Database Users

[Idea] - LensLauncher

Maybe superfluous, but this is an idea I had for a launcher. This is inspired by the lens-eye feature from the excellent Comic Reader Mobile found on this forum.
- First picture shows standard launcher screen with lots and lots of really small icons. Small enough that hopefully all your programs fit on this screen.
- Second picture shows screen-area that is pressed.
- Third picture shows a lens that enlarges the icons close to where has been pressed.
This way any program in this launcher is 2 quick presses away. No more scrolling, no more having to leave icons out of a category because of space constraints.
Is this worthwhile?

If you want my opinion I think your idea is fast to launch items but slow to find them. I know that after some time playing with it, if you already know where it is you will launch it fast but....
I have another proposal for you . For my app I've done a couple of widgets that I call Bubbles (see attachment). The "flower" is initially closed and if you hold your finger in the middle it opens showing the icons surrounding, then draging your finger and releasing it over the desired icon you launch the app. thsi way if you are capable of grouping the apps into categories (grames, programs, comm, profiles, etc) you can access all those options with only one tap & hold .

I liked it, maybe a round lens with an animation will be more attractive

..sure, with dx 10 effects for your htc phones.
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nice idea, sunra, but menus seems generally better, than today launchers...like quickmenu i.e...

Th3Hunter said:
I liked it, maybe a round lens with an animation will be more attractive
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, it is certainly not meant to look like this! I had the look and feeling of the lens system of Comic Reader in mind.
APBilbo, your system is really nice. Our systems look alike. I want to ask you if you have any programs where you're not sure in what category you like to place them?
Nothin, could you explain why menu's seem better to you?

it is hard to explain - quick menu revised my today plugins, so i do not need to waste today space, menu is fast method with small mem usage.
i know, htc is promoting its ****ty stuff and many users got it, but there are other options, luckily....
i like claunch, tho(tap on empty space shuffles to next hm, tab"..).

claunch is nice but...
a programm launcher like the scrollbar in manila would be nice... as homeplugin...
it would be nice ... because you can insert lot of programs

8x8 icons with claunch(as line with 18 px height) is not enough?
i said, that i am using many tabs in that 1 line - tap on EMPTY space moves to another one, do i need to see ALL icons at once?
nope.
my rom contains ~60-70 applications i've added to rom, besides system ones, you know
end of OT.
keep loving your manila's, guys...
ehhh.

It's called a ZUI my friend, a Zooming User Interface
To be honest, I like it, but I think only one level of zoom should be required. Too many clicks otherwise.
Chuck in some decent kinetic scrolling for if there were too many items to fit on the screen, and you're on to a winner!
Might have a look-see to see how hard she'll be to whip up a prototype...

Rl Today
here iz my rl today setup hope u like it

Rl today
heres more

(Concept) Seamless homescreen replacer

I have a concept homescreen replacer where there are no "pages", instead there is one single horizontal scrolling strip, much like a film strip. Think Windows Phone 7, but with widgets, icons, folders etc and horizontal.
Look at the attachment if you dont understand. I would put the image in the post but I cant post outside links yet.
Yes, it is possible to see half a widget, but I thought about it and decided it will be to the user to scroll so it is displayed right.
I have no experience in coding but I am pretty good in graphics like my picture
Tell me what you think

I've been thinking about and attempting to create (with limited success so far.) something similar to your home replacement but Vertical Scroll rather than horizontal. To give you an idea it would look similar to The Zune Launcher or the but also be able to take widgets. Again no snap to screen (cant figure that bit out).
Good luck with this, it would be interesting to see what experiences you gain and what problems you run into. Similar to you I am fantastic with graphics but not too good at coding (not done any since C++)

When I "jailbroke" my ipod ages ago, there was a tweak that was called "smooth scrolling" and it did the exact same thing described here. I think it would be awesome to have a free-scrolling home screen. I am working on a home replacement myself and it features a vertically scrolling home screen where the icons and widgets can be placed anywhere (not snap to a grid). If you would like to help, click on the logo in my signature to be taken to my site to see what I am working on. I could use a hand in graphics, myself. PM me if you're interested

I would prefer something that is like infiniboard for iOS

This would technically allow widgets to stretch past the 1 page limit in LauncherPro, as in, you could have widgets large enough that they cut off, allowing for some GREAT theming and future uses.

hmmm....interested but why vertical? feels a little to Windows Phone to me and i think widgets would work better scrolling horizontally. I looked up smooth scrolling for iOS and yep thats what i want with widgets and gridless.

I just want to subscribe to this and give my two cents:
I think any seamless homescreen app should still have the option at least of enabling a grid for apps and widgets. The idea of this as a functioning homescreen replacement could certainly get me to switch over from ADW, but only if it could satisfy my OCD needs for everything to be lined up juuuust so.

I think this would be a great thing to have, but I also would like to have an option for the widgets & apps to line up on a grid. while it is great to have the seamless scrolling (preferably horizontal & not vertical...maybe there could be an option for that as well) I like things to line up too.

I could definitely make that an option for my home-replacement. I just want to know what people would want out of a home replacement so that I can model mine around the general consensus of what everybody wants. Oh, and why does everybody want vertical scrolling? Because its different. Sure Windows phone 7 has it. But it does it in its own way. Android is know for its open-ness and widgets. The wonder of Android is that anyone can do anything with Android, and its free.

At first I want to say that the idea of a seamless lauchner is brilliant.
I had that idea by myself but I have no experience in programming.
I think I would prefer somewalls original concept with icons that fit into a grid and horizontal scrolling. To me it seems to be more useful on portrait format screens compared to vertical scrolling.
But anyway, I hope the best for you guys.

I think vertically scrolling widgets will work buggy this way. Unless there would be some kind of listener that stops the horizontal scrolling when interacting with a vertically scrolling widget.
Else both ways of scrolling will interfere.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

I like the idea, it's something that I would love to have on my phone! Just one suggestion.. I would like to see both horizontal and vertical scrolling, if it could be developed. As in, the user decides what kind of scrolling he wants, either vertical, horizontal.. or may be both? I don't if it's possible or not, I have no "serious" coding experience, as you may call it since am just in school!

New to CM7 Nook... questions

Got things working well and quite impressed with with NC and CM7 nightly with D's OC kernel. A few things ellude me?
1. Can someone please detail how to boot into CWM. I press and hold power + n for 8 seconds, and then release n, then release power. Nothing. What should I be seeing?
2. Long time Launcher pro user on my Epic. Does it work well on nc? Seems like icons are small and I need to add more rows and columns. Do must people run stock res or alter it somehow to make more readable?
3. Soft buttons seem a little small. What's the best app to make usable soft keys.
4. Maybe some of these display issues are better with a theme of some sort? Might try one... what's ur fav? Don't really care about fancy...just something that makes navigating through android more forgiving.
5. Playing around with D's new volume app. Seems like that will become standard equipment. Any other "must have" apps/tweaks?
6. Phone/sms... how usable is this thing for making calls/sms? What apps/accounts work best?
7. Have about an inch and half row of pixels that seem weird. Most noticable while sliding up the notification bar...thought it was a scratch at first...kinda greenish looking and thin. Is that common? I could go back to stock and get replacement... bought a week ago. Barely noticeable...
Thanks.... just trying to get this thing set up sweet for my son. Might need to go get one for myself!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App

akenis said:
Got things working well and quite impressed with with NC and CM7 nightly with D's OC kernel. A few things ellude me?
1. Can someone please detail how to boot into CWM. I press and hold power + n for 8 seconds, and then release n, then release power. Nothing. What should I be seeing? If you have it flashed to eMMC from Rom Manager, then you should boot while holding both buttons, after a couple seconds, then release power only and continue holding n till you see CWM appear.
2. Long time Launcher pro user on my Epic. Does it work well on nc? Seems like icons are small and I need to add more rows and columns. Do must people run stock res or alter it somehow to make more readable? I've used it everyday since I have had my NC. It is very quick and I have had no issues with it. Customize to your hearts content.
3. Soft buttons seem a little small. What's the best app to make usable soft keys. The CM7 tablet tweaks from mad murdoc included in the ROM are very very usable. You can change the dpi from stock 161 to anything above, instantly making everything larger.
4. Maybe some of these display issues are better with a theme of some sort? Might try one... what's ur fav? Don't really care about fancy...just something that makes navigating through android more forgiving. I like and am currently using Purple Punch by Upward Spiral. List of his themes here. These are also available to install straight from the Market.
5. Playing around with D's new volume app. Seems like that will become standard equipment. Any other "must have" apps/tweaks? I always choose to install Cachemate for Root Users and Adfree and adbWireless pretty much instantly on any new rooted android device. CPUspy is also a nice one in that it lets you see if your Nook is actually sleeping or not.
6. Phone/sms... how usable is this thing for making calls/sms? What apps/accounts work best? Calling is unheard of I believe. Texting would be easy with Google Voice or another "textfree" type application
7. Have about an inch and half row of pixels that seem weird. Most noticable while sliding up the notification bar...thought it was a scratch at first...kinda greenish looking and thin. Is that common? I could go back to stock and get replacement... bought a week ago. Barely noticeable... It was an issue of just a line of missing pixels in the Notification Tab. Nothing to be worried about. It is not there in newer nightlies.
Thanks.... just trying to get this thing set up sweet for my son. Might need to go get one for myself!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Answers in bold, hope it helps. Other forum members will probably add their say in.

Two things I will add:
1. I use Launcher Pro daily on my Nook Color. I think its almost a must with its ability to set so many icons in a row (in the paid-for version).
2. The issue with everything being small is due to our screens having a low natural DPI (160). A tablet like a Galaxy Tab is set on a much higher DPI (220+) for older eyes. Since your son is using it and not you, let him try it out with a low DPI before you mess with it. If you still want to increase it, use the LCD density program from the market.

poofyhairguy said:
Two things I will add:
1. I use Launcher Pro daily on my Nook Color. I think its almost a must with its ability to set so many icons in a row (in the paid-for version).
2. The issue with everything being small is due to our screens having a low natural DPI (160). A tablet like a Galaxy Tab is set on a much higher DPI (220+) for older eyes. Since your son is using it and not you, let him try it out with a low DPI before you mess with it. If you still want to increase it, use the LCD density program from the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks..
1. I played with ADW for a bit, but went back to L Pro. I had to use my paid version to make some widgets fill all the rows and columns I made. It really is versatile...
2. Thanks, I'll def look for LCD density in market and give it a try.

Thanks for the answers above.
1. Yeah all is on eMMC.. I've scene the boot sequence described so many different ways. Will try yours!
3. Will try the DPI adjustment
4. Will check out Purple Punch theme. Looks Cool. Learned about Theme Switcher app that came with CM7, and tried the Honeycomb look.
5. What is Cachemate? Love cpu spy, and my nc is sleeping like a baby!
6. Can't seem to get very far with GV texting. In the setup It seems to be looking for a phone?
7. Updated the nightly and the row of pixels is still there. I can still see it besides the notification tab. Think I'm going to try going to stock and see if I notice it.
Thanks again!

akenis said:
Thanks for the answers above.
1. Yeah all is on eMMC.. I've scene the boot sequence described so many different ways. Will try yours!
3. Will try the DPI adjustment
4. Will check out Purple Punch theme. Looks Cool. Learned about Theme Switcher app that came with CM7, and tried the Honeycomb look.
5. What is Cachemate? Love cpu spy, and my nc is sleeping like a baby!
6. Can't seem to get very far with GV texting. In the setup It seems to be looking for a phone?
7. Updated the nightly and the row of pixels is still there. I can still see it besides the notification tab. Think I'm going to try going to stock and see if I notice it.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The pixels is next to the notification tab? You should take a picture of that. Could be a hardware problem.

Nburnes said:
The pixels is next to the notification tab? You should take a picture of that. Could be a hardware problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a horizontal line about 2/3 of the way up the display, starting about 1/3 of the way from left side. Very thin, and about 3 inches long. Slightly greenish tint and brighter toward the left. Most noticable on black background (like when sliding upt the notification bar). It's even noticable from CWM (when I'm able to boot into it!)
btw the key combination u mentioned above boots into uboot or something I know nothing about!

akenis said:
It's a horizontal line about 2/3 of the way up the display, starting about 1/3 of the way from left side. Very thin, and about 3 inches long. Slightly greenish tint and brighter toward the left. Most noticable on black background (like when sliding upt the notification bar). It's even noticable from CWM (when I'm able to boot into it!)
btw the key combination u mentioned above boots into uboot or something I know nothing about!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely sounds like a hardware issue, as in it could be a line of hot/stuck pixels. I would restore to stock and see if it is still there, if it is, take it into a B&N store.
And yes, the uboot is/was a new edition to the nightlies not to long ago. It makes dual boot's and booting to recovery really easy. To boot into recovery make sure to select
Boot Device: eMMC
Boot Mode: Recovery
Boot now
There is just a simple key press to boot right into recovery, but I can't say I know it exactly.

Setting Wallpapers in Honeycomb -An easier, better way

So I was frustrated with how I could never put my own pictures as wallpapers without them looking all jacked up. I wanted to have a static wallpaper that utilized the 1280x800 resolution. I have found the answer...
While it is in the form of a Live Wallpaper app, it is NOT Multipicture LWP. I tried it and it was too laggy for my taste, I needed something that kept it smooth when transitioning between screens.
So the miracle app is...AndWobble2. It is basically a novelty app in that you make women's breasts jiggle around when you move your phone or switch screens (don't ask me how I found it). However, you don't need to add a "jiggly point". You can add image of your own choosing, ex: any 1280x800 picture, and set as wallpaper...and voila, there you have it. A non-cropping, non-deforming way of setting an actual, honest to god 1280x800 wallpaper.
Be sure you download AndWobble2, and Andwobble2 Livewallpaper. You will need both apps from Market.
Thanks!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: So a bit more searching brought me to an even easier app to use. It is called Simple Image Wallpaper Free. Does the exact same thing, with less clutter and not as many steps.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...ps.simpleimagewallpaper&feature=search_result

starkiller86 said:
So I was frustrated with how I could never put my own pictures as wallpapers without them looking all jacked up. I wanted to have a static wallpaper that utilized the 1280x800 resolution. I have found the answer...
While it is in the form of a Live Wallpaper app, it is NOT Multipicture LWP. I tried it and it was too laggy for my taste, I needed something that kept it smooth when transitioning between screens.
So the miracle app is...AndWobble2. It is basically a novelty app in that you make women's breasts jiggle around when you move your phone or switch screens (don't ask me how I found it). However, you don't need to add a "jiggly point". You can add image of your own choosing, ex: any 1280x800 picture, and set as wallpaper...and voila, there you have it. A non-cropping, non-deforming way of setting an actual, honest to god 1280x800 wallpaper.
Be sure you download AndWobble2, and Andwobble2 Livewallpaper. You will need both apps from Market.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will have to check it out! Thanks. Was looking for a way to set my old GF's wallpaper so they would "wiggle" (hope it doesn't "knock me out")
Will look at it though. Thanks!

Quick office has quickpic app which does a simple job, too. It's even added to the menu when you long press your desktop.

[Q] Bored of the "On Screen Buttons" Nexus 7

Hey guys,
I've had my Nexus for just over a month now and apart from a few minor issues I'm really enjoying my experience with my Nexus.
BUT: One thing that really p*sses me off is the total waste of screen real estate being the "on screen buttons". I can sort of understand the device having as few as possible buttons is pretty cool but when it starts invading your screen size that is NOT COOL.
I have a few questions for google: Why oh why did you make the background for the navigation buttons black?? Why not transparent? Or transparent with a blur effect? Personally I would prefer just transparent with faint white back, home and app switcher buttons. It would make more of the screen available to see.
If I were to root my device, are these things that i could schange in the System or Framework RES folders? Or would it be much more complicated than that (i.e. changing color hex's in .xml files?)?

Search for how to enable the tablet UI. I had to enlarge the font to make things a bit more comfortable for me, but I really do like the true tablet UI.
sikodemon said:
Hey guys,
I've had my Nexus for just over a month now and apart from a few minor issues I'm really enjoying my experience with my Nexus.
BUT: One thing that really p*sses me off is the total waste of screen real estate being the "on screen buttons". I can sort of understand the device having as few as possible buttons is pretty cool but when it starts invading your screen size that is NOT COOL.
I have a few questions for google: Why oh why did you make the background for the navigation buttons black?? Why not transparent? Or transparent with a blur effect? Personally I would prefer just transparent with faint white back, home and app switcher buttons. It would make more of the screen available to see.
If I were to root my device, are these things that i could schange in the System or Framework RES folders? Or would it be much more complicated than that (i.e. changing color hex's in .xml files?)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

You can make it smaller.
Here's a guide.http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1844878
Beamed from my Grouper

Hmm, nearly, but I still don't understand why the navbar background color has to be black, I just really don't get what the advantage is. It would just make so much more sense if it were see through.

sikodemon said:
Hmm, nearly, but I still don't understand why the navbar background color has to be black, I just really don't get what the advantage is. It would just make so much more sense if it were see through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it was carried over from the gnex.
It's black on the gnex to take advantage of the AMOLED screen.
Beamed from Maguro

Hi
sikodemon said:
Hmm, nearly, but I still don't understand why the navbar background color has to be black, I just really don't get what the advantage is. It would just make so much more sense if it were see through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Presumably it is because it is dead space. Applications don't/can't expand into that area as it is protected. For example if you had an application open to the maximum behind translucent soft buttons, and that application required you to press something towards its bottom edge, you can't as it is now behind the menu buttons.
Ideally the buttons would be below the display and printed onto the touch screen as they are with my HTC One X, presumably they are not for either cost reasons or flexibility of the design.
Regards
Phil

sikodemon said:
Hmm, nearly, but I still don't understand why the navbar background color has to be black, I just really don't get what the advantage is. It would just make so much more sense if it were see through.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd guess that it doesn't make sense for it to be transparent because there is nothing under the navbar. Its a part of the screen that is separate from the application, if you allowed the navbar to be imposed over the application and transparent then the bottom part of the screen would be unusable in the application because touching it would activate the navbar buttons rather than the applications.
That said on the launcher it would be easy to just extend the wallpaper over the navbar and make it transparent and in apps you could colour the navbar with the average colour of the application background etc, though of course Apple has a patent waiting for that http://www.phonearena.com/news/Appl...xed-video_id34472?ratelimit=-10&sort=threaded

Not true because you can hide the nav bar on certain roms and that space it was using up is definitely usable. Hey OP I forgot what it's called but there's a launcher somewhere based on nothing but gestures so you don't even need a nav bar and you can use that extra screen space you seem to desperately need.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

sikodemon said:
Hey guys,
I've had my Nexus for just over a month now and apart from a few minor issues I'm really enjoying my experience with my Nexus.
BUT: One thing that really p*sses me off is the total waste of screen real estate being the "on screen buttons". I can sort of understand the device having as few as possible buttons is pretty cool but when it starts invading your screen size that is NOT COOL.
I have a few questions for google: Why oh why did you make the background for the navigation buttons black?? Why not transparent? Or transparent with a blur effect? Personally I would prefer just transparent with faint white back, home and app switcher buttons. It would make more of the screen available to see.
If I were to root my device, are these things that i could schange in the System or Framework RES folders? Or would it be much more complicated than that (i.e. changing color hex's in .xml files?)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agreed with you. Is there anyone that can port Motorola's Transparent Software Buttons, so it will be better?

slick_rick said:
Not true because you can hide the nav bar on certain roms and that space it was using up is definitely usable. Hey OP I forgot what it's called but there's a launcher somewhere based on nothing but gestures so you don't even need a nav bar and you can use that extra screen space you seem to desperately need.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're both right and wrong. The launcher you're thinking of is probably the PIE launcher available on many custom ROMs, as well as its app equivalent (which I believe is called LMT). But your reasoning as far as hiding the navbar is incorrect. If you hide the navbar on a ROM (or even the way it's done in many games and the YouTube app), the navbar disappears, i.e. it's no longer protecting the screen space that it's not using. Making it transparent would do no such thing, and even if you forced an app to use the space beneath the navbar, you'd wind up with three floating navigation items that would probably conflict with an app's bottom navigation.
Pegasus195 said:
I agreed with you. Is there anyone that can port Motorola's Transparent Software Buttons, so it will be better?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to look into custom ROMs, some will allow you to mess around with your navbar icons/actions (the main one I like is the replace Recent Apps with a Last App switcher). Paranoid Android also allows you to change the color (and I believe that includes alpha transparency), including a "chameleon"-style bar that changes color based on the active app's predominant scheme.
Also, to respond to something from earlier: black is better because as a static color, it uses less resources to draw and has the benefit of being power-efficient on AMOLED screens. In addition, while it might look neat, it's pretty well accepted in UI/UX lore that you should keep navigational elements as clearly and visually distinct as possible to make them easier to hit. Shoving white/grey buttons on top of an active-blurred background can create quite a headache.
There's a great example of this in the screenshots of Apple's control center for iOS 7. For some backgrounds, the control center is clearly visible despite the background bleeding through, but on others, you basically can't read the buttons because the blur is too distracting.