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While I was fascinated about the idea of a new UI for WM, the introduction of PointUI was a bit of a damp squib. The story of PointUI is like the story of the emperors clothes: its far from perfect but nobody wants to speak out against the overwhelming hype.There are a few things about the interface that irritate me. Hope fully the updates will take care of this:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
2. No app shortcuts. The first screenshots of the UI gave the impression that you could access shortcuts via pages which could be accessed through a simple left or right sliding motion. The current setup puts it just below a properly configured HTC Home with 6 tabs. Whats the point of seeing two versions of the time and the calendar?
3. Screen locking is ridiculous. In this day and age of slide to unlock programs with dpad unlocking and additional information displayed,it seems the prog prioritised being different rather than being practical, especially with the apparent lack of a clock.
Then again, I could be wrong....
hmm
i think PointUI are just in its early stages, however i do agreen with some of your points. We just need to give the developers some time. they have started off with a great base.
they have a fix for the first problem you listed
check the pointui forums for it
its still in beta..so i'm still awaiting how the final product will be
im sure they'll be making some major improvements and additions to it
Vukile said:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
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press title of the running program ... you get to the same screen as going through the running programs.
but with the rest i agree its very inefficent to start a program ... efficent handling has to be priored ... not just eyecandy. so i don't use it anymore...
if you are in a program tap where the start button used to be top left and you will get the option to force close.
I also find it better when changing the setting object navigation to slide navigation for getting to my apps.
however
One must admit that it does have an amazing UI. i feel is much better than the iphone UI
# 3 is also addressed by allowing 3rd party screen lock progs like S2U2. Their latest official build 1.01b enables this. I applaud their efforts. Not because its free. Not just cuz its new. But because it is pretty well thought out and performs more smoothly than any other shell app out there, esp w.r.t. animations and transitions.
I second that. I have good expectations for it.
jomo25 said:
# 3 is also addressed by allowing 3rd party screen lock progs like S2U2. Their latest official build 1.01b enables this. I applaud their efforts. Not because its free. Not just cuz its new. But because it is pretty well thought out and performs more smoothly than any other shell app out there, esp w.r.t. animations and transitions.
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If you like PointUI,then youll love SPB Shell. My main problem with this UI is that I can get better efficiency with HTC Home and a couple MortButtons shortcuts. I can access anything faster with that combination than with PointUI. Its not a revolution,its a fancy skin.
Does anyone else find the scrolling to be annoying? How it's inversed and extremely painful to scroll through large content?
chunga168 said:
Does anyone else find the scrolling to be annoying? How it's inversed and extremely painful to scroll through large content?
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Its supposed to be like that. Like you are grabbing the page and flicking it. Have you tried "flicking" its fun.
In fact, I don't like ftouchflo because it doesn't seem to allow me to flick like I want to.
Things I don't like about PointUI:
1) clocks, calendars all don't need to be on seperate screens. Would be nice to have a home screen that shows time/date/appoints/etc and the be able to flick over to application.
2) Not integrated (same problem I have with the cube). Along with the cube, its useful getting to stuff, but when you actually open the program it usually requires a stylus.
Thins I like about PointUI:
1) Smooth scrolling and animations. Honestly its amazing.
Vukile said:
1. You cant close any programs from within the UI,only minimise. You get to see running programs after looking through many menus only to find that you have to exit/minimise the UI to really close the program.
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Try the new patch on the point UI forum posted by the devolepers 2 test, it has the x buttom insted of the - minimise buttom and it closes the programmes ....
@ Vukile: Don't count me in the camp of people who need to have access to "everything in as few clicks as possible". I'd rather have a simple to understand, clean, uncluttered interface, even if it takes a few extra gestures/taps to do it. Very frequently used stuff should be quick, and less frequent, further away. While I understand how some want to have every function within one screen, I'd prefer otherwise. So, I actually like the promise of this more than SPB Shell...But to each his/her own.
@ Chunga168: I also intuitively prefer the iPhone/PocketCM type scrolling, however, the method they have implemented is actually better for long lists. If you have to "iPhone flick" to the bottom of a long list, it could take a while. Being able to have it scroll while holding is actually faster for some. It's a case of preferences IMO, so I hope (and expect) they will implement both and make it optional.
I dont know...ive been trying everything from spb products to all kind of invented cubes...but i guess i will stay longer with pointui because IMO its so interacitve and fast...but a hiccup here and there is normal...but the developer is going to take all of our [email protected] to improve...
Well I've really enjoyed Pointui. It's good that there are developers taking a good look at the Windows Mobile UI, although to be fair HTC themselves have been working on obvious improvements, and Lg might be worth keeping an eye on.
Pointui.Home is beautifully animated, looks good and feels good to use, the developer team seem pretty dedicated, and it has the potential to be an amazing phone interface.
However that is my niggle, see to me, my Artemis is not a phone with a PDA attached, but a PDA with a phone attached, and for all it's graphical loveliness Pointui.Home actually makes using my PDA more complicated. I enjoyed Spb Mobile Shell, it's NOW screens were great, and it's version of finger friendliness with big chunky thumbable buttons worked well. Funnily enough the reason I stopped using it was because it was bloated and buggy, and I wanted to give HTC Home a good run for it's money.
But to me Aesthetics are important, it's nice to use a good looking interface, and Pointui seems to be top for that, but I'm already tempted to remove it, and even tempted to forgive Spb's faults.
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
daverage said:
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
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I agree, it should at least give you the option of choosing what you put on the soft keys. It sits on the top bar anyway, why map it? Only seasoned users of PDAs will appreciate the need for simplicity before aesthetic,much in the same direction that Android is headed. Try this exercise for example : uninstall a program using the PointUI and then try it the old fashioned way. The old way is quicker.
does the calendar on the main screen suppose to highlight the days with appointments,etc.? If not, then the calendar is not very useful, and there should be an option to turn it off. Same thing with the analog clock.
A better app launcher is definitely needed. I have suggested in other posts having an icon based launcher a la iPhone when you press the botton down arrow button on the screen, or at least on the main scrolling screen, give us about 4 user definable icons for apps...or have BOTH.
PointUI has a pretty nice interface but is really not that time efficient.
Has anyone tried to remove this program?... Its a headache! I had to find various reg entries and delete them to fully remove it
daverage said:
Fantastic and I cant wait for some updates, but I really don't like it forcing the left soft button into its own home button!!
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that is something you can easily change
Hello!
I am looking for a launcher. I don't want a panel, I don't want a today screen plugin - I want a regular program exe so that I can remap my x-panel button for quick access... Ideally it would be very customizable, look good, use next to no space or ram, cost nothing, and cook me pie. Mmmmm... pie...
Anyway, that is just idealism... bare essentials - I want a screen of icons, shortcuts to programs that I choose. It should be something along the lines of smaberg's action screen, only not using the power button and giving me the choice of what to put on it.
Anything like that out there?
Oh, and on a side note, great forums, really saved my bacon when the phones came with the dreadful Swedish all over them.
i use this :
http://www.fantasticbytes.com/products/launchmanager
not free though but i think there's a pie-making function in there somewhere ...
Hey thanks, that seems to do the trick! No pies though... but other than that, it works great.
Is there a way to configure the optical button on the htc incredible so that clicking it wakes the phone up (like pressing the top button)? I'm looking for functionality thats a little bit similar to how the iphone wakes up since I find that button at the bottom much more accessible than the button on the top.
id be interested in this as well. The top button isnt very intuitive to me
Search the market for "lock screen" or "lockscreen" or just "lock" (or maybe "button"? I thought there was a button switcher app too).
Many of the 3rd party lock apps will bring up the lock screen by pressing one or more of the physical buttons (volume, camera, etc). I bet at least one of them comes on with the optical button.
it has been done on the nexus one with the trackball. i think you need root access or at lease custom rom.
Ok, I found this.
http://androidforums.com/htc-incredible/69443-using-optical-trackpad-button-wake-phone.html
Try the "lockbot" app. It is probably about all that is available right now, but the Incredible will be extremely popular. There will be more hacks/tweaks/apps/whatever for this device than any to date, I suspect.
Humpa said:
Ok, I found this.
http://androidforums.com/htc-incredible/69443-using-optical-trackpad-button-wake-phone.html
Try the "lockbot" app. It is probably about all that is available right now, but the Incredible will be extremely popular. There will be more hacks/tweaks/apps/whatever for this device than any to date, I suspect.
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Thanks for the heads up. And I agree I think we are going to see a whole new level of geek with this phone
"myLock" in advance mode.
Great app, and thank you for the info. I was looking the same solution.
Mylock works great. Although I did have one occurence of it locking up the phone.
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daftlush said:
"myLock" in advance mode.
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Are you talking about the app called myLock auto unlock? I am not finding an advanced mode or way to get in advanced mode. Care to explain a little more? and this is able to make it so you can use the trackpad to wake/unlock the phone?
NoLock works for this as well but I wish there was a way to allow the optical pad to work without allowing the volume buttons to work at the same time.
Tried myLock just now and both seem like good apps.
re
GrandMasterB said:
Thanks for the heads up. And I agree I think we are going to see a whole new level of geek with this phone
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just wondering why you sport the "Big Black" avatar?
And to those who think im being racist by calling him "Big Black", its his name on the Reality TV show with rob dyrdeck.
Really missing a function like press and hold the Home button to see previous used apps to switch to.... I'm running with GoLauncherEX but it apparently doesn't have that ability.
Any easy way or app that can and still work with GoLauncher.
I would consider another Launcher but I've not tried any others.
Market search for taskswitcher by shisho. Worked great for me. I use Adw but should work with any launcher including stock.
One home tap for switcher, two for real home.
Thanks that works fine.
Another option is SwipePad with the Tasking add-on. Hold for a split-second at the corner or edge of the screen of your choice and then drag towards the center of the screen and a task switcher will pop up. Move to the task of your choice and let go to switch to it. You can switch really quick once you get the hang of it.
boomn said:
Another option is SwipePad with the Tasking add-on. Hold for a split-second at the corner or edge of the screen of your choice and then drag towards the center of the screen and a task switcher will pop up. Move to the task of your choice and let go to switch to it. You can switch really quick once you get the hang of it.
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Wow that's a freaking amazing app. I paid for the recent tasks addon (since I think that's necessary for multitasking).
Thanks!
I think SwipePad is one of those "best kept secret" apps. I've been using it since it was released and cannot use an Android phone without it. It was the first app I downloaded from the market after rooting. Glad to see it gaining popularity though.
[email protected] said:
Market search for taskswitcher by shisho. Worked great for me. I use Adw but should work with any launcher including stock.
One home tap for switcher, two for real home.
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Click to collapse
This solution is working nice for me.
I installed swipe pad and tasker but I cant figure out how to make my recent apps menu come up when I swipe. Can someone help me?
teookie said:
I installed swipe pad and tasker but I cant figure out how to make my recent apps menu come up when I swipe. Can someone help me?
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I got SwipePad with Tasker as well and it seems the only way you can do it is to put a shortcut to Tasker in one of the boxes, swipe to it, and THEN it pulls up a menu of your recent apps. I ended up getting a refund for it because that's not what I wanted - I was hoping it would automatically populate the tiles with my recent apps instead of adding an extra step.
I'll have to try some of the other solutions mentioned in this thread.
Open the settings for SwipePad and then go to the Hotspots tab where you choose which spot activates the normal swipepad. Click on a different hotspot and "recent tasks" will show up as an option. Once set up it does work like what you were hoping
Just to clarify for anyone else reading, the add-on required is "Tasking: SwipePad add-on", not to be confused with the unrelated "Tasker" app for scripting and automation
boomn said:
Open the settings for SwipePad and then go to the Hotspots tab where you choose which spot activates the normal swipepad. Click on a different hotspot and "recent tasks" will show up as an option. Once set up it does work like what you were hoping
Just to clarify for anyone else reading, the add-on required is "Tasking: SwipePad add-on", not to be confused with the unrelated "Tasker" app for scripting and automation
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Awesome, can't believe I missed that! I'll have to give it another shot.
Corners problem
I installed Swipe Pad and wondered... where have you been for all of my Fire life? Am surprised amazon hasn't absorbed them into their product since it is so easy and simple to jump.
Altho, I did have problems configuring the corners (might be the custom home bar down there), but configuring lower left panel for tasks didn't seem to have any problem.
BTW, what a great premise - give basic app for free, sell the advanced.
[Edit: Before you jump on this, I'm now having crashing of SwipePad when trying to get it to launch market or other shortcuts. Will contact developers and see if this is imminently fixable.]
[email protected] said:
Market search for taskswitcher by shisho. Worked great for me. I use Adw but should work with any launcher including stock.
One home tap for switcher, two for real home.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you configure double home taps for ADW home screen?
You can also install button savior if you're rooted your Fire. It can come in handy for some full screen apps that rely on the non-existent hard buttons also. You just long press on the button savior home icon and you'll get the little icon list of recent apps. I have mine setup with a slight delay before it invokes but it defaults to instant on.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk
Smart Taskbar
I tried swipepad and didn't find it easy to set up and use on the KF. I also didn't want to pay for the extra add-ons without being totally sure I liked it. Found smart taskbar and I've been really happy with it. Easier to pull up than swipepad and has recent tasks built in. I recommend it.
SenorDeuce said:
I tried swipepad and didn't find it easy to set up and use on the KF. I also didn't want to pay for the extra add-ons without being totally sure I liked it. Found smart taskbar and I've been really happy with it. Easier to pull up than swipepad and has recent tasks built in. I recommend it.
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Remember that with paid apps, you can try them out and get a refund if you uninstall within 15 minutes. But if you don't like how Swipepad works then having the Tasking addon won't be worth it.
ags29 said:
I think SwipePad is one of those "best kept secret" apps. I've been using it since it was released and cannot use an Android phone without it. It was the first app I downloaded from the market after rooting. Glad to see it gaining popularity though.
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Can you use Swipepad w/o rooting?
Well you need to get it from the Android market (which requires root to install), but I guess you can also sideload it. The app itself doesn't require root access.
bsoplinger said:
You can also install button savior if you're rooted your Fire. It can come in handy for some full screen apps that rely on the non-existent hard buttons also. You just long press on the button savior home icon and you'll get the little icon list of recent apps. I have mine setup with a slight delay before it invokes but it defaults to instant on.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on Button Savior... a nice out-of-the-way solution for the long press home feature.
Naturally some helpful soul here on XDA pointed me to this app and it works like a charm.
Is there any way for me to remap the hardware keys on the S5? There's a really old app that does this floating around the forum, but it doesn't work for us on the S5. I tried editing a few system files too, but that didn't work either. Having the menu button replaced with the multitasking view is driving me crazy - I know I can long tap it for the menu function, but I'm just so used to having the menu button there. There's a few other things I'd like to do as well, like change GNow to come up when I double tap home, multitasking to come up when I long tap home, and change the multitasking button back to the menu button like it should be. Most importantly, I would also like to get rid of the 3 dot menu button that shows in most of the apps (like Chrome for example).
Any takers?
Supposedly the Xposed Additions will do most, if not all of what you need.
i'm actually trying to do this myself right now. you need to install XposedBridge first for the Additions to work.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xposed/modules/mod-xposed-additions-t2294274
I use Xposed with Gravitybox, works great.
21cdb said:
I use Xposed with Gravitybox, works great.
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Thanks, I'll take a look at GravityBox. On a side note, does anyone know of a possible alternative without using Xposed? Xposed is great, but in my experience, it makes the system just a bit more bogged down. It's not a serious impact, no, but I have had some stability and battery problems in the past. I'll probably go with GravityBox for now, but any other alternatives would be great
Thanks for the help though!
So.... I tried GravityBox, but unfortunately the hardware key options are very limited. I still couldn't get the regular menu button functionality back, as I only had long-press and double-tap options. Hopefully someone will come along soon and restore the menu button, because I can't be the only one who wants to see it back...
BJSerpas said:
Thanks, I'll take a look at GravityBox. On a side note, does anyone know of a possible alternative without using Xposed? Xposed is great, but in my experience, it makes the system just a bit more bogged down. It's not a serious impact, no, but I have had some stability and battery problems in the past. I'll probably go with GravityBox for now, but any other alternatives would be great
Thanks for the help though!
So.... I tried GravityBox, but unfortunately the hardware key options are very limited. I still couldn't get the regular menu button functionality back, as I only had long-press and double-tap options. Hopefully someone will come along soon and restore the menu button, because I can't be the only one who wants to see it back...
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Hmm.. I didn't have any issues changing the recent button to work like a menu key.
I think you're missing something here...
MasK said:
Hmm.. I didn't have any issues changing the recent button to work like a menu key.
I think you're missing something here...
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Oh wow. I can't believe I missed that. I assumed it was using the menu key and the recents key interchangeably, so I didn't scroll down to see the recents option.
Silly me
All that's left to do now is to get rid of this pesky menu in Chrome and other apps..
Hey guys... can someone point me to a guide? Xposed doesn't work on Lollipop yet. (If I am not mistaken) so I cannot use gravity box for it either.. How did you do it @BJSerpas ? On which version of Android?