Related
so i'm currently using a t-mobile g2, but i'm definitely considering the galaxy nexus being my next phone. might even switch to verizon for it (but most likely will just wait for it on t-mobile).
my question is, and this really probably applies to all ICS phones, but for now, mainly to the galaxy nexus, is what happens with the menu button with all my current apps? i'm sure that many devs will be updating their apps to take advantage of and deal with any and all changes, but as it is, like 99% of my apps using the menu button, and since there is none now, i was curious how that works... i know from what i've read that alot of the main system apps (browser, camera, email/gmail, calendar, etc) have a menu button built into the layout... but what about 3rd party apps?
this is just something i was wondering about. i'm sure once i have one in my hand it will all make sense, but figured i'd ask
Dave
My best guess is it will show up in the bottom bar, similar to how it works in Honeycomb.
jayzeroeee said:
My best guess is it will show up in the bottom bar, similar to how it works in Honeycomb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok now i haven't messed with honeycomb at all, so does that mean the bar with the back/home/multitasking buttons is context sensitive and it could potentially change to include a menu button when needed with older apps?
thats what i was guessing...
polarbearmc said:
ok now i haven't messed with honeycomb at all, so does that mean the bar with the back/home/multitasking buttons is context sensitive and it could potentially change to include a menu button when needed with older apps?
thats what i was guessing...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Menu button will be there most of the time like in honeycomb
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
rdy2go said:
Menu button will be there most of the time like in honeycomb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i saw three or four hands-on and the bottom bar buttons have always been those three.
as far as i could understand, the menu is now raised by the "three dots" that appears contextually, often in the upper-right...
if i am right, it is at least a questionable choise i guess.
lorenx said:
i saw three or four hands-on and the bottom bar buttons have always been those three.
as far as i could understand, the menu is now raised by the "three dots" that appears contextually, often in the upper-right...
if i am right, it is at least a questionable choise i guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are right.. menu is going to be included in the app itself.
androidbuff123 said:
I think you are right.. menu is going to be included in the app itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That only works for apps that are built for ICS. For apps that still rely on the hard menu button there will have to be some way to bring up the menu.
In honeycomb if there is a menu button present in the app there wont be a menu button on the bottom of the screen. If there is no menu button present in the app there will be one on the bottom of the app.
I'm sure it'll be just like that.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
In ICS applications the menù button is "3 dots" in somewhere in the app.
In Gingerbread applications that runs in ICS, in the bar with back, home and multitasking buttons, will appear the "3 dots" button, that is like the "menù" button in GB.
esxuse me for my english.
source: hdblog.it
if the app doesn't support the menu button within the app, then you'll see a "three dots button" near the three soft button.
yea looks like a few of you have confirmed what i thought. the main "button" bar at the bottom is context sensitive and as needed a 4th, menu button will appear. but i'm sure most devs will start rebuilding their apps for ics in the future to not need it.
thanks!
actually starting to get really excited for this change.
I got a certain idea that since the buttons are from the screen, and therefore, rendered, modders will find a way to include more or less buttons, and even change their icon. I wouldn't be too surprised.
Quick screenshot from the second video of the mentioned HDblog showing the "three dots" menu button in apps that are not optimized for ics.
You can find it in the second video at around 7min 30 sec.
Here's also some good info regarding the soft-buttons and ICS from the SDK.
Controls for system UI visibility
Since the early days of Android, the system has managed a UI component known as the status bar, which resides at the top of handset devices to deliver information such as the carrier signal, time, notifications, and so on. Android 3.0 added the system bar for tablet devices, which resides at the bottom of the screen to provide system navigation controls (Home, Back, and so forth) and also an interface for elements traditionally provided by the status bar. In Android 4.0, the system provides a new type of system UI called the navigation bar. You might consider the navigation bar a re-tuned version of the system bar designed for handsets—it provides navigation controls for devices that don’t have hardware counterparts for navigating the system, but it leaves out the system bar's notification UI and setting controls. As such, a device that provides the navigation bar also has the status bar at the top.
To this day, you can hide the status bar on handsets using the FLAG_FULLSCREEN flag. In Android 4.0, the APIs that control the system bar’s visibility have been updated to better reflect the behavior of both the system bar and navigation bar:
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LOW_PROFILE flag replaces the STATUS_BAR_HIDDEN flag. When set, this flag enables “low profile" mode for the system bar or navigation bar. Navigation buttons dim and other elements in the system bar also hide. Enabling this is useful for creating more immersive games without distraction for the system navigation buttons.
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_VISIBLE flag replaces the STATUS_BAR_VISIBLE flag to request the system bar or navigation bar be visible.
The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION is a new flag that requests the navigation bar hide completely. Be aware that this works only for the navigation bar used by some handsets (it does not hide the system bar on tablets). The navigation bar returns to view as soon as the system receives user input. As such, this mode is useful primarily for video playback or other cases in which the whole screen is needed but user input is not required.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
I currently own a HTC Desire and was thinking about buying a new phone and I can't decide between Galaxy S3 and HTC One X yet.
When I watched this comparison here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtXAkNd9k68 I saw the HTC One X has Back, Home and Task Manager Buttons.
From my HTC Desire I know you can bring up Task Manager by long pressing Home Button, so I wonder why there is a Task Manager button (maybe for not so smart users?). And if there is a menu it takes away from screen real estate to display a menu button bar or for HTCs own apps, it displays a menu button on top right corner.
I like the black & white borderless theme of Sense better than the blue/gray border theme of Galaxy phones (for menu, popups, selectboxes, widgets, etc).
Would it be possible, to change the task manager button into a menu button?
Apparently HTC are going to do this in a future OTA update - or at least give us the ability to do like you request and do away with the horrible black bar which presents itself in some apps.
However - if you are into flashing roms then some of the custom roms give you the ability to change the functionality if the bottom three buttons - also adding long press abilities which you can define yourself, you can also toggle the black bar on/off if you so desire aswell, the following is a Rom which supports what you are after - comes highly recommended from myself;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1625816
as for why HTC make the recent task button, they followed Google. Google said its the death of the menu button, and introduced the action bar. not all apps are updated with it yet, so One X suffer with the black menu bars, except for google apps. unlike Galaxy Nexus, which has soft buttons, not capacitive like One X.
Ascend P6 has already launched 3 months, we hope all our customers can give your valuable suggestion of EMUI1.6, please click http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K8TGW5C to feedback your
advice,thank for all your support, the smart phone software upgrade will continue!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.facebook.com/Huaweiemui
You can only send feedback once from one device, so makes sure you add everything in one go.
I made the following suggestions. Post yours too. So that its sparks better ideas for the coming Emotion UI 2.0.
Fixes:
- A fix for the profile changer app. There is supposed to be five default profiles built into it but only four shows up, with the car profile being missing. When a new profile is created with the name "Car", it shows up as already used. Hence this needs to be fixed.
- Fix for keypad. On the browser, the address bar also functions as a search bar. The problem is that when one starts to type into that bar, the keypad automatically switches the "space" key to ".com" key, and hence there is no space key option available. Now the space is alternatively available if i was to switch to the numbers key pad section, but i would actually want the space key on the mainpad itself as it is a frequently used key for an internet search. Maybe give the ".com" key the same swipe down function as space key or vice versa.
- Fix for ME widget. The problem is that if i was to reduce the number of widgets that are packed into that widget box, the size of the box does not reduce. So lets say i want to use only the 1x2 size weather widget while removed the rest of the widgets. But what happens is that the widget still takes up the whole big original space and leads to un-usable space on the home screen. The space cannot be used for other widgets or apps. So basically now i am having to search for third party apps to use as a weather/world clock widget. Neither can i use that small music player widget as a stand alone.
- Fix for email widget (not the gmail widget) allows only emails of one email ID (that too the email ID added first) to show up on the email widget. While within the app there is a feature for combined viewing of all mails from all the different email ID's. So this same combined view option should be available for the widget too.
Changes/Additions:
- Make the navigation bar opaque glassy color throughout the system. At present it remains opaque only on the home screen, while turns grey everywhere else. And there is a lot of complains about this grey color.
- Allow scroll option for the bottom tray so that more number of apps can be located there.
- Allow the swipe down gesture on any part of the home screen to bring down the notification panel. At present one has to extend finger all over to the top to bring it down which is laborious when using with one hand. By allowing swipe down anywhere on home screen, this can be solved.
- Regarding the navigation bar hide option. At present this is done by an additional small arrow at the left end of the navigation bar. To me that is a constrictive and inconsistent. I would say that they make the "back/return" key of the navigation bar itself for this purpose by letting the long press of the back key to initiate the hiding of the navigation bar.
- The Huawei ascend Mate got an additional option of "suspend button" but this is not present in the Ascend P6. I would say that this shortcut feature should be added to the P6 too, but rather than have an annoying dot/point on the screen and the problem of having it move about often to prevent it from blocking the screen, the long press of the multitask navigation key should instead be used for activating the shortcut menu. Also the theme of this shortcut should be much improved and great looking with included option of customization. Also there needs to be the toggle options, power off/ restart/ screen turnoff, etc controls, included in this shortcut. The app available on google play called "Toucher Pro" can be seen as an example of design and features.
- Allowing the creation of folders within folders or other options that would allow users who want to have an app drawer, the ability to use and feel the folder as an app drawer itself.
- Option for the lock screen to allow the guest login mode.
- Knock knock phone awaken feature or the active display feature.
- Lock screen should have more detailed notification/message/calls reading option.
- Option to search and download theme from the theme app itself, and of course releasing more themes in a consistent period of time and allowing other users to advertise their themes and make it available for all users. There should be some organized space for public creative development of themes by users.
- More Huawei exclusive live widgets and floating apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
warea said:
I made the following suggestions. Post yours too. So that its sparks better ideas for the coming Emotion UI 2.0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good u have given all the super suggestions of which i could thought. Hope EMUI 2.0 comes fast.
Better weather widget with more animations and addition of night....
I have sent the following more:
Additions/Changes:
1) Add timer option for the EMUI Huawei Lock screen.
2) Allow vibration turn off/on option for the unlocking of lock screen. At present the vibration is enabled and cannot be disabled.
3) Allow timer option for switching profiles.
4) The incoming call screen ID picture should be bigger in size.
Fixes:
1) Grey navigation bar stays over third party apps even when third party apps ask for full screen.
2) Screen light abruptly changes at random even if the back light wasn't in auto detect mode. In fact, at times even when the screen light is kept in auto mode, it later abruptly switches to other modes and does not remain in auto mode.
3) The wifi automatically turns off under weak connectivity, even though this battery saving option was disabled.
4) When the permission manager is made to block any app, a notification popups every time the app functions. Maybe a separate section should be created within the permission manager, that mentions all apps that have some of their access blocked rather than through a popup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More issues:
Fix battery calibration :
The battery % at times become inconsistent, sometimes not charging beyong 90 or 95%, sometimes jumping to 100 after long time on 95. Also when using battery it jumps from below 10% to 4% etc.
Fix Browser:**
1) when using quick controls of the default browser, the top browser control bar that was supposed to be hidden instead gets distorted by appearing as black or some broken image of the website visited.
2) when using the translate option on long press, it goes to google china rather than google english.
Wallpaper controls:
When applying a picture from gallery as wallpaper, the option to apply it as scrollable wallpaper does not exist. The scrollable wallpaper option exists only for the preloaded wallpapers in system.
Some more really important**suggestions
Quick shortcut bar:
A quickshort cut panel that triggers by swiping up the multitask icon. Design: The panel should be 3/4 the height of the screen so that it does not make the thumb stretch too much for single hand users. The apps to pin to quick panel should be left to users to decide. The apps should be properly spaced in stacks such that one quickly memorizes the distance to swipe to trigger each app. So for example, if one pins a screen turn off/lock screen app on bottom of the stacked panel, a mere small swipe from multitask key to just above the navigation bar would trigger the screen to turn off. This design of shortcut to my knowledge would be the quickest and simplest shortcut taking swipe to its best use. Bring it first on Huawei.
Power manger upgrade:
At present there are 3 modes of power manger. Normal, smart and endurance. Although the smart mode conserves battery yet its not used by many as it disconnects the internet when screen locked. To make up for these users, there should a fourth option for those users who want to receive their chat messages or email notifications. They dont want as power hungry as games yet not as low as to be disconnected from internet.
Power manager combined with profile switch toggle:
Setting the power plan for different profiles would also be a great advancement. One could hence then switch their power plan with profile rotation key. So for example, one could switch to chat profile or game profile.
Smart minimizing of video & music:
There is a video minimizing feature on the ascend mate that allows one to watch video in minimized form while multitasking. This feature should be on the Ascend p6 but with certain advances. It should function with swipes similar to the new youtube mobile app. A swipe down/up from video or music play should minimize it to a small screen and then swipe left if one needs to close it or swipe back up/down to maximize it.
Switching browser windows:
Allow the Huawei browser to switch between different opened browser windows by a swipe left or right from the very ends of the screen. The trigger/hotspot being on the ends like an ubuntu side bar being opened but in this case, switching windows.
Other small changes/adds:
- On the default Huawei browser, the long press on text does not contain the "select all" option. Only the copy, share, translate and search option exists.
- There should be a unique sound or led notification to know the battery is full/completely charged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I want my menu button to open up menus again, and not the "overflow" menu. What are my options? Do I have to re-install 10.2 and the 0813 gapps and prevent any of the google apps from updating by backing up their apks and resigning them with ZipSigner? Will the unofficially signed apps even work properly anymore? Is there any way to map the menu button to the "navigation drawer" / "hamburger button?" I've tried searching but haven't found any help.
The first time I tried to hit the button one handed was also the first time I really dropped my S3 (small hands). It finally put a crack in my bezel. I was so proud of that bezel! I know that I can swipe from the bezel to the right to open up the "navigation drawer," but I can only get this to work about a third of the time, and only in Google's own apps. Might as well be the charm bar in Win 8. None of the third party apps I use seem to incorporate this swiping feature either, which is why I'd rather enable the overflow three dot display, and remap the menu button. None of the options in the buttons menu in CM are anything I'd use. I just don't get it. They want to get rid of the menu button because devs hide everything there, but to facilitate it they hide everything off screen in a drawer that I have to use two hands to open?
I wish Google didn't dictate that the Action Bar and on-screen navigation controls are the way "things must be." Especially with no consideration to those of us on legacy devices. I rather like having buttons on the bottom of the phone that don't take up screen real estate. I'd like it even more if the buttons were physical like they were on my Evo 4G, and not capacitive. I even miss the old four button layout. I used all four of them all of the time. Why not have physical + per app customizable on screen buttons? Get the best of both worlds? "Because Matias Duarte has not deemed it so." Sounds like Jonathan Ive or Steven Sinofsky.... If I wanted to be told how to use my phone, I would have bought an iPhone or a Lumia....
On a side note, I am less than enthusiastic about the changes Google has been making with the apps. The fonts got bigger in everything, but especially annoyed me in the Play Store. Whitespace, WHITESPACE EVERYWHERE! So now I only see 5 apps at once, rather than the 8-9 that was in the ICS store. Why have a phone with a huge screen if we're going to make everything giant? And so many apps are following these "best practices." Then again, I detest mobile sites and set my useragent to desktop. I guess I just feel that if I'm carrying a computer in my pocket, it should feel like a computer.