Desktop mode; apps that work well, apps that don't and bugs - Huawei Mate 10 Guides, News, & Discussion

I've been playing around with desktop mode quite a bit and overall it seems to be a good idea. With the exception of TeamViewer I could move my entire business day over to it quite easily. I'm using an Inapio hub and keyboard / mouse combo with a usb dongle.
Apps that I've found work well with it are:
1. All of the Microsoft apps. I mainly use the Outlook app and Microsoft Edge and have no complaints about either of them.
2. Enpass and Lastpass.
3. Most if not all of my banking apps work well.
Apps that don't work well:
1. Quite a few games. Some of the games that require taps don't recognise mouse clicks. Risk is one I can think of straight away.
2. TeamViewer (app-specific problem as it doesn't support remote desktop scaling from the Android app).
Bugs / annoyances I've found:
1. Quite often when clicking on buttons in browsers, email and other apps I have to click slightly off-centre to the left and below the button before the click is recognised.
2. When deleting the built-in apps from the desktop the rest of the icons don't auto-rearrange.
3. No auto-rearrange of icons.
4. Lacking a slideshow for the desktop background.
Do you use desktop mode and how do you find it?

How is performance and input lag? Is it smooth?

I couldn't get see Gmail. Which is a bummer since we use g-suite at work....
Apart from that it worked very well. My monitor has the most and keyboard plugged into it and the video about is a USB-C cable. When plugged into this the desktop is very well integrated with the most and keyboard working fine and the phone charging via the video cable as well. But as I said, no Gmail...

@Riio Performance is very good with no lag.
@palexr Yes, a bit odd that the gmail app isn't listed under the start menu. I think it must be about the only one that doesn't show up there. You could always use gsuite via a web browser?
One type of app that works well in desktop mode but not in phone mode is SIP / VOIP clients. I use Bria but have also tested Zoiper and both app stop running under the lockscreen; even with "ignore battery optimisation" enabled and yet Skype works perfectly.

Gmail app icon does not appear in the desktop, but if you receive Gmail notification and you click on it, Gmail will load. What I did was to pin to Task bar and now I have it in desktop. So all you have to do is to wait patiently for the notifications of your favourite apps to appear on the desktop.

musicdiary said:
Gmail app icon does not appear in the desktop, but if you receive Gmail notification and you click on it, Gmail will load. What I did was to pin to Task bar and now I have it in desktop. So all you have to do is to wait patiently for the notifications of your favourite apps to appear on the desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, yes that worked - to a degree. I can open Gmail from the notifications and then pin it to the Task Bar as you say. However, clicking on the resultant icon will only open my private email and not my work one. However, if I get a work email, I get a notification which I can open and access my work emails - pinning that to the task bar will only open my private gmail.
So, yep it works, just need to send my work email an email.
Thanks.

What determines whether an app icon will appear or not in desktop mode ?
I tried it but could not find YouTube app for example in Desktop mode ? So how do I trigger other apps not shown in Desktop mode ?
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

What triggers the DPI used on an external screen? I have two screens - one 23 Dell monitor and one 23 Samsung SyncMaster TV/Monitor. Both support 1920x1080 however when I connect HM10P to a Samsung Screen I noticed the DPI is much lower than on the Dell one (same resolution).

richardburt said:
I've been playing around with desktop mode quite a bit and overall it seems to be a good idea. With the exception of TeamViewer I could move my entire business day over to it quite easily. I'm using an Inapio hub and keyboard / mouse combo with a usb dongle.
Apps that I've found work well with it are:
1. All of the Microsoft apps. I mainly use the Outlook app and Microsoft Edge and have no complaints about either of them.
2. Enpass and Lastpass.
3. Most if not all of my banking apps work well.
Apps that don't work well:
1. Quite a few games. Some of the games that require taps don't recognise mouse clicks. Risk is one I can think of straight away.
2. TeamViewer (app-specific problem as it doesn't support remote desktop scaling from the Android app).
Bugs / annoyances I've found:
1. Quite often when clicking on buttons in browsers, email and other apps I have to click slightly off-centre to the left and below the button before the click is recognised.
2. When deleting the built-in apps from the desktop the rest of the icons don't auto-rearrange.
3. No auto-rearrange of icons.
4. Lacking a slideshow for the desktop background.
Do you use desktop mode and how do you find it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone know if there is a list of supported app in desktop mode, or some specific flag/tag to search for in Play Store. I'm interested also into Visio replacement and some PDF editors but can't understand what to search for.
I didn't understand if this mode is valid only for EMUI desktop (so that developers need to change their app to work specifically on EMUI) or a general Android optimization.

I found a way to add any app, though not all work properly.. Prime video for example, it loads, but video playback is just a black box..
Use another launcher (I used Nova), and open that launcher in desktop mode. Nova looks broken, but don't worry.. Double click (left mouse) on the blank home screen and app search opens.. Find your desired app, open it, then pin it to the bottom bar..
Enjoy

When using PC Mode is there a way to force fullscreen for 3rd Party apps.
I use the Huawei standard video player which is always fullscreen but for some videos there is no sound so I use VLC or MX Player. Cant seem to get rid of the taskbar below when using the other apps.

RabidWolve said:
When using PC Mode is there a way to force fullscreen for 3rd Party apps.
I use the Huawei standard video player which is always fullscreen but for some videos there is no sound so I use VLC or MX Player. Cant seem to get rid of the taskbar below when using the other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue, a bit annoying, but nearly full screen.. Chrome won't go full screen in videos either, nor any other non stock video player I've tried..

Setting.Out said:
Same issue, a bit annoying, but nearly full screen.. Chrome won't go full screen in videos either, nor any other non stock video player I've tried..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dang. Was hoping it was something I was not doing.
Emailed their support requesting they add this. Hopefully they enable with a software update.

RabidWolve said:
When using PC Mode is there a way to force fullscreen for 3rd Party apps.
I use the Huawei standard video player which is always fullscreen but for some videos there is no sound so I use VLC or MX Player. Cant seem to get rid of the taskbar below when using the other apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what bothers me, I've been using terrarium app a lot lately, and casting my screen to our tv works just fine but since its using wireless connection, image quality is somehow affected and also the auto motion plus wont work, movements arent that smooth(was accustomed to 60fps). Tried using the desktop mode and image quality did improve and the auto motion plus now works but movies on mxplayer is not going on full screen.

Autocad mate 10 desktop mode
Someone can tell me if autocad app runs with desktop mode on mate 10?

Tested yesterday the Easy Projection mode, a huge disappointment from my expectations to get rid of my Windows laptop.
The Microsoft Suite is barely usable, the documents are resizing correctly but Word, Excel, PowerPoint features are just a ghost of the rich applications I have on the laptop. Also the UI is clumsy with commands to be accessed in weird way.
Also the user experience is far from productive, with the right button click doing the function of the left button, no point and drag, no changing apps position in folders.
Dropbox app, files app etc are just a stretched version of the mobile one with a lot of empty space.
The only well functioning is web browsing, so I suppose relying on Google Docs will be fine.
Want to ask if does someone else have this problems, maybe need I to do some setup.

My desktop test
Today I tested the desktop mode.
I was quite amazed about what I saw.
A few things I did not like:
-citrix receiver did not work well
-rdp connections did not go well
-no VoIP apps possible because the user that is activated has no rights to the phone options.
I am looking for the possibility to change some settings for the desktop mode. I can't find the application "desktop mode" to elavate the rights.
Also the edges for the chrome browser are not as good as we would like to see. I will subscribe to the fora for the Huawei desktop mode to see if I can learn. Something there.
If anyone has tips for me please advise me.

Setting.Out said:
Same issue, a bit annoying, but nearly full screen.. Chrome won't go full screen in videos either, nor any other non stock video player I've tried..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have problems with VLC, it works fine but playback controls dont appear on screen.
Perfect with stock video player but no audio in some videos
I use MX player, working 100% great
The three are full screen support, to do it go to the icon on the task bar and left button, then enable it.

Just wondering with the P20 series released, updated EMUI 8.1 have there been any improvements in desktop mode compared to the mate 10?

anyone know how to have desktop mode auto-launch when cable is plugged in, rather than having to choose desktop mode from status bar?

Related

Cast chrome browser from IPAD or Phone?

Absolutely LOVE this thing. Bought three for the house. I used to run wires to connect PC to tv so I'm used to streaming but the ability for my to be on the island in my kitchen and instantly beam something to the TV to show the wife is brilliant. Question though
I love the chrome browser cast tab as the options are endless with what you can put on the TV. Is this possible through the IPAD or phone Chrome browser? Anyway to do this yet? I would love to open up pandora on my chrome browser in my phone and beam it over. I know pandora will support soon but in the meantime....
btw - trick for still using your mac while using chrome browser casting - make the chrome browser tab full screen and then you can switch over to your other desktop tab (three finger swing) and continue doing things.
Not at the moment, no. Can't even cast from browser on Android devices/tablet yet either. Only desktops/laptops for now.
delt31 said:
btw - trick for still using your mac while using chrome browser casting - make the chrome browser tab full screen and then you can switch over to your other desktop tab (three finger swing) and continue doing things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip! Mine comes in a couple days, that's gonna be great. I was just wondering about being able to multitask with the chrome tabs open.
Thought of another great use for Chromecast..paired up with my Belkin @tv (streams live TV and DVR recordings to tablet/phone/computer) it turns it into a portable cable box! Well, as soon as we get a hack that allows any app to stream, which I'm guessing won't take long :fingers-crossed:

Can't multitask in full screen mode

When I first got my Chromecast, I was able to play a video (on hulu for example) in fullscreen mode, then alt tab back to Chrome so I could still use my laptop while casting to the TV in full screen.
In the past week, it no longer works. When I alt tab, it automatically goes out of full screen mode. So now I have to have my laptop playing the video in fullscreen if I want to cast it in fullscreen to the TV.
I can't find anything in my searches about this happening to anyone else when I google the problem. Has anyone else run across this issue?
Thanks
swillard said:
When I first got my Chromecast, I was able to play a video (on hulu for example) in fullscreen mode, then alt tab back to Chrome so I could still use my laptop while casting to the TV in full screen.
In the past week, it no longer works. When I alt tab, it automatically goes out of full screen mode. So now I have to have my laptop playing the video in fullscreen if I want to cast it in fullscreen to the TV.
I can't find anything in my searches about this happening to anyone else when I google the problem. Has anyone else run across this issue?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, it works fine for me, and I have the latest update. Maybe reinstall?
aiiee said:
Sorry, it works fine for me, and I have the latest update. Maybe reinstall?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do I reinstall? I've reinstalled the cast extension and that didn't fix it. I have the most current version of Chrome. I can only thing to uninstall and reinstall Chrome to see if that fixes the problem.
swillard said:
What do I reinstall? I've reinstalled the cast extension and that didn't fix it. I have the most current version of Chrome. I can only thing to uninstall and reinstall Chrome to see if that fixes the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know, I don't have the problem.
What about Flash?
swillard said:
When I first got my Chromecast, I was able to play a video (on hulu for example) in fullscreen mode, then alt tab back to Chrome so I could still use my laptop while casting to the TV in full screen.
In the past week, it no longer works. When I alt tab, it automatically goes out of full screen mode. So now I have to have my laptop playing the video in fullscreen if I want to cast it in fullscreen to the TV.
I can't find anything in my searches about this happening to anyone else when I google the problem. Has anyone else run across this issue?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is this is related to the Flash Player or the player on the site that you are using. I have seen this happen on my two monitor setup where when I go to the second screen it breaks out of full screen mode on the first monitor. I'm pretty sure all i had to do was restart my machine. But I would try reinstalling Flash, clearing cache, cookies, etc.
Do you see the same behavior when you are not using Chromecast?
Good luck.
srgibbs99 said:
My guess is this is related to the Flash Player or the player on the site that you are using. I have seen this happen on my two monitor setup where when I go to the second screen it breaks out of full screen mode on the first monitor. I'm pretty sure all i had to do was restart my machine. But I would try reinstalling Flash, clearing cache, cookies, etc.
Do you see the same behavior when you are not using Chromecast?
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It happens with any video, whether casting or not. I used to be able to watch Hulu.com in fullscreen and cast it to the tv, then I could alt tab to another tab to check FB or something. Now it doesn't work. I've tried hulu, youtube, and some other video sites and they all the the same thing. When you hit Alt they immediately go back to the small screen page. I've rebooted my computer and reinstalled the Cast extension. Wondering if I need to reinstall Chrome. It did crash one me a few times this weekend, though not in the past couple of days.
swillard said:
It happens with any video, whether casting or not. I used to be able to watch Hulu.com in fullscreen and cast it to the tv, then I could alt tab to another tab to check FB or something. Now it doesn't work. I've tried hulu, youtube, and some other video sites and they all the the same thing. When you hit Alt they immediately go back to the small screen page. I've rebooted my computer and reinstalled the Cast extension. Wondering if I need to reinstall Chrome. It did crash one me a few times this weekend, though not in the past couple of days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had a similar issue. I received mine on Tuesday and the first day full screen worked for espn and I was able to Alt+Tab to continue browsing. Last night, I tried to do the same thing but It would only display a picture of the tab with the embedded video (when I would go to full screen, the embedded video was black with the tab content around it. when I would exit full screen the embedded video began playing again.) Essentially, I can no longer go into full screen mode for any flash based video (tried with NFL network too). Mine did an update first thing when I turned it on yesterday. I didn't write down the original version I had nor what it updated to. My flash player also updated recently but I think that was before I tried it for the first time. I did not try to reboot my machine or reinstall flash / chrome but I did attempt to do it from 2 different computers on my network and both suffered from the same issue.
m2cool2go said:
I have had a similar issue. I received mine on Tuesday and the first day full screen worked for espn and I was able to Alt+Tab to continue browsing. Last night, I tried to do the same thing but It would only display a picture of the tab with the embedded video (when I would go to full screen, the embedded video was black with the tab content around it. when I would exit full screen the embedded video began playing again.) Essentially, I can no longer go into full screen mode for any flash based video (tried with NFL network too). Mine did an update first thing when I turned it on yesterday. I didn't write down the original version I had nor what it updated to. My flash player also updated recently but I think that was before I tried it for the first time. I did not try to reboot my machine or reinstall flash / chrome but I did attempt to do it from 2 different computers on my network and both suffered from the same issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found a post on another forum that helped me resolve the issue. In your google chrome browser (assuming that's what you are using), type in about://plugins. Click on the Details icon (+) on the far right of the Plugins title bar. Look for Adobe flash and you probably have 2 plugins listed. Look for pepflashplayer.dll . It should be listed in the location section. Click on disable. You may need to restart the browser. Try your fullscreen again.
That fixed it for me, so I hope it fixes it for you.
I just found a pretty neat trick to do fullscreen.
Install the "Chrome Toolbox" which allows you to open flash videos by themselves, separate from anything else on that webpage.
Go to the page with the flash video you are playing. Cast that tab. Hover over the video and an icon will appear to allow you to put it on its own window. Chromecast will now only show the video, same as if you went fullscreen. Video quality seems better when the window is not minimized.
hpcolombia said:
I just found a pretty neat trick to do fullscreen.
Install the "Chrome Toolbox" which allows you to open flash videos by themselves, separate from anything else on that webpage.
Go to the page with the flash video you are playing. Cast that tab. Hover over the video and an icon will appear to allow you to put it on its own window. Chromecast will now only show the video, same as if you went fullscreen. Video quality seems better when the window is not minimized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip but I can't get it to work. I have Chrome Toolbox installed, went to Hulu and cast that tab and not getting anything when I hover over the view to pop it out as a separate window.
swillard said:
Thanks for the tip but I can't get it to work. I have Chrome Toolbox installed, went to Hulu and cast that tab and not getting anything when I hover over the view to pop it out as a separate window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have the same problem. Cant switch tab by using alt+tab
Does anyone has another solution?
ps: i am using mac
swillard said:
Thanks for the tip but I can't get it to work. I have Chrome Toolbox installed, went to Hulu and cast that tab and not getting anything when I hover over the view to pop it out as a separate window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's working now. Thanks for the tip. I can use this trick to cast to the TV and still use my laptop for other stuff.
Toolbox Pop-out link??
Hi guys!
Any chance of a link to the Chrome Toolbox in the app store? The one I'm looking at is probably not the one I'm looking for.
BTW, Alt-Tab is working for me, but the full-screen video is playing in the background so I can see it in place of the Windows taskbar. I can move about the desktop though
hpcolombia said:
I just found a pretty neat trick to do fullscreen.
Install the "Chrome Toolbox" which allows you to open flash videos by themselves, separate from anything else on that webpage.
Go to the page with the flash video you are playing. Cast that tab. Hover over the video and an icon will appear to allow you to put it on its own window. Chromecast will now only show the video, same as if you went fullscreen. Video quality seems better when the window is not minimized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately Chrome Toolbox doesn't work on Windows 8? And isn't available anymore anyway?
This is really annoying. Just got Chromecast.
But when casting a tab of full screen video on certain websites and I move from the tab it reverts to its original frame.
Basically I just want to be able to play full screen content from sites like BBC's iPlayer while doing other things on the computer.
Fiddling with flash plugins doesn't seem to change it. I looked for other possibly relevant extensions in the web store but none really worked.
This seems to me a fundamental but should be pretty simple problem for Google to fix.
Any other ideas now?
Thanks, Tom
tomwood said:
Unfortunately Chrome Toolbox doesn't work on Windows 8? And isn't available anymore anyway?
This is really annoying. Just got Chromecast.
But when casting a tab of full screen video on certain websites and I move from the tab it reverts to its original frame.
Basically I just want to be able to play full screen content from sites like BBC's iPlayer while doing other things on the computer.
Fiddling with flash plugins doesn't seem to change it. I looked for other possibly relevant extensions in the web store but none really worked.
This seems to me a fundamental but should be pretty simple problem for Google to fix.
Any other ideas now?
Thanks, Tom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about Windows 8, but in 7 I am pretty sure I can hit the Windows key + D which will minimize the browser and allow me to continue what I am doing.
Obskure said:
BTW, Alt-Tab is working for me, but the full-screen video is playing in the background so I can see it in place of the Windows taskbar. I can move about the desktop though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like that "feature" - my old ATI TV tuner card used to have that.
tomwood said:
But when casting a tab of full screen video on certain websites and I move from the tab it reverts to its original frame.
Basically I just want to be able to play full screen content from sites like BBC's iPlayer while doing other things on the computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to depend on how the player achieves full-screen. Some sites have a full-screen option from the browser level, and that seems to behave differently (also sometimes different resolution) than using the full-screen/zoom option in the player.
Good example is www.BabyFirstTV.com
The blue-background full-screen button just full-screens the video in the tab and shows the Exit Fullscreen button when casted.
The full-screen button in the player window (bottom right corner) make the video full-desktop size (and replaces my desktop background), and doesn't show the (annoying) Exit Fullscreen button. The bottom does get cut off, likely because my desktop is 1920x1200 so I'm losing the bottom 180 pixels.
For me at least, either method allows me to Alt-Tab to another application without messing up the Chromecast playback though.
bhiga said:
It seems to depend on how the player achieves full-screen. Some sites have a full-screen option from the browser level, and that seems to behave differently (also sometimes different resolution) than using the full-screen/zoom option in the player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, unfortunately though for me when using that browser-level full screen video, and I move from the tab, it reverts to its original frame.
I'm using Windows 8 x64 with Chrome Beta 32.
Obskure said:
Hi guys!
Any chance of a link to the Chrome Toolbox in the app store?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-cast/boadgeojelhgndaghljhdicfkmllpafd
Also found another interesting Chrome App....
Turns your Browser into a Chromecast Target that you can stream to!
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cr-cast/acmfmindblghbicdipoakcolegkcddbk
tomwood said:
Thanks, unfortunately though for me when using that browser-level full screen video, and I move from the tab, it reverts to its original frame.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you try it on www.babyfirsttv.com ? I'm guessing any browser/tab-level zoom will depend on how the site is coded.
bhiga said:
Can you try it on babyfirsttv? I'm guessing any browser/tab-level zoom will depend on how the site is coded.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, if it takes up just the tab it's ok, but when going completely full screen it doesn't stay like that if I move... And unfortunately many sites with video, like the ones I want to use, only have that option.

[Q] Annoying icon covering YouTube videos

It looks like some kind of RSS feed icon, it shows up when I put the video in landscape then won't go away. How do I remove/disable this?
phatmanxxl said:
It looks like some kind of RSS feed icon, it shows up when I put the video in landscape then won't go away. How do I remove/disable this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that might be the chromecast icon but I'm not sure. Check if u have a connected tv under settings
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium
I dont
I take it that this hasn't been "solved" yet? It is annoying.
Same problem here.
Galaxy Note2, suddenly I started seeing chrome cast icon on my YouTube videos.
Its was working just fne this morning. I dont have chrome cast device.
Any luck removing this thing.
This happens to me when I'm connected to my car through bluetooth. There has to be a TV or some other bluetooth device close by. When I turn bluetooth on then launch youtube the icon isnt there. But if I turn bluetooth off after I launch youtube the icon will not go away.
Open the app manager from the phone settings menu, find YouTube under the all tab and clear the default, cache, data, and force close. That did it for me. Also, if you do use cast or bluetooth, try to disconnect from the receiver when you're done. Not sure why it hangs like that.
phatmanxxl said:
It looks like some kind of RSS feed icon, it shows up when I put the video in landscape then won't go away. How do I remove/disable this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this problem and looked around. The play store reviews mention it quite a bit, and I found a google circles comment saying they were aware of the problem. My only solution: download and install a prior version. I found the 5.1.10 apk for download by searching around.
I also went to play store and the youtube app and disabled automatic updating. I'll probably update it in a month or so and see if they've fixed it, yet, but still have the .apk of the older version on hand.

[Q] Things to know before beginning a music player app for WP8

First of all, hello to everybody. I have just joined xdaDevelopers.
To business now..
I recently bought my first Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 520). One of the reasons for getting it was for developing my own WP8 apps.
I would like to start with a music player app - one that can play mp3 files from phone memory and SD card; arrange songs according to name, albums and artists; create playlists; have capabilties of fast foward and rewind (seeking); and recognise album arts.
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
I have zero experience in app development; I am a web designer.
I noticed that there are very few "polished" music players (which function properly as well as have a nice UI) in the WP store. Any particular reason for that (other than the platform being relatively new)?
I created this post mainly because the lack of quality music players appeared a bit strange to me. I have heard that a particular file type can be accessed by only one app (please correct me if I am wrong). So does it mean that one has to somehow uninstall the default music player in order to use the newly downloaded one?
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Please note that I come from Android, and am very new to Windows Phone platform. So kindly point out if there's something incorrect about my assumptions.
Thanks and regards.
Hi,
Welcome to Windows Phone. The Lumia 520 is a great choice in my humble opinion. In regards to why there are so few music apps, there are probably several reasons. One such is the fact, that the easiest way to make one is to integrate with the built-in music features, which however limits you in several ways, like not being able to add more file types, not being able to customize the experience too much, playlisting is limit as far as I know, which basically puts you in the position, that the only actual improvement you can do upon that is implementing a new streaming service. The other route is to implement your own music player, but then you're going to have issues making it work in the background (not to mention, that implementing a music player isn't entirely simple).
gdebojyoti said:
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Make sure you have hardware for it. I recommend a minimum of Windows 8 Pro 64bit, but you can find instructions for Windows 7 on this forum as well. You'll need VT-x support on your CPU, plenty of RAM.
2. Download and install the WP8 SDK.
3. Once you open Visual Studio, you can start by creating a new project, you'll need a UI project (I recommend Windows Phone App or HTML5 App templates) and a music playback project (WP Audio Playback Agent -OR- WP Audio Streaming Agent).
4. For tutorials on how to get started I usually go to Pluralsight.com, because I have a subscription there, and they're plain awesome, but I'm sure there are a bunch of other sources as well, which are for free.
gdebojyoti said:
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have both Adobe Reader and PDF Reader installed, once you tap on a PDF file (say after downloading one in IE) an option should appear for you to select which app you wanna open it with.
gdebojyoti said:
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can install and use as many audio/music apps you like, but obviously only one can have the background music feature used at one time. (You can only have one music playing in the background).
Also:
"Developers must pay an annual subscription fee of $99, (this, according to Todd Brix, the General Manager for Windows Phone Apps and Store team, is currently on an ongoing promotion at $19) to become an App Hub member and submit apps to the Windows Phone Store. There's no limit on the number of free submissions for paid apps. There's a limit of 100 free submissions for free apps; thereafter, there's a fee of $19.99 per submission for free apps." - Wikipedia
Hope I helped, and happy coding!
:fingers-crossed:
@TheGoldrocker: Thank you for your reply. It did clear up quite a few things.
As of now, I am okay with "integrating with the built-in music features" as you said.
What I want to do is modify the UI and UX a bit. Some of the features can be as follows -
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Am I allowed to do the above?
You're welcome.
"Integrating with the built-in music features" doesn't mean you get to rewrite the UI/functionality of the current Music+Videos app. What it means is, you get to use the built-in classes for simplifying music playback in your new app. You'll still have to build up a new UI around your classes, you'll also have to write quite a few lines of code for the playback functionality (but obviously way less than if you tried to write your own music player from scratch).
Now sadly I cannot answer all of your questions with absolute certainty, because I haven't tried writing a music player yet, but I'll give them a shot.
I numbered your list:
gdebojyoti said:
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes, since you'll have to make a new UI from scratch, and you'll have the ability to include any logic behind it you want.
2. Yes, the grouping can be avoided AFAIK.
3. Same as 1.
4. Same as 1.
5. Don't think so. Someone else with more knowledge will have to answer this to be sure, though.
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
7. Same as 1.
8. Same as 1.
Hope I helped.
Thank you for your reply.
TheGoldrocker said:
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
I do hope that Microsoft introduces interactive tiles in some future update. Sort of start screen widgets.
gdebojyoti said:
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deeplinking is launching an app with a link toward a specific page with parameters. Imagine it as a URL to a specific page on a website. If your app and pages support it, you could tap on a tile (say on the start screen), which opens your app, and instantly navigates to a playlist, album, song, whatever you made that tile link to.
Pinning items to the start screen can be triggered by anything you want. You, the coder, decides how you're gonna allow the user to pin their songs/albums/playlists/artists/whatever.
Here's a little tutorial on this topic:
http://wp.qmatteoq.com/first-steps-...-links/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Okay, thanks. I'll have a look at that.
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
There are a couple fo things the guys here forgot to tell you:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
mcosmin222 said:
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
mcosmin222 said:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
gdebojyoti said:
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can not integrate with the built-in player.
There are too many limitations to explain. You will see.
Yes, learn C#
Okay.

Youtube screen off, on 4.4.4 no apps or root required.

Kind XDA users,
I figured out a way to stream YouTube using a Note 4 on Android version 4.4.4 while the screen is off.
Also tried this on S6 and different phones on v5.0+.
Sadly it does not work on these models / versions.
Please note I use the default browser, I have no clue or it would work using a different browser. Tried to search or it was posted before, could not find it, thought I should share it, so here you go:
1. ) Find a YouTube video and launch fullscreen (from stock browser).
2.) Drag your status bar all the way down while the video plays fullscreen.
3.) Press the power button, screen should turn off but the audio keeps playing.
Edit: It seems that when you create a floating window and launch a fullscreen video in it, then unfocus the window (by for example tapping the homescreen) and powering off the device: results in the same thing.
Perhaps this way it would work on 4.4.4+ not sure, can not test at this moment.
Kind regards, Stefan.
I just tried the second trick with note 4 and it didn't work
Guys, for this feature search for OGYoutube.

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