Hi! I’m Ryan – the new guy here! First, I want to say thanks to Aaron for bringing me on board here to write about Android. I’m looking forward to sharing tips, tricks, and great apps to a great new reader base!
For my first article, I’d like to start by talking about the most used application on just about every Android phone – the home screen (or launcher). Everything starts from here, so why not make it the best app on your phone? Those of you with the Sense UI on your phones (most HTC phones) have it pretty good. You get seven pages, and switching between them is very smooth. For the rest of us, especially Motorola Droid users, the home screen experience isn’t nearly as good. The stock Droid launcher only has 3 pages, and scrolling can be choppy, especially if you have several widgets active.
The good news is that there are options. Android allows other applications to become the default launcher. There are currently two great options for launcher replacements, and both are FREE on the Android Market – LauncherPro and ADW.Launcher by AnderWeb.
Where these apps set themselves apart from the pack is their customization. Both apps allow you to choose between 2-7 screens and set whichever one you like as the default. You can also customize the scrolling speed between screens, whether or not to show shortcut labels, and how the app drawer looks.
My favorite part about these apps is that they have spots on the bottom of the screen for persistent shortcut icons. If you’ve ever wished you could access your phone app or browser from any screen, now you can. Both apps also have pinch-to-preview – giving you an easy way to navigate between screens.
I continually go back and forth between the two as new versions come out. I’m currently using ADW.Launcher as it has the ability to hide/show the notification bar by hitting the home button. If you’re indecisive like me, you can download Home Switcher (another free app in the Market) to allow you to change launchers anytime you like.
Tip: to access the customization options for the launchers, select the launcher you wish to use (when pressing the home button it will ask you), then hit the menu botton. In LauncherPro, click Preferences; in ADW.Launcher, click ADWSettings.
One note: it is recommended that you remove any widgets from launchers that you’re not currently using as these will still take up memory and could slow things down. You can leave all your shortcuts though so you can go back and forth with relative ease.
Once you’ve tried these, you’ll never go back to the stock home experience.
LauncherPro [AppBrain Link]
ADW.Launcher [AppBrain Link]
Home Switcher [AppBrain Link]
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