"Element" Officially Released on Cydia - Disappointment!

LVCIFER

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Well, after waiting almost 5+ months for this lockscreen, I'm highly disappointed.

First things first, AME235's "TeeHanLAX" LockInfo plugin is significantly more polished and more well put together. It doesn't use huge line breaks like Element does. It utilizes your screen space better than LockInfo does as well.

Also, I installed this on two iPhones, both on T-Mobile. One 3G and one 3G.

The 3G is RIDDLED with bugs. For example, in each category bar, it has the logo, plus the text. i.e., Calendar Icon + CALENDAR text. Well, my problem is that there is no text, just the icons and a blank bar.

Also, on tHe 3G, where it tells you the time/day of when emails or text messages or missed calls came in, all I have is "+7 NULL".

The 3G seems to be running ok, but it still doesn't look all that nice!

On both phones, in the upper right 'weather' section, it keeps on cutting my cities name off because they didn't give that section a big enough space.

I just have a ton of unhappiness and disappointment from this release. I hope it gets better. The ONLY positive is that you can launch all the apps/messages directly from Element, whereas you cannot with the AME235 plugin for LockInfo.

What do you guys think?
 

Alli

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That is disappointing. I never bothered trying LockInfo since I've been relatively happy with LockCalendar - and was looking forward to Element. I guess I'll stick with what I've got. :(
 

sargd66

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At this point Element is a bust, in my opinion. Lockinfo is 100 times better right now. Element has been installed and removed in a matter of 5 minutes.
 

LVCIFER

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Well, here is a quick screen capture video (using "ScreenRecorder" from Cydia) of my iPhone running LockInfo's "AME235 teehan+lax"s HTML Cydget Plug-In. While the fact that it is HTML disables the ability to launch the apps/e-Mails/SMS/MMS/phone apps directly from the Cydget, I am actually quite happy with it.

Also, regarding the video, I couldn't hit the "sleep" button to record, as that turns recording off. But I was able to use the "InfoShade" feature of LockInfo (tap + hold the status bar clock and the LockScreen slides down from your status bar) to effectively record my LockScreen. Just wanted to be clear on that. AND I'm using "Infinidock" as well, for those who are curious.

Also, I am using "Another Tap To Unlock 2.0" on my LockScreen as well as "Clock Hide" by Stimpy505 (David Ashman). Ultimately, I prefer this HTML LockInfo plug-in more than the official "Element" release right now. Keywords: RIGHT NOW. I think that once they fix the bugs and iron out the details, "Element" will be the sh*t. Remember - lockInfo had a SIX MONTH beta testing period where THOUSANDS of people helped Ashman to weed out the problems so that he could iron out the details.

Here's the video, in QuickTime Format:
 

BLiNK

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LOL, how come in the cydia changes section it reads; a lame attempt at an April Fools Day joke

anyways, i am a really BIG fan of lockinfo and Element would have to be pretty amazing for me to stop using it

agreed on the Element will be the 'one to beat' eventually
 

LVCIFER

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And since I couldn't record a video of the "Element" Cydget because hitting the sleep button stops the recorder, here are two screen shots of "Element" running on my 3G.

Note the bars, where it only has the App Icon (Calendar, SMS, e-Mail, etc.) where there is NO TEXT. And look at the spacing in between the calendar events, as well as the large text size of the To/From/Subject info from the e-Mails and major messages. It also keeps telling me "7+ NULL" where its supposed to list the date/time the alert/message was received. As stated in my first post, it cuts off the location in most of the weather cities, and overall, it just needs a good amount of work.

Here are the screen caps:
 

LVCIFER

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LOL, how come in the cydia changes section it reads; a lame attempt at an April Fools Day joke

anyways, i am a really BIG fan of lockinfo and Element would have to be pretty amazing for me to stop using it

agreed on the Element will be the 'one to beat' eventually

Absolutely. I just think that its going to take some time, and lots of troubleshooting. Once they get the hang of it (and DEDICATE THEMSELVES, goddammit! It shouldn't take 6 months to release THIS!), I think that "Element" will be amazing.

The problem that I get is that I truly in my heart believe that they got a great DEVELOPER to create this application, but the guy is good at DEVELOPING - he's got PISS POOR presentation skills. He's obviously not a DESIGNER. If he were, the fonts, spacing, and overall LOOK of the app would be more visually appealing. Now, back in my youth before joining the service I USED to be a graphic designer and a fontographer ("typesetter"), but then 9/11 hit and all the major design firms moved out to NJ (I'm in NYC), and that specific field more or less started paying CRAP salaries so I had to look for alternate professions. My point being, I know the difference between a developer and a designer, and if they would just bring a designer on board to design the LOOK of the app, and then have the developer modify the code in such a way that it could mimick/replicate the design, this app would be f'n amazing.

It DOES work, especially in functionality. It works as it should. I have problems with the fact that everything here is all a DISPLAY problem, and with devices like the iPhone, stuff just HAS to look pretty. There are no excuses for that. Anything subpar is a major FAIL.
 

LVCIFER

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This is "Element" running on a regular iPhone 3G, which doesnt have too many tweaks or modifications on it. So this is more or less how it would look while running "stock".

For some reason, it doesn't have some of the same problems on the 3G.

For example, the text in the bars displays like it should, and the time/date of the incoming messages/alerts are where they should be and listed properly. However, the problems with the weather cities, and the horrible looking spacing in between messages and calendar events and bad looking display as well as over-sized line breaks is still evident, which leads me to believe that it was no "fluke" on my original iPhone 3G. Error-free, this app still needs lots of work in the presentation of it.
 

big9erfan

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While I like what Element is going for, they have fallen short in execution.

Here's problems I have on my 3GS:
- Calendar Events don't show at all
- Weather is in too small of an area to display the location accurately
- Dates are all wrong, text messages from yesterday and the day before all display as 7+ Days Ago
- New Email isn't displayed at all

Options I'd like:
- Don't display empty categories
- Modify display order of items ( maybe I want calendar on top instead of missed calls )
- Actually display my email and calendar items :(
 

LVCIFER

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I have been referring @gteehan on Twitter to this post, and he's going to pass this information over to @saurik and the other Greek guy who is doing the development of 'Element'.

Hopefully, none of this stuff falls on deaf ears.

As a matter of fact, anyone who has suggestions, start leaving them here. I'm going to compile a list and in the middle/end of next week, I'm going to pass them all on to @gteehan.

Also something to be noted - directly from @gteehan, 'Element' is still in it's beta stages. Once it comes out of beta, there WILL be a price tag attached to this app. It's free for now because they're using our input to iron out all the defects.

Ashman did the same thing with LockInfo, so it's not a surprise.

Long story short, @gteehan DOES know that there are a lot of problems with this release so far, and he asks that we don't abandon hope yet. This was all planned, and there WILL be improvements coming our way as well as fixes.
 

big9erfan

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I have been referring @gteehan on Twitter to this post, and he's going to pass this information over to @saurik and the other Greek guy who is doing the development of 'Element'.

Hopefully, none of this stuff falls on deaf ears.

As a matter of fact, anyone who has suggestions, start leaving them here. I'm going to compile a list and in the middle/end of next week, I'm going to pass them all on to @gteehan.

Also something to be noted - directly from @gteehan, 'Element' is still in it's beta stages. Once it comes out of beta, there WILL be a price tag attached to this app. It's free for now because they're using our input to iron out all the defects.

Ashman did the same thing with LockInfo, so it's not a surprise.

Long story short, @gteehan DOES know that there are a lot of problems with this release so far, and he asks that we don't abandon hope yet. This was all planned, and there WILL be improvements coming our way as well as fixes.

Just send the tweets directly to limneos & saurik, so there's no middle man ;)

I fully expect a paid app, and if it's functional and works well I'll gladly pay for it, but at this point it's definitely borderline alpha/beta software.
 

BLiNK

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so i was curious to see what this was like
so far and i do not like the fact that when you go into something from your lockscreen it does not take you back to the lockscreen when finished

no calendar events

no email previews

unless i'm missing something...
 

LVCIFER

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Well, a new update to "Element" has been released fixing some issues. All of my "+7 NULL" issues ave been fixed, and my calendar events show up now as well. As far as the e-Mail previews, Blink, they only give you a few lines of a preview under the sender/subject, you have to tap on the text to open the e-Mail directly.

All in all, that was a quick update, and I see some minor improvements, and unfortunately some new bugs, such as:

"Element" will show me e-Mail previews of messages that I have in a DISABLED mailbox (mail account turned off in settings app).

That something that needs to be fixed as well. But overall, a fast release for a new release, some improvements made as well, and overall, use great things for this item.

I guess we all just wait and see. :)
 

BLiNK

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noticed that update earlier as well but only getting the next day preview for the calendar, nothing further than that
i'm with you on the lack of designer situation and really surprised that we are having these discussions about this hyped up app
to me the devs had plenty of time to at least work out these little things

and it seems like this is a battery drainer, maybe...
 

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