Hi all,
I'm wonsering if true multitasking is possible...
I have been using the sgs2 for a few days now.and its.my first android.phone.
Im very happy with it but jus missing one feature...
When Im watching video in a browser or app Id like to be able to quickly do something else while the.audio keeps.playing.
Is this possible?
I do know that some apps have this featur (audio players etc.)
But id like to do this with the browser or cnn app
Greetings, dutchy
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
I'm not sure if it would be possible, although the video is kept in memory, it has to close in order to open another app, I don't think you could have audio playing in background during a different application. My thought, though I'm still kinda n00b-ish with Android myself.
@SgtDutchyNL
It's possible for sure, but browsers intentionally pauses/stops playback when they're "minimized", because this is what most people want in most cases. I don't know any browser app which does run flash content in the background.
Shame there isnt an option for it, maybe its possible by editing some code?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Coming from a Palm Pre (WebOS) I really hate multi-tasking on Android devices, switching from app to app sometimes doesn't even let you carry on where you started.
Bawezy said:
Coming from a Palm Pre (WebOS) I really hate multi-tasking on Android devices, switching from app to app sometimes doesn't even let you carry on where you started.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really, I've never had an issue switching between browser, sms, email, contacts and maps, all whilst listening to music.
As for video in the browser, Flash has been built to only run whilst in focus to stop the battery from draining when animation is running in a tab in the background.
To help the issue of multitasking, try installing wavelauncher on market. it is exactly like the wave launcher in webos. but it still wont fix the fact that android will close your program in the background when it needs more memory (which is why you have to restart from scratch when you "alt-tab" around)
I have a Palm Pixi Plus which I use for work email. No doubt WebOS is amazing when it comes to multi tasking, their ecosystem(h/w and s/w) should mature but I doubt if it can reach anywhere near Android. For that matter I doubt if M$ or RIM or Intel can ever achieve this.
I've been using Android for the past 2+ yrs. I must admit Android's muti tasking is rubbish. All we need is a simple button X (similar to Windows PC) to close any damn app than closing/killing in a different way in each app/phone. Its confusing at times. Good thing is Galaxy S II is a very good phone. A complete package must say..
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You guys misunderstood, i dont hate android's multitasking, in my opinion it doesnt match that of webOS as that was the mobile os where true multitasking was derived from. As gd as the android operating system is, Galaxy s2 is making me like android more.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
I've also noticed the problem when using sites like mega upload where you have to wait a certain amount of time before downoading a file. If the counter is on 30 seconds, I think I have time to check an e-mail or a few tweets while waiting, so I do that and when I come back to the browser the counter is still at 30 seconds...
It's usually not a big deal but I find it amusing that android fanboys made fun of iOS because it doesn't have true multitasking, although from what I can see android just saves the state of your apps and restores it when you go back to the app... it's OK in most situation but it's hardly multitasking.
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BlueScreenJunky said:
I've also noticed the problem when using sites like mega upload where you have to wait a certain amount of time before downoading a file. If the counter is on 30 seconds, I think I have time to check an e-mail or a few tweets while waiting, so I do that and when I come back to the browser the counter is still at 30 seconds...
It's usually not a big deal but I find it amusing that android fanboys made fun of iOS because it doesn't have true multitasking, although from what I can see android just saves the state of your apps and restores it when you go back to the app... it's OK in most situation but it's hardly multitasking.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most sites like that do this on the desktop now to keep your focus on their ads. Not sure if megaupload does but a lot do so i could just be this.
mark2222 said:
Most sites like that do this on the desktop now to keep your focus on their ads. Not sure if megaupload does but a lot do so i could just be this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this happens if you try the same on your computer too.
Huh ? Never happened to me on the computer but I'll check (it would make sense and seems doable w/ javascript), it could be that indeed.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
BlueScreenJunky said:
It's usually not a big deal but I find it amusing that android fanboys made fun of iOS because it doesn't have true multitasking, although from what I can see android just saves the state of your apps and restores it when you go back to the app...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Android has true multitasking, but that doesn't mean every app should or have to use it, does it? If I browse through internet, I'm on a site with dynamic Flash/Javascript content and I exit browser then I want it to freeze any dynamic content to minimize power consumption. This is exactly what most of people want in most situations and this is why you have problems with Megaupload. It's possible to create a browser which will run Megaupload counter in the background, but no one has created one so far, because it wouldn't be that good.
You all should understand this isn't a technical issue, it's a design concern. If you switch/exit an app then OS (no matter: mobile or desktop one) has to do one of the following:
run it normally in the background
pause it
close it
give user a choice
Each of above has its pros and cons. Desktop OSes use first option, because they don't care about power and RAM consumption. They also use last option, because on a big screen, with mouse and full keyboard there is no problem to add such controls.
But using same solution on a phone would be a disaster, I think. Older mobile OSes use third option: they close app after exiting it, they don't have MT at all. iOS is somewhere between pause and close. Android is between pause and run: it pauses apps by default, but gives them a possibility to run in the background if they want. And this is a big difference between iOS and Android. On the iOS app can't run in the background even if both its developer and user want that. On the Android it depends fully on a developer choice.
What I want to say is: there is no single, perfect solution to this problem. If clicking "home" button would not pause an app by default then OS would be a piece of **** to me. Even if it would give me a possibility to easily pause/close an app - still POS. Pause should be a default action to make OS easy to use, so I think Android design is really good. One thing which could be done is to give more control to user. E.g. an option to resume/not pause an app on demand, so it will run similarly to foreground mode.
And how does work this awesome MT of webos (I don't really know)? Please, don't say it runs apps in the background by default - if so then sorry, but as I said it's a POS to me.
Brut.all said:
And how does work this awesome MT of webos (I don't really know)? Please, don't say it runs apps in the background by default - if so then sorry, but as I said it's a POS to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Multitasking on a WebOS, for those who haven't yet seen it: http://youtu.be/wZht-a0VlD8
Brut.all said:
No, Android has true multitasking, but that doesn't mean every app should or have to use it, does it? If I browse through internet, I'm on a site with dynamic Flash/Javascript content and I exit browser then I want it to freeze any dynamic content to minimize power consumption. This is exactly what most of people want in most situations and this is why you have problems with Megaupload. It's possible to create a browser which will run Megaupload counter in the background, but no one has created one so far, because it wouldn't be that good.
You all should understand this isn't a technical issue, it's a design concern. If you switch/exit an app then OS (no matter: mobile or desktop one) has to do one of the following:
run it normally in the background
pause it
close it
give user a choice
Each of above has its pros and cons. Desktop OSes use first option, because they don't care about power and RAM consumption. They also use last option, because on a big screen, with mouse and full keyboard there is no problem to add such controls.
But using same solution on a phone would be a disaster, I think. Older mobile OSes use third option: they close app after exiting it, they don't have MT at all. iOS is somewhere between pause and close. Android is between pause and run: it pauses apps by default, but gives them a possibility to run in the background if they want. And this is a big difference between iOS and Android. On the iOS app can't run in the background even if both its developer and user want that. On the Android it depends fully on a developer choice.
What I want to say is: there is no single, perfect solution to this problem. If clicking "home" button would not pause an app by default then OS would be a piece of **** to me. Even if it would give me a possibility to easily pause/close an app - still POS. Pause should be a default action to make OS easy to use, so I think Android design is really good. One thing which could be done is to give more control to user. E.g. an option to resume/not pause an app on demand, so it will run similarly to foreground mode.
And how does work this awesome MT of webos (I don't really know)? Please, don't say it runs apps in the background by default - if so then sorry, but as I said it's a POS to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx for this very informative post.
And indeed I think the best solution would be for each app to have a default behavior as it is right now, but let the user force the app to keep running at all times if they need to for some reason and don't care about the performance hit.
Ty for all the info, but still, I just want the option to run some app normally in the background, its annoying when youre watching a movie and quickly need to check mail, i like having it playing on
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Intresting to me that good old WM 6.5 was true multitasking and could run for the best part of a week in standby Android in all it's forms, with background program managment, can barely do a couple of days !
Interesting in the video that I didn't see any evidence of true multitasking
Like some1 mentioned already, android is a multiple task/thread OS. So you can pretty much do anything. It's down to the developer. If you wanted music/vid to play in the background when not active in foreground tis easy to extend your application to have a service that constantly runs, and the app (UI) is just the controller. A good example of multitasking is seeing 2 things update where both are either critical data or processor intense. An example being your widgets update while live wallpaper is doing something. So to me, there is either multitasking or not, not really true multitasking. I think from the video of webOs I would call it a task/app/thread visual controller, and not a few words like "true multitasking".
Just my brain dumb on the issue
Related
I HATE mini apps on my Galaxy Tab 10.1...
That feature alone is enough to make me want to return the device.
Seriously? Why would Samsung want to decide for me my what apps I want at my finger tips? Then not only that, they use their own cheesy versions of available apps. I have already found the solutions I want to use through my Android phone. I want to carry over the same apps to the tab so that my experience is a little less fragmented.
The "mini apps" constantly get in the way. I'm brushing against the bottom bar causing the apps to pop up... none of which I ever use, completely unintentionally. Annoying! If I could only decide what apps showed up!
Total pain in the REAR!
Then Samsung loads on a bunch of unnecessary software. I HATE having 5 apps that do exactly the same thing on my device... The abundance of music players is asinine. Having three book programs (none of which you can remove) is stoopid.
Why can't you get a piece of hardware without the software all screwed up by the vendor these days?
Why is root necessary every time I put my hands on an Android device to make it useful?
Why can't I purchase an Android product with a Google backed Vanilla version of the current OS installed?
Why?
Why?
Why?
I'm so pissed that this $600 tablet requires an additional 15 dollars in apps and a good 6-12 (or more) hours of set-up time and research to get it properly rooted and operating the way I like it.
Sorry... that made me feel so much better.
Maybe an ipad would have been a better choice for you. I like tinkering with my toys so I chose the tab.
I HATE mini apps on my Galaxy Tab 10.1... do YOU?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may have opened the mini apps tray 3-4 times unintentionally (in the 10 weeks I have the tablet) and I use the "calculator" mini app quite regularly. So no, they don't bother me but I wouldn't miss them if they were gone either.
SGPMan said:
Maybe an ipad would have been a better choice for you. I like tinkering with my toys so I chose the tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Them there are fighting words...
I enjoy tinkering as well. I have loved customizing my original Incredible and now Incredible 2. They have an excellent following with a lot of very reputable ROM "artists". However, their original UI wasn't that bad to start with. And with the CM nighties, my phone is near perfect.
With the Galaxy Tab 10.1, my initial experience (3 days) I have found it to be laggy and glitchy, which I was shocked about. I want this tab to work for me, but it seems that I'm trying awful hard to make this work. I think it's the fact that my phone is setup so well and runs so well... I figured the tablet would be so much better. I set my expectations high, only to be disappointed so far.
I have rooted and removed a bunch of unnecessary apps, but haven't figured out how to remove that dam mini app bar. As far as custom ROM's go... I haven't loaded any since I am still trying to figure which has the best reputation for stability and speed.
I am trying to figure out something, other wise by Thursday this thing is headed back to Best Buy. Sad thing is... I don't want an apple device, but if that's what is comes to, then I will retire my Android phone as well to keep everything streamlined. Sucks!
gokpog said:
I may have opened the mini apps tray 3-4 times unintentionally (in the 10 weeks I have the tablet) and I use the "calculator" mini app quite regularly. So no, they don't bother me but I wouldn't miss them if they were gone either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Real Calc regularly, a donate (paid) app which can handle higher level math functions. I wish I could just substitute it in place of the basic Samsung/Android version.
Agree with you, mini-apps are boring me every time i wanna play a fullscreen game, like "fruit ninja thd"... This "rolling dock" is not a great feature.
SGPMan said:
Maybe an ipad would have been a better choice for you. I like tinkering with my toys so I chose the tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the reason most of us choose Android is that we aren't forced into "one man's vision" and have the ability to choose for ourself. The mini-app bar forces us into one company's vision. I have to agree with the OP about this.
We should at least have the ability to turn it off.
Meh...it's there, it's unobtrusive, and at least my experience with it is that I really have to try to get it to come up when I want it. Have never accidentally brought it up. Sometimes the calc and the memo pad are useful.
Can't see why people hate it so much.
MMcCraryNJ said:
Meh...it's there, it's unobtrusive, and at least my experience with it is that I really have to try to get it to come up when I want it. Have never accidentally brought it up. Sometimes the calc and the memo pad are useful.
Can't see why people hate it so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So...
Try a vs party on "Fruit Ninja THD", you'll see ^^
Just hide the status bar with this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265397
problem solved!!!
I actually don't mind having mini app tray. I use task manager, calculater and memo pad for taking notes from web regularly. The only thing I don't like is accidentally hitting the screenshot button. But I totally agree with the original post. An option to turn it off would be nice.
Personally I like them. Two of them I use on a daily basis. Most of the others occasionally.
JHeal77 said:
As far as custom ROM's go... I haven't loaded any since I am still trying to figure which has the best reputation for stability and speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Task360/Phantom "In Paris"
v.2 works great for me, but v.4 is coming "soon"(tm)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1284355
Really not a massive fan of them being there tbh, but I don't accidentally press the button (not like the screenshot one...grr!) and I don't use the apps in it. I just ignore it and get on my way.
If there was an option of getting rid of it though, I would.
I found this thread while searching for a way to at least configure this menu bar... unfortunately it looks like the whole thing is embedded in the ROM and the only way to hide it is to patch the ROM and/or completely replace it (thanks for the links in the thread).
I fully agree with the OP on a lot of his rant. This is an awesome peice of hardware that comes out of the box with some insanely bad software. I'm still deciding on what launcher to replace the stock version with, but so far both Go and Launcher Pro are tons faster, more configurable, and better looking than the laggy default version that doesn't even let you use the full display.
The status bar menu is kind of a nice idea, but the execution is terrible. If I could configure what apps and quick commands I wanted on the menu and easily hide it, it would be a great feature.
But as it is, the choices of what to put there seem really bizarre. I can't for the life of me figure out why "screen shot" was deemed important enough for most users to justify space on an "always on" menu. I have to routinely go delete unwanted screenshots taken by accidentally brushing that menu option.
The choices of what to put on the quick launch app menu are even worse. Holding the "home" button on the main menu for a couple seconds pops up the task manager so why do I need a whole other button dedicated to pulling up this app? The world clock is just plain terrible compared to other clock apps. The calander is alright, but there are better widgets out there that serve the purpose better than a quick launch menu. The memo and calculator are again terrible and need to be replaced by 3rd party apps so you should be able to replace them on this menu too. The music player is the only one of the apps that serves my purposes, but again there are better 3rd party apps and you should be able to configure what is on a system wide quick launch bar.
From the perspective of an average consumer the out-of-box experience is fairly poor due to the OEM software rather than the hardware or system software. It should be easy for a user to fix this with simple market based apps and configuration options rather than having to apply warantee voiding ROM patches and rooting the OS. Allowing OEM's to "lock" bad software is a really bad policy. If an OEM wants me to use their software, they should develop or license best in class versions of those apps rather than locking the software on the system and forcing me to root the system to get rid of poor quality software.
You can disable all of these functions with some XML editing if it really annoys you that much
I'd happily do all these changes for you for a little donation of just a couple of quid
Try one of the sweet new cm9 kangs, I'm on the 7500 version. So much better then tw honeycomb.
I Agree!!
hate it so much, but now on overcome rom,
its at least slightly less annoying. just ever so SLIGHTLY.
at least in this rom, a swipe upward wont activate it.
wont disturb me during fruit ninja.
but still sometimes press it when i wana press spacebar.
stupid piece of crap tray.
the motorola xoom already has ICS.
samsung will be the slowest tab to get it cos of this touch widz.
Sometimes i feel sorry for samsung.
i have a hunch there is some kind of conspiracy goin on at the back,
where google force manufacturers to implement their own skin. (why else would samsung waste effort to make rubbish that people dont want?)
and google can sell their overprice nexus device to make money.
just imagine, if samsung can sell or upgrade the galaxy S2 and note with the pure and stock vanilla android, and upgrade them to ICS without touch widz, would anyone buy galaxy nexus?
nexus has lausy hardware. last gen GPU and horrible camera. (not due to the 5MP, but generally a weak camera compare to S2 and note)
Luv'em why we have android
Pop up windows that are independent of screen, getting closer to desktop experience. I would like to swap some out but overall, (calc, note, calendar, calculator, & music player) work great. Allow true multitasking.
I just installed OverSkreen which gives me a windowed web browser on top of screen. I really like them.
I am on an ICS KANG version by Mabalito
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1461240
With this ROM, I don't have a bottom row of mini apps.
I am using GO Launcher EX HD
http://golauncher.goforandroid.com/2012/03/go-launcher-hd-v1-0-beta/
With the launcher, I able to hide the bottom bar whenever I want.
This is awesome when I watch video and play games
Other than a rooted Nook tablet I don't have much experience with Android. I'm coming from an iPhone4 and looking forward to something new.
What are the must have utilities and apps?
Any tips or must have, must do things?
I've seen doubletwist mentioned and Samsung uses Kies.
Looking forward to Note...
See the Guide for NOOBS sticky at the top of this forum ^^^^
thinguy said:
Other than a rooted Nook tablet I don't have much experience with Android. I'm coming from an iPhone4 and looking forward to something new.
What are the must have utilities and apps?
Any tips or must have, must do things?
I've seen doubletwist mentioned and Samsung uses Kies.
Looking forward to Note...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never used kies with either my captivate or infuse. Don't see the need with other apps, as well as the fact that you can just drag and drop files onto your phone's storage. Syncing reminds me of an iphone, and is stupid in my opinion. Drag and drop allows you to only add the files you need/want, and is much faster in the long run.
I suggest using Google Music for your music, it automatically uploads up to 20,000 songs automatically from your itunes or windows media player to the cloud so that you can access them wherever.
If you use grooveshark at all, check out Dood's music streamer. Allows you to use grooveshark on the go without paying for premium service. If you have not used grooveshark before, check it out on your computer.
Google voice provides a simple, visual voicemail system, though I think I have read somewhere that the note has visual voicemail built in? Could be wrong.
XDA app is a must, though I assume you use that on your Nook already.
Dropbox is useful for documents, as well as google docs.
The note comes with S Note and other various apps that make use of the S pen.
Dolphin Browser HD is a great replacement browser that I have used with all of my androids.
Evernote is useful for taking notes that can be accessed on your phone or any computer. I hope the S pen can have some functionality with this app.
Root explorer is definitely worth the few bucks it costs to have access to all of the files on your phone.
Titanium backup is a must if you are into ROMing your devices, as it will allow you to restore your apps after every flash with ease. The free version works, but you have to approve every app install. I suggest buying the full version, as the restore process is fully automated and can run in the background or with your screen off, making the process much less cumbersome.
Other than that, we will have to wait and see if apps such as rom manager and such will be of any use to the flashing process once the devs get their hands on the device and start pumping out custom roms.
OP, i'm also as green as you on the Android platform. I have an iphone 4s and got the Note just to explore Android.
jpeg42 said:
See the Guide for NOOBS sticky at the top of this forum ^^^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you read it? Its just Android definitions and reserved spots for future use. No specific info on tips, advice or apps.
welchertc said:
I have never used kies with either my captivate or infuse. Don't see the need with other apps, as well as the fact that you can just drag and drop files onto your phone's storage. Syncing reminds me of an iphone, and is stupid in my opinion. Drag and drop allows you to only add the files you need/want, and is much faster in the long run.
I suggest using Google Music for your music, it automatically uploads up to 20,000 songs automatically from your itunes or windows media player to the cloud so that you can access them wherever.
If you use grooveshark at all, check out Dood's music streamer. Allows you to use grooveshark on the go without paying for premium service. If you have not used grooveshark before, check it out on your computer.
Google voice provides a simple, visual voicemail system, though I think I have read somewhere that the note has visual voicemail built in? Could be wrong.
XDA app is a must, though I assume you use that on your Nook already.
Dropbox is useful for documents, as well as google docs.
The note comes with S Note and other various apps that make use of the S pen.
Dolphin Browser HD is a great replacement browser that I have used with all of my androids.
Evernote is useful for taking notes that can be accessed on your phone or any computer. I hope the S pen can have some functionality with this app.
Root explorer is definitely worth the few bucks it costs to have access to all of the files on your phone.
Titanium backup is a must if you are into ROMing your devices, as it will allow you to restore your apps after every flash with ease. The free version works, but you have to approve every app install. I suggest buying the full version, as the restore process is fully automated and can run in the background or with your screen off, making the process much less cumbersome.
Other than that, we will have to wait and see if apps such as rom manager and such will be of any use to the flashing process once the devs get their hands on the device and start pumping out custom roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I forget that it can be handled like a normal usb device/storage.
I need to try Dolphin, using Opera on Nook now and it's better than the default but still lacking. The firefox app seems terrible/incomplete.
thinguy said:
Other than a rooted Nook tablet I don't have much experience with Android. I'm coming from an iPhone4 and looking forward to something new.
What are the must have utilities and apps?
Any tips or must have, must do things?
I've seen doubletwist mentioned and Samsung uses Kies.
Looking forward to Note...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a captivate and have used froyo and gingerbread. I suspect you will find the gingerbread used on the g-note okay but not as polished and as smooth as your iOS. That said, the new android ICS (using cm9 alpha, build 16) is is incredible. Smooth, clean, powerful and intuitive. A pleasure to use, I believe It offers the best of both worlds. The ease of apple and the configurable power of android.
Since you have a nook you can try it out, the nook ics rom is very usable and will give you a hint of the g-note goodness to come with the ics operating system the xda guys will cook up. I have a nook to, and if you have rooted it, the ics install will be relatively simple.
The following list are some Apps you might find worth looking at, and depending on your interest, might even be worth paying for.
Music; I use Power Amp, paid app. clean seductive interface, lots of audio magic for the music lover, and great developer support.
Files; Webdav; paid ver. Nice little app let's you wireless mount your android as a drive so you can cut/paste files and folders as you would to and from any other drive on your PC. Great for lots of audio book files, movies, or just cleaning up your phone. You can use 3g instead of wifi but I've never tried it.
Podcasts; Dogcatcher, paid app. simply the best. Its biggest competition is Mypod. I used it for over a year, but never was able to get comfortable with its interface. Dogcatcher....you can just start using it, and it has lots of options.
Sling player, TV goodness, paid app and home box. Watch anything straight from your home cable, sat., or ota tuner, perfect if your a sports nut.
Launcher; Nova , free app. I am still testing but it is just so sexy and free so I figured I give it a mention.
Radio; Tune in , free app. music sports news radio stations with easy search presets. It is to good to be true but I haven't found a downside yet.
Browser; Dolphin HD, free app. I can't get excited about this one. It works, the speed is good, and it is not going to choke on flash. I would like to recommend Opera but it has been very buggy lately, I don't think it is playing nice with ics.
Google chrome is getting great reviews but it doesn't support flash. Then there is Boat browser and Quick Ics browser both show great promise but not sure about them yet.
I've got a G-note on order, for the lte and its monster screen. The thing is, since I got ics, my captivate is such a pleasure to use and play with I don't know how I'll survive waiting for a ics port.
Oh, and samsungs kies program might have some use but I've never found it.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
vizographic said:
Browser; Dolphin HD, free app. I can't get excited about this one. It works, the speed is good, and it is not going to choke on flash. I would like to recommend Opera but it has been very buggy lately, I don't think it is playing nice with ics.
Google chrome is getting great reviews but it doesn't support flash. Then there is Boat browser and Quick Ics browser both show great promise but not sure about them yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm very disappointed to hear that Opera is buggy with ICS--it's my favorite browser by far. <sarcasm>Fortunately</sarcasm>, we probably won't have a working ICS ROM for I717 any time soon. For the OP, this is Opera Mobile, not Opera Mini--the latter handles all traffic through opera's servers and compresses images to speed up browsing for slow phones or phones with poor connections, but the result is that many webpages with active (javascript or flash) content just don't work right.
Also a word of warning for the OP: if you choose Dolphin, make sure you are rooted and block en.mywebzines.com (and maybe some other related URLs) through your hosts file. The spyware seems to be removed in the latest update, but I still won't trust a browser that, at any time in its history, forwarded essentially all of your web activity to a third party server. There's a long thread around here that discusses these issues in more depth.
Browsers are very much a matter of personal preference though; also, if you use a browser that matches your desktop browser, it makes syncing the two much easier--firefox, opera, and chrome all have great sync capabilities between their desktop and mobile counterparts.
Thanks for the link, a very disturbing read regarding the Dolphin Browser HD. I took aggressive data mining for granted, but damn the DB-hd boys are into strip mining personal data...... thanks again for taking the time to post...
OP, please forget i even mentioned Dolphin
(i going to.. ; ) and give Opera a shot. He is right were not gonna be on ics for good stretch, and by the time we are any quirks will be ironed out. It is a great overall program with lots of features. It has usually been my daily driver since the long gone days of windows mobile.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
root question?
Since ICS is a ways off, If we root for TiBU, or Root explorer to remove certain system apps, will we get ICS FOTA, or will we not get it without unrooting and replacing all bloat we removed?
So my question is -any advice for those of us who root but want the OTA ICS when it comes out?
Should have put this out first- will the method for the international version for root work for the ATT one?
I've dreamed of having this on a tablet ever since they came out. I cannot believe iOS got this before any Android implementation, Cornerstone is ok, but this beats it hands down!!!
http://thebigboss.org/quasar-a-window-manager-for-ipad?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=quasar-a-window-manager-for-ipad
that isnt even true multitasking. you see they dont have a video playing in one window while browsing in another. all it is is opening up different windows. the other windows stop loading or doing whatever as you open a new one.
i can do all of that and more easily on just a rooted prime with stickit floating media player and overskreeen floating browser. On android it will be true multitasking because all things are going at the same time , all on the screen at once. ex. i could open up overskreen browser to browse xda. then i can open up multiple movies or vids with stickit and have them playing. then i can open up Facebook app and browse the app. i can have all that on my screen going on at once. one doesn't pause for the other action. so ill have my movies playing and watching them in a resize able window while looking at Facebook while also looking at xda in the overskreen browser. this is all at the same time, on the same screen, in real time. no slowdown or anything what so ever. i can even open up multiple browser pages and have them in their own individual windows if i want.
plus thats not an ios feature. thats something developers from cydia implemented. cydia isnt even supported by apple. jailbreak(isnt supported by apple also) is required to get cydia. then this app is in cydia. it looks cool but more of an illusion of multitasking. id say cornerstone blows this away or even what i described i use because what android does is true multitasking. on ios its not.
demandarin said:
that isnt even true multitasking. you see they dont have a video playing in one window while browsing in another. all it is is opening up different windows. the other windows stop loading or doing whatever as you open a new one.
i can do all of that and more easily on just a rooted prime with stickit floating media player and overskreeen floating browser. On android it will be true multitasking because all things are going at the same time , all on the screen at once. ex. i could open up overskreen browser to browse xda. then i can open up multiple movies or vids with stickit and have them playing. then i can open up Facebook app and browse the app. i can have all that on my screen going on at once. one doesn't pause for the other action. so ill have my movies playing and watching them in a resize able window while looking at Facebook while also looking at xda in the overskreen browser. this is all at the same time, on the same screen, in real time. no slowdown or anything what so ever. i can even open up multiple browser pages and have them in their own individual windows if i want.
plus thats not an ios feature. thats something developers from cydia implemented. cydia isnt even supported by apple. jailbreak(isnt supported by apple also) is required to get cydia. then this app is in cydia. it looks cool but more of an illusion of multitasking. id say cornerstone blows this away or even what i described i use because what android does is true multitasking. on ios its not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is a jailbreak tweak and not supported by Apple, this is a given with any tweaks like this. However, I will agree with you on the pausing of 'windowed' apps, not ideal at all. And using Overskreen, and / or airterm is great, but they are app specific. Cydias implementation, while not perfect, is still pretty nice to have any app windowed so you can have info displayed any where then just switch over to have it update, yes ideally they would keep running in windowed mode, but I feel this is still a nice feature to have as you can have info displayed in say Facebook, and then have twitter in another window if you want to use some FB info to post an update to twitter and need to see both at once.
I'm still waiting for Android to get a windowed implementation where you can, much like Overskreen or airterm, but have any app go into 'windowed' mode to fullscreen seemlessly, allowing you to choose what suits your needs at the time. For me this would pretty much seal the deal as Android being the clear winner for a tablet OS( in my mind it already is light years ahead of iOS in everything other than the 'polish' of apps being developed for iOS, but that's just an issue with sheer number of 'established' devs giving iOS more priority over Android, and the fact that it's easier to develop for a known set of hardware Vs. the array of HW available for Android ) ... Even with that Android is obviously better, especially if you're a power user.
Anyways, this post wasn't a supposed to be a dis on Android, just more of a "I want, I want.." kinda post.
Yeah, come back when iPad can do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S65h7cT0bo
luminus69 said:
Yeah, come back when iPad can do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S65h7cT0bo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I stated, I know the Prime is a much better device, and can handle a ton more, just a feature "wish we had it" post.
RubenRybnik said:
I know this is a jailbreak tweak and not supported by Apple, this is a given with any tweaks like this. However, I will agree with you on the pausing of 'windowed' apps, not ideal at all. And using Overskreen, and / or airterm is great, but they are app specific. Cydias implementation, while not perfect, is still pretty nice to have any app windowed so you can have info displayed any where then just switch over to have it update, yes ideally they would keep running in windowed mode, but I feel this is still a nice feature to have as you can have info displayed in say Facebook, and then have twitter in another window if you want to use some FB info to post an update to twitter and need to see both at once.
I'm still waiting for Android to get a windowed implementation where you can, much like Overskreen or airterm, but have any app go into 'windowed' mode to fullscreen seemlessly, allowing you to choose what suits your needs at the time. For me this would pretty much seal the deal as Android being the clear winner for a tablet OS( in my mind it already is light years ahead of iOS in everything other than the 'polish' of apps being developed for iOS, but that's just an issue with sheer number of 'established' devs giving iOS more priority over Android, and the fact that it's easier to develop for a known set of hardware Vs. the array of HW available for Android ) ... Even with that Android is obviously better, especially if you're a power user.
Anyways, this post wasn't a supposed to be a dis on Android, just more of a "I want, I want.." kinda post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree. i want any app to be able to be windowed. Maybe those developers will make something that can do that. they seem to be the only developers, creators of stickit & overskreen, that seem to be going in that direction. the people from tablified app also created a floating messaging client. so its only a matter of time before more n more apps will be able to be windowed just like on a PC. thats why i love overskreen, stickit, aircalc, & floating air terminal so much.
Oh god here we go. ****storm imminent. Massive buttrage incoming. FLAME WAR HAS BEEN IGNITED I REPEAT FLAMEWAR HAS BEEN IGNITED.
But, the ipad's gonna have a monster log load of compatibility problems with that because apple locks down their stuff so it's going to be insanely hard to adapt screen sizes especially because there is little variation in resolution for ios devices. For android, this is much easier because you've got devices from 320x240 all the way to the upcoming 1920x1200 tablets.
Sent from my tf9001 with XDA XD.
They make this operating system called "Windows". I suggest you check it out.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201
Cydia is a nice touch to ios. Makes my iPhone somwhat bearable.
Sent from my Incredible using XDA
/me really hopes they can get this to work in all apps.
lol are they just now getting widgets???
Add more ram to the Android tablet realm then this would be more advantageous. Sure for simple tasks like Facebook, twitter, one tab browser, just small stuff, the prime would be able to handle all at once. But add in YouTube, more tabs in browser, a game, then bam, where's my ram?
$1 gets you a reply
Kailkti said:
Add more ram to the Android tablet realm then this would be more advantageous. Sure for simple tasks like Facebook, twitter, one tab browser, just small stuff, the prime would be able to handle all at once. But add in YouTube, more tabs in browser, a game, then bam, where's my ram?
$1 gets you a reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure how you have missed this as it was posted ~5198298 times, but how about 15 vids at once on the ram it has now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S65h7cT0bo
Screwedupsmitty said:
I'm not sure how you have missed this as it was posted ~5198298 times, but how about 15 vids at once on the ram it has now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S65h7cT0bo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I'm talking about, 15 vids at once. I believe we have enough ram to make a feasible implementation, I personally am not looking to have even 4 or 5 intensive apps running windowed, but having my RSS reader, a terminal, a video and a 'casual' game def. seems doable to me.
I stand corrected. Just tried leaving real racing 2, browser and YouTube in memory but I still have roughly over 100mb free.
With 6 tabs open on all flash intensive sites did I start to near the limit. (+ the real racing &, youtube)
$1 gets you a reply
we already have the source code for android for windowed apps. it just needs to be included into roms. but that is no easy task. so apple is actually late in the game.
i for one would like to see tiling window-managers on android, since i am a tfp+dock user.
So you guys really want development to spiral in the direction of "windowed" apps? Didn't you purchase Android products for an alternative for Windows? Honestly, if it heads in that direction, you're going to just eventually have a slow bulky java app and you'll be begging for the next Tech powerhouse to design another OS as an alternative...
Jeesh...
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201
Ever heard of Linux
Many flavors of Linux all have window based desktops available for years. Why would having this function on Android be any different.
rorytmeadows said:
So you guys really want development to spiral in the direction of "windowed" apps? Didn't you purchase Android products for an alternative for Windows? Honestly, if it heads in that direction, you're going to just eventually have a slow bulky java app and you'll be begging for the next Tech powerhouse to design another OS as an alternative...
Jeesh...
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In what world is Android an alternative for Windows? You could say Mac, Linux, Unix, hell even Chrome desktop, but Android? I don't think so. Android is an alternative to iOS, Palm, Windows -Phone-, Blackberry OS, etc... but don't compare a mobile( phone and tablet ) OS as an alternative to a Desktop OS. And yes, if you added Windowing and a couple other features to Android, then, maybe, you could make that comparison, but saying that "you'll eventually have a slow bulky java app" just by adding a Window manager is not logical. Hell, if I run 2 instances of Crysis, while watching a move, torrenting and compiling a project Windows will get slow also, it's on the owner( or limiting number of windows apps, or some other preventitive method ) to keep your system running smooth.
That being said, Android as is, is great for most people, hell just keep using it that way, but isn't Android all about options and customizability? Why not allow people another option for those who know how to manage their systems and wont go loading 10 intensive apps at the same time, what the hell would you do with that many apps open anyways on such a small screen? Guess you could video out, but the resolution wouldn't be great anyways. I'd imagine this to be a very light weight window manager, for lightweight multitasking, not for playing a tegra 3 game while listening to music and having 2 videos playing, lol.
Okay, so I've been dabbling with app development for a while now but I haven't found the motivation to actually work on a sizable project. I just don't have any good or interesting ideas.
So, I'm turning to you, XDA. Are there any apps that you'd like to see exist? Or any apps that you use that you'd like to see a better version of?
I'm not promising to actually do these and release them, I'm just looking for ideas to motivate myself to start on a project. Obviously, if I actually get something worthy of release, I'll share it.
So, any ideas? Thanks in advance.
I have way too many ideas and lack motivation lol I also have a very screwed up memory, like right now I can think of 5 ideas I had but I can't place them. One had to do with location but until I get home and find the notebook I write all my ideas in I couldn't tell you. Hell I can't even remember what happened 5 minutes ago with out seriously focusing on what happened 5 minutes ago
This is just my add kicking in but I wondered if I could parse an md5 checksum in android terminal emulator and it turns out md5sum utility is built it...neat!
The first app I ever wrote was born by asking myself, "What do I want my phone to do that it can't currently do?"
This made development much more enjoyable as it was something I was interested in and that kept me going and gave me the will to follow thru until it worked.
If you're looking to make an app for someone else, here's my suggestion:
I'd like a 1x1 toggle widget that does the following:
Toggle On (potato mode):
Screen Brightness at lowest
Bluetooth off
GPS off
Mobile Network off
WiFi off
AutoSync off
Toggle Off (radsauce mode):
Return to whatever settings I was using before pressing Toggle On
Nice.
I have a bunch of baby videos (baby Einstein and whatnot) in avi format that I use a third party player to play when traveling. The problem is that I can't give the phone to my daughter because she presses a button or something that stops the video. Same with YouTube vids. So i have to hold the phone the whole time.
Would love a kind of baby lock that disables the touchscreen and buttons but allows third party apps to run behind it (like third party media players and YouTube) so that she can hold the phone herself while her videos or music is playing. It should then be able to be unlocked by pressing a combination of buttons at the same time or something like that. This would be ideal on those long car rides. You parents know where I'm coming from...
There's an app out there already that does something similar, but it's limited to the stock video player only.
How's that for an app idea?
fachadick said:
I have a bunch of baby videos (baby Einstein and whatnot) in avi format that I use a third party player to play when traveling. The problem is that I can't give the phone to my daughter because she presses a button or something that stops the video. Same with YouTube vids. So i have to hold the phone the whole time.
Would love a kind of baby lock that disables the touchscreen and buttons but allows third party apps to run behind it (like third party media players and YouTube) so that she can hold the phone herself while her videos or music is playing. It should then be able to be unlocked by pressing a combination of buttons at the same time or something like that. This would be ideal on those long car rides. You parents know where I'm coming from...
There's an app out there already that does something similar, but it's limited to the stock video player only.
How's that for an app idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a pretty interesting idea. Sadly, I won't know if anything is possible until I give it a try, because I'll be learning a lot as I go (I already know Java and I've studied some guides to making apps, as well as a book that I have, but it isn't enough to just magic a useful app together). I'll keep a list and I'll give each thing a try to see if I can pull anything off.
Thanks!
louched1 said:
The first app I ever wrote was born by asking myself, "What do I want my phone to do that it can't currently do?"
This made development much more enjoyable as it was something I was interested in and that kept me going and gave me the will to follow thru until it worked.
If you're looking to make an app for someone else, here's my suggestion:
I'd like a 1x1 toggle widget that does the following:
Toggle On (potato mode):
Screen Brightness at lowest
Bluetooth off
GPS off
Mobile Network off
WiFi off
AutoSync off
Toggle Off (radsauce mode):
Return to whatever settings I was using before pressing Toggle On
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will consider this one as well. On the surface, it doesn't seem like it would be overly complicated.
fachadick said:
I have a bunch of baby videos (baby Einstein and whatnot) in avi format that I use a third party player to play when traveling. The problem is that I can't give the phone to my daughter because she presses a button or something that stops the video. Same with YouTube vids. So i have to hold the phone the whole time.
Would love a kind of baby lock that disables the touchscreen and buttons but allows third party apps to run behind it (like third party media players and YouTube) so that she can hold the phone herself while her videos or music is playing. It should then be able to be unlocked by pressing a combination of buttons at the same time or something like that. This would be ideal on those long car rides. You parents know where I'm coming from...
There's an app out there already that does something similar, but it's limited to the stock video player only.
How's that for an app idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as media players go, Mx player locks so u have to press the unlock on screen icon to unlock touch buttons.
While it doesn't work for YouTube app, u can use it as default streaming and to watch downloaded movies.
Issue ?partially? solved..
Ask me about my ability to annoy complete strangers!
Touch block comes to mind, last I checked it didn't offer a hardware unlock solution. It disables the touch screen, except for the notification bar. You lock and unlock from there
Thank both of you - I had no idea those were out there, I'll check both of them out!
How's about an app that let's you keep your extSDcard in your phone so that when flashing roms, said app would protect it from being reformatted. It's a pain in the arse having to unmount it/pull it out.
The U.S government wouldn't lie to us...would they?
I don't pull my external sd card when flashing ROMs and I've never had it get formatted. Do you use TWRP?
no app will protect you from recovery since there is no android environment to run the app. Theres also no reason to pull sd card from phone when flashing a new rom.
Iv actually been a lil preoccupied to do anything w/my phone. The only thing Iv done w/it is Zedomax's root method and have yet to flash any roms
The U.S government wouldn't lie to us...would they?
---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:33 PM ----------
SoraX64 said:
Okay, so I've been dabbling with app development for a while now but I haven't found the motivation to actually work on a sizable project. I just don't have any good or interesting ideas.
So, I'm turning to you, XDA. Are there any apps that you'd like to see exist? Or any apps that you use that you'd like to see a better version of?
I'm not promising to actually do these and release them, I'm just looking for ideas to motivate myself to start on a project. Obviously, if I actually get something worthy of release, I'll share it.
So, any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My other idea wasnt gud so how's about this one. There are quite a few games still floating about that were pre android. I guess this would be an emulator for pre android games. One that comes to mine is a game by glu 'Transformers'.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=muOBTLXUmqM&desktop_uri=/watch?v=muOBTLXUmqM
The U.S government wouldn't lie to us...would they?
There's a full java me port of that game, you just need to convert the jar/jad files and run it in an app called j2me player. Can't guarantee it will run but a lot of java games do
With JB android has started to meet expectations of using tablets and cells for audio engineering apps. I'm a comm engineer by day and run a recording studio by night and hate to admit the integrations of apple iPad etc work very well with multi track audio apps, up until now, android latency issues have preventd good audio multimedia apps so I would love to see more of that development. There is an app called audio evolution now which is amazing and touches the surface of android JB potential.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Wasn't the latency due to the fact that android didnt use a realtime kernel? Every distro on the PC side that I've used, I've had to patch or replace the kernel to get realtime support for audio
How about a working Bluetooth keyboard and mouse software? One that actuallys good pairing and better features.
Side stepping the Bluetooth connection would challenge you a little. The kcm and no file with matching dictionary would also be a good challenge.
an app that can decompile and recompile apk
How about an app that let's you download apps that you know will run on your phone but the playstore says your device is not supported for that app. App device support bypass?
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The U.S government wouldn't lie to us....would they?
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I've got some questions that I'm a little confused with, hope someone can shed some light on them.
1) say if I have SSH-Server or Sabnzbd running on the "Desktop version" and you undock, can you still access the server running on your desktop version from the mobile side?
2) If you have an app open on the desktop version say a document or a picture is that then accessible on the mobile side? and will it be the same app or will it know to switch to a different mobile app?
3) if you start to download something or transferring files on the desktop and undock what would happen? will it continue to copy/download or will it stop?
I appreciate that maybe no one could answer these questions until the image is released but what are your views on them?
Thanks
MrOlympia
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Sv: some confusing questions
I think its like you suspend your computer. When undocking the computer suspends ie. all the things you mention will pause. But I'm not sure.
Sent from my Transformer using xda app-developers app
Obviously I don't actually know how these things will be handled.
But I think I would do it like this:
For the initial release of the OS, I would basically kill and reboot the whole thing when switching modes. Getting a working product is critical for initial release, and all of those type of things would create potential for weird conflicts to arise.
So on day 1, I would not support any of those things.
But a lot of them (like an SSH server) could probably be supported safely. So once I was comfortable with the basic OS working correctly, I might adding things like that into a future release of the OS, first allowing by exception, and then, if everything was working smoothly, denying by exception for apps that simply cannot make that transition.
Last would be the open in a different app. Let's say I use Chrome on the desktop, but Dolphin on the mobile interface. It might be possible to write a helper app that would take your Chrome browser state and replicate it near as possible in your Dolphin app on transition, and vice versa. My guess is this type of functionality would be pretty cool, but very low on a priority list for a new OS.