Database Users

To Android or not to Android...

Hey all,
I have been pondering on this question for a very long time... I love my HD2, I think it looks awesome and performs very well. The amount of things you can do with it make it my kind of phone.
However, I have been running on Winmo since I got the phone and never looked into different ROMS as the one it comes with seems to do the job.
Recently it broke, so its being sent off for repair (got stood on). So i'd thought i would look into this a bit more.
I think, if I do go ahead with it I will try out the shubCRAFT version as it looks so sweet.
However, I do have a few questions:
- I have copilot 8 on my current phone, would this still work on Android? I mean, I have paid for it afterall.
- Is remote desktop and wifi router avalible? I remember on my old Dream that I couldnt get these with Android.
- Is Android stable enough not to pull your hair out and get annoyed with bugs and crashes?
Thanks!

I know there is a version of co pilot for android. Not sure if your lic would transfer over after all it is for winmo. the app it's self isnt cross platform.
I know there are remote desktop type apps I dont use them so you will have to research. Wired tether works on some builds on some it doesnt. youll have to look deeper to see which one it does.
And last but not least
Android is stable for me. But i have been using it even when it wasnt stable.
There will be trials and errors afterall android wasnt designed to be on the hd2.
So you have to rely the selfless act of these wonderful people to iron out the kinks.
So you might wanna stick with winmo.

I'm probably wrong, but I dont think your able to use your Win Mo apps in android as they won't be compatible.
Also I have been running android for just over a week now, and I'm trying to find out how i can go back to Win Mo when i first got the phone.. with no custom ROMs, as using android will give you like 8 hours battery life, unless thats the version im using.
I have the Desire rom with sense, and the only good things are the apps, but my phone is unreliable as it will crash and freeze alot and rebooting every hour or so.
But im not very experienced with this so you may be able to get it to run smoothly

CraigR. said:
I'm probably wrong, but I dont think your able to use your Win Mo apps in android as they won't be compatible.
Also I have been running android for just over a week now, and I'm trying to find out how i can go back to Win Mo when i first got the phone.. with no custom ROMs, as using android will give you like 8 hours battery life, unless thats the version im using.
I have the Desire rom with sense, and the only good things are the apps, but my phone is unreliable as it will crash and freeze alot and rebooting every hour or so.
But im not very experienced with this so you may be able to get it to run smoothly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Info on how to revert back to stock is in the main hd2 thread. the battery life Is really dependant on your usage and the use of programs like setcpu. I know on mine the screen eats most of my battery. I had terrible battery life on my g1/htc dream. That tells me I just use my phone to much.
No winmo apps are not compatible at all but there might be a android version of a winmo app. I dont have the freezing and crashing that you do. Id say looking into Mattc's rom he has been getting a lot of good press.

Thanks for the replies...
Hmm, I may stick with WinMo for a while longer then...
I use copilot/wifi router (people love me in uni)/remote desktop alot so if they arnt fully compatiable then im not sure.
However, as Android will be running as an App, would it be possible to close it and carry on with WinMo then switch back when I want, or would it not be that simple =/

It seems it is possible to use Co pilot with Android, I may have a look into this when my phone gets in from repair.
Just unsure of which ROM to use D:

I use winmo when I need to ... and I hate it. You will find a lot of compatibles. Its what I had to do when I first bought the phone. I was coming from android and It was a big adjustment. I about freaked out when I had to use the silly slider at the bottom .
It doesnt hurt to have it. You could always turn it off at anytime and never use it.

android is installed on the memory card so you can always go back to window mobile if needed. There is a tutorial in here somewhere that shows the exact step to transfer your license to android. search for it.

putting android on sd card and running it is very easy......all you need is a radio above 2.08.50.........
you can install jwd dual boot app...then you can just shut down winmo, bootup android...shutdown android..boot up winmo...as simple as that.........
just try android for fun, it doesnot hurt.......whenever u want to go back to winmo...just reboot...simple !

Its real tough to reboot and use windows when you need to.
Its also real tough to delete android off the SD card when you want to get rid of it or copy another build to try.
Heck, i even have a real hard time renaming my usual android folder when i want to copy a new one to the SD card to try a different one.

carhigh said:
Its real tough to reboot and use windows when you need to.
Its also real tough to delete android off the SD card when you want to get rid of it or copy another build to try.
Heck, i even have a real hard time renaming my usual android folder when i want to copy a new one to the SD card to try a different one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a hard time turning the phone on also. sounds like you need an iphone.. It has the apps and the more gb's and the wifi's.
btw im totally kidding

Go for it. Android can do anything that Windows mobile can, but better. Igo Motonav is a good gps app for android. I transfered my IGO files from WM to android, so copilot may share files on each platform.

is there some way to play .avi files? its the last android issue I have

not sure about avi files but try meridian the one with the larger circle.. v.2 i think it is..
its the only video player i could find with nicer the stock on screen controls, such as repeat and forward and rewind.

rockplayer I believe will play them!

TimeScape removal*Speedboost* + removal of other apps

By removing:
- TimescapeLargeUI.apk
- TimescapeLargeUIThemeBlue.apk
- TimescapeLargeUIThemeGreen.apk
- TimescapeLargeUIThemeIndigo.apk
- TimescapeLargeUIThemeOrange.apk
- TimescapeLargeUIThemeSakura.apk
- TimescapePluginManager.apk
- TimeScapeProvider.apk
...in the system/app directory with root explorer(mount r/w) or other root file managing software. Just deleting these apps alone allow you to GREATLY increase the snappieness(get it...snapdragon) of the X10. Personally I find that it is a useless App that bogs down the phone more then it's worth. Once you have uninstalled it then restart the phone. Ensure that before you remove Timescape that you don't remove any other files at the same time before restarting as this will eliminate the possibility of the timescape removal creating an error.
Do not remove gtalk.apk, or any other google apk's as you are risking messing up some features (Market for example)
Other apps I have found are safe to remove: *UPDATED LIST*
- backupandrestore.apk (Second-party app from the market or Titanium backup works better than this default app)
- Calculator.apk (For the most part a very basic calculator, A free Scientific calculator app from the market is worth the download if needed.)
- Any of the Language* apk's (chinese, danish, korean, japanese) *LatineIME.apk is for the default android keyboard(not the initial one you have when you first get your phone, you will only know about it if you changed it)
- Emanual.apk (Not required unless you really need it, you can still access it from the SE X10 support area on their website if needed)
- EManualLauncher.apk (part file for Emanual.apk, remove aswell)
- Facebook.apk (Facebook is for the sad and lonely, I don't care what kind of burrito Sh!t's your having at 4AM)
- LearningClient.apk (Word memory, it works as a word learner when word suggestions are enabled on the keyboard, when typing in a word it sometimes switches to the "correct" word that it thinks after pressing the space button. When you backspace to get the word you wanted to appear again This service looks at that word and if it use more than once on intentionally then it will remember that and give you the option of that word in the suggestions. Thought I might answer that one since people have asked) *If you don't use word suggestions since it slows down texting then you can remove this.
- moxiermail.apk (Gmail.apk or another email app from the market are definitely better than moxier)
- Officesuite.apk (Not the full version, download the full version)
- OMAClientProvisioning.apk
- playnowappinstaller.apk (If you don't use it then toss it, not that interesting) 1
- playnowback.apk (If you don't use it then toss it, not that interesting) 2
- playnowclient.apk (If you don't use it then toss it, not that interesting) 3
- qcsemcservice.apk
- quadrapop.apk (boring game, good for a day or two but then you find better)
- SemcCheckin.apk
- SemcEmailLargeui.apk (along with the email.apk)
- SemcSetupWizard.apk (I set it up already and the only way I would need it again is if I reflashed and I would have all default apps again anyways)
- SetupWizard.apk (part of the previous Semc...apk)
- SnsContactImageCacheProvider.apk
- StatusSwitch.apk
- usersupport.apk (just not needed in general)
- uWlopProvider.apk
- wisepilot.apk (No need if you have Google Maps, Google Earth, Garmin, TomTom, etc)
- youtube.apk (If you have full episodes or movies on your phone and just don't use youtube then theres no need for this bogware)
By deleting these apps I have sped up the X10 so much I'm amazed at how much of a difference I've seen...maybe even a speed increase X10. I can now say I am fully happy with this phone.
List of features working...but faster.
Phone calls
Contacts
All games that normally worked anyways
Camera
HD recording
Settings menu
Wifi
Phonebook
Messaging
Alarm clock
Browser
Calendar
Gmail
Latitude
GMaps
Market
Media Scape
Navigation
Places
Voice Dialer
...everything...I've done my research. Any apps unlisted just means I have deleted them myself, doesn't necessarily mean their not working.
I currently have 183.21MB used with 169.41MB free. Not bad I'd say.

I await your post in about one day asking for the Timescape APKs because you can no longer make phone calls.
You've probably created a placebo effect. You only think the phone is faster. Run benchmarks, then see how the phone operates. You may think deleting browser.apk or dialer.apk is a good idea now, but when you're in an emergency and the phone won't work, you can't blame anyone but yourself.
Also: You don't know what people need/want from their phone, so it's best to not act so superior. (especially because you're far from the first to delete apps from their phone.)

I have looked into what files I can delete and I have also had to re flash because of my curiosity. Since your obviously the degrading type I can see you have an obvious lack of respect for someone who has done the research and the hit and miss troubleshooting of finding out what a general audience would want to possibly remove if not needed. Not everyone has facebook, or uses youtube. I personally prefer using youtube on my monitor compared to a smaller more costly device such as a data restricted cell. I don't use twitter, facebook, or any timescape dependent service as sms/mms are handled through the default sms/mms app that then forwards it's data to timescape. I wouldn't be in the aerospace industry(military to boot) if I have no idea what I am doing. Since I was smart enough to back up all the default app .apk's after a fresh flash then I know I will not be asking you for any of the apk's, your useless comment doesn't carry any weight.
*I was on the phone when I removed the timescape app since it is not tied to the dialer service.

No point in starting an arguement.
But, not everyone is you. If I'm on a long train ride, the ability to watch YouTube videos is a lifesaver. Obviously one could watch on a monitor, but I don't have that option when I'm not at home. The point of a smartphone is to be able to do things you can do with a PC, when you're not at home.
Timescape is tied to many more things than you think, at least in 1.6. Maybe SE removed those dependencies in 2.1, but if you're deleting the major marketing point of the phone, why did you buy the phone to begin with? Just food for thought. Not looking to start fights.

iead1 said:
No point in starting an arguement.
But, not everyone is you. If I'm on a long train ride, the ability to watch YouTube videos is a lifesaver. Obviously one could watch on a monitor, but I don't have that option when I'm not at home. The point of a smartphone is to be able to do things you can do with a PC, when you're not at home.
Timescape is tied to many more things than you think, at least in 1.6. Maybe SE removed those dependencies in 2.1, but if you're deleting the major marketing point of the phone, why did you buy the phone to begin with? Just food for thought. Not looking to start fights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but i know many people who have unistalled Timescape (even Mediascape) since they have 2.1 with no issues at all.

The main purpose of buying the phone for me was not for the software SE has built on top of android(Timescape/Mediascape), but more for the hardware achievement that Sony has produced by packing so much functionality into one mobile device.
Just having android without any manufacturer modification still gives a ton of room for growth and possibilities to be seen. My goal was to supply a list of apps that are safe to delete without disturbing the stability or functionality of the phone as a whole, while providing another easy work around. These apps I know, as I have tested with 3 phones now, do not effect the user experience greatly. Since I have removed the apps I have had no problems with data, texting, phone calls, boot loops, the market, or browsing. Pick and choose which apps you need and don't need but from what I have removed I'm getting a greater user experience based on performance and alternative functionality.
Games and third-party apps still work fine, but are now faster.

Swifty76 said:
The main purpose of buying the phone for me was not for the software SE has built on top of android(Timescape/Mediascape), but more for the hardware achievement that Sony has produced by packing so much functionality into one mobile device.
Just having android without any manufacturer modification still gives a ton of room for growth and possibilities to be seen. My goal was to supply a list of apps that are safe to delete without disturbing the stability or functionality of the phone as a whole, while providing another easy work around. These apps I know, as I have tested with 3 phones now, do not effect the user experience greatly. Since I have removed the apps I have had no problems with data, texting, phone calls, boot loops, the market, or browsing. Pick and choose which apps you need and don't need but from what I have removed I'm getting a greater user experience based on performance and alternative functionality.
Games and third-party apps still work fine, but are now faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. There are many more apps you can delete with no issues, it depends only if you're gonna use them or not.

Swifty76 said:
The main purpose of buying the phone for me was not for the software SE has built on top of android(Timescape/Mediascape), but more for the hardware achievement that Sony has produced by packing so much functionality into one mobile device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were looking for functionality, you bought the wrong device. Single touch, 65k color screen and 384MB of RAM? Not what I'd call the pinnacle of technical achievements.

The number of dependencies in 1.6 where removed in 2.1 as most of the initial software on the phone are layers. Sony stated that they learned from 1.6 by not going too deep into the core of android but more by means of creating "layers"(boot apps) on top of the core system.
Since they switched to layers they created the possibility to give rooted users the option of choosing alternatives to the initial software. The obvious apps you can remove if unused are facebook and youtube as they are obvious non dependents.(Facebook does have a slight dependency to timescape, but with timescape removed then that issue is not relevant)

iead1 said:
If you were looking for functionality, you bought the wrong device. Single touch, 65k color screen and 384MB of RAM? Not what I'd call the pinnacle of technical achievements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the price to features ratio and the features they have included (8.1 MP Camera, 720P recording, 1Ghz processor, 4.0" tft screen + others) It is as functional as I need. Multitouch will eventually find it's way to the phone one way or another. Also on a 4" screen the difference in colors is unnoticeable side-by-side to other devices that I have checked out. RAMS not an issue with a decent task manager.

I bought the phone to be a android phone.. not some piece of infected bloatware.
I want my phone phone to be mine not SE's..
So if you don't want to remove time scape... then ignore this thread.

OmegaRED^ said:
I bought the phone to be a android phone.. not some piece of infected bloatware.
I want my phone phone to be mine not SE's..
So if you don't want to remove time scape... then ignore this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly my thoughts. The biggest performance jump I saw from deleting any of the apps was by taking out timescape. I bought the phone because it was android and because a majority of hardware is quality. I didn't buy it because it was SE, that just happened to come with it.

Swifty76 said:
Exactly my thoughts. The biggest performance jump I saw from deleting any of the apps was by taking out timescape. I bought the phone because it was android and because a majority of hardware is quality. I didn't buy it because it was SE, that just happened to come with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Swifty76, do you mind feeding us an update for say maybe the next week or two on the performance of your phone? Just a quick so far it been perfect OR crap I had to reflash because my phone messed up. Reason im asking is because I would remove alot of those apps you listed, but I don't need my phone messing up on me...so just keep us posted on how its going and if all is well Ill go for it to. Thanks for the post.....try to keep an eye on the camera for pictures and video as thats important to me.

uhhh... so i have to root my phone to remove those apps, right?

iead1 said:
Timescape is tied to many more things than you think, at least in 1.6. Maybe SE removed those dependencies in 2.1, but if you're deleting the major marketing point of the phone, why did you buy the phone to begin with? Just food for thought. Not looking to start fights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol if anyone bought an x10 for timescape nor mediascape
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

Yeah you have to root your phone to be able to properly uninstall a majority of these apps. The camera is working great so far on all 3 phones. The camera is saving and viewing properly as well. I would recommend the 3D gallery as a picture viewer. Winamp or poweramp are good for the beats.
Haven't found a decent video player yet, anyone know of some good ones?

Swifty76 said:
Haven't found a decent video player yet, anyone know of some good ones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only video player worth installing is RockPlayer

ProBoner said:
The only video player worth installing is RockPlayer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree.
For video--- RockPlayer
For Pictures--- Gallery or JustPictures (it has One Touch zoom that works great)
For Music--- PowerAmp (simply amazing!)

OBS dont remove gtalk, it will couse a lot of problems, trust me, if you did, read here forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6822850

fuusuke said:
Lol if anyone bought an x10 for timescape nor mediascape
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've said it probably three hundred times on these forums: We are NOT the target audience for this phone. The phone sells to millions, each who bought it for different reasons. I regret my purchase, as now Docomo is releasing Japanese-market focused Android phones, instead of the world-focused X10.
But yeah, to the OP, my point was, you can't just delete everything in one go, say performance is awesome 20 minutes later. There's just no way to tell how the phone will do after a week or two in this state. Maybe it really is that much faster, which would be nice. But, to prematurely say it's amazing then find out later that something doesn't work properly would suck. And, from reading XDA, people always delete things they need and come back and whine about them because they didn't back up properly.

android weekest points

well, after a fair play with my DHD android device and coming from HD2 winmo, yes i have a good impression with android, it's better in many cases, but fail in many other essential cases too. not speaking about any visual, gaming, or any specific app here, cause mainly android have the power in this area, but we are speaking about native and essential issues:
1-in a platform where you have the option to have 32 gb as sdcard, i guess u have the right to full this sd card with apps, documents, mp3, movies, images or whatever. instead, of that, if you install more than 100 apps on the sd card (knowing that the htc devices comes preloaded with a bloatware of 165 apps, i guess 100 apps is nothing here) the device have a chance to not load properly the sd card apps, or start to have a massive lag (happened a lot of times).
2-i have a 16 gb sdcard, and now i have 8 gb free, so used 50% of the sd card, and the device have lagging symptoms.
so basically android is functioning better with less files and apps, when winmo have no effect whatever i have on my sdcard, the system will never lag according to sd file system, or the system will not lag to death whatever apps are installed on the sd card.
3-folder browsing applications is better handeled in winmo, like image gallery browsing, music, videos, support the folder browsing option better than android.
4-for now, my test are based on built in video player and mvideo player, and i can say movies have better smooth play on winmo.
5-winmo connect to pc with one single way (active sync) and provide, syncing files, internnet passthrough, exploring the disk files. on the other hand, each time u want to make a job in android, u have to change the way it connects to pc (internet passthrough, or disk drive or sync files) winmo can do all at the same time.

1. You install all those apps on the SD Card and each time you start one its always running, no wonder you experience lag.
2.Same as no.1
3. My experience with winmo and everything to do with it was horrid, it was completely laggy and it was a clean wipe. Folder browsing was hideous and so was everything else.
4. Movies definitely play smoother on android, I couldn't even get a video file to save on winmo, nevermind play it.
5. Why is there the need to use the phone as a disk drive, charge it, internet passthrough?

Definitely not the case for me.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

To be honest I think your problem is just unfamiliarity with Android. After all, people get used to whatever they use everyday then, when they have to change, all you see at first is 'but this doesn't work like <insert old system here> ...'. ALL operating systems/phones/computers are ideal for someone but ALL of them have faults. As long as you can live with them then all is well. If it's a phone you have for 12/18/24 months the best situation is to make the most of the positives, rather than complain about all the negatives. Or sell it and get a new Winmo phone.
Dave

I agree to 2nd post
sent from my DHD

Spelling
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

mikecoffee said:
Spelling
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here come the english teacher.
To topic, there's no way winmo do those things mentioned by original post better than android. My friend has Htc HD2, I sold it to him...lol Like someone said try learning the curve or sell the HDH.

most of the times peopels on board flame threads with opinions or sharing experiences. please try to undersntand that it's something to be discussed not flamed, and as i was expecting some negative replies, i also expect some positive and constructive discussions. and to go further, it's my third month with android, yes i'm new kind of, but fairly i have a good background in troubleshooting, developping, customizing... briefly i tried almost more than 1000 applications from marketplace (apps and games) i categorised and filters most of them, i also did select the best app in each field, and for those who said that 75 apps is a lot, let me tell you that it's just apps and not the games list, and 75 apps that are installed are very essential to be on the phone, and by the way all of them are on the phojne memory and i still have 750 mb for internal memory.
it's just that puttings more installed games on sd card may corrupt the start up of the apps, since android get dizzy loading bunch of them at starup, the thing that winmo dont have this prob, and saying that is not like saying i want to go back winmo, dont take it rude, but please stop acting like the guards on the (your favorite or your owned device) castle, things dont go like this.
in fact if you see that there is a solution, workaround, something to discuss or share, or even if you passed with this experience, please share it, that's what make the forum helpful and going forward.
yes guys i like android more than winmo (winmo is a dead OS anyway) and failed for long time, but for me i faced these problems in android, they maybe a problems for others, maybe not for you, and yes winmo handeled the above listed issues better than android, face it, so why not we discuss why it's better in winmo and how to enhace it (in workaround or developping something to fill the gap).
ex.: "why do i need to make the device as disk drive" cause it's helpfull to have the option of moving files btw device and pc, and browse it in astro or any other explorer at the same time, install apps, or preview images, no need to switch btw disk drive and htc sync or internet each time you need to do any task, for sure it's a better choise to have them all done at one selection sync.
why documents files (music, movies, images) on sdcard may slow the device, if you think it's a normal issue, and the device should start to lag normally if you have bunch of them, then let's ask why they gave us the freedom to have a 32 gb of sdcard (is it to fill it with only 4 gb in order to not lag the device) something wrong here, no? let's ask again, why winmo or iphone handle this issue better (mmm, is it something about handling file caching, file indexing, refreshing..) can we discuss it this way, can we try to figure it and maybe find a solution for now or wit for a android future solution (maybe honeycomb).
sorry if being harsh but please read well before a harsh replies and flame the post.
thank you for your understanding.

The limitations with the sd card you are talking about are not an android problem per se. It is a dual problem with device manufacturers failing to provide enough user accessible rom. The other prong is that developers design their apps to install straight to sd, to accommodate the aforementioned devices.
The dhd has no such limitation, 1gb is plenty for apps. I have 50 apps including some games, all have been moved to internal rom if not done so automatically. I don't get any lag at all.
Of course I can see how someone new to android may not know to move their apps off the sd and think their phone is laggy but this is an unfortunate side effect of Google offering manufacturers the freedom to run android on anything they wish.
Sent from my performance enhanced Desire HD.

Do you think the speed or "class" would have any effect on lag?
e.g. if you had lag on a class 2 card would you expect a class 6 to 10 to resolve this or would this have no effect.
Not that I have any lag problems at all, just curious

Here comes the English teacher.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

point #5 is true but its not a major problem i guess
personally i feel that android is what winmo should have been
win7 is a disaster and it'll remain that way, they've tried too hard to copy apple and will never succeed being a copycat
but coming back to the topic, i guess that the fundamental problem with android is that its java based and as a java developer i know for certain that its a pain in the ass to develop applications on java... i can't forsee myself building a java game especially one that runs off 3D because the number of objects and classes will grow its complexity exponentially
on the iphone we have games like street fighter, winmo has prince of persia
i doubt we'll be seeing such complex games on android anytime soon

I have something to add since I've had the chance to use both OSES.
Ever notice how YouTube has to re-download the video you're currently watching if you want to repeat it? Not only am I wasting bandwidth but I can't enjoy my videos in HD because my connection isn't fast enough.
WinMo YouTube app > Android YouTube.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

Buyers guide (Galaxy S2 review vs iPhone4)

Hi guys,
I thought i share my thoughts and experience with people who have not decided which phone to buy. Maybe my input will make the decision easier (or maybe it will confuse you even more hehe).
Also I am hoping people with Android experience maybe can assist me with some of my negative bullets. I'm very new to Android so i apologies for my mistakes in my so called review/comparison.
And lastly i dont want to start any fanboy android vs iOS. This is just my personal view of the two phones/OS'es. Its maybe a bit unfair since i been using iPhone for the last 3 years and Android for only a week but still some of the bullets are independent of that. Any how lets dig into it, First i take the negative side of SGII and next the positive sides.
(maybe my topic is a bit misleading but below some of the items are compared against iPhone but i wont write all the plus/negative for iPhone since the SGII list is already pretty big and i want to focus on SGII which i hope can replace my iPhone)
- When i exit USB mode (where i can access the SD card) i cant find a way to reconnect it without cable unplug->plug. Is there a way i missed?
- Browser doesnt word wrap the text/column so good on table tab. I had a side by side comparison with my iPhone4. On iphone the whole article including images are resized and the text is fully readable. On Galaxy S2 images are not resized and text is readable but just barely. So the whole screen real-state is not fully utilized with the lower resolution and bad browser formatting.I have tested Opera also but the whole word wrapping experience left a very bad taste in my mouth. It was the worst experience ever, the article jump up and down every 5 sec or so, i think the browser got confused for some reason and couldnt decide how to format the page (this was when double tapping).
- Default browser crashes (go to qj.net where i usually visit to read about games).
- Text selection is a pain sometimes. First problem is that in every app it behaves differently. Second problem is that the process to select a text isnt so smooth.
- Confused about task and background proceses that start magically! When using taskmanager i can see mostly 2-3 tasks there and this makes sense. Now using other task killers suddenly they show 10-15 tasks. I understand these are background task but its beyond me why some of them suddenly are there. Like Kies, this should never be started unless i am using Kies. I can see now why my battery goes dows so fast (well compared to iPhone again). Why is there so many tasks started and why cant i control them from vanila Android. This should be a must. I dont want to root my phone to do the basic settings.
- Pretty much all application is downloaded can only be installed on phone memory. Why doesnt Google enforce developers to adapt to new versions of Android is beyond me.
- I havent found a way to backup everything on the phone (including applications and their save data) to my pc/mac. Without this i dont like to experiment rooting and other shizzles.
- Apps are not as smooth and functional on GS2 compared to iPhone4. Ex: Tunein Radio, i cant skip to next song. Ex2: ign app (iphone) allow for daily videos while the Android version is very poorly done and dont have any videos. Feels like Everything works just a little better on iPhone compared to Android phones.This is something most people cant understand if they havent had iPhone for a long time i think.
- Slow battery charging. I usually start charing at around 20% battery left. In one hour GS2 reaches around 40-50% while iPhone goes to 80%
- Headset lacks volume + next/back track when playing music.
- Creating folder through Kies Air not possible. for ex in media make a folder called movies.
- Drag&Drop in Kies air missing.
- When uploading a file through Kies Air there should be a progress bar, now it just looks busy and you dont know if its uploading or it hangs.
Ok now to some good sides on the Galaxy S2:
+ Brilliant screen (even if i think resolution could be better)
+ Flexibility and open market for every sort of application. Much like windows here you can add more functionality and make the phone very personal.
+ Excellent codec support. It plays pretty much everything i through at it. Well done Samsung.
+ Very good camera (even better then iPhone i admit)
+ Very good video recording (also better then iPhone)
+ Very light
+ Feels pretty good in your hand (even though i’m afraid one day the backvocer will break, i had a Nokia N95 and one day the smal plastic edges broke when i was opening the cover. Same thing will happen ti GS2 i’m sure)
+ Expandibale uSD.
+ Very cool fearure called Kies Air where i can access most studd through browser. (this can also be added to minus since it doenst work perfectly everytime i tested but the potential is there)
+ Nice features like pinch effect for desktop + many nice widgets.
+ I think you can make proper call recording on SGII (CallRecorder) but havent confirmed myself yet.
Lastly i like to say SGII is a wonderful phone and i really really want to use it as my primary phone. The one thing i hope Samsung fixes that will make me more loyal to Android is the default browser. The text wrapping must be improved and the browser more stable. I like the smoothness of the default browser and this is the most used part of the phone and so far my iPhone is better but i hope 2.3.4 update maybe can improve this.
Any input, tips, tricks are welcome. I really appreciate your help.

Hopefully this will help you, at least in some areas (i numbered them in the order that you have used):
1) using developer mode at least (i prefer it as its faster and more compatible than samsung's stuff) you can mount/umount at will the card on the pc via the phone without unplugging
2) You may want to try Opera Mobile, it seems to do a very good job at this. I'd like to see this in the stock browser too, but hey, this is Android, you have the choice to change the browser if you like ;-)
3) Well, same thing I guess. 2.3.4 may improve stability but the rest, I don't know, I wouldn't bet on it. I like Firefox quite a bit as well, but text wrapping is odd on it.
4) Android issue =/
5) I wouldn't use any task killer. Check the active apps and uninstall any app that doesn't behave (keep only the ones you REALLY need that still do stuff in the background, like email etc, but not too many). Seems to work a zillion time better for battery life. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a decent way to enforce such a policy.
Regular background tasks are not necessarily ever active. It just means they're frozen in the background and do nothing. As long as they do nothing it's fine, it's just faster to start them again (instant, in fact). The issue is really when they're activating every XX minutes while in the background.
6)Doesn't matter, the recent samsung phones such as the SGS2 have a HUGE internal memory compared to other phones, you'll never have space issues for that imo.
7)Install a kernel with CWM and then, boot in recovery and run a nandroid backup. It will create the backups on your sdcard. Copy them to your PC. Also, copy /efs using tools or manually..
You can restore using a CWM kernel later on and nandroid restore.
You can also use stuff like TitaniumBackup, but it's not nearly as thorough as nandroid backup (which is doing basically disk images, while Titanium and other such apps just copy app/settings)
8)Trollish subject. Some apps are superior on Android, some are superior on iOS. Heh SGS2's browser speed eats my IP4 for breakfast for example. If the same Android app doesnt have the feature of the iOS app, complain to the dev or find another app.
9) it's true it's like that, nothing you can do about it (technically, something could be done but that's probably not wise at all)
10) Use another music player, such as PowerAmp if you like. There's (many, many) other possibilities as well. It also let you boost the volume higher than the stock max volume (although I find stock to be loud enough)
11) Don't use KIES air to do that then ;-)
12) Likewise. There are apps like KIES air, you might want to try them btw. Make a little search, I dont have the name in mind, but they do exist, others will probably point them out
13) I do get a progress bar that moves, maybe a browser issue. Anyway, see point 12)

Cheers for the answers and help. I write the comments inline below.
bilboa1 said:
Hopefully this will help you, at least in some areas (i numbered them in the order that you have used):
1) using developer mode at least (i prefer it as its faster and more compatible than samsung's stuff) you can mount/umount at will the card on the pc via the phone without unplugging
A: i did test this mode but it asked me to unplug the cable also, same thing for MTP. Dont you get that?
2) You may want to try Opera Mobile, it seems to do a very good job at this. I'd like to see this in the stock browser too, but hey, this is Android, you have the choice to change the browser if you like ;-)
A: As mentioned i already tested this. Opera does some things better and some things worse. For instance visiting one of my favorite sites like Engadget.com the whole page jump up and down when i zoom in a little. To be honest the stock + Opera feel very bad compared to iPhones browser. I hope Opera or Samsung improve on this area. This is the most used feature for me.
3) Well, same thing I guess. 2.3.4 may improve stability but the rest, I don't know, I wouldn't bet on it. I like Firefox quite a bit as well, but text wrapping is odd on it.
A: Lets hope so
4) Android issue =/
A:
5) I wouldn't use any task killer. Check the active apps and uninstall any app that doesn't behave (keep only the ones you REALLY need that still do stuff in the background, like email etc, but not too many). Seems to work a zillion time better for battery life. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a decent way to enforce such a policy.
Regular background tasks are not necessarily ever active. It just means they're frozen in the background and do nothing. As long as they do nothing it's fine, it's just faster to start them again (instant, in fact). The issue is really when they're activating every XX minutes while in the background.
A: Yes true, i think Android just shows to much info for regular user. I have to see past the background tasks perhaps. Also some appz you can not remove like the hubs and such. Sure i can root and hack but i'm not so interested to do so just yet. Maybe when i'm a bit more user and understand Android better
6)Doesn't matter, the recent samsung phones such as the SGS2 have a HUGE internal memory compared to other phones, you'll never have space issues for that imo.
A: Actually i got over 12Gig of Appz on my iPhone so 16Gig (or actually 12Gig which is free) isnt all to much when you have navigator (3,5Gig) and games and blogs and such. But sure its enought for a time to come. The bottom line is Google must be tougher with the market otherwise the fragmentation will just grow.
7)Install a kernel with CWM and then, boot in recovery and run a nandroid backup. It will create the backups on your sdcard. Copy them to your PC. Also, copy /efs using tools or manually..
You can restore using a CWM kernel later on and nandroid restore.
You can also use stuff like TitaniumBackup, but it's not nearly as thorough as nandroid backup (which is doing basically disk images, while Titanium and other such apps just copy app/settings)
A: Thanks for the tips, i will write it down. As said i dont dare yet to mess with hacking but soon i was actually considering using the TitaniumB , hear its easy to use.
8)Trollish subject. Some apps are superior on Android, some are superior on iOS. Heh SGS2's browser speed eats my IP4 for breakfast for example. If the same Android app doesnt have the feature of the iOS app, complain to the dev or find another app.
A: I'm noob on what is there on the market so i'm sure there are many awesome apps on Android but when comparing the same app on Android vs iOS the Android was inferior. That was what i was comparing.
Another thing i dont really experience is the speed. To be honest i dont see such a huge speed difference when using my Wlan at home. But maybe you are right
9) it's true it's like that, nothing you can do about it (technically, something could be done but that's probably not wise at all)
A: I guess your right. On the other hand it could be possible a fw update could adjust some values for the current input, this could be a software limitation also i think. Lets hope
10) Use another music player, such as PowerAmp if you like. There's (many, many) other possibilities as well. It also let you boost the volume higher than the stock max volume (although I find stock to be loud enough)
A:Thanks for the tips will test this. Actually this is same thing as the copy/paste issue. I expect the behaviour to be the same no matter application (coming from iOS) but here it seems its application to application. This offer more freedom to developers for sure but it will also generate crapy software and result in a bad user experience. It would be so much better if there were a set of rules that all developers should follow on certain areas (this one is one such area).
11) Don't use KIES air to do that then ;-)
A: hehe true but this is the official way so i thought it should have been well tested and all
12) Likewise. There are apps like KIES air, you might want to try them btw.
Make a little search, I dont have the name in mind, but they do exist, others will probably point them out
A: Will do.
13) I do get a progress bar that moves, maybe a browser issue. Anyway, see point 12)
A: Strange, have to test again on IE which i hate, i use Firefox only. Also tested Safari on my mac.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for your input mate. Back to play more with my GSII

Applications can also be installed on the external sd card.
Applications and I also believe their user data are backed up on google server. So if you factory reset the phone and sync with google, it will download all previous apps.
About the slow charging - are you on old firmware version or do you charge over USB?
Creating a folder through kies air is not possible, that is correct. To be honest I am happy that there is even an app which allows to copy media etc. over wifi, you know there are phones which don't have that, for example the iPhone.
All apps I am using are working fine. If an app is not stable it's developer's fault, not the phone.

Ios is from 2007.. android 09.. 1-2 years between them. just think how far android have gone the last year.. give it 2 years and then compare it to iphone 4 in it current state.. well yes i know android is older.. but the initial realse was around 08-09 and IOS june - 07.
and yes.. so far iphone fits those who just want it to work better.. that means ppl not that used to computers etc.
and currently i dont own an iphone but i got a first generation ipod touch.. and yes even that stoneage IOS thing does alot of things better then my S2..
bah but this iphone vs android is getting old its a subject that can go on forever and ever..
well ill stick with my laggy android.. well i've been told by my iphony friends that its laggy.. i just dont see it

vampyren said:
Hi guys,
Any input, tips, tricks are welcome. I really appreciate your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice overview.
IMO S2 is the best phone on the market now. But due to appl's hype, n matter what hardware specs they release, the iphone will always be superior to ANY phone. They could release an iphone with 1st gen hardware, and it will still make more sales than sgs2.
But, slowly more and more ppl are moving towards androi, and apple are losing sales. they even copied bb and android in ios 5..

Also coming from an iPhone 4 to the GS2 I can safely say that I don't miss the iPhone at all which I thought I would.
Having owned a Nexus S in the past and feeling a bit bewildered as there was a lot of stuff within the OS which felt unpolished and unfinished and now 2.3.3 is like night and day for that and it feels much more like a complete OS to me.
@OP give it time there will be a lot of things you can do with your new phone which would require rooting on your iPhone 4
The world of apps and widgets and customization is at your finger tips so jump right in and enjoy
My phone is running ADW Launcher EX with 90% icon dock size, 5x5 grid for homescreen, transparent drawer and miui weather

The only thing you might miss is the app store and iTunes integration (if you use it), other than that the Galaxy S II has it beaten quite comfortably.

@zxz0O0:
OOH that is cool , i think some option about it but didnt think it was what i thought it was nice to have it confirmed. Then this is pretty much what Apple is adding into iOS now with the cloud thing. Pretty cool Android has it already. By the way why do people use program like TitaniumBackup when there is google sync ? is there any limitation to the cloud backup? will all games data, programs data, settings be backed up or just Android OS stuff?
About FW i use the latest i think KE7 i think its called but i read there is a new one coming out next week so hoping for better battery life.
And your last point is something we can debate about for a long time but my view is that if you dont have strict rules developers do what ever they want and can let their app go without update. On the other hand if Google enforce some guideline like having option to install to SD card developers must go by that or their application is removed from market. In the end users will benefit and the platform will grow. But this is my view alone.
@olyloh6696:
I dont think its just hype really. I mean we are comparing a year old phone to SGII here and they are pretty much head to head in most scenarios i tested. But i see your point and i do agree that Android has a charm about it. I love the moving background, i love the whole flexibility to do what you want with the interface. Specially SGII's support for codecs so i dont have to spend 2 day re-encoding all my movies etc. So there are definatley benefits with Android but iOS has the benefit to be easy and working perfectly with the functions it offers from the get go. I think its a matter of preference and more advanced users will move to Android (a bit like me).
@daleski75:
Yupp i think i just need to play with it more and get used to the eco system
I think i will harass Opera developers to fix the formatting thing on the webpages now
Thanks for your input guys, gonna go out and take a walk now, later.

There are also many other good browsers, xscope, miren and dolphin hd to name a few, they all have their own way to format the page and all are pretty good many have different options too for formatting and text wrapping (I believe the default samsung browser also has some options)
also I believe google sync doesnt save all app data (eg angry birds progress is not saved)

That is correct...Google Sync doesn't backup app data (like your Angry Birds scores). This is where Titanium Backup (commonly abbreviated to as TiBu) comes in. It "sort of" does cloud backup (via Dropbox), but its strength really shows when you start installing/changing/updating custom ROMs. Typically, it's used to backup your apps and their data to a folder on your SD card. I can also do some pretty advanced stuff that you probably wouldn't use much (if at all). In my view, the strength is it's ability to deal with batch jobs. For example, before installing a new ROM, I backup all user installed applications (non-protected ones, anyway) with only a couple clicks. Restoring is just as easy, provided you have the paid version (it allows for hands-off batch restore of your apps). Another cool feature it has is "freezing" apps. Say you root your phone and may want to clean some carrier crapware off of it, but aren't *totally* sure. You can freeze those apps...they stay installed and can be defrosted at any time, but they won't be available for use until you do.
Also, I agree with you that a lot of iOS apps are much better than their Android counterparts. I believe this is the case for one main reason: there are tons of people using Android and tons of people on iPhones...you can essentially count on one hand the number of iOS phones Apple has to support, and they are all sold by Apple. Now, look at the number of Android phones and devices and their individual specifications...that makes developing apps for Android pretty complicated. Devs have to take into account different CPUs, memory limitations, and the biggie--SCREEN DIFFERENCES! However, I like being able to run an app developed for a phone on my Honeycomb tablet. Yeah, it may be ugly (not necessarily), but it almost always works! I have a network tool I use that only shows up on about 1/6th the screen of my tab, but I don't care...it still does the job.
Don't forget another important aspect of the Android vs. Apple thing...Apple has control of their devices and their operating systems, and the cell phone carriers don't have control over when Apple releases an update. On the Android side, you have some manufacturers that are prompt with getting an update ready, and those who abandon their devices after they leave the store shelf. Not only that, but those who do release updates, and most do, have to deal with the likes of AT&T and Verizon and everyone else here in the US. Each company wants a ROM customized only for them, and sometimes the manufacturers actually have to pay the cell companies to push out updates. This is what causes the splintering of Android, but openness is what gives it its strengths.
As a general rule, I find that the more "techy" people like the Android OS, since you can customize it and tweak it like crazy. Those who aren't quite as savvy will probably like iOS more (there's less to screw up and they all look the same). Please don't flame me for saying that...it's just a general observation that has many exceptions.
Well that's my two cents. Maybe it will be helpful in some way? <*schrugs*>
Brad
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App

There is no practical comparison possible between the mentioned phones.

Appreciate the explanation brad, TB is a nice tool indeed
Just one point, In regard to customization i can pretty do anything also when i jailbreak the iphone which is even simpler then rooting Android and what all techies do anyway with their Android phones
But i agree Android has its charm with the more open eco system.
The 2 area i wish to have before it gets perfect is the browsing and more resolution for the big ass screen (4.3)

sefe

[redacted]

Some cool ideas there. A few comments (posted here because I don't see a way to leave feedback on the site):
1) I'd put the Charms bar on press-and-hold of a button, probably Search (which doesn't currently have any Hold action assigned). Double-tapping is an action that literally nothing else on the Windows Phone OS uses, and especially a button that is sometimes capacitive and sometimes physical (depending on phone model) it's not something I advocate adding now. I like the idea a lot, though, especially for its tie-in with Win8. One thing to add to the Charms bar though: as on Win8 (where it shows a bunch of status info when you open Charms), the Status Bar at the top of the screen should be always visible when showing Charms.
2) There's already a way to get to the task switcher; while it's OK to have multiple methods for achieving the same goal, it seems like there might be something more useful to do than duplicating functionality through a more round-about approach.
3) There should be a more visible cue about the notifications center. Either have something drop down from the top (perhaps a "you have <X> notifications" bar with an appbar-like pull indicator?) or add a button specifically for notifications (two-level Charms bar? Move it to the right edge of the screen? Not sure how best to handle that).
4) I know the whole "swipe down to close an app" thing is very commonly requested, and comes from WebOS, and vaguely resembles Win8, and... I still don't know if I want it. Closing an app is pretty close to literally never needed; backgrounded apps are not generally allowed to use any system resources (they may hold onto some RAM, but the system will take it from them if a foreground app needs it). Closing an app the "usual" way - by switching to it if needed, and then tapping Back until it goes away - also works, although it's more actions. My biggest concern would be that right now, it's not really possible to ever do the wrong thing on the task switcher view. Closing an app, though, is a destructive behavior - you lose the app's current state - and is something that would need to be carefully implemented to make sure it never happens by accident... or perhaps make it optional entirely.
5) The Xbox Music feature looks pretty good, although the drop-down switch between Albums/Songs/Artists/etc. might be a bit too... background. Also, the really basic problems of the new UI - things like songs getting duplicated when they exist both on the phone/SD card and on the "Music Cloud" - really need to be addressed. Highlighting the Search thing - I know you mentioned it earlier with global search, but it's good to have more focused search capabilities too - as the current lack of Search in the music app is a Problem.
6) "Windows and Windows Phone share the same store" is way, way more complex than anybody might be realizing. Leaving aside the fact that most Windows Store apps aren't written for the resolution or aspect ratio of Windows Phone and would therefore possibly look kind of crappy if they were usable at all, and the fact that app models of the two OSes are pretty different (for example, Windows Store apps are allowed to request filesystem access and are required to implement the Settings charm, while WP apps have neither of those things), the APIs are just different. WP8 can use a sort-of-subset of WinRT (the API for Win8 apps) but it's not the same thing (and Win8 can't run WP7 apps at all, not even close). Finally, there's the issue that even the most powerful WP8 are half as powerful as even the lowest-end WRT tablets, and that's going to make a lot of things that perform fine on things like Surface RT be unacceptably slow on a Lumia 920 and impossible to run on anything with lower specs.
7) IE11 is coming for sure. The sync feature would definitely be nice. I'd also like to see some version of (desktop) IE's feed reader (shared with desktop Outlook) get integrated into WP8.
8) Integration with photo services, in the same way as other parts of the phone are integrated with Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and so on... that is an excellent idea. Come to think of it, Facebook pictures are already integrated (a feature I never really use) so adding others should definitely be possible. It would be cool if apps could integrate that kind of stuff without explicit OS support, but that may be aiming too high.

Thanks for the good feedback!

Hmmm, concept by who?

that'd be me.

The sync of bookmarks from Desktop IE to WP IE has already been confirmed for a future version of WP. They didn't say which one exactlly so it might take until WP Blue.
I personally don't like the idea of having the icons in the settings - at least not at the end, just looks kinda weird. Perhaps it would work better if you put them in front and aligned them properly on a grid.
Camera settings actually return back to the defaults when you relaunch the Camera App (and didn't save your changes as defaults).
As for the charms bar - I like the idea of a universal sharing and search feature but I don't particularily like the implementation of it with the charms bar on Win8 and I really don't see it work well on WP.

I like it but MS always let's its users down and dismisses the best ideas and concepts. WP will go now where higher that where it currently is now because of MS's ignorance. The next 2 updates for Luminas that includes the Amber and the GR2 or whatever its called don't really bring much to WP at all; who cares about another clock on the screen or data sense? Or more camera tricks...? Really now!!

@sinister1: Does that post really help? Come on, there's no value in just being negative everywhere.
Also, you call Microsoft "ignorant", but I guarantee that they know far, far more about the smartphone market than you do. If you want to be persuasive, you need to come up with arguments that have more substance to them than effectively just calling MS names.
@KlausWidraw: I think I'm with StevieBallz on the suggestion to have the Settings icons be left-aligned; they do make the items easier to identify, but having a consistent horizontal position to look for them at would help. That said, the ability to re-order the options would be huge; I use some all the time (like Cellular, which is annoyingly just off the bottom of my screen) and others not at all (like "lock screen", "tap+send", or "theme") once I've set them up initially, and would like them out of the way to make room for the options that I care about.

GDR2/Amber as well as GDR1 before it and GDR3 after it are mere maintenance releases. No one expects an Update from Android 4.2.0 to 4.2.1 or 4.2.2 to bring major new functionality. No one expects updates from iOS 6.0 to 6.1 to bring major new features. Somehow everyone (contrary to all reporting on those topics) expects those maintenance releases in WP to do just that. Really new functionality will only arrive with WP8.1/Blue and this has been known pretty much since the WP Blue name first appeared in leaks.
GDRs mainly serve the purpose of fixing some bugs and enabling new hardware functionality that is required for device launches. It has been the same with WP7. There were updates like Tango that served to enable LTE. GDR2 now mainly serves to enable the new capabilities that Nokia required for their Lumia 925 and Eos Camera phones and to keep Google Mail usable. GDR1 was mainly bugfixes, GDR3 will enable new hardware like even higher resolution screens.
Amber then is bundled with the GDR2 update rollout but IS NOT a WP update. It is a device specific capability update like we have seen them by all OEMs in the past.

If there are two things I would change about WP (from a user perspective) those are:
1) A clock tile that updates real time, like the HTC one (srsly want one).
2) Battery saver profiles that let me choose what i want to remain active (bluetooth, wifi, mobile data, background tasks)
That's about it.
From a developer point of view, things are very, very different xD

GoodDayToDie said:
@sinister1: Does that post really help? Come on, there's no value in just being negative everywhere.
Also, you call Microsoft "ignorant", but I guarantee that they know far, far more about the smartphone market than you do. If you want to be persuasive, you need to come up with arguments that have more substance to them than effectively just calling MS names.
@KlausWidraw: I think I'm with StevieBallz on the suggestion to have the Settings icons be left-aligned; they do make the items easier to identify, but having a consistent horizontal position to look for them at would help. That said, the ability to re-order the options would be huge; I use some all the time (like Cellular, which is annoyingly just off the bottom of my screen) and others not at all (like "lock screen", "tap+send", or "theme") once I've set them up initially, and would like them out of the way to make room for the options that I care about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for being so negative but this is really how I feel and what's wrong with that? I know that not everyone will agree with my views or me with views of others but my negative feed back is feed back just like positive feed back is also feed back. I'm pretty sure that you have your gripes with other things.
I'm just feed up that devs come up with some of the brightest ideas and MS simply ignores them. Tell me what is so hard for them to open the OS just a little more for people to be creative? Seriously? Now the truth is the best substance. And of course if you still don't agree with me that's okay; I won't hold it against you because those are your opinions and the way you feel. Please don't take any of my rants personal as all they are, my personal opinions.

sinister1 said:
I'm just feed up that devs come up with some of the brightest ideas and MS simply ignores them. Tell me what is so hard for them to open the OS just a little more for people to be creative? Seriously?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with you on this one. There are some understandable things for security's sake, but its ridiculous how complicated it is to customize Windows Phone 8 or even WP7. With WP7, you could only have a static lockscreen (ignoring LockWidgets from WPH) and couldn't set a custom text notification sound (besides MS' and HTC's.) I could add a custom ringtone, but it was a pain to do, period. With WP8, its a tad easier. You can just copy and paste ringtones, lock screens are customizable, and alarm can be customized as well, as well as the battery percentage can be pinned to the lockscreen/start screen. But compared to the other 3 platforms (Andriod, iOS, and now discontinued Symbian) could virtually anything could be changed. I remember when the 7.8 Beta was out and there were swapped fonts in the roms. Its something that no one had even thought about modifying until it was an issue.
I do have to say the native apps ability is appreciated, but it seems that Interop is still an issue (except I have no idea how problematic it still is). I do have to say I don't know much of whats been going on, due to jumping ship getting Verizon's Trophy late in the game (like when I first signed up here) and then finally moved to WP8 with their 928. So I'm kinda in the dark as to what has been added from the GDR1, Nokia's supposed Amber update, whats in GDR2, future FM support, ect. I really just wish that MS would be a little more verbal about whats in WP8's updates. They were bad with WP7 and they aren't any better now.
Another feature that MS is completely missing is Xbox Video. Seems stupid for them to say their experience is coherent between all their devices when its clearly not.

Can u guys tell me ....which phones will get windows 8.1 update .????
Sent from my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app

Some people don't like customization.
Customization comes with the cost of performance. I had an android with "customization" and whenever i "customized it" it became really, really, really slow.
In order to even have customization working, the system has to waist a lot of CPU cycles on stuff like checking 1000000000000000 settings to figure out what it should render next, swap a gazillion artifacts from storage to memory etc etc.
I want my phone to do what I tell it to do. I don't give a damn about more customization than it already has, and so are 99% of all windows phone users, whom increase in numbers day by day.
If you are going to give feedback disguised as QQ, then you should head over to microsoft's site and make your voice actually count. You complaining here all day, on a freeking developer/hacker forums, will not help!
Windows 8.1 blue will probably loosen up the developers a bit, if they are going to implement all our suggestions. Which will come for all windows phone 8 phones.

@mcosmin: The conecpt the you trade performance for customization really isn't true. Yes, the phone could eke out a trivial amount of better performance by hardcoding its UI styles, but they don't do that. Things like accent colors, background colors, text styles, etc. are all stored in the registry; you don't have to modify a single line of system code to modify or create themes of your own, and they'll run just as fast. Other forms of customization, such as replacing some of the builtin libraries with custom ones, might be slower in certain circumstances, but only if the custom library either added new features (not just new customizations, but actual functionality that wasn't present before) or is simply very poorly coded. The first of those is a tradeoff, the second is easily fixed if people just share their source code.
@sinister1: It's not that I don't agree with you - I do, in fact, and frequently quite vociferously - I just don't see what value you're adding to this conversation by proclaiming it. This thread is to discuss mockups of UI changes to WP8, not to complain about OS lockdown in WP8 and Microsoft's apparent unwillingness to implement some requested changes.

GoodDayToDie said:
@mscosmin: The conecpt the you trade performance for customization really isn't true. Yes, the phone could eke out a trivial amount of better performance by hardcoding its UI styles, but they don't do that. Things like accent colors, background colors, text styles, etc. are all stored in the registry; you don't have to modify a single line of system code to modify or create themes of your own, and they'll run just as fast. Other forms of customization, such as replacing some of the builtin libraries with custom ones, might be slower in certain circumstances, but only if the custom library either added new features (not just new customizations, but actual functionality that wasn't present before) or is simply very poorly coded. The first of those is a tradeoff, the second is easily fixed if people just share their source code.
@sinister1: It's not that I don't agree with you - I do, in fact, and frequently quite vociferously - I just don't see what value you're adding to this conversation by proclaiming it. This thread is to discuss mockups of UI changes to WP8, not to complain about OS lockdown in WP8 and Microsoft's apparent unwillingness to implement some requested changes.
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And how many people do you think will be able to do proper customization? Windows Phone shouldn't be Android with squares instead of rounded edge widgets.
And solid colors like the ones WP uses will always be faster than a image on the background, or some sort of gradients or whatever they they propose to have around the phone.

How many people will do "proper" customization? As many as want to. Who are you to say what is or is not "proper" for how I want my phone to look?
Of all the things wrong with Android (the battery drain due to background services not exiting automatically, the more stuttery UI on all but the highest-end phones due to poorer optimization, the ability for malicious apps to send premium SMS completely invisibly to the user, etc.) you choose to pick on the customizations? Nobody is suggesting that we want Android with WP-like tiles; in that case we would have bought Android phones and installed one of the several Metro-style home screen customizations. On the other hand, if I want a Windows Phone with "rounded edge widgets" and am willing to put in the effort to develop them, I see no reason I shouldn't be allowed to.
WP uses the graphics processor for its UI. Those "solid colors" are just textures like any other. A gradient, an image, a partially translucent image... they're all the same to the GPU. The performance cost would be unmeasurably small.

GoodDayToDie said:
How many people will do "proper" customization? As many as want to. Who are you to say what is or is not "proper" for how I want my phone to look?
Of all the things wrong with Android (the battery drain due to background services not exiting automatically, the more stuttery UI on all but the highest-end phones due to poorer optimization, the ability for malicious apps to send premium SMS completely invisibly to the user, etc.) you choose to pick on the customizations? Nobody is suggesting that we want Android with WP-like tiles; in that case we would have bought Android phones and installed one of the several Metro-style home screen customizations. On the other hand, if I want a Windows Phone with "rounded edge widgets" and am willing to put in the effort to develop them, I see no reason I shouldn't be allowed to.
WP uses the graphics processor for its UI. Those "solid colors" are just textures like any other. A gradient, an image, a partially translucent image... they're all the same to the GPU. The performance cost would be unmeasurably small.
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It's not about the GPU.
It's about the CPU. The more complex the image is, the bigger the size, the more time wasted for CPU to process it.
Add to that the fact it needs to purge/load from memory several times a day (in the case of a background wallpaper for startscreen), and the performance loss and battery drain is suddenly no longer unmeasurably small.

You're talking about a difference of microseconds. Not milliseconds, microseconds. Several times a day. And telling me that this is *not* below the noise threshold of any measurement system we have today, never mind human perception?!?
Also, consider people who use apps (with their own tiles, not just system tiles that are mostly blank and therefore rendered as mostly a solid color) on their lock screen. You know, the whole "meet <person>" advertising campaign Microsoft has been running for this OS? Those app tiles take just as long for the CPU to decode and send the texture to the GPU as the customized tiles we're talking about here...
Except, customized tiles aren't even the point. If you don't want to customize your tiles because saving a few millionths of a second per day - a saving which will never amount to a whole second over your entire lifetime, much less that of the phone - you don't have to. The rest of us want features; customization is merely one of those features. It gets a lot of discussion because:
A) It's an obvious feature to have. MS advertises personalization. People like being able to change how things look, be it their clothing or their front yard or their Windows background. For some reason, though, they can't change their Windows Phone background.
B) It's really, really simple to implement. I mean, there are tons of third party apps, some rather sophisticated, to do this. Microsoft doesn't have to jump through the crazy hoops that we did, and they have the documentation on how the OS works as well.
c) It really does not affect performance. There's no cost. Look at the custom themes and custom system tray icons and so forth on WP7, and try telling me with a straight face the percentage by which it impacts performance to use them.

GoodDayToDie said:
You're talking about a difference of microseconds. Not milliseconds, microseconds. Several times a day. And telling me that this is *not* below the noise threshold of any measurement system we have today, never mind human perception?!?
Also, consider people who use apps (with their own tiles, not just system tiles that are mostly blank and therefore rendered as mostly a solid color) on their lock screen. You know, the whole "meet <person>" advertising campaign Microsoft has been running for this OS? Those app tiles take just as long for the CPU to decode and send the texture to the GPU as the customized tiles we're talking about here...
Except, customized tiles aren't even the point. If you don't want to customize your tiles because saving a few millionths of a second per day - a saving which will never amount to a whole second over your entire lifetime, much less that of the phone - you don't have to. The rest of us want features; customization is merely one of those features. It gets a lot of discussion because:
A) It's an obvious feature to have. MS advertises personalization. People like being able to change how things look, be it their clothing or their front yard or their Windows background. For some reason, though, they can't change their Windows Phone background.
B) It's really, really simple to implement. I mean, there are tons of third party apps, some rather sophisticated, to do this. Microsoft doesn't have to jump through the crazy hoops that we did, and they have the documentation on how the OS works as well.
c) It really does not affect performance. There's no cost. Look at the custom themes and custom system tray icons and so forth on WP7, and try telling me with a straight face the percentage by which it impacts performance to use them.
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Don't compare the WP7 theme mods and stuff like that which were made by hackers that knew what they were doing.
If Microsoft allows this officially on the marketplace, it will be flooded by poor apps.
Anyway, we seem to not be talking about the same thing. We should let it rest.