Related
I tried out Dolphin Browser for a few days and can't understand how people enjoy that experience more. Obviously I'm not trying to say that their opinion is wrong but I would like to hear how they overcame the issues I had (if it was ever a problem for them).
1. Multitouch - I understand that the stock browser (SB for short) didn't have it for a while, but dolphins was very picky in reformatting text columns after a multitouch zoom and zooming was never very smooth.
2. Bookmarks - I hated the bookmark system. It never arranged as conveniently as the SB and never remembers that I wanted to sort a-z. It also doesn't fit as many on the screen which reults in more scrolling. And why in the world would bookmarks not be an icon option in the popup menu? I do most navigating one-handed, on the bottom half of the phone so when I'm trying to access bookmarks thru dolphins I would have to use my other hand because the lack of multitouch resuts in my palm hitting the screen as I tried to tap this tiny star that is the bookmark opener.
3. Menu layout - simply don't like an intrusive menu taking up the whole screen just because I want to press the back, forward or reload button. I seem to remember a prior version having an option where the menu loadout would only occur after pressing the down arrow, but couldn't find that in this latest version.
4. Ads - nuff said
That said, what I lover is full screen browsing, seeing the subtle green bar at the bottom showing number of open windows, swiping to change windows, removing the on-screen zoom buttons and having the dedicated Google bookmarks tab are all features I will not soon forget as I venture back to the stock browser.
After the multitouch update for the SB(which I seldomly use in browsing, thanks to the awesome double-tap-to-fit feature), what other reasons do you have for continuing to use Dolphin?
Again, not trying to say Dolphin users are wrong, I oust get surprised to hear so many rave reviews when everytime I have tried it has turned out to be an unfulfilling experience.
Edit: hopefully I've posted this in the correct section (maybe General would have been better). I know some out there are very picky about what should go where.
yea i like the stock browser with MT now. Screw dolphin
somehow i feel pity for dolphin's devs..
at one time people rated them as one of the best browser out there, and when our default browser got updated, there's people open up thread just to point out its weaknesses..lol.
it's a free software, so we can choose to use it or not..
btw i myself prefer stock browser as well haha..
agreed.
I don't like how the tabs and buttons are in low resolution. It may look good on other phones but on a nexus OLED screen....it doesn't look good.
To be fair, the only big update to the stock browser since its inception (inception for me being a few months after the G1 came out) is MT, and icon-bookmarks and that wouldn't affect my final opinion of Dolphin either way. I tried out Dolphin back on my G1 and wasn't a huge fan of it then, either.
As far as the devs go, if they read my OP (highly unlikely) I really hope they just look at it as some random donkey with suggestions as opposed to me trying to say their product has no place in Android devices.
Steel in complete junk and always was. Dolphin has its moment but I don't care for MT as it is so that was never really a draw for me. The low-res icons exists on the G1/myTouch. I'm sure that Dolphin has its use and I certainly don't mind competition as that can only be good for us as end users. I prefer the stock browser as it serves its purpose very well. Dolphin needs to get rid of the confusing, unintuitive menu system.
Gestures and the "open windows" pane are excellent.
Prefer default becuase of MT/text formatting/Bookmark Icons.
Now that Stock has Multi-Touch and Double-tap to Fit-to-screen... I haven't touched Dolphin.
Dolphin is great for it's auto-sizing so far as webpages are concerned... But it's really just too much in my opinion. I like the layout of stock, and the menu is just simpler. Gestures were really startin' to irritate me too. Some are easy, but making your own and the phone would get mine about 33-50% of the time.
I started using dolphin on my g1 mainly for the full screen options and the ability to download just about any type of file to the phone. I kind of gave up on the stock browser pretty soon after I started using dolphin. however the ads are annoying & the ui sucks major ass, after reading all your thoughts I'm inclined to give the stock browser another chance.
oh yeah and the ability to hold down back and be presented with a dialogue to clear cache and close from dolphin was another big selling point for me.
loving the stock browser!!
occasionly switch over to Xscope
The bookmark syncing in Dolphin is good though....
Why does the stock not have that? (or am I missing something here)
irenic said:
somehow i feel pity for dolphin's devs..
at one time people rated them as one of the best browser out there, and when our default browser got updated, there's people open up thread just to point out its weaknesses..lol.
it's a free software, so we can choose to use it or not..
btw i myself prefer stock browser as well haha..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is how the software world works though...
A void is found and someone/a team steps up and fills that void; in this case it was a broswer to answer the asks of all the users not pleased with this or that in the stock browser.
Once the majority of the asks were met with an update, the need for an additional installed app went away for almost all users.
If firefox comes to android you can bet everyone who is calling dolphin garbage compared to the SB will be doing the same with the SB compared to FF....just the way it works
Personally, I would LOVE FF to hit android; I really miss xmarks and adblock. Yep.
i need to try stock I've been using dolphin ever since........
Right now I Prefer the default because of Text formatting and Bookmark Icons.
Dolphin browser was pretty slick a few updates ago, then they messed it up with the menu navigation.
Gestures...full screen...and to deal with the ads...adfree (if rooted).
Hmmm... I'm not sure if I'm right bout this, but I think loading pages on the dolphin browser is quicker, I tested and compared both browsers against my co worker's Iphone, and SB loaded a few seconds behind the Iphone, then I tried it on the dolphin browser and it loaded up faster, of course I've tried this several times and got the same results. It was a very noticeable difference too, so from that point on I never used SB again.... You guys should try it out and let me know what you think.
i liked the dolphin for a while for enriched functions and the look, but then i somehow found it too overbearing for the simple task that i do every time. i may look into the firefox browser (if it ever really comes), but i am all for native as long as possible to retain native integration.
I've also found Dolphin to be quicker in loading pages than SB, which is the reason I'm using it atm. I use a browser to get around the web as quickly as possible so that the SB is slower makes it a no-brainer for me at least.
The reason I won't be leaving Dolphin Browser for now is definitely the full screen browsing. I've also grown so used to gestures for everything I think it would be hard to go back. I personally don't mind the menu taking up the whole screen because if I hit the menu button that's what I want, the menu, nice not having to do menu>more for basic stuff, long press>page or gesture to select text is also really nice. To each their own I suppose, just be glad we have options unlike some other phones *cough**cough*
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 love my TF. I hate browsing the web on it. Such a shame that the job it is meant to do, is the job it seems to do most poorly. Perhaps its down to the browsers, since I have yet to find one that doesnt get in the way of my surfing. I would be happy if I could find one with a navigation bar that doesnt disappear every time I scroll down the page. I have plenty screen for it, why can't I at least have the option? Is there any browser with a static navigation bar? I'm not using a phone, so I'd like my navigation buttons to be accessable regardless of where on the page I'm at. I'd love to have my tabs static too! Why is this such a hard request? If firefox would just port it's pc interface over it's android browser(which i find stable but a crappy interface), I would be in love.
Oh, and I hate gestures. I like actual buttons with real text labels.
Please call me a noob and tell me what I'm looking for already exists. I will praise you for it.
Anyone else driven mad by the web browsing experience on honeycomb?
faithblinded said:
I love my TF. I hate browsing the web on it. Such a shame that the job it is meant to do, is the job it seems to do most poorly. Perhaps its down to the browsers, since I have yet to find one that doesnt get in the way of my surfing. I would be happy if I could find one with a navigation bar that doesnt disappear every time I scroll down the page. I have plenty screen for it, why can't I at least have the option? Is there any browser with a static navigation bar? I'm not using a phone, so I'd like my navigation buttons to be accessable regardless of where on the page I'm at. I'd love to have my tabs static too! Why is this such a hard request? If firefox would just port it's pc interface over it's android browser(which i find stable but a crappy interface), I would be in love.
Oh, and I hate gestures. I like actual buttons with real text labels.
Please call me a noob and tell me what I'm looking for already exists. I will praise you for it.
Anyone else driven mad by the web browsing experience on honeycomb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just go to browser settings and go to the labs tab and then unchecked the quick controls box
I already have that unchecked. The problem is that when i scroll down, the back,forward,refresh,and home buttons disappear, along with the address bar. I want it to always be visible. from what i've seen, every browser for android does this, and it makes me batty.
just tap the screen and it comes back/ reappears.
I get that, but it's one tap and wait longer than I want to deal with. 5 browsers on my TF, and they all have this problem. I wonder if the ipad browser is any better...
have you tried dolphin mini? The addess bar stays on the top
faithblinded said:
I already have that unchecked. The problem is that when i scroll down, the back,forward,refresh,and home buttons disappear, along with the address bar. I want it to always be visible. from what i've seen, every browser for android does this, and it makes me batty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you try the new little radial menu that comes when you swipe on the side? i prefer browsing with everything hidden, and just using that radial... it has bookmarks, tabs, close window, etc etc.
opera mobile
faithblinded said:
I already have that unchecked. The problem is that when i scroll down, the back,forward,refresh,and home buttons disappear, along with the address bar. I want it to always be visible. from what i've seen, every browser for android does this, and it makes me batty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey
opera mobile doesn't do that.
address bar along with 5 diff. buttons always stay on top.
try it out, I use it more than stock browser, only downside getting flash to work on it is a
hit or miss affair.
no1
no1_cdn said:
hey
opera mobile doesn't do that.
address bar along with 5 diff. buttons always stay on top.
try it out, I use it more than stock browser, only downside getting flash to work on it is a
hit or miss affair.
no1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, opera mobile is my primary browser for reading only. use stock browser when I need to access site with JavaScript or flash .
Thanks guys. I have Opera HD but hadn't tried the mini version. Will add it to my arsenal of browsers.
xufuchang said:
yeah, opera mobile is my primary browser for reading only. use stock browser when I need to access site with JavaScript or flash .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there, just wondering do you have problem with opera mobile displaying everything website smaller when compared to other browsers example stock browser. Every time opera will load the page with such small fonts it hurts to read. I tried to set the default zoom to 125% it looks better but problem is as soon as I click a link or open a new page, it will zoom out and gimme the small fonts again. Anyway to fix the zoom level?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
miata said:
Hi there, just wondering do you have problem with opera mobile displaying everything website smaller when compared to other browsers example stock browser. Every time opera will load the page with such small fonts it hurts to read. I tried to set the default zoom to 125% it looks better but problem is as soon as I click a link or open a new page, it will zoom out and gimme the small fonts again. Anyway to fix the zoom level?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey
type in the address bar:
opera:config
hit enter, you'll see a page with diff. settings open up.
scroll down to:
"user prefs"
tap it and it'll expand then again scroll down to:
minimum font size
change the value from default 9 to whatever you like then scroll down to the bottom
and hit "save" button then hit 'ok' in the pop up.
also to speed up opera even more try this:
find "performance" section
tap to open
then scroll down and change the following values:
Max Connections Server 6
Max Connections Total 6
Max Persistent Connections 6
after, scroll down and hit save button then hit 'OK' in the pop up.
you can experiment with diff. values for "connections" settings, however I wouldn't go over 8,8,8 or 10,10,10 as some websites might load slower than with default values (4,6,4)
my browser doesn't always keep the saved settings, sometimes it'll revert to default values...
so it's really a hit or miss, at least for me...
also, the 'default zoom', 125% or whatever % you specify, happens when you double tap the text on screen, it'll zoom that amount
and also reflow the text to fit screen.
no1
does opera mobile play flash?cause mine (ver 11) won't play,it shows big question mark,when clicked nothing happened
no1_cdn said:
hey
type in the address bar:
opera:config
hit enter, you'll see a page with diff. settings open up.
scroll down to:
"user prefs"
tap it and it'll expand then again scroll down to:
minimum font size
change the value from default 9 to whatever you like then scroll down to the bottom
and hit "save" button then hit 'ok' in the pop up.
no1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem with increasing the Minimu font size from 9 to just 12, is it will cut off the right side of somw sites. Like on xda the search button on the top right get cut off if u increase the size. I don't think opera mobile is made for table.
xufuchang said:
does opera mobile play flash?cause mine (ver 11) won't play,it shows big question mark,when clicked nothing happened
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, not on honeycomb
thanks no1_cdn found out the font tweak last night and it seems to help in readability
will try your performance tweak soon! thanks again
miata said:
thanks no1_cdn found out the font tweak last night and it seems to help in readability
will try your performance tweak soon! thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're welcome miata
try going through this page to customise more, opera:config settings explained:
www.opera.com/support/usingopera/operaini/
although its for desktop version, settings still apply to mobile...
no1
dazz87 said:
The problem with increasing the Minimu font size from 9 to just 12, is it will cut off the right side of somw sites. Like on xda the search button on the top right get cut off if u increase the size. I don't think opera mobile is made for table.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're right.
I find 12 to be maximum size in order to avoid what you described above.
also I have to kill opera using 'task killer' for saved font setting to take effect.
no1
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 know there have been a couple of posts dotted around asking about the keyboard dock but I've seen nothing definitive.
I have the dock and it worked great with Honeycomb. I neglected to think about how it would work with a custom ROM before flashing one.
I've gone for the CM9 ROM and although generally typing on the keyboard works it is far less functional. The majority of the (very useful) hotkeys don't work.
Including:
Home
On screen KB up/down
Menu
Play/Pause Media
Makes the whole thing far less useful :-(
I'm interested in if anyone knows anything I can do to make this better on CM9 or even if it's likely to work better with any different ICS ROM?
Yes, the keyboard dock hotkeys don't work, all except the back key. But even more annoying it is that the software keyboard shows up and it shouldn't.
karnka said:
I know there have been a couple of posts dotted around asking about the keyboard dock but I've seen nothing definitive.
I have the dock and it worked great with Honeycomb. I neglected to think about how it would work with a custom ROM before flashing one.
I've gone for the CM9 ROM and although generally typing on the keyboard works it is far less functional. The majority of the (very useful) hotkeys don't work.
Including:
Home
On screen KB up/down
Menu
Play/Pause Media
Makes the whole thing far less useful :-(
I'm interested in if anyone knows anything I can do to make this better on CM9 or even if it's likely to work better with any different ICS ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not have a genuine Samsung keyboard (yet) but you should be able to map home, menu and the media buttons with my app: http://www.apedroid.com/android-applications/external-keyboard-helper
You can also specify up to 16 apps and create shortcuts for them. For example you could start the browser with Alt+B and Gmail with Alt+G if you want to.
Yep
I remember that happening occasionally before but it's constant now and even more inconvenient without the convenient hotkey to hide it.
Can I assume this is pretty constant regardless of the ROM used?
karnka said:
Yep
I remember that happening occasionally before but it's constant now and even more inconvenient without the convenient hotkey to hide it.
Can I assume this is pretty constant regardless of the ROM used?
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Yes I think so unless it is a HC rom based on a stock ROM.
I'll fix some of it in the CM9 port once I recieve my BT keyboad case and have something to test with. If you just want to get rid of the on-screen keyboard you can use my free app that does that and nothing more: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperfree
If you want full control you need my paid app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelper
Free demo: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperdemo
Thanks for the advice. Your app looks really helpful.
I've no problem buying the pro version but want to have a play with the demo one a little more first.
I'm having slight issues trying to map a few things:
App switching: can map keys to this but doesn't seem to do anything
"Internet" / "Mail" - these two keys aren't picked up by the mapping config as they immediately jump away launching the browser (I'd love to remap to chrome) or asking me whether i want Gmail or Mail (and not remembering my selection)
I've mapped home (hooray!) but although it takes you back to the launcher it doesn't necessarily take you back to the default screen as the onscreen home button does (that's a really small issue!)
Any thoughts about those?
On the subject of the demo version of the app... Is the only thing that's different between that and the pro version that the spacebar is mapped to: _This_is_a_demo_version!_?
karnka said:
Thanks for the advice. Your app looks really helpful.
I've no problem buying the pro version but want to have a play with the demo one a little more first.
I'm having slight issues trying to map a few things:
App switching: can map keys to this but doesn't seem to do anything
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Click to collapse
The problem with keycodes is that some are handled erlier in the input queue before I can process it in my app. App switcher and Home is two examples. I managed to do a workaround for Home but I have not yet found a way to bring up the app appswitcher programatically.
"Internet" / "Mail" - these two keys aren't picked up by the mapping config as they immediately jump away launching the browser (I'd love to remap to chrome) or asking me whether i want Gmail or Mail (and not remembering my selection)
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Same reason here. Android propably picks up and processes these before the app get a chance and therefor the scancode is never passed on. However, when I get my BT keyboard dock I can investigate this more.
I've mapped home (hooray!) but although it takes you back to the launcher it doesn't necessarily take you back to the default screen as the onscreen home button does (that's a really small issue!)
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Click to collapse
This is due to the nature of the workaround. I just launch the launcher which gives almost the same effect as when the system processes the Home keycode (apart for the difference you noticed)
Any thoughts about those?
On the subject of the demo version of the app... Is the only thing that's different between that and the pro version that the spacebar is mapped to: _This_is_a_demo_version!_?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The versions are identical apart from the space button and some strings (demo vs pro, buy vs rate) so you can test out everything before buying.
You really should try the application shortcuts. Choose apps for A0 to AF and enter A0 to AF instead of characters when doing a custom layout. You could put the Email app on Alt+E and Gmail on Alt+G etc... Setting it up could be bit more userfriendly but once you figure it out it is not that hard to do.
Have got the pro version now and the overall effect is not much worse than the keyboard was under honeycomb so thanks very much.
Have setup a few short cuts (chrome and Gmail) and mapped them to some of the otherwise non-working function keys so that's great too.