That's a tricky question for me because I've added a number of Android apps (e.g., Gmail, Bar Control), which use the notification bar quite a bit. So I use mine, not only for returning home but also to check notifications. On my Droid, I also use it for weather notifications/alerts, system status messages, etc. Your PDN is stock, right? Are you using the native email application? I wonder, if you get a message, whether an icon appears on your notification bar. -Mattdavidr;28273 said:Thanks for the replies.. I know how to get the notification area to appear (from past posts) but what is it for? Mine is always empty.. what (if anything) is supposed to be there.
derelicte;28061]...put the novel to sleep with a quick flip of the power switch. then wake it up again with another quick flip of the power switch. when it comes back on said:I discovered a combination approach of the above two that seems to also work 100% of the time to activate the notification bar. Like cosmos, I use the 'long switch' until the power off / cancel box pops up. If you then use a double 'quick flip' of the power switch as derelicte mentions, the PDN comes back up with an active notification bar. Actually, once you do the first 'quick flip' and the screen goes black and the PDN enters sleep mode, no matter how long you wait to do the next 'quick flip,' the PDN comes back up with an active notification bar. As stated before, no method of notification area activation seems to last through a reboot. Also, I kind of worry about wear and tear on my volume key with the back/menu hack and any of the three notification area activation hacks, all of which involve the power button to some degree. In the case of any power button use, in a hack or otherwise, I highly recommend not releasing it quickly to the point it 'snaps' back, but using a smooth 'sliding' motion with your finger/nail engaged through the entire range of the switch's motion.cosmos;28075 said:I use a a slightly different approach to get the notification bar to scroll.. It works 100% of the time for meInstead of the quick flip... use the long flip. The menu comes up Power off or cancel.. If you hit cancel the notification area works as designed until you power off.
I use Smart Bar now, which utilizes the notification area, and do so for a couple of reason you may find valuable. Previously, I had no knowledge of the Home button's many uses. After exposing my ignorance of Android in another thread, I was told that on a 'normal' Android device, a press and hold of this button allowed you to see all the active apps, and that you could pick one to go directly to. With the volume button hack, I was able to go 'back' to Home, but not to return to an app I had backed away from (like an open Web page in the Browser, or an email I was reading).Now, I can pull down the notification area, select the Smart Bar 'Show recent Apps' function, and go directly to still active apps I had previously been using, at the state they were in when I as last there, providing I didn't exit them but merely backed away from them (or, via the Smart Bar function 'Go home,' went directly to the Home screen). This provides, in a way, the same sort of 'alt+tab' task switching capability you have in Windows and lets you use Androids multi-tasking more fully.And, in combination with tools like Smart Bar, the notification area can do a lot to make up for the lack of buttons on the PDN. I now have a volume control function to make up for the hijacking of the volume key, a wifi on-of toggle which helps with the sometimes flaky PDN wireless, and various other neat and useful capabilities Smart Bar provides me from wherever I am (the bar is ubiquitous!).davidr;28273 said:Thanks for the replies.. I know how to get the notification area to appear (from past posts) but what is it for? Mine is always empty.. what (if anything) is supposed to be there.