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N1+LauncherPro=Pure happiness

Mostly Harmless

Android Expert
Apr 15, 2010
1,523
264
New York
I haven't really downloaded that many launchers, but recently I decided to give LauncherPro Beta from the app market and it really blew my mind. It isn't very invasive but what it does change makes the experience with my N1 much better.

I have always noticed a bit of lag when either going to the apps menu or when I switch between home pages, nothing major but noticeable. With launcherPro the lag is gone. I was completely surprised about how fast the phone moves now, like giggling fast. Scrolling through the screens is smooth and responsive. Bringing up the app menu is also blistering fast. You can also set it up so that you get 7 home screens.

LauncherPro also replaces the app menu short cut with a phone, contacts, app menu, messages and web short cuts. The icons for the short cuts are pretty tame compare to what I have seen out there and it's just what I wanted. This also allows me to get rid of the corresponding icons since I have quick access to them.

Also now when you hit the Home hard button it brings up all 7 screens at once for quicker viewing.

I have been using LauncherPro for only a day or so, but I do spend a lot of time on my phone. As I said before it really enhanced the N1 experience. So far I am giving it 5 stars in the market.

Screenshots:

LauncherBeta1.png
LauncherBeta2.png


As you can see I am still setting up my pages right now so it's pretty empty.
 
HL2 doesn't lag or FC (much) if you install it as a system app.

Gave this one a try, and it's very nice, but I still prefer ADWLauncher for more functionality (one extra dock, hide notification bar). Going to wait and see how Pro develops.

What do you mean system app grainy? Do you mean as the default launcher?
 
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om nom nom my words they are delicious.

I stand completely corrected. I actually really quite like how it works now. Who'da thunk it?


It took me a bit to get use to but I actually find it very useful, specially if you are using all 7 home screens. One of my pet peeves with the iPhone was the fact that you had to scroll through a lot of pages to get to some of the apps. Android solved that with having the app menu (which is much faster then scrolling through tons of windows) and now with this option I find it even easier (I usually like to have my app short cuts on my home pages, definitely a habit left over from the iPhone days).

One other tip I would like to mention is that if you switch over to LauncherPro before you start setting up your home screens, enable all 7 screens (or 5, whatever you want) and make the 4th (3rd) page your "main" screen. I left it as is when I first started (main screen is 2nd page) and now I have only 1 screen to the left and 5 to the right, maybe it's my OCD kicking in but I will be arranging things differently today.

Also, thanks to the guys in the Motorola Droid Forum, if you pinch one of the home screens it will also bring up all 3,5,7 screens (whatever you have it set too). Nice feature but makes the home button redundant.
 
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That'd be good. I like to have Gmail and Nav always there.

I know, I was peeve when I saw that the bottom shortcut bar has both the contacts and calls. I felt they are the same thing (on different sides of the coin). Don't know if you have heard of this, but there's an app call 'bar control' great app...if you have an app that you use constantly, you can have it on the notification bars, makes it even quicker to access it now :) This way, you don't need to 'exit' an app or press 'home' to be able to access that app ;) If you have a lot on your notification bar, it clutters it a bit, but until the dev updates the bottom shortcut bar, this is something that is useful!

Well this launcher seems to have a lot of potential and it looks like the dev listens to the users :) 2nd day of the beta launch and he/she has already made 2 updates!

The dev's blog if you want to follow LauncherPro's news/updates: LauncherPro
 
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I know, I was peeve when I saw that the bottom shortcut bar has both the contacts and calls. I felt they are the same thing (on different sides of the coin). Don't know if you have heard of this, but there's an app call 'bar control' great app...if you have an app that you use constantly, you can have it on the notification bars, makes it even quicker to access it now :) This way, you don't need to 'exit' an app or press 'home' to be able to access that app ;) If you have a lot on your notification bar, it clutters it a bit, but until the dev updates the bottom shortcut bar, this is something that is useful!

Well this launcher seems to have a lot of potential and it looks like the dev listens to the users :) 2nd day of the beta launch and he/she has already made 2 updates!

The dev's blog if you want to follow LauncherPro's news/updates: LauncherPro


Definitely agree that calls and contacts are the same and it will be nice when we can choose what we want on the task bar (I think I would keep everything except eliminate contacts and add an email shortcut). I wasn't expecting much out this launcher since it was called beta, but as long as the snappiness and simplicity of it stays the same, I am up for any updates.

Missed the blog at the bottom, thanks Roze.
 
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Looks, good, but I might just hold out for a day and see how Froyo runs. I uninstalled Helix Launcher 2 because of the amount of FC's. I was also noticing that occasionally when I selected an app, something below it was being selected. Like the screen calibration was off. Unfortunately that is still happening and likely was not from Helix Launcher 2.
 
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I am loving this launcher - thanks for writing about it. One question I have - though not directly related to LauncherPro - is there any way to force all text messages sent to go through google voice? Driving me crazy that my sms messages go through whatever client is open.

Thanks...


No problem Schwin, I only wish I understood Google Voice better, I only use it for voicemail right now, but I am sure someone here will be able to answer your question.
 
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