Which Home Screen?

[Bswartz95]

screens? which ones look good?




and new issue.....i knew that helix wouldnt run the HTC widgets and ive heard that the beautiful widgets were kind of a replacement for them. after looking on the market i see that they cost money though :/
anyone know of a decent music, weather, clock/date, or calander widget that will run on Helix?

I'm using Calwidget. Works well and is free. I use the 4x4 size that takes up an entire screen. It's very customizable.

I think Beautiful Widgets is worth the $2. With these widgets, I don't miss Sense and liking Helix.

 

[andrizoid]

I hated Beautiful widgets but there is one called weather widget and it has a beautiful (and customizable weather/clock widget that looks identical to the HTC one only you can modify it)

can we get a link, apk, or zip file?

 

[hattrick]

screens? which ones look good?

I like Bezier and Plasma the best.

Bezier: http://www.appbrain.com/app/se.laetus.lwp.beziers
Plasma: http://www.appbrain.com/app/org.clangen.gfx.plasma

 

[andrizoid]

I like Bezier and Plasma the best.

Bezier: Bezier - Live Wallpaper for Android - Themes
Plasma: Plasma Live Wallpaper for Android - Themes

after installing one of the live wallpapers, it doesnt show up in my wallpaper list. are they for ROOT users only?



still looking for a clock/date and music widget. anyone know of any good ones?

 

[jkmailley]

Are you running 1.5?

Since everyone is talking about widgets & how pretty things look...I'll answer your question Frisco. It doesn't run on 1.5. I went to the developers site, scanned QR and it's not recognized in the Android Market.

We'll just check this out after the OTA. Do you need a refill on your tea and scone?

 

[doogald]

I'm running 1.5.

In the last few days, I have tried running normal home, Open Home, dxtop, and GDE.

I liked dxtop and may switch to it full time. In addition to being very stable for me, I like the replacement, iPhone-style lock screen - it's much more reliable that what the Eris uses. It was just a little laggy - when you hit home sometimes it seemed to take a few extra split seconds to actually get there. It has a slide-out bottom dock that covers the application slider that you see in normal home, which was useful but looks pretty blah. (In addition to the application drawer at the bottom, it adds a task drawer that shows you all active and inactive background tasks. Pretty useful.)

Rather than having extended screens that extend left and right, it has instead a diamond layout of four (optionally five) screens. You swipe down, up, left or right to go to any of the screen from any other. It's an interesting metaphor - it's nice to be able to get to any other screen at any time, but I prefer the normal way, actually.

Open Home I simply did not like.

GDE was very interesting, and I liked it a lot. It has the persistent phone icon docked, fairly attractively, plus you can configure the two controls to the left and right of the phone control. This one has a configurable number of home screens and, if you do an aggressive swipe left or right, you can flip through all of the screens at once. Plus they are circular - if you are on the right-most screen and continue to swipe left, it shows the left-most screen. It has an annoying animation when you tap an icon that I could not seem to turn off. I probably would have stayed with this until the 2.1 update, but I had a force close with it so I quickly uninstalled. I didn't find it all that laggy.

Normal home is fine, except for the three screen limitation. I'd prefer a dock of some sort so I could have my critical apps with me on any screen (phone, gmail, people and messages), but I can live with it. I think that this is the least laggy, including SenseUI.

I may try SlideScreen next. I tried it when it first came out; perhaps it is time to try it again.

 

[andrizoid]

does anyone know if there is a way to place widgets in the dock when running Helix? i wanted to put my SMS Count widget, but it only allows icons belonging to the applications themselves as far as i have been able to see.
thanks

 

[pcn2009]

No widgets in the docking bar.



Sent from my Eris using Tapatalk

 

[andrizoid]

No widgets in the docking bar.



Sent from my Eris using Tapatalk

do you know if there is an application i could place on the dock that would display my unread sms count and open up my messaging app when clicked?

this wouldnt be an issue but stupid HTC removed the numbers from the notifications on 2.1
stupid stupid stupid

 

[skeezicks]

Before settling on a launcher, you owe it to yourself to try GDE. I've been monitoring conversations on the home screen topic for the past several months, and I've always been game to try the next big thing. Over and over, though, I've wound up with GDE as my default. It's stable, fast, expandable up to 7 screens, even more expandable with an application dock widget that's thoroughly intuitive and absolutely fantastic (I've got a couple docks on each of my screens, all grouped by application type, so it's all the more useful).

As is the case with most apps, it's easiest to simply install and see for yourself. I heartily urge you to check it out. I should say, while I'm a huge fan of this app, I have no connection with the developer, etc. etc.

Cheers!

 

[andrizoid]

Before settling on a launcher, you owe it to yourself to try GDE. I've been monitoring conversations on the home screen topic for the past several months, and I've always been game to try the next big thing. Over and over, though, I've wound up with GDE as my default. It's stable, fast, expandable up to 7 screens, even more expandable with an application dock widget that's thoroughly intuitive and absolutely fantastic (I've got a couple docks on each of my screens, all grouped by application type, so it's all the more useful).

As is the case with most apps, it's easiest to simply install and see for yourself. I heartily urge you to check it out. I should say, while I'm a huge fan of this app, I have no connection with the developer, etc. etc.

Cheers!

any screens?

 

[dracozny]

do you know if there is an application i could place on the dock that would display my unread sms count and open up my messaging app when clicked?

this wouldnt be an issue but stupid HTC removed the numbers from the notifications on 2.1
stupid stupid stupid

handcent has a widget for that. and I run 2.1 and the other people panels widget still shows my numbers......

 

[andrizoid]

handcent has a widget for that. and I run 2.1 and the other people panels widget still shows my numbers......

widgets cant be placed in the dock though

 

[arock]

I have been using helix for a couple weeks now and I have to say that it is by far my favorite for pretty much all of the same reasons that everyone else has already said. Would definitely recommend to any one that is looking for a sense alternative. Plus, you can't beat free!

 

[dracozny]

widgets cant be placed in the dock though

doh! missed that part

 

[andrizoid]

doh! missed that part

ya. looks like im just gonna jave to open it up to check. its ok though, i already am loving the Helix Launcher. just set it as my default


i was wondering if using the Helix Launcher rather than the Sense actually closes Sense or not. i dont want to be running both at once, thatd be a huge battery drain i would think

 

[Saltedpeanut]

Just switched from sense to Helix + Beautiful widgets, love it so far.

Quick question. Is battery life affected by the different homes? and will sense be running in the background when using helix?

 

[dracozny]

ya. looks like im just gonna jave to open it up to check. its ok though, i already am loving the Helix Launcher. just set it as my default


i was wondering if using the Helix Launcher rather than the Sense actually closes Sense or not. i dont want to be running both at once, thatd be a huge battery drain i would think

if you use home switcher you can set helix as default and then when you reboot only helix will start.

 

[andrizoid]

Just switched from sense to Helix + Beautiful widgets, love it so far.

Quick question. Is battery life affected by the different homes? and will sense be running in the background when using helix?

beautiful widgets are overrated. especially since you gotta pay for them. i ound some amazing replacements for free

 

[John58543]

Live wallpapers are for root only it seems...sigh



Sent from my Eris using Tapatalk

 

[dracozny]

beautiful widgets are overrated. especially since you gotta pay for them. i ound some amazing replacements for free

such as?????????

 

[dracozny]

Live wallpapers are for root only it seems...sigh



Sent from my Eris using Tapatalk

live wallpapers will not work with sense. so if your using helix or something like that it should work.

 

[andrizoid]

"battery left" widget. tells the % left, and the coolest thing is it also tells you what time your phone will die. awesome little widget.
"digi clock" widget. customizable size, font color, and background color.
stock music app.
"3bananna notes"
"weather widget" by Android Apps. customizable skins available from the menu. customizable day/night icon switch times. temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius

 

[andrizoid]

live wallpapers will not work with sense. so if your using helix or something like that it should work.

im using helix and as far as i have seen LWP dont work there either

 

[andrizoid]

such as?????????