[Q] Home launcher - Xperia Z2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey,
I've been playing around with my Z2 now for around two weeks and It's all good excluding the screen digitizer reflections that are visible in bright lights.
Anyway, to the point. The home launcher seems to be rotating only when connected to the docking station and not while in hand. I heard that there are mods or apps that make it auto rotate when holding in hand too, but some how i couldn't find any proper apps for the 4.4.2 launcher.
Other thing that is bothering me a bit is the responsiveness of the launcher. When i press the home button it takes like a second to respond (actually show the launcher). Same goes with the open apps button. Takes a while to open. I wonder if this is a software issue Sony is going to fix or not.
I don't see any real reason why it takes so long for the home launcher to open since switching from other apps to apps is instant.

Related

[Q] Switching between home screens

Sorry this is such a noobish question to start off with but I'm having trouble finding a feature I stumbled across a few days ago. Obviously to move between home screens you swipe left and right and pressing the home key from the main screen displays all 5 (swiping up from the bottom of the screen also does this).
The display I saw was a minimized view of each page, each a bit larger than when you're viewing all 5 at once, but only one was viewable on screen at a time and you could swipe left or right to see the others. I've no idea how I got in to that and I can't find any combination of controls to get back to it. I also can't see any purpose to it but it was definitely a deliberate feature and not a bug or glitch.
Can anyone shed any light on that please?
I believe that would be a bug.. there are several homescreen bugs I encounterd with my razr but all tolerable for me..
Case 1:
Slightly tilted diagonally homescreen when swiping left and right..
Case 2:
Minimize view (5 displays) also all screen tilted diagonally...
Maybe we can consider your scenario as a 3rd case..
The screen you see when you tap the home button twice (when already at the middle /primary home screen)?
Sent from my DROID RAZR using XDA App
This sounds interesting, but i'm not sure what you want this for?
Is it like when you see all the home screens, but more zoomed in?
For what its worth, i've been hitting the keys, trying to get to something like this, but no luck..
Yeah I can't fathom any purpose for it... The best I can describe it is like viewing a zoomed out version of each page on your home screen. The same widgets and icons are there, you can flick left and right, 1 page displays at a time but it didn't seem like you could do anything useful from that view.
I thought it may have been a deliberate feature but any combination of buttons or gestures won't reproduce it on my RAZR so I guess it was a bug. It seemed completely deliberate though, it wasn't distorted or glitchy... It was somewhat like on samsungs touchwiz (galaxy s II for example) when you can add in widgets and shortcuts from a zoomed out view of each page except all you had was the zoomed out view and no discernible function.
Thanks for the advice though.
I figured it out.
Sometimes, when you are dragging between the homescreens, and press home at the same time, you will get strange zoomed versions of the home screens, and sometimes it was zoomed out, exactly as you describe.
However, i mostly got a heavily zoomed in version or crooked one.
Just try again and again, and you will see a lot of strange things, and eventually the one you describe

[Q] Stock launcher not smooth?

Am i the only one who notices that the stock launcher when going between homescreens is not very smooth? I seem to have to move my finger about 2 inches before it starts "turning the page" as it were, and then its very jittery going between the screens. Has anyone else noticed this?
what can i do to fix it?
You shouldn't have to "move your finger" at all. Just touching the edges of the screen moves between the different home screens.
As for general sluggishness: What apps are you running? Are you using a live wallpaper? How many widgets do you have active? What power mode are you running?
I haven't had any severe jitter or sluggishness, but I found that certain live wall papers made my Prime noticeably slower when switching home screens. Certain widgets also made things sluggish. Since turning them off made things run smooth I can only assume that some downloadable widgets and wallpapers just aren't optimized very well.
Just reverted back to stock and its nice and smooth. will have to monitor what apps i install, widgets i use, etc. to see whats causing it.
I like sliding between screens instead of tapping the edges to flip pages... used to it from using my phone.
hopefully i can track down whats causing the lag i was experiencing.
As to the setup i had:
Asus weather widget
Asus task manager widget
Asus date widget
One page dedicated for games, like 20 shortcuts for games
one page dedicated for other apps, maybe 15-20 shortcuts to apps
always in performance mode, why bother reducing speed when the battery lasts longer than i need anyways?

[Q] Question about screen sensitivity

I am not sure if this is a common issue (I searched with no results), but my US 5.0 is far too sensitive as far as the screen goes. When I am trying to scroll it usually makes a selection instead of scrolling.
For example, if I want to scroll through My Apps in the Market or on Amazon's App Store instead of scrolling it selects whichever app my finger is on whenever I begin the scrolling motion. It forces me to constantly have to use the 'back' key.
Thumb Keyboard doesn't work very well either. I don't know if it is a compatibility issue or if it is related to my screen issue.
I know that screen sensitivity is a big factor in product design, but mine is ridiculously over the top.
CreekDirt said:
I am not sure if this is a common issue (I searched with no results), but my US 5.0 is far too sensitive as far as the screen goes. When I am trying to scroll it usually makes a selection instead of scrolling.
For example, if I want to scroll through My Apps in the Market or on Amazon's App Store instead of scrolling it selects whichever app my finger is on whenever I begin the scrolling motion. It forces me to constantly have to use the 'back' key.
Thumb Keyboard doesn't work very well either. I don't know if it is a compatibility issue or if it is related to my screen issue.
I know that screen sensitivity is a big factor in product design, but mine is ridiculously over the top.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine will select stuff on it's own from time to time. Especially when I'm holding my finger over the home button or something it'll detect a press right on the screen right above the button. I've learned to live with it.
You might wanna look into an alternate keyboard too, I use swiftkey and it allows you to calibrate the keyboard and customize it greatly.
I solved my screen sensitivity issue by rebooting the player.. I got to thinking about it and realized that I had never rebooted since originally getting the player.
I am trying swiftkey x right now and it is definitely a lot better. I downloaded it a long time ago on my Xoom.

How useful is the 2nd. screen on the LG V10? What do you use yours for?

Hi
I've been considering the LG V10 and wanted to hear from the XDA community on how useful the 2nd screen actually was. Is the second screen more than a novelty? What do you use yours for? What apps can utilize the 2nd screen? How often do you use the 2nd. screen and how does it effect battery life?Screen caps would be welcome.
It's a useful novelty, I wish they would have bumped up the front facing cameras and gave us the option to have a 5.9 inch screen. Useful for checking time w/out unlocking phone as we as being able to change songs w/out unlocking especially useful while driving
I really enjoy the lack of notification cards on the main screen. The past few phones I've had (Note 5, Nexus 6, S6 Edge) have all had the Lollipop style cards that block way too much of the screen. With this phone, the notifications just go to the secondary screen so you can keep focus on what you're doing but still be able to see it. Also, the music controls have been amazing so far and it makes it so much easier as you don't have to pull the shade or switch apps to change tracks or pause (Noticing a trend here lol?). And finally, I use it for having favorite contacts set up (similar to the only good concept of the edge IMO). Hope this helps, so far I love this phone!
I am loving the second screen and find it very useful.
For shortcuts I have tapatalk, chrome, maps, camera and settings.
I love that it also has the 5 most recent apps. I came from a note 2 and waiting for long press for the recent apps was a pain! Of course this phone has a button for that anyway but I still like having them just sitting up there.
I am also using the contact shortcuts to try to replace my direct dial and text shortcuts I had on my home screens. I'm still trying to get used to that.
I definitely like that the date and time is always showing so I can check without waking the phone.
I also recently discovered that if I swipe over to the left when the main screen is sleeping there are shortcuts for the camera, flashlight, Wi-Fi toggle and sound /vibrate toggle.
I love it.
So far I think I'm using the app shortcuts the most.
Sent from my LG-H901 using Tapatalk
BTW guys, not exactly related to the secondary-screen alone but how is the "alt-tab" performance; toggling between recent apps?
Say you cycle between the 5 recent apps; do they pop-up just immediately without any delay and at the exact point where you have left the app? (i.e. a web page doesn't reload, Twitter doesn't refresh like you are opening the app for the first time).
So far I really like the second screen. I keep having an issue where my Hangouts keep showing up as the big banner across the screen (sms seems to show on the secondary though). I also with when the screen was off it would show the whole notification, not just the icon. It would also be nice to choose how long the notification stayed on the second screen. I feel like it pops up and goes away so fast.
I wish the quick contacts could be set as direct dial. I will never use on of those icons to text. I need quick to just dial the primary contacts I have.
Two words: Spotify controls.
Spotify's lock widget was awful, and it always frustrated me that I had to unlock the phone to restart a song. Now I don't even have to turn the lock screen on to do it. This alone made love the second screen.
I thought it might be gimmicky, but I like using it to switch between apps and the music control is nice.
tersagun said:
BTW guys, not exactly related to the secondary-screen alone but how is the "alt-tab" performance; toggling between recent apps?
Say you cycle between the 5 recent apps; do they pop-up just immediately without any delay and at the exact point where you have left the app? (i.e. a web page doesn't reload, Twitter doesn't refresh like you are opening the app for the first time).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally yes, the ram management is very good
I find it useful. Even if u don't plan in using it shouldn't be a bother.
App switching is better, faster since you don't have to flip through cards. I always preferred the old school Android where it just showed the app icons of previous apps
Google Now cards flash with basketball game scores without interrupting whatever I'm doing.
Same with calls. They show up on the second screen.

Onscreen navigation bar feels somewhat broken.

I actually like the stock launcher/UI, it is amazingly clean and while I miss several key Nova Launcher capabilities I am trying to stick with it for natural theme options, etc. Clearly the launcher was designed for gesture navigation, something I have always found quite repulsive even with nicely done variations we have seen over the years. The typical Samsung style three icon onscreen navigation icons work 'fairly well', but they are buggy. (I wish I could swap the outside buttons around, but...)
In games, they do what they are supposed to do - slip away entirely unless you brush them back up with a minor swipe. The problem is that they don't go away in most apps otherwise - which they kinda should. Even if they simply barged their way onto the screen transparently, it wouldn't be so bad (although they are an ignorant shove to any other existing lower control mechanism). In some apps they may even be necessary, although I thought it was sorted out a long time ago that if they weren't onscreen, there would be a generalized triple dot alternative in the upper right of whatever you were doing.
The biggest problem of them all is that regardless of theme, battery dark settings, or any options to do with navigation or the home screen, this navigation bar is sometimes not only glaringly white against an otherwise well sorted out 'dark theme', there are many apps I load up where they aren't just white - the icons themselves turn perfectly white as well.
On any other device I have owned in recent times (and let's assume they were all on custom roms), even if you had actual hardware touch buttons (like my last daily, a 1st gen OPO) you could always enable onscreen navigation buttons. They would slip away by themselves in nearly any app or game you could possibly run.
Opera is a perfect example of every problem I have listed at its worst - they barge in, they are blindingly white, and the icons are white as well. Opera already has a rather beefy UI bar on the bottom, so this ends up quite broken. Will Nova Launcher solve these issues for me? Are we at a point where we can even use Nova Launcher without several nasty traps snapping shut when it comes to recent apps, orientation, etc?
As I said, with the app drawer enabled I like the stock launcher. I just want navigation buttons that behave. Am I missing anything or is the implementation of this kinda broken even though the protocols for this have been sorted out several generations of Android ago?

Categories

Resources