Long story short, about a year ago i got a Motorola Bravo (Android) phone for a few weeks but returned it because I couldn't really afford a data plan at the time. About a month ago I switched back to smartphones, this time for good, and now have a Samsung Galaxy SII.
The motorola phone had some AWESOME user-friendly features, such as resizing of widgets. Is this taken out because of Touchwiz or was that an older version of Android that's now obsolete? What all does Touchwiz take away functionality-wise? What does Gingerbread (2.3.6 to be specific) look like without Touchwiz?
I've yet to root my phone (the only reason I'd have right now is more battery life) but if I could reove Touchwiz and get some serious UI improvements, that'd definitely be a gamechanger for me
Motorola has Moto blur I think
HTC has sense
Samsung has TouchWiz
The clean Androind would be an AOSP based rom, like CM9/AOKP
I don't know if you understand me, I think I'm drunk or something right know can't remember
Oh
Galaxy Nexus is like what it looks witout the Touchwiz.
ScelestusAnimus said:
Long story short, about a year ago i got a Motorola Bravo (Android) phone for a few weeks but returned it because I couldn't really afford a data plan at the time. About a month ago I switched back to smartphones, this time for good, and now have a Samsung Galaxy SII.
The motorola phone had some AWESOME user-friendly features, such as resizing of widgets. Is this taken out because of Touchwiz or was that an older version of Android that's now obsolete? What all does Touchwiz take away functionality-wise? What does Gingerbread (2.3.6 to be specific) look like without Touchwiz?
I've yet to root my phone (the only reason I'd have right now is more battery life) but if I could reove Touchwiz and get some serious UI improvements, that'd definitely be a gamechanger for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure to go the MIUI route if you're on GB or go the AOKP route if you're on ICS. Those are good starting points if you want to see some nice UI improvements. If you decide to go AOKP make sure to mess around in ROM control.
AOSP stock apps on ICS (AOKP/CM9) are much nicer than touchwizz/samsung ics apps.
UI Ranking
#1 AOSP (AOKP,CM9) and MIUI [all ICS based]
#2 MIUI GB , Sensation ROM GB (Samsung based rom), AOSP GB (CM7) (LunarUI theme)
#3 Stock Samsung ROM or Stock CM7 [both GB based]
Recommend Choice is AOKP http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1574718
Just make sure you know what you're doing when you flash
You just need a different launcher. Try go launcher.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk
Biporch said:
Motorola has Moto blur I think
HTC has sense
Samsung has TouchWiz
The clean Androind would be an AOSP based rom, like CM9/AOKP
I don't know if you understand me, I think I'm drunk or something right know can't remember
Oh
Galaxy Nexus is like what it looks witout the Touchwiz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yeah! Now that you mention it, i remember reading about Motoblur.
Cryosx said:
Make sure to go the MIUI route if you're on GB or go the AOKP route if you're on ICS. Those are good starting points if you want to see some nice UI improvements. If you decide to go AOKP make sure to mess around in ROM control.
AOSP stock apps on ICS (AOKP/CM9) are much nicer than touchwizz/samsung ics apps.
UI Ranking
#1 AOSP (AOKP,CM9) and MIUI [all ICS based]
#2 MIUI GB , Sensation ROM GB (Samsung based rom), AOSP GB (CM7) (LunarUI theme)
#3 Stock Samsung ROM or Stock CM7 [both GB based]
Recommend Choice is AOKP http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1574718
Just make sure you know what you're doing when you flash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are these custom Roms or just the normal Android OS without the company's additions to it? I have gingerbread atm (I'd rather wait for ICS until the official release from AT&T)
hobbs said:
You just need a different launcher. Try go launcher.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried Go launcher. I didn't like how it was basically an OS on top of the normal OS. They both were running at the same time and I had to rearrange my apps to make them the same as they were. I just want the Android OS without the stupid additions/subtractions from Samsung/Motorola/etc >.<
However I have to say, I do like how Go Launcher doesn't require rooting
ScelestusAnimus said:
I tried Go launcher. I didn't like how it was basically an OS on top of the normal OS. They both were running at the same time and I had to rearrange my apps to make them the same as they were. I just want the Android OS without the stupid additions/subtractions from Samsung/Motorola/etc >.<
However I have to say, I do like how Go Launcher doesn't require rooting
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do realize, right, that Touchwiz is a launcher too? And even vanilla Android builds use a launcher? When you use Go Launcher, it's not running "on top of" what's already there; it's replacing Touchwiz.
I'm sorry, but you can't have vanilla Android OS without installing it in the form of a custom ROM. Samsung makes their own builds of Android, which is what you have. If you want something else, somebody else has to build it...meaning the developers on this forum.
mattdm said:
You do realize, right, that Touchwiz is a launcher too? And even vanilla Android builds use a launcher? When you use Go Launcher, it's not running "on top of" what's already there; it's replacing Touchwiz.
I'm sorry, but you can't have vanilla Android OS without installing it in the form of a custom ROM. Samsung makes their own builds of Android, which is what you have. If you want something else, somebody else has to build it...meaning the developers on this forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe it just felt like that because I could cancel it at any time and go back and forth between normal touchwiz and Go launcher. I know this is a versatility feature, but I'd rather have that disabled, as crazy as it may sound.
But that's good to know. I didn't know a launcher was REQUIRED, just thought it was what most people did. I'll look into other launchers.
Is there still one where you can resize the UI elements and stuff like that?
ScelestusAnimus said:
Maybe it just felt like that because I could cancel it at any time and go back and forth between normal touchwiz and Go launcher. I know this is a versatility feature, but I'd rather have that disabled, as crazy as it may sound.
But that's good to know. I didn't know a launcher was REQUIRED, just thought it was what most people did. I'll look into other launchers.
Is there still one where you can resize the UI elements and stuff like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mattdm said, all Android builds require a launcher. Otherwise you'd have no usable GUI. When you were switching back and forth between GO and TouchWiz were you using a home/launcher switcher, or were you just using the default ui to choose one each time you went to your home screen?
You can have several launchers installed and use a switcher to make one "stick" until you decide you want a different look/feel.
Some prefer GO or LauncherPro. I use ADW EX and TouchWiz. ADW and LauncherPro are very configurable. VERY. Both have their ardent fans. I've not used GO.
PS: You do NOT want the ability to change launchers disabled. ;-)
ScelestusAnimus said:
Maybe it just felt like that because I could cancel it at any time and go back and forth between normal touchwiz and Go launcher. I know this is a versatility feature, but I'd rather have that disabled, as crazy as it may sound.
But that's good to know. I didn't know a launcher was REQUIRED, just thought it was what most people did. I'll look into other launchers.
Is there still one where you can resize the UI elements and stuff like that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhh... touchwiz lets you resize certain widgets... (UI elements) pretty sure go launcher and adw ex do too...
Biporch said:
The clean Androind would be an AOSP based rom, like CM9/AOKP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM9 uses the Trebuchet launcher. as it has been hammered multiple times, all roms use some sort of launcher. I'm not sure what AOKP uses, but I'd wager its either Trebuchet, nova, or apex..
0p3nsrc said:
CM9 uses the Trebuchet launcher. as it has been hammered multiple times, all roms use some sort of launcher. I'm not sure what AOKP uses, but I'd wager its either Trebuchet, nova, or apex..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it comes with both apex and nova. They are fairly similar but each have a few unique features.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
0p3nsrc said:
CM9 uses the Trebuchet launcher. as it has been hammered multiple times, all roms use some sort of launcher. I'm not sure what AOKP uses, but I'd wager its either Trebuchet, nova, or apex..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tasks came with trebuchet. I switched to nova and I'm fairly sure that apex came on it too.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
ScelestusAnimus said:
Long story short, about a year ago i got a Motorola Bravo (Android) phone for a few weeks but returned it because I couldn't really afford a data plan at the time. About a month ago I switched back to smartphones, this time for good, and now have a Samsung Galaxy SII.
The motorola phone had some AWESOME user-friendly features, such as resizing of widgets. Is this taken out because of Touchwiz or was that an older version of Android that's now obsolete? What all does Touchwiz take away functionality-wise? What does Gingerbread (2.3.6 to be specific) look like without Touchwiz?
I've yet to root my phone (the only reason I'd have right now is more battery life) but if I could reove Touchwiz and get some serious UI improvements, that'd definitely be a gamechanger for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off, Welcome to Samsung!
A little background.
AOSP = Android Open Source Program. Meaning, a open source of code editable by anyone.
Touchwiz/Motoblur/Sense = Not AOSP, they were written as a launcher/GUI for each phone by their developer (Motorola/Samsung/HTC). On top of that, these GUI/Overlays have their fingers into everything on a phone, this is why updates take so long. Google creates a new version of Android and passes it to the phone manufacturer, they in turn need to take that new version and paste their GUI/Overlay on top of it, this takes time and money. Further, once the phone manufacturer finishes updating, they need to give the software to the vendor (VZW/AT&T etc) who add more bloat/custom crap to the software.
Custom ROM's, are and are not AOSP, Some are pure AOSP like AOKP or CM (Cyanogenmod), they are written by groups of people, all of whom work in concert to bring you the ROM. Then there are custom ROM's that are not in the realm of AOSP. For example, I use Phone Bricker, written by LilChris here on XDA. This ROM is not really Open Source as it's written by one person, the author may give out the source, I don't know.
So what would your phone look like w/o Touchwiz? CM9/AOKP is as close as you'll get. Those ROMs use the closest to stock version of Android.
To confuse matters even more, there are Launchers, Go Launcher/Apex etc. They operate as yet another GUI on top of a GUI, inside a ROM. So you could have a stock, unrooted Galaxy S2, with Touchwiz and Go Launcher, and customize it to make it look like you want it too. Or, you could root your phone, Update to CM9 (running Ice Cream Sandwich btw), and use the launcher that they have there, or change that to Go Launcher.
The options are endless, read read read. I am new to Samsung, I came from Motorola where things are done quite a bit differently. I can tell you this though, you are infinitely better off with a Samsung phone than a Motorola Phone. Not only does Motoblur blow chunks, but Motorola is a terrible company as far as software updates go. Toss in locked bootloaders... anyway, I hope the above answered your question.
Wink
I'm new to Android OS phones, but so far been able to root my phone and have left it at that (Samsung Galaxy S2 sgh-I777).
Now I see the ICS android OS and have been searching for it, only to find a developers name in front of the OS to download.
My question is, what difference do these OS have and is there a particular one that seems to stand out?
Kekojones said:
I'm new to Android OS phones, but so far been able to root my phone and have left it at that (Samsung Galaxy S2 sgh-I777).
Now I see the ICS android OS and have been searching for it, only to find a developers name in front of the OS to download.
My question is, what difference do these OS have and is there a particular one that seems to stand out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a little bit difference in the launcher, the widgets, the name of the ROM, the apps incluided, the status bar icons and more a few things. The system is always the same.
Devs:
Cyanogen:
Uses ADW Launcher as the default, and have T-Mobile Theme Chooser installed (No T-Mobile things).
MIUI: A iPhone-style based ROM, with a launcher similar to iPhone. The principal theme is White, and don't have the Theme Chooser.
There's a lot of ROMs in the web, but the system is always the same: Android ICS 4.0.
Mine came with it now, so i was just wondering what would happen if i were to save those APK's (theres touchwiz itself, touchwiz launcher i think, maybe a couple others) to apply on top of a stock android OS??
Is that possible at all? It would be 4.0.4 style, but that doesnt bother me at all. if its possible that is.
Pawprints1986 said:
Mine came with it now, so i was just wondering what would happen if i were to save those APK's (theres touchwiz itself, touchwiz launcher i think, maybe a couple others) to apply on top of a stock android OS??
Is that possible at all? It would be 4.0.4 style, but that doesnt bother me at all. if its possible that is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, yes you can put your touchwiz.apk to other OS, what its going to do is its going to make you device look like samsung device. These are the launchers used to customize the look of the whole ecosystem and that's is the major reason why people drives away from iOS to the Android ecosystem try using the touchwiz launcher and see your device transform onto samsung.
promo87 said:
Well, yes you can put your touchwiz.apk to other OS, what its going to do is its going to make you device look like samsung device. These are the launchers used to customize the look of the whole ecosystem and that's is the major reason why people drives away from iOS to the Android ecosystem try using the touchwiz launcher and see your device transform onto samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please do your research before replying.
No it will not work as they need the base touchwiz framework to work properly which stock google doesn't have.
This is the price you pay for running a custom aosp based ROM.
zelendel said:
Please do your research before replying.
No it will not work as they need the base touchwiz framework to work properly which stock google doesn't have.
This is the price you pay for running a custom aosp based ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there some (fairly easy) way to transfer the framework as well?
Pawprints1986 said:
Is there some (fairly easy) way to transfer the framework as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No because the frameworks control the whole OS. They are not cross compatible
zelendel said:
No because the frameworks control the whole OS. They are not cross compatible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, in that case, are there mods available to make every part of the stock OS look like the touchwiz OS, including the notification area?? Thats gotta be my biggest thing that i hate about stock. I love the compact 1 page aspect of the touchwiz version.
I know theres a theme for touchwiz, i tried it on another device. but all it changed was the main screens. settings and notification areas stayed stock. That was a total bummer, i thought i found my solution right there...
Pawprints1986 said:
Hmm, in that case, are there mods available to make every part of the stock OS look like the touchwiz OS, including the notification area?? Thats gotta be my biggest thing that i hate about stock. I love the compact 1 page aspect of the touchwiz version.
I know theres a theme for touchwiz, i tried it on another device. but all it changed was the main screens. settings and notification areas stayed stock. That was a total bummer, i thought i found my solution right there...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some have a notification setting for the compact tiles but not completely like touch Wiz. I would either get used to not having them or use a stock based ROM. To be honest I would get used to bot having them as with the next update the whole thing is changing again.
zelendel said:
Some have a notification setting for the compact tiles but not completely like touch Wiz. I would either get used to not having them or use a stock based ROM. To be honest I would get used to bot having them as with the next update the whole thing is changing again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the one i tried playing with the settings with is the moto G... but there are practically NO customization settings, at all. wallpaper and ringtones were all i was able to find. no notification bar settings, no compact, no nothing.
Im still using my ICS with no issues... im more thinking ahead for the future, will possibly set a couple of roms aside to try. Its gonna take alot to get used to the much uglier notification area though... maybe ill never have to!
I've been looking for a way to replace the lollipop notification pulldown with the one from the old holo systemui (the one with the toggles on a separate page, e.g. on jellybean). I'm currently running rooted CM13 on this phone.
I know some people prefer the new design, but I like the old one better. Would it be possible to do this, short of using CM11? I haven't seen anything anywhere similar to this.
Thanks
endermaster said:
I've been looking for a way to replace the lollipop notification pulldown with the one from the old holo systemui (the one with the toggles on a separate page, e.g. on jellybean). I'm currently running rooted CM13 on this phone.
I know some people prefer the new design, but I like the old one better. Would it be possible to do this, short of using CM11? I haven't seen anything anywhere similar to this.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just choose a JB or KK rom.
endermaster said:
I've been looking for a way to replace the lollipop notification pulldown with the one from the old holo systemui (the one with the toggles on a separate page, e.g. on jellybean). I'm currently running rooted CM13 on this phone.
I know some people prefer the new design, but I like the old one better. Would it be possible to do this, short of using CM11? I haven't seen anything anywhere similar to this.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh, this is quite improbable. Worth's more downgrading to some ROM which uses Holo. You can also dual boot your phone xD
Hey guys,
I'm using an LG stock based ROM on my LG G5 due to issues with AOSP based ROMs for this phone. I've managed to get a more or less completely stock AOSP appearance including the quick settings tiles and notifications. However, the last thing i'd love to be able to do is to install an AOSP style settings app. It doesn't need to necessarily replace the default settings app but it'd be cool if I could install something like this side by side..
I've googled this and can't find anything really but I figured i'd be better to ask the experts here
jhaedee said:
Hey guys,
I'm using an LG stock based ROM on my LG G5 due to issues with AOSP based ROMs for this phone. I've managed to get a more or less completely stock AOSP appearance including the quick settings tiles and notifications. However, the last thing i'd love to be able to do is to install an AOSP style settings app. It doesn't need to necessarily replace the default settings app but it'd be cool if I could install something like this side by side..
I've googled this and can't find anything really but I figured i'd be better to ask the experts here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Settings app is tied very closely with the system framework, so it's pretty much impossible to replace it with anything that isn't relevant to the current ROM.