[ROM] [KANG] CM10 with Tablet UI

[z1gackly]

The philosophy of this ROM is to keep it as close as possible to pure CM10 whilst providing a tablet interface, because the Nexus 7 is a tablet, not a phone.

The ROM features the following:

Built daily from CyanogenMod 10 source.
Tablet UI independent of DPI.
Tablet UI can be toggled.
Custom DPI settings.
Settings menu reflects Tablet or Phablet modes.
Modified Trebuchet launcher for Tablet UI layout on the Nexus 7.
Expand desktop power menu option (now exported to CM10).
Clear all recent apps button.
Extra spaces in launcher dock for Phablet UI.
Goomanager hooks for notifications and incremental updates.

I will consider feature suggestions, but will only implement those which I feel enhance the tablet experience.

Download the ROM from here: http://goo.im/devs/zigackly/roms/grouper/tablet_ui

To install, wipe the caches if coming from CM10, do a factory reset if coming from another ROM, flash with the latest JB gapps from goo.im, and enjoy.

Credits:
CyanogenMod community for the code base and some cherry-picks.
Barmullio for the initial Tablet UI mod and the idea for how to mod Trebuchet.
D4rKn3sSyS and Paranoid Android for the ideas behind expand desktop and clear all recents mods.
sgt7 - for the content observer code I used in enabling tablet-ui toggling without a reboot.
JellyBeer ROM for Custom DPI changes and some settings utils.

 

[z1gackly]

This ROM is built from pure CM10 source, with just the tablet UI modifications detailed above. However if you want to patch an existing installation of CM10, you can use the patches from here:

http://goo.im/devs/zigackly/patches/grouper/tablet_ui

The latest patch should always work with the latest nightly build. Let me know if it does not, and I will release another patch.

Source code can be found here, in the tablet-build branches, unless there is a tablet-patch branch, in which case I use that for the patches:
https://github.com/zigackly

 

[z1gackly]

There are no known issues at present with this ROM which are not also present in CM10, however feel free to report bugs or ask for help and I'll do what I can.

 

[blackhand1001]

When you finally implement a toggle can you have separate toggles for the status bar and the apps. I like to use the tablet status bar with the stock app layouts. The phablet apps are great. Its just the status bar that takes up too much room and is hard to reach the soft keys in the middle that sucks. The tablet combined bar solves both of those by having the soft keys on the side and not taking up as much vertical real estate. I used to use paranoid android but I am not a fan of the direction its been going in lately. They are starting to branch further away from cm by replacing the toggles with aokp phone style toggles but in the tablet UI. Even aokp uses the stock style toggles in the tab ui.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

 

[z1gackly]

When you finally implement a toggle can you have separate toggles for the status bar and the apps. I like to use the tablet status bar with the stock app layouts. The phablet apps are great. Its just the status bar that takes up too much room and is hard to reach the soft keys in the middle that sucks. The tablet combined bar solves both of those by having the soft keys on the side and not taking up as much vertical real estate. I used to use paranoid android but I am not a fan of the direction its been going in lately. They are starting to branch further away from cm by replacing the toggles with aokp phone style toggles but in the tablet UI. Even aokp uses the stock style toggles in the tab ui.

I know exactly what you mean. I think there comes a point in the lifecycle of many ROMs when the amount of customisation begins to detract from the user experience rather than add to it, and that's why I want to be careful to stick as closely to the standard CM10 experience as possible, because in many ways I admire their restraint in trying to keep it simple and standard across many devices.

I'm hoping the few features I have included here enhance the tablet experience without breaking that design simplicity, and if I found myself adding feature after feature, I'm sure I would eventually reach the point where I just didn't like the ROM any more.

I do love the basic premise with Paranoid Android of being able to adjust many aspects of the interface individually, but I also don't want to re-invent the wheel and make another PA. I like your idea of being able to separate the combined navbar/sysbar from the application interface though, and that's certainly something I can see myself looking into at some point down the line.

How soon I introduce those kind of features will be a combination of what time I can spend on it and how much I can learn along the way. It's not a big secret that I'm very new to Android development, even though I've been developing software at home or at work for over 25 years.

I think what you're suggesting would be valuable and interesting to play with though, so it's definitely going on the list

Another thing I'd like to work on is to have the ability to control where launchers put their application docks. I like the way in the stock ROM that the dock moves to the side when you go into landscape mode, as it leaves a consistent amount of real estate in the home screen. Most tablet UIs, including mine, break that, so if I can make it a user choice how those bars behave, then that would also be a useful mod for me.

Getting Trebuchet to retain the dock in tablet mode would be a start!

 

[blackhand1001]

I know exactly what you mean. I think there comes a point in the lifecycle of many ROMs when the amount of customisation begins to detract from the user experience rather than add to it, and that's why I want to be careful to stick as closely to the standard CM10 experience as possible, because in many ways I admire their restraint in trying to keep it simple and standard across many devices.

I'm hoping the few features I have included here enhance the tablet experience without breaking that design simplicity, and if I found myself adding feature after feature, I'm sure I would eventually reach the point where I just didn't like the ROM any more.

I do love the basic premise with Paranoid Android of being able to adjust many aspects of the interface individually, but I also don't want to re-invent the wheel and make another PA. I like your idea of being able to separate the combined navbar/sysbar from the application interface though, and that's certainly something I can see myself looking into at some point down the line.

How soon I introduce those kind of features will be a combination of what time I can spend on it and how much I can learn along the way. It's not a big secret that I'm very new to Android development, even though I've been developing software at home or at work for over 25 years.

I think what you're suggesting would be valuable and interesting to play with though, so it's definitely going on the list

Another thing I'd like to work on is to have the ability to choose where third party launchers put their application docks. I like the way in the stock ROM that the dock moves to the side when you go into landscape mode, as it leaves a consistent amount of real estate in the home screen. Most tablet UIs, including mine, break that, so if I can make it a user choice how those bars behave, then that would also be a useful mod for me.

Getting Trebuchet to retain the dock in tablet mode would be a start!

Thanks that would be great. Trebuchet and phablet mode are essentially the tablet ui with the dock. In landscape it looks almost identical. I don't think theres really any reason to try to force the tab UI with the dock.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

 

[z1gackly]

Thanks that would be great. Trebuchet and phablet mode are essentially the tablet ui with the dock. In landscape it looks almost identical. I don't think theres really any reason to try to force the tab UI with the dock.

If it's something the user can choose rather than have forced on them, then it's worthwhile. Personally I don't like the notification shade in phablet mode, but I do use the dock, so I end up using Nova Launcher instead of Trebuchet with Tablet mode, but with Nova the dock is either at the bottom or on the side, and you don't get that stock hybrid approach.

If I find a way to keep the dock in tablet mode though, I would want it to be a user choice whether it appears and how it behaves. We all want things to work differently, so it's nice if they are configurable.

 

[blackhand1001]

If it's something the user can choose then it's worthwhile. Personally I don't like the notification shade in phablet mode, but I do use the dock, so I end up using Nova Launcher instead of Trebuchet, but with Nova the dock is either at the bottom or on the side, and you don't get that stock hybrid approach.

If I find a way to keep the dock in tablet mode though, I would want it to be a user choice whether it appears and how it behaves. We all want things to work differently, so it's nice if they are configurable.

Yeah. What I was saying is the stock phablet trebuchet layout is fine. Its the phablet status bar that is bad. Changing that is part of systemui not trebuchet. What I was suggesting essentially looks like this.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

 

[z1gackly]

Looks nice, that's what I want too. Now I just have to do the work

 

[sn0wmis3r]

Great Rom. One thing I saw in the sgt7 rom was the recent apps viewer had larger screenshots. This ended up being a much nicer experience for me on the n7 than the small thumbnails that most other roms have. I don't know how difficult that is to implement or if people even want it so it's entirely up to you. Just thought I would ask since it seems like an excellent tablet tweak to me. Here is a screenshot of it on the sgt7 rom:

 

[z1gackly]

Great Rom. One thing I saw in the sgt7 rom was the recent apps viewer had larger screenshots. This ended up being a much nicer experience for me on the n7 than the small thumbnails that most other roms have. I don't know how difficult that is to implement or if people even want it so it's entirely up to you. Just thought I would ask since it seems like an excellent tablet tweak to me.

Thanks for the feedback.

I have actually already implemented this feature in my codebase for my CM10 kang for the Moto Xoom, so if people want it, I would just have to pull in the commits for the next build. It didn't pass code review for CM10 because they felt that fewer apps were visible in the recents menu per page, but personally I like the bigger thumbnails more than having lots visible.

I guess I could try it out and if people don't like it, I can tweak it. Anyone else have any thoughts on it? It could go into tomorrow's build.

 

[bervin]

Thanks for the feedback.

I have actually already implemented this feature in my codebase for my CM10 kang for the Moto Xoom, so if people want it, I would just have to pull in the commits for the next build. It didn't pass code review for CM10 because they felt that fewer apps were visible in the recents menu per page, but personally I like the bigger thumbnails more than having lots visible.

I guess I could try it out and if people don't like it, I can tweak it. Anyone else have any thoughts on it? It could go into tomorrow's build.

I'd prefer being able to see more apps so I'd say no.

 

[owenjm]

Thanks for the feedback.

I have actually already implemented this feature in my codebase for my CM10 kang for the Moto Xoom, so if people want it, I would just have to pull in the commits for the next build. It didn't pass code review for CM10 because they felt that fewer apps were visible in the recents menu per page, but personally I like the bigger thumbnails more than having lots visible.

I guess I could try it out and if people don't like it, I can tweak it. Anyone else have any thoughts on it? It could go into tomorrow's build.

I'd also prefer to keep the smaller thumbnails, personally, as I use the tablet in landscape orientation a lot (and I'd guess the number of recent apps displayed in landscape would be very few). Would there be any chance of making it a toggle? Or even allowing users to just specify the size of the thumbs themselves?

Thanks for providing the ROM and the patches, though -- I don't get why Google ever thought losing screen realestate on a 7" tab was a good idea, especially after they'd spent some time developing an excellent interface just for tablets ...

---------- Post added at 06:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:26 AM ----------

Also, a quick bug report on the latest ROM and patch (15th October) -- with "percentage" as the battery style, the percent charge is now incorrectly justified when the notifications/settings panel is displayed -- it's not next to the battery icon as it should be (and used to be) but is now over by the settings icon. (I don't know if this is a bug with your patches, though, or with the CM code itself ...)

Have you thought about submitting the expanded desktop power menu patch to CM? It makes a huge difference on a 7" screen ...

 

[z1gackly]

Also, a quick bug report on the latest ROM and patch (15th October) -- with "percentage" as the battery style, the percent charge is now incorrectly justified when the notifications/settings panel is displayed -- it's not next to the battery icon as it should be (and used to be) but is now over by the settings icon. (I don't know if this is a bug with your patches, though, or with the CM code itself ...)

Have you thought about submitting the expanded desktop power menu patch to CM? It makes a huge difference on a 7" screen ...

I've just taken a look on the Motorola Xoom which is in tablet mode naturally without any code changes, and that issue you describe with the battery percentage is the same on the Xoom as well, therefore it is an issue with the CM10 code base itself, not my changes.

The expanded desktop changes are in review right now on CM's Gerrit site. Not sure what the outcome will be, but my gut feeling is that it probably won't be merged. I don't take credit for that, by the way, I kanged it from other ROMs.

Many of my changes are kanged. No point re-inventing the wheel.

 

[driguez]

Giving this a shot. Will report back.

 

[driguez]

Been running it for the last hour or so w francos kernel and all is good. I really wish we had the option of changing the navigation bar height though. Overall, pretty solid.

 

[Juzman]

Woo! *subscribed to thread*

One feature request (I have it on my S2), is a "kill all" button for the recent apps list. Saves having to "swipe" each and every recent app.

 

[z1gackly]

I was thinking about both those features (reduced nav bar height and kill all recents).

I will add them to my ever-growing list of things I might want to work on. No promises though

 

[Restola]

10/15 flashed great over official CM10 10/15. I love the tablet ui I think I'll stick with this.

Thanks!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[okyere]

z1gackly, you rock man. Thanks for starting this thread for your mod.