[Q] Are there any interesting UI/Rom concepts out I missed? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi All,
I am in the Rom business for a very long time now and I have owned Android devices for more than 2 years now. I must confess, I am getting bored by the Roms and by the UI now.
Right now I have an HTC Sensation (Pyramid) and have had CM7, Sense up to 3.5, MIUI installed.
MIUI and CM7 still lacking Bluetooth functionality,but to be honest, the AOSP look is boring to me. Miui is nice, but where others say it is blazingly fast, I must say scrolling through settings is lagging. I mean a dual-core phone pumped up to 1.5GHz should not lag when scrolling through a list. Really annoying.
The Sense roms are too blown up and therefore even lag when I drag down the notifications area. Scrolling in general on sense roms is fast and fluid as it should be, but even a very stripped down Sense rom lags. And I don't like the round borders everywhere.
CM7 themes are more or less a joke (sorry, do not want to upset anybody, this is just my own thinking) and Sense roms are boring as well.
I read somewhere about a concept rom in the Miui forums, but I want to take the opportunity and ask the community if there are any interesting rom concepts out there in the wild or any tipp how I can have a complete makeover?
I have tested all those launchers (launcher pro, adw launcher ex, go launcher ex, those special funky ones (except spb shell)) and themes. I am not sure if SPB is worth it or not and if it runs ok...
Thankful for any input.
PS: Can't wait till Ice Cream Sandwich drops...

Ok, made the switch to SPB Shell 3D and loving it. Pure awesomeness.
Made me happy - hopefully this will last some time

Related

Hybrid Rom CM7 + Sensation?

Who would use a Rom that's a merge of the Sensation Rom and the features of CM7? I mean I love Sense 3.0 and CM7 has a lot of awesome features I think that would be freaking amazing any comments or opinions on this Idea? I'm not currently capable of making such an amazing creature but I would if I was just thought I'd throw it out there!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=12941025#
http://www.cyanogenmod.com/
I don't know if you know SkyRaider, but check this out - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=764787
That is for the INC, but he mashes sense and CM7 together VERY well. Some great roms for the INC. Now if we can only get him to come over to the TB lol.
Yes and then his roms will be ours! MWHAHAAHA
I personally have been kinda fantasizing about this very thing. The customizing of CM7(and gingerbread of course) along with like the lock screen and animated weather and other widgets of Sense 3.0 all blended into a nice big pile of awesome. Sadly neither of these roms are really functional yet, so a blend of the two is surely a ways off in the distance. But I for one would love to see it happen.
The new working lockscreen on Sensation rom is amazingly awesome!

Live Wallpapers

How you think they are going work on the 3d? Namely the space travel one. It changes direction as you swipe, but the 3d doesnt have scrolling wallpapers.
(which is a feature that I will miss GREATLY!!)
1wingangel said:
How you think they are going work on the 3d? Namely the space travel one. It changes direction as you swipe, but the 3d doesnt have scrolling wallpapers.
(which is a feature that I will miss GREATLY!!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I flashed Virus Kingdom b1.1--essentially the stock Evo3d ROM--and have been playing with it for a couple days. First thing I noticed is that sense 3.0 is a big bloated beast. I'm sure it runs a lot better on the real hardware, but, it is obviously a resource hog.
The lock screen is pretty awesome, especially the weather one. The stupid 'drag the ring' thing is really dumb IMHO...and I'm sure it runs well on a sensation or 3d, but its laggy as hell on an evo...but the configurable apps on the lock screen are great.
I think you might be able to configure it to allow scrolling wallpaper. The lack of it is just fiiiine. It seems a lot 'cleaner' that way....though the 3d sense is just a sloppy mess. Once again, probably runs MUCH cleaner on the actual hardware....but....it still seems like a sloppy wreck. But I hate sense anyway, so, I'm def biased.
So I installed launcher pro and put it on 3D cube transition...holy crap, it runs so damn smooth. Smoother than on CM7 OC'd to 1152, or any sense rom OC'd to 1152....I don't know if it is the stock GB kernel or some other magic but holy crap...I can't wait to see that combo on the 3D.
daneurysm said:
I flashed Virus Kingdom b1.1--essentially the stock Evo3d ROM--and have been playing with it for a couple days. First thing I noticed is that sense 3.0 is a big bloated beast. I'm sure it runs a lot better on the real hardware, but, it is obviously a resource hog.
The lock screen is pretty awesome, especially the weather one. The stupid 'drag the ring' thing is really dumb IMHO...and I'm sure it runs well on a sensation or 3d, but its laggy as hell on an evo...but the configurable apps on the lock screen are great.
I think you might be able to configure it to allow scrolling wallpaper. The lack of it is just fiiiine. It seems a lot 'cleaner' that way....though the 3d sense is just a sloppy mess. Once again, probably runs MUCH cleaner on the actual hardware....but....it still seems like a sloppy wreck. But I hate sense anyway, so, I'm def biased.
So I installed launcher pro and put it on 3D cube transition...holy crap, it runs so damn smooth. Smoother than on CM7 OC'd to 1152, or any sense rom OC'd to 1152....I don't know if it is the stock GB kernel or some other magic but holy crap...I can't wait to see that combo on the 3D.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could not disagree more but maybe because I'm running the Kingdom b1.2 (though for me b1.1 was good too) but not only do I find the Sense 3.0 port visually stunning, it is downright snappy on my EVO 4G after it settles down which does take about an hour- keep in mind it is a port not made for the 4G. And yes is is a pig of a ROM; it's huge but that is because of all the eye candy. But as you mentioned you hate Sense, I guess I'm bias because I love it. Sense 3.0 absolutely rocks as a Android overlay. I have no idea what you mean by a sloppy mess.
DCLocal said:
I could not disagree more but maybe because I'm running the Kingdom b1.2 (though for me b1.1 was good too) but not only do I find the Sense 3.0 port visually stunning, it is downright snappy on my EVO 4G after it settles down which does take about an hour- keep in mind it is a port not made for the 4G. And yes is is a pig of a ROM; it's huge but that is because of all the eye candy. But as you mentioned you hate Sense, I guess I'm bias because I love it. Sense 3.0 absolutely rocks as a Android overlay. I have no idea what you mean by a sloppy mess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then I'll give b1.2 a shot. I did notice that it takes a _long_ time to settle down. About an hours sounds right.
By sloppy I'm talking mostly about the home-screen swiping and transitions....there is a good chance that I'm just so used to how ADWex and LauncherPro have such tight transitions. Comparatively it seems sloppy and messy.
Though, aside from the launcher...once i get a different launcher running the thing screams, I can't even understand it.
...are they any OC kernels?
1wingangel said:
How you think they are going work on the 3d? Namely the space travel one. It changes direction as you swipe, but the 3d doesnt have scrolling wallpapers.
(which is a feature that I will miss GREATLY!!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, live wallpapers will look/perform excellently on the Evo 3D.

TouchWiz vs. Stock Android...

Given the features of TouchWiz... and the inherit delays for updates... what do you prefer? The features/UI... or the timely updates?
I prefer TW. It definitely adds a bit more functionality and some eye candy. The handy toggles in status bar, better clock, calculator, calendar etc are all nice. Also I like widgets like feeds and updates and daily breifing. They are light and nothing similar that aggregates multiple functions in one widget is available in market. And oh I cannot live without program monitor widget/task manager!
TW4 really brings some nice visual improvement and polish to the launcher. Dont know we will ever get it in Vibrant.
I would question the logic that TW is the reason for delayed updates when international galaxy S models are getting almost timely updates. In my opinion Samsung and TouchWiz should not be blamed for delayed updates in US. There is definitely carrier politics involved.
Stock for me. I don't use the widgets much and usually end up deleting them from ROMs even before in install a new one. And one big one for me is that I can't stand a side scrolling app drawer and vertical option in TouchWiz doesn't satisfy my vertical preference.
I think the best of both worlds (sorta) is TouchWiz coupled with ADW EX. For the reasons above
Tw is fine for me just don't like the launcher so I switched it w/ eugene's stock one and now its fine
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I am one of the few people who prefers TouchWiz over Stock Android. For me, Touchwiz is a perfect mix of the Iphone and Android. There are some features of the iphone that I really like such as the horizontal scrolling and the four icons at the bottom. That really makes a big difference. I like how with Touchwiz there are just the four icons at the bottom which make everything very easy when going to the main things you use. Also, TouchWiz was not really made to appeal to die-hard fandroids. In fact, it was probably made more than not to make it easier for people to switch from Iphone to Android. This way, more people buy Samsungs in the transition between Iphone and Android instead of HTC or Motorola or LG for that matter. I hope that was enough.
:complicated:
I like aosp better but id gotten used to tw for a while and it was quite mice... however ive never had a rom w/tw that feels entirely fluid so i ended up on cm7 with launcher pro to satisfy my ocd.
Tw is nice tho, if it were a bit more stable... just take into account that i liked it the way in came and i ended up using launcher pro when i had aosp.
Sent from a cell tower to the XDA server to you.
IMHO the gingerbread launcher in the android market seems to be the best UI for me. Its sleek, snappy, and overall a great daily.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

My View on Sense

I know there is alot of debate on the entire skins vs AOSP, ive decided to write my reasons for sticking with Sense instead of AOSP. we all know sense was introduced to make android faster and eaiser to use it was great but as android started to grow the need for sense started shritting away, that was until sense 4.0, but ive always been a fan of sense from my first android phone, Evo 4G then Evo 3D and now with the Evo LTE. i can say ive experanced every major release of sense dare i say from TouchFlo (and TF3D), 1.0, 1.1, 2.1, 3.0, 3.5, 3.6, 4.0, 4.1 and even played with Sense 4.5. ive seen sense evolve througout the year and while i do admit it may be a memory hog (Shivers at WinMo 6.1 TouchFlo 3D) i cant just help but also admit it's beauty. i honestly feel not only sense adds slight improvemnts to the software (I.E. First with the "Sync Widget" and the photo Grid Widget and even the ionic sense weather/clock, native facebook intergration). Now to the things i appricate about sense, the camera interface. I find AOSP camera to be boring and plain, sense camera's have always been something beautiful to look at with added features like distoration, hot,cold, thermal, greyscale, Dots even 3D, and now with the ImageSense chip to handle camera processing it just got even better. another thing i used to love about sense was the email client, while i have to admit it had sync issues(I.E. MSN email were still marked unread on PC) it has a beautiful yet user friendly interface,SMS/MMS also shared this. The Status Bar has always had solid icons, i refuse to theme the status bar because alot of themes feel out of place Huge numbers on battery out of place icons ETC. the sense browser has always been in my top 3 brower list, it soild smooth and wordwrap is a benifit i wish chrome & Stock had. one thing i find underrated is 4.x multitasking. HTC designed recent apps based on what many users loved. WebOS card's. HTC took the card idea and tossed there taste into it. Sense Gives android a clean cut feel to it, it is beautiful (had if HTC would've Given us the extra gig of ram it would have been even snappier). Now some improvements i would like to see in sense are pretty simple, First id like to see the Holo effect i admire HTC for giving us a pretty much Stock Dock but sense is missing the Holo Effect which in my opinion is an amazing feature in AOSP, also as mentioned above, an extra Gig of ram would'nt hurt us but i think HTC will leanr from the X line and add addtional Ram in the future.
EDIT:
i would also like to include im not bashing AOSP, but for my phone i prefer Sense where on my TF i prefer AOSP
Whats with the novels people are writing lately, who was time to read all that! Kidding...
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
PhyscoAssassinx said:
I know there is alot of debate on the entire skins vs AOSP, ive decided to write my reasons for sticking with Sense instead of AOSP.
we all know sense was introduced to make android faster and eaiser to use it was great but as android started to grow the need for sense started shritting away, that was until sense 4.0, but ive always been a fan of sense from my first android phone,
Evo 4G then Evo 3D and now with the Evo LTE. i can say ive experanced every major release of sense dare i say from TouchFlo (and TF3D), 1.0, 1.1, 2.1, 3.0, 3.5, 3.6, 4.0, 4.1 and even played with Sense 4.5. ive seen sense evolve througout the year and while i do admit it may be a memory hog (Shivers at WinMo 6.1 TouchFlo 3D) i cant just help but also admit it's beauty.
i honestly feel not only sense adds slight improvemnts to the software (I.E. First with the "Sync Widget" and the photo Grid Widget and even the ionic sense weather/clock, native facebook intergration).
Now to the things i appricate about sense, the camera interface. I find AOSP camera to be boring and plain, sense camera's have always been something beautiful to look at with added features like distoration, hot,cold, thermal, greyscale, Dots even 3D, and now with the ImageSense chip to handle camera processing it just got even better. another thing i used to love about sense was the email client, while i have to admit it had sync issues(I.E. MSN email were still marked unread on PC) it has a beautiful yet user friendly interface,SMS/MMS also shared this.
The Status Bar has always had solid icons, i refuse to theme the status bar because alot of themes feel out of place Huge numbers on battery out of place icons ETC. the sense browser has always been in my top 3 brower list, it soild smooth and wordwrap is a benifit i wish chrome & Stock had. one thing i find underrated is 4.x multitasking. HTC designed recent apps based on what many users loved. WebOS card's. HTC took the card idea and tossed there taste into it.
Sense Gives android a clean cut feel to it, it is beautiful (had if HTC would've Given us the extra gig of ram it would have been even snappier). Now some improvements i would like to see in sense are pretty simple, First id like to see the Holo effect i admire HTC for giving us a pretty much Stock Dock but sense is missing the Holo Effect which in my opinion is an amazing feature in AOSP, also as mentioned above, an extra Gig of ram would'nt hurt us but i think HTC will leanr from the X line and add addtional Ram in the future.
EDIT:
i would also like to include im not bashing AOSP, but for my phone i prefer Sense where on my TF i prefer AOSP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There we go, a bit easier on the eye. :cyclops:
I'm really mad they tied that ImageSense chip into the SenseUI. By the time anyone in AOSP manages to merge it, the phone will be outdated.
garrisonc said:
I'm really mad they tied that ImageSense chip into the SenseUI. By the time anyone in AOSP manages to merge it, the phone will be outdated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know they already have ._.
I tried AOSP out a few days ago (CM10) and I was able to take pictures while recording video, and picture taking was about as fast as normal.
I also heard that they merged it into AOSP awhile back.
But I could be wrong on what the ImageSense chip is in charge of, but I thought it handled that.
All that was required was porting the libs over and they have successfully merged the libraries already. There are still some things that can't be done yet. At this point the underpinnings are there but the software has to catch up
2 things:.
1. AOSP browser has word wrap. If you mean text reflow (like, a column maintaining screen width at any zoom level).
2. You LIKE sense 4 multitasking?!
How? It DOESNT multitask. It closes everything as soon as you leave it. Hell, zeppelinrocks and others have been working long trying to fix it.
I feel like I just stepped into bizarro world.
hurled from my AOKP'd Evo LTE. Enjoy.
scottspa74 said:
2 things:.
1. AOSP browser has word wrap. If you mean text reflow (like, a column maintaining screen width at any zoom level).
2. You LIKE sense 4 multitasking?!
How? It DOESNT multitask. It closes everything as soon as you leave it. Hell, zeppelinrocks and others have been working long trying to fix it.
I feel like I just stepped into bizarro world.
hurled from my AOKP'd Evo LTE. Enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't reflow on my tablet and yes I like sense 4 multitasking, it works fine with me, again this differs from user to user many people on here hate it many people on here loves it I'm not expecting any one to agree with me out trying to change anyone's mind just my personal opinion on sense
Sent from my HTC .....oh wait its stuck at customs
notsointeresting said:
As far as I know they already have ._.
I tried AOSP out a few days ago (CM10) and I was able to take pictures while recording video, and picture taking was about as fast as normal.
I also heard that they merged it into AOSP awhile back.
But I could be wrong on what the ImageSense chip is in charge of, but I thought it handled that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, CM10 uses the stock Android camera; they'd have to engineer the drivers for that chip from scratch. The ImageSense chip speeds things up dramatically and does a great deal of image processing... Supposedly they're legally required to eventually release the source for it, but the way things go it doesn't end up getting released until the device is nearing EOL, if at all. Please note that I have no inside information on this, this is just what I've picked up on these boards, as it's an important topic to me. As much as I like CM10, I don't like the idea of software that gimps my hardware.
^^^^^^^ what do you mean, "nah" ?
Yes, you absolutely can take stills while video recording in AOSP. I'm on AOKP and just did it.
I will say that in sense, taking a still while recording resulted in a pic that was crisper and sharper than any standalone pic I could take , while in AOSP, the still from video tends to be a bit blurry for me.
hurled from my AOKP'd Evo LTE. Enjoy.
I guess I'll add my opinion into this. I'm honestly a big sense fan. I've used the galaxy nexus for a few weeks, and tried out the galaxy S III. Now, what I love about AOSP is that everything is fast, and it works extremely well. (At least for the galaxy nexus.) I'm not a big fan of how much of a memory hog sense is, nor its bizarre multitasking, but I love the way sense integrates social networks. I'm a huge, facebook/tweeter users, and I hated how stock Android doesn't have as many options as Sense to integrate the two. Everything was centered around Google Plus, and none of the people I talk to are on Google plus, so it's pretty much useless to me. SO, Social network integration is a plus for me, as far as sense is concerned. Also, I love the little nuances in the design, like the weather animation, and widgets. I just only wish, sense wasn't so laggy, and HTC added some of the extras that you find in Touchwiz on the Galaxy S III.
I agree, I like sense more than touchwiz. I had the first galaxy s, and I liked a few of the added customizations, and I've played around with the s3. It's a very nice phone with a lot of little options. The one thing I like the most about touchwiz is the contacts, swipe left on a name to call and swipe right to message (or vice versa, can't remember). That's a nice little touch. Other than that and the lack of good multitasking, I think sense is very nice and user friendly.
I like sense but sometimes I get this crazy long lag when loading my text messages. Doesn't happen all the time and seems pretty random but its not just text messages. Sometimes it happens opening people or when trying to create a new message, it doesn't auto fill who I'm looking up for a good 15 seconds. Annoying and I'm pretty sure it's sense's fault. I had CM7 on my og Evo for about a year and I like stock android, got the Nexus 7 and it's great. I'm running stock on my Evo LTE and I'm not rooted but I'm seriously thinking about it just to get rid of that lag, it's rare enough that I might just update to jellybean when it comes out and hope it's fixed because it didn't do it until my first update. Also it takes way to long to launch sense when you've been in the browser for a while and hit home. Loading... Loading...
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

Difference(s) between ICS Sense 3.6 & Sense 4.0

Having just gone through a minor hassle getting my phone back in service on an ICS Sense 3.6 ROM, can anyone describe the differences between Sense 3.6 and Sense 4.0? I'm considering trying Sense 4.0 but frankly don't won't to bother with the exercise if the community deems it not worth it .....
Menues are different, they have a white background to them. Rosie is a bit smoother in my opinion. The widgets are a bit different and also battery life is better in my experience.
Besides losing the infinite scroll effect that 3.x has, I'd take 4 any day
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda app-developers app
Thanks, I'll give it a try
I'm a Sense 4.0 and 4.1 guy here as well. I've been running a Sense 4.1 ROM for months now and I think its smoother than most of the 4.0's out there. 4.1 is mostly minor changes over 4.0 but I like them. I personally don't do 3.x anymore for a variety of reasons. If you like Sense, I really think 4.x is the better choice.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't hdmi n data arrows still being worked on in 4.x?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2
Kensai said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't hdmi n data arrows still being worked on in 4.x?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. Data arrows are not working on any 4.x ROM.
FWIW, I have run several 3.6 and 4.x ROMS on my Rezound and definitely prefer the darker widgets and interface of 3.6.
My name's Harold and I'm a flashaholic....
Everything in Sense 3.6 WORKS. Sense 4+ has some bugs, but they are so few that they only annoy a niche of users. The biggest annoyance I have with 3.6 is the fact that it has a vertical paginated app drawer (de-sensed options not withstanding). This is an extremely minor flaw in my opinion. Really, you pay the cost for the cutting edge of technology with an outdated phone. It's only outdated in the sense that technology for these devices advances so rapidly though.
Otherwise, Sense 4+ is much more customizable. Sense 3.6 is what the phone is stock with ICS. If you're going to root and ROM, you might as well just give all of them a shot (3.6, 4+, AOSP). Otherwise, it would just do to root and leave it stock, but that's no fun when we have AOSP Jellybean running!
It really boils down to a matter of preference. I like 4+ because it's newer, but not for any other reason regarding functionality. AOSP is my choice (with AOKP being my favorite), but all of the ROMs have their place. I encourage you to at least try one of each flavor. Although setting up your phone frequently can be a chore, it's worth it to find what best suits you.
Happy flashing!
I prefer 4.X over 3.6, if only because of better integration amongs 3rd party apps, sense feels less intrusive in 4.0, the widgets look much better, and that launcher bar on the bottom is so ugly in 3.6. I can only stand 3.6 desensed roms aesthetically, and even then there's problems because I can't use the lockscreen.
I've also got ViperRez installed running the ICS Icon pack by KODEV and the stock holo apps look really great on the rezound's screen

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