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I had ordered this without ever even giving touchwiz a thought. Figured the phone would show up, I would play with it about 5 minutes, install new launcher, never look at touch wiz again. After I ordered it I downloaded the user manual and did some reading and it appears that there is some interesting and useful work here that without having the phone I think I like. Watching videos to see if I could see some of the stuff in action seemed to me to confirm that there is some good stuff there.
My question is how are you liking touchwiz? Not the phone, the phone with touchwiz. I Have encountered an older version and was left heavily underwhelmed. Please be specific, I like this, I hate that, and give a reason. If its just because that works fine but have a reason.
Remember guys this is mostly about opinion and little about fact. Leave folks be with theirs and vice versa.
edit.... Also please add in your predilections toward flashing roms, or not, as it were. An opinion from a daily flasher is much different than one from someone who never flashes and runs the stock rom.
I thought I'd hate it but I'm actually really liking it! Some features I love:
- The lockscreen is great and you get little tabs you can slide when you get a text or missed call.
- You can reject a call with a text message (So handy)
- Resizable widgets
- Customiseable dock
- Hold down 'Menu' for search in apps
- Quick settings in the notification tray
- Movable homescreens
- Customisable app tray
and more Besides you could always replace it with another launcher and I'm sure custom ROMs are on the way.
I changed it within seconds to launcher pro. However the drawer in launcher pro isnt smooth at all, im actually thinking of changing back.
rocketpaul said:
I changed it within seconds to launcher pro. However the drawer in launcher pro isnt smooth at all, im actually thinking of changing back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try Go Launcher EX
It is faster than Launcher Pro
I have a lot of time flashing roms and all that fun stuff so I have an idea about the possibilities going that route. Going to edit the op in regards to people adding their experience and preferences as far as flashing roms and such go. Thanks for your input. As a question Im on a custom rom now and the widets are all resizable. Are you talking about the touchwiz widgets then?
Another question would be can you access some or all of the touchwiz widgets from another launcher or do you give them up?
krabman said:
Another question would be can you access some or all of the touchwiz widgets from another launcher or do you give them up?
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Click to collapse
If you go use a third party launcher, you usually lose access to manufacturer widgets, since they work in a slightly different way from plain stock ones...
But if you go Launcher Pro Plus (it's a couple of dollars for the plus version) you get more "custom" widgets like that in return I guess it just depends what look you are going for.
So you have the handset and can confirm they are toast? Figured they would be but I haven't done touchwiz yet.
krabman said:
So you have the handset and can confirm they are toast? Figured they would be but I haven't done touchwiz yet.
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Click to collapse
Nope, hence why I say "usually". I've been in this business for a while, but not got the SGS II yet.
I have to admit that I like Touchwiz. On SGS, I dont have a SGS2 yet. In my opinion, Samsung Glass lockscreen is a way better than the Android stock lockscreen.
At the moment I'm in love with Zeam laucher but I always come back to Touchwiz from time to time. Launcher Pro and ADW have always left me cold.
Did more reading, I see that you can change the fonts system wide. Does this carry over to a new launcher or do you lose that? Pretty nifty feature.
In my personal opinion, touchwiz 3 was dire. But after using my Galaxy S II for a few days touchwiz 4 has come a long way. I'm sticking with Touchwiz for now
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
I've been playing with the demo models at the office solidly for the past 2 days, and as a Sense users for the past 2 years, I really don't like Touchwiz even in it's newest incarnation.
Probably more down to being used to how everything works in Sense though, I don't like change
Touchwiz 4 is a huge improvement over 3 in my opinion. Using it on both my SGS and SGS2 now. The new calendar widgets on the SGS2 are awesome as well Touchwiz 4 can also put folders in the applications menu now
Semi-regular flasher (ooer) - would generally flash a new rom every couple of months. Been with Android since the G1 so have a pretty good idea of what's possible.
Things you KEEP going to another launcher:
Lockscreen
Dialler (reject call with text etc)
Holding down Menu to search
Settings toggles in the notification bar
You can resize widgets with LauncherPro Plus
Things you might LOSE
Movable homescreens (most launchers do this, but not with the motion sensing twist action like touchwiz)
Customisable app tray (again, most launchers do this)
Resizable widgets (possible with LauncherPro Plus)
Customisable dock (most launchers do this)
Overall, I don't miss the touchwiz launcher, but I like some of the other features. Looks like the Samsung widgets are standard and work in other launchers too - just added Mini Paper, Ap Mobile, and Yahoo! Finance, and they seem fine.
krabman - I've changed my system font to Helvetica S (Settings -> Display -> Screen Display -> Font) and in general it looks great! Carries over to most apps too. The only downside is that it's slightly wider, so you get some buttons wrapping For example, the password "Remember / Not Now" dialog has one, I forget which . . .
Overall, ditch the launcher (I like LauncherPro, smooth for me) but enjoy the other aspects
TW4 is not as bad as many are saying. its still not nearly as good as SENSE 2.x. and I wont even attempt to compare it to the new 3.0 version. I sure hope someone port it.
darkalchemist said:
Touchwiz 4 is a huge improvement over 3 in my opinion. Using it on both my SGS and SGS2 now. The new calendar widgets on the SGS2 are awesome as well Touchwiz 4 can also put folders in the applications menu now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, playing with both the SGS and SGS2 and yes it is an improvement for sure, but I am still not liking the iphonish looks.
DJGibbon said:
Things you KEEP going to another launcher:
Lockscreen
Dialler (reject call with text etc)
Holding down Menu to search
Settings toggles in the notification bar
You can resize widgets with LauncherPro Plus
Things you might LOSE
Movable homescreens (most launchers do this, but not with the motion sensing twist action like touchwiz)
Customisable app tray (again, most launchers do this)
Resizable widgets (possible with LauncherPro Plus)
Customisable dock (most launchers do this)
Overall, I don't miss the touchwiz launcher, but I like some of the other features. Looks like the Samsung widgets are standard and work in other launchers too - just added Mini Paper, Ap Mobile, and Yahoo! Finance, and they seem fine.
Overall, ditch the launcher (I like LauncherPro, smooth for me) but enjoy the other aspects
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You pretty much mentioned what I was about to! Using launcherpro plus with widgetsoid and pure calendar widget. I have to say that launcherpro work a bit smoother on the original SGS for be, but with the upcomming update that should be fixed.
Overall, combining the best of what I had on my SGS before, with the new functions from touchwiz 4!
Is there a way to get rid of the damn bar on top that has the ADW icon?
It seems to run really smooth and has lots of options that you can make work well on the tablet but that bar up top and the ADW icon really kill it. I've tried VTL but it's really lacking in the options.
NeutronBomb said:
Is there a way to get rid of the damn bar on top that has the ADW icon?
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Click to collapse
Known issue that the developer has stated will be addressed in the next version. Hopefully.
I had been using ADWex since last friday when I got it, and initially I loved it. But it seemed to have some issues staying in memory and became jerky when I added more than three or four widgets, even when I cut it down to three homescreens it still would reload the entire homescreen every time I exited out of an app, even if just for a few minutes. I tried system persistent and re-installing it, but it didn't seem to help. It looked great after it loaded, but even the default launcher was smoother and faster to load. If anyone knows why that might be I'd love to go back to it.
I switched to LPP last night, and so far it's been working the smoothest out of all three of them, even loaded with widgets and homescreens. Downside is lack of tablet customization, it's just the phone version supersized, which works and looks fine to me, but no honeycomb-specific features.
I had alot of FC's with LP where as ADW is perfect. I'm really looking forward to the honeycomb supported versions and getting hardware acceleration.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
I don't have much experience with any but the stock launcher. In fact, being relatively new to android I didn't even realize that you could change launchers until I flashed MIUI which had three diff ones. I'm using Apex now and I like it. Any others that you prefer?
I started with Stock, LauncherPro, then ADWLauncer (which I liked), then Coffee Bean theam. Phone would sometime freeze and I got pissed and put it entirely back to stock.
Personally, with a little time and effort, stock is not that bad to me.
I am using QQ's launchers lock screen
With ADWLauncher EX. Have used SPB Shell 3D also.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
rbeavers said:
Have used SPB Shell 3D also.
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
I forgot, I had SPB Shell 3D originally too. Not ready for Primetime. Lots of freezes, I would flick my finger to change screens, up to a minute later. Sometimes it would lock and not let me make phone calls!
Here is the real kicker why I dumped them. I go to call my brother, nothing happens so I return to home screen. I go to call my mother, same thing nothing. I go to call my girl, same thing. I go to call my brother again, nothing. Geting frusted I put it down. 15 minutes all the calls that did not go thru, it would recall them back in order. If I caught it, I would just hangup. If not, brother picks up and finds im not there, hangs up, then my Photon would call my mother...............Agh! Then they all call back later and asked why I called them!
I had the 3D shell on Evo, AT&T Fuze, AT&T Tilt and did not have a single issue (then again, it was not a rich and flashy as now. Just did not work for me!)
zeam is the one that I use. (lol, is that long enough?)
dsims7_2000 said:
I forgot, I had SPB Shell 3D originally too. Not ready for Primetime. Lots of freezes, I would flick my finger to change screens, up to a minute later. Sometimes it would lock and not let me make phone calls!
Here is the real kicker why I dumped them. I go to call my brother, nothing happens so I return to home screen. I go to call my mother, same thing nothing. I go to call my girl, same thing. I go to call my brother again, nothing. Geting frusted I put it down. 15 minutes all the calls that did not go thru, it would recall them back in order. If I caught it, I would just hangup. If not, brother picks up and finds im not there, hangs up, then my Photon would call my mother...............Agh! Then they all call back later and asked why I called them!
I had the 3D shell on Evo, AT&T Fuze, AT&T Tilt and did not have a single issue (then again, it was not a rich and flashy as now. Just did not work for me!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This exact scenario use to happen to me when I used Go Launcher EX. Problem went away when I went back to stock. Months later, I loaded ADW (free version) and did NOT experience this problem. Purchased ADW EX a few weeks ago and the problem is back! ARGH!!
Anyone else having this problem with ADW EX?
sjamie said:
This exact scenario use to happen to me when I used Go Launcher EX. Problem went away when I went back to stock. Months later, I loaded ADW (free version) and did NOT experience this problem. Purchased ADW EX a few weeks ago and the problem is back! ARGH!!
Anyone else having this problem with ADW EX?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had this same issue, most frequently with Go Launcher EX when coupled with my Cardock. I have periodically had the issue with ADW EX, but much less frequently.
frozndevl said:
I have had this same issue, most frequently with Go Launcher EX when coupled with my Cardock. I have periodically had the issue with ADW EX, but much less frequently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I am glad to know it is not just "my phone" that is having this problem. I'm also curious as to why it does not happen with the free version of ADW.
I've tried ADW Launcher, SPB Shell 3D, Nemus Launcher...The best one in my opinion is Go Launcher EX, easy to use and customize.
I've been having this problem for only the last month or so...prior to that never had a problem.
It started with Launcher Pro and mostly seemed to happen when the phone had been inactive for several hours. Switched to Go Launcher and still have the problem, just not as often...
Tried factory reset, then SBF, switched from 198_6 to 198_7...same problem.
hdmunger said:
I've been having this problem for only the last month or so...prior to that never had a problem.
It started with Launcher Pro and mostly seemed to happen when the phone had been inactive for several hours. Switched to Go Launcher and still have the problem, just not as often...
Tried factory reset, then SBF, switched from 198_6 to 198_7...same problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, the problem generally occurs when I hang up with one person and then immediately attempt to place another call. I run my entire business through my phone so I am making and receiving calls literally all day. This problem definitely causes some inconvenience.
Ive been using launcher pro plus about a week now and no problems with.
Go Launcher Ex with ICS theme, and ICS themed icons.
Used to use Launcher Pro Plus all the time but got fed up with the lack of updates. Ran SPB Shell for a long time and had no issues with it. Not sure why peeps say it is not ready for primetime cause it works good on the Photon. Most that say that are probably using an older/hacked version of it. Now I am using GoLauncher EX because it has a lot of themes/widgets available and I like the amount of options however it does lag some when scrolling between screens depending on the animation used. When on ICS I was running Apex launcher and recommend it for that. Works without issue and keeps that ICS interface feel.
Since I switched from running SPB on my phone I loaded it on one of my tablets and actually like it better with the tablet interface. It really works well when in landscape unlike a lot of the other launchers. Don't like having the launcher bar on the side when in landscape on a tablet.
Hello,
I use ADW Launcher EX and cannot be more pleased. I got it during the Android Market Xmas Promotion when tons of Apps were $0.10 or whatever they were.
Cheers,
JJ
Go Launcher Ex!
Hands down the best (IMO).
Its the only one which has the ability to re-size icons & widgets irrespective of the original size.
I've used ADW EX and Launcher Pro Plus, while ADW has a few more features and is still getting updates, I love the features of Launcher Pro Plus even though it hasn't been updated in a while, every time I switch to a different one I always go back to it. Never had an issue with it, no lag no nothing. My phone is always super fast and it's only rotted
I like adw ex the best, never had any problems and usually crappy phones in general can run adw five times faster than their stock, ive tried go launcher, its very similar to adw but it glitches up a bit(not as smooth and snappy) adw also has resizable widgets and overlaping widgets(i do photos behind apps its kinda cool) never had any major problem with adw always been reliable and my favorite from the start!
Sent from my MB855 using xda premium
I've been using ADW launcher now with no theme for quite a while. It's been really stable and a vast improvement over the stock blur UI. I like that I'm able to achieve a level of consistency between all of my android devices so switching between them isn't a pain at all.
Golauncher ex. Folders in the app drawer, resizing widgets, the new power manager (which rocks btw), and awesome transitions.
Sent from my MoPho using the XDA Premium app
I'm the proud owner of a Motorola Photon 4G as of today. This is replacing my Sensation, and will only be used internationally (Asia, so 900/1800 Mhz 2G and 2100Mhz 3G).
Now, I see that there is a way to get rid of the Sprint hands-free activation on every boot, and I presume I can delete some of the Sprint bloatware as well. I noticed that the stock Blur launcher is kinda laggy even scrolling from screen to screen, but the rest of the phone performs very well. So if I do get a different launcher, what should I get?
Otherwise, should I do a custom ROM? I've had every phone of mine all ROM'ed up but I don't know if its worth doing that to a Motorola phone since they usually have encrypted bootloaders. Any stable ROMs that are well-suited for international use?
Im using Nemus Launcher. Its not too bad.
Good luck with getting rid of the lag tho. My whole phone is laggy even with another launcher.
If you unlock, try this ROM. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1587770 Sprint bloat is removed, rom is fast, works great. Or you can use Loki's bloat remover. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1575259
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2
I use Launcher Pro with ICON Pack in it..
Its butter smooth and i have 450mb Ram free all time
I have no lag at all -- I'm using Go Launcher, and have "DeBlurred" the phone as bricky23 mentioned (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1575259
).
Also just fyi, I've read that some folks feel a daily reboot does wonders to keeping the Photon running smoothly (just opinion, no facts/data to back that up).
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk
I'm currently using MX Launcher. It's got some nice features, but shallow customization and some weird quirks. See my list of caveats in the topic about it. I still think it's worth using, but it's nowhere near as polished as some of the others.
I rephrased my issues with it to a more positive light and emailed the developer. I'd like to see this launcher get better as it does a couple things really well.
1. Cover screen. The center icon on the dock (and you can't change it) brings up the cover screen, which has a clock which follows you based on the tilt sensor. There's a power control widget here, the clock is beautiful, and it has some preset launcher icons on it. You can change them (open the clock by long-pressing 12, 3, 6, or 9 to set that icon) but you can only pick from a few and you have to use stock apps.
2. Long-press icons brings up a menu. Other launchers have this, but in MX, you can hit Info to pull up that app's Settings > Applications > Manage Applications page. Good for clearing the cache or force closing it.
Don't bother looking at the skins. Half are incompatible with our phone. The other half cost money. There is one that is free and compatible, but it's just a cover screen. No home screens. Might be a bug but I removed it promptly.
Thanks for the advice, y'all. I rooted the phone today and deblurred it already. I'm quite liking ADW Launcher right now. What's a good AOSP icon pack I can download? I'm not familiar with customizing launchers.
slick69 said:
Thanks for the advice, y'all. I rooted the phone today and deblurred it already. I'm quite liking ADW Launcher right now. What's a good AOSP icon pack I can download? I'm not familiar with customizing launchers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just search the market ( whoops, "play store" ) for adw icon packs or adw themes -- there's tons of free ones.
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk
JustSomeDude said:
Just search the market ( whoops, "play store" ) for adw icon packs or adw themes -- there's tons of free ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I downloaded a free ICS icon pack/theme. My phone works pretty well now!
However, I'm sad that it doesn't play a bunch of my video files that always used to play on my other devices, mostly HTC ones but some AOSP as well. When I downloaded MX Player to view them, it told me that it is using SW decoding.
Is there a way to get better support for media files? The videos in question are plain old mp4, downloaded from Youtube. Some 480p, some 720p and a couple 1080p which worked on my Sensation, so I thought they'd work on the Photon as well since it has a similar chipset.
hi just curious,
which one is better on photon
ADW launcher
or
Go Launcher ?
and if we apply the "deblur" mod, how to get rid of the ADW to replace it with the Go launcher ?
I think GO is better than ADW but if you ask any 2 people, you're liable to get 2 different answers. I can't tall ya why I prefer GO. For one, it's free, but then again it pushes its widgets and locker on you. Two, ADW rubs me the wrong way. I don't know why. So no real, valid reasons. Try both. Use both, use Home Smack to switch.
Sent from my Motorola Electrify using Tapatalk
I normally use adw ex but i got bored with that recently and have been using launcher 7 which is a windows phone launcher and i love it works great and is a nice change
Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2
Welp, I did some more reading and found out that since the Photon uses a Tegra 2 chipset, it is very picky about what it can decode in hardware. Luckily for me, a lot of my simple stuff works fine in SW decoding mode with MX Player. However, 720p and 1080p videos will need to be recoded.
I'm gonna try using Handbrake and report back. Too bad I don't have a more powerful CPU to re-encode stuff. Re-encoding stuff is why I was wary of my Zune client (I also have an HTC Titan).
MadFlava said:
Im using Nemus Launcher. Its not too bad.
Good luck with getting rid of the lag tho. My whole phone is laggy even with another launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for Nemus launcher. Easily my favorite launcher I've used so far. Tops the heavy hitters ADW, Launcher Pro, and Go Launcher easily.
Juts posted an analysis of a couple popular launchers.
Just started using mobo launcher yesterday, and after getting used to the different u.i. I really like it.https://play.google.com/store/search?q=mobo+launcher
I'd go with the miui rom =) its amazing!
Sent from my MB855 using XDA
EggSpawn said:
I'd go with the miui rom =) its amazing!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used MIUI extensively when I had an EVO and a Defy, and I loved it. At this time, I didn't feel like it was the best since I want a stable experience and stock seemed the most stable.
Maybe when there's an ICS MIUI based on a stock Moto ROM.
Lokifish Marz said:
Juts posted an analysis of a couple popular launchers.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for the analysis. I'll make a comment in that thread since I'm using GO Launcher now. Thank you for your work on Deblurring the Photon!
I've found that even though ADW uses less memory, GO Launcher seems to run smoother. Luckily, the Photon has 1GB of RAM.
I would definitely recommend going the custom rom route.
Right now I am using cm7.2[kang] with jokers 1.3 oc kernel and it works great. This is the most stab, much faster than stock although the battery only lasts about 4/5 as long for me. I have tried cm9 but there are still many issues right now and I am waiting for some of these to be ironed out before switching over.
As far as launchers go, cm7.2 came with ADW installed stock, and it is very snappy, especially if tuned to take out extra visual effects etc.
I've been using the ADW Launcher since I moved to Android tablets afew years back. I'm always checking out new launcher releases to get a good balance of customization and performance. I was pleasatly surprised to see that after 5 years ADW has a whopper of an upgrade with vs 2 (still in beta) Many changes that I had been seeking were there. Along with an improved UI it looks great! Not yet available on Google Play AFAIK, but you can get it righ from the
dev site (ANDERWEB) ;-DeanoD