" button.
One handed input is also turned on & is mildly helpful for the dialer. Seemed to help a bit with continuous input on the keyboard as well, but ended up switching back to the stock Google keyboard I've grown so accustomed to.
Long pressing the recents key to bring up menus is also nice, though not specific to the Note 4.

Sometimes I use the shrink screen function that's when I'm to lazy to move my other hand haha
Sent from my SM-N910F using XDA Free mobile app

It's not just laziness. Sometimes you really need to do other things with your other hand (old school multi-tasking).

Holmegaard said:
Like you, I find the side key panel quite useful- eliminates the thumb stretching for the "back" button.
One handed input is also turned on & is mildly helpful for the dialer. Seemed to help a bit with continuous input on the keyboard as well, but ended up switching back to the stock Google keyboard I've grown so accustomed to.
Long pressing the recents key to bring up menus is also nice, though not specific to the Note 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with everything you said. Still: I'm not too convinced from what the side key panel offers. If you could customise the side key panel the same way as the assistant menu, I'd totally go for it.

macmobile said:
I agree with everything you said. Still: I'm not too convinced from what the side key panel offers. If you could customise the side key panel the same way as the assistant menu, I'd totally go for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I seem to remember that there should be an app that mimics the one you can find in Ios. Anyway, there are several very good apps I use for 'one handed mode':
- button savior non root (you can find in in the google play store) which gives you back, home, recent, screen lock and lets you start both the dialer and the camera;
- lmt launcher (see at xda) which works very well if you are rooted and lacks some little features if you are not. You just have to remove tue superuser permission from the manifest file (which you can do with apk permission remover) and turn on accessibility and it'll work almost as a charm. I mean, it does not only allow you to mimic the hardware keys, it can start any app and any activity which does not require root. If you are rooted, it can do virtually anything;
- as a good replacement of lmt launcher, you can test pie control by Coolace (always in the google play store).
I mostly keep the note 4 in my left hand (though I am right handed) just because my 2 years experience with the note 2 has got me accustomed to writing with my right hand, while keeping the smartphone with the left one... so that I currently feel uncomfortable while holding the note with my dominant hand So, I feel the need to have virtual keys on the right side, since reaching the back button on the right side is not so easy (though my hands are normally sized) and the above mentioned apps are the most useful I have found.

Funny, you actually named some very important apps I already use on my phone except for the lmt launcher. Could be that I thought there isn't anything to gain from if you're not rooted. Going to give it a try though. Thank you! Still I don't get it, why Samsung's Touchwiz doesn't offer better solutions? They could do it so easily.

No doubt macmobile, some customization options would be nice. The big phone trend isn't going away, so I'm hoping that more options for easing one-handed use are in the pipeline. Samsung would do well to lead the way, given their investment in the "phablet" space.

macmobile said:
Funny, you actually named some very important apps I already use on my phone except for the lmt launcher. Could be that I thought there isn't anything to gain from if you're not rooted. Going to give it a try though. Thank you! Still I don't get it, why Samsung's Touchwiz doesn't offer better solutions? They could do it so easily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I rooted every single phone or tablet before buying a Note 4 and now, though I miss the fun of flashing rom and mods, I think this phone has too many sensors which wouldn't be supported by an AOSP rom, while custom touchwiz roms aren't worth for me to give up to knox. Not much for the warranty loss, but more for the loss of the knox enviroment itself. So, since I don't want to root, I have got to look for work-arounds and I think there are many good apps.
Back on topic, imho Samsung has so far designed the best implementation for one hand usage, though it could be better. If you look at the nexus 6, it's just a big phone and the Iphone itself is just a (good) 5.5" phone which doesn't pay particular attention to single hand usage.
I agree with you both that phablets are very likely here to stay and that the current UI for single hand usage is at very early stage.

I just received the Note 4 with lollipop pre installed.
The one-handed operation (that I was using woth my note 3) has disappeared from settings!!!!!
WHY????
how to get it back?

Settings/Display and Wallpaper/One-handed operation

Samsung screwed one thing about One handed operation: there is no separate setting for dialing keyboard and QWERTY keyboard, just like it was on my previous Note II.
I wish I could set smaller dialpad, but retain full QWERTY, which is not the option any more.
When set one handed operation ON, samsung keyboard is just too small to me.

Flipping the capacitive keys

If your like me 99% of your phones had the back on the left and recent on the right. Why samsung wants to be different with this is beyond me. But here's how you can change that.
First, you need root.
Second (personal preferance) I disabled the back lights of the keys.
Do that using galaxy button lights
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.notquiteinsane.galaxybuttonlights
Second, you need all in one gestures
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phoenixstudios.aiogestures
In gestures, give root access then in in hardkeys, add recent (back and home should already be there) then simply make back, recents, and recents, back.. that's it!

Most people are right handed and back button makes more sense on the right because one uses back button more than uses recents so Samsung got that right.
Sent from my SM-G920T

It's more organic for the back button to be on the left.

ambervals6 said:
Most people are right handed and back button makes more sense on the right because one uses back button more than uses recents so Samsung got that right.
Sent from my SM-G920T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's more of a matter of staying the same. While you may be right (no pun intended) most phones are setup the way Google has it. So most get used to this. I've had the s6 since launch day and I still never got used to it. Once I did this it felt much more natural.

zathus said:
It's more of a matter of staying the same. While you may be right (no pun intended) most phones are setup the way Google has it. So most get used to this. I've had the s6 since launch day and I still never got used to it. Once I did this it felt much more natural.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When samsung made devices google didn't even exist. Tell me which are these "most" phone that you are talking about anyways if you like on screen buttons the way google set it up, just disable the capacitive buttons and install app from playstore to have onscreen buttons. Make more sense to have the back button on the right though.
Sent from my SM-G920T

zathus said:
If your like me 99% of your phones had the back on the left and recent on the right. Why samsung wants to be different with this is beyond me. But here's how you can change that.
First, you need root.
Second (personal preferance) I disabled the back lights of the keys.
Do that using galaxy button lights
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.notquiteinsane.galaxybuttonlights
Second, you need all in one gestures
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phoenixstudios.aiogestures
In gestures, give root access then in in hardkeys, add recent (back and home should already be there) then simply make back, recents, and recents, back.. that's it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ambervals6 said:
When samsung made devices google didn't even exist. Tell me which are these "most" phone that you are talking about anyways if you like on screen buttons the way google set it up, just disable the capacitive buttons and install app from playstore to have onscreen buttons. Make more sense to have the back button on the right though.
Sent from my SM-G920T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think when he says "most" he means every android phone ever not made by Samsung. Back button should be on the left.

ECEXCURSION said:
I think when he says "most" he means every android phone ever not made by Samsung. Back button should be on the left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure he's arguing just to argue lol obviously I meant other phones besides Samsung and obviously I'm talking about Android phones not every phone ever made. Since we're talking about the capacitive key layout for Android lol I'm actually shocked he didn't say the iPhone layout is different to. They're back key is in the upper left. I guess that throws out the right handed theory.
Essentially it's driving on the left side of the road and then driving on the right side of the road. One may be more right than the other but once you're used to something it's hard to change that. Especially for the sake of changing. Are used both my right and left hand for my phone and my thumb always wants to go to the left for the back key.

you don't need root for all in one gestures to switch the keys

Who cares, if you want them swapped here is a way to do it. If you dont then thats fine.
Choices like this are hardly a bad thing.

fachadick said:
you don't need root for all in one gestures to switch the keys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No? Cool. It asked for root when I opened it so I assumed it was required. That's even better

zathus said:
No? Cool. It asked for root when I opened it so I assumed it was required. That's even better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah - I was running it before I rooted. Then after I rooted it started asking me for root access too.

zathus said:
Why samsung wants to be different with this is beyond me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually prefer the Samsung layout. Why? Because for me the right button is much easier to reach without having to stretch the thumb than the left and I use the back key much more often than the recent apps key. So the button I use the most, beside the home button, is on the position thats more comfortable to tap on. Makes sense to me.

Samsung got it right. The most used button should be on the side where it is easiest for most people, which is on the right. Not sure why Google has decided to put this button on the left. One of the first things I do when I have a phone with software nav keys is change the back button to be on the right side, closest to my right thumb.

Well done to the op for providing a solution for lefties and Google fanboys, but I add my weight to the fact Samsung got it right. Google used to be about choice, no more.

ambervals6 said:
Most people are right handed and back button makes more sense on the right because one uses back button more than uses recents so Samsung got that right.
Sent from my SM-G920T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, if you are right handed, holding your phone with the right hand, will be a lot more comfortable to press on the recents with your thumb.