Jump to top of launcher page [webOS 2.x] 31
This tip is only for devices running webOS 2.0 and higher
As we continue to explore webOS 2.0, new gestures are being discovered to help you navigate the OS. One new gesture allows you to quickly jump to the top of an App Launcher page, which is a welcome option since we can no longer patch the launcher to show a 4x4 or 5x5 icon grid. The gesture involves drawing an upward then downward motion on the screen, which can be any of the three shapes shown in the screenshot:
- A semicircle, like an upside-down U
- A full circle
- A flick straight-up and then down (without taking your finger off the screen)
You must be at the very bottom of a launcher page for this to work, and even once you find your preferred method of performing this, you may still notice that you can only get it to work 75% of the time (if you're lucky). Continue reading after the break for a video by djgardn2 showing how this works (most of the time)
Thanks to djgardn2 in the forums for finding this tip
31 Comments
That's crazy.
Can someone find one to jump from the first launcher page to the last, and back?
I think I'd rather just be able to use the same full screen swipe gesture which works for cards when I'm in the launcher.
HAHA! I think this is a glitch. You can do it from the top of the screen, if you turn the phone upside down, but it still scrolls back to the top of the screen. You can do it with the icons on the left or the right, also, moving around the icon sideways, and instead of scrolling to the top of the screen, it moves to the launcher page opposite the side you did it on.
It's not really a half circle, it's more like, 'move your thumb around the icon without touching the icon'.
Still neat.
I can't get this to work on 2.1, perhaps it's just a 2.0 bug that was later removed.
Works fine for me!
Ah, finally got this to work after reading some of the other comments. It's more like a force beyond the end of the page and then flick back (works both ways as others have said). No amount of circles around icons or flicks in the bottom part of the page worked, I had to use pretty much the whole length of the screen.
Not sure how useful it is thought as it is more fiddly than a simple flick and wait which works every time.
This is on my Pre- meta-doctored to 2.1.
I just do a quick swipe down from about mid screen or top (or even the second-to-last row) while I'm at the bottom of page and it works exactly the same way without **** up.. no need for shapes and it moves faster.
Pre- WebOS2.1
I generally ignore all of the 2.x tips, being a left behinder in Sprint Pre- land, but this got my interest for some reason. I am mainly disappointed to see that the launcher pages cant be patched. Did HPalm lock this down in some way or has no one taken the time to create a patch that changes the launcher page(s)?
It's not that HP doesnt want us to patch it, its just that its a more native coding solution so it's not as easy as just viewing the source files and updating.
Personally I prefer the native solution. Having all the icons at once was nice because scrolling through the launcher pages was a pain, but now that they are native, they scroll much more quickly, reducing the need for 4x4 or 5x5 icons.
it is nice to see that it will be faster (is for you!) I just prefer to be able to see all the apps of a particular grouping at once without having to scroll at all, thus 5x5 is an outstanding solution for me. Thanks for the info guys.
??
We can't patch for 4x4/5x5 icons or it just hasn't been done yet?
Yeah - surprised to hear that 4x4 or 5x5 cant be patched?
Afaik the launcher is now "hardcoded" to improve the speed. Indeed, the launcher feels much faster on 2.1, even without overclocking your Pre-.
Works great, cheers!
Thanks for making this an article, I made a quick video of it in action for people wanting to see it.
I can get it to work about 90-95% of the time now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJCe-n4NcQw
Feel free to add this to the article.
thanks...added that in
It also works in reverse to quickly jump to the bottom of the page by drawing a "U" at the top of the screen.
i can't get this to work
The fact that it only works some of the time indicates to me that it is not a real "gesture". How many apps are in the launcher pages where you try this? For most of my launcher pages, the simple gesture of flicking my finger from the top of the screen down will quickly scroll through the entire launcher page. I think this is more a consequence of the launcher page written in native code, and being faster to scroll through as a result, than any new gestures.
Works every time for me.
Cool...took me some practice, and only after watching the video, to be able to do this. When I first started trying, it merely moved the launcher page around because I was doing it too slowly. It has to be executed very quickly.
Boo on not being able to patch to 4x4. Esp. not being able to do it on the Pre 3's larger screen? That's gonna be particularly annoying.
Not based on anything but I still have faith someone will figure out a work around. Go patchers!
I'm also stuck in Pre- land, and am increasingly alarmed at the things that are going away with the newest versions of WebOS. Patching to 5x5 is part of what makes me love WebOS. Gesture swipe to switch apps is part of why I love WebOS. I'm also tired of people telling me WHY I don't need something anymore. I don't care. I PREFER the awesome work that has already been done CORRECTLY the first time by our fearless homebrew community. Don't tell me that I don't NEED the awesome features that made WebOS what it is today. Just stop taking them away!!!
The launcher was re-written and is like 10x faster. That's why the old patches don't work. It's called progress, and that is what is required to see to WebOS future success.
I don't see this being any easier than a big swipe down to scroll to the top. A much better idea would be to just tap the title at the top of the launcher page to jump back to the top. A double-tap lets you edit the page name, a single tap could take you to the top.
An easier method is to simply swipe straight up an inch or so, and then straight back down and in and take your finger of the screen. No need for the arch, and again it only works at the bottom of the page.
I was doing this on accident for a few weeks now. been trying to figure out what i was doing. thanks this is a much needed feature for us that have a huge list of apps on one page.
I am guessing there is a lot more to find out there too.
Again, I got say - this just adds clutter. Instead, they should have done a power scroll / power swipe, where you use two fingers to scroll to the top or bottom or anywhere in between. The power scroll would scale the total distance available to scroll to the total number of vertical (or horizontal) pixels so power scrolling up 2/3 of the screen would scroll you 2/3 of the way up the launcher (or up the web page, or up the Twitter feed, etc.)
Can Palm/HP just make powerscroll a part of the OS? That would be fantastic. The Carbon guys even released the code to do it under an opensource license.
Wait, are you saying gesture swipe to switch apps is gone in WebOS 2.X??