Home Replacement Apps: ADW Launcher

[Bilgediver]

wow 1.3.3 already?

that redraw fix should apply to whatever homescreen is your default homescreen, it shouldn't matter if you install a new one, apply a new homescreen, or even upgrade your existing homescreen.

Well each upgrade supposedly is to help keep those fcings from happening even more.
I just got the notice myself now. I haven't gotten fcings myself though.

 

[MattyP]

wow 1.3.3 already?

that redraw fix should apply to whatever homescreen is your default homescreen, it shouldn't matter if you install a new one, apply a new homescreen, or even upgrade your existing homescreen.

Well each upgrade supposedly is to help keep those fcings from happening even more.
I just got the notice myself now. I haven't gotten fcings myself though.

I've never had a single FC since I installed the app... but I jumped in headfirst, I just hit update... I'll let you know after I tinker with it.

 

[Bilgediver]

That's good your comfortable enough to tinker

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[MattyP]

OK here goes... I updated to 1.3.3 and I have noticed a couple things since the upgrade that didn't happen before.

1) The theme I am using does not survive a reboot of my phone. After powering the phone up it reverts back to the "Default ADW Theme". It may be a setting I don't know about, but it didn't happen before. Since I have ADW settings and desktop configuration backed up, I can fix it with a restore, albeit a pain in the butt every time I reboot my phone. Also, if I restore the ADW settings and desktop configuration, when I tap the home button the screen stays blank (with wallpaper) until I tap home again, then it goes to my default screen.

2) When I hit the home button to bring up the previews of all my screens, the first time there is a noticeable lag before it brings them up. Not AS BAD as before I did the terminal emulator command that was posted in an earlier reply, but it is noticeable, and it is only on the FIRST time I tap the home button. If I tap the home button after that first time it's pretty speedy. If I let the phone sit, screen off, for 5 or 10 minutes, that first time I tap the home button there is that same noticeable lag, but only the first time. It's like it's slow waking up when the phone wakes up.

3) On my Droid 2 I use the Dolphin HD browser as my internet browser, just my personal preference. I also prefer the default Dolphin Browser icon over the icon with the theme I am using. The ADW theme I am using is a basic "blue" theme, a free one, with a really cool blue dockbar. So I changed the browser icon on my dockbar from the theme icon to the regular Dolphin icon, however, if I reboot the phone, the icon is gone, and it's replaced with a little blue "screen" with a gear at the bottom right of it. If I go into themes preferences and deselect "use theme icons", it still does the same thing on a reboot.

Some of these "bugs" are possibly easily fixed in settings that I dont know about, and I am not certain that it's ADW or the theme I am using that causes the issues, but they didn't occur until I upgraded to 1.3.3.

But it is STILL one of my favorite apps since I bought the phone.

 

[Bilgediver]

It would have to depend on the maker of that theme.

If you try out y0rk's White theme it works out quite well. I just applied his theme (he is a member of these forums, actually, and is helping out other ADW Theme devs to update their themes to apply well with 1.3+ of ADW), and it survived a reboot. Just to inform you y0rk has kept his updated for the latest version of ADW.

His theme doesn't automatically apply an app drawer icon anymore (none of them might), however you can create a custom shortcut on your home screen to "open app drawer", and when you click on the icon to change it, his icon pack has loads of icons!

I really like his theme now, and I'm currently using it.

I'll get together a FAQ/Guide for 1.3+ (I think .1, .2, and .3 didn't change much, just helped fix some coding a bit, .3 only seemed to add one settings change)

 

[MattyP]

It would have to depend on the maker of that theme.

If you try out y0rk's White theme it works out quite well. I just applied his theme (he is a member of these forums, actually, and is helping out other ADW Theme devs to update their themes to apply well with 1.3+ of ADW), and it survived a reboot.

His theme doesn't automatically apply an app drawer icon anymore (none of them might), however you can create a custom shortcut on your home screen to "open app drawer", and when you click on the icon to change it, his icon pack has loads of icons!

I really like his theme now, and I'm currently using it.

I'll get together a FAQ/Guide for 1.3+ (I think .1, .2, and .3 didn't change much, just helped fix some coding a bit, .3 only seemed to add one settings change)

y0rk is the maker of this blue theme. And yes I did a custom shortcut for the app drawer button, and selected an icon that I liked for it. That icon survives a reboot, it's only the Dolphin browser button that doesn't. But when I "restore" the settings and desktop configuration in ADW settings everything is fine. And as I said it does it whether I select "Use theme icons" or not.

And here is an interesting twist. On one of my screens I have 3 Dolphin bookmarks as shortcuts on the screen. Two of them are weather radar websites, the third one is a shortcut to Nascar.com. On reboot, the Nascar.com shortcut turns to the little blue screen with the gear. The other two are fine and have the red icon with a star. But again, if I "restore" in ADW settings, the red icon with the star returns. Don't know why all 3 don't do that, it's only that one icon and all three are created the same way, long press, shortcuts, Dolphin bookmarks.

 

[Bilgediver]

Oh ok weird, maybe we can get y0rk here and see if he knows.

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[MattyP]

OK I tried something just for grins and ha-ha's... just to see what would happen.

I went into ADW settings, and set the dockbar to have ONE icon (the app drawer)

I rebooted the phone. Again, it reverted back to the default ADW theme, but the app drawer icon I selected stayed intact. So I went into settings again and selected five dockbar buttons. When I tapped home to look at it, the same icons were there that were there before, and again, the Dolphin icon was the blue screen with the gear. So I went into the app drawer, dragged the Dolphin icon to the dockbar again, changed the theme again, and backed up my settings. Until it gets figured out I just have to restore settings and configuration if I reboot my phone. The Dolphin icon isn't that big of a deal. I just can't figure out why the theme doesn't stick... I went through a ton of themes and this was the only one I like LOL

But I still LOVE the app LOL dancedroid

 

[Bilgediver]

Ditto!
However I haven't had any issues personally, I actually installed y0rk's Red theme, love it!

 

[MattyP]

I'd be happy if I could just figure out why the theme doesn't stick. I can live without the Dolphin icon, but if I could get the them to stick I'd be happy as a clam... LOL

Which gives me an idea... I'm gonna try something. BRB

Can you tell I love to tinker? LOL

 

[Bilgediver]

Well that's awesome! The more knowledgeble ADW users out there, the better

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[MattyP]

OK it gets weirder... I downloaded another theme called "Fluxed" (not from y0rk's collection)

I went into ADW theme preferences, selected the new theme, and rebooted the phone. When it returned, the theme was intact, and again the Dolphin icon was the blue screen with the gear.

Then I went into ADW restore, and I restored the settings and desktop configuration. Here's where it gets weird.

The green color background was intact from the "Fluxed" theme, but the dockbar was the one from y0rk's "blue" theme. It mixed the two themes. And the Dolphin bookmark was back. I suddenly started hearing Twilight Zone music LOL So I took a screenshot of it...

It still doesn't tell me definitively if the issues are with ADW or the themes themselves. I dunno. I really like y0rk's blue theme LOL

 

[MattyP]

And I think I have narrowed down the Dolphin icon issue to the theme itself... I went into ADW settings and selected the default ADW theme. I put the Dolphin icon back on the dockbar and I rebooted the phone and the icon survived the reboot. I am still using one of y0rk's cool blue wallpapers, but I don't have the cool blue dockbar from his "Blue Theme". The app drawer icon also stayed intact. Oh well, it's no biggie. Hope this info didn't clutter up your thread, hopefully it will help other ADW users.

 

[OldguyMark]

LOL - I did the 1.3.3 upgrade and now all is fine, smooth and cool - God only knows what goes on with these phones

I'm not as cool as you guys - I'm running a stock 2.2 D1 - I'm not running any themes yet, I'm just building my own look - picking my own wallpaper, using Bettercut with about 5 different icon packs along with using my own photos and Photoshop Elements to make my own icons ....

Have 5 icons in the tray - 4 of them custom, haven't got to the center one yet. Have 7 screens, but only 8 apps up so far along with 5 widgets ... slowly playing and adding and testing.

I believe my FC issue was mostly caused by having 3 different launchers installed without having one set as default ... if played with one a lot then jumped to ADW it would sometimes lock up and FC. I dumped LP today, did some clean up ... if I put the phone to sleep in ADW, then wake it up again I have no FC problem and all is fast and smooth ....

Who knows

2 cents

 

[Bilgediver]

I don't use bettercut, but the custom shortcut option in ADW allows you to use any custom icon you want

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