Notification Panel, Version 2: Compromise.

Some lovely redditors brought up a couple issues with the first design.

First, despite all my previous objections, the clear button being stationary is a good idea. So I'm going to throw out all that bad UI stuff and put the clear button in the same spot all the time. Ease of use outweighs making sense. Also, the clear button gets a little too small when you stuff it into the "Notifications" bar.

Second, the carrier "advertisement" is actually useful for roaming and letting you know when you're connected to a femtocell. So I'm going to put that back too.

So, bigger, stationary clear button, and keep the carrier name, but make it suck less. I can do that:

I'm very interested in hearing any objections to this design. I think it should cover everyone though.

I've also fixed a big drawback of the first version: I don't have to murder the stock keyboard for framework resources anymore, the new location allowed me to do it with all stock UI widgets.

It's all down to just 1 XML file now. (like it should be!) So porting should be easier. In fact I bet it can be deployed to any CM6.1 rom as is.

Here's the source if anyone is interested. It's from /system/framework/framework-res.apk/res/layout.

If you are really, REALLY brave, AND YOU HAVE A NANDROID BACKUP: you can try this update.zip over your CM6.1 install. It will ruin anything that isn't CM6.1.

If the update.zip actually works, and your carrier name is black instead of white, go to Settings, CM Settings, User Interface, Date and Provider, and change Carrier PLMN Label Color and Carrier SPN Label Color to white (#ffffffff).

My only big problem is that it doesn't work with UOT Kitchen.... help?

Feedback welcome.

Update: It doesn't work with MDPI devices (G1, Hero, MyTouch, etc). Right now I'm focusing on getting it built into Cyanogenmod. Wish me luck!

The Clear Button.

The combination "carrier name and clear button" section in the notification bar has always bothered me. 

1) It’s a waste of space, especially in landscape.
2) It’s pointless carrier branding.
3) It’s bad ui.

1 and 2 you probably agree with, but #3? Bad UI?
Yes, bad UI. The best way I can explain it is in picture form:

Couple caveats: The biggest being distribution. If you want this I really have no easy way to get it to you. I modified framework-res.apk, and everyone's is different. So if you have the exact same setup as me (A Droid running CM6.1 RC5) you can have this. If not it would have to be ported over.

The second problem is that I had to kill the default keyboard in order to make this look good. The grey bar that says "Notifications" stops at the edge of the button, so I had to make a custom button with the grey background behind it. ANYTIME I try to add a new file to the framework I get boot loops (Please contact me if you can help with this). I had to edit an existing file, and nobody uses the stock keyboard.

With all those problems it's more of a proof of concept than anything. But if you really want to try running it, here's the framework-res.apk. it will probably blow up anything that's not a Droid on CM6.1 RC5.

And for the smart peeps out there, here's a zip of what I changed.