Database Info

Are Custom Skins Worth it (aka Sense)

<Rant>
Since the release of the htc desire here in the uk I have seen a explosion of my friends buying it/ getting android. Ive gone from knowing one person with a android to 10 in 2 months!
All very well and good but being a htc hero owner for nearly a year now I cannot more and more help think that the Sense/MotoBlur and other skins over the stock android really arent worth it.
This may fall on deaf ears here at xda with such a huge CustomROM development scene but every time google release a new android version, I have less and less reason to root and flash a customROM onto my phone!
Back when android was 1.5/1.6 it was a ugly looking beast which HTC sense did brilliantly to fix. It was the first android phone to make me (and many others) go "wow". Such that is the pace that android and its manufactures travel at, within a couple of months the hero dropped from #1 to #4 of top android phones. The main reason being of course the android pace of upgrades
since 2.x android has looked good, its picked up sense features and really is not that far behind the sense experience (apart from KB).. I could happily live without sense if i was on 2.x and would much prefere to have a update within 2 weeks then 6months that htc(and other companies) seem to provide.
The problem is I now want a incredible or a evo4 but I would prefere to be able to buy it with a Stock Android build that google will support like they do on the Nexus one.
Am I the only one who feels this?
</Rant>

It's a trade-off. With the evo you do have the option to use the stock android launcher though. But it still is up to the rom scene to do most of the work regarding updating the rom. Though HTC has stated that they will have, at least the evo, sense available for with 2.2 before July (I think the unofficial date is June 26 or something).
(OT)
I though the UK only had GSM carriers/towers and didn't know there would be a GSM version of the evo, and I didn't know there would be a GSM incredible(Verizon branded in the US)

I haven't heard or read anything about the HTC EVO or Incredible being produced in GSM versions. HTC have continuously stated that there won't be any GSM models of either phone. As far as I'm aware, anyway.
Do you have any links/sources that say otherwise?

Make sure you take note on the extensive time it takes to update a device with a custom UI. Learn from the eris, which JUST got its first official OTA, and even that was released pretty buggy. Even the Droid took a while, but that's just a Moto issue, and it didn't take near as long as others, as it has had 2 OTA's since it's release. Lets just hope HTC has worked out the kinks in their compilation and distribution of working software.

Please say we can use this yo option!!!

I REALLY HOPE THIS CAN BE PORTED http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1050106

What exactly is this?....Never mind! But that sounds like a good idea...

What says the Almighty Faux?
We humbly await the masters opinion.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

a kernel -.- we have plenty bro

808prettyboy808 said:
What exactly is this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a hacked kernel from Desire S made to work with Desire HD. I have my own hacked version of Desire S kernel a few weeks ago already (just ask Option94, I had him test it for me briefly), I don't have a spare phone to test it on (I can't test on my own phone, my only line to the outside world). Even if my own version had worked, we still have an issue with full compatibility with Sense 2.1.
Desire HD had a 2.1 GB Sense leak, so they could leach the USER SPACE drivers from the leak but they were missing the matching kernel. Now with this kernel hack, they have BOTH the Kernel space driver and user space driver to properly make Sense 2.1 work on their phone.
Problem with our phone is the T-Mobile's MySense.... We are totally screwed by this. We are MISSING both the Kernel and User space drivers (and we will NOT have any leak to leach from except the official GB release for our phone ) Even when GB version of MySense is out, we will still have funny compatibility issues when trying to run ported GB pure Sense 2.1 on our phone. We will NEVER have 100% working pure Sense anything on our phone
That's why when Sensation is out, I am moving to that phone, it has pure Sense on it...

alfadog77 said:
a kernel -.- we have plenty bro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's for 2.1 sense
Sent from my royal glacier v1.3

Yea.. ill definitely be on the sensation bandwagon as well. That phone looks awesome.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

Oh, I just remembered about some rumor that a Canadian provider is getting Glacier clone but with PURE GB SENSE on it.... If the rumor is true, that will be the only salvation for our phone to run 100% compatible pure sense on it... I hope it's true, but I am not sure how reliable the rumor is...

faux123 said:
Problem with our phone is the T-Mobile's MySense.... We are totally screwed by this. We are MISSING both the Kernel and User space drivers (and we will NOT have any leak to leach from except the official GB release for our phone ) Even when GB version of MySense is out, we will still have funny compatibility issues when trying to run ported GB pure Sense 2.1 on our phone. We will NEVER have 100% working pure Sense anything on our phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that sucks. I thought that when the GB OTA update for the MT4G came out, that we'd have all we need when it comes to kernel development.
What about Canada's Emerald? It's the same phone as the MT4G, and is supposed to come out with Gingerbread/Sense 2.1 (REAL Sense). Wouldn't that help us?

Urrrrrrrrrrrrr #[email protected]?%$ T-Mobile and their stupid Mysense...sorry everyone i really thought this would've been the answer to all our Gingersense prayers

TeeJay3800 said:
What about Canada's Emerald? It's the same phone as the MT4G, and is supposed to come out with Gingerbread/Sense 2.1 (REAL Sense). Wouldn't that help us?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's actually what faux is talking about in regards to the rumors, so yeah it is true that Canada is getting an MT4G with Gingerbread out of the box. T-Mobile fail?
http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/04/11/mobilicity-to-bring-on-the-htc-emerald-mid-may/
And I'd have to agree, I love my MT4G but the Sensation is where it's at. I'm just hoping that the bootloader isn't going to be locked or I'll be picking up the G2X instead.

Problem is most of will probably move to the sensation the HTC emerald comes out in june. We will most likely get a dumped in mid-may. If the rumors are true.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

Killbynature said:
Problem is most of will probably move to the sensation the HTC emerald comes out in june. We will most likely get a dumped in mid-may. If the rumors are true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't say most. Phones are expensive and anyone with a MT4G has only had it for 5 months at the most. I would like the Sensation, but having spent $450 on the MT4G in early November, spending another nearly $500 just a few months later isn't something I'll be doing.

TeeJay3800 said:
I wouldn't say most. Phones are expensive and anyone with a MT4G has only had it for 5 months at the most. I would like the Sensation, but having spent $450 on the MT4G in early November, spending another nearly $500 just a few months later isn't something I'll be doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to sell this one most likely do the installment plan with my upgrade. Sensation probably be my last phone for awhile since I'm skipping quadcore. I have a g2x slightly lcd bleeding and a gslate. Both good devices but not something I'm interested in. When the iPhone 5 comes out Im buy two of them just to sell it on eBay for a ridiculous price.

The rumour is the HTC glacier will be released on Moblicity in Canada as a 2.3 pure sense device. It will be called the HTC emerald. I have only seen one article and it didn't look too promising, but I hope it's true!

Linky: http://mobilesyrup.com/2011/04/11/mobilicity-to-bring-on-the-htc-emerald-mid-may/

+1 for this! Keeping my fingers crossed..
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

faux123 said:
It's a hacked kernel from Desire S made to work with Desire HD. I have my own hacked version of Desire S kernel a few weeks ago already (just ask Option94, I had him test it for me briefly), I don't have a spare phone to test it on (I can't test on my own phone, my only line to the outside world). Even if my own version had worked, we still have an issue with full compatibility with Sense 2.1.
Desire HD had a 2.1 GB Sense leak, so they could leach the USER SPACE drivers from the leak but they were missing the matching kernel. Now with this kernel hack, they have BOTH the Kernel space driver and user space driver to properly make Sense 2.1 work on their phone.
Problem with our phone is the T-Mobile's MySense.... We are totally screwed by this. We are MISSING both the Kernel and User space drivers (and we will NOT have any leak to leach from except the official GB release for our phone ) Even when GB version of MySense is out, we will still have funny compatibility issues when trying to run ported GB pure Sense 2.1 on our phone. We will NEVER have 100% working pure Sense anything on our phone
That's why when Sensation is out, I am moving to that phone, it has pure Sense on it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im waiting for the sensation also...I heard that g2x does not support att quadband...Im hope the sensation will...

808prettyboy808 said:
Im waiting for the sensation also...I heard that g2x does not support att quadband...Im hope the sensation will...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thing is it might be there if we get a at&t radio and a different base band. Tmobile is ran as an independent company. Till the merger goes through or till it doesn't. Never said it did support the bands on at&t but it was advertise on the box.

T-mobile already admited that if the merger goes through the g2x will not be able to run on at&t network...check it out at tmonews.com...

Lost my HTC HD2---what phone should I get?

I recently lost my HD2. I love this phone to death, I was among the 1st one tried out hyperdroib-v12, it was the best rom so far....Wondering what phone should I get this time. Here are some candidates:
Tmobile-G2x
HTC-HD7
Mytouch4G slide
or another HD2 ?
hoping for honest opinions here, pro and con? ...future stable tweak. I personally enjoy fast response, longer battery life, GPS, and user friendly..not so much of a theme, UI guys.
Thanks

i noticed you are a big HTC fan
so i'll suggest HTC Amaze, also called HTC Ruby
it's basically the old HTC Sensation upgraded

nice..thanks, looked it up ...HTC amaze is not being offered from Tmobile at the moment.

Based on what you're looking for, stability, fast response, battery life, GPS, and user experience it'd be wrong to suggest anything but WP7. You can't tweak it much but that's because it doesn't need to be tweaked to exceed android and even iOS in those categories.

wait for the nexus prime ;-)
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Moved to proper section

eiabea said:
wait for the nexus prime ;-)
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tmobile only please.

kikikuku said:
I recently lost my HD2. I love this phone to death, I was among the 1st one tried out hyperdroib-v12, it was the best rom so far....Wondering what phone should I get this time. Here are some candidates:
Tmobile-G2x
HTC-HD7
Mytouch4G slide
or another HD2 ?
hoping for honest opinions here, pro and con? ...future stable tweak. I personally enjoy fast response, longer battery life, GPS, and user friendly..not so much of a theme, UI guys.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I was in a similar situation to you a few weeks back...I replaced a broken HD2 with a new HD7 through Asurion (they were no longer offering the HD2 as a replacement :-( ), and after a few weeks of missing running Android, I bought another HD2 off of ebay for about $170. Now I have the HD2 as my primary phone running WP7 off NAND and Android off SD, and I have the HD7 to play with on the side while we wait for DFT to create an Android hack for that phone as well. The HD7 development is getting close, but it's not quite as far along as I'd like before I'll make the HD7 my primary phone--for me, the HD2 is still the king. I'd get another one of those, if I were you...

Id get the g2x
-My life is a shooting range, people never change-

kikikuku said:
I recently lost my HD2. I love this phone to death, I was among the 1st one tried out hyperdroib-v12, it was the best rom so far....Wondering what phone should I get this time. Here are some candidates:
Tmobile-G2x
HTC-HD7
Mytouch4G slide
or another HD2 ?
hoping for honest opinions here, pro and con? ...future stable tweak. I personally enjoy fast response, longer battery life, GPS, and user friendly..not so much of a theme, UI guys.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using WP7 for a few months now and is one of the best phones i've ever had, i recommend you the HD7 you're not going to regret it!!

If you like installing Custom Roms ,Kernels etc. Than get the Nexus S
Or really wait for the Nexus Prime!
The Nexus S is a TOP Smartphone which is also very cheap!

I would wait for Nexus Prime.

[Q] What's the most stable sense 3.0 rom for the Inspire?

Nope, this isnt another "which rom is best thread" lol I'm switching over to ATT and just ordered 3 phones. One of which is the inspire 4g for my 60 year old mother. A couple of months ago I finally got her to ditch her LG dumb flip phone and switch to my family plan on sprint so I could give her my evo 3d to get the galaxy s 2. lol
She was very confused for the first few months but is now accustom to her phone and "LOVES IT" So I wanted to get her a phone that was similar. Like screen size, sense etc.. I dont want to mess up her ecosystem by having her have to relearn a new UI skin. hahaha I figured I'd throw a sense 3.0 rom on her new inspire so UI wise there is no difference really. Now I dont have time to try out every single sense 3.0 rom as I will only have the phone for a day and have to give it to her before she goes back home to CT. So I just need to know what is the most stable sense 3.0 rom? And what is the best kernel for battery life? I will most likely underclock/UV hers as she only uses the phone for texting, calling, surfing the web and an occasional game (simple games) nothing really syncing except facebook and stock google apps
Thanks in advance

graffixnyc said:
Nope, this isnt another "which rom is best thread" lol I'm switching over to ATT and just ordered 3 phones. One of which is the inspire 4g for my 60 year old mother. A couple of months ago I finally got her to ditch her LG dumb flip phone and switch to my family plan on sprint so I could give her my evo 3d to get the galaxy s 2. lol
She was very confused for the first few months but is now accustom to her phone and "LOVES IT" So I wanted to get her a phone that was similar. Like screen size, sense etc.. I dont want to mess up her ecosystem by having her have to relearn a new UI skin. hahaha I figured I'd throw a sense 3.0 rom on her new inspire so UI wise there is no difference really. Now I dont have time to try out every single sense 3.0 rom as I will only have the phone for a day and have to give it to her before she goes back home to CT. So I just need to know what is the most stable sense 3.0 rom? And what is the best kernel for battery life? I will most likely underclock/UV hers as she only uses the phone for texting, calling, surfing the web and an occasional game (simple games) nothing really syncing except facebook and stock google apps
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I hope she enjoys her trip back to CT. (My home state) as for stable. Ithat depends on alot I am sure you know. I would personally use the Android Revolution rom based on the new Desire HD with Sense 3.0 that was released today.

I'd definitely go with Android Revolution HD. If your looking for Sense 3.5, however, then it's RCMix Runneymede all the way. The only downside of Runneymede is that battery life is AWFUL

Ive been running the Energy ROM for a couple of weeks now and its been very stable so far. Fast, too.

Thanks guys! I will go with Andorid rev. I actually saw there are also virtuous roms available for this phone. I always loved virtuous roms on my TMO devices. But the reviews for Android Revolution look really good. When I told my mom about the switch she said "but I like my phone" So I told her the new phone will be set up exactly like her old one. lol

Im so happy I want to cry

I've been using Android phones for about 2 years now, and my replacement G2 broke right before the 90 warranty. I got T-Mobile to give me a sensation for free luckily. Anyways, my experience with Android has always come down to this - fun to use, but never as responsive as other mobile OS's. Even rooted, my old Moto Cliq and G2 would lag. However, I just rooted and installed Android Revolution on my Sensation, and its ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! No lag AT ALL. I know for a lot of you this is normal, but because I am discovering this just now, it's honestly a milestone for me. I was so sure I was going to switch to WP8 once it was released, but no longer. THANK YOU SO MUCH ANDROID DEV COMMUNITY!

Welcome aboard !

Next step - ditching Sense

I disagree :L with sense 4.0 it should be a much better experience but I understand why u might want to ditch sense 3.x XD
BTW. Not starting an argument just saying
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

i felt exactly the way you feel now when i got my sensation, and the experience was improved even further when i switched to ICS AOSP(-style) ROMs... i really think android can compete with iOS in terms of ui responsiveness now (though i have never used an iphone 4s).

Welcome to the cool Sensation! Happy Flashing! : )

Honestly sense 4.0 has been a great experience so far. There's absolutely no lag right now. I think I will try the AOSP roms once all of the kinks are worked out.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA

thats how exactly how i felt bro

Stay where you're at or go to Sense 3.6 ICS. Sense 4.0 isn't ready yet and whatever you do, do not install Sense 3.5 - laggy as all get out.

Next step use an AOSP ROM like CM9

same here.... but i bought my g2 on ebay already kinda scuffed up almost a year ago. something happened suddenly with my g2 (semi-bricked) and showed it to tmobile and gave me a choice of a replacement phone, sensation 4g or mytouch q. are you serious??? i chose the sensation of course....

Be sure to go over to dev site and thank mike1986. He and others have done an awesome job on this ROM/firmware.
Sent from my HTC Sensation ICS 4.0.3 ARHD 6.5.3XE. Clocked 1.62 ghz Rockin'

Yup. Just follow instructions here to a T, and you'll be amazed at how much better the Sensation gets from stock. Made the jump from Blackberry last August, and only did so because Android has come this far.

Good on ya!