Database Users

(Q) DPI settings throwing apps scalling out

Recently changed my dpi to 200 and unticked compatability in spare tools. Question is the apps that dont automatically scale is there a way to manually make them fit the screen? Cant live without my full screen papertoss but dont want to go back to the ugly large 240 dpi

I'd bump this because I can't find the answer anywhere, maybe my search terms suck.

I noticed the same annoying thing.
BUMP, for an answer...
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App

Im confused ... I use 200 DPI and all my apps do rescale perfectly full screen after spare parts compatibility un-check and a reboot. Even paper toss... Only thing i noticed with papertoss was that I had to uninstall it and download it again from the market...

bigblanko09 said:
Im confused ... I use 200 DPI and all my apps do rescale perfectly full screen after spare parts compatibility un-check and a reboot. Even paper toss... Only thing i noticed with papertoss was that I had to uninstall it and download it again from the market...
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Click to collapse
Some apps are simply developed with 240 dpi in mind. Typically, it appears that they use Android APIs to draw bitmaps unscaled. Even though the Spare Parts setting allows them to "see" the higher logical resolution, the bitmaps are not scaled correctly.
Most of these apps can still be used (or played). There's not much to do except making the app developers aware of this problem.
Here are some apps with issues:
- Abduction
- GOTO lock screen
- Hyperactive Ninja
- Hello Kids
- Tower Bloxx
- Mini Shot Basketball

LCD Density is the best thing ever, but Samsung apps suck. How can we fix this?

LCD Density is the single best thing i've changed on my phone. Cannot live without it. Default is 240 and I have mine set to 200.
All apps work great except for the native Samsung apps. It looks like all the native Samsung developed apps are hard coded in terms of dimensions, while everything else scales nicely.
Is there a work around to make Samsung native apps play nicely?

This works with some apps but not all.. but it is worth a shot.
DL Spare Parts from the market
Turn off Compatibility mode. That got a few things to resize themselves appropriately for me.

you talking about the DPI setting? I run at 184. Be sure to do something divisible by 8 if you want your icons to resize right.

LCD Density !

I'm not entirely sure if someone has already said this or if anyone knows how to do it, but I have and its really useful !
Basically you can drop the Density of the screen and give it a larger appearance. Best way to do this in my opinion, is to grab yourself a copy of Droid Explorer, browse into the system folder in your root, save a copy of Build.prop to the desktop, open it with notepad, find LCD DENSITY=240 or whatever it is and change the value to 180, replace the build.prop in Droid explorer with the one from your desktop and reboot your device
If you don't like it you can always go back in and change it back ^^

Sorry for the noobish question. But I am not quite sure I understand what this does. Could you explain just a wee bit? Even better if you could post before and after screenshots.
Cheers....

Uhm, Nothing new I'm afraid. There are already some apps in the market that let you do just this.
xpstyle36 said:
I'm not entirely sure if someone has already said this or if anyone knows how to do it, but I have and its really useful !
Basically you can drop the Density of the screen and give it a larger appearance. Best way to do this in my opinion, is to grab yourself a copy of Droid Explorer, browse into the system folder in your root, save a copy of Build.prop to the desktop, open it with notepad, find LCD DENSITY=240 or whatever it is and change the value to 180, replace the build.prop in Droid explorer with the one from your desktop and reboot your device
If you don't like it you can always go back in and change it back ^^
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Click to collapse
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Its Changing the resolution of the screen so that everything is slightly bigger (or smaller) by editing the value.
Thank you for the info!
EDIT - Sorry I posted this too late! A mod can remove it if you want...

Oooooooh. Got it.
But IMHO I dont see why I (or anyone else for that matter) would personally want to do something like that. Unless, it just for kicks.

It's not changing the resolution. It's changing the dpi settings.
Why is this in the dev forum?

Rawat said:
Why is this in the dev forum?
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Click to collapse
For the same reason Samsung went with Rfs : unknown

There is an app on the market. LCDDensity it is.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Is this still being applied after restarting your phone?

The point of it is to have a larger viewing area, which is great for things like viewing webpages or documents but it can break games and certain designed UI's (like touchwiz)
Having ADW + Density change looks good though.

Pff. Changing this value kills too much apps (like LauncherPro, Simi Clock and others).
So, changing this value renders most of your apps unusable.
Not working for me anyhow.
ps. I do not like the changed settings either, the screen feels like having a blur on it. (tried 100 and 180 as values).

jbrugger said:
Pff. Changing this value kills too much apps (like LauncherPro, Simi Clock and others).
So, changing this value renders most of your apps unusable.
Not working for me anyhow.
ps. I do not like the changed settings either, the screen feels like having a blur on it. (tried 100 and 180 as values).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all the feedback sorry i was un-aware that there was an app for this ^^ also if you go to the Android Market and grab "Spare Parts" and turn off Compatibility mode, 99% of apps will scale fine to the change

Seems not to be a good idea on my galaxy s. Everything resizes and loks cool except the build-in apps:agenda, calculator, dailer, mp3player cdmode. Those apps did not change resolution ;(
But still i have to admit: density of 200 looks much better than 240
Cool app, stupid samsung apps!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Apps Confusing the Note as a Full Size Tablet

Has anyone else run into this problem? Care to list such apps?
Google Music's interface is much different on the Note than it is on an S2 (at least for me). Where on the S2 artists, albums, etc are displayed in a long list of names, on the Note they are displayed in a long list of thumbnails of the artist, album, etc. This layout would make sense on a full size tablet and horizontal scrolling but it is very inefficient on the Note. Also much more taxing on the hardware (not that the Note is lacking in this department though). I would much prefer the S2's layout to quickly find an artist or scroll through the list.
Swiftkey X gives a warning when installed saying the phone version is incorrect for this device (the Note), use the tablet version. However, skipping the warning is not detrimental and the phone version works perfectly on the Note (have not tried the tablet version).
I assume this has to do with the resolution of the Note and apps confusing it as a Full Size Tablet. Anybody else seen this problem? On what apps? Workarounds?

JoyR2 said:
Has anyone else run into this problem? Care to list such apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if it's a 'problem'.
I don't necessarily like it with certain programs (some games are a bit painful to play), but I don't consider it a bug or anything.
It's a matter of detected screen resolution and how the app decides to use it. I don't see any workaround for it, unlike windows where you can use a selected resolution.
It would be nice for there to be an option to set screen resolution.
I imagine there are some people interested in the note because they want the larger size (larger icons/text/buttons/etc) but not necessarily the higher resolution. You can't always set that.
- Frank

it has full tablet resolution so it should run like that

kromosto said:
it has full tablet resolution so it should run like that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya, I know. But for some apps it really is not optimal. Just trying to get a feel for how many apps are going to encounter this "problem" (for lack of a better word).

Use spare parts to make the adjustment
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium

Plume thought that my note was a tablet. However the support team gave me a corrected version and said that it will be sorted in their next release

[Q] Phone Setup Suggestions

Everyone should be getting their phone in the next few days. I am coming from iOS so I am not 100% sure about all of androids apps and features. I have spent a lot of time in the last month learning as much as I could about switching over but I would like to get some opinions from everyone. I hope this will also help any other novice users get the most out of the note 3.
1. Are you going to use a launcher .. if so which one? why?
2. What apps will make using the note more enjoyable/easier?
3. What apps can I wow people with a demo of?
4. Any other general app recommendations?
5. What general settings should I initially use? or disable?
6. Anything I missed for a first time android user?

1) NEXT Launcher 3D
2) NEXT Launcher 3D
3) NEXT Launcher 3D's "Swing with Scroll" feature

Impuls3101 said:
Everyone should be getting their phone in the next few days. I am coming from iOS so I am not 100% sure about all of androids apps and features. I have spent a lot of time in the last month learning as much as I could about switching over but I would like to get some opinions from everyone. I hope this will also help any other novice users get the most out of the note 3.
1. Are you going to use a launcher .. if so which one? why?
2. What apps will make using the note more enjoyable/easier?
3. What apps can I wow people with a demo of?
4. Any other general app recommendations?
5. What general settings should I initially use? or disable?
6. Anything I missed for a first time android user?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome aboard! Here's the first thing you'll have to deal with: Size. The Note 3 (I have a Note 2) will seem huge and you may get buyer's remorse. Most of us do. It wears off in a couple of days, though and then you'll wonder how you dealt with such a small phone.
1. I use Apex launcher. Why do I use a launcher? Because I like to change the number of rows/columns from the standard setting. I also like to eliminate the Google search bar. And, I like using gestures to go to apps. I use swipe-up for Google Now and swipe-down for notification shade. Why do I use Apex instead of others? No particular reason but it seemed to have the most available features for a free version at the time. I have since paid for it.
2, There are a bazillion apps. But, coming from the iPhone I would first experiment with keyboard replacements. Why? Because you can and the iphone users can't. Try Swype or Swiftkey. Swiftkey is amazing at guessing what your next word will be. Most of all, get used to swiping instead of typing. Once you get good at it it's MUCH faster than typing. Then show that off to your iPhone buddies and say, "Take that!"
3. If you really want to dazzle people with your new phone find a high def YouTube video (the Vevo ones are good). Playing a beautiful video on a large screen has some really powerful WOW! factor.
4. Some apps I use a lot:
Color Note - A great note and checklist app that syncs via the cloud.
Chrome Beta
Flixter for getting movie times and watching trailers
Gas Buddy to find cheap gasoline
Amazon App store. A free app every day. You have to side load it, it's not in the Play Store.
Droid of the Day - A new app suggestion every day
Timely - One of the most beautiful alarm clock apps. It also syncs with all your devices
The usual apps: Netflix, Pandora, Watch ESPN, HBO Go, Dropbox, et al.
5. I turn off Auto display brightness. I leave my Note 2 at full brightness all the time. The battery can handle this just fine.
I leave GPS, Wifi, and NFC on all the time.
Make sure you setup Google+ to automatically upload your photos
6. Don't go too crazy downloading apps. You may find your battery suddenly draining too fast. If you don't like or use an app delete it immediately so it won't eat battery.
Good luck and have fun.

Impuls3101 said:
1. Are you going to use a launcher .. if so which one? why?
?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nova Prime because it is better than TW in every way.

Ok I will answer some of my own questions from using the device the last 10 or so hours I hope this helps someone else. Please add suggestions because I am still getting used to everything.
1. Nova launcher seems to be easier to use because it takes all ur tw settings and imports them. It makes it easy to switch between the two. I like the tw weather widget better though
2. -I still need to find a good email client that syncs the few accounts that I have together. I haven't looked into this yet.
-Equalizer is a really good app to put more bass or customize the sound of your music.
-Adblock plus is really nice to have while browsing the internet .. I always hated that I couldn't use it on the iphone.
-The adapt sound settings helped make my headphones sound a little better. I use an aux in on my car so it kind of sucks that they don't have profiles for different sources.
3. -Next Launcher is really nice to show people but I don't know if I could use it everyday and its 3x the price of other launchers.
-Real Racing 3 is a nice demo game but good old angry birds star wars 2 probably looks the best and it has a note 3 achievement
-slow mo camera is really nice but anything less than 1/2 speed and the image starts to look very grainy .. 4k really has a wow factor even on the 1080p screen.
4. Sketchbook for Galaxy is a lot of fun to draw in with the s-pen.
5. -I followed this guide for disabling some of the bloatware: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2478448
-I also disabled most of the air hover features because they are nice for demoing the device to someone but I probably won't use them. Plus I wear glasses and it doesn't seem to detect my eyes very well.
-People are reporting poor wifi and one of the settings suggested is to turn off network auto connect.. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2472779 .. I experienced the problem but reset my router and it seems fine now.. not sure if its a software glitch or what.
6. -Here is a useful guide on how to transfer your contacts : http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/transfer-iphone-contact-to-android/
-The only thing I am missing from iOS are the nice lock screen notifications. If anyone has a suggestion please let me know

Impuls3101 said:
Everyone should be getting their phone in the next few days. I am coming from iOS so I am not 100% sure about all of androids apps and features. I have spent a lot of time in the last month learning as much as I could about switching over but I would like to get some opinions from everyone. I hope this will also help any other novice users get the most out of the note 3.
1. Are you going to use a launcher .. if so which one? why?
2. What apps will make using the note more enjoyable/easier?
3. What apps can I wow people with a demo of?
4. Any other general app recommendations?
5. What general settings should I initially use? or disable?
6. Anything I missed for a first time android user?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. I have been using Nova for a while on my Galaxy Nexus, and use it on my N3 now too. It's not too bloated, allows custom number of icons per row/column, gestures, and resize all widgets. I used to use Apex, and that was really good too, but I switched a while ago to Nova because there was some feature Apex didn't have, though honestly I don't remember what now, and they may very well have added it.
2. SketchBook Mobile by Autodesk (makers of AutoCAD and Inventor, among many other engineering-oriented programs) is kind of cool, it's a sketch program that you can do a lot with, and works well with the stylus. Not the most useful app, per se, but a fun "proof of concept" if you will, and it's free. I believe there's more options than the built in equivalent, though I haven't used either a ton yet.
3. Any high def media will look awesome. Show them Netflix streaming, or as someone else said, HD Youtube, or any other HD video. Even pictures taken with the camera look great, simply because of the huge high res screen. Pictures taken with the phone probably would look even better on the screen than ones taken with another phone with a better camera but worse screen, because it's still small enough to cover up minor imperfections, but big and crisp enough to really look amazing.
4. For a music player, I like PowerAmp. It's got a really good equalizer, and a ton of settings to play with. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the interface, but it's not awful. You can also customize the widget as much as you want, in terms of colors, fonts, transparency, buttons, size, what's displayed, etc.
I also use UberSync for Facebook, which lets you use sync HD pictures from facebook as contact photos. You can also import birthdays into your calendar, if you want, and some other info from people's profiles. You can choose what resolution to use, how often to sync, and only use wi-fi if you want.
5. I turned off all of the Smart features and that kind of thing. I don't want to control my phone with my eyes or hand gestures, I want to use it with my hands or S Pen. Of course that's fully a matter of preference. Also I noticed that the setting to alert you if you walk away without putting the S Pen back in is disabled by default, so I enabled that. I still worry I'm going to lose it sometime, but that's just because I'm forgetful.

Impuls3101 said:
-Adblock plus is really nice to have while browsing the internet .. I always hated that I couldn't use it on the iphone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are you using Adblock without root??

jmorton10 said:
How are you using Adblock without root??
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Click to collapse
I'm using Firefox with the adblock plugin and its working great. Firefox now flies on this phone.:good: