Droid X IME

After I got dual touch enabled on my phone I searched around for the Droid X IME. I got it working on my phone but there are some issues.

1)Key letters/symbols/numbers are small

2)The multi touch works but it is not 100% accurate

3)It replaces the default Android IME (but you can get it back thou)

If you want to just try it out for fun follow these steps.

First download this file

Then rename the file to LatinIME.apk

Then open X10 Mod Tool and navigate to /system/app/

In that folder search for LatinIME.apk and PULL it. Now you have a back up of the default Android IME.

Now select the Droid X Latin IME and PUSH it to the /system/app/ folder

Now with root explorer navigate to /system/app/ select LatinIME.apk and install it

Now go to any text input application, open up the "Select Input Method" screen and select the multi touch keyboard. 

You Are Done = ) 

Now if you want to get your default Android keyboard back just copy paste the LatinIME.apk from the backup folder in X10 Mod Tool and do the steps all over again. 

Push file

Install File

Select Input Method

New Themed Miui Music Player

Naruto20007 modded the stock Miui player to match the X10. Besides the new blue tint everything is still the same. If you into looks then I guess this would be nice for you app collection. I like the look and the function of the player BUT there is too much lag for me. Best if you check it out for your self.

Download Link

Just install it like a normal application 

NetFront Browser

Hey guys this is a new web browser that I stumbled apon recently. As you can see from the title it is called NetFront Life Browser. This is the best looking browser on the market, you can not get a better looking browser. It has a 3D gallery main screen which is visually nice but is functional as well.

I had it on my phone for about 3 weeks and I experience no lag, force close, etc etc. But keep in mind that my device is far from stock, so experiences may vary. As a browser it is basic it covers all the basic features like bookmarks, clearing information, tabs, history, cut and paste.

For the X10 I think that this is the best browser, in terms of function. Once major plus is that when using the browser you do not need to depend on the hardware keys. All the important are always displayed on the screen, such as the back function. For me this is a big plus, since the hardware keys on the X10 tend to space out and get loose over usage. The default zoom buttons are already replaced, and are now relocated to the sides. You can hold them and drag them to to area that you want to zoom as well, useless but pretty cool. Another plus is the ease of switching between tabs with the dedicated tab button that will always be with you.

When you open the app you are presented to a nice 3D main menu where you can scroll through your bookmarks and history. Also you can easily scroll through your open tabs as well. Everything is touch friendly and I did not experience any significant lag during usage. When compared to the stock Android browser it is a bit slow but nothing significant.

Overall for the X10 this is a good download and a good substitute over the default browser. It looks nice and gets the job done. It is not as advance and option packed as Dolphin Browser HD but its design wins me over. Dolphin Browser HD was too laggy, clunky, and overall a bad experience for me. Out of 5 I would give this a 3.5 or 4. The only annoyances is that the default search is linked with Yahoo.

SiMi Folder

I found another great application from SiMi. This one is called SiMi Folder. It lets you place folder widgets on your homescreen BUT gives your full control on the look and the use of the folder. You can change the look of the folder icon and easily organize the contents as well. When you start it up it does take some time to understand the navigation and how to use it overall. But after a few minutes it is all straight forward. After you set eveything up you will get your folder widget. by pressing on it you will get a "Phone book" like scrolling bar to select your app/(soon to come contacts and bookmarks).

So far I have no lag, fc, or any issues. This app is great and works well. Even with alot of apps running the scrolling works well. As you can see you can add your own icons as well. With this app I have minimized my homescreens from 5 to 3 lol. 

Try it out 

Simi Folder Widget by hateman

Increase Head Phone Volume For X10

Here is a quick fix to increase the headphone volume on the X10, and this will work on other Android devices as well. So go to your market and install a application called "Louder Volume Hack", "hint google is your friend.

After installing it press on the speaker and you will get the following screen. 

Note - Do not play anything and have headphones plugged in when doing this 

Now in order from top to bottom hit the circled buttons. After you press a button it will apply the mod to your phone and then on the bottom of your screen you will get a message saying "successfully applied to phone" or something. If you get a error message just try it again until you get the successfully applied message. Once you are done hit exit and you are done. 

I tried this method when I was on the bus to see if it works, and surprisingly it did. I noticed a significant increase in headphone volume. I am not sure about the head set volume thou. 

MiuiMusic

I will try to make this app review quick and straight forward as I can, lol. MiuiMusic  is a great application has a alot of function and looks nice as well. It has a cool visualizer feature and a widget as well. It basically builds on top of the default 2.1 music application but is a bit better. The only problem with the application is a little bit of lag here and there, besides that it works great. 

MiuiMusic  

Its best if you try it out for your selves if you care about looks then this is a good app, if you mind a little lag here and there then I guess this wouldn't really be your music application. 

Free Dungeon Hunter

Hey guys Gameloft is giving away free copies of Dungeon Hunter. Just select your phone and your phone number here. This is for a limited time so do it quick.

Thanks Gameloft

New TypoClock

I already did a brief review of TypoClock you can find it here. But since then many new updates have appeared and the application is getting better and better. So I have the latest one, I believe it was version 0.48. I am not going to post a direct link since the app gets updated frequently and its free as well. Just type in TypoClock on the market.

The noticeable new features are the drop shadow and the size and color options. 

For the X10 this was the best configuration that would use a good portion of the screen without getting parts of the widget getting clipped. You CAN select 1.4 for the widget size but if you are going to use a drop shadow the shadow will get clipped at the bottom of the widget. 

If you like me and feel asleep in html class and forgot about hex color codes then heres a site to help you out. HEX COLORS

Note

I just released this last Wednesday, that when you set the size above 1.2 Wednesday gets clipped off. So I guess the best fit is 1.2, not a big difference but its better than 1.0 lol. I wish if there was a set x set y feature for the app.

Hope it Helps

Must Have Wallpaper Application

This is a issue that I noticed right away when I purchased my Xperia X10. The issue was that wallpapers come out distorted. Then I thought that it was a software issue (1.6 Limitations), then when I got 2.1 the issue was still there. But now there is a app that fixes this issue.

-Go to your market and download, Wallpaper Set and Save, install and open

-When you open the application select on set wallpaper

If your wallpapers are in a folder called wallpaper on your SD card then just set as default and select your picture

If not then select on settings/browse folders, select your folder, then save settings

Now you can select your picture, a cool feature is that you can swipe through pictures

Once you have selected your picture "Set Wallpaper"

The only problem that I have had with this application is that it wouldn't save your selected folder as the default. So every time you open the app you have to select your wallpaper folder again. Yeah its gonna kill a few seconds of your life, but who cares the app gets the job done lol.

Here are my results

Before with Banding

After with Wallpaper Set and Save, no more Banding!!

Note 

-The funny thing is I remember posting this issue on forums and stuff long time ago, and the responses that I got were "The X10 Screen doesn't support that many colors" "You need 2.1" etc etc. Well ha ha, LOL.  

Voice Search

Voice Search apk for 2.1. Everything works and integrates with the SE and the default Google search bars.

Place on SD Card and install

Voice Search

2.1 Default Gallery and Music App Shortcuts

Title says it all. I am kinda late on posting this but I highly recommend installing these. Also check out my previous post on the "full 3D gallery".

Gallery shortcut

Music shortcut

HTC IME MOD X10 Style

Download Link

TypoClock

I am the type of guy that likes things that work and are not too fancy. All this time I had beautiful widgets and fancy widgets as my main clock/weather/shortcut launcher applications. But they were too "fancy". Now i have found this new cool clock application called TypoClock. Its a widget that displays the time and date in a nice minimum Zune like way, ..................it looks cool. The only options are to change the text color (black or white) and to change the time setting (12hr or 24hr). So far I have had this for 5 days and no problems what so ever. There is no flicker when the time/date changes and there is noticeable bugs so far. It gets the job done.

Out of 5 I would give it a 4/5, the one thing that I have against this app is that it is kinda toooo minimum. I wish it had some shortcut options like when you tap the clock it goes to alarm, or when you tap the date it goes to calender. Overall good app and a good one for the X10.

Notes

-Sometimes when you delete the widget and try to open it again it would not appear. To fix it open a task manger, find the app and kill it. For some reason it still runs when you delete it. 

-Like I said you can change the color of the font.

-You cannot change the size of the widget. what I did was change the aspect of ADW, by making the rows 6.

TypoClock

Circle Battery Indicator

This is a little mod/application that put on our devices. A few months ago I saw this post where the poster put up a mod where you get a circular battery meter that turned different colors for different battery conditions. The only problem that I had was that there was a bit too many steps, and I couldn't really get it to work fully. (computer, driver issues). Surprise Surprise now there is an app that does all the work.

So this is what likes on your status bar, and when you open your status bar you will get information on 

-how long the device has been unplugged

-battery health

-temperature

-and the volts

I say it looks pretty neat and now its my default battery app. I give it a 5/5, i don't know theres something about it that makes it really cool. I have had this on my X10 for about 5 days and no problems so far. No battery drain force close or anything. Overall good app give it a try.

Must be rooted

It was also stated that you must run a non stock rom, but I didn't and it still works. 

circular_battery_indicator.apk

circular_battery_indicator(for_white_bars).apk

If the application does not work please comment on this post, I will get a backup of the apk that I am using and upload it. 

HTC Launcher for X10

While looking around XDA a couple of days ago I stumbled upon this new cool launcher. Well its new new its ADW but with a HTC sense like skin on top of it. It was made by JAguirre1231, so all thanks to him.

As you can see the bottom part of the launcher looks like HTC, with 2 customizable buttons. The left one is your standard menu, the center one is used for and only for phone, since it says phone on it. The one on the right is for anything you choose. Overall this is pretty cool and a nice change for our devices as well. The only custom addon that comes with this app is a custom search widget, which has HTC on it! The only problems I had with this app is the menu button, its nothing major but a little annoyance. When you press the menu button it slides up and down. Its hard to explain but when you have it try it out and you will know what I mean. Like I said this is basically ADW with a HTC skin, so you also get all the cool features of ADW as well. The swipe to preview, more homescreens, etc. 

Overall this is a good mod and I would give it a 4/5. Reason is because installing and setting it up was a hassle in the beginning, and the menu button jumping problem. 

Installation 

Before you begin

-Uninstall your ADW 

-And read the instructions first 

Things to Download

-Launcher for Donut (X10)

-Launcher for Other Android Versions

-New Icons

Assuming that you have uninstalled ADW, now download the HTC launcher version that you need and install it on your phone. For those who do not know how heres how. Download the launcher, mount your phone and place the launcher on your SD card in a folder where you will find it later. I put it in the "other" folder. If you don't have it make a new folder named "other" then. Then go to your market and download a file explorer like Astro, OI, or EStrong. Open the file explorer and find the other folder and then find the launcher app and install it. 

After you installed it press your home button and it will ask you to choose what home launcher you want. First check the box at the bottom then choose the HTC Sense launcher. Now your done.............Joking 

If you look at the bottom you will notice that you can see icons on top of the phone and right button. To hide this first download the New Icons and put them in your "other" folder. Now do the following 

For the Phone Button

-Long press on the home button 

-Custom shortcut

-Pick your activity

-Applications 

-Dialer 

Now click on the icon in the custom shortcut screen

-Select Picture 

-Gallery 

Now scroll and look for two black boxes. Those are the transparent icons that you put you in your other folder before. Now select one of the boxes. Now when you go back to the custom shortcut menu you will see that the dialer icon is now transparent. 

-Press okay

Now this is the hard part. You will have to press around to find the app on your homescreen. Since its transparent you wont see it. What i did was open the shortcuts widget and go row by row to find the widget. Where ever I couldn't place the widget I knew that thats where the icon was. Once you find it select it then drag it to the phone button. Now when you press the Phone button it will go to the dialer app. Same process for the right button, I choose the Chomp app, for quick sms. 

Have fun. 

SE Japen Home/Screen Lock Application

The AmbientTime Home, nothing new  but for those who want to know more and for those who don't know read on. So recently the great SE Japan release a new home launcher for the X10. This has a custom home launcher and a lock screen. 

In terms of the home launcher at first glance it is pretty cool. The background wallpaper is animated, and it basically makes your phone look like a lava lamp. In term of looks I would give it a 5/5. Why cause it makes our X10 look pretty cool. It somehow matches the whole phone.

In terms of function I would give it a 4/5. To begin with it comes with 5 home screen panels, and you can add more icons and widgets since it has been re-sized. At the bottom there is a triangle and you can use it to quickly swipe through the different home screens. Another functional gimmick is that say your on the far left screen and you want to get the far right screen, instead of swiping right you can swipe left and it will take you the the far right screen, its looped. The drawer is nothing fancy but the best feature of it is that you can arrange the icon order and uninstall apps within the drawer. 

Now to get the custom lock screen you must disable the pattern lock then enable the custom lock screen in the ambient home settings. Now at first launch this is appear laggy, but after it will work a bit better. I really like this lock screen like I said before it matches with the phone. The one thing i do not like is the stupid blog thing at the bottom you use to swipe up to unlock the phone. Its lags the phone and it looks weird. I would give it a 3/5.

Overall I would give it a 3/5, but wait there is more.

Besides all the lag there is one major issue that really ticked me off and made me uninstall this launcher. In the home screens when you add widgets it cuts them off. -_- except for the search bar. Unless you do not use widgets then I guess this would not be a problem but if you do it will be a problem, it was for me. 

My final verdict is this a good app and is probably the best thing that has come out of SE for the X10. When compared to Creatouch this is 100 times better. But as a permanent home launcher its really 50/50 depends on your phone use. There is a little lag once in a while but it is not really that annoying unlike the widgets problem. So if you have widgets do not use this. If you want something that looks cool then go ahead install it and see how it goes. 

-You can choose to have the Ambient Lock Screen on or off

-When you are in the lock screen tap on the screen to change the color of the flowing circles 

-Also after installing reboot your phone

-Lets hope SE Japan churns out more USEFUL applications like this in the future : ) 

AmbientTime Home Download

Bar Control / Notification Shortcuts

In this video you can see that Samsung Android phones have a pretty cool useful notifications bar. In the notifications bar there is shortcuts to typical settings like wifi, etc. Well the X10 doesn't so heres a quick easy to get it. It may not look at pretty as the touchwiz version but it does the job and does not consume battery, well I didn't see a difference.

Samsung Notification Bar

So the application is called Bar Control, download and install it, and open it.

Now after the applications are loaded press the menu button and you will get the options that you see above. This app lists all the applications on your phone even phone settings like wifi, and mobile networks, but they will appear in doubles. So just play around to see what each one does.

To select a app for example Advanced Task Killer, all you have to do is select it and then choose a icon from the ones displayed. Due to limitations you can only select those icons. Now Advanced Task Killer (the app you chose) is displayed on the notifications bar. To remove a specific app just go back to the app list and select it again. To remove all just hit "clear notifications". You can also arrange the placement of the icons with the "show app first/last" option, and also choose to hide them when the notification bar is closed. When you open it you will see the icons.

So heres how I arranged my apps
LED Light- for a quick flash light
Advanced Task Manager- For quick task killing
Gesture Search- For quick searches

 Hope its helps

Notes
-Do not overload will too much apps, it will turn messy and might bog down the phone when opening the notification bar.
-Also if you have a task killer "ignore" Bar Control. If you don't the next time you "kill all" the shortcuts will get killed as well.
-This does not use battery, well it didn't in my testing

WiFi Enterprise Connection UPDATE WITH QR LINK

Hey guys as you guys may already know our X10's can not connect to enterprise wifi's. There is no proper settings in the default wifi settings. This makes us unable to connect for the user to connect to Offices and University Campus's. Wi-Fi helper is not help it just mess's up out wifi config, and I dont really want to pay for wifi config editor pro :P. I have suffering 5 months until now. Now theres a new application called Wifi Advanced Config Editor by Marcus905.

Unfortunately the app is kinda of bare bones with no proper instructions, BUT regarding this issue I dont give it works and I found out how to use it lol.

First install it. If for any reason you can not find the app just comment and I'll link it.

Second now supposing that your at your wifi enterprise location, in this case a campus. Go to your wifi settings and try to connect to it. Just leave all the settings normal. The phone will scan, try to connect, then it will disconnect.

Now open Wifi Advanced Config Editor and wait a few seconds or a minute for the wifi connection to appear. Once it appear select it.

Now scroll down and select Enterprise Configuration.

Now this is how I got it to work.

-For EAP select PEAP

-For Phase2 select MSCHAP2

-Identity put your id. In my case my student id

-For password put your password. In my case I entered the password I use to connect to my campus's server.

Now press the back button and then press the home button. Now go to the wifi connection settings. Now your phone will try and connect to the wifi connection, and it will connect. Hope it helps.

Open your Barcode Scanner and scan this barcode it should direct you to the app in the marketplace

Notes
-Depending on your wifi connection you MAY have to enter in different information, but this is like the typical config.

PicSay Pro/Free Photo Editor

This app was developed by Shinycore, and is already known in the android community as the best photo editing app for the platform. It truly is the amount of features, tweaks, and the level of customization beats the competition. There is the free and the paid version, to be honest this will be a good $.400 spent well.

When you open the app you will get the option to choose a picture and open the recent picture that you last worked on. After you chose you picture you will get the option to choose how large you want to open the picture, I just open it at the max size. Then you will be presented with a large amount of options and tools to play with. From titles, stickers, word balloons, to the A-Z of photo editing. Exposure, tint, color, brightness, soft glow, vignette, heat map, and the list continues. Once your done you can export your picture to many sources such as blue-tooth, facebook, sd, and more.

Overall this is a great application, if your a photo person or a social (facebook) person this app will suit your needs. It will help you adjust the exposure to get the perfect sun set scene or add a funky sticker on the party picture to post on facebook.

Thomson Reuters News Pro

Thomson Reuters News Pro by Handmark is the best Reuters app out there on the market. Personally I like straight forward apps that do the work simply without any extra fancy addons. This app does that. It fetches me high quality international news and arranges them in various categorizes. It delivers the news quickly to you and supports a custom stock feature and gestures. Along with text you also get images as well.

There is also a handy widget that you can place, its the same size as the quick settings bar. You choose a specific type of news and it will display the headlines from that section on your home screen. You can click to other headlines and select specific ones you want to fully read.

This app delivers the news to your phone, it doesn't re direct you a website like other apps. Good for business people has a good stock section built in. When you connected you can use this app to its fullest. When you offline you can still access the new BUT you will get a limited amount of info. From 1 or 3 sentences to a paragraph. That is why there is a "Get All Stories" option that will download all the news to your phone. This takes a while to do, and I am not sure about how much data it will take, It downloads full news articles with text and images, so best to do it if your on wifi.

Overall GREAT app, looks nice works well and does not show lag.
Some of its features are
-ability to save all and specific stories
-ability to share stories
-change font size
-custom stock watcher