Guest Paul (MVP) Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 Well, I just got my hands on a TyTN II today running the Orange ROM and, well, i'll be blunt, it's completely hideous. Orange's customisations get worse and worse IMHO! I've posted some screenshots below, expect a de-Brander (similar to the one I produced for the S710) soon. Seriously though Orange, what on earth were you thinking? T-Mobile did a cracking job with their subtle customisations of the Kaiser OS - to your credit you left in Worldcard Mobile and Windows Live but for crying out loud at least give users the option to disable the Orangeness eh? P
Guest Monolithix Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 Which marketing company honestly thought that orange and grey are a good combination of colours? MS finally get their act together and put in some half decent app icons in WinMo and Orange replace the lot!
Guest Subliminal Aura Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 Tell me about it ! Quick ! - goto settings > today > turn off the Orange crap for an instant performance boost of over 200%. Bloody monkey coders at orange.
Guest jimbouk Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 Apart from the homsecreen plugin (that amazingly most O customers leave on their devices) and the dialler skin, both of which can be fixed really easily... what's wrong with it?
Guest Monolithix Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 The application icons (not so easy to change?) and the orange/grey colour scheme! Yes the rest isnt so bad to remove but on a first impression the "day-to-day" user gets a sub-standard view of WM6 :/
Guest Shuflie Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 Orange battery icon.....nice! If you're going to have colour on a battery charge indicator is should be Green for full, yellow when it drops below about 25% and red when its just about exhausted. Orange shouldn't come into the equation at any time.
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 I agree about the 'first impression of WinMo' aspect too! P
Guest jimbouk Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 I know loads of people who have Orange supplied WM devices and they use them with the O homescreen plugin. It is quite amazing how many of them go "wow" when you change it for them into one of the WM standard ones... O's plan is to provide people with a simple homescreen that they get used to so they always get new O devices... which I guess works better with dumbphones (or dumb users...) ;-)
Guest ukguy Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 orange need to realise that the 1 person a year it may help doesnt make up for the 50 customers a week it looses because its slow functioning and ugly design ;)
Guest Kchrpm Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 (edited) I like the color scheme, but only because I'm a Bengals fan :( Microsoft likes it as well, it's the color scheme they use for the Zune media player and the Zune XP theme that accompanies it (which I use on my home PC). I like the home screen as well, you still have quick access to your info and functions (though it needs more in the info department) without the typical WinMo clutter. I think Windows Mobile has been long overdue for an overhaul in that department, I don't really need a static field telling me I have no upcoming appointments (or that my next one is this weekend), no unread messages, etc. Honestly, if Orange's thing were set up to have data instead of functions on the pop-outs, and assuming it's just the vertical bar if you don't select anything, that'd be about perfect for my tastes. But I'm the kind of person that likes to have zero icons on my computer desktop and launch everything from the Quick Launch bar, so I'm a bit crazy ;) I find it kind of funny that you guys think the standard WinMo screen is a better first impression for anyone but the most uptight and/or geeky. Edited October 22, 2007 by Kchrpm
Guest Monolithix Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 To be honest i've never minded the Orange homescreen that much, although i don't think its any more efficient than Microsofts implementation - on Smartphone at least. I actually quite like the fact that i have the room to display more info "at a glance" on my PPC's (and i have a clear desktop policy on my PC too ;)). Its far from perfect but still useful. My problem is the horrible grey on orange like i mentioned, and i'd also completely forgotten about the horrendous (and comparatively useless) orange battery indicator. The icons feel low quality too, although that may just be due to the colours. I use the XP Zune theme and its a lot more subtle, its black and orange which is a little cooler imho, and its also the colour scheme Orange use in their shops? I wouldnt even the Orange colours and icons being on by default as long as they had an option to completely turn them off :( In fairness, i hated the TMob customisations (and still do) on my MDA Compact (Magician). Too much pink on white/grey and again, no way to disable it. Rubbish!
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 Ugh, it's just so grainy and low quality, and as I said, you should be able to turn it ALL off! P
Guest jimbouk Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 orange need to realise that the 1 person a year it may help doesnt make up for the 50 customers a week it looses because its slow functioning and ugly design ;) Actually, you need to realise that there are 50 O customers very happy with their O homescreens on their dumb and smart devices to every 1 customer who wants to tweak and play with their smartphone. (and if you have a WM device and can't work out how to easily debrand it then frankly you should have a motorola v-tech). Lol As some of you may have noticed, I get bored with all the O knocking that goes on on this forum. Its not like anyone is forced to go with them as a network - it seems that maybe secretly a lot of modacoers secretly like O and other than restricted access to data plans, they would go back to O like a shot...
Guest Monolithix Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 I don't think i've ever made it a secret one of the major factors i'm not on O is due to the data plans, in fact until a year ago i was still with them. It doesn't change the fact their icons are ugly though ;)
Guest jimbouk Posted October 22, 2007 Report Posted October 22, 2007 I am sure you know that my comments are not aimed at you sensible chaps... more just a slight dig at the regular and persistent O knockers who must have a serious axe to grind with them. I find the continued "why can't O be exactly the same as T?" posts so pointless. Its like saying "why don't Pepsi do a ten can fridge pack like Coke?" or "why don't Vauxhall make a mondeo shaped car?" Oh and the irony of the O icon knocking by the owners of purple T phones is not lost on the rest of us...
Guest Sonicr360 Posted October 23, 2007 Report Posted October 23, 2007 It does not sound like anyone is knocking Orange down. Take the XDA EXEC.... its O2 Interface supplied by O2 was a severe slowdown in the performance of the device (when it was released in 05). Thankfully, there is an option to disable it on hard reset (entering a PIN code for Corp Mode). Perhaps if the Orange screen is a performance hit, it may limit your experience with the Tytn II. There again, it may not ! Owning an XDA EXEC with the O2 screen was dire, and performance was very poor. I do own a TYTN II from HTC (Sim free) and its great. I try to keen the screen as clutter free as poss, and use little to no applications at all. Each to their own, and for those Orange customers that are happy, then fair play to you ;) For those not happy with the Orange layout, no one is asking you to buy it, but I can understand that wanting a TYTN II means you are tied to Orange and its current UI. Alternatively, a SIM FREE model is available for those that do not want any customized changes from any Network Phone Provider. Some people may not like the "HTI-Plug in" screen and prefer their own taste of screens. There again, not everyone is going to like McDonalds and probably prefer Burger King ! Thanks, Simon
Guest jimbouk Posted October 23, 2007 Report Posted October 23, 2007 My point is that you can turn it all off very easily... and thus end up with a handset that is free to £90 instead of having to pay £400 plus...
Guest GSNGuy Posted October 23, 2007 Report Posted October 23, 2007 Hi all, first post and all that - Only got my TyTnII on Fri, been with O for 14 years now (gulp) But I have to say the Orange colours and homescreen are getting a bit boring now - first thing I did when I got my N95 in Jan was to update the firmware to an unbranded one - MUCH better. Would love to do the same to my TyTnII too, but have heard it's a little bit dodgy to reflash as some have bricked? At the end of the day it's all about personal choice - I like Orange and I like the phone - The colour scheme I can live without though.. My point is that you can turn it all off very easily... and thus end up with a handset that is free to £90 instead of having to pay £400 plus... But is turning it off the same as having an unbranded TyTnII? Cheers Mike
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted October 23, 2007 Report Posted October 23, 2007 No, it's not, that's the point. If you could turn it ALL off, it'd be OK! P
Guest Rolandhurt01 Posted October 23, 2007 Report Posted October 23, 2007 When I got my first Orange Branded WM phone the SPV C550 the only customization to the WM Rom was to add the Orange HomeScreen with tho Orange Plug-in and Orange Splash Screens, and left the icons like the standard WM icons, and you could switch to one of the standard WM HomeScreens if you wanted. My last WM phone I bought through Orange was the HTC S310. A hard reset soon got rid of the Orange customization. I now use a Sim free HT C S710 with a T-Mobile Sim. I think the Orange icon set looks like the icon sets from early versions of the KDE Desktop used on Linux systems, which spoils the hi res vista styling of the WM 6 interface. I never had any problems with orange until there I did not get my full 10000 free texts a month for toping up by £30 one month, still use Orange for when me and girlfriend want to go to the cinema and use Orange Wednesdays.
Guest jimbouk Posted October 23, 2007 Report Posted October 23, 2007 Other than their own icons for the apps they install (such as orange satnav etc) what can't you change easily?
Guest Paul (MVP) Posted October 23, 2007 Report Posted October 23, 2007 Their icons are what i'm referring to. P
Guest jimbouk Posted October 23, 2007 Report Posted October 23, 2007 But thats about four icons in the programs page... hardly worth getting aerated about... Its not as if they coloured half the device mauve...
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