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So, I was watching a video review of the T-Mobile Galaxy S II, and noticed that the reviewer was able to keep scrolling the home screens like I can the app drawer screens. It would logically make sense that this would be a standard Touchwiz feature, but I sure can't get my ET4G to do it. Any one else? I wonder if the change comes with 2.3.5?
Okay, so looked at a friends Skyrocket and the home screens behave the same as the T-Mobile phone. Looks like a 2.3.5 feature for sure.
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I'll be designing various UI concept improvements for Android and I'll keep them uploaded here.
If you have any ideas then please, let me know
8th January - Notification Concept Improvements Part 1
My first concept interface is done and ready for viewing - as well as feedback and comments.
This concept goes over some of my notification concepts which I feel would make Android a little more functional and fluid. Let me know what you think.
This user interface concept improvement video covers 3 simply tweaks, which I feel improve the functionality of Android.
1) Bigger Notifications
These bigger notifications show the contact picture,and are large enough so the message can be read. They appear over the top of the default notification bar to save space.
Clicking on the notification takes you to the application for which the notification is for. In this case, its the Messaging App
2) Quick Reply
Something I feel that has been missing from Android for some time. When the message arrive, clicking on the message itself will open quick reply.
Quick Reply extends the notification area so you can reply to the message right from the notification area, without leaving the application you are currently in.
3) Swipe to Close/Mark
Notifications have already easy to close in Android by either pressing the 'X' or in Android 4.0, by swiping the notification away.
However, there is no way to mark a message or email as read if you close it from the notification area. This concept means that you can do this. Simply wipe the notification to the left to close it, or swipe it to the right to mark it as read and close it.
There were 2 other videos that didn't make it into the final video - the only reason for this is that they are longer and the size of the video came to about 600mb for a HD one. Hence why they were left out of this video.
You can find more information about these at this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21179299&postcount=62
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All feedback and comments are welcome. Feel free to message me on any of the sites above.
These are just concepts, unfortunately I dont have the coding skills required to make this a reality. However if I can get ideas and make concepts up, a dev from the forums, the cyanogen mode team or perhaps Google themselves if we're lucky will see this and help make them become a reality.
If you would like to incorporate these ideas into a ROM, application etc, then please contact me first
Find me on the following websites:
Twitter
Google+
Facebook
Honestly there isn't much I'd change right now. I haven't noticed much that I would change.
In terms of performance, they NEED to fix the autorotate function. Yes, it's nice now that it shows an animation, but it takes waaaay too long to rotate. This was the same gripe I had with Honeycomb tablets. I'm positive that it's intentional by Google, because other phone running ICS with skins rotate faster (I have a Sensation to compare).
This second one is gonna get a bit long.
Second, they need to change the response time of the recent apps button. After extended use and several apps running, there will be a slight delay between pressing the button and the list opening up. I'm actually fine with the fact that there's a delay, it's just where the delay is. The way it runs is you touch the button, there's a delay(lag, whatever you want to call it), then the phone vibrates, the button lights up, and the list comes up. What google needs to do is change the way it functions. Make sure the haptic feedback functions and the button lights up the instant your finger touches it. Then it can delay and the list can come up. In other words G needs to make the illumination and haptic feedback first priority. Then it could work on the multitasking process.
I think if it was done in this manner, the lag would be much less noticeable. It's the same as showing some sort of screen or animation when starting an app. If you touch an app and nothing happens (the screen doesn't change at all, not even a press animation) until the apps fully loaded and running it'll be seen as lag. If you touch an app and immediately see a loading screen or an animation (just examples) then you know the app started up already, and it's perceived as loading instead of lag.
Phew. That was a mouthful. It needed to be said. Come on now Google. All of both of these are just a little tweak in software. Entirely doable. Or maybe it's already done. I don't know for sure since I'm still running 4.0.1
Other than that ICS is great.
EDIT: oh and Google should change the notification to mirror that of tablets. I don't see why they removed the quick settings; it seems unlike them. Just the basics like in Honeycomb: wifi toggle, brightness, bluetooth and autorotate. I've seen mods include it, so I'm sure they could come up with an elegant solution
They need to add the ability to get rid of the Google Search bar on all homescreens or make it less intrusive on the homescreen.
Evostance said:
All,
Just doing a bit of research.
Even though we all love Android, its still got its gripes. One of those for me is that the interface isn't as fluid or as function as it could be.
As many of you have seen ICS now, what type of enhancements to the interface would you like to see?
To give you an idea of what i'm after: I personally still dont like the notifications. I feel that they are a bit limited as to whats on offer, so I would like to see more function added to them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fixing notifications is easy. Just drag and drop custom sounds into notifications, alarm and ringtones folder. Using same nokia notification for text ever since my first smartphone. I have the usual buzzer alarm since ics didnt include it. I would also like option of no search bar or at least pinning it to desired homescreen. It would be nice if google included more in house options for themes, colors and backgrounds. Sms, gmail, calendar and email are ridiculously white. I'd like more black background white text options. We also need a toggle for the gpu clocks or coolbho3000 to hook us up in setcpu. Options for amount of home screens. 32GB and/or micro sd. Better clock options. Damn pogo pins car dock already.
My grandma beat me down and took my nexus. Sent from a jitterbug with beats by dre.
tsunami1609 said:
Honestly there isn't much I'd change right now. I haven't noticed much that I would change.
In terms of performance, they NEED to fix the autorotate function. Yes, it's nice now that it shows an animation, but it takes waaaay too long to rotate. This was the same gripe I had with Honeycomb tablets. I'm positive that it's intentional by Google, because other phone running ICS with skins rotate faster (I have a Sensation to compare).
This second one is gonna get a bit long.
Second, they need to change the response time of the recent apps button. After extended use and several apps running, there will be a slight delay between pressing the button and the list opening up. I'm actually fine with the fact that there's a delay, it's just where the delay is. The way it runs is you touch the button, there's a delay(lag, whatever you want to call it), then the phone vibrates, the button lights up, and the list comes up. What google needs to do is change the way it functions. Make sure the haptic feedback functions and the button lights up the instant your finger touches it. Then it can delay and the list can come up. In other words G needs to make the illumination and haptic feedback first priority. Then it could work on the multitasking process.
I think if it was done in this manner, the lag would be much less noticeable. It's the same as showing some sort of screen or animation when starting an app. If you touch an app and nothing happens (the screen doesn't change at all, not even a press animation) until the apps fully loaded and running it'll be seen as lag. If you touch an app and immediately see a loading screen or an animation (just examples) then you know the app started up already, and it's perceived as loading instead of lag.
Phew. That was a mouthful. It needed to be said. Come on now Google. All of both of these are just a little tweak in software. Entirely doable. Or maybe it's already done. I don't know for sure since I'm still running 4.0.1
Other than that ICS is great.
EDIT: oh and Google should change the notification to mirror that of tablets. I don't see why they removed the quick settings; it seems unlike them. Just the basics like in Honeycomb: wifi toggle, brightness, bluetooth and autorotate. I've seen mods include it, so I'm sure they could come up with an elegant solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stole the words out of my mouth. It sounds like nit-pickey stuff but it really would bring it all together nicely.
tsunami1609 said:
Honestly there isn't much I'd change right now. I haven't noticed much that I would change.
In terms of performance, they NEED to fix the autorotate function. Yes, it's nice now that it shows an animation, but it takes waaaay too long to rotate. This was the same gripe I had with Honeycomb tablets. I'm positive that it's intentional by Google, because other phone running ICS with skins rotate faster (I have a Sensation to compare).
This second one is gonna get a bit long.
Second, they need to change the response time of the recent apps button. After extended use and several apps running, there will be a slight delay between pressing the button and the list opening up. I'm actually fine with the fact that there's a delay, it's just where the delay is. The way it runs is you touch the button, there's a delay(lag, whatever you want to call it), then the phone vibrates, the button lights up, and the list comes up. What google needs to do is change the way it functions. Make sure the haptic feedback functions and the button lights up the instant your finger touches it. Then it can delay and the list can come up. In other words G needs to make the illumination and haptic feedback first priority. Then it could work on the multitasking process.
I think if it was done in this manner, the lag would be much less noticeable. It's the same as showing some sort of screen or animation when starting an app. If you touch an app and nothing happens (the screen doesn't change at all, not even a press animation) until the apps fully loaded and running it'll be seen as lag. If you touch an app and immediately see a loading screen or an animation (just examples) then you know the app started up already, and it's perceived as loading instead of lag.
Phew. That was a mouthful. It needed to be said. Come on now Google. All of both of these are just a little tweak in software. Entirely doable. Or maybe it's already done. I don't know for sure since I'm still running 4.0.1
Other than that ICS is great.
EDIT: oh and Google should change the notification to mirror that of tablets. I don't see why they removed the quick settings; it seems unlike them. Just the basics like in Honeycomb: wifi toggle, brightness, bluetooth and autorotate. I've seen mods include it, so I'm sure they could come up with an elegant solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your second point is fixed in 4.0.3
I agree with the OP I hope google does something new with the notifications.
Even just adding them to the lockscreen like iOS would be awesome
I also dislike how the notifications have a character limit, it would be cool if you had the dropdown open long enough the text would scroll
- I'd love to have swiping away a text or email mark it as read. And while we're on notifications I don't get why contact pics don't display in the drop-down bar for texts, only for emails.
- Swiping away a recent app actually kills it
- Option to easily switch between the phone & people apps
- Option to mute shutter sound right in camera menu
- Notification bar toggles like in CyanogenMod or AOKP
daandman said:
- I'd love to have swiping away a text or email mark it as read. And while we're on notifications I don't get why contact pics don't display in the drop-down bar for texts, only for emails.
- Swiping away a recent app actually kills it
- Option to easily switch between the phone & people apps
- Option to mute shutter sound right in camera menu
- Notification bar toggles like in CyanogenMod or AOKP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Swiping away apps actually does kill them, you can see the process dying in the logs when removing from recent app list
I would like a new SMS app theme. The current one is pretty ugly. Something like Windows Phone 7's messaging theme would be much nicer.
BlackDino said:
Your second point is fixed in 4.0.3
I agree with the OP I hope google does something new with the notifications.
Even just adding them to the lockscreen like iOS would be awesome
I also dislike how the notifications have a character limit, it would be cool if you had the dropdown open long enough the text would scroll
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason I ask is im just doing a concept design for ICS. Not a custom launcher but actual improvements to stock.
For notifications i actually meant the looks and functionality of it. The first concept ive done is to change how the text notifications work.
I don't like the character limit or how restrictive it is, so I've changed it.
Hopefully when I've got my concepts together, someone will be able to help make them a reality, be it a dev, the cyanogen team or google themselves lol.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
I would really like a change to the lockscreen while listening to music. I want the bottom half of the screen to be transparent, or to show the wallpaper instead of beeing black. I have been searching through SystemUI, framework-res and android.policy.jar to try and find it, but haven't as of yet.
tristan202 said:
I would really like a change to the lockscreen while listening to music. I want the bottom half of the screen to be transparent, or to show the wallpaper instead of beeing black. I have been searching through SystemUI, framework-res and android.policy.jar to try and find it, but haven't as of yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean where the soft buttons would sit?
You'd like to see music controls in there?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Soft button area supporting gestures
I came to Android from webOS after HP shot themselves in the foot several times and one of the things I miss most is the gesture bar you had at the bottom of the screen. With the advent of the soft button area in ICS I see a real option to enable the area to work in a similar fashion.
For those that are unfamiliar with it it's basically an area at the bottom of the screen blocked off from apps that registers simple finger gestures. This made the basics of actually using a device a breeze and pleasure i.e. no looking for a particular button / tapping the wrong button when you weren't looking and the gestures were consistent no matter what app was running.
The gestures were:
A single swipe up would show you your running apps.
Swiping 2 fingers up would show you the launcher (app drawer).
A leftward swipe would go back.
A full swipe across the entire area going either right or left would take you to the next or previous running app.
Besides the wireless charging the gesture area was one of the webOS killer features you very quickly learned to take for-granted. So yeah, I'd like the soft button area to handle gestures in case you haven't guessed already
Northernmost said:
I came to Android from webOS after HP shot themselves in the foot several times and one of the things I miss most is the gesture bar you had at the bottom of the screen. With the advent of the soft button area in ICS I see a real option to enable the area to work in a similar fashion.
For those that are unfamiliar with it it's basically an area at the bottom of the screen blocked off from apps that registers simple finger gestures. This made the basics of actually using a device a breeze and pleasure i.e. no looking for a particular button / tapping the wrong button when you weren't looking and the gestures were consistent no matter what app was running.
The gestures were:
A single swipe up would show you your running apps.
Swiping 2 fingers up would show you the launcher (app drawer).
A leftward swipe would go back.
A full swipe across the entire area going either right or left would take you to the next or previous running app.
Besides the wireless charging the gesture area was one of the webOS killer features you very quickly learned to take for-granted. So yeah, I'd like the soft button area to handle gestures in case you haven't guessed already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok ill see what I can mock up. I've done a basic notification text, just need to add another feature before i finalise it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Go you! I was hoping this was something Matias Duarte would bring to Android himself.
Evostance said:
Do you mean where the soft buttons would sit?
You'd like to see music controls in there?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's the black part of this screenshot I'd like changed.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
tristan202 said:
No, it's the black part of this screenshot I'd like changed.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow. Thats actually what it looks like when playing music
I think that black part may be for album art?
Evostance said:
Oh wow. Thats actually what it looks like when playing music
I think that black part may be for album art?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it just shows the album art at the very top. Up where the media buttons are.
tristan202 said:
No, it just shows the album art at the very top. Up where the media buttons are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How stupid. Definitely a tweak that should be there
Honestly, the only two things I want to be changed in terms of the UI are
1.) The ability to hide the soft keys at will for example, if I'm playing a game I want to be able to utilize the entire screen. I think a gesture to hide + bring back the soft keys is the solution. Highly unlikely to be implemented anytime soon
2.) Such as many launchers which have the functionality to have scrollable docks, I would like the soft keys to be scrollable. It would be pretty awesome to be able to have different toggles such as wifi, Bluetooth and even apps always available since unlike the notification bar, the soft keys never disappear regardless of the current app.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Anyone else notice that it gets a little jittery when you're on the app drawer and you hit the home key? When the icons do that zoom out, it's not as smooth as the rest of the phone usually is. It's minor, I know, but I'm starting to think maybe Apple has a patent on a smooth UI (that's a joke).
I've also noticed bad performance with live wallpapers on the home screens, it's really rough with most live wallpapers. I previously had the Epic 4G Touch (Galaxy S 2) and it was ALWAYS smooth as butter, even with live wallpapers... when running the stock TouchWiz UI. So while the processor/gpu in the GS2 is probably better, it seems to me like it's more of a software issue.
It doesn't bother me enough to want to go back to the Galaxy S II, mind you, physically this phone is superior and I sure love me some vanilla ICS... but are any of you noticing this with custom ROMs as well?
EDIT: I wanted to add, I've tried Nova & Apex, and I didn't notice a difference in this regard.
When you tried Apex did you turn on the setting that saves your home screen in memory? I have noticed almost zero lag with this option selected
BMWPower06 said:
When you tried Apex did you turn on the setting that saves your home screen in memory? I have noticed almost zero lag with this option selected
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to help just a little with live wallpapers when sliding between homescreens, but it has zero effect on how jittery it is when you're in the app drawer and you hit the home button (when the icons "fly away" and you go back to the home screen).
I dont have any App drawer to Home lag.
Every stock LWP except "Phase Beam" lags afaik. Kinda sucks but how it is.
Ryjabo said:
Anyone else notice that it gets a little jittery when you're on the app drawer and you hit the home key? When the icons do that zoom out, it's not as smooth as the rest of the phone usually is. It's minor, I know, but I'm starting to think maybe Apple has a patent on a smooth UI (that's a joke).
I've also noticed bad performance with live wallpapers on the home screens, it's really rough with most live wallpapers. I previously had the Epic 4G Touch (Galaxy S 2) and it was ALWAYS smooth as butter, even with live wallpapers... when running the stock TouchWiz UI. So while the processor/gpu in the GS2 is probably better, it seems to me like it's more of a software issue.
It doesn't bother me enough to want to go back to the Galaxy S II, mind you, physically this phone is superior and I sure love me some vanilla ICS... but are any of you noticing this with custom ROMs as well?
EDIT: I wanted to add, I've tried Nova & Apex, and I didn't notice a difference in this regard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will confirm that the zoom out animation when hitting home from the app drawer is not as smooth as it should be. My old Samsung Fascinate is on AOKP and the transition out of the app drawer is actually smoother than my Nexus. I wouldn't call it lag but it's definitely not as smooth as it should be.
martonikaj said:
Every stock LWP except "Phase Beam" lags afaik. Kinda sucks but how it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On this phone, yes. On the Galaxy S2... no.
To contradict the apple joke, I have an iPod touch 4th Gen and my friend has an iPhone 4S, both of them get laggy transitions after a while, especially after opening a few apps. I'm on stock and have zero lag. Nova had less then apex from what I've used.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Same for me ..
The live wallpapers all lag, but its gotta be a software issue not yet fixed.
The app drawer fly away animation is weird, cause I do see that stutter sometimes. But then a lot of the time its smooth. Not sure what that's all about. But I'm of the opinion that everything can be smoothed with a software tweak.
Ryjabo said:
It seems to help just a little with live wallpapers when sliding between homescreens, but it has zero effect on how jittery it is when you're in the app drawer and you hit the home button (when the icons "fly away" and you go back to the home screen).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You found the cause
Ryjabo said:
On this phone, yes. On the Galaxy S2... no.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, feel free to switch then. Not every phone is as perfect as the GS2.
adrynalyne said:
You found the cause
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... because I said: It seems to help just a little with live wallpapers when sliding between homescreens, but it has zero effect on how jittery it is when you're in the app drawer and you hit the home button (when the icons "fly away" and you go back to the home screen).
adrynalyne said:
Well, feel free to switch then. Not every phone is as perfect as the GS2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These forums exist for many reasons including discussing problems, right? This is an obvious problem and I'd like to discuss it. Thanks.
Your solution here is to live with it or get a different phone and you've been "thanked" at least a couple of times for it. That's super constructive. Do you honestly not understand why I brought up the Galaxy S2 as a comparison, or do I need to draw pictures?
Am I the only one that finds it frustrating that Google's flagship device doesn't perform as well as other devices in something as simple as homescreen transitions or opening/closing the app drawer?
IMO its the soft key glow animations causing the "lag". There's a mod which I have done which shortens the length of the glow animations, its basically eliminated the lag you are talking about.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I find it funny that my Nexus S runs all the Lwp perfectly but my gnex doesn't.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
FrostyF7 said:
I find it funny that my Nexus S runs all the Lwp perfectly but my gnex doesn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You spelled "ridiculous" wrong.
rob151515 said:
IMO its the soft key glow animations causing the "lag". There's a mod which I have done which shortens the length of the glow animations, its basically eliminated the lag you are talking about.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're right. set them "off" within AOKP ROM settings and the appdrawer is smoother now when closing
Ryjabo said:
Am I the only one that finds it frustrating that Google's flagship device doesn't perform as well as other devices in something as simple as homescreen transitions or opening/closing the app drawer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope it drives me crazy too. I have started using Apex launcher with the widgets tab hidden so its just apps and its better but still jitters a bit. I even get jitters and lag on the lockscreen. I turned auto brightness off which helped but from time to time it lags crazy if i swipe fast.
Its not good enough.
My friend and my wifes best friend have nexus s's and they perform a lot better than my Gnex with the stock launcher which is just embarrising.
Ryjabo said:
You spelled "ridiculous" wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this made me literally LOL.
Ryjabo said:
No... because I said: It seems to help just a little with live wallpapers when sliding between homescreens, but it has zero effect on how jittery it is when you're in the app drawer and you hit the home button (when the icons "fly away" and you go back to the home screen).
These forums exist for many reasons including discussing problems, right? This is an obvious problem and I'd like to discuss it. Thanks.
Your solution here is to live with it or get a different phone and you've been "thanked" at least a couple of times for it. That's super constructive. Do you honestly not understand why I brought up the Galaxy S2 as a comparison, or do I need to draw pictures?
Am I the only one that finds it frustrating that Google's flagship device doesn't perform as well as other devices in something as simple as homescreen transitions or opening/closing the app drawer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So...what did you accomplish by bringing up the GS2?
Did you...fix your problem?
Did you...make yourself feel better?
We all get it, the GS2 doesn't lag on live walls. Well, guess what? This one does, like most android devices. This is a fact, and it may or may not get fixed. So really, bringing the GS2 into any conversation regarding the Galaxy Nexus is NOT constructive. Comparing the GS2 to this device is going to be met with irritated folks because we have been listening to it for the last 6 months. I am sure I am not speaking only for myself when I say I am sick and tired of it.
This is not a PC. We can't just go throw extra parts in it, and upgrade the hardware. Therefore, the only solution to your problem is another device. I am sorry if it offends you, but it is a fact. Take the good with the bad, or find another device that is better for you. This is how the smartphone world works.
So I don't know if I'm missing something obvious here, but there seems to be no lock screen music control on this phone. I know in previous versions of TouchWiz you had to use the Samsung music player, but even that doesn't display music control on the lock screen. I could use widget locker but I'd rather not use s 3rd party lock screen app if I don't have to. Any suggestions?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
This drives me nuts and was one of the best features of AOSP on the S3. I can't stand not being able to control my podcasts. I think it's going to send me to Widgetlocker.
It just blows my mind that they would remove a feature like this. Anyone else have any ideas?
I've been scratching my head on this one too...
Am I going to have to use a 3rd party player?
You can access your drop down notification panel and control your music that way. It's a standard feature of Jelly Bean.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium
Google music player will display controls on lock screen.
Tmobile SGH-T889 using xda premium.
That is just one of the problems, has anyone found a widget or feature where you can skip to a certain part of the song rather than just having pause/play, next, back?
I will get flamed but here is a picture from the fruit...*ugh* http://realitypod.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Clear-iPhone-Lock-Screen-from-Album-Artwork.png
WOW!
I guess the interest in doing this is just dead and gone. I am not a developer but I came from the "fruit" and bought the galaxy note II on Sprint and I would like to get some native (at least as close to native as I can get) controls on touchwiz. I know I'm in the T-mobile section but had to post a comment since this thread is about exactly what I want to get. I would be very interested in working on something or at least learning how to work my way around my phone and tweak it since I did so on the fruit phone.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to learning how to tweak my touchwiz lock screen?
I would like to at least try to get something to show up on the lock screen and start from there. Once I get something to show up like a button or a widget then I can maybe link it to the music player or any other player possibly.
I used player pro for a while but it uses it's own lock screen as does power amp and n7player, but to have native controls like the fruit does would be awesome. I would appreciate some help or links to resources while I look around because to me native is better and controls right on the lockscreen are better than notification controls, that's a whole extra step when you're in a car and your phone is docked or propped up on a holder, man it's a no brainer to have at least 3 buttons play/pause and back/forward.
I think touchwiz has come a long way. It really adds alot to stock android in my opinion, and im not just talking about the s pen additions.
The dialer, the whole phone app in general, all the motion settings...
What I want to talk about are issues that people have with touchwiz in general, meaning, reasons that you would jump ship to a custom rom, and I'd like to see if anyone would have solutions to these issues.
Ill give you a few examples of my own experiences.
1) I need to have a battery percentage in the status bar. So when youre running any rom worth its salt, there's an option for that. I was going through the settings on the note 2 and there it was, built into the touchwiz settings... im curious to know when this was added because im pretty sure it wasnt there in gingerbread.
2) I like the additions to the stock player but to me, its still not functional enough, I at least need a screen lock. When I mentioned this in a post, someone pointed out that screen lock is built in now, all you need to do is press the power key when playing a video and it locks the screen.
3) I remember someone posting about how on this phone, the calls and messages show up in the call log and how annoying that is. I just looked for a second and realized that theres a way to change that. When youre in the call log, you hit menu then view by.
I think we could all benefit from learning about the other "hidden features and functionality" in touchwiz. For example, I still have an issue with the stock video player that you cant easily fast forward by dragging like other players and there doesnt seem to be any options or preferences built it...
What I want from Touchwiz is wallpaper scrolling and the option to change the screen grid. Other than that, it has really improved a lot and I'm pretty much comfortable using it now.
most touchwiz doesn't work for me because I work in a 240dpi environment and touchwiz doesn't scale well in it. not even the Samsung keyboard loads, it just FCs. I use different launcher, different dialer. stock kernel is not too battery friendly...I got almost 2 days usage with jedi master 2 rom with normal usage (yes, it's touchwiz based but wherever I can change it I do).
why would I jump ship?
- better environment scaling in 240dpi
- better/longer battery life
- faster operations
lennie said:
most touchwiz doesn't work for me because I work in a 240dpi environment and touchwiz doesn't scale well in it. not even the Samsung keyboard loads, it just FCs. I use different launcher, different dialer. stock kernel is not too battery friendly...I got almost 2 days usage with jedi master 2 rom with normal usage (yes, it's touchwiz based but wherever I can change it I do).
why would I jump ship?
- better environment scaling in 240dpi
- better/longer battery life
- faster operations
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on Jedi... I consider myself an "advanced" user and stock touchwiz is not quite there yet but if you add Jedi's rom and Nova launcher then it makes the experience much better imo... I don't mess around with dpi settings as I will just wait for a rom that will customize that to my liking. We are lacking in the development department right now but as soon as it picks up there should be lots of great options for us...:fingers-crossed: And as far as scrollable wallpapers... I just download Zedge & an app called wallpaper changer and I have on demand scrollable wallpapers in Nova!
mottyengel said:
I think touchwiz has come a long way. It really adds alot to stock android in my opinion, and im not just talking about the s pen additions.
The dialer, the whole phone app in general, all the motion settings...
What I want to talk about are issues that people have with touchwiz in general, meaning, reasons that you would jump ship to a custom rom, and I'd like to see if anyone would have solutions to these issues.
Ill give you a few examples of my own experiences.
1) I need to have a battery percentage in the status bar. So when youre running any rom worth its salt, there's an option for that. I was going through the settings on the note 2 and there it was, built into the touchwiz settings... im curious to know when this was added because im pretty sure it wasnt there in gingerbread.
2) I like the additions to the stock player but to me, its still not functional enough, I at least need a screen lock. When I mentioned this in a post, someone pointed out that screen lock is built in now, all you need to do is press the power key when playing a video and it locks the screen.
3) I remember someone posting about how on this phone, the calls and messages show up in the call log and how annoying that is. I just looked for a second and realized that theres a way to change that. When youre in the call log, you hit menu then view by.
I think we could all benefit from learning about the other "hidden features and functionality" in touchwiz. For example, I still have an issue with the stock video player that you cant easily fast forward by dragging like other players and there doesnt seem to be any options or preferences built it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi OP,
If u go to Settings -> Display and if you select Display Battery Percentage, it'll show you the battery percentage in the notification bar.
I'd like a better home screen layout. 5x4 is a GINORMOUS waste of space.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
achusaysblessyou said:
Hi OP,
If u go to Settings -> Display and if you select Display Battery Percentage, it'll show you the battery percentage in the notification bar.
I'd like a better home screen layout. 5x4 is a GINORMOUS waste of space.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess i wasnt clear, i found it, but i never knew it was there... and the homescreen layout... use a different launcher..
The only thing I missed from a custom launcher are:
1) can't change the icon grid, would like a 5x5 at least.
2) can't lock the home screen. Hate it when I accidentally moved stuff after having it setup perfectly the way I want it.
Also it would be great if we can select which app the page buddy brings up.
The only thing that really pushed me away from TouchWiz is that you can’t move the “Apps” button in the dock. I can’t reach the button when holding the phone in my left hand, one handed.
I really hate the lock screen. I was running a ROM with AOSP JB lock screen on my previous phone. I use the lock screen music controls all the time.
On Touchwiz lock screen if you use the basic swipe lock, you get the quick apps at the bottom, but the music controls don't show up at the top (at least not for Spotify or DoggCatcher). I can turn on pattern unlock, then it will show the lock screen music controls, but I lose the quick apps (I find it useful to access Google Search or Camera from lock screen).
The only solution to get both is to use pattern unlock with swipe gesture. This gives me the swipe lock screen with quick apps at the bottom, then when I swipe it gives me the pattern unlock with music controls at the top. WAY too many steps to access these two features that apparently can't be on the lock screen at the same time.
Can't say I often log in just to reply to a thread here, I'm more of a lurker. But I definitely feel the need to contribute to this.
I actually just returned my Note 2 (with the intention of getting an unlocked Nexus 4 in a couple days) and one of the major reasons was TouchWiz.
I hate it. Hate hate hate it. I hate the notification bar customizations. I hate that they've taken something as wonderful as power toggles in the notification bar and so badly butchered them. The entire notification pulldown is a crowded clusterfk compared to vanilla Android (full disclosure: I'm a long time vanilla Android user through Nexus devices/AOSP ROMs). The low DPI for a phone with such a big screen is damn absurd. I feel like I'm using my 37" computer monitor at 1280*1024. The TouchWiz customizations to the settings UI is just as bad or worse than Sense. If anything the Note 2 should be using the default Android tablet settings UI. The TouchWiz lock screen is a step up in customization from vanilla Android, but I still think it's ugly as all hell. Most of it is fluff that doesn't add any function or aesthetics. Not specifically TouchWiz related, but I loathe that they moved the back button from the left side of the screen as in vanilla JB to the left side via a capacitive hardware button.
I don't hate ALL of Samsung's tinkering. S-Voice was actually a phenomenal surprise and I'm going to dearly miss it. I could actually reliably send text messages with it without ever so much as glancing at the phone. Voice recognition was fantastic and it covered basic phone features better than vanilla Android's default abilities.
What I would really LOVE to have is a Note 2 without the hardware buttons, running AOSP with S-Voice and the S-Pen apps. Perhaps one day if there's a stable CM release where I can install extracted APKs for the Samsung apps I may get another one. Until then I'm going to stick with the Nexus line. TouchWiz really is that bad IMO.
... at least TouchWiz is a lot better than one of the first versions of it with the Behold II *shudders* I used one of those for a week.
hittingsmoke said:
Can't say I often log in just to reply to a thread here, I'm more of a lurker. But I definitely feel the need to contribute to this.
I actually just returned my Note 2 (with the intention of getting an unlocked Nexus 4 in a couple days) and one of the major reasons was TouchWiz.
I hate it. Hate hate hate it. I hate the notification bar customizations. I hate that they've taken something as wonderful as power toggles in the notification bar and so badly butchered them. The entire notification pulldown is a crowded clusterfk compared to vanilla Android (full disclosure: I'm a long time vanilla Android user through Nexus devices/AOSP ROMs). The low DPI for a phone with such a big screen is damn absurd. I feel like I'm using my 37" computer monitor at 1280*1024. The TouchWiz customizations to the settings UI is just as bad or worse than Sense. If anything the Note 2 should be using the default Android tablet settings UI. The TouchWiz lock screen is a step up in customization from vanilla Android, but I still think it's ugly as all hell. Most of it is fluff that doesn't add any function or aesthetics. Not specifically TouchWiz related, but I loathe that they moved the back button from the left side of the screen as in vanilla JB to the left side via a capacitive hardware button.
I don't hate ALL of Samsung's tinkering. S-Voice was actually a phenomenal surprise and I'm going to dearly miss it. I could actually reliably send text messages with it without ever so much as glancing at the phone. Voice recognition was fantastic and it covered basic phone features better than vanilla Android's default abilities.
What I would really LOVE to have is a Note 2 without the hardware buttons, running AOSP with S-Voice and the S-Pen apps. Perhaps one day if there's a stable CM release where I can install extracted APKs for the Samsung apps I may get another one. Until then I'm going to stick with the Nexus line. TouchWiz really is that bad IMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle* Enjoy the on screen buttons taking up real estate, 16gb of total memory, and yearning for the s-pen. Btw, something as simple as go launcher could allow you to set up plenty of things you want, to include a 5x5 icon set.
I could go on and on, but to be honest, I don't think it will be long for you to realize you are making a mistake. *cough* battery
mdt73 said:
I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle* Enjoy the on screen buttons taking up real estate, 16gb of total memory, and yearning for the s-pen. Btw, something as simple as go launcher could allow you to set up plenty of things you want, to include a 5x5 icon set.
I could go on and on, but to be honest, I don't think it will be long for you to realize you are making a mistake. *cough* battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He does have a point with a lot of that stuff, particularly the lock screen music control. I just don't understand why it's so hard to add it just under the weather, or as a small bar just above the other lockscreen targets at the bottom of the screen. That's the most frustrating thing for me, as most the the other stuff he mentioned can be changed, and if it can't I'm willing to overlook it for a while because of all the added features this phone brings.
I have been using power amp for music since my DroidX2 back when we yearned for an eq... so its always been there for me (the lock screen music control).
Everything mentioned can be addressed. That's the beauty of android; customizing your android experience. What people have become is lazy because roms do it for you.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium
mdt73 said:
I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How so? AOSP ROMS are pretty well vanilla with very minor tweaks. Nothing like horribly reskinned menus at every turn. *yahtzee*
I use ADW EX to do a hell of a lot more than add icons to my home screen. Changing the launcher can only do so much to fix a horrible complete OS reskin.
hittingsmoke said:
How so? AOSP ROMS are pretty well vanilla with very minor tweaks. Nothing like horribly reskinned menus at every turn. *yahtzee*
I use ADW EX to do a hell of a lot more than add icons to my home screen. Changing the launcher can only do so much to fix a horrible complete OS reskin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only thing that looks skined on my phobe now isctge lockscreen, and im sure I can fix that with a lock screen app. Otherwise my launcher is now ADW, my notification bar is themed blue with circle battery and stock JB settings/clear all buttons. No brightness bar in notification window either. In all honesty there is not much mire I was able to change on my Galaxy Nexus that I cant on here, visually. In the options department Samsung has done a wonderful job and I currently dont miss anything from AOKP other then the widget popups on nav bar (would love to hold say menu button to get that on here)
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