Hide Bar
Market
Android service that hides and restores the systembar of android tablets.
This enables playing, watching and reading at full screen!
Installation
This application needs ROOT! Only install and use when you have
root+busybox+superuser!
Busybox must be installed and at least once run, a reboot is needed after
Busybox has been run.
Usage
First click on icon with two arrows to show notification, then on
notification to hide the system bar.
Tapping the bottom of the screen will reshow the system bar.
History
Version 2.2.2 (12/1/2013): Bug fixes.
Version 2.2 (2/1/2013): You can now choose the location of NavBar. Improved intents support so other applications can use HideBar.
Version 2.1 (30/12/2012): Improved navigation while systembar is hidden with the popup NavBar.
Version 2.0 (24/12/2012): Tasker/Locale integration.
Version 1.10 (13/11/2012): Fixes the static wallpaper. Improves CPU usage a lot (Thanks Jan!).
Version 1.9 (27/10/2012): Made the ghost button work on all devices, this also fixes the long delay on restore that some devices had. (no demo released)
Version 1.8 (12/10/2012): No longer asks for root permission on every use.
Add a method to show the systembar from the top.
Version 1.7 (29/9/2012): Check for busybox. Updated icon.
Version 1.5 (14/8/2012): Add widget to hide or show systembar. Fix for root on
MK802 (thanks Carlo and Marcus).
Version 1.4 (4/8/2012): Improve UI. Use a different method to hide the bar on HC
tablets. Notify user when running on a non-rooted tablet with a helpful message.
Version 1.3 (30/7/2012): Link to market from within application.
Version 1.2 (27/6/2012): Improved detecting restore of systembar.
Version 1.01 (12/6/2012): Fixed ghost back botton on ICS.
Version 1.0 (9/6/2012): Initial release for ICS! (This is an initial release,
so expect it to be rough)
Version 0.12 (07/01/2012): Bug fixes.
Version 0.11 (05/01/2012): Option to add a ghost(invisible) back button while
systembar is hidden.
Version 0.10 (21/12/2011): Support for the Dell Streak 7.
Version 0.9 (06/12/2011): Bug fix: keep systembar hidden, even when memory is low.
Version 0.8 (04/12/2011): Option to hide the systembar 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 systembar.
Version 0.5 (13/10/2011): Method to show systembar is now a preference.
Version 0.4 (09/10/2011): Support for more devices.
Description
Android tablets contain a system bar at the bottom that is always visible.
In the systembar there are controls to move back, to move to the home screen
and to show all running applications. The system bar also displays the clock,
notifications and settings.
Android cannot do without this 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 system bar. For instance when playing
a movie or a game. It is also a very nice companion for an e-reader or while
reading a pdf.
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 bar will hide itself. When the
statusbar is needed again, a swipe at the bottom of the screen will bring the
systembar back on top. To help with the navigation inside application, there
is an invisible back button, I call it the ghost back button. You can enable
this from the settings.
Hardware
This program should work on all rooted android tablets. Both HoneyComb and
Ice Cream Sandwich are supported. The newest android version, Jelly Bean is now
also supported. Some devices also need BusyBox installed.
Download
You can find the full application at the android
market.
I used to have a demo version available on my own site, but due to some limitations of
the hosting company I can no longer provide the demo. I'm looking into putting a demo
on the android market.
If you need this application installed on many devices for the kiosk mode,
let me know. I provide custom
builds depending on use case.
If the systembar does not hide, then make sure you have installed SuperUser and BusyBox
and both are of a recent version. BusyBox must be run after installation to work. Most
rooting methods install both applications but some leave that step to you.
About
You can mail me with any comment, suggestion
or correction.