Disgusted by lollipop, recommend me a Launcher/Theme - Shield Tablet General

I've been enjoying my Shield since I got it 2 months ago, and like the original Kitkat look to it, the background and the colors. Well after upgrading to Lollipop I was horrified to see that the color theme is completely opposite. The app drawer is white!!!! How awful is that? Anyway, I've never needed to get a launcher in the past on my phones because the roms I used were customizable enough to get a theme or color set I liked. But with the Shield Tablet... I'm just not fond of the roms available.
So whats the popular launchers and are there any cool themes? I'm looking for something to make my Shield Tablet look like a "Shield Tablet" again and not some bright white lollipop stick in the mud...

You can always just flash back to KitKat.

You can always use Nova Launcher (my choice)

A lot of people swear by Nova.
I still like ADW Launcher Ex (runs fine on my Shield with Lollipop) - just hope to see an update since it's been hinted...
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app

Thanks for the responses, I'll give those two a look. I know I could go back to kitkat, but for how long will I be sticking to Kitkat while the OS is updated throughout the years... Eventually I'd have to move on, so trying to now. Oh, and why the hell is there no auto brightness like kitkat had? I have t manually set the brightness now...

There is still auto-brightness in Lollipop, it's just implemented a bit differently. It's the "Adaptive Brightness" option that's found in your display settings. Juts like normal auto-brightness, it adjusts your screen brightness automatically based on your surrounding. Adjusting the brightness slider with adaptive brightness on changes how aggressively the screen up-clocks its brightness. So if you have adaptive brightness on and you pull the slider to the max value, the display will work like normal auto-brightness but will tend to favor higher brightness more of the time. (and vice versa). It's like normal auto-brightness but with the ability to customize how aggressive the setting is.
And as for a launcher, I've been very happy with Nova for years.

I've been trying Nova and Go launcher. I like how simple Nova is, but I like how many themes and styles Go has. It doesn't look like Nova has themes, other than icons...

No, Nova doesn't have an integrated theme engine like Go does. I just like Nova's little tweaks and adjustments.
Hope you can find one you like. One of the first things I do when I get a new device is add a custom launcher.

Buzz launcher.. Awesome themes.. And you can basically setup custom themes yourself if you know what to do. I've gone buzz and never looked back.

DFA1 said:
I've been enjoying my Shield since I got it 2 months ago, and like the original Kitkat look to it, the background and the colors. Well after upgrading to Lollipop I was horrified to see that the color theme is completely opposite. The app drawer is white!!!! How awful is that? Anyway, I've never needed to get a launcher in the past on my phones because the roms I used were customizable enough to get a theme or color set I liked. But with the Shield Tablet... I'm just not fond of the roms available.
So whats the popular launchers and are there any cool themes? I'm looking for something to make my Shield Tablet look like a "Shield Tablet" again and not some bright white lollipop stick in the mud...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nova definitely.. plenty of icon sets etc for it although there's no overall theme engine, lots of adjustment though.
F.

DFA1 said:
I've been enjoying my Shield since I got it 2 months ago, and like the original Kitkat look to it, the background and the colors. Well after upgrading to Lollipop I was horrified to see that the color theme is completely opposite. The app drawer is white!!!! How awful is that? Anyway, I've never needed to get a launcher in the past on my phones because the roms I used were customizable enough to get a theme or color set I liked. But with the Shield Tablet... I'm just not fond of the roms available.
So whats the popular launchers and are there any cool themes? I'm looking for something to make my Shield Tablet look like a "Shield Tablet" again and not some bright white lollipop stick in the mud...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using Action Launcher since the shield came out, and I like it alot. Version 3 hasn't been out all that long, but its got a nice material theme to match the rest of the OS, but you can theme it to a fixed color (Material Dark is what I do), or let it adapt to to colors of your wallpaper. Give it a shot?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actionlauncher.playstore&hl=en

Related

TouchWiz UX on Galaxy Tab 10.1

*UPDATE*
I have updated my thread in development with a download and guide for installing TouchWiz UX on our Tab 10.1's.
See here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=15516290#
Okay this is getting ridiculous...!
Currently there is a TouchWiz UX rom avaliable for...
Asus EeePad:
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile...ouchwiz-rom-port-on-asus-eee-pad-transformer/
Acer A500:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1143368
Tab 10.1v:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1155023
All of which appear to be based off a 3.1 Rom for OUR device... So why is it I can't find a single thing about installing 3.1 TouchWiz UX on OUR 10.1!?
i feel you brother this is crazy no devs i guess on the 10.1 i need to start going to school and learn my self lol
That's okay. I'm pretty meh regarding TouchWiz. Has kept me away from sammy phones. I know, ROMS, but when you lean over the bleeding edge, there are no ROMS.
Just saw this video that shows all the features of touchwiz. I don't care how much people want to know it. If half the stffntheynjust showed works without force closing I'll beeee soooool stoked. It impressed the pants off me. http://youtu.be/hlLP3RXkmUQ
" hang on to your dookie, its about to get spooky "
Yay! Managed to get it booting on my tab.
I've been using it about 15 minutes and I love it! The book reader is great... I love the bounce scrolling and the new colours are very nice. Everything has a better feel and still seems super fast.
I might get some instructions up tomorrow for how I did it. Bed time for me now though.
The thing I want to know is if it has improved video playback.
Sent from my Fascinate with MIUI Gingerbread
I'm looking forward to the Allshare app, official DLNA support, the Media hub, and the mini app tray/bar.
It definitely adds another level to the tablet and will impress many consumers. I haven't actually owned anything Samsung beside cameras but I'm impressed so far with this tablet.
LevitateJay said:
Yay! Managed to get it booting on my tab.
I've been using it about 15 minutes and I love it! The book reader is great... I love the bounce scrolling and the new colours are very nice. Everything has a better feel and still seems super fast.
I might get some instructions up tomorrow for how I did it. Bed time for me now though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You did! Hallejulah... I hope a train rattles through your town, and wakes you up prematurely!
Lovellkid
Instruction please? This what I have been waiting for!!
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA Premium App
He' sleeping....or laughing about us now...or both...
Logically the 10.1v rom should not be hard porting, but i havent looked into it.
FrezoreR said:
Logically the 10.1v rom should not be hard porting, but i havent looked into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh really? not hard?
without 3.1 kernel source code...
I have a 3G Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Touchwiz (sold in Sweden).
While I don't mind some of the apps that Touchwiz brings I hate their OS-wide changes, while iOS-style overscrolling doesn't really change anything their altering of default UI element does. They have changed buttons, dialogs, menus, fonts and more making many applications look odd as they don't have the same design as Samsungs own apps.
They have also changed they background of the status bar so when it is in "light out" mode it is still very noticeable (default is completely black, Samsung is grey with a light border on top). This is very annoying when watching movies!
All in all I rather be without Touchwiz.
It's only a theme - it'll be customizable at some point
TouchWiz Review/Update
illojal said:
I have a 3G Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Touchwiz (sold in Sweden).
While I don't mind some of the apps that Touchwiz brings I hate their OS-wide changes, while iOS-style overscrolling doesn't really change anything their altering of default UI element does. They have changed buttons, dialogs, menus, fonts and more making many applications look odd as they don't have the same design as Samsungs own apps.
They have also changed they background of the status bar so when it is in "light out" mode it is still very noticeable (default is completely black, Samsung is grey with a light border on top). This is very annoying when watching movies!
All in all I rather be without Touchwiz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My only annoyance with TouchWiz UX so for is that it has that gray bar at the bottom rather than black... I get that it fits there theme but black still blends in the the tablet better... We'll be able to change that later though once the rom is deodex..
Aside from that I love all the other changes. Everything just looks more 'styled' and less 'neon' which I love.
Their eBook application is the best app I've ever used on Android.. except maybe Tasker..
Social Hub app is a great Twitter/Facebook integration.
Their widgets are very cool except they seem to slow down the homescreen a tad due to their large size (don't worry! you can always remove them )
The mini apps are so very cool. You can bring up a little calculator/note taking app/calendar/and more and move it to the side of the screen and keep interacting with whatever app you're running under it while it stays on the screen! Awesome feature that Google should definitely look at adding.
Copy and Paste now has a large clipboard that you can build up multiple items on!
There are even problems in Honeycomb 3.1 that are now fixed
e.g. In 3.1 stock if you want to change your lockscreen wallpaper to a custom image from your gallery you had to go to settings> display>screen settings>lockscreen wallpaper now you can do it from the top-right Plus or long-press home screen
The browser is actually smoother and handles pinch gestures much better and has some cool new features you can enable in settings.
There is motion control like tilting your tablet to change homescreens when placing a widget
The quick control toggles are much faster and to get into Settings is now only 2 taps rather than 3.. another thing Honeycomb should have had from the start.
And much more things that I'm missing... This is definitely an upgrade.
I'm uploading a rom now and will update my Thread in development when it's uploaded so everyone can flash TouchWiz UX.
FrezoreR said:
Logically the 10.1v rom should not be hard porting, but i havent looked into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 10.1v rom is actually a port of a rom from OUR device... It's a bit silly to port a port from our device back to it...
Update with Download and Guide
Hey I have updated my Development post with a download and guide for flashing TouchWiz to our Tab's... Check here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=15516290#
Any update on when touchwiz will officially be released for us? I know Samsung set the hard date of "coming soon", but I didn't know if there was any further update.
The screenshot button is useless and gets in the way. If the screenshot app was combined with the note app it would be great. You would pop up the notes and annotate whatever is on the screen and save it all.
why is everything so fricken big? I dont see the reasoning behind all the text being like 90pt font...

What do you like/not like about the stock launcher?

It's been getting a lot of hate, and I can't figure out why. I'm coming from Sense (which I liked a lot, and this one doesn't really compare to), but I'm not seeing anything too terrible about the stock launcher here. It's just kind of meh.
Are you guys just seeing a ton of lag? Because I don't think I am.
I would agree with you. It's less wow than Sense, but I like it better than TW. It's smooth enough for my liking. I don't have any lag. I'm still learning it, as I've been with Sense or TW for last 2 years...
I just wish I could theme it the way I would like to. It's nice they have themes available for download, but they all look like they were designed for teenage girls in mind for the most part....too pastel and too bright. I'm more of a fan of darks and rather violent looking...
Th3Bill said:
I would agree with you. It's less wow than Sense, but I like it better than TW. It's smooth enough for my liking. I don't have any lag. I'm still learning it, as I've been with Sense or TW for last 2 years...
I just wish I could theme it the way I would like to. It's nice they have themes available for download, but they all look like they were designed for teenage girls in mind for the most part....too pastel and too bright. I'm more of a fan of darks and rather violent looking...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah - me too. I've been on sense since the evo 4g, and never used any other smartphone ui, so this one is taking some getting used to for me also. I'm starting to get used to the brightness and how colorful everything is, and some of it's even starting to grow on me. I'm not seeing much lag - and I tried nova, but it broke stock messaging, and smart notice (which I didn't think I would like at all, but I've really been digging it).
and the less said about tw, the better
fachadick said:
Yeah - me too. I've been on sense since the evo 4g, and never used any other smartphone ui, so this one is taking some getting used to for me also. I'm starting to get used to the brightness and how colorful everything is, and some of it's even starting to grow on me. I'm not seeing much lag - and I tried nova, but it broke stock messaging, and smart notice (which I didn't think I would like at all, but I've really been digging it).
and the less said about tw, the better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still have an Evo 4G. My 6 year old uses it to play games with...she still loves the thing. Runs great, except the usb port broke straight out of it, so charging requires battery removal until I fix it...LOL
I was thinking of doing the "Blinkfeed for all" install on the G4, but really like how UX works, though Accuweather's predictions have been terrible so far. Keeps telling me to bring an umbrella for rain and it hasn't rained here in over a week LOL.
I honestly didn't actually like anything about the stock launcher and went to Google now launcher.
JedixJarf said:
I honestly didn't actually like anything about the stock launcher and went to Google now launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same. Why do I want these stupid smart cards when Google already forced their Google now cards down my throat
Because it's not Nova.
Seriously though, I'm too attached to the gesture controls that came with Nova Prime to use any other launcher. When combined with Five Wallpaper, I get a mostly buttery smooth experience with numerous customization options. I don't mind some of the LG background items like menu theme.
fachadick said:
It's been getting a lot of hate, and I can't figure out why. I'm coming from Sense (which I liked a lot, and this one doesn't really compare to), but I'm not seeing anything too terrible about the stock launcher here. It's just kind of meh.
Are you guys just seeing a ton of lag? Because I don't think I am.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't figure out why all the hate either. I'm coming from TouchWiz and this is so fresh and new to me. I love my G4
Major0CEL0T said:
I can't figure out why all the hate either. I'm coming from TouchWiz and this is so fresh and new to me. I love my G4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I can understand hating TouchWiz, what a pile of @#$%.
I spent a full week with the stock LG launcher and while it's fine, functional, works well, etc... I just prefer Sense and BlinkFeed better (too bad they can't build a decent device) so as of today I have sense and blinkfeed on my G4 and it's sweet!!!
ThePhoneGeek said:
Well I can understand hating TouchWiz, what a pile of @#$%.
I spent a full week with the stock LG launcher and while it's fine, functional, works well, etc... I just prefer Sense and BlinkFeed better (too bad they can't build a decent device) so as of today I have sense and blinkfeed on my G4 and it's sweet!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a feeling there will be a decent number of us on the G4 that were HTC users who just couldn't see upgrading to the m9 and will be missing Sense.
TW is just so heavy...coming from Sense, it was like going from driving a Lotus to driving a Dumptruck.
I don't hate the stock launcher, but I do prefer Nova. Mostly because I can resize the grid. I like to use 6x5. Plus I can resize widgets any way i want. And of course it's faster, plus gestures.
I used it all of 1 minute while the google experience launcher downloaded. But then again I came from an 3 years of nexus use.
Stock launcher is actually really cool. I love love love the domino transition effect. My only complaint was the lack of icon packs and the icon background (to make them uniform). The theme packs were ok but contained limited icons.
Nothing I didnt like but what it lacked aka what Nova could do more.
player911 said:
Stock launcher is actually really cool. I love love love the domino transition effect. My only complaint was the lack of icon packs and the icon background (to make them uniform). The theme packs were ok but contained limited icons.
Nothing I didnt like but what it lacked aka what Nova could do more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this guys! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jbrtechies.LGlollipop
Stock OEM launchers are terrible. Had to switch to Nova after a day. It's clunky and barely customizable. And it has terrible, terrible themes.
What's good about it and the only thing good about it is the Smart Bulletin and Smart Notice widget. Also, LG calendar widget is good, too.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
I was really hung on the Google Launcher on my Nexus. So I downloaded on my LG4 as well.. But it only gives 4 apps per row. That's way too little on a 5.5 inch phone..
The stock launcher isn't bad.. Only think I would like to see is that a swipe to the right would give me Google Now instead of LG thingie..
I dont hate the stock launcher im coming from the note 4 with tw so this is a step up but i prefer nova on all phones
Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk
I think I remember the Stock launcher being somewhat customizable as far as number of apps in the bottom row (I like 7) and it allows widgets to resize. The Themes do kinda suck but still pretty cool to have an option. They are just icon packs basically.
The App Grid doesn't really bother me any more. I have 3 homescreens. Full Page Twitter Widget, Blank Home, Full Page Facebook Widget (currently broke).
If they released a huge LG Home MIUI theme with tons of icons, then I could use it. Otherwise, I like my icons to be uniform (similar background / style). Plus for some reason Verizon pulled out the themes support on their G4
Th3Bill said:
I would agree with you. It's less wow than Sense, but I like it better than TW. It's smooth enough for my liking. I don't have any lag. I'm still learning it, as I've been with Sense or TW for last 2 years...
I just wish I could theme it the way I would like to. It's nice they have themes available for download, but they all look like they were designed for teenage girls in mind for the most part....too pastel and too bright. I'm more of a fan of darks and rather violent looking...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using this theme and I love it. It themes everything across the board: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jbrtechies.LGlollipop
---------- Post added at 12:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:59 AM ----------
Xcore66 said:
I used it all of 1 minute while the google experience launcher downloaded. But then again I came from an 3 years of nexus use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess the only thing you are not able to double tap to sleep your device, correct? I love Google Launcher I used to have it on my G3 , but with xposed and GEL Settings so I have all the functionalities.
I played with it for a couple of hours then went to my go-to Nova!! Especially don't like that the launcher doesn't rotate.
Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

Is there any way to darken the lollipop UI to take advantage of the amoled screen?

I have been searching and searching but I cannot find a straight answer for non-aosp TouchWiz phones. Ever since I began using my girlfriend's phone on lollipop I have been blinded by the new "Material Design" whiteness of it. I can hear it sucking down the battery as I use the phone. This seems to be accurate as the battery life on my girlfriends phone on 5.0 BOK3 is much worse than my 4.4.4 NK2 S5. I really want to switch her phone to Dark Holo (I believe that is the name of the kitkat theme) but I cannot figure out how. I have already switched her to Textra for SMS with a dark theme and set her lock screen and home background to black but when she pops the samsung keyboard the white is almost blinding. Does anyone have any advice? Her phone is rooted and xposed is installed. Thanks in advance.
striker1211 said:
I have been searching and searching but I cannot find a straight answer for non-aosp TouchWiz phones. Ever since I began using my girlfriend's phone on lollipop I have been blinded by the new "Material Design" whiteness of it. I can hear it sucking down the battery as I use the phone. This seems to be accurate as the battery life on my girlfriends phone on 5.0 BOK3 is much worse than my 4.4.4 NK2 S5. I really want to switch her phone to Dark Holo (I believe that is the name of the kitkat theme) but I cannot figure out how. I have already switched her to Textra for SMS with a dark theme and set her lock screen and home background to black but when she pops the samsung keyboard the white is almost blinding. Does anyone have any advice? Her phone is rooted and xposed is installed. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than custom roms with a theme on them no, there's nothing that I know of, if you find something let me know cause I'm interested in this as well. So far I took a theme from another s5 ROM and 'ported it' to mine, kind of an involved process.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
I cannot for the life of me figure out why they decided to go with a blinding white theme, negating one of the biggest advantages of the expensive SAMOLED. /:
Seems like quite a waste.
Steel Froggy said:
I cannot for the life of me figure out why they decided to go with a blinding white theme, negating one of the biggest advantages of the expensive SAMOLED. /:
Seems like quite a waste.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far I have as a kind-of-solution: Using Textra with Google Keyboard set to Dark. It's my girlfriend's phone so I can only try stuff if I can pry it out of her texting hands haha.
Steel Froggy said:
I cannot for the life of me figure out why they decided to go with a blinding white theme, negating one of the biggest advantages of the expensive SAMOLED. /:
Seems like quite a waste.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source? SAMOLED looks the same to me on either form.
smokerbond said:
Source? SAMOLED looks the same to me on either form.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Amoled screens use no power to display black, so the advantage is that a systemwide dark theme improves battery life.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
This may be of interest, but its only select system apps.
http://gs5.wonderhowto.com/how-to/b...ng-galaxy-s5-for-better-battery-life-0156502/

Confused about theming

I'm new to Sony devices and was looking to get a dark theme set up on my new X Compact. After digging around I'm pretty confused abut the whole thing and thought I'd ask for some help here.
I'm looking for white text on a black background. I think I'm doing something wrong here, because I can't seem to find a white on black theme in the native Xperia themes, but I can find one for Substratum. This seems odd because my understanding was that Substratum was a port of Sony's Overlay Manager Service.
In any event, from my understanding I've got 2 options:
1) Install OmniROM and Substratum
2) Install CM13 and use the built in theme engine
I'm a bit reluctant to install CM13 as it's still in alpha, which leaves me with the OmniROM solution. Is this accurate? (I should note, that it's great to see so much development for the X Compact so soon after launch!)
Thanks so much for any help.
I am not sure what you mean when you say you can't find a theme with white text on black background. Unless you mean that you want the theme to be always black, even in the settings and similar apps. That isn't possible, because since Kitkat Android (at least for Xperia) has two modes: bright theme and dark theme. The settings are always bright. I tried myself to invert the bright theme making it dark, but far too many things get unreadable because they aren't 100% customisable.
Still if you want to give a try with a a dark theme you may want to try this one. It's free (and don;t worry, the link doesn't have any ad. It's from Google shortner): https://goo.gl/PHyqRH
If you don't like it you can simply uninstall it and try another one. There are tons of free black themes. personally I'll never go as far as unlocking the bootloader and install a custom ROM just to have some different themes. Also because apparently most of the support for custom ROMs is ending. Cyanogenmod closed, for example. It has been taken over by someone else, but it won't probably be the same thing.
Thanks so much for your help with this. The monochrome theme you directed me to has some dark elements for sure, but I was looking for a completely black background. To be honest, I've been a bit surprised at how much I'm bothered by the white backdrop, especially at night. I've been using a dark CM theme on another phone for years, and didn't really think that a small change like this would make such a difference to me.
I think you understand what I'm looking for, but just to confirm here are some links to the play store:
Black Background using CM13: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blissroms.moelle.ddoverhauled
Black Background using Substratum: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brit.swiftblack.layers
Nope. As I wrote the stock Android for Xperia doesn't support the dark panels on the bright themes. Or better, it's possible to put dark backgrounds in a bright theme, but after that far too many elements get unreadable. Dark text for starting, which can't be changed. The clock and SMS apps get quite messy for example.
The CM ROMs have its own customisation engine, different from the one Sony has implemented for the Xperia phones (and thus as far as I know their themes are not compatible). The same I believe applies to SubStratum, which I don't know. But I suppose you need root to install it. And also it may conflict with the Xperia customisation.
Still there are plenty of great themes that change the backgrounds to different colours or even images. They won't be totally dark, but they are a relief from the obnoxious pure white. Blue themes are usually the best for that purpose. Also the Golden themes are quite popular at the moment. This (still free) at least removes the white, replacing it with gold color: https://goo.gl/WK9yGm

[Q] Where is the black theme? Night mode? Notifications always white

No matter what theme I'm on, I always have white notifications. I just like darker themes and have always used them back in my AOSP days because they just look better and less iPhone-y when I use my phone. In some cases saves more battery life on amoled screens.
Anyone know how to can find my needs wants? lol.
Nougat 7.0 S7E
I have a few black themes was really hoping the Nougat update was going to extend more of that area into the theme setup, but it hasn't.
Right now there is no way to make notifications black.
BTW wear is your favorite black theme?
Good Lock app by Samsung allowed for the notification cards to have dark backgrounds. There is no Nougat-compatible version thus far. Samsung said they would have a new version for the 7.0 software, but I'm not very confident that will actually happen.
I have a hacker theme and tjay dkes the job for me. Almost nothing white except the msg app
ShrekOpher said:
I have a few black themes was really hoping the Nougat update was going to extend more of that area into the theme setup, but it hasn't.
Right now there is no way to make notifications black.
BTW wear is your favorite black theme?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On MM I liked one called something like Touchwiz Dark, it was basically the way some Samsung models used to have dark menus and dark dialer/messaging instead of light. Doesn't seem to be there on Nougat tho, at least I can't find it. There are some other decent ones on Nougat but there is always at least 1 thing I don't like in each one lol. How bout you?
I use Material Black on both MM and Nougat. Definitely would like to darken the notifications.

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