One week noob questions

[barth2]

Hi

I come from the land down under. No! Not Aus, iOS ☺. N7 is my first android device.

My questions

1/ is there a system wide invert colors? In iOS, this is done by pressing home three times. I see nothing under settings / accessibility

2/ I can't find an invert color option for chrome either. If it ever had it, it was removed.

(My eyes are bothered by white background. I much prefer to read light text on dark background, programmer style)

3/ for that matter, I can't find any browser on android with this feature. Dolphin has a night mode plugin, but it makes everything so dark and low contrast I feel like I need night vision goggles to see .

4/ can I make the caret bolder and easier to see?

5/ how do I back up locally? I don't trust cloud backup. I want to backup on my schedule, create checkpoints. Also, constant upload to cloud sounds like a huge battery drain! This may be great on desktop connected by Ethernet, not so much WiFi mobile device.

6/ there is an app currently free while in beta. I want to uninstall it for now to save space. But at some point I may want to use it. Will the store remember that I "bought" this free beta version and let me download it again? Can I save it somehow?

7/ are there cool hidden system wide gestures? Particularly something to alternate between two apps without going through app switcher.

Thanks in advance.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums.
Some custom ROMs have a dark theme to them, but even if you had that, I don't think that will override apps like chrome.

 

[SactoKingsFan]

There is no system wide inverted setting. The stock android browser has the option to switch to inverted.

If rooted, you can use titanium to back up your device. There's also an option to back up everything from within TWRP (recovery).

The play store keeps a list of apps you've installed. Purchased apps can be installed without having to buy the app again.

Switching back and forth between apps is pretty easy by going to recent apps.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[barth2]

Thanks. However if by stock android browser you mean chrome, the option does not exist. At least not on nexus 7/2013 kit Kat 4.4.2

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[SactoKingsFan]

No, I don't mean Chrome. Try Android browser from the play store. It has the inverted option.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[someguy01234]

Hi

1/ is there a system wide invert colors? In iOS, this is done by pressing home three times. I see nothing under settings / accessibility

2/ I can't find an invert color option for chrome either. If it ever had it, it was removed.

(My eyes are bothered by white background. I much prefer to read light text on dark background, programmer style)

3/ for that matter, I can't find any browser on android with this feature. Dolphin has a night mode plugin, but it makes everything so dark and low contrast I feel like I need night vision goggles to see ��.

Looks like you know your stuff already to ask those questions since most of them can't be done without root or custom roms. I still don't know why there is no invert color option for Android, maybe iOS patent it but that's too common of a feature.

You can check out these discontinued custom rom flashable dark gapps. Since you're new to Android, basically custom roms like CyanogenMod can't be redistribute with proprietary google apps (I think they can now through Oppo device? but that's a different topic). The user is allowed to install the google apps though. You have to 'flash' these gapps zip files to your device running a custom rom using a "custom recovery".

You could simply download the zip package and extract the APK files inside, which are the actual apps, which then you can 'sideload' to your phone. But I find that most of them don't work unless placed in /system/app folder, which needs root, hence they are meant to be flashed as a whole package using custom recovery.

There is a downside to this, well beside having to figure out how to setup custom recovery and flashing roms and voiding your warranty in the process, then it's up to you to trust using a non-official version of the apps. Also when there is a new version of the app available it will be updated back to the regular non-theme version. You could however, use a root app called Titanium Backup Pro version which have the feature to disconnect the app from the PlayStore so it no longer get updates.

So yeah, a lot of work around and not practical, I wouldn't recommend it. There are custom roms like AOKP and SlimRoms which have dark feature (possible not yet available in latest 4.4 version maybe, but should be for 4.3), but it doesn't change the way third party apps look either. There are apps on the Playstore that can put color filters over your screen as well.

Edit: Firefox have a 'reading' mode, but you have to manually set it. Naked Browser (my browser of choice), use javascript to turn pages into night mode, although this isn't exactly a perfect solution. I tried inverted mode with AOSP browser, but it didn't seem to work, likely an issue with KitKat.

4/ can I make the caret bolder and easier to see?

I don't think you can do anything about it, I would guess the caret is a value inside an xml file within the framework-res.apk or systemui.apk of Android. Just a guess, I don't really know.

5/ how do I back up locally? I don't trust cloud backup. I want to backup on my schedule, create checkpoints. Also, constant upload to cloud sounds like a huge battery drain! This may be great on desktop connected by Ethernet, not so much WiFi mobile device.

You're out of luck because when you log into Google account on Android it autosync, unless you manually disable it, even then I haven't found it to be a problem. I guess it depends on how much Google services you use. I only use a few like Google Music which let me upload my entire music collection and steam it.. You can use SynkerForce Widget to force manual sync.

I use Helium to backup apps settings, it can backup the app's APK files too if you enable it. To use it without root, you need to install the companion PC app to make it work. Titanium Backup can do backups too and with lots more features, but you need root. Super Backup is another good one that need root, but much easier to use than Titanium Backup.

6/ there is an app currently free while in beta. I want to uninstall it for now to save space. But at some point I may want to use it. Will the store remember that I "bought" this free beta version and let me download it again? Can I save it somehow?

It's up to the developer, if the dev decided to charge money for it once they come out with a stable release, it's their choice. Generally, if they say it's only free in beta, then it mean they'll charge when its stable, or they'll have "in app purchases". In the Playstore app, in the My Apps window, the ALL tab remember everything you downloaded (in extremely crappy organization method of sorting by date installed only and lumping both purchased and free apps all in one).

There is actually a hidden "beta" or testing channel to the PlayStore and that can opt-in if certain developers make it available.

As for saving the app, you can use ES File Explorer (or other apps) to backup the "apk" file of the app and sideload it later. I won't go into too much details, but let just say it only work for backing up free apps, not apps you purchased (and even if you can, apps still required license checking to work).

7/ are there cool hidden system wide gestures? Particularly something to alternate between two apps without going through app switcher.

With third party apps, you can look at LMT Launcher for gesture navigation. There are good app switcher apps like Sidebar you can find on the market. Paranoid Android rom have something called Halo:
Paranoid Android's HALO - Overview - YouTube.

 

[mrsmumbles]

Halo looks cool.

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[gamoses]

In so frustrated at the lack of inverted colors! What possible reason is there for removing a useful feature??