This is assuming you have stock android, launcher pro, ADW, Go launcher, how many home screens do you have?
i used to have 7, but started to condense them down to 5. now i think im dropping to 3.
my homescreen (middle one of the 5) is pretty much just an open screen with 2 circle launcher widgets with most commonly used apps.
go one to the right, and its a calendar widget, GV inbox widget, and 3 gmail shortcuts, direct to the inbox of each email address
one more to the right and its all settings shortcuts and commonly used utilities such as root explorer, hot reboot, ATK, rom manager, and mobile signal widget pro widget.
from middle, one to the left is bookmark shortcuts in a folder, a internet traffic app, and an MLB.com app widget.
one more left and its media related stuff like music widget, dsp manager, volume ace widget, voice recorder gallery and directv app.
im thinking i can really just downgrade it to 3 and use folders.
how do you rock your G2 hoescreens?
I only use 3 homescreens. It's quite simple, although I wasn't going for the minimalistic look.
My middle screen has a make your own clock widget, minimalistic text widget with battery percentage and a shortcut to astrid.
Left screen just has an elixir widget with my signal percentages, ram, cpu usage and SD card, etc and a springpad folder of shopping lists.
Right screen is just one big pure agenda widget. I use launcherpro to limit my screens, I've two docks. Main one is just market, gmail (swipe to email), contacts, handcent (swipe to text a certain person) and dolphin browser. Second dock, however, is folders from folder organizer. I have a games folder, internet folder, misc folder (swipe to app list), multimedia folder and tools folder
I use 3 home screens, 2 mostly filled with my most frequently used apps. On the 3rd one I have the power control, starred contacts folder, and the widget for taskiller.
2 screens
i have 2, main screen on image below, other screen is full screen launcher pro facebook, don't need anything else, with CM7 stable and running at 1Ghz the phone is lightning fast
This could be done in the "Post your Home Screen!" thread.
Related
Well i am looking for some information on multitasking on the evo. Ive read a bit about the app powerstrip, but wanted information on any ways to multitask on the evo. When i say multitask i mean open handcent be able to minimize it and have youtube open or just any type of 3 apps at one time that you can seemlessly switch to and from. Is powerstrip the only thing i can do?
Hold down the Home button, and you will get a "dialog" box, with the last 6 apps you've run.
There's also an app, here on xda-developers, called MoreRecent, that will give you the last 15 apps run.
It piggybacks onto a long press of the Search button, which can also be assigned to Handcent's "Quick Compose" feature.
HTH,
-Jerry
I use QuickDesk, which also pretty much gives you an extra home screen that you can access from inside any program by double-tapping Home, or long-pressing Search. It can have pretty much any non-Sense shortcut, widget, etc., but it is ONE screen.
Right now I've got DialerOne, Gmail, GVoice, Browser, Dropbox, Market, SMS, Camera shortcuts, as well as the power control widget, a calendar widget, and of course, Pandora's widget.
drmacinyasha said:
I use QuickDesk, which also pretty much gives you an extra home screen that you can access from inside any program by double-tapping Home, or long-pressing Search. It can have pretty much any non-Sense shortcut, widget, etc., but it is ONE screen.
Right now I've got DialerOne, Gmail, GVoice, Browser, Dropbox, Market, SMS, Camera shortcuts, as well as the power control widget, a calendar widget, and of course, Pandora's widget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet im checking that out now looks like what i wanted
I know that Google default launcher in the Nexus series (not TouchWiz, not Sense) does not have the capability to create folders in the App Drawer.
Does anyone know any mods to add this feature?
PS: I know about "use other launcher", but I like Google default launcher. I tried Nova and the folders CANNOT be arranged. I tried Go Launcher and for some reason bog downs my tablet.
Since I received no response, I assume this cannot be done.
So I will change the question:
If I create folders on the home screen to group all the apps, I will have about 10 different folders. Since these are like "Widgets", will this have any impact on battery? Basically I will have 10 widgets (the folders) and 3 other widgets.
Is there a way, without downloading a 3rd party app, to get the samsung calendar and/or email widgets aside from what are on the magazine ux, which are a bit cumbersome in my opinion. I'd prefer to have the same widgets I have on my galaxy S5: full screen month view calendar widget, and the default email widget. Is there a way to do this, also, without doing a different launcher, like Nova, which I've tried and don't love.
Odd Samsung would strip these out, but they clearly want to push this magazine ux thing.
Thanks in advance for the help!
I am also looking for the calendar widget. Someone knows how to get it? I don't like this magazine ux
drjea2010 said:
Is there a way, without downloading a 3rd party app, to get the samsung calendar and/or email widgets aside from what are on the magazine ux, which are a bit cumbersome in my opinion. I'd prefer to have the same widgets I have on my galaxy S5: full screen month view calendar widget, and the default email widget. Is there a way to do this, also, without doing a different launcher, like Nova, which I've tried and don't love.
Odd Samsung would strip these out, but they clearly want to push this magazine ux thing.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too was annoyed at this. I didn't mind losing TouchWiz, but wanted to stay stock for potential future updates (please Google change SD card write access) so I downloaded the "Google Now Launcher" to get rid of the Magazine UX (although I didn't install "Google Now" so not to have that pop up on the home screen). I use "Pure Grid Calendar Widget" from the Play Store. If you choose the "4x4 free" calendar you can set the pixel count for your tablet/preference upon creating the widget. I have it around 1550x1550 pixels for my Tab Pro 8.4 and stretched it to fit most of the screen.
I liked Pure Grid Calendar Widget on my old HD2, but didn't need it on my S3 and S5 because the Samsung Calendar was similar. Enable events in the timeline to show descriptions in month view on the widget. I also wanted a full-screen email widget for 2 accounts, so I downloaded Aqual Mail, which looks and works similar to the S5 Email widget. I stretched that widget to full screen too (or square with some app shortcuts below it).
All in all, Google Now Launcher made the Home Screen interface seem less laggy (along with some adjustments to animations in Develop Options). Add in these two free apps (paid version unlocks additional features) and I it gives a similar feel to my S5 setup. I know you said you didn't want to download any apps, but this seems to be the only option (I didn't check Samsung Apps for a calendar though, don't know if they have something there).
***Note: I don't have any apps installed on the SD Card, but some people say that the shortcuts for apps installed on SD Cards disappear from the Home Screen if you use the Google Now Launcher.
Second Screen Custom App Icons & Widget Triggering through Tasker/Zooper/Popup Widget
Hi Guys
So I know this isn't earth shattering, but given we are all feeling a bit underwhelmed with the second screen theming options I thought I'd share. I was able to get Second Screen to recognize a custom APK installed through Tasker using Tasker App Factory. I used a combination of Tasker, Popup Widget, Zooper Widget, and Tasker App Factory for this. I'm one of those guys that bought Tasker pro a long time ago, made some basic stuff, and then gave up because easier options came along... kind of the same with Zooper Widget, but I think I might actually starting using it more (even though I believe ZW support is finished) because I barely use the second screens static app options right now, it's just easier to pop onto the homescreen and open whatever I need. I think taking this route will give you access to stuff you might not want on your main screen easily (for me, that's something like the weather channel app), and doing it in any app you're already in. Essentially you just hit the app icon and your widget pops up with the information you want it to show, my widget is interactive so from there I can click certain things on the widget and open them.
I just tried recording my screen to share but it didn't record the second screen, so I'll need to charge my other phone before I can show you what I'm talking about. I'll hopefully get some pictures or a video up shortly.
By the way, this works with Nova Launcher also... I've seen some other threads where you have to use LG Launcher to change your icon.
https://youtu.be/4_PtV7tvYrc
*credit to Jack Burnett in Zooper Widget G+ forum for creating the initial ZW.
EDIT
You will need the Zooper Widget Template that was created by Jack Burnett, I got this off of Zooper Widget Google + Community because it was easier than creating my own. I did however, edit a lot of the components to make it more in line with what I was looking for. You can do that in Zooper Widget.
This is a static widget that stays on the home screen, but allows you to interact with various shown components.
Jack Burnett original post with widget - https://plus.google.com/+JackMcDonaldBurnett/posts/hJjejJEc1mE
Jack Burnett Template Download Location –
http://www.combathaiku.com/zooper/
In short, you can use this widget standalone and it will not have the Popup Functionality and will always be on the home screen. Clearly this does not help if I am trying to get it on the Second Screen.
Create your Zooper Widget or Import the Template from above.
Create a new Pop Up Widget, import the previously created Zooper Widget into your Pop Up Widget and Save it.
Open Tasker, New Task, + to Add Action, Plugin, Hit Pop Widget Action Plug In… When it opens hit the pencil and select your Pop Up Widget that contains your Zooper Widget. In the bottom right of the Task Edit Screen there will be an icon select button, you can choose your custom icon at that time.
When you are done and on the Tasks list page of Tasker you can long press your Tasker Task that contains your Pop Up Widget and Custom App Icon, you’ll hit the 3 button menu at the top right and select Export. Export it As App. ( You will need Tasker App Factory for this).
When you do that hit the Android icon in the bottom right and it will ask if you want to install the Application just like it does when you download from anywhere else.
You’ll hit install, it should install, hit Done.
Go to Settings, Second Screen, Show When Main Screen is On, App Short Cuts, Scroll down to your APK (make sure you named it in Tasker) and select.
It will add to your second screen and allow you to Use your Custom Icon to interact with your pop up widget options.
What is that widget?
TheRealKingSen said:
What is that widget?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go. @TheRealKingSen. It's actually pretty convenient
https://plus.google.com/+JackMcDonaldBurnett/posts/hJjejJEc1mE
I dont understand the problem, we can change the icons on the main screen and move the app to the second screen
melorib said:
I dont understand the problem, we can change the icons on the main screen and move the app to the second screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi - I'm not understanding your statement. There isn't really a problem. I'm not just changing the icons I am triggering a widget from the second screen that is actionable... We're adding our own Tasker APK to the second screen, which is clickable, and you can interact with the widget. Instead of keeping the widget on your homescreen taking up space, you can just use it whenever you want from the second screen without going to the home screen.. Like I said not earth shattering, but at the time the only changes I had seen regarding customizing second screen were changing icons, but people were saying you couldn't do that unless you used LG stock launcher..
I didnt realize it was about widgets, on the other hand, if you cannot see what is saying it doesnt make much sense, you might as well just have the app shortcut...
His option seems more about having a "peak" option so you can stay in-app.
Maybe a step-by-step guide would be great for us to actually try it out, or even placing other widgets onto it as well? Like Whatsapp, Facebook and stuff like that.
Hi Guys - that's exactly why I was putting it out there. I think the functionality is endless if you are good at creating zooper and popup widgets. I clearly am novice at zooper, popup, and tasker so this was my first go at it. However, I do believe it would allow you to create really whatever you want... I was trying to get a Social Widget created, so I'd hit the one icon and my facebook, instagram, tumblr, etc... would all pull up in one actionable widget window.... but I couldn't get the Popup Widget and Zooper Widget to play nicely in Tasker.
I can put together a guide on how it was done, but to answer the question above, my recording quality was **** but I can clearly see everything on the widget and it's large enough to select individual portions of the widget to open them... ie the wireless dbm monitor if I hit that it takes me to wireless settings, in the middle there's a small calendar square (not clear in the video), if I hit that I go to calendar. And I can do it in app due to second screen or if I am on snapchat and my videos are taking forever to load, instead of pulling down notification panel and long press wifi, I can just go to this popup widget and it shows my dbm and the network I'm connected to immediately without leaving snapchat.
I'll edit the original post so that it's more concise as to what exactly is going on. You can use a shortcut but what this method allows you to do is to create "short cut icons" for whatever you want, even if it's not provided as a typical shortcut, through your zooper widget and tasker.
I'll update what I can to make it more clear though. thanks for your feedback. Again I think It's more of a hey you can do this, someone who has awesome zooper/tasker functionality, roll with it type of thing.
melorib said:
I didnt realize it was about widgets, on the other hand, if you cannot see what is saying it doesnt make much sense, you might as well just have the app shortcut...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I did that you'd be limited to only the number of iapp spaces/shortcuts allowed on the second screen. In this instance, you can directly access Calendar, Clock, Wireless Settings, Settings, Weather, Battery, really whatever you want to add to the zooper widget interface by only taking up one App Icon Space in the second screen. I'm writing a more concise post now and will modify it. I added a screenshot of the widget below, it's legible.
:good:
Hi all, So i as usual installed Nova to use some of their gestures (such as bringing down status bar from swiping down anywhere on screen etc)
In the process i lost access to the google weather widget (as it isn't available through Nova launcher)
Any lightweight suggestions to replace it? or is there any way to get the google weather widget functioning on 3rd party launchers?
What about alternatives to google photos? To be honest i never really used photos , I'm going to try to start doing so but i notice that it doesn't even pick up all my folders such as facebook folder (pics downloaded from facebook).
How do i get it to recognize folders like this ? What other lightweight yet useful gallery app is out there? (not quickpic please that purple font is killing me)
Thanks in advanced!
quickpic version 3.4.9.1 doesnt have pink icons for me and its neutured down so no google drive, dropbox etc linking - just pure gallery.
virtyx said:
quickpic version 3.4.9.1 doesnt have pink icons for me and its neutured down so no google drive, dropbox etc linking - just pure gallery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got a trusted source for that APK?
I am seeing some of the benefits of Google photos though... wondering why i didn't use it sooner
Edit: found a trusted apk for quickpic.
How do I get google weather widget in nova
masri1987 said:
Got a trusted source for that APK?
I am seeing some of the benefits of Google photos though... wondering why i didn't use it sooner
Edit: found a trusted apk for quickpic.
How do I get google weather widget in nova
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was about to upload
how do you find it? its slim, lightweight, fast - and gets the job done without any extra add-ins which is what i like, almost like the huawei launcher plus you can change the display and it recognizes ALL your images on your phone (im looking at you google photo)
masri1987 said:
Hi all, So i as usual installed Nova to use some of their gestures (such as bringing down status bar from swiping down anywhere on screen etc)
In the process i lost access to the google weather widget (as it isn't available through Nova launcher)
Any lightweight suggestions to replace it? or is there any way to get the google weather widget functioning on 3rd party launchers?
What about alternatives to google photos? To be honest i never really used photos , I'm going to try to start doing so but i notice that it doesn't even pick up all my folders such as facebook folder (pics downloaded from facebook).
How do i get it to recognize folders like this ? What other lightweight yet useful gallery app is out there? (not quickpic please that purple font is killing me)
Thanks in advanced!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too use Nova, for weather, I've been using Weather XL by exovoid for years, link
Action launcher has the Google widget and weather baked in. I switched from Nova to it years ago and while I'll go back to Nova briefly for change of pace purposes I never leave Action for very long. Once I got used to and understood the blinds and shutters features in Action everything else became dad's old launcher; including Nova. You can also set the Now page, assign gestures, all the usual staples of fully featured launchers.
I've used Piktures as my main gallery app for a few years. Great app.
NepoRood said:
I too use Nova, for weather, I've been using Weather XL by exovoid for years, link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, tried it out, looking for something a bit more lightweight, just for the purpose of widget use.
krabman said:
Action launcher has the Google widget and weather baked in. I switched from Nova to it years ago and while I'll go back to Nova briefly for change of pace purposes I never leave Action for very long. Once I got used to and understood the blinds and shutters features in Action everything else became dad's old launcher; including Nova. You can also set the Now page, assign gestures, all the usual staples of fully featured launchers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So i installed action launcher and I cannot find the option to build out tabs or folders within the drawer itself? Also can't remove the multidot drawer icon and just use the swipe up feature by itself
Cool thing is it did import everything almost from nova
Fuzzy13 said:
I've used Piktures as my main gallery app for a few years. Great app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i just discovered that app ,
I also discovered that any motion photo or any other like top shot (to show you the whole selection of photos taken) etc doesn't show up in 3rd party gallery apps
You just long press and drag the icon up and out, you'll see the remove label at the top of the screen, drop it there and it's gone. The rest will take a bit of reading as Action doesn't work the way normal launchers do so it takes some explaining. Before I do you can create folders in the drawer section of the home settings, it's under folders. I'm saying this because Action doesn't really work the way Dad's old launcher used to do and there are some new paradigms in play. Don't want to deal with that then just imagine the post ends here.
In action you don't really need to make folders in the drawer as it's laid out to use it's killer features, the covers and shutters. For covers you can drop a shortcut you tap as normal to open that app and then you can also swipe or tap the shortcut and it will open a folder with whatever apps you want inside of it. Those are created by dropping one app onto another to create a folder as with most launchers, open the folder you just created and tap the menu (3 dot), choose create cover and now you have it. Tap the first icon you placed and it will simply open that app, swipe it (or double tap if you select that as the opener) and it will open up the folder underneath. I'm not sure if there is an app limit for the folders, I've had 14 in one now. Using my setup for example I use Hangouts as my personal primary text and instant message app but I also use several others; I have a hangouts cover set in the dock, as its a cover I tap it and open hangouts in most cases. Because it's a cover I have the apps for texting that I use infrequently underneath that which I access by swiping the icon instead. This goes on for all the shortcuts I set in the dock. I use a 2 page dock which is all covers save for one which is a shutter and through those have quick access to 47 applications. Much quicker than finding them in a drawer, even when folder the drawer because you will need more touches to get to the app than with a cover.
The shutter is an app shortcut which you use to either open the app or by swiping it open one of that apps widget. An example would be Whatsapp is my work messaging app. I have the icon set and use it as a shutter. I touch it and go into the app as normal. I get a lot of junk messages though that really aren't for me so sometimes I'll swipe it and open up the unread messages widget. This allows me to skip straight to the more important messages first rather than sort through them all in the app itself. The menu(3 dot) when you first open up the shutter will allow you to select the widget you want to use.
Despite all that you can still access the built in long presses if the app/icon has them. What happens in all this is the app drawer itself becomes more of an initial setup bin where the apps are laying until you set your covers and on the odd occasion you go in there to open a seldom used app. In the rare cases you do need to get into the drawer the sea of icons pulled out of the bottom ala Pixel may look cool but it's slower than using the side drawer which I would highly recommend folks try. While not looking cool it's more efficient; particularly for those with many apps. Still want the bottom drawer pullout it's the default action, just get rid of the shortcut and it's there.
You're going to want to menu dive with Action because there is a lot more going on than meets the eye. You can have it match your wallpaper for the launcher theme in the quick theme section. In quickbar you have what amounts to the Goog searchbar with extra functionality that you can adjust. I don't use it as I find little need for it with all the different ways you can get to the search function and it takes up space which can be better spent showing off my carefully selected wallpaper. The icon pack section is self explanatory. Icon appearance will let you change functions and visual cues like notifications counts. App drawers is where you will decide on trying that side drawer and other related settings. Recommend if you do go to a side drawer to tell it to remember where you left it. Otherwise it will always default to the top of the alphabet. Desktop is where you will do the meat and potatos of setting your desktop, the grid, icon scale, scroll effects, infinite scrolling, etc. One thing of interest in the desktop section is it will allow you to create a quickpage. This is a page you can "pullout" from the side that is separate from simply the page to the right of home. I use it for my travel apps of which I have a fair few but only use during that time. Desktop shortcuts will take you to the settings for which functions will show up when long pressing the home screen out in the open. You'll be able to add typical actions like wallpaper, widgets and so on but also custom actions. Docks is where you'll set up the number of dock pages if any, style of dock, dock seperators (or not), etc. Folders and shutters will allow you to change functions there for those tasks. Shortcuts is where you'll define whatever gestures you want.
While all that seems like a lot when you start fiddling with it it'll start making sense. Sorry for the length of that and I hope it wasn't too boring for those that made it this far.
---------- Post added at 04:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------
Oh, yeah... If you use a launcher that allows you to set custom action widgets (Nova, Action Launcher, etc.) you could simply install Action launcher, never use it but get use of the weather widget via custom action in Nova or any other launcher which supports that function.
Huge fan of Today Weather! Can choose which service to receive forecasts from and has a number of widgets.