Is there an Android app that replicates the Pocket PC launcher? - General Questions and Answers

Though many would likely call me nuts, I REALLY miss the interface/launcher of the old Windows Mobile/Pocket PC devices, largely in that I miss the ability to see reminders/appointments immediately when turning the phone on, especially those that don't need to be done at a particular time or date. Such as say, changing the oil in my truck. Setting an alarm or daily reminder doesn't really do it for me, as it's a situation of the reminder comes up, I think "oh yeah! I need to do that" then I forget about it 5 minutes later until the next day, lol. I forgot to change the oil in my truck last time for almost 6 months after the time I should have because of this.
The typical Android/Iphone launchers with the screen full of app icons doesn't do this for me. With the Pocket PCs, I pull the device out, turn it on to check something else, and I immediately see that I need to change the oil, go into work two hours early tomorrow, and half a dozen other things that need to be done, and I found that I actually got those things done in a timely fashion. I actually carried a HP iPaq for years after the things were beyond obsolete because of this until I broke my last one. I've spent years trying to adjust to Android and iPhone, and it just ain't happening, lol.
So, is there something I can add to my Android phones to get this functionality back? A launcher that mimics the Pocket PC would be awesome, but even an app that puts the reminders and such front and center instead of a screen full of app icons would work OK.

Unhappyly, This launcher may haves COPYRIGHT-ism
All trademarks are piggest-ed , i tried 5minutes of searching something like, but nope...
This is a good idea, may we have slaught this free pig
Sent from my XT687 using xda premium

Related

android on HT-01a

Just over a week ago I saw three used Docomo HTC HT-01a phones (Raphael 100) for sale in a used electronics shop for 2000 yen. That's about $20. I've been successful in getting Linux and Android to run on all sorts of things so I thought I would see what I could do with one.
Luckily for me there was already a rom in development.
The first thing I had to do was flash the bootloader. That was pretty easy using the ActiveSync software. Then I downloaded the Windows Mobile 6.1 English Rom from HTC. I tried out a few other custom roms but really the one from HTC was the best I just needed English instead of Japanese.
The new Rom was able to connect to Docomo and everything set up nicely.
Then I came back to XDA to get Android roms.
I tried 2.1 first and it didn't work so well. If the phone fell asleep it would not wake back up. If I tried to make a call the call would only last for about 30 seconds until the phone would quit on me. On top of that I would actually have to take the battery out to reboot the phone. Also, if I plugged in the charger the phone would be fine, but if I unplugged the charger it would crash.
Then I tried the FRX06 and it was much better but not that much. The phone could do some things and I could actually make a call. I set up Skype and Sipdroid to turn the phone into a wifi house phone for my son and things seemed ok. But it required care, a lot of care. I basically had to look after the phone. If I didn't use App Killer and do something with the phone about every 20 minutes then it would crash.
A couple of days ago I put in the FRX07 and this is a huge improvement. The phone can now basically last all day and won't crash. It still needs to be plugged in frequently but I guess thems the breaks. Skype and Sipdroid both work well but they seem to work best if only one is running at the same time. Also the official Skype from the market is broken so I went to Freewarelovers to get the old skype and it works fine. Don't use anything after 1.0.0.84. All the 2.0's are broken.
Anyway, FRX07 really seems to be a winner. I went one whole day using only this as my main phone and it gave me no problems besides wanting lots of energy. I didn't have to reboot or fall back to WM 6.1 for anything. I did have to be patient when looking up a few things on the internet or using the new app but it was still faster then WM would have been. I did find that it functioned better if I turned off animations and streamlined the homescreen.
Now I just wish that I could replace WM completely with Android or at least install android onto the internal memory and have the full use of the SD card. I seems like there is enough memory for that but I may be wrong.
Also, it looks like the screen turns off when I hit the power button, but I think the OS still thinks its on. It still gets hot and uses more power than it should. I don't know exactly what's going on there. I'm more of a hardware guy than a software guy so I noticed. It isn't a big deal but that might be where the battery is going.
Anyway, thanks to the new rom I now have a $20 wifi phone for my house and a second phone in case my Xperia X10 ever dies on me.
Thanks a bunch to the developers.
Have you tried Gingerbread alpha yet? The panel collapse code is still being worked on; the system just turn the display to "0" instead of "off". Will require a devs expertise to get this working. At any rate, there is more in the TP android threads and it seems arrrghhh is quite the tester and occasional team player from time to time. Can't blame him for being upset at the noobs as well as me sometimes. There are still some issues for our device that are still being worked out and others that are being looked over. Glad you got around to checking FRX07 out and that it works for you. Some haven't had that luxury yet and others are still lost in the abyss. Give it a once over if you'd like to get a preview of gingerbread on your device! It would be recommended to make a backup of your microSD IF you have a good configuration.
Thanks. I'll check out the 2.3 when I get a chance. So far the most use the phone gets is when my son watches Thomas the Tank Engine videos or plays a Thomas game. He's almost four but has already figured out how to do that!

[Q] App that tells time when asked

I'm rather near sighted so unless I duct tape the alarm clock to my head I have no chance in hell to actually see the numbers displayed on it at night without contacts or glasses. I've been looking around for app that does one simple thing: tell me the time when i say "time" (or something similar).
My search so far has come up mostly short. I found an app that tells me the time when I shake, touch, or wave my hand over the device. There are also half a million bad Siri knockoffs that will tell me the time if I push a button. However what I really want is an app that monitors audio the entire night and doesn't need to be prodded in any way to notice me speaking to it.
There has to be something out there that can do this. I mean, the built in voice thing responds to "hi galaxy" which could in theory work if it would just understand when I ask it for the time. There are also sleep recorders and such apps that obviously don't mind monitoring audio all night long, as long as you plug it in so power isn't an issue.
Does anyone have any ideas for such an app?
EDIT: If I'm to be very feature-greedy I also wouldn't mind if it turned on the LED when I say "lights" or something like that, but I imagine that's more than just a little bit unlikly to exist
EDIT2: Forgot I was in a general part of the forum, so just to be clear, will be using this on a galaxy s ii or galaxy tab 7.0 plus
The device doesn't really matter, such app should run on any device.
I like the idea!
I will give it a shot after my exam on thursday, but no promises , already have some cool ideas .
You should be aware that this is not battery efficient at all and if your phone is not connected to a charger it might run empty during the night.
Dark3n said:
You should be aware that this is not battery efficient at all and if your phone is not connected to a charger it might run empty during the night.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, as I said that's what sleep talk monitors require too.
I did actually find something...on my iPad. There are a couple of apps like that on iOS. I ended up with one where you simply clap to hear the time. Hasn't been updated in ages but still works. There's another one that you actually say "time" to but I think you need to say its name to wake it up first, so didn't even try that one.
Would definitely prefer to have it on Android though, so would be awesome f you got something working
EDIT: decided to buy the other app for iOS just to make a video as a reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXgS0aW10v8
Seems that development simply stopped on that one. Not been updated in ages. Having to say "hello kei" every time is indeed annoying
Spent my first night with the clap activated clock on the iPad. Wow, this truly makes a world of difference to someone like me who's practically blind without glasses or contacts. Ended up waking up a few times during the night, especially close to the time to get up, so being able to get the time without fumbling around for glasses and actually waking up in the process literally made it easier to sleep too

Could YOU go back to a Nokia E71?

Just having a look on my phone and I relise that all the things I use and rely on are available on my previous Symbian Nokia E71 and that in fact if I still had my E55 I'd be able to almost everything I do now but with 5 days battery life for camping trips instead of 1.
The Nokia E71 was released in 2008. We're now looking to 2013. This makes me want to take stock and say are we really achieving anything with smartphones these days?
Yes, there is massive improvement in an entertainment way and to be honest it's the tweaking and hacking that I love...
and indeed they are getting easier to use...
But my E55 used to be readable in bright sunlight, had global maps coverage, no wakelock problems and loads more battery life. I don't think any of that is possible with a Galaxy Note?
When I look at my frequently used, useful apps I see the following that is available on Symbian:
- VoIP via Fring
- Opera Mini... that fills in many gaps for the lack of apps
- various encryption apps, but... is this with a better security model than permissions that have been broken and sdcards that can be read?
- Gmail
- Global sat nav maps precachable
The only thing don't see that I use regularly is the HDRCam app but do I really need amazing photos?
What about you? Do you find the ebay or Eggdrop apps essential? What about QR codes?
Could you go back to a Nokia E71?
The best features of S60 was battery life I have a 6120c and I had a E72 both phones last 2 - 3 days easily and Copy/paste text Remember iOS before 2009?
What would stop me more from going back to these phones is that non touch devices blow at browsing the web, and also the fact that on Symbian you can't turn 3g connection off, which will most likely kill your battery if you have something like whatsapp installed. I could even be fine with everything else, looking at how I use my phone right now. You're kinda right, most of the mobile innovations of the latest years actually have to do more with entertainment than with anything else. Basic functions actually got better but there's actually nothing spectacular going on with that, apart from internet speeds being bumped up.
Sent from my Lumia 800 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
vnvman said:
What would stop me more from going back to these phones is that non touch devices blow at browsing the web, and also the fact that on Symbian you can't turn 3g connection off, which will most likely kill your battery if you have something like whatsapp installed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can change 3G only to dual mode or 2G only in settings -> phone -> network or something like that.
I have an E71 that I got for testing purposes with our mail system. The stock interface is awful compared to the latest smartphones.
That said, I took it when travelling internationally last year. As a phone and a device to get mail, it worked fantastic. It easily kept a charge all day long, often through 12+ hour work days.
I'm not going to use it as my everyday phone, but I am going to keep this bad boy and use it when I travel or when I what i need most is a phone that will stay charged longer.
I used to own an e71...until someone stole it while I was sleeping by my bedside. Lol. Easiest robbery ever I think.
Anyway...yeah it was a very good handset for its time. Loved it to bits. Battery was very good and the keyboard was a particular favorite. Last phone I had with any physical keyboard actually.
I could not see myself go back to it however. Just be a big step backwards in terms of apps and general performance. Everything except for battery life is so much better on the modern smart phones of nowadays.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Not exactly the same but: I miss my e90 :-( It was the best phone ever! I just wish it had US 3G. No other phone keyboard I have ever used measured up to that phone... I wonder if I could use it as a bluetooth keyboard....
Well, I have been forced into going back to my E71 while my Galaxy SII is under going warranty repair (it refused to connect to the mobile network one day after running it's battery flat).
What I miss most is my calendar syncing, and a decent imap email client that doesn't bomb when you have a few emails in the inbox. As others have said the smartphones are way better for web browsing. The E71's user interface seems just awkward and somewhat counter intuitive. I actually like the physical keyboard better then the touch screen keyboard (doesn't take up screen real estate) but accessing the extended maps is a bit of a pain. I reacon the shift key is in the wrong place and should be in the bottom outside corner as it's used more. But then it's only been a few days and I'll no doubt get used to it again.
I'd really love to make it run android and might give it a crack once I've got my SGSII back.
yeah I could. I have a Nokia e5 as a back up and it does all of the essentials and is way better to type on than my current touch screen phone is. I would miss the syncing abilities of android, and the entertainment possibilities of the nice big screen.... and apps...but I'd definitely survive.
I still can a spare copy of my sim that goes in my Nokia E71 as I use it all the time when I go on camping trips and long distance when I would be away from my charger for a extended period of time. It is hardy phone and the battery life is legendary.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 beta
**Press the thanks button if I have helped you.

Things that really bother me about the current SW2 and why:

There really should be a pinned thread for utter disappointed features and/or people.
I am not returning my new SW2. Its too cool to have the lamest, inept and funtion-killing GUI cause me to give up. ** But I bought a Pebble watch the same day because (the SW2n currently):
- can not function as a watch. It does but it goes to sleep VERY fast. WAY too fast. This is completely unacceptable. If I want to drain my f*ing watch and be able to read it all day, I should be able to!!! Put a warning on the settings area.. like: WILL DRAIN BATTERY VERY FAST or something...
- Can not finish reading my incoming sms. Maybe you dont know the girl I am dating but she WRITES A LOT... and this may not be normal amounts ... I really mean a lot. And SONY clearly has NO IDEA about this.
- AND continuing from the above point, it goes back to the f*ing CLOCK in sleep mode. SHOULD dim and remain on my screen until I SAY OTHERWISE. NOW I have to press the power button and NOT make it power off buy accident (another STUPID DESIGN) and make it activate, press the home button and then the stupid function messaging button. NO LOGIC FLOW HERE. I have to read 5 or 6 TXTs by now.
- CAN NOT read the messages in order without going BACK and opening the messaging app again. At least that seems to be what I had to do. I might have missed proper procedure here but if that is true, shame on SONY for lacking a more intuitive operation.
The Poweramp app is cool when it works. It should STAY active. I DONT CARE about anyone else or what slogan SONY wants to claim about battery life. I want FUNCTION my f*ing way. I use Poweramp all the time. But it is not able to stay on my watch, active? Total shame.
The ONLY app I kept on my watch is the custom watch faces. It allwos me to keep the display on until the dumbwatch, overthinking watch disconnects from my RazrMaxx/4.4 Dhacker29 ROM.
So in conclusion, This watch completely fails at being a watch. Fails at running apps because it times out WAY TOO FAST. Fails at every possible area other than fitting well.
Maybe your accelerometer is faulty. It should not timeout when on hand, actually it dims and always shows time.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
jmaciak said:
Maybe your accelerometer is faulty. It should not timeout when on hand, actually it dims and always shows time.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate to be the guy to say it, but is the OP trolling us?
I have the smartwatch 2, just got it yesterday, and what the OP is saying makes no sense.
deitiphobia said:
I hate to be the guy to say it, but is the OP trolling us?
I have the smartwatch 2, just got it yesterday, and what the OP is saying makes no sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it can timeout and go totally blank ... try it, put them on the table and do not move the watch/table and it will dim and then go completely blank after a while, because the accelerometer sees it's not on the hand. So if OP's accelerometer is faulty, it might behave this way ...
jmaciak said:
Well it can timeout and go totally blank ... try it, put them on the table and do not move the watch/table and it will dim and then go completely blank after a while, because the accelerometer sees it's not on the hand. So if OP's accelerometer is faulty, it might behave this way ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not a troll. At least I am not trying to be a troll. I do feel slightly underwhelmed buy my experience so far.
And maybe my accelerometer needs checking? If it is supposed to remain on (the screen) for more than 5 seconds when I am wearing it and trying to read something, then yes, something is wrong. Maybe the watch doesnt know when it is on a troll arm?
deitiphobia said:
I hate to be the guy to say it, but is the OP trolling us?
I have the smartwatch 2, just got it yesterday, and what the OP is saying makes no sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
What he is saying actually makes perfect sense, especially on this forum - we are not the average, marketing-targeted user and we like to use our devices any way we please, without being limited by design hickups. And we are more sensitive to design flaws and marketing bs than the average consumer.
Sony missed and even lied about basic features and is not allowing, at least so far, anyone to tweak with this product's FW.
In my experience the watch proved very useful ONLY IF YOU ARE NOT RELYING SOLELY ON IT for most of your work - i, for one, would not like to read my correspondence on such a tiny screen and prefer to use the phone instead - but it would sure be nice to know that I CAN use the watch if i wanted to.
Fortunately, while driving a motorcycle, for example, getting a hint of the message content usually suffices for me to determine if i need to pullover and get my phone out, provided i get to see the screen before it times-out, which is another awkwardly missing basic function.
I will, however, hold on to the SW2 for now in hopes that Sony will straighten things the way they should.
Sent from my LT25i using Tapatalk
i agree fully with the OP as well
if i didn't know better, i would suggest posting your opinions on talk sonymobile, but as i already did that and got NO reply from Sony, i guess it would be just a waiste of time
that's my biggest problem with Sony right now: no communication
(although i must admit most manufacturers suck at communicating with their customers, try finding out when the Butterfly s is getting 4.3/4.4, not a chance)
I actually agree with the OP, there are some features that could be included in the settings menu like timeout duration or stopping the watch default to the watch screen every time it goes into standbye especially useful if travelling and using features like poweramp - you need 3x button presses to bring the poweramp screen back on and if you have a messaging app open (reading messages) it should prevent the watch from sleeping
and how fecking hard is it to develop a few watch face designs with different colours etc
TBH I think Sony are in the process of designing a totally new Smartwatch for release in early 2014 and have completely dropped the ball with this one
well, there was an update today, so i guess they didn't drop it completely
update looked good at first, but disappointing anyway
-only 1 extra watch face that's usable, i still want the abilty to design/choose my own watch face
-the option to use the light sensor for brightness is nice, but i'm glad it's optional, don't like it
-music app update totally messed it up (used to work for me)
-camera app update didn't do anything for me, still does nothing
-still no selectable timeout, huge issue for me
---------- Post added at 06:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:36 PM ----------
Find It for SmartWatch by AQ i purchased also doesn't work anymore
argh, their own Find Phone Smart Extension ALSO doesn't work anymore!
JarlSX said:
their own Find Phone Smart Extension ALSO doesn't work anymore!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK I suspect that problems might occur pairing the SW2 with a non-Sony smartphone.
But please let's keep the discussion in one place only, so we can better compare these findings:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2554874
i think i know why the watch can't dim while still displaying an app
those apps don't really run on the watch, they're just displaying what's happening on the phone (that's where the app is installed)
so for a watch-app to work, the watch is constantly communicating with the phone
such a connection will probably drain the watch very quickly
only the watch part can run independently, so that's why it always goes back to that screen, to save power
this is of course just what i think
FWIW, the screen on time can be controlled by the app. I use and app called IPBike for cycling which runs on the phone. This app allows you to use the watch as a head unit on the bars. It has an option to keep the watch screen on for the entire ride.
jmaciak said:
Well it can timeout and go totally blank ... try it, put them on the table and do not move the watch/table and it will dim and then go completely blank after a while, because the accelerometer sees it's not on the hand. So if OP's accelerometer is faulty, it might behave this way ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should it really go totally blank/black? Mine is only dimmed out and showing clock face all the time, but really dimmy. And it is on the table...
Oh it does, took some time, longer than i expected...
Sent from my GT-N8000 using Tapatalk 4

Device goes nuts

Greetings. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and a Samsung Galaxy Note 9. I also have 2 Dell Windows laptops, one's an older 2017 Inspiron with Win10 Pro and the other is a 2021 Inspiron with Win 11 Pro. I use the Note 20U most of the time and I use the newer laptop more now but still use them both quite a bit.
Every so often, they will just go completely insane on me. It's usually the phone because I have that on me almost all the time, but the laptops aren't immune to the very strange behaviors that happen. It's kind of hard to explain because I don't really know where to start. With the phone, it's weird stuff like the accidental touch protection will virtually render my phone unusable for a time because there will be either a blue or red dotted circle on the screen that will go to wherever I touch the screen when I touch it but will go back to some other part of the screen when I take my finger off but it won't do anything when I touch the screen and I have to hold down the side and volume down buttons until it either powers down or gives me the power options screen. If it shuts down it's better than when it goes to the menu because when it goes to the power options menu. I get stuck there because it still won't recognize my touch or allow me to do anything so I have to hold down the buttons again until it just shuts off. Sometimes that will fix it but only for a few minutes and sometimes the circles will just still be there doing the same thing when the phone reboots. This will go on for hours to a day or 2 and then just not do it for awhile.
That's just one that sticks out to me but it will do other strange things like that to varying degrees and periods. Another one that gets my nerves stressing is it will make random phone and or video calls on either the phone's mobile system, and/or social media apps while I'm just trying to type text to send a message. Sometimes I'll lose full functionality of the touch screen and/or keyboard. Settings will get randomly changed on me... all kinds of very strange, annoying and sometimes damaging things concerning both data loss and personal issues with text messages and media being sent when it wasn't intended to and to other people than who it was intended for.
It's totally nuts and I know I sound totally nuts saying this but it actually seems like my devices are either being possessed or that somebody else is taking some kind of control of my devices. It happens at the same time to one, some, or all of them, it goes on anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days and then it just stops and they all behave for awhile. But then that dreadful day comes when it starts happening again.
I belong to a few forums that deal with device maintenance and various kinds of crapware and security issues and I visit them to keep up with things. I keep my devices updated and maintained fairly well for the common stuff. I take the advise I'm given in the forums, I run the apps they suggest, I run scans for all kinds of things that I read and find out about related to these issues and the devices all come back clean.
This has happened several times over the past 3 years or so and each time similar behaviors. It happens no matter which phone I use or which laptop I use. It even seem like the device(s) "fight" with me in real time.
I'm just a regular dude, I don't have any major stuff going on in my life that I think anyone would give a darn about. I'm not James Bond or some secret spy or witness. I'm not wealthy nor do I have any high, or even mediocre profile anything going on. I'm a construction painter with barely a pot to pee in and I have absolutely nothing highly exciting going on where I think anyone would have the slightest bit of interest in messing with my devices or my life in any other way so I don't see any reason why any entity would have a reason to either.
There are other really weird things that happen too but this is already turning into a long post and I'm tired and can't think of any off the top of my head right now. I just wanted to put this out there to see if anyone recognizes anything similar or has any input as to why this happens and has any other input on how it can be fixed, if it can or anything really. I am just now starting a log on when it happens and for how long and trying to keep better track of exactly what strange behaviors are actually happening but sometimes, and most of the time it's at the worst time because I'll be busy with work or other things going on and I forget what exactly was happening and for exactly how long it was by the time I get to a way to document it.
One last thing about it is that while I'm running scans and changing settings and trying to combat the madness, iy doesn't seem to change anything and sometimes even makes it seem to get worse, and then it just stops out of nowhere and it's like nothing had happened at all. except that I ended up sending a message to the wrong person or sent pictures or a video to someone who it wasn't meant for or I just deleted my entire music folder when I was trying to rename a file. Very very strange and unbelievable stuff, and yet it actually happens, and then just stops.
Try starting with one device and the specific issues. Devices don't go insane...

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