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Do you want an additional 'THREE' customizable homescreens on your Hero? Well, there's an 'app' for that! HA!
First, I'm not sure if doing this has any bugs or inherent problems, and I am not responsible for any problems you may encounter doing this! BUT, I haven't experienced any so far myself.
Anyway, I stumbled onto this by using the Home Switcher app. When I saw how it launched the original Android Home app, that gave me an IDEA.
Using an application called 'Bar Control', I setup a Taskbar ICON to launch the native Android 'Home' application which, if you ask me, 'extends' the Hero with an additional three homescreens. I simply pull down the Taskbar and tap Home to launch the original Android Home app which gives me access to three more homescreens. AND, a simple tap of the Home button takes me back to HTC Sense.
So, I now have TEN (10) homescreens!!!!! These additional native Android homescreens are where I put some Android widgets (non HTC Sense widgets of course). And get this, the two Sprint widgets, NFL Mobile Live and Sprint TV, are available too! The Hero uses the same Wallpaper for both HTC Sense and Home, but it unlocks the native Android wallpaper gallery too.
Steps I did:
1. Downloaded Bar Control from the Market.
2. Launched Bar Control and waited for it to scan all the programs.
3. Scrolled down to the app called, 'Home' and selected it.
4. Selected an ICON of choice. (I used the same home ICON)
5. Pulled down my Notification Bar, tapped 'Home, and WALLA!
Simply hit the Home button to return to HTC Sense.
Note: To get rid of this Home ICON in the Notification Bar, simply perform the first three steps above again which will remove it.
OK, now can anyone tell me of a simple shortcut app that can be set to launch the native Android Home app without having to go through the Taskbar via the Bar Control app in my example above?
So, I believe this is the GREATEST HERO HACK so far!
When two unused screens just aren't enough lol, nice find.
Not really an hack if you ask me... why don't you install a few extra homescreen replacement apps (like openhome) so you'll even have more homescreens
this is not a hack at all. installing apps and using them as intended is as far away from a hack as could be. please change the title, this is so lame...
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?
kendong2 said:
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to know this as well, I sort of wonder why htc didn't design it like that.
DaWeav said:
5. Pulled down my Notification Bar, tapped 'Home, and WALLA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
[PEDANTRY-MODE]
It's "Voila" not "Walla"!
[/PEDANTRY-MODE]
Sorry, couldn't resist - to me, it's like fingernails on a black board!
Regards,
Dave
lol, the same happens when you install any theme app such as open home, dxtop, etc...
What happens is, the default for the home button is cleared of it's default (HTC Sense) giving you the option which home screen you want to fire up after holding down the home button.
You could probably just clear the default yourself in App settings, limiting the need for another app all together.
Downloading a home screen app equals hacking your phone?
give him a Break it was his first post.He was over zealous on his find..LOL
well atleast he let us know about his find.sum peeps probably wouldnt had even shared..thx DaWeav
Yup, just to elaborate on what N0J mentioned:
menu/settings/applications/manage applications/HTC Sense
tap "Clear defaults"
Now, every time you push your "Home" button you will be presented with the options "Home" and "HTC Sense." As long as you don't check the default box you will always have a two-touch access to either interface.
Alternatively, for those that prefer vanilla Android to Sense, check the default box and hit "Home." Your phone will no longer load the Sense UI. This can be reversed by going to Home in manage applications (above) and again clearing defaults.
cgraunke said:
Yup, just to elaborate on what N0J mentioned:
menu/settings/applications/manage applications/HTC Sense
tap "Clear defaults"
Now, every time you push your "Home" button you will be presented with the options "Home" and "HTC Sense." As long as you don't check the default box you will always have a two-touch access to either interface.
Alternatively, for those that prefer vanilla Android to Sense, check the default box and hit "Home." Your phone will no longer load the Sense UI. This can be reversed by going to Home in manage applications (above) and again clearing defaults.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said and thanks for the detailing the steps out for me!
Dang. I thought this was actually going to be some useful information that could lead me to getting rid of the 4 unused homescreens
This isn't a hack and not much of a discovery but if it makes you happy...
Would be kind of cool if Sense had 10 screens of its own.
nice find! But yes, 7 home screens is a little much. until we find some better widgets.
kendong2 said:
this is not a hack at all. installing apps and using them as intended is as far away from a hack as could be. please change the title, this is so lame...
btw, i would love to have my homescreens scrolling "round", meaning if i swipe screen #7 (the most right one) to the left i want to go to screen #1 (the most left one). anybody know if this is possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GDE Home Screen does this
edit: by the way this is a dumb "hack"
I'm assuming this works for vanilla android as well? One of the most annoying things about my Moment that my Hero does is only having 3 screens.
Does anyone know how to REMOVE any of the homescreens from sense?
My hero is so slow!
I really hope that as part of an update to Sense that they make it so you can have any number of screens so long as it's 2X+1. (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11)
Personally, I only really use 5, so I would just drop the last 2 screens and have the little indicator get a tiny bit larger.
Hi all,
Since it is very clear that rooting this phone is almost impossible and we might not be getting it sooner, I say we give Sony a review of their UI. If SE gives us 2.1 by Q3, then its good, but we better tell them what we did not like and they should change them.
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Other Improvement: Since we don’t have a call button, like htc devices, we should have a UI like ADW launcher; where there is always two quick launch buttons. The digital clock in the slide screen is bigger and perfect for the 4’’ screen, but in home screen it is pretty small. There should be a color change option for it too. Tethering app included.
Please put your improvement ideas of SE UI too. We could send this to SE and hope to get them soon.
Bikram said:
Hi all,
Since it is very clear that rooting this phone is almost impossible and we might not be getting it sooner, I say we give Sony a review of their UI. If SE gives us 2.1 by Q3, then its good, but we better tell them what we did not like and they should change them.
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Other Improvement: Since we don’t have a call button, like htc devices, we should have a UI like ADW launcher; where there is always two quick launch buttons. The digital clock in the slide screen is bigger and perfect for the 4’’ screen, but in home screen it is pretty small. There should be a color change option for it too.
Please put your improvement ideas of SE UI too. We could send this to SE and hope to get them soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good list of things to be told to SE, i think they should include flash player also for web browser , make more than 3 homescreens , change the blue theme to a one that is suitable with most of wallpapers or make an option to change this blue theme , and finally port some options that is included in froyo roms ,if they are not planing for a froyo update
My one wish for SE to change their looks would be simple. Ship with a default, like it is now and then add the option "Enable customisation" which would leave the OS stock Android without the added SE bits.
Majority of people would stick with the default, just look at how few "non-geek" people even change their wallpaper. Let alone going all out to change their UI. But it'd be an awesome option for us powerusers and would take minimal effort on SE's behalf. Give us that option and we'd probably turn in to a great PR machine since the HW is pretty excellent.
Make the volume rocker not increase/decrease the ringer volume when I'm on the home screen. I would make it more like original Sony Ericsson phones and have it bring up the phone's status.
Put some effort into the dialler. My last 3 Sony Ericsson dumb phones have had smart dialling features, this Android Smart phone has the dumbest dialler since the Nokia 3310.
The least they could do is plagiarize the dialler from their own phones.
Simple.
Sony Ericsson = Sony, so they should have gone with XMB from PS3
I like that interface. The only thing is screen. So maybe something like LG Crystal but then in XMB (Xross Media Bar) style
In Mediascape, I would like to be able to set "Music" to always go to my playlists.
Actually, even better would be to have separate mediascape shortcuts for music/video/photo on my homescreen and be able to set what each one defaults to.
Bikram said:
Hi all,
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used it a bit but found useless and confusing, so I disabled it. I don't think that any improvement would help. I would like to just get rid of it.
Bikram said:
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is actually the best media player I found on Android. I just would like to have a more finger friendly interface and some minor fixes.
Bikram said:
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly: again the problem is a more finger friendly interface. I also would like to get rid of Timescape things I don't use in the Contact screen.
.
I would like an option to access the media-volume from the home screen, atm i can only access phone-volume and it annoys me
They should also implement a virtual "Accept" or "Deny" button when you receive a call rather then a slide bar, like the iphone for instance.
And of coarse ... the interface! more userfriendly please.. bigger buttons, less text buttons..
Also i am very disappointed with the Top bar on your homescreen, some time ago i was used at using windows mobile and when you tapped the Bar on top with (battery, Signal strength etc) you could actually tap one of these features and you would go directly to the settings for it, for instance with windows mobile if you tapped the Signal strength you went directly to a menu where you could manage your 2G, 3G, GPS, Wifi, bluethooth etc with just one tap and now you cant, or even if you pressed the time you went directly to your alarm, clock, calendar and i would like this to be possible with SE aswell
And one more thing, since we are using a 1ghz processor its obvious we have spare power most of the time and there should be an option to set your device to Low-medium-max performance just like Windows mobile, this will save us tons of battery.
I know i'm whining about windows mobile, but to be honest that were the only 2 features i like about it
What I would like to see improved..
Okay I've had this phone for a while so I feel qualified to speak on this.
1.) I actually love timescape but recognize performance and more options such as changing the background to more animated backgrounds or figuring out a way to add more filters to it (i.e picassa , myspace,etc )
2.) I also like how the messages appear in the infinite screen on a contact and wished it stayed in that view when responding to messages.. That would be hot!!!!
3.) Also the best improvement they could do is allowing pictures from facebook to be saved to the contact when you don't have the contact picture assigned already. That would be helpful and windows mobile had that feature on my prior xperia devices.
clintax said:
They should also implement a virtual "Accept" or "Deny" button when you receive a call rather then a slide bar, like the iphone for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually that they did, if you press the power button it denies the call. I know that's wiered right?
Guys I need some help please.
I am playing with the Desire HD as a dual-boot from my HD2.
There are things I really like in WinMo sense I want to be able to do in Android Desire Sense but can't seen to work out:
1) Internet. When I press on the icon it always opens on the page last opened.
How I can get it to either:
have the google search bar at the top and then some of my bookmarked favourites under it to click
or
open on the bookmarks page by default
2) Email: how can I get it that when I click the email button it opens on the "select account" screen by default rather than my last email? The email widget is quite good but it would be nice to have access to this from the homescreen button.
There will be more I am sure - only just trying this in earnest (plan to stay in Android for next 2-3 days at least and see how it goes)
Ahhh... Android. How you razz all over Windows in soooo many ways! Welcome, my friend, to the world of Activities
wigwam12 said:
1) Internet. When I press on the icon it always opens on the page last opened.
How I can get it to either:
have the google search bar at the top and then some of my bookmarked favourites under it to click
or
open on the bookmarks page by default
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the homescreen, long-press to add a shortcut and select:
Shortcuts --> Activities --> Browser
And then select the activity called "Bookmark" (com.android.browser.ShortcutBookmarksPage)
As for the email one, you'll have to have a look and see if there's an activity in the email app that you use. I don't have Sense, so I don't have the HTC email app to check for you.
Activities are great. A lot of them don't do what you'd expect, as they're really sub-sections of the parent application, and they're not designed to be run on their own. It's fun to play about with them though. I use Launcher Pro and on the dock at the bottom of the screen I can click the SMS icon to open my SMS app, or I can swipe the icon to create a new message (which is done via an activity shortcut).
A very useful feature.
I hope this helps mate
Thanks John but I don't seem to have an entry for "activities" under shortcuts?
You have to use Launcher Pro I think
It's actually native android functionality and very powerful. Pretty bad they've removed it in Sense.
Sent from my HD2 using XDA App
I see.
I did install launcher pro as I also wanted something like the slider in winmo but I hated the metallic look of the icons it gave.
Can I change them?
Agree though pity activity has been removed
Yes - you just hold one of the icons and it gives you the option to change it to anything you like.
Sent from my HD2 using XDA App
I did some reading and decided to get SPB Shell 3D. I installed it and set it as default over my Helauncher. When I pressed home all I saw was a black screen and the top status bar. I tried rebooting the phone but it then took a longer time to get past the boot screen. The screen just stayed black, when i received a call the phone lit up and i was able to take the call.
So I can view:
The lockscreen
Phone Call
GO Sms
I can access things from my status bar if it pops up.
press menu and go to applications> and delete the default in spd shell.then press ur home button and select previous one
Sent from my HTC HD 2 powered by HYPERDROID
If you have a back up of the .apk, send via Gmail, install again, and this time, don't select SPB Shell (Always Use This) ... instead, select your normal shell (HTC Sense in my case), then do what namila007 says.
Same thing happened to me.. kept getting black screen, but it would give me option to select SPB or HTC Sense.. finally, like a fool, I selected SPB Always Use This.. and then I couldn't get into my phone at all.. I could view notifications.
I tried to install 1.0.1 but that didn't work. Reinstalled 1.0 on top of 1.0 and it "removed" the "always use this" *flag*, and gave me the option for SBP or HTC Sense again.. I selected HTC Sense and uninstalled SPB.. bleh.
I was trying to avoid a reset.
Good luck!
Namilla007- I cant even see the screen to even go to applications, thats the problem
Easyeee- Yeah I was in your boat, it kept giving me the option between Helauncher or Spb shell. But it gave me black screen when i selected spb shell 3d, and like an idiot i made spb shell 3d default. Ill try the email thing you said, thanks!
I was almost about to flash a new NAND ROM on my hd2. such an annoying folly i caused
Just for info. I had it work as the default on NexusHD2-Gingerbread V2.5 and CMYLXGO's Stock Desire HD(2) NAND ROM [v1.1.10n].
What I did was I launch Shell3d once without making it a default. It takes a while to load the first time. Then I move around the screens a few times and hit the home two or three more times each time hitting shell3d. Then hit home one more time and set shell3d as the default.
I am no longer running the program however as it those not work my Lotus notes calender and SPB gave me a refund.
I guessing your not able to see the manage AP because Shell3d hooks into that to allow easy uninstall.
You may need to reset your phone data to fix the issue.
Hello there!
I would like to try it by myself, but unfortunately I cant. So, someone who tried the SDK, have you noticed changes in multitasking system?
Right now the only way to resume an app is using fast app switch. But I really dont like it. I rather just use the homescreen icon instead. Right now it relaunch the app.
Any changes on that? (oh please)
Thank you so much!
mikeeam said:
Hello there!
I would like to try it by myself, but unfortunately I cant. So, someone who tried the SDK, have you noticed changes in multitasking system?
Right now the only way to resume an app is using fast app switch. But I really dont like it. I rather just use the homescreen icon instead. Right now it relaunch the app.
Any changes on that? (oh please)
Thank you so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows Phone apps can never resume via the homescreen like iOS, due to the addition of the hardware OS back button.
To illustrate why; imagine you have an app that has start page and a settings menu. When a user goes to the settings menu, they can only go back to the start page by pressing the hardware back button (this is standard Metro design).
Now imagine a user opens the app, goes to the settings menu, then exists the app by pressing the Home button. They then do a few other tasks and then resume the app. They are now stuck in the settings menu and can't get back to the app start page; the back key will take them back to the WP8 Home screen (this is how the WP OS backstack works).
To get around this issue, Microsoft specify that starting the app from the front page always has to start a fresh instance, so the user can never get "stuck".
iOS has software back buttons on every page, so all apps can resume however you launch them. Android had the same problem with their back button (actually worse, as their backstack can be altered by the OS choosing to kill memory-intensive apps); to get around this, from ICS onwards Android apps are meant to have a software back button in the top-left, to go back within the application (hardware back key is still OS backstack).
Aphasaic2002 said:
Windows Phone apps can never resume via the homescreen like iOS, due to the addition of the hardware OS back button.
To illustrate why; imagine you have an app that has start page and a settings menu. When a user goes to the settings menu, they can only go back to the start page by pressing the hardware back button (this is standard Metro design).
Now imagine a user opens the app, goes to the settings menu, then exists the app by pressing the Home button. They then do a few other tasks and then resume the app. They are now stuck in the settings menu and can't get back to the app start page; the back key will take them back to the WP8 Home screen (this is how the WP OS backstack works).
To get around this issue, Microsoft specify that starting the app from the front page always has to start a fresh instance, so the user can never get "stuck".
iOS has software back buttons on every page, so all apps can resume however you launch them. Android had the same problem with their back button (actually worse, as their backstack can be altered by the OS choosing to kill memory-intensive apps); to get around this, from ICS onwards Android apps are meant to have a software back button in the top-left, to go back within the application (hardware back key is still OS backstack).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it sucks so bad! They should review this. I hate to use the back button, and I hate to not resume the app. Using a common app, for example, WhatsApp. I was in a chat with someone. Then I hit Windows button and Im at start screen. Then I receive a message from the same person I just left the chat. What I do? I can open from the toast, can open from fast app switch (back button), or open from start screen icon.
If I open from toast, that will depend on what the app was meant to be. In WhatsApp it would take me to the chat, because of deep toast notification. But, right now, it needs to reload the whole app to open just the chat.
If I open from fast switch, it will resume the app right away. Nice. But in any other platform the message would be there waiting for you. Right now, in WP, it takes a lot to refresh the chat. You keep like 10 seconds staring at the screen waiting it. Its even faster to just reopen the whole app.
And if I open from start screen, its almost the same effect of toast, but it dont take me to the chat, but to the start screen of the app.
The point is, the fast switch is not helping that much. In fact, it would makes sense to change the fast switch to open when holding the Windows button instead of back button, and whenever an app is open, opening it from start screen icon just resume it. Actually, a lot of people doesnt even know, or even knowing, doesnt even use fast switch. Im not a common smartphone user, and even so I dont use fast switch.
For me, its the worse problem of platform. And I dont care about CE or NT if it works, but I care about it working at all. Doesnt make sense to put a whole computer in my pocket if it cant resume a single app.
i don't like the idea either to relaunch the app when you just have put it in background. then again, i also hope we will be able to close apps from the fast-appswitch-screen. and add an option to the gesture lovers out there: pinch out on homescreen to launch multitasking. or swipe from edge like w8. or anything like that. it would add to UI experience and would eliminate that 2-seconds-pause when pressing and holding down the backbutton.
Was the question not about Windows Phone 8?
Windows Phone 8 is supposed to behave differently, since true background processing is supposed to be enabled. I haven't played with the SDK yet, but I suspect that for non recompiled apps, things will behave as they do on Mango. But, I think that things changed to target WinRT and set to be able to run in the background will be able to resume right where you left off.
It wouldn't make sense for an app that is running and processing things in the background to restart when the tile is pressed.
It's been a while since I used Mango or wrote any apps for it. But, when an app is suspended, the dev has a specified amount of time to save the state.
That way when it is relaunched, the app can resume where it left off, by processing the saved state on launch. I thought with fast resume the app stayed in memory, but that was done through a registry hack and not directly made available by any carrier.
After doing some reading, the multi tasking enhancements might only add gps and voip to the currently supported background processing.
JVH3 said:
But it sucks so bad! They should review this. I hate to use the back button, and I hate to not resume the app. Using a common app, for example, WhatsApp. I was in a chat with someone. Then I hit Windows button and Im at start screen. Then I receive a message from the same person I just left the chat. What I do? I can open from the toast, can open from fast app switch (back button), or open from start screen icon.
If I open from toast, that will depend on what the app was meant to be. In WhatsApp it would take me to the chat, because of deep toast notification. But, right now, it needs to reload the whole app to open just the chat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tapping the toast to re-open the chat is the correct behavior here. I guess it's just bad coding that makes it take so long to resume; it should just be able to go straight to the conversation and skip all the "loading contacts...connecting" stuff.
JVH3 said:
Was the question not about Windows Phone 8?
Windows Phone 8 is supposed to behave differently, since true background processing is supposed to be enabled. I haven't played with the SDK yet, but I suspect that for non recompiled apps, things will behave as they do on Mango.
But, I think that things changed to target WinRT and set to be able to run in the background will be able to resume right where you left off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure you're not thinking of Windows 8? For Windows Phone 8, no changes have been announced regarding multitasking or background tasks, *except* that a few select APIs (VOIP, location) will be able to run in the background, similar to iOS (not true backgrounding like Android)
Also we are talking about resuming, not background processing. In the WP8 SDK emulator, apps built into the OS don't resume; Therefore it's safe to assume 3rd party apps are not going to either.
JVH3 said:
It wouldn't make sense for an app that is running and processing things in the background to restart when the tile is pressed.
It's been a while since I used Mango or wrote any apps for it. But, when an app is suspended, the dev has a specified amount of time to save the state.
That way when it is relaunched, the app can resume where it left off, by processing the saved state on launch. I thought with fast resume the app stayed in memory, but that was done through a registry hack and not directly made available by any carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When an app is closed the developer is meant to save the state, so that it can be reloaded if it is quick-resumed. However, once the app leaves the backstack (the 5 apps that appear in when you hold the back-button), this state is supposed to be discarded.
This is not a technical issue; it would be trivial for app developers to save the state and make their apps resume. The issue is that Microsoft's publishing guidelines (to get your app published on the WP app store) specifically says that an app launched from the home screen must launch showing it's introduction page, i.e. it can't resume. It could save some state, so a web-browser could still have all the recent tabs open, but it couldn't show the last one seen (ironically IE9 does resume it's state - guess Microsoft are allowed to break their own guidelines).
I agree it doesn't make sense to restart an app that is performing some background task; but then how to you avoid users getting stuck within a certain page, as in my example above? If WP8 includes a hardware back button, they can't change this policy.
Well, thats a shame. I hate reloading the app everytime I need it. Its so meaningless. I dont need VOIP, I dont need Skype running all the time. But I do need apps to be fast.
It really depends on how exactly the developers save their app state when the app is sent to background/tombstoned.
I, for one, use a text file to save data ( a lot of data) and proceed to loading the app as usual, and the moment the user presses a button, a pop up asks him weather he wants to restore or start anew.
I'm guessing that not every app will do this, as it is up to the developer to implement this.