Originally Posted By: Roger
Originally Posted By: Dignan
through customs

I'm in the UK.

D'oh! Of course. Sorry about that...

Originally Posted By: tonyc
I can't stand any of the manufacturer skinware that I've used in person, and though the reviews do speak more positively of the newer Touchwiz, I couldn't see myself buying a phone that wasn't either stock Android from the factory, or easily loaded with CyanogenMod. If I had to pick one of those, the Sammy looks like the winner, since I don't think the Pentile display thing is a serious issue at these resolutions, and the better camera and slightly less annoying skin would outweigh anything on HTC's side of the ledger.

Totally agree with all of that, though I have not heard anything nice about the new TouchWiz. From everything I've heard, it's a slap in Matias Duarte's face and ruins any UI improvements that ICS had made.

I'm really sick of this. I'm also really sick of everyone passing the blame on the subject. On the rare occasions that sites like Engadget or the Verge get the cojones to call someone like HTC or Samsung out on this stuff, they let them go with cowardly responses. Companies like Motorola and Samsung tend to say that they do it to appease the carriers (to supposedly differentiate the phones). But that doesn't at all explain why the alterations they make can't simply be undone with the app manager.

At least HTC has claimed that they're trying to offer a better user experience. But they have to know that there's a large percentage of users who don't want their ugly crap, so why make it so difficult to change?

Ugh. I'm hoping this latest Google initiative gets things going in the right direction, which leads to...

Quote:
Has anything leaked about the next Nexus device (successor to the Galaxy Nexus)?

As far as I know, the only thing anyone knows is that Google is planning on opening up the Nexus thing to more than one manufacturer. The stipulation is that in order to sell in the new "Devices" section of the Google Play store, you'll have to be a Nexus device with none of this skinning crap. At least Google seems to understand how frustrated we are...or they're just trying to avoid another Kindle Fire...but either way, I'm happy.
_________________________
Matt