I am noticing a huge design mistake by HTC and perhaps other manufacturers.
With the on screen buttons on the Gnex, the menu button comes and goes depending on the context (app). With the HTC one X for example, there is no onscreen buttons and no physical menu button (unless I am mistaken).
I know google is telling devs to incorporate visible menu buttons in apps but the fact is that MANY apps still do not have on screen menus. Is this not a huge design problem for HTC?
Anyways, HTC attempted to avoid on screen buttons to give more space for the phone itself. Different apps have menu buttons in different locations because of the buttons being capacitive instead of on the screen. Example: the stock ICS browser has the tabs buttons next to the URL, but HTC has the menu button next to the URL in Sense 4.0.
I don't think its a design flaw at all IMO. In fact, I find the buttons being capacitive to be better than wasting screen space. Besides, there are things called updates for apps and I'm sure that the menu flaw will be resolved in the future.
Sent from my Incredible 2 using XDA
I am not arguing if on screen is better than on phone buttons (I always though they weren't until I owned a Gnex, don't put it off until you have tried it yourself)
What I am getting at is: use the xda app for example. On the HTC one x. There is no way to bring up the menu
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
AFAIK, to avoid this problem, HTC released an API for developers to use so that an on screen menu button will show if the app requires it, much like the GNex menu button. I tried a port of the Sense 4 One V ROM for my DHD, and in that ROM it showed me a black bar at the bottom with a menu button for all the apps that requested for it. Apps which had an on screen menu button didn't cause this bar to show up.
Sent from my Desire HD using xda premium
It won't be a problem for newer apps which have been moving the menu button to the upper right hand corner, but for older apps that haven't been updated and still rely on the legacy menu button where will it appear on the One X? On CM9 on my Touchpad the legacy menu button will show next to the other soft buttons when needed and this is how it is on the Gnex as well I believe. I don't know why Google wants to move the menu button though, it was fine where it was.
Well the onscreen keys should have a legacy menu button appear, if it doesn't on the One X then HTC ****ed up
Sent from my ice cream powered Nexus S
Related
Hi guys,
Does anybody knows where is the menu button in ICS... it looks it has 3 button, back, home and multitask...
I hope that the menu won't be in each app becasude that will mean no old app until huge upgrade...
They said the buttons change as you need then I'm sure a menu button will pop up if needed.
Sent from my R800x using XDA App
odst0016 said:
They said the buttons change as you need then I'm sure a menu button will pop up if needed.
Sent from my R800x using XDA App
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Yes but I saw all the videos and sometimes 3 dots appear next to the multitask button but is not clear if that is the menu button or what it does. I think they should have left multitask to the longpress home and give us a menu button always there... It will be a pain in the ass for older apps and for cooking. For now this is a fail as for the absence of smart dialing
my questions is this -> will it be able to remove the on screen buttons and use the hardware ones for older phones?
I had the ask loaded and built am ICS emulator, I'll test on one of my apps this morning and report back.
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I would hope so...that would take up some much needed screen real estate on a smaller screen.
Just tried in the emulator and I had no buttons, I will have to look into updating my app for ICS.
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So my fears are real... no menu button for third party apps... that is so wrong
Right, a have to update the apps to show the buttons.
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Endr1 said:
So my fears are real... no menu button for third party apps... that is so wrong
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Nonono, the way it works (based on my understanding and playing with the 4.0 emulator) is this:
On a device with no hardware buttons (Galaxy Nexus):
Menu button shows up if the app has a menu (makes sense)
On a device with hardware buttons (most devices):
Soft keys don't show up, multitasking comes up by long-pressing home button (confirmed in emulator)
That's how it works I believe
The soft-keys don't show up in the emulator because it's emulating a device with hardware keys
---------- Post added at 06:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:40 PM ----------
The one big UI change you could make to your apps to really take advantage of 4.0 is adding an Action Bar to your app (they demonstrated this in the Gmail app I believe).
No action would be needed to support regular menus though
What about the search button? I always use it. sigh.
And I'm guessing on older phones, they can access the multitask menu by holding down home?
Question - I installed the ICS SDK and was trying to tinker with it to make the soft buttons appear, but it's not happening. What settings do you use for an instance of the emulator to force the soft buttons to exist?
marty331 said:
Just tried in the emulator and I had no buttons, I will have to look into updating my app for ICS.
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How'd you get the emulator to show the soft buttons?
I have not figured out how to get the soft buttons to appear, the emulator still shows the hard buttons from previous versions.
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Endr1 said:
Yes but I saw all the videos and sometimes 3 dots appear next to the multitask button but is not clear if that is the menu button or what it does. I think they should have left multitask to the longpress home and give us a menu button always there... It will be a pain in the ass for older apps and for cooking. For now this is a fail as for the absence of smart dialing
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How? if older apps have Menu button functionality, the Menu button will appear. Not really that hard to understand.
they should do away with the menu button. i've personally found the best apps don't utilize it or utilize it very little. the more you have to dig into menus and settings the worse it is for user experience. if i recall, the new native google apps have the equivalent menu function in the top right corner. iOS apps essentially have the settings button in the same spot too. if ICS is all about UI and user experience, we need to see some consistency. for non-native android users, the menu button is not intuitive.
long press
does the soft keys have long press ?? if yes may be long press on multi task button gives u menus
Hey guys,
I guess this question is answered with this video ...
dipito31 said:
Hey guys,
I guess this question is answered with this video ...
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...
And what video might that be?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk
substance12 said:
they should do away with the menu button. i've personally found the best apps don't utilize it or utilize it very little. the more you have to dig into menus and settings the worse it is for user experience. if i recall, the new native google apps have the equivalent menu function in the top right corner. iOS apps essentially have the settings button in the same spot too. if ICS is all about UI and user experience, we need to see some consistency. for non-native android users, the menu button is not intuitive.
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Why should they do away with the menu button? Who cares if it's not intuitive for non-native Android users? Why take the menu button and all of the options that come with it away from the people who are smart enough to use it because some people aren't smart enough to use it? The people who don't know it's there wouldn't know any difference in the first place if it was done away with. The rest of us would.
Has anyone figured anything else out about this now that there are videos everywhere? I still haven't seen any evidence that the menu button exists. Google added the menu button to all of their apps, are all the other apps left out?
What do you think google is going to do with the menu button on the actual devices? Make it the contextual menu button or make it the multitasking button? the multitasking button would be nice imo
I can see them keeping the function for the "legacy devices"
The contectual buttons will prolly not show up on hardware button devices.
Like the people above me said, its probably gonna be contextual on new phones, and still work with "old" touch keys..
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
can be used like camera button
HotlipsH said:
The contectual buttons will prolly not show up on hardware button devices.
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That's what I'm thinking for SGS2... In the end, bottom menu does what real button does only. Nothing extraordinary...
and what about the multitasking button, an onscreen button?
Chad_Petree said:
and what about the multitasking button, an onscreen button?
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I think that the developers or carriers should hide that part of the launcher in this device. Because if you are going to use your sgs2 for at least 2 years, i will be mad seeing every time the software and hardware button at the same time
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bigcvm said:
I think that the developers or carriers should hide that part of the launcher in this device. Because if you are going to use your sgs2 for at least 2 years, i will be mad seeing every time the software and hardware button at the same time
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Im sure there will be no onscreen buttons for "home" and "back" but what will happend with the "recents apps" button?
Recent apps = hold the home button, just like how it already works.
Actully there is no devices with ice cream sandwitch for smartphone so it's difficult to judge
Z4muZ said:
Actully there is no devices with ice cream sandwitch for smartphone so it's difficult to judge
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Lol you are right
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Does the Galaxy Nexus even have a menu button? No, the menu buttons are onscreen (they differ with each app).
My guess is that the menu button on our GS II will be the multitask button.
It would be awesome if the existing hardware buttons will be like the ICS on-screen nav buttons with one difference: menu button will open multitasking tool. After all, the existing "menu" icon won't look to bad to be interpreted as "multitasking."
That's if and only if the ICS on-screen buttons are always just the three: back, home, and multitasking tool. This way, GS2's hardware buttons won't really make the device outdated. Just something that doesn't rotate landscape. No biggie. Even arguably better in some cases.
Yes but why can't we keep the menu button! I like it, It keeps the screen clean of crap do we really want to turn into the Iphone with software buttons for everything... And On screen is just stupid, Sure then can rotate and the menu button could appear in old apps when it is needed but menu is a part of android... I don't want to click a gear on the app to open the menu when the button did that fine. If Samsung / CM don't implement 4.0 in such a way that menu means menu then I will personally develop a rom that does, Multitasking should be long press of home... That is how we already view recent apps. It just works better.
epichappy said:
That is how we already view recent apps. It just works better.
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And you are sure of that, how?
It isn't even released yet, you can't really judge >.>
Any news here?
It says here :
What'll happen on phones that do have physical buttons, then? Will Ice Cream Sandwich work on those types of devices?
Yep -- only instead of getting the on-screen navigation buttons, you'll use your phone's physical buttons in the same way you do now. The menu key will load any contextual on-screen menus, and long-pressing the home key will load the multitasking tool, just like it has in past Android releases.
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That kinda sucks, though. ICS switched to on-screen navigation buttons for good reasons. I don't like the chore of holding the home button just to load the multitasking tool.
It would still be easy to force having those buttons on the screen, right? How do you think would that work?
I'm planning to buy a new phone in the holidays; should this be a major consideration?
So now with Ice Cream Sandwich the menu button is useless ?
You could force the buttons onscreen, but why the hell have both physical and software buttons.
Also it would really take away a lot of your total resolution constantly having the extra menu bar in there. Apps that have a special menu-bar would still show this when you press menu on your hardware keys I think.
The only thing I'm psyched about is the screenrotation animation
I dont get it, why get so mad about it?
So yes, new phone will have on-screen buttons,
but whats so wrong about the physical buttons we have now?
they work well, and that home button is really nice when something freezes and nothing else works...
I wonder how ICS deals with that issue.
There is a ICS-launcher on the market now, you can test it for yourself. I'm running it, attaching a screenie for your viewing pleasure. Personally I hope the softbuttons doesnt make it to the S2, seems very redundant on this phone.
Unless Google are enforcing hardware restrictions like WP (which I believe they are not), it's most likely that ICS will detect hardware buttons and not show on-screen ones.
Is there a way you can hard-coded, let say the left capacitive button to act as a home button when you long-pressed it? especially on ICS roms that for let say you want to see the recent apps(home button long-pressed) alternatively you'll just long-press the left capacitive button = profit?
My home button is being quirky nowadays(6 months owner) and I don't want to bring it to Service Center just to repair that.. The problem is not groundbreaking(not yet) but this will save me in the future and probably others will so
It's not exactly what you want, but maybe Button Savior will do for you?
I think capacitive buttons are more likely to stop working than the physical buttons. My friend has a motorola Milestone and his back button stopped working in a month. Dont know if it is a bug
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Still need to use home-button I'm in CM9 right now and the home button is really ****ed-up especially when I'm multitasking and I really love how ICS implement the task-switching/killing "Recent app"
srivas95 said:
I think capacitive buttons are more likely to stop working than the physical buttons. My friend has a motorola Milestone and his back button stopped working in a month. Dont know if it is a bug
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Well that's a different phone but maybe that can apply to ours. What I mean is that sometimes my home button when I long press and then released it, it double registers the pressing so it's like you pressed again the home button
I am also looking forward for a solution to this. As I also want as much as possible not to use the home button. I quite feel that somehow it is already degrading. Showing press results that are not what I specify. Like for example clicking does 2 clicks thus entering 2 directories in CWM.
Button Savior could have been perfect if the recent apps it shows is the firmware's version. It shows its built-in recent apps instead.
PLEASE change the recent app button to a dedicated menu button and get rid of the stupid soft menu button that takes up screen real estate.
Long pressing the home button should bring up the recent app list instead of wasting a button on it.
I agree. This should have been done by default.
seems you should direct this at HTC and not here then....
also this has been discussed already too...and even modified too...