I honestly don't mean this to be a troll or bashing post...I'm genuinely curious. I don't understand why Miui is so popular. All I see when I look into it is an iPhone-skinned AOSP ROM with no app drawer. Neither of those things are good in my eyes. But I see tons of people, including lots of really in-depth android geeks, using it--so I've got to be missing something. Maybe it's just not my style--I run CM and ADW EX for their tweakability and function-over-fashion design outlook.

I just don't get it... UI-wise, one of the things I've always hated most about the iPhone is the cluttered, inefficient homescreens full of goofy shiny icons. The other thing I've always hated most about the iPhone's UI is the lack of an app drawer. So I don't really see the appeal in neutering Android to that same point.

Again, I'm not bashing. I'm wondering if anyone around here is running Miui and can tell me more about it. I'm not likely to dump CyanogenMod for it, but I'm still curious as to why it's so popular. Is there more to it than just a GUI refresh? Anything good I'm missing out on?

Just for contrast, here's my very non-shiny, efficient/clean homescreen setup.

I cant even pronounce MIUI, I think its a Chinese Android skin. When i tried it seemed to be lacking a an App drawer, didst like it. I use CM7 and Virtuous Unity.

I tried it out recently and I liked the idea, but it was a little too buggy at the time. I don't have a problem with no app drawer and it does allow for widgets, so I liked it for the most part. I come to prefer iOS to Android as time has went on though, but I still really like my EVOs Sense UI too. Everything just works together so well that it makes me forget about Androids downfalls.

A33 wrote:I tried it out recently and I liked the idea

That's exactly where I'm having trouble: what is the idea?

A33 wrote:I come to prefer iOS to Android as time has went on though

Really...why's that?

MinisterofDOOM wrote:

A33 wrote:I tried it out recently and I liked the idea

That's exactly where I'm having trouble: what is the idea?

A33 wrote:I come to prefer iOS to Android as time has went on though

Really...why's that?

From what I see, the idea is to make it more iOS like. Which is silly in a sense, but I applaud the effort they put into it still. It's a very polished ROM and they've put a lot of thought into the little details of it, but it's still not one of my favorite ROMs yet.

I'm just getting burned out on the whole Android platform. I loved the tweak-ability for a while, but Android just seems to never be quite polished enough for my liking. Something is always buggy, something always gives me issues, and it's nowhere near as good as I expected it to be by now. It's fun to tweak, but I hate doing it on my primary devices because I prefer reliability and stability to open and unstable at times.

Google has this habit with nearly anything that has their name on it, aside from Chrome, Gmail, and Google.com: They push it out as quickly as possible and say we'll fix it later. Which is fine, but it seems like they never get it right when they do that. They release minor fixes here and there, then they decide "Well we can just fix it in the next version, let's hurry up and get it pushed out.", and the whole process repeats again. Don't get me wrong... my EVO has been one of the best phones i've ever had, BUT it isn't AOSP out of the box and makes me forget about the things I despise about AOSP. Stock Android devices are teh suck IMHO, which I know there's plenty of people that disagree with that.

The reason I prefer iOS is because it just works. My iPad never crashes, it never force closes, and it has PHENOMENAL battery life. Everything is smooth and everything works well together. Yes, the screens can be considered to be cluttered and iOS can be considered "dumbed down" to some people, but it does everything I want it to do and it does it well. My EVO on the other hand can be a challenge sometimes and I don't like a challenge when I just want to complete a simple task. I'm not a iOS fanboi by any means and I used to despise anything Apple, but I use my iPad far more than I do any of my Android devices.

Now, I can understand why some people don't care for iOS too and Android has it's areas where it excels greatly compared to iOS, but those things are useless to me when it comes down to it. Another platform i'm interested in is the new Windows Mobile phones... if they truly have finally gotten it right, then there's a good possibility that I may give that a try next time around too.

I see. I'm pretty devoutly the other way around, so I have trouble understanding things from your perspective. I've never ever found myself wanting a product of any kind that "just works" as they say. I also don't care if it's shiny. This applies to everything from cars to videogame systems (computer or console or handheld or whatever) to portable computing devices to watches to alarm clocks to women. I don't want simple, I want robust. I don't want shiny, I want effective. I don't mind some instability if it comes with more versatility.

I almost hate Windows Phone 7 more than iOS. It's so busy trying to be chic and cutting edge it forgot to actually be functional. The stupid squares of color with text on them design makes my eyes bleed. It's tremendously inefficient and it looks dumb. The text-bleeding-off-the-screen is the same thing. Nonfunctional trying to be cool. Stupid. And WP7 neuters most of what I liked most about prior WinMo versions. It's approach is a hybridization of two incredibly closed platforms: iOS and Xbox Live. Both of which bother me on many levels, but formost for being closed and restrictive. No downloading APKs (or the equivalent, obviously) from any old website and getting on with things. And Microsoft's determination to be on the cutting edge in yet another area and make everything "social" bugs the Hell out of me, too.
Functionally, WP7 does some neat things, like the slick contact subgrouping I've wanted in Android since I ran 1.5 on my G1.
But like iOS it's so busy trying to BE something, it forgot to DO a lot of important things.

To be completely honest, my dislike for WP7's aesthetic/GUI design bothers me SO very much, I'm really, really terrified of what Windows 8 is going to be like. Win8 is ALSO trying to stand out from its predecessors by being chic, but I've never ever ever in my history of computing wanted an OS to be chic or cool.

You know, I actually read an article recently previewing Windows 8 that expressed EXTREME joy that the transluscent "Aero" look of Win7 will be going away in favor of the sharp-edges monocolor WP7 look. The author whined that transparency is "so 90s." WTF? I hate people so damn much. Who gives a damn what's "in" right now?!!?!?!?!?!?!! Transparency is USEFUL. And if we WERE talking aesthetics, I'll take transparency over colored squares any damn day.

I've just been on a bit of an Android rant lately. I do like robust and effective though, but I grow impatient with things that are unstable, which is why I prefer things that "just work". We are a bit opposite, but not completely, because I don't care if something is shiny or pretty either. I just like for things to work as I expect them to... if I pay $400-600 for a tablet, I want it to work like a $400-600 tablet. I have very little tolerance for instability, so that's why i'm willing to sacrifice versatility some for a more stable device. I don't care for having to modify a setting, or re-flash a ROM, because something like my e-mail isn't working or Wifi won't connect.

I'm still not 100% that I will convert to an iPhone this next time either, but unless the impending EVO HD is the flagship phone that the EVO was last year, then I will likely avoid Android the next time. The reason I can't stand AOSP phones is because they don't integrate the little things well. My EVO matches all of my contacts to Facebook and downloads contact photos, names, birthdays, event dates, and ect, then syncs it all up with my contact list and calendar automatically. I LIKE THAT A LOT. AOSP do some of that, but they don't do it well. Also the stock Android dialer on all other phones aside from HTC suck a**. I can dial a few digits on my EVO and it will immediately start matching contacts for me, so I can find a contact a lot easier when I need to make a call. There are many things that Sense UI does better and they may seem like trivial, pretty things, but it makes my phone experience easier, without limiting what it can do.

I keep finding things about Android that change my mind though every once in a while, that reminds me that "Hey, I couldn't do that on an iPhone". For example - I just discovered DeskSMS, which is made by the same developer that makes ClockworkMod. It's a an effing brilliant application too... You install the application on your phone and then they have an extension for Google Chrome. It sends your text messages from your phone(copies them) and sends them to the DeskSMS extension. You can compose, send, and reply to SMS messages right from your computer and it sends them and receives them from your phone number. That is simply brilliant IMHO and it made me reconsider some of my opinions, because as I said, I couldn't do that on iOS.

I loaded CyanogenMod7 Alpha 2 on my HP Touchpad a few weeks ago, then just updated to Alpha 3 a couple of days ago, and it's finally starting to grow on me. I've gotten everything figured out on it and have a good layout going, so putting the alpha bugs aside, it's actually a very solid OS on the Touchpad. It's made the $150 tablet a lot more beneficial to me now and has made me pick it up a bit more often, which is more than I could say about WebOS. With WebOS, it pretty much became a backup tablet for when the wife was using my iPad. Now I actually don't mind carrying it around with me. I still do prefer my iPad when i'm at home, but I enjoy tinkering with the Touchpad now.

As far as WP7, i'm interested to try it out. I'm thinking about getting one of the phones for the wife, but i'm not completely sold on it for myself. You're right though, who in the hell cares about what's in right now? I don't buy a phone because it's in, I buy it because I like how it functions and how it will handle tasks that I will use it for. I don't like iOS because of all of the apps, or the cool factor, I like it because it's a solid functioning OS and it handles what I do well. Not because it's pretty or not transparent.

MS is doing a really interesting thing for people like us who want to try out Windows Phone 7. Go to this website with your Android phone's browser for a "preview tour". (It works from a desktop browser, too):
http://m.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en- ... .html#home

It reminds me of the HTML projects from my first-year computer science class. The color palette is horrendous, though I realize that varies from device to device (or is maybe user customizable?).
Just don't like it. See my Android home at the top of this thread...how much information and accessibility is crammed into so little space. Then look at WP7 and it takes 6 big red squares to accomplish half of what my least-cluttered homescreen page gets done.

I do agree with things being cluttered, because at least with iOS you can use as many screens as you like and put things into folders. I do like the limitless options you have with your screens in Android though. My EVO isn't really all that special of a setup, but here's what i've got going on the Touchpad right now:









I have a fifth screen too, but I didn't really have enough stuff to put on it

A33 wrote:I do agree with things being cluttered, because at least with iOS you can use as many screens as you like and put things into folders.

Folders are a stock Android option that still needs some work, but there are tons of options out there to add more versatility to them.
Better yet, ICS (4.0) will be adding folder-style icons that expand as you drag out from them. So you throw all your [x] category apps in one folder, it takes up one spot on your home screen, and when you touch it it expands in an arc to show its contents. Compact and efficient.
As far as home screens, any of the huge number of home screen replacements lets you add more. My favorite is ADW EX, which lets you use something like 20+ if you need them all.

Your touchpad setup looks nice. The ability to make use of widgets is the one benefit of tablets' bigger screens I really like.

I really like ADW EX a lot, it's actually made me enjoy modding Android again. I'm back to CyanogenMod7 on my EVO with ADW EX and am loving it right now. Then i'm also running ADW EX on the Touchpad now too, which this is the latest layout for it:











I don't have any screenshots of the EVO at the moment, but i've got it setup nice and clean now too.