I have never used android before the NC so I was wondering if anyone can recommend me some widgets, I already have fancy and beautiful widgets.
I'm also interested in this
"Best" is a very relative term... my advice is to install all the app stores available and enter "widget" as the seaarch term. You'll find plenty, pick the ones you like best. App stoes are slideme, andappstore and applanet. If you google them you will find the apk and install them. At least that's what I did...
Sent from my NookColor
Is it possible, via apps or otherwise, to lock-down a Viewsonic G Tablet?
I've got it rooted and we are deciding to run either TnT Lite or Cyanogen 7 [still testing] we will be distributing the tablets to very un-savvy users who couldn't root the thing if they tried, but we don't want them to be able to install or use any apps other than what we deem fit.
Is it possible? What's the best path? Paying for licenses/software is an option.
I'm using Application Protection to lock down Amazon Market and the Market so my parents won't accidentally purchase apps. I know there are several such apps, but you're going to have to try them all to figure out which one works best for you.
I HATE mini apps on my Galaxy Tab 10.1...
That feature alone is enough to make me want to return the device.
Seriously? Why would Samsung want to decide for me my what apps I want at my finger tips? Then not only that, they use their own cheesy versions of available apps. I have already found the solutions I want to use through my Android phone. I want to carry over the same apps to the tab so that my experience is a little less fragmented.
The "mini apps" constantly get in the way. I'm brushing against the bottom bar causing the apps to pop up... none of which I ever use, completely unintentionally. Annoying! If I could only decide what apps showed up!
Total pain in the REAR!
Then Samsung loads on a bunch of unnecessary software. I HATE having 5 apps that do exactly the same thing on my device... The abundance of music players is asinine. Having three book programs (none of which you can remove) is stoopid.
Why can't you get a piece of hardware without the software all screwed up by the vendor these days?
Why is root necessary every time I put my hands on an Android device to make it useful?
Why can't I purchase an Android product with a Google backed Vanilla version of the current OS installed?
Why?
Why?
Why?
I'm so pissed that this $600 tablet requires an additional 15 dollars in apps and a good 6-12 (or more) hours of set-up time and research to get it properly rooted and operating the way I like it.
Sorry... that made me feel so much better.
Maybe an ipad would have been a better choice for you. I like tinkering with my toys so I chose the tab.
I HATE mini apps on my Galaxy Tab 10.1... do YOU?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may have opened the mini apps tray 3-4 times unintentionally (in the 10 weeks I have the tablet) and I use the "calculator" mini app quite regularly. So no, they don't bother me but I wouldn't miss them if they were gone either.
SGPMan said:
Maybe an ipad would have been a better choice for you. I like tinkering with my toys so I chose the tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Them there are fighting words...
I enjoy tinkering as well. I have loved customizing my original Incredible and now Incredible 2. They have an excellent following with a lot of very reputable ROM "artists". However, their original UI wasn't that bad to start with. And with the CM nighties, my phone is near perfect.
With the Galaxy Tab 10.1, my initial experience (3 days) I have found it to be laggy and glitchy, which I was shocked about. I want this tab to work for me, but it seems that I'm trying awful hard to make this work. I think it's the fact that my phone is setup so well and runs so well... I figured the tablet would be so much better. I set my expectations high, only to be disappointed so far.
I have rooted and removed a bunch of unnecessary apps, but haven't figured out how to remove that dam mini app bar. As far as custom ROM's go... I haven't loaded any since I am still trying to figure which has the best reputation for stability and speed.
I am trying to figure out something, other wise by Thursday this thing is headed back to Best Buy. Sad thing is... I don't want an apple device, but if that's what is comes to, then I will retire my Android phone as well to keep everything streamlined. Sucks!
gokpog said:
I may have opened the mini apps tray 3-4 times unintentionally (in the 10 weeks I have the tablet) and I use the "calculator" mini app quite regularly. So no, they don't bother me but I wouldn't miss them if they were gone either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Real Calc regularly, a donate (paid) app which can handle higher level math functions. I wish I could just substitute it in place of the basic Samsung/Android version.
Agree with you, mini-apps are boring me every time i wanna play a fullscreen game, like "fruit ninja thd"... This "rolling dock" is not a great feature.
SGPMan said:
Maybe an ipad would have been a better choice for you. I like tinkering with my toys so I chose the tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the reason most of us choose Android is that we aren't forced into "one man's vision" and have the ability to choose for ourself. The mini-app bar forces us into one company's vision. I have to agree with the OP about this.
We should at least have the ability to turn it off.
Meh...it's there, it's unobtrusive, and at least my experience with it is that I really have to try to get it to come up when I want it. Have never accidentally brought it up. Sometimes the calc and the memo pad are useful.
Can't see why people hate it so much.
MMcCraryNJ said:
Meh...it's there, it's unobtrusive, and at least my experience with it is that I really have to try to get it to come up when I want it. Have never accidentally brought it up. Sometimes the calc and the memo pad are useful.
Can't see why people hate it so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So...
Try a vs party on "Fruit Ninja THD", you'll see ^^
Just hide the status bar with this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265397
problem solved!!!
I actually don't mind having mini app tray. I use task manager, calculater and memo pad for taking notes from web regularly. The only thing I don't like is accidentally hitting the screenshot button. But I totally agree with the original post. An option to turn it off would be nice.
Personally I like them. Two of them I use on a daily basis. Most of the others occasionally.
JHeal77 said:
As far as custom ROM's go... I haven't loaded any since I am still trying to figure which has the best reputation for stability and speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Task360/Phantom "In Paris"
v.2 works great for me, but v.4 is coming "soon"(tm)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1284355
Really not a massive fan of them being there tbh, but I don't accidentally press the button (not like the screenshot one...grr!) and I don't use the apps in it. I just ignore it and get on my way.
If there was an option of getting rid of it though, I would.
I found this thread while searching for a way to at least configure this menu bar... unfortunately it looks like the whole thing is embedded in the ROM and the only way to hide it is to patch the ROM and/or completely replace it (thanks for the links in the thread).
I fully agree with the OP on a lot of his rant. This is an awesome peice of hardware that comes out of the box with some insanely bad software. I'm still deciding on what launcher to replace the stock version with, but so far both Go and Launcher Pro are tons faster, more configurable, and better looking than the laggy default version that doesn't even let you use the full display.
The status bar menu is kind of a nice idea, but the execution is terrible. If I could configure what apps and quick commands I wanted on the menu and easily hide it, it would be a great feature.
But as it is, the choices of what to put there seem really bizarre. I can't for the life of me figure out why "screen shot" was deemed important enough for most users to justify space on an "always on" menu. I have to routinely go delete unwanted screenshots taken by accidentally brushing that menu option.
The choices of what to put on the quick launch app menu are even worse. Holding the "home" button on the main menu for a couple seconds pops up the task manager so why do I need a whole other button dedicated to pulling up this app? The world clock is just plain terrible compared to other clock apps. The calander is alright, but there are better widgets out there that serve the purpose better than a quick launch menu. The memo and calculator are again terrible and need to be replaced by 3rd party apps so you should be able to replace them on this menu too. The music player is the only one of the apps that serves my purposes, but again there are better 3rd party apps and you should be able to configure what is on a system wide quick launch bar.
From the perspective of an average consumer the out-of-box experience is fairly poor due to the OEM software rather than the hardware or system software. It should be easy for a user to fix this with simple market based apps and configuration options rather than having to apply warantee voiding ROM patches and rooting the OS. Allowing OEM's to "lock" bad software is a really bad policy. If an OEM wants me to use their software, they should develop or license best in class versions of those apps rather than locking the software on the system and forcing me to root the system to get rid of poor quality software.
You can disable all of these functions with some XML editing if it really annoys you that much
I'd happily do all these changes for you for a little donation of just a couple of quid
Try one of the sweet new cm9 kangs, I'm on the 7500 version. So much better then tw honeycomb.
I Agree!!
hate it so much, but now on overcome rom,
its at least slightly less annoying. just ever so SLIGHTLY.
at least in this rom, a swipe upward wont activate it.
wont disturb me during fruit ninja.
but still sometimes press it when i wana press spacebar.
stupid piece of crap tray.
the motorola xoom already has ICS.
samsung will be the slowest tab to get it cos of this touch widz.
Sometimes i feel sorry for samsung.
i have a hunch there is some kind of conspiracy goin on at the back,
where google force manufacturers to implement their own skin. (why else would samsung waste effort to make rubbish that people dont want?)
and google can sell their overprice nexus device to make money.
just imagine, if samsung can sell or upgrade the galaxy S2 and note with the pure and stock vanilla android, and upgrade them to ICS without touch widz, would anyone buy galaxy nexus?
nexus has lausy hardware. last gen GPU and horrible camera. (not due to the 5MP, but generally a weak camera compare to S2 and note)
Luv'em why we have android
Pop up windows that are independent of screen, getting closer to desktop experience. I would like to swap some out but overall, (calc, note, calendar, calculator, & music player) work great. Allow true multitasking.
I just installed OverSkreen which gives me a windowed web browser on top of screen. I really like them.
I am on an ICS KANG version by Mabalito
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1461240
With this ROM, I don't have a bottom row of mini apps.
I am using GO Launcher EX HD
http://golauncher.goforandroid.com/2012/03/go-launcher-hd-v1-0-beta/
With the launcher, I able to hide the bottom bar whenever I want.
This is awesome when I watch video and play games
I was surprised by how little apps were available for Android Tablets.
I know Honeycomb hasn't been out long, but it is somewhat disappointed to see that few newspapers and other video streaming gigs haven't really taken advantage of the larger screen. The Android market is not doing a good job either at pointing out the best for Tablet. There is just a little section in the Homepage.
My personal list of requests for the Tablet S:
-Netflix
-HBO GO (choppy on dolphin broswer with flash)
-The Economist for Tablets
-whathappened to the stock Weather/News Widget?
Need to be improved in resolution/layout
-Watch ESPN
-NY Times App is far too simple
Please share.
Have a look here http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/honeycomb/15096-optimized-honeycomb-apps-list.html
Nice, thanks.
I'm still hoping for a few big names.
Its silly that Netflix worked on my 10.1 but not my Tablet S, obviously one is Android 3.1 and the other 3.2. I really miss using it though.
The only reason to get an iOS device. I want to get a Honeycomb tablet
got my hp touchpad earlier this week, like webos a lot tbh, but decided to dual boot with alpha 3, being new to android on a tablet i dont know what apps are worth downloading and what works?
any tips on some good apps to make me use the android side of the dual boot?
sadly cm7 is android 2.3 which is a phone os and everything that i would want the tablet version of just runs a high pixel density version of the phone app. unlike honeycomb, ics is open sauce so maybe theres hope for a true android tablet yet.
Oh, there are plenty of apps that are tuned for a tablet display even under 2.3. Here's a list of some of the ones I have installed:
Browsers
Dolphin HD
Opera Mobile
Apps
Evernote
Kaiten (tablet-friendly SMTP/POP/IMAP client)
Business Calendar
Nook (offers two-page reading view in landscape orientation)
Zinio
Netflix
News Readers
Pulse
Taptu
gReader
feedly
YourVersion Tablet
News Republic
Additionally lots of games either have tablet-specific layouts or take advantage of the extra real-estate:
250+ Solitaire
Angry Birds HD/Seasons/Rio (pinch zoom to see the full level)
Cut the Rope
Peggle
Stupid Zombies
Dabble HD
Pocket Legends
Random Mahjong
Majesty
Pinball Ride
There are a few launchers that give a better tablet experience as well, in particular VTL and ADW EX. Both offer dock bars that rotate with the orientation to the bottom of the screen and can be fitted with more than just four or five icons.
Even though they don't have tablet-specific UIs, many other apps do scale up to the larger screen very nicely:
Facebook/Twitter/Google+
Quickoffice/Documents to Go/OfficeSuite
Kindle/Google Books (unlike Nook, landscape view is single page but still very crisp)
WebEx
Anyway, you get the idea. While there are many apps that use the new Android 3.0+ APIs and therefore won't be available to us until ICS, there are plenty of other apps that give the full tablet experience even on 2.3.
tragictramp said:
got my hp touchpad earlier this week, like webos a lot tbh, but decided to dual boot with alpha 3, being new to android on a tablet i dont know what apps are worth downloading and what works?
any tips on some good apps to make me use the android side of the dual boot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Muffin knight and officesuite.
Sent from my SPH-D720 using Tapatalk
The Jack of Clubs said:
unlike honeycomb, ics is open sauce so maybe theres hope for a true android tablet yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but u do know, that HC sources were released along with ICS sources..?
Hi. Do any of you have the Facebook version with the slide out left pane like iOS devices?
- Sent from my HP TouchPad
nomadman said:
Hi. Do any of you have the Facebook version with the slide out left pane like iOS devices?
- Sent from my HP TouchPad
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK there's not a tablet-specific version of Facebook for Android yet, even for 3.0+. There are alternative Facebook clients for Android that may offer a more tablet-like experience, but I think that webOS was the first to get a tablet Facebook app, and then recently they released one for iOS. Nothing for Android yet...
SCWells72 said:
AFAIK there's not a tablet-specific version of Facebook for Android yet, even for 3.0+. There are alternative Facebook clients for Android that may offer a more tablet-like experience, but I think that webOS was the first to get a tablet Facebook app, and then recently they released one for iOS. Nothing for Android yet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I thought also. Until I got out my old china made hundred dollar tablet with Facebook installed. Sure enough it does have the sliding navigation pane on the left side just like the ios version. I copied the apk on the touchpad and I lost the left pane navigation. I think fb app see the touchpad as a phone, so it doesn't show the left nav pane.
- Sent from my HP TouchPad
Puenos said:
but u do know, that HC sources were released along with ICS sources..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no i didnt. i thought it was still closed source.
i still want alot of tablet versions of apps that dont appear. such as swype and googles apps. honeycomb and ics also give better understanding to a tablet without home menus and back buttons.
Don't use facebook app, it's fat. Friend caster for facebook has a tablet view!
i did install netflix and evernote and both are running tablet versions different from the phone. the tablet version of evernote is actually quite impressive. its amazing that netflix is plays video so smooth compared to the strange laggyness of everything else.
Just got CM on my Touchpad and noticed Netflix has a tablet UI on the Touchpad different from the UI I get on my phone with the same version. The Touchpad has a nice working tablet UI. Pretty nice considering there is no Netflix support in WebOS.
Also Firefox just released an update with a new tablet UI. By default it goes to a phone UI, but any Firefox user knows its easy to change settings. Simply go to "about:config" in the address bar and change "browser.ui.layout.tablet" from "-1" (Auto) to 1 (Enabled). This will force Firefox to use the tablet UI even though it auto-detected a phone. Also useful is adding the string "general.useragent.override" with value "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1" to spoof a desktop user agent.