Been asking myself this question, i mean besides the fact that it looks kinda cool isnt it ABSOLUTELY USELESS?
I tried using it a few times but come one, lets face it its useless. We have buttons for it. And its quite anoying to use anyway.
So why do you use it?
Some phones and most tablets do not have hardware keys or they are hard to reach (except maybe a physical "home" button)
It's complete waste of display estate to enable and actually use a navbar on the S3 since, as you already point out, it has the major buttons as hardware keys, some with double meaning depending on press duration.
it's easier to use the on-screen buttons than to push the physical home button.
Also, ParanoidAndroid allows to adjust the navbar color on a per-app basis, which is pretty awesome
I also find it pretty useless but I think the point is to save physical buttons:silly:. Not using physical buttons keeps the phone in better condition for re-sell. Now they started to add Recent Apps and Lock phone icons(which I genuinely hate) in the status bar for the same reason.
Related
Been seeing a few people talk about the soft buttons getting in the way while using the pen. It's a matter of timing and the pen has to touch the screen before your hand does to keep the buttons from being activated.
However, I did see a review that mentioned something that would be great.
I'm sure that someone could write an app that would control which set of soft buttons would be activated based on rotation. Is this API open within the Flyer so that someone can control them?
In portrait mode I'd actually prefer that the buttons on the left side be active, and in landscape I'd prefer the buttons on the "bottom" of the Flyer be activated - this would be the reverse of the current implementation (actually I'd really prefer to be able to control both independently).
This would solve a few issues. It would prevent users from touching the buttons with their hand while writing, but it would also put the buttons next to your hand while you're holding the device instead of having to move your hand to access the buttons you'd be able to do it with your thumb.
That sounds like a clever idea. I would use that feature if it existed.
It is a fantastic idea, I would pay for it!
I love everything about my X2...except for the physical buttons. How hard do you guys think it would be to replace them with captive touch buttons? Would it be as simple as finding some buttons, connecting the wires and making them fit or would software be involved? Any feedback would be appreciated.
TransX2 said:
I love everything about my X2...except for the physical buttons. How hard do you guys think it would be to replace them with captive touch buttons? Would it be as simple as finding some buttons, connecting the wires and making them fit or would software be involved? Any feedback would be appreciated.
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I had the same question regarding this. My reason being the buttons are too loud at night. All you hear is "clickity click click click". I was looking to see if the Honeycomb style onscreen buttons were available to install (they have them in Cyanogenmod on tablets running Gingerbread). Didn't find them.
BUT I did find a program called "Soft Keys" in the market. It's free and has on screen buttons that can be hidden or shown with a little floating movable button. You can do everything with it without using the hard keys. I strongly suggest it, and it will probably prolong the life of the hard keys.
Make sure to set it to not autohide after clicking on the buttons (it defaults to hide when pressing home).
the amount of physical modding needed would make this entirely too much work. re-wiring, taking a capacitive button section from another phone, etc, maybe even software stuff, that much i don't know.
you're better off finding a way to quiet the buttons
one of the best features of this phone is the fact that it still has some real buttons. itd be nice if it had a d-pad or trackball too just so one could not have to always use the touchscreen to interact with it
ralphwiggum1 said:
I had the same question regarding this. My reason being the buttons are too loud at night. All you hear is "clickity click click click". I was looking to see if the Honeycomb style onscreen buttons were available to install (they have them in Cyanogenmod on tablets running Gingerbread). Didn't find them.
BUT I did find a program called "Soft Keys" in the market. It's free and has on screen buttons that can be hidden or shown with a little floating movable button. You can do everything with it without using the hard keys. I strongly suggest it, and it will probably prolong the life of the hard keys.
Make sure to set it to not autohide after clicking on the buttons (it defaults to hide when pressing home).
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Try button savior. I like it much more than soft keys.
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.
Why did honeycomb disable to hardware home buttons? I love the hardware home button on my htc flyer tablet but it was disabled when I upgraded to honeycomb and from what I've read this was a google decision not htc. Why remove this functionality. Does ics re-enable this feature?
Among other things, they wanted to do away with fixed position navigation buttons in android devices to allow for better placement of buttons when the screen is rotated or to allow them to disappear completely during a full screen app.
I personally feel there should be at least some sort of hardware buttons, so you're not forced to look at the screen to do everything (not to mention the whole wearing gloves thing), but button less is the new direction.
- chris
Is there anyway I can have the navigation bar on all the time? Including fullscreen videos? I hate having to click back on the camera (and other apps) for the navbar to appear when I can just press home if the navbar was always on. Is there anyway to do this through Xposed orany other method?
The soft keys?
If you're talking about the soft keys then there are 2 ways for them to pop up on the screen.
1. Tap the screen (this only works on certain apps)
2. Swipe - if you're in landscape mode then swipe the right edge inwards the soft keys will appear.
If you're in Portrait then swipe up from the bottom edge and the soft keys will appear.
But if you're talking about the Navigation bar then you need to swipe Downward no matter if you're in Landscape or Portrait..
Double0EK said:
The soft keys?
If you're talking about the soft keys then there are 2 ways for them to pop up on the screen.
1. Tap the screen (this only works on certain apps)
2. Swipe - if you're in landscape mode then swipe the right edge inwards the soft keys will appear.
If you're in Portrait then swipe up from the bottom edge and the soft keys will appear.
But if you're talking about the Navigation bar then you need to swipe Downward no matter if you're in Landscape or Portrait..
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I know how to make them appear, I'm asking if there's a way to make them stay there all the time like physical keys. Off topic is there also a way to remove the delay response of holding the power button for the power options to appear?
KanBorges said:
I know how to make them appear, I'm asking if there's a way to make them stay there all the time like physical keys. Off topic is there also a way to remove the delay response of holding the power button for the power options to appear?
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Sorry I can't give you firm answers because my phone is with LG for repair, but I do recall seeing in settings options for when the buttons appear and disappear. It allowed you to set it on a per-app basis.
As for the delay response for the power button, your best bet would be to see if there is an Xposed plugin. To use Xposed you'll need to root the phone.
When I get my phone back I can give you more specifics, but LG has the worst warranty repair service and has yet to fix the issue after sending it to them four times.
You at JBLM? Thanks for your service!
silcam18 said:
Sorry I can't give you firm answers because my phone is with LG for repair, but I do recall seeing in settings options for when the buttons appear and disappear. It allowed you to set it on a per-app basis.
As for the delay response for the power button, your best bet would be to see if there is an Xposed plugin. To use Xposed you'll need to root the phone.
When I get my phone back I can give you more specifics, but LG has the worst warranty repair service and has yet to fix the issue after sending it to them four times.
You at JBLM? Thanks for your service!
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Thanks for your reply :angel: but I've looked at everything possibly related to power button delay or the navigation bar (soft keys) on Xposed before posting here and still nothing. I did find a screenshot delay remover in Xposed and works great. Finding the power button is not as important as the soft keys because I can just use Rom Toolbox's rebooter and power/reboot/recovery etc... The soft keys thing on the other hand I would like to have because I hate having to pull up for them to make them appear... Iv'e looked at the settings you mention for showing/not showing per app but every app is not listed, its just some of the apps on your phone (apps that I would like to have the soft keys always on are mostly video apps which are not listed on this settings.) I', almost used to it by now, I just rather have the keys always on or a phone with actual physical keys.
Yes I live in JBLM . I'm a dog handler in the Army.