Struggling to move from a HTC

[rizmack]

Hi,

My bro has given me his S3 for a couple of days to play around with.

However, I'm finding it much less customisable vs. the HTC. For example I can't add toggles for wifi, mobile data, gps, etc on any screen. Furthermore, the status bar toggles (in the notification bar) can not be edited. These issues are really bothering me for some reason.

Please help if I've missed something here!

Thanks,
Rizmack

 

[SUroot]

Plenty of third party toggles around. The notification widgets cannot be changed without custom rom. My HTC didn't even have them.

Both HTC and touchwiz interfaces are very restricted anyway. Both poor. 3rd party launchers are best on both devices. Wont affect toggles though.

The s3 blows everything out of the water. You just need to understand its out of the box limitations. Play store fixes all

 

[rizmack]

Plenty of third party toggles around. The notification widgets cannot be changed without custom rom. My HTC didn't even have them.

Both HTC and touchwiz interfaces are very restricted anyway. Both poor. 3rd party launchers are best on both devices. Wont affect toggles though.

The s3 blows everything out of the water. You just need to understand its out of the box limitations. Play store fixes all

Thanks for replying back.

How do launchers work? Do they work on top of touchwizz? Do they run efficiently? Can I uninstall the stock launcher? Which one would you recommend?

Sorry for all the questions!

Thanks

 

[jaymf]

You don't like the notification bar toggles?
I came from an Incredible, and like the notification bar toggles (that I can access from anywhere) rather than the on-screen toggles.

When I started playing with launchers on my Incredible, I was using the toggles by Droidmania (since it had most of the ones I was looking for - wanted uniformity). There was only one mobile data toggle (data enabler widget or something similar) I could find that worked for me on the Incredible, but more might work on the S3. You could also try the app Elixir 2 and it's related widget app. It would allow you to place whatever toggles as well as information you want into a widget or in the notification bar.

I'm using Nova Launcher right now (Apex is another, there are others mentioned in a launcher thread on this board). The launchers would run on top of Touchwiz, but I don't feel that it's inefficient. You can't uninstall Touchwiz without rooting and installing a different ROM. A different launcher would allow you to customize more of the looks and behaviors of the UI.

 

[Rxpert83]

The widgets you describe are sense only as far as stock software

 

[miyooper]

Launchers give you a lot more options for layout and it's really fun to play around with. You can download an app called home switcher then load a couple different launchers like Apex or Go and you can go back and forth until you find one you like.

 

[madjpey]

Use GO Launcher, GO Power Master, GO everything for that matter. Can use their toggles. You don't\can't get rid of the stock launcher, just use one you download instead.

 

[scooter1942]

Thanks for replying back.

How do launchers work? Do they work on top of touchwizz? Do they run efficiently? Can I uninstall the stock launcher? Which one would you recommend?

Sorry for all the questions!

Thanks

3rd party launchers run instead of touchwiz, not over it. i have apex, and it runs very well. looks nice too. the only way to rid yourself of the stock launcher would be to flash a custom rom that doesnt use twiz, but this really isnt that necessary as once you find a launcher you like, just set as default and forget about twiz

 

[rizmack]

Many thanks for the replies guys.

Another thing bugging me is the huge phone keypad. Is doesn't allow me to see the full list of names that have been filtered after pressing a couple of keys. The problem is that I have to manually select the name using the number drop down (in situations where there are several names for the keys types) and then press the call button. It all seems poor UI to me and things like this just don't seem to exist in Sense.

Any suggestions on the work around for this?

Thanks

 

[davoid]

Many thanks for the replies guys.

Another thing bugging me is the huge phone keypad. Is doesn't allow me to see the full list of names that have been filtered after pressing a couple of keys. The problem is that I have to manually select the name using the number drop down (in situations where there are several names for the keys types) and then press the call button. It all seems poor UI to me and things like this just don't seem to exist in Sense.

Any suggestions on the work around for this?

Thanks

Actually you can use the unified search from the home screen. Long press Menu button and Google search comes up. start typing the contact's name and a list will appear below the suggested google searches. Voila.

 

[rizmack]

Actually you can use the unified search from the home screen. Long press Menu button and Google search comes up. start typing the contact's name and a list will appear below the suggested google searches. Voila.

I ended up downloading Dialer One, and I've set that up as my default phone app, it's much better than stock.