1. Say "Google" to search
If you're in America, you can open Google Now and say "Google" followed by your query to search the net. If you're not in America, you can trick Android into thinking you are. Open the settings on your device, choose "Language and input", then switch Google Voice Typing's language from "Automatic" to "English (US)". Next go to Google Now's settings and again change the language to "English (US)". You should see "Search or say Google" in Now's search bar. Faking an American accent: optional.
2. Now settings
You can open now in two ways - either swipe up from the Home icon, or swipe the lock icon up when the screen is locked. When you first start it, Now will run through the basics of what it does, and even show you some example cards. In Now's settings, you'll find each card has its own notifications settings, which apply to both the Now homescreen and the Notification shade. Standard means that new cards are accompanied by a ringtone and vibration, Low priority places them at the bottom of the list without any notification, and off, well, turns them off altogether.
3. Talk to Google Now
Google Now also includes Siri-like functionality, supplying spoken answers to your inane questions. Try things like, "what time is it in Kuala Lumpur?", "when's Tom Cruise's birthday I want to send him a card?", "how do I get home?" or "will it be sunny tomorrow?" and Now will speak the answer back at you or search the web for relevant pages.
4. Get more Google Now cards
Google Now presents relevant information such as weather and places on "cards". To begin with it may be a little sparse, but searching the web from any device will give you more. Just make sure your web history is enabled: visit history.google.com, hit the settings cog and ensure that Web History is on and not paused. Next, search Google for favourite football teams, planned flights and destinations and the relevant cards will pop up automatically.
5. Notification Shade
We previously referred to it as the "pully-down menu thing", but apparently it's officially called the "Notification Shade". Niftily, certain notifications in the shade can be expanded by sliding two fingers outwards on them, giving you an overview of the subject headers in your email inbox, for example. Moving two fingers inwards on a notification neatly contracts them, too.
6. Rotation lock
You're sitting on a plane watching a vid in horizontal orientation. Suddenly, the plane banks sharply to the left and - oh no! - the video changes orientation. This worst-case-scenario can be avoided by tapping the rotation lock in the Notification Shade, which keeps the screen in its current orientation. Tap it again to unlock the rotation.
7. Turn notifications off
Install enough apps and the notification bar at the top of your Android device becomes the digital equivalent of an unending stream of ticker tape. In fact, Airpush is an entire advertising company that makes money in this way. Fortunately, each and every app you install in Jelly Bean has the option to turn this off. Go to its info page under Apps, uncheck the box labelled "Show notifications" and enjoy your empty notifications bar.
8. Equalise your music
The ability to adjust those all-important bass and treble settings has been sorely missed on Android devices - so much so that a bunch of apps have been made to enable it. It's fixed in Android's stock music player, though. Open a music file in the stock player, hit Settings then choose Equaliser. Here you'll find manual sliders, a load of presets and bass and 3D effects. Unfortunately it doesn't work for the whole device, but it will give your tunes a little more oomph.
9. Rearrange your home screens
Long-press on any icon or widget on your homescreen and you can move it around, and other icons and widgets will shift out of the way to fit it in. Bigger widgets can also be resized by long-pressing and releasing them, and then dragging the circles that appear on the edges. It's actually quite fun and satisfying. We just spent three hours doing nothing but this.
10. Fling to remove
Homescreen app clutter (surely the worst of all types of clutter) can be quickly and easily defeated. Long-press an icon or widget, then fling it upwards and it'll ascend into shortcut heaven. This won't uninstall the app, though - it'll still reside in your app drawer.
FYI, the original article that you copy and pasted this from, lists 50 tips and tricks...
(Copying and pasting articles is bad mmmkay?)
Frost is a tabbed private browser with hidden, password protected image and bookmark vaults as well as extensive privacy features. Frost looks and functions like any other browser until you enter your password in the browser address bar. It also comes with the ability to immediately exit, clear your history, and hide whatever you were doing when you press the home or power button on your device.
Download Now: Frost Browser on Google Play
Key Features:
Incognito browsing
Full tab support
Clean simple design
Store images and bookmarks in hidden password protected vaults
Instantly clear and hide what you were doing by pressing the home or power button on your device
Built in video and image viewer
Import and export images to or from your image vault
I've been supporting and releasing updates for Frost for almost 3 years now and just recently finished a complete redesign for Android 4.0.3+. During that time I've partnered with DuckDuckGo to provide a truly private search provider for the users of our app (see this list for Android Browsers officially endorsed by them)
Frost has two versions, a free ad supported version, and a "full" version that has no ads and some extra features like being able to set your own homepage. Other than that they are functionally identical.
I'd be happy, if you'd give it a try and I would love to hear your comments on what could be improved about Frost.
Thank you!
Not working on my note 3 (n9005 with kitkat NC2 stock deodexed rom)
The initial setup worked fine, the ad at the top refreshes and changes, but the menu button and all touch input inside the app does not work. Besides the status bar obviously. The back button works to exit though. Tried to capture a screenshot to show. 'Drm content is protected' or something like that. So i thought id write it down and try to explain why it doesnt work instead.
Very good idea. But the silly placement of the ad will make me not use this even when this is fixed. Let me know if i can help though, as i do see potential in this. As long as i can actually use it, and the ad is moved off the main screen. I dont know where else to suggest you put it, as i cannot use the app to look around currently.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Interesting, I'll try to get a hold of a Note 3 a see if I can reproduce, it's the first I've ever heard of such an issue.
Just an update, currently working on adding GIF support to the image vaults, so far it's working pretty well, even being able to handle 100MB+ gifs! Should be available in the next update.
Being an avid news reader, I really missed the good old Google reader when it shut down. After that, a couple of services like FlipBoard popped up...but I didn't like the curation done by them. Feedly is an awesome service...but its UI has become really old and no longer interesting.
So, I decided to make an app with everything I wanted in it as a user. I feel like this has come out really well so far and now, I can use some feedback from the XDA community to perfect it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.udn4hc.purerss
The app doesn't have any ads right now. The Screenshots provided in the listing are a little outdated, but I have created a new promo video. Please access it from the play store, or use this link https://youtu.be/ZjzhKE36OrM
I want to provide Feedly sync functionality in the application...but the Feedly team is currently upgrading their API to v2 and won't give access to new applications in the meanwhile. So, that will be a future upgrade whenever they are ready.
To list out a few features in the app -
- flip scrollng - similar to flipboard
- pager scrolling - similar to feedly
- standard Android scrolling with lists and cards
- Offline access to articles/images
- Custom sync/cleanup intervals
- Alternate Themes - 6 currently, including a dark theme
- Multiple fonts available to choose from
- Material Design
- OPML Import
- And many more
Please go through the app and let me know your feedback
Very nice app. I must say that during use the " please refresh feeds, new stories downloaded" message seems a bit passe. If I'm on the app, isnt it better to just refresh the stories automatically, or have a pull down to refresh action ? Also I have no feeds chosen in some categories , however I still need to go through those empty tabs to reach the next tab. Any option to delete unused tabs ? or maybe reorder them.
Whatever the case you are making the appropriate category of app. So far there has still been no google reader alternative.
Importing OPML file is doing nothing...
Maybe it's due to the categorization that could (and would) be different from the default ones?
Technical said:
Importing OPML file is doing nothing...
Maybe it's due to the categorization that could (and would) be different from the default ones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you open the left slide-in pane and see if your feeds are added? You need to press the refresh button for the app to download articles from the imported feeds. Maybe I need to start refresh automatically after importing the OPML file. Another thing on my mind is to hide the empty category tabs that doesn't have any content(as suggested by the above post).
I will push an update in a couple hours
nirmalv said:
Very nice app. I must say that during use the " please refresh feeds, new stories downloaded" message seems a bit passe. If I'm on the app, isnt it better to just refresh the stories automatically, or have a pull down to refresh action ? Also I have no feeds chosen in some categories , however I still need to go through those empty tabs to reach the next tab. Any option to delete unused tabs ? or maybe reorder them.
Whatever the case you are making the appropriate category of app. So far there has still been no google reader alternative.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Automatically refreshing the feeds automatically will make you lose your scroll position etc., if you are in the middle of browsing. I like the idea of pull to refresh though. I will have that in. Thanks!
Hiding the empty category tabs seems to be a good suggestion too.
Thanks for your suggestions They are really helpful!
ch4ndu said:
Can you open the left slide-in pane and see if your feeds are added? You need to press the refresh button for the app to download articles from the imported feeds. Maybe I need to start refresh automatically after importing the OPML file. Another thing on my mind is to hide the empty category tabs that doesn't have any content(as suggested by the above post).
I will push an update in a couple hours
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I've got it. Now I miss:
1. View options, as the feed is shown with a larger picture (thumbnail) that I want. My list become very long...
2. A way to sort the categories (alphabetically, for instance) and, for sure, hide the empty categories.
3. Check duplicate feeds (if any) in different categories.
4. Mark as read until here, till the end, etc.
5. Show feed for just one (or some) URLs within the categories (or, better) allow showing contents with a scrolling menu at left where you could choose which feed you want to read).
Technical said:
Oh, I've got it. Now I miss:
1. View options, as the feed is shown with a larger picture (thumbnail) that I want. My list become very long...
2. A way to sort the categories (alphabetically, for instance) and, for sure, hide the empty categories.
3. Check duplicate feeds (if any) in different categories.
4. Mark as read until here, till the end, etc.
5. Show feed for just one (or some) URLs within the categories (or, better) allow showing contents with a scrolling menu at left where you could choose which feed you want to read).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome. Glad you found the feeds
Now, let me explain the app and its different "Screens". Firstly, we have home screen, which is visible when you open the app. Then there is a category/topic screen, which is available when you click on topics(Technology, Business etc.,) from the left drawer. Then there is the feed screen, which is available when you expand the topic on left drawer( by clicking on the arrow next to it) and then select the desired feed.
There are multiple views and options available when you are in the category/topic screen and the feed screen. I cannot believe I made it hard for users to get to them The views/layouts are what I am actually proud of about this app! I need to do something to make it easy.
Please refer to the screenshot attached for now or the video that I have provided in the first post.
Only card view and listview can be used in home screen, and I will give an option to toggle between them in the settings. The other views mess with the scrolling on the home screen.
Now to answer your concerns...
1. Will give an option to toggle between list and card for home screen.
2. Sorting/ordering the categories is not available right now. I need to look into that and will get back to you
3. I believe I already do that...but will double check. I check if you have already subscribed to the feed url. I will get back to you on this.
4. That seems like a good option. Will do.
5. I believe that is available from the left drawer. Please let me know if that is not what you specified.
I will post an update tonight addressing these issues(except 2 and 4).
Btw, thanks a lot for taking time to go through this app!
Hi there. All in all a very nice rss. I dare to say the best at the moment while it is new.
A couple of things that could be better. Sync takes too much time. Also the notificatons are not that nessesary. I didnt find the option to remove rss source. Thanks man and keeep up the good work.
icrunchbanger said:
Hi there. All in all a very nice rss. I dare to say the best at the moment while it is new.
A couple of things that could be better. Sync takes too much time. Also the notificatons are not that nessesary. I didnt find the option to remove rss source. Thanks man and keeep up the good work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for trying out the app Am really glad you liked it.
I can give a setting to turn notifications off. Is there a particular notification type that you felt was unnecessary?
You need to go to the Feed screen to remove the source:
Open left drawer> Expand category(Technology, Business, etc,) by clicking on the arrow left of it> Click on feed > Click on the more icon at the top right corner of the screen there> Click actions.
I have an option to unsubscribe there. Please check the youtube video that I have posted in the first post. It has a lot of information
Also, please refer to the screenshot posted in my previous comment here.
Last update comments:
1. In my phone, the list view without pictures still take a lot of space in the screen. I will move the share button to most top right and let the source (feed) name + time use just one line (not spaced). Buttons are also not aligned. Maybe a non-thumbnail view option to avoid the "weird" view with and without thumbnails (picture 1).
2. Swipe left and right in the list view is moving between categories and not bookmarking or deleting (as I've thought reading the settings). Maybe, at least, allow this as keep pressing option over the article list.
3. I miss a full black theme (not just changing the colors).
4. Refreshing is moving the category to "all" feeds and I lost where I was reading.
5. I miss options such "mark as read until here" and "mark as read to the end".
6. I definitively will remove the "title" as categories and move all the quick buttons (share, mark as read, remove, etc.) to there. In the place of "all" categories, a button with a menu.
7. Thanks for the option "leave the app". Other readers, while tapping the return button, just close.
8. A way to sort the categories (or manually or alphabetically).
9. Option to open full article in external browser.
10. Option to choose "default" share option (and not needing to choose the long list all the time).
11. The default view in settings is not changing the "new rss feed" default view. When we add a rss and tap the tool to set the advanced settings, the default view is not the same as I've set for the whole program.
12. Tapping the green mark after adding a rss feed is not unsubscribing and the tool icon does not have an unsubscribe option. If I add a rss feed by accident, I can't remove in the same screen (picture 2).
13. Duplicate rss feeds seems to be allowed (at least, manual one + internal list ones).
Technical said:
Last update comments:
1. In my phone, the list view without pictures still take a lot of space in the screen. I will move the share button to most top right and let the source (feed) name + time use just one line (not spaced). Buttons are also not aligned. Maybe a non-thumbnail view option to avoid the "weird" view with and without thumbnails (picture 1).
2. Swipe left and right in the list view is moving between categories and not bookmarking or deleting (as I've thought reading the settings). Maybe, at least, allow this as keep pressing option over the article list.
3. I miss a full black theme (not just changing the colors).
4. Refreshing is moving the category to "all" feeds and I lost where I was reading.
5. I miss options such "mark as read until here" and "mark as read to the end".
6. I definitively will remove the "title" as categories and move all the quick buttons (share, mark as read, remove, etc.) to there. In the place of "all" categories, a button with a menu.
7. Thanks for the option "leave the app". Other readers, while tapping the return button, just close.
8. A way to sort the categories (or manually or alphabetically).
9. Option to open full article in external browser.
10. Option to choose "default" share option (and not needing to choose the long list all the time).
11. The default view in settings is not changing the "new rss feed" default view. When we add a rss and tap the tool to set the advanced settings, the default view is not the same as I've set for the whole program.
12. Tapping the green mark after adding a rss feed is not unsubscribing and the tool icon does not have an unsubscribe option. If I add a rss feed by accident, I can't remove in the same screen (picture 2).
13. Duplicate rss feeds seems to be allowed (at least, manual one + internal list ones).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback. I will fix these defects in a while.
From your comments, I understand that you haven't accessed the Feed screen or the category screen yet. Please open the left slide-in pane and try clicking on a category. Swipe left/right works only in that view. As specified in the settings, that feature is not available on the home screen. You can also access any individual subscribed feed from the left slide-in pane....just expand the category by clicking on the arrow next to it, and click on the feed name.
I am not familiar with the full black theme. Can you point me to an app which has that feature? I need something as a reference.
Technical said:
Last update comments:
1. In my phone, the list view without pictures still take a lot of space in the screen. I will move the share button to most top right and let the source (feed) name + time use just one line (not spaced). Buttons are also not aligned. Maybe a non-thumbnail view option to avoid the "weird" view with and without thumbnails (picture 1).
2. Swipe left and right in the list view is moving between categories and not bookmarking or deleting (as I've thought reading the settings). Maybe, at least, allow this as keep pressing option over the article list.
3. I miss a full black theme (not just changing the colors).
4. Refreshing is moving the category to "all" feeds and I lost where I was reading.
5. I miss options such "mark as read until here" and "mark as read to the end".
6. I definitively will remove the "title" as categories and move all the quick buttons (share, mark as read, remove, etc.) to there. In the place of "all" categories, a button with a menu.
7. Thanks for the option "leave the app". Other readers, while tapping the return button, just close.
8. A way to sort the categories (or manually or alphabetically).
9. Option to open full article in external browser.
10. Option to choose "default" share option (and not needing to choose the long list all the time).
11. The default view in settings is not changing the "new rss feed" default view. When we add a rss and tap the tool to set the advanced settings, the default view is not the same as I've set for the whole program.
12. Tapping the green mark after adding a rss feed is not unsubscribing and the tool icon does not have an unsubscribe option. If I add a rss feed by accident, I can't remove in the same screen (picture 2).
13. Duplicate rss feeds seems to be allowed (at least, manual one + internal list ones).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, thanks a lot for helping me get the app right. You have been really supportive and I really appreciate your help This is what I love the most about xda community!
Now, let me address your concerns one by one.
1. Fixed partially. Share button should not be at the top of the article - that takes up valuable real estate on screen, and for some reason doesn't feel right to me. I aligned the items properly and resized the icon now. Thanks for pointing that out. I will give a setting to choose if you want to load any images in the app at all. CardView is more optimized for scenarios where you don't have an image for the article. ETA before the end of this week.
2. That feature is not available on the home screen. Navigate to any category or feed through the left swipe-in pane and you will see it working. You have many other options there as well, including new layouts/views. Please watch the video that I shared in the opening post.
3. This will be a future update
4. Fixed. I made it so that hitting refresh will keep you on the same tab. The articles will be reloaded though.
5. I will get those options in before the end of this week.
6. I didn't quite follow that. Can you please explain it in detail?
7. Removed. I saw that feature implemented in a couple of famous apps. Thought it would be good to have it here since exiting by mistake will make you lose your scroll position. I will bring that in as a setting in the future.
8. I will get this in before the end of week as well.
9. Done. Please check for the option in settings.
10. That needs some work. I will probably have it in by the end of this week. I am using the default android's share screen and which is supposed to be "smart", as in remembering the most used app/service or contact.
11. That is a feed specific setting, and is only available from the feed screen. To get to that, navigate to the feed from the left drawer! Please watch the video I posted in the opening post to see how to get there.
12. Fixed
13. I fixed it with the previous update. I check if there is any other feed with the exact url in the list of subscribed feeds. An extra slash or a space might break this. I will look into it further.
Check the screenshot I posted below to see a list of available layouts/views from the category or feed screen. Please don't forget to watch the video(mark 1:48). You are missing out on a lot of features present in this app!
The magazine views work really well only when the articles have a decent quality images present. I am working on optimizing them further.
I will post the update out soon to the play store.
Hi everyone,
Those who have been using Canary for a while might have noticed that the snapshot the other day included Google's new interface for Chrome, but shortly after it was deactivated by default in developer builds. This feature used to go by the name of home but now it is an addition to it. Moving the search bar to the bottom may prove very useful for devices with big screens and alike. I currently use it on my OnePlus 2 and while it may not be gigantic, it certainly helps.
Google Home however integrates your favorite links for quick and easy access while searching for new sites as well as a persistent news feed similar to how Google Now works. I never really cared for it but some may like it and it is implemented very well in its current stage. I don't know why Google deactivated this, but I'd imagine that this will be adjusted based off of DPI and aspect ratio in the future since Google Home and moving the search bar are now separate dependencies.
So let's get to it!
1. Open Chrome Canary and type "chrome://flags" (without quotes) into the search bar.
2. Search for "home" in the extension search bar.
3. Enable "Chrome Home." This can be done by selecting default and then choosing enable
4. Now enable "Chrome Home bottom navigation menu item labels"
5. Chrome will now prompt you to restart. Do so, or just restart yourself.
6. Now you have an optimal layout of Chrome
It is to my knowledge that such featured are specific to Chrome Canary so do not complain to me when it doesn't work for other editions.
I've attached screenshots for reference. I'd be more than happy to help people that are having trouble, but I'm not Google so I can't speak for future versions of Canary as it's always changing.
One last thing... There are tons of features offered through Chrome's flags so if I were you, I'd give them a look. I don't believe this stick on a per installation basis unfortunately so you will have to configure it each time you install Canary.
Not my app, just found in a Reddit post--tried it, it's amazing. Basically, whatever you're using right now is probably inferior. I used Boat Browser, then Chrome extensively. Dabbled in Dolphin, Firefox, Maxthon, and a few others. Habit Browser beats them all handily. Amazingly, it's free!!!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.ddo.pigsty.HabitBrowser
Best mostly unique features of HB (Habit Browser):
Set URL re-directs: don't you hate when XDA forum links from a Google search don't open Tapatalk? HB allows you to add new URL re-directs to apps (as many as you want)
Customize EVERY toolbar: customize the address bar, tab toolbar, and browsing toolbar (back, forward, refresh, home) to 1) go away 2) place exactly where you want them (top, bottom, this toolbar on top of that, etc.), 3) change the buttons (with swiping and long-press functionality), 4) themes, and lots more
Set a real home-page, meaning it will open when you open a new tab.
Pie control.
Gestures for flicking that DO NOT require another "interface" (like Dolphin's odd implementation).
A bajiillion more. Not even kidding; easily over 100 options.
The first three sold it to me instantly ("sold"...it's ACTUALLY FREE). I implore you to try it, not because I like it, but because it will change your Android browsing experience for the better.:laugh:
hackermssharma said:
Not my app, just found in a Reddit post--tried it, it's amazing. Basically, whatever you're using right now is probably inferior. I used Boat Browser, then Chrome extensively. Dabbled in Dolphin, Firefox, Maxthon, and a few others. Habit Browser beats them all handily. Amazingly, it's free!!!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.ddo.pigsty.HabitBrowser
Best mostly unique features of HB (Habit Browser):
Set URL re-directs: don't you hate when XDA forum links from a Google search don't open Tapatalk? HB allows you to add new URL re-directs to apps (as many as you want)
Customize EVERY toolbar: customize the address bar, tab toolbar, and browsing toolbar (back, forward, refresh, home) to 1) go away 2) place exactly where you want them (top, bottom, this toolbar on top of that, etc.), 3) change the buttons (with swiping and long-press functionality), 4) themes, and lots more
Set a real home-page, meaning it will open when you open a new tab.
Pie control.
Gestures for flicking that DO NOT require another "interface" (like Dolphin's odd implementation).
A bajiillion more. Not even kidding; easily over 100 options.
The first three sold it to me instantly ("sold"...it's ACTUALLY FREE). I implore you to try it, not because I like it, but because it will change your Android browsing experience for the better.:laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
copy / pasta of this post ... https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=41034178&postcount=1
thread closed