By With the announcement of the HTC Legend and HTC Desire, the company also ushered in a brand new version of HTC Sense. It’s still the same good lookin’ sense you’re familiar with only it has some additions. Most notable are 7 homescreens instead of 5, and the ability to pinch-to-zoom on the homescreen to “zoom out” and see all 7 screens at once so you can quickly pinpoint the screen you want.
HTC is calling this “Helicopter View” and the folks at Recombu provided a video demo using none other than the HTC Desire:
Pretty nifty! Although if you’ve got all 7 screens organized how you want them, I’m not convinced pinch/zoom-out and selecting the proper screen is quicker than just swiping left and right. I’m pretty sure HTC said it’ll update some existing handsets, like the Hero, to incorporate the Sense improvements.
I really like this feature :D
Didn’t Sense UI always have 7 homescreens?
I like that HTC is very innovative when it comes to UI design. I am not sure how truly useful this add-on feature is but it doesn’t hurt to have choices!
……so this is what we’ve been waiting months for! A stupid homescreen pinch to zoom! All I know is, this better run slick on my hero
No this isn’t what they have been waiting months for, you fool.
Um, sorry, but I have to call FAIL on this article. HTC Sense UI has always have 7 home screens, not 5. That’s nothing new. However, the helicopter view is new, and kinda cool.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Sense on my Hero. But I’d still rather have the Nexus One hardware. It just looks cleaner.
@ brad
I think the five screens is in reference to stock android 2.1 and not sense. Can someone confirm?
Sense has always been 7 homescreens
Will Windows Phone 7 give Android a run for its money?
Well, I hope HTC doesn’t abandon Android for Win Phone 7.
Hmm, gotta say I think this feature looks pretty useless. All the videos I’ve seen of “Sense 2.1” have got me worried. On these brand new phones, it’s incredibly laggy. Hope they can work out the kinks so it doesn’t cripple my Hero…
@ Breon
If only there was a way to get HTC Sense onto the Nexus One. Then I’d be the happiest Jimmy on the block.
only reason i would ever root my N1: HTC sense
When is the Update for the HERO?
@John
As I see it, here are the pros and cons of the Sense UI:
Pros:
* The phone being accessible on every screen rather than a short cut just makes so much sense. I don’t like having to change screens to make a phone call and I don’t want to add a phone shortcut to every screen.
* The phone dialer going through your contacts can be very convenient. However, the Facebook integration for Android 2.x was nicely done by Google.
* It would be nice to have 7 home screens. You really need them with the Sense UI.
* I love the e-mail, SMS, Twitter, and Facebook widgets. They are very nice looking and useful. However, I do use the Pure Messenger widget and they work nicely, but not as well as the Sense UI.
* What is it about the Time & Weather widget that makes it so cool? I do like it. I do use the Beautiful Widgets widget on my N1. Again, it works nicely, but the same as the Sense UI.
* Sense UI comes with some nice wallpapers.
Cons:
* Sense UI does not support every new Android release and HTC seems to lag in creating new releases for the Android releases they do come out for. I think this con may cancel out all the pros.
* The Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync on the Sense UI was buggy. It was the main reason I got rid of my Sprint Hero. The Motorola Droid has the best Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync with the N1 a distant second (I want calendar support). This may not be an issue with the new version, since the Microsoft Exchange support is now part of Android.
I think the real question is what other goodies is HTC coming out with for the new release of the SenseUI. If all they are adding is the Helicopter View, I will stick with my Stock Android 2.1. But if HTC innovates and adds new spectacular widgets like they did for the Android 1.5, it may be worth it.
I wish that HTC made their widgets available on the Android Marketplace (or at least allow the phones they made but don’t have the Sense UI like the G1, MyTouch3G and Nexus One download them. I would definitely pay for them.
So.. Does this mean that the HTC Eris isn’t also known as the Desire anymore? It’s all confusing as hell. They should just settle on one name for something.
Were is the 4.3 android phones not a single showing that equals failure.
HTC Hero and Samsung momment will get the 2.1 update on march 15th
Looks dandy…..
Does HTC TOUCH PRO2 in CH HAVE ANDROID AVAILABILITY ??