Database Develop

Today Screen Background - Question

I have a question about choosing your own backgrounds for the Today screen. I searched the board, but couldn't find a suitable answer. Hopefully someone will help.
The phone is a T-Mobile Wing (WM6) for reference.
In the "Today" settings, you can check the little box for "Use this picture as the background". No matter what built-in theme I use, no matter what picture I choose, the image displayed on the home screen is washed out. The default images associated with a particular theme are bright and vibrant. But any other picture chosen looks dull and ugly.
What is the reason for this? Any way to correct this behavior?
Thanks,
TimmyZ

Apparently, this is normal behavior. to get around it,go to Programs and open Pictures and Videos. Now navigate to the picture that you want to use as your background. Click and hold on the thumbnail with your stylus until the menu pops up, and then select Set as Today Background. The next screen will let you set the transparency level of the image.
you may have to mess around with the values a little to get what you want.
Good Luck!

Many thanks!
I never would have guess that was the answer.

I had the same question too, I will add this to the FAQ

I'm not sure where I saw that, originally. I'd like to take credit, but I am sure I saw it either here or over at Howard Forums.
It's not exactly intuitive, though, is it?

If only there was a way to use different pictures in landscape/portrait mode... that would be kinda cool

you know i have been wondering about this too for a while. The transparency setting doesn't help me though. I wish it did. For some reason the pictures i select for the background always have a some sort of default zoom so the whole picture is not visible. I tried different sizes of the same picture but it didn't really help. Windows mobile should have a setting for the background picture for tile, stretch, and center like regular windows does. that might solve the problem i am having.

To stop the picture zooming go to nonags.com and search for a program called PIXresizer. Get the picture you want and adjust it to sixe 240*320. it will fit perfectly!

hey man thanks i was wondering how to do that. i thought there was no way to change it!

Not a Problem

Big Dialer Buttons?

I'm looking for larger dialpad buttons? I've seen a lot of crap all over the place which is more of a piece together and there is always SOMEONE posting with bad news... such as "can't uninstall it" or "smart dial doesn't work" etc...
Is there a fully functioning (even if I have to pay money) keypad (dial screen buttons) with big buttons on it?
Thanks in advance!

try netcom smart dialer 2.5 - not free

There is another called reTOUCHed_Dialer2. This has much bigger buttons and easier than the built-in layout.
I am hoping somebody will have one with a different skin, though. The straight black keys are not my thing.

galenmd said:
There is another called reTOUCHed_Dialer2. This has much bigger buttons and easier than the built-in layout.
I am hoping somebody will have one with a different skin, though. The straight black keys are not my thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reTOUCHed Dialer can be "skinned" (and I've seen a few). If you look at Dutty's planned no. 7 rom that dialer will be in it, and it will have blue/green buttons. I think Schaps' has it with purple.
Basically the dialer mainly consists of graphics for the backgrounds and buttons. You just need to edit all of them in an grapics program and you can modify it to how you want it.
Here's the cab for the standard Touch looking one.

GDE 0.1 available in the market

Not going to spam the sapphire forum, but because i mainly live in the G1 area I would like you all to know that I have developed a whole new Home Replacement called GDE. It has transitions like a cube, configurable toolbar buttons etc etc.
A link to the G1 thread ( with all features and some movies ) so i dont have to copy all of it over and over:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4698010#post4698010
I have tested this on a G1 and a G2, but it should also run great on a Sapphire. If anyone has tried it please let me know how it works on your devices!

Downloaded to my mytouch and so far i'm liking it.
Couple of suggestions
1. For the option on the launch bar to bring up the phone, can you make it bring up the dialer and not the recent call list? kinda like the Hero
2. Now, when you press the menu button, the app tray pops up. I'd prefer if the normal menu would pop up. The one that has the option to change wallpaper, notifications, etc.
3. if there is a way, when trashing an icon, to make the whole bottom bar the trash, not just the bottom left corner.
4. the possibility to skin the launcher. (edit: i see in the original post that you said your working on this)
bugs i've noticed:
-when # of visible screens is set to 3 and default desktop is set to 1, you can not scroll all the way through. if you swipe right or left one time thats all that you can do. it doesn't allow you to swipe again to get to the home screen. edit: i forgot to mention that its when its in stretch mode and it doesn't work on any configuration (ie default desktop 1,2,etc). it works fine on cube
-when changing an option that require the restart of the launcher, it pops up the last used application such as sms or gmail.
thanks

Thanks for your input,
Downloaded to my mytouch and so far i'm liking it.
Couple of suggestions
1. For the option on the launch bar to bring up the phone, can you make it bring up the dialer and not the recent call list? kinda like the Hero
That indeed could be something to look at... i will look into it
2. Now, when you press the menu button, the app tray pops up. I'd prefer if the normal menu would pop up. The one that has the option to change wallpaper, notifications, etc.
The hard-menu button will be configurable in the near future, so you can set it to open up any menu you like i.e. settings... The control panel is going to get a lot bigger so it should allow you to do "almost" all things you were able to do in the past... and some more of course
3. if there is a way, when trashing an icon, to make the whole bottom bar the trash, not just the bottom left corner.
Well when you drag the right button will change into the trash... The left button is also context sensitive and in the future this will bring up a settings menu in which you can uninstall the app etc etc. I will give the icon the original red corner because the hit area isnt as clear this way ( its much bigger then you will think )
4. the possibility to skin the launcher. (edit: i see in the original post that you said your working on this)
bugs i've noticed:
-when # of visible screens is set to 3 and default desktop is set to 1, you can not scroll all the way through. if you swipe right or left one time thats all that you can do. it doesn't allow you to swipe again to get to the home screen. edit: i forgot to mention that its when its in stretch mode and it doesn't work on any configuration (ie default desktop 1,2,etc). it works fine on cube
The other transitions dont have endless scroll "yet"... I am working on implementing this into stretch and fade. The original transition can never support this, because of some technical reasons.
-when changing an option that require the restart of the launcher, it pops up the last used application such as sms or gmail.
thanks
I will see if i can make it so that it comes back to life again... it now forcefully kills GDE to clear out everything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once again thanks for your input... this is what hopefully will make it the better home replacement.. If you ever come up with ideas, notice bugs or whatever dont hesitate to contact me
One thing i forgot to ask... Can you tell me how the transition speed is on a sapphire? I havent had a chance to run it on one... for now only the G1 and the G2.
On the G2 the cube transition is really fluid... So i hope it will also be on the Sapphire as they are the same hardware/memory wise if im not mistaking.

There are two versions of the Sapphire, one with 32B and one with 32A board. All Google/Vodafone/TIM/Provider branded sapphires are the 32B versions... which has ~182MB RAM, all sapphires with a HTC logo at the front are 32A and have ~290 MB RAM...
So your statement was partly correct
Loving the looks of your launcher by the way, reminds me of LG phones though ^^.

Ok thanks for the clarification and for loving the looks of course
I must be honest... I have never had an LG phone nor seen the interface.. So if it does im a good copycat without knowing ..

it seems pretty smooth. there is a little lag intermittently but not horrible. To get a good comparison I would need to have another phone to compare it too. But so far I'm liking it.

A thing I would like to see is a dock of 4 customisable icons (like the iPhone has yes...) and a shortcut on a different place to pull up the menu The 4x4 crap stucks :/ the 3 buttons take up too much space... I want my own icons there
I downloaded ur app btw because it has so much potential

rogro82 said:
One thing i forgot to ask... Can you tell me how the transition speed is on a sapphire? I havent had a chance to run it on one... for now only the G1 and the G2.
On the G2 the cube transition is really fluid... So i hope it will also be on the Sapphire as they are the same hardware/memory wise if im not mistaking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By rights if it's fluid on the G1 it should be on the Sapphire as they're so similar. I've tested tried it out on my 32B and the 'stretch' and 'fade' effects are as smooth as silk, though 'cube' is alittle clunky even with the CPU at 528.
I'll throw in an iddy-biddy suggestion/request; could we get a configurable bottom-bar in a future build? I'd love to may it a bit darker or semi-transparent. Either way, no biggy.
Overall this is a killer Home replacement, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it mature. A big thank-you to you, Rogro.
Additional: Scrolling through the applications list is really choppy in both grid and list.

Thanks for the reply.
I will look into the grid/listview on my phone the listview is smooth although the grid suffers some lag. its related to the transparancy, but i will fix it asap.
About the configurable toolbar... I am working out the whole theming support, so hopefully soon you will be able to adjust it to anything you want it to be.

Thank you Rogro82 !
i made a video ( 0.1.1 ) to show all transitions and some options.
runing on a Sapphire ( 32B versions )
The new Home Android - GDE - Best News Apps
7178 men (and women maybe ) saw your app
I will make a new one with your new version with all features ( Theming option , Dock widget ,Google Search widget..)
YOU NEED COMMUNICATION WE NEED INNOVATION

Thanks man!
Already seen the video and its looking great!
Let me know when you have a new video online. Love to see reviews!

multilang.
hey rogro, are u able to add Multilang to this app, this would be rly nice.
i will help to translate to german if u want
(and a function to custom the function of the middle-button, so the hero theme will look like a real hero (and the palm theme also) )

[Q] Make N1 look like iOS for April Fools

So for an upcoming April Fool's joke I want to get my N1 to look like iOS. Any suggestions as far as ROMs and themes go? Icon packs should be easy to find. I'm pretty sure I could toy around with LauncherPro to get the general look, but the key to a good April Fools is in the details. That includes the Notification bar and some of the built in apps (Dialer, email, etc.) if possible. Splash and bootanimations would help too.

MIUI would do the trick very well. Visually it's pretty much iOS copy.

MIUI rom looks like IOS, check it out in development area if nexus one.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

MIUI always struck me as more of a TouchWiz clone than iOS, but I guess with some tweaks it would work... Probably a better start than CM at least. I guess it'd be too much to try to get the trackball to work like the app button on iOS and make the other buttons do nothing...

Scratch that last post. I didn't notice they've completely moved over the widgets and everything. MIUI should work nicely (assuming I can get the Notification bar done properly). For the button trick I'm thinking of just playing with the key bindings to get that to work and using QuickDesk for the double tap functionality. Anyone know what their app button does on a long press?

On iPhone4, if I'm not mistaken, it brings up the task manager.

Jack_R1 said:
On iPhone4, if I'm not mistaken, it brings up the task manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought that was a double tap. QuickDesk has a "QuickPanel" that shows the recent apps. If I just have that with no icons on the rest of it, it'll look really similar. Close enough that even an iOS user might not notice the difference (which is the ultimate goal)

One thing I miss from my iPod is being able to tap the top bar and have it take me to the to of the page. Would that be doable?
Sent from my GSBv1.7-ERIS using XDA App

Surely doing this to somebody elses phone would be a prank. Doing it to your own...??

DirkGently1 said:
Surely doing this to somebody elses phone would be a prank. Doing it to your own...??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just changing it out isn't the prank, but it is a necessary part of the gag as a whole. At this point I've got the whole thing themed, slide to unlock looks right, the wallpaper doesn't scroll, double tapping the home button acts properly, and I've got a good plan of action for the face buttons. I'm down to two problems, the first being much more important: getting the Notification Bar to look like their Status Bar, and getting the icon jiggle when the launcher goes into edit mode(I'm using MIUI). I'm thinking I might have to change out the status bar layout xml in framework-res.apk. Does anyone know if there's a better way or if this will even work?

Anyone know how to implement the Universal Search feature of iOS? True the search widget more or less replicates the functionality, but I need it to look like and behave like Universal Search (needs to become full screen, and a second press on the home button needs to return to whatever home screen you were on). ideas?

ok, I am totally stuck. It looks like the notification bar is gonna be more than just a quick xml changeout in framework-res.apk. services.jar will have to be edited too. Does anyone have any experience at all with moving icons around on the status bar?

[Q] Removing hardware keyboard shortcuts?

Hi, does anyone know how to remove the hardware keyboard shortcuts? For example, when I push I and E on the keyboard at the same time when typing it opens up the Phone dialler program.
I'm on Cyanogenmod 10 if that makes any difference. I have had a look in settings and can't see anything obvious.
Thanks

The settings for the shortcuts are under accessibility. I went through and removed them all because I had the same problem.

Thanks, looks like that is not an option in Accessibility for Cyanogenmod so I'll raise it with them.