Hey Vjaayyyyyyyy The new rom has a gap in the bottom of the connection manager. Do you know of anyway to overcome this?
Mike
Getting the same problem
How annoying
Hmm, haven't looked into it yet. I've not touched the new ROM yet, but my Universal rom is so screwed due to the stuff I do to it, I think it's time for a refresh. what rom are you using?
On the Phone Dialer, all we needed to do was copy in two bitmaps to replace the originals. Send me over a copy of the manager, or otherwise point me to the rom, and I'll see if I can do similar. At least this one is more VGA compatible then the last few. Try resource hacking it to see if it corrects it.
BTW - Sctojen - I notice you've still got the vertically offset (ie incorrect) titlebar text. Have you tried changing the font or playing with your window metrics (try CETuner to play with this stuff). I'm using a font called VJNina, posted somewhere or other on the board.
V
Vijay the following is the test imate rom I am using. Everything else rendering wise is fine.
i-Mate JasJar (PU10) Rom 1.30.68 WWE
Radio 1.09.00
Protocol 42.42.P8
Vj.
Not to sure what you mean by the horizontal text. Am Guessing from what i could make out do you use VJninja as like a system font. If so i will do a search and give it a try.
Also i notice in your screen shot you have got a nice looking battery bar sitting at the top of your screen where did you get this from.
Unfortunatly the new imate test rom comes with battery icon below (couldn't really get a good screen shot as it was in charging mode but with yours i notice you get several little bars with the 1 in the new imate rom the icon has just 2 big bars full and half full yours looks a little bit mor accurate. i would like to find out how to remove the one on mine and give yours a try.
Many thanks for all your help mate.
Scott
scotjen1: the vertical offset of your caption - in your screenshot, "Start" is touching the top of the caption bar. In mine, it's in the middle where it should be. This can be fixed, someone asked me once how I did it, I can't remember, but basically I use VJNina as my system font and CETuner to fix my "metrics". Have a look in the VGA thread for details (I think). But that's just cosmetic.
Battery bar - no idea. I thought it was built in. I'm not running much 3rd party stuff on my universal, since I only use it for development. I don't think I ran the extended rom cabs, so again, I'm not sure. I'll have to upgrade to the new rom soon and start playing. I haven't had time to look into any of it yet Busy weekend coding...
V
vijay555 said:
Battery bar - no idea. I thought it was built in. I'm not running much 3rd party stuff on my universal, since I only use it for development. I don't think I ran the extended rom cabs, so again, I'm not sure. I'll have to upgrade to the new rom soon and start playing. I haven't had time to look into any of it yet Busy weekend coding...
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think your battery bar is from SmallMenu/Plus (I think you told me once that you used this?). You can turn it on/off in the SmallMenu settings. (well - it certainly looks like the smallmenu battery indicator!)
man, do I have egg on my face.
Riceburner is correct, that's the battery icon from SmallMenu. You know, I never noticed? I use smallmenu on my Magician, which is my day to day phone, but I disable the battery icon because I use my VJToggleToday/PhoneAlarm hack instead. My universal hasn't been modded much at all yet by me, so I must have just left the icon on and not noticed. It's useful though.
V
For those interested, here's a link to the Nina font,
http://www.vijay555.com/nina.zip
and VJNina, a cut down version 1/2 of the size, but removing certain rarely used (by me) international characters.
http://www.vijay555.com/vjnina.zip
V
VJ, i guess its got nothing to do with the font. I had the start caption at an offset when i used to use OZvga to make the reg changes. I guess ozvga messes with some unwanted reg setting screwing it up....
However, if you copy the corresponding dlls (with 96dpi), and change the LogicalPixels reg values, the caption is center alligned!
Cheers,
San
Does anyone have the problem I have with the new rom, the new battery icon up on top bar still says its plugged into power when you unplug it from the computer, if I reset it it fixes it. Does anyone know how to fix this.
dreamtheater39: I'm sure it's not just the font, no reason why it would be. But I monkey around with various metrics, scrollbar size etc, as soon as I change resolution. So it's one of those. Not sure which, I just always play with a few by default... seems to correct the problem itself.
I just use VJNina because I find it a neater font then Tahoma at those resolutions. It's a hangover from my SPV days.
V
seal said:
Does anyone have the problem I have with the new rom, the new battery icon up on top bar still says its plugged into power when you unplug it from the computer, if I reset it it fixes it. Does anyone know how to fix this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this problem too. Only when using Real VGA though, so my guess is that it's a problem with a slightly incompatible 96 dpi .dll file? (Of course, I don't really know what I'm talking about here, so feel free to expose my ignorance, everybody! )
dreamtheater39 said:
VJ, i guess its got nothing to do with the font. I had the start caption at an offset when i used to use OZvga to make the reg changes. I guess ozvga messes with some unwanted reg setting screwing it up....
However, if you copy the corresponding dlls (with 96dpi), and change the LogicalPixels reg values, the caption is center alligned!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The issue is with the system font size. For some reason, if you try to increase the size of the system font on WM5 it leaves the font at the same size, but raises it up. By default OzVGA tries to increase the size of all of the fonts when you switch to VGA mode. If you want to continue to use OzVGA and you don't want to deal with this, just go into the settings and change the System Font size for VGA mode to 900.
Brett
Brett
Worked a treat
Thanks
scotjen1 said:
Getting the same problem
How annoying
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, i am also getting this problem, I ahve patched with other utilities. Except this one.
Any one please suggest the changes to be done. Cheers
Hello,
First of all - I'd like to thank everybody for their support especially Kavana and Ricky for cooking these 6.1 ROMS. Wonderful Job !
Secondly, I finally got to installing 6.1 but still haven't made any modifications except restore sms/contacts and install smart tool kit. I love it - it's pretty fast compared to wm6.
The issues that I'm having is the following:
1) Colors - Say if i want Sliding Panel as my theme, how do i go about getting a black one and having a black background - sorry if it's been covered already.
2) SMS - I had almost 200 + SMS from my girlfriend that i had backed up and after installing 6.1, i restored them all only to find out, everything is in order now that is - for example
all incoming sms organized into sub-folders.
A
B
C
Even though this is cool, I don't prefer it and would like to go back to how it used to be before, that is all sms sorted by date - i'm having a hard time reading all her sms so if someone can please tell me what to do in regards to this, that'd be great.
3) Finally, I find that the system fonts pretty small compared to wm6, what can i do to change this?
For now, I think this will be all. I'd appreciate it if someone could help me solve these issues.
hmm, noone has a solution? I'd really appreciate it.
Some Resolution
lukybandit said:
Hello,
1) Colors - Say if i want Sliding Panel as my theme, how do i go about getting a black one and having a black background - sorry if it's been covered already.
3) Finally, I find that the system fonts pretty small compared to wm6, what can i do to change this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Answers:
1) Go to settings, home. Select Sliding Panel. Under the section that says color scheme, select black. Also, as far as having a black background, find one you like. Open it with your phone using file explorer. Select it as homescreen under the menu tab using the right soft key.
2) No help here
3) Edit your xml code and select different fonts for what pieces you want. You might also have to look at your .cpr file and edit it as well. Just use notepad to edit either one of these. Just look in the file for lines that refer to fonts like Lucidia Grand, or Times New Roman, etc. You get the picture? I hope so, good luck.
Thanks for your help!
LOL - I feel like a noob, even though i've done pretty much everything with this phone with WM6, i guess 6.1 cause of the new interface and all - i figured everything i wanted so far, haven't gotten the fonts yet but will do so but yeah got the sms threading disabled, got rid of clockontop, changed my background etc.
Hi everyone, I am a cooker ( doing great things, but mainly a noob one compared to some masters out there ) .
Cooking on the Omnia I900 & Acer S200 ( french rom only), these devices have low memory.
For example the acer S200 only has 256mb of ram, but mainly the same hardware than the powerful HD2(except ram....:-( )
Arto ( great cooker of the Acer S200 scene ) has found that removing the start menu completely gains 15mb Ram on our devices ( by fooling the system with empty .cpr grid, icons caches aren't generated.)
This can help people make really light roms!!! The main problem now is the we don't have here a real startmenu alternative, a eye candy one than keep the spirit of our devices... Quickmenu is functionnal but not too beautiful.
After many searches over xda, the only thing I found was Quickmenu and the sense Startmenu replacement ( I modded the kenia1234 startmenu replacement to give it 5 columns, here is the work : 5 columns start sense2.5 menu replacement )
I don't know why developper aren't interested in making a real , fast and beautiful startmenu replacement ( with full fonctionnality, at least control panel wikth .cpl files abilty, and even more folder architecture, fullscreen, lightweight ),
but here is the request or that, If others than me are interested, please reply and tell your needs, to help developpers...
Something like Panoramic Launchpad would be great!
Last week I started creating a startmenu alternative. It's very underdeveloped, and I have no idea when it's finished, but to give you an idea I attached two screenshots.
It still lacks a couple of features (if someone can point me in the right direction, please do so ):
- no control panel items yet
- no icon transparency (I got that working, but it was horribly slow)
- no background (because of the lack of transparency)
- no hook on the hardware windows key (like quickmenu)
- no hook on the software start button (like ameba does on winmo 6.5.x)
- if there's no png file attached to a link, no icon is displayed
But the other basics are working:
- starting programs by clicking (yes I know, very basic )
- flipping pages by swyping your finger (left->right, right->left, up->down, down->up)
- opening folders, and going back up one level with the left soft button (just like the usual start menu)
I actually started this because I'm not a fan of the hexagon grid styled start menu, not because of memory issues. I did take a look at the current memory usage of my start menu, and currently it is 1.41MB. But that will grow with more icons and transparency I guess.
If you're interested I can continue developing this startmenu.
The most important thing to me is ram usage, the lower it is the best it is,
the png file limitation to display an icon should be reconsidered, the ability to display native icon is much more important, or, much easily to program, you can make your app request the "HKLM\Security\StartInfo\Start\myprog.lnk" key to read the icon you should display, if nothing is entered, lets just start the native icon.
This is important to make your startmenu replacement user friendly. nobody likes assigning manually an icon to an app, having the ability to do it is good, but the most important for the users is that your program automaticaly displays the native icon like the start menu does.
To use cpl, you just have to use a ctlpnl.exe command line, like this :
ctpnl.exe mycpl.cpl
if cpl has multiple tab, ctpnl.exe mycpl.cpl,1 ( where the number is the tab you want to be open)
for cpl files, I thinks its the big part of the job :-(
What I meant with:
- if there's no png file attached to a link, no icon is displayed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My program uses the icons set in HKLM\Security\Shell\StartInfo\Start, but if it's an older program, there might not be a high resolution icon, and in that case I won't display any icon. That's something I will fix ofcourse.
I'll have a look at the cpl files, and I guess google will help me there as well.
Also looking for a way to show my startmenu instead of the winmo startmenu, but no luck so far. If anybody knows how to catch when the winmo startmenu is activated in c#, please let me know.
Hi guys
Have you ever heard of iPhoneToday http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633618 ? It's so light and configurable
XTask has a good looking, light start menu replacement.
If you leave out the start_icon.png's, then the native icons are used. The 6.5 start menu also slows down boot time dramatically. Just delete all the shortcuts, soft reset, and check the millisecondtoidlethread in hkcu/performance. Boot time may be 20-30 seconds faster.
vinvv said:
Last week I started creating a startmenu alternative. It's very underdeveloped, and I have no idea when it's finished, but to give you an idea I attached two screenshots.
...
If you're interested I can continue developing this startmenu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This certainly looks very interesting! Please continue, I also hate the honeycomb (as many people around).
I like this
vinvv said:
What I meant with:
My program uses the icons set in HKLM\Security\Shell\StartInfo\Start, but if it's an older program, there might not be a high resolution icon, and in that case I won't display any icon. That's something I will fix ofcourse.
I'll have a look at the cpl files, and I guess google will help me there as well.
Also looking for a way to show my startmenu instead of the winmo startmenu, but no luck so far. If anybody knows how to catch when the winmo startmenu is activated in c#, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi m8
I also hate the startmenu but this is cose it eats arround 30mb of ram...
There is a way to disable the default startmenu ....
Look this post its working fine on Blackstone NRG roms.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7911317&postcount=16270
I just dont like the replacement menu or the quickmenu
Your app can be assigned to startmenu button with ameba
If can i help with your project on this just let know
Also keep in mind that many shells (Throttle Launcher, Mobile Shell etc) read the data to load program shortcuts from the start menu, so that the replacement has to take care of that too.
what do you think about wisbar 4? would this be an alternative to quick menu? i was using this prog. a year ago and i was totaly impressed. now i use it again together with the new energy rom from august 28. after the replacement from the start menu i have real nice and fast blackstone
First off; I love Android. I think that Ice Cream Sandwich has led to a greater harmonisation of the Android operating system and adds a bit of polish to something functional. Google's apps are starting to feel like they belong together, rather than giving a sense that they're being produced by different teams who have little contact.
However, I'm no fanboy. I don't buy a product and deny that it has flaws just because a certain company produced it *ahem *. So here it is; one humble man's opinion on what's wrong with Ice cream Sandwich.
1. Blue theme.... really? There's a reason that designers avoid blue-on-black. It offers poor contrast, and looks cheap; much like the Geocities sites of the 90s. The blue taskbar and app icons used in ICS just don't go with... well... anything. It's all well and good being able to customise your home screen, but when anything except a blue background clashes it's all a little redundant.
2. The stock icons themselves are disgusting. We all knew this from the leaked screenshots, which forums were praying were fake. Mostly, they just don't look like they belong to the same set. There's no consistency. Half are blue, half are not. Some are three dimensional, and some are traditional, flat icons. Some are different sizes. They just don't work. They look cheap, childish and don't match the 'magazine' style of the UI overhaul. It's like someone realised at the last minute that they'd forgotten to redesign icons, so just did a Google Image search and used the first of each that they found.
3. Google Plus pages won't open in the Android Browser. This one is just plain embarrassing. Google's flagship device can't view Google's new hub outside of the restrictive app? The browser just panics and shuts down with no option to report it. Did no-one test this?
4. Google Talk isn't in the sharing options. That's right, click on the share icon within an app and it'll show you every way of sharing except Google Talk. Following the above, it seems like Google is boycotting their own services.
5. Speech to text for UK language setting is insane. After a few words, it seemingly switches to using your contacts directory as a dictionary, rather than real words. You end up with a full sentence made entirely of surnames and forenames. I cannot believe that no-one tested this.
6. Removing the search key doesn't just remove the ability to search from some apps; it means that you can no longer assign functions to long press, or use voice command from any app. You have to return to the home screen each time. This is a huge step backwards.
7. Similarly, this has led to a non-removable search box on the home screen. Not only does it take up space, but the white icon doesn't work on a light background. The customisability of Android has just been taken down another notch. Sure, you can use a 3rd party launcher, but with no search button, you need the box there for searches.
8. A minor point, but Android can't seem to decide if going for a futuristic hologram look, or the Windows Phone 7 style magazine layout. It's like Mathias Duarte turned up, and they said “Make our OS beautiful... but it still has to look like ugly old Honeycomb (TRON)." All in, it just feels a bit cheap and confused.
9. The soft keys which Google has opted for in ICS are not well positioned. The home key is far too close to the space bar, which is infuriating when typing.
10. The action bar is horrific to use. It means that the menu and search keys jump around the screen. So you're in the Facebook app and want to see the menu. Where is it? Well it's not where it used to be and there's no action bar. Oh wait, three dots have appeared in the soft-key bar. Ugly and inconsistent, but OK.
Switch to messaging. Where the heck is it? Ah it's in the top right now! The little scamp.
Now you're in Gmail. Where is the menace? I know you're here somewhere... Ah, there! In the action bar in the bottom right. Android Market: back up top! There is just no consistency and it makes everything feel disjointed and unpredictable.
The action bar essentially negates the large screen on the Galaxy Nexus. The row of soft keys, plus the action bar actually leads to a lower proportion of screen space for the app than on previous versions of Android.
11. Cut, Copy & Paste: What the hell were they thinking?! This doesn't just jump around based on app, but depending on which page of an app you're in. And even then, the buttons are different every time.
Take Gmail for example. Copying text from the body of an email: a menu appears in place of the action bar at the bottom. However, in the 'compose' screen this menu appears at the top, but with different icons. Another 'paste' button (but not using the paste icon) also appears above the selected text, but no cut or copy buttons. If you try and make a selection from a link, a long press summons a pop-up dialogue where paste is an option. That is four ways of pasting, just within the Gmail app.
Not to mention, that they've opted for icons with no words. Unless you're accustomed to using old Windows machines, this may as well be code. It's like it's intentionally trying to confuse you.
12. Relationships with app vendors must be non-existent. If I was releasing an update to a platform which relies upon people being able to install apps, I'd make sure that the most common apps work on the new platform before release. This could involve providing phones and assistance to the big names. As it stands, neither Facebook nor Whatsapp (two of the top 5 most downloaded apps) work. Both of these are communications related. I feel cut off from the world. I'm sure this could have been sorted before release. Swype is another big name that doesn't support the screen resolution.
Google launched the Galaxy Nexus weeks ago. Facebook was initially unusable due to the absence of a menu button. The app was updated today to a version akin to the iPhone. However, the drag-to- refresh animations don't work as they should, and the damn thing will alert you of 'new messages' every 30 minutes if you have any unread, regardless of whether or not they are new. Atop this, Facebook will still not sync with official Google devices as Facebook does not properly use Google's contact API. Rather than being stubborn, Google should be helping Facebook, or seconding engineers, as they know full well that the majority of their users will require his service.
I appreciate that a lot of this is out of Google's hands, but this is just a warning to early-adopters – be prepared to lose the services you use most.
13. The browser is still useless with forms. Try entering text in a field. It'll type past the edge of your viewport and you can't scroll to the cursor. The viewport should follow the cursor. You can't zoom in and out because you can't get 'hold' of the web page due to the full-screen text entry field.
14. Horizontal lines everywhere. Did I mention that text fields are now horizontal lines? Text boxes are indistinguishable from divides and text doesn't sit on the lines so you never know where one ends and the other starts.
As I said, all in, it is an improvement. However, there is a heck of a lot of room for improvement. There is still a feeling that things aren't really designed, or connected; just a bit haphazard. I'm just hoping Cyanogen pulls something wonderful. For the standard consumer, the experience aspect is still playing catchup with Windows Phone and iOS.
I agree with most of what you are saying... nothing makes me angrier than trying to use google search on android's mobile browser, and not being able to add additional words onto the end of my search string because I can't Freaking scroll the text over to enter it in. (I do think this is a webpage issue possible though, because it happens on iphone as well)
I think they should have gotten rid of the flip button (task switcher button) and have that be the settings button, then just have the HOME button be a long press for task switching.... simple, effective, makes sense.. consistent. I guess having settings in the app allows developers to have more control, but I think consistency would be better.
mike freegan said:
First off; I love Android. I think that Ice Cream Sandwich has led to a greater harmonisation of the Android operating system and adds a bit of polish to something functional. Google's apps are starting to feel like they belong together, rather than giving a sense that they're being produced by different teams who have little contact.
However, I'm no fanboy. I don't buy a product and deny that it has flaws just because a certain company produced it *ahem *. So here it is; one humble man's opinion on what's wrong with Ice cream Sandwich.
1. Blue theme.... really? There's a reason that designers avoid blue-on-black. It offers poor contrast, and looks cheap; much like the Geocities sites of the 90s. The blue taskbar and app icons used in ICS just don't go with... well... anything. It's all well and good being able to customise your home screen, but when anything except a blue background clashes it's all a little redundant.
2. The stock icons themselves are disgusting. We all knew this from the leaked screenshots, which forums were praying were fake. Mostly, they just don't look like they belong to the same set. There's no consistency. Half are blue, half are not. Some are three dimensional, and some are traditional, flat icons. Some are different sizes. They just don't work. They look cheap, childish and don't match the 'magazine' style of the UI overhaul. It's like someone realised at the last minute that they'd forgotten to redesign icons, so just did a Google Image search and used the first of each that they found.
3. Google Plus pages won't open in the Android Browser. This one is just plain embarrassing. Google's flagship device can't view Google's new hub outside of the restrictive app? The browser just panics and shuts down with no option to report it. Did no-one test this?
4. Google Talk isn't in the sharing options. That's right, click on the share icon within an app and it'll show you every way of sharing except Google Talk. Following the above, it seems like Google is boycotting their own services.
5. Speech to text for UK language setting is insane. After a few words, it seemingly switches to using your contacts directory as a dictionary, rather than real words. You end up with a full sentence made entirely of surnames and forenames. I cannot believe that no-one tested this.
6. Removing the search key doesn't just remove the ability to search from some apps; it means that you can no longer assign functions to long press, or use voice command from any app. You have to return to the home screen each time. This is a huge step backwards.
7. Similarly, this has led to a non-removable search box on the home screen. Not only does it take up space, but the white icon doesn't work on a light background. The customisability of Android has just been taken down another notch. Sure, you can use a 3rd party launcher, but with no search button, you need the box there for searches.
8. A minor point, but Android can't seem to decide if going for a futuristic hologram look, or the Windows Phone 7 style magazine layout. It's like Mathias Duarte turned up, and they said “Make our OS beautiful... but it still has to look like ugly old Honeycomb (TRON)." All in, it just feels a bit cheap and confused.
9. The soft keys which Google has opted for in ICS are not well positioned. The home key is far too close to the space bar, which is infuriating when typing.
10. The action bar is horrific to use. It means that the menu and search keys jump around the screen. So you're in the Facebook app and want to see the menu. Where is it? Well it's not where it used to be and there's no action bar. Oh wait, three dots have appeared in the soft-key bar. Ugly and inconsistent, but OK.
Switch to messaging. Where the heck is it? Ah it's in the top right now! The little scamp.
Now you're in Gmail. Where is the menace? I know you're here somewhere... Ah, there! In the action bar in the bottom right. Android Market: back up top! There is just no consistency and it makes everything feel disjointed and unpredictable.
The action bar essentially negates the large screen on the Galaxy Nexus. The row of soft keys, plus the action bar actually leads to a lower proportion of screen space for the app than on previous versions of Android.
11. Cut, Copy & Paste: What the hell were they thinking?! This doesn't just jump around based on app, but depending on which page of an app you're in. And even then, the buttons are different every time.
Take Gmail for example. Copying text from the body of an email: a menu appears in place of the action bar at the bottom. However, in the 'compose' screen this menu appears at the top, but with different icons. Another 'paste' button (but not using the paste icon) also appears above the selected text, but no cut or copy buttons. If you try and make a selection from a link, a long press summons a pop-up dialogue where paste is an option. That is four ways of pasting, just within the Gmail app.
Not to mention, that they've opted for icons with no words. Unless you're accustomed to using old Windows machines, this may as well be code. It's like it's intentionally trying to confuse you.
12. Relationships with app vendors must be non-existent. If I was releasing an update to a platform which relies upon people being able to install apps, I'd make sure that the most common apps work on the new platform before release. This could involve providing phones and assistance to the big names. As it stands, neither Facebook nor Whatsapp (two of the top 5 most downloaded apps) work. Both of these are communications related. I feel cut off from the world. I'm sure this could have been sorted before release. Swype is another big name that doesn't support the screen resolution.
Google launched the Galaxy Nexus weeks ago. Facebook was initially unusable due to the absence of a menu button. The app was updated today to a version akin to the iPhone. However, the drag-to- refresh animations don't work as they should, and the damn thing will alert you of 'new messages' every 30 minutes if you have any unread, regardless of whether or not they are new. Atop this, Facebook will still not sync with official Google devices as Facebook does not properly use Google's contact API. Rather than being stubborn, Google should be helping Facebook, or seconding engineers, as they know full well that the majority of their users will require his service.
I appreciate that a lot of this is out of Google's hands, but this is just a warning to early-adopters – be prepared to lose the services you use most.
13. The browser is still useless with forms. Try entering text in a field. It'll type past the edge of your viewport and you can't scroll to the cursor. The viewport should follow the cursor. You can't zoom in and out because you can't get 'hold' of the web page due to the full-screen text entry field.
14. Horizontal lines everywhere. Did I mention that text fields are now horizontal lines? Text boxes are indistinguishable from divides and text doesn't sit on the lines so you never know where one ends and the other starts.
As I said, all in, it is an improvement. However, there is a heck of a lot of room for improvement. There is still a feeling that things aren't really designed, or connected; just a bit haphazard. I'm just hoping Cyanogen pulls something wonderful. For the standard consumer, the experience aspect is still playing catchup with Windows Phone and iOS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yawns, i respect your opinion. But i can list 15 things wrong with IOS5 as well. Overall ICS and android has matured over the few years android has existed. No product software/hardware is perfect. Most of the issues can be corrected with customization. Like i said i respect your complaints and opinions, but i just feel they are picky...Comparing the OS from my G1 to what android is now, i LOVE IT
Thanks for typing this up. While I still plan on buying it, I like to get a well-rounded opinion about the device and software. I have to agree with #12. Launching this device exclusively on one carrier and then delaying it is very embarrasing. I know, the better developers will have a Verizon account or buy the phone unlocked from an international dealer, but still not good. It makes it more difficult for app developers to work their apps for ICS.
I had to laugh at Eric Schmidt's thought that ICS will be #1 for development in 6 months. ICS wont be off exclusivity or on any other devices for at least 3 months.
First of all, the theme Android has used for Honeycomb and ICS - holographic, blue themes, etc. - is awesome. Everybody has their own opinion but for me it's no turn off.
As far as action button placement, Google's central idea on that is leave it to the developer to say where it goes - in the top bar? Bottom ribbon action bar? Wherever is more appropriate for the app design. Matias himself said he's pushing Android to a more unified UI style without straight-jacketing it (ala iOS).
As for apps being compatible with new releases, it's up to the developers to keep that up. Google is not responsible for if Swype or Facebook doesn't update their app before a new release.
And for saying Google should help Facebook, why should they? You realize Google has their own social network, don't you? It sounds like you do know that in the past Google has let Facebook basically hack their way into your contacts list separate from the Contacts API, but later blacklisted that because it didn't conform to their data exportability policy and API. "the majority of their users will require his [sic] service." Since the 2.3 update that cut out Facebook's hackish ways, customers who want Facebook integration in their Android phones should get something non-Nexus. That's why Google is advertising the deep integration with G+, not social media in general.
mike freegan said:
First off; I love Android.
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Couldn't agree more. This could easily become the best Android phone I've bought (and I had them all), but at the same time it's the first one (and only one) I cannot stand because of the too many hiccups and bugs it has. Can you believe that I haven't put my main SIMcard in it yet? I keep playing with it at home, trying new roms and kernels, but when it comes to using it as my main phone... we're a long way from it!
- The Stock browser is not that good (have you tried to write something in a forum and then move the cursor back in the text to change a word? Good luck with that!!) and Dolphin Browser is not yet supported.
- As we know, Flash doesn't work yet (this is just hilarious).
- The stock Keyboard in the browser doesn't correct your mispelled words, and Smart Keyboard Pro doesn't work all the times.
- speakers are too quite, I have found a workaround using Volume + (but beware! The version available in the market is not working).
- if you try any animated wallpaper, UI will slow down painfully.
In the end as much as I love its gorgeous screen and huge potential, as things are now, I find it one of the most detestable phones out there.
Great job, Samsung/Google!
Nice write up....but so many of your complaints are just because you don't like them. Really your complaining about the color.... I'm sorry so much bothers you because honestly ICS makes Android and the Galaxy Nexus a great phone! Windows phone is a far cry from being compared to Android and IOS.
I'm all for putting out there the faults of devices but if you say I like Android -cut- I hate everything about it bla bla bla....um... how can you like it if you think another brand or device works better?? Wouldn't that mean you like _____ << insert favorite OS here??
Danny80y said:
Windows phone is a far cry from being compared to Android and IOS.
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But on my Lumia 800 I can write effortlessly on this and every other forum, and things just work well!
I agree, colour is generally subjective. But what they've gone for is almost universally accepted as a poor choice by designers.
And to the dude above: I know very well that I can patch around a lot of these issues. I mentioned that in the article. However, most users buy this phone, don't root and don't change much.
ICS is good. IT could have been great.
And saying Google shouldn't be concerned that third party apps don't work is incredibly ignorant.
I was just using Whatapp two days ago and it was working fine. Is there something specific you were having problems with?
Three words. Point Zero one.
jrl022 said:
I was just using Whatapp two days ago and it was working fine. Is there something specific you were having problems with?
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Mine FCs on startup. I think having group chats may kill it. I've read this in a few places.
All I see is waaah waah wahhh
I have to respectfully disagree with most of your observations.
I love almost everything about the redesign. I don't miss the search button at all. I love the color scheme, and don't really care about app incompatibilities because well, it's a Nexus device. It's a brand new OS version and really made for early adopters. Developers will work out the kinks and you'll see more ICS support for common apps in the next week or two, I'd guess.
I do agree with you about the inconsistent action bar. Google should put it in one place for all their core apps. 3rd party apps, you can't dictate, though. I don't mind the slight difference in look in some apps, though. I love the new People app and the way it's set up. But I don't think it fits in everywhere, so I'm glad they didn't force it in all over the place and try to look like WP7.
I can't comment on the UK speech settings, as I'm in the US and not using it. Really lame if it doesn't work, though. I also don't really mind the new text box look. It was a little confusing when I first saw it, but they're not that hard to recognize after you get used to it. I have mixed feelings about the permanent search box. I like it because it doesn't take a ton of space - especially with the 720p display. But I wish there was more customization.
All that said, I think the positives hugely outweigh the negatives. Most of what you posted is a little nitpicking. I don't blame you complaining about things not working as they should, but beyond that, I think the OS has come a very long way and looks amazing all around. Google has already said this is just the beginning of Android's design changes to make it more accessible and fun to use.
I can't wait to see Cyanogenmod's finished launcher. I know they made the search box removable, but we'll see. I do still love the stock launcher, too.
The ultimate question is:
Would you use another OS? I sure as hell would not! ICS is the best thing out there right now by far.
The ultimate question is:
Would you use another OS? I sure as hell would not! ICS is the best thing out there right now by far.
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agreed. i can't go back to either iOS or GB after using ics for the last 2
weeks
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
To add the injuries, here are some things that are bad in ICS:
1. Contact photo is still low resolution after synced with GMAIL Contacts. This issue has not yet been solved for years already! Why? Do you run out of storage space to hold high resolution images?
2. The app drawer icon position in the button bar cannot be changed. I hate that thing, because I can't put Phone app there.
Why? If the argument is to never loose the app drawer, at least give ability to change the position.
3. Request Desktop version on the web browser doesn't stick!
Grrrt...!
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
gogol said:
To add the injuries, here are some things that are bad in ICS:
1. Contact photo is still low resolution after synced with GMAIL Contacts. This issue has not yet been solved for years already! Why? Do you run out of storage space to hold high resolution images?
2. The app drawer icon position in the button bar cannot be changed. I hate that thing, because I can't put Phone app there.
Why? If the argument is to never loose the app drawer, at least give ability to change the position.
3. Request Desktop version on the web browser doesn't stick!
Grrrt...!
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
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lol. Grrrtt.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
To sum up your entire post: Nothing's perfect.
We know. But Google has done a superb job fixing many things, and hey will continue to improve in new updates to 4.0.
mike freegan said:
First off; I love Android. I think that Ice Cream Sandwich has led to a greater harmonisation of the Android operating system and adds a bit of polish to something functional. Google's apps are starting to feel like they belong together, rather than giving a sense that they're being produced by different teams who have little contact.
However, I'm no fanboy. I don't buy a product and deny that it has flaws just because a certain company produced it *ahem *. So here it is; one humble man's opinion on what's wrong with Ice cream Sandwich.
1. Blue theme.... really? There's a reason that designers avoid blue-on-black. It offers poor contrast, and looks cheap; much like the Geocities sites of the 90s. The blue taskbar and app icons used in ICS just don't go with... well... anything. It's all well and good being able to customise your home screen, but when anything except a blue background clashes it's all a little redundant.
2. The stock icons themselves are disgusting. We all knew this from the leaked screenshots, which forums were praying were fake. Mostly, they just don't look like they belong to the same set. There's no consistency. Half are blue, half are not. Some are three dimensional, and some are traditional, flat icons. Some are different sizes. They just don't work. They look cheap, childish and don't match the 'magazine' style of the UI overhaul. It's like someone realised at the last minute that they'd forgotten to redesign icons, so just did a Google Image search and used the first of each that they found.
3. Google Plus pages won't open in the Android Browser. This one is just plain embarrassing. Google's flagship device can't view Google's new hub outside of the restrictive app? The browser just panics and shuts down with no option to report it. Did no-one test this?
4. Google Talk isn't in the sharing options. That's right, click on the share icon within an app and it'll show you every way of sharing except Google Talk. Following the above, it seems like Google is boycotting their own services.
5. Speech to text for UK language setting is insane. After a few words, it seemingly switches to using your contacts directory as a dictionary, rather than real words. You end up with a full sentence made entirely of surnames and forenames. I cannot believe that no-one tested this.
6. Removing the search key doesn't just remove the ability to search from some apps; it means that you can no longer assign functions to long press, or use voice command from any app. You have to return to the home screen each time. This is a huge step backwards.
7. Similarly, this has led to a non-removable search box on the home screen. Not only does it take up space, but the white icon doesn't work on a light background. The customisability of Android has just been taken down another notch. Sure, you can use a 3rd party launcher, but with no search button, you need the box there for searches.
8. A minor point, but Android can't seem to decide if going for a futuristic hologram look, or the Windows Phone 7 style magazine layout. It's like Mathias Duarte turned up, and they said “Make our OS beautiful... but it still has to look like ugly old Honeycomb (TRON)." All in, it just feels a bit cheap and confused.
9. The soft keys which Google has opted for in ICS are not well positioned. The home key is far too close to the space bar, which is infuriating when typing.
10. The action bar is horrific to use. It means that the menu and search keys jump around the screen. So you're in the Facebook app and want to see the menu. Where is it? Well it's not where it used to be and there's no action bar. Oh wait, three dots have appeared in the soft-key bar. Ugly and inconsistent, but OK.
Switch to messaging. Where the heck is it? Ah it's in the top right now! The little scamp.
Now you're in Gmail. Where is the menace? I know you're here somewhere... Ah, there! In the action bar in the bottom right. Android Market: back up top! There is just no consistency and it makes everything feel disjointed and unpredictable.
The action bar essentially negates the large screen on the Galaxy Nexus. The row of soft keys, plus the action bar actually leads to a lower proportion of screen space for the app than on previous versions of Android.
11. Cut, Copy & Paste: What the hell were they thinking?! This doesn't just jump around based on app, but depending on which page of an app you're in. And even then, the buttons are different every time.
Take Gmail for example. Copying text from the body of an email: a menu appears in place of the action bar at the bottom. However, in the 'compose' screen this menu appears at the top, but with different icons. Another 'paste' button (but not using the paste icon) also appears above the selected text, but no cut or copy buttons. If you try and make a selection from a link, a long press summons a pop-up dialogue where paste is an option. That is four ways of pasting, just within the Gmail app.
Not to mention, that they've opted for icons with no words. Unless you're accustomed to using old Windows machines, this may as well be code. It's like it's intentionally trying to confuse you.
12. Relationships with app vendors must be non-existent. If I was releasing an update to a platform which relies upon people being able to install apps, I'd make sure that the most common apps work on the new platform before release. This could involve providing phones and assistance to the big names. As it stands, neither Facebook nor Whatsapp (two of the top 5 most downloaded apps) work. Both of these are communications related. I feel cut off from the world. I'm sure this could have been sorted before release. Swype is another big name that doesn't support the screen resolution.
Google launched the Galaxy Nexus weeks ago. Facebook was initially unusable due to the absence of a menu button. The app was updated today to a version akin to the iPhone. However, the drag-to- refresh animations don't work as they should, and the damn thing will alert you of 'new messages' every 30 minutes if you have any unread, regardless of whether or not they are new. Atop this, Facebook will still not sync with official Google devices as Facebook does not properly use Google's contact API. Rather than being stubborn, Google should be helping Facebook, or seconding engineers, as they know full well that the majority of their users will require his service.
I appreciate that a lot of this is out of Google's hands, but this is just a warning to early-adopters – be prepared to lose the services you use most.
13. The browser is still useless with forms. Try entering text in a field. It'll type past the edge of your viewport and you can't scroll to the cursor. The viewport should follow the cursor. You can't zoom in and out because you can't get 'hold' of the web page due to the full-screen text entry field.
14. Horizontal lines everywhere. Did I mention that text fields are now horizontal lines? Text boxes are indistinguishable from divides and text doesn't sit on the lines so you never know where one ends and the other starts.
As I said, all in, it is an improvement. However, there is a heck of a lot of room for improvement. There is still a feeling that things aren't really designed, or connected; just a bit haphazard. I'm just hoping Cyanogen pulls something wonderful. For the standard consumer, the experience aspect is still playing catchup with Windows Phone and iOS.
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1. Don't care .the only thing that is weird is white background in people app. I'd prefer it to be black like in missed call section.
2. Really? Icons brother you that much when you can change them?
3. The whole google isn't working properly in Android browser. Try searching for images in desktop view and tell my chow do you change to larger images ... this is issue that needs to be addressed directly to Google its not a browser issue
4. I presume you're an American. Here on the old continent we don't use gtalk. Well at least none of my friends is using this. We have things like Skype which is far more popular in EU
5. I'm guessing you're from Texas then . Well my accent isn't really British and everything I date 9 out of 10 times is spelt correctly. Ha I can even say that I use dictation more than actual keyboard. Its easier for me to say the text message then type it especially with my second language which Android keyboard does not have dictionary. So I can speak in either one of the two of my languages and its veeeeeeery accurate
6. Blame the developers not Google. They should be ready for new os
7. I love the search box its easy and accessible.
8. I love tron design. However I have to agree its a bit of hit and miss when it comes to design but colours can be changed in custom roms I bet that CM team will do it .
9. Wtf are you taking about. I'm typing this msg and didn't press home bar even once. Anyway try taping between space bar and home button .... it won't even work. Have you got arthritis?
10. Don't see problem here either.
11. Anything with action bar that you don't know what it does just press and hold on the icon there will be pop up window.
12. Again blame developers. Look at rovio. They could update their games at the same time for all devices and os but they choose not to. If the developer can be bothered to update his app in timely manner than who's fault is that?
13. agree with that.
14. Huh?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium