Alternatives to the HTC Sense UI, if Any?

[twospirits]

In reading some of these wonderful threads that some of you have posted throughout the life of the EVO. I noticed that a few are disappointed (as I) that we may have to wait until the end of the year for HTC to drop to us their version of Android 2.2 with Sense UI.

Now in looking through the excellent Post Your Screen thread, I've noticed a few screens that are quite astounding, not (only) for their images but for the alternatives to the Sense UI.

Now my dilemma is that I like Sense UI, but I know it slows down the EVO, plus, I rather not wait till till December for the HTC Sense UI/Froyo 2.2 version. So I'll probably get the cyanogen rom (once he completes it) and install any alternative that gives me the same feel as Sense but not have to wait so long.

So instead of hijacking that thread, lets start one that will outline the alternatives to the HTC Sense UI. This way, if anyone else likes the Sense UI but can't wait that long, at least they can see in this thread the alternatives.

These are the HTC Sense UI widgets (so far I've seen, although there may be more)...
00-HTC Sense UI
----LauncherPro Beta

01-HTC Bookmarks
----Dolphin HD bookmarks
----Folder Organizer's bookmarks folder
02-HTC Calendar
-----Pure grid Calendar
03-HTC Clocks (I really like these)
----Beautiful Widgets
04-HTC Friends Stream
----Seesmic for Twitter
05-HTC Messages
----Handcent SMS
06-HTC Mail
----Google Gmail
07-HTC Music Player
----^3 (cubed)
----MixZing
08-HTC News
----BuzzBox / Nexus One News Widget
09-HTC People
10-HTC Photo Album
11-HTC Photo Frame
12-HTC Search
----Default Android Search
13-HTC Settings - 4G, Airplane, Bluetooth, GPS, Hotspot, Mobile Network, WiFi
----SwitchPro
----Beautiful Widgets
----Quick Settings
----Extended Controls
20-HTC Stocks
21-HTC Weather

Please post your alternatives...
I will update the list above as the come.

TS out

 

[DarkNeo]

Launcher Pro FTW!!

Since Im using it, I used these wigets as replacement sense widgets.

Calendar- Pure Grid Calendar
Settings- Switchpro
News- Buzzbox / Nexus one news widget
HTC Clock- Beautiful widgets

 

[twospirits]

So are those widgets part of launcher Pro or separate widgets/apps altogether.

TS

 

[DarkNeo]

So are those widgets part of launcher Pro or separate widgets/apps altogether.

TS

Separate, downloaded from the market. I should add that beautiful widgets also includes settings widgets. But I prefer switchpro since its just one big widget.

 

[twospirits]

Thanks, this way i can update the first post.

keep them coming guys.

TS

 

[ejchis]

I am also using Launcher Pro. I love it.

And I'm also using Pure Calendar Widget and Beautiful Widgets for calendar and clock/weather. Pure Calendar is a fantastic widget, best calendar widget I have seen. Beautiful widgets provides a much nicer clock and weather widget than the HTC version. Way more customizable. Mine started out looking like a replica of the Sense widget but now hardly resembles it, in a good way.

For settings, I have gone with Quick Settings as a popup on a long-press of the search button. Way more handy than having a home screen dedicated to setting toggle widgets and very customizable.

Several of the widgets you posted above are not Sense UI widgets and will remain after you switch to a different launcher.

The search widget is redundant as you have a search button. There are two, I believe, in the Sense UI, anyway, and one will still be there if you aren't using Sense.

For bookmarks, I know Dolphin HD has a bookmarks widget. I used to use it, but I dumped it for Folder Organizer's bookmarks folder. Other browsers might have a similar widget though.

For a music player, I'm currently using ^3 (cubed). It's pretty, but it isn't perfect in terms of functionality. For a more stable music application, MixZing is really nice. Both are improvements on the stock app.

Handcent is wonderful.

I use gmail.

I think that knocks down most of them. My initial switch to Launcher Pro was a short one because I had grown to like the HTC Sense widgets. I tried again though and found that I just needed a little time to learn all that Launcher Pro and some of the replacement apps could do. Now I kind of like the fact that no other Android phone out there looks just like mine. That's part of the beauty of Android, right?

 

[DarkNeo]

Also add Extended Controls for settings aswell. Looks just like the HTC settings widget put with more options

 

[mms1946]

Anyone find a replacement for the "People" widget that allows you to have a favorites type screen?

 

[WSFrazier]

Some good information. I actually like HTC Sense, but wouldn't mind trying something else incase better is out there.

 

[ExtraCrispy]

I would really like to try this out, but do the alternatives offer integration? e.g. in Sense, facebook, People (Contacts) and Messages are integrated. Will I be able to do this without running Sense.

And I still don't see an alternative to HTC mail for my Exchange email. I'm not going to buy Touchdown.

 

[jws]

very helpful, thanks!

 

[MrDSL]

I use Launcher Pro also.

I don't need too many widgets so I only have a few.

fancy widget (its a HTC time/weather copy)
picture dial (its the best i have found and it links to their contact page by clicking their pic. thats very important to me since some ppl have many numbers etc)

Everything else is pretty much just stock..