If you are like me you probably felt pretty disappointed with the ICS update we had been waiting so long to get. It was basically an app update and a nifty task manager after Sammy's touchwiz got a hold of it.
However, all is not lost! By updating to ICS we are now compatible with the Nova Launcher from Google Play. I've tried Go Launcher and all kinds of different themes: simply put, Nova Launcher blows them all away.
Before you dismiss Nova as just another buggy, half-assed launcher overlay, you need to realize it is so professionally done it is basically Stock ICS with a few more customization options. If you don't believe me just read the reviews and see how many Galaxy Nexus users give Nova 5 stars!
I will never go back to touchwiz. And now that I know Nova is available I won't ever regret going with the Note over the Nexus again (really stock ICS was the only advantage there).
Has anyone compared Nova with Go Launcher EX? I'm a long time Go Launcher user, and love it. But when I finally got ICS I decided to give Nova a try since it was highly recommended. I was really disappointed... felt like a huge step down from Go Launcher in terms of functionality, customization, etc. Am I missing something? Should I give Nova another chance?
I bought the Prime version for the Asus Transformer TF101 ICS. I fell in love with it and the moment ICS comes to my Rogers GNote, that's the first thing I'm putting in. Very nice and customizable.
johnb41, it's up to you. You can give it another go and see. Unfortunately, each individual is different. If you like Go Launcher better, there's nothing wrong with that. Just stick with whatever suits you better.
Just installed Nova after running Holo in Gingerbread. Loved Holo. Was smooth, and gave me some ICS features. Now that I actually have ICS, Holo was kind of laggy and somewhat buggy. Screens kept disappearing or would seemingly get stuck. After installing Nova all that has seemed to stop, plus I still have the same basic look I liked from Holo. Gonna play with it some more and get back to you guys.
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a.don.is
Samsung Galaxy Note LTE with ICS 4.0.4
"The Revolution will not be televised... unless its on Google TV..."
Here was what I wrote about Nova and Apex today:
Installed Nova and Apex on my Note and then added Facebook widget. The stock launcher displays the widget with space for a row of icons on the side. Neither Apex or Nova did so out of the box. I did not take the time to explore if I could fix this. I am going on the assumption that the stock ICS Touchwiz launcher is better optimized for this very high density screen. You could resize the widget but that isn't the same thing as displaying things optimized for the native screen resolution. Interesting that the Note is the same resolution as the Galaxy Nexus 7 but obviously at a much higher density. A higher density in fact than the iPad "3".
Here was what I wrote about Nova and Apex today:
Installed Nova and Apex on my Note and then added Facebook widget. The stock launcher displays the widget with space for a row of icons on the side. Neither Apex or Nova did so out of the box. I did not take the time to explore if I could fix this. I am going on the assumption that the stock ICS Touchwiz launcher is better optimized for this very high density screen. You could resize the widget but that isn't the same thing as displaying things optimized for the native screen resolution. Interesting that the Note is the same resolution as the Galaxy Nexus 7 but obviously at a much higher density. A higher density in fact than the iPad "3".
I am in fact using a Galaxy Note, I noticed that a few widgets cause Apex to claim that the screen has no further room when in fact the screen is blank. That confuses the heck out of me.
I am in fact using a Galaxy Note, I noticed that a few widgets cause Apex to claim that the screen has no further room when in fact the screen is blank. That confuses the heck out of me.
You will get this error when adding Touchwiz widgets on a non TW launcher.
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I watched a few videos of Nova on YT, seems to me that Apex is a bit better in features and design. If you haven't checked it out, do so, it might be better. I'm not willing to throw down another few bucks for a launcher this month to do a head to head but if anyone is willing I'd like to hear an opinion. I'll tell ya this much, I still a nowhere near ready to scrap the TWLauncher, it's still darned good.
You can have more than 7 widgets on the dock via scrolling if I remember correctly. It's in the settings somewhere. I'm still tinkering and haven't had a chance to fully restore my device yet. Just making sure everything is okay before I start putting my data back into it.
That's the lite version though isn't it? The prime version is $4. Since I have the paid version of Apex it'd be an unfair comparison to try the lite version of Nova against it.
Yes, you can force landscape for home screen. Folders are arranged by dragging apps together to form a circular folder object with apps in it. Is that ICS? This is my first time playing with it and don't really know what the vanilla ICS is like.
Dock can display 7 icons (max) on the bottom, but is scrollable to 5 pages (max). So one can assign max of 35 icons on the bottom dock. Though not sure who would want that.
Wow, the more you guys talk the more this thing just sounds exactly like Apex, I mean down to the most minute details. I'm beginning to wonder if the company that makes one makes the other and they just renamed it somewhere along the line.
There was a thread in xda about it. Some did say they are very similar to each other. That there was no real difference between them. It just boils down to personal preference. Although there was a user who mentioned Nova was more heavier on the resources.
I got the Apex Launcher to make it more like ICS and liking it so far
Um, did you not know ICS was out for the AT&T Note? You can make it exactly like ICS now. But Apex gives you some stuff ICS doesn't which I really like. The ability to have more stuff on the screen, resizing any widget, stuff like that. So even with ICS, I like Apex.
Um, did you not know ICS was out for the AT&T Note? You can make it exactly like ICS now. But Apex gives you some stuff ICS doesn't which I really like. The ability to have more stuff on the screen, resizing any widget, stuff like that. So even with ICS, I like Apex.
Yeah I got it after getting ICS was a little disappointed how it looked pretty much the same so decided to change it and glad I did
Yeah, I wasn't overly impressed with ICS either, I don't see what the big fuss was about to be honest. Well, at least you can run ICS only apps and such with it, which I guess is the big plus.
I DLd the free version of NOVA, so, for those that are using NOVA PRIME what are the differences between the free NOVA and the PRIME version,
Thx, Jake
I DLd the free version of NOVA, so, for those that are using NOVA PRIME what are the differences between the free NOVA and the PRIME version,
Thx, Jake
It tells you right on the market page...
Nova Launcher Prime unlocks the following features in Nova Launcher:
Drawer Groups:
Folders in App Drawer
Unlimited custom tabs
Organize apps into tabs and folders in the app drawer
Gestures
Quickly start Nova Actions or Apps from gestures on the desktop, such as pinching, swiping or two-finger swiping.
Hide Apps
Keep a clutter free drawer by hidding never used apps.
Dock Swipes
Get more use out of your dock apps by setting swipe-actions
Unread Counts
Never miss an email. Unread count badges for SMS, Missed calls and Gmail. Counts show in the dock, desktop, drawer and folders.
More Scroll Effects
does either apex or nova give you a 3D-scrolling app drawer?
Apex does, nova only offer card stack.
My conculsion and $0.02
Ok after playing with both Nova and Apex I have found that everything you can do with Nova you can do with Apex BUT there are things you can do with Apex that you CANNOT do with Nova. Apex has more options, more transition options, more theme options (Nova does not allow themes from what I can tell). Plus you can backup Apex settings and desktop setup but does not force you to do a single backup for both, Nova only offers a complete backup for everything.
So comes down to:
They are both great, and side by side out of the box they are basically the same. But when you get into the settings and options, Apex gives you more things to change like other custom launchers do; whereas Nova is more ICS AOSP pure, Apex can be but does not need to.
Apex wins
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Nova has no theme option? Aw, that's a deal breaker right there, I love the Chrome theme for Apex, might like some others but gotta wait until I get paid again next month to spend money on toys. But Apex with the Chrome theme is sweet.
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Started working on my setup with Nova last night. I like it. Went ahead and uninstalled ADW Launcher EX and am sticking with this for a bit. It does the ICS folders much better than ADW for sure. Also I really enjoy the scrolling dock that I used to use a lot on Launcher Pro+.
I've been following this thread for a few days, since I just got Nova myself, along with Folder Organizer and Swipepad. This is my first 3rd party launcher, and this really blows me away! After numerous hours of configuring everything thing, I've gotten to the point that most of my activity is done with Swipepad, and I eliminated all but one home page!! It may even go further than this! The combination of these three apps are amazing! I do everything so damn fast now! Am I the only one that has eliminated homepages? Swipepad is a must-have app!
Seriously... Am I the only one that is nearly "homeless" and loving it?
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I just upgraded to ICS yesterday and installed Nova and Apex. Prior to that I was using Go Launcher on GB.
Apex and Nova are both good. Although I like the themes (was using themes with Go Launcher and can use the same Go Launcher themes with Apex), Nova supports a few more gestures than does Apex. I like being able to access features, apps, etc. with gestures rather than icons so for now Nova is my choice. It's tough to argue that you need as many gestures as are supported by Nova but it's still nice to have that functionality.
I will definitely be playing around with both launchers much more, though.
I've been following this thread for a few days, since I just got Nova myself, along with Folder Organizer and Swipepad. This is my first 3rd party launcher, and this really blows me away! After numerous hours of configuring everything thing, I've gotten to the point that most of my activity is done with Swipepad, and I eliminated all but one home page!! It may even go further than this! The combination of these three apps are amazing! I do everything so damn fast now! Am I the only one that has eliminated homepages? Swipepad is a must-have app!
Seriously... Am I the only one that is nearly "homeless" and loving it?
Never heard of swipepad, can you give me a brief overview of what it does?
Never heard of swipepad, can you give me a brief overview of what it does?
Oh man it's awesome! Any app or place you are at, you can touch the edge of the screen at certain points you designate and it makes your screen a selection of apps you can go to by sliding to the spot and letting go. You can have 24, 48, 72 or more options of buttons. It's a little tricky. Check it out... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfejZTbXht0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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Just my $.02. I love the customization of Nova Launcher - so much so that I spent the 4 bucks for pro. However, lately I've been experiencing a lot of redraw. I'd say roughly 75% of the times I hit HOME, the screens redraw. I think I might test Apex out to see if I experience the same problems.
Just my $.02. I love the customization of Nova Launcher - so much so that I spent the 4 bucks for pro. However, lately I've been experiencing a lot of redraw. I'd say roughly 75% of the times I hit HOME, the screens redraw. I think I might test Apex out to see if I experience the same problems.
What is redraw? And what kind of phone do you have?
I have a Samsung galaxy note. Redraw, as I understand it, is the launcher having to essentially reload your home screen and everything on it when you press home. So I will hit home after finishing this post, and I will see a blank background and slowly my widgets and apps will appear.
Apex has the same redraw issue, it's just the phone, the processor isn't quite fast enough to load all that stuff up quickly. It's got more to do with what and how many widgets you're putting on the home screen than it does with the launcher I think, though it may have some part in it.
@g nexta: Redraw means that it has to refresh all the widgets on the screen every time you hit the home button, it's a little slow, kind of annoying but not really a major big deal for me, I can live with it. I figure it's the price you pay for having cool widgets and animated backgrounds and such.
This is the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy Note. The only difference between the AT&T Galaxy Note and the international version is a different processors.
The AT&T version uses a dual-core Snapdragon for better 4G LTE capabilities... Read More
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Nova Launcher
