Database Users

Three more sub-Homescreens on my Hero!!! YEP, count-um TEN Homescreens!

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?
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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!
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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.

All messages> Back switches apps instead

I noticed a bug that allows you to switch to running apps that were left behind with the home button.
Prerequisites: HTC Messages widget on one of the main screens.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Open an application (like 'people') and exit out with the home button, not the back button.
2. Repeat step one if you want to add other apps.
3. Go to the HTC messages widget and tap it to open a message.
4. Select menu option "All messages".
5. Press the 'back' button. This will switch to another app instead of close the messages.
6. Repeat step 5 to close the app and move to the next one.
Further notes:
Some apps will continue to show up even if you press 'back' on them to exit out.
For example, "People", "System settings" and browser never closes. Camera app does close, but you have to leave it by pressing 'home'.
Works on generic 1.5.

android dosent close apps untill needed lol just hold the home button to open any program you have run recently lol

mancsoulja said:
android dosent close apps untill needed lol just hold the home button to open any program you have run recently lol
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I didn't know that - it is not mentioned in the manual. Thanks for that useful tip. Looks like a useful shortcut back to where you were before.
But how do you close a programme rather than let it waste memory and battery in the background?

peterc10 said:
I didn't know that - it is not mentioned in the manual. Thanks for that useful tip. Looks like a useful shortcut back to where you were before.
But how do you close a programme rather than let it waste memory and battery in the background?
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Click to collapse
If android needs ram it will close apps as needed but you can always download a task manager from the marketplace, there are some good free ones, i suggest advanced task manager its what i use

It would be good to be able to actually get them to exit properly.
Especially so when you have 4 or 5 "All messages" apps that won't go.
The only use this bug has is to take you to apps that are actually running as opposed to your history.

It also takes you to screens that a task switcher can't do for you, like the last screen you see from your last phone call and the call history.

frankv100 said:
The only use this bug has is to take you to apps that are actually running as opposed to your history.
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Click to collapse
I don't see this as being a bug. The ability to be able to short cut to the 6 (I notice it is limited to 6) previously used apps by a long press on the home button is obviously something the designers have deliberately included. And to me it is a useful additional feature (now I have found it!).
It seems to be history rather than running apps you are looking at - I closed several of my running apps using Astro and yet they still subsequently appeared in the list.

Kindle Fire Task Switcher

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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Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

My experience with CM10 so far XD (and maybe a feature wishlist)

First of all, how awesome is this forum !!!
I consider myself a pretty "upright" forum user as in I usually read the pinned, "read this first", Q&A, and search before I make new posts. Whenever I come upon people who don't do that, I kinda frown to my computer screen but beyond that seems like nothing much can be done? The "Here are the similar threads we found:" section is just pure brilliance.
Sorry about the rambling but I will start with a tiny background story first.
So once upon a time, I got warned thru my gmail that my account apparently was "compromised". After I did some preliminary verification to make sure they are not spams, I decided to try the google "2-step verification" process. And I bet most of you knew what comes next: I keep getting bad password popups. After some hours of frustrating struggle, I fixed my gmail on my phone. But Gtalk would not let me do that 1-time psasword verification thing, and thus my play store won't work. (God really who designed them to be linked!? I did not launch Gtalk once in my life.) Before this happened, I was happy with my stock launcher from Samsung and always have the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" motto. In the end, I decided it is "certified broken" and I thought this might be a good time to look into upgrading to Jelly Bean.
hm.. i think i'm making this post unnecessary long so I will just cut through the chase. I never thought "stock" stuff would come in any quality. But amazingly in my first day experience of CM10, I am already missing a bunch of features that I used to take for granted. I have no desire to go back to the last launcher (as this in theory should be a step up overall, i believe). So if anyone have tips for me to how to get these features back, I would very much like some pointers! Thanks in advance.
Just some clarification in case this matter: I bought my phone unlocked in Hong Kong. So there is no service-provider-associated stuff that came with the stock launcher I got.
EDIT: I used the 11-02 nightly build of CM10 and its corresponding Gapp package.
1) Contact list
+ Improved: To my amaze, my chinese contacts got sorted by their pronunciation in english! The original stock launcher lumped all of them in the end of the list.
- What I missed: Slide left on names will message the contact and slide right will call them.
# What I tried: Of course my first solution is to search on App store to find a replacement. For some reasons, only two (with good rating) showed up. Did the search got dumber? Or it got smarter but just not doing what I want?
Go Contacts: I think i remember trying it and personally not a big fan of the GO packages. I didn't give it a second try.
Contants+ with a penguin icon: There's a function that lets you "Hold" on a contact to call them. This is very much inferior to the slidings : ( I need recommendations for contact list app.
2) App drawer
+ I like how the widgets got attached to the horizontal pages. Much nicer option than Homescreen-> menu and keep scrolling through the 1x4 area LOL. I love widgets and I have a lot of them. Yes it was painful.
- You can't custom organize the drawer. You can sort by Name or Install Date and that's it. I used to organize them by functionality. I have over 160 apps on my phone. I don't use all of them all the time but I would say I use close to 70% of them at least once in a while. So while my homescreen is really reserved for Widgets, App drawer is where I launch my less-used apps. I really like the "menu -> edit" function in my old launcher. I can create new page, move the apps around and even uninstall the app right there (with a minus sign on the top right corner of the app icon. Yes I didn't use to understand why one would even need uninstaller app from the store). Please don't hate me if you really just rather sort by Name.
# Funny the problem this time is not about how I can't find a suitable app from the play store to do a better job with the drawer. It's that I CAN'T move the original app drawer icon of the launcher from the bottom middle area. I imagine there's probably a way to replace it but it's obviously not a readily available option or I am missing something.
3) Task manager?
+ I think it's just recent launched apps (or apps in the background) now. It's in a way good that it goes beyond the last 6. Not that I find that old limit bothering really.
- Where's my task manager? I'm a bit OCD when it comes to ram usage and processes/services. Oh how i missed the Hold home button -> recent app screen with a task manager button -> Kill all task. LOL It's not much but it shows just enough: total ram usage, running apps, processes, and even storage space. Scratch that, it's actually very much.
# Right now I am resort to Auto Memory Manager with a blue fish icon. It's sufficient. But I can't access it anywhere.
4) Misc. stuff that I missed and would like help to find them. Note: these have nothing to do with the launcher.
- I used to have this "Windy Weather" live wall paper (or what i believed it was called). There were some wind turbines running on a grass field. It reflects the current weather. I scour the store and I couldn't find anything remotely like that besides having to go back to the GO family or you have to pay. I know it's not recommended but I tried titanium back up to restore it from my old system - no luck.
- Ap news widget. The widget was 2x4. It does not refreshes on its own and only do so with a tiny refresh button on the bottom right corner. It cycles through headlines with pictures that fully stretches the whole 2x4 window (beautifully). Can't find it in the store.
- Pinch on the home screen zooms out and gives you a quick view of all 7(now 5, but I can live with that) pages of home screen.
- That's all for now. I think I am still missing a few things I wanted to mention but I forgot what they are at the moment
anyway, sorry about some of the ranting. Here are some features i like:
+ File Manager is awesome.
+ Camera is great as well. And I love the quick browse gallery. It's weird that the actual gallery don't even have to pinch function while they put it here.
+ The pull down menu is clean. I kinda missed the "auto-rotation" quick set. But it's minor. I usually don't allow auto rotation anyway. I also like the setting button in there. But I used it so much I have to put a short cut on the home screen anyway.
+ The animation when you turn off the screen is COOL
+ The lock screen which gives you direct access to the camera is very convenient as well.

There is no sammy like app with swipe unfortunately.(edit :didnt know ex dialer has it sry_
Try apex launcher,nova launcher,adw ex launcher(i prefer this at the moment,pletora of settings)
autorotation ,play with toggle settings in system settings menu.
Don't bother with ram,free ram is wasted ram.
That windmill wallpaper i think go has something similar to it but i dont use it as it is a huge battery hogger .I just use a plain wallpaper.
I suggest u stay playing a bit with the lockscreen/system settings

Hi, i use ex dialer and it have slide right to call and slide left to sms.
Cheers!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

For dialer I recommend Dialer Ex from Play. I also missed the swipe to call & message function from Sammy roms. This app does it(it also has other great features like theme support etc.!)
Sent from my premium potato

1) ExDialer. You will never look back. You can customize it to your taste and it has the features you ask.
2) You need to use another launcher for that, but in my case I got accustomed to search for apps instead of looking for icons. It's easier and can be done from everywhere in your launcher if you click and hold the Menu key. You can also have folders in the Home screen, that's also a nice way to organize. Why I ended doing this? Because other launchers have too many options.
3) You shouldn't care about running apps. You can kill them by pressing Menu key on the Home and selecting manage apps. There, in "Running" you have the apps that are currently working on the background, the memory they use and you can eventually kill them. I'm against that unless you have an issue with an app (like Media Scanner going rogue).
4) GO Weather. You can download it from the web if it's not on the store and side-load it. But I have it available. I can't help you with the news widget as I never found one useful enough to my usage patterns. I don't think the default launcher can show you all Home screens at once.

Thanks for all the help guys. You are quick to reply : )

android manages ram efficiently u dont need to free ram if u still want to have a kill apps button on recent apps its part of aokp and if u want to have it on cm10 try pacman rom

App idea: Alt+Tab style, single click switch to previous app. Exist already?

I I have looked all over for an app to do this but have found nothing. I am ready to start writing my own, but want to make sure it doesn't exist already? Seems hard to believe no one has done this yet!?
say i need to copy/paste listing descriptions from evernote into ebay... I want a QUICK trigger, maybe double tapping home or something that shows a simple app list in a transparent overlay.
Pick the ebay app and it loads. After pasting the title there, double tap home again and instantly, it flips back to Evernote where I can repeat this process with the description and other fields. Maybe the volume key could flip between the two apps, or better yet, a swipe.
Seeing how I use that technique a million times a day, it would save countless hours over all the other task manager types that always load a display of all (or none) of the recent apps when triggered. I don't know about everybody else, but there's a 90% chance that if I want to quickly flip to another app, it's because I intend to quickly flip right back in a few seconds.
This is such a vital function for me on computers that I dedicate a whole button on my mouse to pressing Alt+Tab so I can flip back and forth very fast. I have become very spoiled by that technique and can't stand doing work on Android just because of its annoyingly slow and painful "task manager" if you can even call it that. TIA!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

toothpick5 said:
I I have looked all over for an app to do this but have found nothing. I am ready to start writing my own, but want to make sure it doesn't exist already? Seems hard to believe no one has done this yet!?
say i need to copy/paste listing descriptions from evernote into ebay... I want a QUICK trigger, like double tap home (or whatever) that shows a simple app list in a transparent overlay.
Pick the ebay app and it loads. After pasting the title there, double tap home again and instantly, it flips back to Evernote where I can repeat this process with the description and other fields. Maybe the volume key could flip between the two apps, or better yet, a swipe.
Seeing how I use that technique a million times a day, it would save countless hours over all the other task manager types that always load a display of all (or none) of the recent apps when triggered. I don't know about everybody else, but there's a 90% chance that if I want to quickly flip to another app, it's because I intend to quickly flip right back in a few seconds.
This is such a vital function for me on computers that I dedicate a whole button on my mouse to pressing Alt+Tab so I can flip back and forth very fast. I have become very spoiled by that technique and can't stand doing work on Android just because of its annoyingly slow and painful "task manager" if you can even call it that. TIA!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sorry, but you cannot override the home button.
You could try one of the various side bar apps though.

It could be a swipe gesture or anything that requires only ONE step. I don't want to bring up an app selection list on every switch, but just the first time. Maybe a notification bar button could bring up the selector, then a side swipe gesture could flip back and forth between the two apps? It should be simple to write this. I just cant believe that it hasn't already been done? Surely someone knows of an existing app?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

toothpick5 said:
It could be a swipe gesture or anything that requires only ONE step. I don't want to bring up an app selection list on every switch, but just the first time. Maybe a notification bar button could bring up the selector, then a side swipe gesture could flip back and forth between the two apps? It should be simple to write this. I just cant believe that it hasn't already been done? Surely someone knows of an existing app?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that the part of the screen which will be "swipeable" will not react to touch events anymore.

nikwen said:
The problem is that the part of the screen which will be "swipeable" will not react to touch events anymore.
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Click to collapse
Yeah. But it could be a small invisible hotzone like many of the task managers do. Swiping is just for the cool factor really. Using the volume button should work just fine for my needs. Would that work? The volume button can still listen to an app thats not in focus because music players do it right? But i guess that would be a problem if one of the switched apps overrides the volume control...? Any suggestions? If nobody has pointed out an existing app with this capability I will start on it tonight. I'm still a newb to Android but, I am majoring in programming so I gotta jump in on something!

toothpick5 said:
Yeah. But it could be a small invisible hotzone like many of the task managers do. Swiping is just for the cool factor really. Using the volume button should work just fine for my needs. Would that work? The volume button can still listen to an app thats not in focus because music players do it right? But i guess that would be a problem if one of the switched apps overrides the volume control...? Any suggestions? If nobody has pointed out an existing app with this capability I will start on it tonight. I'm still a newb to Android but, I am majoring in programming so I gotta jump in on something!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if I understand correctly you just want to have multitasking without having to hit the multitask button and then choose the app; you just want to be able to choose the app. I would say something like floating folders would work for you.