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[POLL] Ideas for a New ROM in Development

After doing my own work bringing the MoDaCo rom up to date with the Sprint MR, and a LOT of reading and researching, I'd like to start work on my own custom Hero rom. While speed and performance will be important factors I certainly want to maintain and/or improve functionality.
I have my own general vision for what I want to do, however I'd also like to get some community inputs on what you would like to see in a custom ROM.
If you can, please share 5 things you would like to see implemented. They can be features you've seen/liked from other roms or something you haven't seen done yet. I'm looking for some new ideas.
This ROM will be based on android 1.5 not messing with 1.6 or 2.0 until an official release is made by HTC/Sprint.

one great thing i would love to see included is a simplified task managment system. i am running task killer. but if it were possible to incorperate into the rom the ability to have a time limit on certin apps when not used that they would just stop.

The main thing that annoys me to no end right now would be to make predictive text allowable in all search forms, password forms and address boxes in browsers.
Would also love to see more functions from the locked screen like S2Unlock from WM. The ability to preview texts, emails and missed calls from the locked screen and either dismiss them or respond to them directly from the lock screen and have it open up the app that is needed like the SMS app/email app/Phone dialer after unlocking.
Edit: Oh and remove the vibrate from the dialer which Sprint added on the MR update. Why would they add this with no way to turn it off? SOME people DO wanna try and save their battery life ya know?? Stupid.

Something other than a minimally-modified stock ROM.

ricersniper said:
one great thing i would love to see included is a simplified task managment system. i am running task killer. but if it were possible to incorperate into the rom the ability to have a time limit on certin apps when not used that they would just stop.
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QuiQNeZZ said:
The main thing that annoys me to no end right now would be to make predictive text allowable in all search forms, password forms and address boxes in browsers.
Would also love to see more functions from the locked screen like S2Unlock from WM. The ability to preview texts, emails and missed calls from the locked screen and either dismiss them or respond to them directly from the lock screen and have it open up the app that is needed like the SMS app/email app/Phone dialer after unlocking.
Edit: Oh and remove the vibrate from the dialer which Sprint added on the MR update. Why would they add this with no way to turn it off? SOME people DO wanna try and save their battery life ya know?? Stupid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So both of you want applications for the most part, that's not a rom, that's something you can suggest in te developer section.
As far as something I'd like to see in a rom... A modified Kernel with SetCPU support would be wonderful

The ability to rotate the home screen to landscape mode, please.

ruskiyab said:
So both of you want applications for the most part, that's not a rom, that's something you can suggest in te developer section.
As far as something I'd like to see in a rom... A modified Kernel with SetCPU support would be wonderful
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe the second request is more of a software request but he did say "anything". However, the second one I believe is more ROM related as there seems to be something in the ROM that does not want to allow predictive text in certain forms.

ruskiyab said:
So both of you want applications for the most part, that's not a rom, that's something you can suggest in te developer section.
As far as something I'd like to see in a rom... A modified Kernel with SetCPU support would be wonderful
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed.
I posted this in Modaco's thread and I'll post it here too. Email from Mike, dev for SetCPU:
There is a feature in the Sprint HTC Hero's kernel that prevents SetCPU from working. It likes to constantly set the CPU speed itself, and SetCPU can't override the kernel itself. From analyzing the source, I believe this is fixable. Are you using a custom ROM? If so, try asking your ROM developer to compile a kernel without the "PERFLOCK" feature in the kernel off. Because I don't have a Hero myself to test, I can't verify that this will work.

I don't know if the setcpu idea would work well with the cdma hero, one of the times I've wifi tethered I witnessed an overheat LED warning, thought nothing of it until I checked my battery info, which was pretty much beyond egg cooking temperatures, phone then force rebooted without warning... Not sure if that has to do with things inside the Kernal like mentioned, but it seems like overclocking the cpu might just fry it quickly with the hero, underclocking could be a different story though..
Also.. It's hard for me to say because I'm very interested to see what HTC will be bringing to the plate with Sense 2.0, but I wouldn't mind more interchangable/ custom themes, or modifications to the look and feel to Sense itself, or like what was said above, something more than just a tweaked version of stock. Landscape home screens would also be a nice addition to the Hero, I often attempt this when tired, wouldn't mind it actually working for me.

katmandu421 said:
The ability to rotate the home screen to landscape mode, please.
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Click to collapse
I second that!

LeftonJackman said:
I second that!
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Click to collapse
the rotating home screen would be neat to show off

going to look into portrait mode in sense ui since i'm curious in seeing how it works too. any more ideas?

Do you think there is any way to optimize the htc_ime.apk? I hate getting keyboard lags when typing a text. That is the only thing about this phone that I could say that I hate.
Also don't want to beat a dead horse, but I wonder if there is any way to get the new maps to work with 1.5. Coming from the Dream forum, I know that they got it working on 1.6 (before it was released to 1.6) by tricking the app into thinking that 1.6 was actually 2.0. I'm not sure exactly how this was done but from what I remember, it didn't sound extremely difficult.
Then again, I'm not a dev so I don't know what it would entail.

Don't know if this is more of an app or what, but how about a way to change the frame colors from grey to one of serveral colors.

How about this, for the browser make it so I can type something into the address bar and if doesn't have a .com at the end of it. It then will give a Google search. Kinda of odd its not already like that it would keep googles numbers way high

The keyboard Lag would be great to fix and the rotating screen would make this phone even better than what it is. How about finding a way to increase the internal memory we start with. I don't know if that is possible but it sure would be nice to be able to have more to start with. I use Apps2Sd but still lose memory when I install apps. I am still real confused about this, but I am about 20 meg better than I was before I used Apps2Sd. I saw a video from unlockr.com where he was setting up apps2sd on a G1 and when he finished it showed the added memory from the ext3 partition in the Sd card and internal memory area in settings. he went from about 45 meg to over 500 meg after he finished setting it up.

please no hideous blue themes or annoying boot sounds

Is the ability to choose which apps open (or don't open) on startup something that can be incorporated into a rom?

fr0st said:
please no hideous blue themes or annoying boot sounds
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Click to collapse
Nice.

ricersniper said:
one great thing i would love to see included is a simplified task managment system. i am running task killer. but if it were possible to incorperate into the rom the ability to have a time limit on certin apps when not used that they would just stop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would love to see the time limit thing, and maybe an automatic reboot function, and maybe a recovery system IN the Phones GUI not in its own Partition or whatever.

[Q] Cleaning up the bloatware - Kidzone?

I tried searching the forums and found nothing...
Like a lot of others, i dont like most of the applications that come bundled on my phone and like to get rid of most of them. I cant seem to figure out what .apk file to remove to get rid of the "Kidzone" application. Any ideas?

If any root-level file explorer works, download Absolute System from the Market. It's about two bucks but it's worth it. You can use it to remove any bloatware from your device.

blackknightavalon said:
If any root-level file explorer works, download Absolute System from the Market. It's about two bucks but it's worth it. You can use it to remove any bloatware from your device.
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Click to collapse
Not in this case. We do not have S-OFF.

Freezing the apps with titanium backup lasts between reboots, luckily. Won't remove them completely but they will be prevented from running or showing in the app drawer.
Only problem is I'm having trouble finding the package names of a couple bloatware apps, namely kidzone, highlight, friend stream and t-mobile mall. If anyone could find the names of those packages it would be great. I'll look up the names of the apps I did find in a little while and post them for you.

vimk said:
Freezing the apps with titanium backup lasts between reboots, luckily. Won't remove them completely but they will be prevented from running or showing in the app drawer.
Only problem is I'm having trouble finding the package names of a couple bloatware apps, namely kidzone, highlight, friend stream and t-mobile mall. If anyone could find the names of those packages it would be great. I'll look up the names of the apps I did find in a little while and post them for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download Absolute System from the Market.
Sent from a Western Union telegram.

vimk said:
Freezing the apps with titanium backup lasts between reboots, luckily. Won't remove them completely but they will be prevented from running or showing in the app drawer.
Only problem is I'm having trouble finding the package names of a couple bloatware apps, namely kidzone, highlight, friend stream and t-mobile mall. If anyone could find the names of those packages it would be great. I'll look up the names of the apps I did find in a little while and post them for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cant figure out what process is Kidzone either, but i think the T-Mobile mall was called "AppPack" (MallLite-4.0.92.apk)

Gumpo10k said:
I cant figure out what process is Kidzone either, but i think the T-Mobile mall was called "AppPack" (MallLite-4.0.92.apk)
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also tried removing the app pack, and it does not remove "kidzone"

Kidzone appears to basically be a locked down version of the home screen that only lets you turn on Youtube, Internet, Bejeweled, and T-Mobile TV from that screen. It requires you to setup a password for the lock screen. It appears to be built into sense. It's not really an application. Mostly a replacement lock screen. There's nothing "kid" about it honestly.

Akujin said:
Kidzone appears to basically be a locked down version of the home screen that only lets you turn on Youtube, Internet, Bejeweled, and T-Mobile TV from that screen. It requires you to setup a password for the lock screen. It appears to be built into sense. It's not really an application. Mostly a replacement lock screen. There's nothing "kid" about it honestly.
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Click to collapse
Is there a way to remove the shortcut from the app drawer?

electro_chef said:
Is there a way to remove the shortcut from the app drawer?
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Click to collapse
I second that request!

I made a thread in "themes and apps" about cleaning up bloat - still no luck on kidzone though.
I am fiddling around with dumping sense now, that will probably do it. I'll post back here if I can figure out how to make kidzone go away.
Meantime - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=16739548#post16739548

okay - sorry to post after myself but I got rid of kidzone.
First, I restored a CWM backup I made right after root/busybox installation.
So, my phone state is fresh S-OFF/Root with SU & busybox installed.
It may be important to note that I did a factory reset to my phone just before S-OFF/Root & had a freshly formatted MicroSD card.
I then installed ADW Launcher from the Market, and hit my "home" key. Selected "Use Default" and chose ADW Launcher.
Now my phone defaults to ADW as it's launcher.
I then installed "Absolute System" from the Market, and used it to remove "HTC Sense"
Closed out Absolute System, then scrolled between all 5 ADW desktop screens, powered down the phone, then powered up again. (*NOTE fastboot = off)
Booted fine, was able to ditch sense without issue, and KIDZONE IS GONE!
As always, make sure to do a fresh system backup before messing with anything like this, but Kidzone is linked to sense, and replacing sense with another launcher will remove it.
HTC Sense was the only app removed from the phone, and I haven't checked everything to make sure it works yet, but no HTC crash report to send, and no force close issues. (yet - to be determined)
I've been itching to ditch sense since I got the phone, and this was my first quick test at it. Works good so far.
Edit to add:
Checked the "personalize" option at the top of the "settings" list. This just brings you back to the main desktop, doesn't throw an error.
I knew this one thing would be messed up somehow after ditching sense, but the fact that it doesn't make a problem and just closes the menu is fine by me.
I'll spend the rest of the day testing out my phone without sense to see how it runs. I'll post back how it went tomorrow.
Edit - 11/01/2011:
When I said "without sense" I meant without the sense launcher. I expanded on and clarified that in another thread (that app thread) but never cleared it up here.
To fully remove sense is one heck of a project, and will take much more then just switching your launcher.

This is great info - but with this last method - can you still use the stock/factory camera app? Is the camera fully functional, it might not be a big deal to some but would be cool to retain full factory camera functionality.

Wow, feels like going back in time -
Yep, stock camera app works fine.
It's tied to sense, and there is no true AOSP ROM out there yet, so pretty much no matter what you do you should keep stock camera functionality.
Actually, keeping the stock camera functionality/app is the main reason why there is no AOSP ROM yet, it's been generally decided that losing that would be...undesirable.
Kidzone is part of Rosie.apk, which is the Sense launcher. You lose it once you switch to another launcher (adw, go, etc...) and uninstall rosie.apk

Blue6IX said:
Wow, feels like going back in time -
Yep, stock camera app works fine.
It's tied to sense, and there is no true AOSP ROM out there yet, so pretty much no matter what you do you should keep stock camera functionality.
Actually, keeping the stock camera functionality/app is the main reason why there is no AOSP ROM yet, it's been generally decided that losing that would be...undesirable.
Kidzone is part of Rosie.apk, which is the Sense launcher. You lose it once you switch to another launcher (adw, go, etc...) and uninstall rosie.apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.. + 1 for blue.
Sent from my Senseless Doubleshot using xda premium

[Q] Why won't certain widgets appear on the list of widgets?

I've noticed this problem since I bought my Sensation. I immediately started transferring over apps from my G2 and Xoom (the ones I planned on using on my Sensation, at least). I know which apps have a widget and which don't. When I long-press on my screen and choose widgets, I see most of the widgets of apps I just installed but not all of them.
There are times when I flashed custom roms to try them out and then go back to my nand (clean stock backup) and the same widgets that didn't show up before would now appear on the list.
Is anyone else having this issue? Does anyone know why this is happening?

Only thing I can think of is that maybe the parent program for the widget got moved to the sdcard. I know widgets have to be in,main,memory to work.
Forgive me if this is an infantile response, I am still fairly new to android, but eager to help if I can.

Ivanstein said:
Only thing I can think of is that maybe the parent program for the widget got moved to the sdcard. I know widgets have to be in,main,memory to work.
Forgive me if this is an infantile response, I am still fairly new to android, but eager to help if I can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... Interesting, if you're right. In my previous Android phones and on my Xoom, I move all the apps that I can to SD every time and never had this problem. But I will give this a try. I'll report back if this is the case with Sensation on stock Sense UI.

I just restored from a previous nand (good thing I happened to backup for no apparent reason just this morning) and it looks like the widget is there. I checked where the app was and it is in fact on my SD card. So there goes that theory. Hehe.
I wonder if others have the same issue and if they found out the culprit. Thanks anyway, Ivanstein.

One thing I've noticed that with no matter what sensation rom I flash first time i download an app the widgets don't show in the widgets menu until i reboot.

[Q]Launchers?

I was messing around with my phone and i found Go Launcher. I when messing around with that i like it so much and i want to know is it possible to replace htc sense with Go Launcher? To add more detail to my question is removing it off my phone through a root explore and replacing it with Go Launcher? Will that work? and how?

Yep.
Download whatever launcher you want to use ( I used ADW, you can use Go, or anything else that works).
Ensure that it works by playing with it for a little bit.
Once you are sure it's working correctly, hit your home button and select your new launcher as the default. (don't skip this step)
After you have your new launcher as the default, using Root Explorer (or File Expert, both of those i've tested - others may work) navigate to and delete:
/system/app/rosie.apk
/system/app/rosie.odex
/data/data/com.htc.launcher
Exit your file manager and reboot your system.
Done.
That's the quick and dirty method.
I'd recommend using something like "Absolute System" to first delete the data, then uninstall HTC Sense (make sure the file paths correspond to what I wrote above) and then going back to manually delete /system/app/rosie.odex
Absolute System won't get .odex files, so uninstalling system apps this way means you have to go back and clean it up yourself for the .odex files.
Also, you lose the HTC myTouch Power Control and a handful of other widgets in this process.
I am experimenting now with deleting/uninstalling other system packages (like fusion, open sense plugin manager and so forth) to see where it causes problems, but that's still preliminary at the moment.
I made a thread about this Here which i'll be updating in another few days once I get my new battery settled in and can continue.
Meantime, just uninstalling the HTC Sense launcher and replacing it with another one works well, and still allows full functionality of the stock camera app, as long as the rosie.apk -.odex and corresponding /data/data file is all you remove.

Blue6IX said:
Yep.
Download whatever launcher you want to use ( I used ADW, you can use Go, or anything else that works).
Ensure that it works by playing with it for a little bit.
Once you are sure it's working correctly, hit your home button and select your new launcher as the default. (don't skip this step)
After you have your new launcher as the default, using Root Explorer (or File Expert, both of those i've tested - others may work) navigate to and delete:
/system/app/rosie.apk
/system/app/rosie.odex
/data/data/com.htc.launcher
Exit your file manager and reboot your system.
Done.
That's the quick and dirty method.
I'd recommend using something like "Absolute System" to first delete the data, then uninstall HTC Sense (make sure the file paths correspond to what I wrote above) and then going back to manually delete /system/app/rosie.odex
Absolute System won't get .odex files, so uninstalling system apps this way means you have to go back and clean it up yourself for the .odex files.
Also, you lose the HTC myTouch Power Control and a handful of other widgets in this process.
I am experimenting now with deleting/uninstalling other system packages (like fusion, open sense plugin manager and so forth) to see where it causes problems, but that's still preliminary at the moment.
I made a thread about this Here which i'll be updating in another few days once I get my new battery settled in and can continue.
Meantime, just uninstalling the HTC Sense launcher and replacing it with another one works well, and still allows full functionality of the stock camera app, as long as the rosie.apk -.odex and corresponding /data/data file is all you remove.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice thanks i'm trying adw.launcher the app-drawer seems slow?

Yea, switch it to vertical view in settings.
(on desktop, hit menu, then more, then ADW settings, you'll find it in there)
It helps - i'm trying to see if there's a conflict with ADW fighting against anything HTC has running on the device, i'm using ADW since i'm pretty familiar with it at this point from my Nook Color, it's the 'stock' launcer for CM7 there.
I noticed that after loading the app drawer the first time, it hasn't been an issue.
I'd love to hear more about your experiences with this, it's a learning experience for us all at this point.

Ok i was think renaming go launcher as rosie.apk so it can boot up on its on. Unless there is some xml or cfg file some where i can edit and rename it.
Update:
I completely replaced htc sense with go launcher everything seems to work perfectly fine. i like this launcher way better less ram and fast too.
Update 2:
I renamed it to rosie.apk after that I pressed the home button. It opened up go launcher and the camera is still working correctly.
Update 3:
Personalize doesn't work if you remove htc sense.

Question: does having another launcher without uninstalling sense significantly impact performance? I'd rather not have to root and delete sense at the moment.
On another note, is anyone slightly fed up by how lackluster the optimization of Sense was for this phone? Since I'm coming from the original MyTouch, I was used to non-smooth performance, but today I installed 7 launcher and I was amazed by how comparitively smooth it ran, despite "just" being a market app. I just installed golauncher after seeing this thread and am just as amazed. So smooth!

napilopez said:
Question: does having another launcher without uninstalling sense significantly impact performance? I'd rather not have to root and delete sense at the moment.
On another note, is anyone slightly fed up by how lackluster the optimization of Sense was for this phone? Since I'm coming from the original MyTouch, I was used to non-smooth performance, but today I installed 7 launcher and I was amazed by how comparitively smooth it ran, despite "just" being a market app. I just installed golauncher after seeing this thread and am just as amazed. So smooth!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before I removed sense. All you had to do really was set a default launcher then killing sense with a tasks/processes manager. But i went ahead and removed it because i really want one launcher and i don't want the phone booting up to sense then others.

As well as it works, bear in mind this is just a slap-it-together fix.
None of the underlying frameworks that actually power the launcher are gone with the removal of rosie.apk, simply the launcher itself. (well, on the surface at least)
Yes, there is a slight performance gain, but nothing like what it would be if you actually went in and pulled everything behind the launcher that powers it.
Doing that, of course, would compromise the camera.apk, and most likely the whole rest of the phone in the process. It's likely that a new/different phone.apk would be needed, as well as most of the apps on the device.
(I don't know for sure yet whether phone.apk is tied to the sense frameworks, but I have barely begun looking into the .apk's we get with the phone, so don't take that out of context.)
Replacing the launcher, no problem. Ripping out Sense itself...we're quite a bit away from that at the moment. You can pull the launcher on the surface and still have a stable, running system.
I'd venture to guess, though I haven't checked for sure, any performance gains from removing the sense launcher are nullified by whatever launcher you replace it with.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't experiment, and I personally don't like the Sense launcher too much. I like some stuff about it, but what I don't like about it makes it worth it to me to trade it out for something else now.
At the moment i'm running the stock launcher again while I build my battery stats file up again, but as soon as that's done i'm back to ADW and ripping out the guts of this stock rom to figure out what needs what.
Now, the cool thing about removing the Sense launcher is there are a slew of widgets that won't run without it, so you can dump them as well since they don't do anything anymore.
Combining dropping the Sense launcher with all the widgets it doesn't need anymore, and the lists we are making in a few places in this forum about what you can/can't delete/freeze you can see a significant performance gain.
I just want to dispell the illusion that removing the Sense launcher removes Sense itself, they are two different things. As we decompile and sift through the software on the phone we'll figure out what we can and can't get away with.
Don't forget there are other things to get rid of to truly remove the Sense launcher, such as /system/framework/com.htc.rosie.jar (and corresponding .odex file) .
What I posted in the second post of this thread is enough to get it out of the way so you can use something else, but a far cry from removing it entirely. The deeper you dig, the less stable it all becomes. Until someone releases a rom that starts from the ground up, there's only so much we can get away with starting from the top down.
Meantime, though, everything we're doing here and talking about is helping the people who will develop a rom get an idea of how the system works. Threads like this and the questions being asked and answered are a big help.
And of course, this is all good fun too. Android is like legos, you can basically just build what you want with whatever pieces you want to use. Android is pretty robust and self-correcting, you have to do something drastic (like delete phone.apk) to break it.

sonicjam - I was messing around with launchers again since I got my battery taken care of and i'd forgotten what GO was like.
I tried to use GO launcher a while ago, but on the Nook Color, which is really underpowered for such a thing. It didn't run so well and I put it out of my mind.
I downloaded it and started playing with it, and now that I have a piece of hardware that can run it well, it's a fantastic piece of software.
All the different fun options to have it change pages are pretty cool, and my lady was really getting a kick out of it all.
I think I found my new favorite launcher, I just wanted to say thanks for turning me on to it! It really makes the phone fun to play with.
I love the fact that I can have as many desktop screens as I want, and this device can handle quite a few...I now have enough space to never have to go in my app drawer again and not be all cluttered.
Once we get a custom rom, or figure out how to remove Sense itself, this is going to become my permanent launcher. In the meantime i'll keep using it.
I just can't get over how smooth it runs on this device, it really is amazing.
Just wanted to say thanks!
napilopez said:
Question: does having another launcher without uninstalling sense significantly impact performance? I'd rather not have to root and delete sense at the moment.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know you also said in your post that you like GO launcher, and i'm definitely a convert now, but if you want something that will give you a significant performance boost, Zeam launcher is the most lightweight launcher on the market.
(maybe MoDaCo's port of the gingerbread launcher is about as fast, it's hard to tell)

My not so good review

Went from a G2 to this One S yesterday. I'm not too impressed.
No dedicated menu button
There is enough room for one on the bottom but they only put 3.
What happens now is that Android (or Sense or something) detects when there are menu options and puts a button on the screen for it taking away real estate from the application.
No trackball
I used this a lot on my G2 especially on web pages with small links that I didn't want to missclick. I already miss it. I also used the trackball wake feature in CM on my G2. Now there is only one way to turn the screen on and its a little hard to do one handed. The trackball was in a very natural position to turn on with your thumb. Now without it, it is very awkward to power on with your thumb, you have to hold it very high and I'm affraid of dropping it. Alternatively I could turn it on with my index finger but it spreads my hand way out and still feels weird.
No folders
I'm not sure if this is an ICS thing or a Sense thing (because this phone is an unholy bastardization), but I can't figure out a way to create folders on my home screens. I'm not talking about the Sense folders for applications either. In normal Android builds you can add shortcuts, widgets, folders. The Pandora application shipped with a folder called "My Stations" or something like that. I used this because it only took up 1x1 on a homescreen and let me choose which station was opened. Without it, you need to open the application and it immediately starts playing the last radio station. This is annoying.
Resolution
The DPI isn't any better than my G2, its just a bigger screen. This is pretty disappointing. I would like a crisper display in a flagship device.
Bloat
Its pretty bad. I know most users want Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, etc... but how about you let us select what we want during the phone setup.
Misc
This is my first Sense device and my first ICS device so again, not sure where this crap is coming from.... When you install an application it creates a shortcut for it on one of your home screens. Putting a shortcut is the simplist thing you can do in Android, why not leave it for the use to do if they want to do it.
On my way to work I was listening to I Heart Radio and while the live streams were okay when I went to the "pandora"-like functionality it would only play one song and then stop. This never happened on my G2. Don't know whats going on here.
I don't care for the browser (which they stupidly call "internet").
I don't care for all of the account options. I went to share a page in the browser, I wanted to email it to myself. So when I went to share page it let me select how to share it. I got "Facebook for HTC Sense", "Mail", "Twitter for HTC Sense", and "Dropbox". I did set up Facebook, but I did not set up mail, twitter, or dropbox. What I wanted was GMail which I had to select "See all..." Then I saw a plethora of garbage bloat that they bundle with the phone and had to scroll down to get to GMail. After I went though this experience I went to share another page to see if GMail showed up at the top... it didn't.
I'm sure I'll have more complaints the more I use it. I used my fiance's upgrade for this one but I get an upgrade in 3 months. If CM9 isn't out by then she'll be using this phone and I'll upgrade to a SGSIII or that yet to be named quad-core LG phone.
Summary
CM9 can't come fast enough.
EDIT
I'll add some good things here.
Good things
Again, this is coming from a G2 so in 2 years things should be better anyways....
It is very thin, and very light.
It has a front facing camera which my G2 did not.
The flashlight, though not as bright as the "High Brightness" Cyanogenmod setting on the G2, is still pretty bright.
The speaker seems to put out a lot of sound. Can't attest to the quality yet but the volume is there.
EDIT #2
Some more good and bad....
Skype Useless
... probably related to Wifi crackling. One of the things I was looking forward to with this phone was the ability to make video calls via Skype. My fiance has an iPad2, my in-laws each have a G2X, and my brother has a SGSII. Skype is useless on this device. There is echoing / cracking and video lag even when on Wifi. I called my brother with this One S and it was useless. I then called him on an iPad2 and it was great. I'm wondering if the problem has to do with Beats Audio. We'll have to wait for an AOSP ROM without Beats to find out.
So I unlocked/rooted/ROM'd ...
I am now running Black Dragon 4.0. I LOVE the menu hack to get rid of the stupid 3 dot menu on all the screens. I like that they kept the ability to longpress home to get the default behavior as well. The launcher seems nice though I haven't played with it too much (which is a good thing, means they have good defaults).
Can't wait for the kernel sources to be released so we can make some more CM9 progress. I really miss the buttons in the dropdown for wifi, brightness, bluetooth, etc. Now I have to dropdown, click settings, scroll down and find brighness.

How's the battery life? My G2 has some HORRENDOUS battery... like it can drain 20% an hour... I go to school for like 6/7 hours and I can leave with like a <20% battery life. Currently using MIUI because that seems to be the best battery life.
Edit: As for a menu button, Google is trying to get rid of that. I read a post about it a couple of months ago. They say it was useless. I completely disagree because I use it quite a lot. I use it way more than the search button which I have literally probably used less than 30 times and I've been on an Android device since the G1 came out.

For everything you just said mostly there are workarounds.
The deidcated menu button now exists through roms...the three button thing on screen is removed. Change of dpi works fine on no sense roms I'm set on 195 on sense not as good. Play market you can stop adding apps onto screens
Bloat just remove yourself root explorer..
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App

Battery lifes good also...
As I said workarounds exist
Also get a different launcher and ditch sense or just get Nova or apex
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App

Love this. G2 FOORRREEEVVVAAAAHHHH

.ili.music.ili. said:
How's the battery life? My G2 has some HORRENDOUS battery... like it can drain 20% an hour... I go to school for like 6/7 hours and I can leave with like a <20% battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm the wrong person to ask about battery life (at least during the week). I work in one of these new fancy energy efficient "Green" buildings. We have coating on our windows that block UV with the side effect of also blocking cellular signals. Everyone that works here puts their phones on airplane mode to save battery because we have 0 signal and the phone search all day.
I'll know better this weekend about battery life.

arknailed7754 said:
For everything you just said mostly there are workarounds.
The deidcated menu button now exists through roms...the three button thing on screen is removed. Change of dpi works fine on no sense roms I'm set on 195 on sense not as good. Play market you can stop adding apps onto screens
Bloat just remove yourself root explorer..
Battery lifes good also...
As I said workarounds exist
Also get a different launcher and ditch sense or just get Nova or apex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did they implement the dedicated menu button?
How do I ditch Sense?... what is Nova / apex?
Do I need root to install another launcher?

--
FunkyELF said:
How did they implement the dedicated menu button?
How do I ditch Sense?... what is Nova / apex?
Do I need root to install another launcher?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no you can install launchers without root..from market just look for them
to ditch sense though you will need root..and to change dpi you will need root..my advice root lol
by ditching sense i mean install a non sense rom like black dragon or untouchables that strip sense away so the majority is ice cream sandwich without the bloatfest. some apps will be kept in but just use root explorer to rid the rom of it.
the dedicated menu button and ridding the screen of the three dots at the bottom is also because its been taken away and remapped by devs..so again..you need root
most of all..development will kick in soon..so better to root..or if not just use a different launcher but you dont really accomplish what your setting out to do
leedroid should be here soon with a rom,and will do away with most of the bloat anyway...so youll keep sense and most things you complained about will be sorted..
the main thing here is..root..worth it..yes..without..pointless and youll be stuck with htcs crap stock rom..pretty poor for me..but coming from another phone with loads of development..probably biased of how it should be

No Folders?
Just long-tap on the icon and drag it to another icon. THe folder will creat automaticly.

FunkyELF said:
Went from a G2 to this One S yesterday. I'm not too impressed.
No dedicated menu button
Root and ROM it. People are remapping the multitask key as the menu button, and hold-home now does the multitask. You're on XDA, so I assume you're enthused enough to root and ROM it.
No trackball
Seriously. Please find me an Android device with a trackball nowadays. It's gone...you're just gonna have to deal with it.
Resolution
This display seems pretty crisp. We're working with phones with relatively small displays. There's only so many pixels you can pack into until it doesn't even matter. 720p is about as far as we need to go on phone screens. The qHD screen on this phone has vivid colors and all the qualities of Super AMOLED. The resolution seems plenty high to me. Are you starting 1inch away from the phone and observing pixels?
Bloat
Welcome to flagship carrier devices. Again, you're on XDA, and fully capable of rooting it and removing all that crap. The G2 was a 1-off device that had pretty much stock Android. Consider it a Nexus device, more or less. With a flagship phone, you're going to get bloatware.
Misc
This is my first Sense device and my first ICS device so again, not sure where this crap is coming from.... When you install an application it creates a shortcut for it on one of your home screens. Putting a shortcut is the simplist thing you can do in Android, why not leave it for the use to do if they want to do it.
Sense has nothing to do with this. The new Google Play Store now by default places new apps' icons on the homescreen. It's as easy as going to the prefs in Play Store and disabling. Blame Google if you're going to blame someone.
On my way to work I was listening to I Heart Radio and while the live streams were okay when I went to the "pandora"-like functionality it would only play one song and then stop. This never happened on my G2. Don't know whats going on here.
Don't know what to tell you, but it's obvious that you're describing some sort of software issue, not a hardware issue. If it worked fine on the live streams, then your data connection worked. Talk to iHeartRadio.
I don't care for the browser (which they stupidly call "internet").
So install a new one! ICS Browser+ is exactly like the stock browser. There's also Chrome and Opera. Cmon...
I don't care for all of the account options. I went to share a page in the browser, I wanted to email it to myself. So when I went to share page it let me select how to share it. I got "Facebook for HTC Sense", "Mail", "Twitter for HTC Sense", and "Dropbox". I did set up Facebook, but I did not set up mail, twitter, or dropbox. What I wanted was GMail which I had to select "See all..." Then I saw a plethora of garbage bloat that they bundle with the phone and had to scroll down to get to GMail. After I went though this experience I went to share another page to see if GMail showed up at the top... it didn't.
This is the one thing I disliked and will agree with you on, although once again, rooting and ROMing can take care of it. That or removing bloatware.
I'm sure I'll have more complaints the more I use it. I used my fiance's upgrade for this one but I get an upgrade in 3 months. If CM9 isn't out by then she'll be using this phone and I'll upgrade to a SGSIII or that yet to be named quad-core LG phone.
Suit yourself. 4.7 inches is just too big, and at these speeds, you're at the mercy of your data connection, not the processor.
Summary
CM9 can't come fast enough.
AMEN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think nearly all of your points are moot. A lot of your review seems to be based on your lack of willingness to change some preferences and MANAGE your device. If you were on a G2, then you never had to manage stuff like this. Consider it a new experience. If you wanted stock Android, you should've gotten a Galaxy Nexus. I just upgraded from a Nexus S and while I screamed at first at all the Sense crap, I quickly had it rooted, debloated, de-Sensed, and up and running with a nice, fast ROM (Black Magic 4.0).
Give it time. The phone JUST came out.

nickmv said:
I think nearly all of your points are moot. A lot of your review seems to be based on your lack of willingness to change some preferences and MANAGE your device. If you were on a G2, then you never had to manage stuff like this. Consider it a new experience. If you wanted stock Android, you should've gotten a Galaxy Nexus. I just upgraded from a Nexus S and while I screamed at first at all the Sense crap, I quickly had it rooted, debloated, de-Sensed, and up and running with a nice, fast ROM (Black Magic 4.0).
Give it time. The phone JUST came out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree with you there,its all about learning curves..no sense roms are fairly close to stock..its just the settings that are different now..he_stheone has already added certain elements of stock android..so its fairly close..just the settings..that are the main difference now.

jacakowal said:
No Folders?
Just long-tap on the icon and drag it to another icon. THe folder will creat automaticly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those aren't the folders I'm talking about. I think what I'm talking about are called live folders. In AOSP builds of Android when you long press on an empty space on one of your screens you can choose widgets, folders, shortcuts, contacts, and other things I can't remember.
With Sense you only get widgets and shortcuts.... no folders, no contacts, etc... just widgets and shortcuts.

Isn't that minor thing?
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App

nickmv said:
I just upgraded from a Nexus S and while I screamed at first at all the Sense crap, I quickly had it rooted, debloated, de-Sensed, and up and running with a nice, fast ROM (Black Magic 4.0).
Give it time. The phone JUST came out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't see this one listed in the ALL ROMS post here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1584163
Where is the info on that ROM?

Dude its in development section
Black dragon 4.0
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App

nickmv said:
I think nearly all of your points are moot. A lot of your review seems to be based on your lack of willingness to change some preferences and MANAGE your device. If you were on a G2, then you never had to manage stuff like this. Consider it a new experience. If you wanted stock Android, you should've gotten a Galaxy Nexus. I just upgraded from a Nexus S and while I screamed at first at all the Sense crap, I quickly had it rooted, debloated, de-Sensed, and up and running with a nice, fast ROM (Black Magic 4.0).
Give it time. The phone JUST came out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Going to have to side with you on this one. This phone is definitly a great device, give it some time, dig in a little bit. Much better than my Tmo-SGS2.

most of things you mentioned isnt a "bad thing" just you dont know how to operate the phone, or its just different (opinion at that point).
Also you didnt like things which are for all devices, not just one S

FunkyELF said:
Those aren't the folders I'm talking about. I think what I'm talking about are called live folders. In AOSP builds of Android when you long press on an empty space on one of your screens you can choose widgets, folders, shortcuts, contacts, and other things I can't remember.
With Sense you only get widgets and shortcuts.... no folders, no contacts, etc... just widgets and shortcuts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The long press, dragging and combining of icons together is AOSP folders in Ice Cream Sandwich. The long press on the desktop to add folder is long gone and is not coming back.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

arknailed7754 said:
Dude its in development section
Black dragon 4.0
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry... you said Black Magic, not Black dragon.
I'll give it a try in a couple weeks. I like to use my phone a bit before rooting to make sure I didn't get a lemon.
Does the camera work on this one?

Just got the phone and here are my negatives:
1. With lowest brightness setting the screen is horrible (but if you increase it a bit, its ok)
2. No switches in pulldown menu ? I though Sense always had that.....
3. Bottom plastic is not 100% flush at one corner (maybe will exchange, maybe not)
4. In navigation I just couldnt find "setting" button anywhere.....whats up with that ?
gonna go to Verizon and compare to Nexus....I still need Tmo SIM and stores are in same place anyway....I am not a phone freak not wasting time here
Its also very true that until you have 2 devices in hand you cant really compare screen quality...I though my G2x IPS panel for super great, but compared to One S its very warm colored and whites have red tint. Its also hard to use in lowest brightness even in dark room....but with G2x case its because screen is simply too dark, with One S its bright but disgusting to look at due to some "noise"