Develop Bugs

[Contest] Turn Your Dream Theme Into Reality

I thought I would tell everyone of a contest being held by WootRoot.com. They will be making a custom theme for the top rated idea for whichever rom the submiter wants. Aswell as a flyscreen theme and matching skin from DecalGirl.
Details can be found here: http://br.st/0w1
Have an idea for a great Android theme but don’t have the time/skill/knowledge of how to make it come to life? Well now is your chance to turn that dream theme into reality! For two weeks you may send your theme ideas to us at [email protected], one idea will be picked by the community and the winning theme will be created by TehDust! Hit the link for more information on the contest and rules!
You don’t need any type of artistic abilities to enter the contest, just good ideas!
Send your ideas to us via email at [email protected], here are some ideas of what to include in your email:
Which Android Rom is your theme applied on?
What is the color scheme like in your dream theme?
How do important parts of the UI, such as buttons, boxes, launchers, bars look?
What does the wallpaper look like?
Do you have any images depicting want your dream looks like?
What other original ideas do you have?
Rules:
•You may send as many ideas as you like
•One idea per email
•The subject of the email must be the name of the theme
•Ideas may be for any version of android roms
•You may not ask to have any copyrighted material put into the theme
•The winning theme will be available for the public to download
•You may have your name/slogan put into your dream theme but the public version of the theme will be unbranded
•The top 5 ideas will be selected by WootRoot
•Readers will vote for their favorite of the five to be declared the winner
•TehDust can be very busy and the theme may be complete in a week, but more than likely it will take a month
•regardless of how much time it takes, your idea will be turned into reality
•Ideas must be submitted by October 23, 2009
Once your theme has been completed, you will also receive the link to a custom themed FlyScreen thanks to the guys at ModMyFlyscreen.com. And to top it all off, the lucky winner will receive a skin from DecalGirl. The skin will be made from the wallpaper used in the theme. With all 3 of these prizes your Android phone is sure to be one of a kind. What are you waiting for? Send us a email and cross your fingers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

windows 7 theme request

can anyone make a windows 7 theme, full theme with icons, sounds etc. or does anyone know where i could find one?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=504716&highlight=Windows+7
That is still in BETA, and there is no listing for our screen size. But it is a start! Go try it out, fix it up, and submit it for the 320x240 size. Besides that, asking for a full theme is a lot to ask for when you aren't specific.
Note to all users who pass on by:
-There is a Windows Theme Section which is EASILY DISTINGUISHABLE (now that they cleaned up the Development and Hacking Forum)
-If you are requesting a theme, please be more specific on what you want...I would be more than happy to assist if I knew what I was doing!

Cyclonezephyrxz7 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=504716&highlight=Windows+7
That is still in BETA, and there is no listing for our screen size. But it is a start! Go try it out, fix it up, and submit it for the 320x240 size. Besides that, asking for a full theme is a lot to ask for when you aren't specific.
Note to all users who pass on by:
-There is a Windows Theme Section which is EASILY DISTINGUISHABLE (now that they cleaned up the Development and Hacking Forum)
-If you are requesting a theme, please be more specific on what you want...I would be more than happy to assist if I knew what I was doing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im just simply looking for a feel that windows 7 has like the aero theme with the transparency etc. the windows scheme sounds. basically the icons, home screen, sounds. not a very modified theme where every little detail is different

[REF] How To Post and Promote a New ROM

This is a short summary of some important general points for posting new ROM's.
It should be considered as an optional "add-on" to the general thread:
"Galaxy S I9000 Android Development **STICKY THREAD** Read here first!"
The number of man hours spent working and developing new custom ROMs are astronomical! So why then, is it that so few new ROMs are successful? Basically because of lack of information and poor public visibility/involvement of the developers themselves. It's just like in any other successful business, you have to make your product or service stand out from the rest. Either by making an amazing product or by being a great inspiration for others to follow. Here I will try to explain and list some fundamental ideas, in order to make your ROM better and more popular.
When a would be ROM flasher is looking around for a new ROM, he searches the web and the XDA-forums for threads, usually beginning with the text "[ROM]". Next he/she look at the FIRST page where the developer (and his/her team) is presenting the various features of their new design. What is presented there will often be a decision maker for whether or not someone wants to try it out.
There are a few things that consistently differs between "good" ROMs and "bad/poor" ROM's. These things are often and naturally related to the amount of information available around the ROM in question. Someone who have put down enough mind, sweat and hart into the production (cooking) of a ROM, would also like to share his/her effort in the best possible way, not minding writing a detailed and useful description about their product. The items found below are part of some of these things that do MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
- Primary Purpose:
Essentially a description why you want to provide this ROM and why you think it is needed. What are the main features and driving forces for providing this ROM?
- Ultimate Gaming Experience
- Super stability
- Super Compatibility
- Great Battery Duration
- Minimalistic User Interface (UI)
- Simple to use functionality
- Latest and coolest never seen before interface behavior
- Fully loaded with ultimate editions of absolutely everything
- Mobile Penetration Testing Platform
- or perhaps just for educational or experimental purposes etc...
- Up-to-date Maintenance:
That means an active developer (or group of) who are readily available to answer questions from users of all levels, new or advanced! Often that they should be inhumanly available at all times of the day & night!
- Up-to-date Firmware Release:
That means the the source of your ROM is preferably based on the latest, but publicly available code/firmware. Not on some hidden leaks or old hacked code. When I say "hidden leaks" here, I mean the kind where the origin of the code (compiled or not) cannot be verified or downloaded. (BMW doesn't make car/sales advertisements using 2 year old engines from unknown/secret sources!)
- Detailed CHANGE-LOG:
People want to know that what they flash on their phones, is as close as possible to what they would like to see and use. Also from a paranoia perspective most of us would like to know that it doesn't contain 3rd party or other strange applications that we will never use, or which will give us trouble when we want to add/update applications, at a later time. A description of the various applications is also very useful. Most people would wonder what the "DarkBotSendHelper.apk" is doing on a phone.
A change-log would ideally consist of a list with:
- Title: Change Date and the custom ROM Version the changes apply to
- Full application name
- Full application version
- Short application description
- Link to application source-code, if available
- Link to application on "Android Market"
- Reference to what hacks has been made, if any
- Reason for why the hack is needed
- Unresolved BUG-LOG:
A brief log of bugs and unresolved issues that affects the current release. It is hard to explain without cussing how annoying it is to flash a new ROM, just to find out that some WiFi issue has not yet been resolved, which was posted on page 456/1200! If people post bugs/issues, that cannot be immediately resolved, please add those issues to the BUG-LOG, on the front page.
- Screen Shots! Updated Screen Shots!
The importance of good screen shots can never be enough emphasized! Many ROMs are updated continuously and if the screen-shots doesn't match what the user installs, he's gonna go WTF!, and will start to peppering your support threads with questions about how to install this and that, and how to get the same themes you are using in those screenshots, or from another different ROM altogether! You wouldn't be able to sell a new BMW with a picture of an old Volvo, would you? So why do you think a ROM would be any different? Also include a brief caption about the essential feature(s) shown, for each picture.
- Detailed Installation Instructions
This hardly need more explanation apart for making sure you also say something about:
- WIPE/No-WIPE
- Bootloader Requirements
- Recommended Procedure
- Detailed Device Compatibility List
Yes, the same gross model name/number of a particular device, may very well have some minor variations that can render the device completely incompatible with software from it's apparent twin-brother. Or even certain Firmwares may not be compatible to slight manufacturing variation. See for example the "Samsung Galaxy S" with their sub-models GT-I9000(B/M/T), and to complicate things further, even within the same model there may be slight differences, like in the PCB of the USB-port of the SGS2 GT-I9100.
- Detailed Language Compatibility
What do people use their phones for? Communication! Sure, some use them as a game pad, but after all it is primarily a browsing and communication device. So if you can't use your primary languages with your device, it is useless! Although some network operators are only beginning to understand that most of the connected world is at least bi-lingual and often much more. Thus it is of essence that your phone's keyboard, screen-reader and web-browser can read, display and understand most characters and alphabets around. (I.e. I still fail to understand why it is virtually impossible to find a phone with Russian, English, Spanish and Norwegian keyboard layouts/character sets or at least let me select these my self!) In addition it is very confusing for a first-time ROM flasher to understand the need for all the various PDA/PHONE and CSC region settings, which are often modified and re-packaged for a well cooked ROM, and thus no longer adhere to the original regional code.
So when you cook your ROM, please provide as much information as possible regarding how the user can adapt their phone to his/her own languages. This information includes at least:
- What languages are available for basic operation (the operating system)
- What languages are available for the keyboard mappings
- What keyboard applications can use these languages (Swype, Samsung Keyboard etc.)
- Simple instructions how to include, use and set the phone languages
- List of Technical Terms and Definitions that describe the ROM
The world of mobile device development is packed by technical jargon and abbreviated terms. Many times they are also abbreviated and used in the wrong context, although some the community know what it means. Simplify your vocabulary and clearly define your terms and stay with community standard ones!
- General Presentation
Like any other business presentation, please skip the HUGE fonts in a zillion colors. Most of us are neither blind nor illiterate, but you may risk to come across as being both, with those type of fonts. Remember "KISS"? - Keep It Simple Stupid.
- SPELL CHECK!!
It's embarrassing and very annoying to read descriptions of how great, professional and how well maintained a particular ROM is, when the text is riddled with misspellings, wrong words and childish grammatical errors. Although most of us are very understanding that we are living in a multicultural and multilingual society, sometimes all I think about is, how a person who doesn't know how to spell check, could ever be able to cook a mobile phone ROM. Most text editors feature at least some basic spell checking, bloody hell, USE IT!
- CREDITS
Most of the Android development community is completely driven by voluntary and open source work. Make sure to include the correct credits to those persons who have contributed to the various info/hacks/software that you include in your ROM. Use a separate list for the credits, that include the name (handle) and how/what he/she did to contribute.
2 Good Examples:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1350763
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1155776
Final Words:
It is very likely I have missed something here, or that you (as a developer or moderator) disagree on something I have written here, if so, please provide your constructive comments how I can improve this list and post.
In Great Expectations and Hope for Many New Amazing ROMs!
- E:V:A -
PS. This was posted in the "Developer Section" as it applies only to new ROM development threads, and I wouldn't consider this neither as "Q/A" nor "General". But if OP/MOD know of a better suited place, please just move it there...
Also I am not aware of a similar post to this one, even after searching XDA quite a lot. So if it already exists, it is not easy to find and should be reposted or stickied!

<Reserved>

@E:V:A
The only thing that I missed so far is a thread like yours.
Agree on all requirements of released software.
Sometimes I wonder how some "devs" priorities are stacked regarding quality control vs. early delivery on pay-per-download sites.
Not sure what is best place for this thread. Counting # of posts in General asking Q already answered in stickies, it's kind of accepted to skip reading what's there. :-\
Perhaps keep it alive as hottest thread here?
Tapatalked - There's a Thanks button somewhere

I like this
One thing you must add while promoting your ROM.. That is CREDITS.

Rahulrulez said:
I like this
One thing you must add while promoting your ROM.. That is CREDITS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YES! Not giving credit where due is horrible, basically just forgetting all the hard work another individual has put in to the "feature" of your ROM. Also, this should probably be in general.

[RESOURCES] Useful Android Design Resources thread

Hey guys, I've recently been working hard on redesigning my app and here's a compilation of resources I found useful along the way.
Please post yours so I can add them to the OP.
Online Tools
Android Asset Studio by Roman Nurik
This is an awesome tool which allows you to generate pixel-perfect drawables for your app, directly downloadable and resized for all screen resolutions (xxhdpi/xhdpi/hdpi/mdpi/ldpi) including :
Launcher icons
Action Bar & Tab icons
Notification icons
Generic icons
Tabs icons for pre-honeycomb
Menu icons for pre-honeycomb
All icons can be created either from an image, from the provided cliparts, or even from text
An Alternative Device Frame Generator containing more devices and less strict in term of the original screenshot resolution than the official one
A very useful Nine Patch Generator
This tool is open source, too : http://code.google.com/p/android-ui-utils
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Android Action Bar Style Generator by Jeff Gilfelt
This great tool allows you to generate all the necessary resources (xml, drawables, nine patches, you name it) for your custom ActionBar theme. The Holo guidelines recommend to style the ActionBar with your branding color as an accent for example, well it's never been so easy with this tool.
You can choose the color for all the components of the ActionBar :
ActionBar color & style (solid/transparent)
Stacked Color
Popup Color
Accent Color
Contextual Action Bar background color and highlight color
Oh, and it's compatible with ActionBarSherlock, too!
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Android Holo Colors Generator by Jérôme Van Der Linden
This nifty tool allows you to generate a custom style for all the most usual UI components such as :
EditText
AutoComplete
Button
Colored Button
CheckBox
RadioButtons
Spinner
Colored Spinner
ProgressBar
SeekBar
RatingBar (normal/small/big)
Toggle
ListSelector
Fast Scroll
Switch
Just like the other Asset Studio-based tools, it generates a zipped res folder that you can directly merge into your app
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Android DPI Calculator by Martin Cohen
A very useful tool, I use it all the time. Simply input a width and/or height and it will convert it for you to all screen resolutions (even tvdpi)
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UX Metaphor Equivalents for iOS & Android by Kintek
If you're an iOS developer/designer and are converting your existing apps or making the switch to Android (or the other way around), this tool will allow you to compare both platform SDKs's native UI widgets and find the right equivalents for each component.
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Offline Tools
The Photoshop Android Design Kit by Taylor Ling : a great tool to design mockups and wireframes for you app, and now, since last update, it even includes some popular custom views such as Google Now cards, Croutons, undo-bar etc...
Custom Views & Libraries
I'm not going to make a list of all the awesome open source libraries the android community has created, this would be impossible.
But I'm going to give you links to external websites and even apps who try to achieve this goal, really go take a look, this is very inspirational :
AndroidViews.net by Nadav Fima : the name says it all. It's a website which only feature libraries related to the UI and design. My favourite of this list.
DevAppsDirect by Kenneth Lewelling : a great little app which presents many libraries and allows you to directly launch their demos, very useful to find inspiration.
The Ultimate Android Library by Alexandre Gherschon : a website AND an app showcasing many great libraries (The app is here)
This article from vogella.com : a compilation of useful open source libraries, again
Websites & Blogs
THE ANDROID DESIGN GUIDELINES : I can't stress it enough, read this twice!
AndroidUiPatterns.com : a very nice blog about android design and ux
AndroidNiceties : a blog that's basically a collection of screenshots taken from beautiful, holo-compliant (most of the time) apps. Great source of inspiration.
Romain Guy's blog : Romain Guy is an Android engineer at Google, and his blog is full of very useful articles, like these two about improving the UI performance of your app -> here & here
AndroidDevWeekly.com : a great weekly (obviously) newsletter containing cool news and links about android development/design, I highly recommend to subscribe
The official Android Engineers's blog : says it all I guess^^
Chet Haase's blog : Chet Haase is an Android engineer at Google working particularly on animations and the animation framework, his blog is full of cool infos and snippets
Cyril Mottier's blog : a great resource by a great dev, he writes very good articles and libraries and his blog contains some really awesome posts (i.e : ListView tips & trick, Android app launching made gorgeous & Pull to refresh, an anti pattern)
StylingAndroid.com : great android design blog by Mark Allison
AndroidUIUX.com by Taylor Ling : the blog maintained by the creator of the Photoshop Android Design Kit
Lucas Rocha's blog (Android dev at Firefox) : http://lucasr.org/
Videos
Android Design in Action : an awesome weekly show held by Android engineers Roman Nurik, Adam Kosh & Nick Butcher. They often do redesigns of existing apps, give many great advices. They usually focus on one specific type of apps in each episode, maybe your type of app has already been treated!
Dev Bytes : Held by Android engineer Chet Haase (and sometimes Nick Butcher), Dev Bytes is a great series of short episodes showing you how to implement some nice animations and transitions to jazz up your apps
The App Clinic : Held by Android engineers Reto Meier & Ian Ni-Lewis, this is a weekly show which takes a look at existing apps and talk about what's good and bad in their UI/UX approach
Guides
THE ANDROID DESIGN GUIDELINES (Yeah I know, but I told you, read it twice! :silly
The Android Designer's Cheatsheet : great all-around guide to understanding the basics of Android design (including density buckets, how ninepatches work, 48dp rule & pattern, naming conventions, etc...)

Really awesome but is this for framework-res only?

dragonhustler said:
Really awesome but is this for framework-res only?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is for app development. The res folder of an app's sources holds the image drawables, as well as xml layouts, strings, style declarations etc...
But I guess it could also be used to mod the android framework, idk, I'm not really into rom theming.

This is awesome! Thanks a lot!

Added two new entries :
Lucas Rocha's blog (Android dev at Firefox) : http://lucasr.org/
The Android Designer's Cheatsheet : great all-around guide to understanding the basics of Android design (including density buckets, how ninepatches work, 48dp rule & pattern, naming conventions, etc...). Really good one, go check it out!

ActionBar Sherlock not linked?! PREPOSTEROUS!
No mention of Android Design in Action on androiddevelopers youtube channel?EVEN MORE PREPOSTEROUS!
There's also AmbilWarna, Apache licensed, colour picker compatible with 2.1+ (I think). It's super nice.
For super nice colour schemes visit http://www.colorschemer.com/ or www.colourlovers.com/.
Pro tips for guys on Linux.
Install gPick. This way you can easily pick colours off the screen and plug them into the tools from above.
There is also Agave app that will create a colour scheme off of a one or more colours.
Create a custom launcher for ever website from Asset Studio.
Create a file with with desktop extension in
Code:
~/.local/share/applications
with these contents
Code:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Android Asset Studio Launcher Icon Generator
Exec=google-chrome --app=http://android-ui-utils.googlecode.com/hg/asset-studio/dist/icons-launcher.html#foreground.space.trim=1&foreground.space.pad=0&foreColor=33b5e5%2C0&crop=0&backgroundShape=none&backColor=ffffff%2C100
Terminal=false
Version=1.0
Type=Application
It will launch it as it was an app.
If you are more of a Photoshop guy, try Pixlr for online image editing

el_bhm said:
ActionBar Sherlock not linked?! PREPOSTEROUS!
No mention of Android Design in Action on androiddevelopers youtube channel?EVEN MORE PREPOSTEROUS!
There's also AmbilWarna, Apache licensed, colour picker compatible with 2.1+ (I think). It's super nice.
For super nice colour schemes visit http://www.colorschemer.com/ or www.colourlovers.com/.
Pro tips for guys on Linux.
Install gPick. This way you can easily pick colours off the screen and plug them into the tools from above.
There is also Agave app that will create a colour scheme off of a one or more colours.
Create a custom launcher for ever website from Asset Studio.
Create a file with with desktop extension in
Code:
~/.local/share/applications
with these contents
Code:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Android Asset Studio Launcher Icon Generator
Exec=google-chrome --app=http://android-ui-utils.googlecode.com/hg/asset-studio/dist/icons-launcher.html#foreground.space.trim=1&foreground.space.pad=0&foreColor=33b5e5%2C0&crop=0&backgroundShape=none&backColor=ffffff%2C100
Terminal=false
Version=1.0
Type=Application
It will launch it as it was an app.
If you are more of a Photoshop guy, try Pixlr for online image editing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you should re-read the OP, Android design in action is mentioned, and as I said I'm not making a list of libraries, but ActionBarSherlock is featured on maybe 50% of the sites I linked.
The assets studio icons generator is featured too.
The size 7 was pretty unnecessary too

Androguide.fr said:
I believe you should re-read the OP, Android design in action is mentioned, and as I said I'm not making a list of libraries, but ActionBarSherlock is featured on maybe 50% of the sites I linked.
The assets studio icons generator is featured too.
The size 7 was pretty unnecessary too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never said ASIG wasn't in there. Speaking of reading the OP?
Android Design in Action - fair.
Sherlock Actionbar should be here. Why? Because for once, it should be a one stop shop. Second, people still don't use it and use old look. Third, there are applications that are branded as Holo and are not compatible backwards as they don't use SAB, but latest API. As in there are still people not using it for no good reason.

The first useful post for real app development on this board.

These two videos from the Google I/O 2013 are related to Android UI design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0HIP8EdlnE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl3-lzlzOJI

nikwen said:
These two videos from the Google I/O 2013 are related to Android UI design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0HIP8EdlnE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl3-lzlzOJI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for those buddy

Thanks for the great thread!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

We just released PortKit: UX Metaphor Equivalents for iOS & Android http://kintek.com.au/blog/portkit-ux-metaphor-equivalents-for-ios-and-android/ keen for comments/suggestions

madhavakintek said:
We just released PortKit: UX Metaphor Equivalents for iOS & Android http://kintek.com.au/blog/portkit-ux-metaphor-equivalents-for-ios-and-android/ keen for comments/suggestions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's pretty nifty :good:
Having absolutely no experience with iOS development it's nice to see the equivalent UI widgets on this platform, and how much iOS7 got "Androidifyed", especially in terms of typography. (and also how thankful we can be for having Holo, IMO^^).
Adding this to the OP.

Forgive my n00bness but what does "Adding this to the OP" mean?
Yes, there are elements which are similar but if you watch the WWDC 2013 videos on whats new, youll see that iOS 7 is far more than Holo and the Android UI.
iOS has been hardware accelerated using OpenGL ES from the beginning which is why a the iPhone 3GS with barely any cpu or memory was able to provide a smooth experience better than most Android phones until Project Butter and dual core cpus on the Android Platform.
The truth is Android throws processing power at the problem rather than tackling it from an intelligent approach.
In iOS 7 the UI APIs have been rewritten and then the interface has been written with those APIs meaning that anyone can do exactly what apple does in their interfaces.
Every single view is backed by a CALayer which is an open gl surface. They have added some damn good Physics and advanced animation apis in iOS 7 so I expect to see some crazy interfaces a year from now.
Probably their greatest addition is keyframing and auto tweening between any two given collections creating a seemless transition between views.
The parallax stuff is pretty cool too. I dont expect Apple to release 3D screens any time soon but if they did iOS would have the best OS level support for depth within UI's.
I imagine its only a matter of time before passive 3D displays become the norm.
There are rumours that the Android Card style interface is what we will see in Key Lime Pie. If thats the case iOS 7 and Android 5 are going to look very similar.
Anyway, why not have the best of both worlds?
Despite Androids popularity, it would be nothing if it wasnt for iOS originally, and now vica versa, Google stepping up their game with ICS/JB has forced innovation around the market. I think they are both great.

madhavakintek said:
Forgive my n00bness but what does "Adding this to the OP" mean?
Yes, there are elements which are similar but if you watch the WWDC 2013 videos on whats new, youll see that iOS 7 is far more than Holo and the Android UI.
iOS has been hardware accelerated using OpenGL ES from the beginning which is why a the iPhone 3GS with barely any cpu or memory was able to provide a smooth experience better than most Android phones until Project Butter and dual core cpus on the Android Platform.
The truth is Android throws processing power at the problem rather than tackling it from an intelligent approach.
In iOS 7 the UI APIs have been rewritten and then the interface has been written with those APIs meaning that anyone can do exactly what apple does in their interfaces.
Every single view is backed by a CALayer which is an open gl surface. They have added some damn good Physics and advanced animation apis in iOS 7 so I expect to see some crazy interfaces a year from now.
Probably their greatest addition is keyframing and auto tweening between any two given collections creating a seemless transition between views.
The parallax stuff is pretty cool too. I dont expect Apple to release 3D screens any time soon but if they did iOS would have the best OS level support for depth within UI's.
I imagine its only a matter of time before passive 3D displays become the norm.
There are rumours that the Android Card style interface is what we will see in Key Lime Pie. If thats the case iOS 7 and Android 5 are going to look very similar.
Anyway, why not have the best of both worlds?
Despite Androids popularity, it would be nothing if it wasnt for iOS originally, and now vica versa, Google stepping up their game with ICS/JB has forced innovation around the market. I think they are both great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OP is the "original post" or the "original poster". In this case he means his list in the first post.
Please do not start another argument about which one is better.

Cool thanks.
Wasnt an argument just wanted to point out some facts about the underlying mechanisms in the new UI.
As I said at the end of my post im big fans of both.

madhavakintek said:
Forgive my n00bness but what does "Adding this to the OP" mean?
Yes, there are elements which are similar but if you watch the WWDC 2013 videos on whats new, youll see that iOS 7 is far more than Holo and the Android UI.
iOS has been hardware accelerated using OpenGL ES from the beginning which is why a the iPhone 3GS with barely any cpu or memory was able to provide a smooth experience better than most Android phones until Project Butter and dual core cpus on the Android Platform.
The truth is Android throws processing power at the problem rather than tackling it from an intelligent approach.
In iOS 7 the UI APIs have been rewritten and then the interface has been written with those APIs meaning that anyone can do exactly what apple does in their interfaces.
Every single view is backed by a CALayer which is an open gl surface. They have added some damn good Physics and advanced animation apis in iOS 7 so I expect to see some crazy interfaces a year from now.
Probably their greatest addition is keyframing and auto tweening between any two given collections creating a seemless transition between views.
The parallax stuff is pretty cool too. I dont expect Apple to release 3D screens any time soon but if they did iOS would have the best OS level support for depth within UI's.
I imagine its only a matter of time before passive 3D displays become the norm.
There are rumours that the Android Card style interface is what we will see in Key Lime Pie. If thats the case iOS 7 and Android 5 are going to look very similar.
Anyway, why not have the best of both worlds?
Despite Androids popularity, it would be nothing if it wasnt for iOS originally, and now vica versa, Google stepping up their game with ICS/JB has forced innovation around the market. I think they are both great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wasn't even fetching that far, just saying that strictly in terms of design, the Holo visual language seems much more appealing to me. But that's my personal opinion.
And yeah, as nikwen said, it meant "Adding an entry for this tool in the original post"

Hi Androguide.fr, thanks yeah I understand what you meant. I guess the thing is, I see a UI as more than the default interface thats provided but more as the capabilities of the UI for future apps. I watched all the WWDC videos and id say the physics and dynamic animation stuff is a vital element to the overall interface, one that screenshots do not convey.
If you consider what the original iOS looked like and compare that to some of the awesome interfaces that third party app developers created, and in the same token what users are able to do with the new Holo theme and its widgets compared with say 2.x.
I think its too early to tell if this visual style is a bad thing or if it will simply get out of the way of the user and provide 3rd party app developers with some great tools to create some really amazing interfaces.
The Windows 8 flat interface was laughed at quite a bit when it was first shown off, but it seems most interfaces are gravitating towards flat. All design goes through phases of vogue. I think were beginning to see the same thing that fashion has had for 50 years which is recycling of ideas and styles to provide brief periods of "re-freshness".
Anyway, thanks very much for putting our toolkit in your Pinned post.
I look forwards to creating some other great content or tutorials in the future which can be of value to the XDA community.

Hi Androidguide.fr, I just noticed your OP links to Taylor Ling's Android PSD file:
http://androiduiux.com/2013/03/12/android-ui-design-kit-psd-4-2-free-download/
It might not be obvious but we have our own linked from PortKit too:
http://kintek.com.au/blog/android-ui-design-psd-free-download/
They are not identical so there should be value in ours too. Especially because we have the icon set in there as well.
Cheers

Zooper's future? (I'm looking at you, MyColorScreen)

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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
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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