Database Users

Trying to Kill My Sense Addiction

Coming from a G1 after two years and Cyanogen, I felt it was inevitable that I would hate Sense UI. I hated teh Hero version, but after being stuck with stock for two weeks and SlideMeRoot for another, I grew attached. I am now torn, whether I should move on to a more stock Android feel or wait for the Froyo update that will never come... I also ponder why we exist and how the universe works.

Yes it is for this reason I now establish the first SUAA. Sense UI Addicts Anonymous I thought I also would hate it, but I am close to installing the Launcher Pro Beta or whatever it's called to wean myself off of it.................... This group would have it's own steps: Step 1: Admitting that you have an addiction, but continue to clutter your device screen with widgets that aren't even really that useful and take up entire screens on the Home pages. Step 2: Install an alternate Home app Step 3: Don't look back and hope the update doesn't cause you to relapse.

How I got over my Sense UI addiction:
Switched to LauncherPro.
Got the Weather and Toggle Widget (you can also get Fancy Widget which is free). This replaces the HTC weather & clock widget.
Twitter + Facebook widgets on one screen. This replaces FriendStream.
That's about it. There's nothing else I liked about the Sense UI.

Original Sense UI = kickass
Espresso = Cheap TMO inspired UI with some real Sense UI widgets thrown in. IE. the weather widget.
I never understood how much I missed plain no-border icons until I finally installed one of Eugene's ROMs

chrisinaz said:
Original Sense UI = kickass
Espresso = Cheap TMO inspired UI with some real Sense UI widgets thrown in. IE. the weather widget.
I never understood how much I missed plain no-border icons until I finally installed one of Eugene's ROMs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't stand the Original Sense UI tho... Maybe I'll finally flash SlideM... it is still sitting on my SDCARD.

I just flashed it last night and it was a welcome change over Espresso... at least for me.
Launcher Pro does have a cool setup for the actual app drawer / call button, messaging, etc etc with some cool preferences you can mess with. It's definitely worth a try.

The Sense UI grew on me as well. I'm now using SlideM and just added a few things back to it like mytouch radio, IME, alarm clock and so forth.
This Rom is fast and I love launcher pro, it's just kick ass and looks great with LWP. I can live without the Sense UI now. This will hold me over untill CM throws something our way.
Props to everyone for all the work so far on the Slide!

I hate to say it but I don't think I can go back to stock without something similar to the MyModes option. I have gotten an amazing amount of use out of that program. Also, the Friendstream/Clock widgets are better than other widgets in the same category.
Plus, I don't want to feel like I simply have a faster G1 (even though I still want to KILL the MyFaves app)

simplyTravis said:
I hate to say it but I don't think I can go back to stock without something similar to the MyModes option. I have gotten an amazing amount of use out of that program. Also, the Friendstream/Clock widgets are better than other widgets in the same category.
Plus, I don't want to feel like I simply have a faster G1 (even though I still want to KILL the MyFaves app)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Down with MyFaves!!!! Lol If only they would get it right in the first place/

simplyTravis said:
I hate to say it but I don't think I can go back to stock without something similar to the MyModes option. I have gotten an amazing amount of use out of that program. Also, the Friendstream/Clock widgets are better than other widgets in the same category.
Plus, I don't want to feel like I simply have a faster G1 (even though I still want to KILL the MyFaves app)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I like MyModes a lot, and the Faves app is terrible. (Really? We can only import one contact at a time? How's that for efficiency?)
Has anyone ever seen the amount of logging data that gets spit out by Faves and other Sense apps? It's like they forgot to switch "static final boolean DEBUG" to "false" before release. :-(

For those that like and use TouchWiz

I thought I just throw it out here since there are so many people complain about how bad touchwiz is.
What do you like about TouchWiz interface on Galaxy S?

One thing I really like is how music players stack up onto the pull down taskbar as well as on the lock screen where you can stop, change track and play your musics without unlocking your phone.

I only like the lock screen missed call or missed sms notification.
Other than that it's crap.
I use adw for everything else.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

is there any way to change it to something better without rooting or anything like that?

kcharng said:
I thought I just throw it out here since there are so many people complain about how bad touchwiz is.
What do you like about TouchWiz interface on Galaxy S?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sliding across the notifications bar to adjust brightness.
The Touchwiz Corporate Email client is MUCH better than stock Android. Much.
The Notification panel is the best stock panel on Android, and nothing aftermarket even comes close.
The stock Clock application has a great "Smart Alarm".
Task Manager, which is just a long-press of the Home button away.
Built in "My Files" application, no need to download something like Astro.
Memo and Mini Diary are quite useful.
Very solid SNS integration into Contacts, complete with pictures.
A pretty damned good stock dialer.
A pretty good stock keyboard (and Swype too!)
The best stock Music Player IMHO. Equalizer presets!
The best stock Video Player, bar none. Divx, MKV, AVI, it plays them all.
AllShare actually works, and is actually useful and fun.
Ability to change system fonts on the fly, and to download or create your own.
Road SMS just for ****s and giggles.
Integrated Calendar (Exchange, Google, etc.)
Car Home and Desk Home launchers are nice.
How friendly TW3.0 is to 3rd party launchers.
I'm sure there's more, but the long and short of it is, TouchWiz 3.0 is pretty damned good. I don't use the TWLauncher either, but most of that is habit, having used ADW and LauncherPro for months.

kcharng said:
I thought I just throw it out here since there are so many people complain about how bad touchwiz is.
What do you like about TouchWiz interface on Galaxy S?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love TW3.0 I've tried all other launchers and they dont really compare to the functionality that TW3.0 offers altho most of the launchers are just home screen and application drawer replacements.
My only gripe is that samsung should have added a msg counter on the messaging icon like on the wave... everything else is great for me!

Nothing of these things have to do with touchwiz. Im on launcher pro and can do the same. The only thing missing are the samsung widgets.
Ps. On launcher pro you get msg and call counter in the dock icons
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

What i like in TW3.0 is that apps are divided to pages. I don't like scrolling, scrolling and scrolling to find my apps in other launchers. I know on which page i have app that i need right now so i jump quickly there and launch it.

I tried ADW Launcher and LauncherPro but don´t like them. They feel a lot more incomplete and slower compared to TW3. I can´t complain about the speed of TW3 and i really like the the Screenlock, and the notifications for missed calls and sms

Twlauncher isn't the only part of the phone that's changed by TouchWiz, as listed above.
I also use LauncherPro, mainly because I prefer its vertical sliding application list, but the notification icons and integration with media players is nice. I have no argument with the lock screen either - again, the music player integration is useful. The Task Manager in newer builds is also pretty decent and good to see in a stock ROM.
The TouchWiz customisations you can't remove/bypass are pretty good, and because you can change default handlers in Android, it's no big deal to use alternative launchers and applications. I was concerned about not having HTC Sense, but happy with this.

I currently switched from LauncherPro to TouchWiz recently, just because I like variation. I might use ADW instead next week. There's nothing bad about TouchWiz to make me not use it. Nice to see other people supporting the stock software.

TouchWiz 3.0 is Good!!
I am not sure why there is so much of TouchWiz hate. But once one would come out of the "only Sense/ADW is good", they would really see what all functionalities have been added to TouchWiz to make it look good and actually work well.
I really like it.
And I really wonder if Sense can do this much!!

kcharng said:
One thing I really like is how music players stack up onto the pull down taskbar as well as on the lock screen where you can stop, change track and play your musics without unlocking your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This works on Launcher Pro too, it's not unique to TW
d3a said:
is there any way to change it to something better without rooting or anything like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just download an alternative like Launcher Pro or ADW and Home Switcher to easily switch between them.
Croak said:
Built in "My Files" application, no need to download something like Astro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's just an application, irrespective of the launcher. Switch launcher and that is still there.
Memo and Mini Diary are quite useful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As above, stock applications, not launcher specific.
A pretty damned good stock dialer.
A pretty good stock keyboard (and Swype too!)
The best stock Music Player IMHO. Equalizer presets!
The best stock Video Player, bar none. Divx, MKV, AVI, it plays them all.
AllShare actually works, and is actually useful and fun.
Ability to change system fonts on the fly, and to download or create your own.
Road SMS just for ****s and giggles.
Integrated Calendar (Exchange, Google, etc.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto, all stock, not dependent on launcher.
[/QUOTE]
yrizan said:
Nothing of these things have to do with touchwiz. Im on launcher pro and can do the same. The only thing missing are the samsung widgets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed!
I like certain aspect of TW, sort of like the horizontal scroll applications page but wish there was a way to reorder things alphabetically without clearing the data. Manually sorting applications according to type etc. is useful but then sort of duplicates what the home screens are for. Like the icon display on TW as well with their button backgrounds as opposed to plain icons in Launcher Pro.

I think touchwiz is pretty good, one cool feature is sliding your finger left or right on a contact either calls them or composes s message! Until someone ports Sense to the SGS ill stick to touchwiz
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I don't "like" touchwiz, but don't hate it either. The widgets that come with it are pretty cool. I like the people(social networking) and the yahoo finance widgets in particular.

MAMBO04 said:
I think touchwiz is pretty good, one cool feature is sliding your finger left or right on a contact either calls them or composes s message! Until someone ports Sense to the SGS ill stick to touchwiz
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a feature of the contacts manager, not Touch Wiz. It works the same under a different launcher.

No greyish pull up tab underneath? Never liked that bit.

Croak said:
Sliding across the notifications bar to adjust brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you, but what do you mean by this? How do you adjust the brightness from the notifications bar?
This is probably some new addition like the task manager, right? I'm still using the JF3-firmware...

Think the touchwiz is pretty well thought out. I actually like it better then Sense tbh even though I figured I would miss sense after switchin to the sgs.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I love touchwiz that when I slide, if I touched the app icons first for like 0.2 sec and slide, it will still give me a slide.
If I do it on ADW or LauncherPro, it will act like I'm holding that icon. Like I hold icons from drawer to place at home screen.
I don't know how to explain this, my english is not very good. Hope you understand.

Things you like about Touchwiz/Samsung modifications

Always seems to be a ton of threads about why people hate touchwiz and how eager they are to get rid of it but...what do you like about what Samsung did different?
I absolutely love the pulldown menu modifications
I love the music/call controls in the pull down, and like the power widget there. This is something I really wish that Google would adopt/roll into stock android later on (or at least Cyanogen).
I also like the shortcut to adjust your phone's brightness (rolling finger across the top bar).
I personally prefer the way this phone handles making a call on a 2nd line and conferencing people in...it's much better than stock android (I came from a Moto droid and conferencing in a new # was always kind of a pain in the ass).
I personally prefer the way they redid the calendar to stock (I seem to be in the minority here though).
I use google voice for all SMS, so I can't really comment on that.
I use LauncherPro, so the actual look of the launcher doesn't bug me...
Actually, the only thing I truly hate about the modifications Samsung made was the damn alarm program..it's way worse than the droids, and it's way too easy to turn off...and the snooze button is hard to differentiate from the turn off alarm button.
Overall, Samsung has some nice stuff if they just abandon the cartoony iPhones look of the launcher and work on a few of the performance hickups here and there.

hydrogenman said:
I absolutely love the pulldown menu modifications
I love the music/call controls in the pull down, and like the power widget there. This is something I really wish that Google would adopt/roll into stock android later on (or at least Cyanogen).
I also like the shortcut to adjust your phone's brightness (rolling finger across the top bar).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than the calendar (which is a near-total fail for me; maybe others' calendars don't have the same bugs as mine - which is a scary thought, b/c it makes a global "fix" seem less likely), I really like TouchWiz - particularly the features listed above. The "Power Control" Android widget (or whatever it's called) - which is normally crucial - becomes almost unnecessary, provided you're OK with using the pulldown for toggling GPS, Wifi, etc.; and sliding finger for brightness. (The only Power Control item you can't toggle using pulldown is "Sync," which I almost never turn off anyway).
I like how the TW icons look; and I dig the app drawer, b/c I prefer the "list" view that it offers. I may try another launcher someday, but right now I feel no need -- I'm digging TW (and much prefer it to stock Android).
Don't care for the Samsung widgets at all, but their functions can easily be bested with stuff in the Market.

pavvy said:
Other than the calendar (which is a near-total fail for me; maybe others' calendars don't have the same bugs as mine - which is a scary thought, b/c it makes a global "fix" seem less likely), I really like TouchWiz - particularly the features listed above. The "Power Control" Android widget (or whatever it's called) - which is normally crucial - becomes almost unnecessary, provided you're OK with using the pulldown for toggling GPS, Wifi, etc.; and sliding finger for brightness. (The only Power Control item you can't toggle using pulldown is "Sync," which I almost never turn off anyway).
I like how the TW icons look; and I dig the app drawer, b/c I prefer the "list" view that it offers. I may try another launcher someday, but right now I feel no need -- I'm digging TW (and much prefer it to stock Android).
Don't care for the Samsung widgets at all, but their functions can easily be bested with stuff in the Market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never once used any of the TW widgets...that's one thing that was a bit of fail
BTW, you can get the TW style of app drawer on 3rd party launchers

I was rather pleasantly surprised with TouchWiz. I think it's much better than Stock Android. I'm not sure exactly why people are complaining about it.
What I like about it.
1. WebOS like UI controls for Music and Toggles in the Notification drop down.
2. Paged scrolling of apps in the App Drawer. I hate inertial list scrolling.
3. Some of the widgets like dual clock and calendar clock. If there is no place to add a widget on that screen, it finds a screen with space. Buddies Now is a nice widget, but it's slow and buggy.
4. The interface to add/remove screens and move screens around.
What I dislike.
1. It syncs all contacts instead of just "My Contacts". Of course this is not the launcher, but the app. But other than this, the contacts and dialer are much better than stock.
2. Pressing the Home button, sends it off to Screen 4 on my phone instead of the center screen. Very annoying.
3. There is an Android bug that prevents folders from being opened. With LauncherPro, I can restart the launcher which fixes the problem. No such ability in TW.
4. Can only change two of the 4 icons at the bottom.

Likes:
Messaging/calling through contacts.
Power control in notification drawer
Launcher is starting to grow on me
The interface when a call is in progress
Puzzle piece notifications
Dislikes:
Music player can't distinguish between songs and ringtones
Nearly the same issue with gallery and album art
Can't set the home screen when less than 5 screens
Lock screen but that's purely cosmetic
The media scanner, but I don't think that's TW specific (Be awesome to have it scan on demand)
I really don't like how all the Samsung widgets want to take up an entire screen.

hydrogenman said:
BTW, you can get the TW style of app drawer on 3rd party launchers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's good to know... I'll have to try 'em sometime, I know they have lots of fans around here.

I actually prefer TW to LauncherPro or ADW. So far everything works pretty well.
I do wish that the samsung widgets were re-sizeable so they didn't take up the whole screen. I like the app drawer, it is just copying the iPhone, but I don't visit it a whole lot thanks to the FolderOrganizer widget. That widget should have come stock with the phone IMHO.

i really like some of the modifications that samsung has added, especially in the dialer and contacts apps (they have already been mentioned). i found another one last night in the calendar app, if you add a location to an entry it shows you a map of the location from the calendar entry.

wolfvgang said:
I actually prefer TW to LauncherPro or ADW. So far everything works pretty well.
I do wish that the samsung widgets were re-sizeable so they didn't take up the whole screen. ......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey. If I do understand you correctly, you are using ADW or LauncherPro and mention that 'everything is working pretty well, also referring to 'samsung widgets'?
How do you access 'samsung widgets' from say ADW Launcher - ESPECIALLY BuddiesNow ??
I can only access it from the default launcher, but do prefer ADW also - but am stuck
Thanks for your help or ideas.

I don't understand anyone wouldn't use LauncherPro.
The scrolling dock is genius. I have about 15 apps that I use regularly, so the dock does a really great job to accommodate that. Also, you can easily add your own custom icons, and do away with the default ones that come with TW and LP.
I also hate that on TW, you have the home screen # indicators at the top, giving you a lot less home screen space.
The app drawer, though not as easy to use as the Applications viewer in TW, is at least original. This phone already looks like an iPhone, so having a very Android-esque applications viewer is refreshing.
TW does a lot fantastic things, some of which you guys mentioned, but the general layout of it is pretty ****ty, and LauncherPro is just about perfect... and free.

I like the toggles on the notification pull down. I don't like how the brightness slider has no visual feedback to determine what the current bright is set at. If there was a slider widget attached to the bottom or a popup when the slider is in use that would make it easier.
I like the swipe on contacts for the call/sms.
After loading JI6, I tried using the TW launcher again, but I couldn't find any of the TW widgets compelling so I'm back to Launcherpro.

Just found this out, if you dislike the iPhone style of the app drawer, left to right, changing it to Alphabetical list gives me the normalish way we are used to the app drawer working, up and down.
Now if we could just remove the annoying outline on the icons I'd be set

Coming from an iPhone, Touchwiz was a bit too iphone-ripoff for me. I personally use Launcher+ but TW did have some good points.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

my biggest dislike is that contacts and dialer are no longer the same application. I never had a dialer shortcut on my phone before because I could just use contacts, now I have to use up 1 more space for the dialer.

Owenv said:
my biggest dislike is that contacts and dialer are no longer the same application. I never had a dialer shortcut on my phone before because I could just use contacts, now I have to use up 1 more space for the dialer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can access the contacts from the dialer, would be an extra click if you really want to not have that extra icon

z0phi3l said:
You can access the contacts from the dialer, would be an extra click if you really want to not have that extra icon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but as far as I know you can't get to dialer from contacts, and I'm used to having the contacts icon on my home screen. I know I could just change it but you know what they say about old habits. however it isn't a problem since I have another contacts app that solved it for me.

My favorite feature is the dialer. I love the fact that it has speed dial unlike stock android. I also love the predictive dialing. These two are the biggest for me.

[Q] Liberty Rom Launcher

Does anyone know if the launcher or "dock" is customizable in the Liberty Rom? I'm getting kinda tired of Launcherpro as I've been using it for 6 months now... The widgets don't seem to function like they use to for some reason, not updating like they should be, etc. I'm trying to find out if I can change the shortcuts and icons on the dock or add screens, since there are only 5... Any help would be great. Thanks.

Do you mean lack of updates with launcherpro? That is because fede(dev) is doing a complete rewrite of launcherpro so that's why there hasn't been alot of updates.. if you're tired of launcherpro why don't you change some icons around and such? i haven't really tried any other launcher.. but I've read that launcherpro is one of the few that allows customizing every aspect of it...hope i don't sound like a dbag if you already know all this
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Yeah, I knew all that, no big deal. lol. funny thing is, maybe i'm trying to be a little more simple. I think I've used every icon, color, option possible for LP+ and I'm just a little tired of it. GO Launcher is basically the same thing just more screens. Don't like ADW. that leaves the basic launcher. Like I said, the widgets just don't seem to be acting right on LP lately. Not updating properly even when I try to do it manually. So trying to customize the stock Liberty launcher/dock is my last option right now. Maybe if fede's rewrite is updated alot, I'll go back to it.

I've tried the other major players like Adw and GoLauncher, but I always end up coming back to LP mainly for the widgets. IMO, they are the best available on the market for my needs, especially the facebook and calendar widgets. Aside from that, LP seems to be the fastest because Fede kept everything simple and clean looking instead of loading it up with hidden dock bars and window transitions (I know, he added some with the last update). If you're really looking to spice it up some, check out Dreamlyfe for some nice docks and icon sets.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

where do i find this dreamlyfe??? doesn't show up in market and cant find an apk online anywhere..??

nevermind. found it at androidforums... thanks. getting ready to download now. looks sweet. kinda what I was looking for to "spice" it up as you say!

Touchwiz

I will probably have posters coming after me with torches & pitchforks for this. I keep seeing all these negative posts about touchwiz. I guess I'm too much of a noob to see why. I've tried other launchers like Launcher Pro, GoLauncher and even the stock froyo launcher and I keep going back to TW. Mainly it's because I miss some of the widgets that only work on TW. Can anyone give me some examples of things to look for that can show why it's so disliked?
Also if I do switch launchers, the one I'm running always shows up as a running program in Task Manager. Is there a way to get TM to ignore what launcher is set as your default?
Running EB01 debloated deodexed w/ Voodoo kernel
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

The reason I abandoned Touchwiz is not because I disliked the UI design (I really like it in fact...very clean), but rather the background scrolling was acting up. In other words, unless I had a particular Samsung widget on one of my screens, the background wallpaper would not scroll back to the correct position when pressed the home button. It would snap back only after I touched the screen again. Even when it did scroll back when it was supposed to, it was sort of laggy. This was happening right out of the box. Anyway, I switched to Launcher Pro and and homescreen scrolling is as smooth as can be with no lag at all.

There is nothing inherently "wrong" with TouchWiz, and there are in fact a good number of people who like it and continue to use it. I'm not one of them, simply because I feel my phone runs faster -- and I prefer the widgets -- with LauncherPro.
But that's just my opinion. This same sort of thread gets re-created every couple of weeks, and the bottom line continues to be this: if you like TouchWiz, use it. If you don't like it, don't use it.
That's why Android's so great -- you can make that choice for yourself.

I actually think TW is really nice and clean looking, and would probably have stuck with it if it offered slightly more comparability.
For me, the 4 icon dock is just too big, and I like to have 5 icons down there (phone, contacts, app drawer, e-mail, web). That and you can't do custom shortcuts on the home screens. ADW was free, and offered solutions to these issues, plus, with ADW you can backup your home screen and UI settings, so whenever I flash a new rom, I just install ADW, restore my settings and I'm back to how I like it.
But every time I reflash a stock rom, I do miss how clean TW is.