Related
These apps make the streak performance and daily use better for me.. Maybe they help you out.
1. Menu Unlock
https://market.android.com/details?id=teamdouche.kmobs.unlock&feature=search_result
Need Root, an application that allows you to unlock the phone by clicking on the menu button, no need to slide if you do not want to.. Use this when in the car mount and difficult to slide.
2. Turn Silent -
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sebster.android.turnsilent&feature=search_result
Flip the phone on its face to make a different profile.. Silent. Vibrate..etc. Haven't had any issues with this on 2.2.1.
free version can be found here.... not sure how it works though.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zosqlabs.android.flipsilent
3. Spare Parts -
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.androidapps.spare_parts&feature=search_result
Allows me to speed up animations and transitions, making using the phone much more responsive and faster to use.
4. Copy Paste it
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.edwardkim.android.copyscreentextfull&feature=search_result
Think of snagit for the android.. though what you snagged gets converted into text pretty well.
5. Log2Calendar
https://market.android.com/details?id=be.hcpl.android.backup&feature=search_result
Logs all calls and sms if you want to your google calendar... Very useful as a log to remember who called when and at what time.. Works very well for work purposes.
6. Power Control Plus & Quick Boot
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.siriusapplications.eclairwidgets&feature=search_result
allows you to place a "widget" in the notification bar to enable disable things like wifi, bluetooth etc... they key here is that it displays what is on and what is not and you can control these things from any applications.
7. Wifi file explorer
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dooblou.WiFiFileExplorerPRO&feature=search_result
Makes your android into a wifi web server where you can easily upload and download files from your pc via wifi. Currently using this and swiftp as well for these purposes.. but very crucial to have when you don't have a stinkin wire.
So there you have it.. Those are my crucial apps that make using my Streak even better.. These I would call utility apps.
If anyone has any other apps that are like this that make life easier, post them.. I am always looking for something new.
My list must start with tasker. Automate anything. Including the face down scenario you mentioned.
AndLock - Lock away those sensitive apps
Quick Settings - LED flashlight works
fbReader - great ebook reader imo (long press on word brings up Color Dict)
Color Dict: offline / online dictionary
Taskiller
Quicksettings
Handcent
StreakLED
XScope Browser
Launcherpro
Widgetlocker
Poweramp
Font Changer
Droidwall
Games:
Comic Reader Mobi
Fruit Ninja
Game Dev Story
Gameboid
Gensiod
Hex Defence
Monopoly Classic
Radiant HD
PSX4Droid
Speedx 3D
Zenonia (and Zenoia2)
They Need To Be Feed
PewPew
Pinball Delux
Pottery
MiniSquadron!
Defensoid
N64oid
Cordy
Cyberlords
Qbism HD
Can Knockdown2
StarPagga
Illusia
(I like gaming on my Streak )
undrwater said:
My list must start with tasker. Automate anything. Including the face down scenario you mentioned.
AndLock - Lock away those sensitive apps
Quick Settings - LED flashlight works
fbReader - great ebook reader imo (long press on word brings up Color Dict)
Color Dict: offline / online dictionary
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you share your tasker settings please.
You can export the settings
I was going for utility apps that open functionality. I got another 20 or so regular apps i cant live with out.
Sent from my Dell Streak
Auto Ring - it's one of those apps that you set up and forget. It's used to create a whitelist of people who can 'ring through' even if your phone is on silent.
I cant say there is anything that i couldnt do without. I'm finding most android apps are just lacking. I dont know if its the lack of integration with android system or the lack of innovation with the developers.
That said Loving log2calendar. Thanks Krad.
Edit I also use menu unlock.
Sent from my Dell Streak using Tapatalk
Have to say go launcher is the best launcher I've used. Was using launcher pro N then someone said try go launcher ex... it's a lot better. Now I can't think why I didn't try it before. If there was just more themes for it then it would be even better
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
my best app
the app that makes the Streak easier for me to use and customize is the SYSTEMAPP REMOVER. with this app, i can un-install some of the bloatware either installed by DeLL or my Carrier. you have to be very careful when using this app. it does require ROOT.un-installing some of the bloatware will give you better performance. i un-insatlled all the Dell stage widget and some un-wanted rubbish like swype keyboard. like i said, do be careful when you use the app. am running the official 2.2 update from O2 and i am loving it.
nightworker-nn11 said:
Have to say go launcher is the best launcher I've used. Was using launcher pro N then someone said try go launcher ex... it's a lot better. Now I can't think why I didn't try it before. If there was just more themes for it then it would be even better
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a fan of go launcher as well...but still use launcher pro because it has a few more options that I havent been able to let go of yet.
For me, the apps that take the streak to the next level are:
Desktop Visualizer - It allows you to make icons of different sizes and use them as shortcuts to apps, bookmarks, contacts, etc
Tasker - I use it to shut off data at night to save battery, bring up a list of music apps when I plug in headphones, and other simple automations
Simi Folder - to create popup lists of apps (I use it in conjunction with desktop visualizer to have good looking shortcuts
Widgetsoid - to create custom power controls that do more than the stock power control widget and can be themed to match my current phone theme
Apps I can't live without:
Pure Calendar / Smooth Calendar: I set one of my homescreens to my agenda, and it keeps me on track. It is like having an old-school PDA again. Love it. My week at a glance. And it syncs with Outlook calendar, so no matter if I am staring at my Work PC, my Home PC, or on the go, I never miss an appointment. I put everything in the calendar, too. Haircuts, bills to pay, doc appointments, work schedule, etc, etc, etc. Everything goes in, and everything gets done.
APNdroid + Data Counter = keep track of data usage. I am on a limited data plan, but I am close to many WiFi points. So, I keep the data off most of the time, and only turn it on when I need it. APNdroid does this nicely, with a little on/off toggle widget. Then Data Counter keeps track of my monthly useage and resets for each billing cycle.
Free Power Widget - just some generic toggles (Wifi, Vibrate, GPS, etc) that sit on the homescreen, unobtrusive.
Anything else is just nice to have, but these are essentials that make my life easy. And they get used multiple times throughout each day. Without them, my phone just isn't as good as it is with them.
Swipepad is great!
Sent from the almighty Dell Streak 1.9.0
borijess said:
Swipepad is great!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't agree more - I use it all the time! but I'd forgotten what it's called and went to the market to find it... DUH
Adw launcher ex
fancy widget pro
go sms
system panel
ive downloaded a lot of the apps everyone has recommended so id just like to say thanks
Ah, I forgot one.
Root Explorer - One of a very small list of paid apps that are actually worth the investment. On a rooted phone, it gives you a true file explorer that can do anything from anywhere. None of this "can't save" or "can't edit" stuff. It is the easiest to use; the most like a PC file explorer I've used.
borijess said:
Swipepad is great!
Sent from the almighty Dell Streak 1.9.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thumbs up on the swypePad and the Addon
This is my list in order of priority:
Zeam launcher
MultiLing Keyboard - Gingerbread keyboard but better. I had the Steven Lin one before but got rid of it. Even if you don't use multi-languages, check it out. This is customizable to increase the keyboard size, in Portrait gives you choice of QWERTY, T9 or SureType (12 key) and it has a cursor keyboard with arrows, Home, End, Cut, Copy & Paste buttons
Handcent
Widgetsoid
Dialer One - Enables Smart Dial
CalWidget - Let's me see my agenda on the home screen
Llama - Changes profiles based on location and time (and other things but I only use those two). This one is awesome.
arcMedia - To watch Divx movies
YouVersion Bible App - Good reader and has many free languages and translations of the Bible
Bluetooth File Transfer - Does exactly what the name implies
Application Protection - Let's me lock specific apps and requires a pin code to access the app. Only problem is that the pin code screen is portrait only but I can live with it because it's free and there is no limit on the number of apps to lock
Advanced Telephone - Gets rid of the slide to answer and replaces with big buttons to receive or reject calls. Also has function to automatically send an SMS to the caller if you reject the call. Only problems are that you still see the slide momentarily before it gets replaced with the buttons and there is a delay where your phone will ring but the screen will be black with no buttons. The delay happens if your phone display is off and is about 1 second long.
EZ Phone Tool - I use mostly for connection notification where the phone vibrates when a call connection is made (when it actually starts ringing because sometimes there is a delay) and also when the call disconnects whether the person hung up or the call got dropped. It also allows Shake to Answer and Flip to Silent. Has function for SMS auto reply for rejected calls but I found it didn't work properly as it sent an SMS even if the person hung up and before I answered. I use Advanced Telephone above for this function.
Missed Call - Gives reminders if a call is missed. Can also set for other missed events like unread SMS
I am looking for an app that will automatically put my phone on Vibrate when my calendar shows that I'm in a meeting. I tried Ringer Genie but that didn't work very well. I'm thinking about Vibrate During Meetings. Has anyone tried it? It's only 99c but figured if it didn't work, no reason to throw away a buck.
I've just started using tasker......fan..blooming....tastic. I now have a very automated phone. I can't recommend it enough.
Sent from my Dell Streak using Tapatalk
add Audio Manager to the list... replaces timerrifiic for profile changing.
frankquattrone said:
This is my list in order of priority:
Zeam launcher
MultiLing Keyboard - Gingerbread keyboard but better. I had the Steven Lin one before but got rid of it. Even if you don't use multi-languages, check it out. This is customizable to increase the keyboard size, in Portrait gives you choice of QWERTY, T9 or SureType (12 key) and it has a cursor keyboard with arrows, Home, End, Cut, Copy & Paste buttons
Handcent
Widgetsoid
Dialer One - Enables Smart DialCalWidget - Let's me see my agenda on the home screen
Llama - Changes profiles based on location and time (and other things but I only use those two). This one is awesome.
arcMedia - To watch Divx movies
YouVersion Bible App - Good reader and has many free languages and translations of the Bible
Bluetooth File Transfer - Does exactly what the name implies
Application Protection - Let's me lock specific apps and requires a pin code to access the app. Only problem is that the pin code screen is portrait only but I can live with it because it's free and there is no limit on the number of apps to lock
Advanced Telephone - Gets rid of the slide to answer and replaces with big buttons to receive or reject calls. Also has function to automatically send an SMS to the caller if you reject the call. Only problems are that you still see the slide momentarily before it gets replaced with the buttons and there is a slight delay where your phone will ring but the screen will be black with no buttons. The delay is maybe 0.5 second long and I've never missed a call because of it.
EZ Phone Tool - I use mostly for connection notification where the phone vibrates when a call connection is made (when it actually starts ringing because sometimes there is a delay) and also when the call disconnects whether the person hung up or the call got dropped. It also allows Shake to Answer and Flip to Silent. Has function for SMS auto reply for rejected calls but I found it didn't work properly as it sent an SMS even if the person hung up and before I answered. I use Advanced Telephone above for this function.
Missed Call - Gives reminders if a call is missed. Can also set for other missed events like unread SMS
I am looking for an app that will automatically put my phone on Vibrate when my calendar shows that I'm in a meeting. I tried Ringer Genie but that didn't work very well. I'm thinking about Vibrate During Meetings. Has anyone tried it? It's only 99c but figured if it didn't work, no reason to throw away a buck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow good collection of some free apps.
Regarding ur question at the end - try tasker. ( Pricey but really worth it )
Ok folks, what Im going to do here is go through some of the major things I have noticed since installing the official ICS but before I do that, let me give my two sentence review.
Its nice. If you are wondering what the Note SHOULD have performed like on launch, this is it. MUCH improved scrolling, better performance and slightly more aggressive app handling.
Ok, I lied, three sentences.
Changes:
NOTE that I will NOT be covering changes to the launcher portion of ICS.
1. Overall performance is better. Using Go Launcher, with the app drawer set to 6x6, it scrolls MUCH more smoothly. The market scrolls much smoother, settings, the same. It isnt 'butter' but it is much more acceptable now, not stuttering to the point of overshooting apps.
2. Notifications menu now has two new toggles - Flight Mode and Power Savings. There is now also a fast Settings button that will take you straight into the Android Settings app.
3. The power menu (long pressing your screen on/power button) has had accessibility moved to the top of the menu (if you had this enabled) and now has a 'Reboot phone' option (YAY!!)
4. ALL system apps that CAN be linked to the market are now correctly linked. This means your list of installed apps will be a bit longer (when looking in the play store list) and also means that these apps will be able to be updated without manually searching for each one by one.
5. There are obvious signs of the original UI ICS all over the place, notably the spinning circle but you'll see it everywhere.
6. Improved battery life, for the amount I have used the phone, its at a much higher percentage than it normally would have been.
One quick point to interject, apps can now be disabled
Originally Posted by j101399j View Post
You can now also disable most stock apps.
I know this worked on some of the ICS roms, so I just looked and verified that even though you cannot uninstall some of the bloat (without root), you can disable it . For example, I can disable Swype and install Swype Beta now. I hate AT&T Navigator, so I disabled it. If it cannot be uninstalled, disable it.
(settings --> applications --> all --> select the app and uninstall any updates --> disable) kinda like freezing the apps without root
City ID
Device help
Media Hub
Polaris Office
Swype
Yellow pages
YPMobile
Yahoo finance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here are a few more that I just disabled, thanks for this tip
AT&T Navigator
Email (I use the gmail app)
Google+
Now. the rest of this is the stuff under settings. Im going to cover what I recognize to be new.
Under Settings:
First off, you'll notice that everything is now categorized into different groups now, making finding things in Settings a bit easier.
Wireless and Network
Tapping on Wifi or Bluetooth now takes you to the screens to configure the advanced settings for these features. Tapping 'On/Off' on the right side enables or disables the radios.
Data Usage
Here is where you can set up your billing cycle dates and put hard caps on your PHONE to keep your data usage under what your carrier allows. Fairly straight forward but make sure you set your billing date up correctly or this will be of NO use.
More
Here you will find NFC (YAY), Android Beam (send data between two devices using NFC), and Wifi Direct (connect two devices with a wifi antenna without the need for a router/hub).
Device
Call
Nothing new here, just a few things moved around a bit.
Sound
Again, nothing new, just shuffled a bit to make things easier to get to. Note that the menu button now no longer brings up any advanced settings here, they are all accessible by navigating the screen options.
Display
A few things moved around a bit BUT a new feature, Show battery percentage in notifications bar. NICE Also, Gyroscope Calibration is now an option.
Power Saving
Unchanged
Storage
Prettier but unchanged, a little bit more information but not much.
Battery
Unchanged
Applications
Unchanged, tho it should be noted that you can hit your menu button while in this screen to sort the list by Size
Personal
Accounts and Sync
Unchanged
Location Services
Unchanged
Security
Big one here but this is where you will find face unlock and even a voice recognition feature that can I believe be used in conjunction with another method to unlock your phone. I havent had much time to look at it yet.
Language and Input
Largely unchanged but its a bit more intuitive to change your keyboard now. And, for an interesting 'feature' that Samsung forgot to disable, Pointer speed, which has NO effect on our phone, this option is only for phones with a trackpad (Samsung forgot to disable this - made me smile).
Back up and reset
Nice, this option used to be buried under privacy and is now brought out into the main settings list. Much easier to find, it
System
Dock
Unchanged
Pen Settings
New option, Hovering pen icon (shows a pen icon over the screen where the pen is hovering)
One Handed Operation
3 completely new settings, to configure the calculator, dialer, and unlock pattern to be configured for use with one hand (clumps everything on one side of the screen so that you can say dial numbers with just your thumb rather than the usual having to hold the phone with one hand and dial with your other).
Date and Time
Unchanged
Accessibility
Two new options, Speak passwords. Havent had time to check to see if this works for unlocking the phone as well, but if it does, that would be silly. Tap and Hold delay can now be configured as well as allowing or disallowing the installation of web scripts.
Motion
New option, Double Tap to allow voice dictation easily. Sweet
Developer Options
Several new things you can make visible for the nerdy types but Im not going to cover them here since they are really only for developers .
About Phone
Unchanged
Ok, that should give you an idea of what to look for, if someone else wants to cover the touchwiz stuff (adding or removing widgets/icons/homescreens) I can add it.
Also, if there is anything I missed or got wrong...
Ok, one more new thing, the phone now charges correctly off your USB port, ie. charges faster.
Awesome write up! Do you have any idea how -- or if -- we can add app shortcuts to the lockscreen like the SGSIII?
PS: I have Widgetlocker but would prefer to use the system for this if possible.
Under Settings Developer Options you have the ability to adjust the Window Animation scale and also Transition Animation Scale.
When I set these to 0 then launchers like Go launcher behave much quicker.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2
whats the downside to GPU rendereing? decreased battery life?
murso74 said:
whats the downside to GPU rendereing? decreased battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My understanding is, one of the major improvements made to ICS is the ability to offload some of the processing to the processor / gpu depending on current load - ie. cpu is extremely busy at the moment so offload some processing to the gpu (or vice versa). Enabling this option I believe forces the gpu to handle everything regardless of the state of the cpu.
Reports have claimed enabling this option has mixed results. If the app supports gpu acceleration, you will see better performance. If it doesnt, the app will actually have worse performance and may actually crash the app in some rare cases. All ICS updated apps support this and chances are, if the software you have on your Note has been updated to support ICS, you have no issues.
So, the advice from the streets is to either keep is disabled and pretend you didnt see it or enable it and keep in the back of your mind that you might need to disable it occasionally for certain apps. The performance improvement is supposedly pretty minimal.
andrawer said:
Under Settings Developer Options you have the ability to adjust the Window Animation scale and also Transition Animation Scale.
When I set these to 0 then launchers like Go launcher behave much quicker.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, there are a couple of negatives about this however. Any native Android apps will loose some of the fancy 'little' touches (for example fading when going from one screen to another in settings). Some have reported however a small improvement in battery life doing this so its up to you. Persoinally, performance wise, I didnt notice anything differently with these set to 0. But then again, I have only one homescreen.
One other note, I just got off a 2.5 hour phone call from a full charge. Ended the call with 70% battery left. This is a HUGE improvement over GB where I likely would have been around 50% left.
not really usefull but in about phone, if you tap the android version a bunch of times you get a 8bit android in a icecream sammich.
also after the update I have no more black crush!!!
pez13 said:
not really usefull but in about phone, if you tap the android version a bunch of times you get a 8bit android in a icecream sammich.
also after the update I have no more black crush!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And if u rub it u get flying ones. Old news
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
oh hey!!!! thats a new one on me!!! cool! what did it do on GB? We lost the ability to change the brightness by pulling down notifications a little bit and swiping left or right I liked that feature
pez13 said:
oh hey!!!! thats a new one on me!!! cool! what did it do on GB? We lost the ability to change the brightness by pulling down notifications a little bit and swiping left or right I liked that feature
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In gb it an artwork painting of the Android dude surrounded by zombies
Sent from my SGH-I717M using xda app-developers app
pez13 said:
not really usefull but in about phone, if you tap the android version a bunch of times you get a 8bit android in a icecream sammich.
also after the update I have no more black crush!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol that one was nice
littlewierdo said:
My understanding is, one of the major improvements made to ICS is the ability to offload some of the processing to the processor / gpu depending on current load - ie. cpu is extremely busy at the moment so offload some processing to the gpu (or vice versa). Enabling this option I believe forces the gpu to handle everything regardless of the state of the cpu.
Reports have claimed enabling this option has mixed results. If the app supports gpu acceleration, you will see better performance. If it doesnt, the app will actually have worse performance and may actually crash the app in some rare cases. All ICS updated apps support this and chances are, if the software you have on your Note has been updated to support ICS, you have no issues.
So, the advice from the streets is to either keep is disabled and pretend you didnt see it or enable it and keep in the back of your mind that you might need to disable it occasionally for certain apps. The performance improvement is supposedly pretty minimal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sorry to tell you that you are incorrect. Here is information about that toggle and other android graphics issues straight from the woman who designed the OS.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...I-C08yEO63mvHG6BQ&sig2=bamQd77PjEBd050c6s96EQ
TLDR:
Before ICS, android used the GPU to accelerate the animations of the windows, but it left the choice of how to render graphics inside the windows to the app developer. What the toggle does, is to force GPU rendering inside the windows, even if the app did not ask for it. There are two downsides to this forced rendering. The forced rendering can break compatibility. It can also increase memory usage unnecessarily.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk
pez13 said:
oh hey!!!! thats a new one on me!!! cool! what did it do on GB? We lost the ability to change the brightness by pulling down notifications a little bit and swiping left or right I liked that feature
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see I wasn't the only one to notice that the brightness/ notification bar trick doesn't work anymore. I really hope they bring it back.
What about what is mentioned in
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/SupportOwnersFAQPopup.do?faq_id=FAQ00047453&fm_seq=51497
Who is the author of "My Story App" mentioned above? There are a couple different apps that it might be in the Play Store but I didn't see any mention of "S-Pen" in them.
Found it from:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28583744&postcount=4
http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.android.app.mystory
Justinfedor said:
And if u rub it u get flying ones. Old news
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bwwaahhhaaaa.... sorry but when I opened this thread it landed on you post.... and I read it out of context
Just received an email from Samsung saying to upgrade to ICS (did it via kies when 1st available). The email stated there is a newly introduced "Desktop View". This is for the default web browser.....
If you want to switch to "Desktop" browser mode, bring up the settings and select "Desktop view". So now its easier to switch between mobile and desktop browser modes.
Before you had to do "about:useragent"
Something to add to the OP; you can now also disable most stock apps.
I know this worked on some of the ICS roms, so I just looked and verified that even though you cannot uninstall some of the bloat (without root), you can disable it . For example, I can disable Swype and install Swype Beta now. I hate AT&T Navigator, so I disabled it. If it cannot be uninstalled, disable it.
(settings --> applications --> all --> select the app and uninstall any updates --> disable) kinda like freezing the apps without root
Apps I disabled
City ID
Device help
Media Hub
Polaris Office
Swype
Yellow pages
YPMobile
Yahoo finance
I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones I hate
radon222 said:
bwwaahhhaaaa.... sorry but when I opened this thread it landed on you post.... and I read it out of context
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. I just reread what i said. Haha
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
What is the fastest and easiest way way to switch between four apps in the car. For example Google Nav, Poweramp, Trapster, and a speedometer app. A wave of the hand would be nice. I have looked at several and used a few. Smart Task Switcher, a reviewer said “Was warned about this app due to access to contacts permissions which dev says is used in China for advertising”. AppSwipe only does two ( the last opened). The “car apps” say nothing about task switching or is it shown in the Youtube videos. It would be nicer if an app would isolate and load these four programs from one key push then allow fast switching. A snap of the fingers would be another way to switch between these four apps. Also, a slideshow type thing of these four apps with the option to stay on the current one showing might be an idea. Or, one app that puts to the front the needed app, like the media player about the first and last 5 seconds of a song, trapster like app that would popup during notifications, navigation about 10 seconds before and after turns, and the speedometer the rest of the time. I'm just thinking out loud. Holding down the home key is not a good fit. Bottom line is I need a better task switcher (not killer) for the auto. An app that would allow me to map a steering wheel button in my 2011 Ford Fusion SEL for task switching would be golden! A friend's suggestion was to get four phones, so that one is already out there.
I tried Car Dock Home v3. It works by using a launcher that uses the back key to return to it's home screen, then another task can be selected via a shortcut. Unfortunately it cancels Google Navigation when the back key is hit to go to CDHv3 home screen. This would have been a better solution as it takes two key presses. It would be the best solution to perform one action to cycle through the desired programs. I installed Smart Task Switcher and that was good in theory but I could not find how to configure correctly and the floating button is far too small and often requires several taps, and that is sitting at the desk. There is a paid version where some of this is supposedly settable but from my experience with this app I don't think this is a solution.
The car was the first place that came to mind. But the need to quickly and efficiently switch task is useful in several environments.
I have hit a dead end and any suggestions would be appreciated.
Hey man,Im surprised you expect a phone to act as a tomtom,mp3 player and christ knows what else simultaneously.
theunderling said:
Hey man,Im surprised you expect a phone to act as a tomtom,mp3 player and christ knows what else simultaneously.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The S2 runs everything just fine, there is just not an efficient way to switch between them.
Hi
I've been considering the LG V10 and wanted to hear from the XDA community on how useful the 2nd screen actually was. Is the second screen more than a novelty? What do you use yours for? What apps can utilize the 2nd screen? How often do you use the 2nd. screen and how does it effect battery life?Screen caps would be welcome.
It's a useful novelty, I wish they would have bumped up the front facing cameras and gave us the option to have a 5.9 inch screen. Useful for checking time w/out unlocking phone as we as being able to change songs w/out unlocking especially useful while driving
I really enjoy the lack of notification cards on the main screen. The past few phones I've had (Note 5, Nexus 6, S6 Edge) have all had the Lollipop style cards that block way too much of the screen. With this phone, the notifications just go to the secondary screen so you can keep focus on what you're doing but still be able to see it. Also, the music controls have been amazing so far and it makes it so much easier as you don't have to pull the shade or switch apps to change tracks or pause (Noticing a trend here lol?). And finally, I use it for having favorite contacts set up (similar to the only good concept of the edge IMO). Hope this helps, so far I love this phone!
I am loving the second screen and find it very useful.
For shortcuts I have tapatalk, chrome, maps, camera and settings.
I love that it also has the 5 most recent apps. I came from a note 2 and waiting for long press for the recent apps was a pain! Of course this phone has a button for that anyway but I still like having them just sitting up there.
I am also using the contact shortcuts to try to replace my direct dial and text shortcuts I had on my home screens. I'm still trying to get used to that.
I definitely like that the date and time is always showing so I can check without waking the phone.
I also recently discovered that if I swipe over to the left when the main screen is sleeping there are shortcuts for the camera, flashlight, Wi-Fi toggle and sound /vibrate toggle.
I love it.
So far I think I'm using the app shortcuts the most.
Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk
BTW guys, not exactly related to the secondary-screen alone but how is the "alt-tab" performance; toggling between recent apps?
Say you cycle between the 5 recent apps; do they pop-up just immediately without any delay and at the exact point where you have left the app? (i.e. a web page doesn't reload, Twitter doesn't refresh like you are opening the app for the first time).
So far I really like the second screen. I keep having an issue where my Hangouts keep showing up as the big banner across the screen (sms seems to show on the secondary though). I also with when the screen was off it would show the whole notification, not just the icon. It would also be nice to choose how long the notification stayed on the second screen. I feel like it pops up and goes away so fast.
I wish the quick contacts could be set as direct dial. I will never use on of those icons to text. I need quick to just dial the primary contacts I have.
Two words: Spotify controls.
Spotify's lock widget was awful, and it always frustrated me that I had to unlock the phone to restart a song. Now I don't even have to turn the lock screen on to do it. This alone made love the second screen.
I thought it might be gimmicky, but I like using it to switch between apps and the music control is nice.
tersagun said:
BTW guys, not exactly related to the secondary-screen alone but how is the "alt-tab" performance; toggling between recent apps?
Say you cycle between the 5 recent apps; do they pop-up just immediately without any delay and at the exact point where you have left the app? (i.e. a web page doesn't reload, Twitter doesn't refresh like you are opening the app for the first time).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally yes, the ram management is very good
I find it useful. Even if u don't plan in using it shouldn't be a bother.
App switching is better, faster since you don't have to flip through cards. I always preferred the old school Android where it just showed the app icons of previous apps
Google Now cards flash with basketball game scores without interrupting whatever I'm doing.
Same with calls. They show up on the second screen.
Like the title states. I'm just wondering how well the v 60 does with gaming etc. Specifically cod mobile and pubg. Looking to upgrade my 7t pro McLaren and wondering if it's worth it to go to this phone. Is the screen easily viewed I'm bright sunlight? I read somewhere the screen is only a little more then 500 nits which compared to my McLaren isn't very good. How does the resolution look? Is it noticable that it's only 1080p? Is the 60hz refresh rate noticably slower or more laggy then 90 hz?
lendawg said:
Like the title states. I'm just wondering how well the v 60 does with gaming etc. Specifically cod mobile and pubg. Looking to upgrade my 7t pro McLaren and wondering if it's worth it to go to this phone. Is the screen easily viewed I'm bright sunlight? I read somewhere the screen is only a little more then 500 nits which compared to my McLaren isn't very good. How does the resolution look? Is it noticable that it's only 1080p? Is the 60hz refresh rate noticably slower or more laggy then 90 hz?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen will be plenty bright enough compared to the McLaren, but other than being able to use the dual screen as a gamepad, I don't think you'd be gaining anything performance wise with this upgrade other than audio and battery life.
Ryano89 said:
The screen will be plenty bright enough compared to the McLaren, but other than being able to use the dual screen as a gamepad, I don't think you'd be gaining anything performance wise with this upgrade other than audio and battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you say gaming performance "feels" the same or worse than the McLaren?
lendawg said:
Would you say gaming performance "feels" the same or worse than the McLaren?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only used the McLaren for a couple of days, so I may not be the best judge. But I prefer the V60 because of the gamepad on the dual screen, and the flat screen. I didn't really use it long enough to judge whether you will notice the difference in refresh rate. I'm a OnePlus fan coming from a 6t, but the battery life, and dramatic curved screen bothered me. The battery life in the V60 when not using the dual screen is shockingly good. The other day, without gaming, I pulled 30hrs and 9.5 hrs of SOT. But the performance increase from an SD855+ to the 865 is going to be unnoticeable.
Ryano89 said:
I only used the McLaren for a couple of days, so I may not be the best judge. But I prefer the V60 because of the gamepad on the dual screen, and the flat screen. I didn't really use it long enough to judge whether you will notice the difference in refresh rate. I'm a OnePlus fan coming from a 6t, but the battery life, and dramatic curved screen bothered me. The battery life in the V60 when not using the dual screen is shockingly good. The other day, without gaming, I pulled 30hrs and 9.5 hrs of SOT. But the performance increase from an SD855+ to the 865 is going to be unnoticeable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow that is insane battery life! Is 1080p noticable compared to QHD? Also, how is the software/UI? I had a v20 and the software/ui was terrible.
lendawg said:
Wow that is insane battery life! Is 1080p noticable compared to QHD? Also, how is the software/UI? I had a v20 and the software/ui was terrible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't really notice the difference between 1080 and the QHD in my wife's Note10. I also had the V20 and the software is miles better than it was back then, but it's still not anywhere as clean and nice as OnePlus. Overall I'm very happy with the device as it's a big improvement over my 2yr old 6t in every way. Screen, camera, performance, battery, multitasking and audio are all better, but depending on the deal you get, and how much you value the dual screen, and superior audio, it may not be much of an upgrade over a much newer McLaren 7t pro.
Ryano89 said:
I don't really notice the difference between 1080 and the QHD in my wife's Note10. I also had the V20 and the software is miles better than it was back then, but it's still not anywhere as clean and nice as OnePlus. Overall I'm very happy with the device as it's a big improvement over my 2yr old 6t in every way. Screen, camera, performance, battery, multitasking and audio are all better, but depending on the deal you get, and how much you value the dual screen, and superior audio, it may not be much of an upgrade over a much newer McLaren 7t pro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind sharing some screenshots of the settings app, phone app, quick pulldown and message apps?
I've never used a OnePlus device, so I can't speak to a direct comparison between the MacLaren 7T Pro and the LG 60.
But I am coming from an open-market LG V30+ (which I rooted but kept on highly customized stock firmware). Even without root, I was able to adapt most of those customizations to the V60 without serious issue.
Heavily tweaked third-party launcher, icon pack, third-party gestures, beautiful live wallpaper, dark/black mode everywhere. You get the idea.
The LG V30+ had a smaller and higher resolution screen compared to the V60; so the combination of a significantly larger screen running at a lower resolution results in a fairly obvious DPI difference.
That said, we're not talking about a 65-inch TV here. These are largely devices with 4- to 7-inch screens, and the resolution change actually doesn't bother me (though it is noticeable). For these sizes, I find that 1080P suffices. YMMV.
And I have to say, the side benefits of having a 1080P screen running at a standard 60 Hz may well be worth the trade-off.
I've had this phone for a little over a month now, and I noticed last night when I went to plug the phone in before turning in to bed myself, that after around 15 hours of being unplugged, I still had 96% of my battery life.
Granted, I didn't use the phone heavily yesterday (I tend to disconnect a bit on weekends). But my aging V30+ never pushed numbers like. Not during its prime, and certainly not after 2.5+ years of daily use.
Mejilan said:
I've never used a OnePlus device, so I can't speak to a direct comparison between the MacLaren 7T Pro and the LG 60.
But I am coming from an open-market LG V30+ (which I rooted but kept on highly customized stock firmware). Even without root, I was able to adapt most of those customizations to the V60 without serious issue.
Heavily tweaked third-party launcher, icon pack, third-party gestures, beautiful live wallpaper, dark/black mode everywhere. You get the idea.
The LG V30+ had a smaller and higher resolution screen compared to the V60; so the combination of a significantly larger screen running at a lower resolution results in a fairly obvious DPI difference.
That said, we're not talking about a 65-inch TV here. These are largely devices with 4- to 7-inch screens, and the resolution change actually doesn't bother me (though it is noticeable). For these sizes, I find that 1080P suffices. YMMV.
And I have to say, the side benefits of having a 1080P screen running at a standard 60 Hz may well be worth the trade-off.
I've had this phone for a little over a month now, and I noticed last night when I went to plug the phone in before turning in to bed myself, that after around 15 hours of being unplugged, I still had 96% of my battery life.
Granted, I didn't use the phone heavily yesterday (I tend to disconnect a bit on weekends). But my aging V30+ never pushed numbers like. Not during its prime, and certainly not after 2.5+ years of daily use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you mind sharing some screenshots of the software? Dialer, message app, quick pulldown, settings etc.
lendawg said:
Would you mind sharing some screenshots of the software? Dialer, message app, quick pulldown, settings etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick settings, and settings
lendawg said:
Would you mind sharing some screenshots of the software? Dialer, message app, quick pulldown, settings etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Messages settings and dialer
lendawg said:
Would you mind sharing some screenshots of the software? Dialer, message app, quick pulldown, settings etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not at all, mostly. I've got a batch of screens for you to examine, but I left out the one with my messaging app because it's full of personally identifiable information.
It also appears that XDA is somewhat compressing the PNGs that the phone produces. I guess to avoid hitting filesize limitations.
I'll include Google Play Store links to everything I'm using below.
Note: I did not produce nor am I affiliated with any of the apps I link to below. I use (and if applicable, bought) them because I like them. That's all. I'm not shilling.
I've named the screenshots in a way that I think makes sense, but I'll go into more detail below.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Home Screen
Lots of things going on here (and I'll try to break it all down), but I've got a lot of software and tweaks powering a VERY minimalist desktop/home screen.
I'm using Nova Launcher Prime:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher
To replace LG Home, together with Whicons Icon Pack:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whicons.iconpack
And Fluid Navigation Gestures:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fb.fluid
To replace Stock Android 10's gestures. My live wallpaper is Fluid Simulation - Trippy Stress Reliever:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=games.paveldogreat.fluidsim
I like this one because by default it's pure black (great for OLED displays and contrasts perfectly with Whicons) but can be configured to display beautifully and brightly colored "fluids" as you tap and drag your finger(s) across the screen. When unlocking and/or returning to the home screen from an app, it'll also pop four or five random "fake taps" on the screen which quickly disperse. This first screenshot has captured the tail end of that dispersion (It's actually a lot prettier in motion than in this screen cap). I have it configured as my live wallpaper for Nova's home screen as well as my lock screen (which uses LG's stock Always On Display and Sidelight feature for notifications). Fluid Simulation has a ton of configuration options, including an option to constantly autoplay. But I would imagine that's a pretty big battery drain. Fluid Simulation's Google Play Store page probably has a video to check out, if you're interested. There's a free version too, but I'm not sure if that one can be configured as a live wallpaper.
And here's the best video I could find of this phone's Sidelight brief notifications feature in action, timestamped to show off the effect. You may watch the whole video to see how to configure it, if you wish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFNH6_mbCPk&feature=youtu.be&t=173
Back to the Home Screen for a second. You've got a standard dock with 4 icons on the bottom, and a fifth button to pull up all apps. (Swiping up from anywhere will also pull up all apps. I can also swipe down from anywhere to pull down the Notifications Shade. Great for one-handed use on a device with such a large screen!) Above that, in a vaguely pyramid shape, there are four folders called Google, Social, Fun, and Apps that contain my most commonly used apps within those four general categories. The folder icon is showing the first app in each category. If you tap on the folder, it'll launch that first app. If you swipe up from the icon, it'll open the folder and show you the rest of the folder's contents. This is Nova's version of Action Launcher's "Covers" feature, which I used to love before making the jump from Action to Nova.
Above that is my time/date/weather widget, provided by Chronus Information Widget:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dvtonder.chronus
And above that is the Google Search/Assistant bar as provided by Nova Launcher.
Edit - And above THAT, right at the bottom of the status bar, I have Energy Bar - A Pulsating Battery Indicator set up to, well, display my battery level as a percentage-based bar. Sadly, it's a hold-over from my LG V30 days, and this version of the app doesn't support the V60's front-camera notch. Not much we can do about that, but I still like the thing too much to eliminate it. It supports up to four colors/gradients at every 25% breakpoint IIRC, but I have the whole set up to be a straight white bar. I'm thinking of perhaps making the 75%, 50% and 25% breakpoints change to increasingly dimmer shades of gray, but I haven't managed to work up the energy (heh) to do so yet. That's funny. The Home Screen screen cap actually shows the full Energy Bar as if the notch wasn't there. On my actual device, in front of my face, the part of the Energy Bar that overlaps with the camera notch is simply sliced off. There's a gap right in the middle of it, representing perhaps 15% of the battery bar, give or take.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=you.in.spark.energy
NOTE: Nova Launcher, Fluid Simulation, and Fluid Navigation Gestures will NOT work on the dual-screen accessory. For now, it appears that the second screen is stuck using default LG software designed to match LG Home and other LG default software. If you plan on heavily customizing your home screen AND using the dual-screen accessory, just know that there will be a pretty significant disconnect between your experiences across the two screens commensurate with just how much you decide to customize your phone. Considering I've replaced the default launcher, navigation gestures system, and live wallpaper, the two screens clash horribly for me, and until/unless we can somehow manage to span these phone customizations across to the second screen, I've essentially retired my dual-screen accessory and just use the phone alone in a clear TPU case.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Notification Shade
Not much to say here. In Settings, LG comes with two default themes that you can select from, "LG" and "White." I'm using the darker "LG" theme.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Quick Tiles
Just an extension of the previous screenshot. Pull down the Notification Shade further to see additional Quick Tiles. There are plenty more available that I have hidden away due to lack of use.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Google Dialer
I replaced the LG Phone app with Google's Dialer app. I prefer it, even though LG and/or AT&T block me from using Google's stock Visual Voicemail app. I have AT&T's VVM app sideloaded, since it shows up on the Google Play Store as "not compatible" with my device. lol. It was a problem with when the V30+ was new as well, and it took a few months for AT&T to update their app to support the V30. Weird. And I didn't snap a photo of it, but I've also replaced the default SMS app with Google's Messages app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Settings Home
As mentioned, I have the theme in Settings set to "LG", which is the darker of the two default options that my phone shipped with.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Settings About
Just showing the current software version and security patch. The phone shipped with the Feb. 2020 security patch and received the Apr. 2020 security patch around two weeks later. Much faster than I would have expected for an LG phone. If they plan on matching last month's accomplishment, we should be getting the May 2020 security patch later this week. But I'm not holding my breath!
Some final notes. This is more or less a recreation of the final software environment I had on my beloved LG V30+ before I retired it. It was also using a custom dark/Material Design theme I purchased from the Google Play Store created specifically for that phone. I don't yet know if there are any available for the V60, nor do I recall if they require root. (My V30 was rooted, but running the stock LG OS). You need root (not available on this device) or know how to use Fastboot and ADB commands to grant Fluid Navigation Gestures the ability to hide the Navigation Bar. I do not believe that the phone will allow you to both disable Android 10's gestures AND hide the Nav Bar. It's either/or, unless you grant Fluid Navigation Gestures extra permissions via ADB.
For Nova Launcher Prime, I use two special integrations to add additional functionality. I use Sesame Shortcuts to create new shortcuts on the menu that shows up when you long-press on an app. This is available on the Google Play Store (link below). I also use Nova's Google Companion App to let the launcher display the Google Now/Discover/News Feed (whatever they call the thing now) when swiping right from the home screen. I believe this is a Pixel-like feature, and it requires downloading the integration straight from Nova's webpage, since they aren't allowed to offer it up on the Google Play Store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ninja.sesame.app.edge
https://help.teslacoilapps.com/nowcompanion
Whew! I guess that it! I wound up putting way more effort into this than I thought I would. I hope you find it useful. And don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions about anything I've shown off here.
Mejilan said:
Not at all, mostly. I've got a batch of screens for you to examine, but I left out the one with my messaging app because it's full of personally identifiable information.
It also appears that XDA is somewhat compressing the PNGs that the phone produces. I guess to avoid hitting filesize limitations.
I'll include Google Play Store links to everything I'm using below.
Note: I did not produce nor am I affiliated with any of the apps I link to below. I use (and if applicable, bought) them because I like them. That's all. I'm not shilling.
I've named the screenshots in a way that I think makes sense, but I'll go into more detail below.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Home Screen
Lots of things going on here (and I'll try to break it all down), but I've got a lot of software and tweaks powering a VERY minimalist desktop/home screen.
I'm using Nova Launcher Prime:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher
To replace LG Home, together with Whicons Icon Pack:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whicons.iconpack
And Fluid Navigation Gestures:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fb.fluid
To replace Stock Android 10's gestures. My live wallpaper is Fluid Simulation - Trippy Stress Reliever:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=games.paveldogreat.fluidsim
I like this one because by default it's pure black (great for OLED displays and contrasts perfectly with Whicons) but can be configured to display beautifully and brightly colored "fluids" as you tap and drag your finger(s) across the screen. When unlocking and/or returning to the home screen from an app, it'll also pop four or five random "fake taps" on the screen which quickly disperse. This first screenshot has captured the tail end of that dispersion (It's actually a lot prettier in motion than in this screen cap). I have it configured as my live wallpaper for Nova's home screen as well as my lock screen (which uses LG's stock Always On Display and Sidelight feature for notifications). Fluid Simulation has a ton of configuration options, including an option to constantly autoplay. But I would imagine that's a pretty big battery drain. Fluid Simulation's Google Play Store page probably has a video to check out, if you're interested. There's a free version too, but I'm not sure if that one can be configured as a live wallpaper.
And here's the best video I could find of this phone's Sidelight brief notifications feature in action, timestamped to show off the effect. You may watch the whole video to see how to configure it, if you wish.
&feature=youtu.be&t=173
Back to the Home Screen for a second. You've got a standard dock with 4 icons on the bottom, and a fifth button to pull up all apps. (Swiping up from anywhere will also pull up all apps. I can also swipe down from anywhere to pull down the Notifications Shade. Great for one-handed use on a device with such a large screen!) Above that, in a vaguely pyramid shape, there are four folders called Google, Social, Fun, and Apps that contain my most commonly used apps within those four general categories. The folder icon is showing the first app in each category. If you tap on the folder, it'll launch that first app. If you swipe up from the icon, it'll open the folder and show you the rest of the folder's contents. This is Nova's version of Action Launcher's "Covers" feature, which I used to love before making the jump from Action to Nova.
Above that is my time/date/weather widget, provided by Chronus Information Widget:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dvtonder.chronus
And above that is the Google Search/Assistant bar as provided by Nova Launcher.
NOTE: Nova Launcher, Fluid Simulation, and Fluid Navigation Gestures will NOT work on the dual-screen accessory. For now, it appears that the second screen is stuck using default LG software designed to match LG Home and other LG default software. If you plan on heavily customizing your home screen AND using the dual-screen accessory, just know that there will be a pretty significant disconnect between your experiences across the two screens commensurate with just how much you decide to customize your phone. Considering I've replaced the default launcher, navigation gestures system, and live wallpaper, the two screens clash horribly for me, and until/unless we can somehow manage to span these phone customizations across to the second screen, I've essentially retired my dual-screen accessory and just use the phone alone in a clear TPU case.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Notification Shade
Not much to say here. In Settings, LG comes with two default themes that you can select from, "LG" and "White." I'm using the darker "LG" theme.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Quick Tiles
Just an extension of the previous screenshot. Pull down the Notification Shade further to see additional Quick Tiles. There are plenty more available that I have hidden away due to lack of use.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Google Dialer
I replaced the LG Phone app with Google's Dialer app. I prefer it, even though LG and/or AT&T block me from using Google's stock Visual Voicemail app. I have AT&T's VVM app sideloaded, since it shows up on the Google Play Store as "not compatible" with my device. lol. It was a problem with when the V30+ was new as well, and it took a few months for AT&T to update their app to support the V30. Weird. And I didn't snap a photo of it, but I've also replaced the default SMS app with Google's Messages app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Settings Home
As mentioned, I have the theme in Settings set to "LG", which is the darker of the two default options that my phone shipped with.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Settings About
Just showing the current software version and security patch. The phone shipped with the Feb. 2020 security patch and received the Apr. 2020 security patch around two weeks later. Much faster than I would have expected for an LG phone. If they plan on matching last month's accomplishment, we should be getting the May 2020 security patch later this week. But I'm not holding my breath!
Some final notes. This is more or less a recreation of the final software environment I had on my beloved LG V30+ before I retired it. It was also using a custom dark/Material Design theme I purchased from the Google Play Store created specifically for that phone. I don't yet know if there are any available for the V60, nor do I recall if they require root. (My V30 was rooted, but running the stock LG OS). You need root (not available on this device) or know how to use Fastboot and ADB commands to grant Fluid Navigation Gestures the ability to hide the Navigation Bar. I do not believe that the phone will allow you to both disable Android 10's gestures AND hide the Nav Bar. It's either/or, unless you grant Fluid Navigation Gestures extra permissions via ADB.
For Nova Launcher Prime, I use two special integrations to add additional functionality. I use Sesame Shortcuts to create new shortcuts on the menu that shows up when you long-press on an app. This is available on the Google Play Store (link below). I also use Nova's Google Companion App to let the launcher display the Google Now/Discover/News Feed (whatever they call the thing now) when swiping right from the home screen. I believe this is a Pixel-like feature, and it requires downloading the integration straight from Nova's webpage, since they aren't allowed to offer it up on the Google Play Store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ninja.sesame.app.edge
https://help.teslacoilapps.com/nowcompanion
Whew! I guess that it! I wound up putting way more effort into this than I thought I would. I hope you find it useful. And don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions about anything I've shown off here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow thanks so much for such an I'm depth explanation! The software definitely looks much better then my old v20 and the way you have it set up looks great! I think I may be retiring my McLaren early lol.
lendawg said:
Wow thanks so much for such an I'm depth explanation! The software definitely looks much better then my old v20 and the way you have it set up looks great! I think I may be retiring my McLaren early lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. And you're welcome. I'm pretty fond of the look, and it does wonders for battery life. I wish I had an easy way of making a quick 30 (or so) second video of my software environment in action.
I edited my response above to include an app I forgot to mention. I've copied the relevant portion into this post.
Edit - And above THAT, right at the bottom of the status bar, I have Energy Bar - A Pulsating Battery Indicator set up to, well, display my battery level as a percentage-based bar. Sadly, it's a hold-over from my LG V30 days, and this version of the app doesn't support the V60's front-camera notch. Not much we can do about that, but I still like the thing too much to eliminate it. It supports up to four colors/gradients at every 25% breakpoint IIRC, but I have the whole set up to be a straight white bar. I'm thinking of perhaps making the 75%, 50% and 25% breakpoints change to increasingly dimmer shades of gray, but I haven't managed to work up the energy (heh) to do so yet. That's funny. The Home Screen screen cap actually shows the full Energy Bar as if the notch wasn't there. On my actual device, in front of my face, the part of the Energy Bar that overlaps with the camera notch is simply sliced off. There's a gap right in the middle of it, representing perhaps 15% of the battery bar, give or take.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=you.in.spark.energy
Mejilan said:
Not at all, mostly. I've got a batch of screens for you to examine, but I left out the one with my messaging app because it's full of personally identifiable information.
It also appears that XDA is somewhat compressing the PNGs that the phone produces. I guess to avoid hitting filesize limitations.
I'll include Google Play Store links to everything I'm using below.
Note: I did not produce nor am I affiliated with any of the apps I link to below. I use (and if applicable, bought) them because I like them. That's all. I'm not shilling.
I've named the screenshots in a way that I think makes sense, but I'll go into more detail below.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Home Screen
Lots of things going on here (and I'll try to break it all down), but I've got a lot of software and tweaks powering a VERY minimalist desktop/home screen.
I'm using Nova Launcher Prime:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher
To replace LG Home, together with Whicons Icon Pack:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whicons.iconpack
And Fluid Navigation Gestures:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fb.fluid
To replace Stock Android 10's gestures. My live wallpaper is Fluid Simulation - Trippy Stress Reliever:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=games.paveldogreat.fluidsim
I like this one because by default it's pure black (great for OLED displays and contrasts perfectly with Whicons) but can be configured to display beautifully and brightly colored "fluids" as you tap and drag your finger(s) across the screen. When unlocking and/or returning to the home screen from an app, it'll also pop four or five random "fake taps" on the screen which quickly disperse. This first screenshot has captured the tail end of that dispersion (It's actually a lot prettier in motion than in this screen cap). I have it configured as my live wallpaper for Nova's home screen as well as my lock screen (which uses LG's stock Always On Display and Sidelight feature for notifications). Fluid Simulation has a ton of configuration options, including an option to constantly autoplay. But I would imagine that's a pretty big battery drain. Fluid Simulation's Google Play Store page probably has a video to check out, if you're interested. There's a free version too, but I'm not sure if that one can be configured as a live wallpaper.
And here's the best video I could find of this phone's Sidelight brief notifications feature in action, timestamped to show off the effect. You may watch the whole video to see how to configure it, if you wish.
&feature=youtu.be&t=173
Back to the Home Screen for a second. You've got a standard dock with 4 icons on the bottom, and a fifth button to pull up all apps. (Swiping up from anywhere will also pull up all apps. I can also swipe down from anywhere to pull down the Notifications Shade. Great for one-handed use on a device with such a large screen!) Above that, in a vaguely pyramid shape, there are four folders called Google, Social, Fun, and Apps that contain my most commonly used apps within those four general categories. The folder icon is showing the first app in each category. If you tap on the folder, it'll launch that first app. If you swipe up from the icon, it'll open the folder and show you the rest of the folder's contents. This is Nova's version of Action Launcher's "Covers" feature, which I used to love before making the jump from Action to Nova.
Above that is my time/date/weather widget, provided by Chronus Information Widget:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dvtonder.chronus
And above that is the Google Search/Assistant bar as provided by Nova Launcher.
Edit - And above THAT, right at the bottom of the status bar, I have Energy Bar - A Pulsating Battery Indicator set up to, well, display my battery level as a percentage-based bar. Sadly, it's a hold-over from my LG V30 days, and this version of the app doesn't support the V60's front-camera notch. Not much we can do about that, but I still like the thing too much to eliminate it. It supports up to four colors/gradients at every 25% breakpoint IIRC, but I have the whole set up to be a straight white bar. I'm thinking of perhaps making the 75%, 50% and 25% breakpoints change to increasingly dimmer shades of gray, but I haven't managed to work up the energy (heh) to do so yet. That's funny. The Home Screen screen cap actually shows the full Energy Bar as if the notch wasn't there. On my actual device, in front of my face, the part of the Energy Bar that overlaps with the camera notch is simply sliced off. There's a gap right in the middle of it, representing perhaps 15% of the battery bar, give or take.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=you.in.spark.energy
NOTE: Nova Launcher, Fluid Simulation, and Fluid Navigation Gestures will NOT work on the dual-screen accessory. For now, it appears that the second screen is stuck using default LG software designed to match LG Home and other LG default software. If you plan on heavily customizing your home screen AND using the dual-screen accessory, just know that there will be a pretty significant disconnect between your experiences across the two screens commensurate with just how much you decide to customize your phone. Considering I've replaced the default launcher, navigation gestures system, and live wallpaper, the two screens clash horribly for me, and until/unless we can somehow manage to span these phone customizations across to the second screen, I've essentially retired my dual-screen accessory and just use the phone alone in a clear TPU case.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Notification Shade
Not much to say here. In Settings, LG comes with two default themes that you can select from, "LG" and "White." I'm using the darker "LG" theme.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Quick Tiles
Just an extension of the previous screenshot. Pull down the Notification Shade further to see additional Quick Tiles. There are plenty more available that I have hidden away due to lack of use.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Google Dialer
I replaced the LG Phone app with Google's Dialer app. I prefer it, even though LG and/or AT&T block me from using Google's stock Visual Voicemail app. I have AT&T's VVM app sideloaded, since it shows up on the Google Play Store as "not compatible" with my device. lol. It was a problem with when the V30+ was new as well, and it took a few months for AT&T to update their app to support the V30. Weird. And I didn't snap a photo of it, but I've also replaced the default SMS app with Google's Messages app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Settings Home
As mentioned, I have the theme in Settings set to "LG", which is the darker of the two default options that my phone shipped with.
Screenshot: LG V60 5G - Settings About
Just showing the current software version and security patch. The phone shipped with the Feb. 2020 security patch and received the Apr. 2020 security patch around two weeks later. Much faster than I would have expected for an LG phone. If they plan on matching last month's accomplishment, we should be getting the May 2020 security patch later this week. But I'm not holding my breath!
Some final notes. This is more or less a recreation of the final software environment I had on my beloved LG V30+ before I retired it. It was also using a custom dark/Material Design theme I purchased from the Google Play Store created specifically for that phone. I don't yet know if there are any available for the V60, nor do I recall if they require root. (My V30 was rooted, but running the stock LG OS). You need root (not available on this device) or know how to use Fastboot and ADB commands to grant Fluid Navigation Gestures the ability to hide the Navigation Bar. I do not believe that the phone will allow you to both disable Android 10's gestures AND hide the Nav Bar. It's either/or, unless you grant Fluid Navigation Gestures extra permissions via ADB.
For Nova Launcher Prime, I use two special integrations to add additional functionality. I use Sesame Shortcuts to create new shortcuts on the menu that shows up when you long-press on an app. This is available on the Google Play Store (link below). I also use Nova's Google Companion App to let the launcher display the Google Now/Discover/News Feed (whatever they call the thing now) when swiping right from the home screen. I believe this is a Pixel-like feature, and it requires downloading the integration straight from Nova's webpage, since they aren't allowed to offer it up on the Google Play Store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ninja.sesame.app.edge
https://help.teslacoilapps.com/nowcompanion
Whew! I guess that it! I wound up putting way more effort into this than I thought I would. I hope you find it useful. And don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions about anything I've shown off here.
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Great write up! One question, doesn't Nova break multiwindow and pop out window functionality? When I used Nova, if I use the multiwindow feature, then exit out of it, it completely breaks the recent apps functionality
Ryano89 said:
Great write up! One question, doesn't Nova break multiwindow and pop out window functionality? When I used Nova, if I use the multiwindow feature, then exit out of it, it completely breaks the recent apps functionality
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Thanks! And nope! I tested this out a few weeks ago in another thread and had no issues with it.
But I'll test it again. Give me a minute...
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Still with me?
I just set up Chrome as a Pop-Up window, and Youtube as a Multi-Window, then made Chrome as a second Multi-Window.
Then I used Fluid Navigation Gestures to pull up Recents (swipe up from the bottom/middle of the screen and hold it for a second, before releasing), and had no issues closing everything out.
Now, when I repeat the gesture to pull up Recents again, it just says "No recent items" as it should.
Edit - I should probably clarify that I use FNG as my main replacement for Android 10's stock gestures. I've been using FNG since my Android 8-equipped V30+, fell in love with it, prefer it to Google's gestures, and made sure I could continue to use it on this phone. I only use two of Nova's gestures. Swipe down from anywhere to pull down the Notification Shade (great for one-handed use where I can't reach the status bar with one hand) and swipe up from anywhere to pull up the All Apps screen. But for everything else, I use FNG.
Mejilan said:
Thanks! And nope! I tested this out a few weeks ago in another thread and had no issues with it.
But I'll test it again. Give me a minute...
...
...
...
Still with me?
I just set up Chrome as a Pop-Up window, and Youtube as a Multi-Window, then made Chrome as a second Multi-Window.
Then I used Fluid Navigation Gestures to pull up Recents (swipe up from the bottom/middle of the screen and hold it for a second, before releasing), and had no issues closing everything out.
Now, when I repeat the gesture to pull up Recents again, it just says "No recent items" as it should.
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I figured out that it only does it if you use the stock gestures. Once I installed fluid gestures and ran the adb command the problem went away. Now I can use Nova again. Thank you
Ryano89 said:
I figured out that it only does it if you use the stock gestures. Once I installed fluid gestures and ran the adb command the problem went away. Now I can use Nova again. Thank you
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Fantastic. I love Nova. And my desire to play with navigation gestures on my V30 (when I knew we'd never get them officially) led me to research some third-party options.
FNG impressed me the most, and I've been using it, I don't know, probably close to two years now? To be honest, I never even gave the stock Android 10 gestures a try.
I immediately disabled them, installed FNG, did the ADB thing to hide the Nav Bar, and never looked back.
The little I've read of the stock gesture system that was introduced with Android 10... well, let's just say I wasn't exactly climbing out of my chair in anticipation of trying them out.
Not after having grown used to FNG over the years. I just love the LOOK of FNG, too. I've got the visual effect maxed out in Settings.
Is there much bloatware on the TMobile variant? Of so can you disable it?
lendawg said:
Is there much bloatware on the TMobile variant? Of so can you disable it?
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There were quite a few preinstalled games and crap. Almost all of which can be uninstalled or disabled