Database Users

Things you like about Touchwiz/Samsung modifications

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
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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.

[Q] First time using EB01 SC 2.4 and have some questions

Just flashed SC 2.4 voodoo rom and have some questions about it.
1. how do you delete the home screen? (I have 7 home screens now.. which is too many for me)
2. When I turn on Camera, it says update firmware. do I have to update firmware?
3. how can you customize shortcut on the bottom (a grey box that have call, app list, browser icon)? sry its kinda similar question as #1.
4. What kind of launcher does Superclean rom use? when i see task manager, icon looks like Touchwiz.. but overall interface and app list look like ADW.. but doesnt have ADW options though.. I'm confused.
I thought I had more questions but I forgot
I will edit this post if I think of more.

triple486 said:
Just flashed SC 2.4 voodoo rom and have some questions about it.
1. how do you delete the home screen? (I have 7 home screens now.. which is too many for me)
2. When I turn on Camera, it says update firmware. do I have to update firmware?
3. how can you customize shortcut on the bottom (a grey box that have call, app list, browser icon)? sry its kinda similar question as #1.
4. What kind of launcher does Superclean rom use? when i see task manager, icon looks like Touchwiz.. but overall interface and app list look like ADW.. but doesnt have ADW options though.. I'm confused.
I thought I had more questions but I forgot
I will edit this post if I think of more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1,3, 4: its pretty much the stock aosp launcher, so any kind of home screen customization is out of the question unless you get something else like launcher pro/adw. Its called launcher2, I believe, taken straight from aosp source. So, if you want to change stuff, you're going to have to look at other launchers.
2. Yes.

And if you're looking for alot of customiziation options along with neat transitions built in...try launcher pro. I've been using it for years on different androids and love it.

mrodsunshine said:
1,3, 4: its pretty much the stock aosp launcher, so any kind of home screen customization is out of the question unless you get something else like launcher pro/adw. Its called launcher2, I believe, taken straight from aosp source. So, if you want to change stuff, you're going to have to look at other launchers.
2. Yes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you mean I can't even set numbers of home screen with 'launcher2'?? thats not good..
what does aosp stand for?
If I use launcher pro or adw, stock launcher will be running in background? running 2 launchers will consume more battery and RAM?

2 launchers won't affect you that much. I used to run LPro and Twiz back on DI01 and could get 24-48 hours of bat life.
From what I have read on other posts just make sure that there are no widgets running on the unused launcher, as they might sitll be using the data connection to update.
AOSP is android open source project.
http://source.android.com/
Personally I recommend Lancher Pro over ADW, but I'm sure others will tell you differently. Free versions of both exists so just try em both out.

Full Battery Popup
I didn't know where to post this but I downloaded the new superclean 2.4, and despite it including a program that should have disabled it, I still got a pop-up notifying me of my full battery in the middle of the night. Does anyone know why I got this or does the full battery popup disable not work for all phones?

If you don't like having two launchers and want more customization options, install Launcher pro and uninstall Launcher ebproductions. I use nothing but LP, none of the other launchers can cut it for me.

eboersch said:
I didn't know where to post this but I downloaded the new superclean 2.4, and despite it including a program that should have disabled it, I still got a pop-up notifying me of my full battery in the middle of the night. Does anyone know why I got this or does the full battery popup disable not work for all phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you wipe prior flashing?
And launcher pro is imho the best hands down. Try the trial and if you like it pay for the full. The twitter and facebook widgets are the best of any out there...bar none.

go launcher
re jenisiz - I used rom manager and always back up previous rom and wipe data but i did not try to do it myself in cwm but now that you mention it I will give it a shot
re triple486 - Launchers make all the difference. I have tried just about everything I could find and I personally liked Go Launcher. Launcher Pro is cool but i would say it is 100 times better for the pay version. You can resize widgets to your liking and there is a lot of support for theming the Launcher Pro widgets. Overall, any launcher seems like it offers more flexibility and features than the stock or aosp launcher. Try the free versions and see what you like.

Battery pop up still there
I cleared all data and the cache twice but the full battery popup is still there.
I did not mention this but i installed the Revolution theme over superclean 2.4. Will that prevent the battery popup from being disabled?

triple486 said:
you mean I can't even set numbers of home screen with 'launcher2'?? thats not good..
what does aosp stand for?
If I use launcher pro or adw, stock launcher will be running in background? running 2 launchers will consume more battery and RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the only cool thing about the stock AOSP launcher is the 3D app drawer, LauncherPro does this as well but it's not quite as good.
Once LauncherPro/ADW is installed and running, you can use the task manager to kill the other launcher so it's not running in the background.
Press your home key and set the default to LauncherPro/ADW and it will use these by default from then on and the other launchers will not run.
I personally use Launcher Pro on all my android devices and I always recommend it over ADW but they're both good and its just a matter of personal preference, you can install both and try them - it wont hurt anything and they hardly take up any space.
If you set one as a default and want to change the default again go to settings > applications > manage applications - find the launcher you set as a default, and click "Clear Defaults".

Limit homescreens

I am used to Touchwiz (Samsung) and the ability to simply remove unused homescreens. I'd love to limit the homescreens on my Nexus 7.
Currently rooted and don't have a problem editing files, what would be needed to limit homescreens to one on either side of the main screen and just have it glowback\bounceback. (sorry, I don't know the proper term for the Android effect)
3 Homescreens would be ideal.

Pink Slime said:
I am used to Touchwiz (Samsung) and the ability to simply remove unused homescreens. I'd love to limit the homescreens on my Nexus 7.
Currently rooted and don't have a problem editing files, what would be needed to limit homescreens to one on either side of the main screen and just have it glowback\bounceback. (sorry, I don't know the proper term for the Android effect)
3 Homescreens would be ideal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Easiest to download a custom launcher. I use apex launcher beta, it has everything you mentioned.
The beta is available here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1452663

As mentioned, you probably should use another launcher. You "can" limit how many homescreens exist with the stock launcher, but it involves directly editing some file I believe (there is no easy access setting from Android).
I also recommend using Apex's beta

how can i change home page scrolling on touchwiz?

hey guys, i've been looking for ages but can't find what i'm looking for, was wondering if anyone knows where i could find a mod, to replace the touchwiz home screen's carousel effect with the new s5/old icecream sandwich "card stack?" effect without using another launcher, i'm looking for a flashable zip or a xposed framwork module that can be used on touchwiz, sumthin like this must surely exist?
thanks

hey guys, i've been looking for ages but can't find what i'm looking for, was wondering if anyone knows where i could find a mod, to replace the touchwiz home screen's carousel effect with the new s5/old icecream sandwich "card stack?" effect without using another launcher, i'm looking for a flashable zip or a xposed framwork module that can be used on touchwiz…
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wanam offers three minor tweaks to TW launcher (among many other valuable phone tweaks):
1 – infinite scrolling on/off
2 – wall paper scroll with pages on/off
3 – dock icon labels on/off
sumthin like this must surely exist?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I’m not so sure. Using Xposed to tweak the stock launcher seems like unnecessary overkill (considering the huge doorway into your phone's security that you give to every dev who's module you install). People who want to customize launchers generally go with alternate launcher. Then you don't even have to reboot to try out changes (like Xposed would have to). Nova would be my recommendation. I know it’s not the recommendation you’re looking for but you got it anyway.

electricpete1 said:
Wanam offers three minor tweaks to TW launcher (among many other valuable phone tweaks):
1 – infinite scrolling on/off
2 – wall paper scroll with pages on/off
3 – dock icon labels on/off
I’m not so sure. Using Xposed to tweak the stock launcher seems like unnecessary overkill (considering the huge doorway into your phone's security that you give to every dev who's module you install). People who want to customize launchers generally go with alternate launcher. Then you don't even have to reboot to try out changes (like Xposed would have to). Nova would be my recommendation. I know it’s not the recommendation you’re looking for but you got it anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is exactly what i figured, i found those options in exposed but not quite what i'm lookin for.
i used nova launcher on my s3 for a year and loved it, i just want to keep my high def lookin stock touchwiz icons since the nova launcher icons look like they belong in the 90's, i seen a stock touchwiz icon looking pack for nova launcher but they didn't have that "high def" look/feel to them (no shadows/reflections? or bad shading? on the icons, i dunno they just look bland compared to stock icons where they feel kinda 3d)
the reason i don't wanna use nova launcher is because if i do use nova launcher and go back to that stock android feeling i midaswell be on stock android itself, GPE or Cyanogenmod and it feels to bland which is why i'm on a touchwiz based rom.
i'm just kinda hopeing someone will come along with an idea of how i can impliment this without removing touchwiz launcher, ORRR maby get the real stock touchwiz icons (the acual stock ones, not just look alikes) into nova launcher.

Launchers for the HDX 7

Ok, so I'm trying to find a decent launcher for the HDX. I'm going to chronicle my struggle with this great launcher deficit. I do realize there is a "Working Launcher Thread", but it's rather strewn about and disorganized. I would like to make my first contribution to this forum a comprehensive Launcher list, with a quick n' dirty prognosis of each item.
Kindle Fire HDX 7"
Stock ROM Version 13.3.2.4
Rooted with Towelroot
OTA Updates Disabled
I was just going to flash a new ROM, but I was not able to boot into any ROM Manager. If anyone could point me in the direction of a good ROM and ROM Manager that works with the KFHDX7, I'd be highly appreciative. Now, I digress.
Key:
Glitchy and/or Sucky
Mediocre
Awesomesauce
Tested the following launchers:
Otter(aka stock "Home"): Obviously, this one sucks the proverbial balls. No customizability, no widgets. My whole motivation for rooting.
Next Launcher 3D 3.10: Looked pretty, but unfortunately too glitchy.
GO Launcher HD: Stable thus far. Somewhat busy. GO Widgets work, if you have Google Play.
KitKat Launcher 1.14: Stable, minimalist design. Surprisingly, did use slightly more RAM than relatively cluttered GO Launcher(without Widgets activated)
Holo Launcher HD 2.0.4: Worked great until I rebooted. Sent my device into epileptic crisis.
Galaxy/Touchwiz Beta v5: Always in landscape mode, would not react to moving device to portrait mode.
GEL/Google Now: Widget support! However, I did need the Xposed Framework and GEL Settings app to make things work properly.
Unfortunately, NONE of the launchers had native widget support. They would simply crash when trying to add a launcher to the homescreen. I'm guessing this has something to do with the KFHDX OS itself. The exception to this was GO Launcher, which had working GO Widgets. To be honest, I wasn't overly impressed by the GO Widgets.
Also, another common theme was issues with the screen orientation.Several launchers had problems with device orientation. When in landscape mode with Next, you could not move icons around. The screen would invert, and you would 'drop' the icon. When in portrait mode, the persistent launcher frame with the Home/Back/Apps/Search button would cause the Next launcher bar to overlap some of the icons on the screen, thereby rendering them inaccessible. The same thing happened with KitKat as far as being unable to move icons around when in landscape mode. However, there was no issue with overlapping elements, so this was less of a deal-breaker.

I use Nova on mine. Everything works great widgets and all.

I'm using the everythingme launcher. Its my new favorite.
Sent from my KFAPWI using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Everything me crashed on me every time

Nova prime and Apex both working perfectly. Widget support, wallpapers etc

I installed KK Launcher from the Play Store. Once downloaded you can all install the KK Locker which will replace your Amazon lockscreen with KitKat style one. In the settings of KK Locker choose the disable default lockscreen option and it will take you to the amazon lockscreen options, then back out of it. Reboot device. The amazon lockscreen will appear for a few seconds, then disappear. From then on, the KK Locker screen always appears, no double lockscreen. If you download Android L Wallpapers by AKWS, you can use it to change wallpapers. You can also change the keyboard by installing keyboard of your choice and then finding it under keyboard languages. I installed Android L keyboard from the Play Store and found it under languages as "English (United States)" and checked it. There is another option with same name already checked and that was the Amazon Keyboard, which I unchecked. Then selected the checked keyboard under default and voila. Now my Fire HDX looks like an AOSP Android L (except when entering settings).
BTW - If you go to the app drawer within the launch and select manage apps, it will open the Amazon app manager, but you will lose your onscreen buttons at the bottom of the screen. I did this while typing this post ... still trying to get them back Maybe I can figure out how to load the AOSP buttons in their place:fingers-crossed:
KK Launcher : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kk.launcher&hl=en
KK Locker : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kk.locker&hl=en
Android L Wallpapers : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=alexanderkazmin.androidlwallpapers&hl=en
Android L Keyboard : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.e.android.softkeyboard&hl=en

First a preamble....
I am thinking this might be better placed in the themes and apps section, but I am not sure.
If you have read all of the posts about bricking, you would know that flashing a replacement Rom is both dangerous and bound to fail because we do not have an unlocked boot loader yet.
Be careful with implementation, but if you want to experiment with alternate roms, head over to the developer section, read everything about Dagestan for your particular device, and then have a it. Be sure the first thing you do is back up your current Rom. Then make a new slot, and only make changes on new slots.
Okay with that our of the way...
As others have stated, I use Nova. It is quite nice.
For those of you who have issues with typical Android things like wallpapers and widgets, Amazon left out some apps that run those services. Some launchers do not need those services to implement those things. Most do.
You can install those services safely (without locking up your device) by using Kindle Free. It is an app that is in the play store. I just used the free one.
I was happy to discover that even Amazon Native apps come with widgets that can be used once the fix is applied.
I am on the OEM Rom, rooted.
Good luck. Sorry if this comes across as pejorative, but a lot of people are bricking their devices and I would hate for that
T to happen to anyone else.

Apex works well for me. Love that you can resize widgets. Wallpapers work well. That being said, there is the occasional glitch that is fixed with a reboot.

rootnooby said:
Apex works well for me. Love that you can resize widgets. Wallpapers work well. That being said, there is the occasional glitch that is fixed with a reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amazon Kindle doesn't open when I use Apex. Haven't tried other launchers but expect the same thing to occur. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix that?
Thanks