Interface and user interaction¶
Main screen (Desktop)¶
When you start the device, unlock the screen, or explicitly go to the main screen, you are greeted with the following interface:
On top of the screen there is, from left to right:
Application menu button
Status menu (tap on status area)
Desktop settings button (appears when you touch anywhere on the main screen)
Status area¶
In the status area you have in short, the status of the device, and of its main functions.
To the left there’s the clock display, then, some icons representing the status of different functions.
Note
If you tap on the status area, you will get the Status menu
Current mobile network¶
When there is an active mobile network connection, the name of the network is written on top of the screen.
Note
The network name is displayed on top of the screen only when you’re in the main screen. Otherwise, the name of the app is displayed there instead.
Availability¶
This option is present when you have VoIP and IM accounts already configured.
The dot in front of Availability represents current status. The default ones are:
Online - a green dot
Busy - a white stripe on a red dot
Offline - a gray X on a white dot (this also means that the account is disconnected)
An exclamation mark over the availability indicator means that the account is disconnected from the server.
Tip
Check the internet connection, from Internet connection menu.
Tapping on the Availability button takes you to the My availability menu.
Here you have the following options:
Press Save after you are done setting your status.
Select the availability status¶
Here you can select your status, so that your contacts will know what’s your availability.
Away - white clock hands on a blue dot
Busy - a white stripe on a red dot
Offline - a gray X on a white dot (this also disconnects the account)
Custom - other status, if configured from #. New status
Type your status message¶
Type here the status message, that your contacts will see next to your name.
My location¶
Select here if and which level of location information to be displayed next to your status message, that your contacts will see next to your name.
List of accounts¶
Your VoIP and IM accounts accounts will be shown here.
Accounts¶
This will take you to the list of existing VoIP and IM accounts, from where you can also edit them, or add new ones.
New status¶
Along the default (Online, Away, Busy, Offline) statuses, you can configure new ones.
You have the following options:
Name - Type in the name of the status option. See Input and keyboard about how to input text.
Icon - Select the icon associated to the status (displayed when the status is active)
Account Online/Offline - Whether this status will trigger the account being Online or Offline.
Tap Save when done configuring.
Brightness slider¶
The brightness level of the display can be adjusted by dragging this slider, in five steps, from minimum, to the left, to maximum, to the right.
Note
Unexpected behavior: From the five steps available, the last two seems to correspond to the same brightness level (tested using Droid 4), so this means that there are only four brightness levels.
Note
This function is not installed by default. You need to install it manually, using the Application Manager.
Tapping on the screen icon to the left of the slider, shows the following menu:
Open Display Settings… - This takes you to Display settings.
Keep display on - This will keep the display on, disabling screen turning off after a specific time of inactivity, equivalent of setting Backlight time-out to zero seconds (and independently of the value of that setting, the screen will stay on).
Customize the main screen¶
Tapping on the Desktop settings button will allow you to customize the Main screen (Desktop).
The screen background will fade-out, and the shortcuts on the current desktop view will be shown. If there are none, an empty screen will be displayed.
Here you can change the positioning on the screen of the existing shortcuts. To add new shortcuts, access the In-app menu and Add shortcut,.
Note
Unexpected behavior: It’s not possible to move a shortcut from another desktop view then the currently displayed one (you need to see it in order to select it), so make sure you move to the correct one before tapping on the settings button. Adding a new shortcut, though, is possible, from any desktop view.
From here, you can access the In-app menu of the desktop settings, to customize the current desktop view.
The following menu will be shown:
You will have the following options:
Add shortcut¶
When you select the Add shortcut option, a list of available shortcuts will be shown.
Select the desired shortcut, from the list. It will be placed on the first available free spot in the current desktop view.
From there, tap and drag it to move it anywhere on the screen.
You can then add more, and move them to organize them.
Tapping on the small X on the top right of each shortcut, deletes it.
Moving a shortcut to the right or left edge of the screen, allows you to move it to another screen.
Manage views¶
Tapping on Manage views will show you the list of desktop views.
You can enable or disable views. Check a view to enable it.
The default number of views is four, and the maximum is nine views.
Warning
Unexpected behavior: Disabling a view will delete the shortcuts from that particular view, without warning. Make sure you move the shortcuts you want to keep to another view, before disabling the view. One way to tell which screen is which, is by comparing wallpapers of each view. Otherwise you will have to add them again, see Add shortcut.
Change background¶
Tapping on Change background will allow you to change the desktop background.
One way to change the desktop background is to select one of the available Themes.
Note
Leftovers: Get more from Ovi Store option doesn’t work, since this is part of the old Maemo system, and thus the Ovi Store is not available.
Tapping on more allows you to use custom images as background image.
Navigate through the File System, to the desired image file.
Note
Unexpected behavior: Manually changing the desktop image (outside of a theme) will only change the image of the current desktop view. Each view should then have a different image, and if any fluid transition between views is desired, then that particular image should be prepared (split accordingly) in advance, in an external program.
Themes¶
Tapping on themes gives you a list of the available themes that you can pick from, to have an uniformous design look of the interface.
Notifications¶
Notifications appear as part of the Task switcher.
When there are new notifications, the dashboard button in the Top-left area will be highlighted/blinking.
When you have more applications open, and more active notifications, the Task switcher (dashboard) will look like this:
Types of notifications:
For missed calls¶
When you fail to pick up a call, the following pop-up with the text Missed call and the phone number will be shown:
Then, the missed call will be notified in the Task switcher (dashboard). Here, three calls were successively missed:
For received SMS¶
When you receive an SMS, and the screen is unlocked, a pop-up with the text of the message and the phone number will be shown:
Unread SMS messages are notified in the Task switcher (dashboard). Here, there are two unread messages:
For received emails¶
When you receive an email, and the screen is unlocked, a pop-up with title of the message and the name of the sender will be shown:
Unread emails are notified in the Task switcher (dashboard):
The number after the @ email logo represents the number of unread emails, here, two.
The same way, the number of unread emails is also shown on the lockscreen:
Input and keyboard¶
Hardware keyboard¶
Some devices have hardware keyboards, others don’t.
For details about what a particular model has, and how the keys of the hardware keyboard match the layout, see Device specific info [wip]
Virtual keyboard¶
The virtual keyboard is especially useful when the device is being used in portrait mode (for devices with a sliding keyboard), or for devices without a hardware keyboard. See Device specific info [wip]
The first layer of the keyboard contains the lowercase letters, and some of the most used punctuation marks:
You get to the second layer of the keyboard by pressing the Shift key:
The second layer contains the capital (uppercase) letters, and the other most used punctuation marks:
You get to the third layer of the keyboard, by pressing the Numeric key:
The third layer of the keyboard contains the numbers, and other punctuation marks and symbols:
By pressing both the Numeric and Shift keys, you get to the fourth layer, which contains less used punctuation marks and symbols:
To quickly access some tools related to the keyboard, tap on the Keyboard menu key:
A menu will be shown, from which you can choose the following:
Cut (move the selected text somewhere else)
Copy (Copy the selected text somewhere else)
Paste (insert here the text you cut, or copied from somewhere else)
If you have two languages set for Text input, they will be visible in this menu, too, and you can switch between them from here:
Keyboard layout¶
You can set the layout for the hardware keyboard, and two layouts for the virtual keyboard from Text input in Settings.
You can then switch between the two preset layouts of the virtual keyboard, from the Keyboard menu of the Virtual keyboard.
Editing text¶
To select text, swipe your finger from the start point to the end point of the text you want to select.
To copy text, press CTRL (The actual key on the keyboard might differ, see Device specific info [wip]) and C
To paste copied text, press CTRL (The actual key on the keyboard might differ, see Device specific info [wip]) and V
To copy or move text using the virtual keyboard, use the options from the menu of the Virtual keyboard.
You can also move text by dragging the selected text to another position.