A critique of M2D and how it could be improved...

[dmx0]

I really like M2D, but I find certain tabs to be pretty much worthless, particularly the home tab and the internet tab, as well as the email tab. For the sake of origanization, I split my different critiques into different paragraphs.

The Internet Tab
The internet screen is a waste. I mean c'mon, what's the point of a giant globe taking up the whole internet screen? Wouldn't it make more sense to have a list of clickable bookmarks on the internet tab so we can go directly to our desired website as opposed to a giant globe that amounts to nothing more than a "start Opera" button?

The Home Tab
The home screen is little more than a giant clock. It would be MUCH more functional to make the clock small and have a list of appointments underneath it (similar to the non-M2D home screen). An appointments tab would remedy the lack of appointments in the interface, but I don't think it's a good idea to add more tabs.

The Email Tab
While it looks cool to have an envelope with your email sticking out of it, it's absolutely pointless when all you can see are the first ten or so words of the message. Also, when it's garbage email you can't just mark it as read, you have to actually enter your list of emails to do that. Sliding to the email screen should take you to your inbox so you can choose which email to view, or if you have multiple emails, a list of your different email inboxes to choose which to view. What's even more annoying is when the phone updates and you have 2+ emails and all you see are the first 10 words of the most recently received email. To illustrate my point, the text message tab is great in comparison because you can view the whole text and it's pretty rare to be getting multiple texts at one time. Plus the text message blends in to the M2D theme whereas if I go to my inbox, it turns into a ugly white window with a list of emails, which leads me to my next point...

Implementing the Aforementioned Ideas While Staying within the M2D Interface
It would be nice to slide to the email tab and have a list of emails from my inbox that blends into the overall M2D theme (as opposed to taking me to the default Outlook interface). Same thing with appointments: if I click "Calendar" on the home screen, I enter the ugly calendar interface. It would be nice to have a list of appointments for that particular day on the home screen that blends in to the overall M2D theme. And it's also the same if I click "All Bookmarks" on the internet tab, it takes me to the Opera interface where I think it would be nicer to just have a list of bookmarks within the M2D theme under the internet tab with no stupid globe.

In Conclusion
It's the little things such as these keeping the small group of people that don't already use M2D from switching to it. I realize that it really only takes an extra button press to get to certain things...the "calendar" button on the home screen takes you to your appointments, the "All Bookmarks" button at the bottom of the internet screen takes you to your list of bookmarks, and the "Inbox" button at the bottom of the email screen takes you to your inbox. However, I think most will agree with me that the less buttons you have to press to get to where you want to go, the better. Plus the extra button press takes you out of the M2D interface into the Outlook interface or Opera interface. The text messaging feature, in contrast, gives you the info you want AND without taking you into WM's plain Jane-looking text messaging interface.

While I do like M2D, I think it has some wasted potential. The aforementioned modifications would improve it quite a bit in my opinion. Having said all of that, is there any way to modify these tabs in a manner that I just described? If you have any info, please let us know!

[dmx0]

I accidentally posted this in the upgrades forum. Could a moderator move this to the main Vogue forum please?

[deegimus]

Originally Posted by dmx0

I really like M2D, but I find certain tabs to be pretty much worthless, particularly the home tab and the internet tab, as well as the email tab.

I concur.

The weather page could have the option to display 2-3 more cities all on the same page also.

To avoid problems, and to enhance troubleshooting, you could make modules that you could check or uncheck as necessary in M2DC. This would allow a choice of say, the current weather page as is and/or the multi-city weather page.

As for the internet, I would definitely prefer 6-8 thumb friendly URL launchers...

Great idea dmx0!

[savior02]

I agree M2D needs serious updating I use it because it seems cool to use but its not as efficient as it can be it has so much potential

[hooover]

Could use Improvement I agree maybe someone should look into it....Because we can all be Monday Quaterbacks...

[dmx0]

Originally Posted by hooover

Could use Improvement I agree maybe someone should look into it....Because we can all be Monday Quaterbacks...

I didn't intend for this thread to be a sort of ROM request, and I hope it doesn't come off as such. I accidentally posted this in the upgrades forum, when I actually intended to post it in the main Vogue forum. It's just a collection of my observations...I wanted to have a discussion on Manilla2D and what could be improved in it. And of course, I also wanted to ask whether any of these modifications are currently possible to achieve using already available software. If somebody does want to work on a rom with the aforementioned features (if it's at all possible), then all the more power to them; however, that is not the intent of this thread.

[CenFlo]

I'll have to admit you bring up some very good points.

That being said, perhaps passing your info along in a nice and tactful manner would get the app updated and have it provide more functionality.

[hooover]

Yeah I didn't mean it like that I was thinking that if you went to the root :http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=398173 then maybe they can let us all in on the secerts they hold, sorry if I seemed rude...for sure didn't think you was making a ROM request and I for sure wasn't either...

[CenFlo]

Originally Posted by hooover

Yeah I didn't mean it like that I was thinking that if you went to the root :http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=398173 then maybe they can let us all in on the secerts they hold, sorry if I seemed rude...for sure didn't think you was making a ROM request and I for sure wasn't either...

Using the old, "Room for improvement" (as IMO it IS a good app but could be better) angle would be the ideal route to get the enhancements done.

[mromblad]

Isnt that why M2D customizer was created. Its available and being improved all the time on xda.

EDIT: Link Added! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=427392