Develop Bugs

[Q] Stock browser: quick toolbar + fullscreen, no soft buttons??

Hi all,
I'd really like to know whether setting quick toolbar + full screen browsing into the stock browser does hide the software button of ICS. I mean: does it really have a fullscreen browsing that way, can I use the whole screen?
A screenshot would be really appreciated!
You know what: I own a Galaxy Note and I cannot make up my mind whether to change it or not for a Galaxy Nexus. I have an ipad2 too and maybe a note is too much. But I like big screen and maybe a nexus with its 4.65 screen it's the perfect size. However, browsing on a 4.65 screen with ICS software buttons, it's like browsing on my old Galaxy S2 in terms of visible screen. Thus browsing in real full screen would be great!
Thanks in advance

The softbuttons are still visible in fullscreen mode.

There's the labs feature quick controls which hides the address bar, also a labs feature to hide the notification bar, however nothing removes the soft buttons, they just turn into dots and dim.

Bisazz said:
There's the labs feature quick controls which hides the address bar, also a labs feature to hide the notification bar, however nothing removes the soft buttons, they just turn into dots and dim.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer!
Then the best I can achieve is to remove address bar and notification bar.
Such a pity!

DanVanDamn said:
The softbuttons are still visible in fullscreen mode.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer.
Who knows, maybe one day devs will be able to hide them, like it happens for videos.
That would be great! I mean: when you have the quicktoolbar, they could insert there a back button and we could have the whole screen estate to browse!

That's what I'm hoping happens, if eventually someone manages to get them to hide from a swipe down then reappear with a swipe up or press of the power button or something, It would be awesome

Not, until we can access the bookmark via Quick Control as well.
Currently, when you enable Quick Control, you need to long-press the back button to access the bookmark.
There is no other way ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1389351
Aratheba said:
Thanks for your answer.
Who knows, maybe one day devs will be able to hide them, like it happens for videos.
That would be great! I mean: when you have the quicktoolbar, they could insert there a back button and we could have the whole screen estate to browse!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Actually, if you go to the new tab shortcut, the bookmarks tab is in the top right next to the new tab and options button.

[Q] Small soft keys on home screen?

I hope people like the small soft key idea just hoping for more use of it. so the question is what controls the function and how does this affect application resolution? I would like it on home screen. If anyone can figure this out, I would buy him a beer.
I would like to get this question out there, how about a sticky?

The keys often hide inside an app to give full resolution to the app.
I don't know what you mean by controls the function
Android - making grown men pee sitting down since 2.0

Goat_For_Sale said:
The keys often hide inside an app to give full resolution to the app.
I don't know what you mean by controls the function
Android - making grown men pee sitting down since 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he means that he wants some sort of ROM or widget or gesture that will toggle the softkeys or soft menu buttons similarly to how the Gnex hides this menu when playing video automatically (stock ICS video player)
I think it would be cool if you could turn this on and off with some sort of gesture. I think it would be cool for apps which are not ICS aware. Like Flash Video player does not go true full screen and the stock browser even with the full screen labs option does not go true full screen.
A gesture or toggle with be a cool power user option.

Yes a toggle I did some reading in sdk help. Look like there is code for it

I hope the right person sees this and can figure it out more screen is always better

[THINK TANK] Gesture bar instead of soft key bar

I've been realizing lately how amazing android really is and customizable it is with this phone. Off topic but I kinda hated the fact. Of a recent app button and the fact that I lost the menu button (honestly the most used button on all my other phones). The devs here realized it and gave me the ability to have my menu button, get my search button back, and make recent apps come up by holding the home button. Got to love them. Shout out to our fantastic devs.
Now the point of this thread was just I wanted to know how you guys thought about a gesture bar instead of having buttons. So swipe on the bar to go back, maybe swipe up to go home etc? Just trying to think of creative ideas on how to use this huge screen and since everything is virtual, why can't this be possible. What you guys think?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

nice idea, kind of like the microsoft touch mouse. I would like to see someone make that possible and see how it works out.

Shaquiel Harris said:
Now the point of this thread was just I wanted to know how you guys thought about a gesture bar instead of having buttons. So swipe on the bar to go back, maybe swipe up to go home etc? Just trying to think of creative ideas on how to use this huge screen and since everything is virtual, why can't this be possible. What you guys think?
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As a technical exercise it sounds like a very good idea, but I know for one I wouldn't use it. Dolphin HD has had gesture support for such a long time and I used it as my main web browser on my Desire but I didn't ever use the gesture support.
Even my HD2 running WM 6.5.x had an app that allowed you to launch any app/program by configuring a gesture, but again I didn't use it.
I guess it's just easier to place my thumb than to move about when holding the phone in one hand. Is this an idea you were thinking of implementing yourself, or are you looking for someone to pick the idea up and run with it?

Kalavere said:
As a technical exercise it sounds like a very good idea, but I know for one I wouldn't use it. Dolphin HD has had gesture support for such a long time and I used it as my main web browser on my Desire but I didn't ever use the gesture support.
Even my HD2 running WM 6.5.x had an app that allowed you to launch any app/program by configuring a gesture, but again I didn't use it.
I guess it's just easier to place my thumb than to move about when holding the phone in one hand. Is this an idea you were thinking of implementing yourself, or are you looking for someone to pick the idea up and run with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking about lmt? Fyi: it's now also available for android/gsn...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1330150
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Shaquiel Harris said:
I lost the menu button (honestly the most used button on all my other phones).
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Click to collapse
You never lost the menu button, it's just not on screen 100% of the time anymore, where it would just waste space otherwise.

I think its great idea!
Another few things that would be cool to see would be, resizing the Navigation Bar to be maybe a little thinner, and being able to slide the nav bar left or right, to reveal a icons to launch other apps, and maybe swiping down to hide the navbar all together.
Like you said being able to customize android and change every aspect of it is what makes this OS so awesome.

You guys ever use gesture area on webOS phones? Much better than using back key, would be a great idea. It also used visual feedback so a white line would go in the swipe direction. Currently the only phone using something similar to this is the N9 probably, which has swiping through the sides of screen to control apps.

I was just thinking about WebOS when reading this as well. Would be nice.

Just having the soft keys area as a gesture area? cool!
Maybe you could customize your gestures?
A big thing to me would be the ability to have a fully loaded package and be able to switch between stock softkeys, added search/menu softkeys, and gestures. Everything customizeable by user rather than through flashing?

menu bar like in windows 8
I think gesture is pretty good, but i`d like to see menu bar(home, recent, etc) like in win8: it is hidden until you swype from bottom-outside up, than it become unhidden. see any wideo with windows 8 tablert, you`ll see what i mean.

MrBIMC said:
I think gesture is pretty good, but i`d like to see menu bar(home, recent, etc) like in win8: it is hidden until you swype from bottom-outside up, than it become unhidden. see any wideo with windows 8 tablert, you`ll see what i mean.
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That would get annoying pretty quickly. I don't want to have to add extra steps to navigate my phone. Back, home and recent app are buttons you use all the time, why add a barrier to get to em? More screen real estate isn't worth the extra hassle.

Enhanced said:
That would get annoying pretty quickly. I don't want to have to add extra steps to navigate my phone. Back, home and recent app are buttons you use all the time, why add a barrier to get to em? More screen real estate isn't worth the extra hassle.
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Click to collapse
How about navigational controls similar to the quick controls in the stock browser? Touch the bottom edge of the screen and out pops a semi-radial menu that can contain: back, home, recent apps, menu, search and can be used to add quick shortcuts to your most used apps like messaging, contacts, browser, etc., or app specific commands, like say refresh for browser, check mail for, well, email, and so on. Touching the edge requires less effort and movement as compared to swiping up or down.

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. Hell yes!
The webOS 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 long as gesture detection was implemented well I don't see why you couldn't have the soft buttons as they are now and gestures all working at the same time.

Call me old fashioned, but I also don't like the gestures idea.
Dolphin is just about the only program on android that I have tried to use gestures with, and it's not the sort of feature i'd personally like integrated into my phone.
That said, customizing how different people can use their phones, within the same operating system, so two people can use the exact same phone in two totally different ways, is the way to go

j.go said:
How about navigational controls similar to the quick controls in the stock browser? Touch the bottom edge of the screen and out pops a semi-radial menu that can contain: back, home, recent apps, menu, search and can be used to add quick shortcuts to your most used apps like messaging, contacts, browser, etc., or app specific commands, like say refresh for browser, check mail for, well, email, and so on. Touching the edge requires less effort and movement as compared to swiping up or down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like your idea of having the pie control from the stock browser available all over android. I had the idea a while back but was just too lazy to implement it. Today I did a small working prototype and I think I will add the pie control feature to my gesture app "LMT"...

good idea but put ot optionaly! maybe it is not practical ! iwould rather hidden button ! like Video player amaing full screen with hidden buttons !!

Huntlaar said:
good idea but put ot optionaly! maybe it is not practical ! iwould rather hidden button ! like Video player amaing full screen with hidden buttons !!
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If implemented properly, you might be able to do away with the bottom bar and take advantage of the full screen. You can't see it with the nexus browser, but if you have a tablet running ICS and enable browser quick controls, the app hides the tabs and address bar, instantly adding an inch of usable screen real estate at the top.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

The big nasty problem with having hidden buttons or, for that matter, any trigger point area(s) on the devices main screen is you'll always end up triggering something when you didn't want to or it interferes with a ui element in one or more apps e.g. game scroll bars / buttons. I've tried plenty and they all interfered with one app or another to the point I stopped using them.
The quick controls idea is fine but you're still having to watch what you're doing. The beauty of gestures in webOS was that you wouldn't have to take your eyes of what you were doing to find a button - your finger just flicked below the screen content while your eyes looked towards what you were going to do next.
I realise it's hard to imagine if you've never done it before but (weak analogy approaching...) think of it like walking up a thin and narrow set of steps as opposed to thick wide ones while trying to read a book. On the narrow steps you have to look down to hit the next step thus breaking the flow of your reading. While on the bigger wider ones you can carry on reading as the step is big enough your foot can find it without taking your eyes of your book.
Anyroad, IMHO, gestures need to be out of the way of app content so as not to interfere with app usage patterns and shouldn't require the user to take their eyes off what they're doing.

ICS Wasted Screen Space?

So here's a thing.
I've been using and loving my Galaxy Nexus since launch day but one thing has always nagged me. I've always felt that this expansive screen didn't seem that big. I was caught up in the novelty of Ice Cream Sandwich's 'On Screen Buttons' and this new screen relative navigation paradigm to a point that I was glad to give over a large percentage of screen real estate to something that was new and novel.
I now suggest that after prolonged and optimistic use this paradigm is a waste of screen space.
I was swayed by the promise that this section of my precious screen would dynamically adjust and adapt to app specific requirements but as far as I can tell all it does is turn from icons to dots while running some apps and graciously disappears while using 2 (two) other apps (YouTube and Video).
For the most part it stays EXACTLY as it normally appears completely negating the whole point of moving these buttons to the screen!
With the reveal of the HTC OneX, which has pretty much the same sized screen, I've seen what properly used screen real estate can look like. It 'looks' bigger. The screen looks much bigger.
I think Google is wrong in promoting this screen based button layout. Either they change how these buttons persist in the interface and this is supported by 3rd parties or they give the 'whole' screen back to apps. The Galaxy Nexus has a beautiful screen but a 'not insignificant' portion of it is practically useless.
As GNex user what do you think about this?

I'm rooted and running aokp b27 so can hide the navigation buttons at a click of a button and have the full screen for all apps. Can then use button savior or similar or the options in the power menu for home back etc.
Want the navigation buttons back again, click of a button again.
Give it a try
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I think swiping up and down (like the notification pull down) would be awesome
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

This would be awesome indeed!
So you guys know what I mean right? Seems like a waste right?
monoxide.tryst said:
I think swiping up and down (like the notification pull down) would be awesome
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Click to collapse

ShiroEd said:
This would be awesome indeed!
So you guys know what I mean right? Seems like a waste right?
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Click to collapse
Nope...I I like the sleekness of the front without ant buttons on it when it is off.

dave83uk said:
I'm rooted and running aokp b27 so can hide the navigation buttons at a click of a button and have the full screen for all apps. Can then use button savior or similar or the options in the power menu for home back etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The half pint mod (reducing the nav bar height) is mush more useful. I'm using it at 24dpi and I hardly notice its there and keeps the functionality.

ezcats said:
Nope...I I like the sleekness of the front without ant buttons on it when it is off.
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Click to collapse
Yeah me too but I wish they would disappear more often than they do ala Gallery,Video,Youtube.
The HTC OneX is sleek when it is off too. It's only when you turn it one do you see the buttons so its exactly like the GNex but with more usable screen space.

dave83uk said:
I'm rooted and running aokp b27 so can hide the navigation buttons at a click of a button and have the full screen for all apps. Can then use button savior or similar or the options in the power menu for home back etc.
Want the navigation buttons back again, click of a button again.
Give it a try
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This...I have no on-screen buttons on my GN. 4.65 inches of pure ICS beauty!

But you gain screen space in the same sized chassis because you don't have capacitive buttons down below the screen... You're not any better or worse off screen size-wise when you use on-screen buttons. Its really a wash if you think about it...
I prefer on-screen because they hide when you've got something full-screen up, and they rotate with the UI. And when you turn off the screen, the buttons 100% disappear.

is also use AOKPs setting to hide the nav bar but only when im gonna play games pretty much
theres a way also to use the volume rocker as back and home buttons
here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1521252

I too think the screen buttons are a wasted opportunity and would disappear more often.

RogerPodacter said:
I too think the screen buttons are a wasted opportunity and would disappear more often.
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Click to collapse
I think they could do it a little bit more, but remember ICS is meant to be more "user friendly" and not as technical. You shouldn't have to read a user manual to know the gestures to hide and restore the buttons.
I think it would be a very very poor decision on Google's part to just have the phone hiding and restoring buttons "randomly" when you enter different apps or modes.
The best thing about this paradigm is that the buttons can be updated with the OS. We aren't stuck with the buttons that come on the hardware. For example right now 2.3-optimized apps rely on the placement of a "menu" soft key in the action bar at the bottom, but as apps are updated we'll no longer see that button.

While do agree to TS in a certain capacity but I also think it would make the device very unintuitive for new users which is the point of ICS.
That's why we have custom roms. At least now with gnex, we have the hardware that to make it happen if the user choose to
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

The lack of physical buttons was one of my major considerations in getting the Galaxy Nexus rather than waiting for the HTC One X. That and the lack of removable battery. And the not wanting to wait. But I digress
ICS is designed to work with the soft buttons, and I've been enjoying how well they work on my Touchpad. So far I'm loving them on the Galaxy Nexus. To me they seem to get out of the way fairly often.
Another thing - I'm coming from a Nexus One. The funny thing about the Nexus One's capacitive buttons are that they do not work very well while wearing gloves. Even thin gloves. The rest of the screen works just fine, but switching apps, or bringing up the menu, or starting a search are all near impossible with gloves on.
With the Galaxy Nexus' soft buttons, everything is screen, so everything always works!

One thing for sure, youtube videos on wifi HQ look friggin FANTASTIC on this phone. No buttons and pure minimal black front, its truly beautiful. Buttons would diminish that effect/look.

martonikaj said:
But you gain screen space in the same sized chassis because you don't have capacitive buttons down below the screen... You're not any better or worse off screen size-wise when you use on-screen buttons. Its really a wash if you think about it...
I prefer on-screen because they hide when you've got something full-screen up, and they rotate with the UI. And when you turn off the screen, the buttons 100% disappear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The HTC One X is actually slightly shorter than the Nexus, while having a slightly bigger screen.
On-screen buttons are a better solution to physically separated buttons in my opinion. The issue is that the Galaxy Nexus should be considered as a 'beta' for this type of implementation. Not only because the software isn't perfect, but also because of the physical attributes of the device. The space above and below the screen is far too much, and perhaps this is due to current technological limitations. Look at the space below your screen - you 'could' easily get a set of capacitive buttons in there.
If the spaces below and above the screen were reduced by 0.5cm each, the OP would have never made this complaint, as his device would be much more compact than a device with equivalent screen size and capacitive buttons.

Evangelion01 said:
The HTC One X is actually slightly shorter than the Nexus, while having a slightly bigger screen.
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Click to collapse
This is true and when I saw a video on YouTube comparing the GNex with the OneX it just struck me that the on screen buttons of the GNex were just taking up screen for no real functional gain whatsoever.
They rotate. Big deal. That makes no difference to functionality. I'd rather more screen.
They disappear. Rarely. When they do we all love how the screen looks. The OneX will be like that ALL THE TIME.
Their behaviour is inconsistent across applications. They disappear completely when viewing video (awesome) but we get three dots when viewing images. Why?
Check out the side by side comparison between the GNex and OneX and you can clearly see that both are the same sized phone but the OneX has SIGNIFICANTLY more available screen real estate. A LOT MORE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF9bhcNV5wU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
One of the things I love the most about the GNex is how minimalist it looks when turned off. Just a black slab. No buttons. But this is the same for many phones with capacitive buttons that turn off with the screen.
I simply cannot see any benefit to having on screen buttons *as it is currently implemented* in Ice Cream Sandwich.
Another thing to consider with persistent on screen buttons is the issue of screen burn in on AMOLED screens. A lot of GNex owners have started to see this already myself included. While this is an issue with the hardware it is a well know issue with AMOLED screens yet Google went ahead regardless.
I love the GNex but I'm now waiting to see what the SIII has to offer. If I'm going to the trouser busting bother of carrying around a large screen I want to get use out of it!

Changing the scaling of objects on screen will allow for more space on the screen. Plus, I think it looks nicer. Why not utilize the screen? xD
This thread covers how todo so. Though, some roms do have a modification option built in.

I've just Rooted (Finally!) and flashed AOKP b27 and IT'S AWESOME!!!
Amongst many other cool things it enables you to change the dpi for the Nav Bar making it really thin and freeing up loads of screen space while keeping full functionality!
Sha-WHEET!

monoxide.tryst said:
I think swiping up and down (like the notification pull down) would be awesome
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With nova launcher you can do that
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Why did HTC choose physical buttons?

I love everything about the One series, wish they'd used software buttons like ICS is supposed to have.
e.g. on most legacy apps, we'll now have a whole bar just to show the menu button. Thus you have a row for the menu button, and below it another for the capacitive ones. With soft-keys, they get combined and you have more screen space.
Plus software can modify the button bar to put other details and buttons, change orientation etc. Soft-keys are simply better.

ECrispy said:
I love everything about the One series, wish they'd used software buttons like ICS is supposed to have.
e.g. on most legacy apps, we'll now have a whole bar just to show the menu button. Thus you have a row for the menu button, and below it another for the capacitive ones. With soft-keys, they get combined and you have more screen space.
Plus software can modify the button bar to put other details and buttons, change orientation etc. Soft-keys are simply better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't disagree more. Legacy apps will be updated over time; physical buttons don't need anywhere near as much power to backlight as an LCD display, and require essentially no processing power to operate. By placing the buttons on the screen, you're requiring an inefficient LCD backlight to light those buttons, wasting processing power on rendering the screen, and not to mention that since those on-screen buttons can't be disabled, you're permanently wasting valuable LCD real-estate (and hence forcing a non-standard screen aspect ratio, since LCD panels are an off-the-shelf part and aren't typically designed to add extra menu bar pixels to the standard aspect.)
This will in not too long provide a better aspect ratio and more on-screen real estate in well-coded apps, doesn't sacrifice any screen real estate over a screen that always has the menu bar because it lacks physical buttons, and it will measurably improve battery life over a display providing the same real estate for apps *plus* a full-time LCD menu bar.
It's a big win, as far as I'm concerned, that is largely misunderstood so far by people not thinking about the bigger picture.

Software buttons can be disabled for more screen real estate.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

joshnichols189 said:
Software buttons can be disabled for more screen real estate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They certainly can't in ICS on tablets, I must admit I haven't tried an ICS phone yet.

Of course they can be disabled, e.g in video playback they go away. And there are ICS api's developers can call to modify the buttons. There are custom rom's that features such as search button to the button bar, which isn't possible with hard buttons of course.

ECrispy said:
...e.g in video playback they go away...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know about on a phone but on a tablet they don't go away they are just replaced with very small dot. So the bar is still there and you still lose the screen space.
I really like hardware buttons, I don't like the "menu" bar but as you said this is for legacy apps so the pressure should be put on the app developers to update their apps inline with ICS.
Like said prev, hardware buttons give more screen, correct aspect ratios, use less power, and in the long run the menu button will become redundant.

ECrispy said:
Of course they can be disabled, e.g in video playback they go away. And there are ICS api's developers can call to modify the buttons. There are custom rom's that features such as search button to the button bar, which isn't possible with hard buttons of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They certainly don't "go away" on ICS tablets. The bar is still there, the buttons are just replaced with less-distracting dots.

I love the physical touch buttons on the bottom, rather have them than touch screen ones anyday
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA

Google themselves have said that Android is moving in a direction where there should be no physical buttons. e.g. lets say Jellybean removes/adds a button, now some phones will need to be redesigned for it, just like they had to remove search & menu when moving to ICS. But a phone with software buttons doesn't need to change the hardware. It's more future proof.
I think this kind of change will take a while but eventually it will happen. There are still many people who prefer hw buttons and HTC wanted to accomodate them I guess.

I don't have an ICS tablet, I'd guess the reason is there is enough space on a tablet screen so they don't go away.

I prefer hardware buttons, BUT:
If using soft button means that the phone actually gets smaller,
i choose soft buttons.

ECrispy said:
But a phone with software buttons doesn't need to change the hardware. It's more future proof.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Frankly, future-proofing is meaningless for as long as Google requires that end users go through a carrier and/or a manufacturer to get updates, and in the process guarantees that almost all Android products will be abandoned by the wayside before they've even stopped being sold (and the few that get updates will get them late, if ever.)

I just don't understand why they had to abandon the menu button, it was perfect...
I don't understand why we need a multitask button when you could just keep home pressed for the same result.
I didn't use a GN so won't comment on the software buttons much, I think it could really work if they added options for it in default ics so people who don't use custom roms and such could deal with them as they wish.
as for the menu bar on htc one.. it will eventually have a option to hide it (a V arrow on the bar)
it did in a previous software version but I guess they forgot to add it in the final build
and if you wanted it back all you had to do is keep multitask button pressed

@OP: drop by GNexus forum, there's quite some guys not happy with the screen size they loose with softbuttons. There's even an option on AKOP ROM to disable softbar.
I'm quite happy with hard buttons on One X, I just find stupid the solution HTC found to replace the menu button.

Disabling the soft buttons on the Galaxy Nexus is a commonly requested feature because tons of app developers haven't yet updated their apps to hide them while in full screen, not because of some half-baked idea that the loss of that extra 84 pixels of height somehow detracts from the user experience. Furthermore, the loss of screen real estate doesn't mean anything when 99% of the current apps are configured for the old 5:3 aspect ratio. Lots of old games look funky when you disable the soft buttons, because all the OS does is stretch it to fit.
Soft buttons are better because nobody can make up their minds on the design of the UI, so you might as well just leave it open to customization. Don't blame Google, blame the app developers.

HTC listened...
Maybe HTC listened to the majority of the HTC users and followed through with hardware buttons or maybe it is an HTC thing to keep hardware buttons as to Apple with their Home button.

I just want my search button back... that was perhaps the one (and only )good addition the US carriers made to their devices. IMO.

I can't find the article but an HTC executive was quoted as saying it's necessary to support Sense.

I'm happy they did it. The buttons on the galaxy nexus look like crap, the black isn't black enough to use it for passive buttons.

H-Cim said:
I'm happy they did it. The buttons on the galaxy nexus look like crap, the black isn't black enough to use it for passive buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The.majority of GN roms alow you to change both the brightness and colour of the on-screen buttons so that isn't an issue for most people. I actually prefer them, particularly as you can add or change the configuration of the buttons easily.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2