Database Develop

launcher replacements

sooooooo i have been thinking about getting adw launcher but my biggest worry is that if i use that. the orginial launcher will be running in background resulting in even less battery life for me! Is that indeed the case? it uses more battery because 2 launchers are running?

No, programs running in the background will not take up any battery. The original launcher will stay in memory but it will not take up any battery. Just remove any widgets from the original launcher that check for updates, like weather, twitter, facebook, etc...

just delete it.. and push it back if you want it back..

Just try it out. I find launcher pro is significantly smoother than the stock launcher. It's very iPhone like. Beautiful

RogerPodacter said:
Just try it out. I find launcher pro is significantly smoother than the stock launcher. It's very iPhone like. Beautiful
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Click to collapse
Oh, scandalous blasphemy!
I like LauncherPro a lot more than ADW. As far as I'm concerned the only reason so many ROM devs worship ADW is because it's open source. That's totally understandable, but I think LauncherPro is so much smoother.

Ryjabo said:
Oh, scandalous blasphemy!
I like LauncherPro a lot more than ADW. As far as I'm concerned the only reason so many ROM devs worship ADW is because it's open source. That's totally understandable, but I think LauncherPro is so much smoother.
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Click to collapse
+1 on LauncherPro
LauncherPro is new and only in the beta stage and it already has more features and works better than ADW.

bluegizmo83 said:
+1 on LauncherPro
LauncherPro is new and only in the beta stage and it already has more features and works better than ADW.
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Click to collapse
Yep.
The ONLY thing I liked better about ADW was the ability to make the app drawer transparent. That was awesome. But that's not enough for me to use it over LauncherPro.

I like LauncherPro. But it cut my battery life in half. So I booted it from my phone.

I was a Launcher Pro Beta user until the last few updates started asking for too many permissions for my tastes.
Now I use ADW Launcher that is integrated into CM6. It works great, though if you use a live wallpaper, it's not as smooth as Launcher Pro. On a static wallpaper, however, both are perfectly smooth. I hear Launcher Pro has problems on CM6 where some icons disappear if they are stored on the SD card, and that you have to set VM heapsize to 24 MiB.

Ryjabo said:
Yep.
The ONLY thing I liked better about ADW was the ability to make the app drawer transparent. That was awesome. But that's not enough for me to use it over LauncherPro.
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Click to collapse
That's the only reason i use it honestly. LP is much smoother and I'm thinking about going back to it now that I'm using the droid x live wallpaper. ADW is way too choppy with live wall's. Hopefully LP gets transparent app drawer soon

How can I delete the stock launcher? If want it back how do I put back on phone?
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Stock launcher vs adw

Why did cm force adw on us? Its a memory hog that wastes battery compaired to stock.
Don't even get me started on launcher pro. That's even worse. And its only made by 1 man.
What do you use? R&d by Google or a 1 man progect?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

this one is pretty fast, I like it a lot:
Xperia Arc Launcher
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=978806&page=108
but you need to search withing the thread to find a right "version"

CyanogenMod is all about customization. ADW fits with what CM 7 is doing right now.
Personally, I use Launcher Pro+. Yeah, Fede needs to get back to work on it, but its customization is awesome.

they dont force you to use adw, i agree with you though i love the stock launcher for the nexus phones alot better than any custom launcher especially adw launcher, i think it is just a horrible creation that needs to be destroyed and completely re done its horrible. Launcher pro isnt bad i used it alot when i had my EVO with the plus version and all the widgets its pretty nice but yeah it does need an update but its alot cleaner than adw. Go launcher is another good one its pretty customizable plus i think its gpu powered like the stock gingerbread launcher.
This is the mod i use, it works on any custom aosp rom for the nexus s or nexus s 4g, it uses the stock gingerbread launcher for our phones, with some speed tweaks, you still get the 3d app drawer it has the messaging icon in place of where the browser icon would be on the dock bar. It installs easily through recovery and is fast as ****.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1004744
there are also these ...
100% stock nexus s gingerbread launcher or 100% flash-able through recovery...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=933517
or
UD Launcher
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1042096

I have used launcher pro, and adw and i found that GO launcher is best for me, since it offers high levels of customisation (down to the levels of changing backgrounds for the dock and animations) and it's relatively easy to operate.
It's not much of a memory hog too, which is great too

ebhsimon said:
I have used launcher pro, and adw and i found that GO launcher is best for me, since it offers high levels of customisation (down to the levels of changing backgrounds for the dock and animations) and it's relatively easy to operate.
It's not much of a memory hog too, which is great too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you can't go wrong with go launcher ex

How is it forced on you? Just uninstall it and use the launcher. You want.
Sent by pure Google™ goodness. F#*$ Apple

I hate ADW

Zeam launcher ftw!!!!
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

It's very easy to change launcher. I use Zeam Launcher now.

i may be in the minority here, but go launcher ex is freakin sweet. i have never had such a smooth experience with a smartphone as i have with go launcher on bugless pete's rom.

I don't see how its forced on you. I've tried many different launchers. I can only achieve what I want my home to look and act like with adw and go launcher. Different things suit different people. I don't use the stock launcher because I don't use the phone or browser very much. And I hate the box around them. So those shortcuts are pointless for me. Personally my phone shows Google voice use more memory than adw. And that runs in the background. All in all just install another launcher. Adws not forced on you. If it was forced you wouldn't be able to change to a different launcher.

I love adw, but Go ex is much smoother, but there is no option to remove the dock and expand the desktop, so have stuck with adw.
Anway, just flash the stock launcher...no?

v3rk said:
i may be in the minority here, but go launcher ex is freakin sweet. i have never had such a smooth experience with a smartphone as i have with go launcher on bugless pete's rom.
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Click to collapse
+1 but on Oxygen(+Trinity) for me.

delete .

I cannot stand the stock launcher, and the very first thing I install after flashing a new rom is either Go Launcher or ADW.
Miui is the only rom that I run w/o a launcher because it's native launcher is customizable and is pretty slick.
Who gives a **** if an app is developed by a single person? Sometimes that is better because decisions aren't made by compromise.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

how the hell is adw a memory hog when it only uses 39mb RAM, while the stock launcher uses almost double???! stock launcher + live wallpaper breaks the phone apart, you barely have 50mb RAM left with this combination. so lemme see, no customization, memory hog and those retarded dock dots that cannot be removed, great launcher indeed!

Shark_On_Land said:
Why did cm force adw on us? Its a memory hog that wastes battery compaired to stock.
Don't even get me started on launcher pro. That's even worse. And its only made by 1 man.
What do you use? R&d by Google or a 1 man progect?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well if its forced on you by all means create your own rom
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

BrianDigital said:
Well if its forced on you by all means create your own rom
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
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Click to collapse
If I were to judge the OP's programming skills based solely on the first post in this thread.... Nevermind.
NS4G NSCollab Sprint 1.0.51, Matr1x 8.0+, Caelum Theme

Braneless said:
If I were to judge the OP's programming skills based solely on the first post in this thread.... Nevermind.
NS4G NSCollab Sprint 1.0.51, Matr1x 8.0+, Caelum Theme
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Click to collapse
Haha <sarcasm>
Sent from my Google Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

The newest ADW EX has cured my impatience for ICS(4.0)

Aside from being gorgeous and buttery smooth on my Nexus S 4G... and aside from being ridiculously customizable as it always has been... I just did a full wipe and installed it after not using it for a while.
Running a completely stock 2.3.7 rooted ROM because I'm just sick of stability issues with ICS ROMS (big loves to the brilliant devs that are working on them, btw... I know the stability problems aren't their fault... Google needs to hurry the f**k up!).
Back to my point... they've built in some of features that the ICS launcher has. Like:
dropping icons from your homescreens on top of each other to automatically bundle them into an auto-sized folder.
automatically adjusting the scale and position of the icons on the dock (which you can just drag and drop stuff off of)
Give it a whirl! This is Android perfection right here! I was thinking about getting a Galaxy S2 just for giggles but I've fallen in love with my phone again and saved myself $500

While I love ADW EX. Using ICS is just too good to go back. I don't know what stability issues you experienced, ICS has been wonderful for myself. Loving the browser and battery life. The overall feel of ICS is more fluid and just makes sense. Cut and paste is a great example.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

Rem3Dy said:
While I love ADW EX. Using ICS is just too good to go back. I don't know what stability issues you experienced, ICS has been wonderful for myself. Loving the browser and battery life. The overall feel of ICS is more fluid and just makes sense. Cut and paste is a great example.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I will never go back to GB and I dont think I will use a third-party launcher again (even having payed for adw ex and spb shell).

Rem3Dy said:
While I love ADW EX. Using ICS is just too good to go back. I don't know what stability issues you experienced, ICS has been wonderful for myself. Loving the browser and battery life. The overall feel of ICS is more fluid and just makes sense. Cut and paste is a great example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Terrible battery life on every ROM I've tried (oICS, CM9 Alphas, CM9 Kang, etc). And if it's not battery life, it's random reboots, launcher force-closes, screen flickering, slow or laggy homescreen or app drawer transitions, etc.
Yes, I've done full wipes. I even use that wipe script linked in the NS4G Dev section.
This is the smoothest, most stable Android experience I've ever had, right now... and I've had a Nexus One, EVO 4G, Epic 4G, and a couple other ghetto phones.

Well, I am running pete's "almost stock" rom and it is perfect, not a single issue.

juliano_q said:
Well, I am running pete's "almost stock" rom and it is perfect, not a single issue.
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Click to collapse
Nexus S 4G (CDMA/Sprint)?

Ryjabo said:
Nexus S 4G (CDMA/Sprint)?
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Click to collapse
Nope, gsm international version. But Pete's made a rom for NS4G too, have you tried it?
http://download.peteralfonso.com/crespo4g/rom
The 22/12 version (atleast the gsm one) is amazing.

I hate the new dock they put in ADW Ex, which sucks because I bought it a when it first came out and didn't have any big complaints, but the new dock is terrible imo.

juliano_q said:
Nope, gsm international version. But Pete's made a rom for NS4G too, have you tried it?
http://download.peteralfonso.com/crespo4g/rom
The 22/12 version (atleast the gsm one) is amazing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for pointing that out. I'm debating whether I should try it. I'm seriously considering just waiting until the official OTA comes out and something more stable and faster is cooked up by the CM team or someone else. I'm so tired of all the messing with backups, wiping, flashing, etc...

tehgeekguy said:
I hate the new dock they put in ADW Ex, which sucks because I bought it a when it first came out and didn't have any big complaints, but the new dock is terrible imo.
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Click to collapse
Funny... I feel the exact opposite. I hated how it used to be. Love it now that it's a wee bit more like ICS and just drag/drop.

Ryjabo said:
Thanks for pointing that out. I'm debating whether I should try it. I'm seriously considering just waiting until the official OTA comes out and something more stable and faster is cooked up by the CM team or someone else. I'm so tired of all the messing with backups, wiping, flashing, etc...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, the official OTA was already released and this rom was cooked using it. Are you waiting for a new OTA, like 4.0.4?

My favorite combo is ADW Ex with sph33r's ICS v2. ADW makes ics that much better - I'm loving it. Everything is smooth as silk and configured exactly how I like it.

juliano_q said:
OK, the official OTA was already released and this rom was cooked using it. Are you waiting for a new OTA, like 4.0.4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The official OTA for the GSM phone was released.
Not for the CDMA (Sprint).

am using BM's stock ICS + eugene's stock 3.0.13 kernel. battery and speed are great! no reboots, no FC's.

Used Adw a long time back. The thing I was most uncomfortable with was the single dock. Would have loved it had it included configurable no. of docks as with launcher pro or nova.
The problem I have with ICS & nova launcher is that some widgets (Scrollable News Widget to be precise) says that it's incompatible with launchers that do not support scrollable widgets ... although I know that many other widgets work well.

Paparasee said:
Used Adw a long time back. The thing I was most uncomfortable with was the single dock. Would have loved it had it included configurable no. of docks as with launcher pro or nova.
The problem I have with ICS & nova launcher is that some widgets (Scrollable News Widget to be precise) says that it's incompatible with launchers that do not support scrollable widgets ... although I know that many other widgets work well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3.x and up has support for scrollable widgets, so dev's of those widgets you're talking about need to re-code them.

I used ADW ex prior to upgrading to a custom ICS ROM.
Few things; ADW in no way compares to the premium and smooth feel of legit ICS. ICS has so much more and is vastly improved. An earlier poster mentioned the new copy/paste. Aside from that we have the new tabs in the browser, better auto-correction, the kick ass multitasking/recent tab, the overall UI and so much more.
If you like the ability to change icons and notice there isn't much support for that in ICS try out Nova Launcher. It's beta 5 right now but it's awesome. You can change icons easily, and more. Not to mention the app drawer very closely resembles ICS which I love.
The only thing I feel ADW EX has that ICS (coupled with Nova Launcher on a Custom ROM) doesn't have is capacity of folders. The ICS folders can't fit all of my games so I have to use "alternative" folder apps which blows. Once they fix that ICS will win at life, 3 times over. Then CM9 will come out and make us **** ourselves in excitement XD!
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

30904xxxwhatever:
Have you tried ADW with ICS? I was not at all impressed with the stock ics launcher, although it is quite a bit better than the gb launcher.
ADW mostly just adds to what ics provides and as far as I can tell, only the app drawer widget picker/market link are missing (I did not use those anyway).
I run vhgomez's ICS v1.2 with the latest ADW Ex and the App Widget Picker replacement apk. Friggin sweetness.

Braneless said:
30904xxxwhatever:
Have you tried ADW with ICS? I was not at all impressed with the stock ics launcher, although it is quite a bit better than the gb launcher.
ADW mostly just adds to what ics provides and as far as I can tell, only the app drawer widget picker/market link are missing (I did not use those anyway).
I run vhgomez's ICS v1.2 with the latest ADW Ex and the App Widget Picker replacement apk. Friggin sweetness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just don't like it.... I prefer Nova Launcher with ICS. So much better IMO

Ya, I've been using the new adw for most of my ICS time, and it's been pretty smooth. There are 2 things tho that I like much better in the Stock ICS launcher (Trebuchet).
Most of my scrollable Widgets in ADW are messed up.. especially the native calendar and browser bookmark Widgets. It seems like ADW registers the downward motion as a gesture attempt.. even though none defined.
Second is folders in the bottom bar.. which I really like in ics launcher. Definitely gonna try Nova tonight tho.
•°NS4G • ICS°•

Third party launchers and/or TouchWiz

I've been a LauncherPro user for many years now, and as such I've stuck with it on my Note. However, due to the "laggy" app-drawer opening animation, I've had to disable that completely (so that the drawer opens immediately).
I believe that pretty much ALL third-party launchers suffer from stuttering in some way or another. Does anyone actually know WHY this is the case on the Note? Its not ROM specific.
The alternative is to just use TouchWiz, which I am 100% keen on doing, except for ONE little problem. 90% of Android widgets are 4 columns wide, and there is no way to resize widgets with TouchWiz.
Anyone have any tips or suggestions? I get the feeling that most people stick with TouchWiz, so I'd love to know what you do about the 4 column limitation.

Moved To Q&A​
Please Post all questions in the Q&A section​

Sorry.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

i use go launcher and dont get any lags

I'll give that a shot then. Does it support resizing of widgets?

StNickZA said:
Sorry.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem
I have tried most of the available launchers. The one i am most happy with at the moment is spb shell 3d, its not cheap. But when in tablet mode, looks great on the note. The widgets really make use of the screen resolution.
The only issue is there is no ability to alter the row/column count. Which in tablet mode has a count of 8. Which is a little high for the screen size of the note.
I have emailed the Developers of spb shell 3d and they have told me a update will be available soon.
Just my opinion

Thanks. I wish there was a way to test SPB before buying.
Are you able to resize widgets with SPB?

StNickZA said:
Thanks. I wish there was a way to test SPB before buying.
Are you able to resize widgets with SPB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, you can resize all the widgets. It is a shame there is no trial

Richy99 said:
i use go launcher and dont get any lags
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Click to collapse
I use go launcher as well and I experienced some lag in transition effect and opening app drawer..
what ROM/kernel are you using? or maybe it's because I use too many widgets?

StNickZA said:
Thanks. I wish there was a way to test SPB before buying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is, but not one that I could ever recommend
I admit I tried it and found it very wanting. I only did it for the trial, because the cost was so high. I am glad I did, as I found it very wanting on my device. Others seem faster to me.
I use ssLancher. It has a very different approach, and everything is customisable. I also use a separate app launcher and Folder Organiser, leaving me 'free' from the app organisation that most launchers pin on you. That allows me to play with more with less effort.

go launcher is good because you can use ICS theme.
But this stupid launcher removes ICS animation ! (returns Gingerbread stock)
I hope new update (4.0) will bring for us more then just a nice shell.

StNickZA said:
I've been a LauncherPro user for many years now, and as such I've stuck with it on my Note. However, due to the "laggy" app-drawer opening animation, I've had to disable that completely (so that the drawer opens immediately).
I believe that pretty much ALL third-party launchers suffer from stuttering in some way or another. Does anyone actually know WHY this is the case on the Note? Its not ROM specific.
The alternative is to just use TouchWiz, which I am 100% keen on doing, except for ONE little problem. 90% of Android widgets are 4 columns wide, and there is no way to resize widgets with TouchWiz.
Anyone have any tips or suggestions? I get the feeling that most people stick with TouchWiz, so I'd love to know what you do about the 4 column limitation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you could try application folder (lite) from the market

i just switched to launcher 7. . im loving it. . i think its perfect for the big screen of the note. .

Nikoldrini said:
I use go launcher as well and I experienced some lag in transition effect and opening app drawer..
what ROM/kernel are you using? or maybe it's because I use too many widgets?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No matter what Kernel/ROM I use, every single launcher lags noticeably. I never had this problem with my previous phones (Atrix, Defy+, SGS2). And yes, I'm and advanced user so I know how to optimize the OS.
I just stuck to ADW EX, selecting the Fast interface and setting drawing cache to low quality. It lags but it's way less than Launcher Pro, GO and SS Launcher.
Hope this gets fixed on ICS.

Ss
Ss
Ss
Ss
Ss
From the Beast : Galaxy Note

ADW Launcher EX rly nice low on memory and alot of customizations possibilities.

Mmhhnnnnnn

I agree, I tried lots of launchers and IMO ADW EX is the best one!
It should be amazing one day to get anything equal to the Sense interface as Launcher (NO SPB Shell is not as good as Sense), don't you think so? I love it on HTC
Sent from my Galaxy Note with DarkyROM 3.3

I used to use Launcher Pro back in the day, but TBH, I consider it to be dead now; the developer hasn't made any changes to ver 0.8.6 for almost a year now... I think it's abandoned.
I use ADW EX, and it's pretty decent!

[Q] Which Launchers Work Best With CM9 Alpha 2???

Can anyone tell me what Launcher works the best with CM9 Alpha 2. Would you recommend I change the Trebuchet one I am currently using now to something that may have more options? Paid or Free, it doesn't matter. Please let me know which ones work with the new CM9 Alpha 2 as that is currently what I have on my TouchPad as I don't want to kill it AGAIN! THANKS!

I've had no trouble with CM9's stock. In fact I've downloaded maybe a dozen launchers for my Gingerbread SGSII and I still can't find a launcher as unobtrusive as CM9's stock trebuchet.

I like and use trebuchet. Nova is also good.

chicle_11 said:
I like and use trebuchet. Nova is also good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there is lot of difference between Nova & trebuchet? I use trebuchet as I am good with it and it did come with the CM9 stock. But I just like to play around and change up things on my TouchPad just for fun. Course always do a backup first and foremost!
Thank you both!

I'm using trebuchet, but have used Apex launcher, search for it on xda its not on the market yet. Its very similar to stock trebuchet but with more options, like changing icons and transition effects.

Nathanation said:
I'm using trebuchet, but have used Apex launcher, search for it on xda its not on the market yet. Its very similar to stock trebuchet but with more options, like changing icons and transition effects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay I just put the Apex Launcher on there. It looks GREAT! I love that you can rename the apps/games on your desktop, was hoping for something like that! When I went to the help in the actual Apex Launcher App I was able to make it my default and everything as they were very specific on how to do that. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing!

There's a beta of go launcher tab edition floating around. Been using it for the last few hours and its great. Keep in mind I hate go launcher. But the tablet version is great. Highly recommend trying it out.

Another ADX happy user here. Tried most of the others but like the solidity of it. Would be interested to see a comparison of resource usage amongst the lot of them though. I like Go and use it on my HTC phone but it seems sluggish and resource heavy in comparison.

If you like trebuchet, then you'll probably like Nova launcher - it looks about the same, but has a few more features, and works with various screen density/dpi settings.
I'm also trying out the new Go Launcher HD (beta) and like it. Not too many options yet, but I like what I see so far.

Can someone point me in the direction of that GO HD launcher. Found a link from Droid life but it won't install.
Thanks also for the apex reccomendation, really liking it but I love GO on my phone so am excited to try this tablet version.
Edit: Found it via Google when I had some time

alias4ever said:
Can anyone tell me what Launcher works the best with CM9 Alpha 2. Would you recommend I change the Trebuchet one I am currently using now to something that may have more options? Paid or Free, it doesn't matter. Please let me know which ones work with the new CM9 Alpha 2 as that is currently what I have on my TouchPad as I don't want to kill it AGAIN! THANKS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've given up on launchers and only use task switcher which becomes quite intuitive and is always available with a single swipe.