Android service that hides and restores the honeycomb status bar.
Description
Android honeycomb contains a status bar that is always visible. In the status bar there
are controls to move back, to move to the home screen and to show all running
applications. The status bar also displays the clock, notifications and settings.
Android honeycomb cannot do without this status bar, as the user must always have the
ability to click on the back button. There is no physical button to go back, so the
status bar must always be displayed. Yet, there are times the user wants do have the extra
screen estate taken by the status bar. For instance when playing a movie.
Hide Bar can help with this. When running the Hide Bar service, an icon will be available
in the status bar. When clicking on this, a notification will be shown. If the
notification is selected, the status bar will hide itself. When the status bar is needed
again, a swipe at the bottom of the screen will bring the status bar back on top.
History
Version 0.12 (07/01/2012): Bug fixes.
Version 0.11 (05/01/2012): Option to add a ghost(invisible) back button while system bar is hidden.
Version 0.10 (21/12/2011): Support for the Dell Streak 7.
Version 0.9 (06/12/2011): Bug fix: keep statusbar hidden, even when memory is low.
Version 0.8 (04/12/2011): Option to hide the statusbar at boot time. Bug fixes.
Version 0.7 (23/10/2011): Support for the Tab 10.1.
Version 0.6 (18/10/2011): Support for the Thrive, extra method to show statusbar.
Version 0.5 (13/10/2011): Method to show statusbar is now a preference.
Version 0.4 (09/10/2011): Support for more devices.
Limitations
Hide Bar expects root to work. I cannot help you with that. I would rather implement this
with public and documented api's. But alas, this is a hidden feature in Honeycomb. I'm
sure that, the day it gets documented, it will be part of the system and then there will
be no need for this application. But for now, this is the best we can do.
Hide Bar currently does not work on
Ice Cream Sandwich. A fix should be possible, in two weeks (today 21 mars 2012) I will
receive an ICS device. So check back for updates.
Hardware
This is a list of tablets the software is know to work with. Keep in mind that root is
required on all devices.
Asus EEE Pad Transformer
Acer Iconia Tab A500
Acer Iconia Tab A100
Advent Vega (Vegacomb)
Viewsonic Viewpad 10s (Vegacomb)
Tosiba Thrive AT105-T1032
Samsung Tab 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
Dell Streak 7
Where Vegacomb is the unofficial Honeycomb 3.2 firmware, the stock firmware for those
devices is still at 2.2.
If your device is not in this list, don't despair. There is a big change it will work, I
am just not yet notified of this. If it works, email me, and I'll update the list. If it
does not work, also get in touch with me, so I know and can make it work.
Donations
Some features, such as the kiosk mode, have been implemented especially to support
commercial use. If you or your company has benefited from Hide Bar, you should consider
donating. Contact me if you or your company donated and wishes to be mentioned here.
The following people/companies have donated:
Alex Angelakopoulos, CEO of Masyn.
Download
You can download this application
here. It will
need to be side loaded. But as you already have root on your
device, you know how to install applications.
If the systembar does not hide, then make sure you have installed SuperUser and BusyBox
and both are of a recent version. Most rooting methods install both applications but some
leave that step to you.
License
GNU General Public License version 3.0
About
Code
Hide Bar is free software, for which the code is available on github. See
ppareit/HideBar. You can also clone the
project with Git by running:
$ git clone git://github.com/ppareit/HideBar
You can mail me with any comment, suggestion
or correction.