Been looking at car home screens and while a lot of them are nice, none of them seem to contain everything I want. So, I thought maybe it would be easier to just DIY my own "Home Screen" for when the phone is in the car dock.
Closest I've seen to what I like Digital Dash, but I'd like the ability to put information where I want, add media buttons, etc. Maybe add widgets (such as Minimilistic Text, etc)...
+1
I would love this.
All of the ones I have seen in the market are kind of ugly...would LOVE to have custom button placement options.
I'm a Java developer by day, but haven't explored the world of Android development yet.. Maybe I'll try to tackle this...
Related
How can I set up multiple today screens on my blackjack II (WM6)? Looks like wisbar advance desktop would accomplish this, but will it work on a non-touch screen device? I'll try it when I get home later and see. What I want to do is have multiple pages of completely different plugin sets, ie Home, something like HTC Action, Settings, and then be able to switch them by using the volume rocker (up/down). If you could imagine something similar to the HTC cube, only scrolling vertically (with the rocker) that's what I'm going after. I think this would work nicely for us non-touch screen users, i'm beginning to get envious of all the great options out there for touch. Any ideas are greatly appreciated, maybe I'll post a photoshop visual later of what I'm going after.
seems wisbar is pocket pc only at the moment, although it doesn't state this specifically on the downloads page. But i couldn't get through the install on my phone. The forums suggest smartphone apps are in developement but I couldn't find anything. SK Today Commander looks like another option and it installed...however I was unable to select any of the profile options it has, must be just incompatible with my phone or something...
any ideas? Any programmers could make a program that could render the today screen for a few different xml's and allow you to switch between them?
mortscript....looks like it will confuse the hell out of me, but I'm looking into it.
bvone21 said:
seems wisbar is pocket pc only at the moment, although it doesn't state this specifically on the downloads page. But i couldn't get through the install on my phone. The forums suggest smartphone apps are in developement but I couldn't find anything. SK Today Commander looks like another option and it installed...however I was unable to select any of the profile options it has, must be just incompatible with my phone or something...
any ideas? Any programmers could make a program that could render the today screen for a few different xml's and allow you to switch between them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sbsh wisbar is for wm6 pro devices with touch screens. sbsh facade is for wm6 standard devices with no touch screen. facade allows the use of multiple screens. check out the sbsh facade forums for some pretty cool multi screen skins.
bvone21 said:
How can I set up multiple today screens on my blackjack II (WM6)? Looks like wisbar advance desktop would accomplish this, but will it work on a non-touch screen device? I'll try it when I get home later and see. What I want to do is have multiple pages of completely different plugin sets, ie Home, something like HTC Action, Settings, and then be able to switch them by using the volume rocker (up/down). If you could imagine something similar to the HTC cube, only scrolling vertically (with the rocker) that's what I'm going after. I think this would work nicely for us non-touch screen users, i'm beginning to get envious of all the great options out there for touch. Any ideas are greatly appreciated, maybe I'll post a photoshop visual later of what I'm going after.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not difficult to create multi-page homescreens, though some "rules" do apply. You can check out what we are doing over at the Facade forum for examples.
http://forums.sbsh.net/index.php?showforum=57
The "rules":
http://forums.sbsh.net/index.php?showtopic=14911&st=0&p=141894&#entry141894
Thanks for your replies guys, yeah it does look like facade is the way to go. Seems ekoflip on the SBSH forums has a few facade homescreens that "fake" the multiple page effect, I'll have to learn from that. I guess what I was really going for was a slick way to navigate them as well. In the facade multiple page themes, you don't really have more than one plugin on each "page", is that because you need the up/down keys to switch "pages" so you can't use them to go from plugin to plugin within the same "page" ? not as functional, or as "slick" as may be possible...
But I will definitely be looking into it, hopefully this weekend, thanks again.
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!
I am thinking of installing an Android tablet into my car as a carpc. Android is not very vehicle (minimal attention) friendly so an app maybe a home screen type application could solve this.
I have an idea of what it could look like nothing to complex. I attached a mock up. The buttons on the right can be bigger or more of them and can be customizable (auto call text playlist) the volume on the right could be a stage up down (more clicks the louder long press for mute) or slider whichever. Perhaps digital OBD II gauges could be added as well if screen size is big enough.
Haptic feed back and definitive clicks sounds should be optional so you know you have hit a key.
The wall paper behind everything should be customizable maybe visualizer or album art users choice.
I think simple gesture could be implemented as well slide for new song up or down for voice activities (voice search or vlingo) I'd have no idea what to do on the programing side, but I could learn and help.
Any ideas or volunteers leave a comment if this is done I'll delete but I could not see such an app not that I knew what to search for. this could be quite popular in the CarPC forums if it has not been done before. Market wise ad supported with a one time payment pro version (2-5$) would probably have best sales. (I just want the app take the idea nothing expected here, except maybe I get it free ;-). I'll help test)
bump it up
Android Car Dock available in 2.2+
Its a stock app
Not quite what I'm looking for all that is is short cuts to non mobile friendly apps. It also doesn't look as seamless as a single solution would.
Try Desktop Visulizer, it can create as big icons as you want, selecting custom images.
A new home screen and widgets seem to be the best choice at this point. "Where I'm at" widget is great for the maps part and a volume up down widget works great for volume. I haven't found a reliable media mute widget tho. Just about any music player has a mobile friendly widget.
A voice command app that pauses music correctly would really help though lol.
I'm interested send me a pm with more info and ill look into it
Sent from my HTC Hero CDMA using Tapatalk
it is possible to have a map view in the middle of the application but not a navigation view as it is not documented by the api and simple odb2 data is easy its just serial data but not being able to ingrate navigation posses a problem
I was talking to the developer of "Where I'm At" and he said he would look into it. Could an alternative GPS app be used or even a 2x1 widget with next turn direction. Sounds like the best bet would be a new app with everything built in already. That would take away from customization of different music apps unless an option was coded in.
jjcd51590 said:
I was talking to the developer of "Where I'm At" and he said he would look into it. Could an alternative GPS app be used or even a 2x1 widget with next turn direction. Sounds like the best bet would be a new app with everything built in already. That would take away from customization of different music apps unless an option was coded in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only if it was open source because most navigation apps are paid and it is against the terms of service to use
Sent from my HTC Hero CDMA using Tapatalk
I think im just starting to realize how much i used keyboard shortcuts on my laptop. I love the shortcuts listed in the general information thread, but imo there are still a number of missing ones...
I wonder whether that's something that could be developed? Right now the most annoying one I miss is switching tabs in the browser, and I suppose that one would be difficult to add in. But other than that things like shortcuts to specific apps or to switch between them (a la alt+tab) or for copy paste...
Any devs looking app ideas...
theres nothing made yet, but i seriously think that it's possible.
If you look at the emulators you can bind any key on the keyboard (with certain exceptions) to anything.
so i don't see any reason why it's not possible. someone just has to figure out how.
personally i'd bind the FN key to the recent apps popup.
I as well as others are looking for a desk dock app that can be customized, i.e. add our own widgets, clock, etc. There is nothing decent on the market or that looks similar to the one found on the Droid X2. I see many requests on this and other forums but they go unanswered.
Is there anyone up to the challenge to create one?
Bob