Hello XDA I’ve been away from android for some time; switched to iPhone for a bit, from the htc evo 4g. I have switched to Verizon and the galaxy s4 sense then and I want to make some changes to my phone (hence the post). I have rooted my device but haven’t put any custom roms or kernels on my s4 just different launchers. Here is a list of thing I want to change:
Quick disclaimer: some of my wording may be off, I don’t have my phone in front of me to check everything and do proper background research
Phone UI-I want to change the phone app entirely. Its ugly it’s white and it’s [for lack of a better word] fat and cartoonish. I hate the stock dialer and the in-call ui. It has to go; please if nothing else give me some ideas on how to change this! Im using ex dialer and contacts but that doesn’t change the in call experience.
Unread Notifications- I’m currently using nova launcher prime and action launcher pro the kicker is that neither have a proper unread counter for calls texts and emails. Nova works the best because it does in fact have an unread counter but it only works for phone and texts but not for Samsung emails which I use for both my Gmail and my exchange emails. It irks me; I’ve emailed the developer but haven’t heard anything back from him.
Wi-Fi- is there a way to move/add wifi to the notification panel? The panel being the quick access buttons on the top of the notification scroll down. I hate that is “floating” in the other part of the notification list.
Volume- how can I get rid of the volume alert I get when I have something plugged in to the headphone port? I feel that it’s the dumbest warning in the world and it’s even more annoying because it keeps coming back after each reboot (I think). We aren’t 5 years old we already know that loadnoises arnt good for our ears…
App drawer icon- I love the touchwiz app drawer icon and that’s probably the only thing I can’t live without. I’ve got a similar icon from a touchwiz icon pack but it’s not the same one. How can I extract it from touch wiz so that I can use it with various roms or launchers?
Google play- I buy things from Google play every now and again and would like to continue to do so. The only problem is, is that I can’t move the content over to the SD card I would like to store it there because 16gb can only hold so much. I saw that someone figured out how to move Google play music over to SD which is great but I want my magazines and movies on the SD too.
I would like to keep as many Samsung features as I can when I rom my device I enjoy a lot of the Samsung gimmicks that came with it; such as multi-window and the smart stay, view, scroll and pause it’s fun to play with.
Are there specific roms and kernels I need to use for my specific device? If so please refer me to the thread.
Is there a rom that adds a professional and sleek look to the device and adds the discussed features from above? If so what is it and where can I get it!?
J.L.Greene
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda premium
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Since the day the Galaxy s came I've fallen in with loved Touchwiz as matter of fact it is one of the reason i will not be trading in my Vibrant for Nexus s, well until touchwiz is ported nexus s at least.
But I've notice others with vibrant and other galaxy s phones hate Touchwiz and i want to know why? Please leave response as to why you love or hate touchwiz?
I like some things about TouchWiz...but...
its not customisable
the icons are too big and iphone-like
a lot of screen real estate is lost because everything on the homescreen is too big (should have grids of 5x5 instead of 4x4)
I like the app drawer...jumping to screens when clicking the small dots etc
and its quite fast for me
I really like touchwiz to. I tried launcher pro and adw and i really didnt like them. But i did just installed nero from tw and the gingerbread launcher is sweet.
Fear the beard...
For me it's not so much the TW Launcher as it is the widgets. I've found that I really use Feeds & Updates and Daily Briefing quite a lot, and though there are vaguely comparable ones, none of them have grabbed me.
The notification bar is also unique and extremely useful, so much so that Cyanogen largely copied it.
I think the biggest reason why people hate Touchwiz is because it has been blamed for much of the initial lagginess of the phone. Now we know this is largely not true.
It's childs play to use another launcher however, and people may prefer widgets that do not bind to TW. To each his own, which is the true beauty of Android.
What I don't like about TouchWiz:
-the page indicator on top can't be turned off or set to auto-hide
-the dockbar icon labels don't match the rest of the UI (they don't have black bubbles around the text, it looks mismatched)
-cannot change the number of rows on homescreens
-no swipe actions (ADW ruined me for swiping down anywhere on the screen to get the notification pulldown)
-no activities shortcuts (Wireless AP requires a shortcut!)
-seems to run slower/laggier than ADW or launcherpro
What I do like about TouchWiz:
-FEEDS AND UPDATES
-FEEDS AND UPDATES
-FEEDS AND UPDATES
Soooo much better than the Facebook widget...
Edit: I use ADW.Launcher myself and love it. I really miss Feeds & Updates though.
The app drawer can not scroll like a stock android launcher.
The docks can not be customizable to the level Android allows.
The icons look like an iPhone - AND I hate scrolling left to right (and I dont like the view for scrolling up/down)
I switch ROMs often, TW does not backup it's settings like LP/ADW can.
Other than those things, TW is great... I also prefer the widgets that come with LauncherPro Plus and the speed/customizations that it allows. TW COULD be able to duplicate those features..... but until it does, no thanks.
I love touchwiz. Love the left to right scrolling of the app drawer.love the look and feel. Love the icons. The dock icons are custamizable. This is one reason i dont like custom roms without touchwiz because i love it sooo much.
Things i hate. You cant hide the notification bar and it starts to Burn into your screen. Errrr
It's the iPhone clone look that turns me off. It was bad enough that the samsung made the phone look physically like an iPhone, but to skin Android to look like the iPhone's software was over the top. I don't want people to think I have an iPhone.
youre right
monstah_rain said:
It's the iPhone clone look that turns me off. It was bad enough that the samsung made the phone look physically like an iPhone, but to skin Android to look like the iPhone's software was over the top. I don't want people to think I have an iPhone.
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i got tired of the ipod touch i had and it resembles the ipod touch iphone too much for me. plus i dont like lines on my screen. i use adw and minimalist theme with black background, totally awesome for me. i can do with out the non sense.
"I love that Google is innovating the Smartphone technology space at an amazing rate. Android is growing fast and holds so much promise. For instance Google voice actions which I am sure you are all familiar with is such a great idea and I cant wait to use it with 2.2. The updated Gmail client and services as well, Chrome to phone are both awesome ideas but will never work on 2.1 so I am looking forward to 2.2 or higher. I own a car and well I do take calls while driving and would like to use voice search or voice dialing to be hands free. Obviously Android can do this just not with 2.1 this is a pretty cool feature also available on 2.2 or higher. What Samsung has done with Touchwiz is pretty cool too. Let's face it Google is perhaps innovating the space a bit too fast. Samsung has developed Touchwiz not only to slow that hectic innovation down. But, perhaps stall it completely on Samsungs devices that way we can enjoy 2.1 with Touchwiz just a little bit longer. It also sets the Galaxy S devices apart from all the other Android smartphones in the market running Google's latest innovations. But also because we like it and it is so good.
That new android Keyboard for Gingerbread is just what the Doctor ordered isn't it? How about the new Google personalized voice recognition for Google voice? Nice, but no thanks I like taking it slow with Touchwiz and 2.1. Who needs location services and GPS anyway right? What are your favorite 2.1 features?" - by Countbunny from the other forum.
That is how I feel about it.
ok folks, I've had this phone a couple months, and here's some things I wonder if you can help me with since I am new to android. This phone has great potential, I just don't know the OS as well as my last phone.
#1
what should I use to set the phone to vibrate during "busy" calendar appointments? I swear my first palmphone from 2002 and everything since has done this automatcially. I'm using light flow to shut the phone up at night so it doesn't wake me up with notifications, but it doesn't do well with calendar notifications.
Tasker?
#2
What calendar widget would you recommend that will show me full day events, and will show them on the day of the event. The stock widget blows. Ideally I'd want something scrollable, but I may have to get a new launcher for that?
#3
As a corollary to the new launcher, how can I get things like messaging icons & vmx icons that actually show new messages? Like as a little number over the icon like in sense? The other day my phone crashed & rebooted (as it seems to be prone to do) and even though I had new emails I didn't know it because the notifications were cleared.
#4
Would a new/different launcher update profile photos of contact shortcuts that were placed on the "desktop"? When people update their profile photos it doesn't update the photo on the shortcut (using contact shortcut, not the moto ones)
#5
Is there anything I can use that will create seperate volumes for when the headphones are plugged in? I'm so used to my old TP2 having seperate volumes, I've blasted my ear drums out twice because I hit play without checking the volume first. I ended up puting a "sound settings" shortcut on my home screen, but thats only kind of a workaround.
#6
How can I add widgets to the lockscreen? I'd like to be able to see weather on my lockscreen. I miss my CHT locker that showed shortcuts to unlock directly to text/email/vmx if they had any notifications.
#7
How can I merge contacts? I have a few contacts where these people must have put their middle initial as part of their last name in their facebook/linkedin profile, so there are two seperate contacts listed in two different places on the contact list.
#8
While on the subject of contacts, is there any sort of manager that can consolidate the communications with that contact into one place? I'm starting to sound like a broken record here, but I liked the sense people tab where I could swipe from the contact card to text message conversation with that person, to emails from that person, to their social media updates.
I didn't think that I really loved sense that much, but after I had it all tweaked with CHT I find that I really miss being able to customize so many things. Is there anything like CHT for android? Maybe I should have stuck with HTC, then again I don't really know, maybe sense for android is different too.
Ok, thanks for reading, and please share any suggestions you may have.
I DO like the phone, I just want to like it more!
I'm too busy right now to answer everything, but it sounds like you need Launcher Pro Plus and Widget Locker. As far as merging contacts, go into the contact, hit menu then edit contacts, hit menu again and there is a join contact option.
Sent from my DROID X2 using xda premium
Also download AutomateIt for your headphone volume problem.
Sent from my DROID X2 using xda premium
android new guy
ahh, tnx wolfman, I knew I had seen that join thing somewhere!
geez, I'm such a noob I can't even spell android right in the title!
No prob. Launcher Pro Plus has scrollable widgets like you're looking for. You can set a profile on AutomateIt to do about anything when a certain action occurs. Let me check if there is one for headphones...
Sent from my DROID X2 using xda premium
Score. AutomateIt has a profile for headphones. Plus it's free in the market. Just the app you were looking for (*waves fingers down*)
Sent from my DROID X2 using xda premium
OK, so I've been using Android for a while with HTC Sense, what user interface differences am I likely to notice when I move to Touchwiz on a Galaxy S3? (I would have gone for the HTX One X - but no removable battery, no SD card?! C'mon!)
I also have a nice physical qwerty keyboard at the moment, so having to use a touch-only keyboard will be a wrench, how bad is it? (I can't really use the on-screen keyboard on my HTC Desire Z at all, I'm just hoping that the slightly larger screen will make a touch keyboard least bearable).
Andre
Touching "Weather" on home screen leads to "Weather app" only - no Clock, no Alarm...
Weather then needs three steps (and browser) to show ""Hourly". No animation in Weather app, also.
Ended up removing that widget completely and putting normal clock instead.
Dialer has no AI. Needs a lot of patience. Ended up adding "Direct Dial Widget" for some people I call a lot - can't use dialer at all, it's annoying.
I found no way of copying contacts to Phone all at once, like in Sense. Contact pictures are small and pixelated due to this (used to change Google to Phone contacts on Sense, and reapplying the pics so they stay in full res).
TouchWizz will link contacts properly but will miss their Skype pictures. Further (manual) linking is possible, but a bit more complicated then in Sense 4.
Adding widgets and apps in Sense 4 (I used before) is a lot more straight forward. This is a bit... well, one can get used to it, but it's different. "Hold and drag" instead of simply "Tap". Go figure.
If I remember anything else, I'll add it. Can't help with your keyboard issue, I use screen for it for a while.
So basically Sense is mostly better, but it's fixable with third-party apps. Kinda what I expected; I do like Sense, but HTC have dropped the ball a bit with the rest of the One-X vs. the Galaxy 3S.
The one thing I know I'll miss (stupid I know!) will be the animated weather graphics when you open the home page.
Andre
You can get all that from beautiful widgets and the free animation app at play store. go to getjar for the apk.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
I too moved from HTC (previously Desire, Desire HD, SensationXE) to S3.
Missed the most is the HTC signature home page, lots of custom mods and libary of widgets provided by Sense. But nothing can trump replacable battery and uSD card. Take me few hours to get use to Touchwiz and Samsung apps. Now a very happy user of S3.
andrewilley said:
So basically Sense is mostly better, but it's fixable with third-party apps. Kinda what I expected; I do like Sense, but HTC have dropped the ball a bit with the rest of the One-X vs. the Galaxy 3S.
The one thing I know I'll miss (stupid I know!) will be the animated weather graphics when you open the home page.
Andre
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What you won't miss is the lag with Sense.
As for the keyboard, you just have to go cold turkey. I could suggest trying other keyboards. One or two features I find missing on the keyboard are directional arrows, because it's hard to pin point going back to a word to correct it, and the mic icon for voice to text input... I had a keyboard on my Note that took care of those two and was a bit easier to type on.. Now I forget which one it was and miss it.. lol
Thanks. I use HD Widgets on my tablet, which allows installs onto multiple devices, so I'll try that first - or maybe try Beautiful Widgets for the animations.
Andre
Swype changed my opinion of touch screen keyboards forever. It's almost as fast as having a full sized qwerty keyboard once you know how to use it.
I like sense as well but I'm not buying a phone without a removable battery either. I'm also tired of the sub standard speakers HTC keep using. I'd at least like to hear my phone ring in my pocket.
Think most of the points of difference have been covered already. Touch wiz now also has features of its own lacking in sense. Example is smart stay and some of the other motion control options.
All in all, having used a sensation up until April and a desire hd before that, I'm finding touch wiz to be quite pleasant. It's not nearly as crap as the HTC fan boys like to make out on those forums.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
So far I love the phone. This is the only phone I've had in a long time where I haven't wanted to load a custom rom the day I got it. There's just one thing I don't know if there's an option for, and something else I'd like to change that I hope it easy being rooted.
1. Is there a way to make the vibrate patterns apply to text messages? So far they only seem to apply to incoming calls.
2. The little dots on the bottom that show what page I'm on. Can I get rid of those or move them to the top of the screen?
ok, there's a 3rd I guess. The green phone icon, is there an EASY way to change that? Not thrilled about a couple others either like the contacts one. Don't know if there's a simple way to go in and swap out the image file for a different one or not. On my Galaxy tablet I was able to go in and create custom icons on the computer and use a program on the tab to select what program I wanted it to open, but that was a long time ago and I forgot how to do it, or what programs I used. If that's what it comes down too though, guess that's what I'll have to do. Just wanted to know if there was an easier way. I don't mind the icons themselves, just the colors. Not a fan of green or orange. Blue would be nice.
Thanks in advance for any help on these. Besides this stuff, absolutely LOVE the phone...
hope this helps...
1. I don't see any place in the touchwiz messaging app's settings to customize the vibrate pattern for texts... some possible solutions would be a custom ROM with the stock google messaging app rather than the touchwiz app, or somewhat less extreme would be to install a 3rd party texting client from the play store and see if that setting is present in that app.
2. I'm not sure if the touchwiz launcher allows you to hide or remove those little indicator dots, but you can open up a million options for homescreen launcher settings by installing a 3rd party launcher from the play store like Nova Launcher or Apex Launcher. Currently I'm using Apex and it is great (still rocking the stock experience until CM9 gets a stable release).
3. As for changing icons like the phone, calendar, calculator, etc. This is another thing that can be customized using a launcher like Apex.
ShawnDobie said:
So far I love the phone. This is the only phone I've had in a long time where I haven't wanted to load a custom rom the day I got it. There's just one thing I don't know if there's an option for, and something else I'd like to change that I hope it easy being rooted.
1. Is there a way to make the vibrate patterns apply to text messages? So far they only seem to apply to incoming calls.
2. The little dots on the bottom that show what page I'm on. Can I get rid of those or move them to the top of the screen?
ok, there's a 3rd I guess. The green phone icon, is there an EASY way to change that? Not thrilled about a couple others either like the contacts one. Don't know if there's a simple way to go in and swap out the image file for a different one or not. On my Galaxy tablet I was able to go in and create custom icons on the computer and use a program on the tab to select what program I wanted it to open, but that was a long time ago and I forgot how to do it, or what programs I used. If that's what it comes down too though, guess that's what I'll have to do. Just wanted to know if there was an easier way. I don't mind the icons themselves, just the colors. Not a fan of green or orange. Blue would be nice.
Thanks in advance for any help on these. Besides this stuff, absolutely LOVE the phone...
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1. Have heard others complain of this issue, so I don't believe that there a way to do it. Don't use that feature myself so...
2. Again, I'm not sure, but I think you're stuck with them. You could use a launcher that allows more customization. I like apex.
3. Download an app called "icon changer" and a icon pack or theme with the icons you would like to use. You can then open the application and select the app you want to change the icon of and pick a new icon. It will create a shortcut of the app with the custom icon on your home screen. Great for changing icons on your home screen if you want to remain using TW. If you decide to use an alternate launcher like apex this feature is already integrated and you have the ability to switch the icons within the app drawer as well.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app
Thanks for the quick replies. Trying to stay away from a custom rom on this phone. There's just nothing I'm really unhappy with that much. There's always something that goes wrong when I load one. Not saying there's ANYTHING wrong with the roms themselves, there's just not that much on this phone I'm not happy with, unlike phones I've had in the past. I'm coming from a Desire.
Thanks for the Icon Changer app also. Changing them on my tablet was a pain in the butt, this was nice and simple. Any way you know the dimensions of the icons though so I can create some of my own?
Just got an HTC One X+. First Droid phone. Impressed with the hardware and having fun finding my way around the OS. Coming from a jailbroken iPhone 4, the hardware is like night and day, but the lockscreen/widget functionality is another story.
Previously on iOS 5.1.1 with Intelliscreen X, my lockscreen would have bars going all the way across the screen that showed number of new sms, voicemails, calls, emails, and you could expand and see the messages and then collapse. Or as new notifications came in, it would already be expanded and you could collapse. You could also hit a 'clear' button (when expanded or collapsed) to clear all the messages/notifications (just on the lock screen - not in the actual app of course.)
If you haven't used Intelliscreen X before, If you want to see what I'm talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwx9PUX_tz8
I see there is some widget functionality on 4.1.1 but it seems limited to only the Home Screen. In addition, the formatting looks terrible as there is all this wasted space around the widgets and the app icon spacing is pretty huge too. It won't let me put more than 2 4x1 widgets and 8 icons on the home screen. This seems very limited, and looks very poorly to me.
I understand widgets on lockscreen are not implemented until Jelly Bean 4.2. Was hoping Android was going to be a little farther along than this as my research seemed to indicate for a user like me it was up to speed with iOS, which it seems it is in most other areas.
I realize with such a new device, that can't even be rooted yet (AT&T HTC One X+) that it may be a while before I'm going to get a custom ROM with 4.2 let alone a 4.2 update from HTC.
Haven't used the phone a ton, but there is a chance this could potentially be a deal breaker for me and may have to go exchange it for iPhone 5 in a couple weeks (and wait for iOS 6 untethered jailbreak).
Is there a course of action (any apps?) that people that know where I'm coming from could recommend to maybe hopefully tide me over until I can get a ROM with the capabilities I want? Seems there must be some Android user out there that has used iPhone with Intelliscreen X before?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
WidgetLocker is the answer but pales in comparison to Intelliscreen X on iPhone. Seems this is the issue with Android, the lockscreens aren't standard across phones so you have to use whatever HTC or whomever is using unless you use WidgetLocker.
Problem is, even with the Tesla Unread Count plugin installed, I can't seem to get unread counts on the phone and mail icons. I'll ask this in the One X forum as there's barely anyone here yet since the phone is so new!
Are you not worried about your privacy? with a lockscreen like that anyone can pick your phone up and see your missed calls/SMS's/Emails ect
Well I'm not cheating on my wife, and even if I was my mistress wouldn't be using my normal phone number. LOL.
I don't have any top secret info, like business data, that a competitor might want to see if they glanced at my phone in a meeting.
But I do see your point and have seen others make this point.
You can control what can be seen and I just tested the phone's lock and you still can assign a pin/pw to get into the phone as when you hit the back arrow on any apps you launch from the lockscreen it goes back to the lockscreen, at least on my HTC One X+.
I finally got it all setup and WidgetLock with Tesla Unread Counter has got me to where I need to be with Jelly Bean. Not as good as Intelliscreen X. Someone should copy those guys or they should do a port to Android. The ability to have the widget show you a summary (one line of text and a counter or something ) and be able to expand it to see more data and collapse it, is SO useful. I'll miss that. Can't have everything I guess. That's really the only thing I'll miss about my iPhone (I think so far). But I had to jailbreak it to get that functionality.
AndroHero said:
Are you not worried about your privacy? with a lockscreen like that anyone can pick your phone up and see your missed calls/SMS's/Emails ect
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