So far I've stuck with free apps from the Market, haven't seen the need to spend money on one yet. But, I've been reading a lot about how people are using BetterCut to change icons, etc., (still not sure how that works, but I haven't spent much time on it, too busy flashing ROMs!), and I've just found OpenHome.
Two questions: Is BetterCut worth buying and what does OpenHome do?
Thanks!
ElectricWraith said:
So far I've stuck with free apps from the Market, haven't seen the need to spend money on one yet. But, I've been reading a lot about how people are using BetterCut to change icons, etc., (still not sure how that works, but I haven't spent much time on it, too busy flashing ROMs!), and I've just found OpenHome.
Two questions: Is BetterCut worth buying and what does OpenHome do?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open Home is a home launcher (others are Launcher Pro and ADW). Basically it is a replacement for the Sense GUI (or home) you see
They have a free version of open home that you can try out. I believe the feature it banks on is its "live" folders. Personally i had a LOT of force Crashes but it was a while ago now.
I personally recommend Launcher Pro as a home replacement or ADW launcher
As for bettercut. If you want to change your Icons for individual apps then yes it is worth it. (i use app organizer and just make folders for groups and custom icons for the folders)
ElectricWraith said:
So far I've stuck with free apps from the Market, haven't seen the need to spend money on one yet. But, I've been reading a lot about how people are using BetterCut to change icons, etc., (still not sure how that works, but I haven't spent much time on it, too busy flashing ROMs!), and I've just found OpenHome.
Two questions: Is BetterCut worth buying and what does OpenHome do?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i haven't tried openhome, but i love bettercut. you can see the different icons i have implemented on my dock, and a few on my screens. as you may have guessed, on the dock, camera, phone, app drawer, handcent, contacts, market, where, app drawer again, maps/navigation, remote droid, browser, voice search, barcode scanner, note monkey, and weatherbug elite. i've also made a toggle for silent mode (the ninja, lol), and a custom yelp icon
totally not necessary, but i like the customization, and i think the icons looks tons better than stock. and, there are oodles of them to pick from. you can even use downloaded icons sets from your pc, just load the folder onto your phone.
timothydonohue said:
i haven't tried openhome, but i love bettercut. you can see the different icons i have implemented on my dock, and a few on my screens. as you may have guessed, on the dock, camera, phone, app drawer, handcent, contacts, market, where, app drawer again, maps/navigation, remote droid, browser, voice search, barcode scanner, note monkey, and weatherbug elite. i've also made a toggle for silent mode (the ninja, lol), and a custom yelp icon
totally not necessary, but i like the customization, and i think the icons looks tons better than stock. and, there are oodles of them to pick from. you can even use downloaded icons sets from your pc, just load the folder onto your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To change the icons on the dock you dont need bettercut you can do that through LauncherPro itself. Though the ninja silent icon and the yelp one you needed it for since they are on the screen itself.
omegasun18 said:
To change the icons on the dock you dont need bettercut you can do that through LauncherPro itself. Though the ninja silent icon and the yelp one you needed it for since they are on the screen itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ah yes, you're right. but, if i didn't have the apps loaded on the dock, i'd want to change the icons anyway
Related
As above, I'm looking for a contacts widget that will work with 2.3.3. Does anyone know of any? I've tried a half dozen or so from the market but they either don't work, or don't work the way I want them to.
I'm just looking for a non-scrolling sense type one. I don't want to install any launchers or anything like that, I'm happy with the phone as it is in that respect, so I would rather have a static one.
The closest one to the mark was Contact Widget, it looked the part but was very buggy. It was meant to show 20 contacts at any one time but after I had selected the 20, it then only displayed 4 and pretty much froze. Not sure if that's a 2.3.3 issue or not.
Any recommendations?
If you want one that's non-scrolling, I would suggest not installing anything. Just add shortcuts to your contacts on the home screen. You can also put them into a folder if you so choose.
ohyeahar said:
If you want one that's non-scrolling, I would suggest not installing anything. Just add shortcuts to your contacts on the home screen. You can also put them into a folder if you so choose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that, 2 years I've been running android and didn't know that lol.
I eventually found and sorted out elixir which does the job nicely.
Hey guys,
I have finally decided to make the switch to Android with this phone, however I do have a question I was hoping to answer before I switch...
One of the features I missed on my Iphone was being able to turn on my phone and have the homescreen display my outlook calendar and to do list(windows phone). I have tried doing some research and some hands on the Verizon store so I know about widgets...although the ones on the droidx I played with were very small.
So my question is...can I set my homescreen to give me half the screen worth of outlook events/tasks and then move everything else to other pages? Sorry if this is a repeat/stupid question but I appreciate the help!
The calendar app has a widget which will show your calendar apps, you can sync to outlook via various means including exchange activesync for your e-mail.
You also can download a app like Jorte it has several different widgets sizes like. 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 of the screen size.
I use Launcher Pro Plus. Great widgets (calendar, agenda, facebook, tweeter, etc). I hope app will get updated for ICS
Also the CalenGoo app has tonnes of different size widgets for all your needs!
kkh786 said:
Also the CalenGoo app has tonnes of different size widgets for all your needs!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this looks like it will work great!
soon as I switch there will be no more excuses why I forgot to do something!
you can also install widget locker and display all of this on your lock screen (the initial screen you see when you turn the screen on)
Haha as you see there are many ways to do things on Android. +1 for Possibility.
you can do almost anything on android. super customizable! That's the beauty of Android.
Jorte can do this
There is also an app called Pure that is a highly customizable widget for your ToDo app of choice and Calendar, and looks much better IMHO. Jorte is the best calendar I've seen and that's what I use as an app, but with Pure you can skin the widget (I like highly transparent) and set all sorts of options so it looks perfect on the home screen...
So yes, the beauty of Android is you have TONS of options to do what you are looking for... Granted I haven't used an iPhone before, but I venture to guess you'll have many more options than you have now.
Hi
I've just done a factory reset on my htc One. Htc backup failed miserably so I'm trying to manually reinstate my apps on Nova Launcher Prime. Long press and hold results in a popup of my homescreens in the background with no option to add apps or widgets. I've uninstalled/reinstalled Nova and checked the homescreen is unlocked but am pretty much out of ideas otherwise.
Any thoughts out there?
Thanks
go into
Nova settings > Desktop > Advanced > Lock Desktop.
That will probably be on so you cant add anything. Turn it off and you should be golden.
Thanks, but desktop lock is confirmed off. It's got to be Nova because I went briefly to sense launcher and long press works fine there.
Warthog01 said:
Hi
I've just done a factory reset on my htc One. Htc backup failed miserably so I'm trying to manually reinstate my apps on Nova Launcher Prime. Long press and hold results in a popup of my homescreens in the background with no option to add apps or widgets. I've uninstalled/reinstalled Nova and checked the homescreen is unlocked but am pretty much out of ideas otherwise.
Any thoughts out there?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Warthog01...
Have you tried this....
Long press on any home screen... all of the homescreens should recede slightly into the background.
Three options should appear at the bottom of the screen...
Wallpapers, Widgets and Settings.
Select the Widgets option.
** To add a widget...
...simply drag one to the home screen.
** To add an app icon, or a selection of app icons...
...locate the shortcut right at the top entitled Apps or Folder. Drag this to a homescreen... It will 'open' and provide you with a list of all of your installed apps.
Check the tickbox of those apps you wish to add. Then press 'Add' to add them directly to the homescreen, or press 'Create Folder' to add them to the homescreen in an untitled folder.
(See attached screenshots.)
Hope this helps.
Rgrds,
Ged.
Hi GedBlake
Whoa! That's different. Must have been awhile since I upgraded Nova as I've been using the old long press for both apps and widgets right up until I did the factory reset yesterday. OK, I've got your widget selection to work, but not having much luck with the apps. When I long press and the homescreens recede, there's no app/folder shortcut at the top. I see the apps/folders shortcut at the top when I click my apps box of dots in the dock, but don't see a way to drag either to a homescreen. What am I doing wrong?
Also, am I the only one who thinks this is a helluva lot more complicated than long press and select app/widget? There must be advantages--right?
Warthog01 said:
Hi GedBlake
Whoa! That's different. Must have been awhile since I upgraded Nova as I've been using the old long press for both apps and widgets right up until I did the factory reset yesterday. OK, I've got your widget selection to work, but not having much luck with the apps. When I long press and the homescreens recede, there's no app/folder shortcut at the top. I see the apps/folders shortcut at the top when I click my apps box of dots in the dock, but don't see a way to drag either to a homescreen. What am I doing wrong?
Also, am I the only one who thinks this is a helluva lot more complicated than long press and select app/widget? There must be advantages--right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi again, Warthog01...
Your mistake is here...
Warthog01 said:
...
"When I long press and the homescreens recede, there's no app/folder shortcut at the top"
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-----
You need to press the **Widgets button**, in order to see the Apps or Folder Shortcut.
It's in the Widget drawer... at the top.
(See additional screenshot).
-----
If you take another look at my second screenshot, you should see it at the top, between Nova Action and Activities. (All of these are Shortcuts, and are dragged to the Homescreen in the same way you would drag a regular widget. And they all behave in different ways when they're dropped onto a Homescreen.)
My third screenshot, is me dragging the Apps or Folder Shortcut to the Homescreen... out of the Widget Drawer, onto a Homescreen.
...and the fourth and final screenshot is it 'opening' and displaying all of my installed apps, and from where I can make my selection of apps that I want to add to my Homescreen.
------
With regard to the changes in the way Nova works...
Nova changed sometime in May of this year, with version 4.x, and with the developer adopting Googles Material/Lollipop design guidelines.
Here are some links of interest worth reading...
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/nova-launcher-gets-material
http://phandroid.com/2015/05/13/nova-launcher-4-stable-update
http://androidcommunity.com/nova-la...update-more-lollipop-sweetness-added-20150514
http://novalauncher.com/beta
Rgrds,
Ged.
Thanks again, Ged. I'm a little slow, but I'm nearly there, I think. One more dumb question ought to crack it! I now see the app drawer and have successfully dragged it to the home screen, but there are only two apps in there! Presumably, I have to populate the drawer with all my apps for them to appear. How do I do that, please?
Warthog01 said:
Thanks again, Ged. I'm a little slow, but I'm nearly there, I think. One more dumb question ought to crack it! I now see the app drawer and have successfully dragged it to the home screen, but there are only two apps in there! Presumably, I have to populate the drawer with all my apps for them to appear. How do I do that, please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aha! figured this one out all by myself. I had all my apps except two ticked as hidden. They're back now and I'm in business. Thanks very much for all the assistance--don't think I would have figured this out without you.
Cheers!
Warthog01 said:
Aha! figured this one out all by myself. I had all my apps except two ticked as hidden. They're back now and I'm in business. Thanks very much for all the assistance--don't think I would have figured this out without you.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great news, @Warthog01... Glad you got it figured out.
Happy to to be of assistance .
Rgrds,
Ged.
I have another issue but don't know where to post it
I have an extensive hierarchy of tabs, folders, and folders inside of folders within my Nova Launcher app drawer setup. I'll just put it this way. I have 380 user apps downloaded, and only about 20 of them are folderless. It is all within 8 tab groups: Apps (contains app store and some stock apps), Web, Communication, Utility, Settings, Productivity, Media, and Misc. I may adjust this later. I'm using the identical red and blue icon packs "Tab Red" and Tab Blue Icon pack with the first four Tabs using only the red icon pack, and the last four only blue. It looks epic and is incredibly useful for finding what I need, but I've now spent a week trying to fix the issues that keep occurring.
I did all that work, taking me hours per day for about a week, and after each reboot, each day, the colors would reset on many of my apps, and every boot requires me to allow SD Card Write Access by moving files in ES File Explorer, or else the apps won't even appear within the app drawer (I figured this out 2 days ago). For some reason, no matter how I try to create a widget, the widgets will not show up, and when I finally get the widgets to finally work after restarting nova launcher and occasionally having to reinstall Nova and restore my backup. Even after taking all these steps, finally fixing the app drawer temporarily, My WIDGETS will require the same process to even appear anywhere. MY TABLET IS NOT ROOTED, and I am afraid to mess anything up (My rooted Note 10.1 2012 was basically rendered useless from lag and then the battery stopped working, so it is a brick that won't turn on/charge). I know there is some Xposed Module that allows users to enable write access by default, and you can use root to make external storage formatted into internal, or make nova launcher a system app, blah blah blah. I'm not going to do anything related to root, so if you know any way to fix this on 5.1.1 without rooting, that would be most appreciated. Basically, I am using my tablet for college and I probably won't root it for the next few years since I can't risk having something happen. If I can't fix this without rooting, then please recommend me a better launcher. I am really mad about these issues after all my efforts. Anyway, if you got this far, thanks for reading this and I hope someone can help.
I'm a newbie to Nova and after much scratching off head with setting up the interface I stumbled onto this thread. Thanks Ged for posting your answers - it's simple when you know how!!
Still can't add widgets to Nova Launcher. I even rooted and converted to a system app (app and prime both as system app). Widgets still won't appear on desktop. Lock Desktop is turned off. At a loss here as it happens both to my Alcatel tablet, my Stylo4.
Same issue, two different platforms.
I need to have 3 contact groups, Family, Friends, Work. In the past I have used an old app called smart shortcuts, I could add a shortcut for each folder to my home screen, It works buts its a huge pain.
There has to be a better way
Someone must have a better way?
Thanks
Maybe try a different launcher, I have groups in Nova Launcher for contacts, media apps, social networks apps, etc.
I second trying Nova launcher. A lot of these kind of features are available and built-in. I was always an Apex user, but it just didn't seem to work as well/smoothly with Oreo and S9... they haven't updated it much in the past few years. Nova on the other hand is extremely smooth.
Have you considered using the "edge" feature? It seems to be designed for exactly what you're looking for, without having to put shortcuts on the desktop.
I do use the edge feature for favorite/family contacts but I have something like 80 work contacts I need a seperate shortcut for and another for about 20 friends
Hi all, So i as usual installed Nova to use some of their gestures (such as bringing down status bar from swiping down anywhere on screen etc)
In the process i lost access to the google weather widget (as it isn't available through Nova launcher)
Any lightweight suggestions to replace it? or is there any way to get the google weather widget functioning on 3rd party launchers?
What about alternatives to google photos? To be honest i never really used photos , I'm going to try to start doing so but i notice that it doesn't even pick up all my folders such as facebook folder (pics downloaded from facebook).
How do i get it to recognize folders like this ? What other lightweight yet useful gallery app is out there? (not quickpic please that purple font is killing me)
Thanks in advanced!
quickpic version 3.4.9.1 doesnt have pink icons for me and its neutured down so no google drive, dropbox etc linking - just pure gallery.
virtyx said:
quickpic version 3.4.9.1 doesnt have pink icons for me and its neutured down so no google drive, dropbox etc linking - just pure gallery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got a trusted source for that APK?
I am seeing some of the benefits of Google photos though... wondering why i didn't use it sooner
Edit: found a trusted apk for quickpic.
How do I get google weather widget in nova
masri1987 said:
Got a trusted source for that APK?
I am seeing some of the benefits of Google photos though... wondering why i didn't use it sooner
Edit: found a trusted apk for quickpic.
How do I get google weather widget in nova
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i was about to upload
how do you find it? its slim, lightweight, fast - and gets the job done without any extra add-ins which is what i like, almost like the huawei launcher plus you can change the display and it recognizes ALL your images on your phone (im looking at you google photo)
masri1987 said:
Hi all, So i as usual installed Nova to use some of their gestures (such as bringing down status bar from swiping down anywhere on screen etc)
In the process i lost access to the google weather widget (as it isn't available through Nova launcher)
Any lightweight suggestions to replace it? or is there any way to get the google weather widget functioning on 3rd party launchers?
What about alternatives to google photos? To be honest i never really used photos , I'm going to try to start doing so but i notice that it doesn't even pick up all my folders such as facebook folder (pics downloaded from facebook).
How do i get it to recognize folders like this ? What other lightweight yet useful gallery app is out there? (not quickpic please that purple font is killing me)
Thanks in advanced!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too use Nova, for weather, I've been using Weather XL by exovoid for years, link
Action launcher has the Google widget and weather baked in. I switched from Nova to it years ago and while I'll go back to Nova briefly for change of pace purposes I never leave Action for very long. Once I got used to and understood the blinds and shutters features in Action everything else became dad's old launcher; including Nova. You can also set the Now page, assign gestures, all the usual staples of fully featured launchers.
I've used Piktures as my main gallery app for a few years. Great app.
NepoRood said:
I too use Nova, for weather, I've been using Weather XL by exovoid for years, link
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, tried it out, looking for something a bit more lightweight, just for the purpose of widget use.
krabman said:
Action launcher has the Google widget and weather baked in. I switched from Nova to it years ago and while I'll go back to Nova briefly for change of pace purposes I never leave Action for very long. Once I got used to and understood the blinds and shutters features in Action everything else became dad's old launcher; including Nova. You can also set the Now page, assign gestures, all the usual staples of fully featured launchers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So i installed action launcher and I cannot find the option to build out tabs or folders within the drawer itself? Also can't remove the multidot drawer icon and just use the swipe up feature by itself
Cool thing is it did import everything almost from nova
Fuzzy13 said:
I've used Piktures as my main gallery app for a few years. Great app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i just discovered that app ,
I also discovered that any motion photo or any other like top shot (to show you the whole selection of photos taken) etc doesn't show up in 3rd party gallery apps
You just long press and drag the icon up and out, you'll see the remove label at the top of the screen, drop it there and it's gone. The rest will take a bit of reading as Action doesn't work the way normal launchers do so it takes some explaining. Before I do you can create folders in the drawer section of the home settings, it's under folders. I'm saying this because Action doesn't really work the way Dad's old launcher used to do and there are some new paradigms in play. Don't want to deal with that then just imagine the post ends here.
In action you don't really need to make folders in the drawer as it's laid out to use it's killer features, the covers and shutters. For covers you can drop a shortcut you tap as normal to open that app and then you can also swipe or tap the shortcut and it will open a folder with whatever apps you want inside of it. Those are created by dropping one app onto another to create a folder as with most launchers, open the folder you just created and tap the menu (3 dot), choose create cover and now you have it. Tap the first icon you placed and it will simply open that app, swipe it (or double tap if you select that as the opener) and it will open up the folder underneath. I'm not sure if there is an app limit for the folders, I've had 14 in one now. Using my setup for example I use Hangouts as my personal primary text and instant message app but I also use several others; I have a hangouts cover set in the dock, as its a cover I tap it and open hangouts in most cases. Because it's a cover I have the apps for texting that I use infrequently underneath that which I access by swiping the icon instead. This goes on for all the shortcuts I set in the dock. I use a 2 page dock which is all covers save for one which is a shutter and through those have quick access to 47 applications. Much quicker than finding them in a drawer, even when folder the drawer because you will need more touches to get to the app than with a cover.
The shutter is an app shortcut which you use to either open the app or by swiping it open one of that apps widget. An example would be Whatsapp is my work messaging app. I have the icon set and use it as a shutter. I touch it and go into the app as normal. I get a lot of junk messages though that really aren't for me so sometimes I'll swipe it and open up the unread messages widget. This allows me to skip straight to the more important messages first rather than sort through them all in the app itself. The menu(3 dot) when you first open up the shutter will allow you to select the widget you want to use.
Despite all that you can still access the built in long presses if the app/icon has them. What happens in all this is the app drawer itself becomes more of an initial setup bin where the apps are laying until you set your covers and on the odd occasion you go in there to open a seldom used app. In the rare cases you do need to get into the drawer the sea of icons pulled out of the bottom ala Pixel may look cool but it's slower than using the side drawer which I would highly recommend folks try. While not looking cool it's more efficient; particularly for those with many apps. Still want the bottom drawer pullout it's the default action, just get rid of the shortcut and it's there.
You're going to want to menu dive with Action because there is a lot more going on than meets the eye. You can have it match your wallpaper for the launcher theme in the quick theme section. In quickbar you have what amounts to the Goog searchbar with extra functionality that you can adjust. I don't use it as I find little need for it with all the different ways you can get to the search function and it takes up space which can be better spent showing off my carefully selected wallpaper. The icon pack section is self explanatory. Icon appearance will let you change functions and visual cues like notifications counts. App drawers is where you will decide on trying that side drawer and other related settings. Recommend if you do go to a side drawer to tell it to remember where you left it. Otherwise it will always default to the top of the alphabet. Desktop is where you will do the meat and potatos of setting your desktop, the grid, icon scale, scroll effects, infinite scrolling, etc. One thing of interest in the desktop section is it will allow you to create a quickpage. This is a page you can "pullout" from the side that is separate from simply the page to the right of home. I use it for my travel apps of which I have a fair few but only use during that time. Desktop shortcuts will take you to the settings for which functions will show up when long pressing the home screen out in the open. You'll be able to add typical actions like wallpaper, widgets and so on but also custom actions. Docks is where you'll set up the number of dock pages if any, style of dock, dock seperators (or not), etc. Folders and shutters will allow you to change functions there for those tasks. Shortcuts is where you'll define whatever gestures you want.
While all that seems like a lot when you start fiddling with it it'll start making sense. Sorry for the length of that and I hope it wasn't too boring for those that made it this far.
---------- Post added at 04:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------
Oh, yeah... If you use a launcher that allows you to set custom action widgets (Nova, Action Launcher, etc.) you could simply install Action launcher, never use it but get use of the weather widget via custom action in Nova or any other launcher which supports that function.
Huge fan of Today Weather! Can choose which service to receive forecasts from and has a number of widgets.