yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[G1 Apps and Games] destrekor:
agreed.

I had tried out Home++ for a little bit, but I'm going to give it some more time in Beta but currently have it uninstalled. I am interested in its progress though, but so far I'm quite happy with GDE.

The notification bar, I feel Android is just... missing something important, when it's not there. In Home++ I immediately enabled it. I could understand it not being there but I didn't want to wait until I had a notification to see if something would happen. Can anyone offer some input? What happens you have a notification or an on-going activity where the icon would normally pop up in the Notification Bar?
[G1 Apps and Games] dbjc:
I agree, but I do have widgets on my home that gives me the time, the weather, the battery level indicator, etc... all that is already provided by the notification bar.

I just don't like to have twice the time on my screen or twice something else, one as a widget and the other on the notification bar.

If you like the notification bar, then please give us a way to disable the time or the battery level indicator from it, for we do have good widgets to show that.
[G1 Apps and Games] dbjc:
Why the notification bar does not scroll with the cube under GDE?

This is a problem for me: it would be so perfect if the whole screen could scroll with the cube effect including the notification bar under GDE.

If not possible, please let us hide the notification bar, not disable it but just hide it. so we have the whole screen scroll with the very good cube effect.
[G1 Apps and Games] dbjc:
@rogro82:

It will be so great and perfect! We do wait for that feature that would make GDE the best one.

It is an important feature, like any bar under Windows or Linux is hideable to let users that needs the whole screen as home be satisfied.
[G1 Apps and Games] djosiah:
i wouldnt say its an important feature. if home++ didnt have it then noone would be asking for it. but what is important is that rogro makes GDE as stable as he can, which is what he is doing (and doing a good job at it!).
[G1 Apps and Games] MontAlbert:
i concur doctor :D

i personally would absolutely hate not having the bar there- but an option to remove it maybe and have it pop up when there is a notification for those who want that option....
[G1 Apps and Games] destrekor:
sorry, what I was trying to say - but now I see I was vague - was the things I didn't quite understand about Home++. You can hide the bar in Home++ but I don't understand how notifications work then, as part of what I love about Android IS the notification bar.
[G1 Apps and Games] xlogan31x:
application dock for droid

I put the application dock on my droid and I don't know how to get rid of it. Please help!
[G1 Apps and Games] be0ne:
Long press on the right side of the dock to move/delete it ;)
[G1 Apps and Games] on1ydabest:
[SUGG] Wallpaper Options

@rogro82

Is it possible for you to add a option to select a different wallpaper on each screen.
[G1 Apps and Games] mgorman:
can you make it so when you press the middle menu button it changes colors?
[G1 Apps and Games] jraggio:
Having it so a single application dock remained on all screen would be really handy. I'd like to put some common shortcuts on all screens like contacts, phone, map, messages, gmail)

Great app. Started recommending it to all my Droid ownng friends after I bought it.

John
[G1 Apps and Games] droloid:
Hi

is it possible to add a function for highlight an icon in the application dock when pressing (like on the home). Sometimes, it's difficult to know if you are on the right icon. Anyway, GDE is a great piece of software.
[G1 Apps and Games] htcmagic:
Version 0.1.8.3 in my opinion is the fastest so far i have tried,

and loads the phone application from the drawer site as if i was running original home. Phone app is important for me because i do not want to wait even seconds for it to load to make a call. I am using my magic as phone and then as a pda.

I am very impressed with the speed. I cannot tell the difference with the stock launcher.

Great job.
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
Thanks! Speed is also one of the things thats on top of my list. Too bad we cant kill acore to free more memory while not using the stock launcher... That would really make Android a lot faster in daily use.

New update in the market.

Not much changes, but a new widget has been added ;)
[G1 Apps and Games] eminembdg:
WOW! Very nice Conversation Widget... anyway of making a smaller version and putting a settings option on it? Like refresh rate, color scheme? stuff like that....

I'm so glad I got this App on first release. It's amazing!

PS- Is this the BIG surprise you were working on?
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
probably also add a 4x3 widget so that you have one row left.

and yes... i am working out some widgets to really make the phone more usable. All widgets I have seen are nice gadgets, but most of them cant do what you want them because of limitations in the Android platform... And ones that look nice use hell of a lot memory which is mostly also because of the current widget framework implementation.

Because i created my own widget framework these limitations dont exist, so I thought it was time to create something new.

Future plans are to add gmail/im messages, but will require some more time.

If any one has any brilliant ideas on what really is missing as a widget just let me know.

PS

Graphics of the widget ( icons, dialog ) will also be included in a new theme template
[G1 Apps and Games] Pinesal:
Ok this is going to sound stupid but I hate that on no side of the desktop is the wallpaper centered. If there is a point of focus on the wall paper, it is alway cut off on one side of the screen or the other. Can you make it so the background is centered on at least one of the screens?

The other thing is, it's hard to know which apps are in a folder and which aren't, making it hard to know that you every app properly sorted. Maybe having a little check mark or folder in the corder of each app icon in the all apps drawer so we know what is in a folder and what's left out.
[G1 Apps and Games] jhankinson:
First of all I want to say thanks for writing this great program. It runs very smoothly on my moto droid and is a great replacement for the default home. Unfortunately I have found a couple of bugs, but hopefully you can fix them in the next update.

First when I switch to landscape mode and back to portrait mode the transition animations no longer work. For example instead of seeing the rotating cube the screen just turns black for a second before showing the next desktop page. Going into the gde desktop settings and restarting gde fixes the animations but it is a pain to do this so for now I don't use sensor based rotation and I just never use landscape mode.

Second the switch between listview and gridview only seems to work in the all applications folder. When I try to switch to listview in one of my custom made folders all of the icons just disappear and can only be brought back by backing out of the folder and going back into it.

As far as improvements go I would really like to be able to sort the programs in the application dock or at least have them be in alphabetical order (luckily I think I saw this in your todo list already). Also it would be nice to be able to place a shortcut to one of my custom application folders on the desktop rather than making one desktop folder and a seperate application menu folder. Also a true 6 sided cube with faces on top and bottom you can flip to would be pretty cool (although it might get too confusing) or a dxtop type system with 4 desktops permanently linked to up down left right would be another nice option. Also you could do something completely different with the up and down swipes, like have one go directly to phone or browser (it could be like having 2 more custom buttons). Finally I really like the panda home side docks that pop out, that would be another cool addition.

Great work, keep those updates coming! Thanks.
[G1 Apps and Games] MoreGone:
Love the app, the speed of it and the widgets. All good stuff. Not having the dedicated call key on the droid doesn't matter now with the ability to csutomize the 2 keys to my liking. Thank you.

I believe the new conversation widget was causing various android.process to force close. 4x4 and 4x3, same errors. This is on my droid with the 2.01 update.

The fade transition has got to be the fastest transition out of any home app, simply excellent.
[G1 Apps and Games] SCDroid:
rogro,

Gotta problem. Eversince the update, i added the widget (4x3) which i love, but when i go into an app (anyone of them) and come back out, the widget is blank and all of my contacts in the messaging app arent there (just puts their phone numbers instead of name)
[G1 Apps and Games] MoreGone:
I ve got the exact same problem and was coming to post it. Contact photos and names are missing in Handcent and Messaging app. Contacts are listed only as number as if they're not a saved contact.
[G1 Apps and Games] MontAlbert:
any chance of including the keypress/touch/selection colour when inside folders on the desktop? the colours change for app drawer and on desktop but not in folders?

thx mate- since the faster auto scroll i have given dxtop the boot (plus they have now withdrawn all 3rd party theme support)- btw. any chance of making auto scroll pause even shorter or at least customisable?

***edit** until then, is the colour inside the tabs inside main.xml.... looking thru it but cant seem to find it- i can t find what i think is the orange android colours: ffff00 and ffa500 (backwards of course :D ). are these the correct colours? googling this isnt helping...

***edit2**i looked inside colours.xml and nothing there except ffffffs and 00000s and cccccc's..... white, blacks and greys.... i will kepp searching...

****edit3*** just thought of the opportunities to theme when editing these.... :D
[G1 Apps and Games] Zoide_:
rogro82: I love the progress with this app, it's a great bang for the buck!

That said, is there a way to add Gmail as one of the soft button options? ;)

Thanks
[G1 Apps and Games] Zoide_:
Also, is it me or is the "Normal" screen transition choppier than the one from the regular home? I feel that the one from the default launcher in CM 4.7.1 is smoother. :confused:

BTW I'm running on a 32A Magic so RAM is not the problem. Also, I'm not using any 10MB RAM hacks so my GPU is not being strangled by that either.
[G1 Apps and Games] n0m0n:
Hello,

Once I choose GDE as the default home app how would I change that to the OS default if needed or wanted?

Nice app, only wish I could generate app dock in alphabetic order

Thanks
[G1 Apps and Games] PaulGiz:
Just a report on 1.9--is it really faster, or am I being silly?

Whatever, thank you, it's running smoother, is stable and seems faster than ever. Opens dialer quick and seems to return to home screens either instantly, or at worst 3 or 4 seconds--down from 10.

P.
[G1 Apps and Games] be0ne:
Go to the application Menu > GDE > Clera the defaut action (or something like that) ;)
[G1 Apps and Games] benmyers2941:
How about the Calendar too?
[G1 Apps and Games] n0m0n:
Not sure what you mean?

I went to the menu within GDE and where then?

I didn't find a clear default action option.

Thanks
[G1 Apps and Games] Hotas:
It is in Android general settings under applications/manage applications
[G1 Apps and Games] mgorman:
sorry if this has been brought up. when i hit the end button to sleep my phone it wont go back to the home screen and also when exiting from apps there is a significant delay b4 the home screen shows up
[G1 Apps and Games] ekeefe41:
I have been using this off and on for some time, love it!

But, what is the Conversations widget?

Is it for SMS, gmail or gtalk... i loaded it but it is empty
[G1 Apps and Games] goldenarmZ:
Try rebooting and you should get a choice between this and the default launcher.
[G1 Apps and Games] raziel200:
thanks i'll give it a try
[G1 Apps and Games] Zoide_:
Is anyone having the following bug?

- Open GDE

- Don't press anything until the backlight turns down in brightness

- Tap the screen, etc.

- Nothing happens and the screen turns off

With the regular launcher, the backlight goes back to normal brightness as soon as you tap the screen, and it doesn't turn off.
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
Thanks _zoide for posting this ( how did you finally managed to download it? I have seen some more cancelations but i dont know why... maybe some google market error ) ... I will look into it.. I will first try to reproduce it and if so i will try to fix it asap.

About the middle button becoming a trash button i will also look into... i will be able to look at it in about an hour.

Thanks for all the replies.
[G1 Apps and Games] Diceman4:
Rogro, this is my favorite home replacement by far. I look forward to future updates! BTW I think it is pretty damn polished for a version 0.1
[G1 Apps and Games] goldenarmZ:
OK.. just been trying out some unofficial skinning on this and I've noticed one major issue with the current version.. When the app tray is closed, it sits under the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.. so if I make my toolbar transparent (which I always like to do), you can see the top of the app tray and the menu text through it.. Is it possible to make the tray sit completely offscreen when closed?
[G1 Apps and Games] bkmo:
I just themed it too with transparency. It looks horrible. Also you will notice that with transparency on the toolbar.png that the transparent background showing through doesn't change with the cube turning. This will need some major work it looks like to be themed properly. It still is nice for .1 release, but I would think that it should be a free/limited app until the bugs are out of it.
[G1 Apps and Games] Zoide_:
I was able to buy the app by using a Visa credit card instead of American Express. Before I did that, I called my bank regarding the AMEX card and apparently there was nothing preventing me from using it for Euro purchases. Still, the only way was to switch to the Visa card.
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
@everyone

Thank you for your input

@Zoide_...

strange things are happing at google market..

@golderarmZ

I am working on the complete theming framework... for the moment the app drawer is indeed behind the toolbar... this way you can drag it while its not really there ;) and also press it... I am looking for a better way though

@bkmo

What bugs are you referring to? That you can not unofficialy theme it? I dont think that is a bug... I am working on a complete theming framework so if you want to be constructive please tell me what you need as a themer and i will consider everything you want/need.
[G1 Apps and Games] goldenarmZ:
I have an idea.. The top bar of the app drawer is currently 48px high.. if you double that to 96px and have the top half of the image completely transparent, then make the tray sit 48px lower when closed and 48px higher when open, you'd have the same dragging functionality with no visible 'lip'. Does that sound doable?
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
Look thats what i call constructive ;)

I will see if this is the right way to do it... else i will just make it disappear when its at the bottom.... The issue with the transparancy and not updating the desktop will be easily fixed ( it was actually a performance thing i did, so that parts of the desktop that were not showing werent rendered, but with a transparant toolbar this isnt going to work.. so i agree on removing this )

If you need anything else just let me know.... themes are high up on my list, but i do want to implement it the right way and not have themers redo their work everytime i make a change.... So i will need to collect some input from you all.
[G1 Apps and Games] bkmo:
The other theming issue I see might be the menubar text color, and maybe other text colors. If this could be selectable it would make theming much easier. Right now we have to rely on hex editing .xml's to change text color.

Don't get me wrong....I like it ;) Also I am curious why the search widget is not available?
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
Thanks for the input... i am writing everything down... text colors transparancy etc etc....

One question. The original launcher didnt let you allow transparancy for the menu background did it? It would blur repeat etc.... didnt it?

The search widget used to use a lot of hidden google apis... I dont want to rely on them just as they say not to rely on any apis that are not publicly available.

My home replacement can be totally compiled without having to compile it against the Google kernel. This gives some good advantages in development. I know google was aiming to completely remove the dependency ( i have read somethings in their changelogs ). I dont know how it is at the moment, but i will look into it.

Bu mainly for searching I have decided to rewrite a complete new search module which can also search through media on the sdcard etc... I will start on this asap, so everyone can search again... after all it is a "google" phone ;)
[G1 Apps and Games] kron2:
I really like this app, a few things I would like to see if possible; is a way to add wallpaper in the background of the cube and to add a top and bottom to the cube, not only to make it look more like a cube but to give you 2 more screens. Also if can you make it so the browser could be one of the cube screens. and the original launcher did let you use transparancy for the menu background
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
I will look into a top and bottom.... at first i wanted to make the menu the top, but since it has other transitions this wouldnt be practical.

Weird because when i was working on the AdvancedLauncher / Modified launcher it didnt work.... when i was scrolling the app list or pulling up the tray it would repeat images.. maybe something was wrong back then.
[G1 Apps and Games] Zoide_:
I wonder what's the big deal with the search widget? On my phone I just press the search button (hardware button) and the search comes up...
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
The G1 lacks that button....

I must say i have never used the search widget, but as so many people are asking about it I will start and hopefully finish the search implementation tomorrow.

It will be a bit of google and a bit of GDE ( file search )...
[G1 Apps and Games] bkmo:
You are exactly correct. As soon as you add transparency to the background of the original launcher it starts to leave ghost images all over the place.
[G1 Apps and Games] Zoide_:
I can't see any of my programs when I go to "All applications". Is this a known bug?

Thanks
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
They should show up normally.... i havent heard of this bug... when you restart for example using the desktop settings are they still not visible?

@bkmo

thanks for letting me know... so i didnt change the complete drawing routine for nothing :) it is a cached background because else it would really lag horrible, but atleast it supports full transparancy everywhere... even using multiple layers ( rows etc ).
[G1 Apps and Games] Redflea:
Get Home Switcher - it allows you to switch between home screens and set/change your default home screen program.
[G1 Apps and Games] Redflea:
Rogro82:

Congrats...I had moved to Home++ for a few days as I was having some performance issues w/previous versions of GDE, but I'm back! :)

The current version seems to perform much better, both the home screens and the app tray (thought the app tray still has some room for improvement in scrolling smoothness). Glad you are continuing to recognize the importance of performance in providing a great user experience.

The conversation widget is the bomb! Seriously. If you sold it on the Market as a separate widget available on all home screens you'd make a mint. I assume the limiting factor is that it requires frameworks provided by GDE? If you could package it so it would work on other home screens you'd have a top widget, IMHO, worth breaking off from GDE.

My big wish remaining is to be able to assign the phone button in the Button Settings to launch the dialer I use (SuperDial) rather than the stock dialer. The phone button in Home++ launches SuperDial w/out any configuration on my part, so there must be a relatively straight forward way to do that...

Great work!
[G1 Apps and Games] Wysie:
rogro: It would be good if you could put the changelog up :D. Thanks!
[G1 Apps and Games] rogro82:
Change log modified... not much changed... only added a GDE start application for people having troubles to open ( or don't know how to set it as default ).

Hopefully this will be 20 emails a day less ;)

Because some people didnt like it in the app list i removed it, so its only visible using another home app.

@Redflea

Indeed the widget needs the GDE widget framework, because normal widgets sadly don't allow any scrolling etc.

I dont mind adding it for free to GDE as in my eyes it was something really missing on my phone... if anyone else has some great ideas about missing widgets which arent possible using the normal widget framework just let me know and ill consider adding it.
[G1 Apps and Games] JonKyu:
I have one but it kinda ties into another feature lol. What about a widget that toggles gde profiles. But this would require gde to save home states, kinda mimics HTCs profiles setting. A setting for "home" "work" etc... I don't know how useful it'd be but figured id run it by you.

Btw great feature updates, is working well for me but I'm getting slow home reloads and sometimes get the black screen while navigating to my different screens. Sometimes transitions are slow but speed up after a few seconds. I'm on a moto droid.
[G1 Apps and Games] pkwjr:
if anyone else has some great ideas about missing widgets which arent possible using the normal widget framework just let me know and ill consider adding it....

I would love, and I am sure many people that get numerous emails a day would love it too, an widget to view gmail without opening the gmail app.

There are some out there now, pure messenger widget comes to mind, but they only work sporadically.

Being able to see our gmail inbox would be a great widget.
[G1 Apps and Games] Redflea:
Agree...a killer widget would provide a view into your gmail from the home screen...if you have multiple accounts, then either allow selection of a primary account to view (and switch to others on the fly), or allow to show emails from the different accounts in some priority order. Same for email (IMAP accounts) as well as Gmail if possible. That would be truly useful w/scrolling built into it.

I'm also finding that when I first unlock my device the rotation (I'm using cube) to another screen can be unresponsive for a few seconds...flicks right or left are initially ignored. Aside from that, things look good!
[G1 Apps and Games] eghoti1:
I'll 3rd that agreement. The conversations widget would be awesome if it included email from IMAP accounts like Yahoo. I can't get the Pure Messanger Widget to refresh my emails correctly, but maybe once a day. Thanks for all the updates, it's coming along very nicely
[G1 Apps and Games] jhankinson:
A contacts widget where you could scroll through and one touch dial your starred contacts would be cool, or a music player widget with a scrollable playlist would be nice too. I love GDE thanks for all your hard work improving this already great app.
[G1 Apps and Games] mgorman:
when you download new apps, the app drawer doesn't update unless you hit the back arrow
[G1 Apps and Games] Redflea:
I think that already exists - there's a folder you can add from the home menu (press and hold on home screen until the second buzz) that will display only starred contacts...
[G1 Apps and Games] lhernana2j:
Thank you. This is getting better and better everyday.
[G1 Apps and Games] jmccarthy14:
I would really, really like the option to hide the notifications bar, as in Home++. I love GDE, but without notifications the wallpapers/screens/themes look soo much better. And with your conversations widget I barely need it anyway.

^^ If this is as simple as flagging the app fullscreen, or something similar that takes 4-5 lines, that is. Otherwise, ff its a difficult hack then obviously it should be far down your feature list.