Database Users

Three more sub-Homescreens on my Hero!!! YEP, count-um TEN Homescreens!

Do you want an additional 'THREE' customizable homescreens on your Hero? Well, there's an 'app' for that! HA!
First, I'm not sure if doing this has any bugs or inherent problems, and I am not responsible for any problems you may encounter doing this! BUT, I haven't experienced any so far myself.
Anyway, I stumbled onto this by using the Home Switcher app. When I saw how it launched the original Android Home app, that gave me an IDEA.
Using an application called 'Bar Control', I setup a Taskbar ICON to launch the native Android 'Home' application which, if you ask me, 'extends' the Hero with an additional three homescreens. I simply pull down the Taskbar and tap Home to launch the original Android Home app which gives me access to three more homescreens. AND, a simple tap of the Home button takes me back to HTC Sense.
So, I now have TEN (10) homescreens!!!!! These additional native Android homescreens are where I put some Android widgets (non HTC Sense widgets of course). And get this, the two Sprint widgets, NFL Mobile Live and Sprint TV, are available too! The Hero uses the same Wallpaper for both HTC Sense and Home, but it unlocks the native Android wallpaper gallery too.
Steps I did:
1. Downloaded Bar Control from the Market.
2. Launched Bar Control and waited for it to scan all the programs.
3. Scrolled down to the app called, 'Home' and selected it.
4. Selected an ICON of choice. (I used the same home ICON)
5. Pulled down my Notification Bar, tapped 'Home, and WALLA!
Simply hit the Home button to return to HTC Sense.
Note: To get rid of this Home ICON in the Notification Bar, simply perform the first three steps above again which will remove it.
OK, now can anyone tell me of a simple shortcut app that can be set to launch the native Android Home app without having to go through the Taskbar via the Bar Control app in my example above?
So, I believe this is the GREATEST HERO HACK so far!

When two unused screens just aren't enough lol, nice find.

Not really an hack if you ask me... why don't you install a few extra homescreen replacement apps (like openhome) so you'll even have more homescreens

this is not a hack at all. installing apps and using them as intended is as far away from a hack as could be. please change the title, this is so lame...
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?

kendong2 said:
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to know this as well, I sort of wonder why htc didn't design it like that.

DaWeav said:
5. Pulled down my Notification Bar, tapped 'Home, and WALLA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[PEDANTRY-MODE]
It's "Voila" not "Walla"!
[/PEDANTRY-MODE]
Sorry, couldn't resist - to me, it's like fingernails on a black board!
Regards,
Dave

lol, the same happens when you install any theme app such as open home, dxtop, etc...
What happens is, the default for the home button is cleared of it's default (HTC Sense) giving you the option which home screen you want to fire up after holding down the home button.
You could probably just clear the default yourself in App settings, limiting the need for another app all together.

Downloading a home screen app equals hacking your phone?

give him a Break it was his first post.He was over zealous on his find..LOL

well atleast he let us know about his find.sum peeps probably wouldnt had even shared..thx DaWeav

Yup, just to elaborate on what N0J mentioned:
menu/settings/applications/manage applications/HTC Sense
tap "Clear defaults"
Now, every time you push your "Home" button you will be presented with the options "Home" and "HTC Sense." As long as you don't check the default box you will always have a two-touch access to either interface.
Alternatively, for those that prefer vanilla Android to Sense, check the default box and hit "Home." Your phone will no longer load the Sense UI. This can be reversed by going to Home in manage applications (above) and again clearing defaults.

cgraunke said:
Yup, just to elaborate on what N0J mentioned:
menu/settings/applications/manage applications/HTC Sense
tap "Clear defaults"
Now, every time you push your "Home" button you will be presented with the options "Home" and "HTC Sense." As long as you don't check the default box you will always have a two-touch access to either interface.
Alternatively, for those that prefer vanilla Android to Sense, check the default box and hit "Home." Your phone will no longer load the Sense UI. This can be reversed by going to Home in manage applications (above) and again clearing defaults.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said and thanks for the detailing the steps out for me!

Dang. I thought this was actually going to be some useful information that could lead me to getting rid of the 4 unused homescreens

This isn't a hack and not much of a discovery but if it makes you happy...
Would be kind of cool if Sense had 10 screens of its own.

nice find! But yes, 7 home screens is a little much. until we find some better widgets.

kendong2 said:
this is not a hack at all. installing apps and using them as intended is as far away from a hack as could be. please change the title, this is so lame...
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GDE Home Screen does this
edit: by the way this is a dumb "hack"

I'm assuming this works for vanilla android as well? One of the most annoying things about my Moment that my Hero does is only having 3 screens.

Does anyone know how to REMOVE any of the homescreens from sense?
My hero is so slow!

I really hope that as part of an update to Sense that they make it so you can have any number of screens so long as it's 2X+1. (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11)
Personally, I only really use 5, so I would just drop the last 2 screens and have the little indicator get a tiny bit larger.

[Q] Thoughts after two months

My wife recently bought a Galaxy Tab 7.7 and now after some hours of experience she has some questions:
1. When you turn off the sound it doesn't turn off everything, sounds on webpages still plays.
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
3. When you want to edit text in the web browser, for instance in a forum like this, and you put the marker where you want to start edit, the marker jumps 1 or more letters efter about one second. It's not a miss click, because you can see that the marker is in the correct place when you remove your finger, and then after about one seconde it jumps to another place. Extremely annoying.
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
8. The screen locks itself quickly when you make a call, in like 10 s, even though you have set it on 5 mins. Very annoying when you want to check things on the pad during a call.
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
11. I can't write é and ü which is used sometimes in my language, the signs ¨ and ´ just doesn't exist. But a ton of smiliys do...strange choice by Google/Samsung.... (yes, I have the local version of the OS)
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
13. The music player can't do shuffle
This was just the most important things, then it's alot of other annoying things that doesn't work correctly and that are just illogical.
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.

I m sorry to say. All of the above can be done/customize... u just haven't look in the right place or download the right Apps..... I guess it's your first smartphone.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using XDA Premium HD app

No, I've owned an Iphone, which had none of these issues.
But please give me some tips and hints, because I've looked around and have found nothing.

1) You need to turn down the media volume whilst in the browser.
2. Obviously clean the screen more often, what do you expect?
3. Its a bug with no fix. ICS should fix this.
4. With apps in general? Because ICS has started a trend for better resolution support. With notifications I suggest getting glasses. Also in the themes and apps forum there is an app to increase font size called Big Font.
5. That defeats the point of a reminder.
6. No but some custom launchers like go launcher provide this option.
7. I have a wifI only version so no idea. But the clock should always stay in the bottom bar.
8. Its meant to be this way. Its a feature from smartphones. It stops your face pressing buttons on the screen when you put the speaker grill to your ear.
9. No comment.
10. For the clock/alarm app?
11. Hold the letter e (é) and u (ü) down on the Samsung keyboard.
12. The play store offers alternative browsers like opera and dolphin hd, try some.
13. ICS upgrade should fix this. But again use the play store to find alternatives.
Honeycomb is buggy, numerous reviews have stated this. The ICS upgrade is set to fix most of these issues and provide a better overall experience. The ICS upgrade is meant to be set for May.
Its not meant to be a computer. Its meant to be be a media consumption device. You've come from an iphone which is simple. Android just takes times to get used too. You probably would have been better off with am ipad. Android tablets just aren't there yet.
Sent from my GT-P6810 using xda premium

ZacAttack said:
1) You need to turn down the media volume whilst in the browser.
Ok, but you have to agree with me that when you put the phone in silent, it should be completely silent.
2. Obviously clean the screen more often, what do you expect?
It becomes a mark after every time you log in. If they'd just had the grid in different places it wouldn't be a problem.
3. Its a bug with no fix. ICS should fix this.
I have big hopes for ICS
4. With apps in general? Because ICS has started a trend for better resolution support. With notifications I suggest getting glasses. Also in the themes and apps forum there is an app to increase font size called Big Font.
Mostly the webbrowser, even though you zoom max, it's very small text, and it's hard to highlight words. I will try Dolphin more extensively.
5. That defeats the point of a reminder.
It's just that you should have better options for the sound level (now it's a bearaly audiable "ding" or something), and it should also be a pop-up window or with a OK-button or so.
6. No but some custom launchers like go launcher provide this option.
Ok, will try that.
7. I have a wifI only version so no idea. But the clock should always stay in the bottom bar.
It doesn't, you have to go back to home screen to see the clock.
8. Its meant to be this way. Its a feature from smartphones. It stops your face pressing buttons on the screen when you put the speaker grill to your ear.
Well, it should be an option to turn it off since this is a 7.7 inch tablet and mostly you will use a headset.
9. No comment.
10. For the clock/alarm app?
11. Hold the letter e (é) and u (ü) down on the Samsung keyboard.
Thanks!
12. The play store offers alternative browsers like opera and dolphin hd, try some.
Will do!
13. ICS upgrade should fix this. But again use the play store to find alternatives.
Again, I have big hopes for ICS
Honeycomb is buggy, numerous reviews have stated this. The ICS upgrade is set to fix most of these issues and provide a better overall experience. The ICS upgrade is meant to be set for May.
Can't wait!
Its not meant to be a computer. Its meant to be be a media consumption device. You've come from an iphone which is simple. Android just takes times to get used too. You probably would have been better off with am ipad. Android tablets just aren't there yet.
I know, but they certainly have the hardware for it, they just don't use it properly.
If Apple had an ~7 inch tablet from which you could make calls, I would've probably bought that.
Sent from my GT-P6810 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply!

Open the phone app (not the mini dialer)
Logs - Long press a caller number- Add to contacts.
Marquzz said:
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---------- Post added at 09:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 AM ----------
"Stopwatch & Timer" from Google Play.
Marquzz said:
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Marquzz said:
It becomes a mark after every time you log in. If they'd just had the grid in different places it wouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will leave finger marks anywhere your grid was anyway, other still can figure your grid shape
So... just clean your screen or consider using password ^^

pa64 said:
Open the phone app (not the mini dialer)
Logs - Long press a caller number- Add to contacts.
---------- Post added at 09:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 AM ----------
"Stopwatch & Timer" from Google Play.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, can't find a option to add the number to a contact you already have, it only creates a new contact. Maybe I'm just stupid, only got 5 years of higher IT education...
What I need to do is choose to edit the phone number, and then add the phone number to a contact that way.

GOF007 said:
It will leave finger marks anywhere your grid was anyway, other still can figure your grid shape
So... just clean your screen or consider using password ^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, this is just one of those annoying things. If the grid randomly switched place, it could've been much harder to see the pattern. But it's not very important.
It's just that when alot of things annoy you, you just start to get annoyed on other things aswell
Overall she is very happy with the tablet, it's just that it has the potential to be much much better, it's just a matter of software.
This image shows how small text is when you write in a box on a web page (max zoom), it's just hard to put the marker where you want it, if you for instance notice that you have missspelled something:

Marquzz said:
No, can't find a option to add the number to a contact you already have, it only creates a new contact. Maybe I'm just stupid, only got 5 years of higher IT education...
What I need to do is choose to edit the phone number, and then add the phone number to a contact that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dial the number and press the icon next to the number where you can save it to any existing or new contact.

pa64 said:
Dial the number and press the icon next to the number where you can save it to any existing or new contact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I know it can be done. Just can't understand why a very expensive top of the line smartphone/tablet 2012 just isn't better than this.

I might have answers to some of your questions which I hope could be useful to you:
Marquzz said:
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As much as I hate to mention, ICS has face recognition unlock feature which doesn't leave any grease mark for James Bond; or if you are the impatient kind like me, you could considering getting the FaceLock for apps Pro (paid app) which as similar phone lock feature for non-ICS Android devices.
Marquzz said:
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have multiple questions in one go. XD
First of all you could really re-size the screen size on running application, you could find the corresponding option in the notification bar when the tablet detects it.
Reminders and other notifications is easily missed, yes...but you could try NoLED app, or FaceLock apps Pro I mentioned earlier. (Do not use both, I tried, and miserably failed)
Text can be resized with app like BigFont. I don't use it, as it messed up with the default calendar app (though you can circumvent that with third-party calendar app)
Marquzz said:
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could use the Linda File Manager (free app) to create desktop shortcut. In the rare event you would like to create script shortcut (e.g. instant reboot script), you could try SMWidgets.
Marquzz said:
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Overskreen (paid app) as my default browser. It can't move tabs, but the tabs doesn't reload when you switch between them (redraw, though). It has additional feature like floating browser, and background processing (such that you could listen to browser's streaming audio while phone is locked)
Yeah adding and sorting bookmarks is still a major harrass, especially when you utilize Google sync bookmark features.
If you like fancy features to impress your friends you could try Dolphin Browser (beta version only, and this version is not found in Play yet): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgC9qaOLmO8
Marquzz said:
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me, this tablet is the best you can get for business applications. Of course, it is very much depending on your needs.

Marquzz said:
No, can't find a option to add the number to a contact you already have, it only creates a new contact. Maybe I'm just stupid, only got 5 years of higher IT education...
What I need to do is choose to edit the phone number, and then add the phone number to a contact that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take it that you are trying to add a number from inside the phone app to an existing contact?
#1 If you are in Dialer, press the icon to the right of the number and you can either save it as a new contact, or add it to an existing contact.
#2 If you are in Logs, the trick is to long click on the entry in the left pane, select "Edit number before call", which will bring you to the dialer, and you to #1 above, where you can proceed accordingly. (If you select "Add to Contacts", it will be a new contact.*)
#3 Still in Logs, long clicking on the entry itself (on the right) will copy the number to clipboard. Which will allow other possibilities...
*This is peculiar to the Samsung phone app and I agree that they should not have done it this way. It's not how it works in Vanilla ICS on my Galaxy Nexus.
Hope that helps.

Marquzz said:
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Samsung stock calendar is rather basic. Try Business Calendar, which has advanced controls for notifications (include snooze).
Marquzz said:
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The clock shows on my bottom bar even in a phone call. See attached pic below.
Marquzz said:
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Alarm Clock Xtreme can do that.
Marquzz said:
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Dolphin HD. It solves the first and the last two problems. I'm not sure why but the browser sometimes reloads when you switch on the 7.7--it didn't do so (or do so as much) on either my Galaxy Nexus (ICS) or even on my old HTC HD2 running Android Gingerbread. Might be a Honeycomb thing.
Marquzz said:
13. The music player can't do shuffle
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ICS music player can do shuffle. If you are resourceful, you can install the apk. But again, there are better alternatives out there. For instance, Poweramp and PlayerPro. (I have the ICS player, but eventually settled on Poweramp.)
All the best!

Marquzz said:
Yes, I know it can be done. Just can't understand why a very expensive top of the line smartphone/tablet 2012 just isn't better than this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, ok...
1) Open the dialer
2) Enter a number
3) Click the 'add to contact' icon immediately to the right of the number you just entered
4) You are immediately taken to your list of contacts
5) At this point you have 2 options, click 'New" to add a new contact or click on any contact from the list
6) Upon clicking any one of the contacts in your list, that contact is immediately opened and the new number automatically added to the list of phone numbers for that contact...from there you can specify the number type (work, home, mobile, etc.)
I honestly can't imagine a scenario any more intuitive & straight forward than this. Please describe (if you can) what would be 'better than this'?
---------- Post added at 12:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 PM ----------
7. I have a wifI only version so no idea. But the clock should always stay in the bottom bar.
It doesn't, you have to go back to home screen to see the clock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong. The taskbar on the bottom is still there during calls, and the clock is still visible. I'm looking at it right now as I type this.
For someone with 5 years of "IT higher learning", you're not exhibiting much in the way of higher intelligence here in my opinion. You are aware that there's a thing called a search engine, right? Google is kind of a popular one. Millions of people from all over the world have been using Android for several years, and nearly every question/complaint you raised in your original list has been asked, discussed & addressed by someone at some point. Instead of jumping onto a forum and ranting off your list of 'problems', you might want to poke around a bit & see if there's already an answer out there.

1. When you turn off the sound it doesn't turn off everything, sounds on webpages still plays.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartandroidapps.audiowidget&hl=en
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
Seriously? Clean the screen frequently; Try a non-glossy screen protector; Use a PIN or a password to unlock the screen rather than a pattern.
3. When you want to edit text in the web browser, for instance in a forum like this, and you put the marker where you want to start edit, the marker jumps 1 or more letters efter about one second. It's not a miss click, because you can see that the marker is in the correct place when you remove your finger, and then after about one seconde it jumps to another place. Extremely annoying.
This is the one item on your list that I would call a real 'problem'. A bluetooth mouse helps if this is something you need to do very often.
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
Honeycomb is a smartphone OS first, and a tablet OS second. ICS bridges that gap much better, but there will always be some compromises. The Android phone market is bigger (much bigger) than the tablet market, so there will always be somewhat of a slant toward smartphone functionality-wise.
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitfire.development.calendarsnooze&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5iaXRmaXJlLmRldmVsb3BtZW50LmNhbGVuZGFyc25vb3plIl0.
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gau.go.launcherex&feature=search_result
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
Yes, it does.
8. The screen locks itself quickly when you make a call, in like 10 s, even though you have set it on 5 mins. Very annoying when you want to check things on the pad during a call.
This is by design, and another byproduct of honeycomb being a smartphone OS first and a tablet OS second. You may notice that the tablet does have a proximity sensor with related settings. If you make a call and pass your hand over the sensor it will blank the screen...remove your hand and the screen reappears. This mirrors the functionality you'd expect when you put the 'phone' up to your ear..again geared toward how you'd expect a smartphone to work. Honestly, I'm not sure that the target demographic for this tablet will use it as their primary mobile phone all that much. But for those that do, it's a pretty minor inconvenience...so you have to push the power button to get the screen back...just not that big of a deal.
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
Wrong. It's very logical and very intuitive. 2 clicks & done.
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
Who does this? Why? If you want to wake up 1 hour & 45 minutes later can you not just do some simple math in your brain and set the timer to what the time will be 1 hours & 45 minutes later?
11. I can't write é and ü which is used sometimes in my language, the signs ¨ and ´ just doesn't exist. But a ton of smiliys do...strange choice by Google/Samsung.... (yes, I have the local version of the OS)
Someone already answered this.
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
Numerous browser options in the play store.
13. The music player can't do shuffle
Numerous music player options in the play store.
This was just the most important things, then it's alot of other annoying things that doesn't work correctly and that are just illogical.
Wrong. In my opinion, you're just lazy. Android is not a kindergarten children's toy like iOS. If that's what you want or need, you should get an Apple. There's a learning curve with Android, but if you invest a bit of time, you will be rewarded with an experience that's ultimately more satisfying than iOS (at least in my opinion).
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
Return it & buy an Apple.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.

Marquzz said:
My wife recently bought a Galaxy Tab 7.7 and now after some hours of experience she has some questions:
1. When you turn off the sound it doesn't turn off everything, sounds on webpages still plays.
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
3. When you want to edit text in the web browser, for instance in a forum like this, and you put the marker where you want to start edit, the marker jumps 1 or more letters efter about one second. It's not a miss click, because you can see that the marker is in the correct place when you remove your finger, and then after about one seconde it jumps to another place. Extremely annoying.
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
8. The screen locks itself quickly when you make a call, in like 10 s, even though you have set it on 5 mins. Very annoying when you want to check things on the pad during a call.
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
11. I can't write é and ü which is used sometimes in my language, the signs ¨ and ´ just doesn't exist. But a ton of smiliys do...strange choice by Google/Samsung.... (yes, I have the local version of the OS)
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
13. The music player can't do shuffle
This was just the most important things, then it's alot of other annoying things that doesn't work correctly and that are just illogical.
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, this and so many more "little" things is what makes me hate android. This tablet was my first device and I can safely say I will never buy another android device again. I'll probably get an I pad 4 when it comes out. I'm just sick of finding out more things my tab can't do. Its really dissapointing as the reason I chose this over an I pad was the smaller screen size but its just not worth it

Marquzz said:
My wife recently bought a Galaxy Tab 7.7 and now after some hours of experience she has some questions:
1. When you turn off the sound it doesn't turn off everything, sounds on webpages still plays.
2. The screen unlock pattern is in the same place so it's easy to see it because of the grease the finger is leaving behind.
3. When you want to edit text in the web browser, for instance in a forum like this, and you put the marker where you want to start edit, the marker jumps 1 or more letters efter about one second. It's not a miss click, because you can see that the marker is in the correct place when you remove your finger, and then after about one seconde it jumps to another place. Extremely annoying.
4. Honeycomb does not utilise the screen size, it seems like it's made for a smaller phone with lesser resolution. Reminders and other notifications is easily missed. Text is also extremly small sometimes and even though you can read it, it's very hard to put the marker in the right spot, if you want to mark and copy a text for instance.
5. Reminders from the calendar is to discreet, it should be something that you have to turn off manually so you dont miss it.
6. Can you create a shortcut to a file on the startscreen/desktop?
7. The clock doesn't show when you make a call so you can't check the time
8. The screen locks itself quickly when you make a call, in like 10 s, even though you have set it on 5 mins. Very annoying when you want to check things on the pad during a call.
9. Adding a new phone number to a contact is very unlogical, and it takes alot of steps. Why not just have, "add phone number to contact" when you have marked the number??
10. You can't set the timer on an certain amount of hours and/or min, just a time?
11. I can't write é and ü which is used sometimes in my language, the signs ¨ and ´ just doesn't exist. But a ton of smiliys do...strange choice by Google/Samsung.... (yes, I have the local version of the OS)
12. Then it's the browser:
* You can't move tabs
* Tabs has to reload when you switch between them
* Very long procedure to add a bookmark
* You can't sort the bookmarks the way you want.
13. The music player can't do shuffle
This was just the most important things, then it's alot of other annoying things that doesn't work correctly and that are just illogical.
Overall it doesn't seem like a product that is ready for selling, If this was a computer OS it would've been called version 0.1 alfa.
If you have any tips or apps that solve the above listed things, please post here. My wife would be super happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can make a similar list of annoyances or personal preferences for any tablet, so such lists are pretty useless for it is always a trade-off between annoyances and delights and for me the delights on the 7.7 far outweigh the annoyances compared to any other tablet. So rather than buy a tablet then whinge about it you should check it out first.

Re-program Recent Apps Key?

Devoting a soft key exclusively to recent apps seems ridiculous to me. Is it a Motoblur thing or stock ICS?
Is there an app that will allow an unrooted user to program a shortcut to the key that is of some use? Maybe on long press?
I installed Google Launcher and noticed that accidentally hitting that key shows recent apps but then takes you out of Go Launcher and back to Motoblur. Any way to avoid that?

That's pure ICS, not Moto. Actually was there in honeycomb too. I never understood removing the search key and menu key to put in the far less used recent apps. If there is a mod out there to convert it's function to a menu button I'd be on it too.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app

Any shortcut would be preferable. I thought it would be a nice button to open phone dialer or dolphin browser.

I'm really surprised you guys don't find it useful. There's plenty of times where I'd rather have that button than hit the home button and go back to the home screen or hold the home button for a second or more to get that popup on my Nexus S.
I find that I'm swapping back between texting, web browsing, the music player / pandora and facebook quite often

snowmanwithahat said:
I'm really surprised you guys don't find it useful. There's plenty of times where I'd rather have that button than hit the home button and go back to the home screen or hold the home button for a second or more to get that popup on my Nexus S.
I find that I'm swapping back between texting, web browsing, the music player / pandora and facebook quite often
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, I agree as well. Not to mention, the menu and search are legacy buttons. People need to let them die and embrace the design direction Android is moving forward in...but I guess old habits die hard (and painfully). Why so much resistance towards the death of the menu button?

UserDemos said:
Thank you, I agree as well. Not to mention, the menu and search are legacy buttons. People need to let them die and embrace the design direction Android is moving forward in...but I guess old habits die hard (and painfully). Why so much resistance towards the death of the menu button?
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I can definitely do without the menu button since every new app has been building it into the application. It's a button that I'd hardly hit while interacting with most applications.
I do miss the contextual search though. I got used to tapping the search button in Contacts or Chrome and searching within that context. Only searching globally when I was at the home screen. Well now with the changes (at least to the Nexus S) the search button brings up Google Now and there's no in-app search unless they specifically build in a button. Most have done that now, so it's not really a problem, just a habit that I got into.

I understand it's benefits but those apps I use quite often you speak of are already shortcuts on my home page. Using the recent apps button adds another key press to open it. I've only used it when I can't remember the name of an app I recently installed.
For me personally, useable? Yes. Useful? Not really. Especially when it gets bogged down with tons of recent apps and my finger already knows where the shortcuts are.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app

Hey look I'm the OP and said nothing about making it a menu button. What I want is a programmable button to do what I want and you could have one to do what YOU want. Now you tell me NOOOO.., I should embrace the direction of Android. That sounds suspiciously like Apple philosophy.
I never have had any use for a recent apps button and still don't. I don't care what apps I have used recently. Since there is a key there I would like it to be useful. Personally, I would like short press to be Opera and long press to be Dolphin. Now shall I look forward to be scolded for not embracing Chrome? I thought the whole point of Android was personal choice. Android users don't have to be sheeple imo.

Zodwraith said:
I understand it's benefits but those apps I use quite often you speak of are already shortcuts on my home page. Using the recent apps button adds another key press to open it. I've only used it when I can't remember the name of an app I recently installed.
For me personally, useable? Yes. Useful? Not really. Especially when it gets bogged down with tons of recent apps and my finger already knows where the shortcuts are.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
You've got to admit though that closing applications by swiping them "off" at that quick switch menu is kind of nice. I like that a little bit better for closing off high RAM applications quickly compared to the CM method of holding "back". Then again, I'll admit it's a very rare thing where I want to kill more than one application at once haha

Sorry, no I don't admit it. (not for me anyway) Never have done it. Never will. I prefer not to force close apps. I let Android handle it.
Dolphin and Opera are in a folder on my desktop so it takes two keypresses to access them while that utterly useless recent apps key sits there doing nothing. In fact it does harm if I am using another launcher and hit it by accident.
There was an app I used to use that allowed you to program the search key (which I also never used) and double tap of home key (which normally produced something else I never used). I think it is called Home to Shortcut. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated to use the recent apps key.
I also think Moto should have made the navigation bar transparent so we could see the entire screen like Nexus. I hope somebody figures out a way to do that too.

Give it time for custom roms and you will be able to do loads of stuff with that bar, including changing the icons and uses. Aokp is great for that.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

I don't think swiping from the recent apps menu is an FC function. Just a history. To check it I FC'd a bunch of stuff from the proper menu and opened the recent apps. Sure enough everything is still there. Clicked on one of the apps and sure enough it had to start up.
I generally don't use app killers but there are always rogue apps that will give you problems. Netflix is a bad one for me where I'll watch an episode and when it's over Netflix develops Alzheimer's whether there are more episodes. Does the same on the Roku and tablet so I'm sure it's a Netflix thing. The only way to slap sense into their servers is an FC and restart.
Sent from my Droid RAZR HD MAXX using the XDA Developer App

robstunner said:
Give it time for custom roms and you will be able to do loads of stuff with that bar, including changing the icons and uses. Aokp is great for that.
Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't wait. I was spoiled by the super developers for Tbolt.

My experience with CM10 so far XD (and maybe a feature wishlist)

First of all, how awesome is this forum !!!
I consider myself a pretty "upright" forum user as in I usually read the pinned, "read this first", Q&A, and search before I make new posts. Whenever I come upon people who don't do that, I kinda frown to my computer screen but beyond that seems like nothing much can be done? The "Here are the similar threads we found:" section is just pure brilliance.
Sorry about the rambling but I will start with a tiny background story first.
So once upon a time, I got warned thru my gmail that my account apparently was "compromised". After I did some preliminary verification to make sure they are not spams, I decided to try the google "2-step verification" process. And I bet most of you knew what comes next: I keep getting bad password popups. After some hours of frustrating struggle, I fixed my gmail on my phone. But Gtalk would not let me do that 1-time psasword verification thing, and thus my play store won't work. (God really who designed them to be linked!? I did not launch Gtalk once in my life.) Before this happened, I was happy with my stock launcher from Samsung and always have the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" motto. In the end, I decided it is "certified broken" and I thought this might be a good time to look into upgrading to Jelly Bean.
hm.. i think i'm making this post unnecessary long so I will just cut through the chase. I never thought "stock" stuff would come in any quality. But amazingly in my first day experience of CM10, I am already missing a bunch of features that I used to take for granted. I have no desire to go back to the last launcher (as this in theory should be a step up overall, i believe). So if anyone have tips for me to how to get these features back, I would very much like some pointers! Thanks in advance.
Just some clarification in case this matter: I bought my phone unlocked in Hong Kong. So there is no service-provider-associated stuff that came with the stock launcher I got.
EDIT: I used the 11-02 nightly build of CM10 and its corresponding Gapp package.
1) Contact list
+ Improved: To my amaze, my chinese contacts got sorted by their pronunciation in english! The original stock launcher lumped all of them in the end of the list.
- What I missed: Slide left on names will message the contact and slide right will call them.
# What I tried: Of course my first solution is to search on App store to find a replacement. For some reasons, only two (with good rating) showed up. Did the search got dumber? Or it got smarter but just not doing what I want?
Go Contacts: I think i remember trying it and personally not a big fan of the GO packages. I didn't give it a second try.
Contants+ with a penguin icon: There's a function that lets you "Hold" on a contact to call them. This is very much inferior to the slidings : ( I need recommendations for contact list app.
2) App drawer
+ I like how the widgets got attached to the horizontal pages. Much nicer option than Homescreen-> menu and keep scrolling through the 1x4 area LOL. I love widgets and I have a lot of them. Yes it was painful.
- You can't custom organize the drawer. You can sort by Name or Install Date and that's it. I used to organize them by functionality. I have over 160 apps on my phone. I don't use all of them all the time but I would say I use close to 70% of them at least once in a while. So while my homescreen is really reserved for Widgets, App drawer is where I launch my less-used apps. I really like the "menu -> edit" function in my old launcher. I can create new page, move the apps around and even uninstall the app right there (with a minus sign on the top right corner of the app icon. Yes I didn't use to understand why one would even need uninstaller app from the store). Please don't hate me if you really just rather sort by Name.
# Funny the problem this time is not about how I can't find a suitable app from the play store to do a better job with the drawer. It's that I CAN'T move the original app drawer icon of the launcher from the bottom middle area. I imagine there's probably a way to replace it but it's obviously not a readily available option or I am missing something.
3) Task manager?
+ I think it's just recent launched apps (or apps in the background) now. It's in a way good that it goes beyond the last 6. Not that I find that old limit bothering really.
- Where's my task manager? I'm a bit OCD when it comes to ram usage and processes/services. Oh how i missed the Hold home button -> recent app screen with a task manager button -> Kill all task. LOL It's not much but it shows just enough: total ram usage, running apps, processes, and even storage space. Scratch that, it's actually very much.
# Right now I am resort to Auto Memory Manager with a blue fish icon. It's sufficient. But I can't access it anywhere.
4) Misc. stuff that I missed and would like help to find them. Note: these have nothing to do with the launcher.
- I used to have this "Windy Weather" live wall paper (or what i believed it was called). There were some wind turbines running on a grass field. It reflects the current weather. I scour the store and I couldn't find anything remotely like that besides having to go back to the GO family or you have to pay. I know it's not recommended but I tried titanium back up to restore it from my old system - no luck.
- Ap news widget. The widget was 2x4. It does not refreshes on its own and only do so with a tiny refresh button on the bottom right corner. It cycles through headlines with pictures that fully stretches the whole 2x4 window (beautifully). Can't find it in the store.
- Pinch on the home screen zooms out and gives you a quick view of all 7(now 5, but I can live with that) pages of home screen.
- That's all for now. I think I am still missing a few things I wanted to mention but I forgot what they are at the moment
anyway, sorry about some of the ranting. Here are some features i like:
+ File Manager is awesome.
+ Camera is great as well. And I love the quick browse gallery. It's weird that the actual gallery don't even have to pinch function while they put it here.
+ The pull down menu is clean. I kinda missed the "auto-rotation" quick set. But it's minor. I usually don't allow auto rotation anyway. I also like the setting button in there. But I used it so much I have to put a short cut on the home screen anyway.
+ The animation when you turn off the screen is COOL
+ The lock screen which gives you direct access to the camera is very convenient as well.

There is no sammy like app with swipe unfortunately.(edit :didnt know ex dialer has it sry_
Try apex launcher,nova launcher,adw ex launcher(i prefer this at the moment,pletora of settings)
autorotation ,play with toggle settings in system settings menu.
Don't bother with ram,free ram is wasted ram.
That windmill wallpaper i think go has something similar to it but i dont use it as it is a huge battery hogger .I just use a plain wallpaper.
I suggest u stay playing a bit with the lockscreen/system settings

Hi, i use ex dialer and it have slide right to call and slide left to sms.
Cheers!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

For dialer I recommend Dialer Ex from Play. I also missed the swipe to call & message function from Sammy roms. This app does it(it also has other great features like theme support etc.!)
Sent from my premium potato

1) ExDialer. You will never look back. You can customize it to your taste and it has the features you ask.
2) You need to use another launcher for that, but in my case I got accustomed to search for apps instead of looking for icons. It's easier and can be done from everywhere in your launcher if you click and hold the Menu key. You can also have folders in the Home screen, that's also a nice way to organize. Why I ended doing this? Because other launchers have too many options.
3) You shouldn't care about running apps. You can kill them by pressing Menu key on the Home and selecting manage apps. There, in "Running" you have the apps that are currently working on the background, the memory they use and you can eventually kill them. I'm against that unless you have an issue with an app (like Media Scanner going rogue).
4) GO Weather. You can download it from the web if it's not on the store and side-load it. But I have it available. I can't help you with the news widget as I never found one useful enough to my usage patterns. I don't think the default launcher can show you all Home screens at once.

Thanks for all the help guys. You are quick to reply : )

android manages ram efficiently u dont need to free ram if u still want to have a kill apps button on recent apps its part of aokp and if u want to have it on cm10 try pacman rom

App idea: Alt+Tab style, single click switch to previous app. Exist already?

I I have looked all over for an app to do this but have found nothing. I am ready to start writing my own, but want to make sure it doesn't exist already? Seems hard to believe no one has done this yet!?
say i need to copy/paste listing descriptions from evernote into ebay... I want a QUICK trigger, maybe double tapping home or something that shows a simple app list in a transparent overlay.
Pick the ebay app and it loads. After pasting the title there, double tap home again and instantly, it flips back to Evernote where I can repeat this process with the description and other fields. Maybe the volume key could flip between the two apps, or better yet, a swipe.
Seeing how I use that technique a million times a day, it would save countless hours over all the other task manager types that always load a display of all (or none) of the recent apps when triggered. I don't know about everybody else, but there's a 90% chance that if I want to quickly flip to another app, it's because I intend to quickly flip right back in a few seconds.
This is such a vital function for me on computers that I dedicate a whole button on my mouse to pressing Alt+Tab so I can flip back and forth very fast. I have become very spoiled by that technique and can't stand doing work on Android just because of its annoyingly slow and painful "task manager" if you can even call it that. TIA!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

toothpick5 said:
I I have looked all over for an app to do this but have found nothing. I am ready to start writing my own, but want to make sure it doesn't exist already? Seems hard to believe no one has done this yet!?
say i need to copy/paste listing descriptions from evernote into ebay... I want a QUICK trigger, like double tap home (or whatever) that shows a simple app list in a transparent overlay.
Pick the ebay app and it loads. After pasting the title there, double tap home again and instantly, it flips back to Evernote where I can repeat this process with the description and other fields. Maybe the volume key could flip between the two apps, or better yet, a swipe.
Seeing how I use that technique a million times a day, it would save countless hours over all the other task manager types that always load a display of all (or none) of the recent apps when triggered. I don't know about everybody else, but there's a 90% chance that if I want to quickly flip to another app, it's because I intend to quickly flip right back in a few seconds.
This is such a vital function for me on computers that I dedicate a whole button on my mouse to pressing Alt+Tab so I can flip back and forth very fast. I have become very spoiled by that technique and can't stand doing work on Android just because of its annoyingly slow and painful "task manager" if you can even call it that. TIA!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sorry, but you cannot override the home button.
You could try one of the various side bar apps though.

It could be a swipe gesture or anything that requires only ONE step. I don't want to bring up an app selection list on every switch, but just the first time. Maybe a notification bar button could bring up the selector, then a side swipe gesture could flip back and forth between the two apps? It should be simple to write this. I just cant believe that it hasn't already been done? Surely someone knows of an existing app?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

toothpick5 said:
It could be a swipe gesture or anything that requires only ONE step. I don't want to bring up an app selection list on every switch, but just the first time. Maybe a notification bar button could bring up the selector, then a side swipe gesture could flip back and forth between the two apps? It should be simple to write this. I just cant believe that it hasn't already been done? Surely someone knows of an existing app?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that the part of the screen which will be "swipeable" will not react to touch events anymore.

nikwen said:
The problem is that the part of the screen which will be "swipeable" will not react to touch events anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. But it could be a small invisible hotzone like many of the task managers do. Swiping is just for the cool factor really. Using the volume button should work just fine for my needs. Would that work? The volume button can still listen to an app thats not in focus because music players do it right? But i guess that would be a problem if one of the switched apps overrides the volume control...? Any suggestions? If nobody has pointed out an existing app with this capability I will start on it tonight. I'm still a newb to Android but, I am majoring in programming so I gotta jump in on something!

toothpick5 said:
Yeah. But it could be a small invisible hotzone like many of the task managers do. Swiping is just for the cool factor really. Using the volume button should work just fine for my needs. Would that work? The volume button can still listen to an app thats not in focus because music players do it right? But i guess that would be a problem if one of the switched apps overrides the volume control...? Any suggestions? If nobody has pointed out an existing app with this capability I will start on it tonight. I'm still a newb to Android but, I am majoring in programming so I gotta jump in on something!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if I understand correctly you just want to have multitasking without having to hit the multitask button and then choose the app; you just want to be able to choose the app. I would say something like floating folders would work for you.