Develop Bugs

What is the appeal if CM7?

Hello. I am fairly new to the Android root/ROM universe, and have a few questions.
I recently flashed the most recent version of CM7, and after spending a few hours with it, immediately reverted back to the stock UI.
I'm going to list a few reasons I disliked it, and maybe you can tell me if I'm just doing something wrong.
-- Only five screens? I have my apps stored perfectly in the seven screens given to me in stock, and hated the limitations of only five.
-- The entire look of the UI feels outdated. Comparing just the top bar with battery level and clock and such, CM7/Gingerbread's version looks like they've stepped back a few years in design.
-- I lost my Sense widgets. I know this is a matter of preference, but is there any way I can flash them with CM7?
-- Whenever I push the power button to unlock the phone, there is a delay in the screen turning on. With the stock, the screen turns on almost instantly.
-- I can't sync my contacts for some reason. Maybe I'm just an idiot though, I don't know.
While I very much dislike these things, I'm open to what you have to say. Maybe there's something about it I'm missing?

ejsholly said:
Hello. I am fairly new to the Android root/ROM universe, and have a few questions.
I recently flashed the most recent version of CM7, and after spending a few hours with it, immediately reverted back to the stock UI.
I'm going to list a few reasons I disliked it, and maybe you can tell me if I'm just doing something wrong.
-- Only five screens? I have my apps stored perfectly in the seven screens given to me in stock, and hated the limitations of only five.
-- The entire look of the UI feels outdated. Comparing just the top bar with battery level and clock and such, CM7/Gingerbread's version looks like they've stepped back a few years in design.
-- I lost my Sense widgets. I know this is a matter of preference, but is there any way I can flash them with CM7?
-- Whenever I push the power button to unlock the phone, there is a delay in the screen turning on. With the stock, the screen turns on almost instantly.
-- I can't sync my contacts for some reason. Maybe I'm just an idiot though, I don't know.
While I very much dislike these thigs, I'm open to what you have to say. Maybe there's simething about it I'm missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you should switch back to sense because the widgets you have to get replacements for in the market and the delay has to do with the kernel. syncing contacts is done with the facebook app from the market or other apps. The look, you could install launcher pro and get 7 screens. I personally like sense because it feels better.

With CM7 you can customize pretty much the ENTIRE ROM.
It's really cool if you're willing to put some time into it to get it the way you like.
With the 5 screen thing.... You can download a different launcher and change that no problem. I recommend ADW EX or Launcher Pro.
But if you want something basically already perfect with little or no work needed on it.... Try out Skyraider 4.0

A big reason a lot of people like CM7 is that it's Gingerbread aka, android 2.3.3
Any Sense ROM will be 2.2 at the latest.
The default launcher CM7 comes with is ADW. You can change it to Launcher Pro (downloadable from the market), honestly when I first flashed CM7 I reverted back to a sense ROM just because I didn't like the ADW launcher and didn't know you could change it out.
You will lose your sense widgets but if you look, there are comparable widgets you can get that are very close to the Sense widgets. Also if you buy Launcher Pro Plus, they provide a bunch of cloned Sense widgets.
The delay in the screen I can't comment for, mine seems instant. I don't have that animation though, that thing has always bugged me. You may want to try a different kernel (chad's incredikernel is excellent) to increase battery life and performance.
There are also theme's for CM7 so you can actually change the way the top bar looks, I prefer how it looks and haven't seen any older style phones with that type of look but everyone has their preference.
And another side point, gingerbread has a few security fixes that Froyo is open to. There's been a few apps exploiting this in dangerous ways, so gingerbread is a smart choice if you're worried about that.
+ ADW and Launcher pro, there are settings where you can add more or less screens.
If you like Sense then you should definitely stick with it, just don't be shy to try out new ROM's.

On your home screen hit menu then edit. You can add home screens for a total of 7.
Search the market for cm7 themes and you can change the look to something different.
You can't get the actual sense widgets but like has been said you can get close with apps in the market.
Syncmypix in the market lets you sync your contacts to facebook friend photos.
If you still don't like it I would you with skyraider 4.0
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Number of home screens is easily changed, I like to keep it simple and go with 3. Contacts should be synced with Google, all mine came back after signing in to my Google account. Sense Widgets can be emulated with launcher pro, for the stock clock/weather widget use fancy widget pro with HTC skin. Screen wake issues are kernel related, you can swap different kernels to see which works best with your phone. CM7 has the most themes out of any rom so its not hard to find something to fit your taste although I personally like the way gingerbread looks stock, to me anything below android 2.3 looks outdated.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

ejsholly said:
Hello. I am fairly new to the Android root/ROM universe, and have a few questions.
I recently flashed the most recent version of CM7, and after spending a few hours with it, immediately reverted back to the stock UI.
I'm going to list a few reasons I disliked it, and maybe you can tell me if I'm just doing something wrong.
-- Only five screens? I have my apps stored perfectly in the seven screens given to me in stock, and hated the limitations of only five.
-- The entire look of the UI feels outdated. Comparing just the top bar with battery level and clock and such, CM7/Gingerbread's version looks like they've stepped back a few years in design.
-- I lost my Sense widgets. I know this is a matter of preference, but is there any way I can flash them with CM7?
-- Whenever I push the power button to unlock the phone, there is a delay in the screen turning on. With the stock, the screen turns on almost instantly.
-- I can't sync my contacts for some reason. Maybe I'm just an idiot though, I don't know.
While I very much dislike these thigs, I'm open to what you have to say. Maybe there's simething about it I'm missing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM7 comes default with ADW... you can change it up to 7.
The reason the UI feels outdated is because your used to Sense, it's one of the selling points for HTC, and why a lot of people buy there devices. It's one of the reasons I bought the Incredible(originally..)
Your right, the sense widgets are gorgeous... but you can definitely find ways to make your homescreens on CM7 gorgeous too.
You can change your screen transition settings with the Spare Parts app... and flash a custom kernel that takes care of that.
You need to enable sync under Accounts and Sync under your settings... make sure you have contacts clicked... and make sure you have the facebook app... a lot of contacts are synced from there as well.
Sense is an overlay from HTC in which consumes more resources on your phone, and contains way more bloat. CM7 is a ROM in which has the most basic of apps pre installed in it, with tweaks you can do to your UI. Pretty much what you would refer to as Vanilla android.

I think the philosophy behind CM is that it's for customizers. You have to be willing to spend hours going through option screens, and downloading mods and themes to see what you like. If that's not you, CM7 is NOT for you. I cannot stress this enough. I've talked to too many people about rooting/switching ROMs, and they don't get it.

My answers in bold
ejsholly said:
Hello. I am fairly new to the Android root/ROM universe, and have a few questions.
I recently flashed the most recent version of CM7, and after spending a few hours with it, immediately reverted back to the stock UI.
I'm going to list a few reasons I disliked it, and maybe you can tell me if I'm just doing something wrong.
-- Only five screens? I have my apps stored perfectly in the seven screens given to me in stock, and hated the limitations of only five.
Easily changed to 7, as stated above.
-- The entire look of the UI feels outdated. Comparing just the top bar with battery level and clock and such, CM7/Gingerbread's version looks like they've stepped back a few years in design.
I know a lot of great themes for CM7; a great place to start is Honeybread of DarkGinger.
-- I lost my Sense widgets. I know this is a matter of preference, but is there any way I can flash them with CM7?
You might like Regina Launcher or SPB Shell 3D. Both are in the Market, offer 7 homescreens if you want that, and have some great widgets included. Regina is free, and SPB Shell is $15. However, SPB has a lot more widgets.
-- Whenever I push the power button to unlock the phone, there is a delay in the screen turning on. With the stock, the screen turns on almost instantly.
Non-issue for me, on CM7.0.2.1 with Tiamat 3.3.8 noSBC
-- I can't sync my contacts for some reason. Maybe I'm just an idiot though, I don't know.
I use MyBackup Root in the Market to back up all my data before flashing a new ROM.
While I very much dislike these thigs, I'm open to what you have to say. Maybe there's simething about it I'm missing?
As many have already said, CM7 is all about customization. Don't like stock lockscreen style? Change it. Don't like stock theme? Install a new one. The possibilities are endless. I, too, was a Sense lover. However, I took the time to find replacements for the Sense widgets I liked, and from there I didn't look back. For the Sense Weather Clock, I recommend GO Weather. IMO, it looks just as good, lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hope I did a decent job explaining some things.
If you need help, you can always PM me and I'll usually get back to you within a couple days

That GO Weather widget is awesome, really the only thing I missed from stock sense rom
I like CM7 because it offers better performance, battery life, features, customizations, updates,.....the list could go on. I just like it. I also updated the baseband radio on my Dinc as well as updated the kernel from the CM7 kernel to the latest incredikernel. This has been an awesome combination for me so far.

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
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

Open letter to Google and all Android OEM´s

Dear Google, dear Android OEM`s,
This is an open letter addressed directly to your development teams, which I hope will sooner or later arrive at the right places. I`m an avid Android user and fan since quite a while and was also an active part of the XDA development community (mainly Milestone, Desire HD). I really appreciate what you have done with the Android OS, especially now with the latest and greatest – ICS. Nevertheless with all the beauty and customization of Android, there is still a lot of room to improve, especially when it comes to user configurable customization. Following I want to illustrate, where I strongly believe, based on my experience in many threads here at XDA or my home forum, where there is a lot of room to improve.
@ GOOGLE - Users like new features, but not all users are equal.
Whether it`s widgets, shortcuts to settings or toggles, everyone has different preferences. So please add user selectable features to next ROM generations, that can be activated by users (say customers). If you follow XDA carefully, you will recognize some sort of consensus, which kind of customizations people would like to have in future stock ROM`s. The following features should all be user configurable to reflect the different tastes and user patterns. I will only post the Top features, but these would already add a lot and allow users to customize their experience.
1. Battery icon option with 1% steps in statusbar
2. Quick toggles to settings in statusbar
3. Custom shortcuts for Lock Screen
4. Reboot option in Power Menu
5. Position of clock in status bar
6. Customize Auto Brightness
7. T9 dialer
8. “Unread only” email tabs
9. Home Screen animation
10. Widget color and transparency
11. Color Themes (see Windows Phone)
@ OEM`s - Some users like custom skins, other`s don’t
We all know that OEM´s need to differentiate their products by hardware and user experience, BUT…. There are many consumers who fall in love with a certain phone, but don`t buy it, since it is covered by a custom UI (say Sense or TouchWiz), which some not only don`t like, it also adds huge delays to updates and in some cases completely prevents these. Please understand that users love choices and also having the latest version of Android on their phones. Also note that with the arrival of ICS, for most users suddenly stock Android delivers a better visual experience, then current custom UI`s.
1. Present your custom UI as add-ons, which allow the user to choose in settings, whether he really wants to use it.
2. You can break down your custom UI in Theme and features. That way the user can both select the visual aspects and the features he needs.
3. If you allow this freedom, you will sell more products and the result is win-win
Bottom line: If both Google and OEM`s understand and respect, we all have different preferences and like to have a choice, you will have even more loyal followers.
@ Community – it will be interesting to hear your opinion. Please don`t discuss details like more features you would like to see, it`s way more interesting whether you agree with the general approach or whether you are happy as it is.

..goodluck
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Instead of wasting time trying to convince google or samsung just install a custom rom which has many of these features. Give your support and donations to the awesome developers who do this on their own time and are always open to your suggestions.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

The problem with such 'requests' is that Google is probably looking at a much bigger picture than us. Some people actually get turned off by too many customization options.
..and not everyone likes them. For example, I think percent in the battery is stupid and annoying.

Your effort in writing appears to be good but sadly I think your post is going to be unnoticed by the people you addressed it to. Good luck.
Sent from my Gummy Nexus

+ 1 on all aspects and +11 on T9 dialer. Coming from HTC Desire I really miss this smart dialing feat.

adrynalyne said:
For example, I think percent in the battery is stupid and annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? I keep thinking about this too.
On the one hand, it's useful if you want to test battery against usage patterns etc. You also get better estimates of when you'll run out of charge.
On the other hand, it's extra information you have to remember and could easily do without, it also gives you a habit of wasting time by looking at it repeatedly and remembering that information. I never have to worry about running out of charge before I get home so it's kind of pointless.

I see the battery percentage every time I unlock my device. Percentages on a battery image are cluttered, and doesn't increase my battery life. Instead, I watch myself staring at them. I can't judge my battery life off of them, because drain is not linear most of the time. I just have a personal distaste for them.

he_stheone64 said:
1. Battery icon option with 1% steps in statusbar
2. Quick toggles to settings in statusbar
3. Custom shortcuts for Lock Screen
4. Reboot option in Power Menu
5. Position of clock in status bar
7. T9 dialer
8. “Unread only” email tabs
9. Home Screen animation
11. Color Themes (see Windows Phone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would defeat the purpose of Android would it not? Google does not want to do all of this, because that's what the developers are for. They make stock android with some enhancements they think will push android to the next level and let all the devs make stuff for us to use to customize our phone.
If i want these features i download apps.

I've always agreed with this, from day one. However, OEMS pump out Android phones more than they do Windows phones for one simple reason, because they can modify Android and they are not bound to upgrade it. Yes, there is that whole 18-month window thing, but it takes phones sometimes 18-months just to get one update. Windows on the other hand requires phones to be built to handle long-term updates, as does Apple. Personally, Google needs to really force manufactures to come closers to upstream AOSP. There's really no need for locked bootloaders, or closed-source skins such as Sense.
Either way, good luck.

How is that working out for windows phones?
Think their model is working for them? So far, wp7 has been an afterthought in most stores. Most of them are EOL'ed before they see much of updates. A long update cycle is worthless without...updates.

Droid Razr. Three months later Droid Razr Maxx.
Atrix. Half a year Later Atrix 2.
Droid 2. About 11 months later Droid 3.
Android phones really are not a shining example of longevity either. The general philosophy of the OEM's has been to release new phones, not upgrade existing ones.

Notice a pattern there?
Motorola.
They are idiots.
Besides, you missed some.
droid 2 > droid 2 global > droid 3 > droid 4
razr > razr maxx > razr dev edition
atrix, atrix 2
bionic
photon
Did I miss any big ones?

he_stheone64 said:
1. Battery icon option with 1% steps in statusbar
2. Quick toggles to settings in statusbar
3. Custom shortcuts for Lock Screen
4. Reboot option in Power Menu
5. Position of clock in status bar
6. Customize Auto Brightness
7. T9 dialer
8. “Unread only” email tabs
9. Home Screen animation
10. Widget color and transparency
11. Color Themes (see Windows Phone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. i don't wanna see 1% battery icon, because it is annoying. if you want it, install ROM.
2. quick toggles is great thing. i don't understand why galaxy nexus doesn't have it since the manufacturer of gnexus is samsumg?!? all samung devices has quick toggles but gnexus. though, it is not really a big problem. there is GREAT app from market called Notification Toggle and it's even better then stock samsung's quick toggles.
3. i do not care. i guess it is up for developers, not for google.
4. well, this could be really usefull.
7. not bad idea
so in fact i don't really wanna change anything.. well maybe add a reboot or t9 dialer...

I believe his original point that was overlooked by nearly everyone in the thread was "user customizable," i.e. the ability to change or toggle most of the features. Of course many of us might not wanna see battery percentage, but have we not seen just about every feature in our ROMs have the ability to be toggled on/off or easily customized from a settings menu? Remove the need for all fifty Nexus devs to put essentially the same basic features in their ROMs that everyone wants to see, allowing them to focus on further development.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

Nah, I didn't miss it. One of my points was that too much customization options scares some people away. You can increase, and hinder sales in such cases.

Personally, more customization options on phones is a must. Everyone bangs on about android being really customizable, but im already bored with the limited options.
Custom roms arent the answer because none of them work properly and have things missing. Even stuff like miui, oxygen and all the roms on Htc Desire dont work 100 percent and ive always had to return to stock.
They need to start offering more STOCK customization options that work if android is going to continue to flourish.
Ive yet to find a phone or rom i can customise to my tastes that works perfectly, still on hunt for perfect phone and i doubt i will ever see it.
Good luck.

my perfect os is;
- stock android, but if coming from e.g HTC, when setting up the phone give me a choice whether to have sense or stock.
-unlocked boot loader
- let me change the colour scheme. Amoled screens last longer on darker colours so let me gave dark scheme. LCD I don't care.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

biffsmash said:
Custom roms arent the answer because none of them work properly and have things missing. Even stuff like miui, oxygen and all the roms on Htc Desire dont work 100 percent and ive always had to return to stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has more or less been my experience too. Plus, you get the options the dev chose. Some you like and some you don't.
biffsmash said:
They need to start offering more STOCK customization options that work if android is going to continue to flourish.
Ive yet to find a phone or rom i can customise to my tastes that works perfectly, still on hunt for perfect phone and i doubt i will ever see it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably won't. The reason being that the majority of people don't even know those options could exist. What most people really want (need even) is simplicity. Put a smartphone in your average person's hands and they are overwhelmed. Again, I am talking about the majority which isn't XDA users. XDA is the 1% of smartphone users!
What Google product managers should consider is a tiered option system. Basic simple options for the masses and then an expert user set of options buried a layer deeper for the people like us who really want it a specific way. However, these additional options cost a lot of effort to develop and regression test. That cost needs to be weighed against the perceived benefit.

Thx for your feedback so far, but it's important to note, that this is about giving users the choice. So if you don't like percentage battery, just don't choose it. I'm also aware I can flash Custom ROMS for this and I probably flashed more then most here, but don't forget that 90% of Android users don't even root their devices. So it would be a great advantage, if they get this flexibility out of the box.
Send from my Galaxy Nexus

[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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah, the s has a different processor cuz it's GSM only.
Sent from my KangBang'd out vivow

[Q] Paranoid Android 2.99 Beta

I just went from BAMF to Paranoid Android 4.2 and for the life of me I can't figure out why so many people are talking up this ROM, could someone please explain it to me because I need to be missing something.
The only thing that looked interesting was the UI features which do not work correctly. The Opaque Statusbar and Taskbar do not work. Randomly they will go back to solid black then never goes back to Opaque. The Tablet UI seems awesome but the Taskbar buttons are way to small. So I figured I would change the DPI but it makes the Statusbar clock huge and the notifications area pop-up moves half-way off the screen rendering it unusable.
So after those features are taking away there really is no custom / developer settings on the ROM so it's pretty much pointless.

A lot of people like a tablet UI but don't like the smaller DPI or visa/versa et cetera.

Jubakuba said:
A lot of people like a tablet UI but don't like the smaller DPI or visa/versa et cetera.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Tablet UI is awesome but very poorly implemented it seems.

Shuino said:
So after those features are taking away there really is no custom / developer settings on the ROM so it's pretty much pointless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I came from AOKP milestone 1 to PA 2.99.5 and while I like the 4.2 I'm thinking it might be time to go back to AOKP. I thought the Phablet UI was interesting but when I tried it... it didn't work correctly. I do like the per-app customization but I'd rather customize other areas of the phone with my time. Add I miss my integrated weather on the lockscreen.

illegalsmile said:
I came from AOKP milestone 1 to PA 2.99.5 and while I like the 4.2 I'm thinking it might be time to go back to AOKP. I thought the Phablet UI was interesting but when I tried it... it didn't work correctly. I do like the per-app customization but I'd rather customize other areas of the phone with my time. Add I miss my integrated weather on the lockscreen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are pretty much in the same boat am I. I was just hoping something happened during my install of Paranoid and that's why it wasn't working or features were missing or something. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this ROM is defiantly lacking.
I am staying hopeful though. Once they get this ROM out of beta maybe Tablet UI will be working, and they will include some basic customization.

I do not see any problems with PA 2.99.5 whatsoever.. It works perfectly fine..smooth, good battery life, no lags, everything works as it should.. Once again, it is a matter of preference.. You putting up this thread was a matter of preference.. But once again, it is advisable that you do not complain by making a new thread.. Just post in the PA thread.. Molesarecoming is always open to constructive criticism..Once again, the word is "constructive criticism" the diversity of ROMs in the Galaxy Nexus community is what makes many stick with the nexus. so before bashing other ROMs, please just remember you not liking it, doesnt mean it's the same for others. If you hate it so much twitter it or fb it or something. >.<

Leemur89 said:
I do not see any problems with PA 2.99.5 whatsoever.. It works perfectly fine..smooth, good battery life, no lags, everything works as it should.. Once again, it is a matter of preference.. You putting up this thread was a matter of preference.. But once again, it is advisable that you do not complain by making a new thread.. Just post in the PA thread.. Molesarecoming is always open to constructive criticism..Once again, the word is "constructive criticism" the diversity of ROMs in the Galaxy Nexus community is what makes many stick with the nexus. so before bashing other ROMs, please just remember you not liking it, doesnt mean it's the same for others. If you hate it so much twitter it or fb it or something. >.<
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I'm not bashing anyone work at all, honestly I just wanted to know if I was missing something from the ROM since so many seem to use it. I have used it for 2 days now and none of the UI tweaks are functional, or do not work properly or are just way to small with no functional way to increase size. But the ROM is smooth and quick with insane boot speed.

Here is info on PA 2.99+ in a nutshell. First and foremost, you all downtalking tabletui need to realize that it does not actually exist in android 4.2, the paranoidandroid team found it deactivated by google in the code for 4.2 and they spent their time making it available again, it is in no way a finished product, if you want to see it work good then download a version of PA with an android 4.1x base ( i.e. PA 2.54 or before). Now onto people that cannot see the big deal, well anyone that tried the pre 4.2 PA knows that there is more customization available in PA than any other rom put together. Now PA 2.99+ are all AOSP based instead of CM based so they basically are building this rom from scratch to improve speed, performance and battery life for everyone, this means that a lot is not even integrated back into the rom yet. Simply trying out the newest PA will not give you a feel for why it is hands down the best rom out there. As for transparency, that only works on the homescreen and in order to properly utilize it you must A. be using a compatible launcher which has the homescreen backgrounds drawn correctly ( i.e. Apex, Stock or Holo etc, NOVA does not work) B. Choose a correct transparent hexcode or slide the transparency bar to where you would like it for that said Launcher in the "apps" section of paranoid preferences. I am on 2.99 Beta 5 and have full transparency with no issues that you speak of (Photo included as proof), in fact, Beta 5 has added almost everything I want back into the rom and fully functional, I can hardly wait for v3.0, seriously, I cannot see ever using another rom after using paranoidandroid, it just has the edge on everything else out there. AOKP and CM have nothing on it especially when it's at 100% again, which will be in the next couple weeks at the rate it's awesome devs work at!

tabUI is not existant in 4.2, what you see right now is raw honeycomb. if you want to see how good it was install 2.54, thats still based on 4.1. but right now i got to make my hands dirty with this. i know that on xda most people do not understand the difference between developing and kanging, and they wonder "why's this rom slower than others" but someones gotta do the dirty work and im okay if crackflashers avoid ours. they avoid cm for the same reason.
as for hybrid engine, i dont think you have understood it yet. it works flawless and it gives you more customization than all roms on xda combined, IF you can handle it. yes, you are able to make a button pink in this and that rom, but hybrid can transform thousands of apps and components to the better, with practical implications that are unheard of. the apps that are running on your huge 720p screen were not optimized for it, they're in the same layout that applies to pocketwatches or stone age miniature phones like the htc wildfire.
as for opacity, no app, obviously, draws underneath the bars - why would it. the launcher can do it, but again - not all do. nova has even a bug that offsets the wallpapers which leaves a black gap. our launcher works, apex works, holo works and perhaps a bunch of others. no rom does it differently, simply because its impossible.
the real difference is that we are producing features that push androids boundaries, we are sick of a homogen rom culture that hasnt really moved one inch for a couple of years now. all these roms are the same, do you realize that? kanging has produced one grey mass and nothing stands out. when we are done with our beta we will of course bring in all the essential features aswell, but new features have greater priority. and these blow everthing related to it clean out of the water.
compare build.prop hacks with hybrid engine, its like night and day. this is quite possibly the biggest rom scene improvement android has ever had.
compare rom scene color tweaks with per-app-color, its like night and day. normal roms are static, they give you one color and thats that. our colors shift from app to app.
compare extended desktop (which also came from us) with per-app-fullscreen
compare our recents with clearall implementations,
we had the most versatile toggles on android in 4.1 (right now we're implementing a new panel which will come in beta6)
etc.
but you got to understand that this stuff takes alot of time. i know i could just rename an open source rom, call myself "founder," post in 30 device forums and make craploads of money here on xda, but i chose not to and im happy i found a few guys that think in the same way. im content with the few people that use PA and the support i get from those, i dont see myself competing with any other rom for that matter. i dont feel like i have to stop all my work now just because this and that rom has a minor option that we dont have at the moment.

molesarecoming said:
tabUI is not existant in 4.2, what you see right now is raw honeycomb. if you want to see how good it was install 2.54, thats still based on 4.1. but right now i got to make my hands dirty with this. i know that on xda most people do not understand the difference between developing and kanging, and they wonder "why's this rom slower than others" but someones gotta do the dirty work and im okay if crackflashers avoid ours. they avoid cm for the same reason.
as for hybrid engine, i dont think you have understood it yet. it works flawless and it gives you more customization than all roms on xda combined, IF you can handle it. yes, you are able to make a button pink in this and that rom, but hybrid can transform thousands of apps and components to the better, with practical implications that are unheard of. the apps that are running on your huge 720p screen were not optimized for it, they're in the same layout that applies to pocketwatches or stone age miniature phones like the htc wildfire.
as for opacity, no app, obviously, draws underneath the bars - why would it. the launcher can do it, but again - not all do. nova has even a bug that offsets the wallpapers which leaves a black gap. our launcher works, apex works, holo works and perhaps a bunch of others. no rom does it differently, simply because its impossible.
the real difference is that we are producing features that push androids boundaries, we are sick of a homogen rom culture that hasnt really moved one inch for a couple of years now. all these roms are the same, do you realize that? kanging has produced one grey mass and nothing stands out. when we are done with our beta we will of course bring in all the essential features aswell, but new features have greater priority. and these blow everthing related to it clean out of the water.
compare build.prop hacks with hybrid engine, its like night and day. this is quite possibly the biggest rom scene improvement android has ever had.
compare rom scene color tweaks with per-app-color, its like night and day. normal roms are static, they give you one color and thats that. our colors shift from app to app.
compare extended desktop (which also came from us) with per-app-fullscreen
compare our recents with clearall implementations,
we had the most versatile toggles on android in 4.1 (right now we're implementing a new panel which will come in beta6)
etc.
but you got to understand that this stuff takes alot of time. i know i could just rename an open source rom, call myself "founder," post in 30 device forums and make craploads of money here on xda, but i chose not to and im happy i found a few guys that think in the same way. im content with the few people that use PA and the support i get from those, i dont see myself competing with any other rom for that matter. i dont feel like i have to stop all my work now just because this and that rom has a minor option that we dont have at the moment.
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Wonderfully said.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

PA 2.54 on epic 4g touch
I just flashed to this rom yesterday and really like it so far. I am interested in flashing to the newest 2.99 version. Where I can get the correct download for my phone, and do I need to update my recovery and if so, where do I get the link for that?
Thanks

btvolta said:
I just flashed to this rom yesterday and really like it so far. I am interested in flashing to the newest 2.99 version. Where I can get the correct download for my phone, and do I need to update my recovery and if so, where do I get the link for that?
Thanks
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I think the new 4.2 based PA roms might only be available for the Nexus series phones and tablets currently since the developers have started over building it from the ground up using AOSP source instead of CyanogenMod. I am not certain if the code is out there for other devs to build on their particular devices yet though.