For better and worse, Samsung's TouchWiz overcoat looks nothing like Google's vision of Android 4.0.
Equipped with Samsung's TouchWiz User Interface, the GALAXY Y delivers a simple and intuitive experience.
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The F488 Touchwiz do not provide any real functionality except allowing customized itcon placement.
On the software front, this runs Android 4.0, with all the usual TouchWiz trappings.
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With its TouchWiz 3.0 UI, it provides users easy-flow integrated experience of messaging, managing contacts and viewing calendar events.
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The Galaxy S is characterized by custom Samsung services such as its TouchWiz user interface and Media Hub online media store.
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In addition to causing performance to suffer, TouchWiz adds layers of complexity to using the phone that we found extremely annoying.
The menus and icons are all drawn in Samsung's TouchWiz style, though there are some new additions, including lock screen app shortcuts.
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According to Terrence, this problem is confirmed on the Galaxy Note II, possibly the Galaxy S III and potentially on other TouchWiz UI Samsung Android phones.
Like Sense, TouchWiz or the LG UI, CyanogenMod adds many customizations to Android that take a while to develop and properly integrate with the latest OS versions.
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The phone appears to respond a tad faster without the TouchWiz experience, but we'll need to spend more time with it before coming to any solid conclusions.
But compared to my previous TouchWiz 2.3.6 Gingerbread version, the CM9 Ice Cream Sandwich flavor looks better, runs shockingly faster and brings a much better app experience.
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How many actual devices this will entail producing, and what the interface will look like after the people who brought you TouchWiz have finished with it, remains uncertain.
However, this particular GS III has been rooted in the past, even though it's now running an official TouchWiz ROM, and that may be interfering with the process.
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Since Samsung stopped the official Android love with its Gingerbread 2.3.6 " value pack" due to TouchWiz bloat, it fell on modders' shoulders to bring the ICS goodies.
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It seems that this old 4-inch phone has enough zip to easily run Android 4.0 without Samsung's TouchWiz skin (crust?), showing another reason why many critics are cold to it.
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Meanwhile Samsung is bringing their TouchWiz user interface over from their Galaxy handsets to power the Rex phones, which will no doubt look spectacular alongside the latest Android powered S3.
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At least, the existence of TouchWiz and other skins gives modders like Cyanogen a trade to ply -- but it leaves average users oblivious to the phone they could really have.
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Oh, and in case you aren't looking to buy FB-specific hardware, fear not, for the presence of TouchWiz compatibility indicates that Facebook Home will be available for other phones as well.
Finally, there's a supposedly low-cost full touchscreen device looking a little bit like a cross between a Cookie and an Instinct s30 that's running TouchWiz and features a 3 megapixel camera.
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With its eye-catchingly brilliant screen, Samsung's latest TouchWiz 3.0 user interface gives a tactile, intuitive user experience, and includes iconic new features such as motion UI, Smart Unlock and customizable widget screen.
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The app snaps up to four photos and provides feedback via a large box-shaped outline on the viewfinder which shows the position of your next shot -- something you'll recognize from Samsung's TouchWiz camera UI.
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All in all, the addition of TouchWiz seems poorly considered (aside from the camera controls and, perhaps, the multimedia -- more on that below), adding nothing to the phone but poor performance and an at-times jarring user experience.
In addition to the full-color transparent AMOLED touch screen, the IceTouch features a high-performance CPU and Samsung's own "TouchWiz Sweep" interface, which is designed to provide a comfortable grip and give users new options for interacting with their player.
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The Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code (which we won't reproduce here) apparently only works on Samsung phones running Touchwiz, and only if you are directed to the dodgy destination while inside the stock browser (rather than Chrome, for example).
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It's no doubt this lack of wow-factor hardware that has led Sammy to emphasize software progress instead, and indeed there are plenty of intriguing TouchWiz features that warrant further investigation on a finished handset -- assuming you're not a vanilla Android die-hard.
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This phone reeks of TouchWiz -- whatever Android elements Samsung hasn't put a glossy coat of paint on, it's replaced altogether: WiFi and Bluetooth settings are standard to the TouchWiz UI, as are the media player, and most dramatically the 5 megapixel camera.
There is a level of customisation on the look and feel that manufactures can apply (such as the TouchWiz UI from Samsung and SenseUI from HTC) but these do not have a material impact on the software or ecosystem the handset ties into.
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