Using custom images in Sweeter Home
January 27, 2010 by Lemon · 11 Comments
In Edit Mode Sweeter Home is aligned into a 16×16 grid. Due to different screen resolutions this means the actual pixel size of each grid division is different depending on the device you’re using.
To help those of you who like to create custom images for their themes, and want to get your image alignment perfect, attached are PSD (Photoshop) files with a graphical (pixel) grid on a layer as well as actual Photoshop guides already laid out for you. At the moment I’m supplying portrait only.
(If you don’t use Photoshop and want these supplied as just a PNG or JPG please comment here and let me know).
Community
Since the launch of the Beta there are thousands of users building theme’s with Sweeter Home, and hundreds of themes have been shared to the Sweeter Home server.
A vocal and helpful community is developing too, so here’s some more places you can go to talk to others other Sweeter Home:
Here! sweeterskins.net!
- Subscribe to my RSS feed so you don’t miss out on news and fresh info
- Follow me on Twitter
- Check out the #SH2tips hashtag. Use it to add your own tips.
- Connect with other users, ask questions and share your themes in the Forum
- Read through the Documentation (work in progress). You can add docs through this topic.
There are several Android forums with great Sweeter Home topics right now. The most vibrant are:
There is one particular situation where Sweeter Home needs community feedback desperately. A small number of Droid users are reporting a boot hang after a crash where the screen appears stuck on the Red Eye. While there are a couple of quick fix workarounds, what we really need is is a logcat of the boot process. If you have experienced this (or are experiencing it right now) please READ THIS HELP PAGE. With your help we can fix this experience for all Sweeter Home Droid users.
Sharing your themes
January 14, 2010 by Lemon · 8 Comments
There are a ton of people sharing themes on Sweeter Home right now. If you’re building themes to share here’s a few tips for you:
Attach a screen shot from your live theme to your upload. This is actually very simple to do but not many people are doing it. When you’re in your active theme (ie: not in edit mode) set it up looking it’s best, then hit the menu button > More > Screen Capture. There you’ll see an option to ‘Use as Preview for upload’. Make sure that is selected, then click save. The next time you upload this theme it will use that image as the preview. It’s good way to make sure your theme look it’s best at upload, and will guarantee you downloads.
If you’re building to share with others, then think about content. Not everyone has the same widgets installed that you do, so maximise the use of the internal widgets (like SMS). If you have many widgets in your theme, those are going to be mostly avoided or replaced by your users, so consider leaving them out in the first place.
Embed and lock Custom Trays. The content in any Custom Tray will not be shared unless you set Embed to Yes. Also once your Custom Tray is set up consider locking it, so your users don’t accidentally drag the apps out of the tray. Custom Trays are also the only trays to receive icon replacements using apps like Better Cut, so if you want your users to experience your custom made icons then use a Custom Tray.
Share through a blog or forum. You can upload your SLX theme file from your SD card to the internet. Wanna get fancy? Link using the sweeterhome:// protocol (instead of http://) and the theme will launch to Sweeter Home right from your phone browser. (Test by visiting this post from your phone – click here: DarkRisingStars)
Get to it and share your themes!
Using Tag Trays
January 13, 2010 by Lemon · Leave a Comment
Very quick intro video – SH2 beta
January 12, 2010 by Lemon · 5 Comments
Keep your Android phone running quick
January 1, 2010 by Lemon · 7 Comments
While we wait for the public beta of everyone’s soon-to-be favourite home replacement, let’s look at ways to speed up your phone. A lot of people experience lag when using Android, so here’s a few tips for keeping your phone light weight and zippy fast. (These are more for G1, Magic users etc – not so much for Droid and newer phones with those kick-ass processors.)
- Sweeter Home: Remove all icons and widgets from your stock home screen. The app Home Switcher makes changing between homes nice and simple.
- Backup then delete your SMS/MMS messages, often. Use SMS Backup or something similar to backup your SMS. Delete all threads. Do this every 1 or 2 weeks.
- Be careful with wallpaper filesize. The reason the android default wallpaper app puts horrible looking compression on your wallpaper is to keep the file size down. If you use a background app (like the excellent Wallpaper Set and Save) make sure your source files aren’t too big. Anything under 100KB should be ok.
- Those apps you don’t use? Delete ‘em. Keep your app drawer trim. That app you downloaded last month and thought it was cool but haven’t used since? Get rid of it. A particular app may be killing your battery usage or CPU also, so trial and error removing certain apps to see if your phone gets faster once it’s been removed.
- Those widgets you don’t use? Delete ‘em. Clock widgets are a particularly bad offender, often running in the background even if they’re not active. Only keep widgets installed that you actually run.
- Change update frequencies. Lengthen the time periods for RSS apps, Twitter apps, weather apps etc to update. No brainer.
- Use a task killer. you shouldn’t have to rely on this too heavily, but it’s handy once in a while. There are oodles of recommended free and paid task managers.
- Restart your phone. You should have done this with your dumb phone every few months anyway. try it every 1 or 2 weeks with Android.
More wallpapers
July 16, 2009 by Lemon · Leave a Comment
http://www.flickr.com/groups/androidandmewp/pool/
Join the group and add your wallpapers. Remember to credit the creator of the image when ever you can!
In the meantime…
While I still struggle to get some quality alone time with my laptop here’s some wallpapers for you kids.
This first lot are mine, all mine, meaning I took them and own the rights. They’re Creative Commons Attribution and Non-Commercial (which means use ‘em all you want but don’t make money off them and please link back to me!)…
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| Android CC Wallpapers |
This second bunch are the most of the rest I have on my phone. Most of these are plucked from g1wallz.com. Please head there and take a look, it’s a great site! The rest are possibly taken from Flickr or from art blog feeds into my RSS Reader. I don’t know who own the rights to a lot of these so please use them respectfully. If you’re the owner and want these removed don’t hesitate to contact me immediately.
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| Android wallpapers |
Adding Contacts as Icons
June 5, 2009 by Lemon · Leave a Comment
Sorry it’s taken so long to answer this one.
A few people have asked how to add contacts as icons in a tray. I’m away from my laptop for a day so I’ll just have to talk you through this one without screenshots:
- Long press in an action tray
- Select “Shortcut”
- Scroll down the list to “Contact” and select
- Scroll through your list of contacts and select the person you’d like to add
- ???
- Profit!
You do have to do this for every contact you wish to add as an icon so it can be a slow process unfortunately. Maybe a good one for the train or bus!
Running Sweeter Home Preview 1 on Cupcake
June 1, 2009 by Lemon · 3 Comments
UPDATE: This post contains information about Sweeter Home Preview 1 which has now been superseded by Sweeter Home 2. Some information in this post may be outdated or inaccurate for use with Sweeter Home 2.
If you’re running Sweeter Home Preview 1 (0.24) – which is the latest version and you should be running it – and you’ve received and/or installed Cupcake (Android 1.5), then here some tips for you:
- In your native home screen remove all widgets. Sweeter Home is an app and due to the true multitasking nature of Android you may be running multiple homes at one time. I’ve often seen widgets running even though I’m in Sweeter Home (Applications > Manage Applications > Menu > Filter > Running). So remove the widgets, restart your phone, and home into Sweeter Home.
- If you’re using images in your theme you may have experienced force closes when adding them to your layout. Here’s the actions I take to get them in without much fuss
- Menu > New > Image then Menu > Edit
- Change the layer – you can change it again later but Sweeter seems to crash less taking this step
- Set imode to centre – again, you can change it later
- Now hit imageConf
- Change imageType to device as normal
- Hit Choose image – Let your thumbnails FULLY load
- Once your image is selected hit Close then Close again
- Now your image is sucessfully added to the layout you can change the layer and imode as you wish. Only a few extra steps to avoid those force closes will save you a lot of frustration
- Theme your Landscape formats! If you haven’t been doing this (I haven’t with all my graphic themes so far since it kills a) memory and b) my time) then you’ll notice why you need to. Because Sweeter Home is an app it will autorotate when you turn your phone on it’s side. This didn’t happen as much in Android 1.1 so when you’re able, take the time to fully skin your themes (I will too, don’t worry).
- Use the on screen keyboard when editing values – most of the time it’s quicker!
- Keep your Home Replacement apps to a minimum. Most feedback indicates that the more home apps you have the slower your system responds. Not using one? Uninstall it for now while you’re using a different Home.
Any questions about running Sweeter Home on Android 1.5 just let me know.
(Obligatory disclaimer: I’m not the Sweeter Home developer, just a fan!) 
