Launcher Rotation

[liteon163]

As soon as I got my LG Spectrum back in February, I changed the launcher. I've been using Launcher Pro since then. It works quite well, but I've been having issues with its screen not always rotating when I switched from portrait to landscape.

All I had to do is pull down the notification bar and hit the rotation button. Then it would work right for awhile, but never all day.

I thought it might have been caused by Launcher Pro, so today I switched over to Go Launcher EX. After a reboot, wouldn't you know it started doing the same thing all over again.

After thinking on it, perhaps the problem is really being caused by my home screen widgets. I have Beautiful Widgets and the S2 Calendar widget (2x1) running. I also noticed that screen rotation sometimes locks up after an incoming text message triggers Handcent's popup.

So, short of getting rid of my widgets, anyone have any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks

Sent from my LG Spectrum using Tapatalk

 

[finndo77]

Been talking about this elsewhere, Android forums I believe, I have the same issue, tried go, launcher pro and adw, but none of the other apps you mention, same fix too. I have not had it in a day or so, maybe not since I flashed the ROM from that other forum. I'll keep an eye out and see if I still have issues.

Sent from my rooted LG Spectrum on Broken out ROM 1.0! via tapatalk..

 

[liteon163]

Cool. Thanks.

Maybe the eventual ICS update will fix this. And then I'll be trying Nova Launcher...

Sent from my LG Spectrum using Tapatalk

 

[liteon163]

Go launcher EX seems to do this less often than Launcher Pro. And it frequently seems to be connected to the pop-up from Handcent SMS. Occasionally it seems to be caused by Beautiful Widgets not wanting to rotate.

Like I said, I'll just wait to see what happens with ICS...

 

[finndo77]

I have only had this issue once since my last post here, and it was in dolphin mini browser two days ago

Sent from my rooted LG Spectrum via tapatalk..

 

[magoxr]

I use adw ex with appwidget picker at it works great!

Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk

 

[Isaiah.Israel]

SPB shell ftw! I used GO since I've owned a smartphone which has been 10 months. But I've tried a lot along the way. Launcher pro, Regina 3d pro (paid version), MX, 7, ADW (paid version), GO, and SPB shell.

I have found that SPB runs absolutely amazing on the spectrum, so it has become my new favorite. It just takes awhile to setup the way you want it. I don't really care for it out of the box much.

GO is by far the most customizable and is probably still my favorite launcher. Regina is fun for a couple days but still needs a lot of work but I think it will be an amazing launcher one day. I think ADW, 7, and MX are crap. I regret ever buying ADW. Launcher pro has been forsaken by its dev and hasn't had an update in a year almost. I go back to ADW and try it every so often but to me it's never better and lacks many features I grew to love in GO.

But for me me right now SPB is the best because it's the only launcher i've used on my spectrum that never lags. Always runs super smooth and it's operation has been flawless in the week I've been using it.

 

[Isaiah.Israel]

BTW! I've only experienced the rotation issue one time. That was when I was on mtmichaelson's rom and running GO. Don't know if that means anything but I do believe it was while i was in landscape mode and got a text and tried to flip to portrait and it wouldn't go. I just closed what I was doing and it finally flipped back.

 

[liteon163]

SPB may be nice, but I can't see spending that much money on a launcher...

I'm hoping that once we get ICS we'll be able to run vanilla. Or at the very least Nova Launcher. I'd like a launcher with the ability to customize the dock, the number of home screens, and the number of rows/columns. Keeping it simple and lightweight beyond that should really help it fly.

Sent from my LG Spectrum using Tapatalk

 

[Isaiah.Israel]

GO can customize the dock. You can go from 1 to 3 dock rows and change the icons. you can also change the dock background. of course GO can also give you anything from one to however many homescreens. So we already have a launcher that can do all that.

And yes SPB shell is expensive and it really should be cheaper. Maybe around 5 dollars. I don't get these devs that put so much money on their apps because they actually make less money because of all the people that will never buy their app because of the price. yes, SPB has had like 50,000 or more downloads and at 15 dollars a pop thats not bad money but I think if these devs would charge only, say, one or two dollars, then millions would download them if they are good apps, because word of mouth would create a want. If you do the math then you are talking about millions of dollars rather than 750,000.

 

[liteon163]

I just emailed the SPB Shell 3D people asking if there was a way I could buy their product with the assurance I could have up to about a week to get my money back if need be. We'll see what happens...

Go Launcher EX is bogging down on my already. Emptying out the cache on some of my apps helps, but not too much. Considering this phone's got a dual core processor, I would expect much quicker performance than I get sometimes. Maybe it's just the kernel not ramping up as quickly as I'd like, but still...

I'll keep playing around a bit to see how well I can get the phone to work. I really have high hopes for our eventual ICS update, though.

 

[Isaiah.Israel]

I've never had GO itself lag on me but certain themes can cause that. Or even certain apps. But GO itself has always been a great launcher for me and runs very smooth. One thing I recommend you try is v6 supercharger. I've used it for the past month and It's very good. You can lock your launcher and other apps into memory and it will make everything faster. I've used it with great success and even made a custom script which always allows me to have around 300-400 MB of ram free and my launcher never redraws.

go over to xda and read up on v6 and I think you'll be impressed. even more so once you try it out.

 

[liteon163]

I'll eventually check into v6 supercharger...

In the meantime, here's what SPB had to say:

Thank you for your message and interest in SPB Software.

Unfortunately, the only way to install SPB Shell 3D is from the Android market. However, you can try the app and ask for full refund if you didn’t like it in less than 15 min. Please refer to Android market policy for more information, but as an exception you can contact us in order you decide to apply for refund.

Feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions. You can always refer to this ticket using this link: EDITED OUT

Best regards,
Technical Support
SPB Software


I'm still not sure I want to try SPB Shell 3D, though. In the videos I've seen it looks like the launcher is way fancier than it needs to be, like they're just trying to show off what they can do. And there are a few other things I'm just not sure I could get used to.

I find it somewhat humorous, though, that they think 15 minutes is enough time for most users to make up their minds when clearly 15 minutes isn't even enough time to customize the launcher...

 

[liteon163]

I've checked a bit into v6 supercharger. Sounds intriguing, but I have a few Spectrum specific questions for you, Isaiah.

How did YOU get it to work on the Spectrum? I'm assuming you have it set up to run automatically at boot...

Will running this script affect my ability to get the eventual ICS update?

Thank you.

 

[Isaiah.Israel]

When you run it in script manager you just follow the steps. I use options 9 and 13. You can also make a custom setup. Once you reboot after running it..run it again and it will tell you if it stuck. If it didn't stick 100 percent then you may need to make a file which loads at boot. Or you can make a widget that you can click and it will load it in seconds. This will work on pretty much all phones and roms. It just goes into android itself and rearranges the memory settings as to optimize them.

It's all pretty easy but just takes some time to feel out. Play around with it a lot and you'll get more comfortable. It definitely works though. Especially locking your launcher into memory helps a lot. If you ever get launcher redraws V6 can totally eliminate them.

Make sure you read all the text while running it though. I bring that up because you are told not to run the script itself at boot. You run another file it creates called 99supercharger if it doesn't stick. It will tell you all about it when you run the script. But don't be scared if you miss something because you really can't mess up. Also once it gets to a point where it ask you to pick an option or say yes or no. you can always scroll up and read whatever you missed.

This will not mess you up from being able to get ICS either. And if you don't like it, Or feel you don't need it, you can always revert back to default settings by running the script. It doesn't install anything, it just rearranges memory settings.

 

[Isaiah.Israel]

I'll eventually check into v6 supercharger...

In the meantime, here's what SPB had to say:

Thank you for your message and interest in SPB Software.

Unfortunately, the only way to install SPB Shell 3D is from the Android market. However, you can try the app and ask for full refund if you didn’t like it in less than 15 min. Please refer to Android market policy for more information, but as an exception you can contact us in order you decide to apply for refund.

Feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions. You can always refer to this ticket using this link: EDITED OUT

Best regards,
Technical Support
SPB Software


I'm still not sure I want to try SPB Shell 3D, though. In the videos I've seen it looks like the launcher is way fancier than it needs to be, like they're just trying to show off what they can do. And there are a few other things I'm just not sure I could get used to.

I find it somewhat humorous, though, that they think 15 minutes is enough time for most users to make up their minds when clearly 15 minutes isn't even enough time to customize the launcher...

The 15 minutes thing is google, not SPB. And you are right about the time limit. It should be a day or at least an hour. It took me 8 months to like SPB. I bought it early last summer and it always made my charge lag and i just couldn't get used to it, so I hardly ever used it. I decided to try it out again on my spectrum and I must say it loves this phone. It's by far the smoothest running launcher I've tried on my spectrum. It also has a few neat proprietary widgets.

It's actually not that fancy either. It's pretty straight forward. The only really fancy thing about it is the 3d home screen rotation and selection screen. Regina launcher is fancier than SPB is, but doesn't run anywhere near as good. SPB does come with a lot when you first install it but like any launcher you can slim it down. I always do. I use 3 panels...4 at most. Then I make folders to organize everything.

My only real complaint about it is it needs more options to configure in settings. I got used to the customization abilities of GO and it's hard to go to another launcher with less settings options. I actually still like GO the most of all launchers out there but I like to have a few to switch between in case I get bored. The three I've narrowed it down to which I believe are the best and most unique are GO, Regina 3d, and SPB shell. I'm not sure what has happened to GO though. The last couple updates has created a slight delay in the menu options and folders. It also has several other performance issues now which it never had before. But they have really been beefing it up lately and I know they will get it sorted. It still runs stable, I just hate any delay. They also have screwed up GO locker a bit. But I'll stand by them because the GO dev team is awesome.

Regina isn't quite ready for the big time but has massive potential. Still has too many bugs with it. But the design and innovation is top notch.

 

[liteon163]

OK, it turns out I didn't need even 15 minutes to decide SPB wasn't for me. It took all of two minutes to see that there are too many bells and whistles for me. And I couldn't remove a bunch of the included widgets. Sure, I got rid of a few. But not nearly enough.

Knowing I had only 15 minutes to get my money back easily, perhaps my level of patience was dramatically decreased. Still, it just seems like SPB is way too fancy. I want just a few key features in as lightweight a package as possible.

I'm getting really annoyed with the launcher rotation issue, but not enough to deal with an entirely foreign, unnecessarily complex new launcher.

I'll just email a few more developers to see what's going on.

Sent from my LG Spectrum using Tapatalk

 

[Isaiah.Israel]

lite man. You can delete all the panels with the widgets and make your own. you just didn't give it enough time. It actually has far less than GO and ADW and others. It comes out of the box with a bunch of pre loaded panels and widgets but you don't have to use any of that. You just delete them all the start fresh. 15 minutes isn't enough time to learn how to set it up though. My biggest complaint about SPB is that it doesn't have enough options and configuration settings. It just seems a bit much when you first load it. But once you start to mess around with it and delete all the panels you realise it's pretty straight forward and basic.

 

[Isaiah.Israel]

there are too many bells and whistles for me. And I couldn't remove a bunch of the included widgets. Sure, I got rid of a few. But not nearly enough.

Again, you can remove them all. You are not forced to keep any panels or widgets whatever so ever. And it actually takes all of about 20 seconds to do so. Just hit menu, and manage panels, and drag them all down to the bottom. Then you go over to the misc. panel which is empty, and drag it up, then a new one will pop up and you drag it up if you want more than one panel. Its super easy. I imagine you were in a rush which caused you to judge it too quickly. But I understand because I bought SPB last summer and just recently started using it.

 

[liteon163]

Yeah, I was too hasty in my judgement. I realized as I was falling asleep that night how I could just throw out the screens I didn't want and just build new ones.

But I think at this point I want to try some other things instead, like Broken Out Spectrum and V6 Supercharger. I just have to brush up on my skills first.

Sent from my LG Spectrum using Tapatalk