[MrSmith317]

So I started to slowly move away from Sense...I really think I've had about enough of it and learned all I'm going to from it. So I de-sensed, installed Launcher Pro, Go SMS, etc. Just wondering what some of you other guys/gals are using for replacement/supplemental apps. Here's mine so far.

Launcher: Launcher Pro
Email: K-9
Browser: Dolphin HD
Messages: Go SMS Pro
Voice: Vlingo (Well I would if it worked right on this phone)

[smokinHawk]

sense is the reason I got the phone, but to each their own.

[Dovahkiin]

I agree with Go SMS. I loved everything about it, except how it would freeze for an eternity if you tried to delete threads that had more than 500 messages. It might've been the OG Droid being unable to handle such a task, but who knows.
I had Dolphin as well. It would always shiznit the bed whenever more than 4 tabs were open at the same time. Again, might've been the OG Droid crapping out on me.

Sense is good, but I'm ready for permanent root and ROMs.

[citan]

running Go Launcher which is pretty nice...

anyone hook up a SMS app to Google Voice texting?

[bigcatman]

Adw ex, handcent, dolphin hd, gmail.

[tony bag o donuts]

So I started to slowly move away from Sense...I really think I've had about enough of it and learned all I'm going to from it. So I de-sensed, installed Launcher Pro, Go SMS, etc. Just wondering what some of you other guys/gals are using for replacement/supplemental apps. Here's mine so far.

Launcher: Launcher Pro
Email: K-9
Browser: Dolphin HD
Messages: Go SMS Pro
Voice: Vlingo (Well I would if it worked right on this phone)

on my dinc:
ADW Launcher ex
Messages: CHOMP SMS
HD Widgets 2.0
Beautiful Widgets
calwidget
But this is rooted.

may become a rezound but if no root is around it is nexus for me I think.

[sbb888]

MrSmith317, I also can't get vlingo to work. Do you have any idea why?

[tony bag o donuts]

MrSmith317, I also can't get vlingo to work. Do you have any idea why?

I thought it had to do with the lack of an FM radio but I know that's not why.
It was hit or miss on Dincs until people rooted to be honest.

[humpagardengnome]

So I started to slowly move away from Sense...I really think I've had about enough of it and learned all I'm going to from it. So I de-sensed, installed Launcher Pro, Go SMS, etc. Just wondering what some of you other guys/gals are using for replacement/supplemental apps. Here's mine so far.

Launcher: Launcher Pro
Email: K-9
Browser: Dolphin HD
Messages: Go SMS Pro
Voice: Vlingo (Well I would if it worked right on this phone)

How much ram is available when running this configuration?

[tony bag o donuts]

Go takes up a lot of resources imho and I stopped using their launcher because add a theme to it and it is an fc. Loved their calendar widget. I never used their sms app. Rumors were that they were storing data on servers in japan. Or so I read on xda.

[Dovahkiin]

MrSmith, I have 2 3 questions I'd like to ask, if you don't mind answering.

1.) Does your setup take up more resources than Sense, or is it about the same? If it's less, I'm sold.
2.) How does battery life with your setup compare to Sense?
3.) With Sense disabled, would our ICS OTA still go through, or would we need to re-enable Sense?

[tony bag o donuts]

You will still get otas.
You are basically adding a skin on top of another skin so unless it stays disabled via temp root, it will take up more resources but will be negligible unless you are using resource intensive apps

[MrSmith317]

MrSmith, I have 2 3 questions I'd like to ask, if you don't mind answering.

1.) Does your setup take up more resources than Sense, or is it about the same? If it's less, I'm sold.
2.) How does battery life with your setup compare to Sense?
3.) With Sense disabled, would our ICS OTA still go through, or would we need to re-enable Sense?

1) Nope. Sense is heavy on memory usage, and rightfully so. All of the integration it has forces it to use a lot of memory but that's not a bad thing. LP uses significantly less because it is significantly less. I like it that way. I'm currently running with 425MB free

2) No clue, my extended battery runs at least 24 hours. I'm currently testing the standard batt but it looks like 14 hours

3) Yes, OTAs will still happen. Just like apps that are disabled still get updated, the OTA will still go through because the apps are still in place, just not being used.

[Dovahkiin]

1) Nope. Sense is heavy on memory usage, and rightfully so. All of the integration it has forces it to use a lot of memory but that's not a bad thing. LP uses significantly less because it is significantly less. I like it that way. I'm currently running with 425MB free

2) No clue, my extended battery runs at least 24 hours. I'm currently testing the standard batt but it looks like 14 hours

3) Yes, OTAs will still happen. Just like apps that are disabled still get updated, the OTA will still go through because the apps are still in place, just not being used.

Thanks. That should seal the deal for me, then. 14 hours of battery is pretty much the same as Sense, though. I'm now assuming that the true power hog is the screen itself.

[MrSmith317]

Thanks. That should seal the deal for me, then. 14 hours of battery is pretty much the same as Sense, though. I'm now assuming that the true power hog is the screen itself.

Oh it is. Hands down. I played about an hour of Angry Birds yesterday with my daughter and looked at battery usage. Angry birds had 4% but it added ~25% to my display usage.

[Dovahkiin]

Oh it is. Hands down. I played about an hour of Angry Birds yesterday with my daughter and looked at battery usage. Angry birds had 4% but it added ~25% to my display usage.

I was still in the denial stage about larger, HD resolution screens killing your battery. I shifted the blame entirely on 4G, and I may be right for the most part, maybe a small part.
I would like a sub-section on "Display" usage so that we can see exactly what was on the screen or what app was using the screen the most.
And if next-gen phones don't have a substantial upgrade in the battery department, I'm not even gonna bother upgrading. Around 14 hours of usage is alright with me, I'd prefer more. But any more doo-dads and phones are gonna start running on 8 hours of juice with moderate usage. Screw that noise.

[MrSmith317]

I was still in the denial stage about larger, HD resolution screens killing your battery. I shifted the blame entirely on 4G, and I may be right for the most part, maybe a small part.
I would like a sub-section on "Display" usage so that we can see exactly what was on the screen or what app was using the screen the most.
And if next-gen phones don't have a substantial upgrade in the battery department, I'm not even gonna bother upgrading. Around 14 hours of usage is alright with me, I'd prefer more. But any more doo-dads and phones are gonna start running on 8 hours of juice with moderate usage. Screw that noise.

Well we already have source for this phone so if they can figure a way to get S-Off, we can get undervolted kernels to make the phone last that much longer.

[boshjernal]

vlingo's working fine on my rezound...

[Dovahkiin]

Alright, I disabled Sense and went with "The Replacements" look for a while. I hated it. I grew accustomed to Sense for some reason. The launchers on the Market never really felt "official" enough to keep, and I missed some of the widgets I had on Sense. However, I had 400 MB of free space, MINIMUM (#winning). Sense is a resource hog, no doubt.
Also, I noticed I lost my trusty Network Toggle widget when I re-enabled Sense. If anyone knows how I could get that back, I'd greatly appreciate it.

[bigcatman]

Alright, I disabled Sense and went with "The Replacements" look for a while. I hated it. I grew accustomed to Sense for some reason. The launchers on the Market never really felt "official" enough to keep, and I missed some of the widgets I had on Sense. However, I had 400 MB of free space, MINIMUM (#winning). Sense is a resource hog, no doubt.
Also, I noticed I lost my trusty Network Toggle widget when I re-enabled Sense. If anyone knows how I could get that back, I'd greatly appreciate it.

If sense let me go 5x5 home screen I'd be all over it. Unfortunately, the launchers spoiled me in this regard and now I can't stand the look of 4x4. It's like going from 1280x728 to 800x600 on a desktop for me lol. I'll stick with adw for now, I do however miss the fluidity of sense on this phone.

[Dovahkiin]

If sense let me go 5x5 home screen I'd be all over it. Unfortunately, the launchers spoiled me in this regard and now I can't stand the look of 4x4. It's like going from 1280x728 to 800x600 on a desktop for me lol. I'll stick with adw for now, I do however miss the fluidity of sense on this phone.

I feel that Sense is special in this regard. For being the "heaviest" of the skins, it feels the smoothest and packs the most features.
I don't like the space between icons on 4x4 either, but I doubt a fix is in the works until Sense 4.0 or ICS. For the meantime, I can live with it.

[bigcatman]

I feel that Sense is special in this regard. For being the "heaviest" of the skins, it feels the smoothest and packs the most features.
I don't like the space between icons on 4x4 either, but I doubt a fix is in the works until Sense 4.0 or ICS. For the meantime, I can live with it.

If they fix it in ICS, I'll definitely stick with sense, or if someone has a work around.

[MrSmith317]

I think Sense will be making a blur/touchwiz like change in Sense 4.0 which will basically leave it mostly icons and widgets. I sincerely hope so because I hate the way HTC changes some basic apps like messages and email. I don't mind the skinning but the changes in functionality have to go.

[Dovahkiin]

I think Sense will be making a blur/touchwiz like change in Sense 4.0 which will basically leave it mostly icons and widgets. I sincerely hope so because I hate the way HTC changes some basic apps like messages and email. I don't mind the skinning but the changes in functionality have to go.

I wouldn't mind this. I recall seeing a few "trusted source" comments and a few articles about how HTC and possibly Motorola (count out Samsung, their Galaxy SII and Note ICS versions are confirmed to have TouchWiz) are considering toning down skins to a minimum, or dropping them altogether.
I have hope for this, as Matias Duarte explained how the goal of ICS was to add in the functionality that was left out of stock Android, but added in by OEM skins. I'm paraphrasing here, but he said that rather than have the manufacturer's try to fill the gaps left in vanilla Android, they'd only need to try and improve it, because ICS had everything needed plus some.
Yes, this was the goal of other vanilla Android versions. But we're at the point where there's really not much to add, and so skins are becoming more and more irrelevant.

[MrSmith317]

I wouldn't mind this. I recall seeing a few "trusted source" comments and a few articles about how HTC and possibly Motorola (count out Samsung, their Galaxy SII and Note ICS versions are confirmed to have TouchWiz) are considering toning down skins to a minimum, or dropping them altogether.
I have hope for this, as Matias Duarte explained how the goal of ICS was to add in the functionality that was left out of stock Android, but added in by OEM skins. I'm paraphrasing here, but he said that rather than have the manufacturer's try to fill the gaps left in vanilla Android, they'd only need to try and improve it, because ICS had everything needed plus some.
Yes, this was the goal of other vanilla Android versions. But we're at the point where there's really not much to add, and so skins are becoming more and more irrelevant.

Blur was always irrelevant. Touchwiz just screwed everything up, and well Sense is probably the only widely positively regarded UI in the Android collective. Hopefully ICS really does unify us all under one umbrella and let's people stop talking fragmentation and start talking about why Android is an all around solution for smartphones. From there, re-visit the value, medium, and premium tier phones and optimize the OS on that given device so you get the best possible experience instead of generic BS like the phones on Cricket running 2.1.