From what I have found here, I believe that 'Sense' is simply additional eye candy and pretty animated widgets (i.e. Weather). Is my understanding correct? Thanks in advance for your replies and have a great day!
Thanks,
Lyondellic
Android Newbie, PC/WM Guru
Sense does add a lot of eye candy, but it also has a lot of deep intergration into the phones core features. Most of not all the intergration can be added to stock android via 3rd party apps.
As an example Sense uses a different bluetooth stack than stock android, it makes it easy to use but it also lacks certain profiles like being able to connect the wii mote to your phone.
A better example is simply the way sense handles contacts. Over all I think the experience you have using sense is much better than stock android.
HTC has done a very good job giving the mass market what they want in a phone; something that is more polished than stock android and adds all the function they want to have with out needed to download a ton of apps.
Now if you are one that wants to control every detail of the phone and have time to go find the app that does exactly what you want it to do then aosp roms or stock android is best for you.
Sent from my ADR6400L using xda premium
ctinsley said:
As an example Sense uses a different bluetooth stack than stock android, it makes it easy to use but it also lacks certain profiles like being able to connect the wii mote to your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not just a different stack, they use an older (broken) version of the bluetooth protocol, which is why some things do not work. Some of the kernel modders for the thunderbolt updated it though I believe.
you know, the 5 senses.. the ultimate in... sensation!
/me can only dream anyway
sense is what htc runs on top of stock andoird. it adds a dock lockscreens, widgets, etc, as you said eye candy. and like the guy above said they have there own kernel that controls bluetooth other stuff. because it runs on top of android sense roms are generally larger and some lag more but it really depends on the rom. for example synergy roms are faster than some aosp roms that ive used.
I haven't seen anything (free) other than Sense that can pull all the contact information from my company Exchange server. Everything I've tried only gets the email address, not physical address and phone numbers.
It's one of the main things that keeps me away from running CM7.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App
Sense also has one of the few emails clients I know of that can actually correctly forward emails and attachments. Every time I tried with CM7 it just plain wouldn't forward crap, not the email, not the attachment. Sense? Forwards both like it should. Plus it does email zooming so that those pesky HTML emails get resized and can be scrolled around better than the AOSP email client in CM7.
Note: I am talking about "Email" not "Gmail" which if Google made the email app a user app instead of a system app, they could maybe fix the issue across the board.
The Sense UI also has great social network integration. No need to download a facebook or twitter app, just sign in through the Accounts and Sync and use the built-in apps. Even those contacts sync with your phone contacts.
Sent from my BAMF Forever TBolt using Tapatalk
Related
Hi!
I'm thinking about switching back from Android to WinMo 6.5 because in my opinion Sense + CHT2 is superior to any other homescreen and I miss it a lot. But I am not sure because there are a lot of things I think I'll miss. First of all the stability of Android. I have never had problems with things crashing or the need to restart the phone. Also I like that everything works good for me out of the box. Well, and here are my questions regarding WinMo:
- Is there a browser which works as good and fast as the stock android browser? For me it is important that I can view all web pages as they would be displayed on my computer (no mobile pages and such crap). Also flash support would be awesome.
- Does syncing gmail via ActiveSync support push mail and multiple gmail accounts?
- Is there a free alternative to the provided rss app?
The most important things for me are:
- stable system
- very good and fast browsing experience (with working flash)
- sync contacts and calendar with gmail (which syncs also with evolution on my pc)
I think I'm going to miss the facebook app from android because the WinMo one is really crap but I can live with that, I'm not a heavy fb user.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Mark Twain said:
Hi!
I'm thinking about switching back from Android to WinMo 6.5 because in my opinion Sense + CHT2 is superior to any other homescreen and I miss it a lot. But I am not sure because there are a lot of things I think I'll miss. First of all the stability of Android. I have never had problems with things crashing or the need to restart the phone. Also I like that everything works good for me out of the box. Well, and here are my questions regarding WinMo:
- Is there a browser which works as good and fast as the stock android browser? For me it is important that I can view all web pages as they would be displayed on my computer (no mobile pages and such crap). Also flash support would be awesome.
- Does syncing gmail via ActiveSync support push mail and multiple gmail accounts?
- Is there a free alternative to the provided rss app?
The most important things for me are:
- stable system
- very good and fast browsing experience (with working flash)
- sync contacts and calendar with gmail (which syncs also with evolution on my pc)
I think I'm going to miss the facebook app from android because the WinMo one is really crap but I can live with that, I'm not a heavy fb user.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive always found Opera 9.7 to be better than any of the android browsers... except maybe Dolphin..
I can give you a cab to get rid of the default user agent and prevent it displaying sites in mobile view if you want. Unfortuneately flash support is not possible, there is a flash compatible browser called Uzard but its pretty buggy. I guess you could install it and just use when you need flash...
Not sure about syncing your contacts and calendar with gmail as I have never bothered but I have seen something around here about it.
CHT2.0 contains an RSS widget which links in with the stock RSS reader, Im not a heavy RSS user so I dont really know how it compares with the android equivalent but its fine for me.
As for a stable system........ cooked ROMS are the way to go.
Energy, Artemis, Duttys and Elegancia are all popular choices...
Ive just switched from Energy to Elegancia and its incredibly smooth and stable.
Remember, you can always keep an android build on your SD card and have the best of both worlds.
Hope that helps in some way.....
conantroutman said:
Ive always found Opera 9.7 to be better than any of the android browsers... except maybe Dolphin..
I can give you a cab to get rid of the default user agent and prevent it displaying sites in mobile view if you want. Unfortuneately flash support is not possible, there is a flash compatible browser called Uzard but its pretty buggy. I guess you could install it and just use when you need flash...
Not sure about syncing your contacts and calendar with gmail as I have never bothered but I have seen something around here about it.
CHT2.0 contains an RSS widget which links in with the stock RSS reader, Im not a heavy RSS user so I dont really know how it compares with the android equivalent but its fine for me.
As for a stable system........ cooked ROMS are the way to go.
Energy, Artemis, Duttys and Elegancia are all popular choices...
Ive just switched from Energy to Elegancia and its incredibly smooth and stable.
Remember, you can always keep an android build on your SD card and have the best of both worlds.
Hope that helps in some way.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, Opera 9.7 is a very good browser. Although on some websites it did not display everything correctly.
Well, flash is not a killer criteria but would be nice. You may not need it for months but when you need it one time and you can't...
RSS is important for me as I enjoy reading the news on my phone. I also use twitter a lot for news, so I love the twitter tab in sense
I used energy before switching to android and all at all I was pretty satisfied with it (although the dialer looks awful IMHO ). But sometimes you see WinMo behind the sense-curtain and some things lag or even crash and that is something I do not have with Android. Well, I think I'm gonna give it a try (I have a CWR backup for the worst case) and use parallel some SD builds of android.
Sharing that cab would be awesome! Thanks a lot! I know otherwise you have to do some registry tweaks...
Heres that cab for the user agent.
Also, if your a heavy twitter user you might want to try moTweets. Theres a free ad supported version, contains a few more features than the twitter tab.
Mark Twain said:
Yes, Opera 9.7 is a very good browser. Although on some websites it did not display everything correctly.
Well, flash is not a killer criteria but would be nice. You may not need it for months but when you need it one time and you can't...
RSS is important for me as I enjoy reading the news on my phone. I also use twitter a lot for news, so I love the twitter tab in sense
I used energy before switching to android and all at all I was pretty satisfied with it (although the dialer looks awful IMHO ). But sometimes you see WinMo behind the sense-curtain and some things lag or even crash and that is something I do not have with Android. Well, I think I'm gonna give it a try (I have a CWR backup for the worst case) and use parallel some SD builds of android.
Sharing that cab would be awesome! Thanks a lot! I know otherwise you have to do some registry tweaks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you ever tried Iconsoft Phonex 2.2 dialer? it's worthy, give it a try.
Thanks
Mark Twain said:
Hi!
I'm thinking about switching back from Android to WinMo 6.5 because in my opinion Sense + CHT2 is superior to any other homescreen and I miss it a lot. But I am not sure because there are a lot of things I think I'll miss. First of all the stability of Android. I have never had problems with things crashing or the need to restart the phone. Also I like that everything works good for me out of the box. Well, and here are my questions regarding WinMo:
- Is there a browser which works as good and fast as the stock android browser? For me it is important that I can view all web pages as they would be displayed on my computer (no mobile pages and such crap). Also flash support would be awesome.
- Does syncing gmail via ActiveSync support push mail and multiple gmail accounts?
- Is there a free alternative to the provided rss app?
The most important things for me are:
- stable system
- very good and fast browsing experience (with working flash)
- sync contacts and calendar with gmail (which syncs also with evolution on my pc)
I think I'm going to miss the facebook app from android because the WinMo one is really crap but I can live with that, I'm not a heavy fb user.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is the tutorial for google sync, check it, if this is what you are looking for.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=678339
Thanks
Thanks a lot! I already discovered this thread earlier (and I found a discussion somewhere else on the internet). And I think this alternative dialer is worth a try!
So while I don't like the Sense launcher and the over abundance of... stuff. I have come to rather like the Sense Email app as it actually forwards email attachments where the AOSP Email does not.
I did a simple copy of an early Gingerbread HTC email apk and that didn't play nice at all could not install it with Root Explorer or adb (what few tricks I know).
Anyone have any tips?
Edit: Further learning (adb -d install blahblah), says that I'm missing a library, how can I find out what library I am missing?
Edit 2: Increased googlefu has found threads on other forums of XDA that says the Sense programs require the Sense frame work, so I basically need a De-Sensed Sense ROM as I prefer ADW by far for my launcher...
But I still hope someone has a solution for putting a Sense email client on AOSP ROMs.
METDeath said:
So while I don't like the Sense launcher and the over abundance of... stuff. I have come to rather like the Sense Email app as it actually forwards email attachments where the AOSP Email does not.
I did a simple copy of an early Gingerbread HTC email apk and that didn't play nice at all could not install it with Root Explorer or adb (what few tricks I know).
Anyone have any tips?
Edit: Further learning (adb -d install blahblah), says that I'm missing a library, how can I find out what library I am missing?
Edit 2: Increased googlefu has found threads on other forums of XDA that says the Sense programs require the Sense frame work, so I basically need a De-Sensed Sense ROM as I prefer ADW by far for my launcher...
But I still hope someone has a solution for putting a Sense email client on AOSP ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not possible. sorry.
Yeah..not possible. It's sad...I really like the Sense dialer (type numbers and contacts Names and numbers are searched). And yes, I know 3rd party apps exist that do this...but they're unattractive and buggy
Other than a rooted Nook tablet I don't have much experience with Android. I'm coming from an iPhone4 and looking forward to something new.
What are the must have utilities and apps?
Any tips or must have, must do things?
I've seen doubletwist mentioned and Samsung uses Kies.
Looking forward to Note...
See the Guide for NOOBS sticky at the top of this forum ^^^^
thinguy said:
Other than a rooted Nook tablet I don't have much experience with Android. I'm coming from an iPhone4 and looking forward to something new.
What are the must have utilities and apps?
Any tips or must have, must do things?
I've seen doubletwist mentioned and Samsung uses Kies.
Looking forward to Note...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never used kies with either my captivate or infuse. Don't see the need with other apps, as well as the fact that you can just drag and drop files onto your phone's storage. Syncing reminds me of an iphone, and is stupid in my opinion. Drag and drop allows you to only add the files you need/want, and is much faster in the long run.
I suggest using Google Music for your music, it automatically uploads up to 20,000 songs automatically from your itunes or windows media player to the cloud so that you can access them wherever.
If you use grooveshark at all, check out Dood's music streamer. Allows you to use grooveshark on the go without paying for premium service. If you have not used grooveshark before, check it out on your computer.
Google voice provides a simple, visual voicemail system, though I think I have read somewhere that the note has visual voicemail built in? Could be wrong.
XDA app is a must, though I assume you use that on your Nook already.
Dropbox is useful for documents, as well as google docs.
The note comes with S Note and other various apps that make use of the S pen.
Dolphin Browser HD is a great replacement browser that I have used with all of my androids.
Evernote is useful for taking notes that can be accessed on your phone or any computer. I hope the S pen can have some functionality with this app.
Root explorer is definitely worth the few bucks it costs to have access to all of the files on your phone.
Titanium backup is a must if you are into ROMing your devices, as it will allow you to restore your apps after every flash with ease. The free version works, but you have to approve every app install. I suggest buying the full version, as the restore process is fully automated and can run in the background or with your screen off, making the process much less cumbersome.
Other than that, we will have to wait and see if apps such as rom manager and such will be of any use to the flashing process once the devs get their hands on the device and start pumping out custom roms.
OP, i'm also as green as you on the Android platform. I have an iphone 4s and got the Note just to explore Android.
jpeg42 said:
See the Guide for NOOBS sticky at the top of this forum ^^^^
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you read it? Its just Android definitions and reserved spots for future use. No specific info on tips, advice or apps.
welchertc said:
I have never used kies with either my captivate or infuse. Don't see the need with other apps, as well as the fact that you can just drag and drop files onto your phone's storage. Syncing reminds me of an iphone, and is stupid in my opinion. Drag and drop allows you to only add the files you need/want, and is much faster in the long run.
I suggest using Google Music for your music, it automatically uploads up to 20,000 songs automatically from your itunes or windows media player to the cloud so that you can access them wherever.
If you use grooveshark at all, check out Dood's music streamer. Allows you to use grooveshark on the go without paying for premium service. If you have not used grooveshark before, check it out on your computer.
Google voice provides a simple, visual voicemail system, though I think I have read somewhere that the note has visual voicemail built in? Could be wrong.
XDA app is a must, though I assume you use that on your Nook already.
Dropbox is useful for documents, as well as google docs.
The note comes with S Note and other various apps that make use of the S pen.
Dolphin Browser HD is a great replacement browser that I have used with all of my androids.
Evernote is useful for taking notes that can be accessed on your phone or any computer. I hope the S pen can have some functionality with this app.
Root explorer is definitely worth the few bucks it costs to have access to all of the files on your phone.
Titanium backup is a must if you are into ROMing your devices, as it will allow you to restore your apps after every flash with ease. The free version works, but you have to approve every app install. I suggest buying the full version, as the restore process is fully automated and can run in the background or with your screen off, making the process much less cumbersome.
Other than that, we will have to wait and see if apps such as rom manager and such will be of any use to the flashing process once the devs get their hands on the device and start pumping out custom roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I forget that it can be handled like a normal usb device/storage.
I need to try Dolphin, using Opera on Nook now and it's better than the default but still lacking. The firefox app seems terrible/incomplete.
thinguy said:
Other than a rooted Nook tablet I don't have much experience with Android. I'm coming from an iPhone4 and looking forward to something new.
What are the must have utilities and apps?
Any tips or must have, must do things?
I've seen doubletwist mentioned and Samsung uses Kies.
Looking forward to Note...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a captivate and have used froyo and gingerbread. I suspect you will find the gingerbread used on the g-note okay but not as polished and as smooth as your iOS. That said, the new android ICS (using cm9 alpha, build 16) is is incredible. Smooth, clean, powerful and intuitive. A pleasure to use, I believe It offers the best of both worlds. The ease of apple and the configurable power of android.
Since you have a nook you can try it out, the nook ics rom is very usable and will give you a hint of the g-note goodness to come with the ics operating system the xda guys will cook up. I have a nook to, and if you have rooted it, the ics install will be relatively simple.
The following list are some Apps you might find worth looking at, and depending on your interest, might even be worth paying for.
Music; I use Power Amp, paid app. clean seductive interface, lots of audio magic for the music lover, and great developer support.
Files; Webdav; paid ver. Nice little app let's you wireless mount your android as a drive so you can cut/paste files and folders as you would to and from any other drive on your PC. Great for lots of audio book files, movies, or just cleaning up your phone. You can use 3g instead of wifi but I've never tried it.
Podcasts; Dogcatcher, paid app. simply the best. Its biggest competition is Mypod. I used it for over a year, but never was able to get comfortable with its interface. Dogcatcher....you can just start using it, and it has lots of options.
Sling player, TV goodness, paid app and home box. Watch anything straight from your home cable, sat., or ota tuner, perfect if your a sports nut.
Launcher; Nova , free app. I am still testing but it is just so sexy and free so I figured I give it a mention.
Radio; Tune in , free app. music sports news radio stations with easy search presets. It is to good to be true but I haven't found a downside yet.
Browser; Dolphin HD, free app. I can't get excited about this one. It works, the speed is good, and it is not going to choke on flash. I would like to recommend Opera but it has been very buggy lately, I don't think it is playing nice with ics.
Google chrome is getting great reviews but it doesn't support flash. Then there is Boat browser and Quick Ics browser both show great promise but not sure about them yet.
I've got a G-note on order, for the lte and its monster screen. The thing is, since I got ics, my captivate is such a pleasure to use and play with I don't know how I'll survive waiting for a ics port.
Oh, and samsungs kies program might have some use but I've never found it.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
vizographic said:
Browser; Dolphin HD, free app. I can't get excited about this one. It works, the speed is good, and it is not going to choke on flash. I would like to recommend Opera but it has been very buggy lately, I don't think it is playing nice with ics.
Google chrome is getting great reviews but it doesn't support flash. Then there is Boat browser and Quick Ics browser both show great promise but not sure about them yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm very disappointed to hear that Opera is buggy with ICS--it's my favorite browser by far. <sarcasm>Fortunately</sarcasm>, we probably won't have a working ICS ROM for I717 any time soon. For the OP, this is Opera Mobile, not Opera Mini--the latter handles all traffic through opera's servers and compresses images to speed up browsing for slow phones or phones with poor connections, but the result is that many webpages with active (javascript or flash) content just don't work right.
Also a word of warning for the OP: if you choose Dolphin, make sure you are rooted and block en.mywebzines.com (and maybe some other related URLs) through your hosts file. The spyware seems to be removed in the latest update, but I still won't trust a browser that, at any time in its history, forwarded essentially all of your web activity to a third party server. There's a long thread around here that discusses these issues in more depth.
Browsers are very much a matter of personal preference though; also, if you use a browser that matches your desktop browser, it makes syncing the two much easier--firefox, opera, and chrome all have great sync capabilities between their desktop and mobile counterparts.
Thanks for the link, a very disturbing read regarding the Dolphin Browser HD. I took aggressive data mining for granted, but damn the DB-hd boys are into strip mining personal data...... thanks again for taking the time to post...
OP, please forget i even mentioned Dolphin
(i going to.. ; ) and give Opera a shot. He is right were not gonna be on ics for good stretch, and by the time we are any quirks will be ironed out. It is a great overall program with lots of features. It has usually been my daily driver since the long gone days of windows mobile.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda premium
root question?
Since ICS is a ways off, If we root for TiBU, or Root explorer to remove certain system apps, will we get ICS FOTA, or will we not get it without unrooting and replacing all bloat we removed?
So my question is -any advice for those of us who root but want the OTA ICS when it comes out?
Should have put this out first- will the method for the international version for root work for the ATT one?
Is someone somewhere on the planet working to port the ics only Google chrome beta to Froyo?
Sent from my painfully slow connection, so consider pressing thanks to provide some relief
From what I know, Chrome requires the framework from ICS to work. In order to port the required parts, there would probably be parts of the framework that would be required by those parts, and parts required by those parts, etc..
I could be wrong but I don't believe you'll be seeing Chrome on a pre-ICS ROM any time soon, if ever. I imagine more development time is spent on getting older devices onto ICS, rather than porting the software back.
Is it really much better than stock browser or something like Dolphin? I don't think there's a vast improvement, so that sort of makes it pointless in my mind.
If Kindle's Silk could be ported,which required the kindle fire framework previously,then it might be possible!
BTW,chrome is my best bet when I'm on my PC,so maybe it's nice on the phone too
Yes, I came here looking for Chrome for my SideKick4G (froyo only). Side-loading doesn't work
Chrome is better then dolphin, etc. because it syncs with computers. I run chrome on my HTPC, my desk, and my tablet. Now all 3 share the same browser history and I can open any page that is on any device, so I no longer need Chrome-to-Phone and Phone-to-Chrome. No browser alternative works the same.
Make your own
droidiser said:
Is someone somewhere on the planet working to port the ics only Google chrome beta to Froyo?
Sent from my painfully slow connection, so consider pressing thanks to provide some relief
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is to make your own on android studio (or eclipse or whatever) and just design it the same way, implementing API's from the chrome2phone and phone2chrome API's.
If you do do this i'll help! In my Web design class at school we have Adobe Fireworks, Flash, and other design software.
Really? Wow. I'm sure with your help, the OP will be able to make something that looks and works exactly like the Chrome android app, but on Froyo, using Adobe graphics programs no less.
...what?
Posting you are willing to help create something that no one was going to create in the first place, something that no one really could create (it would take a large organized team and a lot of time/effort to even come close to Chrome) is weird... but did you check the date on this thread? Why would you possibly think it was a good idea to post that nonsense over a year after the latest reply?
Everything I'm seeing concerning this ends around the beginning of 2013. Did development come to a hault?
I would love to load this onto my EVO 4g LTE, but it seems it isn't very friendly with the device (no data, sound, etc).
Thanks for any current update
Sent from my EVO using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I must admit that I also struggle with their approach a little.
Think they should focus more on the very basics, like APN settings. I don't get a data connection so one of the most important requirements fail. Can't use such a system.
Next should be essential apps like (xmpp/jabber) Messenger and Mail instead of useless games or stock ticker app. At least on the mail side there's some action ongoing.
Nevertheless I'm very excited and looking forward to use it as a daily driver (some day).
happyass**** said:
I must admit that I also struggle with their approach a little.
Think they should focus more on the very basics, like APN settings. I don't get a data connection so one of the most important requirements fail. Can't use such a system.
Next should be essential apps like (xmpp/jabber) Messenger and Mail instead of useless games or stock ticker app. At least on the mail side there's some action ongoing.
Nevertheless I'm very excited and looking forward to use it as a daily driver (some day).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are actually working on an email app (not official though but with support from Canonical).
Links:
http://mhall119.com/2014/03/first-steps-towards-a-converged-email-client-for-ubuntu/
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/CoreApps/EmailClient
You cannot install it on the phone using the apps scope yet but you can compile it yourself if you want to test it.