Anyone know of any other-shaped launcher besides grid-based ones? I know there are a few rotary "launchers" listed on the market, but they are actually widgets for launching, not a full blown launcher.
I'm just kinda sick of rectangular positioning everywhere I look.
I was looking through this the other day to see what my options were. Maybe you'll find what you want here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1482929
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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.
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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.
So, I've seen that there are a few nice widgets that allow you some control over the design of the widgets. BITS is very very customizable, Zoom looks amazing, so does Widgetsoid, and Beautiful Widgets are indeed beautiful.
I'm looking for one that allows a specific thing, though, and I'd rather not go through what I did with Beautiful Widgets (installing it, being very disappointed, uninstalling, finding I'm just a few minutes beyond the refund time period, emailing the very-helpful developer and asking for a refund anyway, and they're very nice people by the way).
Also, please be understanding; I've had a migraine coming and going for a week and a half, and I'm trying my best to distract myself from it. So this info is probably available but I just can't *find* it. I can't manage to brain properly, I just can't. Please excuse the rambling...
So. I like the size and look of the HTC Sense clock on my Sensation--the one that takes up half the screen but is very large and has nice contrast--and also the location/temperature/high-low predictions on it. I *love* the BITS ability to stick anything anywhere in the widget, and to have an app or shortcut launch from the anything.
Is there a design-your-own-widget that is as pretty as the Sense clock, with the same location/weather info, but will let me stick battery indicator and shortcuts all over it? And make, say, the location launch Maps, and the date launch my calendar, and so on? It doesn't look like I can manage that with Widgetsoid or BITS, Beautiful Widgets won't let me show all the info I want to show at the same time, and Zoom is just plain intimidating. I'm sure there are more make-your-own-widgets but these are the ones I've found so far.
Is this out there? Can it be done?
Thank you!
elfchick said:
So, I've seen that there are a few nice widgets that allow you some control over the design of the widgets. BITS is very very customizable, Zoom looks amazing, so does Widgetsoid, and Beautiful Widgets are indeed beautiful.
I'm looking for one that allows a specific thing, though, and I'd rather not go through what I did with Beautiful Widgets (installing it, being very disappointed, uninstalling, finding I'm just a few minutes beyond the refund time period, emailing the very-helpful developer and asking for a refund anyway, and they're very nice people by the way).
Also, please be understanding; I've had a migraine coming and going for a week and a half, and I'm trying my best to distract myself from it. So this info is probably available but I just can't *find* it. I can't manage to brain properly, I just can't. Please excuse the rambling...
So. I like the size and look of the HTC Sense clock on my Sensation--the one that takes up half the screen but is very large and has nice contrast--and also the location/temperature/high-low predictions on it. I *love* the BITS ability to stick anything anywhere in the widget, and to have an app or shortcut launch from the anything.
Is there a design-your-own-widget that is as pretty as the Sense clock, with the same location/weather info, but will let me stick battery indicator and shortcuts all over it? And make, say, the location launch Maps, and the date launch my calendar, and so on? It doesn't look like I can manage that with Widgetsoid or BITS, Beautiful Widgets won't let me show all the info I want to show at the same time, and Zoom is just plain intimidating. I'm sure there are more make-your-own-widgets but these are the ones I've found so far.
Is this out there? Can it be done?
Thank you!
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Click to collapse
I would recommend Minimalistic Text. I'm not sure it will do *exactly* what you're asking it terms of design (but the possibilities are truly endless). There's a slight learning curve if you've never used anything like it, but once you get it figured out... you're likely to never look back.
Also, it's been a while since I've used it, but have you tried Fancy Widget? Back in the day it was a mirror image of the Sense flip clock, but it's come a long way... it was pretty customizable last I checked. Both apps have a free and paid version in the Market. Good luck.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
Well, hey, I didn't know that was what Fancy Widgets was That looks like it *almost* can manage everything I want. So very close, terrific! It only has fixed info it can display, but it can start any application I want from the info it does have.
I've edited one of the backgrounds to stick icons next to the places where I've selected them to start, and that'll do for now. Thank you so much!
Minimalistic text definitely didn't agree with the on-again-off-again migraine, though Maybe I'll futz with it again some other time. I'd really like a pretty 4x2 clock that also has actual shortcuts with relevant icons embedded in it.
I wish the battery indicator on Fancy Widgets stood out a little more, even were just a different color of text. I wonder if that's possible.
so i got my kindle rooted, but those icons in that wheel are huge! any way to get them to be smaller?
Dont think there is. There are many threads about on how to install alternative launchers but so far none on modding the existing launcher
Not a big fan of the carousel either, alternative launcher is what i will try.
I recently came across the Listener Launcher which takes a different approach to launchers and I love it because I'm absolutely tired of the default jellybean/ics launcher and lock screen. But of course, if I change those, I can't stand the status bar and notification drawer being the same/stock/looking alike the other parts of the ROM/OS.
So my question is, does anyone know of any good apps or even ROMs that I could use on my Galaxy S2 Skyrocket that fundamentally changes the look and feel of my Android phone? I don't really like mixing tons of random apps together because it looks terrible and I can't stand it. Yeah, I know, you can say I'm OCD about it. Just looking for a good ROM/Launcher/Suite that changes up Android.
I know about GO Launcher and those apps, I haven't tried them, but I've seen them and they're not really what I'm after. They just re-style/theme the basic launcher lol.
Thanks for reading and or helping, if you do.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
Is there any possibility out there to make a custom Shelf page for, say Nova Launcher? Like put widgets in a vertical-scrolling page, making a custom Shelf/GoogleNow alike thing? Maybe a "scrollable widget-container" to put widgets in? If not, maybe I might just given you a million dollar idea (patented dont even try lol).
Anyone?
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