Seriously, I did not like it on my WinMo5 phone. I still don't like it on my 1X.
cons found so far:
- Launcher crashes when you add a widget too wide for the current screen
- Launcher eats so much memory it crashes randomly (or at least, pressing home gives you a loading spinner for a short while)
- Contacts app looks ancient, froyo style.
- CLOOOOCKS ! Why do they need a dozen clocks, each eating storage for nothing.
- IME is weird. Used smartkeyboard pro before finding the basic ICS one perfect.
- No power toggles in the drawer
- No widgets in the drawer.
- Lock screen seems twitchy, phone tried to call from my pocket this morning.
- Most of the app skins are really ugly compared to ICS' ones (settings, contacts..)
Don't get me wrong, the phone is a real beast. Even with sense obviously cluttering the performance, it's a real breeze, it's really fast as hell. Once we get a clean ICS build, I can only imagine how faster it'll get.
First real user review of Sense 4.0, thanks. I'd have to agree with you on some of these, esp the Contacts/Dialer looks like it hasn't changed at all.
only thing I like about sense is the lockscreen (weather skin is amazing!) and answerscreen
settings menu is also nice now
I hate the launcher.. always changed it, I mean it only looks good with the htc clock but then you only get 2 rows for apps on the homescreen..meh
so yea I wonder why so many people praize sense and it feels odd that htc was the only one who could make a animated lockscreen..
Please tell me what is the point of an animated lockscreen? I really don't like knowing my phone is using juice to show me some nice floating clouds.
Is it even possible for a capacitive touch screen phone to pocket dial unless you've got your hand in there with it?
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA
eyecandy mostly I always like seeing that animation, it also gives it a high tech feeling like it's suposed to be
a wow factor for people who grab your phone as well
some care about it.. some don't , I do.
I cannot imagine what you are doing with your phone thats causing so much crashes ... i would suggest looking at your apps and stuff first ...
Of course, most apps are not yet ICS optimized and causes memory issues and what not ... so not necessary that its HTC Sense's fault !!
Crashes are frequent and Sense starts pretty fast, but it's definitely not my apps. Crashed a few time without installing a single thing. Anyway, stable or not, ICS base launcher is way better, IMHO.
I like the new lock screen showing your unread messages but I dont like the email app. The font size is too big even when set to small.
I have a Sensation and there was a smallest setting that worked really well. Its like they made the fonts too large over compensating for the higher resolution of the screen.
I had my One X for 4 days now and I have to say I can't wait to get a rom without Sense. I hope for CM9 since I am coming from a Galaxy S with CM9.
The Lockscreen that launches 4 Apps is the only good thing about sense.
I actually love the look and feel of Sense 4.0, can't agree with you.
ICS builds I tested had ring lockscreen with up to 8 shortcuts.
EDIT: ok, now everytime I hit the "home" button, sense reloads -_-'
I might be wrong but didn't Google say that every phone using ICS should provide an option to the user to use stock launcher..am sure read on some tech blog....I dont have the phone, but if thats the case then in theory u should be able to clear the default setting for sense launcher in settings/apps menu and hopefully then get a prompt to select launcher
either way...do let me know , if this works
Edit :- or else there's always Go Launcher (with ICS theme done by the GOLauncher Team)
Cheers,
M
meletios said:
I might be wrong but didn't Google say that every phone using ICS should provide an option to the user to use stock launcher..am sure read on some tech blog....I dont have the phone, but if thats the case then in theory u should be able to clear the default setting for sense launcher in settings/apps menu and hopefully then get a prompt to select launcher
either way...do let me know , if this works
Cheers,
M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You wish... You have to use sense AND sense keyboard.
I restored from titanium a MeDroidMod Launcher (looks very ICS-ish to me, don't know what has been modded here) backup from my old N1 sd, and it works. Status bar still sensucks, but at least I have a stable and simple ICS launcher without all the candies. According to the app/running/cached memory usage value, the launcher eats 22Mo where Sense ate 55...
meletios said:
I might be wrong but didn't Google say that every phone using ICS should provide an option to the user to use stock launcher..am sure read on some tech blog....I dont have the phone, but if thats the case then in theory u should be able to clear the default setting for sense launcher in settings/apps menu and hopefully then get a prompt to select launcher
either way...do let me know , if this works
Edit :- or else there's always Go Launcher (with ICS theme done by the GOLauncher Team)
Cheers,
M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I remember the statement but if it's only to include the launcher then it's pointless
even on stock ics everyone gets nova or apex launcher lol, think they'll have to use the default android skin as well
btw. it only has sense launcher now
As useless Rosie was, it was at least pretty.. sense 4.0 looks like pre ICS stock android, and doesnt seem to be much less bloated.
Thankz god we have XDA, just a pity ure buying a phone knowing you wont be able to fully enjoy as stock.
You are using apex or nova, maybe. But surely not everybody. All the people around me like the stock ics. Why bloat the OS ? For a colored battery bar ?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
ok Sense 4.0 looks great, BUT what happened to the wonderful rotating carousel? Now Sense rotates three screens to the right, then you have to come all the way back to get to screens to the left of the home screen. Surely it would have been easier to let Sense rotate through all the screens, making selection far faster?
I'd like it (the widgets are AWESOME) IF it
- didn't crash all the time
- had 5 rows as an option!!!!!!!
running nova now due to the crashing. Unbelievable how unoptimised it is
If I could have 6 rows instead of 4 I'd use sense launcher instead of nova, i mean we have a 4,7" 720 screen and it's just a big waste of space to have 4x4 grid, and I really don't like the cube style flipping, I feel a bit old for that. I even disable wallpaper scroll. I want it clean and smooth.
Related
After looking at some stock images I've noticed that you get more icons on the bottom, whereas on Sense you get the menu, phone and add.
So basically what would I lose by turning HTC Sense off apart from the bottom bar? I currently use the Power Tools widget I think it is, the gaint clock/weather and the calendar.
You can't turn sense off on the desire unlike the hero as far as I know. I've been wanting to goto android basic for a while don't think anyone has worked how to do it
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Amcaot1Us
LaWrona said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Amcaot1Us
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried and failed.
Did a search of sorts, came across launcher pro, seems good, a slight slow down at times but I think I can work with this. Lack of leap though is a bit off ...
Launcher seems alright but I tad some at times and I miss some of the HTC widgets so off it goes . Back to Sense.
HTC please let me change that bloody useless bottom bar!!!!
Agreed, its not very attractive but this will most definately be changed with the 2.2 Froyo update
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App
I am so looking forward to it!
Saves me money though as I don't need beautiful widgets or the widget similair to the power tweak widget.
Also it remembered the last state so no moving around once I reverted back :O.
i tried the ADWlauncher and Launcher Pro too for the same reason, the bottom bar i wanted with shortcuts. but i really can't compromise the speed and smoothness of the sense ui with those ones (even if ADW is the fastest 3rd party if you tweak the settings) but most important is the DATA-INTERNET widget which cannot be added in without sense.
i hope that with froyo HTC will enable both launchers and be a user choice which one to use but still have the HTC widgets.
I ran a few searches and while there are some topics on other sub-forums just thought I'd ask here. Is there a general aversion to using this app?
I've used it on all the ROM's I've flashed and have found that it is more efficient than a stock launcher. It most often runs smoother as well especially the app drawer.
I know there are many who use it here, but overall rosie's get the win on XDA hance all the rosie/Sense mods.
Is it because it is not an open source launcher? Is it the aesthetics? Is there such a thing as "Android Purists"?
What say you!
I love it but won't use it because i love my sense widgets too much and it acts funny.with widget locker
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
Been using it since almost Day 1. I change backgrounds and clocks fairly often. Wouldn't use anything else.
You lose all the sense widgets. And in the new sense roms which have been ported to the inc, there are great new ones - so on the new sense roms I can't afford to use launcher unless they have equivalent widgets.
I use launcher pro on cm6.1 which is an aosp rom. There it is the better option because I don't have any possibility of getting the sense widgets anyways...
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Thanks for the replies so far! I use one widget (smooth calender) and forgot about all the sense widgets folks like to use.
I use launcher pro as well. I think its a great home replacement. Gives great options in settings to change almost everything. I currently just have it set to give me 3 home screens and that is it. I don't need any more than that currently.
I replaced the Sense widgets with beautiful widgets and extended controls. I also love launcher pro's ability to make custom shortcuts that can take you directly a page in the setting menus that may be 2 to 3 pages in. Saves a lot of time as I currently have one set directly to the development page. Have to turn that thing on to use PDAnet.(The 3g hotspot just doesn't work for me very well as it drops my laptop every 10 minutes and then it cannot join it again till I restart the hotspot on the phone.)
Additional Info:
I never really liked senses giant phone button at the bottom of the screen all the time. With launcher Pro I can make the dock look like stock android. Once I made the switch I never went back
boomertwo said:
I use launcher pro as well. I think its a great home replacement. Gives great options in settings to change almost everything. I currently just have it set to give me 3 home screens and that is it. I don't need any more than that currently.
I replaced the Sense widgets with beautiful widgets and extended controls. I also love launcher pro's ability to make custom shortcuts that can take you directly a page in the setting menus that may be 2 to 3 pages in. Saves a lot of time as I currently have one set directly to the development page. Have to turn that thing on to use PDAnet.(The 3g hotspot just doesn't work for me very well as it drops my laptop every 10 minutes and then it cannot join it again till I restart the hotspot on the phone.)
Additional Info:
I never really liked senses giant phone button at the bottom of the screen all the time. With launcher Pro I can make the dock look like stock android. Once I made the switch I never went back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Launcher Pro is great, and Launcher Pro Plus is worth every bit of $2.99. It's one of the only apps I've paid for and it has all of the sense widgets; including multiple bookmark and calendar widgets for example. In addition, having the ability to resize any widget to your liking I find makes it that much more attractive. Like you also said the shortcut option basically eliminates the need for apps like Bettercut. And of course the obvious options to change docks and icons make it a fun alternative for people.
Good stuff I've always like LP as well and got the + version as soon as it went live. A lot of proponents so far!
I think i remember seeing something that the dev of Launcher Pro asked that it not be cooked into custom roms
Therev29 said:
I think i remember seeing something that the dev of Launcher Pro asked that it not be cooked into custom roms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the stock launcher isn't used, they cook ADW or launcher 2 into ROMs. But you always have the option of installing LP and even removing the launcher you had previously
over at rootzwiki i just learned that ICS can go into tablet mode, so i did switch and i find it perfectly usable. some apps are even more useful than before like settings, mail, etc.
my only gripe right now is the launcher, it wastes space. i use nova with a 7x7 grid but in portrait mode its too small and in landscape mode i'd like to have more icons in the app-drawer.
does anyone know which launcher will do better? also, is it possible to get back stock launcher2? im on aokp b27 and it had trebuchet (which crashes) and nova.
thanks!
ps. for those who don't know it yet, try it out:
0. make a nandroid. should your launcher crash you are screwed
1. get latest aokp
2. change dpi to 190 in rom control
3. add hide-navbar option in powermenu
4. press powerbutton and hide navbar
5. reboot
trouble-shooting:
market trouble can be resolved by following the steps indicated in the AOKP dpi changer. i still had to manually delete its cache and data plus force close it until it finally shut up and let me download.
phone.apk will likely crash. it can be fixed be exchanging it with the one from AOKP's droid incredible build: http://www.file-upload.net/download-4168356/Phone.apk.html
i used adb, can also be done via root-browser i guess
molesarecoming said:
over at rootzwiki i just learned that ICS can go into tablet mode, so i did switch and i find it perfectly usable. some apps are even more useful than before like settings, mail, youtube, etc.
my only gripe right now is the launcher, it wastes space. i use nova with a 7x7 grid but in portrait mode its too small and in landscape mode i'd like to have more icons in the app-drawer.
does anyone know which launcher will do better? also, is it possible to get back stock launcher2? im on aokp b27 and it had trebuchet (which crashes) and nova.
thanks!
ps. for those who don't know it yet, try it out:
0. make a nandroid. should your launcher crash you are screwed
1. get latest aokp
2. change dpi to 190 in rom control
3. add hide-navbar option in powermenu
4. press powerbutton and hide navbar
5. reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADW Launcher Ex works fine...
looks like what i needed, thanks!!! will now download and try
btw, i had problems using the phone app, it crashed. i read pushing the Phone.apk from aokp droid incredible build into /system/app works. and it did. now it runs perfectly, no fc's, no crashes. i uploaded it here in case anyone needs it: http://www.file-upload.net/download-4168356/Phone.apk.html
Yea I was going to say, ADW is my choice for my 10" Tablet.
My Setup:
Hide Dock Bar
Hide Status Bar (top part with App Drawer and redundant menu icon)
Hide Desktop Icon Text
Create a Drawer Icon coupled with whatever desktop icons.
Crank up the desktop Row/Column
This gives you a pretty large work area that is edge to edge. I don't use the dock bar but rather hide it and place my own icons. This removes the restriction of a 5 icon dock.
However I've never done this on my Nexus so I don't know how small the icons would be.
Hiding the statusbar is tricky because it doesn't work via the options checkbox. You have to create a gesture to hide/show statusbar. Go to the desktop and perform the gesture to hide it. Then go back into settings and delete the gesture. Now you'll gain access to the top bar.
With the Status bar gone, you access ADW Settings via the App Drawer like other ICS launchers.
why hiding the navbar? it's only initially since tablet mode brings its own, and i really like it so far. i find it more useful than the one in stock ICS even.
i installed adw and sadly i really don't like it so far. it feels like gingerbread and i hate having to theme ICS when im on ICS. but function-wise i got tiny icons in portrait mode and they seem to behave kinda strange. for now i got nova back, wastes space but i find it optically more appealing.
what i search would be a launcher that can stretch icons. i'd like it to behave just as before, if i use a 4x4 grid it would be cool if it could use the entire screen and not just a tiny fraction. nova comes close using a 7x7 grid but 49 tiny icons look kind of cluttered - not really nice for a homescreen.
btw, look how youtube reacted to tablet mode, never used a tablet or owned one, so my jaw pretty much dropped when i saw it running.
APEX launcher does the job. uses 100% screenspace and icons are big enough.
Also, check out Go launcher Ex. Make the icons larger in the settings menu. I manual set them to 80 and they look great. I also remove the top bar in the launchers setting menu. Set the screen to 6x6 and it looks perfect. Of course running an ICS theme but I don't mind a theme when I am actually on ICS. it is when you are on GB running an ICS theme that makes it feel cheesy!
I wish we could run the density in 160 but it seems like no phone.apk will run in that density. While running in 190 you need to use a modded market but it still seems like the market causes issues with certain apps while trying to download them. 160 would be native so we wouldn't need a modded market.
i still know it from my gf's phone, but must say i never liked it much. i guess im pretty happy now with apex in tablet mode, looks almost stock without the dpi changes, as it should. if i had the 5-button dock back and the notification-curtain (don't like they way they implemented that for tablets, it sucks) yeah it would be perfection but that can't be done unless the rom gets rewritten. im using it now daily, can live with small kinks and the new gapps/settings more than make up for it - would never ever want to revert to old mail/youtube/contacts/callendar, etc.
btw, are there rom's out there making dedicated use of it? i guess could care less about the newest tweak that gives me 5 minutes more battery power. but something that transforms the entire UI/IX into something more useful...
Go Launcher HD is made for tablets. I haven't tested it, but you can get a beta on their site.
http://golauncher.goforandroid.com/2012/03/go-launcher-hd-v1-0-beta/
mwalt2 said:
Go Launcher HD is made for tablets. I haven't tested it, but you can get a beta on their site.
http://golauncher.goforandroid.com/2012/03/go-launcher-hd-v1-0-beta/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man that thanks button is in a bad spot. You just got a freebee.
That launder does not work with the densities that we can use. It does work at 160 in portrait but not landscape.
Wish someone implemented this as a stable and full functioning ROM..
Worked well with AOKP until it went into airplane mode and never got out. I then rebooted and my cellular data was gone all together. Guess it really thought it was a tablet.
Sent from the future.
molesarecoming said:
APEX launcher does the job. uses 100% screenspace and icons are big enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good call on Apex Launcher, looks good:
SocialReject said:
Wish someone implemented this as a stable and full functioning ROM..
Worked well with AOKP until it went into airplane mode and never got out. I then rebooted and my cellular data was gone all together. Guess it really thought it was a tablet.
Sent from the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, data seems to be a little weird. I downloaded a file then it just stopped and wouldn't connect again and I couldn't make a call either. It was still showing full bars and 4G though. A reboot fixes it. I was running Franco's kernel so thought maybe it had something to do with that so I am back on stock kernel and going to see how it behaves. I so don't want to give this up. It it pure awesomenes!
SocialReject said:
Wish someone implemented this as a stable and full functioning ROM..
Worked well with AOKP until it went into airplane mode and never got out. I then rebooted and my cellular data was gone all together. Guess it really thought it was a tablet.
Sent from the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats terrible, i better make a nandroid before i try it. a custom rom would be great though, im getting really tired fixing this up.
the thing is, i really dislike the new tablet notification center, and the launcher. i wish it would behave just like before, if it could perhaps be tricked into ignoring the fake dpi. and i reaalllyy miss the notification curtain and the dock-bar. i tried hours to find some replacement for the old dock, the only thing that came close was desktop visualizr from the market, it creates resizable launcherbuttons with or without label and let's you set icons/images.
i love the new apps and settings, but the homescreen looks kinda long and dorky.
[email protected] said:
Good call on Apex Launcher, looks good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea at least it fills up the screen, nova wouldn't. would be great through if it could do 5x4 icons + dock, everything in normal size, like before.
btw, your widgets look nice, could you share their names?
[email protected] said:
Good call on Apex Launcher, looks good:
Yeah, data seems to be a little weird. I downloaded a file then it just stopped and wouldn't connect again and I couldn't make a call either. It was still showing full bars and 4G though. A reboot fixes it. I was running Franco's kernel so thought maybe it had something to do with that so I am back on stock kernel and going to see how it behaves. I so don't want to give this up. It it pure awesomenes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me know if data is still a problem after reverting back to stock because I'm currently on Franco's kernel, also.
Sent from the future.
molesarecoming said:
yea at least it fills up the screen, nova wouldn't. would be great through if it could do 5x4 icons + dock, everything in normal size, like before.
btw, your widgets look nice, could you share their names?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is Beautiful Widgets and Pure News Widget.
SocialReject said:
Let me know if data is still a problem after reverting back to stock because I'm currently on Franco's kernel, also.
Sent from the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far so good on stock kernel after a few hours. Will continue to test.
Edit...Data just stopped working with stock kernel. That really sucks! 4G still shows and so does the data arrows but no data works...
Deleted...
Someone implement this! Argh
Sent from the future.
guys, i modded apexlauncher with apktool. made some changes in dalvik code to trick it into getting back the old dpi and brought back the dock through changes in the res files. icons are back to normal size aswell. it craps its pants though when it goes to landscape and the appdrawer shows only half of the screen, definitively needs more work. if someone could help with this i'd really appreciate it.
try it out for yourself: https://rapidshare.com/files/4205643622/ApexLauncher-signed.apk
molesarecoming said:
guys, i modded apexlauncher with apktool. made some changes in dalvik code to trick it into getting back the old dpi and brought back the dock through changes in the res files. icons are back to normal size aswell. it craps its pants though when it goes to landscape and the appdrawer shows only half of the screen, definitively needs more work. if someone could help with this i'd really appreciate it.
try it out for yourself: https://rapidshare.com/files/4205643622/ApexLauncher-signed.apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice so far!
Sent from the future.
Ok Sense 4.0 looks great, BUT what happened to the wonderful rotating carousel? Now from the home screen you can move to the right by three screens, then you have to come all the way back and then move to the left. Crazy it would have been so much quicker to allow Sense to rotate and plus it looked good.
Completely true, I so miss that feature.
I hope by some hack I can regain that feature on my One X with sense 4.0.
I don't miss the carousel, I think it looked really good, don't get me wrong, but the number of times that just because I have moved a bit to fast from one screen to the next did pee me off when it wold shoot past the screen I wanted and go into the carousel. I do miss the continuous home screen scrolling mind.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
First I missed the carrousel also (since one day I own a HOX!) , but the fastest way I select a screen is minimizing the screen till you see the 5 screens and selecting the one I want by tipping on it. Just as fast as it is
You can still use a third party launcher for that feature whilst keeping the rest of Sense.
Tiersten, what third party app will do the carousel with Sense 4?
Radiognome said:
Tiersten, what third party app will do the carousel with Sense 4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADW Launcher EX can do it but the 3 dot menu bar appears which isn't good. Investigating other launchers now...
Apex launcher is my launcher of choice
Free, fast, and really customisable allowing you to have a continuos scroll etc and 'tab overview' and you don't have a three dot menu. plus it can use ADW themes
would post a link but i'm too new apparently...
I think its miles better than stock androideek: blasphemy I know), it would be perfect if it didn't require so many resources.
I think touchwiz has come a long way. It really adds alot to stock android in my opinion, and im not just talking about the s pen additions.
The dialer, the whole phone app in general, all the motion settings...
What I want to talk about are issues that people have with touchwiz in general, meaning, reasons that you would jump ship to a custom rom, and I'd like to see if anyone would have solutions to these issues.
Ill give you a few examples of my own experiences.
1) I need to have a battery percentage in the status bar. So when youre running any rom worth its salt, there's an option for that. I was going through the settings on the note 2 and there it was, built into the touchwiz settings... im curious to know when this was added because im pretty sure it wasnt there in gingerbread.
2) I like the additions to the stock player but to me, its still not functional enough, I at least need a screen lock. When I mentioned this in a post, someone pointed out that screen lock is built in now, all you need to do is press the power key when playing a video and it locks the screen.
3) I remember someone posting about how on this phone, the calls and messages show up in the call log and how annoying that is. I just looked for a second and realized that theres a way to change that. When youre in the call log, you hit menu then view by.
I think we could all benefit from learning about the other "hidden features and functionality" in touchwiz. For example, I still have an issue with the stock video player that you cant easily fast forward by dragging like other players and there doesnt seem to be any options or preferences built it...
What I want from Touchwiz is wallpaper scrolling and the option to change the screen grid. Other than that, it has really improved a lot and I'm pretty much comfortable using it now.
most touchwiz doesn't work for me because I work in a 240dpi environment and touchwiz doesn't scale well in it. not even the Samsung keyboard loads, it just FCs. I use different launcher, different dialer. stock kernel is not too battery friendly...I got almost 2 days usage with jedi master 2 rom with normal usage (yes, it's touchwiz based but wherever I can change it I do).
why would I jump ship?
- better environment scaling in 240dpi
- better/longer battery life
- faster operations
lennie said:
most touchwiz doesn't work for me because I work in a 240dpi environment and touchwiz doesn't scale well in it. not even the Samsung keyboard loads, it just FCs. I use different launcher, different dialer. stock kernel is not too battery friendly...I got almost 2 days usage with jedi master 2 rom with normal usage (yes, it's touchwiz based but wherever I can change it I do).
why would I jump ship?
- better environment scaling in 240dpi
- better/longer battery life
- faster operations
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on Jedi... I consider myself an "advanced" user and stock touchwiz is not quite there yet but if you add Jedi's rom and Nova launcher then it makes the experience much better imo... I don't mess around with dpi settings as I will just wait for a rom that will customize that to my liking. We are lacking in the development department right now but as soon as it picks up there should be lots of great options for us...:fingers-crossed: And as far as scrollable wallpapers... I just download Zedge & an app called wallpaper changer and I have on demand scrollable wallpapers in Nova!
mottyengel said:
I think touchwiz has come a long way. It really adds alot to stock android in my opinion, and im not just talking about the s pen additions.
The dialer, the whole phone app in general, all the motion settings...
What I want to talk about are issues that people have with touchwiz in general, meaning, reasons that you would jump ship to a custom rom, and I'd like to see if anyone would have solutions to these issues.
Ill give you a few examples of my own experiences.
1) I need to have a battery percentage in the status bar. So when youre running any rom worth its salt, there's an option for that. I was going through the settings on the note 2 and there it was, built into the touchwiz settings... im curious to know when this was added because im pretty sure it wasnt there in gingerbread.
2) I like the additions to the stock player but to me, its still not functional enough, I at least need a screen lock. When I mentioned this in a post, someone pointed out that screen lock is built in now, all you need to do is press the power key when playing a video and it locks the screen.
3) I remember someone posting about how on this phone, the calls and messages show up in the call log and how annoying that is. I just looked for a second and realized that theres a way to change that. When youre in the call log, you hit menu then view by.
I think we could all benefit from learning about the other "hidden features and functionality" in touchwiz. For example, I still have an issue with the stock video player that you cant easily fast forward by dragging like other players and there doesnt seem to be any options or preferences built it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi OP,
If u go to Settings -> Display and if you select Display Battery Percentage, it'll show you the battery percentage in the notification bar.
I'd like a better home screen layout. 5x4 is a GINORMOUS waste of space.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
achusaysblessyou said:
Hi OP,
If u go to Settings -> Display and if you select Display Battery Percentage, it'll show you the battery percentage in the notification bar.
I'd like a better home screen layout. 5x4 is a GINORMOUS waste of space.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess i wasnt clear, i found it, but i never knew it was there... and the homescreen layout... use a different launcher..
The only thing I missed from a custom launcher are:
1) can't change the icon grid, would like a 5x5 at least.
2) can't lock the home screen. Hate it when I accidentally moved stuff after having it setup perfectly the way I want it.
Also it would be great if we can select which app the page buddy brings up.
The only thing that really pushed me away from TouchWiz is that you can’t move the “Apps” button in the dock. I can’t reach the button when holding the phone in my left hand, one handed.
I really hate the lock screen. I was running a ROM with AOSP JB lock screen on my previous phone. I use the lock screen music controls all the time.
On Touchwiz lock screen if you use the basic swipe lock, you get the quick apps at the bottom, but the music controls don't show up at the top (at least not for Spotify or DoggCatcher). I can turn on pattern unlock, then it will show the lock screen music controls, but I lose the quick apps (I find it useful to access Google Search or Camera from lock screen).
The only solution to get both is to use pattern unlock with swipe gesture. This gives me the swipe lock screen with quick apps at the bottom, then when I swipe it gives me the pattern unlock with music controls at the top. WAY too many steps to access these two features that apparently can't be on the lock screen at the same time.
Can't say I often log in just to reply to a thread here, I'm more of a lurker. But I definitely feel the need to contribute to this.
I actually just returned my Note 2 (with the intention of getting an unlocked Nexus 4 in a couple days) and one of the major reasons was TouchWiz.
I hate it. Hate hate hate it. I hate the notification bar customizations. I hate that they've taken something as wonderful as power toggles in the notification bar and so badly butchered them. The entire notification pulldown is a crowded clusterfk compared to vanilla Android (full disclosure: I'm a long time vanilla Android user through Nexus devices/AOSP ROMs). The low DPI for a phone with such a big screen is damn absurd. I feel like I'm using my 37" computer monitor at 1280*1024. The TouchWiz customizations to the settings UI is just as bad or worse than Sense. If anything the Note 2 should be using the default Android tablet settings UI. The TouchWiz lock screen is a step up in customization from vanilla Android, but I still think it's ugly as all hell. Most of it is fluff that doesn't add any function or aesthetics. Not specifically TouchWiz related, but I loathe that they moved the back button from the left side of the screen as in vanilla JB to the left side via a capacitive hardware button.
I don't hate ALL of Samsung's tinkering. S-Voice was actually a phenomenal surprise and I'm going to dearly miss it. I could actually reliably send text messages with it without ever so much as glancing at the phone. Voice recognition was fantastic and it covered basic phone features better than vanilla Android's default abilities.
What I would really LOVE to have is a Note 2 without the hardware buttons, running AOSP with S-Voice and the S-Pen apps. Perhaps one day if there's a stable CM release where I can install extracted APKs for the Samsung apps I may get another one. Until then I'm going to stick with the Nexus line. TouchWiz really is that bad IMO.
... at least TouchWiz is a lot better than one of the first versions of it with the Behold II *shudders* I used one of those for a week.
hittingsmoke said:
Can't say I often log in just to reply to a thread here, I'm more of a lurker. But I definitely feel the need to contribute to this.
I actually just returned my Note 2 (with the intention of getting an unlocked Nexus 4 in a couple days) and one of the major reasons was TouchWiz.
I hate it. Hate hate hate it. I hate the notification bar customizations. I hate that they've taken something as wonderful as power toggles in the notification bar and so badly butchered them. The entire notification pulldown is a crowded clusterfk compared to vanilla Android (full disclosure: I'm a long time vanilla Android user through Nexus devices/AOSP ROMs). The low DPI for a phone with such a big screen is damn absurd. I feel like I'm using my 37" computer monitor at 1280*1024. The TouchWiz customizations to the settings UI is just as bad or worse than Sense. If anything the Note 2 should be using the default Android tablet settings UI. The TouchWiz lock screen is a step up in customization from vanilla Android, but I still think it's ugly as all hell. Most of it is fluff that doesn't add any function or aesthetics. Not specifically TouchWiz related, but I loathe that they moved the back button from the left side of the screen as in vanilla JB to the left side via a capacitive hardware button.
I don't hate ALL of Samsung's tinkering. S-Voice was actually a phenomenal surprise and I'm going to dearly miss it. I could actually reliably send text messages with it without ever so much as glancing at the phone. Voice recognition was fantastic and it covered basic phone features better than vanilla Android's default abilities.
What I would really LOVE to have is a Note 2 without the hardware buttons, running AOSP with S-Voice and the S-Pen apps. Perhaps one day if there's a stable CM release where I can install extracted APKs for the Samsung apps I may get another one. Until then I'm going to stick with the Nexus line. TouchWiz really is that bad IMO.
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I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle* Enjoy the on screen buttons taking up real estate, 16gb of total memory, and yearning for the s-pen. Btw, something as simple as go launcher could allow you to set up plenty of things you want, to include a 5x5 icon set.
I could go on and on, but to be honest, I don't think it will be long for you to realize you are making a mistake. *cough* battery
mdt73 said:
I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle* Enjoy the on screen buttons taking up real estate, 16gb of total memory, and yearning for the s-pen. Btw, something as simple as go launcher could allow you to set up plenty of things you want, to include a 5x5 icon set.
I could go on and on, but to be honest, I don't think it will be long for you to realize you are making a mistake. *cough* battery
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He does have a point with a lot of that stuff, particularly the lock screen music control. I just don't understand why it's so hard to add it just under the weather, or as a small bar just above the other lockscreen targets at the bottom of the screen. That's the most frustrating thing for me, as most the the other stuff he mentioned can be changed, and if it can't I'm willing to overlook it for a while because of all the added features this phone brings.
I have been using power amp for music since my DroidX2 back when we yearned for an eq... so its always been there for me (the lock screen music control).
Everything mentioned can be addressed. That's the beauty of android; customizing your android experience. What people have become is lazy because roms do it for you.
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mdt73 said:
I find it entertaining that you mentioned you are an avid vanilla android user, then explain how you run custom roms. *boggle*
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How so? AOSP ROMS are pretty well vanilla with very minor tweaks. Nothing like horribly reskinned menus at every turn. *yahtzee*
I use ADW EX to do a hell of a lot more than add icons to my home screen. Changing the launcher can only do so much to fix a horrible complete OS reskin.
hittingsmoke said:
How so? AOSP ROMS are pretty well vanilla with very minor tweaks. Nothing like horribly reskinned menus at every turn. *yahtzee*
I use ADW EX to do a hell of a lot more than add icons to my home screen. Changing the launcher can only do so much to fix a horrible complete OS reskin.
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Only thing that looks skined on my phobe now isctge lockscreen, and im sure I can fix that with a lock screen app. Otherwise my launcher is now ADW, my notification bar is themed blue with circle battery and stock JB settings/clear all buttons. No brightness bar in notification window either. In all honesty there is not much mire I was able to change on my Galaxy Nexus that I cant on here, visually. In the options department Samsung has done a wonderful job and I currently dont miss anything from AOKP other then the widget popups on nav bar (would love to hold say menu button to get that on here)
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