Google Play Books: Any modules to tweak it? - Xposed General

I'm a huge ebook reader and love to read on my phone. As a general rule I like to use the Google Apps if they do the job I need 'em for. Google Play Books has failed me though. (Queue the image of a guy in a hood speaking with a deep voice: You have failed your user!)
Okay, stupid reference aside, here's my biggest three areas where I find the app lacking:
1.) In-ability to NOT use immersive mode. I often will read on my lunch break at work. During this time, as well as other times, I really like to have the clock visible just by a quick glance at the top of the screen. Further, it's nice to be able to see new notifications coming in and read 'em without having to exit the app.
2.) Ability to tweak visual settings. I prefer to have a light grey background vs. white. And at night I prefer to have a slightly blue hue to the letters as this makes it less bright.
3. I'd love a quick and easy way to switch between night and day display modes. Right now it's a four tap processes. Right now it's a four-tap process to do this.
So yeah... these are all of course "first world problems" in that I could easily live without them. Alternately, I could just use Moon Reader+ (which I do right now) which solves all of these problems. But I do like the clean interface and easy of syncing/accessing my books through google, so the question:
Is there any modules that can handle any or all of these tweaks?

Related

[Q] Distortion of words / writing while scrolling???

Hi,
I have just purchased an HD7 and I really like it so far but I have a question regarding some screen distortion I am seeing when I scroll through menu's, apps, etc...
For example (and where it is most noticable although it does happen in other areas as well) when I go to the applications menu (where all apps are located to the right of the Windows screen) and I scroll through the apps from top to bottom, all the writing beside each app icon becomes so distorted while scrolling (almost static like) that you cannot even make out what the words are saying until the scrolling stops and then everything is ledgable again. Is this normal?
On my Galaxy S the scrolling does not affect the font / writing this way at all and even on my old Omnia i910 I dont remember seeing this type of distortion when scrolling.
If someone can please advise me on this I would really appreciate it. Is this normal for this device? Does yours do it? Anyway to fix it?
Thanks
yiannisthegreek
It's normal behaviour but I'm not sure of the cause. From what I've seen, this only happens when using the black theme. If you use the white theme it doesn't happen.
Shadowise said:
It's normal behaviour but I'm not sure of the cause. From what I've seen, this only happens when using the black theme. If you use the white theme it doesn't happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You for the reply. Really? Hmmm... That is odd. I wonder if this will be something that will be fixed in updates perhaps?
I use a black theme and this doesn't happen to me at all. Certainly not to the point it's unreadable.
jimbonics said:
I use a black theme and this doesn't happen to me at all. Certainly not to the point it's unreadable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... Now Im confused... One person says it happens to him and one says it does not.
Do you experience any distortion of the writing in apps, etc while scrolling? It is minimal when I scroll slowly but when I scroll fast it is quite noticable.
PS... I did also try the white theme and it does not do it in the white theme as was mentioned by the other poster... Only in the Black theme.
I guess I'm not sure what the deal is. When I'm scrolling fast, it could be a million dollar screen with perfect clarity and I STILL wouldn't be able to "read" what was there. I mean, I have 20-20 vision and am a pretty quick reader and I can barely read my chat log scrolling slowly. When scrolling fast enough to "distort" you would have to be able to read about 120 words per second (I scroll through three screens worth of text in less than a second, about 40 words per screen). That's 7200 words per minute which is darn near World Record Speed Reading (not counting those who skim most of it and lose a great deal of comprehension).
I'd just like to say that it's not a major issue for me, but it does happen. When scrolling the app list, the text does fade out, but I don't really see it as much of an issue as the items are moving so fast that you wouldn't be able to read the text at any rate. As the list is alphabetical, I know where I need to stop, I'm not reading the apps one by one as I go along.
I'm not sure now if the OP is experiencing a different issue but he did confirm, as I have, that it doesn't happen in the white theme.
Shadowise said:
I'd just like to say that it's not a major issue for me, but it does happen. When scrolling the app list, the text does fade out, but I don't really see it as much of an issue as the items are moving so fast that you wouldn't be able to read the text at any rate. As the list is alphabetical, I know where I need to stop, I'm not reading the apps one by one as I go along.
I'm not sure now if the OP is experiencing a different issue but he did confirm, as I have, that it doesn't happen in the white theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Shadowise,
Yes... This is what I am talking about and again Thank You for your answers. I also really notice this when using the People Live Tile and especially in the synced Facebook listing. The text DOES fade out and the smaller the text the more faded it seems to become. Again... This is in the Black theme.
Also, I have noticed while in the People "hub" when scrolling from side to side that the screen itself darkens / dims out while scrolling and it also DOES this in the White theme as well. Is this also normal behavior?
If your not sure what I am talking about then please go into the People tile and just hold your finger on the top of the screen (where it says people in big letters) and slowly slide your finger and you will see the screen darken / dim out as it scrolls - unless there is something wrong with MY device in which case you may not notice what I am talking about.
Please let me know if this happens to you and if this is normal as well. Again... my Android does NOT do these things and so I am not sure if this is normal behavior.
Thanks in advance...
yiannisthegreek
My screen absolutely does not do this. The people tile actualy looks sharper than the apps screen, regardless of how fast I scroll. The screen does not dim out _at all_.
Black background.
It happens over here as well this is due to Motion Blur, the quality of screen used by HTC is poor and this is a known issue with the HTC HD7 and HTC Surround. HTC should have used a better screen specially for its flagship device on the Windows phone 7 platform. But i guess thats the main reason they didn't; the platform is new theres no need to increase costs for a niche emerging market.
Ok... I am confused again... One answer says that this absolutely DOES NOT happen to him and another answer says that it DOES... LOL!!!
This happens because of the 4.3" screen. It's not the best screen in the world. The 4.1" dell venue pro screen never exhibited this behavior and when I switched to the hd7 I noticed it immediately.
It's called response time, it's not fast enough as some other screen, basically it's more prominent while using black theme because it takes full response time (i.e. 8ms) for a pixel to change it colour from black to white and then to black again while you scrolling.
microhaxo said:
This happens because of the 4.3" screen. It's not the best screen in the world. The 4.1" dell venue pro screen never exhibited this behavior and when I switched to the hd7 I noticed it immediately.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The funny thing is that the more I play with it the more I notice that this only really happens within the stock Microsoft OS apps like People, Zune, etc. When I scroll through other 3rd party apps such as Facebook (actual app and not the synced version in the People tab), FIM (Facebook Instant Messenger), among other 3rd party apps that this fade out / distortion does not take place.
Anyone else find the same?
EDIT... I have confirmed the fade out / screen distortion to again seemingly only to be affecting the Microsoft stock OS apps again after going into Marketplace, Office, (along with the others mentioned above). It does not seem to affect 3rd party apps... Facebook, FIM, Yellowpages, YouTube, etc.
Again... Anyone else find the same or can check?
jimbonics said:
My screen absolutely does not do this. The people tile actualy looks sharper than the apps screen, regardless of how fast I scroll. The screen does not dim out _at all_.
Black background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're not talking about the whole screen, just the text.
Shadowise said:
We're not talking about the whole screen, just the text.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually... I am talking about like 3/4 of the entire screen when scrolling from side to side in any Microsoft stock OS App.
Like I said in my previous post... if you go into say the People live tile and place your finger on the top portion of the screen where in big writing it says "people" and just slowly start to move your finger to scroll you will see the bottom half of the entire page / app dim out until you remove your finger or it completes its scroll.
As I said... it does this on my device in EVERY Microsoft STOCK OS app like People, Zune, Marketplace, XBOX Live, etc but in 3rd party apps it does NOT do this. This happens in WHITE theme as well.
To try and reproduce this please go to any Microsoft OS App like "people", press your finger at the top of the page and move your finger side to side in short movements and watch your screen. You should see the dimming effect unless my phone is defective or something.
Please tell me what you find.
i'm pretty sure this is not a bug or an issue, it's just intentional, and it's 100% a software thing, you can see that in many wp7 reviews...
but a different thing is the effect you see scrolling the applist, that one is related to the hd7 screen and you won't see it using, for example, an omnia7
elmerendeiro said:
i'm pretty sure this is not a bug or an issue, it's just intentional, and it's 100% a software thing, you can see that in many wp7 reviews...
but a different thing is the effect you see scrolling the applist, that one is related to the hd7 screen and you won't see it using, for example, an omnia7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have an HD7? Can you confirm if your screen does the same "dim / fade out" thing in the Microsoft apps as I have described? Also... Why does it not do this in 3rd party apps then like youtube for example? I have even checked the HTC Hub app and in the HTC app store it does not fade / dim out but it sure does in the Microsoft Marketplace app. Weird.
As for the thing you mention about the app list and the screen - well that is my first big dissapointment with this phone. I have a Samsung Galaxy S and of course the SAMOLED is AWESOME but this phone is said to have the S-LCD (Super LCD) display which is supposed to be a pretty good screen too.
Well... I found a youtube link regarding the BLACK theme scrolling words distortion. Here it is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RperdOR8y5g
But I have not found anything about the screen fade/dimming in Microsoft apps so I hope one of you out here can reproduce it and tell me my phone is ok (even though it will still kinda suck)... LOL!!!
djpianz said:
It's called response time, it's not fast enough as some other screen, basically it's more prominent while using black theme because it takes full response time (i.e. 8ms) for a pixel to change it colour from black to white and then to black again while you scrolling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is the full reason why ^

Firefox extension to create ePub from webpages

Background (skip if you just want the link):
I really like reading with my Nook Color (CM7) but I usually read at night and even with Cyanogen's red Night Mode, browsing the web to read is still way too bright. (looking at bright stuff while trying to set yourself up to go to sleep is a recipe for bad sleep quality). I tried looking for a browser that has a real night mode (aka invert colors so webpages default to dark background, white/gray text), but as far as I can tell, none exist. I installed a fork of Stylish/Greasemonkey ("Scriptish) that is compatible with Firefox Mobile, and tried to use some of the "dark" themes/scripts. But that wasn't really much better because every time I click a link to a new page, I get a huge bright white flash of light that lasts until Firefox Mobile has completely finished rendering the page (10 seconds+). I can read eBooks fine in the dark because FBReader has a good functional night mode and you can custom set the background and text colors.
Anyway, TLDR I just found a solution that's almost as good and perhaps even more useful in certain use cases. It's a Firefox extension/add-on called GrabMyBooks: grabmybooks.com
You can have GMB grab full webpages, links that you've right-clicked on, or selected text. You can do multiple pages at a time and each one will show up as an article (chapter). It'll stick these in a file, let you give it a title, a cover, etc, and then you can download an ePub with each page as a chapter. You can also do some basic editing within the browser/GMB, or save the ePub to your computer and edit in Sigil.
The best part is that for power users who regularly want to download articles from certain sites, you can create "Detection Rules" to automatically retrieve the content enclosed between two HTML tags that have a particular ID or class.
I'm planning to use this as an alternative/complement to ReadItLater (which I love, but it doesn't work with most sites that require logins)
I use Screen Filter to adjust the brightness.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.haxor&hl=en
I set my NC at 0% in android settings, then I apply a screen filter at 40% of that.
colorado_al said:
I use Screen Filter to adjust the brightness.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.haxor&hl=en
I set my NC at 0% in android settings, then I apply a screen filter at 40% of that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that too but it's not good enough, it's still a white background even if it is dimmed.
colorado_al said:
I use Screen Filter to adjust the brightness.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.haxor&hl=en
I set my NC at 0% in android settings, then I apply a screen filter at 40% of that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I hadn't heard of this
Sent from my NookColor using xda premium

Impression.

I just used the phone for half a day and thoroughly enjoy it. On first impression, the phone is very light for the size and they give nice accessories considering the price; earphones, screen protector, case. The phone have an RGB notification light.
Interface:
-The interface is not stock Android, it's more like a modified version of MIUI. It's very usable once you install your choice of stock launcher, replace the default keyboard, and disable some of the bloat apps.
-Since it's not stock Android, I find it take a bit of time to get used to finding things in the Settings menu.
-The swipe up hardware toggles (Control center, similar to iPhone toggles) are pretty useful and more well organized than stock Android imo.
-Screen off gestures, you get many different commands (double tap on, camera, flashlight, customize your own, etc) and it work pretty good.
-Feature to display network speed on the notification bar
-"Close all" button in the recent apps menu.
-There is a feature to modify apps permissions called "Permissions of App".
-I can not find the shortcut to "Smart Lock" window anywhere, even though it is supported in the OS, if you pair a bluetooth device it will display the notification to enable it. But there seems to be no way to get to the actual Smart Lock window to enable other smart lock features, or I miss it somewhere.
Performance:
I installed all my programs pretty quick. I don't see any lag issues. All the apps launches fast and run smoothly. I don't intend to play any heavy games on a $100 phone, all the light games I play like Subway Surfer and Horizon Chase have no lags.
Connection:
Cell: The dual sim feature seems to work good. I still have to to test the signal quality, but I have to say the data speed is average. I get about 10 to 12mbps down for T-Mobile LTE speed test.
Bluetooth: I'm happy to report the Bluetooth have good performance, the motion of people lips in videos are in synced with the audio from the bluetooth speaker.
WiFi: Can reach high speed, no problem.
GPS: No problem.
Storage:
There is a strange quirk with the phone which is by default your microSD is acts as the main 'internal storage' of the phone (sdcard0), and the actual internal storage act as external (sdcard1). So it would help if you use a fast microSD. I think this is because I have the microSD inserted the first time I set up the phone. Maybe this problem can be prevented by not inserting the microSD for the first time you boot up the phone. I don't know, but I'll just live with it.
Display:
The screen is very nice for a 5.5" 720p AMOLED display. It's not going to be sharp, but it the pixels are smooth so you don't get so much of that pixelation effect. Pretty much deep black, saturated colors and good viewing angles you expect from AMOLED. It's definitely not the brightest of display though, so you might have some problem under direct sunlight.
Camera: I haven't used it too much, but it's pretty average. Like all lower end camera, it have issue with under/over exposure, also the white balance is really off on auto mode. I like the manual mode that let you control the ISO and shutter speed. It's no where bad in good lighting condition, I'd say it takes good enough details for a budget phone.
Speaker: Very average, don't expect much here.
Charging: I used my Anker quick charger and it seems to charge the device fast and safely.
Ringtones selection:
The only thing I don't like is that if you have music in your phone, when you go to change the default ringtones, it will display every single songs in your phone and you have to scroll through it. The way to remedy this is to use the file manager in the phone and create a file called ".nomedia" in your music folder, so the phone will not recognize songs in it. Once you set your desired ringtone, you can remove that file. Or you can simply use a third party app to do the job.
Aside from some quirks, I honestly have no complaints so far, I would have no problem paying the full $150 for this device. I definitely like it better than the Moto G3, except that Motorola phones tends to have superior signals and call quality compared to most other brands. I definitely will not use this phone without a case though since it's on the light side.
Couple of things I noticed
1. The navigation buttons at the bottom (Home, Back & Option) does not have backlight. Not sure if there is a LED there that can be enabled in settings. I couldn't find any setting for that.
2. The data connection drops from 4G LTE to 'H' (HSPA) when on a call.
One of thing I notice about the Gallery app in this phone is there is an "Encrypt" option. If you press it accidentally it encrypt the file and move it into the "Pictures\.GallerySafe" folder. To access the encrypted photo, you have to "pinch outward" in the app.
No Smart Lock support: I tested and even though the smart lock feature turned on when you paired a bluetooth device, it actually doesn't work.
Here are some photo samples. The main problem are over exposure, white balance detection and some lost of saturation. The quality suffers when you're indoor with less lights.
https://goo.gl/photos/j9BrJ7gcbDCXBQgD6
The LED notification light seem like its set a ways under the glass and has this really bright shining affect versus a little glow other devices have.
I must say, the amoled screen on this is quite impressive for $100 phone..
wifi and data speeds are very similar compared to my oneplus 2 (both running Tmobile)
I noticed that the user cannot remove home screen icons. Like when you press and hold there's no option to remove the icon. Some apps show an option to uninstall. But for some pre installed apps there is no option to remove the icon.
Like Google chrome, opera browser, BLU help, amazon etc....
I don't want to uninstall the app, just remove from home screen.
Yea I noticed the LED light being very bright. I could read a book under that lighting.
hamilLewiston said:
I noticed that the user cannot remove home screen icons. Like when you press and hold there's no option to remove the icon. Some apps show an option to uninstall. But for some pre installed apps there is no option to remove the icon.
Like Google chrome, opera browser, BLU help, amazon etc....
I don't want to uninstall the app, just remove from home screen.
Yea I noticed the LED light being very bright. I could read a book under that lighting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just use another launcher. google now, nova
eksasol said:
One of thing I notice about the Gallery app in this phone is there is an "Encrypt" option. If you press it accidentally it encrypt the file and move it into the "Pictures\.GallerySafe" folder. To access the encrypted photo, you have to "pinch outward" in the app.
No Smart Lock support: I tested and even though the smart lock feature turned on when you paired a bluetooth device, it actually doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The smart lock is really baffling. It prompts to turn on smart lock but never works after that.
tlxxxsracer said:
just use another launcher. google now, nova
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, that's what i finally did
so i found that there is an option on the desktop settings to 'hide' apps that you don't want to see on the desktop. it will hide the apps, with a password / pin. i'll post a guide later.
I've been using the Honor 5X a bit today so here is a comparison.
Things I prefer on the Vivo XL:
-This is a faster device. Everything about the Blu is more responsive and I don't think it's down to just the 720p display. It seems that this Mediatek CPU is actually pretty decent, games are smoother on it as well. In comparison, Honor 5X is slightly sluggy, not just in the interface, but in apps as well. This is probably due to the EMUI OS on the Honor 5X.
-Blu's UI is actually easier to understand and getting used to, especially if you're not accustomed to MIUI style interface on the Honor 5X.
-I'm not sure if it's due to the screen protector preinstalled on the Honor 5X, but the Blu touchscreen is a bit more sensitive and responsive to touch. Though it's not bad on the Honor 5X.
-The slide up "Control Panel" on the Blu is more useful with lots of options. Hate to admit it, but I prefer this slide up behavior more than Android's default because it's faster being close to your thumb. The notification toggles for the Honor 5X is missing a few options, but not a big deal.
-Blu is thinner and more light weight.
-The USB Type C connector is god sent.
-Removable battery.
Prefer on the 5X:
-Sharper screen that is very bright, its actually brighter than some highend flagship devices. The viewing angle isn't great however, but that is non-problem because it's a phone, not a TV.
-The camera is (only) slightly better. It have a bit more details and much better handle at white balance. Although the Blu camera's tap to focus is faster and more responsive. At this price range, it's not a big difference between the two phones.
-While their EMUI interface takes time to learn, it have some useful features, such as network control for apps. This let you disable data or wifi access for any apps you want, which is a very useful security feature.
-Very nice metal body.
-Finger print scanner, which I don't use.
It's a bit hard to choose which phone I would use as the daily driver. I think that if you go with the Blu, the software is good enough that you don't need to install custom roms. If you go with the Honor 5X, I believe you will need to install custom roms if you want the most out of the performance. I would have to pick the Blu Vivo XL as better value for the money, since it performs better for $50 less, and may last longer due to removable battery and USB Type C connector (more durable than microUSB). Also I like it when companies throw in free phone case and headphones, which is lacking in the Honor 5X packaging.
hamilLewiston said:
so i found that there is an option on the desktop settings to 'hide' apps that you don't want to see on the desktop. it will hide the apps, with a password / pin. i'll post a guide later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wheres the guide?
Thanks you for this app

Share your desktop images/video

Hi everyone!
Tried searching for similar thread, but not found.
So let's share pictures and/or videos of your desktops, share info on what launcher you use, some useful hints, ideas with others.
Let me begin.
My setup is based on Lightning Launcher Extreme. I learned about it just recently.
It is probably the most customizable launcher ever: unlimited number of desktops, provides different kinds of items and containers, everything can be customized and the most I like in it: it is scriptable in JavaScript!
Here's a video of my head unit (it's a bit intermittent, sorry for that):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgL8oOJThV0
On this video:
- auto-hideable, sliding-out menu panel at the left, where I put frequently used apps to not occupy screen all the time;
- "now playing" text at bottom, made without any widgets, using built-in "Text" object with some JavaScript receiving info from Neutron Player (on video) and also capable to get data from PCRadio app;
- GPS speed (it shows as 0 all the time as the car was steady) and voltage that appeared after I turned the ignition ON - these are "Text" objects too, with script receiving data from Torque application, again, no 3-rd party widgets;
In general, I prefer contrast themes with dark background/white content, as it most visible on sunny days, this is quite important while driving a car.
For now, my imagination exhausted on a single desktop I just cannot think of why do I need another, what would I put there?

[APP][NST/G][MOD] RotationLocker

I finally got around to looking at this old chestnut while working on another project. I like the app because of its very low overhead, the fact that it can be used as a Tasker plugin, and the fact that it can truly lock in landscape mode by running a temporary background service. But if you use it as a standalone you have to memorize the options in the popup because you can't see any of them!
No more! It took a bit of underhanded fiddling, but I finally got it to display black text on a white background. Yay!
If you already run the app, you'll need to uninstall it before installing the mod as they have different signatures.

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