Just Swapped GDE for Home+++

[jmccarthy14]

Before I bought my droid I did research on which home replacement to get. So as soon as I had my hands on one I immediately bought GDE. I've liked it, and as long as I kept my screen count under 4, it would run smoothly without FC, and the cube ran amazingly smooth.

But I saw someone mention that Home+++ allows for animated widgets, and since seeing demos of the HD2's weather widget, I've wanted them. So I downloaded it.

After trying it just now, I've noticed that its very, very smooth. The bookmarks drawer can be a little laggy the first time you use it, but repeated tries make it fast again. Otherwise, the desktops and drawers open quickly, and I find I can scroll through my drawer faster than with default/GDE.

But the bigger draw for me is the UI. No themes, but with the power bar on bottom (allowing calls, built in task killer, bookmark bar, etc) it has all I need. The GREAT thing about the UI is the hiding of the notification bar. If anyone uses the high-res droid wallpapers (from the thread here or googling 'droid wallpaper' and checking image results for ones with proper resolution), without the notification bar they all look FANTASTIC.

Now I miss the little text preview I used to see, but before, no matter how much I messed with the look of my phone I couldn't get it quite right, and only a few wallpapers 'worked' because of the big white bar up top. Now they all do, and it looks great. Smooth, great looks, and if someone develops an animated beautiful widgets I will Force everyone on this forum to download it. The only things I think it could use is a little optimization with the bookmarks/drawers, and possibly a widget or some minor replacement for the notification bar.

(You can make the notification bar visible temporarily when you hear the notification/see the light on droid, or make it permanently there, but tbh it looks WAY too good without it for me to try).

Any other experiences with it (with the latest versions)?

 

[Graz]

I can't find it in the market...

 

[mkreitz]

I was just searching for it. Try Home++ instead of Home+++

 

[jmccarthy14]

I was just searching for it. Try Home++ instead of Home+++

Yeah whoops....

The extra plus was for awesome.

 

[iPhoneMilk]

Home ++ is amazing... it's by far the best.. and it's free..

can't wait till it gets out of beta.

 

[jmccarthy14]

I do miss the cool factor of the cube, but yeah. The thing just looks Awesome with highres wallpaper.

 

[digdug]

Home++ is very polished. However, I must say I like the UI of dxTop far better. The 4 screen up-down-left-right is a *brilliant* idea, and the dock at the bottom iPhone style is perfect for the main apps I use. If Home++ were to adopt the dock format as an option instead of its own dock, I'd consider using it. But as it is dxTop is really, really more intuitive for me.

 

[mkreitz]

I have a quick question about using something like home++ I am obsessive compulsive when it comes to the layout of my home screens and placement of widgets and icons If I switch to home++ and do not like it is it easy to go back to original screens.

 

[GDroid]

I haven't filled up my factory 3 home screens yet. In saying that, are there any other reasons to switch to Home+++?

Also, I have absolutely no lag with my default home setup. Is Home+++ laggy when scrolling from screen to screen? Some reports say so.

 

[vincentp]

Home++ is leaps and bounds better than everything else I've tried. Customization wise, SweeterHome has a chance if they ever incorporate the ability to use third party widgets with it, but other than that, there's no comparison. It's the fastest, most stable, has a classy look, an extremely awesome taskbar, useful options, and regular updates by a great developer. Honestly, I've had updates every few days, which is great.

I've tried OpenHome, PandaHome, GDE, dxTop and SweeterHome and I will never go back to any of them. I love this freakin program.

 

[admorris]

I have tried them all (that I know of) and pandahome fits what I'm looking for perfectly. I love the side scrollers that you can pull out on each side. I have one for system apps, one for bookmarks, one for direct dialing, one for texting. Haven't figured what I need the other two yet, but I'm sure it'll come with time. You can add up to 6 homescreens I believe and 6 scrollers. It's more smooth than any other home setup I have tried to date. It's free as well.

 

[admorris]

I haven't filled up my factory 3 home screens yet. In saying that, are there any other reasons to switch to Home+++?

Also, I have absolutely no lag with my default home setup. Is Home+++ laggy when scrolling from screen to screen? Some reports say so.

If you're happy with what you have (sounds like you are) then I would not recommend switching over. Although it is free and when you change over, you do not lose your stock settings. Never know, you may find something you like even more. I know I did. And even though it feels as though your home screen may not be lagging, you may find that one of the homescreens mentioned runs even better. Once again, I found this to be true for me.

 

[HotDawg]

I tried both and ended up with the default, Better Cut (with fun icons), and a really nice photograph I took myself. Better Cut eliminated my need for more homepages - I just could not get used to the funky shortcuts and changes in Panda and Home++ (and this was my first week with Android). Default just felt comfortable. I like the notification bar and don't use too many widgets (Calendar, RTM, weather).

Glad you're thrilled with it, though.

 

[jmccarthy14]

I don't usually use more than 3 desktops anyway -- turned it back down to 3 on Home++.

As for the taskbar, I'm actually starting to like it -- it has everything you'd need to be able to quickly get to right there.

Its worth mentioning I use this combined with AppsOrganizer, so I get some of the dxTop features already.

But the real selling point to me on this one is how smooth home switching is, and how awesome/huge our screen looks when not scrunched by an ugly white bar. I think it could be replaced with a notification widget (that I may write). Or having them quickly show up at the bottom bar. Noteworthy that it doesn't remove it for other apps, so you won't not get notifications while browsing the web etc.

It just makes my screen look huge and my highres backgrounds look sexy, along with beautiful widgets. Not to mention if they ever implement an animated beautiful widgets (which home++ would support)...

 

[SirVilhelm]

If anyone uses the high-res droid wallpapers (from the thread here or googling 'droid wallpaper' and checking image results for ones with proper resolution), without the notification bar they all look FANTASTIC.

Can you link to the wallpapers?

 

[jmccarthy14]

Can you link to the wallpapers?

Heres one place:

Droid Wallpapers - Motorola Droid Gallery - Droid Wallpapers, Droid Gallery

I'll keep editing this post as I find where I got mine. Specifically grab the 960x854 wallpapers and when you set as wallpaper make sure you stretch the crop box to full size.

ADDED:

New one just found:
http://moto-droid.blogspot.com/ be sure to scroll to bottom.

A good long wallpaper thread over at howard with some slick ones:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1584894&page=19&pp=15

A link to our own thread:

http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/16302-official-droid-wallpaper-day-whats-yours-2.html

 

[admorris]

Backgrounds is a good app for wallpapers.

 

[shademar]

I just tried making a handful of high res seamless (ie infinitely scrolling) abstract wallpapers specifically to use with home++. They're posted over at

Seamless abstract wallpapers for Home++ - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

but I could upload them here as well if anyone is interested.

 

[esocid]

I dropped the stock home for home++ long ago and haven't looked back. At first I kept the notification bar, but have since hidden it, as it looks much cleaner without it. I love the flip clock and date widgets and the circular desktop. The updates have just made it better, except that one which switched the order of the buttons on the task bar. Don't know if it was intentional, but he quickly updated again. I'll be sticking with this unless something better comes along.

 

[Nidisa]

I too have tried almost all of the home apps, but I keep coming back Home

I do believe though that one of the apps I have does not play well with it, and I'm trying to narrow it down....I suspect it may be Weatherbug

But, it does appear that the developer keeps fine tuning this app, and I have no doubt that it will just keep getting better and better. LOVE how it expands the desktop property to show off the amazing screen.

 

[carnadi88]

I just tried making a handful of high res seamless (ie infinitely scrolling) abstract wallpapers specifically to use with home++. They're posted over at

Seamless abstract wallpapers for Home++ - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

but I could upload them here as well if anyone is interested.

I love Home++. Thanx for making the wallpapers. The only thing that Home++ lacks is wallpapers. I loved the ink one you created.

 

[phwaap]

Home++ is very polished. However, I must say I like the UI of dxTop far better. The 4 screen up-down-left-right is a *brilliant* idea, and the dock at the bottom iPhone style is perfect for the main apps I use. If Home++ were to adopt the dock format as an option instead of its own dock, I'd consider using it. But as it is dxTop is really, really more intuitive for me.

Pretty close to how I see it as well. I tried home++ for a while and, though nice in some ways, it simply required too many swipes. The categorized and hidden apps is just awesome as well.

 

[Redflea]

I never got comfy w/the orientation of dxTop...it didn't feel natural to go up/down/left right, so I went back to GDE and then recently to Home++, which is my preferred home screen at this point. Seems to have the best combination of stability, performance, and I "get" the UI/features, fits me for some reason.

That said, GDE just added a really cool widget (only available when on GDE) that provides a view of conversations (text/phone) that is really nice.

Sweeter Home holds a lot of promise for the future...one to watch.

But for now Home++ is my chosen one.

However, things aren't perfect...I've had some force close/wait dialogs (maybe three or so times a day) since updating to the 2.01 Droid OS release . Hoping the author will provide an update that fixes that.

EDIT: OK - I lied. Or changed my mind at least. I decided to go back to GDE for now since I posted above earlier...I tried GDE again tonight after another force close/wait message from Home++ and found GDE performance improved, and really like the new proprietary "conversation" widget that the developer has provided w/GDE. So I'm back w/GDE for now...

 

[del2484]

Just switched from GDE to Home++ as well. So far so good. Will give it a couple days. A couple things:

1) I've seen the background seams mentioned elsewhere. Is that just something that's a bug right now with Home++? I get all my backgrounds from the "Backgrounds" app and never had this issue with stock Home or GDE.

2) I can't seem to get rid of the available memory button from the power strip as there isn't an option in settings to take that off. Am I missing it somewhere?

 

[mattkranzler5]

I just tried Home++ and none of my widgets seem to be working. I tried the facebook and beyondpod widgets and neither of them will pull in any information. Any ideas?