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Why ADW?

Just curious, why does everyone seem to lean towards ADW vs. Launcher Pro? Launcher Pro just seems to run so much smoother on the Nexus I was wondering why people would prefer ADW.

I prefer ADW because it runs so much smoother for me.
Plus it has one feature I cannot live without now. The slide up/down gestures. I normally have the Status Bar hidden, so I can't slide down on it to get the notification tray. Now I can just slide down anywhere on the screen to pull down the tray.

Zenoran said:
Just curious, why does everyone seem to lean towards ADW vs. Launcher Pro? Launcher Pro just seems to run so much smoother on the Nexus I was wondering why people would prefer ADW.
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+1 10chars

I use Launcher Pro as well. Seems a good amount of people use ADW because its the default launcher in CM. (cyanogen choose it because its open source and LP isnt)

Also the fact that it is open source is a reason I like it too. Not because of some philosophy, but because there are already a number of different developers contributing to it. And I know that if Anderweb ever stops development on it, someone else can continue. It gives me hope that it will be a very long lasting launcher.

Why do some people like red cars? or Ford over GM? (notice how I Americanized that <, I was going to say Renault but I don't suppose our US/foreign friends would have understood)....
It's just personal preference, neither is right or wrong, it just is.

Clarkster said:
I prefer ADW because it runs so much smoother for me.
Plus it has one feature I cannot live without now. The slide up/down gestures. I normally have the Status Bar hidden, so I can't slide down on it to get the notification tray. Now I can just slide down anywhere on the screen to pull down the tray.
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This. Also, the option to stretch the homescreen to 8x8. I'm going with 4x6 right now; last I used it, Launcher Pro only offered up to 4x5.

Smooth-wise, both LP and ADW are similar on my Nexus One Stock Froyo. I can't see LP much smoother than ADW.
I am used to ADW's "pull up home button to show hidden app dock". I put taskpanel and Mobile setting things there which I can easily access but don't wanna be visible all the time. The swipe left/right dock in launcher pro is unnatural to me.
On the other hand, I compared both launchers (briefly) on battery usage and it looked like with launcher pro my battery was going away faster. That was a few weeks ago and several updates had been made so I can't tell now.

ADW is open source so that may be a deciding factor. Also resizing widgets is great and a feature that was missing since the last time I used LauncherPro.

I have LauncherPro as well and have to say I am quite impressed with it. The main reason I have it is to save my nexus one from screen burn by the notification bar... but its speed and stability sure dont hurt either

ap3604 said:
I have LauncherPro as well and have to say I am quite impressed with it. The main reason I have it is to save my nexus one from screen burn by the notification bar... but its speed and stability sure dont hurt either
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as far as i know, LCD and AMOLED screens does not suffer from screen burn... weird you said that

drbuns said:
ADW is open source so that may be a deciding factor. Also resizing widgets is great and a feature that was missing since the last time I used LauncherPro.
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In my experience setting different sizes for a widget just caused it to break its display (text overflowing or items clipped off). It seems the only reason the feature exists is because ADW allows you to setup different amounts of rows/columns of icons, and since widgets work by taking up certain amount of icon spaces they had to also then add the option to say how much icons it should take up to end up looking normal. (Confusing, huh?)
This is actually what caused me to switch away from ADW to LauncherPro. They seem very similar, but ADW was going down the path of configuration hell where they introduce confusing options that cause features to break and need even more confusing options.
The real thing is, none of those options seem to improve anything for me, but they started getting in my way. Every time I added a widget ADW then asked me to specify how it should be sized. UGH!
All I really want is the stock launcher with smooth scrolling. These launchers seem to start off just being that but slowly grow into feature-creep beasts.

LauncherPro is faster than ADW. fact.
LauncherPro's app drawer (3D) is MUCH faster and smoother than ADW's. fact.
LaucherPro has more customization to the bottom 5 buttons than ADW. fact.
ADW is built into CM5.x, LauncherPro isn't. That's about the only drawback, and a weird one.

I am also a fan of LP, and i also found it to be a tad smoother and better responsive. imho

I just tried out ADW launcher for a bit instead of my default LauncherPro and have to say whike it seems like a great launcher as well there's two things the DarkDVR covered that I havr to agree with:
1. LauncherPro seems faster to me.
2. I LOVE how you can customize shortcuts on the botton of your screen. Im an extreme minimalist and the only things I want on my homescreen is the appdrawer button with quicksettings to the left of it and my browser to the right. Nothing else. With ADW you can't customize and are stuck with the phone and stock broswer on you homescreen.
Two things that I like better about ADW though:
1. The ability to swipe down while the notification bar is hidden to see it. Not a huge deal since I can just press menu while using LauncherPro to have the notification bar pop up and then pull it down.
2. When rotating your phone to landscape your wallpaper picture stays nice. In LauncherPro it messes your wallpaper photo will only show the top of the wallpaper that you usually can see fully while in portrait.

ap3604 said:
With ADW you can't customize and are stuck with the phone and stock broswer on you homescreen.
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That's wrong, just drag and drop any icon you want onto the shortcut spots on the bottom of the screen. And if you want 4 down there you can turn on the extra spots in the settings. Plus if you press and slide up on the 'all apps' button you get another bar to drop more icons on to, unlimited in size as it scrolls left and right.

I've used LauncherPro for 2 or so weeks, then ADW for the last 2 or so weeks...
ADW FC's a *lot* more, particularly during configuration (adding/removing apps or widgets, wallpaper, etc) but also at weird random other times, like 5-10s after launching an app.. Happens perhaps 1-3 times a day for me.
ADW squeezing more into the homescreen is nice.. I actually like that I can have 5x5 on the homescreen, although I don't think I'd want more.. And the Widget config does get more confusing along with it, but it's nice that 4x4 widgets can fill the whole screen even set 5x5.
I don't use the gesture options.. Too finicky, I usually wind up moving the screen sideways or launching an app.
ADW can uninstall a program directly from the app drawer.. Drag it out, drag it to the trash, hover.. Don't recall LP being able to do that.
LauncherPro is smoother and I don't recall it ever FC'ing on me.. I think one can adjust the rows/columns available, but IIRC the Widgets then fit kinda weird on the screen, and of course had less visible space and in some cases were cropped weird because they were smaller than they should be. Don't remember, I'll have to try it out again.
People use LP's 3d app drawer? I hate it.. It wastes like 30% of the screen... Different strokes..
Cons for both: Live Wallpaper. I don't use this much, sometimes I fire it up before I'm showing off the phone.. but both launchers slow WAY down with LW going. Less than the default Nexus homescreen.
I'll try LauncherPro again.. It's had a few version updates I just wish it were possible to sync all of the settings, vs having to set each launcher up.

Clarkster said:
That's wrong, just drag and drop any icon you want onto the shortcut spots on the bottom of the screen. And if you want 4 down there you can turn on the extra spots in the settings. Plus if you press and slide up on the 'all apps' button you get another bar to drop more icons on to, unlimited in size as it scrolls left and right.
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But can you pick any icon for the shortcuts?

DarkDvr said:
But can you pick any icon for the shortcuts?
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No, you can't pick any icon you like unless you have one of those other icon customization programs. I was just responding to the claim that you can never change it from phone and browser.

khaytsus said:
People use LP's 3d app drawer? I hate it.. It wastes like 30% of the screen... Different strokes..
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yeah, but it's just such a kick in the balls for google - private developers made the same 3D app drawer, but it's like 500% more efficient. Although... as google said on IO conf, that's exactly what they want from the community.. to replace standard android components with more efficient, customizable stuff.
Something you never gonna hear from apple. Something that will ultimately have Android ruling over the world with an iron fist of freedom and customization

[Q] Displaying more icons on the home screen

I am not familiar with the HOME of Android OS.
Currently using Panda Home for my Gtab but also tried couple of other HOME app.(forgot names..) but none of them.. seems like not let me display many icons on the screen. I mean, I see the big gap between icons..
Is there any app to let me put more icons on Pandahome? or Do I need to use some specific HOME app to do that?
let me know...

Both adw launcher and launcher pro allow you to set the number of rows and columns on the screen. I prefer adw .

He is correct, adw or launcher pro are the flavors of choice around here. Personally I use Launcher pro. In the advanced setting you can set how many rows, columns, and icons to allow.

Thanks!
I see.. its relying on HOME APP.. I guess, I did not tried those two yet.
I will try it out.
thanks all!

[Q] Replacement launcher for Droid 1?

Right now I'm using Launcher Pro on my Droid 1 but its really laggy at times especially when I go back to the home screen. Any recommendations on an replacement launcher that has these features:
A - Customizable dock at the bottom which I can put shortcuts to my apps.
B - At least three screens so I can put my widgets.
C - Drawer that can let me move up and down not left and right while scrolling for my apps.
Also which widgets are recommended for the following since I highly suspect no other launcher has these - calendar and contacts?
Many thanks in advance.

DemoManMLS said:
Right now I'm using Launcher Pro on my Droid 1 but its really laggy at times especially when I go back to the home screen. Any recommendations on an replacement launcher that has these features:
A - Customizable dock at the bottom which I can put shortcuts to my apps.
B - At least three screens so I can put my widgets.
C - Drawer that can let me move up and down not left and right while scrolling for my apps.
Also which widgets are recommended for the following since I highly suspect no other launcher has these - calendar and contacts?
Many thanks in advance.
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I choose adw launcher ex 1.3.3.. customizable dock, many screen and drawer up + down..

Thank you so much for the recommendation. I have ADW Launcher Ex running now. It feels so much smoother and faster then Launcher Pro was running. For my calendar and contacts widget I switched to Android Pro Widgets which gives the same Sense like experience that the ones Launcher Pro comes with.... if not better since APW comes with some nice skins and better options.
The only thing I don't care about APW at this point is not having the scrollable dock like Launcher Pro has. But I'm willing to give that up in exchange for better performance. The lag on Launcher Pro was starting to really annoy me.

Actually, if you swipe up on the dock, a hidden dock appears.
There is nothing there at first but you can drag unlimited apps to the bottom of the screen and it will fill up and will scroll across...
If you swipe down on it, the default dock appears.

if you don't need scrollable widgets give Zeam a try

I agree that ADW is much faster than current LauncherPro too ... much better

Just overclock the handset a little bit and launcherpro runs like a dream, IF you do a few minor tweaks:
DO NOT use the 3D app drawer. It's pretty laggy and slows down the rest of launcher pro, even if it's not actually on the screen right now.
DO NOT use more than 3 or 4 home screens
Don't use many widgets on your DEFAULT home screen.

Go Launcher is wonderful. Fast, feature filled.

I personally like Launcher ProPlus. I do believe it is faster and smoother than ADW. Also, if you're running CM7 you can lock the home screen in memory and that will help.
Or try V6 Supercharger script. With that script my Launcher Pro NEVER lags.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=991276

rcummings100 said:
Just overclock the handset a little bit and launcherpro runs like a dream, IF you do a few minor tweaks:
DO NOT use the 3D app drawer. It's pretty laggy and slows down the rest of launcher pro, even if it's not actually on the screen right now.
DO NOT use more than 3 or 4 home screens
Don't use many widgets on your DEFAULT home screen.
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what are you on about?!
I have 7 filled homescreens with widgets:set cpu, calender, word of the day,news,movies, messages,people,gmail and i have fancy widget and batt statt on my default screen. LP is always fast

Demoman
ADW is better than Launcher pro.. check these settings.. if it's a little lag when waking.. check box on "keep home in memory "..
BRITT#OGDROID

Launcher that allows Portrait hub layout without screen transitions

I'm looking for a portrait "hub" layout of sorts for my nexus 7.
I've been reading through XDA and other forums for the past few days checking out the different tablets and homescreens.
I have found some fantastic ideas from others, but they all use either ADW EX Launcher or Launcher Pro Plus.
Launcher Pro Plus doesn't play very nicely with Jelly Bean.
ADW EX works decently, but I cannot get the show/hide status bar to remove the top bar on ADW unless I take my DPI back to 160dpi to kick my notifications bar to the bottom of the screen.
I don't like the tablet UI b/c I use my device 99% of the time in portrait mode.
Unfortunately this makes neither LPP or ADWEX viable options for me.
Is there a launcher that allows to 100% disable transitions and you can jump to page 'X' without seeing any of the other screens, the same ADW and LPP do?
Thank you in advance! Any and ALL help is GREATLY appreciated.

I read that twice and I still have no clue what you are talking about. Maybe you can post a video.

downsay said:
I'm looking for a portrait "hub" layout of sorts for my nexus 7.
I've been reading through XDA and other forums for the past few days checking out the different tablets and homescreens.
I have found some fantastic ideas from others, but they all use either ADW EX Launcher or Launcher Pro Plus.
Launcher Pro Plus doesn't play very nicely with Jelly Bean.
ADW EX works decently, but I cannot get the show/hide status bar to remove the top bar on ADW unless I take my DPI back to 160dpi to kick my notifications bar to the bottom of the screen.
I don't like the tablet UI b/c I use my device 99% of the time in portrait mode.
Unfortunately this makes neither LPP or ADWEX viable options for me.
Is there a launcher that allows to 100% disable transitions and you can jump to page 'X' without seeing any of the other screens, the same ADW and LPP do?
Thank you in advance! Any and ALL help is GREATLY appreciated.
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Have you tried go launcher ex?

Apex and Nova does this as well.

darkamikaze said:
Apex and Nova does this as well.
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Could you please guide me to where I might find those settings?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I guess I am aware I can Set the screen transition to none, but that still shows the screen as I move from one screen to another. I am hoping I can click directly on a shortcut that will take me to the desired screen (jump to screen x) without any other transition showing. Instead I see the other screens pass by even when clicking on jump to screen.
Does that make sense?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

3 Small Screen after pushing home button

Hello, My wife's phone is all of a sudden showing 3 small screens after the home button is pushed. They are the home screen and her other two screens. She is using ADW Launcher. They way she wants it to be is press home button and it goes to home screen. That's the way it used to do. Thanks for the help.

Change what the home button does in ADW Launcher settings
If that option is not there, because it has not been updated for years, install Nova Launcher instead, much better

*Detection* said:
Change what the home button does in ADW Launcher settings
If that option is not there, because it has not been updated for years, install Nova Launcher instead, much better
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ADW has been updated, but I can't see where to change what the home button does. Any help?
Thanks

chrismgan said:
ADW has been updated, but I can't see where to change what the home button does. Any help?
Thanks
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Last update for ADW was 2013

ADW aside, any other thoughts ? I've attached a picture. It now has 4 screens including the home screen.View attachment 3466090

chrismgan said:
ADW aside, any other thoughts ? I've attached a picture. It now has 4 screens including the home screen.View attachment 3466090
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I guess you are seeing the recent apps ...
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Free mobile app

chrismgan said:
ADW aside, any other thoughts ? I've attached a picture. It now has 4 screens including the home screen.View attachment 3466090
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You can't say 'ADW Aside' when ADW is the problem
If there is no setting in ADW settings to change what the home button does, you are stuck with it unless you change the launcher
Those 4 little screens you are seeing, are all the homescreens set up in ADW, when you swipe left or right, each one of those screens is one of the swipe pages