i would love to see a website specifically for g1 themes. with images of all themes, all linking back to the developer. as well as all themes and other downloads being hosted on local server, instead of having to use FTP services like megashares etc.
if anyone with web development/programming experience would be interested in assisting me it would be appreciated, and i think a site of this nature would benefit the android global community as a whole.
may i also state that i have a server with enough bandwidth and server space to handle the high traffic volume that follows a site like this.
i see some great possibilities with this, but in order to get it off the ground i will need some help.
I would love to say yes but my web dev skills have never been used in a real environment.
I would like to see something like this get off the ground. Its such a great idea.
although i do not have a crazy lot of time i do have an extra website that i currently do not use. Its good for a little less than a year and i "could" use iWeb or something to put a site together since it would take crazy less time. Its unlimited everything so i could host the .zip files right on it and just have people download from there. If enough people would use it though. I would def have to have everyone's permission though as i am not getting in trouble with people over something like this. if its something some of these Theme devs would enjoy i could use my current site on DreamHost and allow the download straight from the site with Pictures. Could have a page for each one of them too. Let me know as i would be willing to do this so it would be 100% easier to find things.
Email me at [email protected]
I would be willing to put the time in too since i could add an Ad at the top for some income towards the renew cost if necessary. And i do know what i am doing but it would def have to be a use site not just something 10 people use. www.edgewoodcma.org is my newest site i got up and running for a church.
thats pretty much the idea, it doenst really matter which server is used, however i do have a little over 2 years on mine, but it is unlimited just as yours is. however i do not think a page made in iWeb or something will work quite as nicely as something designed for dynamic updating by many devs.
im looking into a PHP CMS engine that will allow devs to name their .zip files and upload with a thumbnail of the theme. and have the site automatically post the new theme with the naming convention used in the .zip and show the thumbnail as a link to the direct download from the server.
i wanted to try and stay away from another forum site, as well. this is the forum site for android pretty much, we may have a discussion area in the theme site, however the downloads and updates will be on another portion of the page as to eliminate the need to sift through threads to find the themes you want.
The reason i posted that i would be willing to make and update the site is so that useless things will be kept out. I would be willing to accept all photos and .zip files in my email then post onto the site so that duplicates and useless things are kept to a minimum. I would also make multiple sections showing what update you are running (i.e. RC33, ADP 1.5, Dude, ect) and a complete breakdown so that it is as easily as possible to do things. The reason i would use iWeb is because of its simplicity. You could update a site within 2minutes for whatever is needed. I could update anywhere in a matter of minutes which would mean more thing up and running. Just an idea though as i too am wishing it was far easier to locate things instead of sifting through hundreds of posts to find the one decent theme out off 100.
that sounds great, will iWeb allow you to create dynamic websites for the dev to upload his work? or will you manage the whole thing as a static database (updated when devs send you their work)?
if you wish to create this, then please do. i shall continue to look for a permanent, maintenance free*, catalogue of themes. but until an engine is created for that purpose your offer sounds perfect. the android community desperately needs someplace organized to find these themes.
thank you for your offer, if you would like any sort of graphic help just let me know and ill do my best.
Dynamic sounds best, you could accept members (ie theme creators) and only have have control over posting themes and updates to their own themes?
We are actually working on this right now. Just purchased themesdroid.com a couple days ago.
We have a dedicated server we are going to be running it on. We are actively developing the site now. Perhaps we should combine our efforts.
awesome, let me know if you need any help, or any server space etc.
id love to help in any way i can.
--peace
It does seem like a good idea, although I have read in the past something about "why have many resources in many places"...one central location for it all is great, so it would have to have many advantages for it to work. I know instant thumbnails would be 1 (forums it doesnt work like that). Local files is another. Purchasable is probably something considerable.
Ive built for big corps before, and know a lot about that stuff. If you guys need help with doing anything I know almost any solution. Something like "if you donate you get extras" or something, and only those that did donate can get certain things. Helps the developers for their time and effort (like the apps, makes sense).
We are currently investigating a couple options for ThemesDroid.com. We have started working on a download site from the ground up, but we are also looking for possible alternatives. Does anyone know of any decent open source CMS/DMS systems? We have not seen anything that was worth a darn, but if anyone knows of a good one then there is no sense in reinventing the wheel.
kronarq said:
We are currently investigating a couple options for ThemesDroid.com. We have started working on a download site from the ground up, but we are also looking for possible alternatives. Does anyone know of any decent open source CMS/DMS systems? We have not seen anything that was worth a darn, but if anyone knows of a good one then there is no sense in reinventing the wheel.
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Click to collapse
What are you looking for in this CMS/DMS system?
well php-fusion is always a safe choice, there was something new... what was it.. http://expressionengine.com/
Ive always found Joomla to be the most flexible system to date, complicated but it will do 'everything' your looking it to do. It has great theme support as well (great flexibility for customizablity). Very secure too.
@malaeus, sorry to say but php-anything is almost always a bad choice, they have many loops/hackable holes.
Xoops is good too. Drupal is good. Or if you have a M$ server (asp), dot net nuke is good, has many add-ons for great flexibility.
Just some suggestions for you guys (btw, all those are free [opensource like android ]
I've been building Drupal sites for years now... if you guys need help, let me know.
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/6613/demo1z.png
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/3173/demo2.jpg
Started it 3 hours ago, thats how quick and easy it is. Its just a demo to show you what you can do with it. If you like cool, if not I at least recommend you check out joomla, thats what I created that with (there is no "starting from ground up" with it, its just there to "put the stuff in"). That template is free too (there are plenty out there, I also make my own which takes time). Just threw it together because I had the last three hours off from work and wanted to play with it again.
Drupals good, but I just dont think it has the best of plugins, they are ....awkward or something I dont know.
@kdf2883: Something geared towards downloads. Something preferably lightweight compared to Joomla/Drupal etc
@theslam08: I currently have a test of Joomla + DocMan I have been playing with, but Joomla seems like overkill for what we are doing. It doesn't all our needs so we would still have to modify it yet it does a bunch of junk we don't need. Then there's the usual update every week or get hacked bit...
We are leaning towards just doing everything from scratch. I could have a Joomla site up in a day or two or we can give it a couple weeks to build our own system from the ground up. What do you guys think?
for something like this, we may want to try something as simple as wordpress. each post would be a new theme, images and text would include server direct download link. its at least one of the most compatible backbones i can think of.
i have little to no experience in drupal and joomla etc. however when it comes to the design aspect of the website, thats closing in on my specialty.
@slam nice job on that layout btw. especially considering time spent.
Look at the Lock 2.0 themes site. They use WordPress and in my opinion it's a mess.
I bought the pro version over 6 months ago and I absolutely love the concept. I look at all these beautiful widgets on mycolorscreen.com, and I have downloaded many of them. The problem I always run into is the following:
1. The scaling and size take forever to perfect. Sometimes you finally get it to the right size and scale, somehow it can become all distorted after a reboot or unknown event.
2. The widgets such as those use Media utilities often appear sluggish during operation. It's no smooth or fluid like the build-in widgets from apps like poweramp. Most complicated widgets are very sluggish even on Galaxy Note 3.
The other day I downloaded https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=axt.toosimpleactuallynot.zwskin which looks amazing on the Youtube video, and I followed the instructions to the T. After the 2nd home screen, the phone just hangs. Widgets don't refresh and eventually crashes.
I'm not sure if I'm missing something other users are doing to make Zooper widget actually function smoothly not just look pretty like a static image on the home screen. I am under the impression that Zooper may be trying to do too much and sacrificing performance.
I agree ... although perhaps it's from not having done any launcher changes since my first Android phone, nor have played with UCCW or any skin mods before. That and there is stil a lack of (slow) step-by-step tutorials of "here is what I made, and here is everything I did to make it happen" instead of having to know what the settings are that those that have been doing this already know.
I'm not complaining though - it's like many things that require weeks of trolling through forum posts to understand the lingo and the tools, then you play with them, then you troll through a zillion posts again and maybe ask a few questions in the newbie sections instead of the Expert sections, then you play with it again and pretty soon you realize that "Hey! You figured it out".
I don't want to be like the guy that just bought an Android phone and knows he needs bragging rights to having rooted it with a one-step tool but doesn't have any idea what to do next or if he bricks it.
Zooper Pro is frustrating because it is very powerful and customizable, but if it was one-step easy, everyone would have cool themes, and I certainly don't want my brother have a better looking phone than me if I haven't worked at it some, lol.
It's been well over a year since MyColorScreen acquired Zooper, and Zooper's online presence is STILL a hideous mess. The official links at the Google Play store are broken, and even some of the reference links on this forum's sticky are dead. I can't even find an official blog post that isn't less than a year old. Zooper's documentation wasn't that good to begin with, and it looks like MyColorScreen has done absolutely nothing to improve it.
Here's my fear:
MyColorScreen is going to mothball Zooper so it won't compete with one of its future pet products (themer maybe). Zooper requires a huge time investment to use properly, and I don't want to lose that investment. I've been burned by this exact scenario with other successful apps.
PROVE ME WRONG, MYCOLORSCREEN... PLEASE! Get your support and reference material in one place and make it available. Communicate your plans for Zooper. If you're just "parking" the app until you figure out a business plan, then say so. We're on your side, so please don't screw us over.
Yeah.... You are so true.
But I have to add that they don't do anything to improve the App. Even their Promises regarding Zooper are just empty words. They promised to add multiple Timezone support, but nothing happens.... Still only possible for text....
brownblack said:
It's been well over a year since MyColorScreen acquired Zooper, and Zooper's online presence is STILL a hideous mess. The official links at the Google Play store are broken, and even some of the reference links on this forum's sticky are dead. I can't even find an official blog post that isn't less than a year old. Zooper's documentation wasn't that good to begin with, and it looks like MyColorScreen has done absolutely nothing to improve it.
Here's my fear:
MyColorScreen is going to mothball Zooper so it won't compete with one of its future pet products (themer maybe). Zooper requires a huge time investment to use properly, and I don't want to lose that investment. I've been burned by this exact scenario with other successful apps.
PROVE ME WRONG, MYCOLORSCREEN... PLEASE! Get your support and reference material in one place and make it available. Communicate your plans for Zooper. If you're just "parking" the app until you figure out a business plan, then say so. We're on your side, so please don't screw us over.
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Click to collapse
Well, they have apparently fixed their broken links. But their web presence is still awkward. Every link at the Play store points you to a support page which has a feedback forum, yet doesn't even mention these XDA forums. So is XDA still relevant? And one of the top hits from a google search takes you to the old zooper.org page which indeed directs you to these XDA forums. But a few people are still trying to post on the defunct zooper.org archives!
So as far as I can tell, there are 3 separate zooper forums that are unaware of each other. It's this kind of disjointed mess that makes me worry about the future of the product line.
I wouldn't of upgraded to pro had I known it was going to be abandonware myself. It was the first, and one of the few, apps I've upgraded to pro. Even if an update was months away it would be nice to know there's something going on.
bterrill said:
I wouldn't of upgraded to pro had I known it was going to be abandonware myself. It was the first, and one of the few, apps I've upgraded to pro. Even if an update was months away it would be nice to know there's something going on.
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Update just released. So far it looks to be just a ui update but at least its something.
jr67 said:
Update just released. So far it looks to be just a ui update but at least its something.
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Click to collapse
The Google Play store is showing version 2.58 (Nov 2014) as the latest. Do you know of something more recent?
brownblack said:
The Google Play store is showing version 2.58 (Nov 2014) as the latest. Do you know of something more recent?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, it must be a beta update. You can join the beta google+ group to get access. As far as I can tell its just a UI update nothing more.
Well it's something I guess. I never digged too deep and didn't even know someone bought this out a while back or whatever. Damn shame there's not more work being done though. I'm not on zooper beta but not even sure what ui would need updated unless there's finally support for better weather location things.
I guess I'll join the bandwagon on hoping work that matters to most of us is done .... eg variables and what not. I would even pay 4.99 or 5.99 for a diff version that had 3 updates a year to stuff that's fun to mess with. I must of spent the first 2 months straight on my galaxy playing with zooper... like hours on end
Thanks for the info jr67
Zooper is awesome!
While I agree that updates are great and there are things that would be nice to have added, I think the app is pretty awesome as is. I rarely feel like I run out of opportunities for new ways to customize my phone and tablet because it lends itself to so many possibilities. Now if they would only update their app Media Utilities to work correctly with Android Lollipop (Zooper can't display cover art and music information at the same time with Lollipop), I'd be all smiles!!
MyColorScreen kinda died
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but according to my sources, MyColorScreen is dead and it's likely that they won't be coming back. I talked to a former MyColorScreen employee, about how to get a human response from MyColorScreen, and here was the interaction (Via Twitter)
@MarcoJHB I need a little help. How can I get in contact with mycolorscreen and get a human response?"
"@burner_studios sad to say but MCS is pretty much dead. Anything I can help with though?"
@MarcoJHB not really, but thanks for the info!"
Here is a link to the conversation.
https://twitter.com/burner_studios/status/631000884072349696
Why do I believe this?
1. MyColorScreen's last tweet was "All good things must come to an end. Follow @MarcoJHB to stay updated with his new ventures! https://youtu.be/kxFyq1I-g-I #dontstopcustomizing" and proves that the source is trustworthy.
2. The last update to Zooper Widget (free and pro) was 11/3/2015, Media Utilities was last updated 18/12/15, and Themer, MyColorScreen's main product, is no longer avalible on the Play Store.
3. The Zooper Widget beta community has a very old icon
4. The official MyColorScreen community had it's last "Screen of the day" post 19/3/2015.
5. The last "Question of the day" post in the aforementioned community was 19/3/2014.
6. Again with the aforementioned community, Marcos Agas is still a co-owner, despite him no longer being employed with MyColorScreen.
7. Again with the MyColorScreen Google+ community, there is essentially no moderation whatsoever.
8. MyColorScreen CEO Ashvin Dhingra last posted on Google+ 30/4/2014.
9. Ashvin's LinkedIn profile says "Co-Founder & CEO at Themer by MyColorScreen (acquired by IAC)"
10. On the Zooper Widget uservoice website, under "Report a Problem" you will find an item with 111 votes (As of this post) named "Editing interface HUGE lag" which is a bug that appears to be occurring on devices primarily running lollipop. It was reported on 5/5/2015, however I can testify that this has occurred on devices running 4.4 as early as 2014.
Based on that, I'd say that the information is fairly trustworthy.
So I suppose, the real question is, "What is OUR future with Zooper Widget?"
Are we going to decompile and update it ourselves, just like with steam?
Are we going to look for a new design tool to use?
Are we all just going to switch to using KLWP?
because I may know what the future of Zooper Widget is from the perspective of MyColorScreen, but we have great developers in this community that could keep the app going now that MCS stopped doing so.
That sad news, I dont like KWLP I stay with Zooper Widget I made like 200+ widgets. I hope someone acquire ZW and gonna develop it further
I tried kwlp but I hate ui and everything is unorganized.. In Zooper is nice and simple organised. What alternatives do we have? Can't find anything that match zooper customization and easy to use.
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I'm not a fan of KLWP. Looks like the people who did Themer and Zooper just moved on to another app and abandoned the others.
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Has anybody tried Make Your Own Clock Widget? It seems to do a lot more than just clocks
ewa12321 said:
That sad news, I dont like KWLP I stay with Zooper Widget I made like 200+ widgets. I hope someone acquire ZW and gonna develop it further
I tried kwlp but I hate ui and everything is unorganized.. In Zooper is nice and simple organised. What alternatives do we have? Can't find anything that match zooper customization and easy to use.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree with you on that front. I already have invested so much into zooper widget development that I'm willing to push it to, and far past its limits. Although I don't expect IAC to let someone else acquire zooper widget until the profits from it begin to decrease.
But yeah zooper hasn't hit the end of its lifespan just yet. In the end it's developers that decide when that happens.
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What other widget maker I can recommend is Buzz Widget. Easy to use some functions are really cool wish to have some in Zooper Widget: bigger preview, tap hold and move object with your finger (optional), filter widgets by show only clocks, weather widgets, music widgets etc only disadvantage is that to share download stuff from other people it's recommend to download Buzz Launcher and idk if it works with Tasker and no support with Kolorette . Worth trying.
Maybe UCCW lots of skins similar to Zooper
That's not fair, Themer got update and Zooper Widget nothing since March
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Another update, KWGT by the team of KLWP is now in development.
Yeah... Bye bye zooper.
Further information found here: https://plus.google.com/+FrankMonzas/posts/9PpjCce44PL
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firebirdfilms said:
Another update, KWGT by the team of KLWP is now in development.
Yeah... Bye bye zooper.
Further information found here: https://plus.google.com/+FrankMonzas/posts/9PpjCce44PL
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the death blow to Zooper. They walked away from Themer and Zooper do they really think that they won't walk away from this?
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KLWP and KWGT are developed by "Kustom industries" hailing from Italy. MCS is from California, and has had no known interaction with kustom industries. Also KI only has 4 apps they are working on including pro keys, and KWGT reuses a lot of code from KLWP. So I'm not really worried.
Yet.
Just found this thread, so, for anyone trying to understand what's the difference between KWGT and the other widgets around i have filled up a list of Kustom advantages over Zooper / UCCW on the main thread, i will list them here just for clarity:
How is KWGT better than Zooper, Buzz, Mycw or UCCW??
You have Komponents which are like widgets inside widgets or reusable items inside the editor. So for example you can create a clock and redistribute it as a module for KWGT, users will just add your clock and change the options you expose (like colors and font), there are many examples online on the store already or you can check the dedicated thread above
You can download content directly from HTTP, so you can have a Google Map with the city you are in directly in the widget background if you want, or use Street View, or you can have a Komponent that does that for you like this, you can add it with one click
You have global variables, so you can set a color once and then use it whenever you like, so, when you want to change it you just change the global and it will change the color everywhere in one click, this allows users of your theme to change color easily
You can create touch actions that will hide / show elements based on touch, so you can show full weather data when someone clicks on a weather icon and then hide it automatically after X seconds
You have containers, so you can group items inside an object, move them together, apply effects and rotation to the entire group
You have built in music support, so music will work without any additional tool, no music utilities needed, it just works
You have more effects, like long shadows, morphable text, blur images and so on
You can extract colors from images, cover art or anything downloaded from the internet (like kolorette does, but builtin)
You can use formulas on any property you like, no need to use "advanced parameters", you just turn a property into a formula and then you can do anything you like
You have full support for different location, so you can apply a location to any group and make a world clock in seconds, locations are then easily accessible from the settings
You have much more functions, you can download text from HTTP, use regular expressions, parse RSS, XML and JSON, do math with dates, create timers
Much better resizing, the widget will resize automatically and touch will always work on any module regardless of the orientation
A wizard to create APK skins in seconds without any Android development knowledge or additional tool except the JDK
Last but not least from my measurement battery usage difference between KWGT and the others is like 1/100th (not kidding, you can try yourself with a good battery monitor like better battery stats plus, Kustom has 2 processes so you can clearly see the difference between the editor and the real widget/wallpaper service)
@Katt50 / @ewa12321 what's wrong with KWGT UI? anything i can improve? BTW i have absolutely no intention of stopping the development anytime soon, it might slow down at a certain point (i am now releasing a new version every 3 weeks because i have a HUGE todo list) but i will always try to do my best to add new stuff, so if you have any suggestion glad to help
frankmonza said:
@Katt50 / @ewa12321 what's wrong with KWGT UI? anything i can improve? BTW i have absolutely no intention of stopping the development anytime soon, it might slow down at a certain point (i am now releasing a new version every 3 weeks because i have a HUGE todo list) but i will always try to do my best to add new stuff, so if you have any suggestion glad to help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's my problem...
Most of the people involved were the same people that abandoned Themer. And abandoned Zooper. I was active in the Themer G+ Community and see many names that were active there
How do I know that in a year that you decide to move on to a different app and just abandoned KWLP? Personally, I have not played around with KWLP much but I didn't find it easy to use for a beginner at all.
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