My wife recently got a Vibrant, and she hates the bottom 4 required buttons on her home screens (Phone/Contacts/Messaging/Apps). She does not text, and wants to get rid of the messaging button. Is rooting the phone and installing a custom theme the only way to do this?
Also, what is the "lag fix" supposed to fix? She hasn't complained much about anything, and I haven't messed with her phone enough to see any serious problems with it.
EDIT: Also, what does having a "hardware locked" phone mean, what does it prevent you from doing, and how can I figure out if my wife has a hardware locked phone?
Rattor said:
My wife recently got a Vibrant, and she hates the bottom 4 required buttons on her home screens (Phone/Contacts/Messaging/Apps). She does not text, and wants to get rid of the messaging button. Is rooting the phone and installing a custom theme the only way to do this?
Also, what is the "lag fix" supposed to fix? She hasn't complained much about anything, and I haven't messed with her phone enough to see any serious problems with it.
EDIT: Also, what does having a "hardware locked" phone mean, what does it prevent you from doing, and how can I figure out if my wife has a hardware locked phone?
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First off, I think if this is your wifes phone and you and she are unfamilar to modding its best to do as little as possible to get what you need. That said, if she hasn't complained about lag, don't worry about it. If you are interested, then lag is created because samsung uses a proprietary file system rfs which is a little slow. Lag fixes try to remedy this by either adding an ext2/3 partition, or totally replacing the file system with ext4. This last is for advanced users and I would not recommend.
Hardare locked refers to some devices that are unable to get to recovery or download mode by using the volume buttons and power button. There are threads to explain how to do it. Use them to see if your wifes is one.
As for the big ticket of your thread customizing your home screen, there are numerous launchers on the market. I like launcher pro, and adw launcher. Im pretty sure you dont even need to root to use them, there are free versions in the market. Good luck.
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wildklymr said:
First off, I think if this is your wifes phone and you and she are unfamilar to modding its best to do as little as possible to get what you need. That said, if she hasn't complained about lag, don't worry about it. If you are interested, then lag is created because samsung uses a proprietary file system rfs which is a little slow. Lag fixes try to remedy this by either adding an ext2/3 partition, or totally replacing the file system with ext4. This last is for advanced users and I would not recommend.
Hardare locked refers to some devices that are unable to get to recovery or download mode by using the volume buttons and power button. There are threads to explain how to do it. Use them to see if your wifes is one.
As for the big ticket of your thread customizing your home screen there are numerous launchers on the market. I like launcher pro, and adw launcher. Im pretty sure you dont even need to root to use them, there are free versions in the market. Good luck.
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Thanks for your quick reply.
I am not new to modding. I have pretty seriously modded my Evo 4G (custom kernels, deodexed ROM, customized themes, etc...). It's just I am unfamiliar with the Vibrant and its root process, and I don't want to do anything to it until I know the ins and outs of messing around with it.
If I can mod her home screen without rooting, then that's probably as far as I'll go. However, I've told her to look over the themes here to see if she finds one she likes, and I'm fairly certain I need to root to install a custom theme if she decides there's one she likes.
Rattor said:
Thanks for your quick reply.
I am not new to modding. I have pretty seriously modded my Evo 4G (custom kernels, deodexed ROM, customized themes, etc...). It's just I am unfamiliar with the Vibrant and its root process, and I don't want to do anything to it until I know the ins and outs of messing around with it.
If I can mod her home screen without rooting, then that's probably as far as I'll go. However, I've told her to look over the themes here to see if she finds one she likes, and I'm fairly certain I need to root to install a custom theme if she decides there's one she likes.
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Ok then, most theming i've seen on the vibrant is for the status bar, and not the bottom. Most roms end up supplementing touchwiz launcher with something like launcher2 or adw launcher. You might want to take a look at eugene373's frankentwiz. Hes modified touchwiz so you can edit the bottom dock and app drawer. Or if you dont want to go that far he posted the default launcher in the dev section that you Adb push to system/app its literally the default launcher from the g1 days. Its what I use.
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Just use LauncerPro or ADW.
I got it for my girls Mytouch Slide. She doesn't need root. I doubt your wife needs the lagfix... the phone is fine just how it is for normal use.
HG! said:
Just use LauncerPro or ADW.
I got it for my girls Mytouch Slide. She doesn't need root. I doubt your wife needs the lagfix... the phone is fine just how it is for normal use.
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Considering the most she uses it for is to play Sims and other games (stealing my phone when she wants to play Angry Birds), and for surfing the web, I think she'll be fine without root, just using a new launcher. She just really didn't like the fact that 1/4th of her bottom dock was taken up with a useless icon.
Rattor said:
Considering the most she uses it for is to play Sims and other games (stealing my phone when she wants to play Angry Birds), and for surfing the web, I think she'll be fine without root, just using a new launcher. She just really didn't like the fact that 1/4th of her bottom dock was taken up with a useless icon.
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You don't need a new launcher to replace the sms icon at the bottom of the dock. Open the app drawer-> menu-> view type-> customizable grid-> menu-> edit ...
Then you can drag any other icon on the dock to replace the sms icon. Press the back button to confirm, then you can switch back to alphabetical grid.
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::egg on face:: I also learn something new every day.
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Also, if you look around this forum you can find the Angry Birds apk and install it on your wifes vibrant.
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renster721 said:
You don't need a new launcher to replace the sms icon at the bottom of the dock. Open the app drawer-> menu-> view type-> customizable grid-> menu-> edit ...
Then you can drag any other icon on the dock to replace the sms icon. Press the back button to confirm, then you can switch back to alphabetical grid.
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Thanks for that tip. Although I think I will be getting her ADW Launcher anyways since it's much more customizable, and not as overloaded as TouchWiz. Plus I found a theme for ADW I think my wife will love.
Just as a follow on, is it normal for you to have to hit the soft buttons (menu, home, back, search) multiple times to get them to actually register? I've noticed that if they are not lit up, I have to hit them once or twice to get them to light up, and then again to do the action I was trying to do.
Rattor said:
Thanks for that tip. Although I think I will be getting her ADW Launcher anyways since it's much more customizable, and not as overloaded as TouchWiz. Plus I found a theme for ADW I think my wife will love.
Just as a follow on, is it normal for you to have to hit the soft buttons (menu, home, back, search) multiple times to get them to actually register? I've noticed that if they are not lit up, I have to hit them once or twice to get them to light up, and then again to do the action I was trying to do.
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When I first got my vibrant I did, but I think it's because the touch sensors are very specific. As in, you have to hit the home button dead on for it to register. Once I got used to the button locations its not been a problem.
Btw, if you touch anywhere on the screen the buttons will light up ... Helpful when its really dark.
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all you have to do is....
1.go into app drawer
2.press menu and select view type
3.then select customizable grid
4. then go into your app drawer again and select edit
5.then select and hold an app and drag it in dock where the msg app is
6.and that's it
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renster721 said:
When I first got my vibrant I did, but I think it's because the touch sensors are very specific. As in, you have to hit the home button dead on for it to register. Once I got used to the button locations its not been a problem.
Btw, if you touch anywhere on the screen the buttons will light up ... Helpful when its really dark.
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completely agree with this. You've kinda be dead on or cover the majority of the button. Adw is a great choice. It's an awesome and absurdly customizable home alternative. Plus it's free
Thanks for everyone's help. I ended up going with ADW and the iDroid theme (my wife adores the little android droid mascot). Very easy to setup and looks very nice.
I am running adw ex and I love having the option of using the large hidden dock bar as my main dock but this only seems to work randomly and I don't know how to get it to reappear again. Does anyone else have this problem or know a solution? Thank you
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i don't seem to have this problem. I just touch and drag-up on the launcher icon and its there. it does pop up when coming back to the homescreen once in a while, but thats not really an issue.
Problem i did notice tho, is that the icons on my homescreen can't be place at the left or right edge, its just a blank column that i can't put apps in, really minimizes the space i have and doesn't look as nice with everything closer to the middle. I only have this issue with EX, not the free version.
Any help there?
Are you talking about the regular "phone" dock bar (right side of screen in landscape) or the hidden dock bar (bottom of screen in landscape)? Because the regular one can be removed in the ui settings to give more screen real estate. Then there is another option to make the hidden one your main dock.
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ROORnNUGZ said:
Are you talking about the regular "phone" dock bar (right side of screen in landscape) or the hidden dock bar (bottom of screen in landscape)? Because the regular one can be removed in the ui settings to give more screen real estate. Then there is another option to make the hidden one your main dock.
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thanks for the tip on more screen realestate.. but i never had the dockbar along the side and can't seem to find the setting to put it there...
Sorry im at work right now on my phone... when i get home ill try and take a screen shot and show you what i mean
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Nevermind I just assumed the main dock bar was on the side like launcher pro. But I figured out the hidden one can be set with a gesture so now mine can hide /unhide with a swipe down. The hidden one is way better anyway and can hold way more icons.
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When you guys flick scroll and want to stop in the middle, do you guys tap it once to make it stop. Everytime i just tap once to pause it, it keeps going afterward. I would have to double tap the screen for it to stop at the spot. Is this a feature or a bug?
Not sure. I've always stopped the 'scrolling from flinging' by putting my finger on the screen and leaving it on, and then manually scrolling, as it's not often I can fling the page and it stop where I want it when I tap the screen.
But mine does stop with a single tap. What app are you using when this happens?
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Well, it happens on the browser. I would fling it and i would try to stop at the spot, but after i let go, it continues scrolling up.
Stock browser?
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Same thing happens for me with it continuing to scroll. I normally just wiggle the screen a little and it stops.
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yea stock browser. Is this normal for everybody else? It doesn't happen on my other android devices.
I don't use stock browser. Too few options. Yes it is smooth as all get out. But not enough for me.
I just tried it and it seems like to stop it you have to perfectly tap the screen without moving your finger at all (up or down), otherwise it thinks you're still scrolling.
Since it is stock there's a good chance it will get fixed by samsung at some point. I can't imagine many people liking that.
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I was playing around with my Note and noticed this really weird thing.
Go to http ://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WSPTVk!egb!acZbcc (a calculator for Diablo 3) (sorry can't post links). On your computer, you can see that whenever you hover over the icons another screen pops up with a more detailed explanation. Also if you click it it pops up a different screen with more information.
How to replicate this on your Note: You can of course get to the menu by clicking on the icons. But for the hover over: This sounds silly, but put the S Pen about 1 cm off the screen over the icons. It should display the hover over menu. So far, I've seen this work on the stock browser and the Reddit News app (which I think uses the stock browser).
It's not weird, they made it like that. The s-pen acts like a mouse. You can mouse over things by hovering it around, you can left click by touching it down onto the screen, and you can right click by holding it pressed down onto the screen.
If you go to Settings>Pen Settings and enable Hovering Pen Icon (if I recall correctly this wasn't on the original stock ROM, only the leaked updates), then you will actually be able to see the mouse cursor as well, so you can see exactly what you're mousing over.
That's kinda cool actually, i never noticed that about the stock browser. Although i think this may be the first tile I've opened the stock browser since the days of the htc dream and Cupcake or Donut or whatever the thing was running.
Kind of wish Opera had this...
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Thanks!
I learned something new and useful from this thread.
Yep. It is a great extra function. Turn on the mouse cursor too and you got a little PC.
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machinamayhem said:
I was playing around with my Note and noticed this really weird thing.
Go to http ://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WSPTVk!egb!acZbcc (a calculator for Diablo 3) (sorry can't post links). On your computer, you can see that whenever you hover over the icons another screen pops up with a more detailed explanation. Also if you click it it pops up a different screen with more information.
How to replicate this on your Note: You can of course get to the menu by clicking on the icons. But for the hover over: This sounds silly, but put the S Pen about 1 cm off the screen over the icons. It should display the hover over menu. So far, I've seen this work on the stock browser and the Reddit News app (which I think uses the stock browser).
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Click to collapse
This is the best thing since my uncle fester manufactured a 6 foot tobogan out of beer cans, strapped a jet engine to it, installed a flat screen TV, a toilet, and put a mini fridge in it.
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First of all, I sincerely apologize if this is the wrong section for such a post.
Basically I trying to setup a homescreen in which part of it can scroll vertically, but another part doesn't move. I currently have Lightning Launcher, which is great by the way, but I can only set it up so that the entire screen scrolls. I was thinking it would be nice for have a spot on the left side of the screen for favorite apps and maybe some widgets (I guess you could call it a "dock"), and on the right side of the screen have a scrolling list of the rest of my applications. Probably with 1/3 of the screen being the left portion and 2/3 being the right portion. Can this be done with Lightning Launcher? or any other launcher? and how?
Anyone?
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Pr.TOSHIBA said:
Anyone?
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It can be done with Lightning Launcher.
I am a fan, actually.
First, select the apps you want in the dock.
Then, line them up on one side of the screen.
For each, long press in the new version and select pin.
In the old one, you go to common itms setting or something.
After you pin, you can add a dock by giving the apps backgrounds.