MIUI on your phone with out flashing a thing (well kind off)

Theme your phone with MIUI with out rooting, flashing or any of that scary stuff with 2 simple apps.


We recieved an email from someone yesterday asking if there was any way to get MIUI on their phone with out rooting or flashing anything.  The answer is NO but.....  you can get it to look pretty darn close to MIUI with a launcher and a widget.  There are other apps you can pile on to make it look alot more like MIUI but these 2 are a good starting ground.
Here are some screen shots from my Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G (mouthful there) using the MIUI.ADW.Launcher app and the MIUIDark Digital Weather widget from the Android Market.  No rooting or hacking nessesary and if you find you don't like the whole IOS feel you can uninstall them and go back to your stock look.  These apps work with pretty much any Android phone or tablet.

As you can see the home screen and app drawer have an iPhone look to them.  This is not everyone's cup of tea but the emailer is one of many that want to have the MIUI look and feel on their phone with out doing a little hackery.

Just a quick lesson on launchers on your phone and from the market.  If you have an HTC phone it comes with a "Sense" UI and launcher, Samsung generally has "Touch Wiz", Motorolla has "Moto Blur" and so on.  When you install a custom launcher from the market like this MIUI ADW Launcher it just pretty much covers the launcher that comes stock on your phone and gives it a whole new feel and look.  Motorolla users generally don't like Moto blur so they will put another launcher over it with Launcher Pro or like the launcher I'm writing about here.  It's all preference!  Also in a lot of cases a launcher can actually make your phone smoother.  The head writer over at our sister site Root Your Droid's main phone is a Motorolla Droid X2 and he feels that Launcher Pro makes his whole experience with that particular phone snappier and more customizable.  My main phone is the Samsung Galaxy S 2 and I personally can't stand Touch Wiz so I use a launcher by the name of ADW EX (I'll be doing a write up on both).

There's also a lot of different customizations you can do with this launcher, screen preferences, drawer settings, general behavior, UI settings and a whole bunch more.

The weather clock that is in the screen shot of my home page is a widget  from the market called MIUI Dark Digital Weather Clock (and it's free).  This widget IMo just gives it that final touch to give it a more of a MIUI ROM experience.

There you have it folks!  You can enjoy MIUI on your phone with out voiding your warranty by rooting or flashing anything.

One last thing before you go and grab this launcher.  When you first start the launcher it doesn't have an app drawer button (ala iPhone).  Just long press your home screen and press "Launcher Actions" then press "Open/Close App Drawer".  You can drag and drop it in your launcher bar and change it to any icon you want (long press the app drawer icon and edit it).

Thanks for the email!  I hope I answered your question :)

Links for these apps
MIUI ADW Launcher
MIUI Dark Digital Weather Clock widget

Evo View 4G Honeycomb update is official

It's official ladies and gents!  It's officially Official!  Sprint has made the Evo View4GHoneycomb update I told you about earlier official, with a press announcement that has more details on what to expect.

I ordered this tab yesterday with a little hesitance due to it being a Gingerbread tablet and not Honeycomb (my wifes Nook Color gives me more then enough Gingerbread tablet fun).  This is great news for anyone that is an HTC Evo View 4G owner or soon to be owner (me :) ).  If you are rooted and s-off then head on over to XDA forums and unroot and s-on your device before you accept the update.  If by any chance you have accepted the OTA update and borked your tablet, leave me a comment and I WILL have you up and running again.  Down below is the official press announcement.  Happy Honeycomb people :)

HTC EVO View 4G Gets Even Better with Honeycomb Update Starting Today

HTC EVO View 4G™ will be upgraded to Android™ 3.2, Honeycomb, with a maintenance release that is available for download today; Honeycomb is the version of Android designed specifically for tablets.

To get Android 3.2, there is an easy user initiated process to download the upgrade:

1. From the Home screen, press the Menu key and tap Settings
2. Scroll down and tap System updates
3. Tap HTC software update
4. Tap Check now
5. Tap OK to download and install the update. You will not be able to use your device during the update. Once the download is complete, your tablet may power off and back on to complete the software update. The status of the download can be checked in your task bar.
6. Verify the software is updated by going to Menu>Settings>About Tablet>Software information.

The upgrade will also be available in 2012 through an over-the-air update from Sprint. The notification will let users know the update is available and provide the simple over-the-air download instructions.

Due to the unique structure of the Honeycomb layout, customers’ personalized widgets and screen setup will not remain after the upgrade. The device will revert to the out of the box home screen layout. Wallpapers, Widgets, Application shortcuts personalized by the user have been resized for optimal viewing and will need to be re-established.

Additionally, some third-party apps may not work with Honeycomb, a tablet specific operating system.  We recommend users remove the application, and check Android Market™ to see if an updated application is available, or contact the application provider.

HTC EVO View 4G brings the best of the EVO experience to a tablet design with a 7-inch touchscreen, 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and latest version of HTC Sense for Tablets. As the perfect combination e-reader, media player and portable computing device, HTC EVO View 4G offers a premium entertainment experience with HD-like quality video and a rich web-browsing experience with the ability to browse the web on Flash-enabled sites.

Business users will appreciate the user interface enhancements, which allow the HTC Scribe™ digital pen to be used with all applications on HTC EVO View 4G and enable it to act like a stylus for navigation. This enhances productivity for employees who work with forms and fill out documents and allows users to check boxes, select radio dials, drop down menus and complete free text boxes. In addition to the stylus functionality, Document Signature Capture is now available for HTC Scribe and HTC EVO View 4G via ActSoft – other application developers to follow.

Corporate IT departments will appreciate HTC EVO View 4G is now Sprint Data Link capable. This enhanced security feature enables greater control over the device, while ensuring secure connectivity to corporate network.

PS.  Expect a video review by me coming soon to a youtube channel near you!

HTC View 4G HoneyComb OTA rolling out today!

I have an HTC Evo View arriving this Saturday and I couldn't ask for better timing!

 This 7" HTC Sense Gingerbread tablet has been out for a few months and I have been hesitant about pulling the trigger on this one.  It just so happens the day I order it there is a Honeycomb ota rolling out.  Keep in mind folks, this OTA is not root friendly and may not be for sometime.  Personally I own a few tablets and a few Android phones that are all rooted.  I will keep this one unrooted, enjoy HTC Sense and Honeycomb (that is until our brilliant devs have a new root method... bwahahahaha).  Now let's get to the details on this upgrade!


The Android 3.2.1 update for the HTC Evo View 4G is in the midst of a rollout, bringing HoneyComb and a new "virtual and holographic user interface" to the 7-inch HTC tablet.  The official change log reads:

• Physical Hard keys replaced with on screen Soft keys
• New Google search, available on every page
• System Bar: Quick access to notifications, status, and soft navigation buttons available at the bottom of the screen
• Notifications menu moved to the bottom right corner of the screen, on the System Bar.
• The Action Bar—which can be accessed by touching the Plus Sign icon at the top right of the screen—is the key to contextual, changing menus that are controlled by each application.
• Enhanced security including Sprint Data Link and 3LM
• Google video chat
• Fixed a bug that kept Bluetooth from working in airplane mode

The update is rolling out itself, but if you'd like to force a check, On the Home screen, tap Menu and then tap Settings; scroll up and tap System updates; tap HTC software update.  On the Software updates screen, tap Check now and your View will check for updates.
We know a lot of you have been waiting for this update, and the manual update location is available in more than a few places, but if you've rooted your View 4G don't even think about it.  Waiting for a bootlooping View 4G's battery to die is no fun.  This update is not only as of yet unrootable, but it also changes things so that Revolutionary ceases to work by replacing the hboot files.  Developers will get it sorted soon enough.

Hit XDA for all the hacking and tips.