Custom Android UI

I just got my first Smartphone for my birthday and I really like it so far. I got the HTC Inspire so it uses Android 2.2.1. Bas ass phone I really like it. Reason I wanted an Android phone was because I like how customizable the android is compared to the iPhone. I've noticed online that people are using custom UI interfaces (example Star trek LCARS). I'm wondering where I can go to find some UI's for me or maybe even create my own if its easy to do? Would I have to root the phone? I'm up in the air about whether or not to root my phone.

BTW I heard that HTC supposedly is going to release an application for all their phones so you can root it yourself without going through hoops. If anyone knows of this being true let me know.

Xda-developers.
The end-all, be-all of Android hacking.

Do you mean like changing up the theme (colors of the interface, the fonts, etc.) and what not, or are you talking about a launcher interface?

If launcher interface, some common preferences available from the Marketplace would be Launcher Pro and ADW Launcher

For themes, I don't know of any Android phones that can do themes without rooting and running a custom ROM that supports themes offhand. Its been my experience with my phone that it has to be rooted with a ROM that supports themes.

As for rooting your phone, it should be relatively easy, you just have to choose your method. For the Epic its as simple as flashing via Odin now, or just doing the OneClickRoot method.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1015 - start there. Development is for rooting and ROMS, the other subforums are self explanatory.

Agree with above.
Any smartphone I've had, I've gone straight to XDA-Dev's to see what i can make it do

The Inspire comes with some different themes. Go to personalize > skins. You can download more from the HTC Hub app. You can also get some different looks by changing your launcher to something like LauncherPro, ADW, Go Launcher, etc. (all in market). If you still want more after all of that, root.

Thanks for the tips. What are the pros and cons to rooting?

I have a friend that works at Radio shack and he recommended against it. He's co-worker apparently tried to do it on the Atrix and the Inspire and messed them both up.

lol, that's your first mistake. Listening to someone who works at Radio Shack...

Go over and and read some threads on rooting and installing ROMs on your phone at XDA and if you follow the directions you won't mess your phones up. I've rooted two phones so far with no issues, it's really pretty simple.

HTC phones are sooo easy to root and almost impossible to brick. If it can be done Ive done it to my EVO.
The Atrix is believable, Motorola locks their phones recoveries making it very hard and some cases impossible.

Yah I've had Motorola phones in the past and they all would fail on me the same way. The ear speaker gets quieter, buttons on the right start going out, etc. Done with Motorola (and my dad use to work for them >.<). I made an account on the Dev website, thanks for showing me this. Looks great!

Rooting the phone shouldn't be that difficult with XDA developers website. You should be up and running with a custom ROM in no time. If you are lucky you might be able to find someone who's created a custom script that roots/unlocks it for you automagically.

yah I've seen some videos that show you how to root but what's the best rom out there really? I would assume the easier the better.

Xenomaniac said:

yah I've seen some videos that show you how to root but what's the best rom out there really? I would assume the easier the better.

Click to expand...

In all honesty?

The best ROM is the one that suits what you're looking to get out of going custom. There's no one single "best", if the ROMs available for the Epic 4G are any indicator. Some will tell you Cyanogen Mod is the ROM that rules them all and maybe they're right. Me? I'm really not all that impressed by it, at least not for what's available for the Epic. To be fair it IS a work in progress.

Again, no single "best" ROM. It's what you're looking to get out of it over stock. Most ROMs from my experience with what's available for my phone, offer fixes regarding issues over the stock ROM, if nothing else.

ViperROM for example has features that are exclusive to ViperROM, such as ViperPad, which was awesome for keeping your homescreen clean, but still having quick access to what you need most, or for whenever. There was also the ViperWheel and ViperComm (didn't mess with those too much though)

midNIGHT_ROM on the flipside comes from a Build-Your-Own-ROM approach. The base ROM is devoid of everything that can be removed without causing issues as far as Sprint/Samsung bloat. The BYOR part comes into play in that you literally can add stuff into the ROM before flashing and it will be integrated that way everytime you flash the ROM. You basically can have all your apps installed from the get go, which is a helluva lot easier than waiting on Nandroid to load your backups, or waiting for Titanium Backup to finish loading everything.. Don't want Swype but the Gingerbread keyboard instead? Go for it. Want Handcent instead of the stock Messenger? Go for it. It's a simple copy and paste stuff into place, and with 4.2 you could flash them individually if you were so inclined.

The ROM that will be the best for you will be the one that has the features you are looking for most in it.