As a long time Android user, I (like most others) had a bit of a hard time getting used to using the Fire Phone's FireOS. Having used the OS for a couple of weeks now, it's not quite so bad once you get used to a few things and learn a few new tricks. Just wanted to start a thread for collecting these types of things that will help others making the transition to FireOS. I'm purposely omitting the fact that google play store can be side loaded whenever possible (sideloading the play store is something I highly recommend everyone with this phone do) so that I can focus on tips and tricks that actually relate to transitioning to FireOS.
Side panels Most everyone at this point is probably aware of the extra info panels that can be accessed by swiping in from the left or right edge of the screen. I have mixed feelings on this myself, as it's used well in some apps (like swiping from the right edge while typing a text message to add pictures), and not very well in other apps (and yet not at all in some apps). Additionally, it's not always obvious if an app does support this feature, or if a certain app will put these options in either the left panel, right panel, or both.
Back Button There is no back button on the Fire Phone. This was a cause of confusion at first. The back button has been replaced with a "swipe up" from the bottom of the screen to go back. This can be a bit finicky at times, but I've found that if I start a short swipe up from the top edge of the home button, it works nearly every time. Additionally, some apps seem to treat this a little differently, as from time to time I will see "back" and "menu" soft-buttons appear at the bottom of the screen when this gesture is used.
Screen Shots You can take a picture of whatever is on the screen by pressing the power and volume down buttons at the same time
App Switcher This is usually accessed on a NORMAL Android phone by long holding the home button. In FireOS, the same is accomplished by double-tapping the home button (the long hold in FireOS brings up voice search). This is the fastest way to switch between apps and gets you around having to navigate the carousel. Also, while in the app switcher, you can swipe individual apps up to kill the process AND remove them from the carousel. I like the Fire Phones implementation here much better than stock Androids. You can double-press the button very fast and this is much less disruptive to workflow while multitasking than pausing for a long press. I think Amazon implemented the switcher and action of the home button beautifully.
Home Button I initially found the behavior of the home button weird. On first press (from a running app), it will take you to the carousel. Additional presses from this point will cycle between the Carousel and the app tray.
App Tray Aside from subsequent presses of the home button, the app tray can be slid up by touching and dragging the bottom row of quick launch icons upward while in the carousel. Likewise, you can continually drag the app tray downward to eventually reach the carousel at the top. It will seem more logical if you picture in your mind that the Carousel sits at the top of the app tray.
Another App Tray annoyance is the lack of alphabetical sorting of apps. While I've found no way to do this automatically, apps can be dragged and dropped in the app tray in any order you like. Apps can either be dragged on top of eachother to create collections (folders), or dragged in between other apps for changing the sorting order. A bit of a pain initially, but pretty easy to keep up with once you get your current collection sorted initially.
Lastly, to get the most from your 4 quick launch icon slots - you can use collections (folders) there as well! This is a feature I'm really using a lot lately to make navigating and the lack of a normal launcher much easier! For example, currently I have the following 4 quick launch collections: "Communication","News","Organize" and "Media". Within the "Communication" collection, I have Phone, Contacts, Messaging, Email, Facebook, Messenger, and Snap Chat. Within the "News" collection, I have Yahoo, Silk Browser and Weather. Within "Oganize" I have Notes, Calendar, and Our Groceries. Within Media I havePhotos, Music, Prime Music, Instant Video, Plex and Netflix. Since using collections in the quick launch area, I find that I rarely ever use the app tray, as my most frequently used apps are right there, easily accessible from the Carousel.
Facebook Mesenger If you're used to using the floating chat heads, and missing them in FireOS, here is a tip. Go to messenger, and enter the settings. Navigate to "Chat heads", ensure the switch is set to "On" and that the "Hide when using apps that take up the full screen" checkbox is NOT checked. For some reason the FireOS launcher/carousel is treated like a full-screen app.
Music Fire phone comes with a "Music" app. But don't confuse this with Amazon's own "Prime Music" app - they are actually two different apps! For those that use the prime music service, do yourself a favor by installing "Prime Music" right from the Amazon App Store. Why this isn't on the phone by default is beyond me!
Cellular usage data As most of us have to keep tabs on our data usage, I find this to be a nice built-in feature (though not the easiest to find). You can set your monthly limit and view current usage under "Settings->Wi-Fi & Networks->See your cellular data usage"
Carousel I'm not a huge fan of the carousel, though I'm finally starting to adapt to it.
EDIT: I'm starting to become a huge fan of the carousel. It has forced me to become organized, and the ability to do simple actions (delete emails for example) without opening an app is just awesome once you get used to it.
There is one cool feature, and that's "pin to front". You can make any number of apps appear at the beginning of the carousel by long-pressing and selecting "pin to front". This has limited utility, as this is only efficient for pinning a few frequently used apps to the front of the list, but still useful once you start using it.
Also, the dragging and dropping apps from the app tray works to replace the default quick launch apps that appear at the bottom of the carousel.
For non-app items (books, music, etc) that appear in the carousel, long-pressing will reveal an addition option of "Pin to app grid", which will pin the book/music/whatever into the app grid for easy access just as if it were an app.
For Pinned items, you can reorder them kind of crudely with a long press and using the "Move to front" option
Status Bar By default, the status bar auto-hides. You set it to always be visible in Settings->Display
Lock Screen This actually has a very little-knows and very cool feature called a "Locket". This allows you to add a number of photos that can easily be accessed from the lock screen. The utility of this isn't immediately obvious, so consider this scenario:
You bump into an old friend in the mall and they ask how your family is doing. Instead of pulling out your phone, getting to the app tray, pulling up the "Photos" app and searching for pictures to show - you can use the locket feature to do this much more efficiently.
To setup and/or access the photo locket feature, from the lock screen, simply swipe from right to left (instead of swiping up to unlock). This enters the photo locket, where you can add more photos, or swipe left and right to view the collection of photos in your locket. It's actually a really neat feature and has some real utility (I can't count how many times I've had to fumble through navigating through my entire photo collection to show pictures of my kids to someone I haven't seen in a while. This really makes it easy)
Silk Browser Another thing I'm not very keen on - though if you plan on using stock FireOS, learning to properly use the app will help.
EDIT: Ok, the browser is growing on me now.
It can be a bit confusing since there is a menu button in the upper-right hand corner, a different menu in the left panel (accessed by swiping in from the left edge of the screen), and other options such as tab switching that are only visible at the bottom of the screen only at certain times. I'll try to detail some of the common functions here:
Bookmarking pages Bring up the page you want to bookmark, then use the menu button in the upper-right hand corner to add the bookmark
Desktop View Use the menu button in the upper right-hand corner and navigate to "Request another view", which will allow you to select the desktop view
Clearing browsing history Access the menu in the left panel, and go to settings, then "Your Data" -> "Clear Browser Data". From here you can clear just history, or anything else such as cookies, etc. You can also clear sites from the history list one at a time by using the left panel menu->History and long pressing the entries you wish to delete.
Tab Management This took me quite some time to figure out. Sometimes I would notice the tab switcher at the bottom of the browser, other times I wouldn't. To make these tab controls visible again, simply start scrolling the current web page back towards the top of the page and the tab controls will appear.
Private Browsing Mode This keeps websites from saving to your history, saving cookies, etc. Like other options, it's not easy to find in the Silk browser. To go into private browsing mode, use the Tab Management above to enter the list of tabs. On this screen you will find the option for private browsing.
Offline Reading One interesting feature that is useful (but poorly implemented) is "Reading Lists", which stories/web pages for offline reading. It's confusing, because you use one menu system to save to the reading list, and yet another menu to access the saved items. To save a page for later viewing, use the menu button in the upper right-hand corner and choose "Save to Reading List". To access the actual reading list to either read, or remove items, use the left panel menu->"Reading List"
Default Search Engine The search engine can be changed from the default (Bing) to either Google or Yahoo by going to the left panel->Settings->Search Engine
Cloud Photos Prime members get unlimited storage for backing up photos. Unfortunately, it's poorly implemented in FireOS and ONLY allows for automatic uploading of ALL new photos at this time. But what if you want to be able to specifically select only the photos you want stored on the cloud? Unfortunately in stock FireOS this isn't yet possible. However, if you have installed the Google Play Store or are familiar with side loading, look for the "Amazon Cloud Drive Photos" app - which oddly enough is published by Amazon for general Android devices, but not available to their own Fire Phone via their own App Store. At any rate, this is how to get around the limitation of the default implementation.
I'd love to hear tips from others and continue learning to use FireOS more efficiently. The tips I outlined above have made this a very usable OS for me, even though I flat out hated it at first. I'll try to keep up adding tips and tricks from others to this master list.
Edited the first post a bit. FireOS is really starting to grow on me and I'm actually more productive now on my Fire Phone than I was on my Galaxy Note II. Amazon still has some work to do on FireOS - but once you get the hang of it its a nice efficient OS
Found another tip. I'll add it here and to the original post:
For non-app items (books, music, etc) that appear in the carousel, long-pressing will reveal an addition option of "Pin to app grid", which will pin the book/music/whatever into the app grid for easy access just as if it were an app.
Thanks. Your tips made a real night and day difference between using Fire phone.
jondecker76 said:
Found another tip. I'll add it here and to the original post:
For non-app items (books, music, etc) that appear in the carousel, long-pressing will reveal an addition option of "Pin to app grid", which will pin the book/music/whatever into the app grid for easy access just as if it were an app.
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Thanks JonDecker. Your tips made a difference of actually liking and using Fire phone. Couldn't find such information anywhere else.
Not a problem
After being with the phone for quite some time now, I actually cringe when I have to use my wife's LG G2 for anything. Once you learn a how to use FireOS , it's really pretty good!
Good stuff!!! I personally think that the interface is not that bad... and it is very smooth and quick... i like the phone. No tricks from me at the moment but i will share if i found any ?
Sent from my SD4930UR using XDA Free mobile app
If you have NFC turned on and tap it against your PC (with NFC as well) you can share the whats currently on your phones screen. I found this by accident. The screen shot pop's up in your pc's browser.
Increasing Battery Life
I have found that disabling Dynamic Perspective increases the duration of my phone charge significantly. This can be done by going to Settings (swipe from top) > Display > Configure low motion settings > Dynamic Perspecitve.
I'm glad to see a thread dedicated to this. I'd like to share a review I wrote on this phone a while ago as I feel it adds to the already terrific thread topic.
Below, in no particular order, is a list of things I hated out of the box. Following will be my feelings, along with tips & tricks, on the same items.
1. The Home Screen - I didn't like how the apps were randomly scattered on the home screen. It was difficult for me find what I was looking for.
2. No Google Play Store - I understand the logic behind this from a business prospective. However, from a consumer prospective, there are apps I use on a daily basis that were not available in the Amazon App Store. As bad as this sounds, it means I'd have to change my life style to accommodate this device. One thing that kind of floored me on this is that Google doesn't block the Amazon App store on their OS.
3. The grid - It scrolls up and down, where I've been used to scrolling left to right. Also, there is no way to easily sort the applications by alphabetical order. It simply displays them as they are installed.
4. The lack of soft keys - I've been accustomed to soft keys to open the menu, go home, view recently used apps, and to go back.
5. Notifications - The notification bar doesn't keep a log of icons of notifications. For example, if I get a KIK message it drops down, previews it, and vanished. Unless I open up the notification panel there is nothing to remind you of this. This bothers me as I often don't review them straight away and forget it even happened.
6. Keyboard - There is absolutely no way to install another keyboard. I've been a long time user of Swift Key and I keep find myself hitting the period instead of the space bar.
Due to the above I decided to try to make the phone a bit more what I'm used to. This was easy as I simply had to side load a few apps. This mainly included the apps that were not in the Amazon App Store along with a launcher to replace the Amazon Home screen. After installing several launchers I found one that I was happy with as it permitted me to use custom Widgets. I used it this way for a week or so and was happy to have my old Style back.
Now that I didn't feel held back, or limited by the device, I wanted to give it a go on how it was intended to be used. I changed my default home launcher to the Fire OS launcher. After using it a bit, and exploring it, it's my default launcher with no plans of going back to the standard Android Launcher! Below are the same 6 items listed above, but including how I feel about them now. It will also include what I consider to be tips & tricks, things I wish I knew out of the box.
1. The Home Screen - The use of Dynamic Perspective to access menus is amazing! The apps that are created for this OS have beautiful home screen widgets that I'm not sure I could go with out now. I love the fact I can read SMS messages on the home screen, emails on the home screen, a flip of the wrist shows me the current weather, my upcoming appointment and reminders, and much more. Although there is no easy way to change the apps listed, you can pin apps to the front. So simply pin the app that you want listed last first, and the first app last. This will put them in the order that you'd like.
2. No Google Play Store - As others have mentioned, installing the Google Play Store is very simply on this device. There is no downgrading required. Simply side load a few APK files. I won't go into detail on this as it can be found in a lot of other places.
3. The grid - I don't mind scrolling up and down now. It's second nature now. However, you still can not sort the apps. You must go through the tedious process of moving them one at a time by clicking and dragging it. I did this so they are sorted alphabetically. If I install a new app I now simply drag it where I feel it should be.
4. The lack of soft keys - I'm so used to swiping up now it's odd to use a traditional Android phone's back button! The physical home button works fine, especiall8y now that I discovered the "Quick Switch" menu by double pressing the home key.
5. Notifications - I've toggled all the options regarding notifications in the settings. My original complaint still exists. This was a HUGE set back for me with this device. Luckily, with a lot of trial and error, I found an app that works well for me. It's call NotifierPro Free. I configured it so a bar drops down and stays under the status bar. I also configured it so these notifications remain until I swipe them away. This has been a HUGE help in allowing me to adapt to this device.
6. Keyboard - There is still no way to change the default keyboard, even after side loading one. Amazon told me they made an update to their Kindles which allows the use of changing keyboard applications, so there will be an update that allows the Fire Phone to do the same.
Tips & Tricks / Q & A
1. Switching between running apps quickly.
- To do this simply press the home button twice quickly. You will be presented with a menu called "Quick Switch" where your most recently used apps can be found.
2. How do I quit apps that I'm not using at the moment to extend battery life and free resources?
- If you double click the home button to access the "Quick Switch" menu you can swipe up which will close the app, remove it from the quick switch menu, along with removing it from the cluttered home carousel.
3. Can I group applications together?
- Yes you can! Inside the home menu click and drag an application over another. It will ask you to give the new collection a name and they are then in a group. This is a great way to keep things together and sorted. You can also drag these "collections" into the home screen dock.
4. Any tips for the Camera?
- Yes! I've read about this "best shot" feature, but it didn't seem to do anything for me once I enable it. However, which viewing the photos you already have taken you will have a "best shot" option you can click on. This will show you the 3 photos the camera took, allowing you to select the one that you like the best.
- Burst Feature - The Amazon pages states you can click and hold the camera button to take a burst of photos. This doesn't work for me as it opens up Fire Fly. However, if you press and hold the soft key this feature works.
5. Amazon App Store or Google Play Store?
- I suggest you use the App from the Amazon App Store if available. Some of these apps are created specifically for the Fire Phone and give home screen widgets that the standard app does not support. For example, if you install KIK from the Amazon App Store it allows you to read messages on your home screen, where if you install it from the Play Store it does not.
6. Is the battery really as bad as people say?
- Maybe originally prior to the newest update. The newest update bring out amazing battery life, compared to my old phone at least. I can easily get through an entire day on a single charge. This is under moderate use such as messaging, emailing, browsing eBay, the web, and normal app use. I do not use the device to watch movies or television shows.
As I continue finding things about this phone that I feel are worth mentioning, I'll be sure to update this review. Outside of that, if you have bought this device but initially installed the Google Home Launcher, I strongly suggest you open your mind and give the Amazon Home Launcher a shot. It's truly amazing.
Can you post a link to "notification pro free"? I can't find it in the amazon store and my google-fu is failing me.
ractar28 said:
Can you post a link to "notification pro free"? I can't find it in the amazon store and my google-fu is failing me.
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I'm not sure if it's against any site rules, so I'll PM you.
---------- Post added at 05:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:40 AM ----------
ractar28 said:
Can you post a link to "notification pro free"? I can't find it in the amazon store and my google-fu is failing me.
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My apologies, and thanks for pointing this out. I had the app name wrong. It's actually NotifierPro Free!
Look at alternative markets or use a website to remotely download apks from the google appstore.
I have 1mobile market installed on my phone and it has it and it works.
Btw. Go Launcher Ex + Go Notifier works for notification badges (unread count at the app icon) and all widgets (you have to pull them onto the screen after every restart though) but has not wallpapers.
I use it, since I disliked the huge bar that Notifier used.
Now it almost feels like normal Android, I just wish I could deactivate the standard lockscreen... I already tried a lot of stuff via ADB, but I guess it needs root for it.
Since I do not want to root my phone as long as there is not notification bar like in stock android, I am fine now.
ractar28 said:
Can you post a link to "notification pro free"? I can't find it in the amazon store and my google-fu is failing me.
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Click to collapse
I like having found this thread, I had my fire phone for about a month now and I still can't get used to not having the back and menu soft buttons. Otherwise I do like the phone quite a bit and that is having to use it along with my Galaxy Note 3 work phone.
Related
Playing with the Desire rom on my HTC HD2 and have hit some questions that I need to google for answers. I'm hoping for some help to see what normal is & what can be tweaked & so on.
- When my device is off and I get a sms page, I get a sound notification & a vibration - but the screen doesn't turn on. Is this normal or a bug in the way I am using the rom on my HD2?
- When I turn on the device, on the lock screen I see a bit of the missed page - but no way I can see to jump to the sms message. I can just unlock the phone & manually go see what it was. Would like a 1-step solution. This normal?
- The hardware buttons at the bottom of my device can light up (and do in Windows Mobile) but not running Droid. Once again, dunno if it's a bug in the way I'm using Droid or if the Desire simply doesn't have light up hardware buttons.
- I check a few web pages daily for WinMo news & new apps. Anyone have recommendations of must read Android web pages?
I know I had some others that I've forgotten already.
I will be researching these questions myself (as 3 kids 3 & under permit) & if I find answers I will post them myself. Thanks for your time.
First two are normal and you just need to slide down the notifications tray at the top to get to messages.
steve228uk said:
First two are normal and you just need to slide down the notifications tray at the top to get to messages.
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Thanks. Much better then trying to figure out a bug.
Good time for me to look into lock screen replacements. Any suggestions?
Edit:
Made this my research project of the night - going to test out WidgetLocker Lockscreen.
Program launcher question - I dislike the big list of programs all mixed together. I'd like to make a folder/subfolder structure so I click on the main button, then pick games (possibly then breaking it down into game types, etc).
Are their apps that replace the program launcher portion without replacing the whole home screen?
If not, how about a program that is just a stand alone launcher? IE - I run the program from a shortcut & get the feature I'm looking for?
Found one that does it perfectly - 'Folder Organizer'
Also like the WidgetLocker lockscreen. Love using the Photo Gallery widgets that cycle through pix every 30 minutes.
Little by little I'm getting there.
I took me a while to get used to it too but you have to adopt the homescreens for your favourite apps where you can have folders, icons, widgets, and shortcuts. I only ever dive into the app drawer for the odd app I rarely used but like Calculator.
If you click Menu > List it'll alphabetise it and you can scroll using the bar too!
Just want to give a couple of suggestions for sites to check out to keep up-to-date on Android news.
www.engadget.com - Sure, they cover a vast number of topics but I find that they report a lot of the top Android news as well. Plus, it's always good to stay informed with other tech stuff.
www.pocketnow.com - These guys used to be strictly a Windows Mobile site. But they've since expanded their coverage to include Android and Apple stuff. Lots of good videos on their youtube channel.
www.androidcentral.com - Strictly Android-only site. They give decent App recommendations from time to time.
Quick question - when I pull the power to my phone (say after charging @ night) - it turns on! Any setting to keep it from turning itself on when I pull the power out?
I've never had it turn on if it was off!
(Note: these are some items that I've noticed on my phone, and may well be due to the fact that I have an unofficial Mango RTM build on my LG Optimus 7. I may be running final code, but the release didn't come from LG themselves, which may or may not be an issue.)
Just wanted to post some "annoyances" that I've noticed with my LG Optimus 7 running the Mango 7720.68 build. Perhaps these issues are unique to my phone? I don't know.
Also, I'm concerned that with some of these "bugs", if in fact they are bugs, they cannot be patched outside of major WP7 releases. Is this still the case, or has this been changed moving forward?
Finally, I'm a *big* fan of WP7, so don't take this list as a bashing. I could post much, much more on the things that I really, truly enjoy about WP7. It's a great OS, and I enjoy it much more than the iPhone 3GS that I owned, or the three Android handsets I had. I've used it all, and I prefer WP7
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In no particular order:
MUSIC GOES "BACK" TO REVIEWS
This is a strange one, but here's what happens: I open the Music+Videos Hub, select Music, choose an artist, choose an album, and finally select a song -- like as if I want to start with track #3, rather than playing the album from the beginning. If I lock my phone and unlock it again, I'll see the song playing (as expected). If I click the Back button, however, it shows me the "Reviews" screen for that artist, rather than the Song listing of Albums listing. Very strange and obnoxious -- plus it creates an extra "Back" press that I shouldn't have to do. Argh.
LOCK SCREEN MUSIC CONTROLS AREN'T IMMEDIATELY RESPONSIVE
If I'm playing music (screen locked) and then hit the Power button to see the lock screen music controls, I usually have to wait a moment before the FWD, BACK or PAUSE/PLAY buttons are truly usable. Even better, sometimes the control itself will move as if it's been properly pressed, but it won't actually perform the action. I have to hit it a second time.
SCREEN OFF > CAMERA BUTTON ON ACTION SOMETIMES ALLOWS OLDER PICTURES TO BE VIEWED
My understanding is that with Mango you can press + hold the camera button (if the screen is off) to launch the camera -- fine, this is expected -- at that you are not supposed to be able to see older (than this current session) pictures you've taken if you slide from the left to the right. I don't like the feature, personally, but I understand the "security" measure behind it. To be honest, I think that feature should be a toggle
Anyhow, I notice that sometimes this process doesn't let me see ANY of my older pictures, other times I can see SOME older pictures (like ones taken today only, and other times -- like right now as I tested it -- I can see ALL of my old photos. In all cases, the screen was off and I held the camera button down to bring up the camera interface. It's just not consistent.
SEARCH BUTTON ALWAYS GOES TO BING SEARCHWith the initial release of WP7 *and* with NoDo, the Search button was context sensitive -- it would bring up Search with the People Hub if you were in the People Hug, or Search with the Marketplace if you were in the Marketplace, etc., but that's changed with Mango. Now the Search button always goes to Bing -- no matter where you are. I guess they think this is more consistent, but I prefer having the context sensitive Search button. Perhaps a long-press of the Search button could go to Bing instead? Personal preference, I suppose.
HITTING VOL WHILE HITTING POWER RESULTS IN AUTO VOLUME DOWN
Difficult one to reproduce, but it's happened to me about four times. Screen is off + music is playing. I'll accidentally hit the volume button while hitting the Power button to turn the screen on, and all of a sudden the volume starts turning down by itself until hitting "0". I can't turn the volume back up again until I turn off the screen and turn it back on. Weird.
PICTURES HUB BACKGROUND PHOTO ONLY SHOWS FAVORITESI love that Mango will change the Pictures Hub background photo automatically. Very cool, and the slight movement of the photo is a nice touch as well. That said, I added a single picture to the Favorites portion of the Pictures Hub, and soon found that the background photo was only that particular picture and wouldn't change to anything else. I finally had to add some other pictures to the Favorites section so that it would change to something else. Strange, if you ask me, and not expected behavior.
MUSIC + VIDEOS "HISTORY" PORTION LINKS TO SINGLE SONG INSTEAD OF ALBUM
File this under personal preference, I suppose, but if I open the Music+Videos Hub, select an artist, select an album, and then choose a track directly (rather than starting the entire album from the top), it is then added to the History pivot within the Music+Videos Hub as a single track, rather than the album. So, if I open the Music Hub again, pivot over to History and scroll down, I see what looks like the album, but when I press on it to play, it plays only that single song -- and the rest of that album isn't even in the list. I have to then click on the artist name, go to that artist, click on the album, and then choose the full album or track that I want to hear.
NO WAY TO GET BACK TO ARTIST/ALBUMS LISTING USING BACK (IN MANY CASES)
Coming from the Zune HD (about a year ago), I liked that I could always get back to the song listing, album listing, or artist listing -- no matter what. This isn't true with WP7. For instance, I'm in my email and then hit the Volume button to bring up the media controls, I can actually click on the artist's name right there (handy trick!) to go to that song or songlist. Unfortunately, if I then wanted to change albums or artists, I can't simply click the Back button. I have to click Home, scroll down (in my case), hit the Music Hub, and dig in from there. I *really* wish there was always a way to go backward in the Music Hub to view the songlist, album list, or artist listing. Not possible in Mango (or previous WP7 versions, to be fair).
RECENT VIEW IN THE PEOPLE HUB SHOULD BE DISPLAYED VERTICALLY
The horizontal pivoting in WP7 is very nice, but with Mango some of those lists became vertical -- a wise move, if you ask me. For instance, in the Music Hub you'll notice that the History and New music pivots are both shown vertically, which is easier to use. Unfortunately, the Recent view pivot in the People Hub is still fully horizontal, rather than a vertical list that you scroll. I'm not sure why this is, and it really appears to have been overlooked. Not consistent.
WIRELESS NETWORK ICON SHOULD BE CLICKABLE
Personal preference, but getting to the wifi networks control takes too long. You should be able to simply press on the icon in the notification bar (when viewable) to get to that control. Some would argue that the other icons should be clickable as well, but I don't (personally) care much about that.
GAPLESS PLAYBACK FOR MUSIC
Why is this missing? Honestly, I don't understand. How difficult is this feature to implement. It should be standard for ALL music devices/players everywhere.
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Thanks for reading,
Yip
The photos thing makes sense. I really don't think that's an issue, and it really shouldn't even require explanation.
WP7 needs a Notification pane with quick controls, period. There's only so much you can put on the home screen before the experience starts to go south.
A lot of the music hub related stuff is just sad. They want to replace Zune HD with WP7 devices, but they always seem to regress in usability going from old product to nw product. It's really unfortunate.
yipcanjo said:
RECENT VIEW IN THE PEOPLE HUB SHOULD BE DISPLAYED VERTICALLY
The horizontal pivoting in WP7 is very nice, but with Mango some of those lists became vertical -- a wise move, if you ask me. For instance, in the Music Hub you'll notice that the History and New music pivots are both shown vertically, which is easier to use. Unfortunately, the Recent view pivot in the People Hub is still fully horizontal, rather than a vertical list that you scroll. I'm not sure why this is, and it really appears to have been overlooked. Not consistent.
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Click to collapse
i agree with this. it forces you to tap the screen twice just to get past this. annoying
Not only is it annoying as ****, but it's wildly inconsistent now... They need to fix that, ASAP. I know they love their panes view and like showing stuff "running off the screen," which is an interesting and oftentimes attractive effect. But they really need to make conscious decisions IRT usability.
For the wireless network icon.. you might want to check an app called Network Dashboard, which does pretty much exactly what you want. It's free too.
for the " SCREEN OFF > CAMERA BUTTON ON ACTION SOMETIMES ALLOWS OLDER PICTURES TO BE VIEWED", don´t you have password set? Because if you do, it lets you only shoot images, not view them until you unlock the device
N8ter said:
The photos thing makes sense. I really don't think that's an issue, and it really shouldn't even require explanation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again... I understand what it's SUPPOSED to do, but it's not working that way for me. From the screen off, if I press the Camera button to wake the phone and take a photo, it should *only* show the photos I'm currently taking -- and nothing before that. Problem is, sometimes it's doing that, other times it's not. I even tested it while writing this post, and got two different results. Wha??
N8ter said:
A lot of the music hub related stuff is just sad. They want to replace Zune HD with WP7 devices, but they always seem to regress in usability going from old product to nw product. It's really unfortunate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with this. Although I like a *lot* of what the Music Hub offers, I feel it's mostly a step backward from the Zune HD.
Snake. said:
for the " SCREEN OFF > CAMERA BUTTON ON ACTION SOMETIMES ALLOWS OLDER PICTURES TO BE VIEWED", don´t you have password set? Because if you do, it lets you only shoot images, not view them until you unlock the device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a password set. Never have. In fact, this "security feature" should really only kick in if you *do* have a password set -- so that folks can't open your phone via the Camera button and view a bunch of your photos. If you don't have a password, though -- such as in my case -- it's a pretty silly security element, if you ask me.
Again, it is inconsistent.
---------- Post added at 10:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 AM ----------
debug77 said:
For the wireless network icon.. you might want to check an app called Network Dashboard, which does pretty much exactly what you want. It's free too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'll check that out.
Music goes back to reviews:
I was unable to replicate this on my Focus. Not sure what's up for you on that one.
Lock Screen Delays:
Yeah, I have this problem as well- not just for music controls, but for everything on the lock screen. Takes a second to be visible. I heard there was going to be a related firmware patch to fix this.
Camera Button, See pictures:
It's supposed to launch the camera app, so you should have access to the other pictures in the hub if you don't have a password set? I guess? And no access if the PIN is set? Not sure what the intention is here. I've tried a few times and I have also seen inconsistency in how this actually works out. Sometimes I can see other pictures, sometimes not. (I also do not have a PIN set.)
Volume:
Never had this issue.
Wireless Control
Neat idea, wonder how it would work out in practice. In the meantime, try out Connectivity Shortcuts in the marketplace. I'm using that now.
I would be curious to know if the inconsistent camera behavior persists when you do have the PIN set. And, if it behaves correctly (and consistently) with the PIN set, what happens if you then remove it? Does it revert to the inconsistent behavior, or does it then begin to behave as it should?
As for the network connectivity idea, it is what many of us have been requesting for months. Tapping on the status bar when it is visible (or more likely tap-and-hold, to prevent interfering with apps) could pop up a menu that shows the current state of each of the network settings, with a button on the right to toggle that setting on or off. The shortcuts app is a nice workaround, but having the feature built into the OS would be much better. Oh, and the menu could include the battery percentage as well, and a button to turn battery saver mode on or off.
I have removed all pics from my favorite section... So I guess when I get mango it will show all pics and not just blank...
And the history section in music and apps only play that particLar song in my nodo too... Its annoying .. Sometimes it shows same album cover for two tracks played from same album as a history... They should have made it to play feomthat album beginning ...
Sent from my OMNIA7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
RoboDad said:
I would be curious to know if the inconsistent camera behavior persists when you do have the PIN set. And, if it behaves correctly (and consistently) with the PIN set, what happens if you then remove it? Does it revert to the inconsistent behavior, or does it then begin to behave as it should?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting test. Again, in my mind it should 1) allow you access to your older pictures *if* no PIN is set, or 2) not allow access to your older pictures if a PIN is set.
My phone had been in my pocket for awhile, so I grabbed hit (screen is off), held the camera button, and allowed the camera to spring to life. I was, in fact, able to scroll back and see older Camera Roll photos. I then added a PIN, turned off the phone, held the Camera button, got the camera interface, and there was a "Lock" symbol in the lower-left corner, which I've only seen a few times. When I clicked on the "Lock" symbol, I was prompted for my PIN. After entering it, I could see my older photos.
Great. This is what I would expect from the phone, but this isn't what I'm seeing everytime. Now that I've toggled the PIN on and off again, we'll see if it sticks to one type of behavior. Still, it seems like a bug.
---------- Post added at 01:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 PM ----------
Purple11 said:
And the history section in music and apps only play that particLar song in my nodo too... Its annoying .. Sometimes it shows same album cover for two tracks played from same album as a history... They should have made it to play feomthat album beginning ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't necessarily mind if it plays that single song by default. I can see how some people would download an album, play a single song (their favorite, or whatever), and then expect that the History would like to that single song. Perhaps they want to keep playing it and have easy access to it? I don't know.
Regardless, it shouldn't look as if that's the only song in that album, which is what seems to be going on. Link to the song -- sure -- but if I then click the track list (below the album art), show me the rest of the songs in that album too.
As for only displaying favorite pictures in the Pictures Hub Background:
I often saw pictures there that weren't really that great and so I personally like the idea of only displaying ones favorites. This makes even more sense given that people very often complained of pictures being shown on their Start Screen they DID NOT WANT ANYONE to see (I guess they were talking of more private pictures).
As for Connectivity Shortcuts, Network Dashboard and the other Shortcut Apps that are emerging: if they are installed on the majority of phones I guess that will convince Microsoft that it really has to add this functionality at the System Level. I personally would like to have that menu bound to a long press of the power button (along with the swipe to turn off feature).
StevieBallz said:
As for only displaying favorite pictures in the Pictures Hub Background:
I often saw pictures there that weren't really that great and so I personally like the idea of only displaying ones favorites. This makes even more sense given that people very often complained of pictures being shown on their Start Screen they DID NOT WANT ANYONE to see (I guess they were talking of more private pictures).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point. I guess it's only obnoxious when you have just a few Favorites, as I do, and get tired of seeing those same ones over and over.
Perhaps this could be a feature to Enable or Disable?
On my LG Optimus 7 the compass has stopped working since the update to Mango pre-release.
I was hoping to get a fix from LG with the final release but it doesn't seem the case...
Ok, I can survive without the compass but it really sucks!
So I always have my gs3 and ipad handy at night and like to browse the forums. My ipad has a nifty ability of touching the status bar to automatically scroll to the top of the page when I'm finished. On my gs3 it can be a pita racing to the top. I have anxiety and insomnia so I like things to be as quick and efficient as possible. With all these needless fillers said, do we have this ability on our phones, is there a mod we can use?
There's double tap to top of list but unfortunately I've only seen that work in contacts.. Doesn't seem to work with the xda app. Go to motion settings and enable it and see what it works with.
Thanks for the reply. I only tried chrome and stock browser but nada. I did find a neat litte shortcut wheel with a nice array of option sets per section in settings>labs. Maybe I can drop a suggestion to add scroll to the top, but to where :laugh:
I seen on google, there was this guy having trouble writing a code over the summer but he never mentioned if he ever completed it.
Scroll with your finger on the far far right of the screen. It activates a fast scrolling option. I do it by accident all the time and have to find where I was on the page before that.
Hi there,
Just got a new Galaxy Tab 3 10.1. There's a line of apps installed below the page/panel indicator on the home screens, with a bunch of (to me) ill chosen apps. But I can't drag them off the screen to delete them, like I can the ones above the page indicator. I can't find any mention of what this apparently separate panel is called to search better.
Of interest, are people happy with their purchase of one of these? So far I'm finding it pretty ordinary - not horrible, just ordinary...
maysa said:
Hi there,
Just got a new Galaxy Tab 3 10.1. There's a line of apps installed below the page/panel indicator on the home screens, with a bunch of (to me) ill chosen apps. But I can't drag them off the screen to delete them, like I can the ones above the page indicator. I can't find any mention of what this apparently separate panel is called to search better.
Of interest, are people happy with their purchase of one of these? So far I'm finding it pretty ordinary - not horrible, just ordinary...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just drag the apps on the lower part of your home screen to the upper part where it says delete. then you can go to your apps and drag them to the lower part of your home screen to add them in the dock
If you're saying about the lock screen then I don't know
Hi!
I'm pretty happy with the tab 10.1! With the latest OTA update it runs even smoother! The runtime is great, can handle up to 5 days with daily usage without charging. I received my leather case today, a 360° case.. I can put it horizontal or vertical and it "wakes up" when i open the case.
With that prize its an absolutely recommendation.
Greetings
Gesendet von meinem GT-P5210 mit Tapatalk 4
levihaler said:
Just drag the apps on the lower part of your home screen to the upper part where it says delete. then you can go to your apps and drag them to the lower part of your home screen to add them in the dock
If you're saying about the lock screen then I don't know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there,
On the default home page, there's two large widgets on the top (weather and news). Below that there's a Google search bar. Below that there's a row of shortcuts. These all behave normally. Below that there's the page/panel indicator (telling you which home page you're on) and then at the bottom there's another row of shortcuts. It's that last, bottom row that I'm having trouble with. They don't seem to act normally - I can't drag them off to delete as normal. They appear to be hardwired. They are not the choice I would select and I want to change them.
Are other people able to delete these shortcuts?
Thanks!
maysa said:
Hi there,
On the default home page, there's two large widgets on the top (weather and news). Below that there's a Google search bar. Below that there's a row of shortcuts. These all behave normally. Below that there's the page/panel indicator (telling you which home page you're on) and then at the bottom there's another row of shortcuts. It's that last, bottom row that I'm having trouble with. They don't seem to act normally - I can't drag them off to delete as normal. They appear to be hardwired. They are not the choice I would select and I want to change them.
Are other people able to delete these shortcuts?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you show us a picture?
maybe installing a launcher / shell will help you organize your tablet's home screen...
Same problem.
[o QUOTE=maysa;44827975]Hi there,
Just got a new Galaxy Tab 3 10.1. There's a line of apps installed below the page/panel indicator on the home screens, with a bunch of (to me) ill chosen apps. But I can't drag them off the screen to delete them, like I can the ones above the page indicator. I can't find any mention of what this apparently separate panel is called to search better.
Of interest, are people happy with their purchase of one of these? So far I'm finding it pretty ordinary - not horrible, just ordinary...[/QUOTE]
I have the same problem. I'm tired of reading the answer "click and hold then drag it up". It seems to be the stock answer on all forums. They won't move! No matter what I do, the ridiculous row of apps bottom most on the screen is stuck. There's no help for this in the help app/widget. Someone must know how to unlock these darn things. I want to replace them with ones I use regularly.
granparoger said:
maysa said:
Hi there,
Just got a new Galaxy Tab 3 10.1. There's a line of apps installed below the page/panel indicator on the home screens, with a bunch of (to me) ill chosen apps. But I can't drag them off the screen to delete them, like I can the ones above the page indicator. I can't find any mention of what this apparently separate panel is called to search better.
Of interest, are people happy with their purchase of one of these? So far I'm finding it pretty ordinary - not horrible, just ordinary...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. I'm tired of reading the answer "click and hold then drag it up". It seems to be the stock answer on all forums. They won't move! No matter what I do, the ridiculous row of apps bottom most on the screen is stuck. There's no help for this in the help app/widget. Someone must know how to unlock these darn things. I want to replace them with ones I use regularly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Qranparoger,
Unfortunately that is the correct answer of click and hold and move. I just did it to mine and I can move two of the three apps I have in the bottom row. The only one that cannot move is APPS. My SETTINGS and FIREFOX can both be moved to the main screen above the bottom row.
My tab is rooted, but uses stock rom. There is nothing special about what I have done. I checked settings to see if I had changed a display or security function but I do not see anything. I do remember when I first got the tab that I too was having problems. But I do remember solving it and removing the bottom row (except APPS) and rearranging the icons or deleting the icons.
It think that maybe it might be in the APPLICATION MANAGER in SETTINGS that you "Turn Off" the app and it might vanish from the bottom of the screen. Again, I cannot remember how I did it but it can be done.
Brian D said:
Qranparoger,
Unfortunately that is the correct answer of click and hold and move. I just did it to mine and I can move two of the three apps I have in the bottom row. The only one that cannot move is APPS. My SETTINGS and FIREFOX can both be moved to the main screen above the bottom row.
My tab is rooted, but uses stock rom. There is nothing special about what I have done. I checked settings to see if I had changed a display or security function but I do not see anything. I do remember when I first got the tab that I too was having problems. But I do remember solving it and removing the bottom row (except APPS) and rearranging the icons or deleting the icons.
It think that maybe it might be in the APPLICATION MANAGER in SETTINGS that you "Turn Off" the app and it might vanish from the bottom of the screen. Again, I cannot remember how I did it but it can be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Latest ROM update - still can't change the apps. My tab isn't rooted, and I couldn't be bothered to now. I don't necessarily want to "turn off" the apps, just not use my precious home screen space. Anyway, I solved the problem by buying a Nexus. Yep, free Samsung is just collecting dust, piece of rubbish... Before anyone rages on me, there's a bunch of reasons I didn't like the Samsung, not just this one thing.
maysa said:
Latest ROM update - still can't change the apps. My tab isn't rooted, and I couldn't be bothered to now. I don't necessarily want to "turn off" the apps, just not use my precious home screen space. Anyway, I solved the problem by buying a Nexus. Yep, free Samsung is just collecting dust, piece of rubbish... Before anyone rages on me, there's a bunch of reasons I didn't like the Samsung, not just this one thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Meh... it is all good. Since you got the tab for free, you can send it to me. Give me something to play around with. :laugh::laugh:
Is there a Rom or Intl Rom(9005) which have Note 4 features for our beloved Note 3. Any idea OmniSwitch works as intended on TouchWiz? I am sticking with AOSP PAC and missing the S Pen, Camera and One Hand.
jhbalaji said:
Is there a Rom or Intl Rom(9005) which have Note 4 features for our beloved Note 3. Any idea OmniSwitch works as intended on TouchWiz? I am sticking with AOSP PAC and missing the S Pen, Camera and One Hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, actually I am using OmniSnitch on my N3 and it works great. I actually found the app as an inclusion (system app) in the ROM that I flashed on the Note 10.1 2014 (p607t). The ROM is xKat, and was actually built for the p605 (international LTE variant), but awesomely, the hardware that T-Mobile sells is simply a re-branded p605 so any development work for the p605 works fine on the Tmo hardware :good:
Anyway, OmniSnitch is a great, super-useful app. I actually froze flashbarservice and replaced the multi window feature on the side of my screen with OmniSnitch, Flippr (another awesome app that allows you to access widgets or shortcuts from any page - even games. Crazy useful for "remote" widgets like Yatse, AnyMote, etc.) and PIE.
I'm not really sure about your first question, as I'm a Tweaked devotee, but can definitely confirm that OmniSnitch works fantastically, I don't see why it couldn't be installed on any phone / ROM. I don't think it even needs root.
@jazzmachine Thats great! Is there a HALO kind of thing available for TouchWIZ Note?
Why yes there is, and I happen to use it since it's much more versatile than split windows or pen windows. I was actually going to mention that in my last post, guess I should have :laugh:
Just installing the XHalo xposed module gets the job done. One example of a nice feature it adds is that if you open up an app via tapping on a notification, no matter if your at your launcher or have any app running, the app will open up in a window on top of whatever app you're using at the time. If you long tap a notification, in addition to being able to open App Info, you now also have the option to "open the app normally", which is self explanatory.You can also select a group of frequently used apps and tick the option to display them in the notification panel, then you can insta-launch them in a halo window from anywhere. After installing the XHalo module, don't reboot yet because there's one more module you need (for full functionality.... Halo works w/o it, but the windows won't be resizeable or movable, like they're supposed to be, if you don't also install the module "FixVisabilityOfMultipleFullScreenActivites". Basically what that one does is it fixes the visibility of multiple full screen activities.
JK, well, that is what it does, but the effect is that Halo works properly. Before installing that my halo windows were always statically positioned in the center of the screen and the didn't have the bar at the top that allows moving or resizing the window. It also allows you to open multiple Halo windows, IOW, it just fixes Halo to act like it's supposed to. If your setup is similar to mine, and you "repurpose" the edges of your screen, and you don't really use native mutliwindow (I have a ton of apps installed, and since certain ROMS (Tweaked) auto-add all apps to the sidebar and penwindow launcher, particularly the latter would take like, a while, to launch. There's no lag whatsoever with this modified (and more functional IMO) setup. Anyway, I was going to recommend freezing flashbarservice (multi window) in Titanium of something. For me, doing that released a good chunk of RAM, so if you don't use, or are trying to replace the multi-window functionality, definitely freeze if you're not using. Additionally, the frees the long press back for reassignment to another function, should you be inclined to do so. I reassign the hell out of my hard keys, even adding an activity to just pulling the S pen out and pushing it back in.
Modified S Pen functionality is the last thing I'll describe about my setup, so that this time I can answer before you ask I REALLY like GMD S Pen Control. I turned off air command, and have been working on and off on configuring that app with the goal of being able to launch anything (even obscure "secret code" menus) just by scribbling something on my screen. It's awesome, you just have to get into the habit of using the paths that you've configured regularly so that you don't forget them. So far I've just configured launching frequently used apps and settings toggles (the app also allows you to create, I think 5 launcher bars w/ 8 items (actions, tasks, shortcuts, toggles, a ton of stuff) each of which you can launch, of course, with a pen path).
So with my setup, I've pretty much taken the "Touch" out of the "Wiz".... wait, no, the "Wiz" ou... err, that's much worse. OK, first and last time using any variation of that description. what I'm saying here is that the TW "features" that I've replaced could be used on any device / ROM... so perhaps I've got my eye on an Nexus 6. Well, it was in my field of vision when I was playing with the N4 in the store yesterday (I can't resist activating dev mode on store demos... I mean I like to take a look at the settings there, but it's a thing.... if I pick up a demo model, I'm in About device tapping on the build #) on the N4 I was surprised to see that one of the first options was toggling the runtime between Dalvik and ART, but I didn't think the N4 was able to use ART yet, so I turned it on and the phone rebooted... I then saw the guy who's helped me out the most there was free so I went over to talk to him and ask a few questions and I forgot to check out the N4 set to ART before I took off. Really wish I did, but whatevers. I'll likely have my very own (hand picked perfection, totally perfect uniform display :victory:
So that was pretty OT, this a little less, but a complaint that I keep seeing about the N4 is lag with the recents panel launched. OmniSnitch seems like the perfect app to avoid that issue. For those unfamiliar, OmniSnitch is launched via a persistent (customizeable) half bubble / handle thing. A bar opens up (on any screen) and first you have a row of recently used apps. You can also assign persistent "favorites" that you can launch by tapping the arrow below the row of app icons, and you can immediately switch to a previous app or launch a favorite instanly - Lag + recent apps + OmniSnitch = complete non-issue. Attached a couple screen of how it looks (I don't think the app icons would be themed if you don't use Unicon, I'm not really sure about the general availability of this app. I actually pulled it off of the ROM that I installed on my Note 10.1 - so system app on tablet, but user app on phone. Works the same either way. I'd be happy to upload it, but don't feel like I should do so without permission from... I have no idea. Searching the Play store, the only result is called Fancy Switcher, which looks like a not so successful attempt to copy the app and (unnecessarily IMO) 'fancy it up'. Meh. So hopefully it's available on xda somewhere, but if anyone happens to know the dev if they could ask if they mind their app being shared in this thread, then write up a statement to that effect, both of you sign it (in blood), and send it to me via certified mail... I don't know. If people want it but can't find it, try to find out if it's FOSS, or GPLed or something, just post in here and if it's cool I'm happy to share