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OK, I've searched for days to try and find a fast, stable, sense-ui (Theme-wise) ROM that works on the HTC Hero. I've found tons of ROMS for the G1, I've tried the CyangenMod 6 ROM, I've spent hours searching for a good ROM. CM6 is a bit faster, but occasionally it will hang. (A bit better than stock 2.1) I don't like that a lot of apps don't work (After downloading an app and installing it, you can't click open or find it in your apps list) and I don't like that the fact that you can't group your contacts or have the Sprint/HTC widgets work. (The only widgets I use are the clock and the email, messages, and voice mail widgets that show how many you received.
Please let me know if you use one like that you can recommend.
FingerprintDiVA said:
OK, I've searched for days to try and find a fast, stable, sense-ui (Theme-wise) ROM that works on the HTC Hero. I've found tons of ROMS for the G1, I've tried the CyangenMod 6 ROM, I've spent hours searching for a good ROM. CM6 is a bit faster, but occasionally it will hang. (A bit better than stock 2.1) I don't like that a lot of apps don't work (After downloading an app and installing it, you can't click open or find it in your apps list) and I don't like that the fact that you can't group your contacts or have the Sprint/HTC widgets work. (The only widgets I use are the clock and the email, messages, and voice mail widgets that show how many you received.
Please let me know if you use one like that you can recommend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For a good sense UI rom I would go with Zen rom. You can find it here.
I've been using this rom NFX-Hero 2.2.1 by nfinitefx45. After playing with other roms and the cyanogen ones, i've come back to this one. I've been running this for a couple weeks and it's pretty smooth and stable. So give it a try. Also, nfinitefx45 is one dedicated developer, he actually visits the thread often and help with answering questions, solving problems/bugs!
dawgz said:
I've been using this rom NFX-Hero 2.2.1 by nfinitefx45. After playing with other roms and the cyanogen ones, i've come back to this one. I've been running this for a couple weeks and it's pretty smooth and stable. So give it a try. Also, nfinitefx45 is one dedicated developer, he actually visits the thread often and help with answering questions, solving problems/bugs!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 nfinite's roms are put together well and are fast yet also solid.
I'm using the cyanogen rom. CM6. It's actually running android 2.2 (froyo) instead of 2.1, and I think it has a better keyboard and runs very well. I use the "digital clock widget", and the weather and "news and weather" widget, I think both are available in the Market, but News and weather came with the rom. I miss the bookmarks and calendar widgets from Sense, but its not worth going back. As far as voicmail goes I'm using google voice to handle my it, and there are widgets for it too.
counterfeit187 said:
I'm using the cyanogen rom. CM6. It's actually running android 2.2 (froyo) instead of 2.1, and I think it has a better keyboard and runs very well. I use the "digital clock widget", and the weather and "news and weather" widget, I think both are available in the Market, but News and weather came with the rom. I miss the bookmarks and calendar widgets from Sense, but its not worth going back. As far as voicmail goes I'm using google voice to handle my it, and there are widgets for it too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use CM6 as well, and prefer it over any sense rom but the OP wanted sense so I thought I'd humor myself
The CM6 with CyanogenSense theme looks and feels like my stock Hero, but runs way faster and has a better battery life. Zen makes a great rom, bit imo the CM6 is the way to go.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
I've decided to try making a theme using the tutorial thread number 667951. (I can't post links yet I don't think, so again I'll just use this work around.) That being said, I've decided to stick with NFX-HERO for my ROM since the only thing wrong with it is the boot loop issue which I'm going to try starting from scratch to fix it today. So, the tutorial says that a good starting point for a theme would be to get an existing compatible theme and modify that one. (Great idea in my opinion. I've done this in the past with other phones I had.) Does anyone have an idea of a theme that would be useful for me to start off with? I want to change a lot of things on the phone, so the more intricate the theme is, probably the better.
Also, on a side note, if I remember correctly this thread had 3 pages before the site went down. I'm not sure why it was truncated. If any mods know why, please let me know.
FingerprintDiVA said:
I've decided to try making a theme using the tutorial thread number 667951. (I can't post links yet I don't think, so again I'll just use this work around.) That being said, I've decided to stick with NFX-HERO for my ROM since the only thing wrong with it is the boot loop issue which I'm going to try starting from scratch to fix it today. So, the tutorial says that a good starting point for a theme would be to get an existing compatible theme and modify that one. (Great idea in my opinion. I've done this in the past with other phones I had.) Does anyone have an idea of a theme that would be useful for me to start off with? I want to change a lot of things on the phone, so the more intricate the theme is, probably the better.
Also, on a side note, if I remember correctly this thread had 3 pages before the site went down. I'm not sure why it was truncated. If any mods know why, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We lost about 2 days posts when the site crashed
i used a theme called blue echo to learn where most things go. and in his rom there is a great vending apk that has the market themed as well. then i took a dialer from one of godzen's and moved it all to compare to my stock 2.1 files and made it work with a rom i am currently running. im just now getting into looking at the apps like clock etc but that was a good start for me since there is alot covered there.
OK, let me ask you this. It'll clear up some things I need to know on compatibility. What makes a theme compatible with one ROM and not another? Likewise, what makes an app compatible with one ROM and not another? Is it the structure? If so, how? I'm a computer programmer, but even though android phones are quite similar to a Linux system on a PC, I'm still not sure if I understand the compatibility issues behind themes.
Also, just so I don't have to post again to ask this in case it's relevant, are Blue Echo and GodZen's dialer compatible with NFX? I downloaded them, but it never said anything about NFX. Is NFX similar to Sprint's 2.1 in the sense that it will run any themes I make for NFX?
well the Rom im using is mostly stock so the framework and htc.resource files are the same. for say CM6 (and i havent looked into it just a example) may have say the status bar grey and i want black. in the stock i would change the statusbar_bkg file in the framework.apk folder but in CM6 it may be in the same plae with a different name or the same name in a different place or just non existent all together. as for if they are compatible the only way to know is to try. the only way to know for sure is to open them compare and replace what you need in the correct order. also i use metamorph to apply themes. you can find it in the market. but the Vending.apk theme must be pushed with adb for some reason or it will crash the market.
matter of fact now that i think of it, the Rom im using is about to incorporate NFX. go here and you an see my post where i put what i transfereed over and they should work as i think NFX is mostly a stock (so to speak) Rom.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=731404&page=41
FingerprintDiVA said:
I've found tons of ROMS for the G1,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are using a Hero, right? Not a G1? That would explain the boot loop issue you had with NFX.
NFX-HERO was listed in the Hero ROMs section. You sure it's only for G1? Would another phone's ROM actually even flash to a different phone properly? I mean it works, but with boot loops.
Yes they will but may it may not work. And I'm sure that Rom is for a hero and I would flash over and look for myself but I have been threw like 5 Rom's today and just got it back normal lol.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
OK, so today I had a chance to wipe and flash the NFX-HERO ROM again. Now the phone seems a bit more stable. I can boot it and it boots all the way up fine and I can click "Shutdown Phone" and have it shutdown without freezing and rebooting, but now right now I've spotted only one flaw. When I use the phone in disk drive mode, but then pull the USB out of the phone without switching it back to charge only, and it freezes and reboots on me. (This happened last time.) I've also noticed that the phone gets increasingly more unstable as time goes on, so I wouldn't doubt that it would do this even more later on.
Correction, no matter what I do, to remove the USB when I use it as a disk drive, the phone freezes and reboots.
Update again: I decided to use RegawMod instead. (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=661991) It's super fast, no bugs from what I can see, highly compatible, and it looks slick! I even used a mod to turn my dialer pink. lol I can see this being my ROM of choice for a long time. The only thing I didn't like was that it was lacking the Google Navigation tools, so I installed GoogleApps.apk (If you're looking for this file, just Google GoogleApps.apk) from another ROM and rebooted me phone (So it would show up) and then it worked just fine. I'm not sure why it isn't showing local listings for destinations first, but that may be just because it didn't catch the GPS location right off the bat. I did set my location settings to being shared.
There is a pink theme in 2.1 catalog if i remember right. If you like pink that might be a good start for you to move the files around to see how they are built.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
FingerprintDiVA said:
NFX-HERO was listed in the Hero ROMs section. You sure it's only for G1? Would another phone's ROM actually even flash to a different phone properly? I mean it works, but with boot loops.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha... I see how that can be misinterpreted.
Yeah, NFX is a Hero ROM, I was asking if you were trying to flash it on a G1, because if you were, it wouldn't work.
I like Regawmod 2.1. Fast with a nice dark theme. Based off of damage control. Just my two cents.
Sent from my HERO200 using Tapatalk
I really would love it if someone could upload all the APKs found in the stock system of EP1W. I'm on Infinity Beta, and I want to replace the browser with the stock one because its a lot smoother. I also want to relace the MyFiles app so I can use that for my non-root needs (I use it because all the free non root file managers are ugly and I prefer to use it over Root Explorer which is what I use for root files). And I may want to add other apps that I don't remember off the top of my head.
Thanks!!
I don't have the one's from EP1W anymore, but I have the one's from EP3HA, which will also work, and are either the same as the EP1W or should in theory be improved. They are uploading now, I'll update my post when they are ready.
EP3HA Stock Apks
There you go.
Thanks!
Thank you!!
The only reason I asked for EP1W over EP3, was because I thought they wouldn't work, but they are supposed too, so I get the best of both worlds: My favorite rom and the newest apps!
Thanks again!
Quick Question about the broswer:
In the browser from EP3, it doesn't actually scroll or pinch to zoom, it just shows up afterwards. This happened on a different EP3 rom (Humble, I believe), but not on stock EP3, does it need any special libs or something? Or is it just the EP3 browser when put on a different rom?
Highriser said:
In the browser from EP3, it doesn't actually scroll or pinch to zoom, it just shows up afterwards. This happened on a different EP3 rom (Humble, I believe), but not on stock EP3, does it need any special libs or something? Or is it just the EP3 browser when put on a different rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it on stock, works fine, actually works very well compared to the older versions the phone had. It even has overscroll glow effect (of course its yellow...) I don't know why it wouldn't work with other roms.
stranula said:
I tried it on stock, works fine, actually works very well compared to the older versions the phone had. It even has overscroll glow effect (of course its yellow...) I don't know why it wouldn't work with other roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it did work, it just didn't show scrolling or zooming. It just showed what happened afterwards. Which is useless because then you don't know where your zooming or scrolling to.
But, it doesn't really matter, imnuts said to expect an updated Infinity rom based off of EP3, I just hope he uses the stock browser. I love the TW 4 theme and its the fastest gb rom (to me), so even if he does, I'm still going to use it.
As we all know, something about the deodex-ing process kills the stock browser on the official gingerbread release (and previous leaks too).
yes, some say the stock browser sucks. I love opera mobile but the stupid thing lose ALL tabs when i switch to another app. completely lose track of what I was looking at. stock browser doesnt.
Dolphin is nice but isnt as smooth as stock browser due to GPU acceleration for stock browser.
so, can some one upload a CWM zip or some way to install/replace the browser.
edited out dropbox link... Fixed in other threads
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
damn, i've been trying to work this out with a few others but so far no luck. I cant even install it (removed existing apk in /system/app, place this in there. permission fixed. install failed).
others install but get FC
probably a framework related issue
thanks though.
MOD, please close thread
atb1183 said:
As we all know, something about the deodex-ing process kills the stock browser on the official gingerbread release (and previous leaks too).
yes, some say the stock browser sucks. I love opera mobile but the stupid thing lose ALL tabs when i switch to another app. completely lose track of what I was looking at. stock browser doesnt.
Dolphin is nice but isnt as smooth as stock browser due to GPU acceleration for stock browser.
so, can some one upload a CWM zip or some way to install/replace the browser.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19858100#post19858100
Looking for the stock browser.apk from ep4d. I would appreciate if someone could share that with me. Thanks!
If you want a deodexed version of the browser, note that it will almost certainly not work on my ROM, and that, if the previous leaks were any indication, it's going to perform like crap once deodexed.
Alright gotcha. Notice the aosp browser scrolling and pinch zoom is not nearly as smooth as the stock ep4d browser although I do like the ability to open the window and actually close the browsing sessions with the "x" button.
Dolphin Browser Mini. End of story.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium
Dolphin Browser is ok, but I'm not a big fan of the interface compared to stock.
imnuts said:
If you want a deodexed version of the browser, note that it will almost certainly not work on my ROM, and that, if the previous leaks were any indication, it's going to perform like crap once deodexed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FWIW, I'm actually using InfinityROM (latest release) with a deodexed Browser.apk that I got from within the CWM package found here and replaced the AOSP Browser.apk in /system/app (using Root Explorer), set permissions to rw-r--r--, rebooted, and it works as well as I can remember. I believe it's the HW acceleration that achieves the fluid scrolling/panning/zooming and I'm glad it worked out for me (nice ROM and nice browser together).
Here's the Browser.apk I pulled from that deodexed EP4D CWM package if you want to try it yourself (don't forget to backup the old one if anything screws up). YMMV! Hope it works out for you flyinj54.
If you use that browser.apk, and clear browser data, it is likely that it's no longer going to work as an FYI. A few framework changes needed to be made to get the AOSP Browser to work in the ROM.
imnuts said:
If you use that browser.apk, and clear browser data, it is likely that it's no longer going to work as an FYI. A few framework changes needed to be made to get the AOSP Browser to work in the ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you mean clearing the browser data in Applications > Manage applications?
I just tested that out to see what would happen and it seems that the stock Browser.apk is still working fine for me. I just cleared the data again and rebooted the phone to check and it's still working for me. I don't know if I'm doing something magical or if my phone is going to randomly explode someday, but I'm content with how it is.
If there's any other tests you can think of to break the functionality of this browser, let me know and I'll give them a shot as well.
One thing that I may have done but I'm not sure made any difference whatsoever is replaced the libwebcore.so file in /system/lib as well. If I remember correctly, that file has the same file size in both the stock ROM and InfinityROM, but I'm not entirely sure that they are identical.
Could the stock browser for ep4d work on a kindle fire for example?
Piercing Heavens said:
Could the stock browser for ep4d work on a kindle fire for example?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably not, I think the browser is designed for this phone only.
I always run Opera Mobile because of how smooth of it so I never tryed stock EP4D till today. I was shocked that it was Iphone smooth. Heck it was smoother than opera.
Was hoping that it would work on my kindle fire :<
Yeah, I'm actually always surprised when I go into a Best Buy and play with all the newer non-Samsung Android phones (even dual-core) and finding out that the browser on my Charge is way smoother because of the HW acceleration. Maybe they're just skipping HW acceleration on Gingerbread and working on it for ICS, who knows...
Guys can somebody help me out? I've flashed the very latest 3.32 firmware package from this thread (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1412618) and I've tried out both DarkForest and the very latest Elegancia ROMs. On each, the browser is absolutely awful, Xda for example takes forever to fully load before you are able to double tap to zoom and then scale the page up. And then when you do, the text goes unfocused for a second and then finally scales up appropriately. Also panning around the page tends to get a bit 'sticky'.
This is driving me nuts, the browser in Gingerbread was MUCH more fluid and text scaling was instantaneous. I've tried searching but no one seems to be reporting this issue. Please don't tell me that this is by design? It's really awful, I mainly use my phone for web browsing and ICS has ruined for me a previously enjoyable experience.
Does anyone have this same issue as me?
use google chrome
Browser is super smooth and is loading web pages fast. Perhaps you have high standards.
The only issue I have is, that if I click on a link within a different app, say gmail, it won't take me to the link, but rather the last page I had opened.
ccs16rocks said:
Browser is super smooth and is loading web pages fast. Perhaps you have high standards.
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Click to collapse
You didn't answer my question; are you seeing the weird unfocused and then scale up issue when you double tap?
Well, for me in Gingerbread, that NEVER happened, it was much much faster. And I shouldn't have to use Google Chrome, the point is HTC have broken something.
Hgaara said:
The only issue I have is, that if I click on a link within a different app, say gmail, it won't take me to the link, but rather the last page I had opened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, it's a bug with the stock Browser.
Also, can people say exactly which firmware version they are using? Maybe there is a problem with the latest one? I want to try every possible permutation to help get rid of this issue.
Also I found this thread; http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1550841
Seems like I'm not the only one to have seen this issue.
I have absolutely no issues with the ICS stock browser. Since I've tried it, it's the only one I use. I don't like HTC's take on it though.
sshede said:
I have absolutely no issues with the ICS stock browser. Since I've tried it, it's the only one I use. I don't like HTC's take on it though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you saying that when you double tap to zoom, the text DOES NOT got fuzzy for you for a split second, before properly scaling up and into focus?
If it absolutely doesn't then I'd be very interested to know which firmware and rom you are using.
On Gingerbread you see, this fuzziness 'middle step' never occurred, it when straight into scale.
use a different browser, stock everything is lame I use a different launcher GO SMS for messaging and chrome for web
ICS Browser+
Try ICS Browser+ in the Play Store. I prefer using it over the stock one only because of the added functionality and features. Expanded Quick Controls and Gestures are awesome!
dLeTe said:
Try ICS Browser+ in the Play Store. I prefer using it over the stock one only because of the added functionality and features. Expanded Quick Controls and Gestures are awesome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But does that fix the fuzziness on double tap zoom? I don't care about extra features really, I care about the rendering and the speed.
I haven't had any of the probs you mentioned. I've been using the ARHD 6.5.1 ROM for ICS. However, are you using the stock HTC Browser or the AOSP one? Its easy to confuse the two. The HTC Browser is 'stock' for an HTC phone but its NOT the real ICS browser that Google makes. Once I figured out how to get the AOSP one in my ROM over the HTC one, I've switched to that every time I loaded a new ROM. I feel that its better than the HTC one and I think its hardware accelerated too, but I could be wrong. There's another thread somewhere on how to switch the browser.apk files that I've posted in before. Maybe that could resolve your issue? Also it could be possible that those ROMs removed something or did a tweak that could be causing your prob too.
vgpclife said:
I haven't had any of the probs you mentioned. I've been using the ARHD 6.5.1 ROM for ICS. However, are you using the stock HTC Browser or the AOSP one? Its easy to confuse the two. The HTC Browser is 'stock' for an HTC phone but its NOT the real ICS browser that Google makes. Once I figured out how to get the AOSP one in my ROM over the HTC one, I've switched to that every time I loaded a new ROM. I feel that its better than the HTC one and I think its hardware accelerated too, but I could be wrong. There's another thread somewhere on how to switch the browser.apk files that I've posted in before. Maybe that could resolve your issue? Also it could be possible that those ROMs removed something or did a tweak that could be causing your prob too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I've just flashed LeeDroid, and it does exactly the same thing, so that's 3 roms now all with the same issue. I tried ICS Browser+ just now which I believe is pretty much the stock ICS AOSP browser, and it was the same deal. I also earlier found a flashable zip file which installs the AOSP Browser and I gave that a try, I still got the split second fuzziness on double tap or pinch to zoom.
I'm wondering if I might have had a bad firmware flash and it's broken something; I've tried re-flashing the latest ICS firmware but nothing improved. I think I'd like to go back to Gingerbread and start again, but I have no idea where the Gingerbread firmware can be found.
One other thing, do you use the 'fomat to fit screen / text reflow' option? I've noticed that turning it off speeds things up a bit, although there is still a slight moment of fuzziness during the zoom after double tap.
I've also got ICS installed on my HTC Desire and it does not have that issue, but it mentions in the changelog that a fix was applied. This leads me to thinking that it is a problem with the ICS version of WebKit. But, you say you don't have any issues, which is baffling. Which version of the ICS Firmware are you using?
What you're seeing is normal for ICS. The reason it does that is because it is rendering the page into an array of images - this is called a backing store. It is much easier to scale and transform an image than it is to redraw the page for every frame of a scroll or zoom animation. This makes for better frame rates during scrolling and zooming, at the cost of that momentary pixelation when you zoom in. A lot of people whined about the non-smooth scrolling in older versions so I guess they decided to go this route with ICS (which, by the way, is what Apple does in iOS, and if you've ever used an iWhatever you'll see the same thing when zooming in).
More information here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5310/samsung-galaxy-nexus-ice-cream-sandwich-review/5
And here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/4
This is not unique to Sense ROMs either, I'm on a de-Sensed ROM at the moment and even then the browser does the same thing. In any case, personally I find the scrolling much smoother than before, and I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff.
I don't know if it works on Sense 3.6 ROMs, but try typing "about:debug" in the address bar, hit enter, then go to Settings>Debug and then uncheck "Enable OpenGL Rendering". Then you get no pixelation on zooming in, but the scrolling will be slower.
jedininja666 said:
Are you saying that when you double tap to zoom, the text DOES NOT got fuzzy for you for a split second, before properly scaling up and into focus?
If it absolutely doesn't then I'd be very interested to know which firmware and rom you are using.
On Gingerbread you see, this fuzziness 'middle step' never occurred, it when straight into scale.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do see what you're talking about, but the pixelation is only for like 2 milliseoconds, so who cares.
Nick L said:
What you're seeing is normal for ICS. The reason it does that is because it is rendering the page into an array of images - this is called a backing store. It is much easier to scale and transform an image than it is to redraw the page for every frame of a scroll or zoom animation. This makes for better frame rates during scrolling and zooming, at the cost of that momentary pixelation when you zoom in. A lot of people whined about the non-smooth scrolling in older versions so I guess they decided to go this route with ICS (which, by the way, is what Apple does in iOS, and if you've ever used an iWhatever you'll see the same thing when zooming in).
More information here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5310/samsung-galaxy-nexus-ice-cream-sandwich-review/5
And here:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined/4
This is not unique to Sense ROMs either, I'm on a de-Sensed ROM at the moment and even then the browser does the same thing. In any case, personally I find the scrolling much smoother than before, and I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff.
I don't know if it works on Sense 3.6 ROMs, but try typing "about:debug" in the address bar, hit enter, then go to Settings>Debug and then uncheck "Enable OpenGL Rendering". Then you get no pixelation on zooming in, but the scrolling will be slower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you SO MUCH! This is exactly what I was looking for, I searched around but had you not said this, I would never have known.
I can live with the slightly jerkier scrolling, in fact I don't really notice it. What I did notice was the slow zooming and rendering, but thanks to you that's now fixed. Cheers!
this is why i don't use custom ROMS. to many bugs/issues and no matter how much someone that makes a roms and tests it, they will never have a perfect product. Let me ask a few questions that may get your attention. One big issue for me is that how do you know that the folks that make these things aren't embedding malicious software in there? How many people pay bills or access their bank accounts with their phones and how do you know that the ROM isn't sending your data back to it's creator?
No worth the risk for me.
jhowle9475 said:
this is why i don't use custom ROMS. to many bugs/issues and no matter how much someone that makes a roms and tests it, they will never have a perfect product. Let me ask a few questions that may get your attention. One big issue for me is that how do you know that the folks that make these things aren't embedding malicious software in there? How many people pay bills or access their bank accounts with their phones and how do you know that the ROM isn't sending your data back to it's creator?
No worth the risk for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The risk is just about nothing, and you think carriers or manufacturers make a perfect product?