Aero Ultimate [MainMenu]

[dnw]

User's guide


How to install

After you downloaded the archive (download link is at the end of this post) extract the content into the X:\System\Flash UI\ folder (X is the S9's drive letter). Then rename the mainmenu_x.swf to mainmenu1.swf, mainmenu2.swf or mainmenu3.swf.
That's all.



The desktop



The first time you use the UCI, you will see a screen like this.
1. This is the desktop area, where you can place icons and in future releases widgets. In general they are called desklets.
You can switch the desktop by swiping to the left/right.
2. This is the toolbar. Normally you can see a clock, but you can change it by swiping to the left/right.
Swiping to the right opens the quick music control panel (3), where you can play/pause, rew, ff.
Swiping to the left opens the desktop control panel (4), where you can shut off your S9 (1st button), open the "QuickAccess" function [screenshot] (2nd button) and switch the UCI (3rd button). One more swiping to the left shows the options button (1st), the button which opens the desktop editor (2nd) and the button for the icon recovery (3rd) (11). You can use the icon recovery if you miss an icon and can't find it somewhere.





You can also hide the toolbar, just swipe down, and it disappears. Instead of that there will be shown an indicator about the currently shown desktop (5).
Swiping up make the tollbar appear again.





You can also make a volume panel visible (18). Just swipe up while the toolbar is visible and it shows the quick music control panel.
To in- or decrease the volume, swipe the volume panel up or down.
You can hide the volume panel by swiping down (make sure that your gesture started with a tap on the wallpaper, not on the volume panel!).






How to edit the desktop



Don't worry if you see no icons. You just haven't icons placed at the desktop or you use this UCI the first time.
6. This is the grid. If it is enabled, icons snap to the grid so that you can place them easier on the desktop.
You can control the grid with the 2nd button at the toolbar (8). You can choose between grid 1 (small), grid 2 (large) and no grid (snap to grid disabled).
7. This bar is important for moving icons from one desktop to another or deleting them. Dropping an icon over the left/right arrow moves the icon to the previous/next desktop. Dropping it over the 'X' removes the icon.
8. This is the toolbar. The 1st button exits the desktop editor. The second one controls the grid (more about that: 6.). The last icon opens the desklets collection (more about that now).



This is the desklets collection, where you can add desklets to the current desktop. There are also all widgets and your custom icons listed.
9. Tapping the left/right arrow changes the currently shown page of icons.
Tapping the 'X' exits the desklets collection.
10. These are the icons you can place at the current desktop. Icons already used aren't shown there.
You can add an icon by tapping it. It will disappear from the desklets collection and will appear at the desktop.

Note: You can use the swiping gesture to switch between the desktops also a the desktop editor and while the desklets collection is shown.




About the analog clock widget

The analog clock is a bit special, because you can change its skin without the desktop editor being enabled. I explain you now how to do this.



19 is the analog clock with its standard skin activated.
Just tap the analog clock widget...



...and one new button appears.
The button changes the skin of the analog clock. There are 5 skins available.
Note: If the desktop editor is enabled the button won't appear.
You can hide the button by tapping the clock again.




About the world clock widget

The world clock widget is a really special widget as well.
You can configure it in the settings screen.



The are options the Icon Manager and World Clock settings.
Tap 'World Clock settings'.


Now you should see this screen.
The first option 'Every clock is separate widget' controls whether the clocks are one widget or whether every clock is a separate widget.
The second option 'UTC time offset' is the UTC time offset of your location. You can find more information about that in the help screen (the button near the right bottom edge).
The option 'Time zone' for every clock means the UTC time offset of the location you want to show the current time. If you want for example the time of your location, enter for 'UTC time offset' and 'Time zone' the same value.
For 'Location' can you set the name of the location you want to show its time.
Of course you need to enable every clock to make them appear in the mainmenu. Make one clock enabled or disabled resets always the world clock's position. You have to re-add it using the desklets collection in the desktop editor.




The Custom Icon Manager

First you have to open the options (11).Tap in the settings screen 'launch Icon manager'.



Now you should see this screen.
12. With the arrows can you switch between the pages. You have three pages, on every page 10 items.At the top right corner there is an indicator. It shows which page is currently open.
The X exits this screen.
13. If you haven't selected any item, only the add button is active. Tap it, and a new item will be created.
Remove is only active if you have an item selected. It deletes the current item.
Edit opens the item editor.
14. The list where you can see all your icons. Okay, you can just see their labels, but you don't need more.
15. Shows whether the Icon Manager is active. Tapping 'yes' or rather 'no' switches the status.

If you tapped 'edit' you will see this screen:


16. That's the preview icon. If the 'Show label' options is 'yes', there is the label shown under the icon. At the moment you can see the alternate icon.
17. The available options.
Type: You Can choose between 'Icon' and 'Widget'.
If you have 'Widget' activated, you can use an SWF file as widget at the desktop (this feature is unstable and shouldn't be used!)
Label is the label you can see under the custom icon at the desktop. It is also used for the items list at the screen before (14). To change the label you have to tap 'edit' beside.
File: The file name of the SWF you want to open with the icon.
Icon: The file name of the picture (PNG or JPG) you want to use.*
Run mode: If you have 'UCI' activated, the SWF file is started as part of the UI. That means the file must be in the folder SYSTEM\Flahs UI. If you have 'Flash Browser' activated, the SWF file is started in the same mode as the Flash Browser does. The Flash file must be in the FLASH folder.
For file and icon you have to enter the extension, too! Example: testicon <- wrong | testicon.png <- correct
For file (flash) the extension is always .swf.



That's the keyboard you see if you edit the label, file or icon.


When you finished, just tap the 'X' at the bottom.

You can use your custom icons like normal icons. It's recommended for icons with shown labels to use the second grid (or no grid).



* You have to create the subfolder 'im_icons' (without ') at SYSTEM/Flash UI. Put the icons into the subfolder.



Download of Release Candidate 1 4.00






Please post your feedback about usability, bugs and your opinion about the UCI here.



Preview video (old):

YouTube - [UCI] Aero Ultimate for Cowon S9

More links:

http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=27448
A thread with lots of icons for Claw's Wallpaper UI, which are also suitable for my Custom Icon Manager. 64x64 icons with integrated label are recommended.

http://iaudiophile.net/forums/showthread.php?t=29664
A thread where are all compatible external widgets for Aero Ultimate are listed. The official widget support isn't explained in this beginner's guide because the support is very unstable and it has lots of bugs.

[Danneh]

Looks nice FDX

Glad to see your stick active in the flash dev'ing then.

Did you ever get around to finishing the music UCI and saving it externally before your hard drive crashed?

Dan

[dnw]

No, I have no backup.
But now I'll backup everything I do everyday!

[34.50]

Looks nice. Backup after like every release, that should be good enough, and if you don't have external hdd's or flash drives, online backup (like email or dropbox) are great

[Danneh]

Originally Posted by FDX

No, I have no backup.
But now I'll backup everything I do everyday!

Ouchhh, I back up 'My Documents' every day to my Other, Bigger hard drive since the day I turned my PC on and my documents had all been deleted, by nothing... :/

Dan

[xxmarkosxx]

nice menu....can i ask something?why don't you work with Claw...You together can make the most beautiful mainmenu and most functionable.

[hibell]

yes. always do backups after big projects or something you've worked on for a while. whenever i upload pictures from my camera. i always do backups to 2 different externals. seriously...you never know what will happen. these are precious family/friends pictures over the years...backup. any big projects i work on i always save every 5 mins. do backups every 15-30 mins. never know when there is an outage or comp failures or something. and especially save and backup when you are writing a 20 page research paper. i still have nightmares from my college years about our dorm housing blackout...had about 15 pages worth done...was about to save and "bbbzzzzzzddddtttt" darkness...2am....paper due by 4pm that day. blackout fried my comp. couldn't turn it on at all. my comp tech friend said it was gone. that he could try salvage whatever on my hd but it may take a while or its just not worth it.

but enough about me. =)

loved darkflash....and since aero just looks similar i am looking forward to it and any upgrades/improvements over darkflash.

oh and maybe you'll continue your music ui...someone isn't continuing his project i think....so maybe you can finish yours =)

[bashibash]

do you still have 3 pages to put icons on?
ps: nice concept!

[dnw]

No, now there are 4 pages.

[waxer]

Probably not the best place to ask but is a android phone style system possible.
So the main screen is a widget screen and a menu can be pulled up from the bottom that has all shortcut icons on it rather than flicking sideways through screens..

YouTube - HTC Magic Android phone - Live hands-on

[dnw]

It is possible, yes. But I already have my graphics and over 500 lines of code... changing that would be laborious.
But maybe I'll create another mainmenu with that functions.

[dnw]

New screenshots.




These are screenshots of the working mainmenu (desktop editor).
I'll explain you the buttons and how to use it later.

[Danneh]

Still looking great FDX, seems like this may have more functionality than DarkFlash

Dan

[Warhawk]

Are you still planning on a music ui too?

[Omnipherous]

Welcome back FDX

Thought you'd maybe disowned us ;-)

Looking good so far!