Advise for dumb old man

Cork · #1 (**permalink**) 09-06-2008, 12:51 PM

I hope this is an appropriate post for this forum.

I've had the XV-6800 for a few weeks now; this is my first PPC device. I've been using Palm OS PDA's and/or Treos for six years, but I became so frustrated with the way VZW crippled the 755p (resulting in incredibly slow response time) that when the radio died I gave up. I picked the XV because of the large keyboard and full PPC implementation.

I'm not a total technical illiterate - Aerospace engineering degree, did some 8086 assembler programming in the early IBM PC days, build my own PC's.

Please provide advice on a direction to go to improve the interface of my Titan. I don't mind buying software - I have Pocket Quicken, eWallet, and ListPro loaded already to replace similar apps on my 755p, and of course the Skyfire beta (most excellent). I look forward to playing with the GPS once I load one of the sensational ROM/radio combos as well.

What I'd like is an equivalent screen to my Palm with icons for the programs I use the most, larger buttons for the dialer, etc. The stock "Today" screen is useless to me. I want to be able to do most things without needing the stylus. SPB has a couple of solutions that seem popular, there's HTC Home, etc. On the ROM's, it looks like DCD and No2Chem follow different philosophies, but both produce excellence. Should I simply pick one of the kitchens and build a ROM with the available interfaces, or load a more stripped ROM and buy one or more of the SPB apps? And if the latter, which one(s)? They seem to do many of the same things.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts. This forum and XDA-Developers are filled with incredible people.

stifiling · #2 (**permalink**) 09-06-2008, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cork

What I'd like is an equivalent screen to my Palm with icons for the programs I use the most, larger buttons for the dialer, etc. The stock "Today" screen is useless to me. I want to be able to do most things without needing the stylus. SPB has a couple of solutions that seem popular, there's HTC Home, etc. On the ROM's, it looks like DCD and No2Chem follow different philosophies, but both produce excellence. Should I simply pick one of the kitchens and build a ROM with the available interfaces, or load a more stripped ROM and buy one or more of the SPB apps? And if the latter, which one(s)? They seem to do many of the same things.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts. This forum and XDA-Developers are filled with incredible people.

welcome to the ppc world. to be perfectly honest with you as well...you now have the better device.

as far as a big button user interface though, my personal favorite is ultimate launcher. it's very customizable and so far appears to be the lightest as far as memory usage.

**MrObvious** · #3 (**permalink**) 09-06-2008, 01:45 PM

Find the thread by GaMedic on cooking your own ROM with instructions. It is much better to do that anyway. If you have questions feel free to ask here or on IRC irc.freenode.net #ppcgeeks .

rhannahs19 · #4 (**permalink**) 09-06-2008, 02:17 PM

welcome sir, mrobvious is correct, you should read the tutorial first and figure out what you are doing so you dont break your phone. i personally love no2chems roms because then are clean and very streamlined.. he just put out a new on (you have to donate to access it) that boots with over 30 mbs of ram, which is outstanding. dcds roms are also stable and are more preferred over at xda. enjoy your stay, the search button will be your best friend.

**gguruusa** · #5 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhannahs19

i personally love no2chems roms because then are clean and very streamlined.. he just put out a new on (you have to donate to access it) that boots with over 30 mbs of ram, which is outstanding.

It's also missing the camera, so, um, it's not for everyone.

Cork · #6 (**permalink**) 09-07-2008, 04:30 PM

I appreciate the input. I'm going to work with Ultimate Launcher for a week or two and see what it can do for me.

I should have been more specific in my request, though. I've read through many of the guides several times, I've downloaded a couple of the kitchens and looked through them. The number of options is staggering, and it is not obvious to me what add-on programs should be selected (if any), whether there are conflicts among the selections, etc.

Now, I've gone ahead and loaded nueSPL 2.47, radio 3.42.50, and built an OS ROM based on 20273; everything loaded OK and once I got a new A-Key from VZW the phone is working. (Of course, it blew away my link to the corporate email system, but since IT reports to me I imagine that won't be a problem for long.)

Here's the thing, though. On most of the add-on program choices I hadn't a clue what I was doing. Some things were obvious from my research (Total Commander, QuickMenu, TCPMP, etc.) and I added Ultimate Launcher based on the recommendation above. But on most of the other choices I was flying blind. What would be useful, I think, would be a discussion on the add-in choices to give newbies and idea of a baseline set of selections. I may be wrong, but I don't believe I found anything like that as I searched the forum.

In any case, I do appreciate the input I received, the guides, etc.

**Lsme420** · #7 (**permalink**) 09-07-2008, 04:50 PM

I dont use it but maybe you could try Spb Mobile Shell .
I use the HTC 6 tab plugin.

**freeza** · #8 (**permalink**) 09-08-2008, 01:28 PM

I think you'd be quite happy with SPB Pocket Plus.

blksprk · #9 (**permalink**) 09-09-2008, 01:15 AM

My personal preference is not to use kitchens, let me explain (you may already know it, but its worth explaining in case you dont):

when you build something into a rom using a kitchen, its there till you flash over it, so if you add something that in the end you find useless your stuck with it until you reflash. I personally love No2Chems roms, they are known for there clean and simple function. DCDs are also very good but lack some basic functions out of the box that I preffer to have built in(being able to mount the memory card like a flash drive, SIP setting, Font tools, stuff like that). If you go this route you have two options, install the cabs by hand, there available all over the place, search on google for ppc freeware, literally thousands of hits. you can also automate this by using a rom that is UC compliant (Both DCD and No2Chems are), more on that here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=366337
but thats just my two bits, helps avoid the whole conflict thing

as for interfaces, check out either pointui home or Mobile Shell by spb, both are outstanding programs, can be a little heavy resource wise but worth it if you want something that works without a lot of tweaking.

Oh ya, and welcome aboard

**gguruusa** · #10 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blksprk

My personal preference is not to use kitchens, let me explain (you may already know it, but its worth explaining in case you dont):

when you build something into a rom using a kitchen, its there till you flash over it

Yes. And if you don't cook it into the rom, you have to load it by .cab. The only difference is how you handle upgrades, which if you're upgrading your rom all the time, isn't an issue either. The real advantage to using the kitchen is that you don't have to do all that configuration crap after your .cabs load all the time.