Custom Car Home

[BigFwoosh]

I'm planning to learn how to make apps, any chance you can put me in the right direction? i'm good with logic flow charts, gui designs just not so much with java.

This is the book I referenced when learning Android, I think it's pretty good: Professional Android 2 Application Development

Google has a lot of good tutorials too: The Developer's Guide

As far as Java goes, I learned it around 7 years ago in college so I don't know what books would be good reference. You probably should read up on object-oriented programming as well, since some Java books may assume you already know the basics of that. Aside from books, I'm sure there are plenty of good tutorial sites out there.

[SGMD1]

I have been looking for a car home replacement for a while since the stock Froyo Car Home app is just terrible.

I liked the 2.1 Car Home app because of the "Home" button that would take me to my home screen where I could use any app I want, without the screen turning off.

The problem with 2.2 Car Home is that if I want to have Pandora up on my screen without the screen turning off after a minute, I have to exit Car Home, start Pandora, go back to my app drawer, restart Car Home, then drag down my notification bar and select Pandora again.

I'm convinced whoever designed the 2.2 Car Home has never actually used the app in a car because it is just so nonsensical.

Anyway...will CCH allow me to access my home screen and run any app I want without the screen turning off (i.e. still in Car Dock mode) like I could in 2.1?

[BigFwoosh]

I have been looking for a car home replacement for a while since the stock Froyo Car Home app is just terrible.

I liked the 2.1 Car Home app because of the "Home" button that would take me to my home screen where I could use any app I want, without the screen turning off.

The problem with 2.2 Car Home is that if I want to have Pandora up on my screen without the screen turning off after a minute, I have to exit Car Home, start Pandora, go back to my app drawer, restart Car Home, then drag down my notification bar and select Pandora again.

I'm convinced whoever designed the 2.2 Car Home has never actually used the app in a car because it is just so nonsensical.

Anyway...will CCH allow me to access my home screen and run any app I want without the screen turning off (i.e. still in Car Dock mode) like I could in 2.1?

1. You can get back to your home screen by hitting Back while in CCH, but that effectively closes the app so all your hardware settings you set (auto-bluetooth, auto-speakerphone, brightness, etc) will reset. I might add an option to make the Back button simply return you to your normal home without killing CCH. Might come in handy now that the Home button is overridden. Would that help you?

2. Well, you can set any app you want as a shortcut in CCH which would eliminate the need to go back to your normal home screen. You could set Pandora or any other app as one of your buttons in CCH if you wanted.

3. There is a setting to keep the screen on as long as you are in CCH. Once you leave it, whether by quitting or by launching another app, the screen will turn off as it normally would in whichever app you are using.

[SGMD1]

Wow thanks for responding so quickly...I definitely am looking for an option to keep the car mode running in the background while other apps are running so the screen doesn't turn off, whether by an on-screen "Home" button like in 2.1 or by the back button as you are suggesting.

I know I can add custom apps to the CCH home screen but I have my regular home screen set up with the News/Weather widget and I like being able to glance over and see news headlines and whatnot. I figured others might share my issues on this forum but I'm kinda surprised I haven't read other similar complaints. I guess I'm just picky haha.

[BigFwoosh]

Wow thanks for responding so quickly...I definitely am looking for an option to keep the car mode running in the background while other apps are running so the screen doesn't turn off, whether by an on-screen "Home" button like in 2.1 or by the back button as you are suggesting.

I know I can add custom apps to the CCH home screen but I have my regular home screen set up with the News/Weather widget and I like being able to glance over and see news headlines and whatnot. I figured others might share my issues on this forum but I'm kinda surprised I haven't read other similar complaints. I guess I'm just picky haha.

If you want to keep the screen on all the time while you're in the car, I'd suggest using Screebl. It keeps your screen on if you phone is tilted within a certain range of degrees, and you can use it when your phone is docked (though this is disabled by default). It's a really handy app even when you're not in the car.

Don't worry, you're not picky, hehe. I actually have had a few requests for support for widgets, and while it's something I'm considering it is also something that I didn't really have in mind when designing CCH. It would probably require a lot of reworking. I may add support for it in the future.

[SGMD1]

If you want to keep the screen on all the time while you're in the car, I'd suggest using Screebl

Did some research on this and ended up going with Locale + Locale Dock Plugin. I set the Car Dock condition as screen timeout = never and the Default condition as screen timeout = 1 minute. I noticed a lot of apps that perform the same function had comments about functionality issues with 2.2 but Locale works perfectly on FRG22D (for screen timeout, at least)

[firesquirt]

Hello, I am using CCH on an EVO 4G ON 2.2 FRESH.

First off Great work!

I have to manually start and stop CCH due to not have a real dock as of yet (Clingo).

When I exit CCH in any way it is not turning wifi back on or turning off the blue tooth.

Any suggestions?

09-01-19:28
With best regards,

[BigFwoosh]

Hello, I am using CCH on an EVO 4G ON 2.2 FRESH.

First off Great work!

I have to manually start and stop CCH due to not have a real dock as of yet (Clingo).

When I exit CCH in any way it is not turning wifi back on or turning off the blue tooth.

Any suggestions?

09-01-19:28
With best regards,

So weird... I never have this problem. I wish I had more phones to test with, heh. It should reset whenever you hit Menu->Quit or hit Back. Neither of those work?

[vogtrj]

Exellent Work! This is a great app. I just noticed that you added the home override which makes it perfect for me! (I don't use widgets much)

[dobro]

I've got an Incredible and can't make the home key go back to CCH...any ideas? I did read that there is a setup option for which car-home ap should be the default, but I can't find it anywhere...