HTC Hero: Software Interface Overview
Much has already been said about the Google Android operating system created for communicators and other portable devices, but not everyone knows that the classic interface, known from the models presented earlier by HTC G1 Dream and G2 Magic, is not an integral part of the platform and can drastically change.
Notable changes to the interface can be seen in the widely publicized model of the HTC Hero communicator, which is known to be sold in the Russian Federation. The review was made using the HTC Dream G1 communicator and the development of the androidfan.ru project team , which allow you to run firmware images without flashing the device .
')
Caution - a lot of screenshots, maybe a lot of traffic.
Startup screen HERO. Instead of the iridescent ANDROID inscription present in the G1 firmware, HTC decided to use its own logo, from which it can be concluded that the PR of the android itself seems to be passing through the final stage, and the vendors are now promoting themselves.
Immediately after the launch (by the way, oddly enough, not very long, I expected more time), the system suggests choosing the current locale. The Russian language is present right at the start, which is good news.
the difference after launching the firmware is obvious. Immediately after choosing a locale, a tutorial is launched on the use of an on-screen keyboard, which, by the way, is not in the official G1 / Magic firmware (but present in the unofficial ones). Screenshots spread in order of learning.
I believe that the use of such a textbook is very, very justified, so when you first get acquainted with the device, not all the subtleties are known and it is not always clear what's what.
After learning to work with the keyboard, the settings wizard is launched, which, in principle, is similar to that present in G1, but allows you to skip the activation of your Google account.
Screenshot "Setting up automatic synchronization":
Screenshot of "Account Settings":
In the sync settings, you can specify Google Accounts, Echange Active Sync (!), And regular email. As can be seen from the picture, in the third model, built on Android, HTC has finally (by numerous requests and reviews) introduced synchronization with a local computer. Also can not but rejoice.
The most unexpected screen - setting up social networking accounts! Our phones are the most Internet-enabled phones in the world. Facebook, twitter and Flick and even some other networks, as it turned out, are available on the device in the form of widgets and native clients. To me personally, it carried the brain.
After completing the setup process, we are offered to see a tutorial on using a telephone:
I will not discuss this tutorial in this post.
After closing the initial setup wizard, this window appeared with a spinning image of waiting, which is usually used in AJAX services, and it hung for a very, very long time:
However, the wait was not in vain, and my desktop, the amazing Hero desktop, was opened to my eyes. The appearance and usability of this interface is different from the G1 / Magic interface like heaven and earth:
The clock, presented in the form of a desktop widget, has a beautiful, soft animation of turning the hands to the desired hour. Unfortunately, I do not know how to shoot a video, but it definitely needs to be seen. In general, the smoothness of graphics and widgets on the android platform is simply incredible, it seems impossible to combine such beauty with such sensitive responsiveness of the interface.
The big “Phone” button just calls to press on itself, which I actually did:
Since I refused to integrate with a Google account (I skipped the setting at the start), the numbers only show the balance check account number recorded on the SIM card. However, even here it can be seen that the dialer interface has also been radically reworked - it now looks in a thoughtful and ascetic business style, from which it can be concluded that the HTC Hero is a device that will be positioned as a business-class device. Well, at least, very much like that.
Gray icons at the bottom of the screen allow you to navigate the tabs of the dialer, only in G1 they were on top, and in HERO - on the bottom. The transfer of control to the bottom of the screen makes it more convenient to control the device - you don’t need to “spread your fingers” too much. Moving is possible both by horizontal scrolling of the trackball, and by fingers on the screen, both in that and in the case, there is a smooth, very pleasant scrolling of the icon selection, with very realistic physics. In general - the physics of graphics, in this firmware is just at the height, it seems that you are really pulling and moving something, and everything happens very, very smoothly, pleasantly and neatly.
If you go back to the snapshot of the desktop, next to the button "Phone" you can see two more on the sides. The upward triangle, in the circle to the left of the phone, is the menu button.
The menu, however, practically does not differ from the standard, except for the colors of the design, and for some reason, the lack of a scrollbar on the left, as it was in G1. Therefore, it is difficult to understand exactly where you are, and slightly uncomfortable.
The “+” button, located on the right side of the “Phone” text box, suggests adding several sets of elements to your desktop: HTC widgets, Google widgets, Shortcuts and Folders. Since the last three are also present in the G1, I decided to see what HTC widgets are. My amazement knew no bounds:
Twitter is finally (!) Available as a widget! Well, in general, in the list of widgets a whole lot, this is only the first screen of this list.
The appearance of the widgets is also drastically changed. The widgets themselves, as I understand it, can have three different sizes - compact, medium and extended. For example, HTC desktop calendar widget:
If you look closely at the calendar widget above, you will notice that even the name of the month on the icon above the calendar is written in Russian! The level of localization, I'm sure, will be just on top!
And now the main thing, and probably the most important difference between Hero and G1 / Magic. Get ready. In HERO 7 (seven!) Desktops! This is just fantastic. Scrolling between the tables is carried out in three options, unlike the two options for G1: moving the tap with a finger in an empty area, the trackball and the special bar that appears when the “menu”, “Phone” and “+” buttons for adding widgets are hidden:
In the locked state, Hero, as well as G1, provides some information for the user: the time, date, and operator name:
Pressing the hardware menu button directly on the desktop reveals some more interesting facts:
In the Hero menu there is the item "Themes". Themes are several sets of pre-installed widgets for desktops that depend on your occupation - communication, internet, multimedia and more. The theme of widgets and their sets deserves a separate review, which I am going to devote to another article on the already updated Hero firmware, which will be available for my G1.
And finally - turning off the device:
As you can see, even this item has not remained unchanged, and in comparison with the G1 in Hero, more functionality is available.
Unfortunately, in this post I don’t have time to consider all the new features of Hero, however, as I said above, they will be presented to the habrasocommunity in the near future on the updated firmware, which is also heavily redesigned compared to the current one.
The post is written by man Nick Denry, who, so far, does not have an account on Habré.
Notable changes to the interface can be seen in the widely publicized model of the HTC Hero communicator, which is known to be sold in the Russian Federation. The review was made using the HTC Dream G1 communicator and the development of the androidfan.ru project team , which allow you to run firmware images without flashing the device .
')
Caution - a lot of screenshots, maybe a lot of traffic.
Startup screen HERO. Instead of the iridescent ANDROID inscription present in the G1 firmware, HTC decided to use its own logo, from which it can be concluded that the PR of the android itself seems to be passing through the final stage, and the vendors are now promoting themselves.
Immediately after the launch (by the way, oddly enough, not very long, I expected more time), the system suggests choosing the current locale. The Russian language is present right at the start, which is good news.
the difference after launching the firmware is obvious. Immediately after choosing a locale, a tutorial is launched on the use of an on-screen keyboard, which, by the way, is not in the official G1 / Magic firmware (but present in the unofficial ones). Screenshots spread in order of learning.
I believe that the use of such a textbook is very, very justified, so when you first get acquainted with the device, not all the subtleties are known and it is not always clear what's what.
After learning to work with the keyboard, the settings wizard is launched, which, in principle, is similar to that present in G1, but allows you to skip the activation of your Google account.
Screenshot "Setting up automatic synchronization":
Screenshot of "Account Settings":
In the sync settings, you can specify Google Accounts, Echange Active Sync (!), And regular email. As can be seen from the picture, in the third model, built on Android, HTC has finally (by numerous requests and reviews) introduced synchronization with a local computer. Also can not but rejoice.
The most unexpected screen - setting up social networking accounts! Our phones are the most Internet-enabled phones in the world. Facebook, twitter and Flick and even some other networks, as it turned out, are available on the device in the form of widgets and native clients. To me personally, it carried the brain.
After completing the setup process, we are offered to see a tutorial on using a telephone:
I will not discuss this tutorial in this post.
After closing the initial setup wizard, this window appeared with a spinning image of waiting, which is usually used in AJAX services, and it hung for a very, very long time:
However, the wait was not in vain, and my desktop, the amazing Hero desktop, was opened to my eyes. The appearance and usability of this interface is different from the G1 / Magic interface like heaven and earth:
The clock, presented in the form of a desktop widget, has a beautiful, soft animation of turning the hands to the desired hour. Unfortunately, I do not know how to shoot a video, but it definitely needs to be seen. In general, the smoothness of graphics and widgets on the android platform is simply incredible, it seems impossible to combine such beauty with such sensitive responsiveness of the interface.
The big “Phone” button just calls to press on itself, which I actually did:
Since I refused to integrate with a Google account (I skipped the setting at the start), the numbers only show the balance check account number recorded on the SIM card. However, even here it can be seen that the dialer interface has also been radically reworked - it now looks in a thoughtful and ascetic business style, from which it can be concluded that the HTC Hero is a device that will be positioned as a business-class device. Well, at least, very much like that.
Gray icons at the bottom of the screen allow you to navigate the tabs of the dialer, only in G1 they were on top, and in HERO - on the bottom. The transfer of control to the bottom of the screen makes it more convenient to control the device - you don’t need to “spread your fingers” too much. Moving is possible both by horizontal scrolling of the trackball, and by fingers on the screen, both in that and in the case, there is a smooth, very pleasant scrolling of the icon selection, with very realistic physics. In general - the physics of graphics, in this firmware is just at the height, it seems that you are really pulling and moving something, and everything happens very, very smoothly, pleasantly and neatly.
If you go back to the snapshot of the desktop, next to the button "Phone" you can see two more on the sides. The upward triangle, in the circle to the left of the phone, is the menu button.
The menu, however, practically does not differ from the standard, except for the colors of the design, and for some reason, the lack of a scrollbar on the left, as it was in G1. Therefore, it is difficult to understand exactly where you are, and slightly uncomfortable.
The “+” button, located on the right side of the “Phone” text box, suggests adding several sets of elements to your desktop: HTC widgets, Google widgets, Shortcuts and Folders. Since the last three are also present in the G1, I decided to see what HTC widgets are. My amazement knew no bounds:
Twitter is finally (!) Available as a widget! Well, in general, in the list of widgets a whole lot, this is only the first screen of this list.
The appearance of the widgets is also drastically changed. The widgets themselves, as I understand it, can have three different sizes - compact, medium and extended. For example, HTC desktop calendar widget:
If you look closely at the calendar widget above, you will notice that even the name of the month on the icon above the calendar is written in Russian! The level of localization, I'm sure, will be just on top!
And now the main thing, and probably the most important difference between Hero and G1 / Magic. Get ready. In HERO 7 (seven!) Desktops! This is just fantastic. Scrolling between the tables is carried out in three options, unlike the two options for G1: moving the tap with a finger in an empty area, the trackball and the special bar that appears when the “menu”, “Phone” and “+” buttons for adding widgets are hidden:
In the locked state, Hero, as well as G1, provides some information for the user: the time, date, and operator name:
Pressing the hardware menu button directly on the desktop reveals some more interesting facts:
In the Hero menu there is the item "Themes". Themes are several sets of pre-installed widgets for desktops that depend on your occupation - communication, internet, multimedia and more. The theme of widgets and their sets deserves a separate review, which I am going to devote to another article on the already updated Hero firmware, which will be available for my G1.
And finally - turning off the device:
As you can see, even this item has not remained unchanged, and in comparison with the G1 in Hero, more functionality is available.
Unfortunately, in this post I don’t have time to consider all the new features of Hero, however, as I said above, they will be presented to the habrasocommunity in the near future on the updated firmware, which is also heavily redesigned compared to the current one.
The post is written by man Nick Denry, who, so far, does not have an account on Habré.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/67884/
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