Related
http://gizmodo.com/339835/pointui-skins-windows-mobile-almost-fixes-the-os-best-wm-skin-app-ever
If you have, any comments? It looks promising, is it compatable with the Hermes?
You might want to check here.
I have used it, very promising UI for WM6 but I don't think its ready for everyday use yet.. By far the smoothest interface I've used, however.
Nice UI
I am using it for 72 Hrs now.
had some problems with the calandar view - fixed in version 1.0b.
in general very nice UI.
love the online update feature.
It's buggy, but has good potential.
I had it on my Hermes for a few hours, but ulitmately uninstalled it. It is a cool program, but definately has it's flaws.
Pros:
- Slick, fast UI
- Easy to use/understand
- Quite useful
- Update is very simple
- A very welcome change to HTC Home
Cons:
- In-Call volume adjustment is not possible as of yet (on Hermes at least)
- No easy way to close it
- Upon wake/power-on, it is 'minimized' to the top bar
- Scrolling is backwards, ie. you don't scroll as if flipping pages like an iPhone, you scroll towards the direction you want to go
I only used it for a few hours, but over all i was very impressed. Knowing that this is essentially the first release, I look forward to future, bug-fixed versions.
Hope this was helpful to everybody
So so
I've had it running for two days now. Keep switching back and forth. Certainly the smoothest/easiest touch interface that I have used. Can't wait to see where it goes.
excellent bit of kit
a wee bit to go on trials before i do a complete switch to it
but
i am sure in a few months it will be a blinder
ive tried and really like it! before this i was using the whoneedsaniphone interface, which I recommend checking out. but, that was simply a quick launch program. im keeping the pointui program as i have not had any problems except the in call volume which i just make sure i adjust after my daily soft reset. no biggie. great job on the program and now they just need a way to change the background!
They just released an update for it, fixed a few glitches, and also posted instructions on how to customize (customise as they put it... Aussies) some of the short cuts; like Media Player or Email account.
i installed and quickly uninstalled. it's just not flexible enough for me yet. i'll certainly keep an eye on development though and give it a try again in the future.
I installed and used it for some hours. It's a very nice interface but lacks of some things:
No customization of colors or Background
Cannot select the default screen (clock, calendar, tasks,) it always starts with the ugly clock
The call list don't work with international numbers (eg. +541234567). it omitts the +
to update the weather inforation expects an mobile data connection (eg- GPRS), with WLAN enabled, I cannot update the weather
Cannot really close running apps, like with X-Button
this will be a great UI. needs some improvement for everyday use.
Been using it for a few days now, works very well.
Theres obviously a way to go with it, but im happy to use it for everyday right now. Coreplayer is set for the music icon.
Aslong as the UI continues to be a quick responsive beast as it is now i see nothing but great things for it. Next MAJOR update should be a goody!
it's sick...
lets examine this statement:
A. It's smooth as F*** and makes the iphone interface kinda scared.
B. It's sick... as in, *cough*cough* "I should stay home from school today, and maybe tomorrow or the next update, it will be ready to take some lunch money.
Did I mention it's smooth, lectric smooth...
Keeps connecting to update automatically and not on demand which is a turn off for me
i have to say i like it, i think they released a working version on the 1st of january for the publicity side of it.
And no one can really moan since these guys are giving it to us for free.
It will only get better as theyve stated when they have the version for wm5 & 6 ironed out, they will be looking for improve and then relase a version for wm2003, an outdated system.
Things will only get better as they are actively listening to what the user wants, so give them your feedback!
it's absolutely worth a try.
It's a brilliant piece of software.
i installed the first version, and the updates.
I actually installed in when i flashed a new ROm, and built my UI around it.
The interfaces is smooth and fast.
BUT- it definitely has small bugs to be worked out. I'm not presently running it anymore (but didn't uninstall it...) but actively watching to see how it goes, because it's the first really new idea along these lines that is more than just a Today screen.
installed and uninstalled on 2 devices, there are bugs in it that they will address, its not configurable which is a big turn off and you have a choice of background and colour, as long as you choose BLUE.
Another thing about these wonderful interfaces is they need to you smear your screen with greasy fingerprints to use them (unless you use your stylus then of course it makes them sort of pointless) this also goes for the touchflow craze thats going on.. why add extra wear and tear on the screen when its not needed...?? oh and of course when this specific screen was not built and tested for repetative finger use. MTBF reduced, New Screens on order I hope
its all about ease of use, if your screen gets dirty, get a cloth out and wipe accordingly.
it s some kind of funny toy to play with, surely worth a try
worth to keep on every day use? not really, imo
especially because the tytn/hermes was not meant for finger use. i think the only real finger use supporting device is the iphone (or the ipod touch)
has anyone who has used this also tried the cube? Is this any different than that? Is it smoother? Can you do everything in the Pointui as you would without it?
As I've noticed that most (if not all) Android phones I've ever tried have been suffering from the "non-fluid" issue. The homescreen and apps experience might be fast but they're not fluid like ones found on iOS or Windows Phone and I'm guessing that it's because previous Android phones doesn't have the 2D gpu acceleration. ICS has added the feature and I'd like to ask those owner out there if the experience is now as fluid as iOS or WP7? watching video review doesnt help because videos are formatted into 30fps. Even GS2 doesn't appear to be fluid (aka I dont think it's running at 60fps)
The home screen and app launcher are very fluid if you have a static wallpaper. With a live wallpaper there is considerable slow down. Some wallpapers are less CPU intensive than others though.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Android's fluidity is actually due to more than just Hardware acceleration. Most Gingerbread phones come out of the box very quick (Nexus S) and really glide without any apps installed. Hardware [was] acceleration is a big problem, as you were throwing efficiency out the window in order to run on everything. Now with it HW Acceleration, the slickness of the OS has multiplied exponentially giving you an experience on par with iOS (Joshua Topolsky, The Verge)
Now, here comes the real problem, apps. Android apps have the most freedom in the developer sense, and are also the most lax on what is allowed in the market. While iOS dev kit requires a stringent agreement and agreement to an app review process before getting your license, Google's Android Market is nothing like that. If you can pony up $25 (a requirement only recently), you can publish whatever the hell you have made, no matter how ugly, useless, or inefficient it is. Google's toolbox for Devs is great, even greater in terms of options in app making, but enforces no standards or required templates. This is why iOS apps all have the same look and feel while Android's app range from great to complete ****. This makes a lot of sense though as Android started late in the game, so they needed to bring up the app numbers, no matter how many were ugly soundboards or battery hog games.
With ICS, Google is taking a step in the right direction by offering the HOLO hook for developers, which will allow apps to be "prettied up" for ICS instantly. Also, more efficient protocols have been added to keep battery life and smoothness up, such as a revised Garbage Collector (actually, I think they removed it entirely) and allowed apps to share information with each other. The Garbage Collection is what make your phone lag, as it is recycling the unused code on the apps you're running in the background. The new location hook allows apps to now constantly turn on your GPS to pull your location, as they can simply request it from other apps if they don't need the most up-to-date info or if you just recently used your location on another app. The OS should be as fast as any other on the stock level, and as soon as the Apps become ICS friendly and more efficient, Android will truly have people falling in love with it
Chrono_Tata said:
With a live wallpaper there is considerable slow down. Some wallpapers are less CPU intensive than others though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is particularly annoying. My last Android (Nexus One) was pretty smooth on almost all live wallpapers - certainly on the stock ones. The Galaxy Nexus lags like hell (slow juttery screen swiping) on all of them except one of them. Very, very disappointing and hope it gets fixed somehow.
Live Wallpaper
Thank you everyone, I'm now ordering one for myself and hopefully there won't be a let down on the UI experience!
rikbrown said:
This is particularly annoying. My last Android (Nexus One) was pretty smooth on almost all live wallpapers - certainly on the stock ones. The Galaxy Nexus lags like hell (slow juttery screen swiping) on all of them except one of them. Very, very disappointing and hope it gets fixed somehow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange, I owned Nexus One too and live wallpaper (stock one) isn't running at acceptable frame rate at all....it's laggy and sluggish (i changed from iPhone 3G and that might explain why)
May be you can try changing live wallpaper on Galaxy Nexus cuz the one u'r using might not be that optimized?
PS. One more question, how u guys find the battery life?
dnlsmy said:
Also, more efficient protocols have been added to keep battery life and smoothness up, such as a revised Garbage Collector (actually, I think they removed it entirely) and allowed apps to share information with each other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, they most certainly did not remove the garbage collector but they implemented a more modern algoritm for it and it now makes sure to run on a different CPU core as to not take CPU cycles from the app. A garbage collector is part of the Java platform and could never just be removed since that would result in constant memory leaks that would result in a crash as soon as you filled up all the memory.
When will the stuttering laggy UI experience be addressed?
I'm tired of all the mis-information. There's a pattern: Google is about to release a new handset, they don't show the handset scrolling in any of their ads, or if they do, it's super-imposed. A handful of 'mainstream' bloggers praise the handset calling it quick and responsive and lag free. You buy into it, buy the handset, and the basic UI is anything but CONSISTENTLY fluid and responsive.
I stupidly bought the Galaxy Nexus, really wish I hadn't. Here's just one example of the issue: I have an SMS thread with a mere 27 SMS messages between a friend and myself. When I scroll the up or down the thread, it's embarrassingly choppy (stuttery - don't know what word to use for it). It's extremely unpleasant, and completely ruins the end-user experience.
What annoys me is that Romain Guy closed Android Issue 6914, claiming that it was implemented in ICS. Now ICS is here, and the Android phone is still plagued with the stutters and non-fluidness Android is renowned for. Thankfully someone else has opened a new issue (Android Issue 20278), and hopefully this time Google will FULLY address the issue.
Understandably, it annoys some people more than others. Any user who has experienced a mobile UI that is buttery smooth and fluid (free from 'jitters' and 'stutters'), and where a page or menu sticks to your finger like a magnet when you scroll, would not be able to put up with what Samsung and Google have produced. It's what the kids today would call an 'epic fail'.
---------- Post added at 10:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 PM ----------
I'm tired of all the mis-information. There's a pattern: Google around about to release a new handset, they don't show the handset scrolling in any of their ads, or if they do, it's super-imposed. A handful of 'mainstream' bloggers praise the handset calling it quick and responsive and lag free. You buy into it, buy the handset, and the basic UI is anything but CONSISTENTLY fluid and responsive.
I stupidly bought the Galaxy Nexus, really wish I hadn't. Here's just one example of the issue: I have an SMS thread with a mere 27 SMS messages between a friend and myself. When I scroll the up or down the thread, it's embarrassingly choppy (stuttery - don't know what word to use for it). It's extremely unpleasant, and completely ruins the end-user experience.
Understandably, it annoys some people more than others. Any user who has experienced a mobile UI that is buttery smooth and fluid (free from 'jitters' and 'stutters'), and where a page or menu sticks to your finger like a magnet when you scroll, would not be able to put up with what Samsung and Google have produced. It's what the kids today would call an 'epic fail'.
scott.deagan said:
I'm tired of all the mis-information. There's a pattern: Google is about to release a new handset, they don't show the handset scrolling in any of their ads, or if they do, it's super-imposed. A handful of 'mainstream' bloggers praise the handset calling it quick and responsive and lag free. You buy into it, buy the handset, and the basic UI is anything but CONSISTENTLY fluid and responsive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find this to be untrue, the experience for me has been really good so far. Not perfect but its close. They have come a long way, it'll only get better.
And if you think any of the ads including apple are using true device operation in their advertising you are fooling yourself.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Can one of you guys post some video footage of said lag? I just ordered a Galaxy Nexus and can still cancel it. Thanks!
Yea there is an iPhone YouTube video performing the exact same steps they show in the commercials and it takes a LOT longer in real life.
Oh well.
G2x - 2.3.7 CM7
Transformer - 3.2 Revolver OC/UV
serialtoon said:
Can one of you guys post some video footage of said lag? I just ordered a Galaxy Nexus and can still cancel it. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not something worth canceling your order for, it's barely noticeable.
Nexcellent said:
Not something worth canceling your order for, it's barely noticeable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its the main reason i left Android. Hoping that one day they will use GPU rendering to assist with UI fluidity. If that is present, its enough for me to cancel an order. Ive been a long time Android enthusiast, but the UI sloppiness is what has kept me from keeping an Android phone for too long.
As a fellow UI lag hater I can tell you it's still there in some places. The problem is, although the base of ICS supports and uses GPU acceleration, 3rd party apps dont yet, and even if you "force" it in the developer settings, it isn't compatible with some apps, and will sometimes cause crashes.
That said, it is ages ahead of Gingerbread, but still not as smooth and fluid as iOS and WP7; not even the GPU accelerated parts.
ICS is a big improvement over gingerbread in terms of fluidity.. but it's not on the same level as iOS and WP 7 yet.
UI lag is one of the things I always hated about Android.. and I feel better about ICS than previous versions.. but they still need to improve it if they want to be on the same level as Apple and Microsoft.
FWIW, I bought the phone having read in several reviews that the phone still suffered (albeit much less) from the usual android-lag. It now compares favorably to iOS and the windows mobile platform, just doesn't match or pass them in fluidity and smoothness.
In my experience, many aspects of the UI are "buttery-smooth" and whatever else reviewers usually say. However, there are still a good amount of moments where lag and hangups are present. The difference is, I'm ok with that. I've accepted the phone for it's plusses, despite it's minuses.
To be clear though, it does lag and hang from time to time. Rebooting once a day helps and I believe forcing GPU rendering under developer settings generally helps.
Sent from my GNex
Dont forget that Andoid does much more in the background and foreground compare to iOS or WP7.
Think multitasking, customization, widgets, etc.
It is understandable Android cannot be as smooth as those iOS and WP7.
And for me, it is more than good enough. I wont ditch Android because it might lag a little bit, because the advantages are much more valuable.
---------- Post added at 11:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 AM ----------
Here, this just in ... a thorough explanation from Google Developer about Android graphics:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/105051985738280261832/posts/2FXDCz8x93s
I copied the text here:
How about some Android graphics true facts?
I get tired of seeing so much misinformation posted and repeated all over the place about how graphics rendering works on Android. Here is some truth:
• Android has always used some hardware accelerated drawing. Since before 1.0 all window compositing to the display has been done with hardware.
• This means that many of the animations you see have always been hardware accelerated: menus being shown, sliding the notification shade, transitions between activities, pop-ups and dialogs showing and hiding, etc.
• Android did historically use software to render the contents of each window. For example in a UI like http://www.simplemobilereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2-home-menu.png there are four windows: the status bar, the wallpaper, the launcher on top of the wallpaper, and the menu. If one of the windows updates its contents, such as highlighting a menu item, then (prior to 3.0) software is used to draw the new contents of that window; however none of the other windows are redrawn at all, and the re-composition of the windows is done in hardware. Likewise, any movement of the windows such as the menu going up and down is all hardware rendering.
• Looking at drawing inside of a window, you don’t necessarily need to do this in hardware to achieve full 60fps rendering. This depends very much on the number of pixels in your display and the speed of your CPU. For example, Nexus S has no trouble doing 60fps rendering of all the normal stuff you see in the Android UI like scrolling lists on its 800x480 screen. The original Droid however struggled with a similar screen resolution.
• "Full" hardware accelerated drawing within a window was added in Android 3.0. The implementation in Android 4.0 is not any more full than in 3.0. Starting with 3.0, if you set the flag in your app saying that hardware accelerated drawing is allowed, then all drawing to the application’s windows will be done with the GPU. The main change in this regard in Android 4.0 is that now apps that are explicitly targeting 4.0 or higher will have acceleration enabled by default rather than having to put android:handwareAccelerated="true" in their manifest. (And the reason this isn’t just turned on for all existing applications is that some types of drawing operations can’t be supported well in hardware and it also impacts the behavior when an application asks to have a part of its UI updated. Forcing hardware accelerated drawing upon existing apps will break a significant number of them, from subtly to significantly.)
• Hardware accelerated drawing is not all full of win. For example on the PVR drivers of devices like the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, simply starting to use OpenGL in a process eats about 8MB of RAM. Given that our process overhead is about 2MB, this is pretty huge. That RAM takes away from other things, such as the number of background processes that can be kept running, potentially slowing down things like app switching.
• Because of the overhead of OpenGL, one may very well not want to use it for drawing. For example some of the work we are doing to make Android 4.0 run well on the Nexus S has involved turning off hardware accelerated drawing in parts of the UI so we don’t lose 8MB of RAM in the system process, another 8MB in the phone process, another 8MB in the system UI process, etc. Trust me, you won’t notice -- there is just no benefit on that device in using OpenGL to draw something like the status bar, even with fancy animations going on in there.
• Hardware accelerated drawing is not a magical silver bullet to butter-smooth UI. There are many different efforts that have been going on towards this, such as improved scheduling of foreground vs. background threads in 1.6, rewriting the input system in 2.3, strict mode, concurrent garbage collection, loaders, etc. If you want to achieve 60fps, you have 20 milliseconds to handle each frame. This is not a lot of time. Just touching the flash storage system in the thread that is running the UI can in some cases introduce a delay that puts you out of that timing window, especially if you are writing to storage.
• A recent example of the kinds of interesting things that impact UI smoothness: we noticed that ICS on Nexus S was actually less smooth when scrolling through lists than it was on Gingerbread. It turned out that the reason for this was due to subtle changes in timing, so that sometimes in ICS as the app was retrieving touch events and drawing the screen, it would go to get the next event slightly before it was ready, causing it to visibly miss a frame while tracking the finger even though it was drawing the screen at a solid 60fps.
• When people have historically compared web browser scrolling between Android and iOS, most of the differences they are seeing are not due to hardware accelerated drawing. Originally Android went a different route for its web page rendering and made different compromises: the web page is turned in to a display list, which is continually rendered to the screen, instead of using tiles. This has the benefit that scrolling and zooming never have artifacts of tiles that haven’t yet been drawn. Its downside is that as the graphics on the web page get more complicated to draw the frame rate goes down. As of Android 3.0, the browser now uses tiles, so it can maintain a consistent frame rate as you scroll or zoom, with the negative of having artifacts when newly needed tiles can’t be rendered quickly enough. The tiles themselves are rendered in software, which I believe is the case for iOS as well. (And this tile-based approach could be used prior to 3.0 without hardware accelerated drawing; as mentioned previously, the Nexus S CPU can easily draw the tiles to the window at 60fps.)
• Hardware accleration does not magically make drawing performance problems disappear. There is still a limit to how much the GPU can do. A recent interesting example of this is tablets built with Tegra 2 -- that GPU can touch every pixel of a 1024x800 screen about 2.5 times at 60fps. Now consider the Android 3.0 tablet home screen where you are switching to the all apps list: you need to draw the background (1x all pixels), then the layer of shortcuts and widgets (let’s be nice and say this is .5x all pixels), then the black background of all apps (1x all pixels), and the icons and labels of all apps (.5x all pixels). We’ve already blown our per-pixel budget, and we haven’t even composited the separate windows to the final display yet. To get 60fps animation, Android 3.0 and later use a number of tricks. A big one is that it tries to put all windows into overlays instead of having to copy them to the framebuffer with the GPU. In the case here even with that we are still over-budget, but we have another trick: because the wallpaper on Android is in a separate window, we can make this window larger than the screen to hold the entire bitmap. Now, as you scroll, the movement of the background doesn’t require any drawing, just moving its window... and because this window is in an overlay, it doesn’t even need to be composited to the screen with the GPU.
• As device screen resolution goes up, achieving a 60fps UI is closely related to GPU speed and especially the GPU’s memory bus bandwidth. In fact, if you want to get an idea of the performance of a piece of hardware, always pay close attention to the memory bus bandwidth. There are plenty of times where the CPU (especially with those wonderful NEON instructions) can go a lot faster than the memory bus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you saying iOS has no stutter lag..
My iPad stutters all the time. Its no where close to smooth!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
There was some suggestion in this thread that any acceleration is currently software based only, and that the hardware acceleration has yet to be enabled.
I don't know how accurate that is, and there doesn't seem to be a definite answer in that thread.
Perhaps in the 4.1 update?
Evostance said:
you saying iOS has no stutter lag..
My iPad stutters all the time. Its no where close to smooth!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Dear Google, dear Android OEM`s,
This is an open letter addressed directly to your development teams, which I hope will sooner or later arrive at the right places. I`m an avid Android user and fan since quite a while and was also an active part of the XDA development community (mainly Milestone, Desire HD). I really appreciate what you have done with the Android OS, especially now with the latest and greatest – ICS. Nevertheless with all the beauty and customization of Android, there is still a lot of room to improve, especially when it comes to user configurable customization. Following I want to illustrate, where I strongly believe, based on my experience in many threads here at XDA or my home forum, where there is a lot of room to improve.
@ GOOGLE - Users like new features, but not all users are equal.
Whether it`s widgets, shortcuts to settings or toggles, everyone has different preferences. So please add user selectable features to next ROM generations, that can be activated by users (say customers). If you follow XDA carefully, you will recognize some sort of consensus, which kind of customizations people would like to have in future stock ROM`s. The following features should all be user configurable to reflect the different tastes and user patterns. I will only post the Top features, but these would already add a lot and allow users to customize their experience.
1. Battery icon option with 1% steps in statusbar
2. Quick toggles to settings in statusbar
3. Custom shortcuts for Lock Screen
4. Reboot option in Power Menu
5. Position of clock in status bar
6. Customize Auto Brightness
7. T9 dialer
8. “Unread only” email tabs
9. Home Screen animation
10. Widget color and transparency
11. Color Themes (see Windows Phone)
@ OEM`s - Some users like custom skins, other`s don’t
We all know that OEM´s need to differentiate their products by hardware and user experience, BUT…. There are many consumers who fall in love with a certain phone, but don`t buy it, since it is covered by a custom UI (say Sense or TouchWiz), which some not only don`t like, it also adds huge delays to updates and in some cases completely prevents these. Please understand that users love choices and also having the latest version of Android on their phones. Also note that with the arrival of ICS, for most users suddenly stock Android delivers a better visual experience, then current custom UI`s.
1. Present your custom UI as add-ons, which allow the user to choose in settings, whether he really wants to use it.
2. You can break down your custom UI in Theme and features. That way the user can both select the visual aspects and the features he needs.
3. If you allow this freedom, you will sell more products and the result is win-win
Bottom line: If both Google and OEM`s understand and respect, we all have different preferences and like to have a choice, you will have even more loyal followers.
@ Community – it will be interesting to hear your opinion. Please don`t discuss details like more features you would like to see, it`s way more interesting whether you agree with the general approach or whether you are happy as it is.
..goodluck
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Instead of wasting time trying to convince google or samsung just install a custom rom which has many of these features. Give your support and donations to the awesome developers who do this on their own time and are always open to your suggestions.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
The problem with such 'requests' is that Google is probably looking at a much bigger picture than us. Some people actually get turned off by too many customization options.
..and not everyone likes them. For example, I think percent in the battery is stupid and annoying.
Your effort in writing appears to be good but sadly I think your post is going to be unnoticed by the people you addressed it to. Good luck.
Sent from my Gummy Nexus
+ 1 on all aspects and +11 on T9 dialer. Coming from HTC Desire I really miss this smart dialing feat.
adrynalyne said:
For example, I think percent in the battery is stupid and annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? I keep thinking about this too.
On the one hand, it's useful if you want to test battery against usage patterns etc. You also get better estimates of when you'll run out of charge.
On the other hand, it's extra information you have to remember and could easily do without, it also gives you a habit of wasting time by looking at it repeatedly and remembering that information. I never have to worry about running out of charge before I get home so it's kind of pointless.
I see the battery percentage every time I unlock my device. Percentages on a battery image are cluttered, and doesn't increase my battery life. Instead, I watch myself staring at them. I can't judge my battery life off of them, because drain is not linear most of the time. I just have a personal distaste for them.
he_stheone64 said:
1. Battery icon option with 1% steps in statusbar
2. Quick toggles to settings in statusbar
3. Custom shortcuts for Lock Screen
4. Reboot option in Power Menu
5. Position of clock in status bar
7. T9 dialer
8. “Unread only” email tabs
9. Home Screen animation
11. Color Themes (see Windows Phone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would defeat the purpose of Android would it not? Google does not want to do all of this, because that's what the developers are for. They make stock android with some enhancements they think will push android to the next level and let all the devs make stuff for us to use to customize our phone.
If i want these features i download apps.
I've always agreed with this, from day one. However, OEMS pump out Android phones more than they do Windows phones for one simple reason, because they can modify Android and they are not bound to upgrade it. Yes, there is that whole 18-month window thing, but it takes phones sometimes 18-months just to get one update. Windows on the other hand requires phones to be built to handle long-term updates, as does Apple. Personally, Google needs to really force manufactures to come closers to upstream AOSP. There's really no need for locked bootloaders, or closed-source skins such as Sense.
Either way, good luck.
How is that working out for windows phones?
Think their model is working for them? So far, wp7 has been an afterthought in most stores. Most of them are EOL'ed before they see much of updates. A long update cycle is worthless without...updates.
Droid Razr. Three months later Droid Razr Maxx.
Atrix. Half a year Later Atrix 2.
Droid 2. About 11 months later Droid 3.
Android phones really are not a shining example of longevity either. The general philosophy of the OEM's has been to release new phones, not upgrade existing ones.
Notice a pattern there?
Motorola.
They are idiots.
Besides, you missed some.
droid 2 > droid 2 global > droid 3 > droid 4
razr > razr maxx > razr dev edition
atrix, atrix 2
bionic
photon
Did I miss any big ones?
he_stheone64 said:
1. Battery icon option with 1% steps in statusbar
2. Quick toggles to settings in statusbar
3. Custom shortcuts for Lock Screen
4. Reboot option in Power Menu
5. Position of clock in status bar
6. Customize Auto Brightness
7. T9 dialer
8. “Unread only” email tabs
9. Home Screen animation
10. Widget color and transparency
11. Color Themes (see Windows Phone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. i don't wanna see 1% battery icon, because it is annoying. if you want it, install ROM.
2. quick toggles is great thing. i don't understand why galaxy nexus doesn't have it since the manufacturer of gnexus is samsumg?!? all samung devices has quick toggles but gnexus. though, it is not really a big problem. there is GREAT app from market called Notification Toggle and it's even better then stock samsung's quick toggles.
3. i do not care. i guess it is up for developers, not for google.
4. well, this could be really usefull.
7. not bad idea
so in fact i don't really wanna change anything.. well maybe add a reboot or t9 dialer...
I believe his original point that was overlooked by nearly everyone in the thread was "user customizable," i.e. the ability to change or toggle most of the features. Of course many of us might not wanna see battery percentage, but have we not seen just about every feature in our ROMs have the ability to be toggled on/off or easily customized from a settings menu? Remove the need for all fifty Nexus devs to put essentially the same basic features in their ROMs that everyone wants to see, allowing them to focus on further development.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
Nah, I didn't miss it. One of my points was that too much customization options scares some people away. You can increase, and hinder sales in such cases.
Personally, more customization options on phones is a must. Everyone bangs on about android being really customizable, but im already bored with the limited options.
Custom roms arent the answer because none of them work properly and have things missing. Even stuff like miui, oxygen and all the roms on Htc Desire dont work 100 percent and ive always had to return to stock.
They need to start offering more STOCK customization options that work if android is going to continue to flourish.
Ive yet to find a phone or rom i can customise to my tastes that works perfectly, still on hunt for perfect phone and i doubt i will ever see it.
Good luck.
my perfect os is;
- stock android, but if coming from e.g HTC, when setting up the phone give me a choice whether to have sense or stock.
-unlocked boot loader
- let me change the colour scheme. Amoled screens last longer on darker colours so let me gave dark scheme. LCD I don't care.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
biffsmash said:
Custom roms arent the answer because none of them work properly and have things missing. Even stuff like miui, oxygen and all the roms on Htc Desire dont work 100 percent and ive always had to return to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has more or less been my experience too. Plus, you get the options the dev chose. Some you like and some you don't.
biffsmash said:
They need to start offering more STOCK customization options that work if android is going to continue to flourish.
Ive yet to find a phone or rom i can customise to my tastes that works perfectly, still on hunt for perfect phone and i doubt i will ever see it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably won't. The reason being that the majority of people don't even know those options could exist. What most people really want (need even) is simplicity. Put a smartphone in your average person's hands and they are overwhelmed. Again, I am talking about the majority which isn't XDA users. XDA is the 1% of smartphone users!
What Google product managers should consider is a tiered option system. Basic simple options for the masses and then an expert user set of options buried a layer deeper for the people like us who really want it a specific way. However, these additional options cost a lot of effort to develop and regression test. That cost needs to be weighed against the perceived benefit.
Thx for your feedback so far, but it's important to note, that this is about giving users the choice. So if you don't like percentage battery, just don't choose it. I'm also aware I can flash Custom ROMS for this and I probably flashed more then most here, but don't forget that 90% of Android users don't even root their devices. So it would be a great advantage, if they get this flexibility out of the box.
Send from my Galaxy Nexus
So now I am running the TSM UltimateKangBang made possible by Nitsuj17 and the deluge of other people whose work is ingrained into the 0's and 1's that is currently making my phone's MSM8255 chip brim with life! Previously I ran the stuff from the good people behind TeamKang and their AOKP - essentially Android 4.0 as Google envisioned it with a little spice and Unicorn Porn! (Trust me, there is an app called that on AOKP, but it isn't what you may think it is ) Since this is a review, expect a fair share of biased opinion being present and categorical truths about Sense4a and the AOSP design! You've been warned.
I am not all in for the Spartan and frankly "cold" and unfriendly feel that Google went for on the ICS.. It seems too clinical, too sterile. Nevertheless, I do like it over previous iterations and I love the fact that there seems to be a level of consistency in the UI.
On the other hand, I love the feel of Sense4. It is cheerful and friendly-looking AND at the same time looks smart and professional, a feeling that I didn't get during my brief experience with a Honeycomb Samsung Tablet. On the flip side, the Sense4 apps seem to lack the same ease of use and simplicity that Google's vanilla version has. For instance, even though it has been sometime since I used the Email app on AOKP, I know exactly where each button is and how to go about the app. The Email app on Sense4, not so much.
The Good:
Let us get down to it. Things that are nice about Sense4 are the animations. Many are subtle, but the best is the most conspicuous animation of them all - the screen unlock. The little metallic ring zooms out of the screen in a magnificent way. Also, if you randomly touch the lock screen, the ring jitters with a forceful smash on the ground-like effect, causing ripples to emanate from it. I say, cool
The whole ensemble of animations makes the phone super smooth and slick. I had issues with animations and screen transitions on AOKP, on a regular basis. But on this ROM, I have yet to experience one, and I have installed ALL my apps to the point where I ran out of internal space to install apps! And still, the OS is smooth. At one point, I was contemplating the possibility of buying a new phone as my DInc2 with AOKP was not smooth enough, leading me to believe that it must be the poor hardware. Well, with Nit's Sense4a ROM, I am happy to note that that is simply NOT the case. Well, for once I am pleased with the outcome of a skin made by a manufacturer. It means a lot when a not-so-average Android phone user, like me, says "Well, HTC, your skin is *not* the worst!"
HTC also did a pretty good job with the lockscreen. The missed calls, messages, calendar events, etc. appear prominently on screen. I like the alarm and timer events too. And then to activate any app or action icon, you need to drop it into the ring. Neato! A constant issue I had with AOKP and I believe CM9 was that after locking the device with the power button, when I turn on the screen with the power button, the phone momentarily displays the app/homescreen I was viewing before realizing that the phone is actually "locked" and then showing the lockscreen. No matter what setting I changed, this issue didn't go. Thankfully, however, this is not a problem on the Sense4's lockscreen which does what it should and not reveal my secrets unauthorized, even for a moment!
The widgets are nice as well. I've been dying to find a Calendar widget that works as well as the one on Sense, and now I have it. The email, music and weather widgets are great too. However, I am a bit disappointed that the homescreen is a 4x4 grid. That is a waste of screen real estate, but unfortunately I was unable to use HTC widgets on a third party launcher (bummer). I also do not like Google's decision OR HTC's to make the app drawer have horizontal pagination. That is a major PITA and slow. A vertical scroll is so much faster to make you reach the last app... On the plus side, it has tabs for frequent and downloaded and you can sort apps alphabetically or date used or installed (I didn't figure that out).
The annoying:
However, it is not all rosy, even for rosie. My main gripe is with the design decisions that HTC made with their apps. Many of those decisions seem to add to the time needed to use the app and makes it cumbersome.
Let's start with Music. To go from Now Playing to the music on the phone, I need to press the back arrow (on the top) and choose "My phone". And then to flip through songs/albums/artists etc., I have to use a drop down menu. Meanwhile, Google Music lets you swipe the lists horizontally to change them. And it always seems to take a moment to load the song list or album list etc.
Next offender, the Email app. Its faults include needing to use a drop-down menu to choose folders that in turn brings up a list of folders to choose from. Google's email app does it better. Also, I need two button presses to go from an email to the next or previous compared to one button on Google's email app, though the AOSP Email app should have been made consistent with the Gmail app where you can swipe to the next or previous email . Nevertheless, it has the ability to show emails in threads, good support for Exchange email.
The phone app also hits a nerve. I believe Google's implementation is pretty much perfect and HTC's doesn't add anything new, excepting annoyances. All you get when you open the app is a dial pad and a list of names. I need to go to a menu to see call history and my phone book. Well, why not just add tabs like Google? The "People" app is basically what I am talking about. If you simply added a 4th tab in that app with the dial pad, that would be a perfect phone app. :disapprove:
Now the camera app is good except for one teeny problem (and I am nitpicking here) which is I need to go to settings to change the camera from back to front. But otherwise, that is well laid out. In fact it is better than Google's in terms of looks (I was always of the opinion that Google's ICS Camera app was made by someone who couldn't make small graphics and so chose plain colors to make the UI. Something I would've done) and also because you can either take a photo or video by just changing the button you press unlike in AOSP where you need to go through some button presses before that happens.
At this juncture, I'd like to note that I <3 the Camera on TSM ROM! It works! 720p video and panorama mode and the many other modes (except slow motion capture, which recorded at normal pace)! And no tearing in Camera360 or other apps! There are still some glitches with the app and the framerate of the 720p doesn't seem smooth, but that is understandable given that we are working with leaks only! So you heard me folks! If you want a proper camera on ICS, this Sense4 ROM should do the trick...
Back to taking a swing at Sense4!
Now comes the notification panel. There are way too many icons on the top bar, especially when I listen to music. There are a total of 3 icons telling me I am listening to music: The headphone icon (thanks, but I jolly well know there are headphones attached to the phone, mainly because I put it there!), the beats audio icon (I believe this is a product placement decision. It is obvious that HTC is making a ton of money simply due to that software redundancy...) and of course the "play" icon of the music player. I also don't like that there are no notification toggles that can be hidden/shown as one pleases like on CM9 or AOKP (activating it in the tweaks causes it to show ONLY the toggles and no other notification when I have no notifications that can be cleared, even if I have notifications that CAN'T be cleared... )
Frankly I don't care for the "Beats audio". It may work better with some beats audio hardware in the phone and may be the actual earphones themselves, which I can't be bothered to buy. But I liked Google's MusicFX app... It gave me a nicer sound. At times I feel the beats audio sounds richer and more even, but the volume is low to appreciate the whole dynamic range... I heard louder sound at the same volume on AOKP.
So there you have it. My impressions on Sense4. The central theme behind the shortcomings of the HTC apps seems to be the usage of the drop down menu rather than using the more accessible tabs available on most default google apps.
But still, I must admit I like how the whole interface feels. I find myself unlocking my phone, swiping through screens and then simply relocking it as I have nothing to do! I can't take my eyes off of that gorgeous interface... As and when more tweaks become available, rectifying the shortcomings of Sense4, I'll be deeper in love with it.
One thing I have to say about the dialer is that full sense 4 is more like the sense 3.5 dialer where it has the people app included in the dialer. Sense 4a is more based on sense 2.1 where it didn't have this feature.
Sent from my KangBang'd out vivow
Thanks for the review. I was running MIUI weeklies from about July 2011 until a couple weeks ago. If we didn't get stuck with no new stable builds after 1.12.09, I probably would still be running it. But I wanted to go back and try something else anyway. MIUI customization is second to none, so maybe I'll go back to ICS MIUI as Nits does amazing work.
As of a week ago, I'm running TSM Sense 5.01 M. It runs incredibly smooth and stable on my phone, and everything works.
With the increasing stability of ICS roms, I'm thinking of trying one out. TSM UKB seems to be the ICS rom of choice for many. I appreciate your feedback, and may jump to UKB in the next couple weeks. One thing you didn't mention was battery life. How does it compare to stock, or other roms you've tried? I've been through the rom thread, but since you gave a thorough review of the rom, I thought I'd ask.
ttupa said:
Thanks for the review. I was running MIUI weeklies from about July 2011 until a couple weeks ago. If we didn't get stuck with no new stable builds after 1.12.09, I probably would still be running it. But I wanted to go back and try something else anyway. MIUI customization is second to none, so maybe I'll go back to ICS MIUI as Nits does amazing work.
As of a week ago, I'm running TSM Sense 5.01 M. It runs incredibly smooth and stable on my phone, and everything works.
With the increasing stability of ICS roms, I'm thinking of trying one out. TSM UKB seems to be the ICS rom of choice for many. I appreciate your feedback, and may jump to UKB in the next couple weeks. One thing you didn't mention was battery life. How does it compare to stock, or other roms you've tried? I've been through the rom thread, but since you gave a thorough review of the rom, I thought I'd ask.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh battery life is superb.. refer to this post I made: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27465676
That is the battery life with just stock battery!!!
Sent from my vivow using XDA
litetaker said:
Oh battery life is superb.. refer to this post I made: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27465676
That is the battery life with just stock battery!!!
Sent from my vivow using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent! This one sounds very promising, and I will probably make the leap when I've got some time.
Indeed battery is great. I took 29 photos today while at a job site and have been using my phone since 7:30am (now 6:33pm) and battery reads 58%. Skyraider hated when I took photos. It had great battery life, but camera would eat it up. UKB does not. Fantastic ROM. I do not foresee myself changing ROMs until I change phones at this point.
Sent from my Droid.
ttupa said:
Excellent! This one sounds very promising, and I will probably make the leap when I've got some time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery is great on ukb. I left for work this morning at 5am. I work in a poor reception building...the signal is constantly at 1 or no bars and switching between 3g and 1x. After 13 hours at work my battery is at 52%.
Sent from my vivow using XDA
I figured I'd ask here instead of the dev thread, but does the hot reboot option not work for anybody else on UKB 3.5?
Sent from my vivow using XDA
litetaker said:
So now I am running the TSM UltimateKangBang made possible by Nitsuj17 and the deluge of other people whose work is ingrained into the 0's and 1's that is currently making my phone's MSM8255 chip brim with life! Previously I ran the stuff from the good people behind TeamKang and their AOKP - essentially Android 4.0 as Google envisioned it with a little spice and Unicorn Porn! (Trust me, there is an app called that on AOKP, but it isn't what you may think it is ) Since this is a review, expect a fair share of biased opinion being present and categorical truths about Sense4a and the AOSP design! You've been warned.
I am not all in for the Spartan and frankly "cold" and unfriendly feel that Google went for on the ICS.. It seems too clinical, too sterile. Nevertheless, I do like it over previous iterations and I love the fact that there seems to be a level of consistency in the UI.
On the other hand, I love the feel of Sense4. It is cheerful and friendly-looking AND at the same time looks smart and professional, a feeling that I didn't get during my brief experience with a Honeycomb Samsung Tablet. On the flip side, the Sense4 apps seem to lack the same ease of use and simplicity that Google's vanilla version has. For instance, even though it has been sometime since I used the Email app on AOKP, I know exactly where each button is and how to go about the app. The Email app on Sense4, not so much.
The Good:
Let us get down to it. Things that are nice about Sense4 are the animations. Many are subtle, but the best is the most conspicuous animation of them all - the screen unlock. The little metallic ring zooms out of the screen in a magnificent way. Also, if you randomly touch the lock screen, the ring jitters with a forceful smash on the ground-like effect, causing ripples to emanate from it. I say, cool
The whole ensemble of animations makes the phone super smooth and slick. I had issues with animations and screen transitions on AOKP, on a regular basis. But on this ROM, I have yet to experience one, and I have installed ALL my apps to the point where I ran out of internal space to install apps! And still, the OS is smooth. At one point, I was contemplating the possibility of buying a new phone as my DInc2 with AOKP was not smooth enough, leading me to believe that it must be the poor hardware. Well, with Nit's Sense4a ROM, I am happy to note that that is simply NOT the case. Well, for once I am pleased with the outcome of a skin made by a manufacturer. It means a lot when a not-so-average Android phone user, like me, says "Well, HTC, your skin is *not* the worst!"
HTC also did a pretty good job with the lockscreen. The missed calls, messages, calendar events, etc. appear prominently on screen. I like the alarm and timer events too. And then to activate any app or action icon, you need to drop it into the ring. Neato! A constant issue I had with AOKP and I believe CM9 was that after locking the device with the power button, when I turn on the screen with the power button, the phone momentarily displays the app/homescreen I was viewing before realizing that the phone is actually "locked" and then showing the lockscreen. No matter what setting I changed, this issue didn't go. Thankfully, however, this is not a problem on the Sense4's lockscreen which does what it should and not reveal my secrets unauthorized, even for a moment!
The widgets are nice as well. I've been dying to find a Calendar widget that works as well as the one on Sense, and now I have it. The email, music and weather widgets are great too. However, I am a bit disappointed that the homescreen is a 4x4 grid. That is a waste of screen real estate, but unfortunately I was unable to use HTC widgets on a third party launcher (bummer). I also do not like Google's decision OR HTC's to make the app drawer have horizontal pagination. That is a major PITA and slow. A vertical scroll is so much faster to make you reach the last app... On the plus side, it has tabs for frequent and downloaded and you can sort apps alphabetically or date used or installed (I didn't figure that out).
The annoying:
However, it is not all rosy, even for rosie. My main gripe is with the design decisions that HTC made with their apps. Many of those decisions seem to add to the time needed to use the app and makes it cumbersome.
Let's start with Music. To go from Now Playing to the music on the phone, I need to press the back arrow (on the top) and choose "My phone". And then to flip through songs/albums/artists etc., I have to use a drop down menu. Meanwhile, Google Music lets you swipe the lists horizontally to change them. And it always seems to take a moment to load the song list or album list etc.
Next offender, the Email app. Its faults include needing to use a drop-down menu to choose folders that in turn brings up a list of folders to choose from. Google's email app does it better. Also, I need two button presses to go from an email to the next or previous compared to one button on Google's email app, though the AOSP Email app should have been made consistent with the Gmail app where you can swipe to the next or previous email . Nevertheless, it has the ability to show emails in threads, good support for Exchange email.
The phone app also hits a nerve. I believe Google's implementation is pretty much perfect and HTC's doesn't add anything new, excepting annoyances. All you get when you open the app is a dial pad and a list of names. I need to go to a menu to see call history and my phone book. Well, why not just add tabs like Google? The "People" app is basically what I am talking about. If you simply added a 4th tab in that app with the dial pad, that would be a perfect phone app. :disapprove:
Now the camera app is good except for one teeny problem (and I am nitpicking here) which is I need to go to settings to change the camera from back to front. But otherwise, that is well laid out. In fact it is better than Google's in terms of looks (I was always of the opinion that Google's ICS Camera app was made by someone who couldn't make small graphics and so chose plain colors to make the UI. Something I would've done) and also because you can either take a photo or video by just changing the button you press unlike in AOSP where you need to go through some button presses before that happens.
At this juncture, I'd like to note that I <3 the Camera on TSM ROM! It works! 720p video and panorama mode and the many other modes (except slow motion capture, which recorded at normal pace)! And no tearing in Camera360 or other apps! There are still some glitches with the app and the framerate of the 720p doesn't seem smooth, but that is understandable given that we are working with leaks only! So you heard me folks! If you want a proper camera on ICS, this Sense4 ROM should do the trick...
Back to taking a swing at Sense4!
Now comes the notification panel. There are way too many icons on the top bar, especially when I listen to music. There are a total of 3 icons telling me I am listening to music: The headphone icon (thanks, but I jolly well know there are headphones attached to the phone, mainly because I put it there!), the beats audio icon (I believe this is a product placement decision. It is obvious that HTC is making a ton of money simply due to that software redundancy...) and of course the "play" icon of the music player. I also don't like that there are no notification toggles that can be hidden/shown as one pleases like on CM9 or AOKP (activating it in the tweaks causes it to show ONLY the toggles and no other notification when I have no notifications that can be cleared, even if I have notifications that CAN'T be cleared... )
Frankly I don't care for the "Beats audio". It may work better with some beats audio hardware in the phone and may be the actual earphones themselves, which I can't be bothered to buy. But I liked Google's MusicFX app... It gave me a nicer sound. At times I feel the beats audio sounds richer and more even, but the volume is low to appreciate the whole dynamic range... I heard louder sound at the same volume on AOKP.
So there you have it. My impressions on Sense4. The central theme behind the shortcomings of the HTC apps seems to be the usage of the drop down menu rather than using the more accessible tabs available on most default google apps.
But still, I must admit I like how the whole interface feels. I find myself unlocking my phone, swiping through screens and then simply relocking it as I have nothing to do! I can't take my eyes off of that gorgeous interface... As and when more tweaks become available, rectifying the shortcomings of Sense4, I'll be deeper in love with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This rom really is awesome. Nits has given a gift to the dinc2 community and I still can't help but feel satisfied with this rom (havent switched roms after I used ukb 3.5!!!
But you have an error. The droid incredible 2 has an MSM8655 chip (same as the HTC Thunderbolt)
Also, my only gripe with the rom is the music when you're using headphones, earphones, etc. The volume goes to its max when you raise or lower the volume once. Raise and lower it again and the volume becomes either lower or a little quieter. That's pretty much it. Doesn't bother me too much, but it can get tiring at times. Doesn't change how much I enjoy using this rom as my DD. I'd give this rom a 10/10 for its awesomeness.
AJGO23 said:
I figured I'd ask here instead of the dev thread, but does the hot reboot option not work for anybody else on UKB 3.5?
Sent from my vivow using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hot reboot doesn't work in the rom. Hope this helped.
Sent from my Galaxified ICS phone!!! Don't be hating bro!!!
david_hume said:
This rom really is awesome. Nits has given a gift to the dinc2 community and I still can't help but feel satisfied with this rom (havent switched roms after I used ukb 3.5!!!
But you have an error. The droid incredible 2 has an MSM8655 chip (same as the HTC Thunderbolt)
Also, my only gripe with the rom is the music when you're using headphones, earphones, etc. The volume goes to its max when you raise or lower the volume once. Raise and lower it again and the volume becomes either lower or a little quieter. That's pretty much it. Doesn't bother me too much, but it can get tiring at times. Doesn't change how much I enjoy using this rom as my DD. I'd give this rom a 10/10 for its awesomeness.
Hot reboot doesn't work in the rom. Hope this helped.
Sent from my Galaxified ICS phone!!! Don't be hating bro!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh, I thought that Droid Incredible S and 2 had same processors... Whoops!
litetaker said:
Huh, I thought that Droid Incredible S and 2 had same processors... Whoops!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, the s has a different processor cuz it's GSM only.
Sent from my KangBang'd out vivow
Is there someplace people can go to make requests for new Android features? (Someplace were developers might actually see it and perhaps implement the requests?)
I have had ideas for several features that I think would make my Android devices (I have owned about 6) far better...
- One of my ideas was the ability for more than one Bluetooth device (ie: wireless headphone/earphones) to be able to connect to a single Android device at the same time. I go running, hiking, etc... When I go alone, I often listen to music. It would be great if when I run with someone else, if they could listen to the music I am playing on my Android device at the same time I am.
- I have changed ROMs many times, but when I do, it is always a pain to have to setup (or recreate) my music playlists on the new ROM. Many (not all) Android music players seem to allow users to import music playlists that have been created on PCs or whatever. None of the music players or the Android OS itself seem to allow me to save a music playlist as a file (ie: export) that I can reload later, use on another device, or give to someone else.
- None of the Android ROMs I have come across seem to provide a (relatively easy) way to change the the the resolution (LCD density) so that I can make images and text larger or smaller on my display. This is something that is very easy to do (change a setting and hit save/apply) on every PC I have ever owned, but the few ROMs that seem to allow this seem to have a complex procedure for doing it.
- Ability to put Widgets in folders (on the desktop). I like widgets. I sometimes even like the UI of a widget better than the associated app. (Sometimes widgets provides a nice condensed view of the information/features, or provide simple capabilities like a switch to turn on/off a feature without launching menus and digging through them.) Unfortunately the Android OS (or the "Home" apps that currently exist) does not (do not) allow widgets to be put into a folder on the desktop. I would like this feature for many reasons. 1) The folder could limit the widget from consuming battery or system resources until the folder was opened. That way widgets would not use up my battery or CPU cycles until I opened the folder and looked at them.
- It would be great to have a "magnifying glass" (zoom feature) that I could use to make any specific area on the display larger (so that if I'm having trouble seeing something small on the display, I can magnify it large enough to see it).
I have more ideas, but those are just a few of the things I think would make Android devices better. Feel free to add your own suggestions to this list.
Pretty good ideas as far as magnifying just pinch to zoom in that specific area or double tap. I believe there are apps to backup a music playlist the bluetooth idea is actually kind of cool
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda app-developers app
mediawiz said:
Is there someplace people can go to make requests for new Android features? (Someplace were developers might actually see it and perhaps implement the requests?)
I have had ideas for several features that I think would make my Android devices (I have owned about 6) far better...
- One of my ideas was the ability for more than one Bluetooth device (ie: wireless headphone/earphones) to be able to connect to a single Android device at the same time. I go running, hiking, etc... When I go alone, I often listen to music. It would be great if when I run with someone else, if they could listen to the music I am playing on my Android device at the same time I am.
- I have changed ROMs many times, but when I do, it is always a pain to have to setup (or recreate) my music playlists on the new ROM. Many (not all) Android music players seem to allow users to import music playlists that have been created on PCs or whatever. None of the music players or the Android OS itself seem to allow me to save a music playlist as a file (ie: export) that I can reload later, use on another device, or give to someone else.
- None of the Android ROMs I have come across seem to provide a (relatively easy) way to change the the the resolution (LCD density) so that I can make images and text larger or smaller on my display. This is something that is very easy to do (change a setting and hit save/apply) on every PC I have ever owned, but the few ROMs that seem to allow this seem to have a complex procedure for doing it.
- Ability to put Widgets in folders (on the desktop). I like widgets. I sometimes even like the UI of a widget better than the associated app. (Sometimes widgets provides a nice condensed view of the information/features, or provide simple capabilities like a switch to turn on/off a feature without launching menus and digging through them.) Unfortunately the Android OS (or the "Home" apps that currently exist) does not (do not) allow widgets to be put into a folder on the desktop. I would like this feature for many reasons. 1) The folder could limit the widget from consuming battery or system resources until the folder was opened. That way widgets would not use up my battery or CPU cycles until I opened the folder and looked at them.
- It would be great to have a "magnifying glass" (zoom feature) that I could use to make any specific area on the display larger (so that if I'm having trouble seeing something small on the display, I can magnify it large enough to see it).
I have more ideas, but those are just a few of the things I think would make Android devices better. Feel free to add your own suggestions to this list.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great ideas. I use Google Music to set up my playlists with my music on my desktop at home. No matter if I'm at work, over a friends house, or switching roms on my phone, as soon as I download google music, all my playlists and music is right at my fingertips.
As far as resolution changing, I would suggest Carbon Rom as you can change your density in less than a minute, and that's mostly because you have to reboot twice, but there are no force close issues or any of that.
As far as features go, I would like to see recovery feature addition:
The thing I hate the most about switching roms is having to log in to 15 different accounts again. I wish TWRP would construct a feature that allows me to carry over my sign in information for standard apps (Facebook, Webex, GroupME, etc.) that most people use.
Or perhaps, a ROM that offered three different login slots that attempted to log into every app that I restore using those slots first and if login is unsuccessful, THEN prompt me to enter login information.
Just a suggestion that would allow the end-user to streamline setting up his/her rom. What do you guys think?
PS: I think the multi-bluetooth device feature would be sweet as well. I have a couple of computers at home that I use my Note to control, it would be nice to have the option to control any given device in an instance.
As for resolution, that's much more easier said than done, since some apps would have to be rebuilt from the ground, or at least would have to individually be written and flashed for said resolution.
However, if there are a few apps that you really want to change (like for me, G-Mail, Chrome, XDA, gReader, etc), you really need to check out XPosed, honestly, I don't know if I'll ever buy a device that doesn't support it or something similar. It features on the fly resolution/DPI adjustments per app, one of the greatest MODs ever brought to Android, hands down.
The Note2 does what I need it to once rooted. I would like to see better prices and data first. Why have the next great thing when you pay out the ass and don't have equal speed?
I would like to see Android updates that actually make me want them, like better codex, performance, UI functions, etc. Some updates don't really seem like updates, like when Ubuntu releases a new version but you do the same thing as before, and you are left wanting more.
daswahnsinn said:
The Note2 does what I need it to once rooted. I would like to see better prices and data first. Why have the next great thing when you pay out the ass and don't have equal speed?
I would like to see Android updates that actually make me want them, like better codex, performance, UI functions, etc. Some updates don't really seem like updates, like when Ubuntu releases a new version but you do the same thing as before, and you are left wanting more.
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I agree somewhat. However, I think that the 4.2.2 roms with Linaro are noticeably faster than other 4.2.2 roms without it. Carbon is much faster without me having to use apps like Pimp My Rom and Lag Reducer without compromising my battery performance.
Halo is also another great custom feature that may one day rival the stock multi-window feature.
I also like the profile triggers built into Carbon, bluetooth and wifi triggers are wonderful, hopefully we can get some GPS triggers, then we will really be in business lol.
All in all, I agree with you though, we need some REAL POWER behind these updates. But I'm sure devs would say "Let's get some real CASH behind the devs and you guys will see some POWER!!" **Gotta look at it from both sides**
Great input guys. Let's keep it going!!!
lightning launcher has the widget in folder capabilities. It's my daily launcher
just saying.....
Sent from my SPH-L900 using xda premium
Need the Android equivalent to iMessage.
Desperately needed and no, Google Hangouts (in its current state ) is not the answer.
Sent from my SGNote 2!
[email protected] said:
I agree somewhat. However, I think that the 4.2.2 roms with Linaro are noticeably faster than other 4.2.2 roms without it. Carbon is much faster without me having to use apps like Pimp My Rom and Lag Reducer without compromising my battery performance.
Halo is also another great custom feature that may one day rival the stock multi-window feature.
I also like the profile triggers built into Carbon, bluetooth and wifi triggers are wonderful, hopefully we can get some GPS triggers, then we will really be in business lol.
All in all, I agree with you though, we need some REAL POWER behind these updates. But I'm sure devs would say "Let's get some real CASH behind the devs and you guys will see some POWER!!" **Gotta look at it from both sides**
Great input guys. Let's keep it going!!!
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See I like Touchwiz and the stock UI bs and want more of these mods to make into a stock ROM, sometimes I wish Sammy read these types of forums.