Using A Custom Photo for Wallpaper

[Ridgeland]

There's an app for that. Yes. Several. I'm using Wallaby.

More interesting is what Android does with the wallpaper.
When I tell Ubuntu I want to use a photo for the desktop's background (wall paper) I have to choose the style: Tile, Zoom, Center, Scale, Stretch, Span

Android is totally different. I'll attach a 1024x768 image that is just some color bars and you can see for yourself what it's doing. Android only shows a portion of the photo you choose.

Coby says my MID7015 has a screen size of 800x480. So with my color bars as the background and the tablet held vertical (portrait) the 768 seems scaled to 800 (or was it stretched?). The width looks more like 460 than 480 so I'm guessing it was scaled. But the width is 460 not 1024. You can slide the screen left or right and see a different section of the background, but cannot slide all the way to the outer vertical edge of the 1024 image.

Turn the Coby horizontal and you get another portion of the image, this time the top 460 pixels of the 768, the bottom 308 pixels are out of view. Slide left or right and see more of the side but still not all the way to the edge. The percentage that it slides is much reduced this time.

Just a heads-up when picking a photo to use for your wallpaper. You'll need one that still looks good even when just a portion is displayed. Also the bottom third may be lost in landscape.

p.s. I used adb to push the image to the tablet. Gallery would not find it until I re-booted. Wallaby would not find it until after Gallery did.



EDIT: see post #6 for two photos that explain the "What you see" much better.

 

[bronx_kyros]

I know what you mean. I tried to cut a wallpaper to the tablet size and BOOM!, was alarmed to find it got stretched!!!...aarrggh!, how stupid that is. I'm afraid to load up a wallpaper app because frankly all of these freaking apps seem to screw up at some point or another. If you ask me, this freaking Android crap just gave birth and we are all the fools dishing out our money for a baby that keeps falling down as he tries to take his first steps....android sucks!!!

 

[Sir Robin]

I know what you mean. I tried to cut a wallpaper to the tablet size and BOOM!, was alarmed to find it got stretched!!!...aarrggh!, how stupid that is. I'm afraid to load up a wallpaper app because frankly all of these freaking apps seem to screw up at some point or another. If you ask me, this freaking Android crap just gave birth and we are all the fools dishing out our money for a baby that keeps falling down as he tries to take his first steps....android sucks!!!

Android was intended to be a phone OS not a tablet OS, I actually find it impressive that it works as well as it does particularly when being used on a low end device. Complaining about how Android releases prior to Honeycomb work on tablets is like complaining that screwdrivers don't make very good hammers.
And if certain apps don't work very well that is the apps issue not Android, the freedom of making and releasing apps works for both good and bad development, you are equally free to make a bad app as a good one. In the long run the good ones will stand out.

 

[Ridgeland]

Just curious bronx_kyros. Do you have Google/Android Market installed? My tablet got a lot more stable when I removed Market.

back to the thread...
Wallaby seems fine and simple to me. The only permission it requires is:
System tools -> set wallpaper.
An app that only asks for what it really needs.
Load it and test the color bars and you'll get an idea of how the wallpaper scrolls and also how it changes from landscape to portrait then you can select, size and trim your photo. The 1024 part is never fully displayed.

 

[GotNet]

If I wanted wallpaper, I would have bought a $35 digital photo frame instead of a device that runs applications. IMHO, of course.

 

[Ridgeland]

Hi GotNet,
You don't even need to download an app to use your Koby as a digital photo frame. Gallery can do it. Just launch Gallery, go to the folder with the photos you want to use for the picture frame and click on the menu button. Then click on "Slideshow". There are settings to choose how long each photo is displayed.

back to the subject of the thread...
I think the color bars were too abstract and required too much effort to understand so I'm adding two photos. This is a photo of the view out the window behind my PC on October 1, 2010. The photo was resized to (almost) the magic number of 960x800 which is double the screen size of my MID7015 (480x800). Then I copied the photo and drew lines on it using GIMP. The lines on the second photo tell the story better than my first effort with color bars. The solid black lines are what you see in Portrait mode. You always see two of the four sections. Default is center - you get the two sections in the center. Slide left and you get the two sections on the left, right for the right two sections. Landscape is surprising though. Then you get the section framed by the lighter yellowish lines. Sliding left and right only moves the image 80 pixels not 240 pixels. Also it changes the scene completely. Now rather than a forest, a lawn and a garden the scene is only a forest.
Hope this is useful for those wishing to customize their Koby.