Apps that works great with a real keyboard and in landscape

[MickH 211]

The extended characters like question mark etc.

[Doktor Oswaldo 901]

Launchtime https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.quaap.launchtime/

Is a somewhat unusual launcher which works fantastic with the keyboard! just make sure to enable rotation!
It has some nice features like:

1. Keyboard works
2. Search with wildcards
3. Autocategorizing of apps

It looks a little ugly in the default settings, but if you set nearly everything to transparent it looks pretty nice.
This is the first one I tested which does not try to improve the normal launcher but does something different.

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by Doktor Oswaldo

[netman 1,424]

43 minutes ago, Doktor Oswaldo said:

Launchtime https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.quaap.launchtime/

Is a somewhat unusual launcher which works fantastic with the keyboard! just make sure to enable rotation!
It has some nice features like:

1. Keyboard works
2. Search with wildcards
3. Autocategorizing of apps

It looks a little ugly in the default settings, but if you set nearly everything to transparent it looks pretty nice.
This is the first one I tested which does not try to improve the normal launcher but does something different.

 

+1 for launch time being excellent in landscape and with keyboard. The wildcards seem limited though now that i tried, just matching 1 char. But still, i like it a lot so far.

[Craig 1,435]

18 hours ago, MickH said:

The extended characters like question mark etc.

I haven't tried Opera, but some apps ignore Fxtecs modifications to the keyboard layout related to the slant arrow.  And those apps the shift key will work normally on the number row, but you'll have to use virtual keyboard for slash and question mark...  See my thread on keymapper for more a couple ways to work around that.

[MickH 211]

3 hours ago, Craig said:

I haven't tried Opera, but some apps ignore Fxtecs modifications to the keyboard layout related to the slant arrow..

Pretty much the same with Vivaldi and Edge browsers.

[EskeRahn 5,399]

23 hours ago, MickH said:

The extended characters like question mark etc.

I have not used Opera for many many years, but could you be a bit more specific in where the keyboard does not work fully? Is it everywhere in the app, or specific places? E.g. searches or entering bookmark names?
Is it the stock layout only, or do you see the same using e.g. FinQWERTY ?

I just tried to install Opera, and "?" works fine here as far as I can see?

[MickH 211]

3 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

I have not used Opera for many many years, but could you be a bit more specific in where the keyboard does not work fully? Is it everywhere in the app, or specific places? E.g. searches or entering bookmark names?
Is it the stock layout only, or do you see the same using e.g. FinQWERTY ?

I just tried to install Opera, and "?" works fine here as far as I can see?

What key combo are you pressing to get those characters. I've tried just about every thing.

[Hook 2,907]

I have yet to find any app that doesn't accept slant arrow-? or / (otherwise known as Fn-? or /).  I don't use Opera, but Firefox, my word processor, whatever.  I have FinQwerty for everything else.

[MickH 211]

Strange. I'm using FF now, but can't get the keys. I'll have to go through settings, see how things are set up.

[Hook 2,907]

39 minutes ago, MickH said:

Strange. I'm using FF now, but can't get the keys. I'll have to go through settings, see how things are set up.

A key question here is does hold "slant arrow" and type "?" (FN-?) work for you in any app?

[EskeRahn 5,399]

2 hours ago, MickH said:

What key combo are you pressing to get those characters. I've tried just about every thing.

Oh I have a suspicion you might be using the wrong layout!

In general you get the yellow symbols with Fn (=Yellow arrow) with the correct stock layout

 

1) For stock/build in,

If your device is qwertY do NOT select any language! That is clear ALL tick boxes. Do NOT select e.g. US. Fn+L gives a "?"

if your device is qwertZ, only German is currently supported. Fn+ß gives a "?"

 

2) For FinQWERTY, choose one of the languages matching your pro1 hardware qwertY/qwertZ

You can use either Shift or Fn

 

I strongly recommend the second option.

[Hook 2,907]

56 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

2) For FinQWERTY, choose one of the languages matching your pro1 hardware qwertY/qwertZ

You can use either Shift or Fn

 

I strongly recommend the second option.

Just noting for clarity, at lest for the US Physical Qwerty selection under FinQwerty, you still have to use Fn to get ? or / since they are (insanely) on letter keys and so Shift isn't an option.

[EskeRahn 5,399]

1 minute ago, Hook said:

Just noting for clarity, at lest for the US Physical Qwerty selection under FinQwerty, you still have to use Fn to get ? or / since they are (insanely) on letter keys and so Shift isn't an option.

For FinQWERTY  have a look at the key-maps in the link above. For some languages It is shift, and for other Fn. E.g. For US it it us Fn+L, for US International Alt+L though.

Things could easily be mapped very differently, but Anssi tried to keep it as close to the printed a possible.

[MickH 211]

1 hour ago, EskeRahn said:

Oh I have a suspicion you might be using the wrong layout!

In general you get the yellow symbols with Fn (=Yellow arrow) with the correct stock layout

 

1) For stock/build in,

If your device is qwertY do NOT select any language! That is clear ALL tick boxes. Do NOT select e.g. US. Fn+L gives a "?"

if your device is qwertZ, only German is currently supported. Fn+ß gives a "?"

 

2) For FinQWERTY, choose one of the languages matching your pro1 hardware qwertY/qwertZ

You can use either Shift or Fn

 

I strongly recommend the second option.

Suggestion No.2 was the culprit. English(UK) was selected. Disabled that and bingo.

Thanks for the help and suggestions guys. I'll leave you all to carry on enjoying the festivities.🥧🍰🍺🍻

[netman 1,424]

Came across this on my surprisingly difficult quest to find an acceptable free (and ad free) text editor for android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.gsantner.markor&hl=en  or on f-droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gsantner.markor/

It has some special mode for editing markdown which isn't really my favorite thing in the world, however it works nicely and plain text also is editable just fine. Also it's open source.

[MickH 211]

Anyone know of a decent widget manager?

Can't believe Google still hasn't sorted the way Android manages widgets.

I remember the N900 whete you could resize and overlap them to create some cool home screens.

[Hook 2,907]

32 minutes ago, MickH said:

Anyone know of a decent widget manager?

Can't believe Google still hasn't sorted the way Android manages widgets.

I remember the N900 whete you could resize and overlap them to create some cool home screens.

You'll find these features in alternate launchers,  Although I've never used it, I know Nova has a setting to allow widgets to overlap (I don't use a lot of widgets myself).  The trouble is going to be that widget placement suffers the most in switching from Portrait to Landscape.  You might look at what widget management Total Launcher has as it allows unique layouts for portrait and landscape rather than reapportioning one layout.  I don't know if it allows overlap.

Edited December 26, 2019 by Hook

[enPfzr4v 239]

2 hours ago, MickH said:

Anyone know of a decent widget manager?

Can't believe Google still hasn't sorted the way Android manages widgets.

I remember the N900 whete you could resize and overlap them to create some cool home screens.

The n900 homescreen was a mess. No snap to grid, was forced landscape, things would move around semi randomly... I was always so frustrated by it.

[marshall 21]

1 hour ago, abielins said:

The n900 homescreen was a mess. No snap to grid, was forced landscape, things would move around semi randomly... I was always so frustrated by it.

It wasn't perfect but it definitely wasn't forced landscape. I remember locking it to landscape as the switch to portrait was so slow and it would switch right at the wrong time and then you would select completely the wrong app. I would spend far longer than I should getting icons and widgets perfectly lined up.  Happy days. 😄

[_DW_ 628]

You should have an option to have a fixed layout for both orientations, dumb that you haven't.

[MickH 211]

On 12/26/2019 at 2:57 AM, netman said:

Came across this on my surprisingly difficult quest to find an acceptable free (and ad free) text editor for android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.gsantner.markor&hl=en  or on f-droid https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gsantner.markor/

It has some special mode for editing markdown which isn't really my favorite thing in the world, however it works nicely and plain text also is editable just fine. Also it's open source.

Do you find the widget misbehaves during use. I find the screen goes into edit mode when I tap the widget or select it with the keyboard arrows.

[MickH 211]

A nice little clock widget that works well and integrates well with the built in clock.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/community.fairphone.clock/

[netman 1,424]

20 minutes ago, MickH said:

Do you find the widget misbehaves during use. I find the screen goes into edit mode when I tap the widget or select it with the keyboard arrows.

To be honest I didn't know it comes with a widget xD. I use launchtime as a launcher now, which doesn't even support widgets, but I like it that way.

[MickH 211]

Kodi Media Player works very well from the keyboard in landscape. Just takes a little moment to work out how to navigate the interface by keyboard rather than by touch or mouse.

[EskeRahn 5,399]

10 hours ago, MickH said:

Kodi Media Player works very well from the keyboard in landscape. Just takes a little moment to work out how to navigate the interface by keyboard rather than by touch or mouse.

Something as rare as an app that seems to work in landscape only 🙂

And indeed reacts nicely to navigation with arrows, enter, BS and escape