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I loaded CM6 when the nightly was first posted and had been loving it. I thought it was awesome that it was pure Android with all of the proprietary HTC stuff stripped out. I was sure that AOSP was the way to go and hadn't looked back until yesterday when I loaded AvaFroyo-V3. Not using Sense for a while has really made me appreciate the aesthetics and usability that HTC has put into their devices. I can see why they keep it so locked down because it really does make their devices stand out amongst the other Android hardware, especially to the majority of their users who could care less about rooting, open-source, etc. Who knows what I'll be running next week but I'm going to stick with Sense for now.
Really? It makes me realize how bloated and completely unnessecary Sense is, but that's just me... Personally, I don't have any problem with taking the time to download my own widgets and apps so I can customize everything exactly how I want it.
Sense is a bloated pig but to each his own.
Almost every sense widget has an equal replacement in the market if you know where to look. Launcherpro plus, fancy widget and others come to mind.
Aridon said:
Sense is a bloated pig but to each his own.
Almost every sense widget has an equal replacement in the market if you know where to look. Launcherpro plus, fancy widget and others come to mind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only one I couldn't seem to find was a replacement for the favorite contacts slider. Which also happens to be the one I use the most.
cosine83 said:
Only one I couldn't seem to find was a replacement for the favorite contacts slider. Which also happens to be the one I use the most.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.launcherpro.com/?p=130
cosine83 said:
Only one I couldn't seem to find was a replacement for the favorite contacts slider. Which also happens to be the one I use the most.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LauncherPro Plus has the contacts widget.
PFx00 said:
I loaded CM6 when the nightly was first posted and had been loving it. I thought it was awesome that it was pure Android with all of the proprietary HTC stuff stripped out. I was sure that AOSP was the way to go and hadn't looked back until yesterday when I loaded AvaFroyo-V3. Not using Sense for a while has really made me appreciate the aesthetics and usability that HTC has put into their devices. I can see why they keep it so locked down because it really does make their devices stand out amongst the other Android hardware, especially to the majority of their users who could care less about rooting, open-source, etc. Who knows what I'll be running next week but I'm going to stick with Sense for now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is it that you like about Sense?
I think most people like Sense cause it looks good out of the box, the iPhone type users like Sense a lot. Those of us that like customizing our phones usually hate Sense, because it's bloated and HTC disallows uninstalling programs until rooted.
A week or so ago there was a 'scrollable contact widget' in the market that worked great. It was free too. Maybe HTC C&D'd them too.
Yea it was called mecontacts I have it but it is no longer on the market, at least not for me
firemedic1343 said:
What is it that you like about Sense?
I think most people like Sense cause it looks good out of the box, the iPhone type users like Sense a lot. Those of us that like customizing our phones usually hate Sense, because it's bloated and HTC disallows uninstalling programs until rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love sense and customizing my phone. And i am not a Iphone type user.. You shouldnt really categorize people. it just boils down to the old saying "to each their own"
CM6 + Launcher Pro blows sense out of the water...
No bloat + more options
It takes some time to set up, but once you figure out what you are doing Sense will be a thing of the past.
CM6 + Launcher Pro FTW!
firemedic1343 said:
What is it that you like about Sense?
I think most people like Sense cause it looks good out of the box, the iPhone type users like Sense a lot. Those of us that like customizing our phones usually hate Sense, because it's bloated and HTC disallows uninstalling programs until rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm all for customizing but I like for my phone to have a consistent look and feel between all of the widgets too. Like I said, it took not using sense for a while to appreciate this.
xero187 said:
CM6 + Launcher Pro blows sense out of the water...
No bloat + more options
It takes some time to set up, but once you figure out what you are doing Sense will be a thing of the past.
CM6 + Launcher Pro FTW!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No doubt that there are more options and, with some effort, you can get close to the same experience. I thought CM6 and Launcher Pro was the way to go until yesterday. Now I'm torn.
xero187 said:
CM6 + Launcher Pro blows sense out of the water...
No bloat + more options
It takes some time to set up, but once you figure out what you are doing Sense will be a thing of the past.
CM6 + Launcher Pro FTW!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's getting really, really, really hard for me to pick between froyo+sense and cm6+launcher pro plus (which I recommend every true lover of launcher to get; support your devs!!!).
Pros for sense: Widgets-Bar none, the implementation htc has with sense's widgets are just plain awesome, I mean friendstream, bookmarks, messaging, mail, everything is right there and accessible from the get-go.
Cons for sense: Slow as balls, no customization, gives me some weird purplish tint on my nova,slow, has those stupid sprint apps, slow, aaaand did I mention slow?
Pros for launcher/adw/whatever's not sense: Customization is AWESOME, can do whatever I want, from changing the app drawer opening time to the color of my task bar (cm6), if I see it I can change it.
Fast as HELL- Pretty much gives you a brand new phone; really makes it feel worth the $350 I paid for it on launch.
Cons For launcher/adw/whatever: Customization- Some people really don't want the hassle of having to set up EVERYTHING to their liking, sense really simplifies the overall experience.
Widgets-While there are competitors out there, I've yet to find widgets that truly replace some of the htc widget's for me. And I can use my yahoo mail account with sense so that's definitely a factor to me lol
At the end of the day, it really is up to personal taste. After all, this is android and android DOES everything you want it to. What's great is we're given so many awesome choices; and even when finding flaws in both their still better than anything else you can find on the market. To me, the real winner is the evo+the supporters that have made this phone what it is today-awesome.
p.s-I hope this thread doesn't turn into a pissing ground against sense or people who choose something different than what you have; it's called an opinion and everybody's is different, grow up if you can't understand that.
To be more specific about what I like ... and remember this is personal preference with zero effort to setup:
Clock - Sure clock widgets are a dime a dozen but I've become accustomed to the Sense's clock and weather. You can use beautiful/fancy but neither have the full screen weather animation (which serves no purpose but I think its pretty cool).
Copy and Paste - I love that copy and paste functionality is built in across all applications. I use this most in the web browser. I'm not a fan of the select text feature.
Keyboard - I like the haptic feedback when I type, I also like having the arrow keys (both took a while to grow on me). Plus, the keys seem a little bigger so its easier for me to type on. I was using various keyboard mods but they stopped working on CM6
Touch to focus camera I never really knew how much I missed this until now. Such a handy feature. Hopefully they'll get this working when a new kernel source is released.
Facebook Contact Integration Sure you can load a hacked .apk but I also think HTC's integration is a little better than stock. Especially how they pull other peoples' pictures into the gallery.
Dialer- Was using Dialer One, but still like the look and feel of HTC's better. Also, the contact pictures that are synced from Facebook are much higher quality.
Calendar Widget- I never really found a good free replacement for the HTC Calendar Widget. Several people have recommended a paid calendar grid app.
4G Toggle Widget- Never really looked for an alternative but missed it when it was gone.
Radio- I never used this but thought I'd throw it in the list.
HTC Sync- This is the only option to get my work calendar on my phone because Google sync doesn't work with Office 2010 and Windows 7. There are 3rd party applications but I don't want to load them on the secured network at work.
Other Misc Widgets These are kind of useless to me but still nice to have options that are skinned to match perfectly - Music, Friend Stream, Day in History, News, Weather, Etc.
Don't get me wrong. CM has an awesome ROM that I'm sure I'll go back to at some point but I'm lovin' me some Sense right now.
edtate said:
It's getting really, really, really hard for me to pick between froyo+sense and cm6+launcher pro plus (which I recommend every true lover of launcher to get; support your devs!!!).
Pros for sense: Widgets-Bar none, the implementation htc has with sense's widgets are just plain awesome, I mean friendstream, bookmarks, messaging, mail, everything is right there and accessible from the get-go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I liked Sense when I first got the Evo (new to Android) I think your pros pointed out exactly why I sought out and found LauncherPro so quickly. I don't use any of the Sense widgets! the first thing I did was remove friendstream, book marks, messaging and mail widgets.
In any case, Sense UI is a good UI for people who take advantage of all the widgets but others may see it as 'bloated' if they don't. I like paring down my screen real estate and LauncherPro allows me to do that easily. But it does take up time and effort to set things up just so.
kong97 said:
Yea it was called mecontacts I have it but it is no longer on the market, at least not for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is still there. I just did a search for it.
Both have thier pros and cons. I personally love sense. The only things I wish it had is the normal bluetooth stack so that I could run wiimote and then I wish sense would go into landscape. And also I like the 3D app drawer.
Does Launcher Pro allow you to sync your contacts Facebook info (pics, statuses, birthday, etc) like in Sense? That is invaluable for me.
akarol said:
Does Launcher Pro allow you to sync your contacts Facebook info (pics, statuses, birthday, etc) like in Sense? That is invaluable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That has nothing to do with LauncherPro. You do that with the Facebook app.
akarol said:
Does Launcher Pro allow you to sync your contacts Facebook info (pics, statuses, birthday, etc) like in Sense? That is invaluable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Facebook will link some of that information to your contacts by default but that function is broke in 2.2 right now. There is a hack that you can run in the shell to fix it or search for the hacked .apk on these forums.
Okay, the title is not totally true - but I had to name this post something to get your attention.
The point of this post is to inquire about why so many people hate on TouchWiz. I sold my Vibrant and moved to Nexus S for a various of reasons but I find myself missing quite a few aspects of TouchWiz.
For example, how Samsung put the bluetooth/GPS/silence/WiFi buttons in the pull down menu - brilliant use of otherwise empty space. How on the dialpad you could easily call someone without having to access contacts by simply typing their name. How the SMS app had great alternating text/color chat (yes I know handsent app, etc. but I am talking about stock). (And of course, I like TouchWiz launcher over Vanilla launcher but that is more of a personal preference than a superior feature.)
I am sure there are advantages Vanilla has over TouchWiz but after using both I hardly see why TouchWiz gets so much hate.
Okay I am back to trolling Nexus S forums.
Not a big fan of the iphone-esque square icons so I use launcherpro, but otherwise, it's great.
I like TW and ADW.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
TW + launcher pro is >>>> all
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Also there is great syncing between contacts in MMS app as well.
I type the company name of some contact and name appears in messaging app.
DarkAgent said:
Okay, the title is not totally true - but I had to name this post something to get your attention.
The point of this post is to inquire about why so many people hate on TouchWiz. I sold my Vibrant and moved to Nexus S for a various of reasons but I find myself missing quite a few aspects of TouchWiz.
For example, how Samsung put the bluetooth/GPS/silence/WiFi buttons in the pull down menu - brilliant use of otherwise empty space. How on the dialpad you could easily call someone without having to access contacts by simply typing their name. How the SMS app had great alternating text/color chat (yes I know handsent app, etc. but I am talking about stock). (And of course, I like TouchWiz launcher over Vanilla launcher but that is more of a personal preference than a superior feature.)
I am sure there are advantages Vanilla has over TouchWiz but after using both I hardly see why TouchWiz gets so much hate.
Okay I am back to trolling Nexus S forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Vanilla has no advantages. Touchwiz just adds extra features and functions on top of Vanilla. I personally dont like the launcher and running Launcher Pro Plus with Gingerbread theme. The people that say TW is not good, simply are too stupid to understand what Touchwiz is
Its hard to go back to Vannilla.........
I like the notification toggles and the full codec support (which isn't really TW, just Samsung). I hate the dialer / contacts changes, really miss old-school CM-modified contacts/dialer app. Launcher & messaging just don't matter one way or another because they're so easily replaced by superior apps.
Saiboogu said:
I like the notification toggles and the full codec support (which isn't really TW, just Samsung). I hate the dialer / contacts changes, really miss old-school CM-modified contacts/dialer app. Launcher & messaging just don't matter one way or another because they're so easily replaced by superior apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually prefer TW dialer vs stock.
Sense is another overlay. even better then Touchwiz. I heard MotoBlur sucks.
Yeah the only thing I hate about Twiz is the launcher. The other enhancements are great.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
TouchWiz is good. It's just ill-optimized.
Stock Android does not look good.
N8ter said:
TouchWiz is good. It's just ill-optimized.
Stock Android does not look good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gingerbread changes all that Vanilla android (pre 2.3) in my opinion looks fine. I prefer features than it looking pretty.
The launcher is the only part i dont like.
Everything else is awsome, I looked it over sense because sense feels heavy.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
zephiK said:
Gingerbread changes all that Vanilla android (pre 2.3) in my opinion looks fine. I prefer features than it looking pretty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TouchWiz adds features to Android. It doesn't take anything away, so that part of you statement (the last sentence) makes zero (0) sense. Some things like Mobile AP were huge advances over what Stock Android had to offer, not to mention the fact that Stock Android Widgets are simply terrible as well (which is part of HTC Sense's allure - it has Awesome widgets), as well as its Social Network integration.
I think you should think of these things more as a consumer than a tinkerer. They do outnumber "us" and they have expectations and requirements that the minority takes for granted.
Also, Gingerbread doesn't change anything. You can go use a Nexus S and see. It changes very little. A few cosmetic changes, and that's it.
You can buy a better keyboard on FroYo or Eclair no problem (or use Skype).
The UI overhauls were pushed back to Honeycomb, and I don't have much faith in Google - who have historically proved they are inept when to comes to UI design. I think they did buy a company that does this kind of work, so maybe they'll suprise me.
Doubt I'll be on Android by the time that's released, though, unless they change the way the phones are updated.
I like the Tw extra features, the look of it not so much. I use it with launcher pro which just gives a your own look, I didn't know how I would like it coming from MT3G LE. But I gotta say that's one of the features holding me back from buying the nexus s.
Vibrant
N8ter said:
TouchWiz adds features to Android. It doesn't take anything away, so that part of you statement (the last sentence) makes zero (0) sense. Some things like Mobile AP were huge advances over what Stock Android had to offer, not to mention the fact that Stock Android Widgets are simply terrible as well (which is part of HTC Sense's allure - it has Awesome widgets), as well as its Social Network integration.
I think you should think of these things more as a consumer than a tinkerer. They do outnumber "us" and they have expectations and requirements that the minority takes for granted.
Also, Gingerbread doesn't change anything. You can go use a Nexus S and see. It changes very little. A few cosmetic changes, and that's it.
You can buy a better keyboard on FroYo or Eclair no problem (or use Skype).
The UI overhauls were pushed back to Honeycomb, and I don't have much faith in Google - who have historically proved they are inept when to comes to UI design. I think they did buy a company that does this kind of work, so maybe they'll suprise me.
Doubt I'll be on Android by the time that's released, though, unless they change the way the phones are updated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google also hired one of the guys who was in charge of WebOS UI design so I think they may have something stellar with Honeycomb.
Back on topic, all the things I hate about TouchWiz are easily replaced by Launcher Pro Plus.
The other TouchWiz additions are pretty functional and add a lot of value.
N8ter said:
TouchWiz adds features to Android. It doesn't take anything away, so that part of you statement (the last sentence) makes zero (0) sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a diehard CM fan form the G1 days, so TW was a bit of culture shock to me. Even ignoring the visual changes, and swapping out the launcher, I was cursing the dialer everytime I went to switch from dialer to contacts, or try to check how long ago I called someone.
N8ter said:
not to mention the fact that Stock Android Widgets are simply terrible as well (which is part of HTC Sense's allure - it has Awesome widgets),
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock widgets are functional. Sleek and functional too. Maybe not flashy, but they work. TW widgets? Ugh, don't get me started on that bit of bloat. LauncherPro widgets have them both beat though - better functionality than stock, better look than TW.
N8ter said:
I think you should think of these things more as a consumer than a tinkerer. They do outnumber "us" and they have expectations and requirements that the minority takes for granted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which is why all I ask is they keep the changes modular. Leave stock launcher in, they have more than enough room to spare. Keep core functionality like the dialer standard across the board. Nothing to stop them from doing some "People" app or something like that to house the dialer changes.
The one thing I'll give Samsung, from a power user point of view - notification bar toggles were brilliant. Other than that, I cringe when I boot a new ROM and see stock TWlauncher, or just about every time I fire up the dialer.
Samsung's stock widgets are terrible compared to Moto and HTC's. Even SE and LG has better widgets.
The TW Launcher looks decent but it was rushed together to look like iOS and not much beyond that.
A widget slashed down to 4x1 or 4x2 (Daily Briefing with Just Calendar)taking up an entire home screen is not Sleek or Functional. No Mail, SMS/MMS, Calendar, Media Player widget. Not to mention they all look terrible, especially the Title Bars and bevels around most of them.
TouchWiz gives you less at a glance than Sense and the Droid X UI (which isn't really MotoBlur), so I tend to waste more time finding information on my Vibrant than I did on my HTC device.
If the market was full of good widgets, I guess I wouldn't have this particular problem.
Most of the other changes attributed to TouchWiz aren't necessarily linked to TouchWiz (or rather, can be implemented without being dependent on it).
Media Codecs can be added to Stock Android. DLNA, MobileAP, etc. can all be added to Stock Android.
Also, the inability to edit the shortcuts at the bottom of the screen coupled with the inability to set a decent home screen makes TouchWiz a PITA to use. You're basically forced to used 7 home screens unless you want to have a very odd Home Page setup with uneven scrolling to get from screen to screen.
Another thing I noticed is that icon placement seems to be different than other launchers. GMail unread count is played perfectly in Sense, but in TouchWiz the icon is set way lower than everything else. Motorola implemented unread counts into their Launcher, and I hope everyone else does the same (for Messaging, Email, Gmail, etc.).
Kubernetes said:
Yeah the only thing I hate about Twiz is the launcher. The other enhancements are great.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/Twerd.
-bZj
Anyone with both Motoblur experience care to give their opinions, maybe a pro / con thing. It's the only aspect that has me a bit concerned as I am loving Sense right now.
I'm interested in this as well. TouchWiz was criticized by many people before I got my Captivate, but it turned out not to be that bad.
opensourcefan said:
Anyone with both Motoblur experience care to give their opinions, maybe a pro / con thing. It's the only aspect that has me a bit concerned as I am loving Sense right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have limited experience with Motoblur on the Dext but it's pretty good. Not as pretty as SenseUI on your Desire Z but I'm sure the new version on the Atrix will be improved.
I actually find Sense to be the worst. I'd prefer Motorola realize that nobody actually likes Motoblur, but they seem quite adamant to keeping it. It looks like Motoblur on the Atrix and the Bionic will look significantly different from either variation of Motoblur we've seen on phones so far.
I've not used Motoblur either but from what I have read and seen(in video) about it was that its really slow
but the Atrix running with the 1Gb of RAM and Dual-Core processor and from what I've seen on the videos it looks pretty fast.
Also what people don't like is the "crapware" you will get on it that you won't be able to remove and some other UI tweaks that may or may not be of use for your needs that you may or may not find annoying.
It looks like MotoBlur, especially the more recent versions, is much less obtrusive that most other custom UIs. They don't muck about too much with the core apps, and most of the UI is actually just a bunch of widgets that can be turned off if you want. If the launcher really bothers you, you can always replace it with one of the many available options in the Market.
I absolutely HATED Sense when I had it because of the cartoonish UI and how much the core apps get changed (for the worse). But MotoBlur seems to be much more manageable.
stoli412 said:
It looks like MotoBlur, especially the more recent versions, is much less obtrusive that most other custom UIs. They don't muck about too much with the core apps, and most of the UI is actually just a bunch of widgets that can be turned off if you want. If the launcher really bothers you, you can always replace it with one of the many available options in the Market.
I absolutely HATED Sense when I had it because of the cartoonish UI and how much the core apps get changed (for the worse). But MotoBlur seems to be much more manageable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's always been my impression as well. If Blur can be turned off (by using a different launcher, and they don't mess with core apps), then who the hell cares? Sense is immersed. It's just over looked because HTC phones are pretty easy to flash.
I have used the Moto Blur interface on a few different devices now. I can say that it is not horrible in terms of functionality. But it looks ugly and unfinished, and due to lack of polish looks like something that belongs on a child's phone.
That being said, it's nothing that a different launcher cannot fix. Motorola didn't really mess with the app interfaces too much, save for contacts and the phone dialer, it's mostly the home screen and launch bar they changed. I always used launcher pro and this took away the "ugliness".
I also like some of the moto blur features such as the phone locator (cannot remember exactly what they call it atm.)
If they have not polished how moto blur looks on the atrix, I will be using a different launcher for sure.
I have a Captivate and my boss has a DroidX. Whenever I have to use his phone to help him out, I really dont like Blur.
But i'm not an everyday user of it, so maybe its something that you can get used to, or just load launcher pro.
I like Sense and thank goodness because it is full integrated. If Blur is deeply integrated I sure hope it's good. Motorola's website doesn't really go deep enough but I guess right now it's all speculation.
i have yet to use a moto phone with it .. only messed with a few friends phones .. didnt care for it to much ... once the phone is released tho because of the specs i am seriously considering getting it ... if you can replace it with a different, then i will do just that.
I used the bravo found motor blur to be interesting and liked it.
MotoBlur in the past has been horrible because the hardware couldn't support all the shiny graphics. With the atrix, it flies, and is pretty cool. I'll probably still use launcher pro (which i suggest to anyone that doesn't like the skinned themes), mostly to just use as little ram as possible. MotoBlur is great if your a social network fiend, or really have to stay connected all the time.
link12245 said:
MotoBlur in the past has been horrible because the hardware couldn't support all the shiny graphics. With the atrix, it flies, and is pretty cool. I'll probably still use launcher pro (which i suggest to anyone that doesn't like the skinned themes), mostly to just use as little ram as possible. MotoBlur is great if your a social network fiend, or really have to stay connected all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I love about Motoblur is that you don't have to have all those widgets if you don't want to, and you don't have to add all your social network accounts if you don't want to. Everything is optional more or less. And beyond those optional add-ons, they do relatively little tweaking to the underlying OS. This is in contrast to Sense which is there whether you want it or not, and makes major changes to the UI and functionality.
I'll probably end up using Launcher Pro as well. However you can still use the Motoblur widgets on LP if you want, which is a nice advantage. There are still some issues with resizing Motoblur widgets in LP, but hopefully the developer will get those taken care of soon.
The only complaint about Blur that I've heard is that it is a resource hog. It gives you push notifications for all your social networking needs. I think the Atrix is where we'll see Blur not be a hindrance. Plus, if you don't like it, wait for a vanilla Rom and flash it. The Atrix is going to be a winner either way!
I see all the hate on this forum about motoblur and how crappy it is. I seem to be the only one who likes it.
I've used TouchWiz, Sense, Stock and MotoBlur, and Moto is probably my favorite! Sense comes in second, Touchwiz can go die.
Why all the hate on Blur?
Ya not a fan of motoblur at all when I get this phone I'm going to be running launcher pro plus on this for sure might give blur five minutes of my time but that's it....
yes u are the only one
I like Blur better than sense and definitely touchwiz, but I think most people prefer the speed that the "vanilla" experience android delivers.
I have not owned a Motorola phone since the Verizon Moto Q, so I cannot say Blur is terrible or good, but from the looks of it the only thing I dislike is the blue and green call/contacts button. If I end up hating it I will just load up Launcher Pro or hopefully I will see some custom roms with stock at some point in the future.
I don't like blur but I can live with it. I find it better than HTC sense and the like but at least give us an option to turn it off like seriously Motorola.
PixoNova said:
I see all the hate on this forum about motoblur and how crappy it is. I seem to be the only one who likes it.
I've used TouchWiz, Sense, Stock and MotoBlur, and Moto is probably my favorite! Sense comes in second, Touchwiz can go die.
Why all the hate on Blur?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's how I feel as well, although I do prefer "vanilla" over all...
I can see why some people might prefer the vanilla/stock android experience. But I always hear how Blur can be laggy on phones and such. I haven't experienced any lag (Moto FlipSide)
I do kind-of like Sense. Only if it's on a nice sized screen, unlike the Aria. But I most likely will be keeping Blur, as I like all the widgets available.
YES!!!!
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
I have tried droid x. Blur sucks. Even with the latest update the system was laggy. However it will work great sometimes but had sudden lags in launching browser. Sometimes it would hang and take a few seconds to go back to home screen. I returned it and will be getting thunderbolt when it comes out. I went back to att for 2-3 weeks until thunderbolt comes out. i will be porting my number back if I decide to get thunderbolt. I like htc sense specially the newest version that is in the inspire 4g and will be on the thunderbolt as well. It is snappy as hell. It might have to do with the second gen snapdragon processor.
I haven't used it yet, but the only thing I can see hating about it is the contact button (along with only having a three icon dock, but I could deal with that). Why the hell does there need to be a contact button? If you open the phone app you can go to your contacts right from there. I'd much rather see messaging or the browser. Some kind of central messaging app that pulled in all of one's SMS, emails, facebook, twitter, etc would be cool, I suppose. Better than contacts, at least.
That's a damn good idea a centralized notification button... But I guess it would have a big similarity to the notification bar tho. Still think that's a good idea tho
Sent from my SGH-I897 using XDA App
At first I was OK with blur but once you try out other options like Launcher Pro or ADW you might change your mind. Granted, Blur does have decent widgets to supplement it but it left me wanting more.
Now I'm using Launcher Pro + Beautiful Widgets and am loving it.
johnnydeathmatch said:
I haven't used it yet, but the only thing I can see hating about it is the contact button (along with only having a three icon dock, but I could deal with that). Why the hell does there need to be a contact button? If you open the phone app you can go to your contacts right from there. I'd much rather see messaging or the browser. Some kind of central messaging app that pulled in all of one's SMS, emails, facebook, twitter, etc would be cool, I suppose. Better than contacts, at least.
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Blur contacts works differently than standard android contacts, as it integrates with the social networking. I'd give more detail, but I haven't touched my backflip in a month and haven't had it on a stock ROM since ~november so I don't remember all the specifics. (Used a "deblurred" ROM someone at M3 cooked up till I got a free Aria)
The messaging app does provide a universal inbox. the one one my backflip would pull everything but my gmail into it, and I'm sure I could have set it up so that it pulled that too.
PixoNova said:
...Moto is probably my favorite! Sense comes in second, Touchwiz can go die.
Why all the hate on Blur?
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thunderpack said:
I like Blur better than sense and definitely touchwiz...
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Okay please state why you like Blur better. I've never used it but am trying to keep an open mind. I just love Sense and as of now am not sure I can function without it so lets hear it. Obviously it's a personal thing but is there anything in particular...?
lol
yes you are
looks so simple and ****ty
opensourcefan said:
Okay please state why you like Blur better. I've never used it but am trying to keep an open mind. I just love Sense and as of now am not sure I can function without it so lets hear it. Obviously it's a personal thing but is there anything in particular...?
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Pretty much the style. I don't hate Sense, like I said, it comes second IMO. Overall, through general usage, that's how I determine if I like it or not.
As far as moto blur is concerned, IMO it works just fine as a launcher.
So here are the Pros and Cons as I see them
Pro
Simple Layout
Decent Widgets
Unified inbox
Motoblur.com (find my phone, contacts back and edit, remote wipe etc...)
Cons
Does not have a polished look or feel like stock or Sense
I feel like it was an interface designed for teens
Cannot customize the shortcuts on the launch bar
Only 3 shortcuts on the launch bar
Occasional lag when launching apps (this could be that I have only used blur on low-end to mid-level android phones)
No option to bypass motoblur account setup
Overall, it comes down to personal preference and how you feel about it. You won't know until you try it. So far, I have used launcher pro on every android phone I have ever owned, but I always started with the out of box experience before I made the switch each time. I like that LP is customizable, and fast, and you can make just about any device look similar to stock/vanilla android id you want. The only problem with LP is that when I tried it on the Inspire 4G it disabled all of the kick butt HTC widgets, but there are alternatives such as Beautiful Widgets.
My nervousness falls around the screen resolution. I tried Laucnher Pro on my galaxy tab. and it didn't look right with that screen resolution. The resolution on the tab is high enough to have 5 shortcuts on the home screen side by side, and LP only has 4 so things looked oddly proportioned and stretched...
Blur itself has some good features - namely remote wipe and the news widgets that you can set to sync over wifi only - if you want.
If you are really into account integration you get to mix them all into one interface...
twitter, myspace, facebook, photobucket, linkedin, picasa, etc.
I prefer to just use the apps for these products and not do the MotoBlur integration - and you can do this - just don't set them up in MotoBlur. If you don't use Motoblur widgets, then you never really see MotoBlur. Change the launcher to ADW and you are done.
Compared to the captivate and Touchwiz, Motoblur is a lot less intrusive. Calendar, Contacts and Email work the way they are supposed - and are easy to use. I bought my captivate for specs, but the software mods on calendar and email suck.
The only MotoBlur thing you can't turn off is the sync of contacts and settings that are done on the phone. So if you create a new contact on the phone it is also created on the Blur server as backup - you can't turn this off.
On the good side, if you wipe your phone and you have to set it up from scratch, using the same blur account, it recreates most of your settings and widgets and email accounts.
As for Lag - people complain about it, but I have had Droid X and Bravo and they run fine. But, again, i only use the news widget and no social network accounts.
I'm committed to using Launcher Plus Pro, it's the ideal home replacement for me - has a lot of sense-like widgets that I love, plus a ton of added features/customizable elements that Sense couldn't even dream of competing with. I'm rooted, but still running stock, haven't flashed a rom yet, just a couple of system tweaks.
Anyway, my question is - should I flash an AOSP rom to run Launcher Plus Pro over? Would my phone run much smoother and more efficiently if LPP wasn't running over Sense? I've deleted all widgets/apps from my Sense set-up, and set LPP as default, but does the fact that Sense is still there take anything away from my phone's potential? I know if nothing else, sense takes up more MB than AOSP, so maybe that alone is reason to switch?
Assuming I do flash an AOSP rom - any suggestions, considering I'll be running LPP over it? Would one be better suited than another?
Being that this phone has 768Mb of memory. running LP over sense shouldn't be an issue. How ever i'm clueless as to why you want to use LP, due to the pretty widgets then turn around and delete the same exact widgets from Sense.
LP looks so much like Sense that it's not even funny. The only thing that is different is the actual launcher button.
But to answer your question I'd run Cyanogen(mod).
neidlinger said:
Being that this phone has 768Mb of memory. running LP over sense shouldn't be an issue. How ever i'm clueless as to why you want to use LP, due to the pretty widgets then turn around and delete the same exact widgets from Sense.
LP looks so much like Sense that it's not even funny. The only thing that is different is the actual launcher button.
But to answer your question I'd run Cyanogen(mod).
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Well, that's the thing that makes Sense - the widgets. LPP has similar widgets, so it can take on Sense in that respect. Yes, the widgets are similar, but IMO they actually work BETTER than their Sense equivalents. For instance, while Friendstream looks cool, it was painfully slow to use. The Friends widget on LPP is as fast as posting directly to facebook. Another example is the calendar widget, I love the way the LPP one functions, you get both grid and agenda in one sharp widget. So right there, LPP is better due to functionality. After the widgets, LPP has several other major benefits: transition effects if you're into that kind of thing, landscape mode, ability to resize widgets to your liking, and of course - the dock. The dock is really the main reason I decided to ditch Sense. I don't even use myfaves, so it was ridiculous to have a launcher that takes up so much screen space and offered very little functionality.
So in short - I replaced Sense with LPP because it has what makes Sense cool (the widgets) plus many other great features that are missing from Sense. No other replacement has the added functionality AND the widgets.
BTW, thanks for the tip on Cyanogen, that's probably what I'll wind up doing.
sunsean said:
Well, that's the thing that makes Sense - the widgets. LPP has similar widgets, so it can take on Sense in that respect. Yes, the widgets are similar, but IMO they actually work BETTER than their Sense equivalents. For instance, while Friendstream looks cool, it was painfully slow to use. The Friends widget on LPP is as fast as posting directly to facebook. Another example is the calendar widget, I love the way the LPP one functions, you get both grid and agenda in one sharp widget. So right there, LPP is better due to functionality. After the widgets, LPP has several other major benefits: transition effects if you're into that kind of thing, landscape mode, ability to resize widgets to your liking, and of course - the dock. The dock is really the main reason I decided to ditch Sense. I don't even use myfaves, so it was ridiculous to have a launcher that takes up so much screen space and offered very little functionality.
So in short - I replaced Sense with LPP because it has what makes Sense cool (the widgets) plus many other great features that are missing from Sense. No other replacement has the added functionality AND the widgets.
BTW, thanks for the tip on Cyanogen, that's probably what I'll wind up doing.
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CM7+LauncherProPlus is what i'm on. I used to be a big fan of ADW until I tried LPP. When you do this, you can completely remove ADWLauncher from /system/app and replace it with LPP. Just make sure you fix permissions before your reboot the phone. You want LPP to have rw-r-r permissions.
Christopher3712 said:
CM7+LauncherProPlus is what i'm on. I used to be a big fan of ADW until I tried LPP. When you do this, you can completely remove ADWLauncher from /system/app and replace it with LPP. Just make sure you fix permissions before your reboot the phone. You want LPP to have rw-r-r permissions.
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Thanks for the tip! I think this is what I'll wind up doing - no sense having 2 launchers on the phone if one is never used. I'm just a little paranoid about screwing something up with the permissions and all that :-/
I was happy with the rooted stock rom and I also prefer Launcher Pro Plus over Sense. It has so many additional features and settings that Sense doesn't. I like the Facebook and Twitter widgets and the fact that rotation works on the home screen.
For 3 or 4 months, I used the stock rom, rooted, with a lot of the stock apps removed, and with LPP. But a few weeks ago I finally got around to trying out CM7. Today I'm running RoyalGinger. Yes, the aftermarket roms are slightly faster and it is nice being able to overclock. Plus, it's nice not having the Sense apks running in the background. Also, I like the call blacklist feature in Gingerbread. But the stock rom worked 99.9% of the time, whereas the aftermarket roms probably only work 99% of the time. I occasionally find bugs here and there.
The stock rom worked fine for me and there really wasn't anything that I couldn't do with it. I just wanted to try some aftermarket roms cause I like to screw around and hack stuff. But was there really a great deal of benefit from updating the rom? Not really. Would I do it all over again? Probably not.
But I'm relatively happy right now on RoyalGinger 1.6 and I'm too lazy right now to flash back to stock, so I'll probably leave it like this for a while. Take that for what it's worth.
sundayhustler said:
I was happy with the rooted stock rom and I also prefer Launcher Pro Plus over Sense. It has so many additional features and settings that Sense doesn't. I like the Facebook and Twitter widgets and the fact that rotation works on the home screen.
For 3 or 4 months, I used the stock rom, rooted, with a lot of the stock apps removed, and with LPP. But a few weeks ago I finally got around to trying out CM7. Today I'm running RoyalGinger. Yes, the aftermarket roms are slightly faster and it is nice being able to overclock. Plus, it's nice not having the Sense apks running in the background. Also, I like the call blacklist feature in Gingerbread. But the stock rom worked 99.9% of the time, whereas the aftermarket roms probably only work 99% of the time. I occasionally find bugs here and there.
The stock rom worked fine for me and there really wasn't anything that I couldn't do with it. I just wanted to try some aftermarket roms cause I like to screw around and hack stuff. But was there really a great deal of benefit from updating the rom? Not really. Would I do it all over again? Probably not.
But I'm relatively happy right now on RoyalGinger 1.6 and I'm too lazy right now to flash back to stock, so I'll probably leave it like this for a while. Take that for what it's worth.
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Thanks for sharing your experience, it's actually very helpful and relevant as that's pretty much my exact scenario! Yeah I'm on the fence about whether or not to flash a new rom, especially after hearing that it doesn't change the performance of the phone too much. And I'm actually overclocking on stock right now - that was one of the main things I rooted for, to be able to set overclock/underclock profiles. Unless I'm missing something, you don't have to flash a rom to overclock, just a kernel (I'm using faux's smartass).