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Android 2.3!

hi friends. i know, i know this discussion is premature, but lets talk about what we want from android 2.3 ....to be a good source of inspiration for those who make it
God bless you to have the best inspiration!

Not a bad idea...
They should root it out of the box

Love. World peace.

since 2.2 had a 400-500% performance boost, 2.3 should have a 4000-5000% boostv

They've got the performance down. I think 2.3 will focus more on the user - ease of use and greater stability to compete with the iPhone. This will be shortly followed (3.0 maybe) with a whole new user interface design. They didn't hire the WebOS designer for nothing...

More than anything, I want the application's interface to look better and more unified. Like on an iOS, no matter how bad the app is, it still looks just as good as anything else. On Android, having a good looking UI is rare.
'Settings' in Froyo looks great, black background, white text, easy to navigate. But then you go to settings in Beautiful Widgets, and the text size is different, check boxes are on the left instead of right, and it's just not unified. They need a stricter standard.

I would love to see pinch-zoom on Email/gmail.
Maybe an option to display google voice SMS in the standard MMS app. A more customizable phone app, as in choosing which screen to default to and have a T9 search option... ( Like Dialer One)
Launcher Pro as standard launcher
Hold down volume to switch tracks on default music player

trillonometry said:
I would love to see pinch-zoom on Email/gmail.
Maybe an option to display google voice SMS in the standard MMS app. A more customizable phone app, as in choosing which screen to default to and have a T9 search option... ( Like Dialer One)
Launcher Pro as standard launcher
Hold down volume to switch tracks on default music player
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I approve of this message.

TREYisRAD said:
More than anything, I want the application's interface to look better and more unified. Like on an iOS, no matter how bad the app is, it still looks just as good as anything else. On Android, having a good looking UI is rare.
'Settings' in Froyo looks great, black background, white text, easy to navigate. But then you go to settings in Beautiful Widgets, and the text size is different, check boxes are on the left instead of right, and it's just not unified. They need a stricter standard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is a big deal. froyo has most of the basics that people were begging for: voice dialing, apps2sd, latest opengl, etc but they really need to blow everyone away on the UI. The reason why there's so much fragmentation is because of all these custom UI's and the reason why we have those UI's is because there is a perception that Android needs them to look good.
But once you get past the first few screens and into actual apps, there's nothing to hide. There has to be a general system for UI controls for all the apps so that they can look good without much effort.
Also, in many OS's, even the controls are themable and if Google can do that, an OEM could have an Android that looks completely different all the way down but runs all the apps and they would operate the same way.

from what i've heard, there's no 2.3. Gingerbread is a major release.. Android 3.

Here a To-Do list for the android developers :
- add the possibility to hide some apps from the drawer
- add a theme manager to change theme and restore the original one more easily
- enable root automaticaly
- add a feature like "Android Guard" to lock and locate your phone with your google account
- add a backup manager, linked with your Google account which could backup all your apps and data (like Titanium Backup) to switch easily from a ROM to another or to change your android phone.
I've no more idea for the moment but here are some nice features

arctu said:
from what i've heard, there's no 2.3. Gingerbread is a major release.. Android 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2.3 or 3, real flash support, that works well, not just "sort of works well"

Thread moved since it isn't development.

USB TV-Out

I would love the magnifying glass thing the iPhone has when selecting text.

arctu said:
from what i've heard, there's no 2.3. Gingerbread is a major release.. Android 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is what i thought as well...
Brian_Fr said:
Here a To-Do list for the android developers :
- add the possibility to hide some apps from the drawer
- add a theme manager to change theme and restore the original one more easily
- enable root automaticaly
- add a feature like "Android Guard" to lock and locate your phone with your google account
- add a backup manager, linked with your Google account which could backup all your apps and data (like Titanium Backup) to switch easily from a ROM to another or to change your android phone.
I've no more idea for the moment but here are some nice features
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great ideas!!
[IO]ERROR said:
I would love the magnifying glass thing the iPhone has when selecting text.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sense UI has something similar... and its pretty nice (at least on my evo.
As far as suggestions for the next release...
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY AND GOOD... GIVE US A TRUE UNIFIED INBOX FOR ALL ACCOUNTS WITH PUSH ENABLED!!! (or at least the option to have a unified inbox.. this is android after all)

frettfreak said:
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY AND GOOD... GIVE US A TRUE UNIFIED INBOX FOR ALL ACCOUNTS WITH PUSH ENABLED!!! (or at least the option to have a unified inbox.. this is android after all)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The latest update to K-9 (which I prefer over the stock email app) has this. I was quite surprised when I saw it. Though, it does exclude GMail, but I think that's because GMail inaccessible to third-parties right now.

Android wishes
I would like a task manager that links to calender. Schedule the task to when I know when I want to do it, without writing it all out again. Please.
Unified graphics would be a good look.

mr.trader said:
Not a bad idea...
They should root it out of the box
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was randomly thinging of that earlier thtd b good

Better looking widgets / viewports in sdk so apps become better looking/ more user friendly.
Sent from my GT-I5700 using Tapatalk

[Q] Notification Power Widgets

Hi,
I would have posted this in the Codename Android thread but since I'm a new user it seems I'm forced to clog up this forum. Sorry.
Anyway, I just upgraded from Codename Android 3.6.6 to 3.8.0. It's good but they seem to have removed one of the notification centre power widgets - there used to be two and now the one I was using isn't there any more. The other one does the job but isn't as customisable and the 2g/3g toggle doesn't seem to work.
So I was wondering if anyone could help me obtain an apk for the power widget, or alternatively recommend me one that is customisable and has a 2g/3g toggle that isn't just a settings shortcut.
Thanks in advance!

there are numerous applications that can be found in google play.
Did a 10 second search and found this, which seems really nice
notification widget

jman2131 said:
there are numerous applications that can be found in google play.
Did a 10 second search and found this, which seems really nice
*link*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but I've actually tried that one before and it doesn't have a 3G toggle. I was kind of hoping someone would just whip out an apk from an older version...
Would it be possible for me to lift the feature from an older version of CNA, and install it on this? Or would I have to program something? I can't really do that...

Black is back

Use at your own risk. I'm not a developer and won't be responsible for any damage you might experience using procedures described bellow. I’ve just adapted the method; all credit goes to Nexus 5 developer hello00.
I always believed that the power consumption is one of the most important issues regarding mobile phones. If you live dynamically you simply don’t have everywhere opportunity to charge your phone. And then you find it empty when you need it most. Not to mention that considering possibility not going through the full day with a single charge is unacceptable for me.
One of the most amazing features of the AMOLED screens is zero consumption with totally black color. And then came KitKat which put everything on shiny white color. It could be nice (in matters of taste, there can be no disputes), but besides it drains the battery you are not always in the mood to get a beam of bright light into your eyes.
So I made a little research in the direction to turn my screen back to black without fatal intervention to the stock ROM. I’m rooted, have bloatware removed, on art and so far I managed to made the following alternations:
I replaced the boot logo with attached one and removed the bootanimation. For replacing the boot logo I used Moto x toolkit, the bootanimation I simply delete from data/local/moodle (it is possible to replace it with the custom one as well).
I also replaced the Moto’s SMS and dialer with those from Google Nexus (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2519733). Now I have fully functional Google dialer and both apps in black. Short manual if someone is interested (you must be rooted and have one of root managers installed - e.g. root explorer):
1. SMS. Do not delete stock app. Rename it adding .bak or move it to sd or to the computer just in case you want it back.
Take any of the SMS zip files according to your choice from the site above. Extract it and find Mms_Signed in the system/priv-app. Copy Mms_Signed.apk to the Phone – SD. In Root explorer (or equal manager) change rights to rw and copy Mms_Signed.apk to the system/priv-app. Change permissions to rw-r-r. Reboot and find the new SMS app in the application drawer. That’s it.
2. GOOGLE DIALER. Do not delete, remove or freeze anything!!! Copy desired zip from above site to the computer and unzip it. Find both files GoogleDialer.apk and GoogleDialer.odex (if you’re not deodexed) in the system/priv-app and copy them to SD. In Root explorer (or equal manager) change rights to rw and copy both files to the system/priv-app. Change permissions for both to rw-r-r. Reboot. In your launcher (if supports, I use Holo HD, otherwise get Anycut or similar app) open activities, find first Phone activity and start it. You should have the Google Dialer of your choice activated.
I’m attaching screenshots and applications I use.

Thanks the inverted dialer looks awesome.
Sent from my XT1056 using Tapatalk

Would you make a version of this compatible with the standard Dialer? You realize the MotoX doesn't have the Google Dialer. I liked this one:

natezire71 said:
Would you make a version of this compatible with the standard Dialer? You realize the MotoX doesn't have the Google Dialer. I liked this one:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, unfortunatelly I'm not a developer, but I'm sure that someone can make it leaning on Nexus variants. But then, why won't you give the GN dialer a shot? It's virtually Moto x dialer + goodies. Like searching business directly in dialer or finding information about people who you calling due to the data from any website or social app?

Thanks for this. I followed your directions after reboot I opened anycut and there is no phone activity. I had the plain bright white Google dialer working on my X just fine. After replacing and changing permission and reboot it doesn't acknowledge these. I put the old Google dialer back and rebooted and it's back like it was. Not sure how to get these great looking inverted Google dialers to work.

Pwnicorn said:
Thanks for this. I followed your directions after reboot I opened anycut and there is no phone activity. I had the plain bright white Google dialer working on my X just fine. After replacing and changing permission and reboot it doesn't acknowledge these. I put the old Google dialer back and rebooted and it's back like it was. Not sure how to get these great looking inverted Google dialers to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
did you find the Google Dialer in activities? If you did and chose it, the dropdown menu should appeared and the first activity which has Phone in the name should be selected. If you didn't find that, the Google Dialer wasn't activated properly. After installation and reboot, did you see the notice that 1 application has been upgraded or something like that?

piskr said:
Hi,
did you find the Google Dialer in activities? If you did and chose it, the dropdown menu should appeared and the first activity which has Phone in the name should be selected. If you didn't find that, the Google Dialer wasn't activated properly. After installation and reboot, did you see the notice that 1 application has been upgraded or something like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't see that notification that an app was updating which I thought odd because I've inverted a lot of my apps and always got that after reboot. Just to be sure, I remove the old dialer and odex, replace with the inverted ones, fix permission, reboot, etc. Do I leave them named googledialer? I had an issue when I put the regular white google dialer on where it needed to be renamed to just "dialer". I tried it both ways though. I'm hoping I just missed something

Pwnicorn said:
I didn't see that notification that an app was updating which I thought odd because I've inverted a lot of my apps and always got that after reboot. Just to be sure, I remove the old dialer and odex, replace with the inverted ones, fix permission, reboot, etc. Do I leave them named googledialer? I had an issue when I put the regular white google dialer on where it needed to be renamed to just "dialer". I tried it both ways though. I'm hoping I just missed something
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keeping the name Google dialer is OK. But tell me, when you say that pushing the black dialer doesn't cause any app update and you can't activate it, what about the ordinary white Google dialer? How did you manage to install and enable it? Did you get it in the Application drawer or had to find it in activities?

piskr said:
Keeping the name Google dialer is OK. But tell me, when you say that pushing the black dialer doesn't cause any app update and you can't activate it, what about the ordinary white Google dialer? How did you manage to install and enable it? Did you get it in the Application drawer or had to find it in activities?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the other Google dialer I swapped out the dialer apk and renamed it dialer rebooted and it was there. The file I used didn't have an odex file just an apk. I'm wondering since I replaced the dialer with the Google one of trying to install a different one is causing a conflict. Though, even after I remove the old Google dialer it still doesn't give the apps upgrading message. I.. ugh don't know what I did with the stock dialer apk. I put it somewhere but can't find it. Wondering if I put out back how it was it shouldn't cause a conflict. Not having an unlocked BL shouldn't be an issue I don't think. Thanks for your help.

Okay, I figured it out. Since I installed the generic Google dialer before the inverted one together they're causing conflicts obviously. Alone this apk and odex won't work. Got it to work freezing the white dialer but had no way to end calls. Basically I need the moto x's stock dialer.apk . I have no idea where I put it when I switched. Searched all over. If anyone has it you'd make my day.
UPDATE. Got the stock dialer back now and have the inverted Google dialer calling. Force closes after a call is placed. Going to clear data and see if that fixes it. This has become an obsession... I've played around so much that now I have to figure out how to make it work like others have.

Pwnicorn said:
Okay, I figured it out. Since I installed the generic Google dialer before the inverted one together they're causing conflicts obviously. Alone this apk and odex won't work. Got it to work freezing the white dialer but had no way to end calls. Basically I need the moto x's stock dialer.apk . I have no idea where I put it when I switched. Searched all over. If anyone has it you'd make my day.
UPDATE. Got the stock dialer back now and have the inverted Google dialer calling. Force closes after a call is placed. Going to clear data and see if that fixes it. This has become an obsession... I've played around so much that now I have to figure out how to make it work like others have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You likely generated a conflict between two Google dialer apps. If I were you, I'd clean up everything and start form the beggining. Firstly I'd get the original dialer into function, install it, set permission, clean data and cache and reboot. Then, when I have original dialer totally working, I'd push solely the black apk and odex to the system, set permissions and reboot. That should do the job.

piskr said:
You likely generated a conflict between two Google dialer apps. If I were you, I'd clean up everything and start form the beggining. Firstly I'd get the original dialer into function, install it, set permission, clean data and cache and reboot. Then, when I have original dialer totally working, I'd push solely the black apk and odex to the system, set permissions and reboot. That should do the job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice. I put the stock dialer back. It's one from the att ROM I download and pulled out. Set permissions, cleared data, reboot. It updates on reboot though no icon is shown. I add it on my desktop with activity and launch it. Opens fine, alas when I dial a number it goes off on a fc death cycle, the only way to end the call it's through my status bar. I think that when I put the white Google dialer in I must of done something. It works fine when I put it back. The white google dialer was just an apk, no other files were included in the download and it functions as a stand alone dialer starting and ending calls all as one. I had to rename it dialer to make it work. Something in that changed it. Oh well, can't restore backups with my locked bootloader so I don't want to fiddle too much with it. I have the white Google dialer apk that functions all as one of you want to see it. Thanks again for the help.
UPDATE: I got it working! There was something wrong with the stock dialer apk I found. I dug around on my computer and found my old one. Switched some stuff out, changed 644, then yad yad..it works great. Thanks so much for the help. Oh, does the caller ID work for you?

[Q] Impact of Themes and Google Now

Hello everybody!
I'm interested in buying the Mate 8 but still have a few question I weren't able to find answers to.
I currently own a Nexus 5 and like the clean look of stock Android.
First questions are in regards to themes.
1. Do they still apply when you change the launcher or this somehow linked to the EMUI stock launcher?
2. Can you change the dropdown menu (notifications and quick settings) with these themes, too, in order to make it more like stock Android? Screenshots of the dropdown menu are rarely given.
3. How easy is it to create themes by oneself?
All in all I'd like to have a clean stock look as especially these bubbles around the icons are a pain to my eyes.
I would prefer to NOT have to flash a custom ROM.
The second part of my questions is in regard to Google Now.
1. Do you have the Google Now cards available?
2. Is Google Now on Tap working?
I hope you guys can enlighten me
Thanks in advance! :fingers-crossed:

SCHMANKii said:
Hello everybody!
I'm interested in buying the Mate 8 but still have a few question I weren't able to find answers to.
I currently own a Nexus 5 and like the clean look of stock Android.
First questions are in regards to themes.
1. Do they still apply when you change the launcher or this somehow linked to the EMUI stock launcher?
2. Can you change the dropdown menu (notifications and quick settings) with these themes, too, in order to make it more like stock Android? Screenshots of the dropdown menu are rarely given.
3. How easy is it to create themes by oneself?
All in all I'd like to have a clean stock look as especially these bubbles around the icons are a pain to my eyes.
I would prefer to NOT have to flash a custom ROM.
The second part of my questions is in regard to Google Now.
1. Do you have the Google Now cards available?
2. Is Google Now on Tap working?
I hope you guys can enlighten me
Thanks in advance! :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Do they still apply when you change the launcher or this somehow linked to the EMUI stock launcher?
EMUI themes still apply when you change launchers. You can set your custom icons on the launcher desktop, but the themed icon will still appear in other places like the recent apps screen or in notifications. So you will still see ugly rounded square or circle boarder with your icons outside of your launcher desktop. Fortunately this can be solved by installing custom EMUI theme with stock icons, which you can find here: http://foerster.io/hack-huawei-enable-pure-icons-with-no-borders-backgrounds-etc/
2. Can you change the dropdown menu (notifications and quick settings) with these themes, too, in order to make it more like stock Android? Screenshots of the dropdown menu are rarely given.
Themes can change the dropdown menu to a certain extent, mostly changing the shortcut icons. I've yet to see any theme that can make the dropdown menu look completely stock, I don't think it's possible because they operate differently. To me the EMUI dropdown UI looked decent enough (albeit in a different style) so I don't mind it so much.
3. How easy is it to create themes by oneself?
Don't know, never tried it myself.
1. Do you have the Google Now cards available?
I have the international version of the phone (L29), most google services are pre-installed including google now cards. If you get the Chinese version you'll have to install google services yourself, which I heard is a fairly easy process.
2. Is Google Now on Tap working?
You can turn on the now on tap function in google cards settings, but it doesn't seem to work when I long press the home button.
Please note that I'm still on an early EMUI build (B103) and have not yet received any OTA, I don't know if later updates changes anything.
Overall I did get a fairly decent looking UI running on my mate 8. Some UI elements will remain in EMUI style (most notably recent apps and notification dropdown and settings screen) as you can't change those without a custom ROM or at least some root hack, but I don't mind those too much, in fact I liked some of the EMUI design. The worse part of EMUI 4.0 is the launcher and the forced icon background on 3rd party apps, but like I said earlier these can all be averted with 3rd party launcher and custom theme. If you're a diehard fans for the "stock-look" who won't accept any non-material design element then this may not be good enough for you, but it is good enough for me.

@beachletter
Thank you a million times, Sir!
So did I get this right and you also tried to achieve a more or less stock look?
If so, could you please provide screenshots of your dropdown menu and maybe of your homescreen?
Did you own a Nexus phone before the Mate 8, too?
Regarding the dropdown menu of notifications: if I understand it correctly it's more or less working like a timeline, not like on other phones. This can't be changed, can it? I guess I know the answer as themes are supposed to only change the look and not the way things work, but yeah...

This is what my ui looks like after getting custom launcher and material design icon theme.
Sent from my HUAWEI NXT-L29 using XDA Free mobile app

SCHMANKii said:
@beachletter
Thank you a million times, Sir!
So did I get this right and you also tried to achieve a more or less stock look?
If so, could you please provide screenshots of your dropdown menu and maybe of your homescreen?
Did you own a Nexus phone before the Mate 8, too?
Regarding the dropdown menu of notifications: if I understand it correctly it's more or less working like a timeline, not like on other phones. This can't be changed, can it? I guess I know the answer as themes are supposed to only change the look and not the way things work, but yeah...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like stock icons and stock recent apps screen, but for notification and quick settings drop down I actually liked EMUI's implementation. I used CM and other near-stock rom in my previous phones.
See the post above for screenshots.

Alright, thanks again!
Now I have most of the information I can possibly get to make the right decision. Hopefully I will

Okay, so I've bought a Mate 8 to test things.
While it is really well designed, is nice to hold and snappy as well, I still can't get myself to like the software that much.
I have tried to apply the theme @beachletter provided but it somehow doesn't apply correctly and therefore many icons still have that bubble around it (e.g. Chrome, Play Store). Dialer and Contacts are still the same icons.
Regarding Google Now on Tap: this functionality was added with B152 firmware update which immediately showed up while setting up the device.
Additionally I have to say that the horizontal scrolling in the recent apps menu is even more unintuitive than I've thought it would be.

SCHMANKii said:
Okay, so I've bought a Mate 8 to test things.
While it is really well designed, is nice to hold and snappy as well, I still can't get myself to like the software that much.
I have tried to apply the theme @beachletter provided but it somehow doesn't apply correctly and therefore many icons still have that bubble around it (e.g. Chrome, Play Store). Dialer and Contacts are still the same icons.
Regarding Google Now on Tap: this functionality was added with B152 firmware update which immediately showed up while setting up the device.
Additionally I have to say that the horizontal scrolling in the recent apps menu is even more unintuitive than I've thought it would be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange, on my phone the dialer and contacts have separate icons (although I usually don't use contacts because I can quick dial any name in dialer to search my contact list) , and I don't see any icon background/border for chrome or play store.
Maybe you should check out the newest version of the theme here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/rooting-roms/hack-enable-pure-icons-borders-t3315731
and FYI the launcher I use is NOVA Prime
Good to know google now is back in B152. Unfortunately my phone doesn't get any OTA update above B103 yet. But at least there's no camera focusing issue on my phone, even with B103.

beachletter said:
That's strange, on my phone the dialer and contacts have separate icons (although I usually don't use contacts because I can quick dial any name in dialer to search my contact list) , and I don't see any icon background/border for chrome or play store.
Maybe you should check out the newest version of the theme here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/rooting-roms/hack-enable-pure-icons-borders-t3315731
and FYI the launcher I use is NOVA Prime
Good to know google now is back in B152. Unfortunately my phone doesn't get any OTA update above B103 yet. But at least there's no camera focusing issue on my phone, even with B103.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that bad anymore. I installed Nova Prime as well and added icon packs to fit my preferences.
But with the new theme it's working, even in the status bar! Thanks for providing the link!

SCHMANKii said:
It's not that bad anymore. I installed Nova Prime as well and added icon packs to fit my preferences.
But with the new theme it's working, even in the status bar! Thanks for providing the link!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I just switched to this theme which seems to have a more comprehensive set of material design icons:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-7/themes-apps/theme-material-emui-predaturd-p-kulkes-t3265917
You may want to give it a try.

Location of Google Settings on S7 Edge

Hi All,
Pretty sure the Google Settings was an option in the Settings menu of the notification shade - but I just can't find it. Had an update this morning (looks like March's security update) and wondering if it has moved it. It's not an app under the app drawer either.
Anyone else know where it is?

I think a google play services update got rid of that a while ago. Just go to the google folder and open "Google" and then use the hamburger menu to access the settings.

Settings-Applicastions- at bottom, there is Google settings.

shaq1907 said:
Settings-Applicastions- at bottom, there is Google settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bingo! Knew I'd seen it somewhere. Funny thing is, it doesn't show up in the settings search feature (which is a superb feature in general IMHO)