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Im noticing that theres alot of launchers like ADW, LaunchPro, Open Home, etc...I would like to get some input of people who has some experience with each one. Which one has the most options? im looking for more transparent kinda stuff...so maybe which one has the ability to make specific windows transparent. Also ease of use, which one has more themes/icons avialable?
Thanks
I think you will find most people use either launcher pro or adw launcher.
From my experience i had MAJOR force crash issues with OpenHome. I wasnt a fan of pandaHome it was sluggish for me.
Between ADW and Launcher Pro, I think they have very similar features if you arent paying for launcher pro plus for the sense like widgets.
ADW has more themes on the market however you can download any icon you find on the web (usually .png files) i believe for both so you can customize your "theme" and layout very easily to what ever you want.
I personally have the paid version of launcher pro (only available ont he website) because it gives you a sense like people and book mark widget and i wanted to support the developer.
I dont think you can go wrong with either one.
personally, I'm a big fan of adw launcher. I like that I can modify how many rows and columns the home screens have, and also I can set the size of widgets on the screen. I don't know if launcherpro will do that as well, but even besides that, ADW is hugely customizeable, and I swear by it.
I tried Launcher Pro, but it wasn't (imo) a very good Launcher replacement. ADW.Launcher is much better, and with the Paper theme it is my favorite out of all. PHome was very slow, and I didnt really like it in general.
Sent from my Droid using XDA App
I use ADW because of how its integrated into Cyanogen.
However Launcher Pro seems to move quite a bit faster in terms of scrolling and app drawer opening/scrolling.
Just my $.02
~Jasecloud4
I think the two top ones are ADW Launcher and LauncherPro.
I find myself switching between the two.
Personally find myself favoring ADW Launcher recently because it is open-source, and you know how Android fanboys loooove open source.
Thanks for all the great replies guys, im currently using the built in adw that comes with CM6 it is highly customizable...but i did find launcher pro to have a lot more options tho...anyways im going to stick with adw for now its working out pretty good so far.
omegasun18 said:
I think you will find most people use either launcher pro or adw launcher.
From my experience i had MAJOR force crash issues with OpenHome. I wasnt a fan of pandaHome it was sluggish for me.
Between ADW and Launcher Pro, I think they have very similar features if you arent paying for launcher pro plus for the sense like widgets.
ADW has more themes on the market however you can download any icon you find on the web (usually .png files) i believe for both so you can customize your "theme" and layout very easily to what ever you want.
I personally have the paid version of launcher pro (only available ont he website) because it gives you a sense like people and book mark widget and i wanted to support the developer.
I dont think you can go wrong with either one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I get the bookmark widget? I only see "people" in my launcher pro plus.
I had to update and they changed the process. Bookmark widget seems a little flakey with images.
If I could have the dockbar from adw put onto LauncherPro I'd have my dream launcher.
Yea seems most (like with roms) will swear by one launcher or another. IE the person saying launcher pro wasnt a good launcher replacement. I have use both and cant see how someone using ADW could say launcher pro wasnt a good launcher replacement since they are so similar in features and performance over all (in there current state, it is possible the person tested it a while back and maybe it had issues or something then).
I get slightly faster speeds on launcher pro as well. You can set the number of vertical icons on launcher pro same as you can on ADW for horizontal icons you can get more icons app to let you have 8 on any.
As for making the dock bar the same on ADW and launcher pro i may play with my launcher pro and see how similar i can get it. sice you can set each action and create different dock images/icons and can clear icons i can probably get it to be very similar at least in look i will let you know and if i can i will place a tut.
I use both since I play around with CM6 as my experimental rom. I just never worry about customizing deeply my non daily drivers.
LauncherPro Plus, for the win!
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Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.
Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.
Launcher pro for its sheer beauty and fluidity. ADW just seems to stutter around like the waterboy.
I gotta say Launcher Pro. especially now that it is coming out with some very nice looking widgets for people who liked the Sense UI stuff.
I do really like the customizations of ADW though. I wish Launcher Pro would incorporate the widget size customizations you can do. That would rock.
if ADW had the 3D drawer and was as smooth and pretty as LauncherPro I may switch.
takmsdsm said:
Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And what makes Rosie so superior? Its complete lack of customization and features?
TheBiles said:
And what makes Rosie so superior? Its complete lack of customization and features?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldnt say that it cant be customized? There are a ton of themes out there for Rosie. What features are you exactly looking for?
Sorry, but a herky jerky "3D" app launcher isnt exactly mind blowing. Its a waste of screen real estate on the top and bottom. Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
Its little things like that that are more annoyances. Sense, no matter what rom, or kernel, I am using, has always been smoother and done everything I asked. Plus some of the HTC widgets are downright useful and better looking then their vanilla counterparts.
This is all my experiences of course, and YMMV, but so far I just havent been impressed by other launchers.
takmsdsm said:
Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using LauncherPro Plus v0.7.1.0 and it does allow you to change the message button to handcent. It also allows me to change it on the people widget.
Am I the only one that just likes plain old Launcher 2? I mean Android is so customizable already, I don't see why you would want so many different options.
I tried Launcher Pro and ADW and of the two I liked Launcher Pro better but the plain Google-made Launcher 2 is still the smoothest in my opinion.
takmsdsm said:
I wouldnt say that it cant be customized? There are a ton of themes out there for Rosie. What features are you exactly looking for?
Sorry, but a herky jerky "3D" app launcher isnt exactly mind blowing. Its a waste of screen real estate on the top and bottom. Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
Its little things like that that are more annoyances. Sense, no matter what rom, or kernel, I am using, has always been smoother and done everything I asked. Plus some of the HTC widgets are downright useful and better looking then their vanilla counterparts.
This is all my experiences of course, and YMMV, but so far I just havent been impressed by other launchers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "message button?" Do you mean the dock icon? If so, mine has been set as Handcent for quite some time.
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Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.
takmsdsm said:
Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Total agree, Sense is just so much smoother and doesn't crashes/freezes like adw and launcher pro. Plus I've use both for a while and got really frustrated with the constant freezing and force close and alway end up switching back to sense. Until stock froyo comes out on my phone I'm sticking with sense.
I love the stock sense ui, but I really miss the scrollable dock I had on my launcher pro ui setup. Anyone know of a mod that will replace the sense dock with something more launcher pro-esque without sacrificing access to the sense widgets?
Thanks
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I know this is like beating a dead horse and yes I do understand that for some reason people like Sense that much more....but what widget is it that you really want that is available in Sense but not Launcher Pro? I say this as someone who was a huge fan of Sense until I actually set up Launcher Pro with the dock and icons and widgets I wanted at which point I could never see myself going back to (at least the current version of) Sense.
Rather than starting the old debate, I mean this more as an offer to help you find a compromise.
I had launcher pro on my epic before I took it back, and really loved it, it was the lite (free) version, so have it didn't have all the widgets avail on the donation version.
I love the live weather clock, the book mark page, the enhanced music player, and the friend stream feed.
I actually just looked at the widgets you get with the donation version, and they seem to cover every thing but the sense clock. Are there free apps that will provide equivalent to the htc sense apps that I could use with launcher pro?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
kanethal said:
I had launcher pro on my epic before I took it back, and really loved it, it was the lite (free) version, so have it didn't have all the widgets avail on the donation version.
I love the live weather clock, the book mark page, the enhanced music player, and the friend stream feed.
I actually just looked at the widgets you get with the donation version, and they seem to cover every thing but the sense clock. Are there free apps that will provide equivalent to the htc sense apps that I could use with launcher pro?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for a sense clock download fancy widget from the market. works exactly the same, looks exactly the same
There are quite a few weather and clock apps. Beautiful widgets stands out but there are others like Fancy Widget as well. The bookmarks I'm not sure about since I use my browser's bookmarks. There is a Friends widget with LP but I never used it since those kinds of widgets demolish battery and I prefer to just check that stuff from Facebook or whatever. There are quite a few music widgets as well and many are much nicer than the Sense one as well.
Honestly your best bet is to get the full LP. It's a very good app and worth the tiny price. Between their widgets and all of the ones (free and paid...mostly free) in the market, there shouldn't be anything getting in your way. I'd rather just pay for LP and have all of my options than try to hack Sense to be as flexible as LP. Sense is a decent bit of polish on the base Android OS if you like how it looks but it is hard to customize and it is missing some of the best parts of third party launchers. Check out the screenshot and LauncherPro threads in this subforum and you might just find some things that make Sense look boring.
If you really do need something from Sense, you will probably need to give up the scrolling dock but there are some nice themes to make it at least look better than the default scheme.
Thanks guys, the info is exactly what I needed
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Did a search for 'fancy', 'fancy widget(s)' and didn't see anything relevant, is it listed under a different name?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I'm looking for some good apps that will improve CM7. Here are the things I'm looking for:
Sense-type dialer (where it makes suggestions based on numbers and letters)
a good clock/weather widget, like the HTC one (I already have Fancy Widgets Pro but that one is kind of ugly)
Other sense-type features
I like CM7, but I still want some Sense-like features...
Any suggestions?
Did you fix the fancy widget so it can look like the HTC clock
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
Yeah, I didn't know there were different skins, but I got it so it looks nice now
Ferrari353 said:
I'm looking for some good apps that will improve CM7. Here are the things I'm looking for:
Sense-type dialer (where it makes suggestions based on numbers and letters)
a good clock/weather widget, like the HTC one (I already have Fancy Widgets Pro but that one is kind of ugly)
Other sense-type features
I like CM7, but I still want some Sense-like features...
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't what you were asking , but if you like CM7 and you like Sense, you might want to give Ultimate Droid a look over. It's based on CM7 but is a little easier to customize. Don't remember what the dialer looks like.
Now back to CM7: the default dialer will suggest contacts as you type out their name, so I'm not quite sure what you're getting at there. I'm surprised to hear that you can't find a clock/weather widget you like in FWP. The main widget is called Fancy Home and can be themed to look pretty damn close to the HTC widget, flip numbers and all. It also supports the weather effect across the home screen after unlocking, and it has the rain/wiper effect in there somewhere.
One of the things I like about Sense is the thinner icon font. There are themes for CM7/ADW that will give you this look, such as y0rk's Black ADW theme. Makes a big and pleasing difference to the overall look of CM7 IMO. There are also themes to give you some cool things like the circle battery mod, custom status bar, etc. There are custom dock backgrounds for ADW that will give you that curved dock look (either 3 or 5 icons) similar to the Sense dock.
edit: sorry I see you found the FWP skins - disregard
Dialer One will do what you want.
Sent from Inspire 4G
gtalum said:
Dialer One will do what you want.
Sent from Inspire 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Give Dialer One a try. Def a nice one.
henrybravo said:
This isn't what you were asking , but if you like CM7 and you like Sense, you might want to give Ultimate Droid a look over. It's based on CM7 but is a little easier to customize. Don't remember what the dialer looks like.
Now back to CM7: the default dialer will suggest contacts as you type out their name, so I'm not quite sure what you're getting at there. I'm surprised to hear that you can't find a clock/weather widget you like in FWP. The main widget is called Fancy Home and can be themed to look pretty damn close to the HTC widget, flip numbers and all. It also supports the weather effect across the home screen after unlocking, and it has the rain/wiper effect in there somewhere.
One of the things I like about Sense is the thinner icon font. There are themes for CM7/ADW that will give you this look, such as y0rk's Black ADW theme. Makes a big and pleasing difference to the overall look of CM7 IMO. There are also themes to give you some cool things like the circle battery mod, custom status bar, etc. There are custom dock backgrounds for ADW that will give you that curved dock look (either 3 or 5 icons) similar to the Sense dock.
edit: sorry I see you found the FWP skins - disregard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, but you know the dialer in HTC Sense, where you start typing a number in the dialer, it suggests people based on the numbers you've typed and the letters on those numbers.
Ferrari353 said:
no, but you know the dialer in HTC Sense, where you start typing a number in the dialer, it suggests people based on the numbers you've typed and the letters on those numbers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dialer One does that for you. I, however, don't care for the interface much. Just personal preference though.
I just downloaded Dialer One and I'm trying it out now...Is there any way to make it the default dialer?
Any good deskclock apps?
Sent from my......ummm...let me get back at'chya!
Ferrari353 said:
I just downloaded Dialer One and I'm trying it out now...Is there any way to make it the default dialer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should automatically prompt if you choose to do something that would use a dialer. If it doesn't automatically prompt you (with the option to make it default) then try going into Settings > Applications > All > Dialer - in dialer see if you can click the Clear Defaults button.
it does, but then when I go to the dialer it's the regular one...I solved the problem by just using Launcher Pro Plus, so my dialer just goes to Dialer One.
Ferrari353 said:
it does, but then when I go to the dialer it's the regular one...I solved the problem by just using Launcher Pro Plus, so my dialer just goes to Dialer One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, good deal! What do you think of it?
I like it so far.
knowledge561 said:
Any good deskclock apps?
Sent from my......ummm...let me get back at'chya!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use clockr. I also use touchpal dialer, I like the interface better than dialer one
beweather in the market is another good sense clock/weather widget
have to try this!!!
Hi!
Is there a way to disable 3D Barrel effect when changing homescreens in Sense 3.0 ? Other launchers works much smoother and faster but there is lack of HTC widgets...
EniHS said:
Hi!
Is there a way to disable 3D Barrel effect when changing homescreens in Sense 3.0 ? Other launchers works much smoother and faster but there is lack of HTC widgets...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also asked for this. I believe it's not possible.
EniHS said:
Other launchers works much smoother and faster but there is lack of HTC widgets...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just go with another launcher. For each HTC widget, there's always a much better alternative/equivalent in the Market. Plus, you get the advantage of a much more configurable, smoother launcher with better transition effects, transparency, skins, etc, etc.
sjgore said:
Just go with another launcher. For each HTC widget, there's always a much better alternative/equivalent in the Market. Plus, you get the advantage of a much more configurable, smoother launcher with better transition effects, transparency, skins, etc, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I would go for Launcher Pro, because its widgets are similar to HTC's (f.e. big, slightly transparent Agenda), but there is no good HTC clock widget. I found in the Market app named LP Sense Skin + Clock Widget, but this clock is not optimized for qHD
Another thing that annoys me is the HTC dock in the lockscreen and another android dock in Launcher Pro in homescreen. Is there a way to change lockscreen in Sense 3.0?
I wish there was an option to turn these animations off...
Well I guess LauncherPro is the exception in that it comes with its own widgets. Most home screen replacements are just the launcher, and you use your own widgets.
If it helps, here are some equivalents:
HTC Clock > Beautiful Widgets
HTC Weather > Beautiful Widgets
HTC Toggle Widgets > Beautiful Widgets
HTC Agenda > Android Agenda Widget
HTC Calendar View > Pure Calendar Widget
HTC FriendStream > Tweetdeck
I actually quite like still having the HTC lockscreen with its four shortcuts, and then a different set of shortcuts in ADWLauncher.EX.
As you're discovering right now, Sense 3.0 isn't very configurable at all.
I want both lol. LauncherPro Plus and Sense 3.0. LPP for the configurability and just general awesomeness, but Sense 3.0 for the app drawer and dock that LPP can't have
Can we use Sense 2.1 Launcher to disable that 3D effect?
I don't have Sensation right now. Can anyone try that with a dumb sense launcher.apk from Incredible S etc.?
I can't stand the bloody carousel effect when unlocking the device either. Just a time waste!
I seriously don't get it why htc wouldn't want let us get rid of this absurd effect!!!
For the rest, I'd rather not change for another launcher, I quite like the widgets and such. But wish htc would read us and provide a more configurable update some time later.
eadred said:
I can't stand the bloody carousel effect when unlocking the device either. Just a time waste!
I seriously don't get it why htc wouldn't want let us get rid of this absurd effect!!!
For the rest, I'd rather not change for another launcher, I quite like the widgets and such. But wish htc would read us and provide a more configurable update some time later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, widgets. Thats why I asked the question above. I hope someone may try.
I went for LauncherPro. It is very configurable (number of columns, rows etc), much faster and smoother than Sense and has very similar widgets to HTC's (Friends, Calendar, Bookmarks).
For HTC like weather clock I went for Beautiful Widgets and its SuperClock.
Yes you can configure which screen and widgets to use on the lock screen.
Select Personalize, Lock screen, and you can select a number of screens and change the widgets to others. There are lock screen for wallpaper, weather (I like), photos, etc. On the clock one, you can press Settings and select one of the alternative clocks.
Very cool
eadred said:
I can't stand the bloody carousel effect when unlocking the device either. Just a time waste!
I seriously don't get it why htc wouldn't want let us get rid of this absurd effect!!!
For the rest, I'd rather not change for another launcher, I quite like the widgets and such. But wish htc would read us and provide a more configurable update some time later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMFG. Here, i am looking for a launcher(tell me if you know one) or ROM that replicates the effect on my desire s, and you guys want to remove it??
The carousel unlock effect is truly annoying.
On the Nexus One I had the nice CRT TV screen-off effect which is good, because its an effect/waste of time AFTER you've done working with your phone and want to lock it. This is the time for graphic flourishes.
HTC instead do a nice effect when I unlock the phone, that is when I want to use the phone immediately, but I get a little waste of time effect instead.
In summary - do the fun graphic stuff when I want to lock (done using the phone, wouldn't mind seeing something cool), as opposed to doing fun graphic stuff when i unlock (when I want to use the phone immediately and really don't want to see any superficial flourishes!).
Is there a clock widget that looks EXACTLY the same as the Sense one? Old version of Fancy Widgets was, but they changed it. So is it possible to just download the old version (apk) and install it?
weather & toggle widget.. download that
download h7c clock within the app
best htc clock out there imo
dbirdflyshi said:
weather & toggle widget.. download that
download h7c clock within the app
best htc clock out there imo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 but the weather animations can be a bit annoying seeing as they occur whenever the phone is unlocked, to any screen, for any reason.I used to use this on my MT3G Slide and I was pretty satisfied with it, though nothing really compares to sense IMO.
dbirdflyshi said:
weather & toggle widget.. download that
download h7c clock within the app
best htc clock out there imo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks awesome... Will try it, thanks.
There is NO widget I can find to replace the htc gallery widget! It's very annoying
eadred said:
I can't stand the bloody carousel effect when unlocking the device either. Just a time waste!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just change "show all animations" to "show some animations" in Menu->Settings->Display. That will take care of that.
idavid_ said:
Is there a clock widget that looks EXACTLY the same as the Sense one? Old version of Fancy Widgets was, but they changed it. So is it possible to just download the old version (apk) and install it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have fancy widgets pro APK and I put it on SD card and installed, but it force closes. I think it is not compatable with the QHD screen.
I was looking for something new and tried out a few Sense ROMs. I really like the Sense widgets and their little touches like the calendar and menus. However I had a lot of problems with these ROMs so I decided to go another route. I've been using Launcher Pro plus for a while, but development has slowed.
I tried Go launcher yesterday and am really liking it. If you haven't tried it in a while, it's come a long way. It has nicer widgets than Launcher pro and most of the features that launcher pro has like to eliminating the text on icons, transition effects, etc.
Themes are a little slim, but switching them is easy. The only thing that seems to lag on my phone is the homescreen preview, other than that as smooth as launcher pro.
I'd highly suggest adw ex. It doesn't have widgets but its the most stable launcher I have ever used.
Have checked it out for a while, thanks
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA Premium App
GRZLA said:
I'd highly suggest adw ex. It doesn't have widgets but its the most stable launcher I have ever used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oddly enough the only launcher I've had problems with is ADW. I purchased LP a year ago and have to say its been very solid.
I love Go Launcher. I've used ADW and Launcher Pro during my Eris days, but once I tried Go, I never went back.
Go Launcher is running real nice for me. Turn up the fling speed in preferences to make it feel a little more snappy. It has some cool icon effects for the app drawer like cylinder and sphere.
n00b question.......does Go Launcher EX play nice with all Sense ROMs? I'd hate to jack-up my current setup to make it look prettier. Looking for a little info because Go Launcher Ex looks pretty sweet.
BSquaredB2 said:
n00b question.......does Go Launcher EX play nice with all Sense ROMs? I'd hate to jack-up my current setup to make it look prettier. Looking for a little info because Go Launcher Ex looks pretty sweet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The layout you have to Sense will stay intact when another launcher is installed. So if you uninstalled a launcher because you want to go back, everything will be there. You just won't be able to get Sense widgets.
I keep trying Go from time to time, but I always end up uninstalling it. I find it highly annoying that I have to install every widget separately, but I understand this might be to make the base launcher lightweight.
I find it a bit laggy - and dont get me wrong, the screen transitions are like butter. However, there seems to be a delay from when I swipe to when the screen actually animates. I'm used to LP's instant reaction. Plus, I sometimes notice jerkiness with Go that I don't get with LP, but I'm just being picky. Finally I dislike the acceleration curve when swiping between screens. I feel it doesn't respond to how fast I'm swiping, at least when using a custom speed without elasticity (causes lag!).
Man I am picky about my launcher. Maybe I'm just spoiled! I did like Go's Widgets with the transparent theme though. Very well done.
Sent from my Droid Incredible using the XDA app.
Go Launcher is great!