Author Archive

ADW.Launcher 0.7.5 (and hints)

Hey ya everyone!

First, thanks for the constant support and feedback, I know things aren’t “as good” as we wanted them to be, but we’re always facing forward :-)

With the 0.7.5 release on android market, I’d like to explain some of the things that are causing the “usual FC’s” a lot of people are getting.

“The Wallpaper Hack”: (previously “LWP Support”):

History:

On Android 1.6 codename “Donut”, the system wallpaper was directly drawn “inside” the Launcher app. That provided a really smooth scrolling between desktops.

Later, Eclair came up and “invented” a cool feature for the system called WallpaperManager. This thing is a “internal” app that takes care of the wallpapers (static or live wallpapers).

Side Effects:

The WallpaperManager is a great feature, cause App developers don’t need to deal with them, just make their apps TRANSPARENT and the wallpaper is shown. But there a negative side effect on doing that… The app drawing time is slower, meaning slower/choppy/laggy scrolling between desktop screens.

Solutions:

My firsts eclair releases came with an option called “LWP Support”. This option was used to just ignore the WallpaperManager and draw the wallpaper inside the launcher (Donut style) when disabled.

Later came Federico Carnales with LauncherPro beta (awesome work guys), who did an excellent work on just autodetecting if the wallpaper was a static one or a LiveWallpaper one, enabling/disabling the hack on the fly.

The idea seemed great, so i just removed the option on ADW.Launcher 0.7.4 and just autodetect the wallpaper type. But here started (well, not here but now i forced them) some of the bigger issues on ADW.Launcher life… a lot of FC’s!!!

FC’s explanations:

Why a lot of people were getting tons of FC’s and but others none? The 80% of my bug reports are OutOf MemoryErrors, that mean than the system couldn’t allocate memory enough to store the wallpaper (to use it in the hack). Some users (including myself) never have suffered that FC, a lot others have. I have the theory that some of you were using wallpaper pictures just TOO BIG. But that’s just a theory.

On 0.7.5 i tried to avoid some things on doing “the hack”, let’s see if this fixes a few stuff…. but ANYWAY, i added back the option to turn it off (ADWSettings/Screen serttings/Wallpaper Hack)

Conclusion:

If you people still find a lot of FC’s, try disabling the “Wallpaper Hack” (well, first send me logcats etc). If the FC’s stop appearing, at least now you actually know the reason :-)

UPDATE:

Here you guys can download the system replacement version of ADW.Launcher updated to 0.7.5. Like previous releases, i provide 3 different download links. Enjoy!

Download links:

2010
06/01
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
ADW.Launcher
61 comments

Updates and “call for calm”

Hey, I’ve been receiving a lot of cool feature request, and a lot of error reports too, and requests for the “flashable” zips…

I always try to make the more people happy I can, but as the base “user group” grows… my problems grow with them!

Anyway, I’m asking you all for a little patience, I try to fix/add/remove all I can as soon as I can… :-)

Lets do a little briefing here:

  1. If any of you find an error (ForceClose message), I would REALLY appreciate the following:
    1. Download from market (is free) the app “aLogcat“
    2. Try to reproduce the error with ADW.Launcher.
    3. As soon as you get the FC, open aLogcat, click Menu/Level and check “ERROR“.
    4. Now click Menu/More/save log.
    5. Take the log and paste it on http://www.pastebin.com and place a comment here with the link to the pasted log.
    6. That’s all :-)
  2. Lags/speeds/etc: Believe me, I always try to improve this, but i’m not a google engineer… I started programing android only 4 months ago… Anyway, i found the bug causing the extra lag difference between 0.7.1 and 0.7.2 when using “LWP support” OFF. I’ll revert back those changes back in next release.
  3. Droidmod users: I’m gonna release soon another update for  (hopefully) fix their FC’s… but you need to know the truth: Its the ROM’s fault! Seems DroidMod “fools” the system so android apps thinks its an Android 2.1 rom… so it breaks my checks to avoid your FC’s! You should consider changing your rom for a real 2.1 one or a real 2.0.1 one.
  4. Bettercut/other shortcut apps: Since 0.7.2 I support the “receiving” of shortcuts from every app, BUT Bettercut can only EDIT shortcuts from the stock launcher app (com.android.launcher). That’s not anything I can fix, you can use bettercut to CREATE icons, not to EDIT them, sorry.
  5. Requests: Pinch to zoom, two more icons instead the dots, workspace looping…. people ask for a lot of things, and i’ll try to add them as soon as I can… but I’m just a noob, gimme some time please! ;-)
  6. Special bug: There’s a lovely bug (damn, is not lovely at all but… ;-P ) where dockbar icons get messed if you add a shortcut to desktop from ANY app (inside browser bookmarks, longclick one and select “add to home screen”, or adding one with bettercut, etc). If you rotate your phone once, dockbar icons recover their positions. So if you find anytime your dockbar icons messed, just rotate your phone once (or kill it from settings and load it again) at least until i fix myself the error. Thanks ;-)

Now for the “system” version (the flashable zips).

I’m gonna refresh my github repo just as I finish this post, BUT actually this is a MESS for me as i have now 3 different branches and I am very new to git… so I usually work only on 1 branch and then try to “manually mirror” the code changes to the other ones….

This is NOT the correct way to do this…. so it takes ages to make all of the branches “in sync”… I’m on it guys, any help on git, hints, tips, instructions…. would be VERY appreciated ;-)

Ok, that’s the end :P

Thanks everyone for your support

And thanks google for their AWESOME market stats….. i hate them!

2010
05/30
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
ADW.Launcher
53 comments

ADW.Launcher 0.7.1

I’ve uploaded a little bugfix upgrade to the Android Market.

Fixed:

  • Hopefully bettercut icons issue is fixed now…
  • When the “hide statusbar” option is enabled, clicking menu/notifications will show it again instead the “hole”
  • A dirty redrawing infinite-loop inside the applications grid (the horizontal one).

Added:

  • Now the configuration “Desktop overshoot” has more effect on desktop scrolling. Previously was only used to allow a little bounce effect on first/last screens. Now it bounces on all screens. Set it to 0 to disable.

Sorry for the lack of updates on the “flashable zips”, i’m getting crazy with my lack of git knowledge about working with a lot of branchs and trying not duplicate my efforts. If anyone knows a good tutorial on cherry-picking… send me a link!!!

Thanks again!

UPDATE: Seems Bettercut messes some things badly with my dockbar, and still can’t get to add shortcuts to my launcher…. sorry guys i’ll make further investigations on this…

On a side note, I’ve found my preferred desktop setup:

  • Desktop scrolling speed: about 750.
  • Desktop overshoot: 40

I’m loving it!!! I think i’m gonna make it default for next updates :-)

2010
05/28
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
ADW.Launcher
57 comments

ADW.Launcher 0.7 final on Market!

image

I need some time to update my github, take some screenshots, graphics and make this post a little better, but for now just a quick note :-)
Spread it! You can use it on non rooted phones too!

And the Market version comes with 2 new features:
-Change size of LAB/RAB in settings
-Hide/Show shortcut icon labels on desktop!

2010
05/28
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
ADW.Launcher
31 comments

ADW.Launcher 0.7rc3 out!

Well, a few bugs fixed (I’m sure a lot of new bugs introduced :P ) so i can release version 0.7rc3 for Eclair….. and Froyo!

Warning: i’ve only changed the search widget (cause that is what was causing fc’s and other annoyances under Froyo) but still has a few caveats… so please READ all the following release notes.

  • If you try to run this inside a rooted Froyo phone you need to FLASH IT from recovery. Some people hav warned me about being unable to “adb push” it…
  • Changing some “ADWsettings” will warn about restarting the launcher. Froyo WON’T restart it (they’ve changed the api) so if you find it acting weird, restart it manually from android application manager
  • I cannot test it on Froyo cause I have no Froyo atm!!!! If you have some hints to share… please do it! :-)

Ok, if you’ve already read and UNDERSTOOD all of the above, feel free to try it on your Froyo rooted phone and send me some feedback :-)
Everyone else (Eclair users) this is just like rc2, you can flash or extract the apk and adb push it… whatever.

And a sad note for this version: I removed the “multiple pages scrolling” from the horizontal app drawer (Galaxy S style drawer)… now you only can scroll 1 page at a time… sorry but it was causing a lot of problems… I don’t know if I’ll re-add that feature again in the future, so if anyone want to contribute with code… you’re all welcome!

I’ve uploaded 3 packages for you to choose, like with rc2.

Download links:

Enjoy!

2010
05/25
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
ADW.Launcher
TAGS

32 comments

Bugs :-)

On v0.7rc2 there’s a bug when disabling “drawer animations”, till I fix it you should turn “drawer animations” ON.

Thanks for your patience :-)

2010
05/24
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
ADW.Launcher
TAGS


Comments Off

ADW.Launcher 0.7rc2 out!


Hi guys, it’s been a hard one this time…. EVERYONE asking me to “implement” (i wish they knew about the real meaning of such petitions) the awesome effects shown inside LauncherPro (really guys, give it a try it’s on the android market and it’s free).

I managed to reproduce the app-drawer “zoom” fadein-fadeout, although is NOT as smooth and visually pleasant as LauncherPro one ;-) I don’t have much javandroid knowledge about using the different drawing methods (canvas, clips, regions, etc) and i couldn’t see LauncherPro source code (it’s not opensource as far as i know) so i ended  doing it the best i could by “try and error” approaches.

I’m fixed some other things (and I’m sure others have been broken :P) so if you want mor information, head to the Changelog page or my Github site.

Also I’ve updated some PNGs from Bakageta (thanks again!!!) so now the default theme is much more Froyo-like… I’m sure a lot of people will be pissed, others will be happy… sorry, I cannot make everyone happy ;-) (and you have Metamorph so….)

One IMPORTANT note:

This time I’m releasing 3 different zip files:

  • An MDPI only version for people running G1/MyTouch3G who are low on /system/ space and don’t want wasting it with hdpi drawables.
  • The normal MDPI/HDPI version for everyone (or almost everyone)
  • A NEW build for people having problems installing it cause of different ROM signatures (read here and here if you need more information)

And for now on, i’m gonna do ONLY bugfix for this so i can concentrate on porting all this new features inside donut version, so don’t ask for… well…. i should say quiet :-)

Download links:

2010
05/24
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
ADW.Launcher
8 comments

Welcome mate!

SorryI’ve been hacking a few things from Android just for enjoying more my own phone (a HTC Magic/MyTouch 3G 32B), but as some friends found them useful, I’m glad to share them just in case anyone else like them. Have fun with them :)

If you’re NOT a experienced android user (rooting, flashing, nandroid, etc) better go away, take some further reading and then come back if you want, cause things here usually are not meant for non-experienced users and may destroy your phone, even your social life. :)

2010
05/21
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
Comments Off