Database Info

[REQ] a non-rooted themer

After seeing the Gloss Suite I have to make a plea for the non-rooted (don't hate, just don't want to risk it till I know for DURN sure how the warranty issue shakes out or the bootloader can be relocked) for a SIMPLE Themer... don't take away the Nexus UI style, leave the number of screens alone, don't add extra docks or task bars...
... just a way to change the icons/clock/wallpaper (ok maybe multiple wallpapers). Don't add in another layer of complexity. There are PLENTY of Home Replacements out there that make it look like a Hero, iPhone or whatever, and add extra crash-able things.
Icons/Clock/Wallpaper(s)... and maybe the Weather/News widget.

It isn't really feasible without using a home replacement that has its own version of each app that you want to theme, so that the themer can theme the home replacements version of it.

Well then, just a simple HOME that leaves the Nexus UI intact and does the iconography

ilanad said:
Well then, just a simple HOME that leaves the Nexus UI intact and does the iconography
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking about Icons within the tray? Or icons on the screen? If on the screen, you could just use bettercut.

david1171 said:
It isn't really feasible without using a home replacement that has its own version of each app that you want to theme, so that the themer can theme the home replacements version of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait. No. (thats' what I get for being asleep when reading these).. no you mean things like OpenHome, Home++, PandaHome are carrying a full compliment of apps? Or just stubs.. cause on my G1's, when Google Maps got updated, the Icon's in their themes got updated..
No, I'm just looking for a dirt, dumb simple Home replacement then, that LEAVES the Nexus UI alone (the HOUSE, the scrolling of the apps there, etc.. ) just let me make an Icon/Wallpaper set and don't add tons of extra things..
and AnyCut/BetterCut, maybe.. but then would have to do it on every icon, every time...

Now that the 2.1 source is out you could alter the launcher2 source to reroute the resource calls. You have to refactor the namespace as well though as a non-rooted phone wouldn't allow you to install a second com.android.launcher2. Though like openhome/dxtop/ahome that would only alter app icons in the launcher, app icons elsewhere (long press home/settings/etc) would still have their "real" icons
Not hard, but not really fun either.

This is, at best, ridiculously difficult and, at worst, impossible.
It's not worth the effort because rooting is dirt simple, so if you want it done, you'll probably have to do it yourself.
Buy BetterCut and replace shortcuts on the homescreen - they'll still be the original in the launcher, but it's the closest you will get without root.

Casao said:
This is, at best, ridiculously difficult and, at worst, impossible...... but it's the closest you will get without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then how do OpenHome, aHome, Home++, Freshface, et.al. do it ... without root.

ilanad said:
Then how do OpenHome, aHome, Home++, Freshface, et.al. do it ... without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They completely replace home, and I'm not aware of any of them changing the actual icons for the .apk files. They might be creating custom shortcuts, which is possible, and if you reprogram the launcher you can do whatever you want. That's not a skin though, that's a completely redone launcher.

[poll] miui port who would want it?

edit: title should read poll, how did i mess that up? and now how do i fix it? mods?
edit: fixed, figured it out, im a newb to forums
i was poking around the evo forum for my friend and discovered miui. if you dont know it is a chinese rom that has been built for many snapdragon htc phones and translated into engrish.
it takes some of the better aspects of the iOS like the visually apealing menu skins and layouts and the thumbnail folder icons, has a dock much like iOS with drag and drop icons and no app drawer that can hold 5 apps.
apparently also has a secondary launcher that can come from the top of the screen presumably when you hit the home button that is like a standard android launcher.
has a unique app drawer that slides halfway down and tumbnails of the home screen pages pop up so you can move multiple apps to multiple screens without the drawer auto closing and a need to reopen for each app.
^this drawer is for widgets there is no app drawer, that can be fixed by putting apps in a folder and putting the folder on the launcher like an iphone.
it still has the android pull down notification bar and apparently has a scolling dock with toggles as well
i would love to see a port and some themes to go along with it. or a launcher/home app with some features borrowed.
check it out here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=823494
and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-9T44Bt7M&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Llz40hfpo&feature=related
some of the theming is a little odd and im alittle unsure if the screen space is enough for some of the features to be practical but it is interesting none the less.
also they have a browser that is apparently not with the rom that is said to be good.

Dani897 said:
edit: title should read poll, how did i mess that up? and now how do i fix it? mods?
edit: fixed, figured it out, im a newb to forums
i was poking around the evo forum for my friend and discovered miui. if you dont know it is a chinese rom that has been built for many snapdragon htc phones and translated into engrish.
it takes some of the better aspects of the iOS like the visually apealing menu skins and layouts and the thumbnail folder icons, has a dock much like iOS with drag and drop icons and no app drawer that can hold 5 apps.
apparently also has a secondary launcher that can come from the top of the screen presumably when you hit the home button that is like a standard android launcher.
has a unique app drawer that slides halfway down and tumbnails of the home screen pages pop up so you can move multiple apps to multiple screens without the drawer auto closing and a need to reopen for each app.
^this drawer is for widgets there is no app drawer, that can be fixed by putting apps in a folder and putting the folder on the launcher like an iphone.
it still has the android pull down notification bar and apparently has a scolling dock with toggles as well
i would love to see a port and some themes to go along with it. or a launcher/home app with some features borrowed.
check it out here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=823494
and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-9T44Bt7M&feature=player_embedded#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Llz40hfpo&feature=related
some of the theming is a little odd and im alittle unsure if the screen space is enough for some of the features to be practical but it is interesting none the less.
also they have a browser that is apparently not with the rom that is said to be good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I played with this rom on the Nexus, it's fantastic, extremely smooth, better battery then cyanogen, very nice overall feel.
I'd love to have this ported over to our galaxys

i love miui. i have i on my n1. my friend has a cappy, he would love to see it on the cappy. i was thinking about making a [idea] post in the dev forum. see if anyone has thought about it. i figure when froyo comes out for the cappy that there may be a port. i wish i knew how to dev for android.

krypticos said:
i love miui. i have i on my n1. my friend has a cappy, he would love to see it on the cappy. i was thinking about making a [idea] post in the dev forum. see if anyone has thought about it. i figure when froyo comes out for the cappy that there may be a port. i wish i knew how to dev for android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think the i-9000 guys are working it. i cant code, or dev. i dont like to make requests that i cant contribute to. i was just hoping if people see this then some of our devs might jump in. i think the great aosp work being done will help pave a road for this. but we dont even have a working true aosp rom yet. although designgears did get many aosp apps working in his dev rom.
if we could get some of the features even if we needed a samsung dialer and other apps a hybrid rom would be cool. the widget tray is a great idea. although i like the android app drawer, especially the galaxy s scrolling alphebetical list implementation (i can scan a column pretty good, i cant scan a page very good), this rom has features that i think would be great.

I want it ..

I want. Please.

[Q] Question: Is it possible?

Hello,
I am in no way a Android programmer so I am asking you guys.
Since you lot are the most knowing people I knows of regarding Android programming.
I have posted a thread about this under HTC Sensation Q & A but thought I'd bump it here to.. Especially since perhaps more people wanting to use sense on other phones might want this..
Originally posted here
What I would like to know is if there is any chance to code a app that would be able to change the amount of rows and columns on the home screen without using a third party launcher like launcherpro or others..
I want to be able to keep Sense but still have the possibility to have 6x4 icons or 5x5 or any other setting.. Would be cool to have an app allowing change from 1x1 to say 12x12 or something..
So now guys, is it at all possible?
Ps. I at least have a rooted Sensation.

So many Android users and so many great devs here at xda and not a single response in all this time?
I would have thought everyone that like Sense would want a tweak like described in my previous post..
What I want is an app/widget/*way* to be able to set the amount of rows and columns on the stock launcher. So that I can keep Sense and all the HTC apps/widgets available.
I have bought lancherpro plus and really like it but still I'd like to be able to keep Sense 3 or hopefully 3.5 in a near future.
So, gods of Android tweaking, is it at all possible to create such an app/widget or tweak?

The.Screemer said:
Hello,
I am in no way a Android programmer so I am asking you guys.
Since you lot are the most knowing people I knows of regarding Android programming.
I have posted a thread about this under HTC Sensation Q & A but thought I'd bump it here to.. Especially since perhaps more people wanting to use sense on other phones might want this..
Originally posted here
What I would like to know is if there is any chance to code a app that would be able to change the amount of rows and columns on the home screen without using a third party launcher like launcherpro or others..
I want to be able to keep Sense but still have the possibility to have 6x4 icons or 5x5 or any other setting.. Would be cool to have an app allowing change from 1x1 to say 12x12 or something..
So now guys, is it at all possible?
Ps. I at least have a rooted Sensation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It can be done on Sense....But the size you want could be found on Honeycomb, not sure if the grid size is that high though....There would be swiping lag on Sense with grid size of that caliber, the widgets wouldn't even align with the grid sizes, making things look awkward...The people in the Desire HD section have a guide for messing with Sense and its grid sizes...But it's no app at all, you can't do it that on-demand, you have to decompile that app and use smali and all that other jazz.

Thanks allot for answering me..
The only setting I am really after is actually 6x4 or possibly 6x5 but I thought if it could be done with an app it would be neat to have all settings available so that everyone could use it.
With all that work I am not sure it's worth the effort.
I just can't see why Google and the factory devs for Android make it so hard, I mean why can't I by default have the choice to have root in my devices? After all they are MINE. Also why can't I chose to have 1 pixel big icons on my desktops if that is what I want? Can I really be blamed for them being blind and having elephant fingers so they need to have 2 cm between the icons?
I can only say on my Asus Transformer pad it's even worse..

The.Screemer said:
Thanks allot for answering me..
The only setting I am really after is actually 6x4 or possibly 6x5 but I thought if it could be done with an app it would be neat to have all settings available so that everyone could use it.
With all that work I am not sure it's worth the effort.
I just can't see why Google and the factory devs for Android make it so hard, I mean why can't I by default have the choice to have root in my devices? After all they are MINE. Also why can't I chose to have 1 pixel big icons on my desktops if that is what I want? Can I really be blamed for them being blind and having elephant fingers so they need to have 2 cm between the icons?
I can only say on my Asus Transformer pad it's even worse..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can change grids on Launcher GO and I think Launcher Pro, but Sense is partially open, but is mostly closed sourced, unlike Android, which is free to change. If you change the screen density, it could give you the sense of a higher res, and the icons might appear smaller.

Well, the problem is not the actual resolution.
I can change that with some neat apps from market.
The problem is the actual positions where I can apply icons and widgets.
Per default there are only 4 rows on the "desktop" to place stuff. I want to raise that to allow me to have 6 rows.
See what I want to be able to do?
As you say, I can do it in launcher pro and pro plus but then I lose Sense. I want to keep Sense and still have 6 rows.

[Q] Possible to Combine Widgets Without Root?

Hello there everyone. I have many widgets that I use on my device, and each of them come with different sizes. Because of that, it takes forever to scroll through all of them, even when in reality, I only have 20 different ones in total (But if each has 10 sizes, it adds up...) I found an app that combines them, but it requires root. (Or does it? Here.) I believe that Cyanogen does this on it's own, but I don't want to root my phone or change ROMs because I would be unable to pay for a new phone if something were to go wrong, nor do I have a spare to get me by if it was bricked. I know apps like WidgetLocker override stock apps without root, is there a way to do that with the widget selector?
Also, is the selector a function of the launcher, not the operating system? I'm using GoLauncher if that makes a difference.
Thank you very much.

So it is not possible to achieve the picker I want without root?
In that case, is there a foolproof, 100% successful way to root and change roms? All of the ROM threads I see have endless posts of bugs, things not working, and bricked phones. They also throw around lots of terms (Like flash this... But to where?) without explanations for noobs like me.
Can anyone help me out?

Hi there,
Think you can try Golauncher Pro, it let's you to custom the number of icon you can put on the home screens (default 4 by 4 ) and also lets you to resize the widgets.. hope that's what you are looking for.
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using XDA Premium App

most customizable launchers

as many people are customizing there phones, i thought the launcher is the first screen that people always see, and they seem to provise the most customizable attributes. i am curious and on the search for the most versitile lancher out there and what they can do.
i know there is a post your homescreen thread out there and there is quite a few responses and nice pics, but not all list their lancher preferences or apps they used to get those.
posting screenshots and tools you used would be great
super simple laucher pro, but not done yet

Haven't had much success with it but sslauncher is pretty customizable. Really though most of the launchers give you roughly the same features.
Looking through the post your home screen threads many use apex, adw, or launcher pro. They let you replace homescreen icons with custom ones.
Uccw is a popular clock and weather widget but us rough to figure out.
Those are the main 2 I would say. A good place to start anyway.
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app

You can surely find plenty of launcher reviews, if you search.
Some require Android 4.0.. I haven't looked at those.
Among remaining it seems frequent mentions are ADW, Go Launcher, Launcher Plus, Holo
I haven't done a lot of comparison. I tried Holo launcher first and have mostly stuck with it. It does what I want, and I'm not interested in spending a ton of time comparing and setting up launchers.
I did try ADW later. It has more options but also more complicated interface so I stick with Holo. (I may change in the future...maybe if I learn about something big that I'm missing during this thread)
Attached are screenshots.
The first one highlights something I like about Holo (only the pro version) - you can put any widget into the dock area at the bottom.
So the first two icons on the left of the dock are Tasker toggle widgets in there for Wifi and Data. The color changes when the status changes (grey for off, green or red for on depending on what parameter). They are controlled manually or by Tasker which changes status based on location. Then in the center/right of the dock, I have Elixir widgets displaying battery level, MB free, number of applications running. Clicking on these widgets launches handy menus - the memory free sends you to settings/applications, the running applications lists running applications with option to switch to any running application... I use this often to make sure I have closed out all the applications I've used recently (may not be required but makes me feel better).
The 2nd screen highlights easily resizable widgets - I use them heavily for lists on my homescreen. I have 9 screens available, so plenty of room to have many lists on homescreen and move them around. Also of course I can change which note is displayed in a given position or get rid of a note from home screen and it remains (stored in Color Note).
Also I like the gestures. For me swipe down laucnhes a Tasker tasj to turn the screen off (save wear and tear on my power button). Swipe up launches a Tasker task for brightness control... if no response in 7 seconds it sets to max brightness (handy when you're in bright sun). There are several other gestures available to be assigned to whatever you want (applications or shortcuts)
That's not all the features, just a few that I like. I suspect most or all of above features are available in other launchers. And I suspect most of the others have more than Holo. I like Holo for simplicity and good useful tools. Not what you asked for... just throwing in my opinion.
Like any launcher, Holo has a few non-optimum features that are discussed in the Holo thread. There is only one that bugs me a little but I learned to cope. The main screens and three dock screens move independently of course. When you press home button with main screen not in home position, both the dock and main screen jump to their home position. But if you press home button with the main screen at home position and dock in non-home position, the dock does not jump to home position. Not a big deal since it's not hard to manage scrolling within 3 dock screens, but I'd like home to take me to home on main/dock screens regardless of where I started.

electricpete1 said:
You can surely find plenty of launcher reviews, if you search.
Some require Android 4.0.. I haven't looked at those.
Among remaining it seems frequent mentions are ADW, Go Launcher, Launcher Plus, Holo
I haven't done a lot of comparison. I tried Holo launcher first and have mostly stuck with it. It does what I want, and I'm not interested in spending a ton of time comparing and setting up launchers.
I did try ADW later. It has more options but also more complicated interface so I stick with Holo. (I may change in the future...maybe if I learn about something big that I'm missing during this thread)
Attached are screenshots.
The first one highlights something I like about Holo (only the pro version) - you can put any widget into the dock area at the bottom.
So the first two icons on the left of the dock are Tasker toggle widgets in there for Wifi and Data. The color changes when the status changes (grey for off, green or red for on depending on what parameter). They are controlled manually or by Tasker which changes status based on location. Then in the center/right of the dock, I have Elixir widgets displaying battery level, MB free, number of applications running. Clicking on these widgets launches handy menus - the memory free sends you to settings/applications, the running applications lists running applications with option to switch to any running application... I use this often to make sure I have closed out all the applications I've used recently (may not be required but makes me feel better).
The 2nd screen highlights easily resizable widgets - I use them heavily for lists on my homescreen. I have 9 screens available, so plenty of room to have many lists on homescreen and move them around. Also of course I can change which note is displayed in a given position or get rid of a note from home screen and it remains (stored in Color Note).
Also I like the gestures. For me swipe down laucnhes a Tasker tasj to turn the screen off (save wear and tear on my power button). Swipe up launches a Tasker task for brightness control... if no response in 7 seconds it sets to max brightness (handy when you're in bright sun). There are several other gestures available to be assigned to whatever you want (applications or shortcuts)
That's not all the features, just a few that I like. I suspect most or all of above features are available in other launchers. And I suspect most of the others have more than Holo. I like Holo for simplicity and good useful tools. Not what you asked for... just throwing in my opinion.
Like any launcher, Holo has a few non-optimum features that are discussed in the Holo thread. There is only one that bugs me a little but I learned to cope. The main screens and three dock screens move independently of course. When you press home button with main screen not in home position, both the dock and main screen jump to their home position. But if you press home button with the main screen at home position and dock in non-home position, the dock does not jump to home position. Not a big deal since it's not hard to manage scrolling within 3 dock screens, but I'd like home to take me to home on main/dock screens regardless of where I started.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow, that was one lenghtly response.
i am not really on a search for a launcher, i have done that. i know how to do my homework. i was basically creating a social type of environment for those who really love their Infuse and fully exploit all the freedom we have in customizing.
the other thread, again, has a lot of great pics and i am really like liking some of the more simplified screens. however, most do not post the tools they used.
i have just discovered the SS launcher yesterday and it is pretty unique. still trying to figure it out. another one i found intresting was FullScreen launcher and of course, i still need to dive into that one too.

captemo said:
wow, that was one lenghtly response.
i am not really on a search for a launcher, i have done that. i know how to do my homework. i was basically creating a social type of environment for those who really love their Infuse and fully exploit all the freedom we have in customizing.
the other thread, again, has a lot of great pics and i am really like liking some of the more simplified screens. however, most do not post the tools they used.
i have just discovered the SS launcher yesterday and it is pretty unique. still trying to figure it out. another one i found intresting was FullScreen launcher and of course, i still need to dive into that one too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I misunderstood.
Hopefully you didn’t view my post as being in conflict with your goal of social post (would that make me anti-social )
Launchers are of interest to me, but maybe for a different reason than for you. I have only done a litle exploring them but have been using Holo for a few weeks.. It strikes me that changing launchers has a big impact on our experience, but we don’t discuss that very much on these forums, even though chaning launchers is much eaiser and less risky than changing Roms. I guess maybe that’s because Roms are Infuse-specific and launchers aren’t.
I did think my setup is unorthodox having lots of things indicated on the bottom dock. By the way, my Data icon shows not only data on/off but also how many MB used this month (91.2MB in the first screenshot)... it’s updated daily by Tasker sending an SMS to AT&T requesting data usage and putting the value from the AT&T response into my widget label. Putting Tasker widgets like that into the dock seems pretty useful/versatile to me. I just don’t know if the other launchers allow the same approach. Lots of ROMs have similar stuff up in the notification area but I don't really like that as they tend to be small and also a busy notification area makes it harder to recognize new stuff popping up there.

electricpete1 said:
Sorry I misunderstood.
Hopefully you didn’t view my post as being in conflict with your goal of social post (would that make me anti-social )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not anti social, you responded in the first place. i was trying not to sound as if i was being a ****. i understand the reaponse though. there are way to many people who wont even look at the previous post, and ask a question that was just addressed. so many questions would be answered if they just did some reading. instead they are pissing off developers who then decide to leave our device.
with all the Jellybean work being done, which is amazing, however JB is pretty much JB. not a lot of individualism. with everything working so good, there is not a lot of movement on the threads. so i have gone back to gingerbread and contiuing my quest for the ultimate set up.
i love the idea od swapping my icons for text, and simple text is pretty easy to work. i would love some vertical text though. i am running the JW8 v2 version of Saurom and like it pretty good. pretty fast. trying to find everything else to complete the package.

i would say most customizeable would be go launcher but i hold tru to ftl launcher pro, basically becuz of the cube scrolling effect for your apps
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I would use launcher8 its smooth and nice, look for it on the play store

Ive used Go Launcher, ADW and Holo in the past. I used Go launcher extensively on my Infuse and my Gio since it was so customizable but after playing around with other phones using more recent versions of android I felt it was too resource hungry. Holo I used for a bit for that ICS look but found it lacked a few options when compared to Go. But I actually DLed it recently and the experience is now closer to true ICS and reminds me a lot of Trebuchet and its simplicity. Currently Im using Trebuchet since putting my infuse on a CM10.1 ROM and I really like it. Very smooth and simple.

I used GoLauncher for a long time, but have used Nova for almost 4 months now, and I love it! Very customizable and easy to save and reload between flashes

I personally love Apex pro mycolorscreen.com has customization guides that use mostly apex you'd be amazed.
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I use nova and like it a lot!
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I have tried them all my friend. GO, ADW, Holo, Apex, Nova, Are all pretty close in the number of options. I used Go forever because of the folder system in the app drawer. Unfortunately it didnt seem to behave very well with all the ROMs I started flashing (thanks Faux.) Now I use the HoloHD+ and will likely continue to do so ...until the KLP hits me.

Just started using sslauncher and i have to say this is by far one of the most customizable launchers if ever used although there is a learning curve
Slim SON

Ss launcher gives pretty new styles of launcher.
You might want to try this launcher.
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Nova
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Nova + rom control.
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