A great minimalist home replacement

[Hegemony]

I posted a while back looking for a home replacement that didn't mess with the UI and only added extra home screen panes. I didn't like the changes all the replacements seemed to make. A few people said then that they'd like the same thing. Well, this sort of app didn't seem to exist at the time (or maybe just no one could find it). Now it does.

The folks that make Home++ Beta have another app called Launcher+ Beta. It gives you the option to do up to 7 home screen panes, and even throws in the screen switcher thing they just rolled out in Home++. I'm very happy with this home replacement. If you were looking for something similar, try it. Just search for it in the market, or go here.

Edit: Since this was moved from the Droid forum, I need to point out that it is apparently for Android 2.0+ only. So just the Droid right now... which is why I posted it there. Sorry if that was not the etiquette.

 

[superdesi]

SWEET! time to uninstall dxtop and all my other home screen apps! If this works with no force closes/ crashes it would be AMAZING!

 

[Hegemony]

SWEET! time to uninstall dxtop and all my other home screen apps! If this works with no force closes/ crashes it would be AMAZING!

It's been working very well for me all day. No crashes of any sort.

 

[stanrc]

great find, i've been looking for a way to increase my homescreens without changing the rest of my desktop.

 

[superdesi]

I'm a HEAVY user of widgets and so far only had one force close (while installing pure calendar 4x4), which in my opinion is pretty top notch. I'm likin it so far, hopefully it'll stay this good until 2.1!

 

[Kick]

Have you guys not experienced any problems with your widgets not working? What am I doing wrong?

 

[superdesi]

Have you guys not experienced any problems with your widgets not working? What am I doing wrong?

you do bring up a really good point. I just checked and it seems at least 5 of my widgets are having problems either not updating or not displaying correctly. I'm just hoping these widget issues will resolve themselves...hopefully

Force closes and crashes are much worse to deal with IMO. I can wait out disobedient widgets

 

[superdesi]

Okay did some more testing....seems like pure calendar widget DOES NOT like Launcher+ and force closes when I try to play around with the pure calendar widget. It got so bad that when I clicked on a date to view my daily appointments, Launcher+ kept force closing as soon as it relaunched, so I was caught in a force close loop

But I just pressed the home button and it reloaded okay. But nonetheless, watch out for pure calendar widget.

 

[Hegemony]

Have you guys not experienced any problems with your widgets not working? What am I doing wrong?

Okay did some more testing....seems like pure calendar widget DOES NOT like Launcher+ and force closes when I try to play around with the pure calendar widget. It got so bad that when I clicked on a date to view my daily appointments, Launcher+ kept force closing as soon as it relaunched, so I was caught in a force close loop

But I just pressed the home button and it reloaded okay. But nonetheless, watch out for pure calendar widget.

I use pure calendar and it's been fine for me. I had some widget problems at first, but then I realized I was running them on the default home as well. A lot of widgets won't run on multiple homes. Removing them from default home seemed to fix it on Launcher+. Try doing that if you haven't already.

 

[alostpacket]

This was just what I was looking for.

 

[superdesi]

I use pure calendar and it's been fine for me. I had some widget problems at first, but then I realized I was running them on the default home as well. A lot of widgets won't run on multiple homes. Removing them from default home seemed to fix it on Launcher+. Try doing that if you haven't already.

Good point. I just deleted widgets off my home screen and it seems pure calendar is working much better now (no more force closing!). Also my other widgets have loaded correctly and my RSS widgets are working as normal now. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Hegemony]

Good point. I just deleted widgets off my home screen and it seems pure calendar is working much better now (no more force closing!). Also my other widgets have loaded correctly and my RSS widgets are working as normal now. Thanks for the tip!

The only other issues I had were with a few heavier apps force closing. I think it may have had something to do with having Home++ installed too. I removed that and no problems since.

To clarify, I haven't had Launcher+ itself crash at all.

 

[superdesi]

Just found a neat trick! Go to your main homescreen and when there, press and hold the menu button. You get the option of picking your homescreen via a nice Mac like Expose screen! Really cool stuff!

 

[Kick]

Thanks for putting the effort in to find the problem. I'd given up on it for a while and am about to give it another shot...

Update: Closing the widgets on the original home screen seems to have done the trick. Thanks again! I love having more screens. Having only three screens was my first (and almost only) complaint from day one of droid ownership.

 

[meekrab]

Excellent find. This is all I need in a home replacement. I haven't had a single problem with Widgets force closing. Thanks!

 

[superdesi]

I'm having force close issues again. When I get a txt message pop up and try to answer it in landscape mode, force close looping starts to occur. Also, sometimes when I wake up my droid in landscape mode it force closes. Can anyone else replicate this problem or know of any fix?

 

[superdesi]

I'm having force close issues again. When I get a txt message pop up and try to answer it in landscape mode, force close looping starts to occur. Also, sometimes when I wake up my droid in landscape mode it force closes. Can anyone else replicate this problem or know of any fix?

Ok, did some more playing around. I have apps organizer and it seems that it would leave the "folder" open when I would initiate a program. Then when I would press the home button, Launcher+ would crash. So I went into options for the app organizer and changed it to close once I launch a program. Now no more force closes, even on 7 screens or in landscape mode

 

[Kick]

Ok, did some more playing around. I have apps organizer and it seems that it would leave the "folder" open when I would initiate a program. Then when I would press the home button, Launcher+ would crash. So I went into options for the app organizer and changed it to close once I launch a program. Now no more force closes, even on 7 screens or in landscape mode

I've been experiencing the same thing and, once again, uninstalled to avoid the annoying force close issue.

Question: How would I identify which app is doing this to my Droid? I don't have app organizer, yet it appears that I'm experiencing the identical problem. Everytime I operated a program (almost any program) Launcher would crash upon returning "home". Sorry if this is a noob question. I'm not quite as savy as most on these forums...

 

[superdesi]

I've been experiencing the same thing and, once again, uninstalled to avoid the annoying force close issue.

Question: How would I identify which app is doing this to my Droid? I don't have app organizer, yet it appears that I'm experiencing the identical problem. Everytime I operated a program (almost any program) Launcher would crash upon returning "home". Sorry if this is a noob question. I'm not quite as savy as most on these forums...

no its not a noob question. to be honest, i'm going by trial and error. You should check which apps are using the most memory by going into your settings (application memory I think?)

Also, I'm getting force closes more often now. I didnt before but now when I exit out of certain programs and if I am in landscape mode 9 times out of 10 i get force closes. still its less often than the force closes I got with panda and home++ so i'll stick with it and hopefully wait for updates.

 

[superdesi]

fyi...seems like force closing when sliding up the keyboard is a very common problem, so watch out for it!

 

[Kick]

Thanks again for the effort, superdesi, but I think I'm giving up on this until they have a better version that isn't prone to this stuff. Even when my Launcher doesn't force close, I'm having some fairly severe issues with things dragging. Often when I return to the home screen it takes like 5 seconds for the regular icons to show up and even longer for the widgets. I just hate that feeling that makes it seem like everything's operating on shaky ground.

I'd love it if the developer came up with a sollution, because I really did value having the extra screens. I went completely widget crazy, which in hindsight, probably contributed to the problem(?).

Does anyone have any idea if more home screens is in the plans for future updates to Android?