First of all, I mean no disrespect for anyone who themes MMS via theme chooser- let’s just clear that up right now. I get DMs and tweets almost every day asking me to include inverted system apps like MMS, Calendar, etc in my theme chooser themes. At this point, i think i’ll just link every request to this post.

In order for those apps to get themed, the source code in the ROMs must be altered in such a way as to make the resources available to the theme chooser. Sometimes, this comes in handy. For example, the nav bar background and the lockscreen were both made themable like this. The problem is, this only required minimal changes, whereas something like an entire app requires dozens and sometimes hundreds of code changes in source to make it fully functional, and only certain ROMs have implemented it. To confuse matters even more, there are multiple ways to do it, and each developer can decide which way it is to be done, if at all.

Here’s my conundrum. BAMF hasn’t merged the commits for this and I don’t expect them to. In my view, it’s a little sloppy and a little unnecessary, so I don’t expect a professional development team to use it. (Again, if you do, this isn’t a knock on your work- keep that in mind.) So, if i implement a themed MMS, it would be a giant mess on ROMs that don’t use the altered code, and either myself or worse, the developer, would be blamed for it. I’m not willing to do that.

I will still theme MMS seperately, as well as Gmail and sometimes calendar/email.

Recently, Verizon has been making me mad. Here’s why. I don’t have a gift for prose, but rather my writing is a bit more pensive.

In 2012, companies that ‘get it’ just don’t do this.

1)Branding the home screen. I get it. I’m on Verizon. They are the pipes through which my internetz and phone calls flow. But marking your intrusive logo in the middle of a home button is narcissistic and just plain insulting. (As if, i’m an Orangutan who constantly forgets who gets my monies every month). Also, anybody else who sees it will make fun of you. Just sayin.

2) Locking bootloaders. I agree, bootloaders should be locked by default when shipped. But I’ll be damned if I’ve ever seen a case where a rooted device has compromised verizon’s network. Instead, there should always be a way to unlock them for those that want to. I recommend ‘fastboot oem unlock’. No hackery, no fuss. Those that want to can. Because WE OWN OUR PHONES, WE DON’T LEASE THEM FROM YOU.