a discussion on home screen or launcher apps

[nacho220]

I tried out a few of I guess what is known as home screen or launcher apps

Home++
Launcher+
LauncherPro

I'll be honest. I certainly see the difference. But at the same time I don't see the difference. I didn't spend too much time with them as it doesn't seem that they do anything more than what is stock on the Droid X. Now if they were able to give you more than 7 home screens or something like that I can see an advantage. I like a lot of folks different "Android desktop layouts" that I see on various forums, blogs and stuff like that (http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...7-screenshots-peoples-droid-desktops-467.html). Are these something you can only do with these different apps? Also only how you get the different icons and stuff? What comes stock on the Droid X seems to do the trick for me as far as layout and what is available to put on the home pages (I DL'd a few widgets here and there). Anyways, without rambling... Anybody willing to add some discussion here or point their finger in the right direction to make things look a little cooler or how to change things up a bit visually, I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

edit: while browsing the thread mentioned above, I found a page that I like the look of. As I mentioned, they all seem to do the "same", but maybe one of them is needed to get a design like this. http://i37.tinypic.com/2lm2w48.jpg With that being said, I guess what I am saying is I DL'd those apps mentioned above and really have no clue where to start if indeed I would need them to create such an elaborate design. Thanks again for reading and contributing to the discussion. Hopefully other folks may find it useful also.

 

[nacho220]

After some further reading I decided to DL and try out a number of home or launcher apps. I have

91PandaHome
aHome
Home++
Launcher+
LauncherPro

When I get 2.2 I want to try ADWlauncher as well. I'm using the Home Switcher app to choose between them. Any suggestions on each, thoughts, pros/cons? Thanks in advance.

 

[Crimsongost]

I like and use launcher pro for 2 reasons. 1st it seems to move smoother to me both from page to page and in the app try. 2nd I like to ability to move the "tray" at the bottom of the screen i have 3 different "trays i can cycle thru. If you are looking got a different look and different icons there is a app called better cut to help you use different icons for the app/widgets.
This may also help a little.

What do your X Screens look like? - Android Forums

 

[ffej89]

I'm currently using ADW.launcher with faded theme for my widgets. Looks awesome and ADW is smooth as silk. So far i have tried
91pandahome
launcherPro
ahome
ADW.launcher
Crazyhome
dxtop
So far for me ADW is the best

 

[WorldOfJohnboy]

I'm currently using ADW.launcher with faded theme for my widgets. Looks awesome and ADW is smooth as silk.

I have ADW.launcher on my leaked 2.2 Droid X as well and love it. (The rotating home screens are fantastic!)

Is there a way to get back to 7 home screens with ADW? The only drawback I see so far is that I am back to 5 home screens.

My theme of choice is the "KaPOW!" theme.

 

[ffej89]

I'm currently using ADW.launcher with faded theme for my widgets. Looks awesome and ADW is smooth as silk.

I have ADW.launcher on my leaked 2.2 Droid X as well and love it. (The rotating home screens are fantastic!)

Is there a way to get back to 7 home screens with ADW? The only drawback I see so far is that I am back to 5 home screens.

My theme of choice is the "KaPOW!" theme.

Hey check out Launcher Dock. It works like similar to a folder but looks much cleaner. After i found this it sealed the deal for ADW. I dont even come near to filling my 5 screens now. Then you add widget locker...i'm liking my phone

 

[WorldOfJohnboy]

Hey check out Launcher Dock. It works like similar to a folder but looks much cleaner. After i found this it sealed the deal for ADW. I dont even come near to filling my 5 screens now. Then you add widget locker...i'm liking my phone

I tried it, but to be honest, I love my widgets and only have a few shortcuts on my home screens, so it won't help me solve my space issues.

I hope the developers realize that the DX has 7 screens and come out with an update for the app. I am willing to bet other Android users would like 7 home screens as well.

 

[nelamvr6]

You can have up to 7 screens with ADW.

 

[WorldOfJohnboy]

You can have up to 7 screens with ADW.

Sorry for the lesson, but exactly how do I get 7 screens with ADW?

 

[WorldOfJohnboy]

Nevermind, I found it... From the home screen, hit the menu button, then hit "edit." Finally, hit the plus symbol to add screens. Back to 7 screens and loving the app!

 

[nacho220]

I found this thread the strays a little off topic though...talking more about icons, but it looks like something I may be looking for and maybe some others as well who come across this thread I started here. So far thanks for the replies.

How To: Custom Icons For Your Droid X - Android Forums

 

[nacho220]

First off, thanks for everyone's responses, much appreciated.

An update to add to the discussion. I have DL'd these

91PandaHome
aHome
Home++
Launcher+
LauncherPro

I so far like LauncherPro and 91PandaHome the best. There are aspects of Launcher+, Home++ and aHome I like, but very minimal pros to them compared to LauncherPro and 91PandaHome. I'm having difficulty choosing between 91PandaHome and LauncherPro at this point. I love that 91PandaHome actually has 11 screens (!!!!), and LauncherPro has only 7 at most. One of the other ones above tops out at 9, but that seemed to be the only pro for that one, I don't recall which one exactly had 9. So I guess I've pinponted those two as my favorite so far.

On a semi-related topic...I've had some crashing issues with my phone, I've addressed them in some other threads. Some people were saying LauncherPro may be causing the crashes. I mentioned that I recall this starting when I DL'd all of the different launcher apps, so maybe that might be the case. That is going to stink if that is really the case. Someone suggested booting into safe mode and if it doesn't crash (restart randomly) then it would be one of the apps I have causing the crash. So far nearly 24 hours in safe mode and as far as I can tell, no random restarts.

So, to bring it all back to topic... that would seal the deal for me if LauncherPro is causing crashes on my phone, I'd have to go with 91PandaHome. I'm still messing around with both in great detail so I still have yet to see.

With all that being said, every time I try to pull up the LauncherPro "activity" shortcut when I long press on the home screen it always comes up black screen and the "activity" section inside launcherpro crashes. The error message says something of that nature. Any ideas on why it would be doing that?

One more point for the discussion. Someone suggested getting BetterCut, I have that added to my wishlist and will try it out soon. I've been able to install different icon packs that are specifically for the different launcher apps, but I use them as simply icon packs. I've been able to select them as icons for whatever I want using Apps Organizer. So I guess this would be similar to what BetterCut would do since I would be assigning apps and/or shortcuts to a particular icon. Or is BetterCut more effective and better for this than what I am doing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[WorldOfJohnboy]

Any reason why you don't try ADW.launcher? As far as I know it works fine on 2.1.

 

[nacho220]

Any reason why you don't try ADW.launcher? As far as I know it works fine on 2.1.

I'd like to. When I visit the ADW.launcher site on Appbrain it says...

Your device has Android 2.1. However this app is for Android version 2.2 and higher

I'd like to try it out, but I guess I'll have to wait till Droid X gets 2.2. :-(
It might be a pretty tough sell though unless it has the 11 home screens 91PandaHome has. If I really am stuck on 11 home screens I should probably just go with that, but LauncherPro has better design elements, so thats why I am stuck. Is ADW.launcher comparable to either 91PandaHome and LauncherPro? The market ratings sure indicate that ;-) (4.62!)

 

[smalltowngirl13]

I use LauncherPro - the scrolling dockbar that allows 15 dockable apps, shortcuts or activities is awesome...leaves my home screens for widgets...Other features that I like of LP are hiding the notification bar, removing the wording of apps / icons on the home screen, hiding apps in the app drawer, you can customize the dockbar / icons...

I have used LP on my D1 and now my X - it has been the most stable for me of all the replacement apps that I have tried (altho, I admit I didn't have any stability issues with ADW, I just had problems configuring it like what I wanted...)

Good luck on your decision!!