HTC EVO and Homebrew.....

[Nitraine21]

Hello Everyone,

I am currently a Pre owner and new to Android Forums, and really loving the specs on this phone. One thing I really loved about the Pre was able to customize the phone with different themes, putting homebrew apps on the phone, and really patching it to fit my needs.

My questions is Will the EVO have these options that I can do to this phone as I could with the Pre? I really do not know much about Android or the HTC, so I apologize in advance if this has been discussed. If I were to have these options availiable like I do on my Pre, I feel that it would be very easy to say goodbye to Web-OS.

Thanks

 

[dylan88]

what i love about android and the Sense UI is the customization. the evo will be my first android phone, but im already thinking of how i will set up the home pages. i own a pre also, and i think you will like the evo more than the pre

 

[Eguy]

You can't patch Android like you can with webOS. There is no such thing as Preware. You can, however, install a custom rom with new features. With Sense UI, you won't really need themes. And lastly, Android supports side loading like webOS, so as long as you have the APK file, you can install it.

 

[Nitraine21]

You can't patch Android like you can with webOS. There is no such thing as Preware. You can, however, install a custom rom with new features. With Sense UI, you won't really need themes. And lastly, Android supports side loading like webOS, so as long as you have the APK file, you can install it.

Interesting...Thanks

I just like having the freedom I have with the Pre, being able to change whatever I'd like whenever.

I also have a tethering app for my pre, now I know the EVO will be its own mobile hotspot for up to 8 devices I believe, but with there being a monthly charge, I would rather not have to pay a monthly fee. The Mytether app I have installed was a one time fee and can use it (sparingly) without having to pay monthly charges. Does android have something like that?

 

[SprintFun]

I posted this in the official thread but I'll post it here. The Evo will run the same interface pretty much (even though this is a different phone):

YouTube - HTC Desire Sense Interface Walkthrough

You will be able to customize the phone more than you could ever imagine...this video just shows the default HTC Sense interface.

 

[billobob]

also, there is no such thing as "homebrew" in android because support for non-market packages is already built into the OS. you just have to press a checkbox and it works fine

 

[Nitraine21]

What about multi-tasking. That is another feature I loved with my Pre. Does it have it?

Or is the idea of moving from widget to widget multi-tasking

 

[SprintFun]

There is multi-tasking - that video just shows widget multitasking I guess, but you can certainly multi-task.

 

[Eguy]

What about multi-tasking. That is another feature I loved with my Pre. Does it have it?

Or is the idea of moving from widget to widget multi-tasking

There are no cards per-se, but we get 7 screens with the EVO. Think of it like the Spaces feature of OS X.

There is no app like my tether, get ready to start paying .

 

[SprintFun]

Pretty sure if you long press "Home" you can multi-task between applications, in addition to the 7 panes of widgets on HTC Sense.

 

[dbpaddler]

missing the point with some of these posts....it's not just installing programs outside of the market, the key thing with homebrew are the patches to make the OS more usable and feature filled. This is not possible in any way shape or form with Android. If I don't like the way the built in whatever works, I can't just add a patch to give it additional functionality. That can be a pain. Like imap folder support. If I want to move emails to folders, in webOS I can add a patch to allow that. Luckily Sense brings that functionality, but stock android doesn't, and you'd have to download K9 to get the functionality and deal with its interface, the good and the bad. So you can get additional functionality that's lacking in the stock OS, but it's going to come by downloading third party apps instead of just adding functionality to the stock OS.

Patches in webOS via Homebrew are rather unique.

And Widgets are static apps that are placed on your home screen in Android. You can have multiple widgets placed anywhere on one of your home screen pages, and they run independently. And as Sprintfun said, that is independent of the long press on the home button that will bring up your recent running apps that you can toggle amongst. Similar to the not so original multitasking in iPhone 4.0 and the recent apps function of PalmOS.