Back at CTIA, we were frightened by the appearance of the Sprint One Click “Carousel Interface” which surfaced on the LG Lotus, Samsung Rant, and Samsung Highnote. It reminded us all too well of the awful Verizon Wireless User Interface. But, Sprint assured us that like uiOne, that it could be completely disabled.
Only, they were wrong. Like the Verizon Wireless User Interface, Sprint is going to neuter all future phones with a consistent interface… that you have no control over.
Previously, Sprint used uiOne, a system that gave the user control over the interface of your phone. Users could chose from the default Sprint Theme, Manufacturer Theme (which removed all customizations), or even purchase a third-party theme.
Now, Sprint is doing away with all of that. You have the Sprint UI, and that’s it. You cannot disable it, and it’s across manufacturers.
PhoneNews.com urges Sprint to offer an off switch, and let users return to the manufacturer’s user interface.
I think the point of OneClick is so that customers who go from phone to phone will have the same experience. They won’t have to relearn a new menu system and interface. Its basically “dummy-proofing” phones. Because, while people who go on message boards and sites like this one are savy enough to figure it out, a lot of people aren’t as tech savy. This is basically a way to appease that demographic. I don’t think you’ll see this kind of unified interface used with PDA/smartphones, so those users shouldn’t be affected.
We’re well aware of that. Verizon uses the same excuse on the Verizon Wireless User Interface.
Many users prefer the interface of a particular manufacturer… especially elderly users who are resistant to buying a new phone.
What we’re asking is… why not give users the choice? BREW UI can easily be disabled, Sprint simply needs to enable the menu option to do so. They did so in the last generation, with uiOne, so there really isn’t any excuse to not offer that.
Well , i only ask have you used one of the phones?
You can add favs, bookmarks, things you use most and a ton..
NOTHING LIKE Verizon……
Chris have you ever used a Verizon phone?
We’ve used both, quite in-depth actually… I have a Samsung Rant on my desk as I write this, and I’ve used VZW UI phones for years. Certainly One Click is worlds better than the Verizon User Interface. However, that’s not the point.
The point is, Sprint has removed your ability to turn it off. If you liked the Samsung Interface, if you liked the Nokia Interface, if you were accustomed to the Motorola Interface… sorry, it’s now the Sprint Interface or nothing.
We’re saying that a simple off switch, something that Sprint has offered for years, is all that is needed. That would remove the monopoly, and keep everyone happy.
Digg This: http://digg.com/gadgets/Sprint_Locks_Down_the_UI_on_Their_Phones_a_la_Verizon
But none the less Comparing Sprints UI on any phone is apples or COKE…
Sprint UI .. Nothing Like Verizon UI
Read what your saying in the post
Verizon UI sSUCKS big time
I have actually used the Lotus and IT ROCKS
Best UI ever nothing like Verizon..
Have to ask who wrote this why are they hating on sprint?
For something great
Again (second time now), we are not attacking the Sprint One Click UI.
We are attacking the fact that Sprint removed the option to turn it off.
Not everyone is going to like the interface, and there is no valid reason to prevent people from disabling it.
P.S. Both of the above commenters appear to be the same person. Why not provide a valid email address so that your comments would have some creditability?
I had a samsung flip phone with sprint and had the option to use sprints ui or samsungs.
I liked Samsungs ALOT, but do not like sprints.
So why take away the ability to pick which one “I” like. Who cares about verizon’s.
I played with the Rant, Lotus, & the HighNote; the UI must go. It reminds me of the three options on the Upstage’s screen which covered the screen up. I agree: take it off or give an option to disable it.
I agree that it should have an “off switch”.. but it is unlike any other offering. It is completely customizable. You CAN remove any tab you want. You can have only the Home tab if that is what you would like. Underneath, it looks just like any other phone, just a regular menu system.
I’m not sure how much more “off” it can get from that.
You cannot remove all tabs. You are required to have at least seven tabs on the home screen.
If you could turn it off by removing all tabs… that would work, but, it would still be running in the background, eating up resources and battery power (a common complaint with BREW UI and the VZW UI).
Plus, the One Click UI also appears to control the main menu… we haven’t confirmed this yet, but it does appear that Sprint is altering the appearance of system menus (with this mandatory theme) to be more consistent across Sprint models.
I personally think that everyone should use a PDA/Smartphone. Or create/alter a linux style software package for the phone. It wouldn’t get any better than that.
If wireless companies ever cared about it’s customers, that would be the day.
This could be one of sprint’s attempts at a saving grace. Let it fail, and be the final nail on the coffin. They seem to be running the Instinct’s wave all the way thru the holiday season, as none of the upcoming line-up come close to it in features. Ride one phone too long and watch the company fail. Just look at Motorola and the RAZR.
I guess I just don’t understand this whole need for a discussion. I don’t see how Sprint’s UI on this phone is any different than if I had to deal with the one that Samsung put on the phone that I didn’t like other than the fact that it is across all new models? I mean, the UI on the Instinct sucks.. and you can’t turn that off? So why aren’t we bitching about that?
Honestly, the Verizon UI in comparison is horrible. It is the sole reason that I stopped carrying Verizon phones. The Sprint UI on the other hand has actually made the phone easier to use, more functional, and hasn’t locked the phone down from doing anything that it would have been capable of otherwise.
I agree with Chris, it cuts into the visual area of the physical screen size, hence reducing the available screen real estate provided by the mamufacturer, as you can see from the screenshot of the Lotus, neat phone btw, it should be an at will, pop up function, say for example by pressing the ok/asterix button twice, after a 15 second apperance,( maybe even user selectable fixed intervals) fade away. The smaller the screen, the more valuable the space. For the record i cut of landline in 1997! I have had Airtouch, Sprint (Spectrum) 1998, Tmobile 2003 and again Sprint (PCS) since 2004, also i am writing this on my 22 month old Samsung M 610. I have read PCS Intel/ Phone News at least 2.5 years everyday! Thank you, for the info source that you are!
Chris out of all my years of coming to this site this is the most worthless “NEWS” ever
Why should Sprint spend the time and money on a OFF switch?
If you get paid by Verizon thats fine but be up front about it and not make a “NEWS Topic” out of NOTHING
The new UI is by far the best out there and YOU yes you Chris can get used to change…
If you read other reviews Chris is the only one bashing something great…
Dont think he will care he still gets his cash…..
Omega,
This site is nothing more than another mobile blog site. With that said, you are going to get opinions mixed in with the news.. Chris is entitled to his opinion just as any other person.
Yep i agree with that but when there is Money behind someone motivations its different..
To me at least
All in all VERY dissapointed in Chris
Constructive critisism is what opens the path to enhancement , Verizone has a control freak U.I., Sprint is a very different Company, to suggest that Chris is an agent of Verizone, is simply bizarre. Lets not forget, Its all about providing choices and options for the Consumer. Chris is merely providing constructive criticism to a new product, a voice for the educated and not so educated Consumer.Thank You Chris, again…! “Great Spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” A. Einstein
Just to point out, the user Omega, alongside Ano, and Other, all have similar phony email addresses, and similar IP addresses.
There aren’t three or four people in the room bashing us for this article… just one person that likes to be a troll.
I’d appreciate that the rest of the comments be directed towards the article itself rather than the idea that we favor a particular carrier. For the record, I’m not too happy with Sprint’s decision to ape Verizon’s implementation of BREW UI as it’s nothing but a battery and resource drain compared to the optimized manufacturer UI.
I think it’s all in the eye of the beholder, some may not even know the difference
perhaps this will raise sprints share price above $4. while this isn’t worse than losing $253 million in three months or being in 3rd place out of 4, it is hardly a good thing. typical sprint fan boy spin from omega, mustang46l and don louie.
CJ is an *** for continuing to reference me, my one and only post to this topic is let it come out then judge. Excuse my language but buddy is getting on my nerves labeling me a fanboy. Visit message boards, I go by Dubspoon everywhere
WOW , Chris you are a stalker…..
ITS funny the stalker ie chris has nothing to real to say…
Chris Read this,
I’m not too happy with Sprint’s decision to ape Verizon’s implementation of BREW UI as it’s nothing but a battery and resource drain compared to the optimized manufacturer UI.
Hey Chris is Sprint DOING this UMM NO, lol at least you get your pay check……
Chris feel free to email me my stalker its a real email…
Make sure you do it from your Verizon account…
I do like it how Chris would call people trolls when they don’t agree with him
And to say i am 4 or so people is just stupid
He is just comparing Apples to a Oranges…
And i and others wanted to point that out
What in the world does this have to do with share prices ? Or losing $253 million in 3 months ?? cj, you are nothing more than a misguided malcontent who has nothing better to do but call other people names(fanboys) for stating their opinions. We all have the right to an opinion, whether you agree with it or not. Grow up.
Wow this forum has had more drama than a full season of “Flavor of Love”
lol @ bottomline the registered sex offender coming to the aid of his buddy don louie. a true case of dumb and dumber finding each other. anyhow, youre completely missing the point as usual which is not a surprise. any thread related to sprint we have fanboys such as don louie, mustang, and the exposed troll omega doing damage control by saying its not that bad or saying in some way that sprint is right. yes, this is not as bad as losing $253 million and 1.09 million customers in three months or share prices being in the $4 range but forcing customers to use the same sprint interface is hardly a good thing and will in no way help sprint. please stop trying to spin it.
First things first I 100% agree that any time that a wireless provider decides to install a custom interface it would be very appreciative to have a kill switch to allow me to go back to the manufacturers default. No matter how much innovation you may have put into the interface you will never satisfy everyone and for those people who don’t like the new and improved interface having the option to fall back to the classic UI may determine whether or not they stay as a customer.
Secondly with all due respect all though I may agree with you on this issue we are still only discussing opinion and not factual news. It would be nice to see things like whether or not to have a UI kill switch, and editorials about why you are firing the iPhone an a separate section and leave the news section for hard fact news.
Wait, how does Verizon have anything to do with this? Saying “oh well it’s better than Verizon’s” is like having someone surve you a turd on a plate in a restaurant and when you complain having them say “Well in Africa people are starving.” The point is it FORCES you to use Sprint’s UI, What if you liked Motorola’s UI, or like my Dad who is older uses Motorola phones and now will have to learn a whole new interface like was mentioned. This has more to do with the fact that they’re taking away choice. It does not bode well for Sprint. The last market Sprint HAS are technophiles who frankly only stay with them because of the fact that they don’t lock everything down like VZW. BTW, what does this have to do with its stock price? If Sprint continues to hemorrhage customers and find its stock falling, it speaks to the fact that the executives at Sprint are doing something wrong. It’s kinda sad to see people attack the character of the author instead of what he’s saying. Classic smearing and blaming the messenger…
More fanboy coming your way.. Oh wait, no.. It’s just my opinion. I must have gotten my Sprint fanboy-ism from my 5 years of selling Verizon. Or was it the 2 years of selling Cingular. Eh, either way..
I understand what everyone says about not having choice.. but where I lack understanding is where I had choice before. I can pick up my old Samsung phone, turn it on, and guess what.. I have a Samsung interface. How can I change that? How can I make it different from what they installed? I can’t.
A point was made about how it interrupts the view of the wallpaper. Seriously? That is the argument against this UI? I mean, yeah, it does cut off the bottom of my picture but.. who cares? Do you sit and stare at your wallpaper on your phone for hours?
The purpose of this UI is simple and it is basically the same reason as the whole Ready Now promotion. They want to make wireless easy. They want you to be able to chose any phone, and know how to use it. Sprint thinks that you shouldn’t have to take time to learn to use your new phone because Samsung thinks that the bluetooth menu belongs in one place, and Motorola thinks it goes somewhere else. Now it will be in the same place for everyone.
Also, the ‘Bubble’ idea on this phone is nice. It is a way to customize the ‘desktop’ of your phone. Yes, it isn’t as customizable as a WinMo or G-Phone.. but it is a start.
So..
After all of that, and a few days using the new UI.. I personally don’t think it is really any different from anything we’ve already had. It looks the same, it does the same thing, it just makes the phone usable without going into your Menu first. It saves time. It makes the main screen have purpose other than just having a fun picture.
Except for the fact that it will make you NOT want to buy each new phone when it comes out….
Why would you want the same phone? The only reason I buy a new phone is if it has new features…. Where’s the change? I’d just keep the same phone if the only thing different is the “look” of the phone.
Sure you will Andrew.. You got it exactly right! We buy the new phones for the new features, or the features that we want. When is the last time you purchased (or didn’t purchase) a phone based on the UI?
Actually for those of us in the visually impaired community such as my self the UI does play a major role in the decision. Font size, Color scheme, Menu Readout (LG & Motorola), and several other aspects of the UI can make or break a phone for us. In the case of the M520 a lot of us found it much easier to return to Samsungs classic UI as the Sprint UI hendered us more than helped us.
Provide a consistent user interface across handsets to reduce customer calls to care, or please a few users on a blog. This must have been a customer pain point and thus it was addressed. I think they made the right choice, but I do agree the ability to disable the UI would have been a nice option.
ignorance is bliss, I suspect most of those lamenting loss of manufacturer UI interfaces were preteens when Windows 3.0 came out and thus have no real life experience of the transforming impact of adoption of a common interface in their life. Perhaps they need to do community service in a phone store to wake them up to the reality of the mass customer experience. Oh to be able to pickup a new cell phone and use it without having to relearn every time how the UI works and relearning where to change the common options present on every phone. Guess what, UI’s don’t limit feature sets, they just establish the convention of where you find the feature
Here’s my $0.02…
Sprint is NOT trying to atract advanced users with these phones- they want the advanced users using PDA’s. That said, the interface for a regular customer is REALLY easy to use. And why would Sprint want to disable that? Ignorance is bliss……
If you look at the features ok OneClick those are all VERY advanced for a dumb phone…
It is a great idea for Sprint to do OneClick the same on all non Smartphones…
NO off switch is a good thing….
Faster updates and better customer experiences
thats the point. this should have NOTHING to do with verizon at all. but of course sprint fanboys will bring verizon up and say that sprint is still better than verizon despite being in 3rd out of 4. attacking christopher and saying sprint is better than verizon is typical behavior on this site. the laughable stock prices and sad overall state of the almighty sprint is just a friendly reminder that sprint is failing as a company and that mustang, don louie and the exposed troll omega are failing just as bad at damage control.
Let me say, I like Sprint, I personally have not had trouble with them (fingers crossed). I had an issue when I ordered a SERO plan for my Dad a couple days before they discontinued it but there was a processing error and by the time they realized it the SERO plan was out of the system. It took a few calls but finally I got someone who was willing to go the extra-mile (she was in India too I feel I should say), and contacted a department that built the plan for me. THAT is the Sprint that I like. I don’t like Dan Hesse because frankly he’s been making stupid decisions and alienated an already dwindling base. This is another one of those things. Uniform user experience? This is so they can reduce their sales and support sources, as theoretically there will be less problems and less confusion. This is a cost cutting attempt. The people who need Sprint’s UI probably would not make it to the menu where they could turn it off. BTW, not everyone who wants one or is a techie can afford PDAs. No customizable interface is just fail…
CJ, the point is that this does have nothing to do with Verizon but there are comparisons to draw. Obviously Verizon has been offering a single UI on their phones for a while, and have been the only provider to do that. That is the comparison. That’s it. They both are using a unified UI on their phones. I’m not sure what other comparisons “you” are reading, but I see none. Nobody is saying Sprint is better than Verizon.
If you read the posts, which you apparently haven’t.. what is being said is that this UI not being able to be turned off isn’t nearly the big deal that it is being made to be. Verizon has done this, and obviously has stayed profitable. As you point out, Sprint isn’t in the best of financial situations, so this can’t really make it any worse.
BTW you point out that Sprint is #3 out of 4, with VZW being #2 after the Cingular merger. Talks are starting again about Deutsche Telekom acquiring Sprint and well, that would put T-Mo/Sprint in the #1 spot. None of that really matters though.
Verizon has been using a standard UI for quite a few years now and still have record low churn. Guess the masses don’t have an issue with a standard UI or they’d all be running out to get Sprint phones. Oh….maybe they will now that its a standard UI. Guess the techies are going to have to find a new carrier. Maybe Revol, I think their UIs are open.
And Sprint/T-Mob?!?!? LOL Great idea since Sprint did such a great job merging two different technologies the last time.
Hey, I wasn’t saying a merger is a good idea. I hated the idea of the Nextel merger, still do.
CJ, Sprints oneclick has nothing to do with Verizons BREW thats the enitre point..
Chris should never of even brought up Verizon…He just wanted to get more hits on his article….
Chris could of said sprints new oneclick how NO off switch.. This would only have 2 posts…
Anyone else notice he hasn’t even posted another reply?
Actually Omega, Sprint One Click is powered by the same BREW UI technology that powers the Verizon Wireless UI.
They use the exact same SDK from Qualcomm, and are even updated using the same updater app.
It’s actually the first time we’ve ever seen the BREW Apploader on a Sprint phone (although uiOne used a modified version, Sprint is now using the same one Verizon uses).
See that would be something GO to post
please provide a link to that info…
🙂
Omega, as we said in the article, we confirmed it on our own Samsung Rant, which Sprint provided us. It’s not hard to see the BREW Apploader kick in and update One Click… it’s no different from downloading a BREW app on a Verizon phone.
You ask for a link… we are the link. We broke the news on this, as usual… sorry if you don’t like that.
LOL Chris i was wanting a link from Samsung ext..
Or phone or software manufacture…
Not just your website
But oh well
But ps you never brought up Sprint using BREW in the article
A good Title
Sprint using new BREW oneClick UI,
But thanks for the replys…