Before coming to Android, I had a Nokia N900 running Maemo 5 operating system, which, like Android, was partly open source and based on the Linux kernel. While there are certainly lots more apps on Android, there is one app from Maemo that I really do miss and cannot find a replacement for. The app I am talking about, goes by the name of Queen Beecon Widget and in the words of the dev, it is "A super powerful and customizable widget generation engine" http://wiki.maemo.org/Queen_BeeCon_Widget
It is a really versatile tool. Here are a couple of screenshots of my previous setups to show what sort of thing I am after. Most of the items you see on all three screenshots are created by using this app, as you can input any image that you want to be displayed along with the result, as long as it is a.Png
So, sure, I know about widgets that can cater for certain parts of this app eg. Widgetsoid, Minimalistic Text, Meta Widget etc. but what I am really after, is an on-device widget creator that can export terminal commands, as a result and directly onto the desktop. I have had a look at script manager and sm widget, but that doesn't seem to display the result directly onto the desktop (when I tap on the widget I have made, it opens up terminal, which defeats the object for me). Does anyone know of a tool, app or widget or even a combination of apps that I can use to achieve this?
Hopefully I have been clear enough.
I also wanted to post a very brief and simple way to explain what I am looking for. In basic terms, I need a (terminal) command execution widget that will display the result directly on the desktop.
The widget that accompanies Script Manager is sort-of on its way to what I need. Perhaps someone knows of an app like this, that is a bit more advanced, flexible and customizable. Any help appreciated. Thanks.
Anyone got any ideas?
Related
HybridByNature on irc asked for this, and I decided it as a demo for a HowTo I am writing. Look for my basic smali patching how to in the near(ish) future.
This is the CarCradle from Adrynalyne's (if anyone has previously patched it, lmk so I can add credits), with the Settings Button changed to launch Shazam. I did not change the icon, if someone wants to make an Icon for it, I will change it out.
Because the free version, and paid version have different package and activity names, I made two versions. You have to install the one that matches the Shazam version you use.
These are not recovery flashable zips, the APK must be pushed to your /system/app/ dir. If someone wants to make them a flashable zip, feel free to do so and pm them to me so I can add them (yes, I am lazy).
Feel like a donation, choose a charity
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=donate+homeless+youth
That sounds awesome. Curious, how difficult is it to modify a button in the Car Home apk? Better question, how difficult would it be to create a customizable button to replace Settings in the Car Home apk? I like Shazaam, but have switched to Midori SoundHound after the free/paid conversion of Shazaam. I can deff see usefulness of being able to select your own APK from the phone as the destination (Pandora, C:geo, Gesture Search, Subsonic, traffic cams app, etc etc etc).
Long time fan of your work btw.
ludionis said:
That sounds awesome. Curious, how difficult is it to modify a button in the Car Home apk? Better question, how difficult would it be to create a customizable button to replace Settings in the Car Home apk? I like Shazaam, but have switched to Midori SoundHound after the free/paid conversion of Shazaam. I can deff see usefulness of being able to select your own APK from the phone as the destination (Pandora, C:geo, Gesture Search, Subsonic, traffic cams app, etc etc etc).
Long time fan of your work btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really easy, posting a how to later.
Thx
Forgive my ignorance here. I bought the GTab from Woot solely to learn about Android and tablets, I just got my ipad2 and thats the one I planned on getting the most use out of, but honestly I thought it would be good to have an Android tablet in the house.
Of course, the default OS was painful, so I put on TNTLite and ran some apps and was pretty happy. I haven't used it much since. I am still trying to find a way to stream video to the tablet (and hopefully someday out to my TV, to retire my laptop).....and am not sure which app to use. For Ipad I can use Air Video Server.
BUT ANYWAYS...
The default portal screen on TouchNTap was, I thought, pretty cool....weather, news links and time with your apps available on the bottom row.
Tell me, is there a similar type of portal app you can use on the Gtab? Is there a way to make it just be an alarm clock or a picture frame until you pick it up and want to start using it as a tablet?
TNTLite is cool, and I installed ADWLauncher (I think that is the name), but all I am seeing is now a windows desktop-looking thing. Can you use that front-end with TNTLite? Or is it just adding widgets to a "home screen" like a clock, calendar, web browser, etc.
Thanks!
Take a look at this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=854175
If you want to alter TNT Lite to your liking, it's actually fairly straightforward - once you understand the layout.
When that firmware is run, it layers on a 100% stock image first, then I make the alterations later. You can alter either the updater-script (where the deletions are) or the /system folder (where the additions are) to tweak it to your liking. For example, if you want to keep the TNT launcher, just delete this line from the updater-script:
Code:
delete("/system/app/HomeScreen.apk");
That would add the TNT homescreen back, on the next firmware flash. This is just an example.
Sideload and Switch Home Screens to Get Back Default
HeadRusch1 said:
The default portal screen on TouchNTap was, I thought, pretty cool....weather, news links and time with your apps available on the bottom row.
Tell me, is there a similar type of portal app you can use on the Gtab?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need a "similar" portal app unless you just want it. Just sideload (move the files from your PC to the sdcard via USB cable and then click/install the apks from the sdcard) the original HomeScreen.apk, Weather.apk, Clock.apk, and News.apk - then use the Home Switcher to switch to the Viewsonic HomeScreen - if you want that to be your default.
I've done this since TNTL 2.0 because I also like the look and the options.
Other apk's that will fit into the default HomeScreen package are GroceryList and TaskManager. MediaPlayer will also go into the Viewsonic HomeScreen.
In case you didn't back up the original VS default portal files - I've attached them.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes the original VS portal.
Thank you
I'm going to be messing with this to see if I can get it to work......however, I do have one question, and its off topic:
Is there any way to put the Gtab into sleep mode the way that an ipad goes to sleep, so you just tap the screen to wake it up? Or have it so that way it has a permanantly on clock display or a rotating picture frame function with clock?
I'd like to buy the dock for it, but not if I have to hold the power button to wake it up all the time, I realize its a little thing but it is somewhat an annoyance.
Yay my first post, lol.
So anyway, I've decided to move over from the iOS platform because the hardware simply does not stay up to date with Android anymore. I'm quite tired of worrying about jailbreaking; that aside I want to know how I would go about doing the simple things that I got out of iOS, even though I had to be a hacker to get my way.
Restoration (If I screw something up)
How do I restore my phone with a complete firmware file that will recover me from my own stupidity/adventures? With iOS I simply just entered recovery mode and pressed restore in iTunes. How does one download a stock i9100 restore firmware file for future use?
Themes
In iOS, I made my own themes and applied them into the rooted filesystem with no problems. I simply just replaced the files and rebooted, no problems. I've been lurking for a while now seeïng that people need to deoxdex files in order to view them or flash them or whatever. My question is this: can I simply replace system files and expect them to work? As for the many xml files in the apk's that I've been examining, I cannot seem to get a standard format of them. When I view them in various code applications, I get a load of garbage with a faint outline of what could included in the xml file. How can I convert pulled xml files to "normal" readable ones? (or do I need to use a special application that reads binary/encrypted xml's for me?) What is the proper way to replace system files for a theme (what is deodexing?), and is it possible to package my theme and put it on the android market to share with others?
Music
Do any of you guys use iTunes for your music? My iTunes library is meticulously managed to make sure that all my song info and album art are correct. Is it true that if I drag and drop from iTunes (on a mac) into the music folder of my sd card, I will copy over all the song data aswell? I highly doubt it because I cannot get this to work between my two iTunes libraries on different computers. Is there a way to make sure all my id3 tags and album art are added to all my songs so that I have an organized library in my SGS2/android?
Tapping the status bar to reach the top of a long page/form
Does this exist in android either through a tweak or android market app?
Deleting System apps that I no longer need
Is it okay to just delete apk's on my phone's system that I do not need? (Reader's hub, blockbuster, exe) I would assume that would work, but eh, I'm not making any assumptions on a completely different platform.
Launch Dæmons
On iOS, there was a folder in the system that housed all the plists of startup dæmons at booup. By deleting one, the service would completely stop and would free up RAM after the phone got rebooted. Does android have a similar place to house a bunch of services that are optionally deleted/stopped entirely to improve system performance? Things that come immediately to mind are things like debugging, syslogs, android developer tools, and other garbage that is unnecessary to certain users. (A famous example is the "CommCenter.plist"(baseband startup)/"DataMigrator.plist" (move contacts using SIM card) that always run in the background on iTouches despite not having a baseband and SIM card.)
System Button Mapping
Is there any tweak or android app that lets me set certain actions to different button presses or behaviors? For example in iOS I can use "activator" to let me swipe my statusbar horizontally to enter the camera app. I can also long press volume keys to skip/restart music being played in the music app.
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I know that's a lot of questions, but atleast try to help a newbie out =] When fist started out in iOS 4 years ago, I was the same way in nagging looking for ways to make things fit my workflow. Honestly, it doesn't take long before I start to help people out and grasp all the skills needed for a particular platform.
Hello, and welcome to XDA
I'll try to answer all questions.
First of all. The galaxy s ii is almost impossible to break. If you need to re wipe your phone. Get the firmware from samfirmware.com and also get odin v1.85 from there. That is all you need to fix a broken phone. It will just need putting into download mode. (Power + home + vol down)
As for theming. All apk files contain files with the images that it uses, so in theory all can be customised. The main files to theme are SystemUI (notifications bar) found in /system/app. And framework-res (anything else theme related, battery text colours e.t.c
As for editing the xml files. Most have to be edited in a hex editor (e.g. HXD). But there are guides to show you what numbers to edit. And its not that complicated once you try it.
With regard to the music. I recommend mp3tag. Its what I use and simply copying the tracks works well for me.
For removing system apps, look on the market for system app remover, or if you are willing to pay, get root tools. Great combination of tools and uninstalling is as easy as ticking a box.
And yes, there are some apps that when you remove them your phone will bootloop. Look in this forum. I'm sure I've seen a safe system apps to remove in the sgs ii section (will look for link in a mo)
Last bit, system button mapping. I believe it can be done. But it hasn't been done yet on this phone. Different launchers give you the option for swipe gesgures (did I spell that right, doesnt look it). So you can have swiping down on the screen opens notifications and swiping up opens app drawer. If you want that. I recommned searching for ADW launcher on the marketplace (others offer the same feature, but adw is the best)
Think I'm finished now?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
that definitely helped me a lot, thanks =D One thing that was not answered was the launch dæmons bit, does a folder like that even exist in Android? As for themes though, I'm going for a complete and total all out theme of all applications. I cannot stand the blackness of this phone's UI; I'm gonna put little pieces of artwork everywhere I can fit it like I did on iOS so it looks like just a collection of art and colorful things (backgrounds, splash screens, loading screens, exe). I'd love to know though if it's possible to download the firmware from where you described and premod it then just flash my custom ROM all at once...
As for system button mapping and custom button events, that's one thing I'm definitely going to miss ='[ I had a bunch of gestures set up so that while I'm bikeriding/horseriding I can just hit a button to control music without looking at the screen. In all respects, thanks a bunch for the help.
xxhorseriderxxx said:
that definitely helped me a lot, thanks =D One thing that was not answered was the launch dæmons bit, does a folder like that even exist in Android? As for themes though, I'm going for a complete and total all out theme of all applications. I cannot stand the blackness of this phone's UI; I'm gonna put little pieces of artwork everywhere I can fit it like I did on iOS so it looks like just a collection of art and colorful things (backgrounds, splash screens, loading screens, exe). I'd love to know though if it's possible to download the firmware from where you described and premod it then just flash my custom ROM all at once...
As for system button mapping and custom button events, that's one thing I'm definitely going to miss ='[ I had a bunch of gestures set up so that while I'm bikeriding/horseriding I can just hit a button to control music without looking at the screen. In all respects, thanks a bunch for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Soon enough we will enable an init.d folder.
It's there on other ROMs, we just have to enable it in the ramdisk
pulser_g2 said:
Soon enough we will enable an init.d folder.
It's there on other ROMs, we just have to enable it in the ramdisk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's really cool, is there a github/thread where I can track the progress of this? In all honesty making my own custom gestures like longholding a volume button or the options button would be helpful (both volume buttons at once pause/play =D)
xxhorseriderxxx said:
Yay my first post, lol.
duleMusic
Do any of you guys use iTunes for your music? My iTunes library is meticulously managed to make sure that all my song info and album art are correct. Is it true that if I drag and drop from iTunes (on a mac) into the music folder of my sd card, I will copy over all the song data aswell? I highly doubt it because I cannot get this to work between my two iTunes libraries on different computers. Is there a way to make sure all my id3 tags and album art are added to all my songs so that I have an organized library in my SGS2/android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use iTunes & smart playlists. iSyncr (free) & will let you sync based on playlists, genres, and chose where each playlist gets stored (default, internal or external SD). iSyncrWifi (cheap) then adds scheduled & wifi syncing. Then pick your music player of choice. Look to see if it updates play counts (if that is important to you) I think the pay for version of Rocket (also by JRT Studios) updates play counts.
Ed
Mother of god you had to wake up the dead??? its more then a year old!
First post, but I did my research and couldn't find anything similar.
I'm wondering what the feasible limits are of editing Android. Here's the situation:
I'm thinking of buying the Sony Walkman Z, but would want to create a new interface to make it more music-centric. Would it be possible to create a rom/skin/theme which would act almost nothing like android, but still run android apps?
something like this:
homescreen is fairly normal, clock+link to internet.
swipe left launches music/video app(which I'd like to make custom too, just a pipe dream)
swipe right is list of selected apps (not anticipating having more than the 16 one page could display)
swipe up displays full list of apps (like normal)
shortcut keys work as normal.
don't really need notifications(no texts/calls, don't tweet) so top bar can go away. really that's it. minimalist so as to keep the music the main focus.
A: is it possible?
B: is the skill level required ridiculous high?
C: are there any developers out there willing to take on a challenge?
Thanks so much,
GrIdiot
ok i will try to explain as precise as possible
I made Android Kotlin app for learning chemical compounds. My app has a full UI where user can add his chem compounds( and they are stored in a file "compounds.txt" in the app's folder) and also app is kinda testing user by asking some questions. When you open that file "compounds.txt", it looks something like this:
Ethanol=C2H5OH
Methanol=CH3OH
Hydrogen Peroxide=H2O2
Baking Soda=NaHCO3
etc...
So... I made all this, and it works and is ok.
What I would like now?
I would like to make a home screen widget which will be like a "random test" (or "random reminder") for a user when he is not even using my app.
Example: I add my widget on my home screen next to a clock...My widget is sitting there on home screen... and I am like... I take my phone.. I make a phone call... finish the call.. and then i see on my widget written "H2SO4"..
If I know what is a H2SO4.. then cool.. I dont do anything... i just continue my life...
But... if i cant remember what is H2SO4 i would just like to click the button on my widget (or not even a button. I can click directly TextView field) and then instead of "H2SO4" will be written "Sulfuric acid"
But... I would not like when I click button on my widget, that appears main UI of my app. Simple click on a widget should just toggle text between "H2SO4" and "Sulfuric acid"
Now... the question is... How to do this?
If i have 2 KT files MainActivity.kt and Widget.kt, and if i am able somehow with Widget.kt to load file "compounds.txt" then excellent. That would be the easiest way i think. Just load file... Split lines... and every 30 min..just change the text on widget...
But... If widget.kt can't load "compounds.txt" then what would be the next best solution for me?
I am very sorry for my long text. English is not my native language, so it is difficult for me to express myself