I searched high and low on xda and on google for a solution to this and couldn't find anything.
Has anyone else noticed that anycut and bettercut no longer work with the newest EVO update? I've been trying to create shortcuts and it will say Shortcut Created even though nothing was really created. Either that or it won't say anything at all.
Is there any other solution to creating your own icons on your phone? This was one of my favorite features and it pains me that it's gone because I'm developing my own phone icon set and I kind of NEED to have that ability to test how they look on the phone...
Are there any other apps that can do this with the new EVO update? Any alternate solutions?
I didn't notice this until you mentioned it. Is there any way around this? I really want to use some custom icons.
I came from a Treo device, and one of the best features on that device was the ability to just start dialing from the home screen. Most of the android phones do support searching for your contacts by typing from the home screen, but as far as I know, none support input of actual numbers.
I realize the maximum benefit is only there if you own a device like the Droid Pro with a portrait keyboard, but surely I'm not the only one that misses this feature. I believe it was available on Blackberries as well, so I'm sure there's a ton of BB users that miss this.
If it's an easy thing to do, I'm sure a developer could write something without wasting too much time, and it would earn them some money if they chose to make it a paid app.
Anybody interested in this? I'm willing to help in any way I can, and I'd even write the app, but I have no coding experience, so I'd probably just screw something up.
You'll have to open an app either way, unless you have a hardware keyboard, so why not use a traditional dialer app? If you want a smart dialer check out dialer one.
Theres also an app that will let you pin shortcuts to apps to the notification panel.
I'm not sure what you're looking for exactly.. on all touchscreen phones your options are limited and you'll need to use search and then open the keyboard or another app at some point to call someone.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
This app would be meant for phones that have keyboards.
I refuse to buy a phone without one.
freak4dell said:
I came from a Treo device, and one of the best features on that device was the ability to just start dialing from the home screen. Most of the android phones do support searching for your contacts by typing from the home screen, but as far as I know, none support input of actual numbers.
I realize the maximum benefit is only there if you own a device like the Droid Pro with a portrait keyboard, but surely I'm not the only one that misses this feature. I believe it was available on Blackberries as well, so I'm sure there's a ton of BB users that miss this.
If it's an easy thing to do, I'm sure a developer could write something without wasting too much time, and it would earn them some money if they chose to make it a paid app.
Anybody interested in this? I'm willing to help in any way I can, and I'd even write the app, but I have no coding experience, so I'd probably just screw something up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some homescreen dialer widgets in the market, which allow you to dial right from a home screen.
I have what I hope is a simple request. I love the built-in task manager built into my samsung epic. I have found an apk for it but it won't install. Is there any way someone who understand code could look into why it won't install? I can email the file if needed.
Thanks
Is it a Samsung specific app? If it is, I think you are not going to have any luck getting it to run on anything other than a similar Samsung device.
I was in a similar situation when I first got my A7. I wanted to use some of the stock apps from my HTC Evo on it, and it would fail every time. Turns out that HTC apps rely heavily on a separate framework that HTC also installs on their devices, without it most apps won't even install, and those that do just FC on launch.
I would suspect the same thing here.
Unfortunately it is Samsung specific so I guess I'm out of luck...... Oh well, back to the old drawing board
Moved as not android development
Hey guys,
In an effort to 'hack' the Sense homescreen to use a custom launch/shortcut bar, I am creating an app that needs to know if the homescreen is currently visible. With this, I need some help.
I've been looking at four possibilities to do this:
1. constantly poll the window manager for the current activity. This works, however my battery doesn't like this and it's generally bad practice.
2. Use a widget to tell the service wether it's active. Too bad, Android doesn't seem to provide some kind of event to a widget when the homescreen is opened. Strange though, as you'd say this would be very useful when updating widgets. Am I overlooking something?
3. Watch the logcat or message broadcast. This works nicely to intercept a user moving away from the homescreen at it will output this when switching activities:
08-22 12:25:28.891: VERBOSE/HtcAppUsageStats(255): (launch app, package): (People, com.android.htccontacts)
I think I could intercept that, but then there's another problem. Pressing home broadcasts this message for com.htc.launcher, however using the back key (or even software options) to move back to the homescreen do not invoke this.
4. Intercept hardware presses. This seems rather hard when you don't want to actually do something with the presses. This combined with the above method would give me a decent way to see if the homescreen is active.
But all of those methods just don't work the way I want them to. Anyone got a clue on how to accomplish this? I don't mind if I require root access or some dirty programming, by the way. After all, it's some sort of a hack.
A push in the right direction would be very welcome
Quick kick. No one knows a solution for this?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App
If this is just for sense, have you checked the openSense sdk?
From something awesome
I haven't really looked into this, I also have no experience with widgets, but using my general knowledge in how Android works, concerning 2), does the widget not receive a visibility change? I know for LiveWallpapers there is a void VisibilityChanged(boolean visible) method that allows it to update when visible. Do Widgets not have this?
killersnowman said:
If this is just for sense, have you checked the openSense sdk?
From something awesome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't find the documentation of it. But it must be somewhere, this is indeed another option to look into.
Metastable said:
I haven't really looked into this, I also have no experience with widgets, but using my general knowledge in how Android works, concerning 2), does the widget not receive a visibility change? I know for LiveWallpapers there is a void VisibilityChanged(boolean visible) method that allows it to update when visible. Do Widgets not have this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried all the event listeners I could find in the reference. I don't remember the VisibilityChanged method thou, will look into that tonight. Otherwise I might be able to build a Live Wallpaper and hook it to a service.. Interesting
Thanks both!
Hi. Here's the deal...my elderly parents are travelling this winter in another country. International roaming is expensive, as is international travel, and we're looking for as many ways as we can to save money. One of the ways we've considered to deal with both of these problems is to buy a sim card where they are at, rather than bringing their phone from home and paying outrageous international roaming charges. This is where Hero comes in...I have an unlocked HTC Hero that I could let them use. The problem is, they are intimidated by technology, and having a capable phone with lots of features is overwhelming to them. I was wondering if there's a way I can lock the phone down so it goes to the dialer and nowhere else. No lock screen, no email, no Android market, no text messages sent or received, none of that, just the dialer to make and receive calls. Ideally, I'd like to be able to return it to normal functionality when I get it back, but if this is a one-way thing, that's OK, too. It is currently running Elelinux-7.1-Hero-v3.6-Light.
I apologize profusely if this is a silly question...I'm new at all of this.
Tired_ said:
Hi. Here's the deal...my elderly parents are travelling this winter in another country. International roaming is expensive, as is international travel, and we're looking for as many ways as we can to save money. One of the ways we've considered to deal with both of these problems is to buy a sim card where they are at, rather than bringing their phone from home and paying outrageous international roaming charges. This is where Hero comes in...I have an unlocked HTC Hero that I could let them use. The problem is, they are intimidated by technology, and having a capable phone with lots of features is overwhelming to them. I was wondering if there's a way I can lock the phone down so it goes to the dialer and nowhere else. No lock screen, no email, no Android market, no text messages sent or received, none of that, just the dialer to make and receive calls. Ideally, I'd like to be able to return it to normal functionality when I get it back, but if this is a one-way thing, that's OK, too. It is currently running Elelinux-7.1-Hero-v3.6-Light.
I apologize profusely if this is a silly question...I'm new at all of this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's kind of easy what you want...but not every thing can be erased
1ownload eles ROM
2. Open the archive with WinRar or other app that you use
3. Go to /system/apps and you will find all the app there with the extension .apk
4. Delete what you think that they won't use (but be very careful): for example market.apk (you said that they don't need it)
4. Close the program and you will see that the rom is more lighter
5. Flash the rom
6. Enjoy
For the part with the lock screen i don't think i can help you...
Hope you get work done
Stefan
The lock screen part is really the important part. The other apps can still be installed, just abstracted away from my parent's eyes, if they're locked into the dialer. I guess I wasn't clear enough when I described what I was looking for. I want to make it so that the dialer program is the only program accessible to the user...when they press the home button, I want it to go to the dialer rather than to a launcher. When the screen goes off due to inactivity, I want it to go to the dialer right away when any button is pressed rather than showing a lock screen. On iPhone (sorry, it's a platform I'm more familiar with), there's a jailbreak app called IncarcerApp that can do this...is there anything similar for Hero?
Lockscreen
Hi there! If you want to get rid of the lock screen what you can do is go into settings on the phone then Cyanogen mod settings then tablet tweaks and in there, there is a tick box or similar that you can press to disable the lock screen!
Hope that Helped
Thanks for the tip, PP337, but that's still not what I am looking for. I did some Googling last night, and I found a lot of developers refer to what I am looking for as 'Kiosk Mode'. Unfortunately, everything I found on that is in the context of creating a new app, rather than using an existing one.
I'm obviously not making myself clear enough, but I'm not sure how I can phrase it more clearly. I really hope we won't have to go buy a junky SIMlocked Nokia phone that we'll have to throw out in three months when they come home.
i can't understand one think....why is it so hard to unlock a phone??? especially when it's so simple...
Stefan
Unlocking a phone is indeed simple, for you and I. But for an elderly person, particularly one who is unfamiliar with technology, being confronted with a screen full of app icons can be intimidating. I tried to get my mom to use the Android phone as it is, and she is terrified of breaking something or doing something wrong, to the point where she won't use it for those fears.
I have to say, I hadn't expected it would be this difficult to make this 'open platform' do what I want it to. If it were iPhone, I'd be done by now. Disappointing.
Could you not just remove all the homescreen icons? Can't remember which launcher comes with that ROM, but if you install launcher pro for example, you can remove all the icons even the dock. You can then choose to have just one homescreen and just the dialer icon. Or you could leave it blank to just select the dialer button to make calls. Then disable the lock screen as described above. Would that be ok for them ?
Tired_ said:
I have to say, I hadn't expected it would be this difficult to make this 'open platform' do what I want it to. If it were iPhone, I'd be done by now. Disappointing.
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how old are your parents that you say that they "can't unlock" a phone... Both my parents use android on their phones and don't have any problems....
Don't want to be rude or things like that but it's easy on android...
Stefan
stefpaul said:
how old are your parents that you say that they "can't unlock" a phone... Both my parents use android on their phones and don't have any problems....
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She's 72, and in the early stages of Alzheimer's. He's 70 and has a severe learning disability.
I tried the suggestion someone posted about LauncherPro with only one icon. She accidentally long-pressed an empty space and the menu came up and she didn't know what to do. I was able to tell her what to do because I am here now, but if that had happened when I wasn't around she wouldn't have been able to cope at all, for fear it was dialing some 1-900 number or doing something else she didn't want. I'm shocked that it isn't possible to lock Hero into a single app, but it seems it simply isn't. Thanks anyways for all your help.
Tired_ said:
She's 72, and in the early stages of Alzheimer's. He's 70 and has a severe learning disability.
I tried the suggestion someone posted about LauncherPro with only one icon. She accidentally long-pressed an empty space and the menu came up and she didn't know what to do. I was able to tell her what to do because I am here now, but if that had happened when I wasn't around she wouldn't have been able to cope at all, for fear it was dialing some 1-900 number or doing something else she didn't want. I'm shocked that it isn't possible to lock Hero into a single app, but it seems it simply isn't. Thanks anyways for all your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are they traveling alone? That sounds like something you should worry about more then just having a phone for them
You could use adw and lock the desktop by pressing menu and choosing 'lock desktop'. That would prevent any accidental menus popping up. You could also hide the status bar from adw settings and disable the lockscreen from cm tweaks menu. You could also download a dialer widget (https://market.android.com/details?id=dialer.impact) and set that as a widget on a single homescreen and lock the desktop on adw launcher.
Hope that helped
Car Home may help