For toggle widgets, look at OneClick Widget from "WeDroid". It includes GPS, WiFi, Brightness, Airplane mode, and more.
Wanted to add add'l information about these. They are one-click, just like the HTC widgets, and unlike some others that simply take you to the "settings" menu. One widget's info in the market even said "blame Google" for the lack of one-click ability...
OK I need some feedback... After loving sense for several months now the novelty has worn off and I have purchased widgets that i am very happy with that I feel are better than the sense ones. So recently I killed off sense to try home out with the widgets I have to see if I could hang with 3 screens vs 7. I found that 3 is more than enough as I can use folders to group apps in on one screen which acts just like another screen. I was never using my far left and right screen anyway and after the 2.1 update we will get 5 with stock android. I have noticed definite response time increase in the dialer as well as load times for music and photos. The response from these were already optimized a bit as I had purchased a 16Gb class 6 card so load times for music and photos were helped by that but general phone response wasn't affected much by the addition of the class 6 card.
So my question is I have made the switch to having home as my default vs sense and gone to astra tm to kill off sense, freeing up 10.57Mb of memory (yes i have heard the arguments that free memory doesn't matter to Linux bases systems) but it keeps restarting the sense process within 5-10 min. Is there a way, without and actively searching task killer to keep processes like sense and footprints killed off permanently? Below are m screen shots running home and the process monitor with the memory sense uses.
Last edited by n2imagination; February 9th, 2010 at 02:24 PM.
Wanted to add add'l information about these. They are one-click, just like the HTC widgets, and unlike some others that simply take you to the "settings" menu. One widget's info in the market even said "blame Google" for the lack of one-click ability...
This is what I've been wondering. Seeing as Sense keeps turning itself back on, how can there be a benefit to using Home?
Those three icons on the very bottom for phone, settings, and widgets? Those don't load up as do neither of the crap associated with them that we don't really see. Like most of us have mentioned, it isn't a world of a difference, but it is a difference. You may do it and see nothing at all. It varies. The same way someone who is a "heavy user" makes a phone last 8 hours, and then another that makes it a day, and then the rarer one who makes it two days on a charge. The user, as well as the phone, is different and these things vary accordingly.
At the end of the day, it's "do what you wanna do." No one has proof, just anecdotal evidence.
This is what I've been wondering. Seeing as Sense keeps turning itself back on, how can there be a benefit to using Home?
Hmmm, Sense is NOT running on mine. I checked for it as a service too and made sure Astro's task manager wasn't hiding any items.
Did you do a "Force Stop" on it ? Seem to recall that I did. I also haven't rebooted my phone in a few days and I wonder if when I do, Sense will re-launch.
so just wondering... would you both feel the same way if/when update comes and we get 5 screens on stock eris? That is if HTC doesn't update sense in any other major way (which I hope they do give us some cool sense updates for as long as it has taken to get it done).
so just wondering... would you both feel the same way if/when update comes and we get 5 screens on stock eris? That is if HTC doesn't update sense in any other major way (which I hope they do give us some cool sense updates for as long as it has taken to get it done).
It isn't really the number of screens that Sense offers. I do like having seven screens, but I could live without 2 of them. The widgets and the way it all works together is what makes the difference for me. I like what HTC did with Sense and it is one of the things that really made me want the Eris.
@OTD
I defiantly agree. That is why I have "sold" several friends on the sense devices also. I am only giving this a shot in an attempt to gain a bit more snap from the device. I truly hope that THE GREAT UPDATE (as it should be called in my op) cures some of the dialer lag, and trims enough fat that sense feels as quick as home. If that is the case I will be back on sense pretty quickly.
I'm on day 2 of a sense-less Eris , and I am missing the widgets a lot.. I've found a couple that are good, I have weatherbug widget but I Really liked the stock Clock/Weather widget that came with Sense.. n2imagination has one that is very similar , where di you get that?
I'm going to go the whole week on home and then make my final decision.. I do notice it is much quicker but last night I swithched back to Sense (using homeswitcher) and it was faster then before
(just to note I didn't have any lag on my eris until last weekend at it really aggervated me, which cause the home switch )
The sense was why I bought the Eris. If I wanted a phone that looked like the moto droid I would have bought the moto droid.
I wonder if you did what I did: annoyed the guy in the store by playing with one for quite a while, then on to the other one.
I found the Eris to feel better in a lot of ways, it is only after trying the "home" tweak to disable Sense yesterday that I realize why I liked the Eris in the store that day more than the Droid: it's Sense all around that makes the Eris what it is.
The sense was why I bought the Eris. If I wanted a phone that looked like the moto droid I would have bought the moto droid.
Sense was only one of the reason I switched from the Droid (probably the smallest)
The biggest reason was the form, feel and look.. It was just uncomfortable , the keyboard was too small and flat (this was all brought back to me when playing with a friends new droid I just really don't like it)
IMO the Eris is a better device with or without sense then the Droid (eventhough I am the first to admit the Droid is faster and has the nicer screen)
The calendar widget and music widget are called pure calendar and pure music. Made by Francois DESLANDES. They are in the market. He is a great dev that truly pays attention to what his clients want. They are both skinnable and come with many preset skins. Oh yeah, he is almost done with integration of gtasks in the pure cal also. It already supports Astrid but I prefer gtasks.
The weather/time and the toggle widgets are beautiful widgets (also in market) made by LevelUp Studio. I use the smaller home, which is the time/weather. It comes with a larger home also and both have beautiful animations for the weather effects. Being a graphic designer I have gone in and replaced the bkgnd of the home widget with a graphic that matches my background (which btw is from an amazing artist here yuumei's Gallery). Check out his latest comic Knite. It is beautiful.
The lock screen is lockbot by JackDoIt(in market). It is fully customizable so you can use Iphone, Hero, Eclair, or Flan type unlocks. It also allows you to create your own skins and looks with your own gfx. I also like it because it allows you to wake your device with the volume rocker and even unlock it via shake. Too many more options to even list here.
Last edited by n2imagination; February 9th, 2010 at 05:11 PM.
The calendar widget and music widget are called pure calendar and pure music. Made by Francois DESLANDES. They are in the market. He is a great dev that truly pays attention to what his clients want. They are both skinnable and come with many preset skins. Oh yeah, he is almost done with integration of gtasks in the pure cal also. It already supports Astrid but I prefer gtasks.
The weather/time and the toggle widgets are beautiful widgets (also in market) made by LevelUp Studio. I use the smaller home, which is the time/weather. It comes with a larger home also and both have beautiful animations for the weather effects. Being a graphic designer I have gone in and replaced the bkgnd of the home widget with a graphic that matches my background (which btw is from an amazing artist here yuumei's Gallery). Check out his latest comic Knite. It is beautiful.
The lock screen is lockbot by JackDoIt(in market). It is fully customizable so you can use Iphone, Hero, Eclair, or Flan type unlocks. It also allows you to create your own skins and looks with your own gfx. I also like it because it allows you to wake your device with the volume rocker and even unlock it via shake. Too many more options to even list here.
Awesome info n2imagination, thanks! I didn't realize that was the same PureCalendar as the OP, it's very different looking on yours.
Thanks for the response, this developer is making some money off of this thread
Last edited by terigox; February 9th, 2010 at 05:23 PM.
No prob. I love referring devs that do good work and care about their buyers. Hopefully more sales = more cool stuff from them. I hope to be a functioning dev soon but am still playing with the SDK getting to know it. I could use a crash course or two.
I wonder if you did what I did: annoyed the guy in the store by playing with one for quite a while, then on to the other one.
Heh, that's exactly what I did. Two days in a row. But, nobody was bothered at all; the first time a saleswoman asked if I needed any questions answered, wasn't bothered at all by the fact that I said I wasn't buying yet, and volunteered some of her opinions. The next night we started the process of upgrading our four phones while I was trying to decide; the sales guy had already started the Eris (he was trying to talk me into the Droid.)
For me, I liked the feel of the Eris more. It wasn't so much Sense (though I liked that) as it was the fact that I was far more adroit with the onscreen keyboard on the Eris (for some reason), the Droid's keyboard reminded me too much of the Psion Revo keyboard I once owned that drove me crazy and which I never got used to, and the fact that the Droid wasted so much weight on the hardware keyboard that I knew I'd never used. I also tend to distrust hardware that slides; I've known plenty of people who've had bad luck with handsets after several months of use.
Back on topic; I switched to regular home last night after reading this thread. I am finding the phone far snappier than before. I was only using a few widgets before (calendar, battery, messages, plus toggles for the radios). I found a battery widget (Battery Widget from mippin.com) that, when clicked, gives radio controls (so that replaces all of those widgets), plus a calendar widget (Pure Calendar Widget), and I just have a folder with people shortcuts for sending quick texts to people. I was using only four home screens before (one had the messages widget), so three isn't that big a deal.
The one thing I notice is that swiping between home screens is different - you really have to do it like you mean it with regular home compared with Sense UI.
You should give swype a try for keyboard. I use it and it is amazing. Took a bit to get used to but now i can do paragraphs in no time flat. Once you figure out the tricks and shortcuts it is amazing. BTW not in market yet but on this forum somewhere.
I am definitely missing some of my Sense apps and widgets. but, for the most part, I have found reasonable replaments. Gonna play with Home for a few more days and see how I feel.
Tell yopu what, though, for all the people that couldn't handle the soft phone buttons "butt dialling" people, Home is definitely for them. No soft buttons to confuse them....
If the Eris and the Droid had a love child, it would be very close to the Nexus One. It has the build and feel of an Eris, with the power (more, actually) of the Droid, and is running the most up-to-date stuff.
The N1 needs to come to VZW now. T-Mobile was the worst choice Google could have made.
Does anyone know whether some apps like Beautiful Widgets will cooperate if installed and used with Home, vs with Sense? I uninstalled Beautiful widgets because I'm pretty sure it freaked out my phone... but I'm wondering if perhaps it (they?) just conflicted with Sense.
I set up Home last night.... liked it ok, but would definitely need some widgets from the market.
The Digital Clock works beautifully, but the Weather one reads my location incorrectly. It isn't even close. In fact, it's about 500 miles off- and I've even got GPS/Satellite enabled. Is there any tip/trick to a correction?
Just to stay a little on topic...While I liked the look of Sense, my Eris actually is noticably faster without it. For better performance, I will live with stock Android and just find widgets to replace a few things.
The Digital Clock works beautifully, but the Weather one reads my location incorrectly. It isn't even close. In fact, it's about 500 miles off- and I've even got GPS/Satellite enabled. Is there any tip/trick to a correction?
Just to stay a little on topic...While I liked the look of Sense, my Eris actually is noticably faster without it. For better performance, I will live with stock Android and just find widgets to replace a few things.
Oh, it did the same thing to me. I settled and just entered my location manually.
If you scroll up a bit to my earlier post you will see the beautiful widgets you are asking about working on Home. They are accurate for me and I am pretty sure you can buy them on market and get a refund if you don't like them and uninstall them.
Oh, it did the same thing to me. I settled and just entered my location manually.
I've tried that, but it keeps saying "No places found"- even tried the metro about 30 miles away. Suggestions?
@n2imagination
I really don't want to buy anything unless I can't get the free ones to work. Thanks for the great suggestion, though! I will definitely keep that in mind!
I've tried that, but it keeps saying "No places found"- even tried the metro about 30 miles away. Suggestions?
@n2imagination
I really don't want to buy anything unless I can't get the free ones to work. Thanks for the great suggestion, though! I will definitely keep that in mind!
Use Weatherbug. I made the switch and it's been great.
The one yr.no weather I added my place manually used it in the form that looks like HTC flip clock, ultimately I am going to stay with SHP2. I just bought a bunch of Amazon MP3 songs (From the comp) and using DoubleTwist to sync if anyone wants to sync it works great! More on topic, the method of switching from home to sense was the one I said in aforementioned rooting thread, but the easiest way to quickly switch back and forth is the app homeswitcher, here is the QR code:
Also, if you opt to choose sense or home or something else, got to the unused homes and DELETE THE WIDGETS! They just run in the background as an extra process.
So I'm thinkin bout tryin out home. After reading about being able to go back and forth without losing any of what is saved on home or sense (am I understanding this correctly, let me know if I'm wrong) so when u go into manage apps u select clear default, right? My phone has been having lag pretty bad lately, tried tips on how to help it, but nothin is working?
after using open home for a couple weeks I can't go back to sense. For some reason it looks kinda cheesey to me now. Can't explain it but Open Home and stock home app seem more professional looking.
So I'm thinkin bout tryin out home. After reading about being able to go back and forth without losing any of what is saved on home or sense (am I understanding this correctly, let me know if I'm wrong) so when u go into manage apps u select clear default, right? My phone has been having lag pretty bad lately, tried tips on how to help it, but nothin is working?
Correct. If you go to manage apps and select Sense then hit Clear defaults, you will hit the home button and it will prompt you to select. Check the default check box if you want (if you dont, everytime you hit the home button it will prompt you to select a UI). To reverse the process you just clear the defaults for "home" to get back to sense. All of your scenes/apps and widgets will be saved for either or unless you clear the data from them.
Yeah. That's the key though. DON'TclearDATA. Just clear defaults and the phone will always ask which you want to use when you press home. Then you can select use as default if you don't want to choose each time. I made the mistake of clearing data one time way back when I tried this the first time.
@n2imagination I downloaded the weather/time widget , and it looks great on my home . But I notice the clock doesn't work really well, it always seems to be behind the stock clock that is in the top right corner. Do you have this problem?
Thanks all for the tips! I still couldn't get the one weather widget to work correctly, so I downloaded the Weather Widget Free from Android Apps and placed it on one of my other screens. Works great!
I checked out and downloaded some of the wallpapers from the Gallery (on another droid forum) and also downloaded the AndroLib Wallpapers app and am having fun with those too. There's definitely some really neat things to customize these awesome gadgets!
Last edited by KinderwoodLabs2; February 10th, 2010 at 01:45 PM.
@ChiTownJim
The widget I use is Beautiful Widgets. If that's the one you tried then no I haven't ever had the time off. I have sometimes had to set the location manually if geolocation does not register the correct city, but my clock has been dead on. I double checked when you sent this and watched it tick forward the same time as the system clock. I would contact the dev via feedback if this continues for you.
Two things that I found in other forums and feedback is that it sometimes will show a wrong time as you flick back and forth between screens but corrects itself quickly, and you should also set your refresh time to 2 hrs. Some people who set it to refresh every 30 min were getting glitches.
I've been using home for 2 days now and am pretty happy! I haven't seen any "noticeable" performance gain; but I feel like I'm using my phone au-natural now
Couple of things that I thought were weird/didn't like:
- Home's "add shortcut" menu for applications is slowwwwwwwwww, very slow
- Occasionally, my "home" shortcut icons (in this case Google Voice) don't line up with my other icons, has anyone else seen that?
I never used the HTC widgets in the first place, I wasn't a big fan of them, they weren't "exactly" what I wanted, but I feel like I'm getting closer, I still need to get the nice PureCalendar, right now I'm using CalWidget, it's nice, but by default a little rough around the edges.
I've been using home for 2 days now and am pretty happy! I haven't seen any "noticeable" performance gain; but I feel like I'm using my phone au-natural now
Couple of things that I thought were weird/didn't like:
- Home's "add shortcut" menu for applications is slowwwwwwwwww, very slow
- Occasionally, my "home" shortcut icons (in this case Google Voice) don't line up with my other icons, has anyone else seen that?
I never used the HTC widgets in the first place, I wasn't a big fan of them, they weren't "exactly" what I wanted, but I feel like I'm getting closer, I still need to get the nice PureCalendar, right now I'm using CalWidget, it's nice, but by default a little rough around the edges.
Don't use long-presses to add shortcuts, open the drawer and drag to screen, much faster.
Yea just tried this for my shortcuts and its so much faster, thanks for the tip!
I'm guessing the Google Voice icon is just screwed up, it seems to be off of center compared to my other icons.
For anyone using LockBot - Is it normal to have a delay when loading the screen? It's a pretty long delay, almost a second or more maybe for me.
Unlocking and silencing works nicely, I kinda like that (on the Eclair style). Now... if only you can add widgets and other things to your Lockbot template.... (such as calendar notifications!)
EDIT: Nevermind, it seems to be doing ok now; might of just had something else using up CPU!
Last edited by terigox; February 10th, 2010 at 03:31 PM.
For anyone using LockBot - Is it normal to have a delay when loading the screen? It's a pretty long delay, almost a second or more maybe for me.
I've noticed that some themes are slower than others, i.e. bloated. Some themes you can download are up close to 1mb in size while others are 200-300k.
I've noticed that some themes are slower than others, i.e. bloated. Some themes you can download are up close to 1mb in size while others are 200-300k.
Heh, and just noticed Lockbot is ~20mb of ram to keep running as well, so much for what we gained by dropping sense :P
@ChiTownJim
The widget I use is Beautiful Widgets. If that's the one you tried then no I haven't ever had the time off. I have sometimes had to set the location manually if geolocation does not register the correct city, but my clock has been dead on. I double checked when you sent this and watched it tick forward the same time as the system clock. I would contact the dev via feedback if this continues for you.
Two things that I found in other forums and feedback is that it sometimes will show a wrong time as you flick back and forth between screens but corrects itself quickly, and you should also set your refresh time to 2 hrs. Some people who set it to refresh every 30 min were getting glitches.
Yeah if I have the phone off or am doing somethingelse and come back to the home screen it's usually off a little and takes a few minutes for it to catch back up.
The HTC Droid Eris launched for Verizon Wireless on November 6th in part as the carrier's first Android Phone. However it was overshadowed by the other member of the inaugural Verizon Droid duo - the Motorola Droid. The Droid Eris might look fa... Read More
instead of a retort.
Am i understandin this right?
Thanks:)
