faetal on 24/9/2012 at 11:43
Just switched from HTC Desire, which was a fantastic phone, marred only by internal memory limitations.
I'm still getting used to the switch from HTC Sense to Samsung TouchWiz. By all accounts, TouchWiz has been slimmed down considerably from its predecessors, leaving it feeling not too dissimilar to Sense (Or presumably Android itself). A few things are annoying me, but they are things which basically boil down to me having been very familiar with the Desire.
Will check those apps though - cheeeers.
henke on 24/9/2012 at 12:09
Quote Posted by faetal
In other news, Apple "fans" are a bit creepy. I know of 2 friends who own iPhone 4S and queued from 3 am today to get their iPhone 5, despite them being available online - apparently they were too excited and couldn't wait. WTF? Add to this that in some of the London stores, the people in queues are cheering every person who exits with their new iPhone. ಠ_ಠ
It's not that strange, just a sense of community. People want to follow and feel like they're a part of something. Whether that thing is a brand, a religion, a sports team, or a defunct videogame developer. ;)
SubJeff on 24/9/2012 at 12:34
Quote Posted by faetal
J feeling not too dissimilar to Sense (Or presumably Android itself).
Nope.
Android devices I have experience with: HTC Hero, HTC Desire, Nexus One, Samsung Galaxy, HTC Sensation, Galaxy Nexus, Xoom, Nexus 7.
All Nexus devices and the Xoom are GEDs, and the interface throughout the years (of stock Android) has evolved a lot. But it has always been very different to the other interfaces I've experienced, and always better. The current stock Jellybean I have on all my GEDs (except the Nexus One :( ) is the best, by far.
faetal on 24/9/2012 at 12:39
By all acounts, the UI on the S3 is far more stripped down and more androidy and doesn't feel too dissimilar to Sense, which leds me to conclude that Sense is closer to Android than TouchWiz. If I get fed up with it, I may root it and just stick JellyBean on when it's out (the S3 will get the JB TouchWiz update when it's ready anyway), though I'll need to wrestle with the idea of losing the warranty.
SubJeff on 24/9/2012 at 12:51
I don't know how far Touchwiz in it's current form is from stock but on the Galaxy it was totally balls and Sense and stock Android are so, so different I can't even tell you.
It's a real shame because I think that it would do the Android ecosystem a lot of good if everything came with stock and you had the option of using Sense or Touchwiz in the same way as you have the option to use other launchers. It's not like everyone hates these other interfaces after all; there are Sense skins on the market for non-Sense phones.
Seeing as Android is supposed to be more about choice there isn't a lot of choice going on here.
One thing I don't see is an icon pack I'd like to use. I used to do all sorts of mad customisation. Lifehacker even featured one of my efforts: (
http://lifehacker.com/5877003/the-science-nerd-home-screen)
It was fun but a bit too processor intensive and slowed my Sensation down, plus my main apps are far, far more extensive now.
What I'd really like is an icon pack with large tiles. Sort of like Windows 7 tiles but customisable; semi-transparent with coloured borders and optional icons similar to those in the Metro icon pack.
faetal on 24/9/2012 at 13:15
From what I can tell, Samsung got a lot of flak for earlier iterations of their UI - it was the main criticism of their Droid phones. The one I'm using is pretty clean, though it does come with more Samsung bloatware than I'd care for. I wish the phones all came stock android too, but I'm guessing there must be some reason the manufacturers all push their own UI. Beats me what it is though.
That icon set you made looks cool. You do realise that with a few tweaks, you could have a Breaking Bad theme and probably sell it (if that doesn't breach copyright).
SubJeff on 24/9/2012 at 13:26
I didn't "make" them, as such - I used Minimalist Text to make them.
I didn't realise that about Breaking Bad. Yeah, you could do it with those apps.
You should try that live wallpaper I used. It's really fun.
faetal on 24/9/2012 at 13:32
Just installed it :)
I tried a few colours and went with dark green. It will probably cane my battery though, so not sure if I'll keep it installed.
Looks great though :)
Scots Taffer on 25/9/2012 at 11:40
Phone snobs, of all types, are the absolute worst.
faetal on 25/9/2012 at 11:42
I'd widen that to brand snobs. Care about what it does, not who it is made by.
