[Q] ICS homescreen, widgets and app drawer? - Xoom Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

With HC on my Xoom, when scrolling throught the app drawer, all I had were apps. With ICS, if I scroll past the end of the apps, it brings me into the widgets that if I tap them, will add to the home screen.
Is there any way to prevent this?
I guess what I'm asking is... With ICS how do I prevent my 3yr old son from being able to scrolling too far in the app drawer and ending up in the widget section where he is adding stuff to the home screens?

KidJoe said:
With HC on my Xoom, when scrolling throught the app drawer, all I had were apps. With ICS, if I scroll past the end of the apps, it brings me into the widgets that if I tap them, will add to the home screen.
Is there any way to prevent this?
I guess what I'm asking is... With ICS how do I prevent my 3yr old son from being able to scrolling too far in the app drawer and ending up in the widget section where he is adding stuff to the home screens?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
googling this just then... if your using cm9 the trebuchet launcher for cm9 doesnt seems to have the ability to lock the desktop (ie not add anything to home screens) see trebuchet features: http://geekprison.com/4472-download-cm9-cyanogenmod-9-trebuchet-launcher-for-android-4-0-3/
using a launcher such as adw ex... you can not only lock the desktop to stop ya boy from adding stuff, adding widgets uses a long press of the screen so the app list remains widget free
hope this helps

So 3rd party launcher is the only way?
and I guess I'm not as worried about adding stuff to the home screen, as he is getting to the widgets, tapping, and not understanding what its doing so he gets frustrated... unlike when he scrolls through apps, and taps, they launch.

Related

Vertical scrolling on homescreens?

I was playing around with the HTC bookmark widget earlier, and noticed widgets can be dragged up and down. Are there any widgets available that act as a blank overlay for the homescreen, which can also scroll vertically to view more widgets and shortcuts? This can be helpful to access more on each homescreen and provided no one else knows about the vertical scroll, hiding a few "work documents" .
sanamkan said:
I was playing around with the HTC bookmark widget earlier, and noticed widgets can be dragged up and down. Are there any widgets available that act as a blank overlay for the homescreen, which can also scroll vertically to view more widgets and shortcuts? This can be helpful to access more on each homescreen and provided no one else knows about the vertical scroll, hiding a few "work documents" .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how long have you had your phone again?
just about everyone knows about scrollable widgets.
and no you cant make a homescreen vertically scrollable.
1. You are being a ****.
2. He didn't ask about scrollable widgets.
3. Yes its possible it would just require some heavy knowledge and coding.
I wasn't announcing that widgets could scroll, I was providing an example. Nor did I ask if it was possible to make the homescreen scroll. What I'm asking IS possible. I was only asking if it already exists.
sanamkan said:
I wasn't announcing that widgets could scroll, I was providing an example. Nor did I ask if it was possible to make the homescreen scroll. What I'm asking IS possible. I was only asking if it already exists.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't seen anything like that and I understand what you are asking. You would need to go to the android app dev section to see if someone will take A TON of time to make a full screen vertical scrolling widget that you can place other widgets in.
Would it be impossible to look at bookmark widget's code as a basis? As for integrating shortcuts into a widget, I could probably try and contact the dev of Multi icon. That should take care of the major concerns, right?
I dont know if you could make a widget that lets you host other widgets or shortcuts. but there are 2 options that may work for you
one is the folder system, you can make folders to keep your app shortcuts in, but they will not allow you to nest widgets inside of them.
another option is to use a secondary launcher like launcher pro or ADW launcher, and when you want to access the shortcuts or widgets that are in that launcher you can open it up. then you can set one of the launchers to be the default when you hit the home button, or have it ask you each time you hit it.
just my 2 cents, but don't give up on the widget inside a widget idea, im sure a bunch of people would like to have that ability
Teksu said:
I dont know if you could make a widget that lets you host other widgets or shortcuts. but there are 2 options that may work for you
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Click to collapse
The program/shortcut integrated in a widget is performed perfectly on the Multi icon widget. Pre-existing widgets in the widget haven't been included, but the dev has begun creating specialty widgets. I do recommend checking it out.
Teksu said:
another option is to use a secondary launcher like launcher pro or ADW launcher, and when you want to access the shortcuts or widgets that are in that launcher you can open it up. then you can set one of the launchers to be the default when you hit the home button, or have it ask you each time you hit it.
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Click to collapse
I've tried QuickDesk, which keeps your current launcher, but enables a popup homescreen when you double tap the home button. It's not the smoothest process by any means, and somehow makes HTC Sense pop up in your home button long press. If you know of any better attempts at this, I'd like to see how those work as opposed to this one. It may be simpler than eventually having to create a new one, right?
Actually, being able to pull up or down on the home screen to activate something like quickdesk would be pretty cool. QD kinda sucks having to double tap on it, and the response is laggy because the button is getting confused as to what it's supposed to do.
as far as I know, the only Launcher that provides vertical scrolling functionality is HTCSense. It also provides the EditText widget as a RemoteView.
**in Android world, a "widget" is any GUI object, really. While the widgets we talk about adding to a Home screen is really called an "AppWidget"**
Its all about how the Launcher handles and behaves with RemoteViews.
For a Launcher to allow one of its AppWidgets to contain and run another AppWidget, that Launcher would have to provide a huge heap of new RemoteViews and surrounding functionality...or, the AppWidget container would have to somehow import the child AppWidget App and run it internally (not possible I think!).
There's a chance that MIUI (a new Chinese Launcher) provides AppWidget-within-Folder functionality. It may then expose custom RemoteViews and API interfaces to allow AppWidgets to be developed to do similar things

launcher

is the launcher the the same as the stock android launcher? if not could someone post it. thanks
Samsungs own I think, I use Launcher Pro though.
The stock launcher is TouchWiz. Its very good, smoother than launcherpro. And has a superior app drawer. I would use it if not for launcherpros customisation options.
Edit: i especially like the homescreen scrollong method in touchwiz, its much cooloer than lps elastic scrolling!
couldn't agree more!
For information: ADW.Launcher works well on the Tab too, no issues with the high resolution.
I'm using it rather than the stock TouchWiz one mostly so that I can customise the Browser and Email launch buttons. It has some extra nice touches, but can be configured to behave almost exactly like TouchWiz.
Launcher Pro is fast but its application drawer is very limited (it basically dumps a huge scrolling list of icons). Touchwiz is reasonably nice, but managing hundreds of application icons remains hard, despite the "move icon" feature in the application drawer. ADW.Launcher however, provides separate "groups" / "catalogs" panes to divide the application drawer into several distinct buckets of smaller size, which makes it a lot easier to find applications. I just hate browsing endless list of alphabetically-ordered icons
As for QuickDesk, it has some potential, but it is somewhat locked to portrait mode on my Galaxy Tab I am using it anyway as it plays nice with ADW.Launcher (the Home button gets hacked to support single/double tap and launch each of them individually).
Quickdesk pro has landscape support. It also acts as a completely different screen to portrait, so you can have FB/Twitter/music widgets in portrait and loads of icons in landscape
Sent from my HTC Desire
Hi, is it necessary to root the Tab before installing ADW.launcher?
Because I have tried installing it on my non-rooted Tab but the application doesn't want to install...
I'm using it rather than the stock TouchWiz one mostly so that I can customise the Browser and Email launch buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can replace these in the stock launcher!
Regards,
Dave
It's funny. Even though TouchWiz 3.0 comes on the Vibrant, I couldn't stand it. So, I use Launcher Pro Plus. On the Tab, I actually like it. It must have been much improved since then?
After testing several launchers, I have now become a fan of ADW.Launcher (mostly due to its categorization feature in the apps drawer) and QuickDesk (due to its quick-access to recent apps, and the ability to long-click to get to the app details, clear data, uninstall, etc.) I like how configurable everything is as well.
Remove Notification Bar
Hi guys,
Got the Tab yesterday and like it a lot. I don't like Samsumg's Touchwiz etc. so straight away I installed Launcher Pro and changed my home-screen etc.
Anyhow, I want to remove or at least stop the ever present notification strip appearing at the top. I had a Nexus One and was able to do this but can't remember how, can it be done on the tab as its wasting space on my homescreen, in the browser etc.
Cheers,
M
One the home screen, click the Menu button, Settings, Appearance Settings, Hide notification bar.
I kinda like TouchWiz. Mainly for the widgets which come in handy, but i absolutely love ADW. It may not have the widgets that LPP has, but imho, its 100x better.
Then QuickDesk Pro for the long press on thevsearch button to top it off
Sent from my GT-P1000
GANJDROID said:
I kinda like TouchWiz. Mainly for the widgets which come in handy, but i absolutely love ADW. It may not have the widgets that LPP has, but imho, its 100x better.
Then QuickDesk Pro for the long press on thevsearch button to top it off
Sent from my GT-P1000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADW.Launcher + QuickDesk => great combo !
I use the home button for both of them (using the "hack" setting for double-click support). Long-press on the Search button indeed brings up a few options, including AudioVolumizer (very useful).
ftgg99 said:
The stock launcher is TouchWiz. Its very good,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agree with that. & question - Tabs in Russian retail doesnt have Readers and Media Hub, or is it just mine? I have a wicked bookstore instead)

[Q] Arrange apps in App Drawer??

Is there a way to organise apps in the app drawer? It is now just a collection of apps, but I like the idea of a totally clean homescreen (only widgets and dock), and an organised App Drawer.
It doesn't matter how the apps are organised. It can be with folders, different pages, whatever. But it has to be in the App Drawer. Is there an app/launcher/custom ROM that can do that?
Anyone? I know not many people want this, because they organise their apps on the homescreens, and the App Drawer is just a collection of all apps, but as I said, I really like the idea of a homescreen with widgets only, and an organised App Drawer with folders or different pages or whatever.
ADW Launcher has an option to create a catalog to group apps, but everytime you need to change catalogs, you have to press menu, then "choose group".
It´s nice, but it should have a better way to choose between the groups.
All apps organizer is what I use. If you use adw or launcher pro you can make it your app drawer. Works really well.
dls5375 said:
All apps organizer is what I use. If you use adw or launcher pro you can make it your app drawer. Works really well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So..., that just replaces the App Drawer? That's fine to me, but I hope you can hide the 'real' App Drawer then. I still want my app drawer button in the middle + 2 icons on either side in the dockbar, but then the app drawer icon should link to that All Apps Organizer program.
gasparzim said:
ADW Launcher has an option to create a catalog to group apps, but everytime you need to change catalogs, you have to press menu, then "choose group".
It´s nice, but it should have a better way to choose between the groups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can set the option in ADW.Launcher so that there are arrows on the left and side of the bottom of the screen when you open the app drawer, then pressing those arrows you can switch the catalogs.
Just found out that Go Launcher EX has folder support. I'm starting to like this launcher more and more! Nobody knows it though, so I couldn't find much information about the folder support in app drawer.

[Q] How do you arrange your tablet home screens?

What do you guys prefer having on your home screens when it comes to widgets and apps?
Do you go for usability, productivity or design?
I don't like text underneath the icons on my homescreen and I shrink the icons in the app drawer. In all those years I regret that Google doesn't offer those options. So that leads me to ADW EX launcher, which I use on all my devices.
use nova launcher, have done since its initial beta release. i got for a default home screen which is minimal then a second right screen with a few more frequent apps. I always have a dock at the bottom for most frequent apps and try and increase the dock from the standard size with smaller space between icons. I dont like text underneath any icon
I've used Nove for some time. Great launcher. Love swipe gestures. But I like functionality on my N5. Wondering if there are any useful widgets worth considering on an Android tablet.
xposed
I like xposed framework because of the neat different transparencies and other features that it brings to the overall setup. it's going to be interesting to see how framework helps Android lollipop 5.0 customizations.
I use Nova as my launcher and use of the gestures.
Only one homescreen, no icons, only Dashclock widget. Keep it nice and clean. Swipe up to get the app drawer and that's only one page. Swipe down for Firefox. That's all I need, clean and simple.
I disable the lock screen too, waste of time.
no lockscreen
nova gestures 1fingerup drawer/ 1fd notificarions/ 2up settings/ 2dn novaset/clockw playstore/ccw chromebeta
1 blank homescreen
random cycling wallpaper doubletap to switchnow
slimrom
notification drawer shortcuts to titanium es-explorer chromecast
swipe-up to top-middle circle for screenoff/longpress for boot menu
softnav keys back/ home/ recent
longpress killapp/ home /fullscreen
drawer is set up in 6 folders 3x3
some folders have subfolders

[Q] What's the point of homescreen?

You see it's not that big different from app drawer if you don't put widget on it
I never use it my screen is always on app drawer
Well i will use home screen if app drawer have black background
Google play even automatically make icons on home screen for you
I set auto put to home screen off and remove all apps on my home screen afterward
Then i remove widget too i don't see any point of using clock widget if there's already one on my notification
So what's the point of home screen?
Just app drawer duplicated with widget?
btw stock touchwiz launcher
skyhot004 said:
You see it's not that big different from app drawer if you don't put widget on it
I never use it my screen is always on app drawer
Well i will use home screen if app drawer have black background
Google play even automatically make icons on home screen for you
I set auto put to home screen off and remove all apps on my home screen afterward
Then i remove widget too i don't see any point of using clock widget if there's already one on my notification
So what's the point of home screen?
Just app drawer duplicated with widget?
btw stock touchwiz launcher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it is usefull to quickly access apps whilst not being packed with apps I rarely use
Do whatever you want with it. This is Android, after all, not iOS.
That's what makes us different than IOS Haha

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