Database Users

Gestures to emulate missing back and menu buttons?

Rather than using soft keys, a rather elegant and simple solution would be to use gestures to emulate the missing hardware buttons. You could have a program that runs in the background and attempts to detect a 3-finger swipe for "back" and perhaps a 4-finger tap for the "menu". This method would even work for full-screen apps. Does such an app exist?

Currently the software on the nook only recognizes two fingers, so those specific gestures are out for now.
However I saw someone mention that running your finger right to left across the status bar in 1.2 stock works as a "back" gesture

ylixir said:
Currently the software on the nook only recognizes two fingers, so those specific gestures are out for now.
However I saw someone mention that running your finger right to left across the status bar in 1.2 stock works as a "back" gesture
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Click to collapse
Well, I'm talking about a general Android app running on a rooted NC and not the preloaded software. It would have to be a low-level program that would intercept all touch-screen activity and detect if any of the selected gestures were performed. If not, then pass the touchscreen activity to the currently running app.

ylixir said:
However I saw someone mention that running your finger right to left across the status bar in 1.2 stock works as a "back" gesture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was that way in the older versions too. Pretty cool trick.
After Murdock's mod, softkeys are pretty nice.

there is an app called zmooth on the market.

zmooth rocks! Been using it for a while. Just made is very slim, and I put it on the bottom of the screen. Works great!

ylixir said:
Currently the software on the nook only recognizes two fingers, so those specific gestures are out for now.
However I saw someone mention that running your finger right to left across the status bar in 1.2 stock works as a "back" gesture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny thing is, that's in the manual
And it works for any non-full screen app on stock. I use Zeam on stock (never touch the home launcher), but the B&N status bar is always there anyway. As long as it's not full screen, you can use the right-to-left swipe to go back.

I crave a brightness button

I have found all kinds of widgets for controlling brightness, but they all have one disadvantage - you have to first go to the home screen and then click on the widget. I really want a way to control brightness from any application without having to leave the application to go back to the home screen. The CM9 based rom I'm using (Paranoid Android) actually has something like this ... but I don't like it for two reasons. The first is that it takes two taps to bring up the brightness slider. (One tap to open the notification window, and a second tape to bring up the toggle screen). The 2nd reason (and more significant) is that the slider is quite small and for me it does not feel very responsive or easy to control. The brightness slider control from some of the widgets I have tried are much easier to use.
Ideally I could bring up a brightness widget by long pressing on the physical home button. Currently this long press on my note will bring up the recently used apps, but this function is already served by a soft button provided by CM9. I've read that the ADWlauncherEX will allow you to reprogram the function of the long press - although installing and learning how to use a launcher seems like overkill, especially since I have a rom that already includes quite a sophisticated launcher.
I found an app that would bring up a brightness slider when you clicked on the vol up or down buttons. This worked well for brightness although was a major drag when all I wanted to do was adjust the volume. I also found an application that would allow you to call an app or a widget in response to a double or triple click of the volume buttons. That seemed ideal because it would give me quick access to a brightness control without interfering with the main use of the volume rocker. Unfortunately that application seems to have been discontinued (why!) and I couldn't even seem to find an old verison of that.
Another idea would be to reassign one of the soft keys provided by CM9. Since these soft keys merely duplicate the functions of the existing galaxy note keys (the physical home button and the two buttons on either side of it). Unfortunately I have yet to find an application that can remap one of those buttons. Another idea would be to add another soft button near the 3 soft buttons that are already there. (Are their any applications that can do that?)
And finally I figured that brightness could be controlled via screen gestures. I did find some applications that claimed to be able to do this, although I couldn't get them to work on my Note.
If you know of any application or method that can provide a brightness control button, please let me know as this is the only remaining aspect of the note's user interface that is still driving me nuts.
Thanks
~Paul

Wasn't there a feature in CyanogenMod 7 that would allow to change brightness via sliding sideways in notification area? Too bad it never worked for me in any of the phones I tried CM7 in. I understood it should have worked with no slider? Just sliding your finger accross the notifications area? That would be better than a slider imo.

I've not used paranoid android, I'm using the RC of CM9 and that does have status bar brightness control. To turn it on you go to system, then Status bar and there is a tick box. Maybe that is still included in PA if it is CM9 based? It lets you control the brightness from anywhere just by swiping left and right on the status bar.
It is not as nice as the notification tray slider you can find in AOKP roms, and there used to be a mod for CM9 that did this, but it no longer works, but it is better than nothing.

Ekreed said:
I've not used paranoid android, I'm using the RC of CM9 and that does have status bar brightness control. To turn it on you go to system, then Status bar and there is a tick box. It lets you control the brightness from anywhere just by swiping left and right on the status bar.
It is not as nice as the notification tray slider you can find in AOKP roms, and there used to be a mod for CM9 that did this, but it no longer works, but it is better than nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly what I meant.

I use QBright it works great.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...Bright&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
John.

hi bro,
i m using switchpro widget. u can put the widget inside notification bar. and can set the brightness level.

Tinderbox (UK) said:
I use QBright it works great.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...Bright&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
John.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip John. Qbright certainly has one of the best brightness slider bars I've seen and the configurable buttons are great. However I have to say I'm somewhat mystified about how you use it. Qbright says you can activate it by long pressing on the search button. Search button? Do we have such a thing? On either side of the physical home button I only have the menu and back buttons. By long pressing the menu button I do get the search menu ... but it doesn't bring up Qbright. There is also a "Google" button at the top of the launcher. Pressing on that also brings up the search menu, but again it can't bring up Qbright. I'm running Paranoid Android. Maybe that's the problem. Does the stock ICS have a search button?
Thanks
~Paul

To edit the setting.
Open the QBright app and then press the hard menu button left of the home key.
John.

Tinderbox (UK) said:
To edit the setting.
Open the QBright app and then press the hard menu button left of the home key.
John.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Tinderbox. Thanks for your reply but I think you seriously misinterpreted my question. I mentioned that I like that the Qbright buttons are configurable so I obviously found the preferences menu. But I was asking how you bring up the Qbright widget (other than clicking on its icon from the home screen of course). The documentation suggests this can be done by "long pressing on the search button". (There is no preference item related to this). I couldn't bring up the Qbright widget by long pressing on anything, so I'm wondering how you do this. If you actually have to go back to the home screen to start the widget, that would greatly detract from the beauty of the widget (which I'm sure is why they put the search long press capability into Qbright). But as I indicated in my previous message, it seems that the galaxy note does not have a dedicated search button, so this feature may not work. There are so many ways one could start such a widget I'm somewhat amazed that no one has figured out how to do it. (Or maybe they have and I am just in the dark or very confused). One way would be to long press on the back button. As far as I know, this currently does nothing so there would be no drawback what so ever. Perhaps a long press on the volume up or down button could also work for such a thing. Or an extra item could be added to the menu that appears when you press the power button. Or since I have a CM9 derived rom, it gives me three more soft keys (back, home, and recent apps). A long press on any of those could be used to bring up the widget. Or even a regular press on the first two could be used since they are duplicates for buttons I already have elsewhere.
Is this a valid question, or am I out in left field somewhere?
~Paul

I once accidentally set my brightness so low that I couldn't see the screen AT ALL.
I found myself really wishing there was some foolproof way to reset the screen to 100% brightness.
For example, rebooting the phone auto-resets the brightness to 100% or something.
I also tried using tasker so some obscure combination like volume+home could also reset the brightness.
I don't recall how I managed to reset my phone - i couldn't see anything. I think I just flailed about on it.
- Frank

Paul...i am lookingforthis too...qbright should have an option to change that... So you can ise the long oress menu button for us note users wjo dont havr a search butto
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app

Try kimi's.15 toggles. Gives you 15toggles in the notification bar, brightness being one of them. Need to flash it via recovery though.

Can i flash that in temprary cwn? I have a stock rom with the temp.cwm root.method
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app

I think it should beok to flash via temp cwm. Ask in the kim's thread just to be sure.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rubberbigpepper.DisplayBrightness&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInJ1YmJlcmJpZ3BlcHBlci5EaXNwbGF5QnJpZ2h0bmVzcyJd
I use this you can put it anywhere on the screen.

Download Slider Widget and add it to home screen.

Alexanderbooth said:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rubberbigpepper.DisplayBrightness&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsInJ1YmJlcmJpZ3BlcHBlci5EaXNwbGF5QnJpZ2h0bmVzcyJd
I use this you can put it anywhere on the screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At first I thought that might be the answer, but I ran into two problems with it. The main one was that I would accidently change the brightness pretty often when I was just trying to click on an icon for instance. (Unless I made the slider very thin ... but then it was too hard to grab the slider). The other problem was that some of my full screen applications would force themselves on top and the slider would not activate.
Someone in another thread suggested what I now feel is the ultimate solution:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Originally Posted by aalupatti View Post
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....home2shortcut
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Oh my gosh!!! You weren't kidding. Such an application does really exist
This solves all my problems with the galaxy note.
I can't believe this was so hard to find. I can't imagine that anyone would uninstall this application after trying it. It's like getting 3 extra hardware buttons for free!
I'm using:
- Home,Home to bring up Qbright.
- Home,Back to bring up papyrus (you never know when you need to scribble a note)
- Home,Menu to bring up a toggle widget (haven't decided which one yet, although I'm sure it will be easier to use than the built in PA one).
Thanks a million.
~Paul

Paul what is this app called the link doesnt work
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda app-developers app

asf58967 said:
Paul what is this app called the link doesnt work
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Click to collapse
Type in "Home2 Shortcut" into the play store. Or you could probably type in the author's name which is "Hideki Kato".
~Paul

You can adjust the brightness on most Note ROMs by deactivating auto brightness and tap + hold on the statusbar and slide the finger.
Left = Decrease the brightness
Right = Increase the brightness
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

[Q] Did the menu position change for Android for an update or something?

My menu position is at the top right now, where it used to be on the bottom. I liked it better at the bottom. I did switch phones, I came from an S III that had Paranoid Android 3.99RC2 on it, and now have a LG G2 with the most recent CM11 nightly on it. So, is the menu button a CM thing, or a Kit Kat thing? Or was the bottom menu a PA thing? I want to put it back at the bottom if there is a way to do that.
Also, another unrelated question, is there a way to make the home button also the 'most recent' button by holding it down?

For the second question, to deal with it for now, I just put the side menu button on at all times and put the recent activity button where I usually put the menu button, but I'd still like to have it back to the setup I am used to.

bump

RCizzle65 said:
bump
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Click to collapse
can't you change it in setting, display, front touch buttons?

datechnerd said:
can't you change it in setting, display, front touch buttons?
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Click to collapse
There is no front touch buttons in display. There is "buttons and layout" in interface, but I can't make it change to hold the home button to be a function.

RCizzle65 said:
There is no front touch buttons in display. There is "buttons and layout" in interface, but I can't make it change to hold the home button to be a function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well stock you could change it in settings
you could try xposed framework and get g2 xposed from the playstore, note sure it itll work on aosp roms

Yeah I don't think G2 Xposed works in AOSP, thanks though

RCizzle65 said:
Yeah I don't think G2 Xposed works in AOSP, thanks though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to double check the G2 Xposed thread. I'm 99% certain he's made it work with AOSP ROMs now.

Question before buying ZUK Z1

I was so close buying the ZUK Z1 until I noticed some user review saying there's Cyanogenmod and CyanogenOS, I didn't know there's difference
The item I was going to buy is from eBay- http://tinyurl.com/jg8swsz
Down the page there are photos of the phone and one of them saying "Cyanogen OS 12.1"
What's the difference between the two? Should I buy this item?
Seller saying this is Cyanogen 12.1 , he doesn't know if it's OS/MOD as it something new to me as well .....
Please help me understand what does that mean

CyanogenOS is the software (rom) and it was made by Cyanogenmod.
Gesendet von iPad mit Tapatalk

AzN MusiQ said:
CyanogenOS is the software (rom) and it was made by Cyanogenmod.
Gesendet von iPad mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should I buy it from the seller? I mean all the phones of the ZUK Z1 I saw are CyanogenOS.... Will I have OTA for the 6.0 android when it's available?

Yes you will Buy it and enjoy.
OTA for Android 6 for Zuk should be in March.

Shivver said:
Yes you will Buy it and enjoy.
OTA for Android 6 for Zuk should be in March.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I heard that there's difference between the ZUI & Cyanogen with the home button and the capacitive keys. The capacitive keys function as back & settings? is the finger id works good with the cyanogenos?
CyanogenOS model has the capacitive keys?
My friend has this phone for over a month (with cyanogen) , suddenly the phone turned off and doesn't turn on anymore, any fix for this?

koloko12 said:
I heard that there's difference between the ZUI & Cyanogen with the home button and the capacitive keys. The capacitive keys function as back & settings? is the finger id works good with the cyanogenos?
CyanogenOS model has the capacitive keys?
My friend has this phone for over a month (with cyanogen) , suddenly the phone turned off and doesn't turn on anymore, any fix for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My preference is version with cyanogenos, if you are interested in some modifications you can always change it to whatever you want. Check the forum. On zui capacitive home button works from start. On cyanogenos you need to install small modification, but cyanogenos is much more optimized. Whatever you buy you will get help with modifications on this forum
Sent from Zuk Z1 using Tapatalk

Shivver said:
My preference is version with cyanogenos, if you are interested in some modifications you can always change it to whatever you want. Check the forum. On zui capacitive home button works from start. On cyanogenos you need to install small modification, but cyanogenos is much more optimized. Whatever you buy you will get help with modifications on this forum
Sent from Zuk Z1 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool mate, I am really looking buying this phone, great quality for low price.
As for the capacitive keys, if I buy the above item with the cyanogenOS - what do you mean I;ll have to do some modification and installation? is it something I do from the phone settings to make the keys work? I hope you don't mean rooting/flashing things :3

I mean flashing but trust me if u don't want to flash anything cyanogenos version is much better than zui and u can live without capacitive home button, maybe in March they will add it to the update.
Sent from Zuk Z1 using Tapatalk

I still think I misunderstood you
There are 2 capactive keys that function as "back" and "Settings", the home button function as fingerprint ID and pressing it goes to home and long press is the tasks screen, am I correct?
To which one of the OS I need to flash things, the CyanogenOS or the ZUI? because I heard the Cyanogen comes already with the capative keys.. please explain to me

koloko12 said:
I still think I misunderstood you
There are 2 capactive keys that function as "back" and "Settings", the home button function as fingerprint ID and pressing it goes to home and long press is the tasks screen, am I correct?
To which one of the OS I need to flash things, the CyanogenOS or the ZUI? because I heard the Cyanogen comes already with the capative keys.. please explain to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In cyanogenos and cyanogenmod they have disabled the capacitive home button. It's only a home button now and it does read fingerprints.
They did that to conserve power because if the button is always on it creates wake locks. Only the Zui version has the capacitive button now.
B.t.w. the phone is really great for the money you pay for. It's fast, the battery life is good and Cyanogen out of the box. And it has a very fast working fingerprint reader. When you like nightly builds you will have updates available almost every day. And you have 64GB fast storage without the need for slow sd cards.

Planet X said:
In cyanogenos and cyanogenmod they have disabled the capacitive home button. It's only a home button now and it does read fingerprints.
They did that to conserve power because if the button is always on it creates wake locks. Only the Zui version has the capacitive button now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In the CyanogenOS and Cyanogenmod, there are 2 capactive keys from the side of the Home Button? How they function? As back and settings?
In CyanogenOS and Cyanogenmod the Home button function as finger print ?
What do you mean by "only the zui version has the capactive button now"?

koloko12 said:
In the CyanogenOS and Cyanogenmod, there are 2 capactive keys from the side of the Home Button? How they function? As back and settings?
In CyanogenOS and Cyanogenmod the Home button function as finger print ?
What do you mean by "only the zui version has the capactive button now"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The capacitive buttons on the left and right are usually setup to Back and Multitasking. But you can change them to anything you want to in cyanogen os and mod. Sorry that I misunderstood you. In the first versions of cyanogenos you had also swipe actions on the home button. I have these buttons always disabled as I do like the onscreen buttons more. The screen is big enough to use them.

Are you sure you can set them to anything?! If you have a Oneplus you can do it, but I tried on ZUK and there is no such option. The right key is back (which sucks)

Hmm, I think I made a mistake :/
I asked the seller multiple times if that's CyanogenOS 12.1 and he confirmed, So I made a payment through PayPal and I sent a a message with the following pictures, asked him how the phone home page looks.
He said it looks like picture number " 1 ", isn't that the ZUI OS? I'll try to cancel the order before he ships the item, but in case it's too late, is it possible to flash COS/CM? Do I need to flash custom recovery or I can flash COS/CM right away?

koloko12 said:
Hmm, I think I made a mistake :/
I asked the seller multiple times if that's CyanogenOS 12.1 and he confirmed, So I made a payment through PayPal and I sent a a message with the following pictures, asked him how the phone home page looks.
He said it looks like picture number " 1 ", isn't that the ZUI OS? I'll try to cancel the order before he ships the item, but in case it's too late, is it possible to flash COS/CM? Do I need to flash custom recovery or I can flash COS/CM right away?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right. Picture 2 is Cyanogen OS. Why don't you order via zuk-shop.com?

This is making me insane - footer navigation (the software home and back button)

Love my G 4, Love Resurrection Remix, but the software home and back buttons are making me insane. They appear below the keyboard when I type and I very often hit them when typing. I searched and searched and cannot find any reference to this which leads me to believe there is a simple solution I am overlooking. Can someone please be kind enough to point me in the right direction? Thank you.

DarkQuark said:
Love my G 4, Love Resurrection Remix, but the software home and back buttons are making me insane. They appear below the keyboard when I type and I very often hit them when typing. I searched and searched and cannot find any reference to this which leads me to believe there is a simple solution I am overlooking. Can someone please be kind enough to point me in the right direction? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So in the RR rom I found where you can turn off the nav bar. But that kills it 100% so that is not feasible. I then found in customization settings for the RR Rom "expanded desktop". This allows you to turn off the nav bar in particular apps. While this works, as soon as the keyboard pops up so does the nav bar.
I might try killing the nav bar and turning on Pie controls (built into the Rom).

DarkQuark said:
So in the RR rom I found where you can turn off the nav bar. But that kills it 100% so that is not feasible. I then found in customization settings for the RR Rom "expanded desktop". This allows you to turn off the nav bar in particular apps. While this works, as soon as the keyboard pops up so does the nav bar.
I might try killing the nav bar and turning on Pie controls (built into the Rom).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... navbar softkeys have always been normally enabled for the keyboard.

negusp said:
... navbar softkeys have always been normally enabled for the keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Understood. It appears to be an issue for me because when hitting the space bar I often hit the nav bar closing my app or pulling up the task list.
As of now I have it disabled and am using the fingerprint scanner as a home button.