Sense 3.6: The Good, the Bad, and the WTF [pics]

[ChromeJob]

For me, getting a revamped Sense 3.x is a bit of a letdown after all the ballyhoo over ICS+Sense 4 by HTC. But there ARE some improvements ... to ease the pain of not getting all the new advancements. I don’t have a plain vanilla ICS device on hand to compare with, some of these bullet points may be ICS improvements. I’m simply calling out HTC UI elements and workflows that have improved over ICS 3.0.

The Good

• Speed ... Sense 3.6 is definitely zippier.
  • I can't confirm if it uses the dual-cores though. AnTuTu Benchmark certainly exercised both processors.
• Notifications bar can be accessed without unlocking. (Unless the screen is locked with a face, PIN, password. If your "security lockout period" is 10 minutes but you wake the phone in 9 minutes or less, you can still drag down the Notifications bar.) The events now slide out to the right when cleared, a minor amusement.
• Face unlocking!
• Lock screen shortcuts change with Scenes. This is a big improvement...
  • ... Why? Because the dock shortcuts are also specific to Scenes! This is a huge bonus. If you have a scene for Work, another scene for Air Travel, another for Social Media, your lock screen shortcuts can now be the most frequently used apps for those activities.
• Settings are organized better, wireless settings are on top.
• Folders now created a la iOS (?), drag an icon over another, and voila - you have a folder
  • Deleting a folder is as simple, drag out the second to last app icon
  • Order icons within a folder just by dragging around
• Folders now close by themselves after clicking an app, as well as ...
  • … close by clicking another folder …
  • … close by clicking the home screen ...
  • … close by sneezing (well, it worked once).
• Dock app … now launched from the Clock app (Desktop mode). (It was already there in 3.0, just hidden.)
  • Can now be customized a little more, e.g.
  • the shortcuts,...
  • … the wallpaper (live, static, weather, I’ve tried several). Also, if you use the included HTC wallpapers, rotating the phone while running Dock selects the wallpaper in the appropriate aspect ratio (they're actually 9:8 ratio in the system resource folder). (Doesn't seem to occur with wallpapers in your own folders. )
• Clock app still goes into a portrait/landscape "screensaver mode" if you leave it on in Desk Clock mode; you just don't have a button to force it to.
• Tasks widget is now built-in. [I had this and Notes installed from HTC Hub at one time, perhaps someone else can tell me if they got these widgets new.]
• Notes widget is now built-in.
• Additional Skins available!
  • Basically, new colored UI elements
  • At release, only Valentines, Chinese New Year replace UI elements (lock ring, mode slider) with decorated versions. (Chinese New Year is pretty cool, with gold, engraved objects and change to Digital Clock widget. See screenshot.) Spaceship Earth puts a subtle pattern on some objects. Most skins seem to customize the Notifications drop down handle.
• New live wallpapers. Swirling Galaxy, VU Meter (and rotating music vis wallpaper) seem to be replaced by Holo spiral, Bubbles, Phase Beam. Nexus has been revamped. Streak still seems the only Live Wallpaper that rotates/slides as you slide Home screens.
• Screenshots are now PNG files (as are some of the wallpapers).
• Signal indicator now has 5 bars. Yippee skippy.
• Lock screen Wallpaper mode can have a different wallpaper from the Home screens.

The Bad

• Home screen doesn’t rotate to landscape.
• Skins aren’t saved with Scenes … this may not be bad for you.
• Sound Sets still aren’t saved with Scenes.
• The Applications drawer really hasn’t changed much. It’s still the up-down alphabetical grid nonsense.
• No dedicated “Phone” button to initiate calls with. Third party app Dialer One will add an icon to the notifications drop down, or you can tap+hold the Search softkey. Depends upon the third party dialer app you decided to use.
• No Car Home app launched with Car Mode (I had an old one installed, so if anyone can offer different evidence, please do).
• Tags apps has disappeared. NFC support is still listed in Wireless, so hopefully there's a new app/function coming (Android beaming?). Something still reads tags (e.g. library book RFID sticker), then makes a "never mind" like sound.
• Speaking of the Home screen, in 3.0 when you rearranged the screens (pinch the screen, then tap+hold a screen and drag it to a new position), the the screen in the center positino was always the "front & center," main home screen. Now, the "primary" home screen is fixed, regardless of what position you put it in.[1]
• Bluetooth FTP server, which worked fine under 2.3.4/3.0, is now flakey and generally fails. Sending files to a laptop (XP Pro) is flakey; it'll fail three or four attempts, then without changing anything but BT visibility, sending files succeeds.

The WTF (these aren’t necessarily good or bad, depends upon personal taste) :-\

• No additional downloadable widgets? Not even Sand Timer (glad I had it installed).
• If there’s an HTC widget that’s now resizeable, I can’t find it.
• From Home screen, Menu softkey only brings up 3 choices (Personalize, Wallpaper, Settings), vice the 6 you had before. Is this an improvement? You decide.
• Dock App … not really upgraded, just minor improvements.
• No new lock screen styles. Really.
• When you create a new Scene, it still starts up with a blank slate of Home screens and dock apps. Would it be asking too much to base the new one on the current Scene, or at least give us a "Copy" feature to make a template Scene that we can base others on (so that the most-used shortcut/apps don't have to be recreated every time)??

[1] Why is this bad? Used to be you could have two "center" home screens, and swap them based on activity or circumstances. E.g. I have a "Travel" Scene that has a screen with clocks and weather for my present location, and destination. It also has the airplane mode widget, and a few other things that I want to operate when we land, and before we take off. I then have another screen with games, movie player, news feed reader, Currents, magazine reader, things I'll do in flight. I could switch these home screens around, so that in flight the "home" softkey would take me to the screen that I'd dragged to the home screen. Not anymore, the softkey now takes you to the primary Home screen, regardless of where it is.

The Sense 3.6 home screen:

Chinese New Year's skin:

The Dock app:

The Valentine's Day skin features:

Keep trying, some HTC widgets are resizeable after you tap+hold them, as if you were moving them.

P.S. for those who didn't see my other other post: T-Mobile has already posted updated versions of the "Getting Started" and "User Guide" manuals. The latter was only just modified 5/24/2012, so "hot off the presses."

 

[ChromeJob]

[extra post for subsequent images]

 

[ChromeJob]

I've noticed some hidden "features," not quite Easter eggs....

• If you press Home twice to display all the screens ... and press with two fingers, the Dock and Notifications bar appear. Click an icon on the Dock to launch that app; drag down the Notifications bar and click an item. Once they've appeared, just keep one finger on the screen, and touch/flick with the other (IOW one finger holds the Dock and Notifications bar on screen).

 

[oryan_dunn]

The Good

• Dock app … now launched from the Clock app (Desktop mode). (It was already there in 3.0, just hidden.)
  • Can now be customized a little more, e.g.
  • the shortcuts,...
  • … the wallpaper (live, static, weather, I’ve tried several). Also, if you use the included HTC wallpapers, rotating the phone while running Dock selects the wallpaper in the appropriate aspect ratio (they're actually 9:8 ratio in the system resource folder). (Doesn't seem to occur with wallpapers in your own folders. )

This is something I use since I have the official HTC desktop dock. I really like the app draw built in, that was a huge problem with the old Dock Mode app. Also, I didn't know you could launch the Dock Mode from the clock app, cool.

• Tasks widget is now built-in. [I had this and Notes installed from HTC Hub at one time, perhaps someone else can tell me if they got these widgets new.]

I didn't have Tasks installed before, but I've got it now. Really handy and works well with my Hotmail tasks I already have online.

• Signal indicator now has 5 bars. Yippee skippy.

I noticed this as well. Also, the 2G icon now looks the same as the 4G (size wise). I'd like the bars to be colorized like I've seen in some custom skins, like 1 red bar, 3 yellow bars, 5 green bars, etc.

The Bad

• No dedicated “Phone” button to initiate calls with; you can tap+hold the Search softkey, though. Third party app Dialer One will add an icon to the notifications drop down.

tap+hold on search soft key launches the voice search, not the phone

• No Car Home app launched with Car Mode (I had an old one installed, so if anyone can offer different evidence, please do).

I've got the HTC car dock as well, and in both GB and ICS there wasn't an HTC Car Dock app. I use CarHome Ultra that launches when I put the phone in the car dock. I'm glad they didn't include their Car Dock app, as my girlfriend's Evo 3D has it, and it's not that good. And if the phone had it, apparently it can be hard to get it to launch CarHome Ultra instead when you put it in the car dock.

The WTF (these aren’t necessarily good or bad, depends upon personal taste) :-\

• No additional downloadable widgets? Not even Sand Timer (glad I had it installed).

I had the HTC Battery Widget, but lost it when I did a factory reset after the ICS update, and couldn't get it back. I had to download a 3rd party widget.

• When you create a new Scene, it still starts up with a blank slate of Home screens and dock apps. Would it be asking too much to base the new one on the current Scene, or at least give us a "Copy" feature to make a template Scene that we can base others on (so that the most-used shortcut/apps don't have to be recreated every time)??

How do you make a new scene?

The GOOD:

• LOVE the new font. Makes all the difference in the world.
• Keyboard seems to be more accurate
• Awesome new animations: screen rotation, gallery app, menu popups etc.
• I really like the way you can swipe away individual notifcations
• Long-press home button works great, I like that I'm able to kill individual apps by swiping them away
• Like the new layout of the settings menu, with network toggles inline
• All around seems very speedy.
• Friendstream seems much faster
• I like that I can disable apps T-Mobile Mall, 411, etc. (only I couldn't disable T-Mobile Name ID)
• I'm sure there's more I'm missing

The BAD:

• I've noticed several problems with the cell radio and battery life. If I disable mobile data, I'm not able to re-enable the data (says grayed out "turning on") and I have to reset to get mobile data back. Also, it's missing the option "Enable Always-On Mobile Data" that I had unchecked. While on 4G, I get much worse battery life than I did before. I think the mobile data is always on when the phone isn't really being used, causing much more battery use. While on WiFi, I get awesome battery life.
  
• Also, system sounds aren't very loud (think keyboard clicks, weather animation sounds). They're missing a System volume slider in the menu. I downloaded an app called AudioManager, which has a system volume slider, but it was all the way up already.
  
• Trace input doesn't work on lockscreen keyboard, seems to be some issue with how ICS handles password fields and keyboards.

 

[ChromeJob]

.... tap+hold on search soft key launches the voice search, not the phone

Quite right. Dialer One does this. (I luvs Dialer One. A truly superduper dialer.)

... How do you make a new scene?

Menu | New, List, Delete, Rename.

[*]Awesome new animations: screen rotation, gallery app, menu popups etc.

Try QuickPic. Friend recommended it to me, and I've hardly used Gallery since.

[*]I really like the way you can swipe away individual notifcations

OH! I hadn't tried that! I usually just use Clear; I have a lot of notifications pile up during the day, without sound.

• Long-press home button works great, I like that I'm able to kill individual apps by swiping them away
• Like the new layout of the settings menu, with network toggles inline
• All around seems very speedy.
• Friendstream seems much faster
• I like that I can disable apps T-Mobile Mall, 411, etc. (only I couldn't disable T-Mobile Name ID)
• I'm sure there's more I'm missing

Oh yes, a lot of very practical usability improvements. Oh, and disabling factory apps in Manage Applications prevents them from notification of newer versions on the Play store, something that I was really hating (I left the 8 or so T-Mo cruftware apps untouched, unused).

... While on 4G, I get much worse battery life than I did before. I think the mobile data is always on when the phone isn't really being used, causing much more battery use. While on WiFi, I get awesome battery life.

I haven't seen this, you might try reviewing all the apps that are syncing, perhaps dial them all down for a day. Or boot in Safe Mode as well, see what happens for a typical day in that configuration.

[*]Also, system sounds aren't very loud (think keyboard clicks, weather animation sounds). They're missing a System volume slider in the menu. I downloaded an app called AudioManager, which has a system volume slider, but it was all the way up already.

Hadn't noticed this much. There does seem to be less volume options. No matter, I use Llama and set volumes based on location & profile. I miss that from my ol' Nokia, Llama gave me back that control.

[*]Trace input doesn't work on lockscreen keyboard, seems to be some issue with how ICS handles password fields and keyboards.

I confess I'd been using PIN unlock, and now use face unlocking. Love it. Though I'm getting tired of seeing my own face! :-\

 

[oryan_dunn]

I haven't seen this, you might try reviewing all the apps that are syncing, perhaps dial them all down for a day. Or boot in Safe Mode as well, see what happens for a typical day in that configuration.

Yeah, I'll give safe mode a try. I was thinking if it were an app that was causing it, then I'd have similarily poor battery life on WiFi. I also tried with leaving the mobile data enabled, but disabling auto-sync, and after my 9hr shift, lost 30%.

One other thing that works properly now are event reminder notifications on the lock screen. Before the update, if you dragged 'Dismiss' to the lock screen circle, it'd open the reminder up. Now, it actually just dismisses the reminder.

 

[ChromeJob]

Yeah, I'll give safe mode a try. I was thinking if it were an app that was causing it, then I'd have similarily poor battery life on WiFi. I also tried with leaving the mobile data enabled, but disabling auto-sync, and after my 9hr shift, lost 30%.

One other thing that works properly now are event reminder notifications on the lock screen. Before the update, if you dragged 'Dismiss' to the lock screen circle, it'd open the reminder up. Now, it actually just dismisses the reminder.

I'll watch my reminders, I hadn't noticed the change, but I've got both the Android and Touchdown calendars popping up.

I have either the HTC data or power dashboard widgets on every scene, they're very handy -- you can disable Autosync with a single button. The Autosync widget will resync when you want it. (Though I use Llama actions to control syncing, and fire off a refresh when I arrive at home or work, where bandwidth and charging is plentiful.)

// Sent from my Interociter using the AC forum app //

 

[ChromeJob]

Wait, do you have the Tasks tool syncing Hotmail? I couldnt find a way to sync Tasks with anything, let along my Gmail or Google Hosted Apps.

 

[oryan_dunn]

So, after a bit more time, here are a few more things:

Good:

• If you get a text message while the phone is locked, it shows in your lockscreen. You can drag that message to the lock ring to open messages directly to that message (super handy and a friend with the Evo LTE showed me that).
• The "Enable Always-On Mobile Data" option that when unchecked saved battery is missing, however the option is still there, just a bit less usable as now, the option - when enabled - puts a "!" mark in the notification tray and stays there until you disable the restriction on background data

Enable Always-On Mobile was technically removed but if you go to Settings, Usage, then tap on the Menu button and go to Usage Settings, you can enable Restrict Background Data and this pretty much serves the same purpose. On the Usage screen you will need to set a data limit for your phone in order to enable this option.

More Bad:

• Due to the Apple lawsuit, the standard android behaviour of asking what to do when you click a youtube, google play, etc. link doesn't work. Now, it just takes you to the web page, and doesn't give you the option of using the app to open the link.
• HTC confirmed they took away the ability to download extra widgets in the HTC Hub. My friend with the Evo LTE also cannot download widgets. So, I don't have the HTC Battery Widget or the Sand Timer any more.

HTC Support also said they'd forward on my lockscreen passord/Trace input issue to their R&D team to see if it's something they could add back in (not holding my breath on this one).

 

[oryan_dunn]

I'll watch my reminders, I hadn't noticed the change, but I've got both the Android and Touchdown calendars popping up.

I have either the HTC data or power dashboard widgets on every scene, they're very handy -- you can disable Autosync with a single button. The Autosync widget will resync when you want it. (Though I use Llama actions to control syncing, and fire off a refresh when I arrive at home or work, where bandwidth and charging is plentiful.)

// Sent from my Interociter using the AC forum app //

So, another test I did was to leave mobile data on, but disable auto-sync, after 9hrs at work, I lost 30%. So, it's not really the autosync that is using the battery, just the mobile network. I just put a widget on the homescreen to toggle mobile data, and will disable/enable it before/after work. In my previous post, I showed how to enable a similar option in ICS, but it doesn't work as elegantly.

 

[oryan_dunn]

Wait, do you have the Tasks tool syncing Hotmail? I couldnt find a way to sync Tasks with anything, let along my Gmail or Google Hosted Apps.

So, I have both the Hotmail app and have my hotmail account setup in the Sense mail app as an Exchange ActiveSync account. I have mail notification turned off in the Sense app, but this way, I can see emails in the contact card for a person. It's the Exchange account that syncs with the tasks app, as that's one of the settings in the Account & Sync properties for Exchange. It pulled in all my tasks from Hotmail into the Tasks app.

 

[anon(394005)]

No dedicated ?Phone? button to initiate calls with.

There's no "Phone" button in the very left side of the dock as shown below? It's supposed to be the default setting unless you remove or change it.

HTC Sense 3.6 preview -- Engadget

 

[ChromeJob]

So, after a bit more time, here are a few more things:

• If you get a text message while the phone is locked, it shows in your lockscreen. You can drag that message to the lock ring to open messages directly to that message (super handy and a friend with the Evo LTE showed me that).

That's an option in Settings | Privacy, missed calls and messages on the Lock Screen. I've always just dragged the Messages app icon (which shows the # of new msgs), never tried the display in the center.

More Bad:

• Due to the Apple lawsuit, the standard android behaviour of asking what to do when you click a youtube, google play, etc. link doesn't work. Now, it just takes you to the web page, and doesn't give you the option of using the app to open the link.
• HTC confirmed they took away the ability to download extra widgets in the HTC Hub. My friend with the Evo LTE also cannot download widgets. So, I don't have the HTC Battery Widget or the Sand Timer any more.

Apple has really ticked me off with their action. One of the things I really liked with this phone (and my two Nokias that did this, before there ever WAS an iPhone!) was the intelligent launching of a dedicated app.

The HTC Battery widget is pretty banal. You can get a better on one on the market. The Sand Timer is cute, it ties in with the Clock app. The other HTC widgets ... meh. Still, HTC seems to be dropping something they could garner customer loyalty with, quite easily.

There's no "Phone" button in the very left side of the dock as shown below? It's supposed to be the default setting unless you remove or change it.

That's just a short cut, that you can configure with any app. Sense 3.0 had a DEDICATED button in the center that launched the Phone app (or a third party dialer, if installed). The Sense app drawer has now been replaced with a version of the ICS dock, with an app button in the center.

Before you say, "but you can put the Phone app in one of the four app positions," I already know that I can. I liked the dedicated button that was there regardless of other customizations. Minor quibble. Dialer One can put its icon on the Notifications drop down, which is just as handy, so long as the system bar is displayed.

 

[oryan_dunn]

That's an option in Settings | Privacy, missed calls and messages on the Lock Screen. I've always just dragged the Messages app icon (which shows the # of new msgs), never tried the display in the center.

Yeah, it showed on the lockscreen before, it's the dragging to open the message that's new. I always hated when it showed the new text, i'd drag the messaging app to the lock ring, it'd open, but then I'd need to click on the person who text me, so with this, it opens right to that person.

Apple has really ticked me off with their action. One of the things I really liked with this phone (and my two Nokias that did this, before there ever WAS an iPhone!) was the intelligent launching of a dedicated app.

Yeah, count me as one pissed future non-Apple customer.

The HTC Battery widget is pretty banal. You can get a better on one on the market. The Sand Timer is cute, it ties in with the Clock app. The other HTC widgets ... meh. Still, HTC seems to be dropping something they could garner customer loyalty with, quite easily.

Yeah, I've already got a new battery widget that looks just like the HTC one, but has a bit more functionality. I'm not too bummed, but I'd still like to have seen those widgets.

I'd also like to see more skins. I've been using the Chinese New Year theme, and I really like it, how it makes it look different than any other phone out there.

 

[anon(394005)]

That's just a short cut, that you can configure with any app. Sense 3.0 had a DEDICATED button in the center that launched the Phone app (or a third party dialer, if installed). The Sense app drawer has now been replaced with a version of the ICS dock, with an app button in the center.

Click to view quoted image


Before you say, "but you can put the Phone app in one of the four app positions," I already know that I can. I liked the dedicated button that was there regardless of other customizations. Minor quibble. Dialer One can put its icon on the Notifications drop down, which more handy, so long as the system bar is displayed.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I agree and like the older dock I currently have with Sense 2.1 on the Thunderbolt. I was hoping there was an option to have the older dock when we get Sense 3.6 (with ICS) later this year. Although that new dock is more customizable, I find it rather ugly and kind of cheap looking, reminds me of some third party launchers.

 

[ChromeJob]

Another added bonus ... the Notes app (with two home screen widgets). It only syncs with Evernote (wouldn't Dropbox been a more likely partner, with the bonus Dropbox storage provided with One series phones? ),[1] but if your other note taking apps (desktop) sync with Evernote (as I do with gSyncIt to Outlook 2003), this is great.

[1] I'm actually not disappointed, you can't directly edit notes in Dropbox as you can with Evernote or Google Docs/Drive. :'(

Unfortunately, the widget's display of fonts is craptastic ... "Greeking" the text no matter what size it is on Evernote.

 

[ChromeJob]

i've determined that the in-call screen (contact pic, name, number, mute and speaker buttons, big "End Call" button) is portrait only regardless of phone position. The active call screen is landscape if you're in Car Mode (generally initiated by putting the phone in a car dock.)

Forcing the phone into Car Mode (I use Llama do to it, automagically when my car connects via Bluetooth, or manually via shortcut) works, too. And the desk clock switches to landscape (all modes, World Time, Desk, Alarm, Stopwatch, Timer), as does the Phone app, Contacts, Calendar, and probably other HTC apps. Pity that we have to fake "Car Mode" just to get landscape displays. (Note that apps by Google and third parties will switch to landscape just based on the unit's sensor. Why couldn't HTC's programmers manage this?)

Warning! Trying to personalize or change the Scene (home screen) while in Car mode will cause the Personalize app to crash. You have been warned.

 

[ChromeJob]

I discovered quite by accident this week that if you have less than the seven home screens configured for the current scene,[1] and you add a widget for which there is no room on the current home screens, Sense will automagically add an additional screen for the new widget.

Someone on T-Mo's support forums claim that you can change which home screen is the center one, but his/her instructions fail, and I can't find any other.

[1] To remove unwanted screens: Hit Home twice, or pinch-zoom-out a home screen, to show all screens. Drag any but the highlighted center home screen to the upper-right trash can.