Sense or Mobile Shell or Titanium?

[Wond3r]

Which do you prefer, and why?
Manila/Sense
SPB Mobile Shell
Titanium

I've been using Sense 2.5 but am thinking to give Mobile Shell a try, but I'm not sure where to find good themes for it.

[rhacy]

All the Windows Mobile interfaces have pluses and minuses. In turn, what's best comes down to personal preferences, as well as overall speed and stability.

The HTC Sense vga port has the most eye candy, but it also has more lag at times and locks up more often, due to it's increased use of system resources. I have found the amount of main program storage and program ram memory needed, combined with the Diamond's limited amount of main storage, to be a real issue. Plus, Sense or even Manila for that matter, will eat up large amounts of precious diamond main storage over time, as more of your images and other data files are stored in the Application Data/HTC folders. This is a real drawback that I've not been able to permanently resolve to date. Nonetheless, if we were using a device with double or triple the main storage, ram, and processing power, there would not be an issue, and Sense 2.5 would be my first choice, just for it's animated weather home screen alone.

Titanium appears to be lean and mean, but antiquated and quite dull for a 2010 PPC GUI, in my humble opinion. That said, Windows Mobile really needs a complete revamp, to say the least. Hopefully, it will happen in a major way with WM7.

Spb has come along way since I started using the old Pocket Plus version back in the Apache days. That said, I find myself using Mobile Shell 3.5.2 the most at this time. The big pluses are that you can run it off your internal storage with no extra lag. Moreover, you can add Mobile Sense or other third party themes to increase the eye candy factor. Also, Mobile Shell uses less program ram memory than HTC Sense or Manila, and it does not continually decrease your main program storage over time, unlike Sense or Manila. Please note that MS initially installs to main memory, so you need to use a program like SKtools to move the MS program files folder over to your Diamond's internal storage/program files folder. The great thing about SKtools is that when it moves MS for you, it corrects all registry edits, install data, and saves you around 10MB's of precious main program storage. Another excellent program for MS is Shell Extension by NLWaard over at XDA. SE allows you to add more Life Style and Professional Screens and modify more items to your personal preferences. As far as where to find themes for MS, just run a search for Sbp Mobile Shell here or at XDA Developers, and you should be able to find links to a theme that suits your needs without any problem.

On a related note, you can have it all, lol..., if you like; HTC Sense or Manila, Spb Mobile Shell, Titanium, and other graphical user interfaces installed, and switch between them easily with TF3D Switcher, courtesy of Darkness231.

Hope this helps...

Best to all,
R

[basilray]

Sense works for me. It integrates all the things I want into a useful and easy to use interface that looks very impressive.

[Wond3r]

Rhacy, can I installed SPB and have my Sense 2.5, but just mainly use SPB? Will this still have the lag because Sense is installed? I think I may go over to SPB today or tomorrow.

[rhacy]

Wond3r, TF3D Switcher will unload Sense when you switch to Spb Mobile Shell. In turn, your system should be faster, due to Mobile Shell running less program ram memory verses Sense. Same goes if you switch to Titanium. Please note that if you're running a 6.5.x ROM build, Spb MS may not work as intended. Here, WM 6.1 works well with MS 3.5.2 and Sense. WM 6.5 works well with Titanium, MS 3.5.2 or 3.5.3, and Sense installed. For 6.5.x, I'd probably just run Sense and Titanium at this time, as I do not think Spb fully supports the latest builds that have repositioned the native start menu soft button to the bottom left. Although, if I had my spare Diamond here, I'd test a 6.5.x build with Sense 2.5 and MS 3.5.3 for you right now. It may work better than 3.5.2.. Also, if you are already running low on main program storage, give moving Spb MS to Internal Storage a go with SKtools, like I mentioned in my previous post. It's works well here, and saves around 10MB's of main storage memory. Anyway, if you have the time, give Spb MS a try, it has a 14 day trial, and uninstalls fine. Plus Shell Extension, TF3D Switcher, and MS themes are free.

Best to all,
R

[Wond3r]

I can confirm mobile shell is working with 6.5.3 now! No problems yet!

ps. It froze on my text message page, but I think it's because I installed a new theme. The original one worked fine.

[rhacy]

That's excellent news Wond3r! Please update if you run into any problems. Also, if you get a chance, please let me know how much main program storage you have available with 6.5.3 Sense 2.5 and MS 3.5.3 installed, as well as how much running program memory you have available after a soft reset when using just MS or just Sense? There should be a good sized difference between the two. Anyway, just curious if the latest OMJ 6.5.3 builds are lighter or heavier than earlier versions.

Thanks in advance for any info...
Cheers,
R

[Wond3r]

I'm liking SPB... BUT, does anyone know of a quick way to compose a new text message?

[Wond3r]

I was using 6.5.3 with Sense 2.5. I also am running the new mobile shell on it.
It's actually really useful. There is no need to scroll to different tabs when I can basically put everything I need on 1-2 tabs. When I like to get fancy, I add some to a 3rd tab.

[Riley]

sense 2.1 offers a good alternative to 2.5. it runs quicker and uses less memory. Having said that, I really like spb mobile shell and the sense theme.