So I took the plunge yesterday and flashed my Kaiser with a custom ROM for the first time yesterday - Laurentius26's WM6.1 image, and I must say I am very pleased.
This has spurred me into trying to get my today screen *exactly* as I want it - I have tried various plugins but most seem to have too much (ie waste screen real estate) in them or too little.
I really like the Ultimate Launcher tabbed menu that comes with the ROM (I think it's a demo) for the gesture based tab switching with rotating cube effect, so I will probably stick with that.
I have done some mockups of what I want, and attached images to this post.
I want the top of the screen to be static, showing the time, date and the number of messages (ie SMS / MMS / Missed calls). I want the time quite big so you can glance at it whilst driving (No clock in car...). and before you say "Just use HTC home" - I do NOT want the tabs at the bottom of HTC home wasting screen space. I tried HHC, but you cannot set the number of tabs to 0 to remove the tabs alltogether.
The bottom half of the screen I want variable depending on which Ultimate Launcher (UL) tab I am on.
I want an "Apps" tab for quick launches. I bought SPB pocket plus which has an excellent app launcher, I will use that.
I want a "Media" tab with something like the HTC audio manager plugin capable of showing current track along with play/pause controls etc. I think this should be easy to do, I just need a player app with a today screen plugin.
I want a "Mail" tab with a list (ie preview) of latest emails / SMSs etc. Not sure what to use here, i own SPB diary as part of a bundle but this seems a bit overkill for this.
I want a "Boarding" tab for when I am planning riding activities for the weekend. (See image #2). For this, ideally I want a quick contacts bit at the top so I can one touch call my riding buddies and a weather strip below to see if it is worth riding this weekend
I need help with this bit - anyone know a quick contact list plugin like the tab from HTC home? Also, ultimate launcher will only allow you to specify one plugin for each tab, when I want two for this tab (Contacts and weather) - so I will need a plugin that can hold multiple plugins on a page and then specify that plugin as the one for the Boarding tab in ultimate launcher. SPB today does this, so I could maybe use that, unless I want to use SPB today in another tab as you can only use each plugin once.
So... suggestions are needed for:
Clock like the big one for HTC home (Found one or two, but none seem to show it just right like the HTC home one - big time with small date)
SMS / MMS / Missed calls / Voicemails counter like the one from HTC home - Does anyone know an app that lists waiting voicemails? Or is this info not available to the OS?
A quick contacts page like the one from the HTC home tab.
A today plugin that can accept other today plugins.
Any ideas?
TIA
I would like to know the same. Especially the part about the HTC Home plugin without any tabs at the bottom. I've tried to do this with rlToday, but the links of the unread mail/SMS and missed calls are not preserved. Any ideas are welcome!
Sounds a lot like my own wishlist.
SBSH PocketBreeze (with PocketWeather!); gives you a tabbed today with calender, tasks, contacts, notes, mail, other plugins and more. Skinable and with tons of settings...
Maybe CTD's BatteryStatus or rlToday for clock and call, sms, mms and mail counters?
Well it looks like I am not alone.
Is it just me, or is anyone else surprised by the number of packages that try to offer an all-in-one solution?
To me, there are two kinds of today plugins:
Ones that provide tabbed pages or some other organisation system and ones that provide the functionality (eg a weather strip, a clock strip). I just wish that people would package them as seperate entities, because you do not have to use a package's organisational system to want to use one of the package's pages.
I would also like to see some kind of system to allow multiple instances of a page. For example, on one ultimatelauncher tab I may want an SPB app launcher with app set A, but on another ultimatelauncher page i may want an SPB app launcher with app set B. currently the only way to do this is to use a different app (ie not SPB launcher app) for app set B. Either that or use SPB launcher's tab system, but I want to use ultimatelauncher to handle the tabs. I wonder if you could take the SPB launcher package, rename it to something else and install it a second time under a different name?
m0o5 said:
Sounds a lot like my own wishlist.
SBSH PocketBreeze (with PocketWeather!); gives you a tabbed today with calender, tasks, contacts, notes, mail, other plugins and more. Skinable and with tons of settings...
Maybe CTD's BatteryStatus or rlToday for clock and call, sms, mms and mail counters?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rlToday looks ideal for replicating the clock and message counter portion of HTC home, thanks very much!
This is my current Today Screen set-up.... I'm using all Spb apps.
Touch Commander 3.0
http://www.touch-commander.com/
Touch Commander lets you browse and scroll a Windows Mobile Pocket PC with a sweep of a finger across the screen just like an iPhone or TouchFLO. With just a touch, you'll be able to make quick calls to photo contacts, start applications, browse folders, get and send SMS, view photos and video, etc. Key features include full customization of interface elements, a Full Screen mode, and animated transition effects between screens.
Key Components
* Touch Control - scroll lists, open and minimize applications by finger sweeps
* Today Plugin with clock, weather, launcher and more
* Cube-like Multipage Launcher
* Finger-friendly Start Menu
* Titlebar Battery Indicator
Not a bad app. Not what I want though.
I do like your shortcuts screen in the cube though. Being able to add apps, contacts or subfolders is very cool.
Woohoo! some progress at last!
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I used rlToday for the top, modified someone else's copy of HTC home to slim it down to 80px, leaving the rest for the ultimatelaunch cube
I would still like a quick contacts manager like the one in HTC home (Instead of the one I have below spb weather), and I would also like a nicer music plugin for the music tab, but overall I really like it - very finger friendly
Oh, and the clock is a transparency, so it works with any theme
Looking good.
Could you share the top bit?
Cheers
evilc said:
Woohoo! some progress at last!
I used rlToday for the top, modified someone else's copy of HTC home to slim it down to 80px, leaving the rest for the ultimatelaunch cube
I would still like a quick contacts manager like the one in HTC home (Instead of the one I have below spb weather), and I would also like a nicer music plugin for the music tab, but overall I really like it - very finger friendly
Oh, and the clock is a transparency, so it works with any theme
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, thats almost exactly what I've been trying to do with my home screen.
Can you post your rltoday skin?
will do soon, I was maybe gonna add a BT / Wifi switch to the left of the clock, and i think it is just over 80px, was probs gonna slim it down to 76px, so when you have a 2px gap above and below, you have used exactly 80px.
I am not sure about the clock also. With a 88:88 behind it to make it more like an LCD display or not? I also think I should maybe centre the clock propery (it's to the left) but it's like that in case the scrollbar comes up, so it doesn't overwrite the date. I suppose I could move the date to the left.
Talking of scrollbars, is it possible to make ultimatelaunch work so that if a page in the cube is too big to fit on the screen, it puts a scrollbar in (just in the cube bit of the screen, not down the whole side of the screen including the clock area) rather than making the cube bigger? I know you can limit the size of the cube, but this just makes anything that spills over get cut off.
New version Touch Commander 3.0
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=375111
FYI, i am looking at abandoning rlToday for the clock as it does not handle screen rotation properly, which just wont do, I want to try and get everything looking *perfect*
I have started a new thread on this with info on the various issues. anyone looking to try and acheive the same interface, please pitch in there...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=1999597
I released a version of this skin on the rlToday skins forum:
http://rotlaus-software.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1272
evilc said:
So I took the plunge yesterday and flashed my Kaiser with a custom ROM for the first time yesterday - Laurentius26's WM6.1 image, and I must say I am very pleased.
This has spurred me into trying to get my today screen *exactly* as I want it - I have tried various plugins but most seem to have too much (ie waste screen real estate) in them or too little.
I really like the Ultimate Launcher tabbed menu that comes with the ROM (I think it's a demo) for the gesture based tab switching with rotating cube effect, so I will probably stick with that.
I have done some mockups of what I want, and attached images to this post.
I want the top of the screen to be static, showing the time, date and the number of messages (ie SMS / MMS / Missed calls). I want the time quite big so you can glance at it whilst driving (No clock in car...). and before you say "Just use HTC home" - I do NOT want the tabs at the bottom of HTC home wasting screen space. I tried HHC, but you cannot set the number of tabs to 0 to remove the tabs alltogether.
The bottom half of the screen I want variable depending on which Ultimate Launcher (UL) tab I am on.
I want an "Apps" tab for quick launches. I bought SPB pocket plus which has an excellent app launcher, I will use that.
I want a "Media" tab with something like the HTC audio manager plugin capable of showing current track along with play/pause controls etc. I think this should be easy to do, I just need a player app with a today screen plugin.
I want a "Mail" tab with a list (ie preview) of latest emails / SMSs etc. Not sure what to use here, i own SPB diary as part of a bundle but this seems a bit overkill for this.
I want a "Boarding" tab for when I am planning riding activities for the weekend. (See image #2). For this, ideally I want a quick contacts bit at the top so I can one touch call my riding buddies and a weather strip below to see if it is worth riding this weekend
I need help with this bit - anyone know a quick contact list plugin like the tab from HTC home? Also, ultimate launcher will only allow you to specify one plugin for each tab, when I want two for this tab (Contacts and weather) - so I will need a plugin that can hold multiple plugins on a page and then specify that plugin as the one for the Boarding tab in ultimate launcher. SPB today does this, so I could maybe use that, unless I want to use SPB today in another tab as you can only use each plugin once.
So... suggestions are needed for:
Clock like the big one for HTC home (Found one or two, but none seem to show it just right like the HTC home one - big time with small date)
SMS / MMS / Missed calls / Voicemails counter like the one from HTC home - Does anyone know an app that lists waiting voicemails? Or is this info not available to the OS?
A quick contacts page like the one from the HTC home tab.
A today plugin that can accept other today plugins.
Any ideas?
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Today screen on Wizard using cLaunch plugin. cLaunch categories color coded by my choosing.
The bottom bar is still intact. Cut off due to size of pic.
8125
hotdog53 said:
Today screen on Wizard using cLaunch plugin. cLaunch categories color coded by my choosing.
The bottom bar is still intact. Cut off due to size of pic.
8125
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A couple I omitted. The yellow cog wheel is the cLaunch settings iicon.
hotdog53 said:
A couple I omitted. The yellow cog wheel is the cLaunch settings iicon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The right ones.
What apps will show the # voice mails, emails, text, missed calls, right on the today screen?
I've been digging through googled sites for some time without much luck.
The only one I know is HTC....
there are tons out there.
rltoday
xiamultitheme
spb apps
todaylife
batterystatus
throttlelaunch
ifonz
there are more I'm sure...
One line
Thanks, I should be more specific, I was looking for something dedicated to just sms / vm / mc.
SPB Phone Suite, its not free but its good
http://spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/phonesuite/?en
Battery status
Battery status is now called HomeScreen_PlusPlus_UI
http://www.chi-tai.info/cs_batterystatus_xda_neo_wm5_im_cs.htm#Download
I didn't see any way to disable all the info besides sms / text / vm through the menus, but it is otherwise a cool today screen app.
iFonz looked pretty cool but it was rather intrusive, it wants to be on top all the time, like it should, but while configuring I think it needs a shut-up button.
rlToday is really cool but it does require a lot of XML editing. I'm working with it now. Its more that I was looking for but it is very nice.
http://rotlaus-software.de/
Found this pic on a programmer's page,maybe...but don't find anything about the today plugin.
Can help me to learn this today screen used those plugins?
trinculo said:
Found this pic on a programmer's page,maybe...but don't find anything about the today plugin.
Can help me to learn this today screen used those plugins?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure that is Phone Alarm by PocketMax (http://www.pocketmax.net/phoneAlarm.html)
This program allows you to create "profiles" such as Home, Office, Car, etc which can change how your device works (e.g. ring or vibrate on/off, repeating alarms for SMS, etc). It comes with a Today screen plugin providing one-touch profile switching. This plugin can be "skinned" to look almost any way you like.
A few other developers have similar programs such as SBSH and SPB.
it looks messy for me
like the title really,
I couldn't wait to get my hands on my TP, however soon after I got it I realised that TF3D seemed to be all form and no function.
I immediately replaced it with Mobile Shell which I find much easier to use.
for example, when I want to phone someone, I hit the contacts button and I have a screen with 16 faces, I hit one and press call. In TF3D, I have to hit (or scroll) to the contact button, then scroll down again to find the person etc.
For text messages, I like to have the list on the screen that I can easily scroll through. In TF3D I can see one at a time only.
The downside...is that MS seems to be lagging behind on the themes front, and I like to have a theme that matches my mood...which is xmas at the moment.
so, my real question is what wonderful options are available to make TF3D more usable?
Unfortunately you don't have many options if your talking about changing the way that TF3D functions. There are a number of speed increases, and a few small tweaks such as the zoom function cab that lets you increase and decrease the size of the text messages in TF3D. If you like having all the contacts on one scren though, TF2D is like that. All the pictures are laid out like tiles. But with TF3D you can just click the contacts button on the bottom right of the screen and pull up all your contacts. TF3D wasn't really meant to be a full-fledged os; just a today plugin that you could use to see a good amount of information.
SPB replaced mine as well
Moved to Fuze (p4600) from p3600. Was using SBP mobile shell. Tried tf3d for about 2 weeks. HATED IT. Looks pretty, but takes too many steps to get to real work. Back to a snappy SPB Mobile Shell on my Fuze.
Regis
I realize there is no such thing as the "best" ROM, so I'll put it this way - what do you recommend as the ROM that most fits these needs:
Phone: Verizon Touch Pro with 6.5 pro
Wants:
- rock solid
- home screen able to show:
time
date
upcoming meetings
missed calls
voicemail yes/no
Number of messages in each mailbox
(Think about the info WinMo 6.1's home screen had, all at one glance)- Some sort of regular list Start menu, several favorites, the rest in "all programs" or a folder - 6.5's honeycomb SUCKS. Icons or words are fine, but the ability to arrange icons by alpha is just common sense, isn't it?
- Would like to keep the Opera that can use the hardware zoom bar.
- can't lose alarm clock (but more than the built in 3 would be welcome)
- can't lose MS Exchange push email.
- Sense/touch flo/Iphone type flick and scroll not needed. Actually would prefer a more exact thing like tabs, scroll bars, buttons.
- The built in Windows media player is fine with me
- The flippy clock on Sense's home screen is a pain in the ass - I don't mind the look but just show the damn current time, don't back up and hour and some to try to impress me with the animated flip forward to the real time.
- LOVE the slide to answer
- Don't care if it looks flashy or slick, just utility. A pretty hammer is fine, but not if it makes it harder to drive nails.
Any one care to share their thoughts?
jbrady33 said:
I realize there is no such thing as the "best" ROM, so I'll put it this way - what do you recommend as the ROM that most fits these needs:
Phone: Verizon Touch Pro with 6.5 pro
Wants:
- rock solid
- home screen able to show:
time
date
upcoming meetings
missed calls
voicemail yes/no
Number of messages in each mailbox
(Think about the info WinMo 6.1's home screen had, all at one glance)- Some sort of regular list Start menu, several favorites, the rest in "all programs" or a folder - 6.5's honeycomb SUCKS. Icons or words are fine, but the ability to arrange icons by alpha is just common sense, isn't it?
- Would like to keep the Opera that can use the hardware zoom bar.
- can't lose alarm clock (but more than the built in 3 would be welcome)
- can't lose MS Exchange push email.
- Sense/touch flo/Iphone type flick and scroll not needed. Actually would prefer a more exact thing like tabs, scroll bars, buttons.
- The built in Windows media player is fine with me
- The flippy clock on Sense's home screen is a pain in the ass - I don't mind the look but just show the damn current time, don't back up and hour and some to try to impress me with the animated flip forward to the real time.
- LOVE the slide to answer
- Don't care if it looks flashy or slick, just utility. A pretty hammer is fine, but not if it makes it harder to drive nails.
Any one care to share their thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Build your own ROM using osKitchen. It is simple!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6608555&postcount=4