First - Thanks to everyone at this forum, and the mole at InsideSprintNow - You all kept me sane, and laughing throughout this whole customs debacle!
So, I just got my EVO4gLTE last night, and am exploring everything I can do in Sense.
I upgraded from a dying HTC Hero, where I was running Cyanogen 7 (I can't remember the exact version, but something fairly recent.)
I am enjoying Sense, and I am trying to commit to using for at least a month before I start looking for another ROM. (It will also give all the good folks who put them together time to iron out various ROM bugs.)
I did root last night with the method from XDA folks sparkym3 and Dan Rosenburg, and posted by zedomax. (Thanks again, it worked like a charm.)
Sense 4 has a lot to love - the contacts, the widgets, the keyboard. . .
However, as much I am impressed by Sense 4, there are a few (admittedly minor) things that either I miss about CM, or just are annoying about Sense 4. Does anyone know work arounds/substitutes for these?
1.) Screen lock - in CM you could add a buffer between the screen shutting off and the system requiring an unlock. I think I had mine at 10-15 seconds. This was handy when reading and getting distracted, or playing a game, but needing to check in something in real life for a moment. Now it shuts off at a minute, and I have to re-unlock to get back into the phone. Any way to tweak this?
2.) Icons - With a screen resolution as high as this phone has, I really thought I'd be able to pack more icons, shortcuts and widgets into the homescreen. I was surprised to see that we are limited to 4x4! I can understand that HTC wants to show off the pretty wallpaper and so has those huge bumpers - but it really bugs my OCD. I'd love to be able to pack this into 5x5 (I think they should be able to fit). I feel like I am not taking the best advantage of all this lovely screen space.
3.) Controls on the pull-down - When I first went to CM, I didn't like these (for data, bluetooth, airplane, etc. . .) and stuck to homescreen widgets. After about a month, I started using these, and quickly ditched the widgets on my homescreen. Are there any programs that could add these to the pull-down? I am alternating between using the sense/stock power control widget, and Power Controls by Painless Death from the Play Store, but it isn't as satisfying.
4.) Notification Bar - I almost never use the GPS and so I keep this off 99% of the time. Is there any way to remove the ? symbol from the bar - I don't need to be reminded the compass is OFF - All I want to know is if I ever turn it ON.
5.) Messages - I used Chomp and Handscent before that for texting. I loved having a dark background behind the text bubbles. The stock messaging app is working just fine, for now. Is there a way to tweak the background?
6.) App specific permissions - For the most part I never touched this, but there are a few apps that wander into things they have no business touching, such as silly casual games that *have no adds* and don't have downloadable content, or highscores posted online that want to access the internet. I'd love to be able to shut this off.
As I said, these are all relatively minor things - I can certainly live without them. I do think that fixing these would make this just about perfect.
Or perfect until I have had the phone more than 24 hours, and have more time to dig around for other annoyances.
I'm not looking for a new ROM (at least yet).
Do any of you know good ways to address any of these?
Do you have any other gripes along these lines?
Thanks!
So, I just got my EVO4gLTE last night, and am exploring everything I can do in Sense.
I upgraded from a dying HTC Hero, where I was running Cyanogen 7 (I can't remember the exact version, but something fairly recent.)
I am enjoying Sense, and I am trying to commit to using for at least a month before I start looking for another ROM. (It will also give all the good folks who put them together time to iron out various ROM bugs.)
I did root last night with the method from XDA folks sparkym3 and Dan Rosenburg, and posted by zedomax. (Thanks again, it worked like a charm.)
Sense 4 has a lot to love - the contacts, the widgets, the keyboard. . .
However, as much I am impressed by Sense 4, there are a few (admittedly minor) things that either I miss about CM, or just are annoying about Sense 4. Does anyone know work arounds/substitutes for these?
1.) Screen lock - in CM you could add a buffer between the screen shutting off and the system requiring an unlock. I think I had mine at 10-15 seconds. This was handy when reading and getting distracted, or playing a game, but needing to check in something in real life for a moment. Now it shuts off at a minute, and I have to re-unlock to get back into the phone. Any way to tweak this?
2.) Icons - With a screen resolution as high as this phone has, I really thought I'd be able to pack more icons, shortcuts and widgets into the homescreen. I was surprised to see that we are limited to 4x4! I can understand that HTC wants to show off the pretty wallpaper and so has those huge bumpers - but it really bugs my OCD. I'd love to be able to pack this into 5x5 (I think they should be able to fit). I feel like I am not taking the best advantage of all this lovely screen space.
3.) Controls on the pull-down - When I first went to CM, I didn't like these (for data, bluetooth, airplane, etc. . .) and stuck to homescreen widgets. After about a month, I started using these, and quickly ditched the widgets on my homescreen. Are there any programs that could add these to the pull-down? I am alternating between using the sense/stock power control widget, and Power Controls by Painless Death from the Play Store, but it isn't as satisfying.
4.) Notification Bar - I almost never use the GPS and so I keep this off 99% of the time. Is there any way to remove the ? symbol from the bar - I don't need to be reminded the compass is OFF - All I want to know is if I ever turn it ON.
5.) Messages - I used Chomp and Handscent before that for texting. I loved having a dark background behind the text bubbles. The stock messaging app is working just fine, for now. Is there a way to tweak the background?
6.) App specific permissions - For the most part I never touched this, but there are a few apps that wander into things they have no business touching, such as silly casual games that *have no adds* and don't have downloadable content, or highscores posted online that want to access the internet. I'd love to be able to shut this off.
As I said, these are all relatively minor things - I can certainly live without them. I do think that fixing these would make this just about perfect.
Or perfect until I have had the phone more than 24 hours, and have more time to dig around for other annoyances.

I'm not looking for a new ROM (at least yet).
Do any of you know good ways to address any of these?
Do you have any other gripes along these lines?
Thanks!