After having the phone for a little over two weeks now, i think i am going to keep it. There are a few things in the software that irritate me, but overall it's a good phone.
1) I'm ready to give up on Kies. It is just not stable. It won't connect unless certain files are not on the Internal SD card and as best as i can determine, those files are generated by the Phone/Apps automatically. Even when it does connect (usually after formatting the SD card), it will randomly swap contacts' first and last names. It will also give me duplicate entries for people's birthdays in outlook Calendar.
2) The Camera on this phone does not seem to be as sharp at the 3.2MP camera on my Fuze. Its colour handling however seems to be superior. The auto White Balance actually corrects for tungsten lights fairly well. It would be nice if the volume buttons could be mapped as shutter buttons. I am also having trouble telling much difference when i set the exposure compensation. I also notice that you can't use exposure compensation and anti-shake at the same time and that is lame.
3) I tried ADW Launcher is it felt slower than TW... yes slower. Things like the phone dialer took longer to load and search. the main thing i liked about it was the sliding dock at the bottom and the ability to use the expose like preview screens. Just which is worked better. Not sure if i'll give Launcher Pro a try or not. Also, if i set ADW or Launcher Pro as my default launcher, how would i set it back w/o uninstalling?
Thanks,
4) tried a few twitter clients, but haven't found one nearly as good as pockettwit on Winmo. I loved the side swiping interface and how it would autofill the handles of people i follow when i type @and the first few letters.
Still love:
1) the screen... it is utterly beautiful
2) the call quality so far has been great
3) i'm getting more used to typing on a touch screen. I have found portrait mode is easier with swype and landscape the android keyboard
I haven't uninstalled KIES yet but will probably soon. Haven't discarded only because I wanted to try to the movie conversion engine and a few little extras. Handbrake does a very good job though.
I too have tried ADW launcer and wasn't impressed. I lost the 3d app drawer capability, which I do like. IF ADW supports it and someone care to share where the settings are, I would appreciate it.
Launcher pro gives me the ability to hide the apps that are not common or everyday use and the 3d app drawer. I have stuck with LP for the time being.
If you go into settings-applications-manage apps-and select ADW, the 4th section is the default one. Tap on clear defaults and next time you hit the home button, it will ask you which launcher to use and give you a default checkbox.
thanks for the reply. i think i might give Launcher Pro a try
You can also try home switcher. Lets you use multiple homes as well as multiple lp's, ect for a work, home, play type profile.
Sent from my AOSP on XDANDROID MSM using XDA App
I found that home switcher program, that should be useful in case i ever want to give Kies a try again. On the overall whole, i love Launcher Pro. It works great. I even paid the extra for the additional widgets.
Related
I love the new Touch flo interface. Perhaps I am asking too much but is there a contacts program with this type of interface? It is the biggest thing I notice when using the phone - most other programs are nice and black/grey but the contacts is plain old WM style. I have the random access installed which helps a little but I would prefer the whole interface. Any suggestons?
Thanks
Allan
Have a look at PocketCM Contact
Its not bad but feels a little buggy in use Any other suggestions?
Contact program
Try vito contact fun. amazing contact program. wery good and colorfull.
Bjørn
Norway
Do you have a link to it?
Thanks
Allan
Allan,
Link is here : http://iwindowsmobile.com/contact-manager.html
Although a little confused about why you say PocketCM feels buggy?
I've used it since it came out, think it's a lovely piece of software (and considering it's free it's a right bonus!!).
I installed it, changed the theme to Touch and my keyboard went down so I couldnt see the bottom menu options, the colours meant I could sometimes see the contacts, sometimes couldnt. I couldnt close it since it also got rid of the top start menu bar - just not nice to use really. I want something that feels familiar.
Get ya. The other link should be fine then, it's really nice, not used it much so don't know how customisable it is, but for about a fiver you can't really go wrong.
Had a look at the FunContact and it is better but 2 things wrong with it (1 Major, 1 Minor).
1) (Major) I do not want to wait a few seconds every time I access my contacts for the program to load - and I do not like the lack of button to close (have to select menu and then exit).
2) (Minor) Still doesnt fit in theme-wise with the HTC theme - customisable colours would be great.
So, I am still on the look for something to replace the boring old outlook-style contacts, anyone?
Thanks
Allan
this is the best, IMHO http://sunnysoft.com/software.php?idarticle=296
I have used both PocketCM and FunContact. I found PCM to run a bit slow on the TC even with the latest .20b version. FunContact is the more polished of the two but I found two annoying issues: 1) splash screen when loading the app, and 2) there's not a quick way to exit the app besides going thru several button presses.
The Sunnysoft app looks interesting but it has the same awful letter bar as the default contacts app. I like the finger-slide type of FC and PCM.
You could minimize it then the next time you open your contacts it will open without going through the prolonged startup.
Hey, I like the WM6.5 as it is without TF3D, MS3, etc.. but the one thing I don't like is the new or old start menu. I'm looking for a different app launcher that would pop when the windows button will be pressed. An iphone like launcher would be nice, or even an android like launcher. Something that won't require so much scrolling around. Is there such a thing?
Look for iFonz. Works ok, actually works good except slowed my phone some, you may like it. I preferd the 1. versions, the 2.0 and higher I had issues with on my Fuze.
thanks, but like i said im happy with the interface. all i want is a light and simple app launcher.
Panoramic LaunchPad can take control over the start button and gives a good program launcher it's not free but worth it.
Thanks, the app is nice, but I didn't like it that much.
I prefer something like Winterface from Vito. I've installed it, and now I'm looking for a way to make the windows button at the bottom to launch it.
Is it possible?
Thanks again....
Is it a homescreen? if so what you can do is use SecondToday and map it with AE Button Plus, if standalone launcher ie: .exe/.lnk then you can do the same.
Hope that helps
Let me apologize in advance for this first post in this thread, I didn't want to create a bunch of separate threads for my opinion and experience with the G Tablet, and I didn't want a bunch of threads about my uses for the tablet and the apps I use. So instead, I'll first ask the original topic and then I'll give you some information about how I use the tablet and the widgets/apps/etc. that I use. Hopefully someone from Google will find this insightful, because I think my setup could be a great generic "spring board" for anyone who wanted to use this tablet for taking notes on images, and personalize it to their needs.
What are your favorite widgets?
Does anyone know of some widgets that do the following (screenshots are greatly appreciated as well!):
- I wouldn't mind a news reader that displayed more than just the first line of the news article and/or title. Currently I am using Express News, but it only does one line... it's better than the others I've tested, but it doesn't even automatically scroll the news. You have to tap left/right to make it change.
- Is there some weather widget that perhaps does 5 or 7 day forecasts ? I'm using Fancy Widgets right now, it says the temperature, the high and low, and the time. I dont really need the time, not a big deal since it already says it on the top right.
- I wouldn't mind a task management widget, a decent sized one would be nice.
Some other thoughts:
With the new G Tablet I got yesterday, I've quickly discovered the screen is quite HUGE (obviously). I have a Evo 4G, rooted since the day I got it, and I've got some favorite apps. But being a tablet, it has some different purposes that it works better at, than a phone.
For instance, as a bathroom reader, the tablet works great. The phone is kind of small, hard to read a lot at a time, constant scrolling, etc. The tablet also makes playing games like Slice It, a lot more fun.
I'm a web developer and manager of a small team, so sometimes it's nice to be able to take screenshots of a site we're working on and add arrows and notes to it - the best solution I've found that lets you load images and write on them and save it, is called "Pocket Sketchbook Pro" - and it switches to landscape mode automatically THANK GOD! Honestly, one of the main reasons I bought a tablet is because I wanted to be able to sketch things on a "near" paper sized display, and then immediately share it via Bluetooth to my computer or Email it or print it. My printer is a HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus, my point in telling you that is because it has its own email address. If I email my printer, it will print the email & attachment I send it. Very useful when I'm out with a client and I want to print off my notes or mockups, etc. so that I have it waiting for me when I get back.
Forgot to mention that I'm using Toshiba Home Launcher, on my phone I use LauncherPro (paid version) and I love both. They've both got their benefits, Toshiba Launcher is just amazing on a tablet. Vegan 5.1 Beta.
One of my few complaints (other than many apps not switching to landscape mode..) is that when I'm holding the tablet in portrait mode, sometimes my screen will turn off. I guess the power button is receiving enough weight/pressure on it that it's going off. And then sometimes it will reboot on me when I go to wake it up! How annoying is that?! I know that I could just switch the tablet upside down.. but I should be able to hold it any way I want.
Oh, and the Rain-X idea was great. Definitely fewer finger prints and my fingers seem to glide across the screen now.
Also, Multi Picture Live Wallpaper is great.. I was getting tired of seeing the scrunched/weirdly resized wallpapers!
Lastly, Dolphin HD with a few addons = awesome. Web2PDF so I can email the PDF to my printer, Screen cropper which lets me save as an image so I can write notes on it with Pocket Sketchbook Pro, and the Blue Theme make it really awesome.
Weather Widget
Weather forecast widget is free, but the text is too crumped together and the 4x1 just doesn't look right.
Then I tried "weather widgets", but it kind of sucked.
Then I found out that Fancy Widget has a Pro version which does what I need for $1.99 - works great.
Task Widget
Taskos looked very promising, as it syncs with Google Tasks and offers a 4x4 widget on the home screen - something I was excited about. What killed my excitement was placing the widget on my home screen and finding out that - yeah it's 4x4 alright, with only 2x2 actually having any freaking content!! The rest of it was black! On the phone it looks correct, so this is definitely a tablet issue. That sucks hard.
So finally I found one that actually works, it's called Ultimate To-Do List, the licensed version is $5 and it syncs with ToodleDo which costs $14.95/yr and up (if you require subtasks like me).
I haven't done any digging yet on a good news widget. With almost 100 page views I'm surprised nobody has any widgets they recommend
Scrollable news widget and a home launcher that allows you to change the number of rows and columns on your screen. I have mine set to 10 columns and 7 rows and I can make my news widget as large as I want and it will fill the Widgets space
Oh and springpad is one of the best to do lists ever with a very nice expandable widget as well
kpowr82 said:
Scrollable news widget and a home launcher that allows you to change the number of rows and columns on your screen. I have mine set to 10 columns and 7 rows and I can make my news widget as large as I want and it will fill the Widgets space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LauncherPro lets you set your own # col/row and you can drag widgets to resize them on the screen, but I like the Toshiba launcher more because of the nice scrollable application list and they way they cleaned it up and put it at the bottom even though it's landscape mode - I love it. I can live with the defined # of cols/rows and screens, thats not a big deal. I know I'm limiting myself to just the widgets that exist that can take advantage of the tablet's size, but there has to be SOMETHING out there by now, right?
kpowr82 said:
Oh and springpad is one of the best to do lists ever with a very nice expandable widget as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm I will check that out, thanks
For weather related Widgets I recommend this app:
Palmary weather app. Tried to paste the appbrain link here but my GTab wont let me!
Hello guys,
Now that BT is working on my Nook Color, I'll use it as a netbook pretty often.
That's why I might need to kiss my portrait-only homescreen goodbye.
Now my previous homescreen was portrait-only for a reason: I think it's just impossible to have a functional, constistent layout for both portrait AND landscape mode. Every launcher I've tried squeezes the same rows/columns-setting over landscape mode when switching, breaking almost every layout that might have made sense before.
I know that completely independent row-settings for both modes would probably cause more problems than it would solve, but what about independent layouts? I wouldn't mind setting up 2 homescreens if I knew it was worth it.
Is there any launcher that has this functionality?
Or is there any program like home switcher that can start different launchers depending on the screen rotation?
Sweeter Home lets you design your own layout.
And it uses separate layouts for Portrait and Landscape.
If only one of the two is defined, then it squashes one onto the other like regular launchers. Or you could lock it in to one orientation like I do.
Right now it's in public beta, but pretty much release-worthy. Only "downside" is updating it every few months when the nag popup appears - all settings transfer over, so nothing is lost.
Hm....I'm currently giving this another try. When I first looked at it, it left me in a state of confusion
Now I'm still confused, but I have started to create tablet theme that suits my needs. Let's see where this will end up.
This launcher has loads of potential despite its horrible, horrible interface. Seriously, this must be meant as a parody of bad interfaces. They really make you suffer before you finally end up with your own perfect theme. Per apera ad astra.
I know there have been a couple of posts dotted around asking about the keyboard dock but I've seen nothing definitive.
I have the dock and it worked great with Honeycomb. I neglected to think about how it would work with a custom ROM before flashing one.
I've gone for the CM9 ROM and although generally typing on the keyboard works it is far less functional. The majority of the (very useful) hotkeys don't work.
Including:
Home
On screen KB up/down
Menu
Play/Pause Media
Makes the whole thing far less useful :-(
I'm interested in if anyone knows anything I can do to make this better on CM9 or even if it's likely to work better with any different ICS ROM?
Yes, the keyboard dock hotkeys don't work, all except the back key. But even more annoying it is that the software keyboard shows up and it shouldn't.
karnka said:
I know there have been a couple of posts dotted around asking about the keyboard dock but I've seen nothing definitive.
I have the dock and it worked great with Honeycomb. I neglected to think about how it would work with a custom ROM before flashing one.
I've gone for the CM9 ROM and although generally typing on the keyboard works it is far less functional. The majority of the (very useful) hotkeys don't work.
Including:
Home
On screen KB up/down
Menu
Play/Pause Media
Makes the whole thing far less useful :-(
I'm interested in if anyone knows anything I can do to make this better on CM9 or even if it's likely to work better with any different ICS ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not have a genuine Samsung keyboard (yet) but you should be able to map home, menu and the media buttons with my app: http://www.apedroid.com/android-applications/external-keyboard-helper
You can also specify up to 16 apps and create shortcuts for them. For example you could start the browser with Alt+B and Gmail with Alt+G if you want to.
Yep
I remember that happening occasionally before but it's constant now and even more inconvenient without the convenient hotkey to hide it.
Can I assume this is pretty constant regardless of the ROM used?
karnka said:
Yep
I remember that happening occasionally before but it's constant now and even more inconvenient without the convenient hotkey to hide it.
Can I assume this is pretty constant regardless of the ROM used?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I think so unless it is a HC rom based on a stock ROM.
I'll fix some of it in the CM9 port once I recieve my BT keyboad case and have something to test with. If you just want to get rid of the on-screen keyboard you can use my free app that does that and nothing more: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperfree
If you want full control you need my paid app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelper
Free demo: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperdemo
Thanks for the advice. Your app looks really helpful.
I've no problem buying the pro version but want to have a play with the demo one a little more first.
I'm having slight issues trying to map a few things:
App switching: can map keys to this but doesn't seem to do anything
"Internet" / "Mail" - these two keys aren't picked up by the mapping config as they immediately jump away launching the browser (I'd love to remap to chrome) or asking me whether i want Gmail or Mail (and not remembering my selection)
I've mapped home (hooray!) but although it takes you back to the launcher it doesn't necessarily take you back to the default screen as the onscreen home button does (that's a really small issue!)
Any thoughts about those?
On the subject of the demo version of the app... Is the only thing that's different between that and the pro version that the spacebar is mapped to: _This_is_a_demo_version!_?
karnka said:
Thanks for the advice. Your app looks really helpful.
I've no problem buying the pro version but want to have a play with the demo one a little more first.
I'm having slight issues trying to map a few things:
App switching: can map keys to this but doesn't seem to do anything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with keycodes is that some are handled erlier in the input queue before I can process it in my app. App switcher and Home is two examples. I managed to do a workaround for Home but I have not yet found a way to bring up the app appswitcher programatically.
"Internet" / "Mail" - these two keys aren't picked up by the mapping config as they immediately jump away launching the browser (I'd love to remap to chrome) or asking me whether i want Gmail or Mail (and not remembering my selection)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same reason here. Android propably picks up and processes these before the app get a chance and therefor the scancode is never passed on. However, when I get my BT keyboard dock I can investigate this more.
I've mapped home (hooray!) but although it takes you back to the launcher it doesn't necessarily take you back to the default screen as the onscreen home button does (that's a really small issue!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is due to the nature of the workaround. I just launch the launcher which gives almost the same effect as when the system processes the Home keycode (apart for the difference you noticed)
Any thoughts about those?
On the subject of the demo version of the app... Is the only thing that's different between that and the pro version that the spacebar is mapped to: _This_is_a_demo_version!_?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The versions are identical apart from the space button and some strings (demo vs pro, buy vs rate) so you can test out everything before buying.
You really should try the application shortcuts. Choose apps for A0 to AF and enter A0 to AF instead of characters when doing a custom layout. You could put the Email app on Alt+E and Gmail on Alt+G etc... Setting it up could be bit more userfriendly but once you figure it out it is not that hard to do.
Have got the pro version now and the overall effect is not much worse than the keyboard was under honeycomb so thanks very much.
Have setup a few short cuts (chrome and Gmail) and mapped them to some of the otherwise non-working function keys so that's great too.