Showing posts with label Home Launcher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Launcher. Show all posts

AAQR: Espier Launcher (home replacement)

Espier Launcher is a DIRECT clone of the iOS Launcher / home (I think it's iOS 5, as it's identical to the one on my friend's 3GS updated to iOS5). I imagine they are looking at a lawsuit from Apple any day now.

EVERY feature is cloned down to the pixel. If you scroll left until the end you'll get a "search pane", just like iOS launcher. They even copied the Safari browser icon for the browser.

If you insist on making your Android phone an iOS look-alike, or you want to play a trick on your friends and claim this is really an iPhone, sure. Try it. As for me, it crashes like crazy on my OG Droid, just quits with no explanation.

Worth a look at, but probably not to keep.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/espier-launcher/mobi.espier.launcher

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Samsung Pure Breeze Launcher (free, $1.99)

I can't get this launcher to run on my OG Droid. The previous version 1.00.37 worked, but the latest 1.00.40 did not. It just crashes.

Here's a review from Gizmodo, and they seem to like the idea, even though it's a bit unusual.

http://gizmodo.com/5837042/samsungs-pure-breeze-launcher-for-android-is-really-weird?tag=androidapps

Download it from Appbrain:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/pure-breeze-launcher-lite/com.samsung.smcl.spblauncherlite
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AAQR: Nemus Launcher (home launcher)

Nemus Launcher, from the folks who brought you the VERY eye-candy-ish Regina 3D launcher, is sort of the opposite of Regina. It's light weight (just over 1 MB), yet quite nicely featured. However, its various limitations makes this a very niche choice.

Nemus Launcher gave a very good impression: it feels quite snappy with very smooth scrolling. It has a good looking "dock", which can be configured by simple drag and drop. Just drop an icon onto the dock and voila, that's it. The icons are also full sized, not shrunken version like in other launchers.

It also let you know the app drawer is getting refreshed with a the spinning circle behind it. The app drawer is also improved: it can be used to manage running apps and a shortcut to "Manage Apps" choice under settings / applications. The app drawer can be shown in two styles, the normal vertical list and the Samsung style horizontal "paged" style.

The "screens" (panels) on the desktop can number from 3 to 9. There's an edit screen that lets you easily adjust the order, add more panels, remove panels, and so on.

Its folder support is impressive... Basically stealing the iOS style folder management. Just drag one shortcut onto another to make a folder. It doesn't have sorting or "starred / favorite" tagging.

However, there's a few problems. First of all, this app is portrait layout ONLY. It will NOT go into landscape mode EVER. It does NOT react to orientation sensor. Second, it is somewhat crash happy, at least on my OG Droid. I've seen it FC numerous times, even as I go into and out of settings. Third, it is virtually undocumented. There is no mention of the app on the NemusTech home page (in fact the whole page is in Korean).

All in all, Nemus Launcher is a smooth launcher that is pretty good if you stay in portrait mode most of the time. It makes folders extremely easy. Indicator on the app drawer to let you know it's refreshing is also very neat. On the other hand, no landscape and occasional FC makes this launcher a bit niche for me.

7 out of 10


http://www.appbrain.com/app/nemus-launcher/com.nemustech.launcher
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AAQR: QQ Desktop Pro (Home Launcher)

QQ Desktop Pro (actually the app's in Chinese) is a decent if not spectacular launcher. At 1760KB in size, it's not exactly lightweight, but its performance is quite respectable.

BEWARE: The app is in Chinese, so it's not for everybody.

Once nice thing it does is it will look for backup files left by other desktops and import them to restore your desktop layout. I have Launcher Pro installed and it was able to restore my desktop config.

The dock's background can't be changed, but it does have 4 static shortcuts. Just drag and drop another icon to the spot and voila, it's configured.

It comes with a few built-in widgets such as memory / purge widget and a "toggle" widget similar to "Power Control". However, it used a 'blue on white' theme instead. In fact, the entire app uses a white theme.

You can choose different transitions, import config from other launchers, and choose two styles of app drawer (Samsung style, or Windows Phone 7 style) . It also has a few links directly to QQ's download app store, and other things.

Worth trying for sure.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/qq%E6%A1%8C%E9%9D%A2pro/com.tencent.qqlauncher
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AAQR: Honeycomb Launcher

Android 3.0/3.1 Honeycomb launcher tries to do away with physical buttons by adding virtual buttons in the "command bar", and Honeycomb launcher tries to bring the look and feel of that Launcher to pre-Honeycomb Android.

Thus far, it has succeeded, for the most part, and the most you use it, the more you realize WHY did Google gave Honeycomb to tablets first: the interface is indeed optimized for tablets, with no icon labels, higher density grid in both desktop and app drawer, and a few other interesting tweaks.

The launcher is a pretty faithful representation of the buttons and such. It only LOOKS like Honeycomb, of course, but you can probably fake out some friends with it.

Rating: Worth a try, esp. since it's free

http://www.appbrain.com/app/honeycomb-launcher/mobi.ISAdevelopers.HoneycombLauncher.beta
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AAQR: Gravity Home (home launcher / live wallpaper)

Gravity Home is a weird hybrid of home launcher a live wallpaper.

Having a live wallpaper launch apps is not new. There have been several attempts before, but none quite like this one.

Basically, the icons of apps you choose become bouncing objects on the desktop, as they rotate and react to the screen orientation, and bounce off each other. Lean the phone over and they gather in the lower corner. And os on.

And if you manage to click on one of the apps icons, you'll launch that app.

Fun to play a trick on a friend... Make an empty screen with no icons, then load this live wallpaper, and drive your friend crazy.

Try it!

http://www.appbrain.com/app/gravity-home/physlaunch.kiio.es
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AAQR: ToonyHome (home launcher replacement, free)

ToonyHome, screenshot
from Appbrain.com
ToonyHome is a launcher that supposedly have some cute icons, but feels like just a normal launcher. In fact, it's classified by Appbrain as a spam app.

You shouldn't bother downloading this one. I tried it and it doesn't feel any different than existing launchers.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/toony-home/com.sone.android.toony.launcher
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