Database Users

[Q]Closing apps with a gesture on screen???

I just bought a Touch phone and I like it very much. Before this I had a Prophet and I was afraid I would miss the extra hardware buttons the Prophet has.
The only button I really do miss is the "close" or "ok" button to close aplications.
I think it would be great if there could be a program made that uses a finger gesture on screen to close apps instead of poking at the x with my big fingers.
Anyone ever seen such a thing?

Swipe to close
C'mon people, you know what I mean...
just like closing the cube by a downward swipe it should be possible to close an aplication by somekind of swiping motion across the screen shouldn't it?
Think about it...
Instead of "slide to unlock" we can call it "swipe to close"

I close apps just using the phone red button!
Bye

arkasha said:
I close apps just using the phone red button!
Bye
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thats possible too, but that closes everything that is open. I would like to close only one window at a time.
example:
Lets say you are in windows media player library and would like to close it and return to windows mediaplayer itself by closing the library. If I would push the red button it closes everything including the player and return to the home screen instead of the player.
"Swipe to close" should work exactly like the "x"

It would be really cool/useful to do that.
Even though It sounds easy, it is quite difficult to program this thing ( not impossible though).

Years back there was already a phone called NeoNode1 that had the swiping thing figured out. It was also windows based so maybe this can be used as a startingpoint.
www.neonode.com

With TouchFLO the problem will always be with apps that have scrolling windows. How should the downward motion be interpreted ?
Close app or scroll up ?

ZapIt
If you are not too particular abt the swipe gesture, use ZapIt ( attached)and map it to the camera button. It closes only the active application at a time.Works beautifully on my touch.
If you encounter an invalid certificate problem, download Enable_Rapi.zip from Pof's thread about CID Unlock and follow the instructions. (The sticky on the Elf Upgrading section)

Yeah, but than we would need to build a swipe to operate the camera.
I would like to swipe and close without losing other functionality. The swiping motion can be anythin from making a diagonal swipe to circles or anything inbetween.
If this can be cracked there might be much more functions that can be operated in this type of manor.
Unfortunately I don't know much about building such a thing so if there is a hardcore techie out there that wants to take the challange, be my guest!!!

Chris1974 said:
Yeah, but than we would need to build a swipe to operate the camera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not true.... you'll only have to make the camera start from today screen. You can still make a picture with the button afterwards. Just try it (don't forget enable_rapi)!
@veeru27: Thanks for the cab! It works great!

try search for "finger launcher"... something i posted awhile back in the general elf forum

vippie said:
That's not true.... you'll only have to make the camera start from today screen. You can still make a picture with the button afterwards. Just try it (don't forget enable_rapi)!
@veeru27: Thanks for the cab! It works great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vippie,
You're welcome.

Actually, how many of you do actually use the cube? If not many, it would be nice to have to have the slide up and down motion that launches and ends the cube, to be used to end applications instead.. just a thought...

Search for FtouchFlo to configure Swiping commands.
In conjunction with
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1475699&postcount=8

[APP][Updated 16-10-2008]CapacitiveFingerLock (Proof of Concept with sources)

Having written StylusLock I wanted an additional lock/unlock method. Although StylusLock works great, I wanted some extra features:
* to have it possible to lock and unlock "one handed". The StylusLock approach cannot be done "one handed", e.g. on a bike.
* Also some people do not like to operate with the StylusLock (always).
* The combination with this new CapacitiveFingerLock and existing StylusLock will suit more people.
* And sometimes people will use the Stylus, so they will get the right behaviour depended on the usage pattern
* Still the goal is to let it consume almost no CPU and battery and KISS to operate
I discovered with StylusLock that when the TouchPanel and Hardware keys are locked, still the Zoom function works in e.g. Opera.
You can try yourself, using StylusLock:
1. Start Opera
2. Lock the Touch Diamond or Touch Pro with StylusLock
3. TouchPanel and all hardware keys are locked
4. Try to Zoom in/Zoom out in Opera, this still works with the NavWheel
5. Also the Ok button seems to react
I figured out via Scott Seligman and Koushik Dutta how to programmatically access the Capacative Touchpads. You can read also more here: [REF]Capacitive touchpad apps
So this idea is implemented in CapacativeFingerLock. But I am not using the NavWheel idea, but just uses the Capacative hardware area for locking/unlocking. The idea is again simple and clever. When you softly touch the area where the hardware keys are located (so do not press the keys, just gently touch them), the up/down and position area can be detected. I programmed that when the same area is touched gently 3 times within a second (without touching another area), the lock status is toggled.
I made a proof of concept program (just copy the exe inside the zip file attachment to your phone and just execute it), which shows how it is going to work. Just play around with softly touching the hardware panel, to see what happens.
If am working on integrating CapacativeFingerLock with StylusLock, to have a working "real locking" application. The Proof of Concept program just shows that it is possible.

Reserved for future use

Another one for future use.

very nice concept....now i noticed you posted a link of this thread in the wheel to unlock thread...would there be a way to possibly implement a config tool that lets you choose say, touch 3 times softly, or run your finger around the circle?

Malik05 said:
very nice concept....now i noticed you posted a link of this thread in the wheel to unlock thread...would there be a way to possibly implement a config tool that lets you choose say, touch 3 times softly, or run your finger around the circle?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In principle this can be done. But because the NavWheel is also used for other purposes (Zoom In/Out), I have chosen not to use the NavWheel, but the 3 times gently touching. In this way there is no interference with other existing applications.

I'll try that, it seems like no one cares aboyt the capacitive touch pad, it seems like an amazing thing that we've got that is so neglected. I hope to give some positive feedback later, but first I have some rom flashing to play with!
Thanks for the work, there must be so many possible implementations for this, I hope this is just the beginning of something much bigger.
How about a simple tap to launch app?

i went ahead and installed it, and it works very well...Will there be a (pretty) GUI to show that it was unlocked?
Also the diamond does have multi touch on that pad area, which enables a "trace" of the movement of your touch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3Owgcos_KY
Since the nav sensor wont be so ideal, how about sliding your finger from the top of the pad to the bottom (lets say, place your finger on the back button, and gently moving it down to initiate unlock, with a GUI on the screen following your movement, as you go closer to the bottom, the color changes from lets say, red, to green...with incremental color changes in between)

Instead of 3 taps, why not a swipe between the home and back keys, which seems much more natural.
Surur

surur said:
Instead of 3 taps, why not a swipe between the home and back keys, which seems much more natural.
Surur
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I imagine it is just harder to implement for a proof of concept.
Personally I think there are enough ways to lock the diamond, whether you swipe the screen or 1cm below it is not a revolution, but if swiping the capacitive touch pad could be made to launch desired apps from selected gestures, that would be a revolution, like dynamo3 or hibernate or even standby. I think a lot of people here would want that over another locking solution. Good will intended!

Just tried it.
This is very cool very very cool
Thanks for time invested in such a cool development.

surur said:
Instead of 3 taps, why not a swipe between the home and back keys, which seems much more natural.
Surur
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swiping is not so easy one handed. Touching gently 3 times is much easier one handed, holding your Touch Diamond or Touch Pro firmly and touching with your thumb.
However, I can imagine other sort of applications which can use the swiping for other sort of operations. Both are possible with the programming API I made.

uniqueboy said:
I imagine it is just harder to implement for a proof of concept.
Personally I think there are enough ways to lock the diamond, whether you swipe the screen or 1cm below it is not a revolution, but if swiping the capacitive touch pad could be made to launch desired apps from selected gestures, that would be a revolution, like dynamo3 or hibernate or even standby. I think a lot of people here would want that over another locking solution. Good will intended!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am going to share the source code. I have written it in C#. And others can get ideas and take over some of the source code for their own application. At the end we profit all of it.

ZuinigeRijder said:
I am going to share the source code. I have written it in C#. And others can get ideas and take over some of the source code for their own application. At the end we profit all of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like your style, that is the the kind of development attitude that keeps here!

ZuinigeRijder said:
Swiping is not so easy one handed. Touching gently 3 times is much easier one handed, holding your Touch Diamond or Touch Pro firmly and touching with your thumb.
However, I can imagine other sort of applications which can use the swiping for other sort of operations. Both are possible with the programming API I made.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are open to other ideas, I would love the area from the back to home key to be a scroll bar when the device is in landscape mode. Grabbing the narrow on-screen scroll bar can be tricky, and the Touch Pro lacks the scroll wheel of the HTC Kaiser.
Surur

Have been looking into this myself as well. The only code I found was managed C#. Do you think we can use this in our native C code? Looks promising though!

ZuinigeRijder said:
Having written StylusLock I wanted an additional lock/unlock method. Although StylusLock works great, I wanted some extra features:
* to have it possible to lock and unlock "one handed". The StylusLock approach cannot be done "one handed", e.g. on a bike.
* Also some people do not like to operate with the StylusLock (always).
* The combination with this new CapacitiveFingerLock and existing StylusLock will suit more people.
* And sometimes people will use the Stylus, so they will get the right behaviour depended on the usage pattern
* Still the goal is to let it consume almost no CPU and battery and KISS to operate
I discovered with StylusLock that when the TouchPanel and Hardware keys are locked, still the Zoom function works in e.g. Opera.
You can try yourself, using StylusLock:
1. Start Opera
2. Lock the Touch Diamond or Touch Pro with StylusLock
3. TouchPanel and all hardware keys are locked
4. Try to Zoom in/Zoom out in Opera, this still works with the NavWheel
5. Also the Ok button seems to react
I figured out via Scott Seligman and Koushik Dutta how to programmatically access the Capacative Touchpads. You can read also more here: [REF]Capacitive touchpad apps
So this idea is implemented in CapacativeFingerLock. But I am not using the NavWheel idea, but just uses the Capacative hardware area for locking/unlocking. The idea is again simple and clever. When you softly touch the area where the hardware keys are located (so do not press the keys, just gently touch them), the up/down and position area can be detected. I programmed that when the same area is touched gently 3 times within a second (without touching another area), the lock status is toggled.
I made a proof of concept program (just copy the exe inside the zip file attachment to your phone and just execute it), which shows how it is going to work. Just play around with softly touching the hardware panel, to see what happens.
If am working on integrating CapacativeFingerLock with StylusLock, to have a working "real locking" application. The Proof of Concept program just shows that it is possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A while ago I posted about the Windows Messages received by the form for capacitive touch events. Is that what you ended up using to figure out where on panel is being touched? Mind posting some code so I can add it to the Sensors assembly?

Great idea. Defienetly it will be my way of locking device. StylusLock works nice but can't be operated by one hand so its useless for me. SensorLock uses battery and i've drop my phone already unlocking it.

surur said:
If you are open to other ideas, I would love the area from the back to home key to be a scroll bar when the device is in landscape mode. Grabbing the narrow on-screen scroll bar can be tricky, and the Touch Pro lacks the scroll wheel of the HTC Kaiser.
Surur
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This can be surely done, programmatically. But I do not know if you can control the scrolling of other applications. The latter seems to me difficult?
Anyway, when a lot of applications are going to use gestures using the capacative areas, there will be going conflicts (different programs reacting differently on different gestures).
For the locking application I want to made, I see also some different gestures possibilities:
- 3 taps for locking/unlocking
- swipe left to right for Power off
- swipe right to left for starting a configured application
And I am sure I can come up with other gestures and actions....

drvdijk said:
Have been looking into this myself as well. The only code I found was managed C#. Do you think we can use this in our native C code? Looks promising though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I started with C++ and had also a working Proof Of Concept. However, because I am new to Windows Mobile Programming, I also wanted to use C# as next project. I have developed programs in a lot of languages (also in C++ and C#), but I like C# more. And I wanted to do this now for Windows Mobile, to get experience with this. Note that the C# sample is using only .NET 2.0, so you do not need .NET 3.5.
You can find a C++ sensortest program, which was available on Scott's weblog:
http://scottandmichelle.net/scott/cestuff/sensortest.zip

ZuinigeRijder said:
This can be surely done, programmatically. But I do not know if you can control the scrolling of other applications. The latter seems to me difficult?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know if you can manipulate the scroll bar of another application directly (though this would be ideal) but at the least maybe a page down keystroke could be sent to the active window.
Surur

Application Launcher Applications, do they exist?

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.

Browser Quick Controls

Anyone else try out these slide-out browser quick controls?
I 'love' them. I turned them on a few days after getting the tab and havent looked back.
How about you?
To enable this feature for the stock browser go to settings - labs - quick controls and make sure the box it ticked. Now in the browser, slide in from the side and a wheel of sorts will pop out with all your controls.
Very slick feature.

I have been using them since day one. Love it.

Yes, they're handy once you get the hang of them.

Very nice, thanks for sharing that tip!

To enable this festure for the stock browser go to settings - labs - quick controls and make sure the box it ticked.
Where is this? Dont have an entry for "labs" under "settings"?

Settings in the browser, not general setting on the tablet. Top right corner in the browser.

I think it actually comes enabled by default on the Xoom; needless to say it was refreshing to see when I first started using the tablet. Using the menu in the upper right hand corner is not as user friendly.
The only thing I have noticed is that it is difficult to initiate controls with the acer case, because the edge comes right up to the screen. I usually have to attempt the gesture a couple of times in order for the controls to come up.

dhruvmp said:
The only thing I have noticed is that it is difficult to initiate controls with the acer case, because the edge comes right up to the screen. I usually have to attempt the gesture a couple of times in order for the controls to come up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never had that problem. Simply slide your finger 'into' the screen, from the bezel. Works like a charm every time and I love how it appears at the exact position your finger made the sliding motion into the page, rather than a single static location.
If I had one feature request, it would be 1 more button you could use to hold it as a handle to slide the wheel up or down the side, and tap it to pin it or unpin it.

Heh - didn't even know this existed until I saw this thread. Not sure I like it though - I usually close the last tab to close the browser (since back makes you step through all pages viewed and home would leave it open.)

cybermage1 said:
Heh - didn't even know this existed until I saw this thread. Not sure I like it though - I usually close the last tab to close the browser (since back makes you step through all pages viewed and home would leave it open.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you close the browser with last tab? The tab disappears and browser turns full screen everytime specially when there's only one tab left. I find it hard to bring the tab to appear again.
Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk

funny I know... I open up a new blank one... close the last one and then hit the back button to close the whole thing out... he he... I woudn't mind if the tabs were up there all thetime or use a quick menu to pop it up and down...

You can actually just do a long press on the webpage and it will bring up the tabs at the top, then you can close them.

dhruvmp said:
You can actually just do a long press on the webpage and it will bring up the tabs at the top, then you can close them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup. I just tried that and it does indeed work. Thanks for the tip!

dhruvmp said:
You can actually just do a long press on the webpage and it will bring up the tabs at the top, then you can close them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's how I do it right now, but sometimes it selects the text for copy/paste instead of displaying the tab. You really have to find an empty spot on the browser page to make it work. Adding a new tab and closing, then closing the last tab requires a really fast finger to catch the last tab. Sometimes I'm slow to click on the last tab and it just hides again. How I wish the default browser has an option to exit, similar to Dolphin browser.

Why the desire to have an exit, to hide the porn your surfing?
Keeping the browser in memory is useful, because that is alot of what I use this thing for.

gammaRascal said:
Anyone else try out these slide-out browser quick controls?
I 'love' them. I turned them on a few days after getting the tab and havent looked back.
How about you?
To enable this feature for the stock browser go to settings - labs - quick controls and make sure the box it ticked. Now in the browser, slide in from the side and a wheel of sorts will pop out with all your controls.
Very slick feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I turned them on the first day I got mine. Love 'em!

Where are the Zoom button images located? And Naked Browser Talk

Hey all, I like using the phone one handed and zoom buttons are essential. I also like being able to zoom with just a tap, as opposed to more convoluted methods (xScope/Naked Browser, I'm looking at you...). But the stock Android zoom buttons are ugly and less functional than the ones I had way back when on 2.2 (Bionix for the Samsung Vibrant).
Could anyone tell me where in could find the images for the Zoom buttons? I'd like to replace them with the ones from an older ROM, mentioned above. Think it would be somewhere in the SystemUI.apk?
If anyone is curious, the buttons I would prefer are transparent circles with a black outline. They're a good bit easier to press and you can see elements that would otherwise be obscured.

I'm the developer of Naked Browser. Naked Browser has the option to enable/disable the zoom buttons. It also has the option to enable/disable one-finger zoom. It also allows zoom with just a double-tap. Am I missing something?

aminaked said:
I'm the developer of Naked Browser. Naked Browser has the option to enable/disable the zoom buttons. It also has the option to enable/disable one-finger zoom. It also allows zoom with just a double-tap. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh snap. No, it's just that one-finger drag zoom has poor performance (just isn't as smooth as it is on xScope). But I love your browser. It's why I mentioned it specifically. My niggle isn't to do specifically with Naked Browser or any other app, it's a system conflict. I think the stock zoom buttons are ugly and I want to swap them out with the zoom buttons I used on a different browser. It's easier to tap a round circle than it is to hit a little tic-tac. Also, the zoom buttons sometimes obscure elements in the bottom right and I have to wait until they fade out, so the transparent zoom circle buttons I mentioned in the first post would solve both of these issues. Rather than having you bloat up your fantastically minimal app, I'd prefer to do my own tinkering and fix the zoom buttons across my system.
I just wanted to say, your browser is fantastic. I found out about it just randomly perusing the big Android Themes and Apps forum and gave it a try. It's my default browser now. While I have your attention, if I could make a suggestion: you know how you have the swipe-from-edge toggle so the menu bars don't appear with unexpected frequency? It works great for making sure the bookmarks bar only opens with deliberate swipes. However, if you could provide a separate toggle for the address and tab bar, that'd be great. I never had a problem with the top bars appearing unintentionally. It's not much of a nuisance. However, in one-handed use, I have to reposition the phone in my hand and then swipe from the top to bring down that bar. On a big phone like the Nexus 4, you can understand how that extra little bit of effort adds up over a long browsing session.

Very cool. Thank you very much.
Let me address what you brought up:
One finger zoom in Naked Browser isn't as smooth as it is on xScope because:
- xScope is for newer devices. Naked Browser supports Froyo and newer and so far I've found that that kind of zooming isn't easy on older devices. That's really not much of an excuse because I could work on it. However, it could take days to figure out. I'm focusing on other features and bug fixes right now. Furthermore,
- I haven't used xScope in a long time but one finger zoom seems to work good enough in Naked Browser (no?). For comparison, it seems to work like crap in Google Maps, last I checked.
Regarding changing the zoom button pix, I use a smaller screen than you so I don't like the +/- buttons in a browser. I pinch zoom and I do it with one hand: small phone / big hands. Regardless, I'm adding your request to my list of items for the pro version.
Regarding adding the separate option for the menu gestures, I added those options (double swipe & swipe from edge) as afterthoughts. I feel that an experienced user of Naked Browser should turn both of these off because they've developed a feel for the menus, knowing instinctively how to avoid opening the bookmarks sidebar and top menu. For me it took about a week to get comfortable with it. Now, I think it is very efficient.
That being said, I may have messed up the gesture settings for larger screens as I don't have a tablet. What do you think about all this? Is it very hard to avoid opening the bookmarks menu? Tell me more about it, please.
Anyway, I hope you have luck changing the +/- on your devices and I do appreciate your feedback on Naked Browser. You're one of the few people I've seen mention stuff like this. Got my attention!
This is hijacking your thread for my app, so if you want to PM me or join me in the xda naked browser thread the feel free.
Thanks again, man. :good:

Hey, you've got a great app and I certainly don't mind helping it get more exposure. I know it's not a priority for you right now, but if it gets really popular, I'm sure you'll add a ton of lightweight features. That's how xScope became the best browser on Gingerbread!
On my Nexus 4, I've found that the bookmarks menu shows up by accident much more often than the URL/tab bar, and it's much more obtrusive when it does. It'd be nice to disable the bookmarks bar. I actually use the bookmarks menu a ton, so perhaps a better option would be to incorporate the menu button menu with the the bookmarks menu.
Also, I'm not sure if my options are causing it or its an inherent behavior, but it's inconvenient to have to scroll all the way to the top to bring up the URL/tab bar. I really wouldn't mind if it appeared every time I made any downward swipe. Maybe to accommodate other users, make the top half or quarter of the screen a zone that can pull up the URL/tab bar when the user swipes down from that region.
I basically want the navigation features of xScope but with the minimal, clean appearance of Naked Browser. I stopped using xScope because it's so bloated and unstable now. Naked Browser is 90% perfect for me. The 10% is just the menu behavior and tab navigation. xScope, for example, uses double tap and left/right to navigate between adjacent tabs while double tap and up/down to zoom. But if this decreases performance as it did on xScope, I'm happy with Naked Browser the way it is.

Maybe I need to optimize the swipe sensitivity for devices like the Nexus 4. I need to check one out, but for now the next update will reduce sensitivity somewhat. Regarding the separate gesture options, I had thought about adding them but I was resistant because I don't want to clutter the options view. However, I think it is the right thing to have and you've convinced me of how sorely it is needed. The next update will have them! I've tried it out and I like it.
If you press the device menu key it should show the top menu from anywhere on the page. Devices without a menu key should have 3 dots in a row that act as the menu key. Making it appear for every downward swipe is an interesting idea. I think that this would be more suited for larger screens though. I will make a note of this idea. There already is an option to start gestures from the screen edge for both URL bar and sidebar.
I haven't used xScope in years and it doesn't run on any of my devices. I think that if you give Naked Browser some time (about a week) you'll start to become accustomed to the menus. If you can get past the frustrating phase I think that you may find that the menus are very efficient. Of course, if the gesture sensitivity is wrong for your device then that's a different story. I really need to check this out.
Double-tap and swipe to change tabs shouldn't cause much of a performance problem (although I'd have to try it out to know for sure). I was going to allow customizations of this sort of thing in the pro version. For example, double tap and swipe to go quickly to the very top or bottom of the web page. The volume buttons could be used in the same way.
Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate it!

I figured out where the zoom buttons are. They're in framework-res.apk/res/drawable-xhdpi.