Multitasking: how bad is it? - AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL

Hi folks
I'm still on the edge between an iPhone and a HOX. Could someone please discuss the state of the multitasking issues on the AT&T HOX and summary of fixes?
Specifically my question is this: there are some services that always need to be running to get notifications, like free texting apps or skype. Some services upload photos in the background, like Dropbox. Is it true that these services get killed by the multitasking as well on stock?
I've heard that Dropbox does get killed. I've never heard anything about skype and similar apps that need to sit in the background listening, so I imagine they are working fine on stock Sense?

pausaniasx said:
Hi folks
I'm still on the edge between an iPhone and a HOX. Could someone please discuss the state of the multitasking issues on the AT&T HOX and summary of fixes?
Specifically my question is this: there are some services that always need to be running to get notifications, like free texting apps or skype. Some services upload photos in the background, like Dropbox. Is it true that these services get killed by the multitasking as well on stock?
I've heard that Dropbox does get killed. I've never heard anything about skype and similar apps that need to sit in the background listening, so I imagine they are working fine on stock Sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I was on Sense roms with stock multitasking, I never had issues with long-running background services being killed. It was only things like the browser being killed and having to reload and other apps that have their front end killed.

Can't really comment on the services you mentioned, but just some general observations about multi-task:
Some people have complained that during games, if you do something else, like say someone sends you an SMS and you respond, that when you go back to the game, your progress will not have been saved. I don't have time for games these days. So I can't personally comment on that.
Really, it depends on how you use your phone. For some people, the multi-tasking behavior is a deal breaker. For me, I'm fine with it. I mostly only notice it when leaving the browser. It will almost always have to reload the webpage you were looking at.
Have you actually compared the iPhone and the One X in person? There really is no comparison between the two. The huge gorgeous screen of the One X makes the iPhone look like a toy.

You're worried about multitasking but you're willing to go iPhone? Lol hox will be fine
Sent from my Xoom using xda premium

Well the iPhone is going to get a bigger screen. The PPI and brightness are almost the same between iPhone and HOX.
And iphone doesn't kill your game progress and clear your text entry fields when you switch apps. And it doesn't silently kill Dropbox while it's uploading (it does kill it, but gives Dropbox a chance to notify of that first).
The jailbreak tweaks for iPhone are for my purposes completely on par with android.
My only reasons for considering switching is that the iPhone is going to get harder and harder to jailbreak (I'm expecting a 6 month wait this time). plus lose google maps which is a huge debacle.
I'm open to HOX but would need a fix to the multitasking issues.

pausaniasx said:
Well the iPhone is going to get a bigger screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's just a rumor, and its been the same (incorrect) rumor for the last 1-2 iPhone versions, at least.
My bet is on the screen size of the iPhone is not changing any time soon. If they make the screen much larger, and keep the resolution the same, it will look like crap. If they change the screen resolution, they fragment the iOS that they have keep pretty much unified for 5 years. People keep talking about the "iPad Mini" (something around a 7" iPad), but my hunch is that is not going to happen either, for the same reasons of not fragmenting iOS. But those are just my personal gut feelings.
And seriously, if you haven't held a One X in person, do it. The screen size is gigantic compared to the iPhone. You have to see it to believe it. My previous phone was a Desire Z, which had a form factor not much different from the iPhone. When I go back to it (pulled some files off it), I can't believe I ever used a phone with a screen that small. Similar feelings when I pick up my wife's iPhone.
pausaniasx said:
I'm open to HOX but would need a fix to the multitasking issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There has been some fixes to multi-tasking, both available as a stand-alone mod, and on custom ROMs. So check out Development, and read more on it if nobody chimes in about those here. As I mentioned, I've been fine with multitasking. So I haven't tried any of the mods.
Also, the Asia 2.23 firmware makes changes to both the multitasking (how aggressively idle processes are killed) and free memory at boot (how much memory Sense takes). A new AT&T firmware (2.20) is just now rolling out OTA as we speak, and likely has the same tweaks. So that in itself might fix what you want. But like I said, I don't game these days, so I can't say.

pausaniasx said:
Well the iPhone is going to get a bigger screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's going to be 4.7" big. That's quite a shoe to fill. PPI is less of an issue for both the phones. Unless you have amazing vision or whip out a magnifying glass, you can't even see individual pixels. A higher PPI is usually a better thing, but beyond a certain point, it becomes indistinguishable.
pausaniasx said:
And iphone doesn't kill your game progress and clear your text entry fields when you switch apps. And it doesn't silently kill Dropbox while it's uploading (it does kill it, but gives Dropbox a chance to notify of that first).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At least with an HTC One X you can control how the multitasking behaves. However, I do want to address two issues: 1) the clearing of the text boxes has more to do with the apps you're using than the multitasking itself and 2) unlike the HTC One X, apps like Dropbox can't just linger in the background and upload new images as they're taken. I ran into that limitation quite a bit back when I still had my iPhone.
pausaniasx said:
The jailbreak tweaks for iPhone are for my purposes completely on par with android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this may sound like blasphemy in this community, but I wouldn't ever recommend buying a phone simply based on what you can do after you root/jailbreak. Usually you can reasonably expect a method for root/jailbreak to come alone, but you can never guarantee it. Always pick a device based on how it suits your needs and desires without any extensive modifications.
All of this being said, even with multitasking being as it is on the HTC One X, I'd still recommend it over an iPhone. As previous users have mentioned, the effect of the stock multitasking setting is only visible on things like web browsers and some games. If you go under the system settings and modify its behavior, you'll probably achieve the desired effect. If you don't feel like tweaking system settings, you can always install an app like SMS Popup which lets you quick-rely to messages without ever leaving your current task.
One thing I do pride Android on is the ability to have background tasks for applications. With my iPhone I would find that (aside from default apps like Mail and Messages) certain apps wouldn't provide notifications when they should have. For example: if I hadn't launched Words with Friends since a reboot, I'd never get notifications from it. Same thing with uploading images from Dropbox.
The other thing that persuaded me to switch to an Android device was the ability to customize and personalize out of the box. On an iPhone, the most you can do is change backgrounds/sounds/icon arrangement. On an Android device you have full control over your home screen. You can manipulate icons arbitrarily (putting gaps between them, skipping pages, remove icons without uninstalling the app, etc), you can install widgets to quickly access information/settings/apps at a glance, live wallpapers, and even make shortcuts (such as a one-click "Directions to get Home" and "Sound Settings"). Heck, you can even install custom keyboards.
All-in-all it took me about a week to get used to how Android does things, but whenever I play with my old iPhone (my girlfriend uses it now), things just don't feel quite right. The best way to describe it is that on my HTC One X, I get to make the rules. I get to decide how things look and feel and how the system responds to my actions. Playing with my iPhone I feel like I'm not making any of my own rules. Sure, I can change some settings, but compared to Android it feels like a thin veil over how Apple things I should use my device.

Get everything you want now, or wait for a possibility.
Btw multitasking never kills any of those things mentioned. Drop box never stops during uploads.
Android> iOS
Sent from my HTC One X

Thanks for the replies. I have spent about an hour playing with HOX in store and tons of time researching whether it can suit my needs.
Franklly it has been hard to track down android equivalents of everything I can do on jail broken iOS. For reading full emails without unlocking the device it looks like a combination of widget locker and a few widgets can do it, but it just feels a bit hacked together and not as polished as Lockinfo on iOS, which is a one-stop solution. And there doesn't quite appear to be any replacement for Activator, which is a unified gesture framework where you can do things like turn on the flashlight by pushing both volume buttons at the same time and bring up the previous app with a slide on the status bar. Now I know if I look hard enough something similar for android will turn up but will it be as well supported as these iOS tweaks with hundreds of thousands of users? not so sure.
In the I think the iPhone is under appreciated here in terms of how professional the jailbreak community is and how it can easily match android for power and tweak ability. The main issue is that apple is hiring the jailbreak developers and jail breaking itself will be incredibly hard as time progresses because it relies on patching binaries and finding vulnerabilities.

The multitasking seems to be improved in the 4.0.4 update.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

pausaniasx said:
Thanks for the replies. I have spent about an hour playing with HOX in store and tons of time researching whether it can suit my needs.
Franklly it has been hard to track down android equivalents of everything I can do on jail broken iOS. For reading full emails without unlocking the device it looks like a combination of widget locker and a few widgets can do it, but it just feels a bit hacked together and not as polished as Lockinfo on iOS, which is a one-stop solution. And there doesn't quite appear to be any replacement for Activator, which is a unified gesture framework where you can do things like turn on the flashlight by pushing both volume buttons at the same time and bring up the previous app with a slide on the status bar. Now I know if I look hard enough something similar for android will turn up but will it be as well supported as these iOS tweaks with hundreds of thousands of users? not so sure.
In the I think the iPhone is under appreciated here in terms of how professional the jailbreak community is and how it can easily match android for power and tweak ability. The main issue is that apple is hiring the jailbreak developers and jail breaking itself will be incredibly hard as time progresses because it relies on patching binaries and finding vulnerabilities.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android as a whole is much better than ios. I owned four, yes four iterations of the iPhone and jail broke them all. I have also owned 2 android devices. Take it from someone who has owned and rooted/jail broke both. Android is better.
Sent from my One X using xda premium

Hey, if the man wants to create an android vs iPhone thread, then state he wants the iPhone, who are we to correct him. He's not going to change his mind and never had any intention of doing so. Just let the sheep be.
I think you should just get the iPhone.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Some of the people here may say its not that bad, but trust me dude compared to other android phones its pretty damn bad, bad enough for me to get rid of the phone. Ie, if you are listening to music and browsing. Go change the song and come back to be greeted by the web browser reloading the WHOLE PAGE over again.
Really go play with one in the store before you make your decision id say, as a poster before me mentioned one of the gleaming features of android is its ability to multitask amazingly, if thats absent then its terrible. Imo the multi tasking on the hox is below even that of the iphone. Just really play with it before you make a decision, with that said i wouldnt necessarily say the hox is a worser phone than the iphone even, it isnt. Its a great phone and is still imo better than the 4s today.
I REALLLLY do miss my hox sometimes though, the amazing build quality. and the display really owns anything else on the market right now.

unleashed12 said:
Some of the people here may say its not that bad, but trust me dude compared to other android phones its pretty damn bad, bad enough for me to get rid of the phone. Ie, if you are listening to music and browsing. Go change the song and come back to be greeted by the web browser reloading the WHOLE PAGE over again.
Really go play with one in the store before you make your decision id say, as a poster before me mentioned one of the gleaming features of android is its ability to multitask amazingly, if thats absent then its terrible. Imo the multi tasking on the hox is below even that of the iphone. Just really play with it before you make a decision, with that said i wouldnt necessarily say the hox is a worser phone than the iphone even, it isnt. Its a great phone and is still imo better than the 4s today.
I REALLLLY do miss my hox sometimes though, the amazing build quality. and the display really owns anything else on the market right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure that only happes with the stock browser... So that's a pretty damn bad example.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

ECEXCURSION said:
Pretty sure that only happes with the stock browser... So that's a pretty damn bad example.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, i used chrome actually. Also happens with tons of other apps, used to redraw my sms app all the time too.

Doesn't Android have some kind of popup that you can use to control your music without having to leave the app?

unleashed12 said:
Nope, i used chrome actually. Also happens with tons of other apps, used to redraw my sms app all the time too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, just tried both the stock browser with Pandora and the stock browser with google music player.... The page will not reload if I switch apps and change a song. So either you're lying or aren't using HTC's latest code. This is on CleanROM 4.5.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

ECEXCURSION said:
Alright, just tried both the stock browser with Pandora and the stock browser with google music player.... The page will not reload if I switch apps and change a song. So either you're lying or aren't using HTC's latest code. This is on CleanROM 4.5.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not honestly promoting the stock One X's multitasking ability, are you?
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA Premium HD. In between FCs.

Well, the new recent update made multitasking a LOT better. As in it doesn't suck.
Vendetta-NY said:
You're not honestly promoting the stock One X's multitasking ability, are you?
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA Premium HD. In between FCs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

redrubberpenguin said:
Well, the new recent update made multitasking a LOT better. As in it doesn't suck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correctamundo... I was referring the very well documented multitasking woes on 1.73 and 1.85. But from all I've read, the new update goes a long way to fix multitasking. Looking forward to getting it! I really love this phone, even if I do stick to only the stock ROMs.

Related

[Q] animation in WP7

Hello,
As many of ppl in world, got shocked by nokia announcement. But in mien case it was not positive shock. I was fan of Nokia, but i never did want to buy WP7, and since i am looking for device, it puts more complication to deciding...
WP7 is nice looking phone, and with great comfort to use. But it had 1 annoying thing, i would prefer to disable. SO, can i disable WP7 animation on home screen and other places?
Basicly, when i open mien people section, it just open without showing animation of those boxes getting of the screen....
at present no. maybe it's something you can suggest to MS on social.microsoft.com for an option, though in saying that, the animations are quite fluid and don't take any longer than without them really.
lol totaly forgot about this post i made..
In any case, maybe it wont take longer time, but those animations does make a feel, " COME ON, FASTER". And in every day, it would soom me make OS... I do belive that i am not so unique freek, that no one else feel so as well...
I'm one of them who really hate animation/transition effects on my Windows PC. I just want my command to be execute immediately without any gimmick whatsoever. I've been using WP7 for almost a month now but I never feel slightly annoyed with its animation, it's just so damn smooth
bleui said:
I'm one of them who really hate animation/transition effects on my Windows PC. I just want my command to be execute immediately without any gimmick whatsoever. I've been using WP7 for almost a month now but I never feel slightly annoyed with its animation, it's just so damn smooth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your not like me. You need it to look cool.. but i need it be executed immediatly liek for you on win PC. as we all know, win PC is not cool lookimg, in fact it looks same as dog poo..
superpooburger said:
lol totaly forgot about this post i made..
In any case, maybe it wont take longer time, but those animations does make a feel, " COME ON, FASTER". And in every day, it would soom me make OS... I do belive that i am not so unique freek, that no one else feel so as well...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you would like a mobile OS that has zero transitions, just ugly screen changes, then you could go pick up a windows mobile 6.5 device.
sure haven't said:
If you would like a mobile OS that has zero transitions, just ugly screen changes, then you could go pick up a windows mobile 6.5 device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or blackberry, or current Symbian devices.
After using WP7 for a little over a week I can say that the animations really add to the experience of WP7. I find the animations are what catch people's eyes and distinguish WP7 from other mobile OS's. They show a form of polish on the software and allow you to know when you've done something. As others have said, it truly makes the whole experience super smooth.
superpooburger said:
Your not like me. You need it to look cool.. but i need it be executed immediatly liek for you on win PC. as we all know, win PC is not cool lookimg, in fact it looks same as dog poo..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never said I was like you, I'm just saying that the delay is almost the same.
And you probably won't like WP7 because it'll look like cat poo to you
Id say they also hide the loading time between apps and menus quite nicely
Barbbachello said:
Id say they also hide the loading time between apps and menus quite nicely
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if it was a matter of lag between menus then there would be screen freezes during the animations. An initial load of a menu would be quicker than an animation to load. As for the apps they don't deny that they're slow to load and they're working on a fix for that issue.
Refer to : http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Jaime+Rodriguez/Windows-Phone-Design-Days-Animation
Animation is used for multiple reasons.
Animation is an immediate feedback to the user that the phone is 'awake' and has received the input (Touching a button ect...)
Watch the video. It will show how animations are used effectivly in order to reduce the 'stress' we feel when we are waiting for an action. It works in our benifit
youd be right if the animations were taking no longer than the time to load and i know that if u open settings it can and needs to be instant
so what i want is as fast as possible animations, someetimes instantm, sometimes slow and fluid
i will buy a wp7 phone only if it works faster
this is unacceptable
im talking about transitions
1 more i want to buy a wp7 device and is there any way to make the topbar, status bar stay active always? an app or something so can wp7 be customised as android?
mariu$ said:
and emigrating id agree with you if the animatinos were faster
if i know the music app is opened and i press it to view it from the homescreen it needs to come up fast not after 1 second of transitions.
10ms transition
i agree that its more userfriendly to see that your action has an effect and that you can slide to the left back to see another screen
but not in the detrement of speed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're still not getting it though - tapping the music app (i.e. Music + Videos) requires some loading. Getting the transition effect simply masks the loading time. If you didn't have the transition the app wouldn't appear any quicker it would just present you with a "Loading" message instead. I don't know about you, but I'd take the transition over the bland "Loading" text any day. What's happened is basically that instead of displaying a dummy "Loading, please wait..." screen you get a smooth transition instead.
As for sliding left/right to see other screens - again, it doesn't take any longer switching from page A to B using a Panorama than it does using a Pivot.
If you don't like it, stick with a different mobile OS. For me, the panorama views and instant feedback is what makes the platform so great.
Wake up please, it's 2011. Average speed of smartphone CPU is about 1GHz. Music app should open immediately. That's the case on iOS, Android even on slow as hell Windows Mobile. I'm pretty sure that on WP7 it would also open in 0,01 s, but transitions make it slower.
Jesus, just on/off switch and everyone would be happy!
mariu$ said:
youd be right if the animations were taking no longer than the time to load and i know that if u open settings it can and needs to be instant
so what i want is as fast as possible animations, someetimes instantm, sometimes slow and fluid
i will buy a wp7 phone only if it works faster
this is unacceptable
im talking about transitions
1 more i want to buy a wp7 device and is there any way to make the topbar, status bar stay active always? an app or something so can wp7 be customised as android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with what you've said here 100%. I like animations, but I don't want to wait for them. I want them to very quickly do their transition. WP7 is very smooth, but I'm always feeling like I'm waiting to get from one point to another. With one of the Android launchers, there's an option to set the speed of the transitions. Perfect. I sped it up dramatically. It's still smooth but I don't wait. The windows move as fast as I can swipe them.
kuttyjoe said:
I agree with what you've said here 100%. I like animations, but I don't want to wait for them. I want them to very quickly do their transition. WP7 is very smooth, but I'm always feeling like I'm waiting to get from one point to another. With one of the Android launchers, there's an option to set the speed of the transitions. Perfect. I sped it up dramatically. It's still smooth but I don't wait. The windows move as fast as I can swipe them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's a problem here. If users are attempting to argue that Android is better (Which i'm not saying you are kuttyjoe), we should be sticking to the stock OS and not a modified version. While I agree that having an option to speed up animations would be great for some users, there happen to be other problems that should be looked at first. As an example we will look at the SMS app on WP7. There should be different colors to tell the convo apart from one user to the other. I'm just using that as an example of thing to look at first before such trivial things as animation speeds.
Also after reading through this thread it's mostly nonsense fanboy arguments. If you don't support WP7 then don't bother posting in the WP7 sections. We've gone from a WP7 idea to arguing whether iOS, Andriod or the Galaxy S is better the WP7 OS.
You guys let another troll turn a simple yes or no question into another argument.
Crimson Lotus said:
I fine it funny that people compare the first stage of WP7 to later built of Android or iOS, Those people are beyond stupidity & Their lack of common sense makes me sad...
Android didn't get flash until later update, same goes for iOS w/ Multi-Tasking. Was the first version of Android bug free? I think not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you stuck in Medieval times? Are you gonna argue that if Porche introduces a horse carriage with an engine in it with promises of seatbelts and airbags in the future updates, etc., will you still buy it because it has Porsche emblem on it?
lqaddict said:
Are you stuck in Medieval times? Are you gonna argue that if Porche introduces a horse carriage with an engine in it with promises of seatbelts and airbags in the future updates, etc., will you still buy it because it has Porsche emblem on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some promise of a future is better than none. Android just had a trojan released that took advantage of a serious security flaw which could give out the IMEI number of 260,000 of it's customers. Any of those using android 2.2.1 or lower can have their IMEI number stolen, premium calls made at their expense, etc. and is google sending out a patch? Is google offering some sort of malware removal tool to save your phone. No, they cant because they're so fragmented that they'd have to magically convince all carriers to update every phone... Yeah, that's happening. No, they're sitting idly by. Everyone compares android in it's current iteration to WP7 but android doesnt have a current iteration. How many phones out there actually legitimately run 2.3? 1 or 2? How about 2.2.? Still not TOO many. If you never hacked your G1 which was pretty new 2 years ago then you're still running android 1.6. A number of other phones and tablets can have the same said for them. Android has just as many if not more shortcomings than WP7 with absolutely no promise of any of them being resolved unless you get the latest android device every time they come out (every 2 weeks or so.)
z33dev33l said:
Some promise of a future is better than none. Android just had a trojan released that took advantage of a serious security flaw which could give out the IMEI number of 260,000 of it's customers. Any of those using android 2.2.1 or lower can have their IMEI number stolen, premium calls made at their expense, etc. and is google sending out a patch? Is google offering some sort of malware removal tool to save your phone. No, they cant because they're so fragmented that they'd have to magically convince all carriers to update every phone... Yeah, that's happening. No, they're sitting idly by. Everyone compares android in it's current iteration to WP7 but android doesnt have a current iteration. How many phones out there actually legitimately run 2.3? 1 or 2? How about 2.2.? Still not TOO many. If you never hacked your G1 which was pretty new 2 years ago then you're still running android 1.6. A number of other phones and tablets can have the same said for them. Android has just as many if not more shortcomings than WP7 with absolutely no promise of any of them being resolved unless you get the latest android device every time they come out (every 2 weeks or so.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost all Android phones released after November 2010 are on 2.2 or higher, exception Fascinate for Verizon that just got an official leak to 2.2.
So what is your argument here?

Enough tablet apps...?

how come there aren't alot of tablet apps? How difficult is it to upscale or modify the app to be tablet native? (not being sarcastic)
kanyewest said:
how come there aren't alot of tablet apps? How difficult is it to upscale or modify the app to be tablet native? (not being sarcastic)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all the devs have xooms yet,
Wait till IO and we will see a bunch of new and existing apps for honeycomb
If you download Spare Parts and disable compatibility mode it will full scale the apps that are fixed to phone dimensions
Most of the time, its not as simple as the developer getting a new SDK and rebuilding with it. New SDK's cause new bugs and new instabilities.
They have to remake all new art work for larger screens and high resolutions so that takes time.
And the Android Tablets aren't exactly "readily available" like Android phones are. Guys who are coding at home on weekends may not have the cash to pick one up right now. (That accounts for a lot of apps) Big companies also want to see how the market reacts to tablets before they invest in development of software for one when the entire market could flop (Doubtful, but not without its risk).
I'm an android developer in my day job and I promise you, if you want apps that really take advantage of honeycomb they have to be rebuilt from the ground up in the interface department at least. There are some exceptions but on the whole...
Be patient and the updates will come.
I'm even working on a couple of apps at home specially for the XOOM.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Since this is the first tablet that dropped with Honeycomb, it might be a bit for everyone to catch up. The same thing happened when Windows computers went from XP to Win 7 OS. It took a bit for the software developers to remake newer versions.
Its strange that we dont even see support (right now) for big companies like facebook or twitter. or even some other google apps dont have that support yet.
jerses said:
Its strange that we dont even see support (right now) for big companies like facebook or twitter. or even some other google apps dont have that support yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing Google hasn't given them the AOSP before the public? Or maybe there wasn't any incentive for them to develop an app for something they didn't think would have the market share.
I remember when I first got my HTC Dream a couple of years ago, that there wasn't even a Facebook app out yet for it (it was still on stock Donut ROM from Rogers).
Sejanus said:
I'm guessing Google hasn't given them the AOSP before the public? Or maybe there wasn't any incentive for them to develop an app for something they didn't think would have the market share.
I remember when I first got my HTC Dream a couple of years ago, that there wasn't even a Facebook app out yet for it (it was still on stock Donut ROM from Rogers).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
10.1 inches of web browser not reason enough not to call this a "mobile"?
I sure wouldn't write an app for something already fully functional.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
alias_neo said:
10.1 inches of web browser not reason enough not to call this a "mobile"?
I sure wouldn't write an app for something already fully functional.
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, a lot of these sites work just fine with the browser (Stock, Dolphin). One thing that is a little bit off topic is the ability to hide the status bar (or go fullscreen with the browser) so we can really get the 10.1 inches rather then the 8 or so that we get with everything on the screen.
Sejanus said:
If you download Spare Parts and disable compatibility mode it will full scale the apps that are fixed to phone dimensions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked! Thanks

What do you like most (or least) about ICS?

Like the title says, what are the changes that you most favor in ICS?
For me, these are my favorite improvements (in no particular order):
1. Ability to swipe down notification bar while screen locked
2. Improved camera speed and quality
3. Vastly improved gallery
4. ICS Keyboard
5. Voice - to - text
6. Browser
7. General appearance/asthetics
8. Email, Gmail, and calender
Just curious to see what everyone else likes (or dislikes for that matter) about ICS.
mlin said:
Like the title says, what are the changes that you most favor in ICS?
For me, these are my favorite improvements (in no particular order):
1. Ability to swipe down notification bar while screen locked
2. Improved camera speed and quality
3. Vastly improved gallery
4. ICS Keyboard
5. Voice - to - text
6. Browser
7. General appearance/asthetics
8. Email, Gmail, and calender
Just curious to see what everyone else likes (or dislikes for that matter) about ICS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You said it all ;-)
I like specially the calendar (pinch to zoom and unzoom !) and the browser, almost as fast as my computer !
I can't really tell something that I dislike.
I love how "done" it feels. Everything matches the new UI theme perfectly. Also, it's stupidly fast. The one thing I was always jealous of WP7 and iOS users was that their OS's were just a bit smoother and faster. Now I can finally say that ours is perfectly how I want it.
Hakizi said:
I love how "done" it feels.
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Click to collapse
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Everything is integrated perfectly. Everything is in harmony. Everything just feels 'right'.
I think its a major game changer for Google. ICS wipes ios5 all over the floor and then some.
My next tablet will definitely be the Samsung 10.1 successor (currently using an iPad) running a flavour of Android 4.
I'm smitten
No launcher crashes any more, no lag when exiting applications or generally swiping back and forward, and faster stock browser are the main ones for me.
Hakizi said:
I love how "done" it feels. Everything matches the new UI theme perfectly. Also, it's stupidly fast. The one thing I was always jealous of WP7 and iOS users was that their OS's were just a bit smoother and faster. Now I can finally say that ours is perfectly how I want it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally agree. We finally have a version of Android that feels "polished." It's beautiful and fluid throughout the OS.
For some reason, I can't download anything from the marketplace. Any suggestions?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium
I completely agree with everybody and I feel like when ics miui is polished, my phone will be unstoppable!!
trigger1209 said:
For some reason, I can't download anything from the marketplace. Any suggestions?
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am running creamed glacier beta 5.1
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium
trigger1209 said:
I am running creamed glacier beta 5.1
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would ask in the ROM thread. I have seen that issue reported many times on many ROMs but I have no idea what the solution is.
HATE some of the icons... Overall it is very done and feels complete, except the icons look a bit unprofessional imo.
Such as the contacts and messaging icon. I use ICS with custom icons to replace the ones i dont feel fit properly. For example, the messaging icon is an awkward green and WAY too tall.
But over all it deserves a 9/10
Polished is a very good way to put the feel of using ICS. It certainly does feel "complete" and relaxed. Definitely the largest reason to love it.. right behind notifications + power options in notifications bar to do with as i please while it's locked
Keyboard is a solid step forward (and predictive text works better than GB from my use).
The browser is a HUGE step forward, but it's definitely not there yet.
Gallery works much better, far fewer issues than before. HOWEVER, i hate having to click the photo twice to get into the gallery after taking a photo.
Also, IntelSoftApps has really hit the nail on the head.. the contacts, messaging, calendar and gallery just look like they don't belong there. What would be the least intrusive way to change these (editing the apk?)?
What I love about ICS:
-the overall design and how polished it is
-how smooth it is
- all the new gapps
Shouldn't the caller id, when receiving a call, have a transparent background? When someone calls there is a big black box covering lower half of the screen with the little white headphone... Is it a Nexus S bug, or an ICS feature? I think it would be better transparent...
I like lots of features of ICS. I love the new font, the market icon in the app tray, the ability to create app folders, and the ability to swipe away single notifications. Honestly my only real complaint is with the app drawer...I hate having to scroll sideways. Logically when you have a list of something, you expect it to be vertical, not horizontal. But hey, that's how iOS does it so that's how Android should do it too, right? *rolls eyes*
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
for me is the new UI.
So amazing
I like the new "web-os-like" multitasking. Simply swipe to close an open app. Great.
Much more efficienct than ios.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App. Developer of brickROM, and OP of XDA Thread of The Year 2011.
full power of GPU now makes graphics intensive gaming incredible
I'd let you know if google would pull their heads out of their asses and release an OTA for NS4G, or any other nexus besides the ONE MODEL to get it already!!!
they are really dropping the ball. I understand the holidays really put things behind schedule, but maybe they should have thought about that before they made plans to push a new update just before the holidays.
hp420 said:
I'd let you know if google would pull their heads out of their asses and release an OTA for NS4G, or any other nexus besides the ONE MODEL to get it already!!!
they are really dropping the ball. I understand the holidays really put things behind schedule, but maybe they should have thought about that before they made plans to push a new update just before the holidays.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to let you know...no matter how better the ns4g be owner the ns.....the Original nexus s will always be on top
Sent from my Full Android on Crespo using XDA App

Any recommendations on how to "simplify" this phone?

The One S is my mom's first touchscreen/smartphone. She's having a hard time to getting used to the phone. Is there a way to simplify things? I'm planning on rooting it and maybe seeing if there's a stock ICS ROM because Sense is so crowded, way too many options laid out. It's horrible. I actually don't like it myself.
Hey,
you can root it and use the rom cleaner script (in the theme section).
The script will remove all the bloatware and useless sense stuff. Maybe that is what you are looking for?
Trickdroid with the tweakpack gives also the choice to remove a lot of unwanted stuff. (development section)
But the basic functionalty stays the same. You can also just try another Launcher (Like Apex) and look if this works better for her.
it's mainly the Sense dialer and Mobilife app that I want to get rid of.
The Sense dialer isn't very friendly compared to TouchPal and exDialer. But I'm not having her use those because clearing the call will bring her back to Sense's call history.
Mobilife just makes it difficult to keep track of contacts. She has over 300 and I'm syncing them with Google, sometimes a contact shows so many different values to change (mobile #, home #, address,etc). I'd rather have Google take care of this.
tracerit said:
it's mainly the Sense dialer and Mobilife app that I want to get rid of.
The Sense dialer isn't very friendly compared to TouchPal and exDialer. But I'm not having her use those because clearing the call will bring her back to Sense's call history.
Mobilife just makes it difficult to keep track of contacts. She has over 300 and I'm syncing them with Google, sometimes a contact shows so many different values to change (mobile #, home #, address,etc). I'd rather have Google take care of this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's why sense is good. You can just start typing the name of the person instead of the number, and the contract entry comes up.
As far as simplifying it...why don't you just get ADW (or another launcher which lets you edit your screens) and delete all screens but 2 or even 1, if easier. Then put her only needed applications on the dock for her and then lock the screen (again this may be an ADW feature) so nothing moves and gets lost accidentally.... Then let her use it for awhile until she is comfortable, and gradually introduce her to more features as she is ready?
Sent from my HTC One-S (rooted), stock ROM
I know i'm newb but I've tried looking/searching and cant see anything labeled ROM CLEANER in the theme section, could someone point me in the right direction as I want rid of the bloat that HTC and Orange have put on, but without losing any of the functionality or stableness of the stock I have as I need my phone working and do not always have good access to the net or a computer for that matter.
Also any other suggestions or tips would also be appreciated as coming from an non tech background alot of this can be quite confusing ^^
oh an my appolagies for the slight hijack of the thread but I'm kinda in the same boat so thought rather than starting a new thread asking more or less the same thing
tracerit said:
The One S is my mom's first touchscreen/smartphone. She's having a hard time to getting used to the phone. Is there a way to simplify things? I'm planning on rooting it and maybe seeing if there's a stock ICS ROM because Sense is so crowded, way too many options laid out. It's horrible. I actually don't like it myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's 2012 and the One S is one of the most advanced smart phones on the market.
How about your mom step up her game? Also there are many choices of android phones so maybe the One S is not the one for her.
Sent from my HTC One S using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2
LikeaG2root said:
It's 2012 and the One S is one of the most advanced smart phones on the market.
How about your mom step up her game? Also there are many choices of android phones so maybe the One S is not the one for her.
Sent from my HTC One S using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, the One S is one of the most advanced smartphones. It's also why I decided to get it to future proof her instead of a dumb phone for the same price.
I played around with exDialer and have decided that this dialer is the easiest app with easy to read colors (after applying the SGS2 theme). I'm actually using it myself. I will have to root her phone to get the dismiss missed calls to work, but that's no problem.

[Q] Stock android vs Samsung/HTC android

Having recently bought my wife a Moto G two things immediately stood out. One was how good the hardware was for £100. I could easily live with one if my Galaxy S3 broke. Mainly it would be just the extra screen size I would miss. The other thing that stood out for me was how basic the software was. I had to spend hours researching and installing different apps and widgets whereas my S3 just worked out of the box. Without a launcher you can't even scroll through the screens without having to go back and forwards. I spent ages looking for a free clock/weather widget but never did find one as good as the Samsung. I do like the fact that with android you can change your phone to how you like but I ended up wondering why people love the stripped down version so much?
Now....you say stripped down. But its quite the opposite. This is android. This is how it was meant to be. The skins that manufacturers put over android such as touchwiz or sense or even Motorola's blur skin back in the day is a bloated and horrible thing to do to android. Granted android used to look a LOT worse than it does now, I always very much preferred android without any kind of skin over the interface. I was so happy when I was able to root my droid eris and use the stock launcher/interface years ago.
Sent from my XT1034 using Tapatalk
jmoore4294 said:
Now....you say stripped down. But its quite the opposite. This is android. This is how it was meant to be. The skins that manufacturers put over android such as touchwiz or sense or even Motorola's blur skin back in the day is a bloated and horrible thing to do to android. Granted android used to look a LOT worse than it does now, I always very much preferred android without any kind of skin over the interface. I was so happy when I was able to root my droid eris and use the stock launcher/interface years ago.
Sent from my XT1034 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, I shouldn't have said "stripped down". It doesn't apply to the Moto G.
The trouble is that after spending hours getting her phone to where it is a pleasure to use I still don't think it works as well as touchwiz. Apart from the clock/weather I mentioned there is for instance the text app. I still haven't found one that shows the number of unread texts on the home screen icon and shows a contact photo next to a contacts text. With touchwiz everything just seems to work.
I like the more elegant look of the stock android more than the horrible cartoony look of TW
Sent from my XT1032 using xda app-developers app
ahardie said:
With touchwiz everything just seems to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...at half the speed
shaftenberg said:
...at half the speed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it half the speed though shaftenberg? My S3 doesn't seem to be laggy at all. I suppose touchwiz would run slower on a budget phone though.
I would rather spend hours getting my phone to have the features I truly want, than to have a phone bloated with features I will never use.
Sent from my XT1034 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
ahardie said:
My S3 doesn't seem to be laggy at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I owned an S3, so don't tell me...
Moto G even outperformes my Note 2.

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