This is my first app for WinCE so please be nice!
Rant
It seems I'm part of a minority of users who understand that mobile devices and PDA's are not designed to run multiple apps at once. You can, but anyone with a decent sense of quality will agree that it's a rubbish experience once you get under 50% free memory. In fact the iPhone by default design doesn't let you multi-task apps (jailbreak changes this) which may be one of the reasons peeps think its a faster device. I say I'm part of a minority because most apps around are coded so that when you hit the 'x' close button they minimize instead of close (even by holding x). Also Windows has no inbuilt mechanisms for keeping your apps closed, and none of the roms I've tried (cooked or otherwise) seem to have these types of tools included.
Disclaimer
Firstly I hope I haven't reinvented the wheel or stolen anyone else's idea. I didn't research for months but didn't find anything like this around so apologize in advance if I upset anyone. Also I provide this tool "as-is" in BETA form - so it could damage your device - so use at your own risk.
Kill****?! What is it?
It is a simple app that kills running processes.
Why would I want it - what's wrong with Task Manager?
A common example is you open up Calc to do divide a dinner bill, lookup how to get home in Google maps, send an SMS to a friend and hit Home key. Then you wonder why the thing is running like a dog. You open task manager and notice you have these 3 freakin apps are open still and taking up your memory. So you're expected to open Task Manager after every time you're finished with an app?...no I dont think so..because you've got Kill****! You manage an exemption file, assign the app to one of your softkeys (or events) and it will quickly, quietly kill all other **** running for you.
How Does It Work?
It stores a text file on disk with names of processes that you wish to exempt. You can manage this via the included config tool. When you run the app (which is a console app) it just kills every running process other than the ones on your exclude list. The exclusion file is stored in your default MyDocuments folder and is called something like "NoofnyKill****.settings". Real simple.
What Do I Need To Run It?
Microsoft Windows Mobile (4 and above)
Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 3.5
How Do I Install It?
Simply run the attached CAB and everything is installed for you. 2 icons are added to your Start Menu (the config tool and the console app itself). The app is installed in the default Programs folder.
How Do I Use It?
If the exceptions file does not exist it will be created new and will contain all of the running process at the time the app ran.
The best instructions are;
1) Have your device in your preferred state with only your basic apps running.
2) Open the config tool from the start menu (Kill**** Config).
3) All of the running processes will list with a check next to them (which 4) means they will be exempted).
4) Click Menu -> Save Exceptions and close the config tool.
5) Assign the console app (KilL****.exe) to one of your softkeys or other buttons using your favorite tweak tool.
What Else Do I Need To Know?
I am not responsible for anything negative or positive this app will do to you, your device or life. Use at your own risk. I have not tested this app well and can only guarantee that I have fundamentally screwed something up. If anyone does use it and wants help I will do my best but try to help by giving as much detailed info as possible when reporting any bugs. I'm open to suggestions and are planning to put the source code up here if anyone shows interest.
That's about it - hope it makes someone's life a little brighter.
Hi!
This looks interesting. Is there anyway to cook this into a ROM properly? I dont like to have users make a file in their my documents folder.
Cheers
Epiphany
EpiphanyNL said:
Is there anyway to cook this into a ROM properly? I dont like to have users make a file in their my documents folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks...i can have the file live anywhere really, I just chose MyDocuments cause its easy and accessible. It's easy to even have them define in the config tool where they want to save the settings. I'm new to mobile dev and the whole rom cooking thing, so could you expand about what would be needed to cook this app into a rom?
actually after giving it more thought it would be more practical to store this in the registry. I chose to use a text file at first because I was not going to bother have a config app and you could modify it using notepad or something.
In registry would be the most preferred method yes.
Hi,
I did up a home replacement for my Nook simple touch, thought I would share it. This is an initial release, no doubt there are bugs, incompatibilities, etc, you were warned. There are no checks for other devices at this point, NST only.
Thanks to the nook community for the noogie.img file, touch nooter, and relaunch for source code ideas and various threads regarding quick refresh and e-ink support.
Disclaimer: Now, what I am using currently is the bare minimum, I have tried quite a bit of the work in this forum and it works well, but I wasn't satisfied or 100% confident and I wanted less installed. So, I restored my nook to stock, used noogie and copied over a rooted ramdisk. That was it, no touchcolortools, nooktouchtools installed, adw minimal this or that, or button saviors. I am sure they are great programs but I don't know enough about them or have the interest/time to do research on them to want to keep them installed.
For me, the point is to keep things simple and maintain battery life. It's an e-reader not a tablet after all. I just want to read books, check email, check a website or two, get some more use out of wi-fi since I don't live in a B&N supported nation.
To install:adb install EPubBrowser.apk
Optional:
I also installed Email.apk and set up my gmail from there, no certificates required or a million google app files and plucking a chicken on a Tuesday after jumping on your left foot crap. No offense to those who like chicken plucking.
adb install Email.apk
Done and done.
I can do up a CWM zip upon request, but last going off I have a continuous reboot after installing the latest version and if you know enough to get the Nook's CWM installed you should be able to use adb.See attached files.
What is not working:
Since Android doesn't really know about multiple external storage locations (at least for the Nook's 2.1 and/or my knowledge of android) EPubBrowser is unable to detect when the internal storage has been remounted, there is no notification of that, just notification of external storage. So if you plug in your usb cord to the computer the list of books will be empty even when you remove it. So if you don't have an sdcard you will have to hit the back button and launch home again to refresh.
Also, B&N books are not listed, whatever is in My Files will be scanned only. That applies to internal and sdcard storage. You can still use B&N's Library to access those.
I don't have any option of uninstalling apps either. adb uninstall works fine or you can just delete files from /data/app via adb shell.
What is working:
Launch of EPubBrowser via nook's home button, without use of nooktouchtools, it duplicates how the B&N home app works.
The notification icon for resuming reading goes through the app. As long as the book was launched from EPubBrowser it can remember the last book, otherwise the main display will show up. Reason being that for whatever reason the last page read doesn't work with the B&N home screen if it's not a book bought from B&N. But if you are just using the B&N Reader app it's not a problem.
When you are prompted which home you want you can select EPubBrowser and hit default. This may not stay set and will go away the next time you reboot.
How to use:Left / right swipes to go to the next 6, previous 6 books, no indication of the current page is displayed, (e-ink and aesthetics).
Touch a book cover to launch a description of the book, swipe up and down to scroll through the description, touch the cover displayed there to start reading. Hit back button on top of screen to exit without launching a book.
To bring up the list of apps installed, swipe a clockwise circle starting at 10 O'clock. Touch an app to launch it, left or right swipe to go back to main screen.That's it for now.
If you have any ideas for improvements, bug reports, please provide as much detail as possible, and when you have done that add some more detail.
Cheers!
Updates:
2/19/2012:
Added screensaver for last read book. (Jpeg 75%) Settings->Display->Screensavers->EPubBrowser
11/4/2012:
Added src project
Looks nice! I'll give it a shot later when my Nook's charged.
Thank you for making and sharing, i am going to try tomorrow and tell you,
Improvements
First of all, thank you for creating this cool launch screen. I love the simplicity of it. Here are is brief list of improvement that you can perhaps easily implement.
-When on the homescreen with the covers of all the books, I am not sure if I am suppose to scroll down or to the right to view the rest of my books.
-When on the page with the details from the book, there is no back button to take you back to the homescreen. I end up using the button savior back button.
-The circle gesture that takes you to the apps does not feel very responsive to me.
Anyhow, great job. Can't wait to see how you plan on improving it
OW MY EYES
I installed this, and everything just kept flashing. GO Locker and GO Launcher are both broken, and the only way I could fix it was by getting into ADW and closing the task. Did I install it incorrectly? I put it onto an SD card and used ES File Manager to install it.
ChunC said:
First of all, thank you for creating this cool launch screen. I love the simplicity of it. Here are is brief list of improvement that you can perhaps easily implement.
-When on the homescreen with the covers of all the books, I am not sure if I am suppose to scroll down or to the right to view the rest of my books.
-When on the page with the details from the book, there is no back button to take you back to the homescreen. I end up using the button savior back button.
-The circle gesture that takes you to the apps does not feel very responsive to me.
Anyhow, great job. Can't wait to see how you plan on improving it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback.
You swipe left to go to the previous page of books. You swipe right to go to the next page of books, assuming you have more than 6 books. Personally, I know what books I have on the device so it's not a problem knowing how many are left to see for me.
The back button should be on top of the screen in the middle, not sure why it wouldn't be there on yours. I will give it a think, maybe remove the scroll control in the book description and just use gesture detection and scroll the text via code.
Responsiveness and speed will likely improve over time, I am using the gesture library, maybe there are some optimizations there I can do.
Cheers!
Googie2149 said:
OW MY EYES
I installed this, and everything just kept flashing. GO Locker and GO Launcher are both broken, and the only way I could fix it was by getting into ADW and closing the task. Did I install it incorrectly? I put it onto an SD card and used ES File Manager to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Noted, so it doesn't work with GO Lancher/Locker. Never tried GO stuff, so that wasn't tested. It was tested with ADW and relaunch, and I had all the rest of your typical touch nooter install there without problems, android market, etc.
I have run it with Home.apk renamed to Home.apk.bak and that works fine as well.
As for your other question, if it is installed it is installed, there are no configurations to modify, however you get it there it should be fine.
Cheers!
WANT
Noted that it does not work with go, will have to get rid of that first.
From the screenshots, I can already tell you put time into polishing! Good job!
NFHimself said:
Hi,
Noted, so it doesn't work with GO Lancher/Locker. Never tried GO stuff, so that wasn't tested. It was tested with ADW and relaunch, and I had all the rest of your typical touch nooter install there without problems, android market, etc.
I have run it with Home.apk renamed to Home.apk.bak and that works fine as well.
As for your other question, if it is installed it is installed, there are no configurations to modify, however you get it there it should be fine.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try it again without the GO software, but it was making everything just keep flashing, like the lock screen.
@NFHimself, any plans for taking this to github? It is very close to what I always wanted but I was also looking for:
- some kind of usage of Calibre data
- library filtering for series, highly rated, etc.
- tracking of books that are clicked to maintain sort of recent read filter
- sorting options by rating, series, and other Calibre properties
- option to display 6 or 12 (smaller) book covers.
I hope it already does use intents for selecting a different epub reader for those who have no defaults and multiple ones installed.
I know its a long list, and I have some Android experience. I am sure there would be other developers here so a combined effort might help.
Screenshots looks good, but on the Nook - only flashing screen like Googie2149 said
tazzix said:
@NFHimself, any plans for taking this to github? It is very close to what I always wanted but I was also looking for:
- some kind of usage of Calibre data
- library filtering for series, highly rated, etc.
- tracking of books that are clicked to maintain sort of recent read filter
- sorting options by rating, series, and other Calibre properties
- option to display 6 or 12 (smaller) book covers.
I hope it already does use intents for selecting a different epub reader for those who have no defaults and multiple ones installed.
I know its a long list, and I have some Android experience. I am sure there would be other developers here so a combined effort might help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I use Calibre as well, I just connect via adb and calibre picks up the nook and I copy books over and it converts on the fly, cool program. Using Calibre data is an idea worth looking into, if I can fit it into the theme of no preferences, no extra buttons or config. There are plenty of those kind of home apps already. Relaunch for one is great, just missing a graphical front end, I was going to mod that, but decided that I didn't really need so much stuff and I wanted to learn more android API.
I did up the app using pretty straight forward epub standards (note the plural), it works with most epubs I have run across, not sure if looking for extra xml is a good functionality vs performance tradeoff. I haven't been using EPubBrowser for very long myself, so when I add more books and find something annoying I will probably make changes to fix it. I want to keep things simple, if I need a preferences menu, it is already going the wrong way.
I am not specifying any class, just a regular launch this epub file intent, so it should work with any reader. I like the stock reader myself, cool reader seems to dislike some epubs I have above a certain size, and I didn't want to deal with it.
I may github it, I am kinda time limited these days.
Cheers!
AgentSlash said:
Screenshots looks good, but on the Nook - only flashing screen like Googie2149 said
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
More details are needed to figure that out. What device do you have? What do you have installed on it?
Cheers!
I just wiped then manually rooted my Nook, and this works now. Although I'm having some trouble with getting to the apps page after the first time I did it. Could you possible change how you get to the apps page? Maybe change it so you have to click the menu key to get to apps.
Edit: Now that I've added my books, it shows me two books, one empty, and another book. Now it just flashes and removes/re-adds the last book. :/
Edit 2: I found that there are a few books that just don't like this launcher and cause the entire Nook to start flashing. I've been adding my books one by one to see which work and which don't and I'll try and find similarities between those that don't.
Great launcher replacement.
Running right now, but after the second page, I get sent back to the first, regardless of left-to-right or right-to-left swiping. Ideas?
Also, any chance for a page up/down use for scrolling through books?
I took a quick vid. It looks like when I swipe again from R to L, it tries to redraw the next books, but gets confused?
http://youtu.be/K1ukWFK0syg
ace7196 said:
Great launcher replacement.
Running right now, but after the second page, I get sent back to the first, regardless of left-to-right or right-to-left swiping. Ideas?
Also, any chance for a page up/down use for scrolling through books?
I took a quick vid. It looks like when I swipe again from R to L, it tries to redraw the next books, but gets confused?
http://youtu.be/K1ukWFK0syg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I'm busy painting the baby's room, but it looks like it is resetting, perhaps one of your books is crashing the app and it is being relaunched as the home screen. Or could be some other bug, how many books are involved, if you remove one or add one, does it go away?
If someone could open the e-pub (it's a zip file) that causes the error and paste the contents of the .odf file (it's an xml file) , that would help.
Cheers!
NFHimself said:
Hi,
I'm busy painting the baby's room, but it looks like it is resetting, perhaps one of your books is crashing the app and it is being relaunched as the home screen. Or could be some other bug, how many books are involved, if you remove one or add one, does it go away?
If someone could open the e-pub (it's a zip file) that causes the error and paste the contents of the .odf file (it's an xml file) , that would help.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've gone through and removed / added ebooks, and still the same problem.
Sorry, been kinda busy.
I need to be able to see the bug on my end to work on it. Maybe I've been lucky with the book selections I have made or converting using Calibre has set them all to have the same kind of format, vs the variety you might see in the wild from multiple sources.
Does the error happen with no books?
What happens when you have just one book?
How many books do you have on your nook? (If it's something like 1000 then yeah, maybe you'd have issues, no checks in the code for being out of memory.)
What firmware are you using?
Are there any hardware differences? (Can't imagine that being a problem, but I am using a NST, not the original Nook.)
What can I do to reproduce this error on my end? What are the steps?
Cheers!
NFHimself said:
Sorry, been kinda busy.
I need to be able to see the bug on my end to work on it. Maybe I've been lucky with the book selections I have made or converting using Calibre has set them all to have the same kind of format, vs the variety you might see in the wild from multiple sources.
Does the error happen with no books?
What happens when you have just one book?
How many books do you have on your nook? (If it's something like 1000 then yeah, maybe you'd have issues, no checks in the code for being out of memory.)
What firmware are you using?
Are there any hardware differences? (Can't imagine that being a problem, but I am using a NST, not the original Nook.)
What can I do to reproduce this error on my end? What are the steps?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, it doesn't matter how many books I have, it's just a few specific books that crash, independent of the other books in my library, and some books are more severe than others (one makes the entire Nook start flashing (all software), others make only this app flash).
I have the same problem as the people above but I can't get past the first page. I can't seem to narrow it down to a certain book making it crash. It's a shame I love this home screen, but hopefully we can get this fixed and running great.
THIS IS NOT A QUESTION!
>Okay, so I had a thought, why try registry hacking to modify icons on the start screen when there must be a much simpler way? Well I may have come up with a solution... I have not personally tested this yet and it would only be a temporary solution although I don't see why it wouldn't work so let's see how it goes hey?
>My basic idea came when I was using my iPad earlier and got linked to the appstore, now I know this is hardly related although the same happen on computers, so what I thought is why not use a similar technique to launch desktop programs from a metro app (Or a website saved to the startscreen), using a bit of HTML and JavaScript it "should" be possible to launch a link to a program automatically when a page launches.
HTML:
Launch the executable
<script>
function LaunchApp() {
if (!document.all) {
alert ("Available only with Internet Explorer.");
return;
}
var ws = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
ws.Exec("{EXE FILE LOCATION}");
}
</script>
This is assuming you know the file location (There are other ways, this is the way iTunes does it) now the only thing you need to do is make a basic HTML file and make sure you include the icon for the Start Screen and a good title for it. It may seem like a lot of work although after you have one basic app you can make more faster and add them to your startscreen a lot faster I hope this helps some people, I will personally have a play with it later and see if I can build some example launchers for you to use. I also plan to soon write a full guide along with creating a proper windows 8 startscreen compatible website.
Oh this version is also based on IE being your default browser, I will add updated code in a few days (The only browsers you can add icons with are IE or Chrome anyway and an IE wrapper in the chrome webstore could fix this anyway!)
Pretty sweet, I'll test when I get home. Do you know if this could be used to work with Metro apps as well? I'd like to be able to set my own tile color, I prefer the "accent color" approach on Windows Phone. The various mish mash of random colors in Windows 8 gets under my skin.
quite possibly although I think you can actually edit metro apps anyway, I forget the directory though.
not sure.. haven't tried it yet though.. someone will I think. and he's coming in 3.... 2.... 1....
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps
Sent from my SM-T210R using XDA Free mobile app
Edit : I mean system/app folder for the title.
I manage to strip down my Android to bare minimum, and so far I'm VERY happy with the result.
My device is Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000) but I suppose it is applicable to other Samsung or even any other Android devices (probably custom ROM too) , since I did cross research to wide varieties of stripped devices (including S series, Sony and such).
So far the debloating guides I've encounter don't go this far. I'm left with 68 files within system/app folder.
Google doc spreadsheet :
http://bit.ly/1c647yf
By jermitano
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spr...1gdDJRekl4QmkyNmIzUmRvX2h3UDVkQXc&output=html
As I remember, his spreadsheet was one of my resource to find the useless apps. I will attempt to compare both spreadsheets, and maybe add some more infos to mine.
Scribd link (also attached as PDF) :
http://bit.ly/1gmRGAy
I shared the google doc to public with editing permitted.
So if you're planning to debloat on your device or have complete infos on each apk, you can add it up there so might help anyone attempting to debloat their devices.
note :
Keep in mind, I use my tablet for laptop replacement, which means I don't use it for phone, sms and such (altho they're still working properly) and I disabled contact sync too, so I'm left with contact list stored within my SIM/phone.
I don't use GPS on my tablet too, so I removed GPS location through network (but it still working as well)
I have hardware keyboard at my disposal so in that table I removed SamsungIME.apk since I can use my hardware keyboard for initial setup and such.
Original thread here ;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2653655
Enjoy, and cheers. Hope this helps.
Google doc spreadsheet updated
http://bit.ly/1c647yf
Been couple of days, on heavy load (watching videos, playing 3D games, youtube and such) my Note 10.1 last about 15+ hours with this minimal settings. Of course I also turned on battery saving mode and turning off haptic feedback. I don't need all those.
Might last a week + if I put it on standby, since the battery consumption seems very flat and the only app listed within "battery" are only LCD screen. Phone, sms, GPS, etc, working great. Booting up is a snap, as well as starting apps and such. No crashes or force closes. AT ALL.
Some settings won't open when I tap them, but no crashes too. Simply, this is the android device of my dream.
Still need help and more infos on the safely removed apks. Or if you have other device than samsung, and want to do this to yours, I could use a bit of cross reference on what's the bare minimum of APKs.
Edit : Now I want to test out www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-install-any-app-as-system-app-on-android and see if I did hard reset on it.
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-install-any-app-as-system-app-on-android
Work marvelously. Need to set the permissions on the app.
For commercial apps, it will install to .asec in app-private. Use ES Explorer to convert it to ,apk. Uninstall, then install as usual. Find the apk at data/app.
Need to have the /lib files within the /system/lib in order all these to work.
Also, remember to set the permissions to both the apk and the lib files.
Thanks to IrfanCore http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=50543779&postcount=28