Hey, where is the Home++ thread in the application forum? i couldn't find it. thanks.
really liked gde but it fc a lot and the application menu scroll was smoother than native but still choppy. Been using dxTop and have really been liking it. Just got updated a minute ago and i see that the dock icons are much bigger, which is very nice.
Try the application curtain and scroll the icons you almost feel like you are scroillng icons on an iphone, extremely smooth.
It has 2 curtains an all apps and a most recently accessed app queue, you can slide those curtains away and there is a permaenet dock where you can place youf 5 most used apps like phone, mail, contacts, GV etc. Nice to have phone button on every screen. Youdont need to slide the curtains back because they can be popped up by holding back arrow or menu. So far no lagginess or FCloses after 3 days of heavy use.
Ive used both, I like pandahome better because it provides the most additional features.
GDE give you the dock at the bottom with a 2 customizable buttons, which are nice, but not a lot of benefit.
Pandahome gives you the configurable side docks that can hold multple icons each, and the ability to show apps in alphabetical groupings both of which are very useful!
However I will concede that GDE is definitely more smooth running. Pandahome needs some work to run a little smoother. I did notice that if you turn off the automatic orientation it runs a little better, but it will still hang-up/lag at times. if they can get these issues under control it will be A++.
Just bought dxTop to give it a try and it gets HUGE kudos for one thing - it brought in the desktop icons from the stock Droid home page.
That's a great feature...you can always change things, but being able to start w/my preferred setup in a new home screen (including shortcuts that are tedious to recreate) is excellent. Gold star to the developers...all home screen developers should have a "do you want us to import home screen icons/widgets/shortcuts from any existing home screen?" option.
What I don't like so much about dxTop is tha it seems easier to get "lost" in terms of what screen you're on, even w/the dots. LIkely just the change in design adding the new vertical geometry, but it will take a little getting used to. Srolling in the app list is good, but not completely smooth/amazing. home screen scrolling is good...just slight unevenness to it.
I don't like that it turned off my pattern lock setting...that's a big no-no. Don't mess w/my security settings!
Pandahome holds promise, but performance just hasn't been great for me.
Haven't tried openhome in a while, I'll have to take another look at that one.
I'm starting to feel like I need a 12 Step program for home replacement apps...
i don't get my dxTop took away the middle homescreen. 5 screens with the diamond configuration (one in the middle, then one to the top, bottom, left, and right) would have been much better imo (I am currently using 5 screens and if I find a contacts/bookmarks widget I'll need at least 1 or 2 more).
dxtop is a little confusing at first but I think the idea was you could get to any desktop with 1 swipe. It added a lock screen which is nice but since it doesnt have music control I just unchecked it to use the droid lockscreen and pattern. App curtain scrolling is certainly the best of all the current droid home replacements about as good as the Sense on Eris or Hero (which is actually sad to say that the droid should strive to perform as good as sense, no kudos agin to Moto/google
I know, it makes me sad that 1/2 the time I feel my girlfriend's less powerful hero is much smoother than my droid. apps load faster, yes, but still...i don't understand why hers scrolls so much smoother than mine
I know makes me sad too! Perhaps its HTC's sense UI at work and not the stock android 2.0 UI?I know, it makes me sad that 1/2 the time I feel my girlfriend's less powerful hero is much smoother than my droid. apps load faster, yes, but still...i don't understand why hers scrolls so much smoother than mine
I'm sure that's what it is. The thing is, Sense UI is just a skin for android (kind of). I don't really know if getting the same smoothness will require one to root the phone or what. I guess we'll have to wait and see (so impatient though!)
Actually sense is MUCH more than just a skin. It has apps and core functionalites that far surpass android 2.0 + apps. The only thing I can really tell that is any different is Google Nav and market app.
BTW does anyone's phone fail to launch the droid's market app. Often after several reboots it still wont launch and it sort of locks up the phone causing apps and widgets not to launch or work then if reboot, disable wifi and go data only it will launch. I think there is something screwed up with droids wifi. I noticed this on both droid i have had. I originally thought locale was causing the problems but noe that i am not using locale i am thinking locale turning on and off a buggy wifi was causing the probs....
Actually sense is MUCH more than just a skin. It has apps and core functionalites that far surpass android 2.0 + apps. The only thing I can really tell that is any different is Google Nav and market app.
Thank you sir. Stability has been the #1 issue on every home replacement I've tried (openhome, dxTop, and Pandahome). I, along with others I'm sure, would really appreciate it if more people chimed in on stability. Of the home replacements I've tried, Pandahome is easily the most stable on my droid.
I don't care how fast it goes or how many screens I can add or how fancy the dudads are if it crashes . I'm currently using the stock home for this reason.
Boring!
C'mon, join us in the deep end. Worst case you get a force close or two per hour, and in the meantime you can be a part of creating the cutting edge!
Sorry getting confused which theme had 4 screens? Home ++ or GDE? Can someone be kind to post screenshots?
This is the first home screen replacement that I have tried. So far, no FCs. The only things that I've noticed are:give home++ a try. it's a beta and already looks great, so i've got high hopes for when it goes official.
OT, but I've never had the market app not launch.
I'm going to have to go with none of them... nothing quite "perfect" for me.
dxTop
Likes: sweet double menu bar with "recent" items
neutral: 4-screen diamond concept is designed to make it easy to single swipe to any screen.
dislikes: diamond patter is confusing to me. limited to 4 screens. nothing "more" to the program.
GDE:
likes: permanent phone button and customizable button. multiple transition effects (face, cube, drag) that all work well, AND allow scrolling from one side of the screen to the other. Menu system is intuitive and allows for a little customization by setting up folders. LOVE the application dock widget for the home screen.
dislikes: application dock widget on the home screen does not allow customized user organization, Icons are placed in a completely illogical order - This REALLY bothers me! Dock application menus could use a tad more work. Not very many themes available, many of the ones there are poor quality.
pandahome:
likes: LOVE LOVE LOVE the two trays on the side of the screen for putting shortcuts.
dislikes: I like that you can have up to ELEVEN home screens, and the helpful dots will show you exactly what screen you are on. Apps menu can be sorted to show ONLY a certain letter range, which usually eliminates scrolling to find what you're looking for.
dislikes: No easy way to navigate through the home screens quickly. If you have eleven home screens... well just hope the hell you don't need to get to the other side very quickly!!! No further menu customization beyond the two side trays. Need a little something "more" for the apps menu.
Perfect combination?
dual menus, mapped to long press keys (from dxTop)
home screen transitions and options (from GDE)
FIXED application dock widget (from GDE)
permanent button for phone and something customizable (from GDE)
application sidebars (from pandahome)
"you are here" lights that show what home screen you are on (from pandahome)
sort main applications menu to only display a certain letter (from pandahome)
Decided to try Home++ and that right there is actually annoying to me along with the notification pulldown showing the background where the notification bar used to be (if it's hidden). The wallpaper thing may be no fault of the dev though and if it can't be remedied then I would rather it not wrap (or at least give me an option). I haven't used any wrapping home themes before so I don't know how that compares....
2. I was initially confused when swiping from screen to screen, thinking that it was getting stuck between home screens 1 and 3 (thinking of stock home as screen 2). Then I realized that it's actually a fourth home screen and the two edges of my wallpaper were abutting there. Doh!
...
Thanks for breaking it down so well! =) appreciate the work;
FYI I just removed PandaHome cause it was lagging my phone too much; that is my major complaint with Droid right now is the ridiculous lag after I tap an app or scroll to a dif menu; ah the good ole days of iTouch with no lag; and yes, I deleted all my widgets, and yes I have Advanced Task Killer auto-kill and I manually kill too; I've actually taken to killing Advanced Task Killer so that even THAT doesn't take up memory;
Gonna have to check out that launcher dock and see how much memory it takes.
Does anyone know how much memory GDE memory eats up compared to PandaHome? My guess is that it would be dependent on what widgets you have, but was wondering if anyone had an estimate; PandaHome was taking 20-40 depending on what was running widget-wise;
Side question; is the amount of "Free Mem" a good indicator of how laggy scrolling and app opening will be, or is it something else? it seems to have a good correlation in my experience, but I may be wrong.
Cheers!
We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.