Help Samsung Touchwiz

[snoop2048]

Afternoon all,

Can someone explain what functionality Touchwiz provides on my Galaxy s2? Well, from the point of view of how it differs from a normal android interface (if there is one).

I am a little confused by what is classed as a launcher, the OS or Touchwiz. Looking at flashing my phone with another ROM to provide some functionality that is missing (GPS toggle from tasker) but want to know, if this removes the samsung touchwiz interface, how my phone would differ functionality wise?

Anyway, first post, so be kind if this is an utterly stupid question.

Cheers,
S

 

[Riche101]

Afternoon all,

Can someone explain what functionality Touchwiz provides on my Galaxy s2? Well, from the point of view of how it differs from a normal android interface (if there is one).

I am a little confused by what is classed as a launcher, the OS or Touchwiz. Looking at flashing my phone with another ROM to provide some functionality that is missing (GPS toggle from tasker) but want to know, if this removes the samsung touchwiz interface, how my phone would differ functionality wise?

Anyway, first post, so be kind if this is an utterly stupid question.


Cheers,
S

Touchwiz is Samsung's standard interface/look of the SG2 it was Taken from TW Launcher.


A launcher just changes the basic look of the phone i.e. adds a theme or lets you have a certain dock bar or setup home screen in a certain way ADW and Go are both popular launchers.

Roms will changes the look of the phone but you can make it too how you want.

There is a GPS toggle already built in the notification bar at the top just drag it down


if you want to use a Rom then you have to Root phone( it does void warranty but can be un rooted if need be) Flahing is for firmware, kernels etc

 

[matttye]

"Launcher" refers to the home screens, and the applications menu. So at the moment with Touchwiz you have a launcher that has several homescreens that you can flick back and forth between, and then you have that menu which lets you scroll horizontally through your applications. Those two features are the launcher.

Other launchers are usually very similar or slightly better in features. I use Go Launcher EX as you can add five things to the dock, instead of just three with Samsung. You can also use it to scroll vertically through apps instead of horizontally page by page. Every launcher I know supports widgets, so any you go with will be similar.

TouchWiz is a combination of the launcher plus certain apps that Samsung has bundled with the phone or apps that it has customised. For example, Samsung's contacts app is a customised version of the Android app. Pretty sure the default Android app doesn't have "smart dialling." Other apps like the messages app are also customised.

There are also some tweaks that Samsung has added, such as being able to slide left and right in the notification bar to adjust brightness, and the widgets in the notification bar that you can use. Also being able to hit the home+power buttons at the same time to take a screenshot.

Without TouchWiz, you would have much of the same stuff but it would look different or act slightly differently. You can usually make up for this by installing apps from the Market. For example, once rooted there's an app that can take screenshots called "drocap" - it's just different as you have to access it from the notification bar to take a screenshot.

Hope this helps

Edit: you would lose other Samsung apps such as the Music/Reading/Games/Social hubs, and the Samsung Apps software as well.

 

[snoop2048]

There is a GPS toggle already built in the notification bar at the top just drag it down

Hi, thanks for the reply. What I mean is that I want Tasker to be able to do this when I switch on an app that needs it. Its apparently not possible for apps to toggle the GPS settings automatically in the newer Android versions.

I would like to automate this with Tasker, hence the why I am looking at flashing a new rom. That, and I would like to remove the adverts, plus remove all the crappy apps that came pre installed that I don't want or need. .

Si

 

[matttye]

Hi, thanks for the reply. What I mean is that I want Tasker to be able to do this when I switch on an app that needs it. Its apparently not possible for apps to toggle the GPS settings automatically in the newer Android versions.

I would like to automate this with Tasker, hence the why I am looking at flashing a new rom. That, and I would like to remove the adverts, plus remove all the crappy apps that came pre installed that I don't want or need. .

Si

It sounds to me like you might just need root access, and maybe install a mod, rather than a whole new ROM.

Although if you want to remove the default apps then installing a new ROM would be the way to go. I have no idea why Samsung felt the need to make them non-uninstallable. They could have made them uninstallable and allowed them to be re-downloaded through the Samsung Apps app

I just stuck all of mine in a "Samsung Apps" folder out of the way.

If you do like TouchWiz, you can probably install a ROM that still has TouchWiz anyway.

 

[snoop2048]

Thanks, that was pretty much what I'm after. Getting rid of the samsung apps is a bonus.