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.

If you own a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with 4G LTE on Verizon, you should have a pretty major update available to you any day now. The update is version EL01 and includes TouchWiz for tablets along with a ton of other fixes and improvements. The document above (click to enlarge) will walk you through all of the major changes such as the mini apps tray, quick panel, and social hub widget. If stock Honeycomb was becoming a bore, this should give you some much needed spice.

The update itself is 351MB in size, so be sure you are in a strong LTE area or on WiFi before attempting to download.

More details after the break.  

Most of the time that fragmentation is discussed it is in direct reference to different versions of Android running on different handsets. The cause of this fragmentation is usually identified as the sundry skins that manufacturers develop in order to differentiate their devices from others and create brand awareness and loyalty. Though critics and users have often called for stock Android to be at least an option on Android handsets (if not the standard), manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, and Samsung have continued to create more and more invasive and intricate skins on the devices they offer to consumers. Though a lack of updates is certainly reason enough for users to be upset, a more important issue may be the very different experiences that are presented to consumers because of these skins.

If the average consumer were to pick up the HTC Sensation and then pick up the DROID Bionic, they might be inclined to believe that the phones run totally different operating systems. And in a sense (no pun intended), they do. A phone made by HTC and running Sense offers a completely different experience than a Motorola phone running Blur (or “Android with Motorola Enhancements” as Motorola inclined to call it these days) or a Samsung phone running TouchWiz.

These manufacturer skins have altered Android so much that something as simple as unlocking your screen is a fundamentally different experience on different Android phones. On a stock device like the Nexus S I simply slide the lock tab to unlock the screen, but on a TouchWiz device I push the lock screen away or complete a puzzle, on a Sense device I slide down the lock bar or slide the lock ring upward, and on a Motorola device I slide the lock tab which also varies in location from device to device. In other words, the first screen that a consumer sees in a store when looking at an Android phone can be completely different from the Android phone next to it.  

Are you a happy Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi owner? Then you should start checking your tab for an update this Friday, August 5th. If you just so happen to live in New York City, and don’t have time to just sit around and wait for an update, Samsung is also hosting an “Update Party” in Columbus Circle today. Get on it.  

No one was complaining when Samsung announced that its new Galaxy Tab 10.1 wouldn’t launch with their special TouchWiz UX on it.  Unfortunately they still had plans to introduce the first ever Honeycomb (Android 3.1) skin in the near future and have provided a full 12-minute video of what you can expect.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that it looks awful, because it does add some nice new functionality and features.  The problem is that TouchWiz on phones is indeed awful and also makes updating happen at a much slower pace.  We won’t know how UX will affect the Tab 10.1 in the future, but it’s still something to be concerned about.

Anyone pick up a Tab 10.1?  Any of you want TouchWiz UX on it?

Via: Phandroid