Database Users

New UI.

HTC designed Sense, and it's popular..but one question that has been on my mind for a while is, why haven't we designed something of our own yet? We hack,mod, and theme Android and Sense, but wouldn't it be cool if somebody just built a whole new UI? What kind of manpower would that take to do?

A full custom UI is probably pretty complicated to create and requires not only knowledge of the code but also graphics and design skills.

We have some talented dev's on the Android theme I figured we would have seen it by now.

SystmDcln said:
We have some talented dev's on the Android theme I figured we would have seen it by now.
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I don't think the devs want to spend soooo much time and effort for something they won't be properly compensated for...

most devs either excel at coding and therefore create apps and ROMs, or they excel at graphics and therefore create custom themes and such.

I have a side project that I am trying out something on. That's about it for now. But it's not something you, SystmDcln, would like though. Current time frame is for Q1 of this year but that does not belong in this forum or this section of the forum.
With that said, I am going to say the following things and they are in no particular order.
1. Making a UI require both programing, understanding of the system and graphics.
2. Building an UI also require time. Time = money etc... you see where this is going...
3. People spend hours making UI and only half of people will like what they did. The other half will dislike it and why waste time for no reason.
4. HTC BOUGHT out a UI making company a few years back and they paid in the millions for that. Why? To make sense UI.
5. A good UI is hard to come by. I prefer clean and in 3 colors; black, white and gray. HTC likes colorful stuff (look at sense ui).
There will be more.... I'll come back...

i'd be happy to put together any images. just gimme a round-about design idea, file type, and the size. photoshop and illustrator are fun for me to play with, and i'd be flattered if other people wanted my material on their phones.
i don't code though. got out of that a loooooong time ago. haven't looked back

I get what you mean. However, I look at Android sorta like the Linux community..there is like more distro's of Linux than most can keep count of all free and customized to particular needs..would just kinda like to see some of that with Android.

SystmDcln said:
I get what you mean. However, I look at Android sorta like the Linux community..there is like more distro's of Linux than most can keep count of all free and customized to particular needs..would just kinda like to see some of that with Android.
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Dude, its still way new. You say look at the linux com., yah and look how long they been around...
There ARE some very talented people in here, give them credit for what they HAVE done, its amazing already, and they didnt get paid by google like these current engineers have been. Move to another OS (or older phone aka g1) for more options.
Down the road im sure there will be mannny awesome things to come about. But relax for now.

theslam08 said:
Dude, its still way new. You say look at the linux com., yah and look how long they been around...
There ARE some very talented people in here, give them credit for what they HAVE done, its amazing already, and they didnt get paid by google like these current engineers have been. Move to another OS (or older phone aka g1) for more options.
Down the road im sure there will be mannny awesome things to come about. But relax for now.
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I'm not referring specifically to Nexus One but more or less Android as a whole. And I do give credit to people like Cyanogen etc who have done some really neat things.

SystmDcln said:
I get what you mean. However, I look at Android sorta like the Linux community..there is like more distro's of Linux than most can keep count of all free and customized to particular needs..would just kinda like to see some of that with Android.
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all those distro's are backed by a whole organized team of devs. Most devs you find here either work completley alone, or simply communicate with other devs for help and advice. They usually do not for an organized team for development.

Are you talking about something like Home++ or GDE?
Sounds like the "UI" that you're talking about is just a launcher/home replacement...which is already available on the market....

Roms on the EVO not exciting

I have been on XDA since I bought my fist G-1 way back in the fall of 08. Cyanogen was a budding star, and Android was thought of as the "IPHONE killer". I have seen many developments since my first incursion into these forums. With that said, I would like to KNOW why someone cant come up with a ROM on the evo that could be based on Android, yet be completely skinned to give a more exciting experience. The thing is most ROMS are built on many others DEV's works, but nothing but theming is added to make them look different from each other. Yes, I know that there are a lot of under the hood changes going on to make their Roms faster, but nothing to make any Rom look different. I see some launchers out there that are awesome, but why cant someone come up with something that will really show off "Something different"
Before you go on about me and that you don't like what I am saying, point me to SOMETHING ANDROID, really different and don't attack me or this thread. I appreciate all of the hard work put into changing the Roms into your own, I have flashed most of the Roms built for the Evo and earlier Android devices. What I want is something that looks and act different, built on Android. I am hoping that I have just missed a posting, or some cool thread that someone has left. I strongly dislike IPHONE and its simple stupid approach, so please don't bring that platform into this discussion. Waiting to see!

Try MIUI. Its in the Development section.
You can also take a swing at compiling a ROM yourself, I've been considering it given the tools are free.
MIUI in its native form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-9T44Bt7M

mr.bill said:
With that said, I would like to KNOW why someone cant come up with a ROM on the evo that could be based on Android, yet be completely skinned to give a more exciting experience.
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Go ahead.
Great thing about Android...you don't like it...you can change it...for free!
It's easy to criticize.
Little harder to actually do.

mattykinsx said:
Go ahead.
Great thing about Android...you don't like it...you can change it...for free!
It's easily to criticize.
Little harder to actually do.
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Your right, about asking me to go ahead, all the tools are there. I think what I will use this discussion for, is compling info for doing just that. I am not KNOCKING anyone elses work.....

Noiro said:
Try MIUI. Its in the Development section.
You can also take a swing at compiling a ROM yourself, I've been considering it given the tools are free.
MIUI in its native form: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-9T44Bt7M
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Exactly the kind of answer I am looking for, thanks for taking the time to reply.....

I just started using MIUI yesterday and it is an eye opening experience. So many nice features that are built right in. If you haven't tried it... give it a go.
Besides roms like MIUI and MYMs warm 2.2, dev's leave the theming to you! You can load the rom you would like and then find a theme that fits you.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=870944&highlight=liquid+rush
this is a port from the acer liquid metal, i think you will find it interesting/different.

Is there a dev working on a ROM like MIUI that completely changes the UI? I do agree with the OP because all the ROM are pretty much the same except for the color theme.
I think we will have to wait until SPB drops their software for customizing.

thedudejdog said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=870944&highlight=liquid+rush
this is a port from the acer liquid metal, i think you will find it interesting/different.
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Agreed, this is something completely different than what you're used to.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

+1 for MIUI. Been running it since the beginning of November and I must say it's pretty awesome.

I totally agree. I have seen many roms for the evo, but many of them look very similar to each other. I'm glad this topic is being discussed in a rational matter. I hope new ideas will come from it.

I remember seeing a few articles about a mobile OS on engadget a few times before it was announced that it was killed off. It was minimalistic to its roots. The video demo I saw of it activated the menu when you slid your right thumb(right-handed demo i guess) and a arched menu would pop up. You would be able to dig deeper by going through the brances of the arcs. I for the name of it but the name "Elise" or something like it comes to mind.

If anything is lacking it's kernels for the Evo.
We have like one choice for sense based and like two for AOSP based.
The Epic has more choices... [and that's saying something]

MIUI, Liquid rush, and to be honest there are some nice sense roms out there. i like sense , also if the new launchers that are being created come out, that can give you a new look as well. There is probably a significant amount of changes, however with this being aftermarket and not supported by OEM's and sprint i think that kind of limits your choices

You might like myn's warm two point two, it still retains the sense features from htc but has a totally different look and feel to it. Also checkout virus rom, those are pretty nice. A lot of people here are into switching roms each week to keep things interesting.
The two big ones that are not sense based are miui and cyanogen. I think the reason they take so long to make and that there is so few is the complexity of starting from scratch. At least I think, but I'm not a programmer.
Sent from my hand.

mattykinsx said:
If anything is lacking it's kernels for the Evo.
We have like one choice for sense based and like two for AOSP based.
The Epic has more choices... [and that's saying something]
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Thats because the mods keep on banning our best kernel makers.
Hero_over and Kingslik(sp?) both made the best kernels during their time on XDA/Evo.

King was a hack, hero was a beast
jerryparid said:
Thats because the mods keep on banning our best kernel makers.
Hero_over and Kingslik(sp?) both made the best kernels during their time on XDA/Evo.
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jerryparid said:
Thats because the mods keep on banning our best kernel makers.
Hero_over and Kingslik(sp?) both made the best kernels during their time on XDA/Evo.
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I know. I'm just making an observation on the current reality

I can't really disagree with you but I think the reason why lots of the ROMs look alike is Sense. That said, I've been on MIUI since it came out. While others will scream that it's just copying iPhone, maybe it is but the ROM still retains all the benefits of android underneath.
Also, if it's just the launcher, I've tried out the Go Launcher and liked it the best. Again, it's not the same-old same-old.

gqstatus0685 said:
Is there a dev working on a ROM like MIUI that completely changes the UI? I do agree with the OP because all the ROM are pretty much the same except for the color theme.
I think we will have to wait until SPB drops their software for customizing.
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I agree with you on SPB, it's a wait and see, I tried to be a bete tester for them, but I didnt get accepted. I have used it on my winmo devices in the past. Not sure what kind of experience though maybe just a nice launcher. I have to admit though I haven't tried MIUI, I do believe I will flash it later tonight.

Google’s Holo theme *required* on Android! The end of vendor skinning?

http://androidandme.com/2012/01/new...4-0-devices-to-gain-access-to-android-market/
It looks like we'll now be getting that beautiful vanilla ICS experience with our stock Roms.
Great news IMO.

Wohoo. Great news!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II powered by CyanogenMod 9

Really really good news! Probably the best news ever for the Android platform. Manufacturer skinning has ruined the Android experience and has drew away users that like a more universal UI like the iOS devices have.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Well, Not really...its just for app development. We will see TW based ICS for sure.

Virtualsk said:
Well, Not really...its just for app development. We will see TW based ICS for sure.
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I'm assuming that the theme will apply to aspects of the phone such as menu's, overlays, notifications etc. Now if we install the stock ICS launcher, the rest of UI will be uniform.

Yeah think you got the wrong end of the stick with this one but the theme is nice. Vendor skinning will always be around but we will likely keep the backgrounds to settings etc that will keep consistency.

After reading more into this I realize its not as important as I assumed.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Looks like I got over excited. At the very least it'll mean that in time apps will be more consistant.

Virtualsk said:
Well, Not really...its just for app development. We will see TW based ICS for sure.
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seconded.. see quote below
Source said:
App designers will now be able to choose between the device’s default theme (Sense, TouchWiz, MotoBlur, etc.) or Google’s Holo.
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we might still have a touchwized ICS.. but its not a bad thing..
all things vanilla goes to cyanogenmod 9

The only thing this means is that application developers can be confident that there will be the default theme accessible on the device. That means their layouts and graphics won't be broken because of manufacturer skins. Read the original article.
Google said:
We have no desire to restrict manufacturers from building their own themed experience across their devices. In fact we’ve gone further to make this even easier.
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It definitely isn't the "end of vendor skinning", but I wonder if it will make skinning vendor skins to AOSP easier.
I guess it depends on to what extent the theme will be included inside the OS.

Closed. Please continue discussions at this thread since it was created first.

MIUI is now opensource!

I'm so happy to be the first to write this news!
It's something we all hoped for ages and now it's here!
MIUI, know as the coolest but the closest Android interface, finally went opensource.
Here's the official message from MIUI team on Facebook:
MIUI port projects officially go open source
http://www.micode.net/portal.php
Here you can find the information and source code you need to build an Android-compatible device. Android is an open-source software stack for mobile devices, and a corresponding open-source project led by Google. We created Android in response to our own experiences launching mobile apps. We wanted to make sure that there was no central point of failure, so that no industry player can restrict or control the innovations of any other. That's why we created Android, and made its source code open.
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I'm still speechless for the huge event this represents!
Now we have not only a page (which is still in chinese) http://www.micode.net/portal.php
But a pubblic and matching the cyanogenmod way Github repository!! https://github.com/MiCode
Big day for Android! Big day for the community
Have a nice day!

Good news,
I like MIUI File manager and Call manager.

OMG this its HUGE, really really big dat for Android and Open Source

Great news for future development progress, kudos to the miui team for taking the right decision
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

lippol the power is finally in your hands!!!!destroy all other dev with the toughest MIUI anyone have ever seen!!
supporting you

Great news. :X MIUI

Vogie said:
Good news,
I like MIUI File manager and Call manager.
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Agreed MIUI has the best file manager set up out there, looks great and functions great

Xiaomi is doing the right things, not all source codes are opened, but a big step though.

If that means that on every rom you could have miui apps
how do i install this apps?
or it will be available later?

Great now maybe I can get this on my Cliq
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

We already have miui locker, camera, compass, music apk files running on our roms. Whats the benefit of this? Will we be able to use MIUI themes in other Roms?

Looks like only a few apps are open. Moving along...
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

The file manager is flame! As long as that and the theme manager get ported, I am happy!

MIUI sourse is material 4 brainstorm )))

i'm from Xperia X8
i'm not a expert developer, but i'm seeing the code of FileManager and trying to build it for another roms, but i'm facing real problems, don't know why, still seeing.
My intention is to make it work (of course) and make it in PT-PT and MDPI (and maybe LDPI)
But this is a pain in the *you know what*
i hope i face the problems and the solutions
edit: it is missing the net.micode.fileexplorer.R (r.java file?). am i wrong?

Great news ever...

Great nice to hear that... but changed that anythink?

[Q] TouchWiz Launcher for nexus 4?

Hi i was wondering if anyone has ported the launcher from the note 2 or s3 to our phone?

currently no, lack of interest also, because all samsungs features is in the touchwiz framework, just like htc sense

what are you missing from touchwiz?

Why would we need touchwiz it's beyond awful
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

mediavieja said:
Hi i was wondering if anyone has ported the launcher from the note 2 or s3 to our phone?
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If you want it that bad, you can use Nova/apex launchers with the touchwiz theme.
Sent from my Galaxy Ace.

adil_ said:
If you want it that bad, you can use Nova/apex launchers with the touchwiz theme.
Sent from my Galaxy Ace.
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I think that he's more interested on the multiwindow ...
Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

batna.antab said:
I think that he's more interested on the multiwindow ...
Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk
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Uh, it will take a lot more than a launcher to get multi-window. Maybe the CM team or some uberdev will build a multi-window setup that works. That is about the only thing I want on my N4.

estallings15 said:
Uh, it will take a lot more than a launcher to get multi-window. Maybe the CM team or some uberdev will build a multi-window setup that works. That is about the only thing I want on my N4.
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+1 for multi-window.
Sent from my Galaxy Ace.

Yeah well multiwindows for once and also the interface, i didnt know that feature from nova launcher to use a touchwiz theme. ill try it today

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2101204
Here you go.. No multi window unfortunately
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

multiwindow
you can use floating browser from google play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gpc.myweb.hinet.net.PopupWeb&feature=also_installed
and for video multiwindow https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gpc.myweb.hinet.net.PopupVideo&feature=more_from_developer#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwMiwiZ3BjLm15d2ViLmhpbmV0Lm5ldC5Qb3B1cFZpZGVvIl0.
hope this helped im planning to get a nexus 4 but idk maybe you can anwser me this id the onscreen button take up screen size from the 4.7 or not ?:good::good::good:

I'd LOVE the smartalarm from touchwiz
Everything else was kinda crap

okay why does it matter why he wants to have the touchwiz launcher? You guys are seriously going to question why he wants it like its any of your buisness, he likes touchwiz, its his choice of liking a different os. Its really stupid for you guys to question and put him down with negativity in comments instead of finding a link and if you dont like it? KEEP YOUR COMMENTS TO YOURSELVES. Thanks to those who provided the link.

Shadowfox993 said:
okay why does it matter why he wants to have the touchwiz launcher? You guys are seriously going to question why he wants it like its any of your buisness, he likes touchwiz, its his choice of liking a different os. Its really stupid for you guys to question and put him down with negativity in comments instead of finding a link and if you dont like it? KEEP YOUR COMMENTS TO YOURSELVES. Thanks to those who provided the link.
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I was just Googling some touchwiz launcher stuff for N4 and came to this thread.
Your comment is something that I have always wondered here at XDA. If you are in a particular device's forum, it means you are married to that phone and shall not praise/desire features and stuff which other phones have. It isn't like ditching your current device, XDA is all about development, so if someone seeks features from other phones, I think people should help (if you can) rather than criticizing. And when it comes to likings, everyone has his own preferences... who r we really to judge WHY he is liking this.. Why NOT he likes that.. etc etc. I know a lot of people do not like TW but many do. I ask the TW haters, if you don't like TW then what are you doing in this thread? Why replying? Why bother sneaking in? Just mind your own bloody damn business.

estallings15 said:
Uh, it will take a lot more than a launcher to get multi-window. Maybe the CM team or some uberdev will build a multi-window setup that works. That is about the only thing I want on my N4.
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If you start making your own distributions of Android behaving in such fundamentally different ways, I suspect we are going to need to start doing things to prevent you from impacting our app ecosystem. I'm not sure what, but I could imagine things such as restricting how users can interact with Market apps on these devices (not allowing reviews or such).
We have let a lot of things in this area slide -- for example to be allowed to include Market on your device you are supposed to fully pass CTS. However, if you start really diverging from the core Android platform (I would argue this takes you well into the realm of a fork rather than a customization) then some deep issues are going to come up about how we handle these custom builds.
We have been putting a lot of thought and work for a number of years into how to let Android applications run on increasingly diverse and dynamic screens. Doing this correctly, without impacting our app developers in a negative way, is a really challenging problem. I also think it is something that needs to be done at the mainline platform level, not as a customization, because doing it right is going to require new well defined interfaces with applications for them to interact with it, possibly starting with just a facility they need to use to opt in to it.
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googles (dianne hackborns) response when cyanogenmod was about to merge a multiwindow feature (cornerstone).
if its a smaller cm-fork or rom, cornerstone is open source waiting to be cherry-picked - although discontinued and buggy from what i hear.
can't imagine google is very happy about samsung doing it, but they might be too powerful a foe to upset.
another small observation, dianne herself introduced something like per app dpi to jellybean which seems related, still dormant. we might see it one day implemented as a real feature.