Database Users

Looking for something different for the Home Screen

I have read alot of posts and have found that the most popular home screen is HTC Home. There are others that prefer paid for applications. But here is my question. Has anyone ever ported a smartphone home screen for use on the Herald?
My daughter has a T-Mobile Shadow which uses a nice home screen and actually highly functional for average user. I have also seen a YouTube video of another home screen that was just gorgeous. Personally I prefer to keep my stylus holstered at all costs since I have damaged my screen with the elements in my area. Besides that whenever I hand my phone to anyone I have to give them a crash course in using my phone. I know it is simply tap the power button and press the green button but they will stand there forever trying to figure it out. I was just wondering if anyone has seen anything like I am talking about? It would be a nice change from HTC Home.

Nothing beats the HTC home screen in my opinion. do you have the cube feature?

I am not arguing the quality of HTC Home I have used it a while now. I would just like a change and I have a few little complaints about HTC Home specifically with the Music tab. It doesn't take focus on what button you are on while navigation using the directional pad. I take it most people use there stylus so it does not bother them and it is minimal so I have no problems with it.
As to the Cube no I do not have it installed and I again don't like to touch the screen I have already accrued enough damage and my finger tips are worse than the stylus. Thank you for your suggestions and interest in my post.

Is there a video or pictures of the htc home screen, I'm new to all this?

I like to keep my today screen simple and clean...
I really hated HTC Home... it was too big and clunky, didn't fit my needs and just got on my nerves!
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..
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There is also Freestyl and PointUI both are free but both are in Beta still.
,

Thanks for the suggestions duprade & pseudoproto. Both of your Home Screens are awesome and well put together I will say. After duprade's post I tried all the Today plugins I could find and none had the feel of stability to me. I am not complaining or knocking on their designs. I am specifically looking for a direct port from another windows mobile device at this time. Again thanks hope I make sense I think I want a Smart Phone on a Pocket PC how sad lol.

just try ultimate launch or spb pocket plus it works very good it is a kind of a cube on your today screen to launch some apps or something like that try it and i think it will be the right thing for you just google ;-)

hhh_www you may be right and I have tried it and it was fun. But I haven't a artistic bone in my body. So everything I put together looks like crap. I am just hopeful for a few specific details I see in my daughters Shadow. The WMP on the scrolling screen w/ Album Art. That is so appealing.
Here is a screen shot of that in action you might understand why I like it so much.

neiltoe said:
hhh_www you may be right and I have tried it and it was fun. But I haven't a artistic bone in my body. So everything I put together looks like crap. I am just hopeful for a few specific details I see in my daughters Shadow. The WMP on the scrolling screen w/ Album Art. That is so appealing.
Here is a screen shot of that in action you might understand why I like it so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ran across this site and thought of your post. Maybe something from here is close to what you want. Let me know if this helps.
http://smartphone.krisdoff.net/portfolio.php?g=3

Thank you will definitely give it a try!
Edit: I tried to use it but it appears you must have a smartphone to use this.

There's a thread. It's called "Post your todayscreen"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=360897
maybe you can look in there and see what you like.
There are tons of these "Post your todayscreen" type threads all over the forum. If you could find a few look through it, and see what you like.

[REQ] Notification Bar / Calendar Widget

Hello all
Just wanted to thank this community as a whole for all the great work they've done. I'm in love with my N1, rooted with CM and all the good stuff I found on this forum.
After tinkering around with my N1 for quite some time a potentially neat idea occurred to me (hope this is the right spot for it). I use my phone primarily for business use and general functionality. At the same time I tend to nitpick about ease-of-use, convenience and simplicity. My idea (alleging it doesn't already exist) is basically an advanced google calendar widget embedded into the notifications drop down. Obviously, this would turn primary use of the drop down into the said calender, but with the convenience to be able to pull it up in a second while allowing for more effective multi tasking.
I'm not a new to the developers world, but am as far as the Android OS goes. I was hoping a few experienced hands might see this as a nice little challenge. At the same time, for the willing, I would not mind at all attempting this challenge on my own (obviously with some much needed assistance ).
Sorry for the long post, and I look forward to hearing constructive feedback.
Thanks in advance!

Are you thinking more along the lines of something that lists upcoming events, or rather an actual calendar image? I'm not if the latter can be accomplished, but would definitely be willing to start working on something.

Hi!
Welcome to the forums!
typica1cat said:
basically an advanced google calendar widget embedded into the notifications drop down. Obviously, this would turn primary use of the drop down into the said calender, but with the convenience to be able to pull it up in a second while allowing for more effective multi tasking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you looking for something like this?
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/net.jimblackler.quickcalendar/
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If not, can you elaborate on what you mean by an 'embedded calendar widget' in the notifications window?
.

You could add a calendar shortcut to the dock using one of the new launchers...

Paul22000 said:
...Are you looking for something like this?
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/net.jimblackler.quickcalendar/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That´s nice, thanx!

Thanks guy, I certainly appreciate all the responses and the warm welcome. Initially I wanted calender functionality inside the notifications drop down because it can be pulled up at anytime without having to switch to any other programs. Often times while writing emails I like to cross check my schedule mid proposal. Two applications/widgets I switch between are the "Pure Grid Calender" and the "Android Agenda Widget". I'm probably going too far here but this would be amazing: Upon touching the top bar initially, it switched to the notifications and the bar lowers a bit (all before actually sliding the menu down). If upon touching the bar, it slid down (that same amount) but with two options, one for notifications and one for calender. you could then slide your finger to the left or right to choose which drop down you want, and proceeded to slide it down and the chosen menu would then appear full screen.
This is probably impossible lol, i have a wild imagination. I can do a better mock-up after work with illustrations if indeed that was too wordy.

typica1cat said:
If upon touching the bar, it slid down (that same amount) but with two options, one for notifications and one for calender. you could then slide your finger to the left or right to choose which drop down you want, and proceeded to slide it down and the chosen menu would then appear full screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I see. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to override/replace touching the status bar. You can put things in it, but having 'two' of them with left/right swipe I don't think is user-replaceable.
However, there ARE apps that let you put any shortcut you want in the Notifications Tray:
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/com.miromind.bartenderlite/
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/com.schwimmer.android.barcontrol/

I think your thinking of something along the lines of SBSettings for the iphone os?

@ paul Thank you for that information, if nothing else thats very useful.
@ zKilla: i am not familiar with iphone at all, i made the bold move to go straight into the world of android . But after doing some research that seems like it would be a great compromise.. only problem is if its even feasible to build into the N1
Also if any devs know where i could start poking my nose around, perhaps i figure this out on my own, lord knows itll take a few years tho ha

Tap notification bar to scroll to top in any app

Ever since my switch over to Android a few years back from my iPhone 3G, I've always been waiting for such a feature in Android that will give me the ability to tap the notification bar and instantly scroll back to the top in any app that requires scrolling. I've never once asked for this feature once until now. I've Googled it and it seems to be a rare topic. Do Android users know if this such feature? Because it seems like an easy concept and assuming wouldn't be difficult to incorporate a mod into Android... or would it?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

dEris said:
Ever since my switch over to Android a few years back from my iPhone 3G, I've always been waiting for such a feature in Android that will give me the ability to tap the notification bar and instantly scroll back to the top in any app that requires scrolling. I've never once asked for this feature once until now. I've Googled it and it seems to be a rare topic. Do Android users know if this such feature? Because it seems like an easy concept and assuming wouldn't be difficult to incorporate a mod into Android... or would it?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Used to like that feature on the iphone a year back. But don't you think that it is also possible to just flung one time and the whole page goes up? In iOS the flings are not continuous. To me at least. I would love to have this though.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

I agree, that's one feature that android is sorely lacking.

shockem said:
Used to like that feature on the iphone a year back. But don't you think that it is also possible to just flung one time and the whole page goes up? In iOS the flings are not continuous. To me at least. I would love to have this though.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that is what I have to do now. But when I'm reading a long article, flinging up on the page 20 times gets old.

I think Apple would sue Google if that feature was intriduced to Android

I think the new Samsung Galaxy S 3 has an gesture with scrolls in any list to the top. You just tap the top of the phone twice.

It's weird that just few people care of this feature, which is very cool, I miss it so much

benxiro said:
It's weird that just few people care of this feature, which is very cool, I miss it so much
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Yea, I would love for this feature to be implemented.
Jelly Bean 4.2.1 (JellyB-TSM) / Apex Pro / BreezeHD theme
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nope. i'd never use this if it were rolled into android. it seems very un-natural to tap the notification bar to go to the top. let iOS have this one....we don't want it anyway.

Well, some of us do. Seems like it would be something fairly easy to do with some dev knowledge.

hp420 said:
nope. i'd never use this if it were rolled into android. it seems very un-natural to tap the notification bar to go to the top. let iOS have this one....we don't want it anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you would rather swipe over and over to reach the top of a loooonnng list rather than tapping the status bar once? Oooooooook.
JellyB-TSM v16) / Apex Pro / BreezeHD theme

hp420 said:
nope. i'd never use this if it were rolled into android. it seems very un-natural to tap the notification bar to go to the top. let iOS have this one....we don't want it anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you better try to experience this feature, then decide it's natural or un-natural.
in general, 1 side: users have to swipe many many times to come to the top of the page; another side: just a tap then done(just like the home key on PC) - smooth and easy. Think and compare

you can use dolphin browser and gesture control, it works well

migueldbr said:
you can use dolphin browser and gesture control, it works well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it would be cool if it could be implemented to a long press menu button, when I tap the top it tries to change brightness..

Setting.Out said:
I think it would be cool if it could be implemented to a long press menu button, when I tap the top it tries to change brightness..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my case also, i love to use the status bar to control brightness=p

[Design] Note-Tailored Multitasking Launcher

I'm a little crazy about user interface design. And while I am no professional, new ideas for how software could or should work can keep me up late into the night, sketching on my Note. The night official ICS was released a really simple idea hit me as I was falling asleep: the multitasking tray should take advantage of the Note's massive screen size.
For those of you with ICS, take a look at the multitasking pane. It takes up all of the screen and displays relatively little. In addition, compared to other multitasking solutions, it lacks in features. It only displays the recent/running apps. It could really use a re-design.
So I took some time, researched the alternatives and imagined what would be best, and sketched up a design on our favorite drawing device.
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With this design, the multitasking app windows are arranged horizontally near the middle of the screen. You swipe left/right to move along the list of recent apps, and swipe up/down to close an app. At the bottom is the music tray, with - left to right - the music app button, previous/pause&play/forward, track/artist/album information, and an image of the cover art. Above the multitasking area, there is tray for recent messages and mail. Any recent messages or mail, regardless of read status, will be shown there. You can swipe up/down on the items to scroll through a small selection of them, and tap on one to open your mail app of choice to that message/email. Above the messages/mail tray, there is a quick settings tray for brightness and volume. The volume is assigned to media if there is media playing, or if none is playing then it is assigned to call/notification volume. At the very top, there are buttons for tasks and settings. All of this is located inside a solid textured window that sits on top of the current app, with the current app dimmed/greyed-out a little.
I was very careful with the placing of all of these. I am still undecided as to the placing of the top most three items, but I feel confident in my design thus far. I placed the music tray at the bottom - closest to the thumb, which has just pressed the hardware button for multitasking - for quick, easy, comfortable and intuitive access. The multitasking area takes a large section just above the bottom of the screen and near the middle, to give it the main visual focus of the window. The multitasking app-windows are arranged horizontally near bottom for quicker and easier access, as the thumb/fingers are near the bottom of the screen so the reduced distance and the horizontal swiping motion are the most ergonomic for the form factor. For most people the top three trays are typically accessed less than music and multitasking, so that's why they are near the top (farther from the thumb/fingers). Messages/mail also looks very good near the top of the screen, aesthetically speaking, as the eye tends to look near the top of the screen for important/interesting things. I am tempted to swap the tasks/settings buttons for the messages/mail tray, but that would make messages/mail less easy to access for the fingers and they are a main focus of the device (it being a phone and all).
There are numerous coding implications of this multitasking launcher but they are largely self-obvious (ex. having an option in settings to allow the user to set which music app to use for the music tray).
Comments? Questions? Thoughts?
P.S. Please note I am not familiar with the Android customization scene and do not know if there is already something like what I have designed.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/12/3015682/rethinking-the-iphones-app-switcher
Seems like you took that idea and modified it a bit for Android.

Spartoi said:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/12/3015682/rethinking-the-iphones-app-switcher
Seems like you took that idea and modified it a bit for Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Took the first paragraph, it's a well written introduction. Didn't take anything else. Got my ideas from stock ICS multitasking launcher, stock ICS recommended design language, WebOS cards multitasking launcher, default iOS mulitasking launcher and the iPhone notification pull-down tray.
"Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal"

Yeah, I definitely like the old way of multitasking better. Having so few items on the screen makes it take almost as much tune as just hitting the home button and finding the sop in my homescreen. The long press seems to take longer on ICS too. I'd definitely prefer the iOS method of double clicking to multitask and long pressing for voice actions. The million dollar question, is any of this stuff even possible?
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Screen off gestures

Hi guys!
I know there are some old threads about tap2wake feature and so on. But I want to point your attention to a different perspective: gestures. Wouldn' it be useful to launch some apps (camera, google translate,whatsapp, qr code scanner etc) from a simple gesture on your screen when it is off? I think it would be. I'm not a dev, just an android enthusiast. I have no idea how much the implementation of these features can be difficult. But I l'd like to have some opinions by someone who know more than me about the principal difficulties to realize it. If I'm not wrong Nexus 5 has these features(at least tap2wake) thanks to elementalX kernel, it has snapdragon 800 as note 3, so i think it would be possible to implement. Just curious, I'm not saying "please do this, my life depends on it", I'm feeling really good with my note 3 as it is, but I think it would be useful and cool[emoji13] [emoji13].

I asked this a while ago but got no response So i don't know if it even possible to do so, I think the devs knew that the digitzer couldn't be turned out with out the display being on. saying that it's an amoled display so displaying black on it, makes it turned off. But i'm no Kernel Developer so i don't know much about the Kernel

Maybe you're right about amoled. But I tried Knockr app, that puts your screen black and you can use gesture with "screen off" or blacked screen. So I think digitizer is on and screen is off, but as app is in memory and active it keeps wakelocks keeping CPU at high frequencies. So it will drain the battery, and it is not such a good thing. Surely a kernel solution would be more battery friendly, avoiding cpu wakelocks or at least putting cpu at lowest frequencies.

Yep

As already stated, it would require kernel-level support, and even then, would likely be an increased drain on the battery. There's no reason it couldn't be done, though.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the idea. I'd rather use lock screen shortcuts. It only takes a fraction if a second to press a button and bring up the lock screen, and there's no worrying about accidentally inputting any 'gesture' while the phone's in your pocket. But that's just my opinion...

About gestures in your pocket I think it will be quite difficult since we had a capacitive touchscreen, at least I never had such problem. But you're right if you can customize your lockscreen shortcut launch an app won't take too long. But you need to have the possibility to customize your lockscreen shortcuts like in cm-based ROMs. For example I really like TW lockscreen, I don't want any third part app to replace it. By the way, thanks to say your opinion, have different points of view is a good thing.[emoji6]
So I'm asking to myself why nobody implement this feature, if it is possibile, maybe development will take too much time for a feature few people wants.

You're probably right about not having to worry about activating gestures in your pocket. Like I said, I've never tried such a thing. That was just the first thought that came to mind lol.
TW does actually have native lock screen shortcuts that are somewhat customizable, but it takes a bit of work to make it functional (at least on my device).
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A little OT. Where is this option, or better, on which ROM have you got it? [emoji13]

cruor.am said:
A little OT. Where is this option, or better, on which ROM have you got it? [emoji13]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen it enabled in any ROMs by default, but it may be on some other devices. I've been playing around with it on my Note 3 running Alliance, but I don't have it quite 100% functional yet.