The Good, Bad and Ugly - Surround General

Good: Sound, smoothness (holy cow, this interface is smooth!), stock appearance, simplicity, pin to tile, phone quality, camera (not the worst I've used), construction and materials, Facebook, Office (better than anything out there).
Bad: No back button in IE, few real Marketplace apps, no real appearance customization, lack of Windows Explorer, no text selection in IE address bar, lack of landscape support in homescreen and some programs
Ugly: Battery life (horrid), no cut and paste, lack of activesync, DATA HOG!
Verdict: I hate 6.5 unless its on the HD2 but I can't get an HD2 without leaving AT&T and I still have months left on the contract. I think I'll keep the phone and wait on updates and see what they bring. I can always use my Fuze if necessary.

Hrm, when I press the main Back button, I get the desired result in IE.

only if you haven't gone to another program while surfing a web page. Then you have to go back through those previous screens.

What do you mean by no text selection? Did you try clicking the input bar, then holding your finger on it until the cursor appears? You can then drag it around to wherever you want to input text. Or of course just tap a word to select it.

Not if you only want to delete part of the address. In other words, you have to click each word individually and not click and drag the cursor through what ever text you don't want.

You can get a telstra hd2 and still have att 3g.

Think I'll stick with the Surround. An outstanding media device overall. I'm not using it like I used my Fuze and Wizard in terms of a management device. It does the job and does it well.

jwzg said:
Good: Sound, smoothness (holy cow, this interface is smooth!), stock appearance, simplicity, pin to tile, phone quality, camera (not the worst I've used), construction and materials, Facebook, Office (better than anything out there).
Bad: No back button in IE, few real Marketplace apps, no real appearance customization, lack of Windows Explorer, no text selection in IE address bar, lack of landscape support in homescreen and some programs
Ugly: Battery life (horrid), no cut and paste, lack of activesync, DATA HOG!
Verdict: I hate 6.5 unless its on the HD2 but I can't get an HD2 without leaving AT&T and I still have months left on the contract. I think I'll keep the phone and wait on updates and see what they bring. I can always use my Fuze if necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 extra bad thing---no using custom ringtones yet

Related

Anyone tried Pontui ?

http://pointui.com/Home.aspx
Its free and looks pretty cool... gonna install it when i get home (no cables here) if anyone has a play before the end of the day i'd appreciate opinions before i do the deed myself!
mark
Well, i gave it a try yesterday on my WM5 wizard.
Its overall look and feel is really quite impressive. All the animations are unbelivably smooth, even without any overclocking. The app is finger-friendly, but i dislike list scrolling method they used - it's not like the one in fTouchflo, or iContact, where you scroll the list as if it was a physical object and moves in sync with the finger sweeping the screen, but instead the list moves in the direction of the sweep: if you put your finger on the screen and move it down a bit, the list will start scrolling down at constant speed. if you move finger farther down, it will accelerate and again keep constant speed if finger is still. if you move finger up, it will slow down, move it u even farther, ant the list will reverse direction and scroll up. It's not very intuitive, not to mention that it's really hard to use to precisely scroll long lists. If they changed this one thing, the overall fell of the program would improve significantly.
Beside that UI is clean and well designed, gives you quick access to start menu, settings (control panel, wifi, BT, GSM module, sound volume), tasks, calendar, appointments and clock, it also has some customizable menus for accessing frequently used software.
The downside is that it replaces your Today screen, so you won't be able to use your favorite Today plugins.
Overall, it's worth a try, especially for a user who just wants a phone with a simple, yet really good-looking interface. More advanced users who like to be able to customize everything might find this a bit limiting.
Overall, the program really has huge potential, and let's not forget that it's just the first public version. It will certainly improve over time. I'd recommend giving it a try, just be aware that there are some uninstallation issues read the tread on pointUI forums for more info, or if you have something like SPB backup or other software that does FULL device backup, use it and if something goes wrong, simply HR the device.
By the way:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=355961&page=5
Given it a try, and was impressed by the smooth flowing interactive menu's. But I find its quicker and easier to use SPB Shell (yes it looks basic in comparison but its straight forward and easily customised) and have therefore unistalled the software. However do not be put off by my comments, give it a go.
tange.
prior to my phone breaking (http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=284 solutions on a postcard please) i used this UI for a few days and throught it was pretty cool. theres deffo a learning curve as some of the apps are located in strange places but overall i was very happy with it.
Impressive, but very bad support for non-English OS.
Give it time. Its a brand new and revolutionary program and those guys are doin it all in their free time so you got to give them time.
I'm running this on my wizard, Tried it and I liked it enough that I won't leave it alone.
Runs fast on my wizard, thumb approved, things are organized a little funny but after a day of using it everything is cool, I haven't looked yet but I would like to custom the 4 icons that lauch programs and some things are linked incorrectly but overall i'm impressed with the program out of box and I hope development keeps up.
i just wanted to ask
does the weather application on PointUI cost... if so.. .does any1 no how much
thanks in advance
weather is free
i think they get their weather info from yahoo/weather channel, free
PontUI
Been using this for 3 days now and I love it. This and pocketCM with a the pontUI skin is amazing. Also the Iphone a like skin works well.
The main screen is great with the middle ribbon allowing really smooth action to access Analogue clock, digital clock, Calender, Tasks, Local weather and appointments.
Main screen top contains from left to right; Lock, signal meter Carrier info, Volume, Battery and Cog (settings).
You can lock the device on lock icon, hit the signal icon and the screen flip animates to show all connections settings (Flight mode, phone status wifi things like that) Hit the Speaker Icaon and you can adjust phone and speaker volumes as well as mute. hit the battery icon (which show bat level) and you can see battery life and go to power settings and backlight settings (well I can't but hey it's a beta) Hit the Cog and too many settings to list but among them is update feature so you can get the latest version straight to your device, you can also exit PontUI Home from here.
You have four icon down the bottom of the main screen which are, left to right; phone icon for call history list, tap it then swipe right on a name to call or sms them. Envelope icon press this to go to your email account (can choose which one through new registry string) next is SMS icon tap it to go to standard SMS app. Then last is the WM Icon, tap to go to windows media player (can choose which one through new registry string).
There is also a bar with an arrow down the bottom which you tap this then gives you four options; New, from which you can create new Email, SMS, MMS, Appointment, task, document or spreadsheet.
Favourites which shows all apps in the start menu folder. Applications which allows to to smoothly scroll through all installed apps and Currently running which does what it says on the tin.
As this App evolves i'm sure these menus will become nicely configurable.
I 'm really loving this App and it's only BETA. I'm running HTC Trinity (orange M700) and it's just sooo smooth. I tried Freestyl, which is good and I've been following, but when I tried this, I was blown away.
It's kind of nice to have an App that seems to integerate well with the phone rather than being a kind of clucky overlay that you can tell isn't meant to be there.
I urge you all to try it and see what you think.
Cheers all.
Logicalstep
loving it
What i think they can improve are:
1 make the hardware buttons to work, now i can't take a picture, record any sound, or change the volume with the h-buttons.
2 a contacts app will be nice and as well a favorite contacts like the htc home
3 a way to close app on the currently running menu
4 a little bigger back button or more to the left cause when i try to pres the back button with the tumb i usually had to try 2 or 3 times couse is really near to the border.
finaly a way to select favorite app that don’t depend of the start menu
don’t get me wrong i think that app is amazing but this 5 thing will make it perfect to me
I am loving Pointui!

so who like the phone so far...

and wat are your pros and cons
pros:
nice graphics
touch screen
cons:
notification sounds not loud enough even at highest setting
syncing contacts from outlook
camera can't disable sound
camera need white balance
camera needs 'manual' settings
mute the g1 and there is no more camera sound
Pros
Screen & Resolution
Street View
Touch Screen
3g
Full Keypad
Internet - very fast!
Room for unlimited growth
Cons
Setting wallpaper
No access to storage card
No task manager
no internet sharing
Clock on homescreen
No document viewer
Of course most if not all of my cons will be addressed I'm sure so in short I friggin love this phone and it took me all of 5 minutes to forget my dash!
Pros:
It's BAD ASS!
Cons:
Can be fixed with software
Except the no 3.5 headphone jack WTF HTC?
stats555 said:
Cons
No video player
Can't edit bookmarks
Setting wallpaper
No access to storage card
No task manager
no internet sharing
Clock on homescreen
No document viewer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Video player is on the market
Wallpapers can be changed out.
accessing card would fall under a file manager, use your computer for now lol
Pros.... what they said
For the most part it is a great phone
Cons
No root access with ADB
No Shell
No File Manager
No SSHD
The fun is great. You have to realized that whatever is missing will be develop in the next couple of months. Now grading android system -> The best phone I've ever had by far, and I have been to lots and lots of Smarts phones....
Addressing some of the cons
Video Player: Available on market, but very, very limited (i miss tcpmp)
Setting Wallpaper: While ur on the Home screen, press the Menu button, wallpaper will be a selectable option
Editing Bookmarks: Open your browser, then press the Menu button, select Bookmarks, on the bookmarks screen, press and hold on the bookmark u want to edit until a screen pops up. Edit bookmark is there.
Clock on Home screen: to move it, just press and hold on the clock until it 'detaches' from the home screen.
to delete it, press and hold until it detaches from the screen then move it to your tab bar which you'll notice changed from an arrow to a trash bin.
to add one, while on the home screen, press the Menu button, select Add, Widget, Clock. then just place it wherever u want.
Something i had an issue with that i posted elsewhere was an rss reader. Google has one on its homepage, ur looking for Reader. Just sign-in and setup your links. Hopefully this'll help some people.
I've got the same pro's and con's as everyone else. I really like this phone much more then my TYTN II. I might have had a bunk TYTN though.
I'm missing the software keyboard, sim contact manager, and file explorer from WM phones though.
Otherwise I'm happy that I drove a long way to get this phone.
Hello fellow G1 users.
Ever since the news about OS came a while back I have been sold on android (well it’s potential).
There is obviously a software shortage… however, the community and google will fill the gaps with time, I think.
One big issue I have the battery capacity.
I would like to hear from you guys/girls:
What have you done to make the battery last longer?
Here are some of the things I have done (currently testing this configuration)
1. Stopped sync on all items….. I only kept calendar (sharing it with my wife)
2. Stopped using the gmail app. Instead I setup all of my email accounts via second email app with all POP (not IMAP <- drains battery like crazy) where I can control frequency with which the app checks mail (10-15 min apart for me).
3. turned off location service from GPS and network towers because I think one these are invoked, they do not turn off
4. Last: the usual…. Screen time out to shortest timeout and screen brightness to lowest comfortable level for me.
misha said:
I would like to hear from you guys/girls:
What have you done to make the battery last longer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never leave home without my charger lol. I walk to the corner store with my charger in my pocket in case lol
papito2181 said:
I never leave home without my charger lol. I walk to the corner store with my charger in my pocket in case lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear you.....
I picked up a second charger yesterday for work so that I can charge it.... if anything.
Pros: pretty good v1 Android OS, nice touch screen, fast (almost no lag), decent 3G speed, pretty good marketplace, room for growth
Cons: no virtual keyboard, need full BT profiles, no desktop sync, no task manager, no file manager, no 3.5mm headphone jack, no video recording
now that i seen everyone elses views time for me
ok i love this phone but i still carry around m dash as a picture/video recorder
the camera on the g1 sucks to me especially on how long it takes to snap
in my opinion my dash takes better pictures.
the battery definately sux nomore words about it lol
we realy do need an onscreen keyboard im starting to get tired of opening the phone to type lol
really wish there was a task manager
now for the good
great phone quaity i can hear anybody so clear
very fast touch screen
very fast internet
i love it just a few minor priblems that i kno google will fix later on, best phone i ever invested money in
its a boring phone! I don't like it. looks oddly shaped. ill stick with my non oddly shaped iphone. thatnkyou. Try again google/htc/tmobile...
papito2181 said:
Video Player: Available on market, but very, very limited (i miss tcpmp)
Setting Wallpaper: While ur on the Home screen, press the Menu button, wallpaper will be a selectable option
Editing Bookmarks: Open your browser, then press the Menu button, select Bookmarks, on the bookmarks screen, press and hold on the bookmark u want to edit until a screen pops up. Edit bookmark is there.
Clock on Home screen: to move it, just press and hold on the clock until it 'detaches' from the home screen.
to delete it, press and hold until it detaches from the screen then move it to your tab bar which you'll notice changed from an arrow to a trash bin.
to add one, while on the home screen, press the Menu button, select Add, Widget, Clock. then just place it wherever u want.
Something i had an issue with that i posted elsewhere was an rss reader. Google has one on its homepage, ur looking for Reader. Just sign-in and setup your links. Hopefully this'll help some people.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip on bookmarks! Afraid to delete clock, what is the replacement like? Any better?
I've heard everyone complaining about the battery life and while its not the greatest I don't think its as horrible as everyone makes it out to be. Batt lasted me 12 hours yesterday with heavy internet use!
WhatzinyourphonE said:
its a boring phone! I don't like it. looks oddly shaped. ill stick with my non oddly shaped iphone. thatnkyou. Try again google/htc/tmobile...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
atleast we have removable storage/ removable batery/mms messaging lolz anything else xda wanna add??
atleast when our battery is messed up we can go buy one instead of sendin the enrtire phone to get fixed and be stuck witout one
chaos2myst said:
mute the g1 and there is no more camera sound
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what if i don't want it muted?

x10 Wish List

We x10 users are growing in numbers by the second and it will be a while before we have the luxury of rooting, themes and fixes but what interests me more is having my gripes being herd so the stock phones little issues, bugs and failures software wise are highlighted before the major update in September is released.
So I’m thinking lets list our finding in this thread. From anger causing faults to suggestions to make current features better. Being an SE fan since the T610 I know that SE has a very odd relationship with its fans and something’s don’t hit home when they are staring them in the face but I’m hoping some things will stick.
Once some ideas come in I’d like to create a voting system but I’m not sure how to but I’m willing to take advice. Voting would be useful as I doubt all requests would be seen and acted upon (if any) but it would at least show a priority amongst the x10 users/developers.
So to be clear note software issues that could actually be corrected, improved or implemented. Posting this link on blogs near and far would get our wishes on the radar so please do so as I will. Starting with this one I reckon: http://blogs.extranet.sonyericsson.com/products/
To get the ball rolling...
Generally:
Hit areas for most of the UI seems a little out, maybe a calibration tool like that one found on windows mobile would solve this issue phone wide.
Selecting any audio file give an option to assign to the main ring ringtone. An additional option to assign to a contact seems only natural to be added.
Mediascape:
The track scrub bar is so random and dearly needs its hit area working on.
Old SE features like shake to shuffle, rock clockwise or anti-clockwise to skip forward or backwards/previous, hold on the volume rocker to skip forward or backwards/previous when the phone is locked.
These features are signature SE and I find it odd that they aren’t part of the phones features
Timescape:
It become apparent that this is simply a fancy viewer but it would be amazing for this application to actually be useful and enable the user to send messages in facebook mail and chat. The same for tweeter would make this app more than something people play with for a day.
Viewing the messages via the infinity button looks great, can this not be the default view when actually texting a contact. Contact Pictures and highlighted/different coloured threads.
There’s more but I can add them later.
Mediascape
This is not a bad player at all. But it has too many issues and shortcomings.
1) Its home page is almost useless, because the content in it is hardly what I'm looking for. When I click an album in the home page, I just want to hear that album.
2) I usually just want to browse for artists and albums, and to do this I have to press the little button in the upper right corner of the home screen. So, I would a much more simple, responsive and finger friendly interface. The slider is also very difficult to use.
3) When I disconnect the phone from A2DP, the current now playing list disappears and I can't resume it.
4) I just want indexed audio files in the /sdcard/music folder. Now I get indexed also ringtones and other audio files in SD card (for example, sound effects of a game) and this is a bit annoyance.
5) No way to control playback with device locked. My old SE phones allowed that by long pressing volume keys.
Timescape
After some tests, I no longer use it. I use the GMail client and the stock Facebook application. So I would like to be able to disable timescape and its integration with Contacts and Phone functionality.
Battery
If it is possible to do something via software to improve battery life, do it!
Hardware
I know it is impossible to do a "hardware patch", however I have found 4 basic issues that will drive my choice when I will buy my next smartphone, so this is actually a wish list for the next Xperia:
1) with this hardware design, it is almost impossible to do a good cradle/car holder, and given the very good GPS, this is a HUGE issue...
2) USB connector on top: this is related to the cradle issue, but it is also very uncomfortable speaking at phone when charging the device at home. The USB connector HAS TO BE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DEVICE!
3) the maximum volume of the speaker is unacceptably low.
4) I really miss some kind of "joystick" to quickly navigate the UI without the touch.
Nice topic!
General:
* It should be possible to stop certain apps (moxier, maps, voice dialer, etc) from autostarting.
E-mail:
* Should be possible to set this app to download only headers. This is such a basic feature.
* Should be possible do discard/not show the oldest messages in inbox. It is already taking a while to load my inbox, what will happen in 6 months?
* Need to be able to attach other types of files than photos.
* When adding e-mail addresses from e-mails to existing contacts, the contact's name should not be overwritten.
Mediascape:
* Definitely needs the possibility to change track during key lock (i.e. holding volume keys).
* It annoys me that long track titles aren't centered.
Photos/camera:
* Need easy access to flashlight!
* Face recognition/identification is messed up, keeps forgetting added names and assigning random new ones. Needs a lot of work!
* When adding a photo as contact photo, it should not be necessary to scroll through all contacts starting from A. Should be possible to choose the first letter (as in contact list), or start spelling.
Contact list:
* When adding a photo to a contact, it should check if I have labeled that contact in any pictures, and suggest those (not just camera roll or standard icons).
Timescape:
* Should be able to display MMS. For example, use image as background and text as text.
* Should be able to display (scroll) longer facebook statuses, rather than sending me to the website.Widget for enabling/disabling wifi, GPS, etc should also include APN, which is not very easily accessible from the menus (many clicks).
Keyboards/language:
* I am missing an easy way to switch between languages (dictionaries)
* Should be possible to delete isolated words that the phone has automatically picked up. Don't want the phone to suggest all my misspelled words in the future. Deleting ALL saved words is not an option.
General
Definitely needs to be a way to disable included apps you're not using (Moxier and Timescape for me)
Info from the Testing menu (dial *#*#4636#*#*) should be available through the standard Settings menu.
Should be a way to adjust the various volumes on the fly without having to go through the Settings menu (pressing the volume keys only changes the Ringer volume, unless actively using Media, in which case Media volume is adjusted).
Would be nice to have a simple app to turn the camera light on and off for use as a flashlight.
Timescape
I don't find it useful at all. The information presented is too limited and the application is dog slow until it's all loaded and updated. Dedicated Facebook and Twitter apps are far better, as is Gmail.
Mediascape
I find it can be slow loading up file lists.
As lornova stated, the home page is useless. I'd rather be taken directly to my files.
Definitely needs lock screen controls. The lack thereof is the primary reason I switched to bTunes for music.
Needs support for DivX, XVid, and other common video codecs (FLV would be a bonus).
Contacts
Lacks options for standard fields from Gmail, such as "website" and "birthdate".
Needs to use the Facebook integration more extensively, automatically linking profiles to contacts and pulling contact photos in (if you choose an option to do so).
Facebook app needs to be registered as a link handler for Facebook links.
Camera
Needs a toggle for the camera light in the main camera UI.
Would be nice if the camera light could be used as a proper flash.
That's it at the moment. I may add more later.
...
I do want to mention, that despite the above issues/requests, I do love my X10 and am very pleased with it overall. But nothing is perfect afterall.
Great thread and I agree with most of the above.
Timescape - I don't use it and perhaps it is a little ahead of it's time. I still see Facebook / Email / SMS as seperate communication methods with seperate purposes, Timescape merges them into one (OK, I know you can seperate them, but still..) it does not still feel natural to merge them into one continuous thread. Perhaps in 5 years time this sort of view will be natural but today I still like to access Facebook / Email / SMS seperately.
Mediascape - The X10 is great as a music player and actually sounds better than my iPOD. Mediascape is almost there but to repeat what has been said above, why does the mediascape homescreen list the recently played as default ? If I have just played an album, why would I want to play it again next time? It would be so much more useful to have random album selections on the front page, or semi-random choices based on the types of tracks recently played.
The 'More' button to get to albums/artists is tricky to press when you are stood in a crowded train, make it biGGER !
The slider for artists/albums/tracks/playlists is almost impossible to use without at least 5 attempts to select the wanted option. SE must have done a field trial with the X10 before the release, why were such simple things not picked up or corrected ?
Battery - Not so much a complaint as it was a week ago, I now manage 30+ hours charge life with reasonable heavy usage, using Moxier/GPS/Bluetooth (no WiFi!), I need to sleep at least 7 hours a day so I have no problem with my phone doing/charging the same. However there are some strange things in regards to battery life on the X10, I have had everything from 7 hours to 35 hours life for a complete charge. I have given up worrying about it but feel convinced that WiFi is the root cause for fast battery drain, even when switched off.
Regardless to the above, I think my X10 is great, the positives far outweigh the negatives and the majority of the negatives could (SHOULD) be easily addressed in a software update. I have friends with Nexus ONE's and HTC phones and I still prefer the X10 WoW, indeed some of my Nexus ONE friends prefer the X10 WoW but still ask is it worth the extra cost ? (I believe it is !!)
I think many of the 'issues' are driven by Android still being an immature OS, the iPhone still feels more smoother and more together than the Android, but the real benefit of Android is the possibilites for customizations... I love being able to see email/rss/news updates on the home screen each time I switch on, rather than having to open up individual apps as I do on the iPhone....
I won't repeat all of the good comments so far.. I agree with most of them..
So, some additional points.
The "Sleep" button on the top of the phone shouldn't be used differently when you're on a call.. I'd like to be able to lock my handset when I'm on a bluetooth call, not wait for it to time out.
More end user customisation in the feature apps would be a great feature (ie.. being able to define your own home screen on Mediascape, so you can make it what suits your needs).
A better photo viewer (This is one thing that the iphone does much better). The standard one is a bit clunky...
A few people have suggested a bigger button to go to the "more" screen.. why not just do what everything else does and allow you to swipe across to it (surely that's the most natural thing to do?!)
When you've named someone.. an option for the phone to go and fetch all other photo's featuring that person would be good..
built in options to manage the start-up of apps.. and monitor your phones performance.
If I think of anything else.. I'll re-post.
A built in deskside alarm clock - that replicates a normal digital clock; I've not found any in the market that really do a good job.
Calendar option - ability to goto a specific date in the calendar rather than having to scroll through to find it.. ("Fancy going to see x in concert on the 23rd Sept?", "ooh, I don't know, give me 5 minutes to find that date in my calendar")
Dialer
Smart Dialing, ability to select different logs.
UI Buttons & selectable text like phone numbers in Person Information
They are just too tiny to click it right. Requires to touch at a precise place. Plus, gets very hard to call someone while driving.
MediaScape
Need to be able to creat playlists.
Need to be able to add a track to current playing queque.
TimeScape
Tweeter/Facebook tiles should have option to pick up Photos from contacts when available. Also improve UI to make text more readable like have a bubble like layer to display text.
headphone/mic
While listening to music, if we get a call it requires us to unplug the headphones to speak on phone. That should be fixed to use the mic on phone.
Lock/Unlock
When on call, the power button should work as screen lock instead of ending the call.
The center Home button should not turn on display when pressed. This is making the display turn on/off constantly when you have phone in pant pocket and is probably draining the battery.
Plus most of the items already listed...
my wishlist:
- increase call volume
- cure wifi bug where wifi drops when the phone loses the mobile network signal
Mediascape
- put in an equalizer
- allow forward/rewind of tracks via the volume rockers when screen is off, just like on all other SE phones
PIM
- make Contacts show birthdays
- then allow Calendar to import birthdays from Contacts!
- incorporate tasks ( and please allow repeatable tasks) into Calendar
- cure Google Calendar sync issues (i have NEVER been able to sync with Google Calendar as yet)
^^
all very basic PIM stuff, although i realize that this is more a Google issue than an SE one
otherwise, i LOVE my X10. a fantastic piece of kit!

How would you improve SE UI

Hi all,
Since it is very clear that rooting this phone is almost impossible and we might not be getting it sooner, I say we give Sony a review of their UI. If SE gives us 2.1 by Q3, then its good, but we better tell them what we did not like and they should change them.
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Other Improvement: Since we don’t have a call button, like htc devices, we should have a UI like ADW launcher; where there is always two quick launch buttons. The digital clock in the slide screen is bigger and perfect for the 4’’ screen, but in home screen it is pretty small. There should be a color change option for it too. Tethering app included.
Please put your improvement ideas of SE UI too. We could send this to SE and hope to get them soon.
Bikram said:
Hi all,
Since it is very clear that rooting this phone is almost impossible and we might not be getting it sooner, I say we give Sony a review of their UI. If SE gives us 2.1 by Q3, then its good, but we better tell them what we did not like and they should change them.
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Other Improvement: Since we don’t have a call button, like htc devices, we should have a UI like ADW launcher; where there is always two quick launch buttons. The digital clock in the slide screen is bigger and perfect for the 4’’ screen, but in home screen it is pretty small. There should be a color change option for it too.
Please put your improvement ideas of SE UI too. We could send this to SE and hope to get them soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good list of things to be told to SE, i think they should include flash player also for web browser , make more than 3 homescreens , change the blue theme to a one that is suitable with most of wallpapers or make an option to change this blue theme , and finally port some options that is included in froyo roms ,if they are not planing for a froyo update
My one wish for SE to change their looks would be simple. Ship with a default, like it is now and then add the option "Enable customisation" which would leave the OS stock Android without the added SE bits.
Majority of people would stick with the default, just look at how few "non-geek" people even change their wallpaper. Let alone going all out to change their UI. But it'd be an awesome option for us powerusers and would take minimal effort on SE's behalf. Give us that option and we'd probably turn in to a great PR machine since the HW is pretty excellent.
Make the volume rocker not increase/decrease the ringer volume when I'm on the home screen. I would make it more like original Sony Ericsson phones and have it bring up the phone's status.
Put some effort into the dialler. My last 3 Sony Ericsson dumb phones have had smart dialling features, this Android Smart phone has the dumbest dialler since the Nokia 3310.
The least they could do is plagiarize the dialler from their own phones.
Simple.
Sony Ericsson = Sony, so they should have gone with XMB from PS3
I like that interface. The only thing is screen. So maybe something like LG Crystal but then in XMB (Xross Media Bar) style
In Mediascape, I would like to be able to set "Music" to always go to my playlists.
Actually, even better would be to have separate mediascape shortcuts for music/video/photo on my homescreen and be able to set what each one defaults to.
Bikram said:
Hi all,
Timescape: It’s pretty slow; there should be an option to turn it off. If you chose this as your home screen then you don’t get weather report. They should have their own customized weather UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used it a bit but found useless and confusing, so I disabled it. I don't think that any improvement would help. I would like to just get rid of it.
Bikram said:
Mediascape: Did use it so don’t know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is actually the best media player I found on Android. I just would like to have a more finger friendly interface and some minor fixes.
Bikram said:
Dialer and Contacts: When I go to the contact of a person and want to call him; by mistake I often press the msg or home number (instead of mobile). The problem is narrow line for each field. Every day I make this mistake (there could be icons, instead of txt field).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly: again the problem is a more finger friendly interface. I also would like to get rid of Timescape things I don't use in the Contact screen.
.
I would like an option to access the media-volume from the home screen, atm i can only access phone-volume and it annoys me
They should also implement a virtual "Accept" or "Deny" button when you receive a call rather then a slide bar, like the iphone for instance.
And of coarse ... the interface! more userfriendly please.. bigger buttons, less text buttons..
Also i am very disappointed with the Top bar on your homescreen, some time ago i was used at using windows mobile and when you tapped the Bar on top with (battery, Signal strength etc) you could actually tap one of these features and you would go directly to the settings for it, for instance with windows mobile if you tapped the Signal strength you went directly to a menu where you could manage your 2G, 3G, GPS, Wifi, bluethooth etc with just one tap and now you cant, or even if you pressed the time you went directly to your alarm, clock, calendar and i would like this to be possible with SE aswell
And one more thing, since we are using a 1ghz processor its obvious we have spare power most of the time and there should be an option to set your device to Low-medium-max performance just like Windows mobile, this will save us tons of battery.
I know i'm whining about windows mobile, but to be honest that were the only 2 features i like about it
What I would like to see improved..
Okay I've had this phone for a while so I feel qualified to speak on this.
1.) I actually love timescape but recognize performance and more options such as changing the background to more animated backgrounds or figuring out a way to add more filters to it (i.e picassa , myspace,etc )
2.) I also like how the messages appear in the infinite screen on a contact and wished it stayed in that view when responding to messages.. That would be hot!!!!
3.) Also the best improvement they could do is allowing pictures from facebook to be saved to the contact when you don't have the contact picture assigned already. That would be helpful and windows mobile had that feature on my prior xperia devices.
clintax said:
They should also implement a virtual "Accept" or "Deny" button when you receive a call rather then a slide bar, like the iphone for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually that they did, if you press the power button it denies the call. I know that's wiered right?

One thing I miss from WinMo...

...is being able to tap on the icons in the status bar and go directly to those settings. I.E. taping the bluetooth icon took you to the bluetooth page to connect a device our change settings, tapping the signal bars took you top phone settings. Etc. is there a way to enable this on the Evo? I would really like this functionality back. I cry a little bit some times when I look at the status bar and there are no greasy finger prints on it. Ok, I don't, but I do feel like killing small fuzzy animals when I do tap them and nothing happens.
Sent from my PC36100 using no tappable status icons, dammit.
Menu>Settings>Yay! Lol I'm playing. Lol I get you though. I don't really miss anything about wm.
Sent From My HTC Evo 4G On The Now Network From Sprint Using Tapatalk Pro!
I miss that too. But I think it wouldn't work well with modern devices that lack the accuracy of a stylus.
WinMo was/is an overall more "detailed" platform since it was designed to have pinpoint input accuracy. The concept of being able to put it in your pocket was an afterthought to the functionality - whereas iPhones and Andriods are designed primarily as a mobile device.
But yes, I do miss a few things from the old days. The Today screen could display so much more information, and I was sort of fond of tabbing GUI elements instead of scrolling lists.
Yes, I agree. Win mo was indeed a business class platform. I used many of its features. I still reach for the stylus arty times. Heh. Overall, I think android had it beat, but I miss certain things.
Oh, and its not just menu, settings. Its menu, settings, wireless controls, bluetooth, and finally (maybe) your settings. On winmo, it was one tap to get there. Heh. Off to kill a kitten.
Sent from my PC36100 using a P95 on a kitteh.

Categories

Resources