The massively annoying 3 dot menu at the bottom of everything... - HTC One X

This is the one thing that really annoys me about the One X!
Is it easy to fix and remove, will doing so (rooting) affect future OTA updates?
Any guides for it anywhere? Thanks in advance.

the problem is that remove it all together will make some apps unusable as sometimes you need the menu
I guess the best think would be to map the mutlitasking button to the Menu key instead, then remove the 3 dots
or make a floating 3 dot icon in the corner
somehow...

Me and another XDA member we talking about this yesterday. I'm wondering if it's because we have physical buttons vs the Gnex that has screen buttons. In addition, there is no physical "menu" button anymore (I'm coming from an Inspire 4G which had one) so they needed to put it somewhere for functionality. It also probably depends on the App. For example, Gapps like Google+ has the three dots in the top right corner of the screen with everything else. We'll just have to wait for app developers to adopt this idea since we don't have on screen buttons.

Dtguilds said:
This is the one thing that really annoys me about the One X!
Is it easy to fix and remove, will doing so (rooting) affect future OTA updates?
Any guides for it anywhere? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that it affects the OTA updates.When i wanted to update from 1.28 to 1.29 the 1.29 update kept stopping and i didn't know why.After i found an old 1.28 nandroid backup i've restored it and after that the 1.29 update worked.So i think that the OTA updates don't work if you have mods installed allready,so my advice is to make a nandroid backup of the stock rom without any mods on it in case the OTA doesn't work (like in my case).

I've used a fix found on these forums to remove the 3-dot menu and replace the "multitasking button" with a menu button. The phone has been a LOT more enjoyable for me now
Requires root though.

This has been discussed to death. You can modify it to disappear when a small arrow is clicked, you can kill it off and remap to the multitasking button with multitasking mapped to a long press. These require root and modification.
The menu button is indeed displayed because we have hard buttons, normally it would share the space with the back, home and recent apps.
The thing that worries me is that I'm not sure that app developers will make the change because on handsets without hard buttons (most of them) it doesn't seem out of place at all next to the back, home and recent apps buttons.
I have been talking to the writers of Dolphin browser about it and they do intend to integrate the menu function in to their UI. The best thing we can do is give apps low scores and reviews which mention the issue on our HOX's but even that may not get the devs to take it on.
It is a minor issue but an irritating one none the less. I actually wish we didn't have the hardware buttons, or, that we had a menu button, which clearly in NOT obsolete in ICS, that'd be a quick solution for everyone but we do, so we must hope the devs change their apps. I will root after a month or two if nothing is changing and remap to the recent apps button but that is the only temptation to root for me at the moment.

farnsbarns said:
I actually wish we didn't have the hardware buttons, or, that we had a menu button, which clearly in NOT obsolete in ICS, that'd be a quick solution for everyone but we do, so we must hope the devs change their apps.
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Click to collapse
I couldn't agree more. I do prefer hardware buttons vs onscreen buttons but now I really see the pros to having on screen buttons and wish they became the norm for all ICS devices. More Fragmen... I can't bring myself to say it...

otakonx said:
Me and another XDA member we talking about this yesterday. I'm wondering if it's because we have physical buttons vs the Gnex that has screen buttons. In addition, there is no physical "menu" button anymore (I'm coming from an Inspire 4G which had one) so they needed to put it somewhere for functionality. It also probably depends on the App. For example, Gapps like Google+ has the three dots in the top right corner of the screen with everything else. We'll just have to wait for app developers to adopt this idea since we don't have on screen buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In fact, we do have screen buttons. If you try and test your touchscreen (Developer Options in Settings), you can see that the lower part of the screen is also responsive to touch. Therefore, I assume I'd be possible to strap a small part of the lower bar with buttons, to a menu-button-function. You just can't see the button, but I'd be still there.

i don't mind the button at all....am i the only one?

yeah its annoying aswell.. although i do not want to root just yet.. only had HOX for a week.
So i take it, this affects off phone with hard buttons... and that the GSIII will be fine as they have a menu button instead of a back button? (if thats what i see in the screenshots)
So it really only the HTC ones that will look rubbish on.?

Dtguilds said:
This is the one thing that really annoys me about the One X!
Is it easy to fix and remove, will doing so (rooting) affect future OTA updates?
Any guides for it anywhere? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes there is ! wait till the app you are using becomes ICS truly compatible...

Yeah, I really don't see HTC's thinking here.
You have to understand that it's part of the ICS design style to have the 3 dot menu somewhere in your app. Those apps that pull up the black bar on the bottom like that, aren't designed properly for ICS.
However, HTC decided to go with hard buttons rather than using a full action bar all the time, but they decided to leave out the menu button, so now you get the silly action bar with just the 3 dot menu button on apps that aren't properly designed to the ICS standard. In a perfect world, everyone would upgrade their apps and this wouldn't be an issue. In a realistic world, HTC made a design decision that's sure to be obnoxious for quite a while to come.
I agree though, the best thing to do is write your app developers and ask them to upgrade their app to fit the ICS style guide with the 3 dot menu in the app somewhere so this doesn't have to pop up. Other than that, you can do some mods to get rid of it, change functionality, or be able to hide it, but all of those could result in loss of some kind of functionality of the phone.

even if the Design guide for ICS is to use the 3 dots and no Menu button... it still make no big deal to have a Menu button key as most of the time you want to go in to the program options, so the button as a quick way to it.
the multitask button is useless.. its just so pointless to have and could easily have been a long press on another button.
and a few times i have seen Youtube have the 3 dots at the bottom, usually i think when its launched from a link in the browser.
any ho.. very annoying and once thing too look forward to when rooted (although not for a long time yet)

kazgor said:
even if the Design guide for ICS is to use the 3 dots and no Menu button... it still make no big deal to have a Menu button key as most of the time you want to go in to the program options, so the button as a quick way to it.
the multitask button is useless.. its just so pointless to have and could easily have been a long press on another button.
and a few times i have seen Youtube have the 3 dots at the bottom, usually i think when its launched from a link in the browser.
any ho.. very annoying and once thing too look forward to when rooted (although not for a long time yet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I wish they'd just keep the 4 capacitive buttons. I don't want an action bar like on the GN, I definitely don't want an action bar JUST for the menu. If no one has done it by the time I get my phone, I may look into making the multitask button a menu button on click and multitask on long click. I think it's been replaced, but I don't think it's been replaced with a long press to still get to multitasking. I would like to keep that feature if at all possible since I've become to accustomed to it.

I wonder what will happen with all the 2.3 devices that get ICS later, will the also get the 3 dots + there hardware Menu button or no 3 dots?

kazgor said:
I wonder what will happen with all the 2.3 devices that get ICS later, will the also get the 3 dots + there hardware Menu button or no 3 dots?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think nearly all 2.3 devices have a hardware menu button, so they wouldn't get that.

I recommend that you root your phone, pick a custom rom and enjoy the HOX as it was meant to be.
Faster, smoother and no 3 dots.
The OTA updates are not an issue as all you need to do is revert to stock and flash an RUU to get the latest Radio and Hboot.
Then, reflash the custom rom again.
Voiding the HTC warranty is why I pay insurance.
Just my opinion

Just noticed this mod: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1582506
It does remap the recent apps, and to home which, honestly for me is a better spot since I'm used to Samsung devices that have the task manager mapped to home long press in pre-ICS versions and is the task switcher in ICS builds. Looks like the best solution to me. Didn't notice before that it did that. I'm still browsing around and seeing what you guys have done so far.

I don't know why people get their panties in a wad over this. The Galaxy Nexus has the same issue, only worse since that bottom bar is ALWAYS there. The SGS3 wont be the bees knees when in 6 months when its hardware menu button doesn't do anything in most apps.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

NO, the gal nex has a soft menu, so the 3 dots appears dynamically in the row of buttons and there is no extra screen taken up punching you in the face

Related

Where's 'Menu'?

Looking at the softkeys, where is the Menu key? I see Home, Back, and the new Multitasking key, but no Menu. How can this be? The iOS method of integrating all menu options into the application UI is terrible, and what about apps made before ICS? Lack of a Menu key would make them unusable. I must be missing something here, but I can't see what it might be.
A virtual menu button appears in the form of 3 dots. It can be seen in this photo.
Tung_meister said:
A virtual menu button appears in the form of 3 dots. It can be seen in this photo.
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Click to collapse
Nice catch. Was wondering about that.
Menu items are represented by the 3 vertical dots at the top right corner of apps.
The indication is that new apps should no longer hide their menus, but rather make them intuitive to access in the app's UI.
For legacy apps, we'll probably see a menu button of some type appear along with the 3 softkeys at the bottom.
On my Honeycomb tablet either a button is in the top right corner or another is added to the bottom when menu is needed... I'm guessing HC is a good example of what we'll be getting, and if so I look forward to it
Thanks so much for a useful thread. I was actually wondering about that myself. Glad to know its non-obtrusive and clean
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
You have lost the search button though. Not all apps will handle this well... I had to tweak an app I was writing because of this (luckily found fairly early during testing on Honeycomb).
Of course for most apps search isn't useful - probably why they removed the dedicated key.
TonyHoyle said:
You have lost the search button though. Not all apps will handle this well... I had to tweak an app I was writing because of this (luckily found fairly early during testing on Honeycomb).
Of course for most apps search isn't useful - probably why they removed the dedicated key.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The idea is if the app needs search in order to function properly, you just put the search button up in the menu bar, just like they're doing with settings buttons.
Otherwise, the google search button is at the top of every homescreen now.
martonikaj said:
The idea is if the app needs search in order to function properly, you just put the search button up in the menu bar, just like they're doing with settings buttons.
Otherwise, the google search button is at the top of every homescreen now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The menu button happens automatically (technically, since 2.3 android has called onCreateOptionsMenu at activity startup so it knows you need it already).
There simply is no search button in Honeycomb/ICS - you have to stick it on the options menu, the action bar*.. somewhere the user can reach it. That needs code (not much.. respond to 'search' in the options menu by calling onSearchRequested()).. existing apps will simply lose that function if they run on ICS assuming a button exists.
We're not talking about a lot of apps here.. Not much point in a search function in 'Angry Birds' for example. Just something to bear in mind when developing a new app or trying to work out if your favourite app will work without issue on ICS.
Home screen search is totally different.. that searches the global search (emails, contacts, etc.). Different class of app entirely.
* The honeycomb search widgets are really flexible, but of course not available unless you break compatibility with <3.0.
TonyHoyle said:
You have lost the search button though. Not all apps will handle this well... I had to tweak an app I was writing because of this (luckily found fairly early during testing on Honeycomb).
Of course for most apps search isn't useful - probably why they removed the dedicated key.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are already quite a few phones out there without a search button. My almost 2 years old X10 doesn't have a dedicated search button and i never missed it. The search function is bound to long-press menu at the x10. Given the fact that ICS has a dedicated task switcher button, they could bind the search to long-press home for example. Just an idea though
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
qwer23 said:
There are already quite a few phones out there without a search button. My almost 2 years old X10 doesn't have a dedicated search button and i never missed it. The search function is bound to long-press menu at the x10. Given the fact that ICS has a dedicated task switcher button, they could bind the search to long-press home for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm.. news to me - I've never seen an android phone without one. Lucky I was doing tablet compatibility testing then
There will probably also be custom roms that put it back (since a custom rom can do anything it likes with the buttons.. change their apparence, colour, hide them completely, make them dance up and down..).
TonyHoyle said:
Hmm.. news to me - I've never seen an android phone without one. Lucky I was doing tablet compatibility testing then
There will probably also be custom roms that put it back (since a custom rom can do anything it likes with the buttons.. change their apparence, colour, hide them completely, make them dance up and down..).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Galaxy series in general (SGS1, SGS2) do not have a dedicated search button. They have just the menu, home and back buttons. However search is bound as a long press to the menu button which I guess won't be possible anymore. Haven't really found search to be that vital (maybe because I don't want to long press the menu button just to bring it up when I can search in other ways)
Since it's purely software, I know for a fact someone will mod in a search key.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using XDA Ultimate App
That would be pointless. When search is available, the search box will appear in the menu bar of the app.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Possibilities with the soft key UI

Does anyone think that there could be great potential in the Galaxy Nexus' soft key area at the bottom of the screen? As soon as they announced that the GN would have on-screen buttons, customization came to mind right away.
We've already seen Paul O'Brien's begin with his UI patches here, but I feel like we are only scratching the surface of what can be done.
For example, with my limited pondering, I was hoping that a dev or maybe CM could soon allow us to put shortcuts on that bottom bar for quick access to the certain apps that you always use. For me, I would love for Google Talk to have a permanent shortcut on that bar that I can access from anywhere as I use it almost religiously. Also, a shortcut that emulates the power button would be highly convenient as well so that I don't have to reach up to the side button as often. I can also foresee some themeing or button rearrangement and so forth.
Do you guys have any other ideas? As I'm not a dev of any sort, maybe I'm out of line in thinking that the bottom bar is flexible enough to customize. However, if it could be done (and Paul O'Brien already has demonstrated that maybe it could), the possibilities could be endless.
As a webOS user, I'd love some swipe gestures implemented for 'back' and a swipe up to open the app drawer
a swipe up for the drawer would really nice
Damn, I didn't even think of swipe gestures at all. Now my mind is really running wild.
bump for more ideas!
swype gestures are already available on go launcher
subxero123 said:
swype gestures are already available on go launcher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But we're not talking about the launcher. Didn't read the post huh?
I wish we could swipe down to make the thing disappear, which allows us to take advantage of the full 4.65 inch screen.
Swipe down - disappear
Swipe up - appear again
I think would be awesome if we could swipe the regular buttons to the side, showing new options (like we do with dock bar in almost every popular launcher). There, we could use app shortcuts, power widgets and other stuff, like the search and the option buttons.
I agree, I hope this is just a tip of the iceberg, it seems pointless to have all this potential and not utilize it.
how about instead of the soft keys have it scroll:
"wwwwwaaaaaasssssssssssuuuuuuuuuuuuppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!" w/ flashing text.
seriously though, being able to make them appear/disappear anytime would be a big plus in my book.
or say if you're playing a game/watching a movie, and someone calls you... rather then having the call notification pop up & take over, have the notification just appear in the soft key area.(i guess same for texts)
I think instead of putting toggles with the notification bar, a scrolling dock with these would be even better.
Like you guys said, swipe on the dock to the left or right to reveal Wifi/BT/GPS/etc. This seems easier than swiping down on the notification bar to bring it down.
On honeycomb we could hide them and theme them. Change animations and icons.
They didn't figure out how to add more or change up the order or add functionality because honeycomb wasn't open source like gingerbread and ICS.
So yea. Expect lots of cool stuff.
-Galaxy Nexus
-Asus Transformer
Since Android came out, I was hoping we would switch to soft-keys. Now we can fully customize the buttons, select preferred positions, preferred icon style, and which icons you actually have...
I'd be pretty content to just Swap the Menu and task manager buttons... I dont need a permanent task manager button that takes as much time to operate as it does to just navigate to the apps icon itself.. the menu button on the other hand I use in just about every app I launch.
sodequis said:
I'd be pretty content to just Swap the Menu and task manager buttons... I dont need a permanent task manager button that takes as much time to operate as it does to just navigate to the apps icon itself.. the menu button on the other hand I use in just about every app I launch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought this too until I actually got down to using it on the GN.
I never used the task switcher on my other Android devices as it seemed too difficult and took too long for it to be worth it. However, having been using the GN for a couple of days now, I find its implementation (just a single tap) to be much more friendly and useful. I find myself using it all the time now to switch between what I am doing and can't imagine not having it.
player911 said:
On honeycomb we could hide them and theme them. Change animations and icons.
They didn't figure out how to add more or change up the order or add functionality because honeycomb wasn't open source like gingerbread and ICS.
So yea. Expect lots of cool stuff.
-Galaxy Nexus
-Asus Transformer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd just like to know what devs to talk to in order to make it happen
I was hoping for some app specific keys. For instance in the browser have a Forward, Back, Stop/Reload, Home, etc.
id love to see the buttons replaced with like gif animations. so cool
Enhanced said:
I thought this too until I actually got down to using it on the GN.
I never used the task switcher on my other Android devices as it seemed too difficult and took too long for it to be worth it. However, having been using the GN for a couple of days now, I find its implementation (just a single tap) to be much more friendly and useful. I find myself using it all the time now to switch between what I am doing and can't imagine not having it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But, why not just allow the "Home" button to be the task-switching button via long-press like before? Is that extra pause for the long-press what you're referring to when you say it took too long?
Anyway, I, too, would like the Menu button back, but more importantly I want the Search button back. I can't wait for the ability to get rid of the G Search widget, put a dedicated Search button back in the soft touch area, and have the Home button as the task-switcher.
Brandon

[THINK TANK] Gesture bar instead of soft key bar

I've been realizing lately how amazing android really is and customizable it is with this phone. Off topic but I kinda hated the fact. Of a recent app button and the fact that I lost the menu button (honestly the most used button on all my other phones). The devs here realized it and gave me the ability to have my menu button, get my search button back, and make recent apps come up by holding the home button. Got to love them. Shout out to our fantastic devs.
Now the point of this thread was just I wanted to know how you guys thought about a gesture bar instead of having buttons. So swipe on the bar to go back, maybe swipe up to go home etc? Just trying to think of creative ideas on how to use this huge screen and since everything is virtual, why can't this be possible. What you guys think?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
nice idea, kind of like the microsoft touch mouse. I would like to see someone make that possible and see how it works out.
Shaquiel Harris said:
Now the point of this thread was just I wanted to know how you guys thought about a gesture bar instead of having buttons. So swipe on the bar to go back, maybe swipe up to go home etc? Just trying to think of creative ideas on how to use this huge screen and since everything is virtual, why can't this be possible. What you guys think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a technical exercise it sounds like a very good idea, but I know for one I wouldn't use it. Dolphin HD has had gesture support for such a long time and I used it as my main web browser on my Desire but I didn't ever use the gesture support.
Even my HD2 running WM 6.5.x had an app that allowed you to launch any app/program by configuring a gesture, but again I didn't use it.
I guess it's just easier to place my thumb than to move about when holding the phone in one hand. Is this an idea you were thinking of implementing yourself, or are you looking for someone to pick the idea up and run with it?
Kalavere said:
As a technical exercise it sounds like a very good idea, but I know for one I wouldn't use it. Dolphin HD has had gesture support for such a long time and I used it as my main web browser on my Desire but I didn't ever use the gesture support.
Even my HD2 running WM 6.5.x had an app that allowed you to launch any app/program by configuring a gesture, but again I didn't use it.
I guess it's just easier to place my thumb than to move about when holding the phone in one hand. Is this an idea you were thinking of implementing yourself, or are you looking for someone to pick the idea up and run with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking about lmt? Fyi: it's now also available for android/gsn...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1330150
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Shaquiel Harris said:
I lost the menu button (honestly the most used button on all my other phones).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You never lost the menu button, it's just not on screen 100% of the time anymore, where it would just waste space otherwise.
I think its great idea!
Another few things that would be cool to see would be, resizing the Navigation Bar to be maybe a little thinner, and being able to slide the nav bar left or right, to reveal a icons to launch other apps, and maybe swiping down to hide the navbar all together.
Like you said being able to customize android and change every aspect of it is what makes this OS so awesome.
You guys ever use gesture area on webOS phones? Much better than using back key, would be a great idea. It also used visual feedback so a white line would go in the swipe direction. Currently the only phone using something similar to this is the N9 probably, which has swiping through the sides of screen to control apps.
I was just thinking about WebOS when reading this as well. Would be nice.
Just having the soft keys area as a gesture area? cool!
Maybe you could customize your gestures?
A big thing to me would be the ability to have a fully loaded package and be able to switch between stock softkeys, added search/menu softkeys, and gestures. Everything customizeable by user rather than through flashing?
menu bar like in windows 8
I think gesture is pretty good, but i`d like to see menu bar(home, recent, etc) like in win8: it is hidden until you swype from bottom-outside up, than it become unhidden. see any wideo with windows 8 tablert, you`ll see what i mean.
MrBIMC said:
I think gesture is pretty good, but i`d like to see menu bar(home, recent, etc) like in win8: it is hidden until you swype from bottom-outside up, than it become unhidden. see any wideo with windows 8 tablert, you`ll see what i mean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would get annoying pretty quickly. I don't want to have to add extra steps to navigate my phone. Back, home and recent app are buttons you use all the time, why add a barrier to get to em? More screen real estate isn't worth the extra hassle.
Enhanced said:
That would get annoying pretty quickly. I don't want to have to add extra steps to navigate my phone. Back, home and recent app are buttons you use all the time, why add a barrier to get to em? More screen real estate isn't worth the extra hassle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about navigational controls similar to the quick controls in the stock browser? Touch the bottom edge of the screen and out pops a semi-radial menu that can contain: back, home, recent apps, menu, search and can be used to add quick shortcuts to your most used apps like messaging, contacts, browser, etc., or app specific commands, like say refresh for browser, check mail for, well, email, and so on. Touching the edge requires less effort and movement as compared to swiping up or down.
I came to Android from webOS after HP shot themselves in the foot several times and one of the things I miss most is the gesture bar you had at the bottom of the screen. With the advent of the soft button area in ICS I see a real option to enable the area to work in a similar fashion. Hell yes!
The webOS gestures were:
A single swipe up would show you your running apps.
Swiping 2 fingers up would show you the launcher (app drawer).
A leftward swipe would go back.
A full swipe across the entire area going either right or left would take you to the next or previous running app.
Besides the wireless charging, the gesture area was one of the webOS killer features you very quickly learned to take for-granted. So long as gesture detection was implemented well I don't see why you couldn't have the soft buttons as they are now and gestures all working at the same time.
Call me old fashioned, but I also don't like the gestures idea.
Dolphin is just about the only program on android that I have tried to use gestures with, and it's not the sort of feature i'd personally like integrated into my phone.
That said, customizing how different people can use their phones, within the same operating system, so two people can use the exact same phone in two totally different ways, is the way to go
j.go said:
How about navigational controls similar to the quick controls in the stock browser? Touch the bottom edge of the screen and out pops a semi-radial menu that can contain: back, home, recent apps, menu, search and can be used to add quick shortcuts to your most used apps like messaging, contacts, browser, etc., or app specific commands, like say refresh for browser, check mail for, well, email, and so on. Touching the edge requires less effort and movement as compared to swiping up or down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like your idea of having the pie control from the stock browser available all over android. I had the idea a while back but was just too lazy to implement it. Today I did a small working prototype and I think I will add the pie control feature to my gesture app "LMT"...
good idea but put ot optionaly! maybe it is not practical ! iwould rather hidden button ! like Video player amaing full screen with hidden buttons !!
Huntlaar said:
good idea but put ot optionaly! maybe it is not practical ! iwould rather hidden button ! like Video player amaing full screen with hidden buttons !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If implemented properly, you might be able to do away with the bottom bar and take advantage of the full screen. You can't see it with the nexus browser, but if you have a tablet running ICS and enable browser quick controls, the app hides the tabs and address bar, instantly adding an inch of usable screen real estate at the top.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
The big nasty problem with having hidden buttons or, for that matter, any trigger point area(s) on the devices main screen is you'll always end up triggering something when you didn't want to or it interferes with a ui element in one or more apps e.g. game scroll bars / buttons. I've tried plenty and they all interfered with one app or another to the point I stopped using them.
The quick controls idea is fine but you're still having to watch what you're doing. The beauty of gestures in webOS was that you wouldn't have to take your eyes of what you were doing to find a button - your finger just flicked below the screen content while your eyes looked towards what you were going to do next.
I realise it's hard to imagine if you've never done it before but (weak analogy approaching...) think of it like walking up a thin and narrow set of steps as opposed to thick wide ones while trying to read a book. On the narrow steps you have to look down to hit the next step thus breaking the flow of your reading. While on the bigger wider ones you can carry on reading as the step is big enough your foot can find it without taking your eyes of your book.
Anyroad, IMHO, gestures need to be out of the way of app content so as not to interfere with app usage patterns and shouldn't require the user to take their eyes off what they're doing.

Why did HTC choose physical buttons?

I love everything about the One series, wish they'd used software buttons like ICS is supposed to have.
e.g. on most legacy apps, we'll now have a whole bar just to show the menu button. Thus you have a row for the menu button, and below it another for the capacitive ones. With soft-keys, they get combined and you have more screen space.
Plus software can modify the button bar to put other details and buttons, change orientation etc. Soft-keys are simply better.
ECrispy said:
I love everything about the One series, wish they'd used software buttons like ICS is supposed to have.
e.g. on most legacy apps, we'll now have a whole bar just to show the menu button. Thus you have a row for the menu button, and below it another for the capacitive ones. With soft-keys, they get combined and you have more screen space.
Plus software can modify the button bar to put other details and buttons, change orientation etc. Soft-keys are simply better.
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Click to collapse
Couldn't disagree more. Legacy apps will be updated over time; physical buttons don't need anywhere near as much power to backlight as an LCD display, and require essentially no processing power to operate. By placing the buttons on the screen, you're requiring an inefficient LCD backlight to light those buttons, wasting processing power on rendering the screen, and not to mention that since those on-screen buttons can't be disabled, you're permanently wasting valuable LCD real-estate (and hence forcing a non-standard screen aspect ratio, since LCD panels are an off-the-shelf part and aren't typically designed to add extra menu bar pixels to the standard aspect.)
This will in not too long provide a better aspect ratio and more on-screen real estate in well-coded apps, doesn't sacrifice any screen real estate over a screen that always has the menu bar because it lacks physical buttons, and it will measurably improve battery life over a display providing the same real estate for apps *plus* a full-time LCD menu bar.
It's a big win, as far as I'm concerned, that is largely misunderstood so far by people not thinking about the bigger picture.
Software buttons can be disabled for more screen real estate.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
joshnichols189 said:
Software buttons can be disabled for more screen real estate.
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They certainly can't in ICS on tablets, I must admit I haven't tried an ICS phone yet.
Of course they can be disabled, e.g in video playback they go away. And there are ICS api's developers can call to modify the buttons. There are custom rom's that features such as search button to the button bar, which isn't possible with hard buttons of course.
ECrispy said:
...e.g in video playback they go away...
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Don't know about on a phone but on a tablet they don't go away they are just replaced with very small dot. So the bar is still there and you still lose the screen space.
I really like hardware buttons, I don't like the "menu" bar but as you said this is for legacy apps so the pressure should be put on the app developers to update their apps inline with ICS.
Like said prev, hardware buttons give more screen, correct aspect ratios, use less power, and in the long run the menu button will become redundant.
ECrispy said:
Of course they can be disabled, e.g in video playback they go away. And there are ICS api's developers can call to modify the buttons. There are custom rom's that features such as search button to the button bar, which isn't possible with hard buttons of course.
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They certainly don't "go away" on ICS tablets. The bar is still there, the buttons are just replaced with less-distracting dots.
I love the physical touch buttons on the bottom, rather have them than touch screen ones anyday
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA
Google themselves have said that Android is moving in a direction where there should be no physical buttons. e.g. lets say Jellybean removes/adds a button, now some phones will need to be redesigned for it, just like they had to remove search & menu when moving to ICS. But a phone with software buttons doesn't need to change the hardware. It's more future proof.
I think this kind of change will take a while but eventually it will happen. There are still many people who prefer hw buttons and HTC wanted to accomodate them I guess.
I don't have an ICS tablet, I'd guess the reason is there is enough space on a tablet screen so they don't go away.
I prefer hardware buttons, BUT:
If using soft button means that the phone actually gets smaller,
i choose soft buttons.
ECrispy said:
But a phone with software buttons doesn't need to change the hardware. It's more future proof.
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Frankly, future-proofing is meaningless for as long as Google requires that end users go through a carrier and/or a manufacturer to get updates, and in the process guarantees that almost all Android products will be abandoned by the wayside before they've even stopped being sold (and the few that get updates will get them late, if ever.)
I just don't understand why they had to abandon the menu button, it was perfect...
I don't understand why we need a multitask button when you could just keep home pressed for the same result.
I didn't use a GN so won't comment on the software buttons much, I think it could really work if they added options for it in default ics so people who don't use custom roms and such could deal with them as they wish.
as for the menu bar on htc one.. it will eventually have a option to hide it (a V arrow on the bar)
it did in a previous software version but I guess they forgot to add it in the final build
and if you wanted it back all you had to do is keep multitask button pressed
@OP: drop by GNexus forum, there's quite some guys not happy with the screen size they loose with softbuttons. There's even an option on AKOP ROM to disable softbar.
I'm quite happy with hard buttons on One X, I just find stupid the solution HTC found to replace the menu button.
Disabling the soft buttons on the Galaxy Nexus is a commonly requested feature because tons of app developers haven't yet updated their apps to hide them while in full screen, not because of some half-baked idea that the loss of that extra 84 pixels of height somehow detracts from the user experience. Furthermore, the loss of screen real estate doesn't mean anything when 99% of the current apps are configured for the old 5:3 aspect ratio. Lots of old games look funky when you disable the soft buttons, because all the OS does is stretch it to fit.
Soft buttons are better because nobody can make up their minds on the design of the UI, so you might as well just leave it open to customization. Don't blame Google, blame the app developers.
HTC listened...
Maybe HTC listened to the majority of the HTC users and followed through with hardware buttons or maybe it is an HTC thing to keep hardware buttons as to Apple with their Home button.
I just want my search button back... that was perhaps the one (and only )good addition the US carriers made to their devices. IMO.
I can't find the article but an HTC executive was quoted as saying it's necessary to support Sense.
I'm happy they did it. The buttons on the galaxy nexus look like crap, the black isn't black enough to use it for passive buttons.
H-Cim said:
I'm happy they did it. The buttons on the galaxy nexus look like crap, the black isn't black enough to use it for passive buttons.
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The.majority of GN roms alow you to change both the brightness and colour of the on-screen buttons so that isn't an issue for most people. I actually prefer them, particularly as you can add or change the configuration of the buttons easily.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[Q] Okay, honesty please.

I picked up the ATT One X, I'm loving it. I'm not one of those folks that feel a need to root my phone, so that bootlock thing doesn't bother me. What does, however, is when I download a launcher, there's a little black bar that acts as a menu button. I can't seem to get rid of it.
Should I return the phone, wait for the S3, or is anyone aware of how to work around stuff like this?
A dev will need to copy the same procedure used on the Tegra version to remap the Recent Applications to a Menu key (and put the Recent Applications on a long press of the Home key). If there's no physical menu button, ICS requres that there be a legacy three dot menu.
On ICS phones without hardware buttons, that three dot menu shows up on the right of the Back/Home/Recent Apps software buttons and isn't so intrusive since that space is already "wasted".
And that will require root at the very least, but more likely a custom recovery, which will require an unlocked bootloader.
Showt3k said:
I picked up the ATT One X, I'm loving it. I'm not one of those folks that feel a need to root my phone, so that bootlock thing doesn't bother me. What does, however, is when I download a launcher, there's a little black bar that acts as a menu button. I can't seem to get rid of it.
Should I return the phone, wait for the S3, or is anyone aware of how to work around stuff like this?
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Click to collapse
Honestly? You are just looking for an excuse to switch phone.
All those launchers are not tweaked for ICS. I believe you are talking about the black bar at the bottom?
Sense is not that bad. But a lot of people will ask you to try APEX. This one works with ICS *without* the annoying black bar. And it's smooth though it still has some weird behaviours (to me) which may not affect you.
Showt3k said:
I picked up the ATT One X, I'm loving it. I'm not one of those folks that feel a need to root my phone, so that bootlock thing doesn't bother me. What does, however, is when I download a launcher, there's a little black bar that acts as a menu button. I can't seem to get rid of it.
Should I return the phone, wait for the S3, or is anyone aware of how to work around stuff like this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're talking about the three dot settings bar at the bottom, it appears in apps not fully updated for ICS. Samsung will have to handle the issue somehow, I don't think anyone's commented on their approach yet. ICS is still on 5% of Android devices so it might be a while before everything you use gets updated. The GN doesn't have hard buttons and uses a different approach to handling what's displayed and how.
BarryH_GEG said:
If you're talking about the three dot settings bar at the bottom, it appears in apps not fully updated for ICS. Samsung will have to handle the issue somehow, I don't think anyone's commented on their approach yet. ICS is still on 5% of Android devices so it might be a while before everything you use gets updated. The GN doesn't have hard buttons and uses a different approach to handling what's displayed and how.
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Click to collapse
Samsung handled the issue by including the same hardware key set up found on the S2, including a menu key. That is why nobody has commented on their approach! Will be a non issue on GS3 but will continue to plague HTC's new line up, which all sport the same capacitive buttons.
Regards.
lynxboy said:
Samsung handled the issue by including the same hardware key set up found on the S2, including a menu key. That is why nobody has commented on their approach! Will be a non issue on GS3 but will continue to plague HTC's new line up, which all sport the same capacitive buttons.
Regards.
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Click to collapse
So they replaced HTC's "recent apps" with a "menu" key that pops up settings? What does long pressing the h/w button do? I kind of like the recent apps button because the image is large enough to read without maximizing the app when you're trying to toggle for phone numbers and such. Samsung's solution's a waste once apps start behaving correctly unless it provides some other function too.
BarryH_GEG said:
So they replaced HTC's "recent apps" with a "menu" key that pops up settings? What does long pressing the h/w button do? I kind of like the recent apps button because the image is large enough to read without maximizing the app when you're trying to toggle for phone numbers and such. Samsung's solution's a waste once apps start behaving correctly unless it provides some other function too.
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Click to collapse
No, they just maintained the same layout as the GS2, which means a menu button, a home button, plus a back button (in that order). They are not following the new ICS convention.
.
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