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Why should I use CM7?

I am currently using CR OTA Froyo... whats the real benefits of CM7 I flashed it while it was pre-RC and just went back because of minor issues... but now since in past RC1 what are the Pros...Cons...

Everthing is better more options n speed n customize more space looks trust me ull nevrr go bak.
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA Premium App

What kind of issues did you have? Maybe they've been resolved?
I like CM7 a bunch, Stable is great... although my wifi is acting up.

i went from cm rc1 build for a few weeks to OTA for half a day then got the cm7, gotta sasy CM7 > RC1 > OTA all the way, the only thing is no gps but who cares

I tried CM7-RC4 and honestly, I missed Sense. I want a phone that is completely stable, I don't want to have to wonder if my wi-fi or bluetooth or gps is or isn't gonna work today. I'm using the rooted official 2.2.1 that was released along with Dark Tremor's a2sd which lets me move all my apps and the dalvik cache to the sd card, giving me amazing amounts of memory on the phone and it is super fast. And everything works perfect: wi-fi, bluetooth, gps, websites with flash.

Well I installed cm7 again... And it works ok... Randomly reboots periodically. Still don't really see the point, only benefit I get its I don't get memory low errors as I did with OTA 2.2.1
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using Tapatalk

I agree with these statements so far, cm7 is great, with amy rom there is going to be some pros and cons. In most cases gps and/or wifi doesn't work. Hence why I stick to sense, also for me the theme is a negative for me, lack of support for sense widgets which most people tend to grow accustom to. As of now I'm running the rooted ota, modded by me. gold carded 8 gb sd, custom boot animation. No longer s-off. That was my own fault on my behalf of user stupidity, applying the update from t-mobile. Anyways, if your willing to lose sense and its widgets, and to-my-knowledge cm7's gps won't work, for more internal storage and possible performance reaction wise, cm7 other wise stock with sense.

use CM7 cause its coool...
Lol sorry im bored here at work atm but why its on all personal preference
I use cm7 on the slide cause i dont like all the bloatware on others/or lack of deving /support, and CM roms are most supported rom for themes and fixes/and ports,
and considering seems to be the rom that has most of the stuff in it working fully or to a degree where it is usable
thats things i can only think of now..

Imo there is no reason to go with cm7. I hear stuff about less bloatware but, there isn't much bloatware to begin with. I have about 20 apps installed and still have 130mb of free space on the phone. Just use aps2sd cachesd and a class 6 card and be done with it. I get the beutiful sense weather clock widget, the very pretty and functional htc sense mp3 player, and everything works with no issues and the phone is just as fast as cm7. Just make sure you update the kernel to the one nbetcher requests you use. I just wish he would have left myfaves in as I liked being able to quickly select the person I wanted to text or call. I also still have the myfaves account with tmobile.

icoman said:
Imo there is no reason to go with cm7. I hear stuff about less bloatware but, there isn't much bloatware to begin with. I have about 20 apps installed and still have 130mb of free space on the phone. Just use aps2sd cachesd and a class 6 card and be done with it. I get the beutiful sense weather clock widget, the very pretty and functional htc sense mp3 player, and everything works with no issues and the phone is just as fast as cm7. Just make sure you update the kernel to the one nbetcher requests you use. I just wish he would have left myfaves in as I liked being able to quickly select the person I wanted to text or call. I also still have the myfaves account with tmobile.
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You could try this one, it is the stock final OTA ROM but is already rooted and retains the older HBOOT (not the new 1.0) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1042472
I'm running it with apps2sd and a Class 10 card, with /data and dalvik cache going to the ext3 partition. It is super fast, and still has all the goodies like faves and genius functions.

I tried 3rd Sense ROM (I hate T-Mobile's crappy Sense mod) and went back to CM 7 in a week. It has a whole lot of options that can make your phone actually yours. The T-Mobile Theme Chooser is great and there is a decent amount of themes for it on XDA and on the market. It is a whole lot smoother and I prefer stock over Sense. I hate bloatware and CM 7 has no bloatware (unless you think ADW.Launcher is bloatware). CM 7 is a ROM that is actually constantly updated and everything works 100% for me (Nightly Build 42 has the wi-fi drivers that HTC release so wi-fi works great and GPS was never a problem for me).
Sense Widgets are great but you can find something on the market that looks like the widgets and usually behaves better (you can skin them, etc.) I use Beautiful Widgets for my clock/weather needs.
Also the flash lite thing, it doesn't work for anything "major" I tried to run some embedded youtube videos when I was on a website and the youtube video was jerky and laggy. Better to use the actually youtube app and unless you enjoy watching choppy, laggy videos that drain half you battery in like 15 min, go ahead and use flash lite

UberMario said:
I tried 3rd Sense ROM (I hate T-Mobile's crappy Sense mod) and went back to CM 7 in a week. It has a whole lot of options that can make your phone actually yours. The T-Mobile Theme Chooser is great and there is a decent amount of themes for it on XDA and on the market. It is a whole lot smoother and I prefer stock over Sense. I hate bloatware and CM 7 has no bloatware (unless you think ADW.Launcher is bloatware). CM 7 is a ROM that is actually constantly updated and everything works 100% for me (Nightly Build 42 has the wi-fi drivers that HTC release so wi-fi works great and GPS was never a problem for me).
Sense Widgets are great but you can find something on the market that looks like the widgets and usually behaves better (you can skin them, etc.) I use Beautiful Widgets for my clock/weather needs.
Also the flash lite thing, it doesn't work for anything "major" I tried to run some embedded youtube videos when I was on a website and the youtube video was jerky and laggy. Better to use the actually youtube app and unless you enjoy watching choppy, laggy videos that drain half you battery in like 15 min, go ahead and use flash lite
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My experience has been very different from yours. The Sense ROMs perform very well here without an issue. That's the beauty of Android, we can have different versions to suit our individual tastes. You like CM7 better, I like the Sense ROMs, and we both win.

CM7.0.2 wins for me
I put off rooting my Slide for months because I was afraid of losing all the Sense UI stuff. But there were some things that became intolerable for me.
T-Mo puts that faves button next to the app drawer. My hand would hit it all the time on accident. I hate Faves. I think the concept is like making a redundant speed dial that is really slow and buggy and adds duplicate notifications when you get a text. I hated it.
It didn't help my opinion that the T-Mo apps broke every other month.
The HTC widgets are kinda cool but the animated rain gets old. The weather reporting was sub par anyway since about every third day the forecast would be completely off. I was, and still am, looking for a widget that pulls data from wunderground.com.
So, I finally made the jump when I saw CM7 released a stable. I got it. It worked really well. My phone got a lot faster overnight. T-Mo released the official update 3 days later and I put it on the wife's slide.
I am happy to report that side by side my slide is faster. I get all the same stuff she got but I can modify a lot of things she can't. CM7 settings makes really simple changes and tweaks easy. Like changing the notification pull down. Can't do that with Sense. You get what they give you.
Lastly, if you want some really good looking widgets try Minimalistic Text. Great looking, highly customizable and available to anyone.

well lets put it this way good sir its really up to you and what you want out of your phone for someone like yourself crmod might be better its just as stable as offical just allows you to keep root. i myself love cm7 and call me really lucky or whatnot i have no issues with cm 7 and never have my wifi is always flawless wifi hotspots are always working with pc bluetooth works great phone raido everything i have never had any issues. i did loose my s-off for being a dumbass and trying the new offical 2.2 tmob software that lasted mmm 2 hours and i had to re root that wasnt fun and now happy again. cm is good for me because i never had any issues some folks do though but much more options in cm that stock ever will have and my phone runs so much faster but i would check out cr mod you would like that and be able to keep root and all

Why would anyone want a Sense rom???

I have to ask, why in the world would anyone want a Sense ROM? I miss CM so much....
It feels so empty. Yeah the Sense Weather widget is cool but about there there isnt anything really "wow".
Maybe Im missing something....Ive been 5 minutes with Sense 3.0 and Im thinking about going back already to CM.

riahc3 said:
I have to ask, why in the world would anyone want a Sense ROM? I miss CM so much....
It feels so empty. Yeah the Sense Weather widget is cool but about there there isnt anything really "wow".
Maybe Im missing something....Ive been 5 minutes with Sense 3.0 and Im thinking about going back already to CM.
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well everyone has diffrent opinions, but for me sense has the best user interface with amazing widgets. the quick settings from the notification drop down menu is also good. but sense is basically only for the homescreen and launcher.

Sorry but your opinion is not the opinion for everyone. Some like sense, some doesnt like sense.
I tried cm and i didnt care much for it. In fact i switched back to sense after spending a day with cm and it was a big sigh of relief for me.
Sent from my Desire Z via XDA App

may i ask why you feel sense 3.0 is empty? cm is just stock android with a launcher thrown on top and a few optimizations, sense 3 has much more. okay i agree that you havnt got as many settings to fiddle about with but do you really need to
ive kinda got to the stage where i just want to use a phone as a phone, and sense is much easier to use
although im not saying i dont like cm.... however i think glite is much better with launcher pro for some nice widgets.
good luck in choosing your rom

1) Superior camera app, with better layout, aesthetics, and options. Stock AOSP camera app is pretty terrible. Never found any 3rd party apps as good as the HTC camera app, either. You will see frequent requests for porting the HTC cam app to non-Sense ROMs, and there's a reason for that (but nobody has been able to do it).
2) Smart dialer/contacts. Some people like the HTC dialer and contacts better than AOSP, some don't. But many here have stated they prefer the HTC ones over AOSP. Also, I've messed around with 3rd party dialers/contacts, but there always seems to be something not quite there, and end up going back to Sense.
3) Apps and widgets like Stocks and Weather (and others) look great, and are well integrated with the general Sense theming. You can search around for Market apps that do the same things (and maybe more), but they will all have different looks to them, and simply won't mesh as well with the general theme of your ROM.
4) Lots of general theming changes. This is merely a matter of personal taste. But I think the changes made by HTC look more refined than AOSP, and prefer them.
5) Different keyboard. Mostly just an aesthetic choice, but again, I personally think the HTC one is better than AOSP. Plus, Sense 3.0 adds the Swype-like "HTC Trace" functionality. Personally I use the Swype keyboard.
6) With HTC Locations, you can pre-download the maps for huge regions or whole countries and store them to your SD (turn-by-turn navigation requires an extra fee, but the maps themselves are free). This allows you to use the maps even when no data network is available, such as poor signal or travelling abroad. I personally prefer the Google Maps/Navigation interface, but I see the practical applications for HTC Locations.
7) Built in WiFi hotspot, better notification pulldown (with quick settings), and other small stuff.
There's probably more, but those are the main reasons I see to pick Sense. But if you've given Sense a decent chance for a few days at least, and still don't like it versus the AOSP style ROMs (or other styles), you probably aren't going to change your mind based on what people here say. Its mostly just a matter of personal preference, the look and feel of the ROM. Its like asking why people like the color blue versus red.

One word: Integration. HTC has done a splended job at bringing various little items together to create one simple UI that integrates almost everything. The dialer, facebook, widgets, settings, intuitive controls, camera, etc... The price? Memory.
I have gone from Sense to AOSP to MIUI and now back to sense because it is really hard to get that kind of integration on non-sense roms. I will gladly pay the price for Sense, though I may wander back to AOSP for speedier roms occasionally.
Sent from my Unified Vision using XDA App

It's my opinion that for most people who prefer a Sense ROM their first Android phone came with Sense and they are simply used to it. It's also my opinion that this is the primary reason the custom UI's exist. If people are used to/comfortable with a certain interface they are less likely to switch to a different brand because any other interface will feel "wrong"
Since I started out with stock Android I find any of the custom UIs to be nails on a chalkboard annoying. It even took me a while to get used to ADW when that started being included in CM.

Media player on sense roms are way way better for streaming online media. On sense I don't use rockplayer but on non-sense I have to
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

redpoint73 said:
6) With HTC Locations, you can pre-download the maps for huge regions or whole countries and store them to your SD (turn-by-turn navigation requires an extra fee, but the maps themselves are free). This allows you to use the maps even when no data network is available, such as poor signal or travelling abroad. I personally prefer the Google Maps/Navigation interface, but I see the practical applications for HTC Locations.
7) Built in WiFi hotspot, better notification pulldown (with quick settings), and other small stuff.
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Click to collapse
I think both ROMs have their place, everyone likes different things. These two points should be left out however.
#6 is no different then the map tile caching done in the new Google Maps, which is available on any ROM.
#7 come on, I know you have more experience with Android than that. Built in hotspot has been part of CM7 and every other ROM for a long time now. The pulldown is a bit different but then again, that's another user preference that can't be deemed better or worse.

KCRic said:
I think both ROMs have their place, everyone likes different things. These two points should be left out however.
#6 is no different then the map tile caching done in the new Google Maps, which is available on any ROM.
#7 come on, I know you have more experience with Android than that. Built in hotspot has been part of CM7 and every other ROM for a long time now. The pulldown is a bit different but then again, that's another user preference that can't be deemed better or worse.
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Click to collapse
6) Is it? I haven't actually played with the feature on Google Maps at all, as I haven't found myself in the situation of using Google Maps while in areas of poor or no data connection. But my impression was that it was just a small cache feature, such as for while driving through isolated areas of bad data reception. The feature on Locations lets you download and store huge maps, such as "United States - West" permanently to the SD card, which takes up 953 MB; or all of France (833 MB). Google Maps cached doesn't do that, does it?
7) My bad, I haven't actually been on CM7 for a long time, and forgot about WiFi hotspot being cooked in. Do more stock/official versions of the AOSP ROM (like the T-Mob leak) have WiFi hotspot also? If not, it may still be a valid point of comparison for some (although I see your point, since the OP seems to be a CM7 fan).
If the phrasing "better notification pulldown" is merely changed to "different", it becomes a valid point of comparison. Completely agree that most of the difference in the features between Sense ROMs and others is a matter of personal preference/taste (as I've already pointed out in my previous post).

leehopley said:
may i ask why you feel sense 3.0 is empty? cm is just stock android with a launcher thrown on top and a few optimizations, sense 3 has much more. okay i agree that you havnt got as many settings to fiddle about with but do you really need to
ive kinda got to the stage where i just want to use a phone as a phone, and sense is much easier to use
although im not saying i dont like cm.... however i think glite is much better with launcher pro for some nice widgets.
good luck in choosing your rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel like its empty as there isnt much to really customize about Android (you can customize Sense alot but thats it).
1) Superior camera app, with better layout, aesthetics, and options. Stock AOSP camera app is pretty terrible. Never found any 3rd party apps as good as the HTC camera app, either. You will see frequent requests for porting the HTC cam app to non-Sense ROMs, and there's a reason for that (but nobody has been able to do it).
2) Smart dialer/contacts. Some people like the HTC dialer and contacts better than AOSP, some don't. But many here have stated they prefer the HTC ones over AOSP. Also, I've messed around with 3rd party dialers/contacts, but there always seems to be something not quite there, and end up going back to Sense.
3) Apps and widgets like Stocks and Weather (and others) look great, and are well integrated with the general Sense theming. You can search around for Market apps that do the same things (and maybe more), but they will all have different looks to them, and simply won't mesh as well with the general theme of your ROM.
4) Lots of general theming changes. This is merely a matter of personal taste. But I think the changes made by HTC look more refined than AOSP, and prefer them.
5) Different keyboard. Mostly just an aesthetic choice, but again, I personally think the HTC one is better than AOSP. Plus, Sense 3.0 adds the Swype-like "HTC Trace" functionality. Personally I use the Swype keyboard.
6) With HTC Locations, you can pre-download the maps for huge regions or whole countries and store them to your SD (turn-by-turn navigation requires an extra fee, but the maps themselves are free). This allows you to use the maps even when no data network is available, such as poor signal or travelling abroad. I personally prefer the Google Maps/Navigation interface, but I see the practical applications for HTC Locations.
7) Built in WiFi hotspot, better notification pulldown (with quick settings), and other small stuff.
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1: Better in what sense? You can prefocus, flash, choose quality, ISO settings, etc. I dont see much difference. The design is less pretty but is that really important?
2: Cant comment as I always use the contact list.
3: In a general sense, I dont use widgets too much. I use LauncherPro which gives me a calender and a Facebook widget which pretty much work OK. People Stream is somewhat more feature full but feels like a cluttered mess.
4: Theming is not important as all as this is more aimed towards features. Said this, there are amazing themes out there for ASOP.
5: I use Swype. No really difference between the HTC and ASOP keyboard.
6: This is just about a week ago so you might not know In Google Maps (Lab) you can now select regions in 10 miles to download to your phone and use them with a data connection.
7: ....Android supports out of the box making itself a wifi hotspot....And the notification in Sense is one of the top 5 reasons I switched back. So bulky taking up so much space.
One word: Integration. HTC has done a splended job at bringing various little items together to create one simple UI that integrates almost everything. The dialer, facebook, widgets, settings, intuitive controls, camera, etc... The price? Memory.
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I find the Integration on Sense so terribly confusing and way too overpowered. On CM, it is SO simple and easy to do.

riahc3 said:
1: Better in what sense? You can prefocus, flash, choose quality, ISO settings, etc. I dont see much difference. The design is less pretty but is that really important?
2: Cant comment as I always use the contact list.
3: In a general sense, I dont use widgets too much. I use LauncherPro which gives me a calender and a Facebook widget which pretty much work OK. People Stream is somewhat more feature full but feels like a cluttered mess.
4: Theming is not important as all as this is more aimed towards features. Said this, there are amazing themes out there for ASOP.
5: I use Swype. No really difference between the HTC and ASOP keyboard.
6: This is just about a week ago so you might not know In Google Maps (Lab) you can now select regions in 10 miles to download to your phone and use them with a data connection.
7: ....Android supports out of the box making itself a wifi hotspot....And the notification in Sense is one of the top 5 reasons I switched back. So bulky taking up so much space.
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For the most part, you have taken the things that I like about Sense, and are saying you don't like them. So I doubt this is going to turn into a productive discussion. Its a matter of personal preference. And it seems like you've already made up your mind.
1) HTC camera has the ability to add effects. Personally not for me, as I'd rather take a "normal" picture, and add effects later if I want. But I now some people like and use them.
By prefocus, do you mean you can touch to focus on AOSP? This feature was not included on CM7 last time I used it. But like I said, its been a long time. Overall, IMO the layout of the HTC camera is more logical and easier to use. And the AOSP is ugly as hell. Are looks important? It is to me. Not like its a deal breaker for the whole ROM. But its a factor to add to the list of differences.
6) So those features are nothing the same then. 10 miles is about enough to get your local area, but that's about it. Locations lets you download a whole country (or in the case of a large, developed country like the US a huge region), so you basically never have to worry about downloading again.

why would anyone want a sense rom???
because they like sense???

mputtr said:
Sorry but your opinion is not the opinion for everyone. Some like sense, some doesnt like sense.
I tried cm and i didnt care much for it. In fact i switched back to sense after spending a day with cm and it was a big sigh of relief for me.
Sent from my Desire Z via XDA App
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Click to collapse
Sent From My T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

mputtr said:
Sorry but your opinion is not the opinion for everyone. Some like sense, some doesnt like sense.
I tried cm and i didnt care much for it. In fact i switched back to sense after spending a day with cm and it was a big sigh of relief for me.
Sent from my Desire Z via XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your opinion is not the opinion for everyone?
That makes no sense. An opinion is a statement about how one person feels about something, not something that is assigned to someone. Everyone has their own opinion bro
Sent From My T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

For me, no launcher runs sense-smooth
I tried CM7 once, disappointed by what-launcher's-name-is: choppy, laggy, unprofessional etc..
Also, I'm not gonna talk about Android's stock launcher

rickyiswhite said:
Your opinion is not the opinion for everyone?
That makes no sense. An opinion is a statement about how one person feels about something, not something that is assigned to someone. Everyone has their own opinion bro
Sent From My T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
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What that means is that her opinion does not account the general concensus.
You just said the same exact thing I said. She was saying why would anyone want a sense rom because it is empty. then in one of her next replies, she says the integration is overpowered. It sounds ridiculous when you're saying that integration in an operating system can be overpowered.
so now i'm reading, sense is empty and sense is overpowered. I'm pretty sure this isn't world of warcraft so it simply seems odd to me to hear someone saying that a tight integration in the OS is a bad thing.

rickyiswhite said:
Your opinion is not the opinion for everyone?
That makes no sense.
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mputtr's statement made perfect sense to me. The OP is asking why anyone would like Sense, just because he doesn't like it. It almost seems the OP assumes that everyone has the same personal tastes as him. I've tried to summarize pretty objectively what some of the differences are, and the OP just shot them all down basically saying he didn't like this or that, which is not really the point.
The easy answer to the question of why would anyone would like a Sense ROM, is that every ROM has different features, look and feel. Whether that makes it "better" or not is merely a matter of personal taste. Everyone has different tastes. Its as simple as that.

I do really like sense and especially its integration with the sense website but I think I may have just outgrown it. Theme wise miui can't be beat and the only thing I really miss about sense now is the contacts app and the facebook integration. However, I just find it to be a little too sluggish for me now after spending so much time with the alternatives. Oh and I also love the text select function in sense that zooms on letters iphone style to allow for more precise editing
I do think sense has a place but I feel that HTC has gone too far down the eye candy road rather than focus n new functionality that despite the new coat of paint 3.0 brings it just feels outdated

barclays said:
For me, no launcher runs sense-smooth
I tried CM7 once, disappointed by what-launcher's-name-is: choppy, laggy, unprofessional etc..
Also, I'm not gonna talk about Android's stock launcher
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Click to collapse
I can agree with you about adw. It is a pretty bad launcher to showcase with cm7. The reason I hear that they insist on using it is that its open source. I would think that their are other/better OS launchers but maybe not! Stock android launcher rocks in terms of speed not sure where your complaint is there. First thing I do is install stock 2.3 launcher on cm and all is well.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

Rant about hardcore users, productivity and the Sense launcher

There are some things I can't get my head around.
From the screenshots of all the cool user ROMs and themes available it's clear they've been designed by clever people who use their phones a lot. So why does it appear from these shots they use the Sense launcher, and their default home screen has a big Sense clock and hardly any apps?
Presumably, like me, these people are pulling their phones out their pocket and putting them back there many times a day. Presumably also, like me, these people use a number of apps and widgets in a day that hits two figures. With this in mind, I want to be able to get to those apps and widgets easily and quickly. I.e., with as few swipes/clicks/screen presses as possible. I'm sure these people do too, right?
So that rules out the Sense launcher doesn't it, with its 4x4 grid limitation and non-resizeable widgets. Not to mention its time-consuming spin-in carousel effect every time the phone's security screen is unlocked. I haven't found anything useful the Sense launcher does that another launcher can't, at least after downloading other apps.
Furthermore, who really keeps that big clock on their home screen, when 1. you probably wear a watch; and 2. you can see the time on the top right. It seems like a silly amount of screen 'estate' to use.
Or is it that these people in fact have a more practical default home screen and it's just tradition to post the screenshots they show?
Finally, why do so many of these otherwise brilliant ROMs not mod the battery icon to show how much battery is remaining, percentage-wise? Appreciate this can be modded using the kitchen website. But surely everyone wants this info from the off, so is it not included?

Well, I'd never call myself a hardcore user - although I believe that term should be defined too, because I'm not sure it's interpreted the same way by everyone. That aside though, here's what I think on tinkering with the launchers. You buy an Android phone - be it of any manufacturer. In general, and especially considering the top level models, it can be said that there isn't much diversity hardware-wise. What does make a difference is the UI, the services integrated and how the phone handles them. (And let's exclude synthetic benchmarks for now, I don't believe they represent real-life scenarios.) So, someone knowledgeable going for an HTC device (meaning it's not chosen because of price or because of how "pretty" it is), imo, means they're attracted to Sense: those little nuances that do make the difference. Ditch the launcher and you've pretty much ditched at least about half of what Sense - of what HTC is about. But then, why did you go for HTC in the first place? And the same can be said with Samsung and SE as well, those who quite heavily modify the Android UI. Sure, you can do it, you can dump the whole customized everything...but can doesn't mean that you should: if you're a "hardcore user", however we define the rest of it, you know you'll have an easier life with a phone that runs stock Android, there's no point in choosing something customized (read: more complicated), with risk of locked bootloaders and whatnots.
And you're right: you can get the puzzle pieces from the Market (or elsewhere) to create a Sense-like experience. That's because Sense offers so many good things in one package that ppl are aiming at re-creating it, but ask this: if you want to re-create it, why not spare yourself the hassle and use the real thing right out of the box?
As for the clock: I haven't even owned, much less worn a watch for at least about ten years, nor do I feel the need. Actually they seem pretty redundant now that mobiles have become as complex as they are and being carried everywhere. But as for the battery percentage - I couldn't agree more, I wish I knew why HTC itself doesn't make it available at least as an option.

In addition to the great points made by breathlesstao, I'll add the following:
Many devs concentrate on performance, stability and removing bloat when developing their ROMs, so if you want UI mods like battery percentage etc then the option is there for you to do it yourself. It would be nice if HTC could add percentage but they do have a battery widget that shows it.
As for on screen icons, I suppose many people like a sleek looking interace with not a lot of clutter. Plus, the more you have on the homescreens the more likely you are to experience lag when scrolling between the screens. Personally I have every app I use often on one of the 7 screens and if I need anything else it's only a few presses away in the all apps menu. I like it to be set up with each page having similar types of app, so on one I have music / media related stuff, another tools / settings type stuff... etc. See my helicopter view screenshot below for an example. My screen aren't crammed, but then they're not too sparse either.
I actually like the flipclock as it integrates local weather and just generally looks cool... I also haven't had a watch since the 1990s.
Choice and the ability to customise things are part of the many joys of Android, you set it up your way and use it your way.

The replies are right in. As for the launcher I have people coming to me all the time cause their phone is slow and lagging and whenbi unlock screen they have dozens of shortcuts all over the screen. Of course its gonna be slow when it need to reload a the launcher and all those Widgets. I swear some look so much like an icrap with all the shorcuts when I see it I have to double check. Lmao
As for the battery icon, you have to edit the coding for the file to add the extra 150 images that make up the % battery and charging icons and the bigger the file......
Now the clock well to be honest I remove the clock from the top bar any chance I get as I see it as pointless. We have Widgets for that.
As for sense it has its pluses like everything is prebuilt in. Social networking (not sure as I don't use FB at all) built into contacts and all the other handy apps that it comes with. I mostly run a senseless Tom my self but that is only due to it be long a resource hog. But the contacts and dialer work so well together that I have not found a better dialer/contact combo. The sense 3 lockscreen is just too good. I have widget locker but prefer the sense lock screen

Some very good replies, and here is my take, i've been modding my phone(s) now for a few years now (Since the Windows Mobile 5 Genre) and I would say function is not the only thing i look for. I want "coolness", "graphics"... I love the way the flip happens when you unlock a Sense ROM ..I strive to make it smoother !
Having said that I do resort to simplicity at times however, and you can too. have a look at Cyanogenmod and get Launcher Pro.. Ain't nothing simpler than that with the most "Function".
The ROM above will satisfy anyone who loves Function over Heavyness and also it has the option of showing percentage battery amongst plethora of other customizations neatly laid out in the settings menu.
But sometimes that just isn't enough for me..I want a ROM with More......Sense framework is probably the best Integration of everything I've ever seen. Yes its huge ! But then...this phone ain't that weak either...It is a beast
That is why you have an "option" my friend...an option to choose non-sense ROM or a Sense ROM. You could go for a Sense ROM (if you like all the integration of sense) and get yourself a different launcher from the market if you choose..customize it with the battery percentage mod.... yourself... The Dev's like to leave the option customize some aspects of their ROM's to the users... mostly because its personal preference.
The Sense Rom cooks, mostly, give u the most basic thing... A highly optimized ROM with a stock-like UI. You can choose to customize it the way you like ! After all thats what XDA is all about ..do it youself modding..

Hi all,
Your responses are appreciated and it's nice to have a polite conversation about this!
You're right breathlesstao, what the hell's a hardcore user. I just meant anyone who'd flash a ROM, root their phone, perhaps mod some element themself.
So I guess many of you - suprisingly for me - are happy to swipe between screens to get to their apps or widgets. You like what less clutter for doing this. Can see your point of view! I don't experience any lag though, zelendel, for packing my homescreens.
I suppose it was assumed that if you're more knowledgeable you'd be aware of apps and widgets with more options and functionality than the Sense launcher and its own widgets, and choose to use the former instead.
To be clear, I do like using other HTC features such as their contacts and dialler. It's just the homescreen layout I'm ranting about.
In particular for me, a good GUI, as well as looking pleasant, is as simple and quick to to use as possible. So when, for example, I'm going for a lunchbreak at work it's satisfying to be able to put my music or podcast-player on in a second without having to hunt it down.

i keep meaning to try a non sense rom but i like virtuous unity 2.39 sense 3.0 rom so much i´m loathe to part with it.
i know it only takes twenty minutes to go back to it but i just find it does everything in such a pleasant manner.. its smooth fast responsive and most of all it looks the buisness. plus as others have said you dont have to use all that sense stuff if you dont want to.
for music i do tend to use the stock player but i have been playing with other ones of late same with video but things like the clock and weather widgets for me are much more polished on the sense versions than anything comparible available from the market. plus i´ve not had any problem running low on ram or anything, the dhd is more than capable of handling sense 3.0 and whatever else one cares to throw at it without any hiccups

Circle launcher 1x1 widgets are the best
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

killersloth, thanks for the heads up - it looks very useful.
ponk2k, you know I also use VU (2.39) but with Launcher Pro - have uninstalled the Sense widgets that aren't connected to anything else. You probably think what's the point! To answer my own question, I wanted a custom ROM for things like battery life optimisation, and the VU team's branding has seemed more user-friendly to me than the non-Sense ROMs. Though maybe I'll try one soon. While I've got you though, can I ask if you have a problem with the brightness dimmng slowly on command in most scenarios with that ROM version? More info in my question here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1292894

Capys runny 1.5 is perfection
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

killersloth said:
Capys runny 1.5 is perfection
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100% bug free? I was thinking of trying it.

CitizenLee said:
100% bug free? I was thinking of trying it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a fair warning man. No rom will be 100% bug free. That is what the stock roms are for. The roms here are for learning and trying new things. So there will always be bugs that need to be fixed. Plus some things that one person may see something a a bug while another sees it as a feature.

zelendel said:
Just a fair warning man. No rom will be 100% bug free. That is what the stock roms are for. The roms here are for learning and trying new things. So there will always be bugs that need to be fixed. Plus some things that one person may see something a a bug while another sees it as a feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks lol.
&by 'perfection' I definitely don't mean bugfree but it is everything I expect in a good rom. From the improvements to audio, the good battery life, and now decent skins too...
If it was bugfree what would be the fun in developing with it ?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

zelendel said:
Just a fair warning man. No rom will be 100% bug free. That is what the stock roms are for. The roms here are for learning and trying new things. So there will always be bugs that need to be fixed. Plus some things that one person may see something a a bug while another sees it as a feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant with the basic day to day phone functions and stuff like WiFi, video playback etc. To me that's an expected level of functionality for any non beta ROM. I've flashed and tested many over the last 2.5 years of owning Android handsets so my standards are quite high

CitizenLee said:
I meant with the basic day to day phone functions and stuff like WiFi, video playback etc. To me that's an expected level of functionality for any non beta ROM. I've flashed and tested many over the last 2.5 years of owning Android handsets so my standards are quite high
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is fully functional. I believe there is the bug in camcorder still where you have to watch play.the video in the same orientation you recorded it.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

I haven't had any problems with vu dimming slowly no. I do find that the dimming settings on the ROM are a bit brighter than on the stock ROM though but with no noticeable battery drain incurred.

Thanks will have to investigate further.

zelendel said:
Just a fair warning man. No rom will be 100% bug free. That is what the stock roms are for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...aaaand potentially not even those. I mean, they're made by humans as well, and humans are bound to make mistakes, aye? It happens.

The most productive thread i ever encountered !!! Thanks to OP

Why is touchwiz so "bad"

So I'm coming from a G1 and now a Nexus One, so i've always had the plain vanilla google experience.
I just purchased a Epic 4g touch and I'm worried I won't like the UI, given the fact that I use a launcher, what else will be there to possibly bother me?

Honesty I don't mind touching at all. Now I hated it on the og epic but 4.0 is pretty decent. Coming from someone who likes to use costume roms, I have been running my phone stock since lunch and I'm pretty satisfied with it.

Thanks, my plan is to not even root at first and see how that goes.
I want to keep the Nexus one to play around with until I sell it, but I kind of want the phone to work without me playing with it too much. I'm sure that'll change after a bit.

The only thing that bothers me about touchwiz is the lockscreen. And that was fixable with widget locker. I tried the various launchers but I hated how laggy/bloated they were compared to stock.

Touchwiz seems so smooth to me. I've been running stock EG30 for like a month now.
Sent from the future.

I was using launcherpro back on my Moment and I don't really see anything wrong with touchwiz on the E4GT.

I used to hate the lockscreen, but it grew on me.
I use ADW for the launcher, I just like it better.

clamknuckle said:
I used to hate the lockscreen, but it grew on me.
I use ADW for the launcher, I just like it better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use adw launcher ex. the only thing I like about touchwiz is it's speed.. it's very fast and smooth, but it reminds me too much of ios plus I set my density to 200 and touch wiz doesnt play nice at that density

graffixnyc said:
I use adw launcher ex. the only thing I like about touchwiz is it's speed.. it's very fast and smooth, but it reminds me too much of ios plus I set my density to 200 and touch wiz doesnt play nice at that density
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADW EX here too. I like that I can adjust the size of the dock kind of like you are adjusting LCD density. I also like that you can set it to swipe to hide status bar and dock so screen is clean
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I used to not like TW either but it grows on you. I ised it for a month or so and now i went to launcher pro just because i want widgets for facebook twitter messages ect and i love the 3d app launcher

Yeah, I forgot SPB Shell 3D runs really well on this phone..sooo smooth
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

Touchwiz, or any interface for that matter, is not bad. The problem comes from something called fragmentation. Google invests millions of dollars into developing Android. They think it through and do their best to make sure everything works together.
And then companies come along, with less money, less testing, and developers who didn't write the base code, and modify a bunch of stuff, frequently not improving it but just modifying it. And then developers writing apps have to sort through so much code finding bugs caused by the various undocumented modifications.
And then when Google releases an update, the update is delayed because the manufacturer has to figure out and test their own custom UI. If the UI's added something, it would be worth the wait, but they usually just change things that didn't need to be changed.

Didn't like it really, it's not bad but I guess I see no reason to switch from my launcher pro that I'm used to.
I tried go launcher but it has so much crap I couldn't deal with either.
Samsungs messaging app on the other hand I hated so I'm giving go SMS a "go"

kingsway8605 said:
Touchwiz, or any interface for that matter, is not bad. The problem comes from something called fragmentation. Google invests millions of dollars into developing Android. They think it through and do their best to make sure everything works together.
And then companies come along, with less money, less testing, and developers who didn't write the base code, and modify a bunch of stuff, frequently not improving it but just modifying it. And then developers writing apps have to sort through so much code finding bugs caused by the various undocumented modifications.
And then when Google releases an update, the update is delayed because the manufacturer has to figure out and test their own custom UI. If the UI's added something, it would be worth the wait, but they usually just change things that didn't need to be changed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kingsway just hit it right on the nail with this one...at the same time, this is what makes android so great..there's always room for improvement and better customization
Drunk Browsing

I like Touchwiz, and I'm usually pretty picky about UI's.
I've rooted it using the exploit: [ROOT][NCIQ][EG30/EG31/EK02] Auto root your existing stock ROM (w/o ODIN/ROM Flash) so that I could remove Carrier IQ, upgrade swype, and do wifi thethering...

Twiz 4.0 is sooooooooooooooooooo much better, and like leaps and bounds I had the gs1 vibrant and I hated Twiz 3.0 was half assed attempt to compete with sense and it failed but 4.0 is a contender... That being said, I still prefer aosp over anything else give it to me as vanilla, cm, or even omfgb I will take it over any other android experience!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

[Review] Sense4a - The joys and gripes of running HTC made software

So now I am running the TSM UltimateKangBang made possible by Nitsuj17 and the deluge of other people whose work is ingrained into the 0's and 1's that is currently making my phone's MSM8255 chip brim with life! Previously I ran the stuff from the good people behind TeamKang and their AOKP - essentially Android 4.0 as Google envisioned it with a little spice and Unicorn Porn! (Trust me, there is an app called that on AOKP, but it isn't what you may think it is ) Since this is a review, expect a fair share of biased opinion being present and categorical truths about Sense4a and the AOSP design! You've been warned.
I am not all in for the Spartan and frankly "cold" and unfriendly feel that Google went for on the ICS.. It seems too clinical, too sterile. Nevertheless, I do like it over previous iterations and I love the fact that there seems to be a level of consistency in the UI.
On the other hand, I love the feel of Sense4. It is cheerful and friendly-looking AND at the same time looks smart and professional, a feeling that I didn't get during my brief experience with a Honeycomb Samsung Tablet. On the flip side, the Sense4 apps seem to lack the same ease of use and simplicity that Google's vanilla version has. For instance, even though it has been sometime since I used the Email app on AOKP, I know exactly where each button is and how to go about the app. The Email app on Sense4, not so much.
The Good:
Let us get down to it. Things that are nice about Sense4 are the animations. Many are subtle, but the best is the most conspicuous animation of them all - the screen unlock. The little metallic ring zooms out of the screen in a magnificent way. Also, if you randomly touch the lock screen, the ring jitters with a forceful smash on the ground-like effect, causing ripples to emanate from it. I say, cool
The whole ensemble of animations makes the phone super smooth and slick. I had issues with animations and screen transitions on AOKP, on a regular basis. But on this ROM, I have yet to experience one, and I have installed ALL my apps to the point where I ran out of internal space to install apps! And still, the OS is smooth. At one point, I was contemplating the possibility of buying a new phone as my DInc2 with AOKP was not smooth enough, leading me to believe that it must be the poor hardware. Well, with Nit's Sense4a ROM, I am happy to note that that is simply NOT the case. Well, for once I am pleased with the outcome of a skin made by a manufacturer. It means a lot when a not-so-average Android phone user, like me, says "Well, HTC, your skin is *not* the worst!"
HTC also did a pretty good job with the lockscreen. The missed calls, messages, calendar events, etc. appear prominently on screen. I like the alarm and timer events too. And then to activate any app or action icon, you need to drop it into the ring. Neato! A constant issue I had with AOKP and I believe CM9 was that after locking the device with the power button, when I turn on the screen with the power button, the phone momentarily displays the app/homescreen I was viewing before realizing that the phone is actually "locked" and then showing the lockscreen. No matter what setting I changed, this issue didn't go. Thankfully, however, this is not a problem on the Sense4's lockscreen which does what it should and not reveal my secrets unauthorized, even for a moment!
The widgets are nice as well. I've been dying to find a Calendar widget that works as well as the one on Sense, and now I have it. The email, music and weather widgets are great too. However, I am a bit disappointed that the homescreen is a 4x4 grid. That is a waste of screen real estate, but unfortunately I was unable to use HTC widgets on a third party launcher (bummer). I also do not like Google's decision OR HTC's to make the app drawer have horizontal pagination. That is a major PITA and slow. A vertical scroll is so much faster to make you reach the last app... On the plus side, it has tabs for frequent and downloaded and you can sort apps alphabetically or date used or installed (I didn't figure that out).
The annoying:
However, it is not all rosy, even for rosie. My main gripe is with the design decisions that HTC made with their apps. Many of those decisions seem to add to the time needed to use the app and makes it cumbersome.
Let's start with Music. To go from Now Playing to the music on the phone, I need to press the back arrow (on the top) and choose "My phone". And then to flip through songs/albums/artists etc., I have to use a drop down menu. Meanwhile, Google Music lets you swipe the lists horizontally to change them. And it always seems to take a moment to load the song list or album list etc.
Next offender, the Email app. Its faults include needing to use a drop-down menu to choose folders that in turn brings up a list of folders to choose from. Google's email app does it better. Also, I need two button presses to go from an email to the next or previous compared to one button on Google's email app, though the AOSP Email app should have been made consistent with the Gmail app where you can swipe to the next or previous email . Nevertheless, it has the ability to show emails in threads, good support for Exchange email.
The phone app also hits a nerve. I believe Google's implementation is pretty much perfect and HTC's doesn't add anything new, excepting annoyances. All you get when you open the app is a dial pad and a list of names. I need to go to a menu to see call history and my phone book. Well, why not just add tabs like Google? The "People" app is basically what I am talking about. If you simply added a 4th tab in that app with the dial pad, that would be a perfect phone app. :disapprove:
Now the camera app is good except for one teeny problem (and I am nitpicking here) which is I need to go to settings to change the camera from back to front. But otherwise, that is well laid out. In fact it is better than Google's in terms of looks (I was always of the opinion that Google's ICS Camera app was made by someone who couldn't make small graphics and so chose plain colors to make the UI. Something I would've done) and also because you can either take a photo or video by just changing the button you press unlike in AOSP where you need to go through some button presses before that happens.
At this juncture, I'd like to note that I <3 the Camera on TSM ROM! It works! 720p video and panorama mode and the many other modes (except slow motion capture, which recorded at normal pace)! And no tearing in Camera360 or other apps! There are still some glitches with the app and the framerate of the 720p doesn't seem smooth, but that is understandable given that we are working with leaks only! So you heard me folks! If you want a proper camera on ICS, this Sense4 ROM should do the trick...​
Back to taking a swing at Sense4!
Now comes the notification panel. There are way too many icons on the top bar, especially when I listen to music. There are a total of 3 icons telling me I am listening to music: The headphone icon (thanks, but I jolly well know there are headphones attached to the phone, mainly because I put it there!), the beats audio icon (I believe this is a product placement decision. It is obvious that HTC is making a ton of money simply due to that software redundancy...) and of course the "play" icon of the music player. I also don't like that there are no notification toggles that can be hidden/shown as one pleases like on CM9 or AOKP (activating it in the tweaks causes it to show ONLY the toggles and no other notification when I have no notifications that can be cleared, even if I have notifications that CAN'T be cleared... )
Frankly I don't care for the "Beats audio". It may work better with some beats audio hardware in the phone and may be the actual earphones themselves, which I can't be bothered to buy. But I liked Google's MusicFX app... It gave me a nicer sound. At times I feel the beats audio sounds richer and more even, but the volume is low to appreciate the whole dynamic range... I heard louder sound at the same volume on AOKP.
So there you have it. My impressions on Sense4. The central theme behind the shortcomings of the HTC apps seems to be the usage of the drop down menu rather than using the more accessible tabs available on most default google apps.
But still, I must admit I like how the whole interface feels. I find myself unlocking my phone, swiping through screens and then simply relocking it as I have nothing to do! I can't take my eyes off of that gorgeous interface... As and when more tweaks become available, rectifying the shortcomings of Sense4, I'll be deeper in love with it.

One thing I have to say about the dialer is that full sense 4 is more like the sense 3.5 dialer where it has the people app included in the dialer. Sense 4a is more based on sense 2.1 where it didn't have this feature.
Sent from my KangBang'd out vivow

Thanks for the review. I was running MIUI weeklies from about July 2011 until a couple weeks ago. If we didn't get stuck with no new stable builds after 1.12.09, I probably would still be running it. But I wanted to go back and try something else anyway. MIUI customization is second to none, so maybe I'll go back to ICS MIUI as Nits does amazing work.
As of a week ago, I'm running TSM Sense 5.01 M. It runs incredibly smooth and stable on my phone, and everything works.
With the increasing stability of ICS roms, I'm thinking of trying one out. TSM UKB seems to be the ICS rom of choice for many. I appreciate your feedback, and may jump to UKB in the next couple weeks. One thing you didn't mention was battery life. How does it compare to stock, or other roms you've tried? I've been through the rom thread, but since you gave a thorough review of the rom, I thought I'd ask.

ttupa said:
Thanks for the review. I was running MIUI weeklies from about July 2011 until a couple weeks ago. If we didn't get stuck with no new stable builds after 1.12.09, I probably would still be running it. But I wanted to go back and try something else anyway. MIUI customization is second to none, so maybe I'll go back to ICS MIUI as Nits does amazing work.
As of a week ago, I'm running TSM Sense 5.01 M. It runs incredibly smooth and stable on my phone, and everything works.
With the increasing stability of ICS roms, I'm thinking of trying one out. TSM UKB seems to be the ICS rom of choice for many. I appreciate your feedback, and may jump to UKB in the next couple weeks. One thing you didn't mention was battery life. How does it compare to stock, or other roms you've tried? I've been through the rom thread, but since you gave a thorough review of the rom, I thought I'd ask.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh battery life is superb.. refer to this post I made: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27465676
That is the battery life with just stock battery!!!
Sent from my vivow using XDA

litetaker said:
Oh battery life is superb.. refer to this post I made: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27465676
That is the battery life with just stock battery!!!
Sent from my vivow using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent! This one sounds very promising, and I will probably make the leap when I've got some time.

Indeed battery is great. I took 29 photos today while at a job site and have been using my phone since 7:30am (now 6:33pm) and battery reads 58%. Skyraider hated when I took photos. It had great battery life, but camera would eat it up. UKB does not. Fantastic ROM. I do not foresee myself changing ROMs until I change phones at this point.
Sent from my Droid.

ttupa said:
Excellent! This one sounds very promising, and I will probably make the leap when I've got some time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery is great on ukb. I left for work this morning at 5am. I work in a poor reception building...the signal is constantly at 1 or no bars and switching between 3g and 1x. After 13 hours at work my battery is at 52%.
Sent from my vivow using XDA

I figured I'd ask here instead of the dev thread, but does the hot reboot option not work for anybody else on UKB 3.5?
Sent from my vivow using XDA

litetaker said:
So now I am running the TSM UltimateKangBang made possible by Nitsuj17 and the deluge of other people whose work is ingrained into the 0's and 1's that is currently making my phone's MSM8255 chip brim with life! Previously I ran the stuff from the good people behind TeamKang and their AOKP - essentially Android 4.0 as Google envisioned it with a little spice and Unicorn Porn! (Trust me, there is an app called that on AOKP, but it isn't what you may think it is ) Since this is a review, expect a fair share of biased opinion being present and categorical truths about Sense4a and the AOSP design! You've been warned.
I am not all in for the Spartan and frankly "cold" and unfriendly feel that Google went for on the ICS.. It seems too clinical, too sterile. Nevertheless, I do like it over previous iterations and I love the fact that there seems to be a level of consistency in the UI.
On the other hand, I love the feel of Sense4. It is cheerful and friendly-looking AND at the same time looks smart and professional, a feeling that I didn't get during my brief experience with a Honeycomb Samsung Tablet. On the flip side, the Sense4 apps seem to lack the same ease of use and simplicity that Google's vanilla version has. For instance, even though it has been sometime since I used the Email app on AOKP, I know exactly where each button is and how to go about the app. The Email app on Sense4, not so much.
The Good:
Let us get down to it. Things that are nice about Sense4 are the animations. Many are subtle, but the best is the most conspicuous animation of them all - the screen unlock. The little metallic ring zooms out of the screen in a magnificent way. Also, if you randomly touch the lock screen, the ring jitters with a forceful smash on the ground-like effect, causing ripples to emanate from it. I say, cool
The whole ensemble of animations makes the phone super smooth and slick. I had issues with animations and screen transitions on AOKP, on a regular basis. But on this ROM, I have yet to experience one, and I have installed ALL my apps to the point where I ran out of internal space to install apps! And still, the OS is smooth. At one point, I was contemplating the possibility of buying a new phone as my DInc2 with AOKP was not smooth enough, leading me to believe that it must be the poor hardware. Well, with Nit's Sense4a ROM, I am happy to note that that is simply NOT the case. Well, for once I am pleased with the outcome of a skin made by a manufacturer. It means a lot when a not-so-average Android phone user, like me, says "Well, HTC, your skin is *not* the worst!"
HTC also did a pretty good job with the lockscreen. The missed calls, messages, calendar events, etc. appear prominently on screen. I like the alarm and timer events too. And then to activate any app or action icon, you need to drop it into the ring. Neato! A constant issue I had with AOKP and I believe CM9 was that after locking the device with the power button, when I turn on the screen with the power button, the phone momentarily displays the app/homescreen I was viewing before realizing that the phone is actually "locked" and then showing the lockscreen. No matter what setting I changed, this issue didn't go. Thankfully, however, this is not a problem on the Sense4's lockscreen which does what it should and not reveal my secrets unauthorized, even for a moment!
The widgets are nice as well. I've been dying to find a Calendar widget that works as well as the one on Sense, and now I have it. The email, music and weather widgets are great too. However, I am a bit disappointed that the homescreen is a 4x4 grid. That is a waste of screen real estate, but unfortunately I was unable to use HTC widgets on a third party launcher (bummer). I also do not like Google's decision OR HTC's to make the app drawer have horizontal pagination. That is a major PITA and slow. A vertical scroll is so much faster to make you reach the last app... On the plus side, it has tabs for frequent and downloaded and you can sort apps alphabetically or date used or installed (I didn't figure that out).
The annoying:
However, it is not all rosy, even for rosie. My main gripe is with the design decisions that HTC made with their apps. Many of those decisions seem to add to the time needed to use the app and makes it cumbersome.
Let's start with Music. To go from Now Playing to the music on the phone, I need to press the back arrow (on the top) and choose "My phone". And then to flip through songs/albums/artists etc., I have to use a drop down menu. Meanwhile, Google Music lets you swipe the lists horizontally to change them. And it always seems to take a moment to load the song list or album list etc.
Next offender, the Email app. Its faults include needing to use a drop-down menu to choose folders that in turn brings up a list of folders to choose from. Google's email app does it better. Also, I need two button presses to go from an email to the next or previous compared to one button on Google's email app, though the AOSP Email app should have been made consistent with the Gmail app where you can swipe to the next or previous email . Nevertheless, it has the ability to show emails in threads, good support for Exchange email.
The phone app also hits a nerve. I believe Google's implementation is pretty much perfect and HTC's doesn't add anything new, excepting annoyances. All you get when you open the app is a dial pad and a list of names. I need to go to a menu to see call history and my phone book. Well, why not just add tabs like Google? The "People" app is basically what I am talking about. If you simply added a 4th tab in that app with the dial pad, that would be a perfect phone app. :disapprove:
Now the camera app is good except for one teeny problem (and I am nitpicking here) which is I need to go to settings to change the camera from back to front. But otherwise, that is well laid out. In fact it is better than Google's in terms of looks (I was always of the opinion that Google's ICS Camera app was made by someone who couldn't make small graphics and so chose plain colors to make the UI. Something I would've done) and also because you can either take a photo or video by just changing the button you press unlike in AOSP where you need to go through some button presses before that happens.
At this juncture, I'd like to note that I <3 the Camera on TSM ROM! It works! 720p video and panorama mode and the many other modes (except slow motion capture, which recorded at normal pace)! And no tearing in Camera360 or other apps! There are still some glitches with the app and the framerate of the 720p doesn't seem smooth, but that is understandable given that we are working with leaks only! So you heard me folks! If you want a proper camera on ICS, this Sense4 ROM should do the trick...​
Back to taking a swing at Sense4!
Now comes the notification panel. There are way too many icons on the top bar, especially when I listen to music. There are a total of 3 icons telling me I am listening to music: The headphone icon (thanks, but I jolly well know there are headphones attached to the phone, mainly because I put it there!), the beats audio icon (I believe this is a product placement decision. It is obvious that HTC is making a ton of money simply due to that software redundancy...) and of course the "play" icon of the music player. I also don't like that there are no notification toggles that can be hidden/shown as one pleases like on CM9 or AOKP (activating it in the tweaks causes it to show ONLY the toggles and no other notification when I have no notifications that can be cleared, even if I have notifications that CAN'T be cleared... )
Frankly I don't care for the "Beats audio". It may work better with some beats audio hardware in the phone and may be the actual earphones themselves, which I can't be bothered to buy. But I liked Google's MusicFX app... It gave me a nicer sound. At times I feel the beats audio sounds richer and more even, but the volume is low to appreciate the whole dynamic range... I heard louder sound at the same volume on AOKP.
So there you have it. My impressions on Sense4. The central theme behind the shortcomings of the HTC apps seems to be the usage of the drop down menu rather than using the more accessible tabs available on most default google apps.
But still, I must admit I like how the whole interface feels. I find myself unlocking my phone, swiping through screens and then simply relocking it as I have nothing to do! I can't take my eyes off of that gorgeous interface... As and when more tweaks become available, rectifying the shortcomings of Sense4, I'll be deeper in love with it.
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This rom really is awesome. Nits has given a gift to the dinc2 community and I still can't help but feel satisfied with this rom (havent switched roms after I used ukb 3.5!!!
But you have an error. The droid incredible 2 has an MSM8655 chip (same as the HTC Thunderbolt)
Also, my only gripe with the rom is the music when you're using headphones, earphones, etc. The volume goes to its max when you raise or lower the volume once. Raise and lower it again and the volume becomes either lower or a little quieter. That's pretty much it. Doesn't bother me too much, but it can get tiring at times. Doesn't change how much I enjoy using this rom as my DD. I'd give this rom a 10/10 for its awesomeness.
AJGO23 said:
I figured I'd ask here instead of the dev thread, but does the hot reboot option not work for anybody else on UKB 3.5?
Sent from my vivow using XDA
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Hot reboot doesn't work in the rom. Hope this helped.
Sent from my Galaxified ICS phone!!! Don't be hating bro!!!

david_hume said:
This rom really is awesome. Nits has given a gift to the dinc2 community and I still can't help but feel satisfied with this rom (havent switched roms after I used ukb 3.5!!!
But you have an error. The droid incredible 2 has an MSM8655 chip (same as the HTC Thunderbolt)
Also, my only gripe with the rom is the music when you're using headphones, earphones, etc. The volume goes to its max when you raise or lower the volume once. Raise and lower it again and the volume becomes either lower or a little quieter. That's pretty much it. Doesn't bother me too much, but it can get tiring at times. Doesn't change how much I enjoy using this rom as my DD. I'd give this rom a 10/10 for its awesomeness.
Hot reboot doesn't work in the rom. Hope this helped.
Sent from my Galaxified ICS phone!!! Don't be hating bro!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh, I thought that Droid Incredible S and 2 had same processors... Whoops!

litetaker said:
Huh, I thought that Droid Incredible S and 2 had same processors... Whoops!
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Click to collapse
Nah, the s has a different processor cuz it's GSM only.
Sent from my KangBang'd out vivow