My wife has a "dumb" phone, but honestly as far as usability it's pretty great, and this is a feature I'd love to see on android phones:
Is it possible for a Launcher/Home app to have 2 remembered configurations for widgets, and for it to remember them and toggle between them by autosensing it's position?
So Example:
Is it possible that in portrait mode, your phone shows a dialer widget on your homescreen. When you turn the phone to landscape mode, the homescreen shows an SMS widget INSTEAD of the dialer widget. When you turn the phone back to portrait, the widget gets switched back to the dialer widget?
I think that as far as usability, that'd be awesome!
Never saw anything like that on Android.
But yes, I assume that is possible. I guess Apps have access to accelerometer and it wouldn't even need root.
Thanks!
I think it'd be awesome. As great and versatile as our phones are, let's be honest; they're phones. I think it'd be great if all you had to do was unlock your phone, and voila: you're greeted with a dialer widget (which already exist BTW). Don't need to make a phone call? No problem, but turn the phone into landscape mode (b/c let's be honest, most of us probably send SMS in landscape mode) and AGAIN Voila! there's a texting widget instead of the dialer widget (which I think also exist). The only thing to implement would be the "autosensing". If a Launcher like LPP or GO Launcher would implement something like that... it'd be money!
You could implement it on the widget itself so it works on any launcher.
Yes, it's certainly possible.
You'd have to save 2 sets of widgets and then code a listener to check whether the phone's in portrait or landscape and load the correct one.
Saying that, it's beyond my coding abilities, but i'm sure someone could do it
It is not only possible, but, from what I can tell, quite easy
all you would need to do is set up an OrientationEventListener
and then create a OnOrientationChanged method that would well.. change what is displayed
I'm not sure if it would be possible for do without using a different launcher but I'm sure it could be incorporated into something like launcherpro or adw launcher.
I might look into creating a widget that switches from phone to sms
that would be pretty cool
I'll let you know if I get anywhere with it
+1
Good idea! I hope someone could do it. That would be awesome.
Tasker is the answer!
I have Tasker and have done an almost identical thing. Create a Task which senses the orientation is portrait mode to change a shortcut on the homescreen to link to the phone dialler app. Have another task which changes the shortcut to the sms app if its in landscape mode.
Should be relatively simple.
Tasker is about £3 so a little more than most apps but is so configurable should pay for itself as it can replace a lot of other apps I have used.
Related
I've got the Legend with Sense. I'm just not quite sure how much Sense includes, which bits are Sense and which are standard android..
I know the HTC widgets are Sense, but the only ones I use are the clock, calender and footprints (though I could do without the last 2)
Is the contact linking system where details from facebook etc are taken and merged with phone contacts part of Sense?
Is the smart dialer where you can put in a number or search for name at the same time Sense?
Basically, if I switched over to an alternative home app, what exactly would I lose?
I like the Sense bar down the bottom which has app tray button, phone and the +, it looks real smooth and borders nicely with the notification bar, looks better than the screen abruptly ending at the bottom imo. Are there non-sense clones/alternatives to this?
Cheers
If you keep the Sense ROM and use an alternative launcher you keep the same phone and contacts apps. But you lose the app tray and the ability to use the HTC widgets, they only work with Rosie as the launcher.
I see thanks. And I can still use all the HTC Apps e.g. Photos and Music?
Does anyone know of a similar app or something to replace the bar thing at the bottom of Sense, with app tray, phone and + button?
Try launcher pro or adw launcher. Both offer much more and better looking functionality than the sense launcher
le3ky said:
Try launcher pro or adw launcher. Both offer much more and better looking functionality than the sense launcher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been tempted, but the main things I'm worried about losing from Sense is the bar down the bottom with the easy phone button, and the pretty weather animations that play fullscreen from the weather/clock widget after unlocking the phone.
I think that being a phone, the 'phone' part of it deserves the more integrated and dedicated phone button like that... rather than it just being like any another app
Snowtoad23 said:
I've been tempted, but the main things I'm worried about losing from Sense is the bar down the bottom with the easy phone button, and the pretty weather animations that play fullscreen from the weather/clock widget after unlocking the phone.
I think that being a phone, the 'phone' part of it deserves the more integrated and dedicated phone button like that... rather than it just being like any another app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The weather animations on the home screen are part of the Weather-Clock widget. Switching to an alternative home will make you lose the ability to use Sense widgets, so you will lose that.
LauncherPro and ADW.Launcher allow you to customize shortcuts you have next to the app button so the phone button is not a problem.
JAguirre1231 said:
The weather animations on the home screen are part of the Weather-Clock widget. Switching to an alternative home will make you lose the ability to use Sense widgets, so you will lose that.
LauncherPro and ADW.Launcher allow you to customize shortcuts you have next to the app button so the phone button is not a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah well there are clones of the Sense clock/weather widget but they don't seem to do the nice weather effects.
And yeah I could have the phone button down next to the app button, but it will still just be like an app icon, not a dedicated and integrated natural looking bar or something
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.
Hey mates,
i have this friend (he's the typical iDork) who keeps annoying me with comments about how ugly he finds my homescreens...
i used to have only one scene (The Sense HD remix scene in minimal grey).
now i'd like to install launcher pro and make it look awesome, custom icons, everything designed as minimal as it gets.
only problem, every time i hit "home" my beloved desire asks me what homescreen it should return to. i know i can make it remember one of the two, but if i want to change then, i'd have to work through the settings and options...
so, here's my request:
a SIMPLE, SEXY WIDGET, that can instantly change the launcher assigned to the home button. i think it's not much work to do, if the API allows apps to change settings (not sure about that).
I'm a C++ programmer with zero experience in java, so i can't do it myself.
finally, i'd like to know how i can mod the launcher pro in the ways seen around on this forum (e.g. Mnml Icons as buttons etc.)
Thanks for your time,
Max
PS: does anyone know a widget for email/sms with a minimal style, such as Cal Widget with transparent background.
Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > LauncherPro > Clear Defaults.
Do you need a widget for that? ..
this isn't my point
i want to be able to switch between two launchers FAST, so i have, let's say a private and a business launcher, one designed for usability, and the other for style.
i don't want to reassign the home button everytime i want to switch, thats why i wnat a widget, or a shortcut, which i just touch once.
but since it seems like i'm the only person here switching frequently between launchers, i guess i'll have to code something myself.
anyway, thx for your time.
Oh.
Not a bad idea.
Good luck.
maxupp said:
Hey mates,
i have this friend (he's the typical iDork) who keeps annoying me with comments about how ugly he finds my homescreens...
i used to have only one scene (The Sense HD remix scene in minimal grey).
now i'd like to install launcher pro and make it look awesome, custom icons, everything designed as minimal as it gets.
only problem, every time i hit "home" my beloved desire asks me what homescreen it should return to. i know i can make it remember one of the two, but if i want to change then, i'd have to work through the settings and options...
so, here's my request:
a SIMPLE, SEXY WIDGET, that can instantly change the launcher assigned to the home button. i think it's not much work to do, if the API allows apps to change settings (not sure about that).
I'm a C++ programmer with zero experience in java, so i can't do it myself.
finally, i'd like to know how i can mod the launcher pro in the ways seen around on this forum (e.g. Mnml Icons as buttons etc.)
Thanks for your time,
Max
PS: does anyone know a widget for email/sms with a minimal style, such as Cal Widget with transparent background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an app on the market that can do that.
TheRedDrake said:
There is an app on the market that can do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HomeSwitcher.
Works from 1.5 - 2.1, I think.
Certainly doesn't support 2.2
zHk3R said:
HomeSwitcher.
Works from 1.5 - 2.1, I think.
Certainly doesn't support 2.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No,not home switcher. It was called easy switcher or something like that, can't say for sure. It supported widgets for quick switching also. I found several with similar function Launcher switcher/Home manager/, don't know if this one has widgets.
thanks mates,
homeswitcher does indeed not support android 2.2.
anyway, i found "Launcher Switcher" BUT:
- doesn't provide a widget
- sends me to the android settings screen, when i want to re-bind the home button
so, i stiiiiiiiiill haven't fouuuuuuuuund, what i'm looking foooooor....
Cleardefaulthome
It takes you straight to the current launcher info page where you press clear defaults, then press home and select the one you want. Its the best option atm.
Sent from my HTC Desire
On of the most frequent things I is turn on my phone, unlock it, view a text and then dismiss the notification. Is there a way to make this process shorter? I want to be able to view my text on the start screen and if i choose to, dismiss it? I still want a lock screen, but i want to be able to view and dismiss my notifications from there as well. I have heard of a few apps where you can see the text on the lock screen, but none do it well or show the text with/on the lock screen. I have cyanogen mod and use lockscreen gestures to go immediately to text, but wish i could just swipe the notification away with on less step. If its not possible, this is a feature i feel would be a great addition to cyanogenmod.
I'd like to know about any solutions as well.
I'm thinking something akin to Lock Screen Info on iPhone, or the new iOS5 lockscreen.
I'm currently using WidgetLocker.
sarshadd said:
I'd like to know about any solutions as well.
I'm thinking something akin to Lock Screen Info on iPhone, or the new iOS5 lockscreen.
I'm currently using WidgetLocker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you're using widget locker you could use Simple SMS widget and put that on your homescreen.
otherwise... maybe try miui?
I really like stock android.
Is there anything that can handle most, if not all notifications?
Not sure if I understand what exactly you want. If you use widget locker, leave the notification bar active so you can pull down and clear all notifications that way.
If you actually want to read the text just get a messaging widget such as colorize widgets or Simple SMS Widget, or Messaging Widgets and throw it on widget locker.
You have to check out the new adw ex which is optimized for tablets. It is simply awesome especially the main dock
Screenshots below ...
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk
works great.
Can the bar being themed easily ?
DannyBiker said:
Can the bar being themed easily ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it can.
Cool ...i run into my market !
Liking it...mostly.
Adds a new dimension to wallpaper wonkiness, unfortunately.
My wallpaper (via wizardrii) is not properly centered in landscape mode. Have not fiddled with it yet.
Anyone have any tips?
I will definitely be purchasing this for my girlfriend's 10.1.. thanks for the tip, it looks great!
Am loving it just make sure if your rubbish bin bar is located at the bottom you enable auto scaling of desktop when bin bar is used, otherwise you won't be able to add icons to the docking bar !
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Mine works well for an hour or so, then takes an age for an app to return to the launcher. Only way to fix is to reboot the tab. Anyone else seen this?
Is there a light or trial version that I can try for free? I can't find one in the market.
TabGuy said:
Is there a light or trial version that I can try for free? I can't find one in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy it from android market and you will have 15 mts to refund. I know not much you can do in 15 mts, but something better than nothing.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App
Pottsy said:
Mine works well for an hour or so, then takes an age for an app to return to the launcher. Only way to fix is to reboot the tab. Anyone else seen this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got the same problem, when i exits some app the screen goes black and nothing happens for a long time and then the desktop appears.
/qsec
Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk
Wallpapers aren't rendered properly, and my dock bar just disappeared on mine. Still has a ways to go on tablets.
Dock bar going away is a common "problem" with ADW. Turn off hidden dockbar in the settings, turn off gestures.
I went ahead and set mine up without a dockbar, and with just the ADW settings menu item in the top right. Removed the trash bin as well (long-press then Remove from the desktop works just fine).
"Endless" page scrolling, page-turn animation of Tilt, 350 turn speed, 15 desktop bounce, and a theme that has a transparent top menu bar. Desktop has 9x7 columns/rows, icons scaled to 95%, density hack off. App drawer is 6x6, in 4D vertical scroll.
Basically, it looks pretty much like Honeycomb at a glance, but without the one-inch "tap space" wasted on the left and right screen edges. It's much faster and smoother. About the only performance issue I've had is that it doesn't handle "card" widgets like YouTube, Market or News360 as smoothly as stock, when you go to "fling" a card away.
Maybe I'm just getting old and simple, but I don't really see the point of having the excessive customization of ADW on a Honeycomb tab. I have my homescreen setup with two widgets and about 12 regular icons, then the next screen over has some lesser used stuff. If I need any other apps I just open the app drawer and easily locate them. I mean, it's neat to make things whiz-bang and all, but from a usability perspective there's already so much overkill built in to Honeycomb that ADW doesn't seem worth the time.
On my phone, ADW is great, however. Now get off my lawn.
burhanistan said:
Maybe I'm just getting old and simple, but I don't really see the point of having the excessive customization of ADW on a Honeycomb tab. I have my homescreen setup with two widgets and about 12 regular icons, then the next screen over has some lesser used stuff. If I need any other apps I just open the app drawer and easily locate them. I mean, it's neat to make things whiz-bang and all, but from a usability perspective there's already so much overkill built in to Honeycomb that ADW doesn't seem worth the time.
On my phone, ADW is great, however. Now get off my lawn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have to use the power of ADW, it's just there waiting to be harnessed if you want it.
In fact, you can use ADW to simplify it, for example you can delete unused home screens, unlike stock Honeycomb. Doing things like adding widgets or changing wallpapers is also cleaner and quicker than the flashy Honeycomb interface. It's simpler.
I'm a card carrying member of the Curmudgeon's Club of Canada, by the way.
burhanistan said:
Maybe I'm just getting old and simple, but I don't really see the point of having the excessive customization of ADW on a Honeycomb tab. I have my homescreen setup with two widgets and about 12 regular icons, then the next screen over has some lesser used stuff. If I need any other apps I just open the app drawer and easily locate them. I mean, it's neat to make things whiz-bang and all, but from a usability perspective there's already so much overkill built in to Honeycomb that ADW doesn't seem worth the time.
On my phone, ADW is great, however. Now get off my lawn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So... You are saying that you need adw
I like simple too, and adw help me doing that.
I mean, I do not need the 3d cubic scrolling effects, neither than the futuristic widget selection screen, or the quick search bar at the top.
I didn't choose to display the dock too in adw.
And it is so fast, close to the ipad smoothness.
Croak said:
Dock bar going away is a common "problem" with ADW. Turn off hidden dockbar in the settings, turn off gestures.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not a problem but a feature hehe. If you slide one the dock, it disappear. I you slide again it appears. I think you can disable somewhere that movement.
ADW still sucks on the Tab..not only are the card/live widgets like Youtube slow to flick like someone said, but the worst thing is that for certain widget, like the Digital Clock stock Tab one...it looks fine when using the Tab landscape at first, then every single time I rotate to portrait view, the widget re-draws for new orientation and both left and right sides of the widget are not cut off. This does not adjust/fix itself instantly like stock launcher does and the only way to really fix it is to re-add widget or sometimes turn screen off and on.
I like the smoothness of the launcher/drawer but I aint dealing with this **** where a widget gets screwed up every single time....too annoying to deal with. Why is this such a hard thing to get right?? Is there a fix for this or no? I am not resizing the widget to begin with btw...just adding it as normal size. The homescreen size I use is 8 columns and 7 rows btw, just like stock.
Oh and why in the app drawer, the the top still unmatching/not dimmed like the rest of the drawer below it? Looks so stupid. They should dim it too and still keep the buttons in the top right corner, ughh.
EDIT: Here, compare landscape to portrait when flipped. Not only does that Digital Clock widget get cut off, but also look at the Wireless Widget..it looks ridiculous now.
EDIT2: I unchecked the ADW option for resizing widgets to fit blah blah but the same thing still happens where the Clock widget, for example, gets cut off after going vertical.. although the Wifi Widget looks a little less ridiculous now when turning. Anyone know about the widget issue though??
TabGuy said:
Is there a light or trial version that I can try for free? I can't find one in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 15 minute refund policy really sucks, especially for apps like ADW EX where you really need some time to get a feel for how you like it and check out all the customizations. To get around it you can always buy it, pull the apk from /data/apps (requires root), refund it, and re-install the program using the pulled apk file. This way you can take your time to play around with the app before deciding if you want to keep it. If you do go ahead and re-buy it from market. If you decide not to buy it do the honest thing and uninstall the program.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App