Please, T-Mobile, make it stop. We can hear the gears turning in the T-Mobile HQ's hive brain: "We'll make a mostly vanilla G2 with a slide-out keyboard for those hardcore users, but Regular Joe Consumer? He can't handle straight-up Android. Let's take this paintbrush loaded up with plastic and cruft and inconsistencies and a little bit of HTC Sense and smear it all over Froyo."Does it sound like we're taking this a little too personally? Because we are. Android has gotten too good for these shenanigans, and while the basic consumer might never know the difference -- might even like some of these HTC-built widgets and T-Mobile themes -- we can't unsee the excellent elements of Froyo that have been trampled on to make way for their inclusion. T-Mobile went to the trouble of putting seven different themes on this device, each which packs a different background image, a slight alteration of the UI's "chrome," and swaps the color of various buttons and other elements. To be honest, we wouldn't be that offended by all of this if there was just a blessed eighth option that said "none." As it is, we're stuck with T-Mobile's idea of a good UI (which naturally clashes with a half dozen other UI styles present in various apps and the original Google look that peeks through now and then), and the added weight it adds to the experience.
For instance, when you grab for the notification tray, there's a subtle lag that breaks the illusion of pulling something down and sometimes made us feel like we'd mis-touched -- despite the fact that the processor on this phone is incredible, and blazed through regular applications. Swiping between home screen areas can slow down slightly at times, and the swipe gesture to unlock the phone (a downward pull on a horizontal bar) feels unsatisfying and lacks the swipe-to-mute option.
Do we sound nitpicky? Good, let's continue. Another big gripe is the loss of Google's own Calendar app for HTC's similar but inferior one. In fact, HTC's calendar app versus Google's is sort of a case-in-point for what we're talking about UI-wise. The week view on Google's version is very "chromeless," you might even call it ugly. HTC spruces it up with some rounded corners, pastel versions of the different calendar colors, and gradients through each item to make events look a little bit like pieces candy. The problem? HTC decided to excise the text out of every single event, no matter how large, making the view basically useless. This isn't a new problem for HTC Sense, but we're going to keep railing against it until Google / manufacturers / Regular Joe Consumer wise up.
Download myTouch 4G USB Tethering driver
here.exe
