yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ray1:
the stock launcher for sgs2 is touch widz.

i'm used to it and did not find anything seriously wrong with it.

due to curiosity, i tried out other launcher such as launcher pro. go launcher. zeam launcher, adw launcher.

many users like to support their favourite launcher, and often bash at other launchers.

but honestly i feel they are all very similar. just some minor difference.

non of them are perfect to me,

launcher pro: epic fail due to vertical scrolling app tray, hard to find the app i want. cant create folder in app tray

adw launcher: cant create folder in app tray, otherwise very similar to launcher pro. at least got horizontal app tray

go launcher: nice effects, able to create folder in app tray, but battery drain, so fail

touch widz: very nice, but has bug, apps in folder gets rearanged randomly each reboot

zeam launcher: cant make folder in app tray

so finally i'm using touch widz. it has a neat trick as well to be able to pinch to zoom at the app tray, not useful, but nice effect.

despite the problems i find in other famous launcher, they are still highly popular.

is there some other goodness that i miss out?

or is there some major flaw in touch widz that i dont know of?

please enlighten me.

(tell me the hidden pros of other launcher, or fatal weakness of touch widz)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mundixx:
apparently it's the "hip" or "in" thing to do.

just go with what you want. I personally prefer touchwiz as well.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dragon135:
There is no flaw with twlncher. After u modify something in app drawer, u need to press menu > save to keep the changes after reboot.

Twlauncher is my fav launcher, I tried 10+ other launchers, but twlauncher is the best to my liking.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] HellcatDroid:
I don't hate TouchWiz.

I actually do like it, there's a lot of good things about it and things I like better when compared to the "original" Android launcher.

I prefer GoLauncherEx though (it's what I use on my "daily use setup") because it gives me even more options for customizing my launching and app browsing experience - for one I love cusomizing my stuff and I am also one of those with like 4398 icons on their desktop (and similar as much apps on their homescreen) so the 7 screens of TouchWiz are just not enough for me and GoLauncherEx allows me to use virtually unlimited screens.

my 2ct :)
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 3xeno:
Stick with what you like. It's the only thing that matters, not the opinions of others (Esp deluded fanboys).

PS - I do NOT prefer TW, but, that's my opinion. :p
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sean is here.:
it seems you're judging launchers on a very limited number of criterion. creating folders on homescreens, included widgets and themes, ability to configure and modify themes, and widget resizing are just a few other factors. i use 'Go' and battery drain is not an issue for me at all, actually, at (on average) <10mA consumption it tested better than the others for me. but these are mostly subjective evaluations.

also, TW and other stock launchers for other phones (i.e. Sense) are NOT evil. actually, i really like sense. but often stock launchers mean tolerating other stock crapware, and that's not something i was willing to do.

those are my thoughts and opinions...but when it comes down to it, the user-interface affects the user-experience. which again is not objective.

trying to convince someone that the TW launcher (or Go, or whatever launcher) is better than another is like trying to convince someone that chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] shadowofdarkness:
Why do you consider that feature a epic fail? I personally prefer it since horizontal paging is to slow. I use vertical with Zeam launcher since with horizontal I have to swipe my finger over my screen repeatedly (anything over 4 times starts to feel like a waste of time)

With vertical I flick once and it scrolls the whole way and at any time I can press my finger to stop it in the middle. Or smoothly scroll slower.

1 second vs 10 seconds to get to the end of the list.

But I am not trying to force the feature I think all launchers should provide the toggle-able option after all that is why I like Android, the options.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] netban:
ADW Launcher EX is what I use as my daily driver and is by far the smoothest I have used.

I find TW the less responsive of them all and customization is just none existent. It's a good launcher to say it came stock with the SII but for people like me who like to customize their launchers and the overall experience, TW is simply not enough.

My top 5:

1) ADW Launcher EX

2) LauncherPro Plus

3) Go Launcher EX

4) Zeam Launcher

5) Nemus Launcher

Rizur.
[Acer Iconia A500] Falkner09:
I just noticed an update for Acer Nidus (their bug reporting app) in the changelog, it mentions a change to allow better ICS compatibility. So clearly they are in the testing phase, in fact theyre far enough into it that they're ever n upgrading their own apps for it, which means thework theyve done to build the Rom must be pretty far along.
[Acer Iconia A500] chasmanian:
Good stuff! Thanks for the heads up.
[Acer Iconia A500] garringm:
This is one of the reasons I went ahead and purchased the Iconia Tab, I have read many reports online stating that ACER will be pushing the 4.0 update sometime in January for both models of their Android TAB the A100 and A500. Your little find makes me believe that they werent kidding, I won't hold my breathe waiting for it in January I would bet on No earlier than February, thats just the way Manufactures seem to do things anymore.
[Acer Iconia A500] emonero:
ME too...That was one of the reason I bought it.
[Acer Iconia A500] erica_renee:
Acer sales spurt

I think acer will push the ics update sooner then people are expecting,or they will release a new tablet then push the update to us after that.So it could go either way. IF they do not have the new t 3 tablets ready.or there is a very large stock of icer iconia tabs out there.. they may push the update and use it as a tool to promote another sales spurt for out devices..

I Guess with this said it could be tomorrow or not until spring or mid year.. AS i said above and from what i have read it all depends on how close the new t 3 devices are . They do what ever they can to drive sales NOT MAKE ALREADY CUSTOMERS HAPPY..

i USED TO Own a retail business and on a local scale this does work its like when a new version of windows is about to come out.. People dont push new hardware right away.. they push that there existing hardware will run the new os and push that first.. then NEw hardware taking advantage of the new os after stocks have been depleated.. ITS NOT FAIR TO CUSTOMERS BUT GOOD FOR THERE BOTTOM LINE..
[Acer Iconia A500] garringm:
It'll be awhile before I flash any update from a manufacturer, went down that road with my evo 4g and samsung captivate. Samsung Drops the ball every time an update comes out, nut I guess I can't cry too hard because a lot of the hold up is from the phone carriers trying to tie up any loop hole, and cram all of their crapware in. HTC pulled a major foopah with the hardcore techies when they locked down their bootloaders. 6 months without root priviliges, that sucked
[Acer Iconia A500] wtatters:
FWIW - the newly released a200 has been announced as ICS ready - with reports that it will be shipping with ICS in January.

Given the lead times between manufacture and shipping - to be saying this and aiming get a device in stores in January with ICS - the ICS rom must pretty much be complete for that device.

And what a sweet tab it is for the price - picked up one of the first ones available for a very sweet 299 - which i think makes it the best priced HC 3.2.1 10'1 tab on the planet at the moment. Well done acer . . .

___________

Acer Liquid MT

Acer A200 Iconia Tab
[Acer Iconia A500] timmyDean:
I might be wrong, but my money is on ACER NOT pushing ICS <period>. They may make it available manually, but pushing it OTA should have their legal staff trying to stop it.

Here's the issue. If you download the HC kernel and compare it to ICS it is greatly different. Many applications have issues running on ICS that ran fine on HC. It is risky. Many carriers have a service level agreement with customers and breaking a tablet on a customer you already have on contract paying you isn't worth the risk either. Secondly, there are huge changes in ICS that certain carriers are not going to want on their 3G networks. So, anyone with such an ACER (like on on Verzion), don't hold your breath.

So, here you are at ACER sitting in the executive boardroom and they're discussing ICS. Why would anyone want to support giving past customers (or better yet forcing past customers via OTA) ICS when they already have that past customer's money? No upside, only costs, headaches, and lawsuit's written all over it. ACER will therefore, release ICS only on NEW hardware. Therefore they can get you to pay for it. Also read their press releases. They are saying A500 to get ICS. But they are NOT saying YOUR OLD ACER a500 that you previously bought will be upgraded free of charge and free of issues are they?

Bottom-line, there's too much risk involved in OTA'ng a NEW OS to customers that are NOT paying you anything. Why have someone start a class action lawsuit over it because the OTA broke something?

Lastly, I've been programming and running ICS for 3 months now and it is buggy. Stuff crashes, MFG's are needing to patch their apps, etc. If ACER makes ICS OTA it won't be a release it will be a nightmare.

my 2¢

TD
[Acer Iconia A500] kpfx:
If Acer's smart and that executive sitting in the boardroom is not so short sighted, they'll understand that supporting their 8 month old product with reasonable updates for a reasonable period of time is the only way I'll consider using their brand again.

So if they abandon it... I (and many other users here) will never buy another Acer as a gift for a friend or family member, never recommend it to anybody, and we'll end up telling everybody to stay away from them. That's not how you build brand loyalty (compare this with Apple).

Even Samsung, who announced they weren't going to bother with ICS for any of the legacy Galaxy products is now having second thoughts after the backlash they started getting.

Now, nobody's saying they need to release all updates for everything forever. The 18-month Android Developer commitment these companies pledged to is a very reasonable window. And if there's concern about the OTA aspect, release it on the side as a manual update (HTC already does this).

And for bonus points, when they're done with the product's life-cycle... at least leave the keys on the table for us (i.e. HTC and their recent decision to unlock all boot-loaders).
[Acer Iconia A500] qhinton:
I keep up with the technology blogs and Acer is updating this tablet plus A100 by April. As far as all the other stuff Acer has recently said this week that they are focusing less on making new Android products but making great hardware and attracting customers by supporting software with updates.

http://androidandme.com/2011/12/dev...id-devices-catching-on-acer-joining-the-pack/
[Acer Iconia A500] rbtconsultants:
Jeez dude, tinfoil hat much? They locked the bootloader because they're tired of all the idiots bricking their devices and returning them for warranty. The way to stop everyone from bootlegging ics on their devices and bricking them, and keeping their customer base happy long term is to release it officially.

Lots of companies make lots of money selling gadgets. If they want to try and supplement that with their own market they may, but it would be suicide to lock people into that. Only Amazon and Apple will get away with that and if they try to compete in that space they'll get killed.

My $.02
[Acer Iconia A500] timmyDean:
Love the hat comment <lol>

I do not buy into locking the device to keep costs down. In all the documents obtained from ACER, there's no mention of it. They only mention locking the device to secure software and preventing people from pirating. No mention of stupid people bricking them.

And up until they locked the boot loader, it was IMPOSSIBLE to brick a500. Let me restate that, it was impossible to brick an ACER a500 before they locked the bootloader. Because, all you had to do is download ACER/NFlash tool, connect your tablet to your PC, use a paperclip and poof, you flashed it back to factory. A monkey could do it, and I personally walked hundreds through it over the phone doing tech support (some I think were monkey's or at least about as smart).

Also, there are hundreds of reasons why the a500 would lock up (brick) and non of them were because of stupid user's trying to root them. Matter of fact, according to ACER's own tech support personnel, they now get more tablets returned then they did before because they cannot walk users through reloading them. Also, the VP of support brought it to J. T's attention that locking the bootloader was incurring increase costs. He snapped, and flew off the handle stating that like it or not, the bootloader will stay locked and if there's an increase in returns they'll just have to work through it.

TD
[Acer Iconia A500] gaddenar:
TD...no offense dude, but what a damned killjoy. =p

Reminds me of the sort of person who can only see the negative in everything, which is sad really.

Cheer up, eat an orange, watch kittens on youtube...something.

Peace
[Acer Iconia A500] timmyDean:
How about chemistry? I think I'm going to take a bunch of beer and turn it into urine.

Anyway, happy new year to all. You know all this rooting is a mute point away, isn't it? Doesn't the world end next year on 21 Dec 2012 anyway?

Well off to chemistry class.

Cheers,

TD
[Acer Iconia A500] gaddenar:
haha, that works too. Beer is good!

btw...meant no disrespect
[Acer Iconia A500] timmyDean:
None taken, nice to have people appreciate chemistry.

Cheers,

---------- Post added at 07:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 AM ----------

Lastly, I wanted to share that another company I use to ***** about locked their bootloader.

They finally changed their way because enough of us complained enough about it. We all need to do voice our opinion to ACER and get them to change as well.

Please read this http://htcdev.com/bootloader
[Acer Iconia A500] ibila:
i hope ics will come soon. Compared to my galaxy nexus the a500 feels realy sluggish.

Im on root so any custom xoom or transformer custom ics rom will do :)
[Acer Iconia A500] WereCatf:
How do you walked away when you already have bought the device?

Lay off the tinfoil-hat, please. Acer won't be pushing ICS unless they can be fairly certain such a thing doesn't happen under normal circumstances. If the user has e.g. rooted their device then Acer isn't liable for possible damages as that is no longer "normal circumstances" nor intended use of the device.

I'd say they locked it to stop every Joe Average from screwing up their tablets and then taking it to warranty.

Let's see... Apple, check. Amazon, check. Google, check. Samsung? Not check. HTC? Not check. Notice the trend? It's all the really big ones that ALREADY have enough of a muscle to throw such things around, not just plain device manufacturers. Acer/Samsung/HTC/etc. would just drive themselves to the ground if they went that way, they simply do not have the marketshare or muscle to be able to do that, nor do they have the required expertise.

What's happening here is someone WAY too comfortable in his tinfoil-hat making desperate rants on the Internets while making himself look like a lunatic (which he likely is.)

There is no way of making 100% exploit-proof OS unless your OS actually accepts no input from any device whatsoever.

Well, you can count atleast me in. Not that my PS3 required that either, software exploit works just fine.
[Acer Iconia A500] stoney73:
Agree 100% except for the fact that samsung actually have its own apps market, accessible via its samsung apps application.puny in comparison, but its there.
[Acer Iconia A500] erica_renee:
The only thing for sure about Ice Cream Sandwich for iconia usersis that if i go to the local grocery store.. there will be enough there for all of us.

I still do think that acer will push it to our devices.If they want to stay in the game . most people who have the iconia will not likely jump and buy a new one just because it has ics.. its the same with new computers..The average person probably does not even know about ics.And if they never got it would care less either way. We here on these forums are probably less then 1% of the total users of this device.Google says Acer has to support the device with all upgrades including major os versions for 18 months from device launch.. i bought mine pre ordered and its what 7 months old... I also belive there is a trend starting on boot loaders.. i belive that device manufactures will eventually make it policy to release boot loader unlocks after a device has reach its end to being marketable to service providers such as cell carriers.this has happened with some other devices and helps to clear out the remainder of there stock. I think this would likely be the end of the next generation devices.. when Most of us here will be trading up...

But remember I am Just a blonde chic and know nothing about anything....

now Bring me some strawberry icecream.. .. giggles
[Acer Iconia A500] timmyDean:
You don't have to make a 100% bullet proof OS. All you have to do is to keep patching it and you get there. Locking the bootloader is the final step.

Take a stock 3.2.1 Acer and try to software exploit it for root? Not happening, at least not anytime soon. Can it, or will it, probably but without having an unlocked bootloader you are really limited. Also, as you get more and more complex of rooting methods it really limits those willing to try it. Iconaroot, that you just downloaded and installed was easy, anyone could do it. Now, you have to flash your tablet with leaked SBK keys to root it or downgrade it.

Lastly, ACER has been showing the A700 (if I recall) as their NEW a500 replacement.

=== Lastly ====

If you sit on your hands an prey that ACER will unlock the bootloader then you're smoking something. If you want ACER to unlock it, and to stop this practice then you need to voice it to them. Verzion was going to charge a $2 convince fee if you paid online. They decided NOT to because of all the push back. Bank of America reversed their decisions to charge fees only after people closed their account. And then there's NetFlex's reversal. HTC only offered to make a bootloader unlock process after they were served with lawsuit and FTC investigation (from annual report filed, listed as a ongoing concern).

All these businesses did it because they saw they could make money. This is why ACER locked the bootloader. Unless we all vote with our pocketbook, call ACER, write letters, start a class action lawsuit, they're not going to see anything but dollars to the bottom line.
[Acer Iconia A500] WereCatf:
Actually, I think it was the fact that FCC came into the picture that caused them to change their mind, not the users. FCC is a lot scarier entity for a corporate to face.

Similarly, there is money to be made either way: with locked bootloaders and whatnot you can squeeze money from the non-technically-inclined, but with open bootloaders, open development and deep involvement with the community you can squeeze money from the technically-inclined as geeks tend to be fiercely brand-loyal.
[Acer Iconia A500] timmyDean:
Hey you're correct, I typed in FTC and meant FCC. Big beer on me.

YES YES and YES. Did I say, YES. The locking of the bootloader isn't to keep Joe Moron from fubar'ng the tablet. It is to make money, so how does locking a bootloader make money? That's the million dollar question, you can read my rant on it in this thread, but are there any others?
[Acer Iconia A500] willbur73:
Td, sorry but you are way way off. Werecatf gives some solid points too, so thanks.

Td, companies that drop support of fancy new devices before a year even comes up, will almost certainly run themselves out of business very quickly. Acer is a gigantic company world wide an yes, it is easy to assume that they are only in it for the money. And tthat is correct! And they want to stay that way. And they cannot dream of staying huge if they follow the philosophy you ascribed to them.

Companies have done stupider things but I don't think that is the case. Acer will release ics for a500. Just a matter of time.
[Acer Iconia A500] WereCatf:
I did only say that it COULD be used to drive people to other devices, I didn't say I agree with you, though. I still personally think Acer has more to gain from releasing ICS than from not releasing it, they have a somewhat shaky reputation and that's what they need to polish in order to keep their customer base and attract new ones.

Also, Acer simply isn't large and ubiquitous enough to be able to push people constantly to adopt new and new gadgets, people would be fed up very quickly and just go to another manufacturer instead. It would be a different matter if they produced something quite unique, like e.g. iPhone for Apple, but alas, Acer doesn't have anything unique enough.
[Acer Iconia A500] qhorque:
This is what happened to the Droid X on Verizon. Froyo worked fine. NO major problems other than the common annoyances. Then Verizon pushed out Gingerbread. It broke many Droid X phones, mine included. Apps failed to work it rebooted on its own while simply playing mp3 files, the keyboard was wonky and, the most annoying thing of all, the stupid thing magically turned back on mere minutes after powering down. This went on and on for a month or so until I rooted and went back to Froyo. The phone has been a champ ever since.

So there's no guarantee that a carrier or hardware manufacturer would be afraid to take the risk as you suggest. Verizon and Motorola, two of the biggest, took the risk and ticked off thousands of customers. We're still waiting for a fix!

---------- Post added at 01:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 AM ----------

The problem is that you are but one of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. The number of users at this forum is not enough to hurt their bottom line much less one person.

I agree with you - vote with your wallet. Unfortunately, there are thousands of people who continually out vote us all the time. If fixing issues or updating older hardware is not in their business plan, we are screwed.
[Acer Iconia A500] timmyDean:
Exactly, I forgot about the mess going to Gingerbread. You can wish all you want, but there's no money in breaking units that have already been paid.

Also, employees at various carriers with the a501 are saying (different chat boards) that they WILL NOT be upgrading any device to ICS. Since carriers represent a major consumer base for ACER, what they'll put hundreds of employee's working on making ICS work on legacy hardware for us? Face it, we're in a minority and they'll be pushing new sales. Also, carriers are stating they are NOT going to risk another FTC investigation like the one that occurred when they OTA'ed Gingerbread and it broke devices. They will never risk fubar'ng a 911 call ever again (Verzions statement to the FTC and court filings).

99% of the people will pony up for the a700. Running ICS on this old hardware would be like running Windows 7 on hardware written for Windows 98. Read the Nvidia design and processing power OF THE NEW a700 and then tell me you want ICS on your old and slow a500.
[Acer Iconia A500] wolverine423:
Lol old and slow a500. My 1gHz single core Inspire 4g on a beta version of ICS runs smoother than my a500 on honeycomb at times.

It would not be like running Windows 7 on win 98 hardware. Horrible comparison.