Nexus, ICS & Google Search Bar

[Stang68]

I don't plan on installing a launcher over ICS. We lose a bunch of it's functionality. Sure, I love LPP, but with no crappy skins like Blur or TW on the Nexus, I don't see a reason for LPP.

 

[nemov]

I don't plan on installing a launcher over ICS. We lose a bunch of it's functionality. Sure, I love LPP, but with no crappy skins like Blur or TW on the Nexus, I don't see a reason for LPP.

LPP came in handy when the OG Droid didn't have enough home screens. It was a great way to add more.

 

[Stang68]

LPP came in handy when the OG Droid didn't have enough home screens. It was a great way to add more.

Definitely true. Hopefully Fede updates LP soon, but it seems like he has abandoned it all-together. I doubt we'll see it mimic the ICS features anytime soon. I'll miss my swipe actions in LPP, but it's definitely not worth missing out on the whole ICS look and feel (and widget functionality).

 

[jerrod6]

I have the OG Droid and moved the Google search to one of farthest screens because I have the search key. Without the search key I will use Google search....no problem.


On every homescreen? Well with Google Search on every screen there is no way to confuse this phone display with an iPhone is it?

 

[fstop]

It is going to be a deal breaker for me. Don't know what they are thinking. Just took a major high priced real estate away. That spot I usually have Beautiful Weather widget. If I go to a third party launcher, then I have to hope that it is hardware accelerated.

To me that search bar is just fugly and completely unnecessary. A separate button is just perfect and something I used ALL the time. In fact that is what I use to demo my Android phones to others. Look, a dedicated search button because it is after all a Google phone!

What a shame. Beautiful phone with a major wart right on the nose. Frustrating.

 

[qnet]

Definitely true. Hopefully Fede updates LP soon, but it seems like he has abandoned it all-together. I doubt we'll see it mimic the ICS features anytime soon. I'll miss my swipe actions in LPP, but it's definitely not worth missing out on the whole ICS look and feel (and widget functionality).

I agree. The look of ICS is too nice to mess up IMO. I like some of the features of the 3rd party launchers but, they take over too much of the system, much more than I want.

It is going to be a deal breaker for me. Don't know what they are thinking. Just took a major high priced real estate away. That spot I usually have Beautiful Weather widget.

What a shame. Beautiful phone with a major wart right on the nose. Frustrating.

I usually use that spot for BW also but, I like the look of iCS so much, I'll make that sacrifice. BW has a lot of different sized widgets so, I'm sure I'll be able to adapt something to satisfy me.

I have the Xoom and, as much as it has frustrated me (party due to Moto); I haven't installed any 3rd party launchers on it. It's kind of neat the way they did the search bar in Honeycomb, it's in the corner of the screen and, out of the way. It only expands when you need it, to a totally separate screen. When your done, it shrinks back and, you have just about the whole screen for what you want.

It's kind of strange they didn't do this with ICS but, maybe they did, maybe there is a function to change the search bar. We won't know until we get our hands on it. edit: I just read that the search bar isn't movable, oh well.

 

[elvisgp]

We don't even know how much screen space this takes up. after the device is released you guys can complain.

sent from my Droid X, which also eats iPhones.

 

[fstop]

Internet forums. So full of repressed Nazis telling people what they can or cannot post. It is called a FORUM for a reason.

Cue the hate reply in ...3...2..1...

Sent from a Evo 3D. Long live the EVO.

 

[mjforte]

IMO removing a dedicated search key is one of the biggest mistakes Google made with ICS. What if I'm in another app and want to do a voice search? Instead of just long pressing the search key, now I have to go back home and press on the Google Search widget. Many times in apps the search key comes in handy such as searching in Gmail or IMDB or even bringing up the address bar in the browser. Bad move by Google...

 

[Jet300]

IMO removing a dedicated search key is one of the biggest mistakes Google made with ICS. What if I'm in another app and want to do a voice search? Instead of just long pressing the search key, now I have to go back home and press on the Google Search widget. Many times in apps the search key comes in handy such as searching in Gmail or IMDB or even bringing up the address bar in the browser. Bad move by Google...

How do you know you can't just long press little spyglass provided by the app to initiate a voice search in lieu of the dedicated search button? Be patient, I'll bet Google has it figured out.

 

[philly]

IMO using launcher pro defeats the purpose of getting a AOSP device. The number one by far best feature of the nexus is the stock pure android + the fact its not only that, its 4.0 !

If people are planning on getting this phone, and putting launcher pro on it.. you are killing its best feature.

and I'll say this.. the announcement that ICS would integrate in Hardware Key devices changed the game for me.. before that it seemed like buying anything with Hardware keys would be essentially buying outdated technology.. right as it was becoming outdated. But the way I look at it.. thats one of the razr and rezounds biggest features.. you wont have to deal with software keys.. and you will have a dedicated search button, and settings button available at all times.

as far as the google search bar, I did do a quick double check on my phone and on none of my homescreens do I have it.. really why would I all of a sudden want it on every home screen?

Kinda hoping somethings with ICS are configurable when it is released.. seems almost like the facebook "upgrade" as in it was more of a downgrade as far as users ability to control things.

 

[jerrod6]

All I'm saying is that at long as the name Google is on every home screen Apple cannot claim that people will be "confused" into thinking they have an Iphone. I use the ICS clock widget(developed by Juliojs) and the Minimalistic text widget(by Devmil) on my primary home screen. I will continue to use these by just placing them below the search bar. I hope that ICS clock on the home screen is removable because I like the look and the minute jump of this Juliojs clock better.

Not planning to use a 3rd party Launcher at least at first, even though I have paid for it, and I actually really like ADW a lot. What I WILL miss from the launcher is the themes and themed icons. I hope the developers of the ADW themes will make the icons and backgrounds available as standalone pacs without the launcher.

 

[dbareis]

LPP came in handy when the OG Droid didn't have enough home screens. It was a great way to add more.

I mainly use LP to get 5x4 icons on screen (and I don't want too many homescreens), I do like the multiple docs at the bottom and I do not want a search bar on every homepage, so I'll give ICS's a go but predict it will be going on my phone.

With or without hardware acceleration it will be fine (for me) on the faster hardware as I rarely complain about it on my current phone.

 

[Timokreon]

To put minds to ease, I asked the wise one himself (panda) if the bar was removable, he said yes, it was.

No, I don't have links. No I won't repost his message to me. If you're following him, you'll see the answer.

Smiles.. it's all good.

 

[qnet]

To put minds to ease, I asked the wise one himself (panda) if the bar was removable, he said yes, it was.

No, I don't have links. No I won't repost his message to me. If you're following him, you'll see the answer.

Smiles.. it's all good.

If true, that should put some people's mind at ease for sure. It was never a deal-breaker for me but, it would be nice to still put my Beautiful Widgets smaller clock & whether at the top.

 

[dbareis]

To put minds to ease, I asked the wise one himself (panda) if the bar was removable, he said yes, it was.

I was just using the ICS emulator to see if there were options, unfortunately its a bit flakey and slow so not everything works but I could not find an option (except there is a settings like icon that always kills the emulator).

 

[CynicX]

Honeycomb has a search at the top of every home screen that can't be removed.

For the first time I started playing with it since you can speak your search. I actually really like it, navigate to xxxxx brings up the GPS and starts you on your way, maps, etc etc plus just saying words will Google search it. Cool stuff can't believe I avoided messing with that. I would not mind if ICS has that...

Of course I hope there is an option to remove it so I don't have to hear people complain about it...

 

[Stein357]

BMX said on twitter it was delete able.

 

[slbailey1]

If you can remove the search widget from the home screens, how will you implement searches from the home screen?

 

[Friend-O]

To put minds to ease, I asked the wise one himself (panda) if the bar was removable, he said yes, it was.

No, I don't have links. No I won't repost his message to me. If you're following him, you'll see the answer.

Smiles.. it's all good.

If this is true, I will be one happy camper!