Groupie
July 23, 2010 by Lemon · Leave a Comment
Here’s the first version of Groupie. It’s a theme loosely based around the idea of dynamic folders. I’ve used tiny Tagged Trays as the icons with Springboards sitting above them that target the larger trays. The buttons will always display the first 4 icons in your tagged tray, so if you add or remove an app from a category this will be shown in the button too.
Coming soon: Instructions built into the theme; improvements to indicate the active tray.
Build on Nexus One so should suit any high def screen.
Search for “Groupie” or “Lemon” in the Sweeter Home theme list.
A link dump for useful design resources
July 16, 2010 by Lemon · Leave a Comment
I regularly save links to useful design tutorials and art blogs that I can get Sweeter Home design inspiration from. Now I’m sharing that with you!
I’ll be adding to this list almost daily. I’ll include anything useful regarding creating custom elements you can use in your Sweeter Home themes including UI design, icons, templates and more. Most of these will be Photoshop tutorials, but you can use the same principals with free software like The GIMP, Paint.NET or Inkscape; or more affordable graphics programs like the excellent Pixelmator for OS X.
As well as me adding to the list, I’ve included a form where you can submit links you’ve found useful too! So submit those awesome Icon Packs and wallpaper sites you use and let’s build something we can all use to build kick-ass, graphically rich themes!
Froyo
July 15, 2010 by Lemon · Leave a Comment
Update: v0.3 – improved graphics
Here’s a quick Froyo theme I’ve thrown together. This is meant as more of a framework for you to edit and mess with. Some quick notes:
- The app slots in the dock will “scroll” unless you edit each custom tray (one for each) and set “Locked” to Yes.
- If you want to use Better Cut to add custom icons in these slots, edit the custom tray, set “receive shortcuts” to Yes, exit edit mode, add your shortcut, enter edit mode, edit the custom tray, turn “receive shortcuts” to No again. YOu must do this for each tray one at a time.
- You can edit the dock colour – enter edit mode and long press over the dock, choose the “Dock Colour” block, edit it and change the background colour. Leave it transparent for the best effect
Built for HD screens (Nexus One etc).
Search for “Lemon” or “Froyo” in the Sweeter Home theme list.
New Builds!
July 13, 2010 by Lemon · 5 Comments
If you haven’t been checking sweeterhome.com for builds lately, now is the time! Several new builds have been released in the last week. Go get the latest build NOW, and check back regularly. (Read: installing new builds).
What’s new?
Embed wallpaper with your theme (new!)
There’s now a check-box in the upload screen which allows you to “Include Wallpaper” in your theme package!
Updated Theme List
No longer limited to 20 themes, you can now scroll through hundreds. Note that the first download will take some time, while subsequent loads of the theme list will be much quicker. View theme pages, including reading comments and ratings, and full screen preview of each theme. If you experience bugs please report them (Menu > Report Bug). The developer is rolling out incremental improvements so be patient and keep looking for new builds.
Current Time block
Make your own time widget with the Current Time block, which will natively show in all Sweeter Home themes when shared. Highly customisable right down to changing the separators between HH and MM.
If you have any questions or comments hit me up in the comments here, the forums at sweeterhome.com, or follow me on Twitter (reminder: I’m not the developer of Sweeter Home!)…
ThrillhoHD
UPDATED: 2 home menus added. Download from the theme list and enjoy.
A quick note regarding bitmaps and out of memory
May 6, 2010 by Lemon · Leave a Comment
I know you guys sometimes get frustrated at the crashes in Sweeter Home, and although I’ve covered this in several forums I thought I’d mention it here as well (with a nice example).
Sweeter Home isn’t a ‘normal’ home replacement app. In a ‘normal’ home replacement you are working within a set UI paradigm; working within the framework of that home app. No matter how flexible and customisable it is, NO home apps allow you to completely add, remove, or replace elements of their UI, let alone doing this on-the-fly. So Sweeter Home is unique in this, but in doing so it also opens some doors to functionality that Android is not optimised to perform. A good example is bitmaps. Read this article to see an example where using bitmaps in a gallery app just to find image widths was crashing his app, and his solution was to avoid using bitmaps! This is problem with how Android allocates memory for bitmaps and all apps have to deal with this. Now imagine adding more bitmaps, a completely editable UI, the half-baked Android widget framework and multiple devices all with varying processing power and RAM, and you’ll have some idea of what the developers of Sweeter Home have to work with when trying to get the app running smoothly on your phone.
Remember the app is in beta, and the developers are working on getting more resources to start expanding functionality. Until then have fun with Sweeter Home and be patient! 
Oh, and share your themes!
(PS – Theme tutorial is coming soon)…
Hello again
May 3, 2010 by Lemon · 4 Comments
Hi team. I’m finally settling down into my new role at work and I’m ready for some more Sweeter Home content!
Tell me which you’d like first:
- A tutorial covering building a complete theme from scratch with every step documented (simple theme with springboards, no images), which I’ll also use as a tutorial here. Or,
- Progressive updates with screenshots and tips as I port (and enhance) HotDock to HD screen resolution.
Let me know in the comments below…
LWP [video]
April 15, 2010 by Lemon · Leave a Comment
