pickiness

[Simple_fear85]

Ok everyone here is something that I find very amusing yet frustrating to me. The way I am with my phones I want it to be set a certain way. the screens with certain apps in it. Have any of you ever find yourself always changing the way the screens look every couple days? What i find to myself useless is a clock on the screen when there is also another close on the notification bar. I am simple with my screen layouts, but picky. Anyone have any good ideas or a site where I can go to to give me ideas so I dont find myself always changing it? apps, widgets...ect.

 

[codesplice]

So do you want to find one setup and stick with it forever, or do you want to change it every few days?

If the latter, Themer makes it stupid-simple to completely change the look of your homescreen in just a few seconds. That said, I couldn't use the app long-term as I prefer to manually position all my widgets and shortcuts. I'm much more interested in functionality than appearance.

 

[dan330]

if you don't like the clock get rid of it... from the homescreen.

in most phone sub-forums... there is a thread about: homescreens.
people share their homescreens and how they set it up. you can get a lot of good ideas there. There should be one in your phone's sub-forum.

I also recommend launchers...to help customize more.
I use ADW Launcher.

 

[Simple_fear85]

i like the ideas for launcher its just i dont want a part that is to bloated like the go launcher, and also if i decide to go to a launcher do i lose the disable ability like i have on the kitkat?

 

[Hadron]

A launcher is just an app which provides the homescreens and app drawer. It has no effect on system menus, and hence none on the disable function.

There are many less bloated launchers than Go . I use either Nova or Apex (very similar, I occasionally swap). Funnily enough I do have a clock on my main screen, but I often hide the notifications bar instead (a feature both launchers I've mentioned include).

If you want ideas, there's a huge "post your homescreens" thread in the Android Themes section here, and most device sections have them too. Mycolorscreen.com is a resource for people who want to be arty about it (this is where the Themer app comes from).

 

[funkylogik]

If you use Nova Prime launcher you can hide statusbar on homescreen or (root only i think?) Hide the statusbar clock on homescreen.
For an ultra customisable widget i recommend Zooper Pro :thumbup:

 

[Hadron]

For an ultra customisable widget i recommend Zooper Pro :thumbup:

To give one far from professional example of this, this is my current homescreen:

There are 4 Zooper widgets on that screen: the clock, the date, the status bars and the Music icon (which actually just launches PowerAmp). Just picked this as it shows some of the different things you can do with this one widget.

The status bar is also customised, but is hidden in this image (I use a swipe gesture to show/hide it).

 

[Simple_fear85]

I gotta check this zooper widgets out. i finally came on to an idea and decided to use nova prime launcher. Used it before and loved it. I guess what I was annoyed with the stock launcher was the fact that it had the 5 screens and I only used one. So that is a good thing that the nova launcher let me just use one. and its not bloated either. thanks again guys.

 

[Simple_fear85]

ok i am currently using nova launcher...anyone know of places where i can get icon packs? plus thanks again guys I absolutely love the zooper widgets

 

[codesplice]

ok i am currently using nova launcher...anyone know of places where i can get icon packs? plus thanks again guys I absolutely love the zooper widgets

Knock yourself out: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=nova+icon+pack&c=apps

 

[funkylogik]

Most icon packs will work on nova. There are literally thousands

 

[Clementine_3]

I highly recommend anything from Stealthychief, excellent stuff. I'm using the platinum icon pack and it looks fantastic.

 

[funkylogik]

^ +1

 

[Simple_fear85]

To give one far from professional example of this, this is my current homescreen:

There are 4 Zooper widgets on that screen: the clock, the date, the status bars and the Music icon (which actually just launches PowerAmp). Just picked this as it shows some of the different things you can do with this one widget.

The status bar is also customised, but is hidden in this image (I use a swipe gesture to show/hide it).

Out of curiosity how did you customize the status bar? and other than zooper widget. love zooper widget but want more lol

 

[funkylogik]

Theres UCCW which is similar. I found zooper easier to get into tbh

 

[Simple_fear85]

i tried that and zooper honestly is better. i have the paid version. Ok last question I promise. without rooting is there a way to hide some stuff on the notification bar? I found some apps but they dont seem to work with the droid mini

 

[funkylogik]

What kind of stuff?

 

[Simple_fear85]

battery and time icon

 

[funkylogik]

There are those horrible overlays that youve probably already tried lol but to actually change them youll have to be rooted.
Youre the ideal person that should root. Its the only way to customise everything :thumbup:

 

[Simple_fear85]

I would love to root. I have had my phone rooted many times. This is a new phone and cant find anything on it. I have the motorola droid mini

 

[funkylogik]

Ive never even heard of that lol but im not in the US

 

[Hadron]

Out of curiosity how did you customize the status bar? and other than zooper widget. love zooper widget but want more lol

Customising the status bar requires root.

Some ROMs include options for customising it. Otherwise you can do it by replacing images in the systemUI and framework-res apps (both system apps). There's a website (the "UOT kitchen") which can be used to make these modifications from a menu of options, or for full control you can do it by hand yourself. I've done all three ways, but all of them require root, either to flash a custom ROM or to modify system apps (and you should always take a full system backup before messing system apps, in case you do something wrong).

 

[dan330]

i thought some launchers let you customize the status bar... without root

 

[Hadron]

Now you mention it some do at least have an option to make it transparent - with the caveat that the ROM has to support it, so it won't work for everyone. I've not encountered one that let's you change statusbar icons, etc, but that doesn't mean there isn't one (there are plenty I've not tried ).

 

[Simple_fear85]

nova launcher just hides it. All i want really is to hide the clock from the status bar.