Database Develop

[Q] Any way to lose the Nook apps main button?

During two 12 hour days of rooting and customizing two CNooks, I ran across a procedure for removing the stock Nook apps. Now I can't find it. I'm not sure if that included the main soft button, as well, but I'm giving one of these to my 75 year old Mom and I don't want her confused if she hits this button all the time.
Really appreciate any help here!!!

ClarkSt said:
During two 12 hour days of rooting and customizing two CNooks, I ran across a procedure for removing the stock Nook apps. Now I can't find it. I'm not sure if that included the main soft button, as well, but I'm giving one of these to my 75 year old Mom and I don't want her confused if she hits this button all the time.
Really appreciate any help here!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK there's no way to remove the nook shortcut menu in the status bar. So what is she using it for, never reading on it? If you removed the apps and she did launch the shortcuts I guess it'd just fail to load the app, as they seem to be static shortcuts to those apps.
I would think when we get a custom ROM the status bar will be at the developers digression, and maybe someone will figure out a way to update the framework jar to remove the shortcut. My wife likes the shortcut, as her NC is 50/50 reader/tablet.

I installed the Kindle app on the Home screen, which I prefer. The Nook eReader is still there in the app tray, but because I changed the screen res, it screws up some of the texts in the Store and what not. The reader is still fine, though. But with the larger icons and text, it is WAY better. I tricked it out with the Aquarium Live Wallpaper and added Dolphin browser, which supports pinch zoom. And an email client; WeatherBug Elite, a Battery widget, a clock widget, and a WiFi toggle widgit went on the Home screen, as well - and I'm using Zeam for a launcher. I removed all the icons except the app drawer - and also changed the Volume Down button to be a Back and the Up to be a Menu. No SoftKeys for me. BTW: I set the lcd res to 220 using LCDDensity - far better than the 250 someone mentioned on the forum. I still see the time and the notification balloon - albeit, a bit truncated, but it works. I run SetCPU, though not really sure I need to.
I use Quick Settings for Volume.
I'm missing a few things:
1) Love to find out how to do a screen capture.
2) Desperately want Flash.
3) Desperately want Bluetooth.
And, really want to noop the nook shortcut launcher soft key - or preferably the whole status bar. I don't need it, with all the widgets, but I'd be happy to have it as long as the shortcut launcher softkey was nullified.

I'm planning to get NC for my parents of the same age like your mom as well.
They would use it for email and web browsing while traveling.
I hope you will succeed and share

Cool - and of course I'll share! Fact is, it's not a deal-breaker by any means. I
'll just tell her to avoid hitting that menu button. And if she does, she just clicks on the screen or clicks the button again to get rid of it. I'm really more interested in Flash - which I'm sure will be in 2.2, whenever they release it for the CN - and BT. Which I really want for the new BT headphones I bought for my lost Archos 70.

post deleted. it repeated my last one.

Screen capture - hold down the large physical "n" button, and then very quickly press the volume down button. It will store the .png screenshot file in a directory called "Screenshots" in the system storage.
Now, if someone knows how to do video capture of the screen, please let us know.

KryptoNyte39 said:
Screen capture - hold down the large physical "n" button, and then very quickly press the volume down button. It will store the .png screenshot file in a directory called "Screenshots" in the system storage.
Now, if someone knows how to do video capture of the screen, please let us know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome... thanks for posting this. I previously download ShootMe unaware of this functionality.
I did it all from my Nookie...

Things I've learned about apps on rooted Color Nook...

I dove in and bought two Color Nooks and spent many hours getting it "just right", in terms of usability for apps - mostly due to the Back or Menu buttons not staying put on the CN, which means having to hit the Home button to get out of the app.
I used autonooter, version ending in 18. It went fine, once I got Java SDK installed.
App-wise:
Movies: The trick is to use Root Explorer to open them. MixZing keeps the menu bar showing, which is nice. With Zimly, stop the movie and double tap to do a Back. The stock Movies/Gallery has a Back button on a single tap.
Music: PlayerPro keeps the notification bar and is a very good player. Doesn't have cover flow, but none of them do. Cubed is close, but it uses blown-up version of small album cover uimages, so it looks like crap. PlayerPro has a nice scrolling screen of large cover images. MixZing is great because it has a built-in EQ... very nice. But, not as sexy in the cover display department. But it does keep the notification bar so you can do a Back while a song is playing.
Launcher: Zeam is the only way to go. I use LauncherPro on my HTC Incredible, but it's not as flexible as Zeam. You can remove all the icons except the app Drawer to keep it clean. You can also configure swipes for toggling the notification bar and "expanding" notifications.
Screen: LCD Display is great for testing different resolutions. I've found that 220 works well. Bigger icons and text, yet you can still see the notifications balloon on the left and the time.
Browser: Dolphin works well. Pinch zoom works.
Reader: Kindle works very well, though the Kindle Store doesn't work so much. Just click to go to the Home for Amazon, and it brings up the browser and you can buy/download whatever you like. Go to Archive to see the new books you've downloaded and then move them to Home. The B&N apps, in general, don't work so well at the new screen size of 220. but they work. I just use Kindle to keep it clean.
Picture Gallery: Really couldn't find one that had a Back button!! The stock Gallery app is fine, though, I suppose. Nothing fancy, but it works, and is better than having to reconfigure the Volume keys to get a Back button. Tempted to reconfigure the Home button to do that, but... not sure that's a good idea. Kinda like having Home available for a quick jump back to sanity.
Adding AnReboot app helps while rooting and making changes later.
Outside of that, feel free to add anything I missed.

why not just use home switcher and avoid all this hassle?
bind soft keys to the N button for one click and home screen for 2 clicks problem solved

Thank you for sharing your findings.
Have you tried ADW Launcher yet? I tried Zeam but gravitate toward ADW.

Button Savioir works great for me, I find soft keys to be intrusive but to each there own.
As far as launchers go Zeam is nice, I like how the dock sets its self up but ADW has much more options and is why I choose it over Zeam. I just wish I could have more than 5 spots on my dock.
I also just gave your 220 LCD density a try and it cuts my time in half, put the hour above the minutes and I can barely see the notification area.

joel71 said:
Button Savioir works great for me, I find soft keys to be intrusive but to each there own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll second it. This is a must have app, solves all your "back problems."

Barnes & Noble home vs. alternate launchers

Hello all, I am really wanting to change the default launcher on the nook color but my wife is being a hard sell. She doesn't want to lose the scrolling book cover feature that runs along the bottom of the home screen. Are there any apps or widgets out there that will allow this feature on an alternate launcher? I would love to do more with my home screen but she uses it more than I do so I need to accommodate her as well.

EsotericPunk said:
Hello all, I am really wanting to change the default launcher on the nook color but my wife is being a hard sell. She doesn't want to lose the scrolling book cover feature that runs along the bottom of the home screen. Are there any apps or widgets out there that will allow this feature on an alternate launcher? I would love to do more with my home screen but she uses it more than I do so I need to accommodate her as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you could install zeam and just never check the checkbox for the what the default home screen should be. That way when you click N it'll give you a prompt to which homescreen you want to go to. I did that and I keep accidentally checking the box while navigating through. I wish there was a way to have a widget to link to the BnN homescreen so I could navigate there if and when I want to, which isn't too often. But it's kind of like a cyber book shelf and I don't care much for the library interface.

Just get the home switcher app from the market.
Sent from my LogicPD Zoom2 using XDA App

xwint3rxmut3x said:
you could install zeam and just never check the checkbox for the what the default home screen should be. That way when you click N it'll give you a prompt to which homescreen you want to go to. I did that and I keep accidentally checking the box while navigating through. I wish there was a way to have a widget to link to the BnN homescreen so I could navigate there if and when I want to, which isn't too often. But it's kind of like a cyber book shelf and I don't care much for the library interface.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could use home switcher or alternatively, go to uninstall the application and reset the default behavior.
Also, installing another Launcher will bring the choice back

Yea, I totally feel you guys. I was just trying to avoid having to switch home screens. Have my cake and eat it too sort of situation. Maybe I will play with some ideas tonight and repost if I discover any neat tricks... (of course that assumes I can pry it away from her...)

I would say install SoftKeys and set it as the home launcher. Then in the SoftKeys app set it so one hardware click B&N Launcher and two hardware clicks your custom luncher. So when she uses it the home button brings the nook home screen but if you want the custom launcher press it twice I do the opposite but I still access the old launcher every now and then

you need another nc.

likearaptor said:
I would say install SoftKeys and set it as the home launcher. Then in the SoftKeys app set it so one hardware click B&N Launcher and two hardware clicks your custom luncher. So when she uses it the home button brings the nook home screen but if you want the custom launcher press it twice I do the opposite but I still access the old launcher every now and then
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you set two launchers to the Home button with Softkeys? I only get launcher and softkeys as options.

B&N home popup
I installed Zeam, but still frequently get the B&N popup when I try to go back by left swiping the soft arrow at the bottom. How do I kill that?

Go to the settings for SoftKeys and you can set a short press of the button for one launcher and a long press for a different launcher.
My preferred lancher is ADW. I downloaded AnyCut from the market and used it to make a shortcut to "Home" on the desktop. That opens the Nook home screen if I want it. You can also download Home Switcher or Home Manager from the market to open a different launcher or change the default.

So I found out that using Desktop Visualizer on Launcher Pro Plus that I can create a widget to launch B&N Home. Problem solved. Now I have two new ones:
1) My keyboard keeps flipping out and doing repeated button presses
2) I can't add shortcuts to the Launcher Pro home screen (widgets = fine, shortcuts = no dice)
Anyone else having these issues? I know that, regarding the keyboard, I just installed a screen protector right before it started having problems, but I can't imagine how that could cause them. I may just wait it out and if it persists, try a factory reset...
Edit: I also forgot that problem #3 is that I can't remove or change shortcuts in the dock for Launcher Pro. Kind of lame to have my dock icons as phone, contacts, and messaging...

robeggen said:
Go to the settings for SoftKeys and you can set a short press of the button for one launcher and a long press for a different launcher.
My preferred lancher is ADW. I downloaded AnyCut from the market and used it to make a shortcut to "Home" on the desktop. That opens the Nook home screen if I want it. You can also download Home Switcher or Home Manager from the market to open a different launcher or change the default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have yet to find anywhere to long press the physical home button, only the soft button. I'd like to be able to launch an alternative launcher (or the softkeys themselves) with a long press rather than double press.

howardmoon said:
I installed Zeam, but still frequently get the B&N popup when I try to go back by left swiping the soft arrow at the bottom. How do I kill that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried 4 different launchers and no matter how I set their respective Home Button options, I still get the B&N popup from the soft button. How can it override the launcher settings?

howardmoon said:
I've tried 4 different launchers and no matter how I set their respective Home Button options, I still get the B&N popup from the soft button. How can it override the launcher settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean the Carrot/Arrow button? You're always going to get that, it's part of the framework. Most likely that won't go away until a custom ROM is available.

Ah, thanks. Crap

One other option is to use the original B&N Home with Smart Taskbar and Button Savior. You won't have widgets on your screen at all times, ST makes a pretty decent launcher for other apps.

[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?

Wallpaper problems with Google Now Launcher

I can't seem to properly apply a wallpaper with Google Now Launcher. Every time I do, it basically shifts the whole thing to the right, almost as if it's centering it on the right border. I only use 1 home screen (plus the Google now cards screen to the left) so it just doesn't look right like that. Using something like ES file Explorer kind of helps because you can manipulate a bit how to line it up, but it seems imperfect and time consuming. I'd love to just be able to apply them from something like ZEDGE. Anyone have any suggestions?

Morpherios said:
I can't seem to properly apply a wallpaper with Google Now Launcher. Every time I do, it basically shifts the whole thing to the right, almost as if it's centering it on the right border. I only use 1 home screen (plus the Google now cards screen to the left) so it just doesn't look right like that. Using something like ES file Explorer kind of helps because you can manipulate a bit how to line it up, but it seems imperfect and time consuming. I'd love to just be able to apply them from something like ZEDGE. Anyone have any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution I came up with was to go into the app drawer and drag an icon to a separate home screen and then drag another icon to another screen (making 3 screens plus Google now). Apply the wallpaper and then remove the extra two shortcuts to go back to one screen.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Othoric said:
The solution I came up with was to go into the app drawer and drag an icon to a separate home screen and then drag another icon to another screen (making 3 screens plus Google now). Apply the wallpaper and then remove the extra two shortcuts to go back to one screen.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This seems to work better than any other solution I've tried. Thanks for the heads up. Not quite perfect but easily better than doing the "guess and check" method of manually lining things up. What an annoyance though, right? It's a wallpaper, it shouldn't be this complicated.

Morpherios said:
This seems to work better than any other solution I've tried. Thanks for the heads up. Not quite perfect but easily better than doing the "guess and check" method of manually lining things up. What an annoyance though, right? It's a wallpaper, it shouldn't be this complicated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know... I just started using Google Now Launcher again after using Nova forever, because I like having Google Now to the left of the home screen and I've really started using a more minimal desktop with just one screen. It seems to me that Google of all development crews out there would know about this and fix it. It's a minor annoyance. But an annoyance nonetheless. If anyone else has any other possible solutions, I would love to hear them as well.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Othoric said:
I know... I just started using Google Now Launcher again after using Nova forever, because I like having Google Now to the left of the home screen and I've really started using a more minimal desktop with just one screen. It seems to me that Google of all development crews out there would know about this and fix it. It's a minor annoyance. But an annoyance nonetheless. If anyone else has any other possible solutions, I would love to hear them as well.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've very strongly considered going over to Nova, except like you, I really like having the Now cards to the left and I'm just not willing to give them up. The only other method I found that semi works, I found an app on the playstore called Image 2 Wallpaper
Does what it sounds like, but there's a little bit of "playing around" you can do with lining things up. The way I've found it to at least sort of do what I want is to tap pick image from gallery, pick the image, down in the bottom half where there are options swipe over to the "Align" section, and hit "Move Left". Then hit the little green icon to the right of the preview to "set" it. Again it's not perfect but it's another option to add to the toolbox of methods I guess. I think yours seems to be a little more accurate, and much quicker though.

This is probably not the best solution for you, but thought I would mention that Action Launcher 3 also has the "swipe left for Google Now" functionality and it handles wallpaper much better. It has a lot of other neat features too, although it's not free. There is a free trial version though that might work for your purposes.

unbesorgt said:
This is probably not the best solution for you, but thought I would mention that Action Launcher 3 also has the "swipe left for Google Now" functionality and it handles wallpaper much better. It has a lot of other neat features too, although it's not free. There is a free trial version though that might work for your purposes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting... I've used Action Launcher 2 a long time ago but never got into it a whole lot. Does it have Google Now to the left in the exact same way that Google Now Launcher does, or is it more like "a swipe right gesture opens Google Now"?
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Othoric said:
That's interesting... I've used Action Launcher 2 a long time ago but never got into it a whole lot. Does it have Google Now to the left in the exact same way that Google Now Launcher does, or is it more like "a swipe right gesture opens Google Now"?
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's pretty close. The only thing that's missing is the animation when you swipe back to the home screen, IIRC. The developer said that's because of a limitation in the API. It does animate when swiping into Google Now though.

unbesorgt said:
It's pretty close. The only thing that's missing is the animation when you swipe back to the home screen, IIRC. The developer said that's because of a limitation in the API. It does animate when swiping into Google Now though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm definitely intrigued. I just downloaded it, but swiping to the side just brings up what kind of appears to be a sort of quick app drawer thing. How do you enable the google now cards screen?

It's been awhile since I've used it, but there should be a way to turn it on in the settings. That other thing is called the QuickDrawer which you might need to move to the other side.
[edit]
Found it -- go to Shortcuts under Settings, then Swipe Horizontal, and change Leftmost Home Screen to Search (Google Now).
One thing I don't like is how it automatically opens the keyboard for the search bar. The Google Now Launcher's implementation is much better. If only someone could combine that with Nova Prime's features, I could die happy.

unbesorgt said:
It's been awhile since I've used it, but there should be a way to turn it on in the settings. That other thing is called the QuickDrawer which you might need to move to the other side.
[edit]
Found it -- go to Shortcuts under Settings, then Swipe Horizontal, and change Leftmost Home Screen to Search (Google Now).
One thing I don't like is how it automatically opens the keyboard for the search bar. The Google Now Launcher's implementation is much better. If only someone could combine that with Nova Prime's features, I could die happy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the update/edit. I was actually in there earlier but was specifically looking for Google Now instead of Search. I definitely see what you mean regarding the keyboard. It's soooo close. If they could just kill the automatic kb popup it'd be pretty perfect. I'm going to play with it a bit. It definitely feels fluid. And I like the idea of being able to properly theme and whatnot (one of the things I missed from homescreen replacements like Nova). If I like it enough I have enough in my play account from surveys to buy the full version. So far I'm digging it though, thanks again for the recommendation.

Morpherios said:
Thanks for the update/edit. I was actually in there earlier but was specifically looking for Google Now instead of Search. I definitely see what you mean regarding the keyboard. It's soooo close. If they could just kill the automatic kb popup it'd be pretty perfect. I'm going to play with it a bit. It definitely feels fluid. And I like the idea of being able to properly theme and whatnot (one of the things I missed from homescreen replacements like Nova). If I like it enough I have enough in my play account from surveys to buy the full version. So far I'm digging it though, thanks again for the recommendation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, let me know if you discover any good tweaks!