Develop Bugs

ICS 4.0 & All the Little Things! [undocumented features]

Just wondering for those of you who have the device already, have you guys found some neat features/tricks using 4.0 that haven't been documented or heavily advertised?
I would love to make a list of these features for other users to explore...
Lets get this started
List:

Reserved........

I know it's documented,but it was still a surprise to me - you can now finally delete apps straight from the app drawer, by dragging them just as if you were going to place them on the desktop,but then putting them in the recycle bin on the top.

No affiliation with apple. Or siri.
Sent from my samsung gt i9250 which is in the wrong country.

Nobody's talking about the search app. It's way better than the one in Gingerbread. Much easier to find stuff in your phone : music, app, sms, docs, etc. The old one was returning web search suggestion in 90% of the result... useless.
Search in browser let's you edit suggestion if you want to add something to it. But we lost popular web site suggestion

Just read it on Pocketnow but you can make folders in the favourites bar. Apologies if obvious.

When in the stock browser and you change orientation, tap the screen to make it rotate.

gambiting said:
I know it's documented,but it was still a surprise to me - you can now finally delete apps straight from the app drawer, by dragging them just as if you were going to place them on the desktop,but then putting them in the recycle bin on the top.
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You can do that on stock fascinate.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using xda premium

mkropf said:
You can do that on stock fascinate.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
which runs TouchWiz, so it's not stock Android

Rotate the phone to the right whilst in any stock app (so the speaker grill and front camera are on the right). Notice that the back, home and task switch buttons have moved to the top of the screen so that they stay on the right.

When using an ics app hold down on an icon in the action bar to get a description of what it does
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Not heavily advertised, but it should be:
The quick control in the browser. Almost the same as on honeycomb. Activate it in the labs settings of the browser. Love it!

appelflap said:
Not heavily advertised, but it should be:
The quick control in the browser. Almost the same as on honeycomb. Activate it in the labs settings of the browser. Love it!
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NICE find! Thanks!

This is known about, however you said undocumented and I haven't a single document for the Nexus/ICS apart from on one which came with the phone,telling me how to fix the battery.
Hold the volume down and power key, and you take a screen capture. Which is very handy on occasions
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

If you tap the volume button which makes the volume bar appear, you can then press the icon to the left of the volume bar and it toggles between ring and vibrate.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

In settings/about phone. Tap repeatedly on the android version number (4.0...) then a little android appears. Keep ur finger on it and it grows into a screen animation.
If u didn't know about this,I guess u r now thinking this is a joke. Or is it?

Need someone to test; try swiping the web pages up/down using 2 fingers
, is it a feature or a glitch?

Stea1thmode said:
Need someone to test; try swiping the web pages up/down using 2 fingers
, is it a feature or a glitch?
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Click to collapse
what's supposed to happen?

You can use the front facing camera to record in 720p hd

NexusDro said:
what's supposed to happen?
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Click to collapse
I thought it scrolled page by page. try by flicking with 2 fingers.

Why ruin that big beautiful screen by using on screen nav buttons..

Why did Samsung do this... Its like any other 4.3" screen with those buttons on the bottom.. Can you hide these buttons all together fir certain apps to take some advantage of that gorgeous screen? Namely the browser?

just videos it auto hides on stock rom.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

It would be awesome if you could toggle the virtual keys, that's what I thought they were intended for, not just to watch some damn videos. Pretty disappointed in that aspect as well.

To standardize the button layout on Android devices (home, search, back, menu)
@wonshikee: You can always make a rooted app / mod to do that. Androids open source.

Do games hide the buttons or are they still there? Sounds like Samsung didn't think this through..

Diversion said:
Do games hide the buttons or are they still there? Sounds like Samsung didn't think this through..
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It was Google's idea. Samsung just made the device with the hardware asked by Google. This is how they do all Nexus devices.
You're acting like this is a new concept. It isn't. It was on honeycomb tablets and no one seemed to mind it.

Diversion said:
Why did Samsung do this... Its like any other 4.3" screen with those buttons on the bottom.. Can you hide these buttons all together fir certain apps to take some advantage of that gorgeous screen? Namely the browser?
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Click to collapse
Sometimes I wonder if anybody researches at all before buying this phone...
Apps have to be specifically designed to go to full screen mode to hide the buttons, with the restriction that ANY user interaction brings the buttons back to the visible state. Hence, games or the browser would not be able to effectively hide the buttons.
Think of it this way: say you're playing a game, and it locks up. If there's no home button, you're forced to reboot.

You can enable full screen browser. Games do not. get rid of the buttons.

Instead of saying why ruin the screen with nav buttons.. You should be saying why ruin the screen by using a pentile submatrix .

zetsumeikuro said:
Instead of saying why ruin the screen with nav buttons.. You should be saying why ruin the screen by using a pentile submatrix .
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From what I read, Samsung isn't currently capable of creating a 4.65" 720P Super AMOLED plus display. Technology simply isn't there so they had to resort to a 720P super AMOLED pentile submatrix display.

Bobb_o said:
You can enable full screen browser. Games do not. get rid of the buttons.
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Click to collapse
The full screen brower mode simply hides the status bar (and possibly minimizes the soft buttons) but it does not hide them entirely.

On screen buttons offer the benefit of when you rotate the screen, the buttons rotate with you. They are always on the bottom and in the same order.

Return it. Done. No more drama.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

zephiK said:
It was Google's idea. Samsung just made the device with the hardware asked by Google. This is how they do all Nexus devices.
You're acting like this is a new concept. It isn't. It was on honeycomb tablets and no one seemed to mind it.
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Except tablet screens are massive so nothing is really lost, the difference between a 4.3" and 4.65" is much bigger.

The display on this phone rocks and I love the on screen buttons. Its nice to have consistency in the feel of the interactions with the UI including the "buttons".
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

the buttons dont bother me , but it is annoying when they turn into the three little dots. Sometimes I forget which buttons where esp. in landscape and 1 click and you hit home instead of back. They should have made it a 2 step process. Push any1 of the dots and the buttons appear then you push a button to go where you want- Or at least make it a setting to be like this

I personally thought it would suck but fortunately i haven't had problems with it. I do wonder who and/or what will come up with some kind of toggle for it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

@rbiter said:
I personally thought it would suck but fortunately i haven't had problems with it. I do wonder who and/or what will come up with some kind of toggle for it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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I also thought it would suck and was gutted when Google announced it, but it has helped me realize why Google dominate they certainly "know their ****" ... the buttons look cool and I love the developer options that it leaves open, eg the great work that paul has already started

DPI changer....the first thing I'm going to do on this badboy

Hmmm...I like the GN button design!
I guess go buy a GS2 and wait for ICS...just saying.

[Request] Time in Navbar

wile playing with my Gnex phone the following idea poped into my head;
would it not be handy to have the time displayed in the ICS navigation bar, replacing the homekey grafics but not the function...
then you can keep track of time while playing games of running any other fullscreen application where the notificationbar is hidden.
what do you guys think?

I like it
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Funny, I just had the same thought and saw this thread.
I would love to see the clock be displayed in the nav bar and persistently. I think it would look sick.
Is this even possible? I wonder ...

chewy74 said:
Funny, I just had the same thought and saw this thread.
I would love to see the clock be displayed in the nav bar and persistently. I think it would look sick.
Is this even possible? I wonder ...
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It might be. I forgot which rom had this but you were able to put music controls (previous, forward, play/pause) in the navi bar so it might be possible
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

You're right, I totally forgot about the music control on the nav bar! Good catch
xXJay_RXx said:
It might be. I forgot which rom had this but you were able to put music controls (previous, forward, play/pause) in the navi bar so it might be possible
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
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then the question remains, is there any developer that can make this or is already working on it?

http://forum.aokp.co/tracker/
Go request it for AOKP.

good ideas but i need power menu soft key can use soft key from power menu

>.> Ummm bump? I like this idea too. perhaps not limit it to time but serve as a ticker?
I.e, normally it shows time, but it will show notification icons somewhere and a swipe will reveal the notification centre?
EDIT: On the top of my mind... we probably could get a couple of apps/mods to get something similar:
* There are full screen mods
* GMD gesturecontrol works on Gnex last time I tried.I suppose you can assign swipes and gestures to mimic the navbar buttons
* Only thing I don't really get is how we'd get a clock or notification area to show permanently at the bottom. Perhaps there are some apps that do this, Notifierpro plus does notification.. not time though.
* Paranoid android tablet UI, hide/remove the nav bar buttons, and try to move the notification area to the centre. Something like that...

There is a ROM that has all the features you are looking for:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1729942
However the base is CM9. I hope it will be upgraded to JB soon. I use it since a month and I prefer it over any other ROM.

xt720 said:
There is a ROM that has all the features you are looking for:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1729942
However the base is CM9. I hope it will be upgraded to JB soon. I use it since a month and I prefer it over any other ROM.
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Click to collapse
This is pretty much exactly what I wanted! Thanks!! Waiting for jelly bean! I'll run PA until then.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

suggestion to developers

I have been using ics for a month. The design is generally great. but there is just one thing that piss me off. ....the soft button. They just take up too mich space!
i dont know if it is possible. Can you make the soft buttons stay on the screen buttakeup no space? i tried lmt launcher. its quite good, butits tired to hold the screenand slide to the keys that we are supposed to be able to press directly. I tried the key savior as well. the little arrow is indeed quite good! can some developer make "3little arrows that stay on the screen" to replace the soft buttons on ics?

i have my buttons transparent so it looks full screen but they are still there.

Under "GALAXY NEXUS THEMES & APPS" there is a thread about removing then and only having them pop up upon a certain gesture our action allowing you to have the full 720x1280 screen.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

how? thx... thats good!

RogerPodacter said:
i have my buttons transparent so it looks full screen but they are still there.
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Click to collapse
thats great... can u tell me how?

Smokeey said:
Under "GALAXY NEXUS THEMES & APPS" there is a thread about removing then and only having them pop up upon a certain gesture our action allowing you to have the full 720x1280 screen.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the gesture is wt i dun like...

I would love to see the buttons incorporated into the top bar like CM7 for the Kindle Fire. This way your buttons are always there and take up no space at all. No swiping or gestures needed...

iamrockrock said:
thats great... can u tell me how?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search "transparent" in themes section. I got it from that thread.

I don't like this trend...

... of apps ignoring the menu key.
I've always preferred the menu - home - back layout Samsung has stuck with. It just feels more natural to me... Now though I'm starting to think the new Android design guidelines are going to pose a big usability problem.
Especially on big phones like the GS3, having to reach to the top of the phone to get at common options is an annoyance at best. Mint is one of the latest apps to implement the new design guidelines that renders the menu button useless.
I hope the development community can come up with a workaround - if they haven't already. Anyone know of efforts to remap or otherwise keep the menu button useful?

Its not really the dev community that controls the design guidelines.. as you know google updates them with each iteration of Android. The problem here is, starting from the Galaxy Nexus, none of Google's phones have come with a menu button. Google believes this is better (for some reason) and so all the design guidelines are trending towards making the menu button obsolete.
Samsung on the other hand is slowly becoming the only manufacturer to persist with the menu button.
From a development perspective, its easy enough to support devices with/without a menu button, with the same piece of code. I feel the main reason big Android apps are moving to the Holo bar menu button is for uniformity like in iOS (which is what Google wants in the first place)

There are roms that let you easily re-assign the menu button. For example, I have menu bound to recent apps (android standard is back, home, recent apps) with long press recent apps as menu for those few cases where apps still use the menu button.
As much as you may like the menu button it is more than on its way out at this point. Despite what samsung has been building their phones with.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

50% of the reason I like a physical home button is because for me, it's easier to power up the phone...and more natural, less effort etc. I also go into standby by an upward gesture on my homescreen so on/off is very quick and handy.
The other half is that I have more screen real estate.

pngface said:
Its not really the dev community that controls the design guidelines.. as you know google updates them with each iteration of Android. The problem here is, starting from the Galaxy Nexus, none of Google's phones have come with a menu button. Google believes this is better (for some reason) and so all the design guidelines are trending towards making the menu button obsolete.
Samsung on the other hand is slowly becoming the only manufacturer to persist with the menu button.
From a development perspective, its easy enough to support devices with/without a menu button, with the same piece of code. I feel the main reason big Android apps are moving to the Holo bar menu button is for uniformity like in iOS (which is what Google wants in the first place)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uniformity is huge, have you seen that picture with the buttons of around 10 android popular phones in which none of them have the same buttons/order.
Also, as an ex-galaxy nexus user, I must say that on-screen buttons are FAR better than what we have. The only down side is lost screen space in most apps (some stuff does go full screen). But the customizability of the software buttons is SO NICE. you can change the size of the bar, the colour, what buttons are there, what the icons are. The slide for google now is much more intuitive that long pressing menu. XDA devs have even added the ability to add what ever you want to the google now slide up gesture. (including widgets).
The software bar is simply a modder's wet dream

Sure uniformity is cool, but what's more uniform than a menu key that's just there all the time? I don't even have to think about it; I want settings/options, I press the menu key. This has honestly been one of my favorite design elements of Android. I hate that this is being phased out.
Ah well, nothing I can do about it.

themadproducer said:
50% of the reason I like a physical home button is because for me, it's easier to power up the phone...and more natural, less effort etc. I also go into standby by an upward gesture on my homescreen so on/off is very quick and handy.
The other half is that I have more screen real estate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you have it set up to sleep with a screen gesture?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

yamahakid said:
How do you have it set up to sleep with a screen gesture?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's 2 parts...but super simple and turbo quick!
I use Go Launcher EX. Many of the custom launchers have Gesture ability. (unlike stock TouchWiz) There are 2 types of gestures in GLex. The one I use is an upward gesture anywhere on any home screen. (you could choose an icon in the dock as well) and it's not the Gesture Pad feature. For me, this works well as I never find myself swiping upwards on the home screen except to initiate SCREEN OFF....although I have requested them to add a 2 finger swipe for extra control.
The 2nd part is an app called "screen off and lock" which I have been using for years. I tell GLex to execute SOAL with an upward gesture on the home screen. Works flawlessly. (GLex has it's own plugin for screen off...but it is laggy)
SOAL also has CRT similar fx and other options. But I just use the clean screen off effect and it's INSTANT. I literally can turn on my S3 with my physical home button, swipe to unlock. then swipe up to lock/screen off in under a second...and keep repeating...no lag. (that's not what I use it for per-say...but just to show that it is fast...all with my thumb in a close proximity area.)

Just got it all set up and I'm loving it so far. Thanks a lot
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

yamahakid said:
Just got it all set up and I'm loving it so far. Thanks a lot
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right on, glad you tried it out.
To me, little things like this make the experience so much better.
Are you using GLex?

themadproducer said:
Right on, glad you tried it out.
To me, little things like this make the experience so much better.
Are you using GLex?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I have an s3, but I flashed a fix that changed my build.prop to gnex so I can run Google wallet.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

yamahakid said:
No I have an s3, but I flashed a fix that changed my build.prop to gnex so I can run Google wallet.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Ha Ha...no...actually I meant Go Launcher EX? (GLex)
What launcher do you use to perform the swipe?

themadproducer said:
Ha Ha...no...actually I meant Go Launcher EX? (GLex)
What launcher do you use to perform the swipe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha oh I thought you made a typo. I'm using apex launcher.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

radeon_x said:
... of apps ignoring the menu key.
I've always preferred the menu - home - back layout Samsung has stuck with. It just feels more natural to me... Now though I'm starting to think the new Android design guidelines are going to pose a big usability problem.
Especially on big phones like the GS3, having to reach to the top of the phone to get at common options is an annoyance at best. Mint is one of the latest apps to implement the new design guidelines that renders the menu button useless.
I hope the development community can come up with a workaround - if they haven't already. Anyone know of efforts to remap or otherwise keep the menu button useful?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Video about some of my likes and dislikes about the GS3 overall its the best smartphone I have ever owned .

That's one thing that annoys me about the Android OS not being unified... some apps will ignore the menu, some wont.