The once great king in the mobile world, Symbian, is dying a slow, painful death. Among the many upgrades the platform needs, the most easily visible one is the UI. It’s old and stogy (of course, that’s what Maemo is supposed to fix). But thanks to the easily customized nature of the platform, 3rd party skins and themes can be easily installed. On that note, if you’d like to get the HTC Sense UI theme running on your Symbian S60 or S^3 device, a quick trip to the Nokia Mobile Blog will net you all the necessary files. A word of caution: If you’re really interested in this, you’ll want to download the needed files sooner rather than later. Past ports of Sense UI to other platforms have brought out HTC’s legal hounds. I can’t imagine this instance would be any different.
With that out of the way, we’ll add that the theme at least looks rather nice and includes the full swath of features present on any normal HTC handset, save for the obvious such as HTCSense.com support. So go ahead and give it a shot. Be sure to let us know how it goes!
Hopefully the Windows Phone 7 folks in the crowd aren’t putting their newfound mobile aspirations on an HTC Sense UI-powered device at launch. In an interview with FierceWireless, HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou had this to say:
“Initially, we don’t have time to bring things on top of that,” he said. “But over time we will innovate on top of that to provide some HTC experience.”
So far, the Sense UI stuff we’ve seen running within Windows Mobile is pretty sweet looking with plenty of eye candy. Speaking of “running within”, we’ve known for some time now that Microsoft will be holding a much firmer grip on Windows Phone 7 in regards to UI customization by third parties in particular. Because of this firmer grip, Chou states that Sense UI will never be able to be fully integrated like it is currently on Windows Mobile and Android.
While I generally despise custom skins running atop Android, HTC’s Sense is one exception that (1) I actually like the styling of and (2) think it aids nicely to the general navigation of the device. Everything else — get it outta here. As nice as Sense UI is though, it’s growing long in the tooth. Well over 1+ years old, something fresh needed to come out of HTC labs. And wouldn’t you know it, HTC unveiled just that at their recent London mini-part/conference. Staying true to its roots, the HTC Desire HD provided quite the playground for nosey devs. One such dev at XDA, “DarkStone1337″, managed to get a hold of the Desire HD ROM and port it over to an HD2. On top of that, he was also kind enough to post it up for download.
While you wait for the Desire HD ROM download to finish, hop inside to check out a nice and detailed video showing off the latest and greatest that HTC has to offer all running inside an HD2. Eat you eyes out…
Coming from Android and it’s free-for-all skinning affair, I’ll admit that I’m pretty worn out on all this customizing stuff, even if HTC’s Sense UI is one of the nicest looking skins to ever grace a mobile OS. As such, HTC puts their mark on every possible platform they can. But there’s one we haven’t seen them improve/taint yet — Windows Phone 7.
Well, until now that is. We now have some ideas of what HTC’s Sense UI will look on Windows Phone 7. In short: It’s very flashy. Immediately, more minimalistic users will be turned off. I however welcome the eye candy. If I wanted a bare bones OS I’d look to 1998 for something to tickle my fancy. This is 2010 baby! High horsepower phones with sophisticated and eye catching visuals are what I want. So without further adieu…Windows Phone 7 and HTC Sense in video after the jump…
Here we are almost two full years after the original G1 was released finally seeing the G2. A lot has changed since late 2008. The G1 is now considered a low-end device. The G2 however, while not the most bleeding edge Android device, will certainly be a welcome addition.
As you can see, it is a pretty stylish sliding QWERTY design with a 3.7″ display, and we assume, at least 1GHz of power under the hood. Being HTC and all means Sense UI is on board, so updates won’t be lightning quick like the original G1. Though we always remain optimistic that HTC will change their ways or that Google will release Android 3.0 before then, negating the need for custom skins.
Whatever the case may be, there’s another image of the T-Mobile G2 just inside vying for your loving attention. Go on, jump in…
…Not exactly promising words if you ask me. With Android 3.0 (Gingerbread) looking at an October-November release date, getting all giddy about Froyo, even as great as it is, seems like a long stretch. Still, something’s better than nothing. And, to date, HTC has at least kept their upgrade promises better than others (Samsung, I’m looking at you and disgruntled Behold II owners).
Either way, I stand back and look at the bigger picture. I’m really interested in the HTC Vision. And if the images that recently leaked are in fact the Vision, I’m going to have to deal with slow updates due to HTC’s Sense UI. It’s a give and take sort of thing — better (to some) UI in exchange for less frequent core updates.
What do you guys think: Will a late 2010 Froyo update keep you happy or will you have moved on to bigger and better things (namely Gingerbread) by then?
Just like clock work, HTC has taken the wraps off of their three newest devices: The HD Mini, Legend, and Desire. We looked briefly over these devices late last night when some of the details were leaked. However, the blanks have now been filled in and we are looking at three of the best smartphones going into spring 2010. So, without further a ado…
HD Mini
HD Mini: The sole WindMo 6.5 unit will come to market with a 3.2 HVGA display, 600MHz Qualcomm processor, HTC Sense UI, and 5-megapixel camera w/ LED flash. Look for the HD Mini to grace end users’ hearts and hands this spring.
Legend
HTC Legend: The “poor mans” flagship Android device — HTC Hero — is getting a nice refresh and name change to the tune of “Legend”. With the new title come about new specs to keep you wanting more. Namely, a 600MHz processor, 512MB ROM/384MB RAM, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/GPS, 3.2″ AMOLED HVGA (320 x 480) display, and a 1,300 mAh battery to keep it all going for most of the day. The mid-range smartphone market just got a nice kick in the pants.
Desire
HTC Desire: The HTC Desire is HTC’s end all be all Android device (for the next three months anyway). No expense was spared and no detail left unchecked. All of that engineering prowess take shape in a rather sleek, yet dark casing, housing a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.7″ AMOLED display, Sense UI, and Flash 10.1 compatibility rounding out the more notable specs. The downer: Initially, the Desire will be a Europe and Asia-model. Sucks to be an American today folks…
Now that the cat’s out of the bag, anyone looking to drop some extra cash (or sell an organ) to pick up a few new toys come spring?
Tired of Windows Mobile’s never changing UI and the cheap lipstick that Microsoft continues to pile on in copious amounts hoping to disguise the real ugliness underneath? You’re not alone. In fact, one of the biggest complaints with Windows Mobile centers around it’s looks. When you have an OS that hasn’t really changed much in years, people are bound to notice. Thankfully we have the developer world to save us from the slip ups and failures of bigger corporations. Without further adue, tonight we’ll thank XDA and it’s ever talented pool of devs for the upcoming “Max Sense” Windows Mobile UI.
A quick glance will show that the devs are pulling pretty heavily from Android and the Sense UI found on the Android platform. I’ve already seen some Android loyalists calling it a rip off and unoriginal. On the surface they’re basically true. But imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as they say (or something like that). In the end, I’m not one to pick about which check box came from which OS came from which manufacturer. Can’t we all just get along and enjoy the eye candy and fruits of other peoples’ labor?
Release dates and any ETA schedules are mere dreams and estimations at this point. Though I can’t say I wouldn’t be excited to learn of such a thing — being that this “Max Sense” UI is pretty damn good looking for a WinMo skin no? Now Microsoft just needs to make the stuff running under all of these skins worth touching and we’re golden.
It appears as if T-Mobile is continuing on their path to create this mega “MyTouch” brand. The phone you see above is the MyTouch Slide, the claimed successor to the MyTouch 3G. For those of you keeping track, this particular gem has been called the “Espresso” from time to time within the inner Android circles.
The biggest difference here is of course the physical qwerty that slides out form underneath the display. Speaking of which, it’s disappointing to note that the display is only HVGA (480 x 320) and the processor equally average — 528MHz ARM11 processor. Getting this revamped MyTouch into your hands won’t happen until around May for a still TBD price however.
With the increasing push behind the MyTouch brand, many sources are calling it the “Sidekick replacement” sighting that T-Mobile is in fact trying to move away from the Sidekick name and brand and moving towards a more (dare I say) sophisticated platform. Having a real physical qwerty doesn’t hurt either. I know there are still plenty of people who like ham fisting those tiny smartphone keys though, myself included.
Does a more physical MyTouch seem like a worthy addition?
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