Love it or hate it, HTC is fully behind their Android skin, Sense. With each upgrade it is promised to be slimmer and easier to use, but still people complain about it getting in the way of their phone. Sense 5 debuted with their newest flagship the HTC One this year, but according to an HTC ROM developer, Sense 5 is upcoming for last year’s device, the One X. 

With HTC’s new Sense 5, they introduced a ton of new wallpapers and someone finally ripped them from the device. With a few classy black and whites, some colorful tones, and even some Jelly Bean-looking patterns, these are our favorite Sense papers we have seen in a while. 

After seeing the picture of Sense 5.0 up and running on a DROID DNA, XDA member mdeejay brought up the fact that the phone is actually running a ported build from a Sprint M7 which has the new Sense on it. He claims to have it working nicely, but can’t release it at this time. Thankfully, he was able to at least share some screenshots from it, so that we can see some of the changes in store in this latest version of HTC’s Sense. 

Over the weekend, we caught our first glimpse of HTC’s new custom skin for Android, Sense 5.0. The two appearances lead us to believe that HTC is going with a more minimal approach to Sense, but also one with an interesting take on home screen sections that look similar to what Microsoft has done with Windows Phone. It has pretty moments, like with the icons, but the rest seems like a step in the wrong direction – but that’s coming from a minimalist like myself. 

Since CES was a complete bust in terms of seeing HTC’s next superphone, the M7, it feels natural that we would see some leaked goodies shortly after. Although, I have to admit, this is some of the worst leaked shots I’ve ever seen, of anything. So, let us take a second and go over what we have.

In a recent interview with Laptop Mag, HTC’s AVP of user experience Drew Bamford, was asked to spill his guts on the development of the new Sense 4.0 and how they were able to “tone it down.” As most folks here may know, we have had the general belief that the Sense UI, when placed atop vanilla Android, was bloating and made our devices lag all across the board while not adding anything that was incredibly needed by some. HTC have been listening and took many steps to minimize Sense down and make it more usable and an intuitive experience. 

HTC Rezound owners, more custom ROMs are on the horizon for you. This newest Sense 4.0 ROM is almost completely in working order after two months of stressful work by developer, newtoroot. It has a very short list of bugs, most notably being the lack of working Bluetooth. With full working 4G data, GPS and sound, this is the most complete 4.0 ROM we have seen so far.

For downloads and instructions on flashing this ROM, follow the via link below and read up on everything you will need. If you own an already rooted and unlocked ROM, your task is quite simple. For the rest of folks, let’s hope you know some adb commands.

Via: XDA

This video from the folks at The Verge that is floating around today, is simply put, hilarious. During the clip from their podcast, they interview a guy who goes by the name “Big Poppa Joe” and claims to be the biggest Samsung TouchWiz fan on Earth. Yeah, you may need to read that again. Someone who admits publicly to loving TouchWiz. He may just be a brilliant troll, but if you needed a good laugh as we head into the weekend, this one is worth a watch.

With that said, we would love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the OEM skins out there. I’m curious to know which you would choose if there was no other choice but to have a skin. Stock Android is gone for good, which skin would you choose and why? HTC’s Sense, Motorola’s Blur, Samsung’s TouchWiz or something else?

As of today, I would go with Blur. While it was complete garbage for a a year or two there, the latest version is not all that bad (assuming you like the color blue). With its built in MotoCast software, semi-customizable launcher, gradually improving camera software, and new lockscreen, it’s not half bad. My opinion may quickly change on this once I get my hands on the HTC One X and see Sense 4.0, but until then, as surprising as it may sound, I would go Blur.