A new HTC ONE X ROM was released over the weekend at XDA, one that was significant because it was said to be based off of a new Sense 4.1 RUU. To this point, Sense 4.0 is the most current version of HTC’s custom Android skin, so naturally, we took this 4.1 ROM for a spin to look for changes. Without spoiling too much, I’ll just say that there aren’t many changes. However, this could be an early Sense 4.1 that doesn’t have all of the goodies that HTC plans to introduce or it wasn’t meant to be massive and is simply a performance enhancer. I’m thinking the latter. 

New Quick Settings Panel

When I first picked up the One X, with its Sense 4.0, I was disappointed to see that HTC had removed the “Quick Settings” panel from the notifications pulldown menu. Quick access to WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and brightness have always been my favorite add-ons for custom skins. Why they removed it is beyond me, but in this Sense 4.1-built ROM, a full “Quick Settings” panel is back. There is a chance that this was thrown in by the ROM developer, but it looks too polished to be. If this is indeed included in Sense 4.1, this is the best new feature.

App Switcher Button Re-mapping

HTC was trying to do the right thing when they removed the menu button on the One X, but unfortunately for them, app developers have not followed suit. For those that own one of their new devices, you are likely familiar with the awful black bar menu button that takes up screen space in apps that have not adopted the new menu system that Google recommended. In order to fix this issues themselves, HTC has started to push an update that allows for re-mapping of the task switcher button. This is not necessarily a Sense 4.1 feature, but it is included in this new build. As you can see from the screenshot, you have 3 options to set for this button.

Performance

This could be from the ROM, but those that have flashed it are claiming that the new Sense 4.1 on top of Android 4.0.4 has been given a performance boost. As seen in the Quadrant benchmark above, the score is more than 500 points higher than what we received when we first benchmarked the device.

Browser Tabs Button

The stock browser now includes a dedicated button for Tab toggling. In Sense 4.0, you had to hit menu to get into your Tabs section, but now, it sits on its own next to the menu button.

Camera and 3D Animations

The early reports about this 4.1 ROM claimed that the camera software now had a quick toggle to switch between front and rear cameras. I’m not finding that. In my experience, you still have to go into Settings and then manually switch. The picture above is proof of that.

The other tip that early flashers were suggesting, had to do with 3D animations in the app drawer, claiming they were gone. Sorry to disappoint everyone, but they are still there in all their glory. When jumping between All, Frequent, and Downloads, a nasty and slow 3D animation still rolls across your screen. There aren’t 3D transitions in the app pages themselves, but there never were to begin with.

Wrap-up

And that’s pretty much it. Like I said, this is likely more of a performance enhancer than anything else. From what I can tell, the reports of missing 3D animations and new camera toggles are wrong, but that there may be a big boost in system performance. I can’t say that I have noticed an incredibly speedier device after flashing this, though. I would expect that when HTC finishes this up, it will be all minor tweaks like I have shown here and not much else.

HTC Sense 4.1 Reportedly Leaks in New ROM, We Look for Changes is a post from: Droid Life

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. 

When asked what inspired the newest version of Sense and its cleaner look, Drew had this to say:

We took inspiration from matte finishes that have become very popular in high-end automobiles, such as Mercedes and BMW. We also took a warmer approach to the color palette to make it feel more inviting and friendly.

Later in the discussion, he was asked how long his team had to work with ICS before having to create the final Sense 4.0 for the masses. Not surprisingly, they had very little time:

There was not a lot of time between when we saw Ice Cream Sandwich and when we released our Sense 4. In fact, we were designing things like our recent apps UI well in advance of when Ice Cream Sandwich came out. So really this represents our spacing on the best way to do it; it’s not an intentional rebuttal of the Ice Cream Sandwich design. It’s just a different approach that we eventually came up with.

If you have been reading our recent reviews of the new HTC One X and the One S, then you would have noticed our opinions of the Sense UI have changed greatly since our first encounters with it back in the DROID Incredible days. It’s cleaner, easier on the eyes, and actually works the way you would hope an overlay would. It adds good features while not taking too much away from the stock feel of Android.

To read the full interview, which I would recommend, follow the via link below. Have you been able to play with the new Sense UI? What are your thoughts?

Via: LaptopMag

Cheers Mark!

Man Behind HTC’s Sense 4.0 Interviewed, Talks Inspiration and Toning Down is a post from: Droid Life

Well, it has been a full week since we got our hands on the HTC One X and are getting closer to a full review, but first, we wanted to do an intense look at Sense 4.0. As you may have heard, this version of Sense is supposed to be the lightest and most toned down yet, resembling stock Android much more than any other release. Whether that’s true or not is up for debate, but the changes are drastic enough that we wanted to point some of them out to you. This is technically the first OEM skin to be slapped over top of Ice Cream Sandwich that has been released to the public, so it is definitely worth talking about. Some of it is definitely good – some of it not-so-much. Overall though, I’d have to say that I’ve enjoyed parts of the Sense experience, just not the launcher itself. Prepare yourself for 20 minutes of glory.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: HTC Sense 4.0 Overview on the One X is a post from: Droid Life