I stumbled upon a very interesting new launcher that's currently in development.
https://market.android.com/details?id=net.pierrox.tiny_home
I tried it on my phone and while it definetely lacks a LOT of features that we are used to even from minimal launchers like Zeam, it's can be so incredibly fast and resource-friendly, I almost think it makes other apps run smoother.
It's a bit buggy and currently has no support for widgets at all, but it's very customizable ...and did I mention that it's fast?
I set the "All Apps" section to 3 columns and increased the top and bottom margins a bit (dimensions), set icon filtering off (miscellaneous) and reflections off (reflection). The app drawer is almost iphoney smooth now.
There is a bug that reverts the app icons on the home screen from time to time. I haven't found a way around it, nor did I find a solution other than to delete and readd the icons, but the dev is aware of the problem.
While this launcher might not be a potential daily driver in its current state, its worth checking out and following..
Looks pretty good, I'll test it out later and get some screenshots up of it!
Will give it a try to. thx
It's my daily driver now. It makes my phone so much more comfortable to use. I still fear that I'm imagining things, but I could swear that there are less app restarts and scrolling is smoother. I don't use any tuning scripts since they seemed to hurt more than they helped. The developer says that he's planning to implement some basic widget support. This can only get better, I think
looks very very good hope that the dev. work on bugs ^^
I like it, it just win7launcher
Related
Since the day the Galaxy s came I've fallen in with loved Touchwiz as matter of fact it is one of the reason i will not be trading in my Vibrant for Nexus s, well until touchwiz is ported nexus s at least.
But I've notice others with vibrant and other galaxy s phones hate Touchwiz and i want to know why? Please leave response as to why you love or hate touchwiz?
I like some things about TouchWiz...but...
its not customisable
the icons are too big and iphone-like
a lot of screen real estate is lost because everything on the homescreen is too big (should have grids of 5x5 instead of 4x4)
I like the app drawer...jumping to screens when clicking the small dots etc
and its quite fast for me
I really like touchwiz to. I tried launcher pro and adw and i really didnt like them. But i did just installed nero from tw and the gingerbread launcher is sweet.
Fear the beard...
For me it's not so much the TW Launcher as it is the widgets. I've found that I really use Feeds & Updates and Daily Briefing quite a lot, and though there are vaguely comparable ones, none of them have grabbed me.
The notification bar is also unique and extremely useful, so much so that Cyanogen largely copied it.
I think the biggest reason why people hate Touchwiz is because it has been blamed for much of the initial lagginess of the phone. Now we know this is largely not true.
It's childs play to use another launcher however, and people may prefer widgets that do not bind to TW. To each his own, which is the true beauty of Android.
What I don't like about TouchWiz:
-the page indicator on top can't be turned off or set to auto-hide
-the dockbar icon labels don't match the rest of the UI (they don't have black bubbles around the text, it looks mismatched)
-cannot change the number of rows on homescreens
-no swipe actions (ADW ruined me for swiping down anywhere on the screen to get the notification pulldown)
-no activities shortcuts (Wireless AP requires a shortcut!)
-seems to run slower/laggier than ADW or launcherpro
What I do like about TouchWiz:
-FEEDS AND UPDATES
-FEEDS AND UPDATES
-FEEDS AND UPDATES
Soooo much better than the Facebook widget...
Edit: I use ADW.Launcher myself and love it. I really miss Feeds & Updates though.
The app drawer can not scroll like a stock android launcher.
The docks can not be customizable to the level Android allows.
The icons look like an iPhone - AND I hate scrolling left to right (and I dont like the view for scrolling up/down)
I switch ROMs often, TW does not backup it's settings like LP/ADW can.
Other than those things, TW is great... I also prefer the widgets that come with LauncherPro Plus and the speed/customizations that it allows. TW COULD be able to duplicate those features..... but until it does, no thanks.
I love touchwiz. Love the left to right scrolling of the app drawer.love the look and feel. Love the icons. The dock icons are custamizable. This is one reason i dont like custom roms without touchwiz because i love it sooo much.
Things i hate. You cant hide the notification bar and it starts to Burn into your screen. Errrr
It's the iPhone clone look that turns me off. It was bad enough that the samsung made the phone look physically like an iPhone, but to skin Android to look like the iPhone's software was over the top. I don't want people to think I have an iPhone.
youre right
monstah_rain said:
It's the iPhone clone look that turns me off. It was bad enough that the samsung made the phone look physically like an iPhone, but to skin Android to look like the iPhone's software was over the top. I don't want people to think I have an iPhone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i got tired of the ipod touch i had and it resembles the ipod touch iphone too much for me. plus i dont like lines on my screen. i use adw and minimalist theme with black background, totally awesome for me. i can do with out the non sense.
"I love that Google is innovating the Smartphone technology space at an amazing rate. Android is growing fast and holds so much promise. For instance Google voice actions which I am sure you are all familiar with is such a great idea and I cant wait to use it with 2.2. The updated Gmail client and services as well, Chrome to phone are both awesome ideas but will never work on 2.1 so I am looking forward to 2.2 or higher. I own a car and well I do take calls while driving and would like to use voice search or voice dialing to be hands free. Obviously Android can do this just not with 2.1 this is a pretty cool feature also available on 2.2 or higher. What Samsung has done with Touchwiz is pretty cool too. Let's face it Google is perhaps innovating the space a bit too fast. Samsung has developed Touchwiz not only to slow that hectic innovation down. But, perhaps stall it completely on Samsungs devices that way we can enjoy 2.1 with Touchwiz just a little bit longer. It also sets the Galaxy S devices apart from all the other Android smartphones in the market running Google's latest innovations. But also because we like it and it is so good.
That new android Keyboard for Gingerbread is just what the Doctor ordered isn't it? How about the new Google personalized voice recognition for Google voice? Nice, but no thanks I like taking it slow with Touchwiz and 2.1. Who needs location services and GPS anyway right? What are your favorite 2.1 features?" - by Countbunny from the other forum.
That is how I feel about it.
Just wanted to spread the word about this new launcher.It's called Go Launcher. Has some pretty nice features. I would say it's about on the same level as LP and ADW.
http://androidspin.com/2010/12/16/go-launcher-another-home-launcher-replacement/
Thanks bud, looks promising!
Looks very good for customization and whatnot
This seems kinda interesting. I think I may give it a shot.
i am a big big fan of touchwiz. i tried the other launchers and i always went back to touchwiz.
except this time. kinda.
literally, the only thing that is keeping me from using this launcher as my main launcher is that the weather channel wide widget is not generating every time i try. i like this thing that much. it is so much snappier on obsidian 4.2 (yes i know there are other versions out there, but i feel safer using the version on their website as i figure its the finished version) than the modded tw launcher in use there. like noticably faster and more responsive. i will definitely be keeping my eye on its development.
I have tried the Go Launcher for a while. It's pretty good and it's faster than ADW.
In addition, it uses less memory than the ADW and LP. One thing I'd like to see
is the capability to hide the Dock as in ADW. And apparently, ADW has so many
themes which is really attractive.
But overall, Go launcher is a good choice.
zeam launcher
Go launcher is aight, takes up a lot of memory and causes phone to lag after a while. Honestly, try the zeam launcher. Way way better. The app drawer can hold a lot of apps. you'll love it!
domtru said:
Go launcher is aight, takes up a lot of memory and causes phone to lag after a while. Honestly, try the zeam launcher. Way way better. The app drawer can hold a lot of apps. you'll love it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree i use zeam and love it
Speaking of go, the sms app is the best I've used thus far. Maybe I'll give the launcher a try.
I'd pass on go launcher if I were you. I tried it for 2 days last week and ended up hating it.
If I spent too much time in an app or just away from the home screen, the launcher would have to reload all of the apps onto the home and app screens. Screen orientation was always buggy as well. Half the time I flipped the screen, the dock bar wouldn't turn with it. I'd have to move to another screen or flip and flip back to get the dock to move. The dock bar email/messaging unread count wouldn't clear after reading either. The app menu scrolling was very choppy, regardless of how long I let it sit to load.
It's a decent looking launcher, but has a ton of bugs still.
Sent from my <tw> powered vibrant.
Hi Community,
I found a App, called Metro UI, it haves the Windows7Mobile UI.
Here some Screens:
The Screen are saying all
Here QR-Code:
PS:Sorry for my bad English I'm a german guy.
thanks but
thanks but it didnt work for me :S
I spent an enormous amount of time modifying the ADW Launcher and creating custom icons to create a sort of WM7 emulation until I accidentally found this one on the Market. It's absolutely brilliant, very promising, even though it's only a beta.
The fact that it runs so smooth, the small size and the vertical scrolling home screen were the main selling points for me. Now I'm just waiting for the dev to update it, since there are a few problems with it. I'd recommend using it with another launcher installed if you have a rooted device and you like modding apps, because it doesn't like copying apk's to system/app, among others. I use LauncherPro when pushing apps, for example.
It doesn't affect the device's functionality apart from the modding part, so I set it up with custom icons on the tiles and I'm enjoying the hell outta it until a satisfactory version comes out, optimised, packed with more features and hopefully running at least as smooth as it does now.
sandulea said:
I spent an enormous amount of time modifying the ADW Launcher and creating custom icons to create a sort of WM7 emulation until I accidentally found this one on the Market. It's absolutely brilliant, very promising, even though it's only a beta.
The fact that it runs so smooth, the small size and the vertical scrolling home screen were the main selling points for me. Now I'm just waiting for the dev to update it, since there are a few problems with it. I'd recommend using it with another launcher installed if you have a rooted device and you like modding apps, because it doesn't like copying apk's to system/app, among others. I use LauncherPro when pushing apps, for example.
It doesn't affect the device's functionality apart from the modding part, so I set it up with custom icons on the tiles and I'm enjoying the hell outta it until a satisfactory version comes out, optimised, packed with more features and hopefully running at least as smooth as it does now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usw now launcher pro with my own Icons andere It looks better than this one.Metro UI ist eeasy but selfed created Icons are best
Sent from my GT540 using XDA App
it wont let me open the app
has any1 else got this problem?
would really like to use this app
No tiles are appearing for me on 2.3 DroidSwift.
At the moment I'm using LauncherPro, but I don't remember seeing an option for this in any other launchers.
It would be nice if we could specify different widget layouts for landscape/portrait, and if possible different grid sizes. Widgets never behave well when switching between orientations.
No idea if this is possible, but it could be handy.
That would be real nice. I have that same thing on mine when switching back and forth. I am not sure that would be possible either, but wouldn't bet against these guys here that it couldn't be. They do some really amazing stuff..
+1
I think I was able to do this with spb mobile shell on my win 6.5 Ph...
In retrospect, switching layouts is a hacky solution. None of the current phone-based launchers feel right on a tablet. VTL is decent but it still has the same core problem.
They're functional of course, and with 3.x and onwards it might be less of an issue. A completely unique launcher would probably be required to have a "desktop" that felt native to the form factor.
For the time being the best solution is probably just to lock to a single orientation. Moving away from the widget/grid system completely would be nice, but I'm not sure how much could be done within the current android framework.
Sweeter Home 2 does this. I've been using it for a while in the past for exactly this reason and just gave it another try. It's a public beta, so keep that in mind.
It lets you create your very own interface with independent layouts for portrait and landscape. It takes some time to get used to its complex edit mode but once you've figured it out, you can do some pretty neat stuff with it. Also, it syncs with an online database to automatically sort your apps in different categories
Sadly, there's no support for scrolling widgets. It's also pretty resource-heavy, so it gets killed pretty often and eats some battery. This can be improved by disabling automatic syncing, though.
Here are some screens of my setup. I can upload it as a theme if anyone wants to try it (Dunno if the theme thingy works as intended, though. Haven't tried it)
Hey looks nice. I'll be keeping an eye on that.
Arbelzapf said:
Here are some screens of my setup. I can upload it as a theme if anyone wants to try it (Dunno if the theme thingy works as intended, though. Haven't tried it)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to give it a try...
Hi,
I wanted to get a sense of what others are using for their launcher interface for their TS.
I have tried a handful but nothing really seems to fit the bill all that well.
I have tried
Google Now Launcher
Launcher 8
Smart Launcher
Various "Big" and "Senior Phone" launchers
Nova Launcher
among others....
I seem to be constantly going back to the stock launcher (not OUI 2.0 as that is just crap)
What are you guys using or recommend trying?
One thing I seem to really hate about going to alternative launchers is the loss of the "real" status bar..... I have tried Swipe Status Bar, but that just introduces issues with having to swipe down when you need to access touch points that are near the top of the screen. (Plus the last version that was released completely made icons no longer clickable)
D.
Stock launcher for me seems fine.
I switch between stock Android launcher and GEL. I never use OUI2.
"OK Google ! Find me a smart watch like the TrueSmart was promoted to be during Kickstarter..."
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
trent999 said:
I switch between stock Android launcher and GEL. I never use OUI2.
"OK Google ! Find me a smart watch like the TrueSmart was promoted to be during Kickstarter..."
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smart Launcher for me, Operative style.
I'm pretty happy with lucid launcher across all my devices.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
I have used ADW EX on my other devices for a few years, so I installed it. After tweaking the icon/text sizes and a few Gravity box tweaks, seems to work quite ok.
I think pretty much any launcher will do, as long as you can customize it around the limited screen space.
Lightening launcher with x3 UI layout.
Just tried smart launcher 2 as mentioned on here. It's really good! all the elements fit perfectly on the screen almost like it's made for the TS.
I really use the OUI... But I only tried stock and OUI, didn't try any others yet, so this might change
nova for me just with the icons set very big like my status bar to much and not a fan of the status bar app that will give you access to it never worked quite like the stock status bar should.
I've been using Mini Launcher... although only for a few days and haven't tried many other options yet, so i might change if there's anything better
+Lokifish Marz. Can you please elaborate a little on your set up.
Thanks in advance.
Right now it based on Lightning but really needs to be a standalone.
Thank You Sir?
---------- Post added at 01:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:28 PM ----------
Would love to have this for my Watch!
Personally, I really liked the WP8 launcher. Could fit lots of useful info and apps on the watch screen.
jd
I keep falling back to the stock launcher. I've tried a few (nova, apex, and similar), but the status bar is the biggest issue. I'm really fond of the bar for easy overview of new notifications, and can't really live without one. Swipestatusbar solution works ok:ish, but not having the bar there after exiting apps and having the bar interfere with touch event at the top makes it a dealbreaker.
OUI is almost there - it has widgets, app drawer and screen sorting, and the status bar. It does however lack in other ways, like missing an indicator for which screen you are on, and everything looks very blurred, together with almost no customization. Some widgets looks as if they are rendered at like 50x50 pixels and zoomed to fit the screen. Also seems unstable, it has crashed a ton of times.
If the stock launcher could just get widget support, an app drawer and preferably a way to add/remove/sort your screens, I'd be happy with it. For now it works though, and seems fast and stable with status bar working..
EDIT: After playing around a few hours with different launchers today, I finally went back to Nova. It takes some getting used to, but the status bar issue now feels like an acceptable loss compared to all the gains. It works very well, and renders on small screens better than most other launchers (some have too much paddin in the grid, some render icons very pixelated or blurry, and so on). Nova does a good job, my only peeve is that icons are aligned to the top of their grid position, and widgets are aligned to the center. This means that if you place an icon next to a widget, they will not align, and also the icons come a bit too close to the top. However, it's still better than the alternatives I've tried, so sticking with Nova for now.
When?
Lokifish Marz said:
Lightening launcher with x3 UI layout.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When will you be releasing it??? :highfive:
I am using launcher 8.
The tiles uses most of the screen at any given time, as opposed to a more regular android launcher.
Android launchers in general wastes a lot of screen real estate. This is because of the way the icons are organized, with lots of empty space between them.
The tiles you get in launcher 8 is quite tight, like in a proper windows phone.
I like this.
The tiles are also customizable in size, so stuff that is often used will have big tiles, while the lesser used programs get smaller tiles.
Launcher 8 also runs smoothly.
jdommer said:
Personally, I really liked the WP8 launcher. Could fit lots of useful info and apps on the watch screen.
jd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
am using this too
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
i use tsf shell for many years on all my phones and tablets.
now i use it on the truesmart and it really works great.
its smooth, it looks cool, you reach everything you want in short time.
shure i have to use swype status bar, but that is not really a problem.
ok it is not really cheap, but you only pay one time and can use it on all devices, so i think the price is fair if you have more devices