Soft/On Screen Buttons Potential Problems

[CynicX]

Re: Soft/On Screen Buttons- Whats the point?

I'm genuinely confused, why are people thinking the virtual buttons will be configurable by app developers? Maybe I'm just not correctly understanding what every
one means :-\.

We already have a bar of virtual buttons in Honeycomb and the app developers can't just mess around and change it as to how they feel fit(which would be bad).

The way I see it virtual buttons simply look cool and allows the buttons to rotate with the device, that's cool and more than enough reason for me.

With root the on screen buttons can be modified. However stock is so well designed rooted users generally only change the colors to match the background or whatever.

 

[ienjoysoup08]

problem with on screen buttons..

am I the only one who saw that in the video of the nexus when he went into the camera app the on screen buttons were gone? how do we get out of the camera app. and when the camera app was loading there was no on screen buttons for the home screen?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py9TfZGie48[/yt]

 

[Scottatron]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

Wow, this really needed a new thread.

 

[johnyguy]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

am I the only one who saw that in the video of the nexus when he went into the camera app the on screen buttons were gone? how do we get out of the camera app. and when the camera app was loading there was no on screen buttons for the home screen?

I'm sure Mr Google have thought about it before we get the phone

 

[ienjoysoup08]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

I'm sure Mr Google have thought about it before we get the phone

yeah I am sure they have. just confused about it

 

[Cigar-Junkie]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

Someone should design a screen swipe to get the buttons back or else the phone and ICS must be postponed. oops...maybe that is what really happend.this week

 

[nemov]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

It seems a little premature to start worrying about features that no one here has experience using.

 

[rightontime]

I like physical buttons more but honestly on screen buttons aren't that much different. Just doesn't seem like something to worry about. At most its one or two more presses when something goes full screen.

 

[CynicX]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

yeah I am sure they have. just confused about it

Like I mentioned. With Honeycomb the buttons don't disappear when you start using a full screen app but the become small slightly transparent dots. So they are still there and require no extra touch to use back or home. However you have to be smart enough to remember which dot is which...

The more I find it going to be like Honeycomb the more excited I get about this phone.

 

[jerrod6]

Sometimes I view this site on my phone using Taptalk. Buttons are soft. No problem with them.

 

[ienjoysoup08]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

Like I mentioned. With Honeycomb the buttons don't disappear when you start using a full screen app but the become small slightly transparent dots. So they are still there and require no extra touch to use back or home. However you have to be smart enough to remember which dot is which...

The more I find it going to be like Honeycomb the more excited I get about this phone.

I have only used a honeycomb on a demo unit but I loved it! I have such high hopes for this and I think there is some great potential for on screen buttons.

 

[infernalman7]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

Someone should design a screen swipe to get the buttons back or else the phone and ICS must be postponed. oops...maybe that is what really happend.this week

I think it will be similar to the Notifications, where you can swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen to bring back soft buttons. (?)

 

[Crispy]

In the entire history of engineering and computing, there has never been a time when replacing physical hardware with software has *not* been a good idea.

More software control is a good thing!

 

[koolbon]

Re: problem with on screen buttons..

am I the only one who saw that in the video of the nexus when he went into the camera app the on screen buttons were gone? how do we get out of the camera app. and when the camera app was loading there was no on screen buttons for the home screen?

Not only that, I believe the camera app is NOT expanding to the area of those buttons. So, we are not gaining any screen space, but need to do something to bring up the buttons for the next action.
Tell me they are making software buttons just for cool factor and I'll just buy that!

 

[DenverRalphy]

The only problem I have with the software buttons is that there seems to be one missing... and it's the most used button on my device. Where's the search button?

 

[sblantipodi]

On my Honeycomb tablet, when i rotate the screen to different orientations, the buttons rotate as well.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

this is on of the reason why modern phones don't need a physical button.

 

[koolbon]

The only problem I have with the software buttons is that there seems to be one missing... and it's the most used button on my device. Where's the search button?

Actually, I think we are missing two buttons assuming that the third button on the right is for the multitasking replacing the long press home button. I started really wondering how the missing menu button will be handled.

 

[Mooem]

Actually, I think we are missing two buttons assuming that the third button on the right is for the multitasking replacing the long press home button. I started really wondering how the missing menu button will be handled.

I envision it'll be just like Honeycomb in that it'll appear as a soft button when an app calls for a contextual menu. Also, Honeycomb optimized apps include the contextual menu in the top-right corner of the screen but this might work differently in ICS for phones.

Also in Honeycomb, the phone/system settings are accessible from the notification tray. I imagine it works the same in ICS (and I believe the recent ICS videos show a settings button at the top of the tray).

 

[koolbon]

I envision it'll be just like Honeycomb in that it'll appear as a soft button when an app calls for a contextual menu. Also, Honeycomb optimized apps include the contextual menu in the top-right corner of the screen but this might work differently in ICS for phones.

Also in Honeycomb, the phone/system settings are accessible from the notification tray. I imagine it works the same in ICS (and I believe the recent ICS videos show a settings button at the top of the tray).

I saw the shortcut for the setting on the home screen from the video clip, so the phone/system settings will be handled by OS itself I assume. I'd say the majority of the apps in the market are not coded for Honeycomb like menus, but we will need to get to menu somehow. I am sure they have some type of solution for it, so we can actually use the damn device, but I am just wondering how and hope that the solution is not something that cause more inconvenience than having the fixed buttons.

 

[Mooem]

I saw the shortcut for the setting on the home screen from the video clip, so the phone/system settings will be handled by OS itself I assume. I'd say the majority of the apps in the market are not coded for Honeycomb like menus, but we will need to get to menu somehow. I am sure they have some type of solution for it, so we can actually use the damn device, but I am just wondering how and hope that the solution is not something that cause more inconvenience than having the fixed buttons.

I guess I should've been more clear...if an app utilizes the menu and is not optimized for honeycomb, then it will appear to the right of the "recently opened apps" button when the app is opened. It will go away when the app is not in view.

The shot is of a Galaxy Tab 10.1 with TouchWiz but stock Honeycomb works the same way. While I can't be for certain this is how it'll function in Ice Cream Sandwich, I don't see any reason for them not keeping it.