Help Home screen help needed with Car Dock

[wildkitten]

I bought a nice car dock for my S4 that came in today....
iBOLT S Charging Dock for Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 - Android Car Kits & Mounts

Now when I put my phone in it, it does go into car dock mode, but I'm not a fan of it so I prefer to go to the regular home screen, which I figured out. However, the home screen doesn't rotate to landscape mode, and I can't figure out how to make it do so.

Also, the screen still goes off every minute. My Droid Bionic would always have the screen stay on while in the dock and I can't find the settings to make the S4's screen stay on while in the dock as well. I would think there would have to be one as things like GPS and other apps would be useless while driving.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Adara]

My advice -- and I don't think you'll like it -- is to grow to love the iBolt car dock mode. Three reasons for this:

(1) I've never seen a way to get the normal home screen to go into Landscape mode. This is true whether in or out of the dock. (IIRC, the Bionic did that, too.)

(2) It is very customizable.

(3) It has a setting for disabling screen timeout.

I understand your dislike of the iBolt interface. I was right there with you -- and I had it going to the home screen as well for a time. But I've put the apps that I've wanted in there (and messed with the look), and it really DOES do what you want (in terms of landscape and leaving the screen on).

 

[RhysLlewellyn]

You could look into nfc tags which are very cheap programmable stickers.

Stick it in the cradle and use nfc launcher to load whatever you like.. Navigation, music or a dedicated car docking app. The beauty of this approach is you can also make it configure settings such as screen timeout and brightness, wifi off etc. So basically once easily configured all you have to do is put the phone in the dock, the screen timeout will be set to off and brightness up and have navigation ready to go... Or of course any other way you wish to customise it.

Using tasker alongside it makes it a very powerful tool but possibly a bit overkill in this sense.

Lastly, download nova launcher and you'll be able to use the phone in landscape mode on the home screen

 

[wildkitten]

Actually I do use Nova Launcher and I just discovered the rotate home screen feature just a few minutes ago. I never knew was there because the Bionic did it natively.

I also have discovered how to turn on the Developer menu and notice that there is a check box there to have the screen always on. But I will check out that NFC stickers. Where can I find them?

 

[RhysLlewellyn]

Depends where you are, just google nfc stickers. We're talking like a dollar or pound each if you're English.

Can always download nfc task launcher now and see exactly what it can do. It's totally free.

 

[wildkitten]

Depends where you are, just google nfc stickers. We're talking like a dollar or pound each if you're English.

Can always download nfc task launcher now and see exactly what it can do. It's totally free.

Thank you, ill try that.

 

[aviweinberg]

I have an ibolt dock for my s3 as well. I use an app called "Rotation Locker" which flips my home screen (and anything on the screen including apps that are only meant for either portrait or landscape). I have it set up with Tasker so that it auto-rotates when in my dock and my home screen is in landscape, and turns off rotation when out of my dock.