Samsungs new UI

[alpha2k]

I know it's a bit early and speculative, just wanted to chime in and get thoughts.

So any thoughts if this is truly the way they end up going, with the google/windows look with the pages or boxes?

Personally I've seen and messed with some windows phones, and well all I can say is for me?....bleh.....not my gig, and the whole google experience thing? eh it's "ok" just not my gig either I want customization, that's why I love android, so much and vanilla/nexus android at that, simple yet effective.....TW I've kinda gotten used to it, and while it's not bad now really, since I now know better how to customize it, I still prefer vanilla over anything else even with it's glitches and tweaks needed to get things to work on my phone.

I've also messed with the KK google experience stuff, and as I said while it's kinda cool and all, I simply find myself going back to another home launcher anyways. Apex and Nova both use the google now "ok goolge" options, they just don't have the swipe left google window, and that's fine for me.

So if Samsung truly is going this route, I think for me, I will be shopping around for a different phone for certain after this, of coarse a lot of things can happen in that time too.

I can't think that samsung would drastically change this UI around and leave the users who like TW and like the phone overall, for this new UI......but stranger things have happened I spose.

Anyways, just getting thoughts, since more heads in the game are better than one . And please folks lets keep this civil and respect each others opinions and thoughts, that's what makes discussions so unique and exciting, is everyone is different and have different ideas.

That being said let the discussions begin.

 

[ocnbrze]

well for me one of the first things i did was to get rid of touch wiz and installed nova prime launcher which i love......so for me i could care less what they add on top of KK or any other android os, i will always look to a custom launcher to use.....but that is just me.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

I don't like the new direction Samsung is taking. That whole Windows Box thing is more for the folks way into Social or Business people who have to have there appointments, emails, and texts right on top when they turn on their phones. I'm happy with TouchWiz but like Ocnbrze I use Nova Prime for a more customizable UI experience. Samsung going in this new direction with the UI would not stop me from getting their products. Spec-wise they kind of "rule" to use one of those phrases the young folks are using these days.

 

[!on]

I tried some of the windows style launchers & it's like having your life pigeon holed into boxes. To echo sentiments of the OP yeah it's about freedom of choice!

 

[funkylogik]

I wont buy another samsung because they seem to be locking things down too much and i just dont like them as a company.
As for the UI, i never liked touchwiz and the best thing ive done on the phone is start using aosp based custom roms.
I dont really like the UI of pure vanilla android though. On my phone and Nexus tab i use Xposed Framework and Nova Prime to change the UI and add a few features but keep a nice slick lightweight rom.
I think my next phone will (hopefully) be a nexus or even a moto

 

[chanchan05]

It just looks like they removed homescreen borders making the widgets get to the edge of the screen (like some times UCCW widgets do) and they started using flat icons. What I initially hated about TW was that there was so much spaces between widgets and stuff.

Personally I like it.

 

[alpha2k]

My worry is, there seems to be a trend phasing over to locking stuff down.
Samsung with the KNOX thing (and to my knwledge they havn't broken it yet), now they are popping up this new UI and talks of going to a new OS, some non android, but still linux base, (I forget the name off hand right now), this along with the article I saw chainfire saying that google ma be following suit with the android version and root.

I don't get why people ad companies tend to shoot themselves in the foot at times. The have a customer base, and a good thing going, then they like do a 180 on things.
I don't think it will kill things, but it will definitely hamper things, and I'm sure it may even hamper sales, because if you tighten the leash TO much, people won't buy stuff, they will keep what they have. That's why it's so appealing to people in general is variety and options.....lock them out of those options and you grow stagnant and lose stuff. You will at some point top off, but to hamper or restrict things hardware or software wise, it just seems like a lose lose situation, ESPECIALLY for us consumers, but for the companies as well.

Apple did it a couple of times, Sony did it with their copy protection, 3dfx (remember them? ) they killed themselves with making their own drivers and ditching other vendors, the list goes on. It seems to be a trend that repeats itself, companies come from behind and make a nice little dent in things, and then bam! they shoot the foot. Not ALL companies do it, but more so than not.....it happens. What's even more ironic, those companies that do not follow the same suit thrive in what would seem a horrible un-profitable market or time, and those that follow the 180 degree turn always scratch their head and wonder what happened and why those other companies are thriving.

Dunno just seems (to me anyways), people don't know where that line is and they step right over it, instead of keeping themselves grounded.

I love the hardware, but if I'm forced to use sub par or crappy software on a superior hardware, for me I'll pass....It's kinda like having a job that pays all the money you'll ever want or need, and being miserable, I'd rather be poor and happy, then filthy rich and unhappy. Now don't get me wrong, money can solve a lot of things, but it cannot buy simple plain old happiness, and I suppose that word is all how you perceive it, but I hope you get my drift.....in short I'd rather be dirt poor and happy inside, and with myself, than filthy rich and miserable and empty, but that's just me. So while the phones are nice, after all that's why I bought this over another phone, if I'm forced to use a UI or OS or whatever, I'll shop around elsewhere. Again not saying they WILL force people, just the options IS very realistic the way they are talking.

I also use a launcher of choice, even on CM/AOSP based roms....I went with Apex personally, although it's a tossup between apex and nova launcher, it's a real close race with the 2.

I guess we'll soon see what the future holds, but if I had to base off what I'm reading, it doesn't look to bright as far as this goes, both for samsung and goolge phones. Good thing I don't rely much in speculations or media huh , but it never hurts to keep an eye on things.

 

[funkylogik]

The chainfire thing you mentioned, is that when he talked about the next version of android possibly breaking a lot of root apps?

 

[alpha2k]

The chainfire thing you mentioned, is that when he talked about the next version of android possibly breaking a lot of root apps?

Yeah. Read it on the main page. I'm sure they are working on a universal solution but if nothing is found it will be a per app thing, and also throws an interesting twist into apps like titanium backup, superSU, etc. Will be interesting to see what happens.
I think the main reason (among many of course) but I think the main reason is so I can easily backup and restore my apps with tb with a single click/tap. So nice to set my phone up in a matter of mins as apposed to hours. I think my all time best is 6-7 mins from a fresh ROM flash to fully setup. Of course nandroid is faster, but from fresh install of a new or updated ROM my best is 6-7 mins.
Let's hope there are some quick and savvy devs out there so in any case it will be a fast fix.

 

[Shocky]

Knox security and this new version of touchwiz.

Lets face it guys, it's time to jump ship. Maybe it's time to give HTC or Nexus devices a try.

 

[alpha2k]

Knox security and new version of touchwiz.

Lets face it guys, it's time to jump ship. Maybe it's time to give HTC a try.

True, but let's not go off of speculation. Remember media can and often is just rumorville until proven otherwise. If someone said the world would end tomorrow would you just give up and give into what someone said....we thought the world was flat at one time
Like a poker game we just gotta ride it out and see how it unfolds.
I'm waiting to see what they do in the end before I jump ship. Sense is even more proprietary than tw is.
If we all jump ship early we might as well jump ship from Google and android to, because they are talking the root deal in future android releases.
Patience is sometimes a virtue :thumbup:

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah. Read it on the main page. I'm sure they are working on a universal solution but if nothing is found it will be a per app thing, and also throws an interesting twist into apps like titanium backup, superSU, etc. Will be interesting to see what happens.
I think the main reason (among many of course) but I think the main reason is so I can easily backup and restore my apps with tb with a single click/tap. So nice to set my phone up in a matter of mins as apposed to hours. I think my all time best is 6-7 mins from a fresh ROM flash to fully setup. Of course nandroid is faster, but from fresh install of a new or updated ROM my best is 6-7 mins.
Let's hope there are some quick and savvy devs out there so in any case it will be a fast fix.

Yeah i saw it on g+ today mate.
I really dont think google are doing it to intentionally break root apps though.
Hopefully between the rom devs and app devs theyll find a way around it. They always do
At least theyre aware of it already so can start preparing. I have faith in the Titanium dev. Think it took him about 2weeks at the most to get TiBu working on ART when kitkat was launched

 

[alpha2k]

Yeah i saw it on g+ today mate.
I really dont think google are doing it to intentionally break root apps though.
Hopefully between the rom devs and app devs theyll find a way around it. They always do
At least theyre aware of it already so can start preparing. I have faith in the Titanium dev. Think it took him about 2weeks at the most to get TiBu working on ART when kitkat was launched

True. I'm sure it's for a good thing, more secure, but there is a point where you say OK anything we do isn't going to work because people will just exploit things and not disable the entire thing because of a few things or people. Going from one extreme to another isn't the solution either...... Kinda like the war on drugs or the record industry or perhaps the pirateing of software..... There comes a point where you have to just let it be.
Prime example we want to be safe in our country, sadly though we've made ourselves a prisinor in our own land.....ie: visit the air port .
Anyways you get the point. I totally get the more secure thing, I really do.

 

[dibblebill]

Knox security and this new version of touchwiz.

Lets face it guys, it's time to jump ship. Maybe it's time to give HTC or Nexus devices a try.

Owner of an HTC One here, they're great

 

[Shocky]

Owner of an HTC One here, they're great

If they can provide an 8MP version of the camera on the HTC One in the new version I'd be quite happy with that.

 

[alpha2k]

Owner of an HTC One here, they're great

I don't mind sense to bad, but from my last experience with the HTC one v I think it was from boost, while it was OK.... When I used another home replacement the sense would run in the background resulting in 2 homes running as compared to a single one. Never could kill it either, so it would sometimes cause lag or burps with the overall system.
Sense is a preferred taste like TW is, if ya like it that's cool, but others wanna use something else. With TW I can at least keep it from running.
When I refer to TW and sense I don't mean the underlying system, but the home screens part of each. You can't get rid of it completely, unless you flash a rom.

 

[dibblebill]

Heh. I don't use TW or Sense, though Sense 5.x+ is really quite nice. However, I don't use a stock ROM. Trust me, I know how ingrained it is, I tried to nuke it back in Sense 2.2/2.3 on my Wildfire S

I haven't noticed much loss in picture quality in the 4MP camera on the One over my older Victory (5MP), but then, I've never had a 8MP+ phone and always do photography on my cameras, so I don't really value the camera as much as some do. I can understand those two arguments, though.

How did you keep TW from running? It's not just a home launcher, it's an entire backend that runs constantly, even when I put Apex Launcher on my Samsung Galaxy Victory.

EDIT: Qualifying note: I used my HTC One w/ Sense long enough to activate it and turn on developer options/USB debugging. Then it was OMniROM all the way.

 

[alpha2k]

Heh. I don't use TW or Sense, though Sense 5.x+ is really quite nice. However, I don't use a stock ROM. Trust me, I know how ingrained it is, I tried to nuke it back in Sense 2.2/2.3 on my Wildfire S

I haven't noticed much loss in picture quality in the 4MP camera on the One over my older Victory (5MP), but then, I've never had a 8MP+ phone and always do photography on my cameras, so I don't really value the camera as much as some do. I can understand those two arguments, though.

How did you keep TW from running? It's not just a home launcher, it's an entire backend that runs constantly

That's why I mentioned you can't get rid of it completely. Only the launcher part of it. Stuff like the dialer can't be gotten rid of. I think it's called twlauncher, but you can freeze it or remove it as well as contacts, gallery, camera and it will work still. The phone part is tied in though, if you remove it you lose ability to make calls. Would explain why you can't replace it with aosp dialer

 

[dibblebill]

We had very limited success even getting alternate MMS apps to work properly on the Victory. I misread that last sentence in your prior post, got it now

 

[alpha2k]

We had very limited success even getting alternate MMS apps to work properly on the Victory. I misread that last sentence in your prior post, got it now

If they could get a way to use the aosp style dialer I wouldn't mind using tw so much, although I am finding out how to modify it where it's a much better experience now, so it's much more tolerable. I may start a thread about mods for this phone other than xposed just to keep this one on topic

 

[dibblebill]

Point taken, let's keep it on topic.

 

[mikedt]

well for me one of the first things i did was to get rid of touch wiz and installed nova prime launcher which i love......so for me i could care less what they add on top of KK or any other android os, i will always look to a custom launcher to use.....but that is just me.

Isn't Nova Prime a Transformers thing? I tried looking for it on play, there's Nova Prime Launcher on Play but it's giving "This app is not available in your country."...presumably Marvel Comics or Hasbro or something.

 

[funkylogik]

Lol Mike :-D

This is a bit off topic but yet another example of why ill never buy another samsung phone.
I dont like the way theyre headed https://plus.google.com/114644001372635183242/posts/gtZyWwmY4CZ

 

[alpha2k]

Lol Mike :-D

This is a bit off topic but yet another example of why ill never buy another samsung phone.
I dont like the way theyre headed https://plus.google.com/114644001372635183242/posts/gtZyWwmY4CZ

Yeah I saw that too.....it's as if they are FORCING people into using THEIR stuff, kinda like apple.......sad really, because it leaves out options. I feel bad for those who bought one of the off brand, and now they are stuck with the purchase that does not work. The LEAST Samsung could do in that case is have a like buy back option, or trade option to go with an "original" Samsung as apposed to off brand.

Looks as if big brother is getting to big for their pants again.......when will they learn, because I for one if forced, would give up my phone I JUST bought....(s3) and go elsewhere and bite the cash I spent.....just for the principle of it all, and I've only had this phone for 2 weeks too.