[Q] Launcher that uses the wallpaper? - Vibrant Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I recall a homescreen thread some time ago (last year) that I can't find now. One of the posters presented his homescreen, which had no traditional icons of any sort. Instead, he used a wallpaper that he created and used a launcher that would make certain regions open certain apps. They were not square regions. He mapped the regions by actually drawing them. This way, he didn't need to adhere to the grid structure, and his icons were integrated in the wallpaper, creating a sort of spiral formation of items of various geometries.
Anyone know what I'm talking about? Trying to find that app.

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The technique is called "Ninja App." Here's the wallpaper you were referring to:
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
I made my own beach-themed version a while back: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12658060&postcount=63
and here's the thread about it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=987059
The wallpaper itself is actually still on a grid...you just use customize the launcher to have more icon places (such as making it 6x6 or 8x8), then placing a transparent icon where the image is on the wallpaper and link the icon to the action you want. I used ADW EX when I made mine so I could hide the status bar and dock, but any launcher that allows customizing the number of icons on the rows/columns will work.

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bnielsen40 said:
The technique is called "Ninja App." Here's the wallpaper you were referring to:
I made my own beach-themed version a while back: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=12658060&postcount=63
and here's the thread about it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=987059
The wallpaper itself is actually still on a grid...you just use customize the launcher to have more icon places (such as making it 6x6 or 8x8), then placing a transparent icon where the image is on the wallpaper and link the icon to the action you want. I used ADW EX when I made mine so I could hide the status bar and dock, but any launcher that allows customizing the number of icons on the rows/columns will work.
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Thanks a lot! I really appreciate the tidy organization of your post and comprehensiveness of your brief tutorial on how to achieve your desired effect.
I'm even more impressed that you actually found homescreen that matches my description, because I was making it up! I was on a Dell Streak forum and people were showing off their homescreens. One poster had paint blotches spattered across the screen with the title of an app littered within each blotch. I didn't think people would respond to kindly to a Dell Streak description (i.e. "You're in the wrong thread," "wrong forums," etc.), so I wrote up something reasonable and hoped someone would know what I was talking about. I am a Vibrant user, however, so it's all good!

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You are very welcome! Always happy to help a fellow vibrant user.
You're description was so on point with that wallpaper, I thought for sure that was what you'd "seen." How funny! I guess you were destined to use it with the Ninja App technique.
Let me know if you have any questions about how to do it. Like I mentioned, I used ADW Ex and made the grid larger to be able to better place the transparent icons, and ADW Notifier for the notifications.
You'll have to post a screenshot of your setup once it's done to show how it turned out!