Database Users

Do you like HTC Sense or another Launcher

Hi guys
Now I have my new DHD for 3rd days
I like the sense from HTC
Put it missed a lot of features like No of columns and rows and resize the widgets
But if are using another launcher you will loss a lot of good widgets from HTC sense
So what do you like
HTC sense or another launcher and why ?
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

personally stock is the best
but sense is the best one from a manufacturer, however it would be nice to use sense widgets with stock launcher cause htc does have good widgets for email and a few others.

I'm using Launcher Pro in combination with Spare Parts. This way I get the nice widgets AND the eye candy animations I miss from stock android. Never really been a fan of Sense, however I did give it a chance to see if there were any improvements from my previous experiences. It must be said, it feels much more responsive with LP, especially after tweaking. I recommend it to anyone looking for a speed boost and also suggest purchasing the Plus version to support such great development.
Regards.

LauncherPro all the way. Looking forward to the rewrite too.
Put it this way, once the DHD had turned on, I immediately went to the market, downloaded LP and punched in my activation code. Everything else got done after that.

I like HTC Sense, but on my SGS I had Zeam which is very good plus beautiful widgets and that was a very nice combination. I've considered going the same way with the Desire HD but I'll stick with the stock launcher for now.

lynxboy said:
It must be said, it feels much more responsive with LP, especially after tweaking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any recommendations on how to tweak it? Are you referring to performance tweak or design tweak? (Using Launcher Pro Plus)

LtdEdFred said:
Any recommendations on how to tweak it? Are you referring to performance tweak or design tweak? (Using Launcher Pro Plus)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went over all of the settings in Launcher pro plus and tried out a little of everything untill I was pleased with it.
Now finally everything is going smooth, unlike the sense interface, which kinda made me feel like a dumbnut for selling my 3GS for the Desire HD. Now I can't be happier with it (ok, yes I can, if it would have a loudspeaker that you could actually hear, because now, when it's in my pocket, I never hear it unless it's absolutely quiet)
Check out my Launcher Pro Plus here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxp7ljpNukk
the movie starts with a question about Android market that just got solved, so never mind that, you can skip right to the part of Launcher Pro Plus

If only there was Cookie Home for HTC Sense in Android....
How difficult, comparing with the HTC from WM, can be coding it for android?

matthiasdeblaiser said:
I went over all of the settings in Launcher pro plus and tried out a little of everything untill I was pleased with it.
Now finally everything is going smooth, unlike the sense interface, which kinda made me feel like a dumbnut for selling my 3GS for the Desire HD. Now I can't be happier with it (ok, yes I can, if it would have a loudspeaker that you could actually hear, because now, when it's in my pocket, I never hear it unless it's absolutely quiet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Matthias, I will have my DHD on Tuesday and it will be my first android phone... Just an information: if I install Launcher Pro Plus or any other launcher, could I come back to Sense without problems anytime?
Thx

halokin said:
Hi Matthias, I will have my DHD on Tuesday and it will be my first android phone... Just an information: if I install Launcher Pro Plus or any other launcher, could I come back to Sense without problems anytime?
Thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure you can go back for any launcher
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

halokin said:
Hi Matthias, I will have my DHD on Tuesday and it will be my first android phone... Just an information: if I install Launcher Pro Plus or any other launcher, could I come back to Sense without problems anytime?
Thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome aboard the Android-train Good choice.
Since you're new to this I'll give you a quick guide on how to restore default programs (this applies to any program).
Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> Click the program and choose "Clear defaults". Easy, peasy lemon squeezy

LtdEdFred said:
Any recommendations on how to tweak it? Are you referring to performance tweak or design tweak? (Using Launcher Pro Plus)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are numerous settings related to scrolling speed, cached pages, appdrawer settings etc. There is no definitive mix of settings it's purely down to the end user's preference. I suggest you download the free version and have a play/tweak and see what suits you best. A few adjustments are for performance and others are purely cosmetic.
The main benefits of LP are the ability to customise the dockbar to hold the shortcuts you actually want. You can manage your desktop much easier when everything is organised the way you like it. One thing I do enjoy is the ability to use the stock android transition animations HOWEVER, after hearing it can increase the rate at which the battery is drained, i'm considering turning them off anyway!
Regards.

LtdEdFred said:
Welcome aboard the Android-train Good choice.
Since you're new to this I'll give you a quick guide on how to restore default programs (this applies to any program).
Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> Click the program and choose "Clear defaults". Easy, peasy lemon squeezy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for your tip! Very kind!

ADW Launcher, mainly becaused I have set the density to 171 - a density that Sense doesn't like at all.
If I could only use the HTC Sense Widgets!
(Anyone knows of a launcher which also runs the Sense widgets?)

appelflap said:
ADW Launcher, mainly becaused I have set the density to 171 - a density that Sense doesn't like at all.
If I could only use the HTC Sense Widgets!
(Anyone knows of a launcher which also runs the Sense widgets?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Launcher Pro Plus has very nice widgets, widgets which are almost identical to the ones on Sense. I was firmly in ADW camp at one point but as time has gone on I came round to the idea that LP has the better options overall. Not to say that ADW isn't a capable launcher, it's highly customisable and has unique options such as the swipe up dockbar but those nice widgets...... LP all the way!

lynxboy said:
There are numerous settings related to scrolling speed, cached pages, appdrawer settings etc. There is no definitive mix of settings it's purely down to the end user's preference. I suggest you download the free version and have a play/tweak and see what suits you best. A few adjustments are for performance and others are purely cosmetic.
The main benefits of LP are the ability to customise the dockbar to hold the shortcuts you actually want. You can manage your desktop much easier when everything is organised the way you like it. One thing I do enjoy is the ability to use the stock android transition animations HOWEVER, after hearing it can increase the rate at which the battery is drained, i'm considering turning them off anyway!
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt the animations impact battery life by much, but i could be wrong. But i would still keep them on because without them, opening and closing apps is just plain ugly!

I have downloaded Launcher Pro and Zeam today, but when I went to download Home Switcher it tells me it's not compatible with Froyo 2.2.
Does anyone know a similar app to Home Switcher that works for Froyo?

StellaDel said:
I have downloaded Launcher Pro and Zeam today, but when I went to download Home Switcher it tells me it's not compatible with Froyo 2.2.
Does anyone know a similar app to Home Switcher that works for Froyo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
download EasyHome, i haven't tried it but it should work.

matthiasdeblaiser said:
I went over all of the settings in Launcher pro plus and tried out a little of everything untill I was pleased with it.
Now finally everything is going smooth, unlike the sense interface, which kinda made me feel like a dumbnut for selling my 3GS for the Desire HD. Now I can't be happier with it (ok, yes I can, if it would have a loudspeaker that you could actually hear, because now, when it's in my pocket, I never hear it unless it's absolutely quiet)
Check out my Launcher Pro Plus here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxp7ljpNukk
the movie starts with a question about Android market that just got solved, so never mind that, you can skip right to the part of Launcher Pro Plus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow.....widget clock is very well!!!share this widget?
thank

SupremeBeaver said:
download EasyHome, i haven't tried it but it should work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looked on the market and AppBrain, can't find it

Atrix Laggy Live Wallpaper

This has been posted before, but it's been a while and this issue is really frustrating me, and it wasn't resolved, so I figure I'll bring it back up.
When I use a launcher with an app drawer transition (LauncherPro, ADW, ANYTHING) I get a HUGE slowdown in framerate when using live wallpapers and pressing the app drawer button. Is this something to do with the live wallpapers not being optimized for Tegra II? Moto is not helpful because they just blame it on the launcher (MotoBlur doesn't have an app drawer transition animation, so there is no noticable lag). I have asked them and they say to report it to the app developer (LauncherPro etc). LauncherPro doesn't respond.
I think it is absolutely rediculous that I can't even use live wallpapers on this "powerful" phone without a huge frame rate reduction. Someone PLEASE help.
Thanks

Have you tried un/checking the "high quality scrolling" option in LP advanced settings?

I fixed that problem with mine by switching to a NS4G lol. Single core and twice as fast, go figure.
The Atrix is a great phone overall, and I miss it sometimes but wouldn't trade back for a minute. Hopefully GB will help with it as it's supposed to support dual core better. I used to complain about the same thing.

WiredPirate said:
Have you tried un/checking the "high quality scrolling" option in LP advanced settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't do anything. Still laggy.

[Q] Smoothness... I want more

I just got my TF 6 hrs ago and I am not impressed with how smooth the main screens are when scrolling sideways. It looks like it is stuttering. I want it as smooth as my Pyromod G2.
I was hoping that the 3.1 update fixes this but I just got the update and still stuttering.
Is there any solution other than rooting and overclocking to the max. Is there a launcher settings that I can adjust?

My home screen is really smooth. But I am using regular wallpaper and not the live one.

I guess the first thing to do would be to use the same launcher if it's supported on Honeycomb. I like the HC launcher myself. Every now and then it's a little slow when it first gets going or after being off for a while but nothing that effects usability. I guess the issue might be that you're comparing a hacked, customized and tweaked Android 2.x device moving 800x480 pixels to a whole new unmodified factory OS moving 1200x800 pixels so I would sort of expect it to be a little less optimized from the get go.
I'm running the Primordial 3.1 build right now with the OC kernel at 1.4 GHz and everything just moves right along for me.
So might want to start with apples to apples and go from there.

I noticed my Transformer had started feeling really sluggish and I hadn't even installed much. I was rebooting often and it seemed to help a little for a short time. Then I just removed an application I installed recently and wow, performance was smooth again.
That app was TweetCaster Pro, something I grabbed as a free app of the day from the Amazon Appstore. Don't know if it was just that app or maybe some weird combination that didn't like each other. *shrug* But things are a lot smoother. So it might be worth looking at some of your apps, especially those that install background services that like to look for updates frequently.

ADW EX you won't get any smoother than that
For twitter i use Tweetcomb, totally awesome

LauncherPro also runs really smooth on Tegra devices.
Stock Google launchers typically aren't very smooth, especially on a brand new chipset.

does other launcher show the app icon as big as hc stock launcher? more icon and widget sure will slow down the animation, but I found that by tapping the most left or right side of the screen will take you to other page with faster animation n of course it is smoother

mine is really smooth...probably one of the apps you installed is not getting along well with the honeycomb

xufuchang said:
does other launcher show the app icon as big as hc stock launcher? more icon and widget sure will slow down the animation, but I found that by tapping the most left or right side of the screen will take you to other page with faster animation n of course it is smoother
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With ADW EX you can change the size of the icons to any size you want!
Change the icon to any picture.
Change the speed of the animation.
Change the bounce!
The only thing ADW EX doesn't do is hold it for you when you take a leak
I currently have 7 pages 5 of which are full of widgets (and i mean full), no sticking EVER

checkbox111 said:
With ADW EX you can change the size of the icons to any size you want!
Change the icon to any picture.
Change the speed of the animation.
Change the bounce!
The only thing ADW EX doesn't do is hold it for you when you take a leak
I currently have 7 pages 5 of which are full of widgets (and i mean full), no sticking EVER
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nice, I'm going try it then.

Do you need root to use ADW Launcher EX?

ThaiM said:
Do you need root to use ADW Launcher EX?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no need,just installed adw ex, smooth...

magicpork said:
mine is really smooth...probably one of the apps you installed is not getting along well with the honeycomb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was still a virgin TF but it was not meeting my expectations. Maybe because I am used to a smother one.
Anyway, I installed Launcher Pro Plus, (I remember I purchased this before) and the performance improved a little bit. I wonder if the ADW EX is better.
I really don't want to root this TF but I really crave the smoothness that I find in my G2 so I have no choice but to root it when I get my extra Micro SDHC. BTW, does the new ROMS support/Include ASUS MyCloud, MyNet, .. etc.
Also, I've read that Netflix and Yahoo Messenger Video chat isn't fully working yet.
All in all, other than those intangible (software) shortcomings I still like the TF hardware. Softwares will get fixed soon, but crappy hardware will stay crappy forever in the tablet world.

The rooted roms are all up to date and are built using the OTA releases so yea all the asus software is still included

Try turning off the animations.

Live wallpapers murder performance. If you select a static one, your performance will be far better. Next would be widgets; try and keep them to a minimum if you can.

jerrykur said:
Try turning off the animations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*Daedalus said:
Live wallpapers murder performance. If you select a static one, your performance will be far better. Next would be widgets; try and keep them to a minimum if you can.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it's actually the first thing I did. It did not help.
lacrossev said:
The rooted roms are all up to date and are built using the OTA releases so yea all the asus software is still included
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!

jerrykur said:
Try turning off the animations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, works nicely. Although some apps seem to turn them back on, so I need to back in and (re)set, which sucks.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

Just got the TF dock today. It's really cool, the tablet is transformed!
I haven't played that that much yet but it seems that it doesn't support a USB mouse... or does it??

it should have it...

Venting: Why is the homescreen so laggy?

This seems to be such a common problem for android phones and tablets. Even with deodexed, slimmed, optimized roms and overclocked kernels, it just boggles my mind that the homescreen is the slowest part of the android experience. Other apps scroll smoothly and are responsive, but the homescreen is jerky and slow.
Try this: Long click an icon and drag it around the screen. The thing can't follow even a moderately fast-moving finger. And that's just a simple icon moving on a 2d plane. But then, I can run a playstation emulator in 3d without problems.
The same thing has been true on my G1, SGS, Droid Charge, GTab 10.1, and Moto Droid 1.
Am I missing something?

i dunno mayne its the snap to grid that causes it because flipping back and forth from pane to pane is smooth.

Coming from the transformer, this was the first thing i actually noticed. One thing that would help is to change the default wallpaper to one of your own. It actually improves it significantly
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

I have a Xoom on 3.2 and the home screen is really smooth. I have looked at many Touchwiz videos on Youtube and it seems very laggy compared to my Xoom. But i guess i will soon see it in person, just ordered a GT10.1 3G.

Only reason that your tab or phone are laggy on homescreen is due to either wallpaper or widget,
To fix it get wallpaper wizardrii and set to no scroll.
In regards to the icons well notice that you have additional few more effects when you tap and hold icons, there is stransparency, grid etc. If you want to move icons from app dock to homescreen it shows both at the same time, and homescreen is active not paused.
Ios will never be able to do this there is just to much
At the moment my tab is acting really weird.
My wallpaper is scrolling although it should not, screen is absolutely jitter free all that happened since I've activated kies via wifi and deselected usb debugging (needed it to install drivers)
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

Can't say mine is laggy at all but I'm not using the stock launcher. The latest "UEKMB" slim Launcher2 with enabled hw acceleration and Multipicture LWP looks and feels extremely smooth. I have no comparison to another Honeycomb Tablet but I can't really see it getting noticeable "smoother".

cryptyk said:
This seems to be such a common problem for android phones and tablets. Even with deodexed, slimmed, optimized roms and overclocked kernels, it just boggles my mind that the homescreen is the slowest part of the android experience. Other apps scroll smoothly and are responsive, but the homescreen is jerky and slow.
Try this: Long click an icon and drag it around the screen. The thing can't follow even a moderately fast-moving finger. And that's just a simple icon moving on a 2d plane. But then, I can run a playstation emulator in 3d without problems.
The same thing has been true on my G1, SGS, Droid Charge, GTab 10.1, and Moto Droid 1.
Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem.... Before the Touchwiz update my homescreen was very laggy, after the update it became less lagy but you can still feel it when scrolling which, I gotta tell you is the most annoying thing... IS there any way to make my homescreen smoother? I've tried wallpaper wizardrii which helped but after awhile the wallpaper cuts in half... I have no more than 5 widgets on my Tab and i'm still amazed on how bad the screen lag is.... I

I'm using ADW Launcher EX, and the screen is super smooth/responsive. The latest version has a high-density option, so we still get the big icons. It's $2 or $3 but it's worth it, and the other thing is to disable the scrolling desktop.
Give it a try. I'm not sure why the stock launcher is so choppy, but they could learn something from the folks who made ADW.
-----
Side note: My current ROM/Kernal is completely stock. No root, no OC, and ADW is still silky smooth. BUT... it was even smoother when I was running my Tab at 1400 with AutoKiller.

Adw launcher is great. I use it on my Xoom & it makes it fly.Try it on the 10.1 & give us some feedback.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

I see the lag on my Tab that is described by the OP.
However, I do NOT see it on my HTC Thunderbolt phone running Go Launcher EX.

Arun01 said:
Adw launcher is great. I use it on my Xoom & it makes it fly.Try it on the 10.1 & give us some feedback.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just finished installing ADW launcher ex and its A LOT smoother than stock, the transition from landscape to portrait view is still a bit droggy but that's probably because of the widgets. I'm loving the new look ADW gave my tablet.

I too was very frustrated with the homescreen lag on my 10.1. I installed ADW Launcher EX and it has been super smooth and givees you some neat options for homescreen transition effects too. Give it a try.

do a search.
Its because Google has little to no interest in fixing the UI/gpu/hw acceleration issues.
Your phone tablet apps launcher etc have nothing to do with it. Its a fundamental issue with Android that has been ignored and no intention of real fix.

xManMythLegend said:
do a search.
Your phone tablet apps launcher etc have nothing to do with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on the number of people that just said the stock launcher is laggy, and the aftermarket ones are not, I would say the launcher has quite a lot to do with it.

cryptyk said:
Based on the number of people that just said the stock launcher is laggy, and the aftermarket ones are not, I would say the launcher has quite a lot to do with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who made the stock launcher?... Google...
It is well known that Google cuts corners in relation to standardization and hardware acceleration. Instead the focus on incrementally updating release numbers instead.
sent via Tapatalk

cryptyk said:
Based on the number of people that just said the stock launcher is laggy, and the aftermarket ones are not, I would say the launcher has quite a lot to do with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lag and framerate drops happen across the ui not just the launcher. It is an Android problem not anything device specific.

I have a standard (scrolling, but not live) wallpaper, 5 widgets and maybe 30 shortcut icons on my desktop/homescreen. Scrolling from one to another is silky smooth (3.1 TW). On one occasion it was quite laggy, it seemed like it had gone from hw accel'd to software for no obvious reason.... Quick reboot fixed it, though.
While it's probably true some performace issues lie with google, I'd wager most problems lie with users and developers doing things badly (or trying to do too much).

I deleted the social hub widget and my homescreen does not lag at all anymore.

tghockey07 said:
I deleted the social hub widget and my homescreen does not lag at all anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS. Widgets. Remove them.
>>>
>>>
Admit you have no real friends.
Remove the social widget.
????
PROFIT!

Mine varies from ROM to ROM. I actually get the smoothest experience on stock 3.1 no TW.

Touchwiz vs Nova Launcher on Galaxy S2 running XXLPQ (4.0.3)

I tried both of these and think the Touchwiz launcher's animations and transitions run on the CPU and is hence affected in Powersaving Mode (Frame rate drops), but with Nova Launcher and full GPU rendering, the phone is perfectly fluid even with Powersaving mode. Can anyone confirm this?

Will test later today.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

I first tried Launcher Go ex (or what ever it's called).
Now I'm on Nova Launcher Prime ($4), and it's a lot better.
In combination with the Pro Widgets.
Does it automaticly do full GPU or have you enabled it in de developers settings?

xmoo said:
I first tried Launcher Go ex (or what ever it's called).
Now I'm on Nova Launcher Prime ($4), and it's a lot better.
In combination with the Pro Widgets.
Does it automaticly do full GPU or have you enabled it in de developers settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to be doing full GPU accel without enabling the force option. I have currently disabled the force 2d GPU thing as it causes the wallpaper app to FC.

I'm using Nova Launcher now with DarkyRom, I have to say I would prefer TW, but not sure if there's a CWM flashable version of stock(or something that has TW included) yet.
Nova seems to work fine for me, it does look more like ICS, i've not tested battery life to the max yet, flashed it yesterday, at work now, let's see how long it lasts me on a full day of normal/to high usage.

I'm on Apex

richfreestone said:
I'm using Nova Launcher now with DarkyRom, I have to say I would prefer TW, but not sure if there's a CWM flashable version of stock(or something that has TW included) yet.
Nova seems to work fine for me, it does look more like ICS, i've not tested battery life to the max yet, flashed it yesterday, at work now, let's see how long it lasts me on a full day of normal/to high usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TW lags horribly with System Power Saving on!

anirudh4444 said:
Seems to be doing full GPU accel without enabling the force option. I have currently disabled the force 2d GPU thing as it causes the wallpaper app to FC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You think forcing it will give battery issues?
No FC's here when enabled.

kelvs said:
I'm on Apex
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am also on Apex. It works best for me.

xmoo said:
You think forcing it will give battery issues?
No FC's here when enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It shouldnt affect battery adversely. Will confirm after testing. With Force 2D option, you are able to set a wallpaper from your gallery? I experience FC's when I try to do that.

anirudh4444 said:
It shouldnt affect battery adversely. Will confirm after testing. With Force 2D option, you are able to set a wallpaper from your gallery? I experience FC's when I try to do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have a cute picture of my sisters baby as background.

I am also on Apex. It works best for me. its free

Apex launcher is much better than nova, just saying.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

I was on nova but someone here recommended apex and Im now converted.
Free and very customizable.
Wish Samsung / and others would give you the ability to choose the native look though. I thought Google were going to make everyone do this?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA

Yep, Apex is best i think.
Just upgraded to official ICS and with Apex it looks totally like Galaxy Nexus. I dont care about white clock and green battery on status bar, the only thing I wish is better settings.apk(with ICS feel on it) and normal lock screen(Still cant understand, why they didnt wanted to put more functionality on it, camera or dialer/sms. Why did they choose that emtpy lock thingy).

I prefer a simpler experience, I have installed AndyX, and I prefer Trebuchet

richfreestone said:
I'm using Nova Launcher now with DarkyRom, I have to say I would prefer TW, but not sure if there's a CWM flashable version of stock(or something that has TW included) yet.
Nova seems to work fine for me, it does look more like ICS, i've not tested battery life to the max yet, flashed it yesterday, at work now, let's see how long it lasts me on a full day of normal/to high usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can always get TWlauncher back through DarkyOTA app. I answered this question by searching Google. Remember...Google is your friend do not be scared to use it. Cheers.

Is there any ICS themed launcher that allows you to place the digital clock widget at the top of the screen? They all kick it down 1 line. Also, it would need to allow the accuweather widget to be resized properly, without having text that overlaps.
I have yet to find a launcher aside from Touchwiz that does this.

I much rather prefer 360launcher. Does the job awesome for me. Apex is kinda stuttery for me me, and Go Launcher icons are somewhat smaller than the rest.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III leaked prototype

tietherope said:
Is there any ICS themed launcher that allows you to place the digital clock widget at the top of the screen? They all kick it down 1 line. Also, it would need to allow the accuweather widget to be resized properly, without having text that overlaps.
I have yet to find a launcher aside from Touchwiz that does this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Nova you can resize widget to cut out the blank spaces above and below the clock. once done you'll get your 4x1 clock back.