Need help customizing my homescreens (willing to pay) - General Questions and Answers

I'm pretty new to Android (haven't had an Android phone since 2009).
I'm not up to date on the current widgets or anything like that.
Looking to improve what I have currently
http://imgur.com/1yiBPVP
I'm willing to pay up to $10 paypal for some helpful advice.

Looks better than mine#
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bump

That looks pretty sleek! What icon pack is that?
What have you already got?
Have you tried playing around with Themer yet?
And try Zooper Widget, it allows you to create your own widgets from scratch (Although that one already looks a lot like a Zooper). Also has the option to install widget packs that others have made. There's an XDA board on it if you want ideas. It also allows you to make fullscreen widgets (and thus custom homescreens with buttons and all).
I personally greatly adore Live Wallpapers. Check out Forest HD, Galaxy Pack and the sort.
Next Launcher is also great fun. (Though I prefer Apex, as it's more vanilla. Which one's the one you're using?)

Related

Best Home Screen Launcher

What is the best or most functional home screen launcher on the market for the Droid X? Not sure witch one to buy.
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I love launcher pro
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I woulnd't buy anything. I'd with one of the free ones like ADW or Launcher Pro.
Launcher Pro...
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I love Launcher Pro, which is free. But if you buy Launcher Pro Plus you get some AWESOME widgets, including the Facebook widget which is the best facebook app available IMHO. Also get messaging, twitter, calendar, and people widgets. They are some of the nicest widgets on the market and you get them all while supporting a great developer who is always improving his app.
+1 for LP. Use the free one first, then you will be UPgrading in no time.
picked up launcher pro not sure why many use adw. IMO LP works much better. gl with your choice.
Droid X 7 said:
What is the best or most functional home screen launcher on the market for the Droid X? Not sure witch one to buy.
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I think it really depends on who you talk to. Some like ADW, others (like myself) love or prefer Launcher Pro (or Pro Plus, which is the paid version).
I like LP+ because of the very functional widgets that come with, along with the very nice widget resizer that works on ALL widgets. Both of these features come with the paid version of LP+. What really endeared me to LP+ over ADW was the memory settings. ADW when I tried it really ran my system down into stutter territory. LP+ in stock settings did this, but what it had over and above ADW was the ability to custom tweek its memory settings. I found a balance of settings in LP+ that really allowed it to run lightly on my system and aside from giving it time (say about 10 seconds or so) initially to build the caches on startup and after a long time out of the launcher, it really flies. That's b/c I have it set to load up all its relevant caches first and keep them unless heap memory is needed. That means valuable cpu clock time isn't spent building caches or spent refilling the cache for redrawing when I switch homescreens.
Also, the customizable dock and icons was a major selling point. I also like having the ability to have multiple docks (only running just one right now, but still, I can see future situations where it would be nice to have multiple docks) and have gestures enabled on top of the dock icons, giving each the possibility of an alternate function (doubling the amount of stuff one can launch from the dock.... including custom-programable activities).
I don't know about the responsiveness of the devs for ADW, so don't take this as any statement concerning them, but the developer for LP+ is quite active and listens to his users. His own forum is quite active and he's involved on there, as are his forum mods. Suggestions are listened to, and if viable and practical they are implemented, and we've seen this happen.
So, all in all, I really love LP+ and find it to really be a superior launcher program. The brief time I spent using ADW I felt it was neat but didn't really offer anything that made it shine above LP+, but it did have some flaws that while not deal-breakers collectively or in and of themselves, still essentially turned the balance of favor for me clearly over to LP+.
I prefer LauncherPro. Have used ADW briefly but always go back to LP. Even upgraded to the Plus version.
In the LauncherPro settings under General, I checked the Droid Hack and noticed some apps would hang when I would exit them. Unchecked this option and it improved performance, but there is still some lag sometimes.
Was wondering if anyone can post optimal settings here so we can try them out. I purchased the Pro lisence.
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+1 on LauncherPro Plus! Hard to beat, and the sense type widgets are awesome! I barely miss the sense ui on my incredible.
they are both fantastic. LP widgets (especially themed) and 3d drawer look awesome and another plus with the dock. ADW though i find to be nices scrolling through homescreens and the upswipe to bring up a new osx-like dock is appealing. That being said im running both with ADW as my hard button default home, 10 homescreens between the two of them, LP used for "large" widgets and ADW for shortcuts and smaller widgets. It switches launchers instantly thru dock shortcuts so i wont be getting rid of either one of them. Attempting to skin them 2 different colors isnt going so well tho...
How do you keep your phone from stuttering and lagging running two cpu-demanding launcher setups? With all those screens and the need for quick redraws, your heap memory has GOT to be ready to burst.
I was actually pretty surprised. Android does a pretty damn good job managing resources it seems. I do keep setcpu at 1k all the time unless the screen is off or im under 20%, which is never. That probably helped. I honestly didnt expect it to work this well though
add me up on the LP users...
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Launcher Pro....no contest. ADW launcher is ok but Cyanogen like to talk @#$%
Launcherpro ftw!!!! never use ADW it is pure crap compared to LP
I am surprised no one has mentioned Zeam. Pretty good. And there is a thread right here on XDA...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=664149
I like some of the settings (swipe up for app drawer, swipe down for taskbar, double tap for dialer etc).
I have LaincherPro+, but right now I am using Zeam.
I’ve been using launcher pro plus since I bought my DX at launch. It's been great and has lots of options to customize the hell out of the phone.

Ambienttime Launcher (not lite)

Hi all,
I don't know if anybody has tried this home launcher. I just installed it and it's really nice. The launcher was made by SE Japan. It seems that it's only available in Japan for some reason through the market.
Check the link below for more details and screenshots. I find it a lot more stable and less resource intensive than any other home launcher that I have tried and it's a lot faster and smoother.
It's by no means perfect, there's a definite lack of options and some widgets get chopped off (beautiful weather for example and the widgets that are supposed to be 4x1, but for some reason take 4x2, you know, the ones that you can't stick anything below them, well, now you can, but they get chopped a little), the lockscreen is sweet, you get 5 desktops and a live wallpaper. It would be nice to be able to change the color palette of the live wallpaper since the colors are a little effeminate imo,but that's ok. Oh yeah, and you will loose the ability to change your wallpaper when using the launcher.
There's one really sweet feature. You can unistall apps straight from the drawer. No need to go in the market or the application settings for non-market apps. Yay!
Like I mentionned, it's not perfect, but it will help me wait for the 2.1 update. Check it out for yourselves.
http://gadgets.apnafundaz.com/2010/...wallpaper-effect-cool-lockscreen-by-se-japan/
Hopefully, the new 2.1 update will look and feel like that.
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How many threads are we going to have for this I believe the count is at 5 now!
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5 it is.
Sorry for the re-post...
Tapatalk search function did not give any results for "ambianttime". Mods, please delete this thread since it has been posted already.
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QQ launcher .

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tencent.qqlauncher&feature=search_result
Has anyone tried this launcher in the market. looks similar to adw just installed it havent played around with it yet. everything looks ok.
I don't know about that launcher specifically but QQ Chat is a (popular) chinese chat app. We could hack it in to our old motorola flip phones back in the day.
Perhaps this is the same chinese company with another knockoff. I'd say it if looks and feels like ADW, why not just use ADW? Go Launcher seems nice too.
[UPDATE]
Looks neat. While supposedly it isn't as customizable as the popular ones, it does offer some neat features. The Contact list Apps Menu looks appealing and some of the other features. Try it out and give us a review!
I don't know about anybody else but I'm currently using the Regina 3D Launcher and live it. Plus you can add extra home screens.
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Just installed it, I love it so far!
Good but needs more features.
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I love the app menu in list mode... Just doesn't support enough customization for me yet. I think I'll stick with go launcher ex for now, but this is definitely one to watch.
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Tattooed5150 said:
I don't know about anybody else but I'm currently using the Regina 3D Launcher and live it. Plus you can add extra home screens.
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I just gave it a try and it is amazing! I love it so far. It is heavy 3d app so I am not sure if it will run smooth on older phones but it runs great on the G2X.
Thanks.
Initial review
Been playing with this for a most of the day now. Here is what I like about it.
Interesting screen transitions, I like the different swipe animations, Fade in is a nice touch, and I really like Cascade. Card is a fun variation of windmill, but with alot of icons, gets sore on the eyes. And Cube is a nice one as well, although it does get a bit laggy. Other than Cubem, they all work pretty good, even with a heavy live wallpaper working in the background.
The app drawer list setting is a huge plus on this. Something that is lacking in GoLauncher (my usual primary) and Launcher pro. It really makes finding your apps easy, and when you have alot, like I do, its great.
Clone Launcher - This is a nice feature, as it pulls whatever you have placed as screens on Launcher Pro into this launcher. It didn't give me the choice to pull GoLauncher, so it might only work with Launcher pro, not sure.
Its a pretty stable, fast and non-laggy UI. I like using it, however, the following items really are why I keep going back to GoLauncher.
Themes - pretty limited in what you can do. You can change wallpapers BUT only what is offered by the theme. You cannot choose from previous wallpapers, and you cant choose any live wallpapers. You have to get into a different launcher and set those up, then return to QQ. Same with Icons, you cant use anything but what is offered by the theme.
With that said about Icons, they are biggger than most launcher, which is a nice bonus.
Dock - your limited to the 5, with the app drawer static. It isn't easy to change them, you have to remove them, and then add, you can't add directly from the current icon. There is no second or third dock drawer, so you can only put your favorite four down there.
Regarding the QQ widgets, you get Task killer and quick switch. Quick switch works fine, but your limited to WiFi, screen brightness, sound settings and GPRS listed in the widget. You can access GPS, flight mode, etc through selecting the widget.
Task killer I am unsure of. When using it with ZDBox, I get different numbers.When I kill idle tasks using QQ, I end with 339M in use. But when I do the same using ZD, I get 233.6M in use. So not sure why the difference.
For my opinion, I like its stability and different screen transitions as well as the app list, and will keep an eye on this. However, by adding more screen customization (wallpapers, icons, live wallpapers) and more dock choices, this could become a really great launcher.
I will check Regina now, see how that works.
A few other things
Alright, forget Regina, couldn't make it work, too buggy.
BUT I do have some more input regarding QQ.
The lock screen rocks! I love the animations it gives while charging, and its a very responsive lock. Best thing is once you activate it and go with a different launcher, it still works!
I do wish we could change the shortcuts. And whenever I choose the down swipe (Home icon), I go to my SMS app, even when it QQ. So there is a bad connection or something along those lines there. Its still something I can live with, and plan to continue using the lock screen!
Lol I don't know why but I like this launcher. How is the lockscreen for everyone. Is it responsive?
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moeahmad1995 said:
Lol I don't know why but I like this launcher. How is the lockscreen for everyone. Is it responsive?
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the launcher honestly was very nice, but too little features for my liking unfortunately.
not enough features, but im keepin the app installed cuz i love that lockscreen!
One last update
So played some more with it and used it for the weekend. here are my last points on it.
Folders - You are limited to 12 apps only. No more. So if you got alot that needs to go in a folder (like I do), you will end up with more folders, more confusion, and more 'which folder has what app' issues. But whats cool is that you can find the classification name by checking the box icon on the right. Nice touch guys!
Lock screen - Again, I can't say enough about this. but now am going to say a little bit more. of all the free lock options out there, this is the only one I have found where the volume keys work when the screen is locked and off. HOWEVER, when you use that volume, the screen will come on (thats ok), but then never turn back off (NOT OK!)
I found out while riding the bus home. Left the office and turned up the music player while phone was still in the case. Didn't look at it until I got off the bus and put it in my car dock. Noticed it was on. thought I did that taking it out of the case, but then I noticed the battery was drained alot more than its supposed to for the ride home.
so did a check, unplugged and player going, with the screen off I turned volume up, screen came on, then never turned off (I gave up waiting after 5 minutes).
My stock lock screen is set to turn the screen off after 10 seconds, and all the other lock screens work with that time, so this really needs to get corrected.
Still hoping for updates to both the lock and the launcher! Don't give up developers!
I use it with my Galaxy S2 & love it. I have the iphone theme for obvious reasons
(check my sig)
---------- Post added at 04:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:21 PM ----------
Simer03 said:
not enough features, but im keepin the app installed cuz i love that lockscreen!
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Same here!!!!!
I like the lock screen. It sticks around after switching back to ADW EX. Keeping it installed to wait for updates.
It's a decent launcher, I normally use ADW Launcher EX though. Ya it does need some more customization and its got a good lock screen.
But I recently tried Go Launcher EX again(stopped using awhile back due to random fc's , updated version seemed to fix it) and their lock screen app Go Locker, is great! They've got the ICS lock screen theme, Sense, an iPhone clone, and a cool Santa Claus themed lock screen just to name a few. It's worth a look for sure
If somebody could take this launcher, add customize-able dock bars, allow themes from Roms (like MIUI or CM) to work properly, and add more customization to the lockscreen (like change applications, torch, etc) I would pay for it in a heartbeat.
I love this launcher but it still lacks features other launchers have, like I can't leave go launcher for this one YET
HOTLANTA, even though its cold ;-)
Their is also an Asian company that produces a launcher named cclauncher. Its supposed to be a 3d type launcher.
Cclauncher ics has some really good ics animations including the app drawer ics animations, almost identical.
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New Plus owner

Just got my 7.0 Plus P-6210, rooted it, and now I'm looking for "stuff" to do. I'd like to get themes, I'd like to use the LumTec clocks so I'll need Crazy Home (having trouble finding a compatible version), and whatever else 'cool' I can do. I use this for work and pleasure so I don't want to actually launch nuclear missiles, just up the alert level from time to time. Any ideas?? (And, for you flamers, Yes, I have been looking at the forum, FAQs, etc. as well Multiple sources are always good!)
Welcome to the gt+ forum. You can start by personalizing the user interface. I find the touch wiz to be quite dull. I am using Go Launcher Ex, there are plenty of themes and personalization that you can play with.
On the developer side, not much you can do, very few devs have dedicated time to our beloved tablet. You can install cwm version from Gary, and try a couple kernel setting to both overclock and undervolted your beast!
Have fun...
P_
I'm a fairly new owner as well. So far I've played around with different interface options and so far I really like GO Launcher HD, Widget Locker for the lock screen, and minimalistic text for weather / clock / system info widgets.
There were several helpful threads in the Android Theme forum.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=761517
On the productivity side, I've found a few good ideas like:
http://m.lifehacker.com/5869452/how...n-awesome-productivity boosting-second-screen
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Thanks. I'm using ADW Launcher right now and it's 'ok' but thats all. Beautiful Widgets for time and wx. I'd like to use some of Cookie Monsters stuff but I think that's only for phones. Also Cracy House but, again, can't find one compatible with the tab. I'll keep playing with it and see if I go blind.

Chameleon Launcher

Anyone using chameleon launcher on their infinity?
Looks like another great launcher for tablets...
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/chameleon-launcher-1.0-google-play/
whats so great about it?
Tried it.
Uninstalled it.
I prefer Apex launcher. Chameleon has some nice ideas but it's still buggy and not ready for release imo. It costs $10 too which is a mistake.
Basically, the main feature is that you can set it up so that your default "home" screen automatically changes depending on where you are, what time it is, etc... But really, other than that, I'm not so sure what people (including myself - I'm a "backer") were so excited about. Besides being able to set your default home screen depending on certain conditions, it really doesn't add much to the launcher experience...
I personally can't remember why it was supposed to be so great!
I un-installed it as well, mainly because you can only use widgets provided by the app - you lose access to all standard Android widgets, which makes it unusable in my opinion.
That being said, it would be nice if Nova, Apex, etc added the ability to automatically change your home screen depending on certain conditions - I think that is a cool feature...
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I am a backer, too. I am disappointed, too.
Switching things like chameleon does is really nothing special. It is still just one screen. So, i can set my apex launcher screens to reflect what chameleon tries to do very easily. The only thing is that i have to swipe. To be honest, this is not exactly true either, cause almost everything can be done with Tasker.
So yeah. I still hope chameleon starts getting better, but it has to be real quick or all the interest is going to float away and another app will go down the drain like many others.
I backed it too... it costed 10$ . But after few days i uninstalled it. Lack of Widgets , very Slow , lack of user defined wallpapers etc .
They are still in Beta i guss and they are updating the app almost everyday . Hope they come up with more nich Widgets etc soon.
thanks all for the replies!!! was trying to see if it warranted the ten dollar price
like i use a different homescreen when im in my vehicle (media oriented),but right now i just swipe right to get to it
swipe left to go back to my regular homescreen
chameleon key feature is simply to "auto-swipe" ?
At first I was disappointed, 1.0 has changed my opinion its stable and looks amazing. I was the first to complain with the beta releases now with the widget api released things good get interesting. @Apex launcher pro on my tf700t.....too buggy
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Svashtar said:
I am a backer, too. I am disappointed, too.
Switching things like chameleon does is really nothing special. It is still just one screen. So, i can set my apex launcher screens to reflect what chameleon tries to do very easily. The only thing is that i have to swipe. To be honest, this is not exactly true either, cause almost everything can be done with Tasker.
So yeah. I still hope chameleon starts getting better, but it has to be real quick or all the interest is going to float away and another app will go down the drain like many others.
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Kickstarter backer here and I'm a little disappointed now that they have issued Ver. 1.0. There's no calendar widget, you can only place so many apps in the dock, the dock is huge and not adjustable, no pre-built Android widgets so any thing you've already paid for is wasted, and it doesn't do news feed images very well.
But the biggest disapointment is the lack of a calendar widget! That should have been a fundamental basic widget from the start. It's not so it won't be my launcher of choice untill that get's fixed.
SayWhat10 said:
thanks all for the replies!!! was trying to see if it warranted the ten dollar price
like i use a different homescreen when im in my vehicle (media oriented),but right now i just swipe right to get to it
swipe left to go back to my regular homescreen
chameleon key feature is simply to "auto-swipe" ?
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Click to collapse
That's one key feature, but I would say the bigger draw is the aesthetic polish it brings. That's one of the reasons they won't let normal android widgets be used, as it clashes with the look of Chameleon. Give it time for more widgets to get made (especially with the API now available to developers) before deciding if it's a success or failure. IMO with 3 or 4 more of the widgets I need, I would easily use it as my day to day launcher.
whoah....cant use regular widgets? only widgets you can use are chameleon widgets?
SayWhat10 said:
whoah....cant use regular widgets? only widgets you can use are chameleon widgets?
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Correct. If you care to learn html5 you can make your own Chameleon widgets, and in the future they will add the ability to use widgets other users create. Until then, you only have the official chameleon ones to choose from. No standard Android widgets are usable in Chameleon though.
I was super hyped about it so I backed it on KS. Then I tried it and uninstalled it... nuff said...
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Chameleon will definitely get better with further releases and more widgets added.
Like someone before me said, for me too, the polished and beautiful design is an added value of this launcher, nothing else (at least currently).
Calendar, Google+ and Music widgets are coming in near future. Custom widgets from users are coming, too, eventually. (i am hoping for beter gmail, email widgets etc...which can easily be done by others, not necessarily by teknision).
But, as i said before, they will have to act quickly - hype is on, but as with anything else it can get cold very quickly, too.
Svashtar said:
Chameleon will definitely get better with further releases and more widgets added.
Like someone before me said, for me too, the polished and beautiful design is an added value of this launcher, nothing else (at least currently).
Calendar, Google+ and Music widgets are coming in near future. Custom widgets from users are coming, too, eventually. (i am hoping for beter gmail, email widgets etc...which can easily be done by others, not necessarily by teknision).
But, as i said before, they will have to act quickly - hype is on, but as with anything else it can get cold very quickly, too.
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Just found this I like the look of it but does it have bookmark and email widgets?
Another kickstarter backer here. I also uninstalled it. It supports my gmail and news. I don't use Twitter or Facebook so it's fairly useless to me. Maybe widgets that appeal more to me are yet to come but not using it now.

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