So about the whole Honeycomb issue where it disables the physical buttons. I was playing with Lenovo's Thinkpad tablet and noticed that, in fact, it has physical buttons in Honeycomb just fine. They feel good and the fact that they are both on the screen and in physical form doesn't seem to be an issue, besides it being a little redundant. Anyone else noticed this?
Honeycomb, the OS doesn't disable anything, HTC made that decision on their beta HC. What are you asking? The Acer tablets running Honeycomb have physical home buttons. The A100s home button was redundant and really annoying due to placement. I wish they had left it off.
I'm not asking anything. There was some speculation on the physical buttons being incompatible with HC entirely. Clearly that's not true. That's all.
I think you misunderstood, what was being speculated on was whether it would be allowed to get rid of the on screen buttons and only have the capacitive buttons because the on-screen ones take up space on our smaller screen. If the answer to that is no, then I probably would have made the same choice as htc did in the beta if it was up to me.
That's a good point...
Sorry I misunderstood your post. GlobalTron is right, the notification bar buttons are an intrinsic part of the Honeycomb OS. It is possible to hide the entire bar however, some apps that require full screen display invoke this feature.
DigitalMD said:
Sorry I misunderstood your post. GlobalTron is right, the notification bar buttons are an intrinsic part of the Honeycomb OS. It is possible to hide the entire bar however, some apps that require full screen display invoke this feature.
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I meant permitted, in terms or the normal UI, hiding within an app may possibly be different.
Related
So far I managed to control the button leds (but the touch function has not working yet):
To turn on :
echo 20 > sys/devices/platform/leds-microp/leds/button-backlight-portrait/brightness
To turn off :
echo 0 > sys/devices/platform/leds-microp/leds/button-backlight-portrait/brightness
Anyone know how to make the capacitive buttons work in HC? If it is working, we can use the buttons when we hide the status bar.
Update as of 28th Dec 2011 : Capacitive buttons has been succesfully enabled by LeeDroid on his HC v2.0.0 kernel. (Thanks LeeDroid for your great effort!!!) Required driver for keys was missing in official HTC HC kernel. I hope HTC will include the driver in their next release.
The bottom bar is considered a permanent screen decoration in the same way that capacitive home/menu/etc. buttons below the touchscreen on Android phones are so there is no option to remove the bar, but there is a call that some apps use to darken the bar like some video players so it not intrusive, but you still lose that part of the screen.
There are hacks and apps for rooted HC that can hide the bar. Not sure you can recover the screen size or just darken the bar. Because the bar is at the system level, such a hack might cause issues with a lot of apps. its the same for all devices running honeycomb.
Also how would you get your notifications, clock, quick settings, etc?
DigitalMD said:
The bottom bar is considered a permanent screen decoration in the same way that capacitive home/menu/etc. buttons below the touchscreen on Android phones are so there is no option to remove the bar, but there is a call that some apps use to darken the bar like some video players so it not intrusive, but you still lose that part of the screen.
There are hacks and apps for rooted HC that can hide the bar. Not sure you can recover the screen size or just darken the bar. Because the bar is at the system level, such a hack might cause issues with a lot of apps. its the same for all devices running honeycomb.
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You can hide the botom bar using app such as HoneyBar. Hiding the bar really saves space, especially for our small 7" screen. We can enjoy full screen size when browsing, viewing images, watching videos, read ebooks, playing games, etc.
Currently I'm using Button Savior to replace the missing navigation buttons when the bar is hided. But I'm thinking it would be better if we can use the capacitive buttons. (Having 2 sets of capacive buttons is actually a unique feature of HTC Flyer, but it currently useless in HC).
ikingblack said:
Also how would you get your notifications, clock, quick settings, etc?
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Hiding bar is temporary, we can back to normal like the HoneyBar app do. If the capacive buttons can work on HC, maybe we can make the app to auto enable the buttons when the bar is hided and disable the buttons when the bar back to normal.
Wondering if there is any update on this ?
This seems like a great idea... even if we dont disable to onscreen buttons, there are TONS of uses for the capacitive buttons!
I would love to be able to use the capacitive buttons and have been hoping someone would figure out a way to enable them in HC. Honeybar works great, but 90% of the stuff I need the bar for the capacitive buttons would work fine for and wouldn't cut into our limited screen size.
Just went back to GB due to this. It's a shame It's not a customizable option on HC
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using Tapatalk
I think the key has to be in the code for the pen button.
Obviously its not a standard features in HC since its' hardware specific. We would need all the source code from HTC to compile a new HC ROM which we don't have. Someday this might happen, but not yet. You will get used to the HC implementation.
DigitalMD said:
Obviously its not a standard features in HC since its' hardware specific. We would need all the source code from HTC to compile a new HC ROM which we don't have. Someday this might happen, but not yet. You will get used to the HC implementation.
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That's sad to hear, especially considering the HC implementation is pretty ****ty. Many times in HC you only need the home, menu, back buttons. The majority of time the status bar isn't needed.
No source, no buttons. It's just not worth the effort for any dev.
globatron said:
No source, no buttons. It's just not worth the effort for any dev.
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So does that mean we could achieve this if someone brings ICS to the Flyer?
No, the hardware buttons are HTC hardware specifc. You would need HTC source. Goggle has no buttons , therefore the system bar that is omni present.
Everyone needs to understand there are a lot of pieces that must be in place to build a working ROM for a device.
When Google throws out a OS version, it works on zero, nada, nothing, no device in the world.
Then the HW makers (HTC, samsung, etc.) have to add their pieces of software to make it work. Kernel, drivers, bootloader, Sense UI, framework, libraries, etc.
HTC has to take ICS and make it work on the hardware. Then if the hardware is similar enough, you might be able to port the ROM to run on another HTC device. But without the source for the HTC specific pieces , you cannot tweak it very much or fix bugs.
but wait can not search for drivers on Rom 2.3
____no____
I have no idea if this info is at all meaningful or not but the Dell 7" Streak got a Dell approved update to HC 3.2 and they managed to keep the hardware capacitive buttons working. And they are handy, in that I agree. It'd be great if the Flyer/View had them working.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
I changed the screen density to over 160... Though Gingerbread ui started, but even there without the sensor buttons... Impossible to navigate
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using xda premium
Flyer.michael said:
I changed the screen density to over 160... Though Gingerbread ui started, but even there without the sensor buttons... Impossible to navigate
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using xda premium
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And this is meaningful in what universe???
The buttons are not coming back in HC folks, get over, it. In 3 days use you will forget they were ever there.
DigitalMD said:
No, the hardware buttons are HTC hardware specifc. You would need HTC source. Goggle has no buttons , therefore the system bar that is omni present.
Everyone needs to understand there are a lot of pieces that must be in place to build a working ROM for a device.
When Google throws out a OS version, it works on zero, nada, nothing, no device in the world.
Then the HW makers (HTC, samsung, etc.) have to add their pieces of software to make it work. Kernel, drivers, bootloader, Sense UI, framework, libraries, etc.
HTC has to take ICS and make it work on the hardware. Then if the hardware is similar enough, you might be able to port the ROM to run on another HTC device. But without the source for the HTC specific pieces , you cannot tweak it very much or fix bugs.
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this is true...for a month now i'm trying to port ICS......we need something from HTC to start....
Hardware Buttons & Calls on Honeycomb
Dear Devs,
Please is there any hope of getting the hardware buttons on the flyer active on HC? Also is it possible for calls to be made; now that the source code has been released by HTC?
Thanks.
I just installed the new Honeycomb update available today and I have a few questions.
First the three dedicated buttons don't work anymore (back, home, and menu) and the menu always on on the bottom is annoying. Are my dedicated buttons obsolete or is this a bug?
I use kindle as my main app this is my e-reader and now after this update to Honeycomb the book text only uses 70% of the page/screen there are blank margins surrounding the book text now. this is unacceptable compared to the way it was before update. I'm having to change pages more often and not using most of the screen is pointless. Can any one shed some light on a fix for this?
when I try to watch a you tube vid from a link in the stock browser it plays it in the browser instead of launching the youtube app. further more the vid is unwatchable/choppy. fix?
So far I'm not impressed I just got this tablet last week and was use-to the old os now it seems slow and broken every time I use it for something. Will it all get sorted out over time or should i take it back? (I'm still in 14 day return)
The hardware buttons are useless in Honeycomb as they're on the screen. So they've been disabled.
As for Kindle and YouTube, I highly recommend opening the Market and updating all your apps if you haven't. If you haven't done this, they may not be working correctly (or at all).
The margin issue in Kindle might be because its not updated. May have to remove and reinstall it. And when you click on a YouTube video, it should ask you which app you want to use...just select YouTube instead of the browser.
I have not updated my Evo View Tablet to Honeycomb for the unacceptable flaws in its' design. I can't believe more people are not in uproar about this.
I used a View Tablet with the Honeycomb update, and it has some major design flaws, here they are:
-The top 25% of the screen can not be used to place widgets and/or apps
-The white soft-key buttons are disabled (how does it make sense to render a piece of hardware on the device useless? )
-The menu icon on the bottom appears while in certain situations and migrates to the top in other situations
-The notification pull down (or pull up rather) menu is scattered and sloppy.
-The main settings window has a glaring white background , where as on all other android softwares , it has always been a black background.
Scoh said:
I have not updated my Evo View Tablet to Honeycomb for the unacceptable flaws in its' design. I can't believe more people are not in uproar about this.
I used a View Tablet with the Honeycomb update, and it has some major design flaws, here they are:
-The top 25% of the screen can not be used to place widgets and/or apps
-The white soft-key buttons are disabled (how does it make sense to render a piece of hardware on the device useless? )
-The menu icon on the bottom appears while in certain situations and migrates to the top in other situations
-The notification pull down (or pull up rather) menu is scattered and sloppy.
-The main settings window has a glaring white background , where as on all other android softwares , it has always been a black background.
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Click to collapse
I have no CLUE what you are getting on about.
All of your complaints are ridiculous. Sell the device to someone who actually wants and will appreciate it and go get something else. The update has been nothing less than a great step up.
Sent from my PG41200 using xda premium
Scoh said:
I have not updated my Evo View Tablet to Honeycomb for the unacceptable flaws in its' design. I can't believe more people are not in uproar about this.
I used a View Tablet with the Honeycomb update, and it has some major design flaws, here they are:
-The top 25% of the screen can not be used to place widgets and/or apps
-The white soft-key buttons are disabled (how does it make sense to render a piece of hardware on the device useless? )
-The menu icon on the bottom appears while in certain situations and migrates to the top in other situations
-The notification pull down (or pull up rather) menu is scattered and sloppy.
-The main settings window has a glaring white background , where as on all other android softwares , it has always been a black background.
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Click to collapse
Man, are you really going to continue with this? read this from you in another thread. Why do you think more people should be in an uproar about this? It's really about preference. Some like honeycomb better others like gingerbread. Why does it seem like you want people to join you and to continue to complain just for the sake of complaining. I understand if you feel that honeycomb doesn't work for you, but really? I've heard others who have stated why they like gingerbread better than honeycomb and after that they have moved on. they haven't looked for others to be in an uproar with them. If honeycomb on the flyer is really that distasteful to you the way i see it is you have two choices; downgrade to gingerbread or sell it. And if you downgrade to gingerbread please offer help to others in regards to gingerbread and try to refrain from simply bashing honeycomb. After all, this is why the majority of us come to XDA - for help and suggestions on what can be accomplished or corrected/fixed.
edit: just realized that you haven't even upgraded your view to honeycomb. so since you realized honeycomb isn't for you why can't you just leave it alone. You can state why you don't like it but please stop looking for others to be in an uproar with you. All that really does is antagonize and bring a negative element to the forum.
Hope everyone is having a good time off!
Just a question I've been wondering the past few days.
Is it possible, for GB and future HC releases (if we get HC capacitive working someday) to make both the portrait and landscape buttons working at the same time?
So that would mean, while on landscape, being able to use the portrait buttons as well as landscape.
Reason I am asking about this is because it allows us, or rather me, to hold the tablet more natively at a non-awkward position. So you could grip both sides in landscape, press the back button there with your thumb without having to move your hand down to the buttons below.
Not to worry, in Honeycomb and ICS the buttons are all disabled by default as they are no longer needed since the on screen system bar replaces those functions. IN GB a clever developer can do anything, but its such a special case, not sure its worth the effort. It's certainly not easy.
DigitalMD said:
Not to worry, in Honeycomb and ICS the buttons are all disabled by default as they are no longer needed since the on screen system bar replaces those functions. IN GB a clever developer can do anything, but its such a special case, not sure its worth the effort. It's certainly not easy.
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Click to collapse
Evidently the HC code can be edited to enable the keys; according to a thread about the Dell device that still utilizes the feature. I'd further like to see the system bar disappear, or move to another edge, like windows OS's allows.
With enough time and money, software can be changed by clever developers to do anything including making the buttons flash, rotate and change colors, but for now, there is no option to turn them back on in HTCs HC implementation. Hard buttons are not part of Goggles base software.
HC Hardkeys Mod
Just FYI, this is being implemented in an upcoming Kernal/Rom by LeeDroid.. I was able to find TheManii have a mod and it has lead Lee to 100% hardkeys functionality
Would it be possible that once community ICS ROMs start getting released like AOKP, and CM9, would the capacitive buttons be able to be disabled and then replaced by on screen buttons? I was having this thought because it doesn't have any physical buttons so it wouldn't be much of a big deal in terms of removing a physical key, it just removes redundancy.
I'm sure it's possible. I know that devs made the option available on Nexus S ICS ROMs, so I'm sure we'll see it on the Note ICS ROMs as well.
OMG...this would make using the S-Pen much more enjoyable. I the gestures...AKA pushing the button.
How hard would it be to implement? Would apps conflict? or is it just a simple deletion of something in system to make the buttons rendered useless? Could we permanently(untill we flash a ROM with them enabled normally) change the function to a notification light bar?
You can enable the on-screen buttons in ICS on the Note. I am not running ICS any longer so I can't remember if you can disable the capacitive ones but you can definitely enable the on-screen ones.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
I use my Nook Colors all with Button Savior to simulate hardware buttons that do not exsist and very very rarely run into any issues. There's always the little itty bitty tab on the side that you tap to pop up the needed buttons, but stay out of the way the rest of the time. Link above goes to market (refuse to call it play, so stupid), you will need to have root to use it of course. Give it a whirl if you want on screen buttons. Not sure how to disable the hardware buttons yet, although a google search may reveal someone whos already done it or even an app that will do it for you.
I'm surprised by the large black bar across the finger print scanner. Couldn't the notification buttons exist in that space, so that the home screen can use the entire display, similar to Samsung devices? I assume the touch digitizer actually exists in that black space. I noticed the scanner already operates as a home button, all that is needed is that the other two buttons are moved to the dead space on either side.
I find it odd that in landscape mode the display is off-centre to the left, especially the keyboard.
This is one of the things I dislike the most about this tablet. My Oneplus 3 works exactly as you described, and it's perfect that way.
Yeah, I'll be honest, when I researched this device and read reviews, it was not at all obvious that space on each side of the scanner was wasted. It just seemed like a no brainer that the android navigation buttons would be there.
The other thing that through me off is that the camera on the 8.4 inch model sticks out like 5mm. You cant lay the device down flat on a table, the camera takes too much pressure and might get damaged.
These two things really disappoint me, starting to regret my purchase.
ahernandezsanchez said:
This is one of the things I dislike the most about this tablet. My Oneplus 3 works exactly as you described, and it's perfect that way.
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got to settings, system, system navigation, off screen navigation button. Now the navigation bar is gone, the finger print scanner selects back if you touch it, home if you hold it, and open apps if you swipe it.
We all have our likes and dislikes don't we...
The first thing I look at when evaluating a tablet is do they have the stupid capacitive buttons on them! Which I hate. And to boot, mfg like Samsung switch them, so if you use 2 devices like a tablet and phone, you have to get used to one one way and one another... sheeeeeesh
The soft navigation buttons can be hidden (swipe up when u need them), change order, even add additional navigation, not so the hard ones, they are permanent. And they seem even more permanent (if that's such a thing) when they are backwards.
Personally, any device with hard capacitive buttons should just be thrown out the window.