Tag: Android

I just want a phone. Is that too much to ask?

Subtitle: How to disable Google Now Cards (that keep annoying you) when you swipe left (right? up? argh, fuck this shit!)

I own an Android phone.

In an effort to get rid of a feature that came with updates I’ve been going through dozens and dozens of settings. Unsuccessful, at wit’s end, writing angry loner feedback to Google support (also known as /dev/null) begging for them to make it easy for users to opt out of what I consider intrusive garbage when it turns out I can simply replace the launcher.

Google Now: Brought to you by a company that makes ~77% of its revenues from advertising, otherwise known as the “World’s most honest business model.”

 

KISS Android Launcher
Bonus feature: All my searches are now redirected to Wikipedia and/or DuckDuckGo.

KISS is a programming principle that stands for “Keep it simple, stupid!” The KISS Launcher code is GPL and available on GitHub. The Kiss Launcher app is available for free on Google Play.

#dadphone

Manifest.json

My wife’s Japanese comic about our family is a responsive website.

A cool trick I learned at ConFoo while listening to Christian Heilmann speak was that I could leverage built-in mobile technology by simply adding a manifest.json file to the code.

A manifest turns a responsive website into an installable app. It lets users add it on their mobile phone’s home screen. When they launch the site it gets a splash screen and runs in full screen mode, basically behaving like a native app.

Caveat: For this to work HTTPS is required. Use certbot if you don’t already.

I used Manifest Generator to get started and it was easy. According to the ConFoo talk Bing indexes sites with manifest.json files and prioritizes them as smartphone compatible. A simple SEO win?

Now my family’s manga is an app. Horray for the open web!