Hello,
As always, developers are sliding further and further away from the Sense UI. While I am also for this, I am curious as to what will happen with the functionality of the Media Link HD. Will developers be able to keep the functionality in there while removing most of the sense bloat or will this be considered bloat? Can somebody tell me exactly what "apps" htc has added for the functionality so that we can put them back if the developers remove them? What kind of dependencies do these apps need? Thank you for your help.
I imagine no one will know that until it is tried/we get an unlocked bootloader
Sense apps are usually pretty intertwined with the Sense framework. AFAIK, there has been little success importing Sense apps and features to AOSP ROMs. On the other hand, Sense ROMs stripped of some of their features and bloat, and themed to look AOSP are not out of the question (and pretty prevalent on other devices). Its possible a dev will make something like this, and leave the Media Link HD function intact. The only way to really answer this question, is if some devs come on here and tell you themselves. Even then, its so early on, and those plans may well change.
Scott's CleanROM Dev edition is pretty close. It still has the media link and some other sense features but the launcher and widgets are all stripped out. Runs very nice and Apex launcher is built in.
Related
I've had several HTC phones and I really don't see the appeal of Sense. Disable Sense, either with script, new launcher, or new rom is literally the first thing I do when I get a new HTC phone. Yet I see a steady request from people to make more Sense ROMs or add Sense features to nonSense ROMs. I know it's blasphemy around here, but I actually like TouchWiz and the iPhone UI. So I ask:
What is it about Sense that you find attractive?
EDIT: I want to add that I'm not trying to "troll" or be confrontational or contrary, more wondering if there is something about Sense that I'm missing or possibly haven't taken advantage of. Obviously HTC is doing really well right now and I'm sure that their Sense UI plays a role in that.
MHO, im in the same boat you are sir, the only thing I do like is the social networking features built in, although now, i use launcherpro, so i am just waiting till i can root, then its CM time!
Its simple and very user friendly. The UI is very eye appealing to me. Its really all personal choice. I always find myself enjoying things built into sense roms like the ringtone trimmer is pretty stellar!
Sense 4+ and Sense 5 are awesome implementations to HTCs new devices, I got my HTC One in the mail yesterday and I have been enjoying the less intrusive side of Sense 5 but blink feed needs to go ASAP
Sent from my HTC One using XDA App
I don't see anything in it, except more battery and more heavy. Deleting it is the first thing I do in any ROM. Well, the ROMs I use now don't have Sense bundled
Edit: I have been using ZEAM launcher for months now... both on Captivate and Inspire.
I hate how it reaches to every aspect of the phone. I never liked TouchWiz, but at least TouchWiz was pretty much just a launcher. I really don't like anything besides AOSP, though.
I like the themeing, but I hate Sense itself. That's why I'm using CM7 themed like Sense.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
I don't like Sense either. I find that it normally slows my phone down dramatically and drains the battery. I rarely used anything in Sense, so I have also always disabled it!
I'm in the middle.. I enjoy sense because it is pretty much one thing EYE-CANDY. Its awesome to see and show off as well as some of the features built in especially friendstream and the weather. I love AOSP as well, reason I have widgetlocker and a few other apps to bring me my AOSP goodness. Sense roms dont really drain battery.. I get amazing life on Kingdom Sense 3.0 and Honey Sense HD 1.5.
This is gonna be a stupid reason, but the clock/weather widget.
I also think that it's the #1 replicated part of Sense.
I like it as it looks sweet. It also hooks me into my entire social world. When I have a sense rom running anyone and everyone can hit me up, Facebook friends, google friends, tweet friends. Everything shows me as logged in and ready to communicate.
That said I am running Gingerbeast ASOP, with Go Launcher EX and Widget locker right now and loving the Battery Life. while still looking amazing.
I'm on the fence on Sense, seem to flash back and forth between AOSP roms and sense roms like clockwork. I can say that my preference is stock Gingerbread with Launcher Pro widgets.
Here are some of the Sense pros:
-The lock screen on Sense 3.0 is almost enough to keep me using sense.
-I also like the better integration with Facebook and LinkedIn in my contacts.
-It's near impossible and expensive to re-create all of the HTC Widgets in a non-sense rom. The closest alternative is Launcher Pro, paid version to get the extra widgets, plus Beautiful widgets for the home screen clock. You can find comperable widgets, but if your a design purist, it's hard to get all of them looking consistant
- You can actually get decent battery with the right custom roms. I run TBFusion with the Lee kernel, undervolt, setcpu, and it's good for a full day.
Dislikes:
-Dialer - very old-school number search approach I have never liked. It was designed for when phones had only numberpads to allow you to find contacts quickly. Basically the deal-breaker for me on Sense.
-Keyboard layout; hide key is too close to space and shift, plus very cluttered (easily fixed by installing another keyboard)
-Not a fan of the way they implemented quick settings in the notifications. Having to slide down, then tab between notifications and settings is an extra step. Seems silly, but gets annoying if you've ever used CM7 or something like that.
I really like the simplicity, speed, and battery performance of pure AOSP Gingerbread. I'm running Gingerbeast at the moment. Very smooth.
IMO - if you like iPhone and touchjizz, try MIUI
IMHO, Sense is a very cool thing. I love Sense ROMs and wish that Sense was open source so that many of its features could be added to CM7 or vice versa. For me, the cons list is short so I'll start there.
---CONS---
-Battery life is reduced
-System is slightly slowed
-RAM is hogged by Rosie, Sense, and Sense apps
+++PROS+++
+The keyboard is very good IMO
+The UI is clean and appealing
++Menus are colorful and therefore easier to navigate IMO
++Organization and useability of things such as the Customizations menu is superior to Android Stock
+The widgets are all built in and are very functional (Mail, News, Settings, Stocks)
+Many HTC apps are superior IMO to the stock Google apps.
+Seven home screens as opposed to 5 for stock. (However, I know CM7 and many others can add screens, I like the layout of Sense better as you do not have to choose whether home key goes to default screen or overview as you do in CM7. Sense home key toggles between the two)
Yes, I realize many will argue that the genie widget is great for news, but HTC's News widget (Google RSS reader) is the most visually appealing and easiest to use of all news widgets I have tried.
I do have to give HTC props on their implementation of Select/Copy/Paste, it is much better than AOSP - the magnifying glass method is definitely better than the stupid little marker method.
dudes and dudettes,
I tried out one of the Sense ICS ROMS (ARHD 5.0.2) and while aspects of it were great, at the moment (due to kernel development) it's a lot slower than the Gingerbread ROMs available.
However, I really loved the HTC ICS "Notes" and "Tasks" apps.
My questions,
1. Is it possible to run these apps on Gingerbread? Obviously the widgets couldn't really be integrated with a current ROM without recooking the whole thing, but just being able to use the apps would be great. Could someone provide the APKs if it is possible?
2. If that won't work, could somebody strip the icons from the apks for me? I love them and I'd like to use them for my note and to do apps.
Thanks for reading,
zuka
They work on Sense Gingerbread ROMs, yes.
I've installed both on a Gingerbread Sense 3.0 ROM and they both force close. Am I doing something wrong?
I should have clarified, Sense 3.5 ROMs have them.
Hi All,
I am currently an iPhone user, but this phone may make me change league. Just a few questions regarding this particular device running HTC Sense 4.
One of the reason I considering change league is because ICS finally support full OpenGL ES rendering in the browser and all over the UI.
As far as I know, HTC devices use their own branded theme HTC Sense, which bundled with its own browser rather than the vanilla ICS browser. I noticed that the vanilla ICS browser has the option to enable full OpenGL ES render path. This make the browser work a lot faster and better surfing exp. I wonder if HTC's native browser has the same setting(s). Or is it already coded to enable OpenGL ES rendering?
If not, can I change the default browser to something, say the vanilla ICS chrome browser? or Dolphin? (not sure if Dolphin support OpenGL ES rendering though.)
Thanks.
It's still the same Ice Cream Sandwich browser just with HTC Sense themed over it, but the code inside the browser should be a bit different for the Tegra 3.
As long as you enable 'Full 2D GPU Rendering' or something in the developer setting, other browser should have it.
Thanks,
Is there any easy way to disable the Sense Theme then? or even run vanilla ICS? Coz in previous HTC releases, Sense of earlier versions really slow the UI experience or even lagging, that put me off a bit even they have some of the highest-end hardware in the market.
Or Does it mean that unlock bootloader, root access or even custom ROM will be needed??
[email protected] said:
Thanks,
Is there any easy way to disable the Sense Theme then? or even run vanilla ICS? Coz in previous HTC releases, Sense of earlier versions really slow the UI experience or even lagging, that put me off a bit even they have some of the highest-end hardware in the market.
Or Does it mean that unlock bootloader, root access or even custom ROM will be needed??
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Click to collapse
As far as removing Sense (I did it on my Sensation), you will probably need to do all 3 (unlock bootloader, root access and installing a custom ROM) in my case i used Android Revolution HD, with the noSense script applied directly after installing ROM.
My guess is that it will be the same sort of thing to do it to the One S.
Hope that helps
mtgray said:
As far as removing Sense (I did it on my Sensation), you will probably need to do all 3 (unlock bootloader, root access and installing a custom ROM) in my case i used Android Revolution HD, with the noSense script applied directly after installing ROM.
My guess is that it will be the same sort of thing to do it to the One S.
Hope that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate,
Although I may not like the Sense theme applied to the UI and browser, I found that the HTC's touch on the camera app is quite well received. I wonder if there is any possible ways to keep the camera app HTC way and just stop the Sense theme from working over the UI and Browser?
Cheers.
You can always change launcher to GO launcher, ADW or Launcher pro. That wont take sense away completely but a big part of it. That can be done without root.
virtq said:
You can always change launcher to GO launcher, ADW or Launcher pro. That wont take sense away completely but a big part of it. That can be done without root.
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Click to collapse
That's brilliant, thank you.
In terms of rooting the device and unlocking the bootloader, how hard will that be? As I know Sony's Xperia range even offer official unlock bootloader support, how good is this for the HTC's? Sorry for the noob questions.
You can unlock the bootloader via the HTC Dev website and there is already a method for rooting in the developer section of this forum.
The only true way to get rid of sense is to flash an AOSP rom, CM9 for example. AOSP is basically the stock android OS but when and if AOSP roms show up for this phone is hard to say. A lot of people buy HTC for sense so sense roms tend to be more popular.
AOSP means you will lose the HTC camera app which means you will lose all the cool features like burst mode. As mentioned you can use a different launcher, some like Apex launcher are based on the stock android launcher so it will be a good way to get the stock feel whilst keeping all the HTC apps. This is probably what I will do, as much as I prefer AOSP in general I don't want to lose the camera app.
Sarsippius said:
You can unlock the bootloader via the HTC Dev website and there is already a method for rooting in the developer section of this forum.
The only true way to get rid of sense is to flash an AOSP rom, CM9 for example. AOSP is basically the stock android OS but when and if AOSP roms show up for this phone is hard to say. A lot of people buy HTC for sense so sense roms tend to be more popular.
AOSP means you will lose the HTC camera app which means you will lose all the cool features like burst mode. As mentioned you can use a different launcher, some like Apex launcher are based on the stock android launcher so it will be a good way to get the stock feel whilst keeping all the HTC apps. This is probably what I will do, as much as I prefer AOSP in general I don't want to lose the camera app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate,
but using the launcher method will mean that I only get rid of the UI Sense home, but still need to stick with other HTC Sense features like HTC style multitasking, etc. where I prefer the original ICS.
What a shame! This phone is really a beauty in built and form factor is perfect for me. But many little flaws put me off a bit and a second thought is really in my mind...
e.g. The camera's output is too soft, the HTC sense in a burden for ICS, etc.
Hey guys, I've been away from Sensation development for a while so I'm not that current on what ROMs are available.
Basically, I've been using AOSP for a while and it's so much better at multitasking/fluidity that I don't really want to go back to Sense 3.6 or 4. However, I just don't think there's an app available that beats HTC's clock and weather functions - they really are amazing. I don't want or need access to Sense widgets, just the apps would be fine.
Is there any way to get Sense 3.6 or 4's clock and weather on a stock ICS Rom? I know it's not as simple as just chucking an apk on there because they come with additional services and libraries, so has any dev done something similar I might be able to have a look at?
Thanks for reading, I'd appreciate any advice or replies
Cheers!
Hello,
Is there a way to obtain the default/AOSP ICS (or perhaps JB) apps and widgets, as additions (not replacements) to the stock Sense apps and widgets? While Sense isn't bad, I'd still like to obtain ICS/JB elements without having to root or anything warranty voiding, and without having to use a laucher (because that way I still don't have the AOSP apps/widgets, AND Sense widgets are lost).
So in short, how to get stock Sense apps/widgets PLUS AOSP apps/widgets?
Is this possible?
Thanks in advance.
(I did a search, the most fitting thread found was from 2010 from a way older Sense device.. not much of use.)
Not sure if you can install the AOSP apps straight from APKs when not rooted, but if so: download say CM9 or AOKP ROM (zip file) from development section and grab the apks from the zip file, copy to sdcard and click them in a file manager app on the phone. Some of them can coexist with sense apps, calendar, dialer and contacts for example. MMS and others will replace sense apps. When you get tired of limitations take the plunge and try a nice rooted Sense ROM like leedroid, trickdroid or modaco where you can do whatever your heart desires, unless it still desires the mutually exclusive stuff you mentioned ofc
frdd said:
Not sure if you can install the AOSP apps straight from APKs when not rooted, but if so: download say CM9 or AOKP ROM (zip file) from development section and grab the apks from the zip file, copy to sdcard and click them in a file manager app on the phone. Some of them can coexist with sense apps, calendar, dialer and contacts for example. MMS and others will replace sense apps. When you get tired of limitations take the plunge and try a nice rooted Sense ROM like leedroid, trickdroid or modaco where you can do whatever your heart desires, unless it still desires the mutually exclusive stuff you mentioned ofc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that I really want the Sense widgets/apps, but my experience with launchers thus far has been a lack of widgets and apps to replace the Sense ones. It's a shame Sense replaces AOSP apps instead of just being added.
My concern with rooting and flashing ROMs, asides from the always present risk of bricking, is whether I can fully return to stock in case I need(/want) to return the phone, so, to keep my warranty safe. I'm already at the latest software versions, and from what I have read here is that I require a so-called RUU of the proper software version which isn't anywhere to be found except for sale.
Sense-ROMs would indeed suffice for keeping the Sense stuff, though a Jelly Bean ROM with some essential tweaks (e.g. 3 dot menu tweak) would probably suffice, given that it has the AOSP widgets. Though I need to wait for such ROM, and there's still the whole risk/warranty thing.