You have got to see this! (tat home)

[alostpacket]

man, im being bashed. Still, my the message im trying to say, if I can sum it up in one sentace is, why cant you have both a nice looking and functional phone? I think the droid is nice looking, you seem to be suggesting that its ugly and that the only thought put into it was if it works. Again, its all just a matter of opinion, but the new HTC phones are faster and are also very nice looking, the only difference really is that the droid has a hardware keyboard, and the new HTC phones dont have hardware keyboards (yet).

I think you need to define what functional means to you in order for me to know exactly what your trying to say

Dont think of it as being bashed, think of it as having your assumptions challenged. Or something. Your new icon is cool though

 

[brettlewis]

Dont think of it as being bashed, think of it as having your assumptions challenged. Or something. Your new icon is cool though

Yeah, I found it on this design blog, but for some reason, I cant find that page again it had like 100 different android icons

this isnt it, but here are some cool ones http://iconlibrary.iconshock.com/design/android-logo-remixed/

 

[johnlgalt]

The ability to work seamlessly through a day on an Overclocked ROM without draining my battery, without having to close a lot of apps that run in the background, and without having to deal with a lot of FCs.

I have tried every Home replacement app out there, and not a single one has FCd except Sweeter Home - but I simply do not have the time to delve into that as of yet. I am very particular and finicky about how I want my organization on the phone, and what I have envisioned would be no small task to implement.

In addition, I check 3 GMail accounts, including my domain name account, as well as a POP account, use Google tasks and Calendar to keep reminders and appointments straight, read Manga, maintain my car info, finances, read a lot of news, run Twitter (via Twidroid (Seesmic for now, but going back to Twidroid as I can't auto-start Seesmic on boot, and it doesn't make use of the new RT API that twitter is using, which I like very much), as well as navigation, listening to Last.fm / Pandora / Slacker, spot research, solve problems in Calc using Real Calculator plus Cole's calculus review, oh, and let's not forget daily navigation as well as regular phone calls, SMS (via handcent), VM (via Google Voice) and watching YouTube videos (ZOMGitsCriss is one of my fav videographers) or even listening to my own music selection and / or watching a flick I have Handbraked to specs and copied to the SDCard.

Then there are my every other day workout routines that I am tracking, along with a few games to while away the time, and connections to various campus WiFi connections so I can avoid using 3G.

I have the News and Weather app FCing about every day, but other than that I am golden. And I'd like to keep it that way.

 

[brettlewis]

twitter client, ehhh? you should use "Touiteur" I was testing it for the dev for a few days, Its the best one out there


but anyways..... All of the functions you described are android wide functions, there not really specifics as to why the droid is most functional for you

 

[johnlgalt]

DROID is the only Android phone with a virgin OS from VZW, and since I am on VZW, and have no plans on leaving, the only two Android based devices I had a choice of (at that time) were the Droid Eris and the DROID.

Virgin OS won me over after having to deal with VZW's crappy half-baked ROMs for previous phones (I had a Motorola that supported 'cloud' contacts, per se, using some feature that I forgot the name of - only it had been disabled by VZW, so I could instead pay them to store my contacts - so I gave them the finger and used Moto Phone Tools (a bastardized version of Avenquest's toolkit) to backup my contacts locally.

Then, when I went to my Alias, it too was half-baked, missing a lot of functionality that came with the phone, so I used BitPIM to sync locally again.

Needless to say, until you really realize what the cellco's take out of your phone, you'll never really appreciate a virgin OS.

 

[brettlewis]

DROID is the only Android phone with a virgin OS from VZW, and since I am on VZW, and have no plans on leaving, the onyl two Android based devices I had a choice of (at that time0 were the Droid Eris and the DROID.

True, Thats why I got the droid. And it was the best android phone out at the time. And my previous phone was an LG touch phone, but I was so sick of only being able to use an on screen keyboard. the droid is my dream phone come true. Technology progresses so fast though, Its hard for me to stay satisfied all the time, especially being tied to a two year contract. Luckily my mom doesn't care what phone she has, and her two year ends one year after mine, so now I am able to get a new phone every year. But as long as a phone has a physical keyboard, that will be the phone I buy, that is my first criteria, well, of course I want android too.

 

[El Blacksheep]

why cant you have both a nice looking and functional phone?

There's more to it than that. Think about it this way: you have two options for a user interface, we'll call them FormUI and FunctionUI.

- With FunctionUI, you've got a few menus that contain all your most used apps and widgets, and a menu with the rest of your not-so-often used stuff. Everything you want is just a couple touches away.

- With FormUI, you've got sharks with laserbeams attached to their foreheads beaming holographic menus at you. When you touch a menu option, the screen explodes and aliens teleport in wearing t-shirts with your app logos on them. Touch one of the aliens and it kills all the other aliens on the screen, and launches your app.

Now lets look at what this all amounts to:
* Eye-candy: FormUI is much more visually appealing than plain old menus in FunctionUI.
* Clock-cycles: FormUI is much more processor intensive with all the animated nonsense going on.
* Wasted time: Each of FormUI's animations takes longer to execute than the simple opening of a menu, meaning it takes longer for the end-user to get from the default state (home screen) to their goal state (launching the app they want).

I think you need to define what functional means to you in order for me to know exactly what your trying to say

I'll assume you're smart enough to Google the definition of functionality, so I won't post that. I'm just trying to point out that many (if not all) decisions made will favor one over the other. In my previous example, clock cycles and the user's time spent are just components in the big picture. If we sacrifice efficiency for eye candy, that's a decision that favors form over function.

An example of that is in GDE's screen transitions. The rotating cube is all eye-candy: it actually takes much longer to get from one screen to the next than if there were no transition at all.

I'm sure you remember the days of AOL and dialup; back when you would click a hyperlink, then walk away from the computer and get something to drink while the page loaded. The more your end-user has to sit around waiting, no matter how much eye-candy you give them, the more they'll be dissatisfied.

THAT is what I refer to when I say I prefer function over form.

 

[brettlewis]

when i was asking him to define function, I was asking function in terms of the phones form factor. not the software or ui on it. I understand that a nicer ui can have its downsides, but from what I have seen, android is very capable of handeling intensive apps by prioritizing the process that are running. (Im no expert in java, but the demo videos from the android dev site is where i get this assumption from)

A lot of the HTC phones are a good example of this, they are flashy, and yet, the phones with the same mw/h batteries have longer standby and talk times. They are both flashy and functional, in there ui and there form. and android it self has become way more flashier from 1.5-2.1, and yet, at the same time, they have worked on making it more efficient and capable.

All im saying, although Im not very good at bringing all my points together, is I would like a phone that is flashy, fast and functional, and I dont doubt its capability of being able to do that.


edit: wait a minute, you didnt vote. what is your preference. Im guessing it is kittens and flowers?

 

[El Blacksheep]

My vote would be none of the above. At the moment, I like SweeterHome 2 and I'll stick to it until something more functional is available.

 

[brettlewis]

My vote would be none of the above. At the moment, I like SweeterHome 2 and I'll stick to it until something more functional is available.

hmm, I really should of put some other options in like sweeter home and home++.

isnt SPB mobile shell 5.0 pretty similar though to sweeter home?

 

[Doubledee90]

Dont mean to bring up a kind of old thread, but when is TAT Home going to be available, I think it is really cool and would love to put it on my DROID

 

[inssane]

+1 subscribe

 

[brocja01]

Sorry guys, I think we are SOL. Home replacement TAT Home passes on Android Market release

 

[inssane]

In other words they don't want user feedback and to improve their product as time passes. They would rather that manufacturers tell them how to make it and kill the essence of a product like this, in order to make alot of money.

 

[brettlewis]

lame. So they want to sell it to phone companies?

 

[Lock-N-Load]

lame. So they want to sell it to phone companies?

uh, can you blame them? sell it to us or sell it to the man. which makes them more money? they are a biz and want to make money. more power to them.

either way, I think it is pretty kick ass and I would pay for it.

 

[brettlewis]

Well, I dont know how much they would make for a phone manufacturer contract, but im assuming even if they had it in the market for $5 and sold it to like 50,000, that would make crazy money.

 

[shadowdude777]

Out of all those choices, I definitely choose Vanilla Android or WinPhone 7 over the rest. I think that's just the way I am though; I prefer easy-to read text menus and one or two colors instead of a mishmosh of widgets and flashy colors. I don't like Sense UI because I consider it unnecessary

TAT Home to me is not a far cry to preteens' MySpace pages. It's overly flashy and the whole basis of it is unnecessary. SPB's color scheme is ugly and it doesn't seem particularly better than Vanilla Android.

WinPhone 7 stands out to me as a clean, text-centric UI with large, easy-to-understand menus and a clear-cut list-like format that doesn't have your eyes jumping all over the place and hunting for the tiny box you have to click. It's a UI designed for capacitive touchscreens, and it's surprisingly nice. The UI is only the front end of the operation, though, and if MS' past experience holds true here, the only thing I'll ever replace my Droid with is another Android phone.