Related
For anyone who would love to increase our joy in using Android by allowing us to multi-task more seemlessly and dynamically, as well as help Android keep up with next-gen multi-tasking platforms such as webOS, here are some ideas:
Here is a method of graphically presenting a task switching application. Imagine presenting thumbnail screenshots of all open application, lined up in a row, being zoomed out to take up about half the normal space on the screen, to be scrolled through with a flick of a finger. Think switching between windows in Steel (after tapping the window button which displays all of your open web pages in a row).
Now, the method for bringing up these apps to be scrolled through gives room to a bit of creativity as well. One could give the option to simply press the camera button (a la Task Switcher). Another option, should one not want to monopolize the camera button, would be to long-press the trackball. still, a more creative method would be this; the user gives the handset a quick shake, and BOOM, the current app zooms out and the other apps appear in line to the left and the right. Of course, games and apps that use the accelorometer would be given priority, requiring the user to pause the game or go to the menu screen before shaking the device to bring up the app switcher (something that makes sense anyway. You wouldn't want to leave a game in progress).
Hope someone somewhere likes this idea, finds it feasable and can invest their time and programing skills (of which I have none personally) into enhancing our Android experience this way.
Thanks!
I dont know what this has to do with multi-tasking as its only a visual aspect of it... but have you ever tried holding your home button? Voila a task switcher
like there isnt 1/2 a dozen ways to do this?
download task switcher, it uses the camera button to bring up a nice visual task switcher.
of course i should point out that android by default comes with a task switcher, just hold down the home button. also you can set up quick lauch shortcuts for apps. i dont see how it can get any better then that.....
I wouldn't mind if they were to put the apps that are running on the notification bar.
rogro82 said:
I dont know what this has to do with multi-tasking as its only a visual aspect of it... but have you ever tried holding your home button? Voila a task switcher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a list of the last 6 recently used programs instead of currently running programs?
jaroque i think it depends. that IS the list of the last 6 used programs, however the way android works is it closes programs only when it needs memory so a lot of times some (or all) of the programs in that list are still indeed running because they dont require too much memory.
I use the app task switcher to seamlessly switch between my apps to take advantage of androids amazing multitasking, however being a N1 user (obviosly) i cannot set any shortcuts using keys such as holding down Search+5 etc.
Which brings me to the point of this thread, could anyone of you amazing devs out there build an app (X) that functions like so;
1. Launch the app X and assign ANY installed application to the rollerball
2. Long press on the rollerball on any screen e.g. while browsing
3. The assigned application launches and comes to the forground e.g. task switcher
I would do this myself but i have NO idea how to do anything like this. But being very fond of the xda community i am hoping someone out their can help me out. Please PM me if you think you can help.
Thanks
bratfink said:
I use the app task switcher to seamlessly switch between my apps to take advantage of androids amazing multitasking, however being a N1 user (obviosly) i cannot set any shortcuts using keys such as holding down Search+5 etc.
Which brings me to the point of this thread, could anyone of you amazing devs out there build an app (X) that functions like so;
1. Launch the app X and assign ANY installed application to the rollerball
2. Long press on the rollerball on any screen e.g. while browsing
3. The assigned application launches and comes to the forground e.g. task switcher
I would do this myself but i have NO idea how to do anything like this. But being very fond of the xda community i am hoping someone out their can help me out. Please PM me if you think you can help.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you're describing sounds like what happens when you hold down or long press the home button
Yes..
Yes what i am describing does sound like what happens when you press on the home button however i do not intend for the 'Rollerball Launcher' to be used with just task managers if it can launch 'any installed application' as i mentioned in the OP it could be used as e.g. a dedicatd camera button, which i am sure people would find very useful. It seems to me although looking very nice the rollerball lacks function. Dont you agree?
i use it for selecting fine text and to take the picture with the camera.
I suppose some people might like to be able to program a special function to it though.
Hey,
Looking for the good visual/graphical task switcher on the Note.
In IOS as used to have "Mutiflow" that was very good, but i cannot find any decent one on Android.
An advice ?
stylobic said:
Hey,
Looking for the good visual/graphical task switcher on the Note.
In IOS as used to have "Mutiflow" that was very good, but i cannot find any decent one on Android.
An advice ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Swipepad.
Really awesome. Its free but for the addons u have to pay.
This one worked perfect in sgsII and my dell streak.
However in note u have to take a little more effort to initialize the app. i.e u have to swipe real carefully. U will understand it once u install it.
Another one is taskchanger pro.... Lots of good reviews ,
Easy to initialise the app but however did not work well for me in note. I had some glitches like app , restarts and looses settings and so on.
Try swipepad first .
visual task switcher doesnt seem to work on the note since it doesnt support 2.3.
but smart task switcher works well enough. not as pretty as visual task switcher but it does the job.
Swipepad looks interesting and I will check it out.
For some time now (both on my previous phone and now on the Note) I've been using Perfect Task Switcher and am pretty much happy with it.
I checked swipepad, it's nice, but it's mainly a laucher...the task switcher is an paid option, unfortunately.
edit: Task Switcher wouldbe Perfect if we could assign the double press to home button to lauch the switcher
Well, i tryed a few apps for task switching, and i don't find nothing comparable to my IPhone. So, i can stick to a non graphical app.
in addition, I cannot find one lauched with double press home button.
any help ? because i already regret Ios, despite the small screen
stylobic said:
Well, i tryed a few apps for task switching, and i don't find nothing comparable to my IPhone. So, i can stick to a non graphical app.
in addition, I cannot find one lauched with double press home button.
any help ? because i already regret Ios, despite the small screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont think you'll be able to find one. i may be wrong, but iirc, double press home button is reserved by android. you cant really override it with software options. on my old atrix, i would just map the task switcher to the search button, but the note doesnt have the search button.
First of all - long home press = inbuilt task switcher. It's probably obvious but it took me a week and the manual to find that out, so chances are some people still don't know it.
For my own purposes I use Wave Launcher with recents on - this way I always have the access to all my most important apps + drawer + few last ones and this is spot on for me and works ALWAYS - no matter what app is in the foreground I naver had a problem of not being able to access Wave Launcher. I have been using PowerStrip for a long time for the same purposes but Wave is more natural.
The big advantage is the ability to access widgets this way - great if you need to for example change the screen brightness with SwitchPro while playing a full screen 3D game that hides the taskbar (so you can't use taskbar power controls). It works fine, apps don't crash.
I don't remember coming across any app similar to Multiflow but I must admit I was never looking for one because for me it beats the purpose - multitasking is all about efficiency, I need one gesture to access what I want. Double home + swipe + tap is too much work
Give it some time, it takes a while to find a perfect combination of apps to get that smooth user experience. I bet it took you a bit with iOS too.
pjm77 said:
First of all - long home press = inbuilt task switcher. It's probably obvious but it took me a week and the manual to find that out, so chances are some people still don't know it.
For my own purposes I use Wave Launcher with recents on - this way I always have the access to all my most important apps + drawer + few last ones and this is spot on for me and works ALWAYS - no matter what app is in the foreground I naver had a problem of not being able to access Wave Launcher. I have been using PowerStrip for a long time for the same purposes but Wave is more natural.
The big advantage is the ability to access widgets this way - great if you need to for example change the screen brightness with SwitchPro while playing a full screen 3D game that hides the taskbar (so you can't use taskbar power controls). It works fine, apps don't crash.
I don't remember coming across any app similar to Multiflow but I must admit I was never looking for one because for me it beats the purpose - multitasking is all about efficiency, I need one gesture to access what I want. Double home + swipe + tap is too much work
Give it some time, it takes a while to find a perfect combination of apps to get that smooth user experience. I bet it took you a bit with iOS too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
long press home shows you your recent task list. it doesnt tell you which ones are still running. you'd have to go into the task manager for that.
and task switchers like smart task switcher show you what apps, background apps and processes are running as well and give you a quicker way to close them.
while it might not seem useful to some people, i found it quite useful on my motorola atrix since it would allow me to free up more ram before multitasking. i find that my galaxy note with touchwiz doesnt manage the ram as efficiently, so if i dont free up some ram, it will close some of my active apps to free up ram for the game or browser or app in the foreground.
Ur right. But I was under the impression that the author of this thread was looking for an easy way to multitask rather than to know what is running or not or easy way of closing it. I might be wrong, it's not 100% clear.
yeah I could be more clear because you may not know Multiflow on IOS.
It takes over original multitasking (which is not real multitasking by the way) and lets you leave running in background some apps that you can recall easily by selecting the thumbnail in an additional graphic viewer.
I don't really need a similar design, but i need to open and leave some apps running, and switch between them.
Assigning to long/double press home button would be great !
swipepad could be ok because of the swipe action to open it, but the switching function is a paid option that i cannot try before, so i will not buy.
stylobic said:
...
I don't really need a similar design, but i need to open and leave some apps running, and switch between them.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's pretty much that Perfect Task Switcher enables you to do. Except that it's not bound to long home press, but just a single press.
So, here's how it works:
- when you install it you can configure in its settings (via the small gear icon that appears when it opens up) which is your preferred launcher;
- when you double-press the home button you jump to your home screen.
- when you single-press the home button the task switcher displays (in an overlay of whatever you are in at the moment) a graphical list of you currently running apps - you can switch between applications in this way.
hi 111bits
I tryed it already, but I don't get the same results as you.
I cannot make appear home screen by double click. nothing happens.
Then fo r the same effect, i have to click once, and touch home icon to do this.
why this double click dosn't work ???
And by the way, i have no preview in the multitask windows...
I have AOKP Milestone 6 installed and I love how it looks, especially the Hide Notification Bar option because it makes my TF feel more like a netbook when I have it docked. The only problem is that the long press shortcuts don't work on the keyboard (ex. long pressing the home key doesn't give me the recent apps menu, it just brings me to the home screen).
I was wondering if there was a way to re-map some of the shortcut keys in the top row (bluetooth toggle, camera, internet, etc...) to my own custom actions such as launching the recent apps menu, killing a window and bringing up the notification bar. I know it's possible to do this in Linux since I just did it for a remote that I use with XBMC (the remote emulates a keyboard), I just didn't know if they feature is extended to Android or not.
Sent from my TF101 using Tapatalk 2
its possible but not easy. Some things can be remapped in the users/ect files such as ausec.(c something) but other more complex things like recent apps have to be done in framework-res.apk as far as i remember
Check out /system/usr/keylayout/asusec.kl.
I'm not sure if you can map keys to specific things like killing a window or bringing up the notification bar. However, recent apps is accessible through alt+tab (try it!) and so you may want to swap the Search and Alt keys.
EDIT: Some useful key names to look for and replace:
ALT_LEFT: left alt
ALT_RIGHT: right alt
SEARCH: search key
FORWARD_DEL: delete, as opposed to backspace. not mapped to anything by default
ESCAPE: escape key. I have this bound to the wifi key because I always accidentally hit it, and sometimes escape is useful in terminals or remote desktop
mjlim said:
Check out /system/usr/keylayout/asusec.kl.
I'm not sure if you can map keys to specific things like killing a window or bringing up the notification bar. However, recent apps is accessible through alt+tab (try it!) and so you may want to swap the Search and Alt keys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats right usr/keylayout not user/ect don't know what i was thinking there. I know there is a way to exchange the stupid alt-tab icon recent apps to the cards recent apps but i don't have time to do that right now. I was also going to work on getting a guide set up on how to remap everything because it seems to be a pretty common desire.
Edit:
Found it
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1450138
Thanks for the info guys, I'll give it a try! I definitely think I'm going to stick with AOKP for a while since it seems to give me the best experience since I've had my TF (over a year).
alt tab
brando56894 said:
Thanks for the info guys, I'll give it a try! I definitely think I'm going to stick with AOKP for a while since it seems to give me the best experience since I've had my TF (over a year).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have anyone result at this field ?
Is it possible to disable ALT-TAB (that switch android apps)?
I need this combination bee free for RDP.
Just finished my latest app T9 Launcher, and it shaped up real well so I thought I'd share
Launch apps and contacts with predictive T9 dialing, much faster than your regular launcher and appdrawer.
It also learns your usage patterns thus giving you better results over time.
Check it out on the PlayStore
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=se.dw.rocketlauncher
Google+ Beta group
https://plus.google.com/communities/115754804024192139851
Got feedback, comments or feature requests? I'd be happy to receive them!
Happy launching
Dag
Did anyone try it yet? Im curious to know if the learning curve is steep, or if you get the dialing right away!
Dag
Does this launcher support cyrillic app names?
Here's what I posted in the Play Store reviews for this launcher:
An option to disable the widget screen and activate the dialer by swiping to it instead of pressing home would be nice (Option to "Home" with "Dialer").
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe even an FAB to launch the dialer would be nice.
Just something that lets me launch it without a home button press.
I went from Smart Launcher to Z Launcher and then Z Launcher to this.
Great work so far.
Orientation changing is important, too. I hope you implement that soon.
It would be much better to make it not a classic launcher, but a standalone start menu, or even a homescreen widget. Will it be possible? I do not want to lose Google Now on the leftmost page.
PS. Why only three columns on apps screen? Are the grids adjustable?
siealex said:
Does this launcher support cyrillic app names?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you get give me examples for the T9 Letters? Then I dont think that would be a problem.
Etc
1:ABC (In cyrillic)
2:...
and so on.
ApertureAndroid said:
Here's what I posted in the Play Store reviews for this launcher:
Maybe even an FAB to launch the dialer would be nice.
Just something that lets me launch it without a home button press.
I went from Smart Launcher to Z Launcher and then Z Launcher to this.
Great work so far.
Orientation changing is important, too. I hope you implement that soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I was thinking of a FAB, but wouldnt that just take up screen space? The home button is a nicer solution in my opinion In the next update I implemented gestures aswell (For swiping the dialpad up), you should try it out.
Im going to look into orientation switching!
siealex said:
It would be much better to make it not a classic launcher, but a standalone start menu, or even a homescreen widget. Will it be possible? I do not want to lose Google Now on the leftmost page.
PS. Why only three columns on apps screen? Are the grids adjustable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe I will make it a standalone in the future, now I am concentrated on ironing out the bugs in the launcher version!
I can make the grid adjustable Next update!
wulltd said:
Thanks! I was thinking of a FAB, but wouldnt that just take up screen space? The home button is a nicer solution in my opinion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my phone, even I fill the screen with widgets, it seems like there is enough space for a FAB.
But gesture support seems like a better solution.
wulltd said:
Can you get give me examples for the T9 Letters? Then I dont think that would be a problem.
Etc
1:ABC (In cyrillic)
2:...
and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1- АБВ
2-ГДЂ
3-ЕЖЗИ
4-ЈКЛЉ
5-МНЊ
6-ОПРС
7-ТЋУ
8-ФХЦ
9-ЧЏШ
These letters are Serbian Cyrillic. And this is not universal because a Cyrillic T9 input doesn't exist (atleast not here in Serbia)
Nice job!UI is awesome!
Sent from my GT-I9195 using XDA Free mobile app
I just uploaded a new version to the store, it should be available to you soon.
There will be custom grid column counts, gestures (Swipe up for dialler, down to hide/open notifications) and more
SDee96 said:
1- АБВ
2-ГДЂ
3-ЕЖЗИ
4-ЈКЛЉ
5-МНЊ
6-ОПРС
7-ТЋУ
8-ФХЦ
9-ЧЏШ
These letters are Serbian Cyrillic. And this is not universal because a Cyrillic T9 input doesn't exist (atleast not here in Serbia)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok added to my todo list Ill try to get it done in the next few days.
Charlie said:
Nice job!UI is awesome!
Sent from my GT-I9195 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man!
wulltd said:
I just uploaded a new version to the store, it should be available to you soon.
There will be custom grid column counts, gestures (Swipe up for dialler, down to hide/open notifications) and more
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I finally got the update and tested it. It seems if I try to swipe up on that blank space under my widgets, it does not launch the dialer. I can, however, launch the dialer if I swipe in the widget area (as long as there isn't a scrollable widget there).
Well. I do like this launcher. It has rooms for improvement.
What I like.
1. Its fast.
2. The kind of launcher that I want.
3. Its beautiful. <-- This is important.
4. The app section and contact section. Really nice.
What I don't like
1. There's no setting to hide certain apps. <This does not mean Porn. It means Paypal and other banking apps.
2. I don't like pressing home button activate the dialer. I prefer to press home button just to go to home so I can see my widget. And no toggling either between Home and dialer. I prefer to use swipe up to call the dialer part. While I don't like this now, I may learn to like this.
4. Too little room for widgets, or home screen.
5. No shorcut dialling?
Suggestion:
1. Take a look at MiHome Launcher from Xiaomi, its my current launcher. Its a standard launcher with built in T9 app dialer. Swipe up from any screen to bring the dialler. No contact dialer like yours though. Seems like it was taken down from Play Store recently though. I use it because I like the launcher. Swipe up with two finger brings up the access to hidden apps (with password to access them as well).
2. If you want to keep 1 home screen, maybe make it scrollable? I have Gmail, calendar, Keep, and prayer time widget. I certainly would not like to go to those app just to see some current information.
3. Maybe the option of increasing the home screen?
4. The Home button situation. This is one of the core in your app. So, you got to polish the usage of this. I can also say, the user should learn to adapt to this new operation.
5. Maybe you can add dialing shortcut?
I guess lack of room for widget is weighting on me to use this launcher by default. If you look at my attachment, the wifi shorcut is something I use lots of times. I have four home screen, 1 for Keep, 1 for Gmail, 1 for calendar and prayer time and the main one, that includes my wife contact widget, and wifi shorcut.
ApertureAndroid said:
I finally got the update and tested it. It seems if I try to swipe up on that blank space under my widgets, it does not launch the dialer. I can, however, launch the dialer if I swipe in the widget area (as long as there isn't a scrollable widget there).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah I see.. Does your device have physical buttons, not a nav bar?
I just found an error that adds padding to the bottom of the views (dialer, widgetscreen) to compensate for a navbar that doesnt exist. Ill try to fix that.
zemega said:
Well. I do like this launcher. It has rooms for improvement....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback, Ill try to adress your points in the coming version(s).
Hidden apps: On the todo list but not currently a priority. Two finger swipe up to show sounds like a good idea.
I have speed dialing a bit higher on the list (Long pressing a dialbutton for a chosen app/contact)
And I am thinking of ways to add more widget space.. Scrolling might be a solution to this. I am also thinking about vertical paging. I do not however want to add more screens to the left or right, I think that will clutter the experience. What do you think?
Home button situation: I think that the home button to open the dialpad ads to the speed of the launcher. The back button does what you describe. I know that its not like other launchers but I dont want it to be just another launcher
And I added a Home-toggle-preference to the Settings menu on another users request, your welcome to try it out.
I try to represent two end states with the buttons, so that a stressed user can button mash to get to what they want;
Home: End state is dialpad, Search
Back: End state is widgets, Start
And really, I appreciate your feedback. I hope you will stick around for a few versions to come I have set of the weekend to adress bugs and users concerns.
wulltd said:
Thanks for the feedback, Ill try to adress your points in the coming version(s).
And I am thinking of ways to add more widget space.. Scrolling might be a solution to this. I am also thinking about vertical paging. I do not however want to add more screens to the left or right, I think that will clutter the experience. What do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I vote for vertical pages. That is something new. I agree adding them horizontally is not a good idea. Scrolling down and up isn't intuitive for me. Bonus if you can make the vertical page a loop, like some Samsung phone, I really like the loop mechanism.
I don't have any concern other than widget space. And the learning part is really cool.
1- АБВ
2-ГДЂ
3-ЕЖЗИ
4-ЈКЛЉ
5-МНЊ
6-ОПРС
7-ТЋУ
8-ФХЦ
9-ЧЏШ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's Serbian cyrillics, the Russian T9 layout is slightly different.
1 .,;:!? (no letters)
2 АБВГ
3 ДЕЁЖЗ
4 ИЙКЛ
5 МНОП
6 РСТУ
7 ФХЦЧ
8 ШЩЪЫ
9 ЬЭЮЯ
PS, you can find all T9 layouts in TouchPal.
---------- Post added at 02:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:35 PM ----------
PPS, the launcher must support at least two layouts simultaneously, e. g. English and Russian, the second layout must be selectable in options.
My suggestions:
- Allow hide apps in drawer
- Ability to add shortcuts to desktop.
- When contact has no avatar set, Android uses placeholder - white letter on color background for it. When adding such avatarless contacts to Google Now Launcher or Nova they use this placeholder, maybe you can also make contacts page to use it?
- Lock desktop option, so widgets can't be moved/deleted
- I would also like to suggest redesigning of window that appears when longpress on app... It looks too cluttered and not material at all. More like something from early ICS era
+1 for vertical scrolling of center screen!
So far it's very unique I'm curious what direction it will take.
Here is some features you can add to make your launcher even better :good:
-Disable swipe down from anywhere to toggle notification bar.(toggle only if i swype down the not bar)
-Show contacts only from gmail or phone.Now there are contacts from G+
-Home button goes to HOMe and not in the dialer.
-My phone is in usa language and the number are in 123-456-7890 format.So dialpad dont find them.
EDIT: I cant find my stock dialer app in the app tab!
EDIT2: I added a widget clock( i have samsung with stock kitkat rom) and i cant delete it.When i press it, the screen for widget and wallpaper appears.
wulltd said:
Ah I see.. Does your device have physical buttons, not a nav bar?
I just found an error that adds padding to the bottom of the views (dialer, widgetscreen) to compensate for a navbar that doesnt exist. Ill try to fix that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, yeah. I have my nav bar disabled. When I enable it, the launcher looks fine.
I found a bug that will probably confuse a lot of users.
If you go to the Applications tab and press the home button, the dialer pops up. Press home again and it'll switch to the Home tab, but with the dialer still open (and the same application list as the Applications tab has). Pressing home a third time hides the dialer finally ("Home button toggles dialpad" is on).
There is no difference between the Home tab and Applications tab when the dialer is open.
Swiping up and down gets awkward, too, because it also scrolls widgets and the application drawer.
I think, if you still want to use home button to launch the dialer, it should switch to the Applications tab and then launch the dialer. Also, having the dialer open automatically when swiping to the Applications tab would be nice. As well as removing and reorganizing tabs (I want to remove the Home tab, since I don't use widgets).
Here's a video of the home button action bug.
http://1drv.ms/14J1FAa
Also, it seems that the scroll up and ripple animation lags when the dialer is called up on the Home tab, but not when it's called up in the Applications tab (Probably because it doesn't need to scroll up before rippling there). Just one more reason to switch the Home button behavior to launch the dialer in the Applications tab instead of the Home tab.
Sorry if this post seems like it's all over the place, I'm just exited about this launcher. It's so close to becoming perfect.