Dec 29 AT 3:19 PM Taylor Wimberly 16 Comments

Roll your own Android UI with Sweeter Home 2

We have been keeping our eyes on Sweeter Home for a long time as they have been nearing their second major release. According to SweeterSkins, a public beta of Sweeter Home 2 will be available in the next several days. I believe this release could really shake up the mod scene because it will actually allow you to share the themes you design. Everything you create (including images) can be easily packed into a theme file so you can send it to a friend or even upload it to the Sweeter Home server.

Watch the video preview below and head over to SweeterSkins for the latest info on the beta release.

p.s. I smell a major design contest coming up…

Source: SweeterSkins

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16 Comments Join the discussion!

shizzyrw585Guest 12/29/09 3:43 PM

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First of all wow, that is sweet. Second what phone and what ROM is this guy running, that thing is flying!

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- LemonGuest 12/29/09 4:37 PM
  
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  That’s a Vodafone Magic, Stock 1.6. I keep it pretty clean, keep the number of apps down and clean up my SMS etc. But yeah, I leave my shit totally stock.
  
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  - TenkelyGuest 12/29/09 7:59 PM
    
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    Stock Rocks
    
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  - WinkyboyGuest 01/04/10 11:55 AM
    
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    Would you clarify “stock” for me? I see many custom apps on that phone in the video, so obviously “stock” does not mean “no apps.”
    
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lisandroGuest 12/29/09 3:48 PM

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wooou this really looks nice

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jakeGuest 12/29/09 4:17 PM

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i cant wait for this. nexus one plus sweeter home 2 will be fantastic

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ScuffGuest 12/29/09 8:47 PM

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These Android themes are all fine and dandy, but they really illustrate a weakness of the Android Marketplace. Do a search for a theme app and you need to scroll through hundreds of themes that people have slapped together and are demanding money for. (btw, there seem to be a lot of pot smokers that are Android users), and you can’t find the actual theme “base” app to run them!

And where is this Sweeter Home app? I did a search and came up with basically nothing. Another weakness of the”open source” concept.

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- 23 Lemon 12/29/09 10:21 PM
  
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  If you read the article you’ll see the beta will be available in the next few days. But it won’t be on the market at that point yet.
  
  TOTALLY agree with you on theme creep, especially with trying to find the ACTUAL app. That’s a pain in the ass. Google could stand to do something about that, like removing them from search results, or allowing the authors to link them to certain home apps. But let’s not get into Market improvements or we’ll be here all day.
  
  Sweeter Home will hold it’s themes separate from the Market at first release so you won’t need to worry about that overload. Pain in the ass for a normal user to make APKs anyway.
  
  Anyway subscribe to my site or follow me on twitter and you’ll know as soon as the beta is out.
  
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- JerryGuest 12/30/09 2:01 AM
  
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  Everyone would agree that the Market needs a lot of improvements… but what the hell does that have to do with the Open source concept… Google just has to dedicate more time to deal with the market before going about making the next version of Android… ‘
  
  I think you’re trying to attack the open source concept cause you’re a fan of a LOCKED IN DEVICE …so you just spew BS on the comments…
  
  just go back to your LOCKED IN DEVICE
  
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  - ScuffGuest 12/30/09 3:19 PM
    
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    Well, Android is an open-source OS right? The problem with open-source stuff is…
    
    1. There’s no one overseeing this crap. No standards or QA (I’m referring to the marketing side)
    2. Since most people are not making much money off of development, support isn’t what it is when you pay for something. Expectations are much lower
    3. Open-source tends to attract a lot of “volunteers” so when an app has a problem, you need to wait for the guy living in his Mom’s basement to fix the problem.
    4. Open-source is the IT equivalent of Socialism (and we all know how well that works). I’m just kidding :-)
    
    I love Android and my Android phone, but I find everything in the “open-source World” to be much more chaotic and unstructured.
    
    How can you attract sustainable business like that? Trust me, folks who buy iPhones, want the phone because it’s a much more “polished” product at this stage. My Droid is sweet, but it’s a toy for gadget geeks and hacker types. Relatively speaking, that’s small subnet of the phone buying population…
    
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    - Name (required)Guest 01/14/10 4:19 AM
      
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      You are describing ONE possible implementation of an open-source project. Google’s is obviously quite different. They go about their business almost as if they are writing a traditional locked-in OS. They have official Google development, official Google releases, and official branded Google phones. The only major difference is that they support after-market tinkering by exposing most (if not all) of the same APIs that the Google developers code against.
      
      It’s the difference between you building a car with all your buddies out of spare parts and you buying a new car but switching out the rims. Not at all the same thing, and definitely not the same thing from a business perspective.
      
      One last thing, since your ignorance calls for some tough love, remember: Open source – just like Socialism – is a big universe, and making blanket statements is just a quick way to show that you don’t know what you are talking about.
      
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    - ari-freeGuest 03/13/11 3:43 PM
      
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      You don’t know anything about open source. Windows isn’t open source and there is no market (not even an unsupervised market), everyone is rooted and there are zillions of viruses for it.
      
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0 ChristopherSilva 12/30/09 7:00 AM

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I agree with Jerry. It is not about open source. Google has focused on the OS and have been able to release updates at a respectable rate. compare them to Apple or Palm or Symbian..

I am happy with the recent improvements on the Market, sure, there is much to do, but progress is there and the new Market shown on the Nexus One has clear signs of refinement. Just another couple of months and things will come into place nicely.

Kudos to Google for impressives speed and agility. Long live open source!

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- ScuffGuest 12/30/09 3:22 PM
  
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  One word… “Open Office”
  
  (Ok, that’s two…) :-)
  
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DanGuest 01/14/10 1:08 AM

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Isnt Ebay an open source market based on “feedback” hmmm there goes that argument

Ishrine worshipers crack me up. How dare anything come out that could possibly be better? Iphone will always be vulnerable as long as they keep trying to monopolize the scene and especially as long as they use the most “no frills” and crappiest service provider on the planet.

dunn dunns

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ben doverGuest 07/29/10 3:54 PM

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Dan, you hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Isheep need to stay off sites like this. Scuff:as far as “no overseeing this crap” look at the iphone app store. Two-thirds of the apps are apps like ifart & ibeer, yet a useful app like Google voice isn’t allowed? Need I say more?

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Roll your own Android UI with Sweeter Home 2

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