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As a Vogue owner, I use mine for GPS in the car, as well as being my media player, and also (obviously) as a phone.
This usage finds me frequently rotating the screen to the right, and turning on BT when I get in the car. Then when I get out, I have to undo those changes. It's a number of clicks to do this each time, and becoming something of a hassle.
I'm thinking of writing an application to automate the process. I wanted to get some feedback before I start.
1. Is anyone else interested in a project like this? (Note that this is just the beginning, additional functionality could be added, feel free to brainstorm!)
2. Is anyone who is interested in this project willing to beta-test this software?
Thanks for your input!
Shidell
Hm. I guess nobody else uses a screen flip & BT regularly as they enter/exit their vehicles? Or perhaps I'm uninformed on a better of way of doing so?
Comments/thoughts, anyone?
I would love to have a one button access to this too. On my Dream I have the power control widget. And although there is something similar for WinMo 6.5, its doesnt do the screen flip. Only Bluetooth.
I am not a developer, but I dont mind putting my Vogue up as a guinea pig!
bt
what do you use bt for? the external gps or to your stereo or monitor? My gps is internal myslf.
But otherwise yes I use mine for the exact same purpose, I would also like to output the video to my stereo monitor for larger view, audio is already working but I havent found anyway to output video either. I dont think you can on the touch vogue.
i keep BT on all the time (not discoverable though), and i used AEbutton Plus to set my camera button to rotate the screen when i hold it down.
mrono said:
i keep BT on all the time (not discoverable though), and i used AEbutton Plus to set my camera button to rotate the screen when i hold it down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be cool, I'd be willing to beta-test for you.
mapping the camera button to screen rotate is a work around but it's just that.......a work around. I use my camera function alot as well, this would be a neat app.
Glad to see there's some interest! I figured I wasn't alone. I was also using AEButton to map a flip, but then found I would flip, turn on BT, etc. Anyhow, on to the beta.
This is simply a proof of concept to prove it works functionally. This *should* work on all Vogues (and probably most other model phones), but again, this is still a beta.
Please note that there is no installer (.cab) package right now, nor any icon, and no application settings. When you launch the application, it will determine your screen's current orientation and flip it, and it will also determine your BT's current setting and flip it. That's all this will do in it's current state.
What I need from you:
What model phone do you have (assuming Vogue?)
Did the functionality work as I described? Any problems?
How would you change/improve this application?
I am considering adding a first-run type setup to determine how you want to run the flip--IE just turn on BT (as a shortcut), etc. Ideas?
Note: As it stands right now, V15 of NFSFAN's ROM using M2D will not "flip" orientation. Titanium is fine, but M2D doesn't like the "flip" and the screen will revert to standard orientation, even though the application runs as normal and will enable/disable BT.
Simply unzip this package and place it on your phone's memory--local, SD card, it doesn't matter. Make sure you include the .exe and the .dll. Then you can run the application by clicking it. Note that you can click and hold on the app. to send a shortcut to "Programs", to make it convenient to launch.
http://www.easy-share.com/1907580543/Vehicle_Flip.zip
Thanks!
1. I copied the zip to my documents, unzipped it, made a shortcut
2. Pressed start, selected the (non-existant!!) icon
It works!!!!
I was able to flip screen orientation back and forth.
1. Manila
It also worked for me with Manila. The actual Manila doesn't like being in landscape, but it did not revert, and I used the start menu to launch TomTom and it stayed in landscape. Orientation did flip as you stated when exiting TomTom. When selecting the application again to turn off bluetooth it did, but ther orientation flipped portrait-landscape-portrait while bluetooth turned off
2. Titanium
Worked very well
I usually use 2 things in my car (at the same time), audio manager and TomTom, I launch each separately, have TT displayed, press the red home key, then use task manager to flip to audiomanager to switch a song if I want, then back to TomTom. I was able to do all of this and the screen stayed in landscape the whole time.
Not working with Manila isn't a big deal for me, M2D never has behaved well in Landscape, but some prgrams do (audiomanager, phone canvas). I also prefer the stand alone audio manager screen for in the car because the buttons are more finger friendly than the music tab on M2D.
I would make an icon for this program, and that's about it. Sometimes simplicity is the best.
My info is in my sig. You should preview and link this thread to the dev and hacking section. You'd get more notice and feedback.
Greeat Job!!!
I just have the camera button mapped to rotate screen; and if you hold down the camera button for a while, it opens the camera. Makes rotating the screen fast and easy.
Background:
I regularly use my TP2 (Vodafone 6.5 stock ROM-for now- running TF3D) as a SatNav unit running TomTom 7.
I use Gyrator2 to auto-rotate TomTom & other apps incl Manilla
While doing this, I like to keep the device in landscape mode (it then looks like a stand-alone TomTom unit but with added bling haha!)
When actually driving I also use a BT Headset (although I dont think this is part of the issue)
Problem:
When I receive an incoming phonecall or press the phone button with TomTom running in landscape mode, a strange thing happens.
First, TomTom reverts to portrait, even thought the device is in landscape. Then the phone is displayed, also in portrait. When I hang up the call, the display reverts to TomTom, which is still in portrait.
This means I have to manually rotate the device to portrait & back to get TomTom to re-display correctly in landscape, OR leave the phone permanently in portrait mode so the phone doesnt muck up the display (which kind of negates the point of having a g-sensor!)
Observation:
1) I tried changing from Gyrator2 to ChangeScreen in case it was Gyrator that was the issue: ChangeScreen has a nifty 'vibrate' to tell you it is rotating the screen. Assuming the device is in normal portrait mode, I can press the SEND key & the phone comes up as normal: pressing 'X' at the top right returns to the TomTom screen again as normal.
However, when I press the phone send key when in landscape mode, ChangeScreen causes the phone to vibrate madly for a good second or 2 instead of the small buzz it usually does for a screen rotation, as if it is busy fighting whatever setting is trying to force the device into portrait: briefly part of the phone screen is displayed before it vanishes again returning me to the TomTom screen.
At the moment I will have no option to return to Gyrator2, but that also exhibits this strange "forcing into portrait" effect when I press SEND key or an incoming call is received. (but at least it DOES display the phone screen, albeit such that I have to turn my head sideways!)
2) if I extend the keyboard, thus forcing the device to work in landscape, I can smoothly open the phone, straight into landscape, no glitches, all working perfectly; and when the phone app is closed manually or automatically TomTom smoothly returns, again in landscape, as it should.
Questions:
Is there a way of "kidding" the TP2 I have the keyboard slid out when I dont, in order to force the phone to display correctly, OR does anyone know if a simple registry edit will prevent phone from trying desperately to force the device into portrait mode before displaying?
On my old Kaiser I had screen rotation mapped to a spare hardware key. OUr TP2's only come with ONE hardware key, which I have set to MSVC. is it possible to create a 'screen rotation' shortcut similar to what was found on my old Kaiser?
If it's of any help, I have noticed this odd effect with both the Vodafone 6.5 & generic HTC Euro 6.5 ROMS (device is HardSPL'd)
I used keyboard config to map a doubleclick to screen rotate. That way I have more control.
Getting a GPS-Fix can take a long time especially with an internal GPS receiver. If you are moving, it will even take longer to get the GPS-Fix, so when using a navi like TomTom you should wait for the fix (between a few seconds and more than 20 minutes) befor you start your trip. And when you switch of your phone (standby) or even when you close the application, the GPS module will shut off immediately. When you restart your application or switch on the phone you will have to wait to get a new GPS-fix. This will be quit fast but still annoying. I like to take geotagged pictures (footprints) but befor taking the first picture I have to wait a few minutes and if I don't keep my phone switched on all the time I have to wait another 20 seconds for each next picture.
As far as I know, there are two reasons for the GPS module to get switched of:
1. When short pressing power button (suspend state) or not useing the phone for a few minutes (unattended state) the GPS module gets switched off. This can be fixed quit easily by using these reg-keys (I am not sure if "GPS0:", "GPD0:" and "COM4:" are realy all needed?!). But this only helps if the program which uses the GPS module keeps on running even if the phone is in suspend because of the second reason:
2. When closing the last program which uses GPS, the GPS module gets switched off as well. With some programs you don't even have to close them. When you switch of your phone most of the programs (like TomTom) enter suspend state not using GPS anymore and the GPS module is shut off even if you use the reg-keys from above just because there is no program using GPS in that situation.
A small program together with the reg-keys should do the trick. This program should always run even if the phone is in suspend mode and it should interact with the MS GPS intermediat driver all the time to keep GPS alive.
Features:
- run as a service
The program should always run (hidden from taskmanager) but must not be active (keeping GPS alive) all the time.
- taskbar integration (WM6.5.x compatible)
There should be a symbol in the taskbar indicating the status of the program. Something like red for inactive, yellow for active/connecting and green for active with gps-fix. Pressing the icon should bring up a menu for activate, deactivate and config.
- Program to switch between active and inactive
With such a program it would be possible to switch the program state with an applauncher or via mortscript or you can map this program to a hardware-button. Maybe parameters like "on", "off" and "toggle" can be used with a shortcut?!
Nice to have:
- status led
Configure one of the phones LEDs as an indicator for this service. LED off = service inactive, LED blinking = connecting, LED on = GPS fix.
- auto off
User can choose after how many hours the service will deactivte itself (GPS is still usable but not always on).
- scheduler
Who needs GPS when sleeping or during work?
- multilingual
I could do the german translation!
- gps-tracking
The frequency and the location of the logfile should be configurable and there should be more parameters for the programswitcher: "trackon", "trackoff", "tracktoggle". The taskbaricon should indicate the status of the tracker as well.
- prevent suspend when switching off the phone
Programs like tomtom would keep on running even if you press the powerbutton and you could use it for audio-navigation. With the display shut off the power consumption should be much less.
These are just a few ideas I had when thinking about this program. I already searched the forum and found this interesting thread. It's the one with the reg-keys. If someone is willing to write this program he may find some useful information in that thread
Does such a program already exist? Isn't it a good idea? Will someone write this program?
PS: Sorry for my bad english!
http://www.modaco.com/content/i9x0-omnia-http-omnia-modaco-com/303583/gps-keep-alive-v1-3/
Is this what you need?
Download: http://www.4shared.com/get/s_7izPqr/GPS_Controller_CAB_v1_3.html
Looks very promissing but I still have to do a bit more testing.
Hey everyone! I just got an XZ1C myself a few days ago, and I'd like to share a few of the little quality of life changes I personally use to make the everyday experience with this phone more to how I like it. I figured maybe everyone could contribute a few ideas here and there to help other users deal with things they might be frustrated with, but not know a solution for.
A couple of notes - I gave up the root life a while ago, so all of these solutions are non-root! Also, some of these apps are paid apps (though they might have lite or free versions). Sorry! But as a software developer myself, I have the obligation to pay it forward when I find a nice app.
So here goes!
Making the volume keys default to Media Volume:
Having owned a Samsung phone before, this is one of the things I miss most in almost any other Android phone. But, as they say, there's an app for that! There's a very simple app called Media Volume Only (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=catchpower.gogo.mediavolumeonly&hl=en), which binds your volume keys to Media by default. It asks for Call permissions to see if you're in a call, where it will then bind the volume keys to call volume. Otherwise, it will always be Media, which is great!
However, that means there isn't a super easy way to changing your ring volume, unless you first press the volume key to bring up the sliders and hitting the down arrow to show the rest of the sliders....which brought me to:
Re-adding the missing Ring/Vibrate Mode switch to quick switches:
I am using Central Europe .374 + US oem file to get Fingerprint+VoLTE on T-mobile; I'm not sure if it's because of the CE1 region or whatever else, but I couldn't find any button in the quick settings that would just toggle the phone to ring mode, vibrate mode or silent.
To remedy this, I use Shortcutter (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leedroid.shortcutter&hl=en). This allows you to enable a ton of different switches in the quick settings dropdown, though some of them may not work properly without root and only with other phones. After installing Shortcutter, swipe over to the "Pull-Down" tab, then hit "System Setting Tiles". In this list, scroll down and you'll find "Ring Mode". Turning this switch on will put the Ring Mode icon into the box of icons you can edit your quick settings with. Finally, pull down your quick settings, click the pencil icon to modify the quick settings and scroll down to find Ring Mode.
This way, it's easy to switch the phone to silent before going into a movie, or a meeting at work.
Fixing the crazy stock backlight control:
The stock backlight is a little crazy right now. It jumps around when the room is dark and it does not transition smoothly. A great app for controlling backlight is Lux (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vito.lux&hl=en). It even allows you to keep different profiles and define exactly how bright you want the screen to be in any lighting situation, and it will keep a map of your selections for you! You can control all sorts of variables, like how quickly it will transition, if it should only transition given what % of lighting change, so on and so forth. It's really very powerful and useful. I haven't had any trouble with the XZ1C display since installing Lux, which I've used on previous phones as well. Highly recommend this one! There's a free version called Lux Lite (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitocassisi.luxlite&hl=en), but I've never tried it so YMMV.
Alternative for No Double Tap to Wake (or not having Ambient Display):
This is another one I have almost always used on phones that aren't Nexii/Pixel or Motorola. Gravity Screen (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plexnor.gravityscreenofffree&hl=en) gives you a ton of different ways to automatically wake up the phone to the lockscreen. I find that using ONLY the Proximity Sensor setting to turn ON the screen (and turning everything else off) has negligible effect on the battery, and maintains extreme usefulness. With just that setting, when my phone is on the desk I can poke the phone where the proximity sensor is (as if I one-tap it) and it will wake up. If I take the phone out of my pocket, the phone turns on and is already waiting for me by the time I look at it. Super convenient!
UPDATE: Another user (quack3d) mentioned the app WaveUp(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jarsilio.android.waveup) which does exactly how I have Gravity Screen set up. If you want just that, this seems to be a great and simpler alternative! Thanks!
If you want more options, it has all sorts of other things like turn on by motion, etc. etc....I personally don't use those though, so I can't vouch for how well they work.
Double Tap to Sleep
I'm pretty sure you have to pay for this one, but Nova Launcher Prime (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.launcher.prime&hl=en) is an incredible launcher, and it allows you to specify custom gestures on the desktop. The gestures can trigger all sorts of things, one of which is Screen Lock. If you select the Time-Out method of locking the screen, it will work with fingerprint unlocking.
Custom Auto-Rotation Switching:
Normally, I don't like auto-rotation. I use my phone a lot in bed (lying sideways), but I still want to use it in portrait. So, I prefer to have my phone default to NO auto-rotation. That being said, it's annoying when you pull up a funny gif or the photo album or youtube and you want to just flip your phone over to watch a video. Sure, you can drag down the quicksettings and flip that switch, but there's a better way! That's where Automate (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.llamalab.automate&hl=en) comes in! Automate allows you to program your phone to do just about anything (especially if you have root) based on custom triggers.
In Automate, if first select "More flows..." and search for a script called "Auto Enable Rotation" by the author Anthony Beaumont. Once you download this script and run it, it will present you with 2 options, either to "start" the script service, or to "modify" the list of apps. You'll want to "modify" the list of apps and start a new one. To this, you can add apps such as Album, Youtube, Twitch and whatever else you want to watch in landscape mode. Finally, once that's done, stop the script and start it again, but this time select "start". (You can also select in the 3 dot menu to have this script run at start-up. Highly recommended!) Now, when you open Album/Youtube/Twitch etc. the phone should automatically flip to auto-rotation.
Enter all your app and website passwords automatically with fingerprint:
For better or for worse, I keep all of my online passwords saved in Lastpass. It turns out that once you have an account and saved passwords, Lastpass has an incredible app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lastpass.lpandroid&hl=en) that can pop up over Chrome and just about any other app on your phone that can fill in the username/password fields for you using your fingerprint! It doesn't work for all the different browsers out there (I just use Chrome), and there may have been a pay wall for the in-app password filling, I forgot (sorry!). That said, it's super convenient to head to any site and just tap the fingerprint to log in.
Additionally, if you're a Lastpass user already, they also have a Lastpass Authenticator (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lastpass.authenticator&hl=en) that works in place of the Google Authenticator (you can add Google Authenticator 2factor sites to the LastPass one), which is IMHO superior because the keys are linked to your account rather than to the physical phone. Also, if you have LP Authenticator + the Chrome addon on your PC/Mac, on some sites you don't even have to enter the Authenticator number, you can just press "approve" on your phone to get into the website on your PC. Awesome!
Send links from your PC to phone or phone to PC
Ever read something on your PC and wish you could link it to your phone super quickly and not have to go through emailing it to yourself? I use Pushbullet (Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pushbullet.android&hl=en PC: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pushbullet/chlffgpmiacpedhhbkiomidkjlcfhogd?hl=en), which allows you to directly link webpages from PC to phone and vice versa. Additionally, if you give it the permissions, it can hook up your phone's notifications to your Windows notifications (not sure about mac), including allowing you to read and send SMS from your PC. I believe it also has file transfer capabilities, but I don't use it.
I think that's it for now...I'll add more when I think of them. These are just a few of the mods I run which makes using the phone more effortless and enjoyable; please, feel free to add more and I'll add them to the list if there's something you want to share! Hope this helps someone out there!:highfive:
maidguitar said:
Re-adding the missing Ring/Vibrate Mode switch to quick switches:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alternative implementation that I use: Add a toggle on the home screen to quickly switch between Ring/Vibrate/Silent modes
First install Media-Mute [free & ad-free]. What this app does is automatically mute the media volume whenever the ringer volume is also muted, which applies to both Vibrate mode and Silent mode.
For some reason, since Android 4.x Google has decided that Silent mode should only apply to the ringer, instead of silencing everything that can make sounds out of the speaker. Media-Mute fixes that.
Next, install Silent Mode Toggle [free & ad-free], then add the widget on the home screen. Switching modes is now super easy, just tap on the toggle.
What I really appreciate about this app is that it allows customization to the toggle order. For example, I never use the vibrate mode, so I can set it to toggle between Ringer > Silent only.
As a bonus, it also lets you use your own custom icons for the toggle, super cool and makes it possible to perfectly complement your home screen layout.
Hide the annoying "running in the background" notification that comes with Android 8.0
With Android 8.0 Oreo, Google thought it would be a great idea to permanently remind you of any background processing currently running in the form of an impossible to dismiss notification.
While the intention was well meaning, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Thankfully, there's an app for that! Just install this cleverly named app Hide "running in the background" Notification [free & ad-free], problem solved!
Vibrate phone when call connects, ends
Yet another app to the rescue! VibCall [free & ad-free] brings this useful feature found on some OEM phones to any compatible Android device.
Basically, your phone will vibrate once to let you know that a call has connected, and twice when a call has ended. It's something that once you've used, you wonder why it's not baked into the Android system as a default option.
Add a fingerprint (Smart Lock) compatible screen lock toggle on the home screen
So Sony has unilaterally decided to remove double tap to sleep feature with no sign of bring it back. But I still want to turn off the screen and lock the device by tapping on the screen instead of waiting for the system to hibernate or hitting the power button.
The OP listed a paid solution which brings back double tap to sleep, but for those looking for a free alternative, this is the solution I'm currently using - Smart Screen Lock Pro [free & ad-free].
It's not a double tap anywhere convenience, but a toggle that is better than nothing, and most importantly it's compatible with fingerprint unlock. I've tried numerous screen off apps in the Play store, and this is the only one that I was satisfied with.
IMPORTANT: Take the time to carefully read and follow setup instructions, it's necessary for it to work properly due to OS restrictions. Once it's setup correctly, simply add a shortcut on the home screen and tap it to lock.
It's worth mentioning that it's not a true "instant" screen off and lock, but without root this is probably the best solution we'll get.
Non-root ad blocking
Ads are a necessary evil for the current economics of the Internet, but aside from the annoyance factor, they eat up precious mobile data, plus there's also very real security risks with ad networks, potentially hogging your phone's resources and draining the battery.
Whatever the argument, if you do decide to block ads, there are quite a lot of ad blockers to choose from.
Personally, I use dns66 [free & ad-free]. In my experience, it's very lightweight, and I haven't seen any ads in my browser or apps.
It does have its quirks though, sometimes downloads fail, such as OTA update or file in browser, for one reason or another (the author says it's a bug with the Android OS itself, see linked post).
But it's easy to workaround, just temporarily disable dns66 by tapping pause on the notification, and download again. After download has completed, tap the notification again to resume.
By the way, this is also the main reason I installed the hide background notification app.
I'm messing around with an app called Automate to try and create an automatic action to launch Dex when my Bluetooth keyboard is connected. It looks like I would need a command to actually launch Dex. I downloaded Quick Shortcut Maker to see if I could make a shortcut to do this but out of the options it has for Dex, none will do it as far as I can tell. So I am trying to figure out how Dex launches from the Quick Settings Panel, and use that method instead. Anyone have any luck with this?
Try and see how the other Quick Panel buttons work. Figure out how to turn Wifi on/off; Auto-rotation on/off. The flashlight would be a good one, too, since it's primarily only in the Quick Tile.
I have the Samsung keyboard, so there are the connectors on the side of the keyboard that when the case/table are connected controls turning Dex on and off.