Wallpaper Selection is Frustrating! - myTouch 4G General

This is probably a lame thread, but maybe others have similar issues and we can whine about them, because we're lucky and can afford to waste time worrying about our homescreen setup on our smartphones, and not where our next meal is coming from. (wow, where did that come from?)
It's not in any way a development/tech problem, it's just aesthetics: I get so frustrated trying to find a cool wallpaper that still alows me to see the apps/widgets on my homescreens cleanly! I always wind up reverting to a semi-boring wallpaper like a black grid because with busier wallpapers of things I'm actually interested in, they clash so much with my homescreen items that I can't read half my widgets! So just curious as to how you all have your homescreen set up? Do you have a busy wallpaper with minimal apps/widgets? Or do you use a bland "backdrop" wallpaper so that you can see/use the apps/widgets cleanly? This has always been a peeve of mine, because both elements (wp and widgets) seem essential to customizing your phone, and yet it's so hard to get them to play nicely together for a clean, visually pleasing display.

I'm currently using Regina Launcher and have five independent wallpapers.
I just use a "blah" one for busy work spaces and use good one for lesser crowed screens.

That's actually not a bad topic. There are tons of images I'd like to use as a wallpaper but I run into the same problem you do. I always end up settling for something not as bright, so i can see my widgets/apps clearly. Recently though, i just started editing my images to a darker tint so the white lettering stands out. This brings up the concept of integrating text color editing into the existing top launchers.
hmmm...

The one stickied thread in the themes section has a whole host of options with both minimalist and "busy" wallpapers. Some just don't work well, but there are compromises. Its more about finding the right Widgets/launcher to compliment your style.

Yeah, I know, it seems like a silly thing to complain about, you just gotta make it work however fits your tastes/needs. And you're right, the launcher is a big part of it, I've been using stock sense since getting the phone, but finally decided to try a replacement for various reasons, and I'm loving launcher pro plus, it's got many of the sense-type widgets, plus they work better lol, not to mention the dock and other things. Between that and a little finagling, I think I've found something that works.

If you use ADW then you can change the background box to whatever color and transparency you want to. I do this for some of my wallpapers so that the icons stick out.

Thanks for the tip! But honestly, I think I'm sticking with Launcher Pro Plus, I spent the $ already, and it's the only replacement I've tried that can truly top Sense, IMO.

I tend to use brighter more vibrantly colored wallpapers and i run into this issues once in a while. But i usually just place icons and widgets around the spots that make things hard to read or add a shaded box behind the widget.

And considering the amount of time we spend on our phones, it's pretty easy to remember what icon are for what apps. I stopped displaying names a long time ago. Now I even use icon sets not made for android and just use random icons for apps that in some way relate to them.

Related

TouchWiz is great. Yeah, I said it.

I have no idea what people are complaining about. This UI is even better than HTC Sense, IMO, and manages to one up even the super simple to use iPhone UI.
- Slide the screen to unlock. Brilliant.
- Easily rearrange icons and programs.
- Music player has drop-down interface on locked home screen.
- Notifications drop down has WiFi/BT/Silent/Vibe settings built in.
- I can add/remove pages! I just want 3 pages? Done. Simple.
- Camera loads INSTANTLY. The Droid X (I returned) was so slow to load.
- Memo program! Thanks!
- My Files file manager, no need to download AndExplorer
and it's easily as snappy as the iPhone4. Every other Android phone (except the Aria for some reason) was obviously slower than the iPhone when it came to navigating the interface. This phone is smooth as silk at all times. BETTER than the iPhone.
Am I alone here or what?
I agree. It's actually usable once I removed the Samsung widgets from my homescreens to reduce the lag. I like the custom options available with LauncherPro and the additional dock icons, though. I'm doing battery testing with a few different launchers right now and I'll probably go back to trying Touchwiz again after today.
grinr said:
I have no idea what people are complaining about. This UI is even better than HTC Sense, IMO, and manages to one up even the super simple to use iPhone UI.
- Slide the screen to unlock. Brilliant.
- Easily rearrange icons and programs.
- Music player has drop-down interface on locked home screen.
- Notifications drop down has WiFi/BT/Silent/Vibe settings built in.
- I can add/remove pages! I just want 3 pages? Done. Simple.
- Camera loads INSTANTLY. The Droid X (I returned) was so slow to load.
- Memo program! Thanks!
- My Files file manager, no need to download AndExplorer
and it's easily as snappy as the iPhone4. Every other Android phone (except the Aria for some reason) was obviously slower than the iPhone when it came to navigating the interface. This phone is smooth as silk at all times. BETTER than the iPhone.
Am I alone here or what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is MY first android device.. Coming from a old sidekick, then windows mobile, then iphone 3g, this is my first step towards android.
As far as the interface, I've used other Android devices before and the experience wasn't so hot. The Galaxy S is not only fast, but has tons of options. The UI is simple, fast, and easy to manage.
The only thing that I don't like is all the bloatware that ATT puts on the phone.
I agree.
Touch wiz adds so many nice little tweaks that add up to big improvements. I love everything in your list and would like to add the amazing brightness control by swyping the top bar.
I saw the screenshots for Touchwiz before I bought the phone was was convinced that it'd be the first thing to go. In fact, simply because of the dock at the bottom I was still convinced I was going to drop it when I picked up the phone. then I discovered that you can change which applications show up on the dock! It's so much more customizable than I had previously thought, and it's not as laggy as I imagined it would have been. And it really does have a lot of nice little tweaks. I'm quite happy with it.
You're definitely not alone. I too thought I was going to replace touchwiz, but I find it to be smooth and awesome! I was just about to make a duplicate thread of this one asking who kept touchwiz.
Add another these your list:
You can rearrange pages.
Swype to call/txt
Touch top dots to swap screens.
I like the status bar music player and wireless toggles. That is the perfect place to put them. I like the transparent sliding lockscreen, and the music player on the lock screen.
I thought the side scrolling of the applications would be annoying, but then I realized that it unifies the mechanism of icon pages. The home screen has pages for all homescreen apps. Why not simplify it and make pages for the applications too? You don't use the applications button often anyway as much as your homescreen. The only thing I don't like is the random color backgrounds. They could've left those out.
I don't use any samsung widgets and it's TW is faster than Launcherpro and on the same tier as ADW.
I do need to use a better file explorer though, myfiles is a bit too basic. You should try ES explorer since astro has ads now. File operations, views, and etc. are perfect.
This is also my first Android phone (had 3G and 3GS before), but as far as I can tell, almost none of the things you guys like are Touchwiz-specific. They are just Android features or apps.
Touchwiz is the homescreen manager. Replace it with Launcher Pro and you'll see what changes (and also see the 95% that stays the same).
I use Launcher Pro because it 1) is quick to swipe between screens, with no stutter; 2) has the ability to "pinch" the screen or hit the Home button to do a mac-like "expose" of all the home screens for fast switching to the exact page you want; 3) has the ability to have the 3D Apps drawer, which is much better than the dumb iPhone-like one (and don't even get me started on the "alphabetical list" that only shows one column of apps); and 4) the bottom icon bar can hold up to 15 launchers that you can swipe back and forth from any screen.
You can still swipe the notification bar for brightness, music player works the same, the lock screen is the same, all the apps that come on the phone are still there and accessible, you can customize it exactly the same as the Touchwiz homescreen...basically everything mentioned is the same. Except Launcher Pro is faster, easier to use, and prettier. Yes, you lose the Samsung widgets, but they all have replacements in the market.
only loss i see is the media from lock screen. I can live without it. Just try launcher pro a maybe u will feel the diff in speed or maybe u will sacrifice some speed for pretty widgets.
caelestis2 said:
You're definitely not alone. I too thought I was going to replace touchwiz, but I find it to be smooth and awesome! I was just about to make a duplicate thread of this one asking who kept touchwiz.
Add another these your list:
You can rearrange pages.
Swype to call/txt
Touch top dots to swap screens.
I like the status bar music player and wireless toggles. That is the perfect place to put them. I like the transparent sliding lockscreen, and the music player on the lock screen.
I thought the side scrolling of the applications would be annoying, but then I realized that it unifies the mechanism of icon pages. The home screen has pages for all homescreen apps. Why not simplify it and make pages for the applications too? You don't use the applications button often anyway as much as your homescreen. The only thing I don't like is the random color backgrounds. They could've left those out.
I don't use any samsung widgets and it's TW is faster than Launcherpro and on the same tier as ADW.
I do need to use a better file explorer though, myfiles is a bit too basic. You should try ES explorer since astro has ads now. File operations, views, and etc. are perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also dislike the random colored backgrounds, in the app drawer. Does anyone know where those graphic files are? I want to replace the images with straight black images so they will blend into the app drawer background seemlessly.
They are the only reason I will not use TW. I hate those damn backgrounds.
chvybeatsford said:
only loss i see is the media from lock screen. I can live without it. Just try launcher pro a maybe u will feel the diff in speed or maybe u will sacrifice some speed for pretty widgets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still have the music player access from the lock screen, with Launcher Pro. Just use the music player, lock the phone, hit the power button, drag the little half-cd icon down, and good to go.
You lost that?
k2snowboards88 said:
Touch wiz adds so many nice little tweaks that add up to big improvements. I love everything in your list and would like to add the amazing brightness control by swyping the top bar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG, can't believe I didn't notice that before. That's awesome.
I have to say I am also impressed with the Touch Wiz UI. I am coming from a sense device and was very unimpressed with HTC Sense. That UI kind of took over the phone. TouchWiz doesn't really take over much it just adds some kewl extra options.
asrrin29 said:
I saw the screenshots for Touchwiz before I bought the phone was was convinced that it'd be the first thing to go. In fact, simply because of the dock at the bottom I was still convinced I was going to drop it when I picked up the phone. then I discovered that you can change which applications show up on the dock! It's so much more customizable than I had previously thought, and it's not as laggy as I imagined it would have been. And it really does have a lot of nice little tweaks. I'm quite happy with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you change the applications on the dock. I can't find it.
KewlRobD said:
How do you change the applications on the dock. I can't find it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you must go into the applications menu, and press the menu button, and change the ViewType to "Customizable Grid" Then you can hit the menu button again, and press Edit, and it will allow you to delete icons, rearrange icons, and drag them to the app dock.
asrrin29 said:
you must go into the applications menu, and press the menu button, and change the ViewType to "Customizable Grid" Then you can hit the menu button again, and press Edit, and it will allow you to delete icons, rearrange icons, and drag them to the app dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks my friend. I liked the applications layout so I had not bothered going into the edit menu.
autoxer said:
This is also my first Android phone (had 3G and 3GS before), but as far as I can tell, almost none of the things you guys like are Touchwiz-specific. They are just Android features or apps.
Touchwiz is the homescreen manager. Replace it with Launcher Pro and you'll see what changes (and also see the 95% that stays the same).
I use Launcher Pro because it 1) is quick to swipe between screens, with no stutter; 2) has the ability to "pinch" the screen or hit the Home button to do a mac-like "expose" of all the home screens for fast switching to the exact page you want; 3) has the ability to have the 3D Apps drawer, which is much better than the dumb iPhone-like one (and don't even get me started on the "alphabetical list" that only shows one column of apps); and 4) the bottom icon bar can hold up to 15 launchers that you can swipe back and forth from any screen.
You can still swipe the notification bar for brightness, music player works the same, the lock screen is the same, all the apps that come on the phone are still there and accessible, you can customize it exactly the same as the Touchwiz homescreen...basically everything mentioned is the same. Except Launcher Pro is faster, easier to use, and prettier. Yes, you lose the Samsung widgets, but they all have replacements in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Touch wiz is not just a homescreen manager. Launcher pro is just a homescreen manager. When you load launcher pro you still get all of touch wiz's small and useful enhancements that wouldn't be available on vanilla android.
k2snowboards88 said:
Touch wiz is not just a homescreen manager. Launcher pro is just a homescreen manager. When you load launcher pro you still get all of touch wiz's small and useful enhancements that wouldn't be available on vanilla android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, all our points are valid to touchwiz. If you say they stay with launcher pro, thats because touchwiz is still running.
If you don't like sidescrolling appplication then why do you sidescroll homescreens?
Edit: Oh one more thing to add to the list:
Music player has virtual surround sound that makes a noticeable difference!
I also much prefer the tw launcher over any of the others I have tried. I have tried pretty much all of them too. I like the way the app drawer works. I like that when you select an app, then return to the app drawer, it remembers where you were. I also like the sliding setup vs an app drawer that just scrolls up or down. The icon backgrounds make it easier for me to see the apps and find them.
There are a lot of other nice touches to the overall Android experience as well. The changes they made to the corporate mail client are great. I also like the changes to the notification bar and I really like the lock screen.
Not to mention how the Black/Blue theme looks over the standard, nasty looking Android theme. Everything from the dialer to the status bar is a major improvement(not a detraction) over stock Android. But it's still not as obtrusive as Sense.
I'm liking TW as well, however from a launcher perspective I much more prefer the Launcher Pro (Expose`, the 3D App Drawer, customizable icons, etc).
I agree, after i got rid of the samsung widgets and went to a normal wallpaper and it doesnt lag at all.

[Request&Bounty]Lack of Creativity! Set my screens up 4 me!

Sad story.
I've had my EVO for over 3 months now and in that 3 months I have not been able to create one layout of which I had liked and stuck with for more than a week. It's getting old but I just can't seem to decide on something that fits my taste as far as home screens, wallpaper, theme, widgets, and everything else. I couldn't even find a screen in the post your screens thread that was very appealing to me.
So here's my request: Create a layout/theme for me and post the screens and I will donate $5-10 for the first one that I am happy with. Theme, wallpaper, screen layout, widgets(weather, clock, in-car screen, calendar, astrid)
Just make something that looks cool and is functional at the same time. I am running myn's RLS 5 with stock rosie but am open to ADW or LauncherPRO launchers. I use ChompSMS.
Widgets to include:
Clock
Weather
Music
Calendar
Unread Chomp SMS
Unread GMail SMS
Screen dedicated to Car widgets
Multicon?
Other notes:
Throw a theme and font on it from this forum
IF you make this into a flashable zip for me, I will donate $15. If not, just post screen shots.
Thanks I'll be back tonight after work. I look forward to seeing in anyone bites on this. Trust me, I wouldn't be asking people to do this if I had one ounce of creativity but nothing I ever make even looks slighty cool or unique.
download sweeterhome from the market. it has a bunch of layouts bult in.
is this for real ?
if so its sad so very sad
that's the fun thing about android so many way to change things

[Q] what do you all think about different home launchers

im just wondering what you all think about the launchers like metro ui, zune home, spark*, slidescreen, etc... all the launcers that are just different from what is normally seen, at least from what i see. whats your opinion on them and do you know about any others?
Actually I just switched from touch-wiz for the Samsung to generic Android in Paragon 5.1 and really like it. Naked!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
I like LauncherPRO, mostly because it has five icons to the bottom that can be swiped sideways to show an additional 10 icons (all customisable) and you can either tap the icon or swipe upwards to initiate a second function. (Like have a maps icon, tap it to launch maps or swipe upwards to run Navigation.) These, of course, can be edited to do whatever you want.
yeah i do too but im talking about completely different launchers the whole interface
What?
From the looks of your first post, it sounds like you're referring to launchers, but from the look of this last post, it looks like you're talking themes or ROMs or something a bit more drastic.
sorry. im probabably being too vague. so most of the popular launchers have screens that you go through and are pretty much the same (go launcher, launcher pro, adw launcher). all these are really similar other than their different ways of customization. im looking for launchers that drastically change the interface, like metro ui for example it changes the interface to the windows 7 interface, slidescreen changes it to some interface with a bunch of information, as do the others
The only Launcher I have experience with that changes fairly drastically are SlideScreen and Spark, but you're already mentioned all of them. Sorry.
Tried slidescreen for a while but it felt gimmicky. I simply stick with LP or ADW.

New Launcher Idea

Here's an idea I've had rattling around in my head.
Currently, most of the launchers I've seen are a certain number of screens, with a given grid. The default launcher is 5 screens, each is a 4x4 grid. Is it possible to make all of these into one continuous stream? I mean, could we make the homescreen instead one continuous 4x20 space. You would only see a 4x4 space, but could move left or right one column at a time. You could also customize the width of the space, for example, make it 4x21 or 4x18. Widgets wouldn't be limited in which blocks they occupy either, so you could have them offset from one another. You might not want to have it go up or down, as this could cause some issues if you have scrolling widgets.
I have no programming experience, so I can't make this happen. But anybody else give it a shot.
Funny, was thinking about this last week as well.
One addition though; why work with columns and rows at all? Regina launcher (IIRC) works with lines instead of rows and columns, pretty cool.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Grids (to me) are a lazy man's method of a tidy desktop. I tried Regina, quite liked it and the freedom, but I'm a lazy person and prefer grids.
I actually like the horizontal scrolling idea, that coupled with the popular blocks-based organisation using Desktop VisualizeR, I can actually imagine an elegant and beautiful sideways-scrolling home screen.
Would give my full support for testing if anybody can come up with such a launcher!

Appearance apps (few questions of layman) - icons, widgets, lockscreen

It's amazing that I have Android now almost four years, and when I read you, I feel like a complete outsider.
ll Get to the point.
Phone: HTC One X
Android 4.1.1
HTC SENSE: 4 +
Root: No, and I'm not interested
Launcher: Nova
What am I looking for: Google Play Apps
Icons
After several months of boredom and disappointment Android, I decided to infuse a new spirit into him, with Nova upgraded icons and some liken it to the fashion of iOS, but better iOS, Android as it approves. I threw new icons pack called MIRO EX and they present themselves as follows (attachment 1)
According to my untutored eye, it's really cool-looking, but I'm open to suggestions of other icons (the more so that, for example, or Wordpress Endomondo completely here does not look great). They can be round, square, I leave here you a complete freedom of choice. It is important for me is only possible to keep the original appearance of the icons of business, or to look like Spotify, Facebook with those characteristic elements likef M of Gmail but do not want to set, for example, where all the icons are silver
clock
I'm interested in a cool clock widget, modern and light. I do not want a typical HTC sheets rewinding digits, or a round of kitsch, but modern, white, light font, it can be a weather or cus, but the clock itself is most important.
widgets
Without the above clock, I'm using only two widgets. They are: Spotify and energy management. Is there a tool that allows you to rearrange the widgets in a little less wet behind the ears? As you can see I'm trying to make your Android affordable and reasonably lightweight (I do not know if I manage it, a subjective matter), and these two black widgets I would gladly have changed into something clear ...
The lockscreen
Sometimes I see screenshots of people with androids in the network and smoke with envy, these are such beautiful pictures lock! And in my standard, ugly ring and is still the standard icons. Can it replace for something affordable? If so, how is this type of application is called and that you recommend? (attachement 2)
I didn't read all of this. But you should give uccw a go, for clocks etc.
And also, widget locker. Gives you the best customisation withoit rooting.
There are also lots of nice transparent widgets, I suggest thinking of what you want the widget to do first, then try and find a nice looking one. But pure calender (music etc) are quite nice. And simple rss widget is nice too. But the best thing to do, as I said, is to search for transparent or something.
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app

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