Hello,
I'm not certain where this post belongs. Please be benevolent, admins, or direct me in the right direction.
I'm brand new to modding and even Android. After ditching the iPhone 4s and grabbing a OnePlus One, I'm loving Android and I'm finding lots of cool customization mods. As a graphic designer and html and css coder, I can get a little picky and will spend hours tweaking the smallest of things for a simple aesthetic cause.
While playing around with the look of my phone through themes and backgrounds I got a little itch to design something of my own:
The Basics: a simple home screen navigation. Press the centre and swipe one of eight directions to open up one of eight apps.
Details: I'm a huge norse mythos fan and what better thing to show it then a phone navigation based on the Vegvisir, a runic compass. Eight points, eight apps to call upon. I would like a black background with 50% grey of the Vegvisir already centred on the home screen, doesn't even have to be part of the navigation I could just have it on the background. Once the centre is pressed and held, I'd like it to start glowing or even just jump to white and highlight one direction of the Vegvisir. Let go with one of them highlighted to launch the app.
The Extra Mile: Maybe have it customizable through some menus to set apps right on the phone instead of coding what program to launch. Easing and effects to make it look pretty.
Phone specs: (let me know if you need any more)
OnePlus One 64gb
Cyanogen OS Version 12.1-YOG4PAS1N0
Android Version 5.1.1
I'm brand new to modding Android. Let me know if you think it's too ambitious or if you know something similar that would do the trick (eight-direction swipe home screen nav). If you have any resources or know where I should get started please let me know.
Much appreciated,
Skaldsyn
Related
I have a new Sprint Touch Pro 2 with 6.5 and 2.5, stock ROM. The Today screen works. However, as a smart phone, it really isn't usable as-is. There is a total of 9 quicklinks, and the start menu is a mess. If you move things in the start menu, you break the quicklinks, so best to leave things where they land. Whatever it is that works to organize the interface needs to show unread e-mails, voice mails, and texts on the home/today screen, and a link to contacts, not that lame people thing. I get around this with the stock interface by dropping people out of the slider and pointing one of the top quicklinks to contacts. When I click on a new text message from the slider, it's pretty clumsey if you ask me. I have to look around for delete all etc. Lots of mouse clicks. I've been looking around at the likely suspects and would value your input.
Edit:
1. SPB Mobile Shell 3.5: I installed it for the third time and worked with it. My impression is that it is more about personalization and special effects. My impression is the pieces are not logically woven together to create an environment. First there is the home tab, with exactly 3 home pages, one left, and one right. There are a collection widgets that I can put on them. Second, there is a launcher. The Launcher has some impressive graphics for launching things. However, is seems to represent their concept of organizing the Start Menu into folders. You can see them if you click on the Start Menu. To me, it was confusing. The third area is the Carousel. It is very nice idea for organizing things, but it's pretty much pre-defined. I won't be coming back here because it doesn't match my needs or organizing the many apps the way I want to. It's easy on memory, 42%.
2. I worked with iPhoneToday, today. It has things like voicemail, e-mail, texts, etc. on a bottom row which does not scroll, so the important stuff is always visible. It's perfect for organization. You can add home screens at will and even label then on the top. You can change programs and the tabs they use. You can point them at the .exes or the shortcuts in the Start menu. You change the icon spacing and even have them scale to get more on a line. It's the easiest on RAM coming in at 39%. From an appearance standpoint, they really try. True to it's name, it closely resembles the iPhone. (Rubic's Cube) It uses the same size square icons for everything from volume, battery, etc., to e-mail, texts, etc. It just puts a number on the cube. You look around a bit to find what you want. It would look pretty good to someone who hasn't seen Sense. There are not real docs. The basics your will figure out by simply guessing. The other types of formatting are not as straightforward as CHT. The best source I've found is the wiki http://iphonetoday.wikidot.com/the-menus and to ask questions on the thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633618 where people have been very responsive and helpful. Before I tried it, I just thought it was for iPhone wanabes. Not so. Unlike Sense and Mobile Shell, it is in fact a very well thought out environment when you're looking to use your phone as a single device to organize your world.
3. CHT 2.0: Sense by itself doesn't make any sense. Since people have been hammering me to try CHT, I've been following the CHT threads, 1.85 and 2.0. Normally, it makes sense to go with the newer one because that is where development would be, but my concern is the new 2.0 seems to have worn out the Cookie Monster, and he would be too worn out to support it. However, I decided to try 2.0 since the he wrote every line was gone through and made squeaky clean, and he did stick around long enough to wean the product.
Of the hundreds of posts I read, many say it's pretty resource intensive, and not so good for multi-taskers. (Like me) That makes sense, since it adds functionality to the an already pretty good size Sense UI, so that became my expectation. I started thinking that if it adds say 10%, it would make sense that things would get shaky, pretty quickly. Thus it made sense to test before and after adding CHT. The percent RAM usage came in at exactly 52%, and remained there even after using it for awhile. Since iPhoneToday can be run inside Sense, I'm doing that now. What doesn't make sense is it only requires an additional 2% of RAM.
As for multi-tasking, I'm running out of porkers to load and I'm at 72%. (See attached images) After these screen shots I added Oprah and iPhoneToday, which is a UI on top of a UI. After playing around, I was able to get it to 77%. That's more apps than a 5 person office runs at a time. It still loads things fast. Initially, I thought scrolling perhaps was degraded slightly, but later I did before and after and even that wasn't affected. Maybe I don't have to worry.
As for the CHT UI, I read the User's Manual. It's only 12 pages, and 1/3 has to do with installing it. It's simple enough to where if you read it once to understand the paradigm it uses, you won't need to refer to again. I plan to run iPhoneToday inside of Sense/CHT and organize both to see which I like the best.
Edit It was tough to choose between Cookies Home Tab 2.0, AKA CHT 2.0, and iPhoneToday. You can't lose with either because the struggle is to pick the best of the best, rather than pick your poison. iPhoneToday is light, fast, and smooth. It would win if I were a fan of the iPhone interface, but I'm not a fan of anything except functionality and efficiency. In the end I went with Cookies Home Tab 2.0 for these reasons.
- It allows me to use widgets, and place them wherever I need.
- It allows me to place quicklinks called FreeLinks anywhere
- It allows me to have levels (scroll up and down) as well as pages (scroll side to side)
- If it doesn't support what you want directly, you can indirectly. Example: Let's say you want QuickLinks on all of your pages, line the iPhone, but not on the home screen where you have your clock weather. Just make the upper rows on your home screen invisible. Lets say you want one row of QuickLinks to be the same on every page. Simply pin them.
- There is no practical limitation that I've found as to how you arrange things. I can't say that about anything else I've tried.
- Configuration is easier to understand. The book is only 12 pages, 1/3 is install, another 1/3 is common sense, and the other 1/3 tells doesn't lead you step by step, it gives you the concept of operation. Because of that, once you read it, you'll never have to refer back to the manual.
I may not have gotten any help from the thread this time around, but other threads and people here have helped me plenty. Apparently, it was my turn to give back.
Enjoy!
PS: I also played with ThrottleLauncher and the WP7 clone. It didn't make the cut because its organizational capabilities are far too limited for someone like me (IT Architect) who has lots of apps. It's more for people who's life revolves around a close group of friends, music, and social networking. This is not a problem with ThrottleLauncher itself, but rather the design of the WP7 architecture. The real phone has the same problem.
First post, but I did my research and couldn't find anything similar.
I'm wondering what the feasible limits are of editing Android. Here's the situation:
I'm thinking of buying the Sony Walkman Z, but would want to create a new interface to make it more music-centric. Would it be possible to create a rom/skin/theme which would act almost nothing like android, but still run android apps?
something like this:
homescreen is fairly normal, clock+link to internet.
swipe left launches music/video app(which I'd like to make custom too, just a pipe dream)
swipe right is list of selected apps (not anticipating having more than the 16 one page could display)
swipe up displays full list of apps (like normal)
shortcut keys work as normal.
don't really need notifications(no texts/calls, don't tweet) so top bar can go away. really that's it. minimalist so as to keep the music the main focus.
A: is it possible?
B: is the skill level required ridiculous high?
C: are there any developers out there willing to take on a challenge?
Thanks so much,
GrIdiot
Hi All,
First off, I LOVE themer! I've been using Apex Launcher for some time on my HTC OneX (rooted, ARHD 31.3 ROM) and I've often gazed with longing at the home screens that some people have designed using UCCW, knowing that I'll necer have the time (or the artistic flair) to design my own. Now I can!
But there seems to be SO many customization options on Themer, and I'm a little overwhelmed. For instance, I'm using a theme with an RSS feed as a central tile, but I'd love to be able to change that to a 'favourite apps' tile. I'm sure the option is there, but I can't work it out. So, has anyone developed/is working on/knows of a Themer user guide?
I work on a cruise ship and internet access is slow and expensive (£10 for 167 minutes!) so I really don't have time to surf around looking for answers to design questions.
SO, does such a guide exist? If so, please point me in the right direction. If not, is anyone up to the challenge?:fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed:
The video is kind of like a user guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2474039
miles_muso said:
Hi All,
First off, I LOVE themer! I've been using Apex Launcher for some time on my HTC OneX (rooted, ARHD 31.3 ROM) and I've often gazed with longing at the home screens that some people have designed using UCCW, knowing that I'll necer have the time (or the artistic flair) to design my own. Now I can!
But there seems to be SO many customization options on Themer, and I'm a little overwhelmed. For instance, I'm using a theme with an RSS feed as a central tile, but I'd love to be able to change that to a 'favourite apps' tile. I'm sure the option is there, but I can't work it out. So, has anyone developed/is working on/knows of a Themer user guide?
I work on a cruise ship and internet access is slow and expensive (£10 for 167 minutes!) so I really don't have time to surf around looking for answers to design questions.
SO, does such a guide exist? If so, please point me in the right direction. If not, is anyone up to the challenge?:fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks miles_muso for your kind words! Yes the video vhngu930 provided is a good one, but for your problem I can help here. See the thing is that you'd first have to delete that RSS icon and then hold down on the homescreen > Themer Actions > Favorite Apps. Now you'll have a massive heart (we're working on adding icon packs soon), which you'll be able to edit. If you hold down on the icon > edit > tap the icon, you'll be able to replace it with an icon image. You can maybe try here for icon images which may help, they by Jeppe Foldager and the small whites and darks should help for now: https://www.copy.com/s/DxsaXLatvBGf/Share/Icons
Hope this helps!
Paranoid Android made me forget Xposed, never looked back. The genius behind peek and pie just frightens people who see it in action and it makes me think I am playing in a sort of near-future fiction.
One thing I am desperate for, despite all this, is the possibility to change icons, system-wide, like Unicon permits it
.
I know it is not a pure "google experience", but in my opinion bad design choices made by app developers for their icons aren't either.
The possibility to have a clean look, either by changing a single icon or even multiple of them to get a unique and coherent look all across the system.
I also know that there is the possibilty to change the launcher, but I find it more disturbing than anything other to have two different icons for the same app. It just seems like badly hiding someone else's mess.
I wish you all a good day, silently waiting to enjoy hover, hopefully soon and in all it's glory.
Thank you again for making my phone feel awesome each time I hold it.
I've installed over 50 editors and reviewed 100s in the Play Store... none of them do everything I was looking for. Maybe I missed it.
Editor requirements:
Toolbars at the bottom.
Dark theme (option)
Dark paper / background
Autosave
Insert image (prefer in-line but thumbnail might be OK)
Formatting (bold/font/colors)
File Types = rtf or doc
Opens to last edited and in edit mode.
Trial/free version available for testing before purchase.
No pushy popups asking me to download other things.
Clipboard - easy to use.
Bonus:
Cross platform version in Windows (web version.ok)
Wont freak out if I use AI Keyboard to paste text.
Links - between docs / pages / to web.
Save as text only.
Save selection.
Send selection.
Clipboard history.
Undo history between edits.
No monthly/annual fees
Tags
Toolbars: App buttons should be configurable, always. Buttons for menu/bold/saveas/new could be at the top, bottom, left, right, or floating, per the user preference. I'm really disappointed android has not done more to assist users with reaching across their over sized screens. Almost no apps have this, and only a few place the controls in the obvious place = next to the keyboard = where the user is most likely to want to tap. S5 ships with quick screen sizing ability built in, seems Samsung is ahead on this one. And I don't think it's asking a lot, it's just a matter of moving the bar to a different place, it's too easy!
Theme: A dark theme uses less battery and is easier on my eyes, especially when it's dark out. The theme is the part around the edit area, strictly speaking. This would include all menu's and toolbars. There are great editors out there with dark themes and dark paper but the menu's open super bright, and whats worse is they'll put light gray text on them in wee little fonts with lots of space to make it bigger... and then ask for $$? No.
Paper: A dark paper is super easy to read in any lighting conditions, and uses less battery to display (the display takes 50%+ of most phones battery power) When printing, white paper is best because it is cheap and readily available, and printers are not generally equipped to print light colors on dark paper. Since most people are addicted to printing things they look at 0-1 times, we may be stuck with this for a while. In any case, I want dark paper. This has been a feature in editors for a long long time but is mostly missing from Android.
Autosave: This is a must. If it uses the "save every 10 seconds", it should also save on exit without prompting if I close in only 5s.
Insert image: My preference would be to have text above and below, not around, and not as a layer that is under typed text. If it's attached as a thumbnail, it should be easy to see and tap to zoom.
File Types: My favorite is RTF. It's been around a long time, compatible with most things. Any fairly common windows format is fine like doc or even pdf. I want to avoid special formats that wont work anywhere else. I don't mind if the program has this ability but if it cannot open/save in other formats by default, I'm not interested.
Opening: It should open to the last document opened, and ready to continue typing. If it opens to the home page, then I want to see a recent list with the last edited on top, and one tap to edit. I found some really nice apps that took 5-6 taps to edit a doc. For example, Evernote opens to the home page, you tap to view, scroll to where you want to type, tap and ... nothing.... you have to tap MENU and then some symbol for edit, and then you start typing and it's not typing in the right place, it moved to the top or the bottom or whatever... terrible app IMO.
Fees: I have dropbox and other storage already, I'd rather not sign up for yet another one. Many apps work with existing sharing services just fine, while others require payments for this, generally 4-8 per month. I'm only willing to pay if it is the only one that meets all my other requirements, and it has to be the super ultimate editor and really amazing too.
TagSpaces might do it. There's no trial for Android tho....
Downloads include linux, mac, windows, android and firefox/chrome extensions.
Looks really cool but there's no trial/free version.
TagSpaces does not support themes nor paper color choices.
I'm using SlimRom, it has a great holo theme, and inverted google app package.
Build 7-187 did not invert google play for me.
Build 6-112 works great
The Slim Gaap downloads are here Slim 4-4 Gaaps, stable addon page.
Still looking for a full editor with all the features I mentioned. It's very strange how many apps do not have proper color options for the canvas, any dev who ever opens an app at night or in a dark room knows why. Special lighting apps like Velis Auto Brightness with super dark mode enabled helps a lot, but in a dark room, if the large white areas are bright enough to see the lettering on them, then it's bright enough to light the whole room.
Anyone who wants a longer battery life should be asking every dev to add night modes to their apps