I have an advent vega, it's a basic tablet running honeycomb, and it spends most of its time docked on my desk, currently I have it running a fire on loop, but due to the contrast ratio of the screen it doesn't look good.
Can anyone suggest anything? I like the screensaver on mac osx that can display an rss feed in a visually pleasing way, I would love something like this for my twitter feed or something like that on my tablet!
Thanks a lot!
I would just like to add, I'm looking for an app that would display large text if any, there are probably many apps that could show a live twitter feed, but i would like some sort of smooth animation I could read from a couple of metres away.
Hello
I'm looking for a music player app that actually looks good on a tablet.
I've tried MixZing, PowerAmp and such, but haven't found any that are tablet optimized and have good features.
I'd prefer one with a widget that could take up an entire home screen on the Prime (8x5 I believe?) and one that has a lockscreen player.
I hope someone can help me out
- Moon
I'm curious about this too. The one thing google needs to do a better job with is these native Android apps, it should be fairly easy to make something that competes with "iPod" app in iOS, it's not like it's something special
I think the best one is "musicXmatch"
I really like the look of it and you can see the lyrics of nearly every song!
Stocki96 said:
I think the best one is "musicXmatch"
I really like the look of it and you can see the lyrics of nearly every song!
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Just tried MusixXMatch, and there are literally about 8 options, 5 of them are related to headsets.
The biggest widget is 3x1 and is just pause and next track buttons, and there is no lockscreen player at all.
Thanks for your idea, but I'll keep looking.
IMO the best player with plenty of options & settings (inc equalizer), decent widget (even if not full screen - if there are any full screen widgets?), plays many file types and has the lock screen controls you want is Poweramp.
I don't know if there is a difference between the free and paid versions but I have the paid and it's been worth every penny.
TremF said:
IMO the best player with plenty of options & settings (inc equalizer), decent widget (even if not full screen - if there are any full screen widgets?), plays many file types and has the lock screen controls you want is Poweramp.
I don't know if there is a difference between the free and paid versions but I have the paid and it's been worth every penny.
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I tried PowerAmp trial version off the play store, and the lockscreen player forced it into portrait mode (horrible), and the good looks and properly sized/fitted buttons that I know from having it on my phone is completely DESTROYED on my Prime tablet.
If the full version works otherwise, or I've missed something, could you please post a screenshot or two of your PowerAmp on your tablet?
I don't have an app to take screenshots of the lock screen but the player takes up a decent space on the left of the screen with album art and controls with your unlock slider etc to the right of the screen.
I use my Prime docked mostly and the lock screen displays landscape as normal for me.
I have attached other screenshots of the app...
TremF said:
I don't have an app to take screenshots of the lock screen but the player takes up a decent space on the left of the screen with album art and controls with your unlock slider etc to the right of the screen.
I use my Prime docked mostly and the lock screen displays landscape as normal for me.
I have attached other screenshots of the app...
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Click to collapse
From what I saw in the PowerAmp options, there are 2 different lockscreen players.
There's 1 where it makes it own lockscreen, with quite beautiful buttons and art, and cover art pictures, and its own little button to press for unlocking the device (This one was forced into portrait mode for me when I tried it)
And then there's the other one, smaller one, where it adds an overlay to the left of the center in the normal lockscreen, with a little box where the cover art / simple buttons are in. (works fine in landscape mode)
Which one are you using?
And a little side question, what Launcher are you using on the 4th screenshot you posted? Nova? Trebuchet? Or?
Moonbloom said:
From what I saw in the PowerAmp options, there are 2 different lockscreen players.
There's 1 where it makes it own lockscreen, with quite beautiful buttons and art, and cover art pictures, and its own little button to press for unlocking the device (This one was forced into portrait mode for me when I tried it)
And then there's the other one, smaller one, where it adds an overlay to the left of the center in the normal lockscreen, with a little box where the cover art / simple buttons are in. (works fine in landscape mode)
Which one are you using?
And a little side question, what Launcher are you using on the 4th screenshot you posted? Nova? Trebuchet? Or?
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I use the ICS lock screen option which displays landscape. I tried Poweramps built in lock screen and it did as you said and switched to portrait. I like the ICS lockscreen option though - just places the album art and basic controls on the left of the screen with the time and date.
The launcher I am using is ADWLauncher Ex.
PowerAmp will give you the best sound in Android, by far.
If your issue is only the lockscreen, you could try Widgetlocker. I have it on my Android phones and it is AMAZING. It has an ICS locker (look 100% the same, but let you customize Widgets on it and extra options for the unlocker.)
It drains no battery at all, but I have not tried it on my Prime. I will try it out and report back
I prefer PlayerPro. It has all the options you could wish for, has several skins you can choose to make it look the way you want and it is able to use the stock android lockscreen widget. Widgets for homescreens come in various sizes, the biggest is about one quarter of a page imho.
It also downloads Pictures for you artists automatically that makes the player look really nice. I guess its on par with PowerAmp but underrated
clouds5 said:
I prefer PlayerPro. It has all the options you could wish for, has several skins you can choose to make it look the way you want and it is able to use the stock android lockscreen widget. Widgets for homescreens come in various sizes, the biggest is about one quarter of a page imho.
It also downloads Pictures for you artists automatically that makes the player look really nice. I guess its on par with PowerAmp but underrated
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What makes PowerAmp stand out is the AMAZING audio quality it has. If you turn on EQ, apply the correct settings the sound is mind blowing. It does consume CPU tho, quite a bit if you put it to sound how it was made to, but totally worth it.
Player pro is better than power amp imo. Has a fantastic equalizer and just works.
I'd say go for PlayerPro, its really well worth the money
I've only seen on truly "tablet UI/UX optimized" music player... Hive Player... Google Play Music is the next best when it come to "tablet UI/UX optimized"...
I personally use Google music and nothing else. On my phone and my prime. Love it. Works great. Looks great. ALL my music is there and sounds bomb too. I've tried poweramp and others but ever since Google music came out...I've been stoked.
This is not a paid endorsement nor do I work for Google blah blah blah
Modded by MBOK
Soooo, reporting back!
Widgetlocker works wonderful on the Prime, so your issue with the Lockscreen could be solved just using it it will let you add ANY Widget to the lockscreen and set up whatever you want in the unlock Ring.
Tried PlayerPro, the UI is REALLY good I must say, and how it set ups band pictures for the bandlist is amazing! (Actual band pics, not Albums)
Downloaded the DSP Pack and did the EQ set up, and tested it side to side with PowerAmp, and I gotta say PowerAmp sounds better imo.
OMW to test out Hive Player
I've now tested the various music players people mentioned in this thread and these are my results:
MusicXMatch:
Looked very bad on my Prime, and i don't have any usage for the "Lyric" part of it, which is basicly it's biggest selling point.
Hardly any widgets, and no lockscreen player, and almost no options to customize it.
PlayerPro:
A decent competitor to PowerAmp, but again, no lockscreen player and the look of it, along with the button placements didn't appeal to me.
Also has alot of skins on the Play Store.
Hive Player:
I tried the "evaluation" version (author's own words), and it is indeed optimzed for tablets. I like the widgets.
But it lacks many features, and it doesn't automatically download album art. And the "evaluation" version stops playing after 1min in every song, which is kind of lame, even for a trial version.
PowerAmp:
At first i didn't enjoy it that much, but after testing other music players, it seemed to be the best looking one with the most features.
Decent widget packs, alot of skins off the Play Store.
Lockscreen player is either ICS's default one, or a lockscreen player that only works in Portrait mode. (I'm gonna try WidgetLocker to replace it)
I've bought PowerAmp Full Unlocker, and now i'm gonna test WidgetLocker as a lockscreen player replacement (based on what Zephyrot posted)
Moonbloom said:
[...]
I've bought PowerAmp Full Unlocker, and now i'm gonna test WidgetLocker as a lockscreen player replacement (based on what Zephyrot posted)
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Be sure to set it up right, it has A LOT, and I mean A LOT of options
There is another free app that can download extra Lockscreen themes for it, in case you want to try out new ones.
Zephyrot said:
Be sure to set it up right, it has A LOT, and I mean A LOT of options
There is another free app that can download extra Lockscreen themes for it, in case you want to try out new ones.
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I tried WidgetLocker, and excuse me if this is a stupid question.. But isn't there any way to use other kind of lockscreen players other than simply one of the widgets from PowerAmp?
I very much like the PowerAmp lockscreen (the one forced to Portrait), and my ideal lockscreen player would simply be that one.. In Landscape mode (of course some changes would have to be made, in order for it to fit properly).
EDIT: As you said you tested PlayerPro VS PowerAmp with optimal settings, could you please share those "optimal" settings for PowerAmp? I'm not currently using the equalizer at all, because I simply don't know how to set it up to sound better than standard settings.
Hi guys!
I've bought an Alwinner A13 Tablet as a Christmas present for my daughter who is 3yrs old. She has been using mine and my husbands HTC Sensations for watching BabyTV and playing various counting and alphabet games, but we twitch every time she drops them...hence the cheap tablet. It is running 4.0.4 has 512 MB RAM and 8GB internal storage. We bought a 16GB SD card to increase the storage.
I want to customise it for her in time for Christmas and was wondering if you guys mind my asking some questions on here in the hope 1 or more of you has done something similar or can point me in the right direction at least.
What I want to do:
Hide, disable and lock out the internet browser, app store and anything else that I may need to do stuff (like install apps for her) but don't want her to see or use.
Disable the system icons / buttons (battery, clock, app home etc)
Make desktop / homescreen icons bigger (approx twice their current size).
Prevent her moving and deleting icons
Create folders on the home screen with custom folder icons (different picture for each folder) that will hold apps and shortcuts to movies on the SD card.
Give App and shortcut icons custom icon images (I have graphics files for these that I can resize)
Play movies directly from shortcut
Minimalistic movie player that just plays the file and then EXITS back to the home screen when the movie is done.
If any of the above requires changing ROM from the installed 4.0.4 to something else or requires the tablet to be Rooted then I've learnt how to do that already.
Any help or advice on how to achieve the above list would be greatly appreciated.
p.s I already looked at the "big icon" app in google market, but it sticks a setup icon next to the icon which you cant lock out..which means my daughter could easily modify the icons.
Thanks
Lyndsey
most of your requirements can be found on go launcher or adw launcher as for movie shprtcuts i dont know if its possoble
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Kids Place + ES file manager
most of this could probably be handled by the Kids Place - Parental Control app on Google Play, you can make shortcuts to basically anything (including movie files) using ES File Explorer by tapping and holding on the video and selecting make shortcut and also has a pretty simple video player built in.
ngoralph said:
most of your requirements can be found on go launcher or adw launcher as for movie shprtcuts i dont know if its possoble
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your help!
Do you know if there is a movie player around that I can configure so that it closes down and returns to the home screen after it's finished playing a movie? This functionality is pretty important as I don't think she'll be able to exit the movie player herself.
I looked at go launcher but I couldn't see it supporting setting folder and shortcut icons. This is pretty important as well, because her reading level is still quite low and therefore she will have to navigate by "familiar" icons (BabyTV Icon to take her to the BabyTV player etc).
cyhax said:
most of this could probably be handled by the Kids Place - Parental Control app on Google Play, you can make shortcuts to basically anything (including movie files) using ES File Explorer by tapping and holding on the video and selecting make shortcut and also has a pretty simple video player built in.
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Okay, I installed Kids place. That wouldn't let me add movie shortcuts or folders to the desktop, only apps. I want to have folders on the desktop with shortcuts inside each folder to movies. Each folder to have an icon depicting the cartoon character of the movies that the shortcuts inside point to.
Having folders with custom icons is something that computers have been capable of for 20 years and yet android can't do this. It's extremely frustrating that there are so many other types of customisations and wazzy effects (launchers seem to prioritise a hundred different ways of scrolling over desktop customisation!!) and yet something so basic is absent or poorly implemented.....
Sorry....had to get that rant off my chest!
I'll keep looking but thanks for the help http://forum.xda-developers.com/images/smilies/smile.gif
I'm trying out go launcher again. So far it's closest to what I need to do but still has some issues. Such as when you make the icons larger, folder labels disappear inside folders! I had each shortcut inside the folder listed as 1,2,3 etc because my daughter can count, just not read that well yet.
I have a question I hope someone can help with:
Why do all the custom launchers reduce the size of the desktop icons? whichever launcher I load up, when I go from stock ics launcher to the custom launcher, the icons are about 50% of the size. I'm just curious...
You daughter wouldn't be able to go to the homescreen by herself?
It's not that hard to teach her to press the home button when she wants to go to the homescreen.
Revobase said:
You daughter wouldn't be able to go to the homescreen by herself?
It's not that hard to teach her to press the home button when she wants to go to the homescreen.
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Yes, we've already tested that theory out on my phone (HTC Sensation). So we know she can get back to the Homescreen. Thanks for bringing it up though, it's a valid point. We assumed that because she is only 3 she wouldn't be able to find her way around. But in truth she seems to be able to find her way to youtube and play movies there
So we've removed the youtube icons from her tablet now.
artychoke said:
Yes, we've already tested that theory out on my phone (HTC Sensation). So we know she can get back to the Homescreen. Thanks for bringing it up though, it's a valid point. We assumed that because she is only 3 she wouldn't be able to find her way around. But in truth she seems to be able to find her way to youtube and play movies there
So we've removed the youtube icons from her tablet now.
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Kids are MUCH more tech savier then you problably are. In 5 years, she'll know as much as you.
Hello, been using xda for years but never posted as I've always worked out any issues or querys, through searching the forum for relevant threads and posts. But I've not found much on my latest search. So i have assumed it's not possible but on the off chance i thought i would see if there any of the cleaver guys on the forum could work out if it's possible or not.
Basically i have used apex launcher since its first release on all my devises except for on my s7300 which i have nova to see what the differences where. It's a great launcher and i can't really knock it. Except for how i like to set up my devices 9 home screens are quite limitations, don't get me wrong 9 screens will display a lot.
But I like to have a home screen dedicated to settings/optimising apps (set cpu, tb, rom tool box etc) a screen for social and media a couple of screens dedicated to android games, then I like to set up screens with short cuts to the top 50 ROMS for a specific console. So a screen of 50 short cuts for n64 roms, a screen for top 50 psx iso short cuts, snes, nes, ds and so on.
my query is is there any know mod available or would it be possible to mod the apk to allow more than the max 9 available screens? Or is anyone aware of another launcher which allows more than 9 home screens. I have assumed there is something stopping devs going above the magic 9 mark as that's where all the best launchers seem to have stopped.
If anyone has any insight on this it would be greatly appreciated, and Thank you for taking the time to read this
So here is the idea, a X-Cross Media Bar (XMB) style interface launcher that can be used on android devices, phones or tablets, but I plan on using it on my N7 since I use a Bluetooth keyboard I use for remote desktop and chrome and a pc xbox controller for games from time to time I have been trying to figure out how to make a decent android home screen that interacts like the XMB controls wise but have come up short.
I have found quite a few threads and other pages for stuff like this that has moved nowhere in the past and was hoping you guys might be able to get something in some sort of solution to my desire for a clean interactive interface. The closest thing i have, thanks to one of my friends who first came up with the idea but I have obsessively been trying to find a way to perfect, is using Nova launcher with folders set to tap to open a set app and swipe up to open the folder and a custom icon based off a PS3 theme pack I took the images from all arranged in an XMB style (picture linked) with the Wave Life Wallpaper to give it that PSP/PS3 look.
Basically all I want is an interface that interacts like the XMB, can be controlled either with directional buttons or by swiping across the screen (or tapping the icon of what you want if possible). But the big kicker here is that it has to support each column set acting as a customizable folder, like in Nova, and a standard app drawer where you can see all your apps. I don't even care if this requires xposed, a different launcher, and widgets, I want it and have done everything short of trying to code it myself. (probably not a good idea, I'm a network guy, not a good programmer)
All the pages I have come across in search of the pot of gold:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1104989
http://home.gna.org/gp2xmb/
https://code.google.com/p/xpmb/
http://boards.dingoonity.org/jxd-devices/xmb-launcher-for-android-5891/
The second to last one was a launcher somebody made, and believe it or not runs on 5.0.2, but has some issues and does not really let you change anything. The last Link is an actually functional one but does not allow for much customization.
What I am thinking of is more of a launcher that allows you to create columns for certain things and select which apps fill them like a folder does, allows you to have whatever wallpaper (static, scrolling, live) and has customization options. If somebody out there can program this and get it working I would pay for it. It just seems like such a usable interface for when using a controller, keyboard, or even on a touchscreen as a way different way to have everything organised. Although a standard app drawer would still be nice to avoid having every app in a column and just the ones you frequently use (I basically want an XMB in place of multiple desktops on the home screen)
Just let me know if anybody can help me figure this out.