Database Users

So many home screens?!

SO, I'm a simple iPhone user, aka these 5 home screens and moving backgrounds confuse and fluster the hell out of me. While I try and downloads hoards of apps to put the the phone I still can't quite figure out what the hell to do with 5 home screens, in reality I have only filled one page and even still its only really my phone and weather widget.
Are there any apps / widgets / clocks / keyboards ya'll would say are "required" for the nexus? I really don't know where to look some one should make a suggested app thread.
look forward to hearing your responses.
JG

it all depends on you decorate it to your liking
for me on my main screen i have my
Mainscreen
-flipclock from beautiful widgets
-Most used apps: gallery, aim, maps, camera, gmail, browser and market
Second Screen Left
-Search bar on top
-picture frame of me and my girlfriend in the middle
-A folder for games and a folder for tools on each side of the frame
-and the power control on the button
and then on other screens i have my friendstream(facebook widget), favorite contacts, end all task widget, flashlight widget, music player widget, bookmarks widget, news widget
oh and im using the the desire rom btw but there are equivilant widgets on the market

You don't to have to have live wallpapers, and on the iphone don't you get how many screens you need to compensate for the amount of applications you have installed? So unless you had a minimal amount of applications, wouldn't you have more (or equivalent) than five screens? So how come now it is confusing you?
Ok, back to the matter at hand. Usually I just decorate my home screens with applications that i need, apps that are not used regularly stay in the app wheel thingy (its not really drawer anymore). Really your homescreens will be determined by your needs, and likes. Decorate with the most essential applications that you need, and expand on that by adding widgets and etc. I'm sure others could recommend apps for you, I've been an Android user since the G1 (which isn't long really), but apps just come to mind without hesitation.

On my main screen I have a nice clock and my most used programs. The screen to the right has toggles for various settings. To the right of that is speed dials. To the left of the main screen is weather and news plus a few more program shortcuts and to the left of that is my music player widget.

I only use 3 screens, centre is big clock and most used apps, to the right is a bunch of regularly used apps. to the left is some widgets and speed dials.
I keep the other 2 blank for some reason.

Rock3nrenigade said:
Are there any apps / widgets / clocks / keyboards ya'll would say are "required" for the nexus? I really don't know where to look some one should make a suggested app thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the love of god please use the Search button!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=620092&highlight=apps
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=617667&highlight=apps
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=633104&highlight=apps
+ a dozen other of the same threads
.

Does anyone use the other screens?

I find myself just using the main home screen and putting my icons there, but the other screens don't get used and are blank. If I want an app, I press the dots and flick through the launcher.
Is it just me?

I only use 3 of the screens. main one (centre), the left and right one. Other ones are empty.

3 here, I removed the other two using Helixlauncher2

I'm using all 5 and they are all full heh. I have different themes for each screen with most used apps + clock/weather on the middle screen, social networking widgets on one, utilities on one, fun on another and one with an agenda and some other stuff.
Not really hard to fill those screens up imo, but I guess other people actually use the app-drawer.

I use them all and kind of wish there were more. LOL like the poster above, each page has a specific "theme".

I'm using all 5 and they are all full heh. I have different themes for each screen with most used apps + clock/weather on the middle screen, social networking widgets on one, utilities on one, fun on another and one with an agenda and some other stuff.
Not really hard to fill those screens up imo, but I guess other people actually use the app-drawer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're screens are set up EXACTLY like I set my Nexus 1 screens up : -). but on my g1 I just use 1 screen
Sent from my HTC Dream G1 using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk

I use Helixlauncher and am using all 7 screens. Although I noticed that with all of the widgets I'm using, there is some lag once in a while, but it's more that it's not as smooth as the stock homescreens really.

I use each screen for different types of task.
My home screen has Calls, SMS, GMail and the Browser icons. First screen to the left has facebook and twitter widgets and the second screen to the left has tool apps like netcounter, task killer, astro file manager and the power widget.
First screen to the right is for media so I have the news widget, music, camera and gallery icons/widgets. The second right screen has apps I want to find quickly like torch, calculator, dictionary and a few games.
Scrolling up and down the app drawer seems like a pain to me

C.Slater said:
I use each screen for different types of task.
My home screen has Calls, SMS, GMail and the Browser icons. First screen to the left has facebook and twitter widgets and the second screen to the left has tool apps like netcounter, task killer, astro file manager and the power widget.
First screen to the right is for media so I have the news widget, music, camera and gallery icons/widgets. The second right screen has apps I want to find quickly like torch, calculator, dictionary and a few games.
Scrolling up and down the app drawer seems like a pain to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have almost the same layout but with the left and right reversed... might be because i am in a right handed drive country xD

C.Slater said:
I use each screen for different types of task.
My home screen has Calls, SMS, GMail and the Browser icons. First screen to the left has facebook and twitter widgets and the second screen to the left has tool apps like netcounter, task killer, astro file manager and the power widget.
First screen to the right is for media so I have the news widget, music, camera and gallery icons/widgets. The second right screen has apps I want to find quickly like torch, calculator, dictionary and a few games.
Scrolling up and down the app drawer seems like a pain to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have the exact same layout!

3 screens, apps to the left, widgets to the right, and calling, text, emails, contacts center. Not ruling out using the far screens but have no need for them with my usage. There is still plenty of room on the inboard 3 for future additions.

3 screens only & using the Helix Launcher

Using 3 main screens loaded with apps & widgets.

all 5, but not all full. home screen has most apps, with phone, contacts, notes, task panel widget, car home, voice, gesture search, sms, settings and spare parts. left 1 is gmail and weather
left 2 is pandora and facebook.
right 1 is some games, system widget (sync, locale, wifi, bt)
right 2 is the calendar pad widget covering whole thing. i need to see whole month.

SBS_ said:
I'm using all 5 and they are all full heh. I have different themes for each screen with most used apps + clock/weather on the middle screen, social networking widgets on one, utilities on one, fun on another and one with an agenda and some other stuff.
Not really hard to fill those screens up imo, but I guess other people actually use the app-drawer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I have the calendar widget on my main screen, which takes up four "slots", and my most frequently used apps (mail, phone, camera, Twidroid etc.and a battery widget) One screen to the left I have other frequently used apps, two screens to the left I have the 4square widget. One screen to the right some frequently used widgets (like weather, Google Buzz and networks) ans two screens to the right: games.

I use 5 out of seven on my Desire ROM.
Center is most used apps plus weather clock.
To the right is two rows of apps. right of that is facebook and textsfromlastnight
the left of center is weather, but the expanded widget from sense
to the left of that is sticky notes and some media.

Things you like about Touchwiz/Samsung modifications

Always seems to be a ton of threads about why people hate touchwiz and how eager they are to get rid of it but...what do you like about what Samsung did different?
I absolutely love the pulldown menu modifications
I love the music/call controls in the pull down, and like the power widget there. This is something I really wish that Google would adopt/roll into stock android later on (or at least Cyanogen).
I also like the shortcut to adjust your phone's brightness (rolling finger across the top bar).
I personally prefer the way this phone handles making a call on a 2nd line and conferencing people in...it's much better than stock android (I came from a Moto droid and conferencing in a new # was always kind of a pain in the ass).
I personally prefer the way they redid the calendar to stock (I seem to be in the minority here though).
I use google voice for all SMS, so I can't really comment on that.
I use LauncherPro, so the actual look of the launcher doesn't bug me...
Actually, the only thing I truly hate about the modifications Samsung made was the damn alarm program..it's way worse than the droids, and it's way too easy to turn off...and the snooze button is hard to differentiate from the turn off alarm button.
Overall, Samsung has some nice stuff if they just abandon the cartoony iPhones look of the launcher and work on a few of the performance hickups here and there.

hydrogenman said:
I absolutely love the pulldown menu modifications
I love the music/call controls in the pull down, and like the power widget there. This is something I really wish that Google would adopt/roll into stock android later on (or at least Cyanogen).
I also like the shortcut to adjust your phone's brightness (rolling finger across the top bar).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than the calendar (which is a near-total fail for me; maybe others' calendars don't have the same bugs as mine - which is a scary thought, b/c it makes a global "fix" seem less likely), I really like TouchWiz - particularly the features listed above. The "Power Control" Android widget (or whatever it's called) - which is normally crucial - becomes almost unnecessary, provided you're OK with using the pulldown for toggling GPS, Wifi, etc.; and sliding finger for brightness. (The only Power Control item you can't toggle using pulldown is "Sync," which I almost never turn off anyway).
I like how the TW icons look; and I dig the app drawer, b/c I prefer the "list" view that it offers. I may try another launcher someday, but right now I feel no need -- I'm digging TW (and much prefer it to stock Android).
Don't care for the Samsung widgets at all, but their functions can easily be bested with stuff in the Market.

pavvy said:
Other than the calendar (which is a near-total fail for me; maybe others' calendars don't have the same bugs as mine - which is a scary thought, b/c it makes a global "fix" seem less likely), I really like TouchWiz - particularly the features listed above. The "Power Control" Android widget (or whatever it's called) - which is normally crucial - becomes almost unnecessary, provided you're OK with using the pulldown for toggling GPS, Wifi, etc.; and sliding finger for brightness. (The only Power Control item you can't toggle using pulldown is "Sync," which I almost never turn off anyway).
I like how the TW icons look; and I dig the app drawer, b/c I prefer the "list" view that it offers. I may try another launcher someday, but right now I feel no need -- I'm digging TW (and much prefer it to stock Android).
Don't care for the Samsung widgets at all, but their functions can easily be bested with stuff in the Market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never once used any of the TW widgets...that's one thing that was a bit of fail
BTW, you can get the TW style of app drawer on 3rd party launchers

I was rather pleasantly surprised with TouchWiz. I think it's much better than Stock Android. I'm not sure exactly why people are complaining about it.
What I like about it.
1. WebOS like UI controls for Music and Toggles in the Notification drop down.
2. Paged scrolling of apps in the App Drawer. I hate inertial list scrolling.
3. Some of the widgets like dual clock and calendar clock. If there is no place to add a widget on that screen, it finds a screen with space. Buddies Now is a nice widget, but it's slow and buggy.
4. The interface to add/remove screens and move screens around.
What I dislike.
1. It syncs all contacts instead of just "My Contacts". Of course this is not the launcher, but the app. But other than this, the contacts and dialer are much better than stock.
2. Pressing the Home button, sends it off to Screen 4 on my phone instead of the center screen. Very annoying.
3. There is an Android bug that prevents folders from being opened. With LauncherPro, I can restart the launcher which fixes the problem. No such ability in TW.
4. Can only change two of the 4 icons at the bottom.

Likes:
Messaging/calling through contacts.
Power control in notification drawer
Launcher is starting to grow on me
The interface when a call is in progress
Puzzle piece notifications
Dislikes:
Music player can't distinguish between songs and ringtones
Nearly the same issue with gallery and album art
Can't set the home screen when less than 5 screens
Lock screen but that's purely cosmetic
The media scanner, but I don't think that's TW specific (Be awesome to have it scan on demand)
I really don't like how all the Samsung widgets want to take up an entire screen.

hydrogenman said:
BTW, you can get the TW style of app drawer on 3rd party launchers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that's good to know... I'll have to try 'em sometime, I know they have lots of fans around here.

I actually prefer TW to LauncherPro or ADW. So far everything works pretty well.
I do wish that the samsung widgets were re-sizeable so they didn't take up the whole screen. I like the app drawer, it is just copying the iPhone, but I don't visit it a whole lot thanks to the FolderOrganizer widget. That widget should have come stock with the phone IMHO.

i really like some of the modifications that samsung has added, especially in the dialer and contacts apps (they have already been mentioned). i found another one last night in the calendar app, if you add a location to an entry it shows you a map of the location from the calendar entry.

wolfvgang said:
I actually prefer TW to LauncherPro or ADW. So far everything works pretty well.
I do wish that the samsung widgets were re-sizeable so they didn't take up the whole screen. ......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey. If I do understand you correctly, you are using ADW or LauncherPro and mention that 'everything is working pretty well, also referring to 'samsung widgets'?
How do you access 'samsung widgets' from say ADW Launcher - ESPECIALLY BuddiesNow ??
I can only access it from the default launcher, but do prefer ADW also - but am stuck
Thanks for your help or ideas.

I don't understand anyone wouldn't use LauncherPro.
The scrolling dock is genius. I have about 15 apps that I use regularly, so the dock does a really great job to accommodate that. Also, you can easily add your own custom icons, and do away with the default ones that come with TW and LP.
I also hate that on TW, you have the home screen # indicators at the top, giving you a lot less home screen space.
The app drawer, though not as easy to use as the Applications viewer in TW, is at least original. This phone already looks like an iPhone, so having a very Android-esque applications viewer is refreshing.
TW does a lot fantastic things, some of which you guys mentioned, but the general layout of it is pretty ****ty, and LauncherPro is just about perfect... and free.

I like the toggles on the notification pull down. I don't like how the brightness slider has no visual feedback to determine what the current bright is set at. If there was a slider widget attached to the bottom or a popup when the slider is in use that would make it easier.
I like the swipe on contacts for the call/sms.
After loading JI6, I tried using the TW launcher again, but I couldn't find any of the TW widgets compelling so I'm back to Launcherpro.

Just found this out, if you dislike the iPhone style of the app drawer, left to right, changing it to Alphabetical list gives me the normalish way we are used to the app drawer working, up and down.
Now if we could just remove the annoying outline on the icons I'd be set

Coming from an iPhone, Touchwiz was a bit too iphone-ripoff for me. I personally use Launcher+ but TW did have some good points.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

my biggest dislike is that contacts and dialer are no longer the same application. I never had a dialer shortcut on my phone before because I could just use contacts, now I have to use up 1 more space for the dialer.

Owenv said:
my biggest dislike is that contacts and dialer are no longer the same application. I never had a dialer shortcut on my phone before because I could just use contacts, now I have to use up 1 more space for the dialer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can access the contacts from the dialer, would be an extra click if you really want to not have that extra icon

z0phi3l said:
You can access the contacts from the dialer, would be an extra click if you really want to not have that extra icon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but as far as I know you can't get to dialer from contacts, and I'm used to having the contacts icon on my home screen. I know I could just change it but you know what they say about old habits. however it isn't a problem since I have another contacts app that solved it for me.

My favorite feature is the dialer. I love the fact that it has speed dial unlike stock android. I also love the predictive dialing. These two are the biggest for me.

Updated ADW EX for tablets

You have to check out the new adw ex which is optimized for tablets. It is simply awesome especially the main dock
Screenshots below ...
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

works great.

Can the bar being themed easily ?

DannyBiker said:
Can the bar being themed easily ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it can.

Cool ...i run into my market !

Liking it...mostly.
Adds a new dimension to wallpaper wonkiness, unfortunately.
My wallpaper (via wizardrii) is not properly centered in landscape mode. Have not fiddled with it yet.
Anyone have any tips?

I will definitely be purchasing this for my girlfriend's 10.1.. thanks for the tip, it looks great!

Am loving it just make sure if your rubbish bin bar is located at the bottom you enable auto scaling of desktop when bin bar is used, otherwise you won't be able to add icons to the docking bar !
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

Mine works well for an hour or so, then takes an age for an app to return to the launcher. Only way to fix is to reboot the tab. Anyone else seen this?

Is there a light or trial version that I can try for free? I can't find one in the market.

TabGuy said:
Is there a light or trial version that I can try for free? I can't find one in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy it from android market and you will have 15 mts to refund. I know not much you can do in 15 mts, but something better than nothing.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App

Pottsy said:
Mine works well for an hour or so, then takes an age for an app to return to the launcher. Only way to fix is to reboot the tab. Anyone else seen this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got the same problem, when i exits some app the screen goes black and nothing happens for a long time and then the desktop appears.
/qsec
Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk

Wallpapers aren't rendered properly, and my dock bar just disappeared on mine. Still has a ways to go on tablets.

Dock bar going away is a common "problem" with ADW. Turn off hidden dockbar in the settings, turn off gestures.
I went ahead and set mine up without a dockbar, and with just the ADW settings menu item in the top right. Removed the trash bin as well (long-press then Remove from the desktop works just fine).
"Endless" page scrolling, page-turn animation of Tilt, 350 turn speed, 15 desktop bounce, and a theme that has a transparent top menu bar. Desktop has 9x7 columns/rows, icons scaled to 95%, density hack off. App drawer is 6x6, in 4D vertical scroll.
Basically, it looks pretty much like Honeycomb at a glance, but without the one-inch "tap space" wasted on the left and right screen edges. It's much faster and smoother. About the only performance issue I've had is that it doesn't handle "card" widgets like YouTube, Market or News360 as smoothly as stock, when you go to "fling" a card away.

Maybe I'm just getting old and simple, but I don't really see the point of having the excessive customization of ADW on a Honeycomb tab. I have my homescreen setup with two widgets and about 12 regular icons, then the next screen over has some lesser used stuff. If I need any other apps I just open the app drawer and easily locate them. I mean, it's neat to make things whiz-bang and all, but from a usability perspective there's already so much overkill built in to Honeycomb that ADW doesn't seem worth the time.
On my phone, ADW is great, however. Now get off my lawn.

burhanistan said:
Maybe I'm just getting old and simple, but I don't really see the point of having the excessive customization of ADW on a Honeycomb tab. I have my homescreen setup with two widgets and about 12 regular icons, then the next screen over has some lesser used stuff. If I need any other apps I just open the app drawer and easily locate them. I mean, it's neat to make things whiz-bang and all, but from a usability perspective there's already so much overkill built in to Honeycomb that ADW doesn't seem worth the time.
On my phone, ADW is great, however. Now get off my lawn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have to use the power of ADW, it's just there waiting to be harnessed if you want it.
In fact, you can use ADW to simplify it, for example you can delete unused home screens, unlike stock Honeycomb. Doing things like adding widgets or changing wallpapers is also cleaner and quicker than the flashy Honeycomb interface. It's simpler.
I'm a card carrying member of the Curmudgeon's Club of Canada, by the way.

burhanistan said:
Maybe I'm just getting old and simple, but I don't really see the point of having the excessive customization of ADW on a Honeycomb tab. I have my homescreen setup with two widgets and about 12 regular icons, then the next screen over has some lesser used stuff. If I need any other apps I just open the app drawer and easily locate them. I mean, it's neat to make things whiz-bang and all, but from a usability perspective there's already so much overkill built in to Honeycomb that ADW doesn't seem worth the time.
On my phone, ADW is great, however. Now get off my lawn.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So... You are saying that you need adw
I like simple too, and adw help me doing that.
I mean, I do not need the 3d cubic scrolling effects, neither than the futuristic widget selection screen, or the quick search bar at the top.
I didn't choose to display the dock too in adw.
And it is so fast, close to the ipad smoothness.

Croak said:
Dock bar going away is a common "problem" with ADW. Turn off hidden dockbar in the settings, turn off gestures.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not a problem but a feature hehe. If you slide one the dock, it disappear. I you slide again it appears. I think you can disable somewhere that movement.

ADW still sucks on the Tab..not only are the card/live widgets like Youtube slow to flick like someone said, but the worst thing is that for certain widget, like the Digital Clock stock Tab one...it looks fine when using the Tab landscape at first, then every single time I rotate to portrait view, the widget re-draws for new orientation and both left and right sides of the widget are not cut off. This does not adjust/fix itself instantly like stock launcher does and the only way to really fix it is to re-add widget or sometimes turn screen off and on.
I like the smoothness of the launcher/drawer but I aint dealing with this **** where a widget gets screwed up every single time....too annoying to deal with. Why is this such a hard thing to get right?? Is there a fix for this or no? I am not resizing the widget to begin with btw...just adding it as normal size. The homescreen size I use is 8 columns and 7 rows btw, just like stock.
Oh and why in the app drawer, the the top still unmatching/not dimmed like the rest of the drawer below it? Looks so stupid. They should dim it too and still keep the buttons in the top right corner, ughh.
EDIT: Here, compare landscape to portrait when flipped. Not only does that Digital Clock widget get cut off, but also look at the Wireless Widget..it looks ridiculous now.
EDIT2: I unchecked the ADW option for resizing widgets to fit blah blah but the same thing still happens where the Clock widget, for example, gets cut off after going vertical.. although the Wifi Widget looks a little less ridiculous now when turning. Anyone know about the widget issue though??

TabGuy said:
Is there a light or trial version that I can try for free? I can't find one in the market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The 15 minute refund policy really sucks, especially for apps like ADW EX where you really need some time to get a feel for how you like it and check out all the customizations. To get around it you can always buy it, pull the apk from /data/apps (requires root), refund it, and re-install the program using the pulled apk file. This way you can take your time to play around with the app before deciding if you want to keep it. If you do go ahead and re-buy it from market. If you decide not to buy it do the honest thing and uninstall the program.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App

Best launcher for an 80 year old (so they can't mess it up)

Guys,
I need to set this up for a grandparent, and I need a launcher that has some "lockdown" mode, where you can set up like 10 buttons, and it can't be messed up. 5 website shortcuts, 3 online radio stations, couple more things, that's it. Grandparent with fat fingers/little knowledge, but very excited to use. Any ideas? Can't use a launcher that can be easily and accidentally changed (buttons dragged, deleted, screen altered, etc). I just need it like a kiosk - rock stable and little options...
Thanks for any ideas

Wp7 launcher might be best. Not sure if you can lock the homescreen. Windows phone seems to be for old people anyways.
Sent from my Sense 4.0 powered HTC Glacier

acsi007 said:
Guys,
I need to set this up for a grandparent, and I need a launcher that has some "lockdown" mode, where you can set up like 10 buttons, and it can't be messed up. 5 website shortcuts, 3 online radio stations, couple more things, that's it. Grandparent with fat fingers/little knowledge, but very excited to use. Any ideas? Can't use a launcher that can be easily and accidentally changed (buttons dragged, deleted, screen altered, etc). I just need it like a kiosk - rock stable and little options...
Thanks for any ideas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AWD/EX has an option to lock home screens. Then has an option to remove the quick button for "unlock homescreen". It cost a couple bucks but might be the best option. and still leave the Android feel.

GO launcher has that option..
Sent from my HTC Glacier using xda premium

Easy to use launcher w/screen lock
Hi,
I've been researching this for my dad too and found the Nemus launcher. Haven't tested it out yet, but looks like it might fit your bill (large icons, can lock screens, can be customized to have only 1 home screen).
It's available via the Google Play store, just search "Nemus."
Good luck and hope I helped.

Big launcher isn't free, but it is designed for the elderly.

Wp7 launcher looks good, but I can't find any info on layout locking, which I need. Go is great, didn't know it had that - and I will look into ADW and the other one too-- thanks for the responses. You all did your part in (indirectly) helping an elderly person across the road today... Well done...

BIG Launcher
BIG Launcher is exactly what you need - you can hide dangerous apps and lock the settings by password. Also it offers the interface with simple design and large texts.

Possibly espeir(iOS) launcher people seem to think iPhone is super user friendly
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