Related
If u havent tried it, go get it! The best. Grab it in the market for free.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Go sms pro is pretty phat too.
I think it's hands down the best launcher out there. The Honeycomb theme is awesome with it.
Very nice!
Sent from my MIUI powered Evo
I loved the launcher, but ended up trying out others for a second time when they were already bundled with ROMs. Also, as far as I know, GO Launcher EX doesn't allow for higher grid settings on homescreens, which is absolutely essential to my current setup. If this has changed, I will surely go back, as I loved how smooth it was and how much customization there was elsewhere in it!
Also, I second GO SMS Pro (was just GO SMS, just added features in Pro, like the long-awaited, at least for me, support to check drafts! and is still free).
They update a lot, and not in a bad way. They're usually adding more and more features. Ever since I found out about the GO Dev Team when actually looking to use Handcent or Chomp SMS, I've loved 'em.
I just hate using free launchers cause I have ones I paid for. :-/
phatmanxxl said:
I just hate using free launchers cause I have ones I paid for. :-/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's kind of how I feel, too.
Go Launcher EX is the business. I think so many people are loyal to ADW and Launcher Pro though(why, I can't figure out). I'll bet you that most folks who have tried all three will tell you that Go Launcher EX is superior. The fact that it's free alone sets it apart. And the regular updates are a nice plus too... If you haven't tried it I suggest you do. Then come back here and give an honest opinion of it.
I tried it but can't remember what it was that turned me away. I admit, it has been a little bit so I'm sure it's better.
Does it have it's own widgets. gesture swipes, resizable widget option, able to change app icons on your homescreens, ability to choose any dock you want? These are some of the things I love on ADW ex/ LPP.
It may very well have some of these things now, it has been a bit. I'm on a Sense kick right now, but I'll give it another look.
I love go launcher but I need to reload the icons when I come out of the browser our youtube.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
I wouldn't go as far as saying go launcher is superior that's a little much eh? Its good but its not great. I've used almost every launcher out there for more than a weeks at a time each and I always come back to adwEX.
I'm interested to see what this complete rewrite of Launcher Pro...whenever it happens....will bring to the table.
totalanonymity said:
I loved the launcher, but ended up trying out others for a second time when they were already bundled with ROMs. Also, as far as I know, GO Launcher EX doesn't allow for higher grid settings on homescreens, which is absolutely essential to my current setup. If this has changed, I will surely go back, as I loved how smooth it was and how much customization there was elsewhere in it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They did add that feature.
Batman58 said:
I tried it but can't remember what it was that turned me away. I admit, it has been a little bit so I'm sure it's better.
Does it have it's own widgets. gesture swipes, resizable widget option, able to change app icons on your homescreens, ability to choose any dock you want? These are some of the things I love on ADW ex/ LPP.
It may very well have some of these things now, it has been a bit. I'm on a Sense kick right now, but I'll give it another look.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer is YES to all of your inquiries, execpt for the 1st one(it's own widgets).. Atleast, I dont think it has it's own widgets, but it has so many add-ons, so there might be one. But YES, it has gesture swipes, you can resize the widgets, app icons can be changed on the desktop and in the dock, you can change your dock, the dock is scrollable and supports up to 15 apps, etc...
dirkyd3rk said:
I wouldn't go as far as saying go launcher is superior that's a little much eh? Its good but its not great. I've used almost every launcher out there for more than a weeks at a time each and I always come back to adwEX.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The main reason I called it superior is because it's FREE.. and the other two that are comparable are not(ADW EX and LP+). Of course once you put price aside, the opinions are gonna vary as to which launcher is better. To me the 3 are very comparable though.
mattykinsx said:
I'm interested to see what this complete rewrite of Launcher Pro...whenever it happens....will bring to the table.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. I'm a LP user 100% of the way. ADW has a lot of flash but poorly designed, Go Launcher is actually okay but performance isn't all that great. LP is very well designed and very fast. Can't wait for the rewrite.
phatmanxxl said:
I just hate using free launchers cause I have ones I paid for. :-/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I'd hate to not use ADW EX simply because I paid like $3 for it
Only thing that's pissing me off is adwEX hasn't been updated since beginning of January. I hope anderwebs is cooking up some hot features, buts I've purchased adwex, launcher pro plus, and launcher 7. I like to switch back and forth. Go launcher being free simply doesn't make it superior; what's 3 bucks when you can buy 2 launchers for the price of one Burger king combo lol. I bought them to try them all and go launcher simply isn't that impressive. You need to try some paid launchers man I bet you won't find yourself saying that anymore.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Philosuffer said:
They did add that feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They added the feature but the max is 5x5, combine that with the fact it does not support shuttered dpi and I have to say LPP is still my favorite.
It's cool and neat but far from owning the competition at this point.
I have Launcher Pro plus, ADW Ex. I've always liked ADW Ex better because -
- lockable screens. Can't tell you how many times I've accidentally moved stuff or even dropped and deleted (or had a friend do that while looking at my phone)
- performance especially with the homescreen transitions
- easily edit and resize icons/shortcuts
- I have Pure calendar and Beautiful weather widgets, so I don't really miss LP widgets.
- got tired of waiting for the "re-write" (not a criticism - I just itch for new stuff)
Go Launcher
Pros
- Matches everything ADW Ex does
- Unread Notifications even on the dock (not on ADW, even with notifier)
- Much easier to manipulate entire screens
- discovered go sms - it's gorgeous!
Cons
- Haven't seen a "lock" feature yet. Need to explore.
- Performance doesn't have the same "snap" to it as ADW Ex, but I need to explore and tweak that a little more
Pretty pleased with Go Launcher Ex so far, I'll use it for a while and check.
After 1,5 months of messing with adw, launcher pro, gb launcher, I've tried motoblur default and I'm amazed how fast it works. The scrolling is definitely the smoothest even with a live wallpaper, icon placements are done ok (when u want to rearrange them you don't have to move the first one first).
Too bad you can't replace the dock!!!
Sent from my Atrix
wait a few weeks till Gingerbread comes out and the new blur will let you do it
I've seen the new blur and yes, it's better than the current! But few weeks, I don't think so, maybe for AT&T, but for Bell....
I even find the look of the dock cool, but it's just so dumb for them to have put contacts and a phone shortcut instead of phone and web browser.
facetubespam said:
wait a few weeks till Gingerbread comes out and the new blur will let you do it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you actually able to change the dock image on the gingerbread blur update?
ndevries64 said:
Are you actually able to change the dock image on the gingerbread blur update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The dock is different. Instead of the dumb phone and contact shortcut + launcher circle set up that it is right now, it becomes four changeable shortcut icons and a launcher icon.
The dock is ok-ish... the fugly part is the fact that it changes to the dotted thingy when u flip the pages.
Sent from my Atrix
neodoru said:
After 1,5 months of messing with adw, launcher pro, gb launcher, I've tried motoblur default and I'm amazed how fast it works. The scrolling is definitely the smoothest even with a live wallpaper, icon placements are done ok (when u want to rearrange them you don't have to move the first one first).
Too bad you can't replace the dock!!!
Sent from my Atrix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same impression. Blur is maybe the ugliest but the most stable and fastest. I tired all the other launchers and after a while they bugged me all either they were instable, choppy or bloated with functions that I don't use.
the new blur dock will only allow you to change the first 3 icons. The 4th icon is the appdrawer button that will not be changeable.
Also, the dots when swiping screens are gone, but be replaced by tiny dots on the bottom of the dock when you swipe through the screens, therefore not taking away your icons.
I don't think you're able to change the dock image, but you can change 3 of the 4 icons.
I've used all the launchers as well. The smoothest I've come across is the Go Launcher. Think I'm going to give blur a shot again too. Worse part about the blur launchers was definitely the stupid dot when changing pages.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App
Gotta disagree that it's better than most 3rd party launchers.
For instance when you go from one homescreen to the next, you can't instantly go to the app drawer. Sure it's a second, but IMO it's still irritating. It's little things like that that ADD UP to why MotoBlur fails.
I've tried to go back a few times, and I still can't justify using MB over a 3rd party launcher like LP or Go.
I've also seen the upcoming changes with MB, and I'm still unimpressed. Sure it's better than the current state, but it's still bloatware that I need to freeze again.
Bottom Line - There's no good reason why Motorola should be using MotoBlur, when Vanilla Android is hands down the better choice. You have to question Motorola's "Intentions" of still committing to MB, when the vast majority of people want it removed...
I mean, saying that the "vast majority" of users would like to have it removed seems like an over-exaggeration.
People like us that even know that there are different launcher choices or that MotoBlur can be frozen are in the minority when it comes to the overall amount of people out there with an Atrix.
Truthfully, the "vast majority" of people with this phone are using it stock and are enjoying it just fine.
Gordonson said:
I mean, saying that the "vast majority" of users would like to have it removed seems like an over-exaggeration.
People like us that even know that there are different launcher choices or that MotoBlur can be frozen are in the minority when it comes to the overall amount of people out there with an Atrix.
Truthfully, the "vast majority" of people with this phone are using it stock and are enjoying it just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even XDA aside - Engaget, GSMArena, AndroidForums right off the top of my head pretty much feels the same too.
That doesn't include review sites such as TechRadar that bash it too.
Finally my friend is an Account Executive for AT&T and he even gets questions from customers of what they can "legally" do to remove it without voiding their warranty.
Part of the reason why many want the Bootloader gone is to strip MB down as much as possible.
MotoBlur was gimmicky enough for say the backflip, but it doesn't belong on a high end device...
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA Premium App
ha, looking forward for atrix with gingerbread
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
neodoru said:
After 1,5 months of messing with adw, launcher pro, gb launcher, I've tried motoblur default and I'm amazed how fast it works. The scrolling is definitely the smoothest even with a live wallpaper, icon placements are done ok (when u want to rearrange them you don't have to move the first one first).
Too bad you can't replace the dock!!!
Sent from my Atrix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agreed. I've been testing many different launchers and motoblur is the only one that has no lag at all. The main thing that really makes me mad about it is that you cannot remove homescreens (I want only 4, no 7!). It would be cool if you could ad more apps to the dock, but I can live with that...not the homescreen though...and it's such a silly thing...
I've given up mb ... the dock and the ungrouped widgets are way too annoying! Playing with golauncher which is smooth but crashy.
Sent from my Atrix
My buddy has gingerbread on his Droid X and its slow as balls. Hope ours is better.
I think that the Atrix will only be as fast as it can be once honeycomb is out. It has been said over and again that it's the only build that was actually thought of with dual core in mind.
Motorola shot its' own foot with the Atrix. It's unacceptable that this phone lags in day to day tasks where high end single core phones don't.
rawfa said:
I think that the Atrix will only be as fast as it can be once honeycomb is out. It has been said over and again that it's the only build that was actually thought of with dual core in mind.
Motorola shot its' own foot with the Atrix. It's unacceptable that this phone lags in day to day tasks where high end single core phones don't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honeycomb is for tablets.
I do love changing my dock icons/shortcuts but i also love that with launcher pro i can change my grid size and the home screens rotate if i'm in landscape.
I do notice a slight lag when i rotate but nothing worth going back to blur for... at least not yet
Always had HTC phones currently the desire HD,been waiting to see what they had to offer and have to say the x1 doesn't do it for me,so thinking of jumping ship and waiting for the SGS3.thing is I really like HTC sense.So to any former HTC user now with the SGS2 and touchwiz,how did you find the transition,can you get it set up to suit and what should I be aware of if making the jump once the SGS3 is out
sent from my leedroid powered Desire HD
Transition is pretty easy. I never found sense very useful (in a global way) but it's really pretty. I think touchwiz is the opposite. It's kind of ugly with all these shiny icons but it's discret and have a few cool features (especially around the notification bar).
Plus, TW is a lot snappier than sense used to be (didn't get to try newer HTC devices). I even find TW snappier than any launcher you can find on the market.
I moved from desire z to sgs2, and I must say that touchwiz was a big disappointment to me.
It's not hard to get used to touchwiz, but it will be hard to get used with the missing features, for me the most annoying thing was that the dial pad can not search after the second name, I mean if you want to search for "combat goofwing" and you type in the dial pad 4663 for "goof" it will not find anything.
Another annoying thing is that in the app drawer the apps are not sorted in alphabetical order, they are sorted in the install order, and you can move them around but I don't have the patience to move apps around, for me this makes apps harder to find.
I own this phone for a few mounts now and I used to it, but I still miss sense.
The hardware is great, I still can't believe how good the display is, everything works very smooth, but unfortunately touchwiz is light years behind sense.
Any way I'm sorry I didn't bought the sensation, but my next phone will definitely be a HTC.
You can always choose alphabetical listing option. Move to a custom ROM, the phone rocks.
Sent from my GT-I9100
ionut.micu said:
I moved from desire z to sgs2, and I must say that touchwiz was a big disappointment to me.
It's not hard to get used to touchwiz, but it will be hard to get used with the missing features, for me the most annoying thing was that the dial pad can not search after the second name, I mean if you want to search for "combat goofwing" and you type in the dial pad 4663 for "goof" it will not find anything.
Another annoying thing is that in the app drawer the apps are not sorted in alphabetical order, they are sorted in the install order, and you can move them around but I don't have the patience to move apps around, for me this makes apps harder to find.
I own this phone for a few mounts now and I used to it, but I still miss sense.
The hardware is great, I still can't believe how good the display is, everything works very smooth, but unfortunately touchwiz is light years behind sense.
Any way I'm sorry I didn't bought the sensation, but my next phone will definitely be a HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto for me, I think I will go buy a One S or X; there are just so many little things missing from touchwizz compared to sense ( I don't mean just the launchers but all the apps htc and samsung, include or modify); don't get me wrong touchwiz is not bad at all, especially compared to stock android but it's just not as good as sense.
Used to have a htc desire before my SGS2.. the only things I liked about sense 2.1 was the lockscreen that gives the caller/texter name at the bottom, instead of a little numbered flagged like touchwiz (being honest I know I could get widgetlocker and get that back but don't mind the sammy lockscreen that much) and I liked the screen unlock weather animations (which I have on my SGS2 courtesy of Beautiful Widgets)
The rest of sense wasn't that great, the contacts app is a little more intuitive than SGS2's but not really an issue
Oh, the touchwiz launcher is pretty useless, but I've been using LauncherPro since day 1
Beautiful widgets' superclock is just annoying, I disabled the animations because you see them everyone time you unlock unlike sense where you will only see it when the widget is visible. Also better in sense : keyboard (best touchscreen keyboard), friends pictures in the gallery, friendstream, sense unlockscreen with shortcuts, dialer, app drawers.
i dont really care because when i get a phone i just put cm on it')
Sent from my SGS2 powered by cm9 love
I have an amaze 4g and my wife has the tmobile sgs2. We both are from the htc g2 running sense. She loves how simple TW is, but she says its missing quite a bit of things she liked, all little things but none the less missing them.
I my self hate TW seems like a child's launcher in a way.
Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using XDA App
I miss the dialer and contact screen from Sense. I can get everything else with some minor modifications and apps so it's not a big deal. Shame for the contacts and dialer though.
Touchwiz is fast, unobtrusive and smooth, but in stock form, very, very ugly and lacking in features.
Mind you I've always found HTC Android phones somewhat unresponsive and glitchy.
The only flavour of Android I get on with now is AOSP ICS. Its a big improvement to me. That said, my next phone might not be Android, I might give WP7 a go. I've had a few tries and it is starting to look like a fantastically polished OS, and flashing ROMs all the time is beginning to lose its appeal. It may not have the apps, or the flexibility, or capability, but it makes up for it in other ways.
I haven't seen or used sense, but I know how unfulfilling TW feels. For me, flashing and playing around with MI-UI did the trick. It's the perfect combination of neatness and usefulness. Combined with minor add-ons (such as a new keyboard, kernel, ...) it turns out to be the most stable and enjoyable rom I have ever used. Check it out (google miuandroid).
HTC all the way!
I had htc desire hd which i still have and love. I then got htc sensation and the missus got a sgs2 she hates the user interface and loves the htc user interface. If your looking for something that will in my opinion be comparable to the iphone then htc all the way.
malcovitch said:
I had htc desire hd which i still have and love. I then got htc sensation and the missus got a sgs2 she hates the user interface and loves the htc user interface. If your looking for something that will in my opinion be comparable to the iphone then htc all the way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For an iphone-ish look I strongly recommend the previously mentioned MIUI rom.
For me, I don't know. I couldn't do Sense. I liked the graphics and what not - but I found the user-interface a bit stubborn. Touchwiz was clean and simple.
I have the desire s and SII, and I like sense better than TW.
Sense feels like it's more developed than TW.
For me software htc > samsung and hardware htc < samsung.
So SII with sense would be great for me personally.
ionut.micu said:
I moved from desire z to sgs2, and I must say that touchwiz was a big disappointment to me.
It's not hard to get used to touchwiz, but it will be hard to get used with the missing features, for me the most annoying thing was that the dial pad can not search after the second name, I mean if you want to search for "combat goofwing" and you type in the dial pad 4663 for "goof" it will not find anything.
Another annoying thing is that in the app drawer the apps are not sorted in alphabetical order, they are sorted in the install order, and you can move them around but I don't have the patience to move apps around, for me this makes apps harder to find.
I own this phone for a few mounts now and I used to it, but I still miss sense.
The hardware is great, I still can't believe how good the display is, everything works very smooth, but unfortunately touchwiz is light years behind sense.
Any way I'm sorry I didn't bought the sensation, but my next phone will definitely be a HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download appzorter from market. Rearrange apps alphabetically. Simples
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Thx, unfortunelley "this app is not compatiblewith youre device" maby it's because I'm ussing LPH rom, but it's good to know.
And I forgot to say, I came from a long series of HTC phones (diamond, touch pro, touch pro 2, wildfire, desire z), all of them are still in use today and work great, guess wich phone needed to go to service becsause microusb port mallfunction after a few mount of use... exactly the sgs2.
Great feedback thanks,having seen the videos of the new HTC X1 now I may just stick with HTC still lots to look at
Thanks again
sent from my leedroid powered Desire HD
combat goofwing said:
Great feedback thanks,having seen the videos of the new HTC X1 now I may just stick with HTC still lots to look at
Thanks again
sent from my leedroid powered Desire HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's a pretty tough choice between the X and S, they both have their pros and cons (S has the more powerful CPU(in spite of the 4 cores of the tegra3) and AMOLED; X the more powerful GPU, more storage and higher DPI)
How do I know? I just played with the 4.4 skin at best buy on the Pro models. They seemed to have fixed nearly every design issue I had with 4.3 on my 2014. It really feels like a tablet skin instead of a phone skin. I'm glad Samsung fixed it but why do such a terrible job in the first place? Was my $600 not worth their time?
Incredibly excited for 4.4 update. It will be like getting a brand new device! I really hope they have some kind of option to remap the menu button to a task switching button. That would be the ultimate.
Two words:
Nova. Launcher.
I checked the pro series 4.4 skins in best buy too. Although the skin seems to be more tablet oriented, the TouchWiz lag still exists. The device was still not snappy enough
Agree... Nova launcher fixes everything. Buy it once and you'll have it on every device you own.
Just bought Nova With the $25 credit they gave me to the google play store. I've Used the free version for ages. Finally broke down and bought the pro.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
jherring002 said:
Just bought Nova With the $25 credit they gave me to the google play store. I've Used the free version for ages. Finally broke down and bought the pro.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha you literally just inspired me to do the same. Had the 25.00 credit and then some from the Google survey app. In case anyone didn't know download the Google survey app and get free Google play credits. Totally worth it.
RussellEstridge25 said:
Haha you literally just inspired me to do the same. Had the 25.00 credit and then some from the Google survey app. In case anyone didn't know download the Google survey app and get free Google play credits. Totally worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're Welcome =)
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
jherring002 said:
You're Welcome =)
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha ty!
Stocklone said:
How do I know? I just played with the 4.4 skin at best buy on the Pro models. They seemed to have fixed nearly every design issue I had with 4.3 on my 2014. It really feels like a tablet skin instead of a phone skin. I'm glad Samsung fixed it but why do such a terrible job in the first place? Was my $600 not worth their time?
Incredibly excited for 4.4 update. It will be like getting a brand new device! I really hope they have some kind of option to remap the menu button to a task switching button. That would be the ultimate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I played with a N12 at BB and came away with a different opinion. Most of the differences between it and the N10.1-14 were pretty minor and aesthetic. M-UX is of course new but did you look at the number and type of widgets available? Pretty sparse. What used to be My Magazine is now broken up so each category in what was the "News" section are now individual widgets. There's no Facebook for the Social widget either just like My Magazine. There's e-mail, calendar, and all the S Apps like Hub, Apps, WatchOn etc. There's Hancom widgets but we're probably not getting it (unless you side load it as explained in the apps section of the forum). Not much else. And at CES there were mini tiles shown that acted like shortcuts to a bunch of common/popular apps; gone. Unless Samsung's got big future plans for stocking M-UX with widgets and shortcuts I'd be fine without having a mandatory page of it on my home screen.
In terms of TW (now "classic") the settings menus and some others have been freshened and the notification panel drop down has been reformatted/resized so it's more appropriate for a tablet. There are more Pen Window apps and the way you launch multitasking's been revised to "swipe from the side" which now conflicts with other apps (EG: Astro) that also swipe from the side. You can now also cascade (overlay) Multi View windows which was a N10.1-12 feature that got left out of the N10.1-14 launch ROM.
What other major changes or differences did you notice that I missed?
As for Samsung's interpretation of 4.4 over 4.3 I've been using an "official" AT&T 4.4 ROM for about a month on my N3. The only functional changes are the location and wireless control panels have been re-worked so they are much clearer and easier to interpret and the lock screen has a "one app" option that's set to camera by default but can be changed to any app. It can also be set to "4.3 style" which I chose because there are more options including launching five apps from the lock screen. The notification bar icons are white (wow! ), there's a new slightly revised default system font, and there are some minor UI graphic changes. You have to look pretty hard to see the differences between 4.3 and 4.4 as designed by Samsung. The biggest difference I've seen is my battery life went up and the N3 which was already fluid on 4.3 became more so. Having played with M-UX and come away meh, performance improvements are what I'm looking forward to most in our update. That along with some of the cleaned up menus and new Multi View functionality.
I don't even know anymore what touchwiz looks like even though i have a samsung smartphone and the note 10.1 so many great launchers around.
I'm still looking forward to 4.4 because of the redesigned settings and notification. And hopefully bug fixes. And i think it would be the first time i actually have the most recent android version on one of my devices...
stm8 said:
Two words:
Nova. Launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't give a flying crap about the launcher. I use Action Launcher. I left Nova a long time ago. Don't miss it one bit.
The task switching actually being at the bottom instead of the middle of the screen and the notification drawer not being a phone one anymore plus it having multiple sliders instead of one giant huge slider show Samsung put a lot more thought into 4.4.
Those two things drove me nuts. Anytime I have to use a phone app on a tablet I die a little on the inside.
I also like the icons in 4.4 way better than 4.3.
BarryH_GEG said:
I played with a N12 at BB and came away with a different opinion. Most of the differences between it and the N10.1-14 were pretty minor and aesthetic. M-UX is of course new but did you look at the number and type of widgets available? Pretty sparse. What used to be My Magazine is now broken up so each category in what was the "News" section are now individual widgets. There's no Facebook for the Social widget either just like My Magazine. There's e-mail, calendar, and all the S Apps like Hub, Apps, WatchOn etc. There's Hancom widgets but we're probably not getting it (unless you side load it as explained in the apps section of the forum). Not much else. And at CES there were mini tiles shown that acted like shortcuts to a bunch of common/popular apps; gone. Unless Samsung's got big future plans for stocking M-UX with widgets and shortcuts I'd be fine without having a mandatory page of it on my home screen.
In terms of TW (now "classic") the settings menus and some others have been freshened and the notification panel drop down has been reformatted/resized so it's more appropriate for a tablet. There are more Pen Window apps and the way you launch multitasking's been revised to "swipe from the side" which now conflicts with other apps (EG: Astro) that also swipe from the side. You can now also cascade (overlay) Multi View windows which was a N10.1-12 feature that got left out of the N10.1-14 launch ROM.
What other major changes or differences did you notice that I missed?
As for Samsung's interpretation of 4.4 over 4.3 I've been using an "official" AT&T 4.4 ROM for about a month on my N3. The only functional changes are the location and wireless control panels have been re-worked so they are much clearer and easier to interpret and the lock screen has a "one app" option that's set to camera by default but can be changed to any app. It can also be set to "4.3 style" which I chose because there are more options including launching five apps from the lock screen. The notification bar icons are white (wow! ), there's a new slightly revised default system font, and there are some minor UI graphic changes. You have to look pretty hard to see the differences between 4.3 and 4.4 as designed by Samsung. The biggest difference I've seen is my battery life went up and the N3 which was already fluid on 4.3 became more so. Having played with M-UX and come away meh, performance improvements are what I'm looking forward to most in our update. That along with some of the cleaned up menus and new Multi View functionality.
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Didn't get a chance to play with the multi-tasking tab. So what side do you swipe from? Please tell me it's not the left where every single side menu is?
I hate nearly every Samsung app and use none of their widgets. I buy the Note for the S Pen which I use with non-Samsung apps. I'm just incredibly tired of using a 10.1" phone so hell yeah I'm excited about 4.4. It looks like your priorities are quite a bit different than mine so it makes sense your take away is different than mine.
Stocklone said:
Didn't get a chance to play with the multi-tasking tab. So what side do you swipe from? Please tell me it's not the left where every single side menu is?
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Here's how it works now. If it's like the current set up you can, when it's open, drag it from side-to-side if you want.
Here's the Tab|Pro 10.1 manual. I'd imagine everything in it will be similar to what we're getting. Jury's still out on how Samsung's going to deal with the "menu" vs. "tasks" capacitive button issue. A pic of the soon to be released VZW N10.1-14 still shows our menu button so it wouldn't appear Samsung's planning any physical changes for the N10.1-14 down the road. So we'll either have a capacitive button that says one thing and does another (menu=tasks) or the s/w for the N10.1-14 will be adjusted to still support the menu button. Even though Google's killed the menu button in 4.4 Samsung's revived it because it still works the exact same way on the N3 4.4 ROM.
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/c...axy_Tab_PRO_KK_English_User_Manual_NAE_F2.pdf
I'm just incredibly tired of using a 10.1" phone so hell yeah I'm excited about 4.4.
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Google's the one to blame for the phone UI. The unified UI works fine on a 7-8" display that's primarily used in portrait mode but looks goofy on anything larger. Like this...
The Nexus 10's not a hell of a lot better than the N10.1-14. The only glaring blunder on Samsung's part was the full-screen notification panel but other than that there's not a big difference UI treatment wise between the Nexus 10 and N10.1-14.
It looks like your priorities are quite a bit different than mine so it makes sense your take away is different than mine.
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Kind of polar opposites. I use pretty much all the features (that work well) in TW and have most stock Google apps disabled in settings. We totally agree about S Pen being the purchase driver for a Note though.
I'm running Buzz launcher, it's good on battery life and smooth, apex is good as well, a new update will be coming out in a few months for 4.4 let's hope they give us the new pro features when it comes out. I would also like to go back to the virtual buttons like the last model, I keep hitting the back and menu button in portrait.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Curtis_HTC said:
I'm running Buzz launcher, it's good on battery life and smooth, apex is good as well, a new update will be coming out in a few months for 4.4 let's hope they give us the new pro features when it comes out. I would also like to go back to the virtual buttons like the last model, I keep hitting the back and menu button in portrait.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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I keep hitting the back button in portrait too. But I doubt virtual buttons are coming to this tablet.
Make sure to watch the sunset at least once a day
RussellEstridge25 said:
Agree... Nova launcher fixes everything. Buy it once and you'll have it on every device you own.
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Have it on all my Android devices. Note 2014 rocks with it.
Nova + spen is king!! I have nova on everything I use. I have put slide from the side apps on before but I always forget that I have them. I bought the note 2014 for the spen and snote (I format a basic chart for personal training sessions to fill out) and when I get my 12.2 it will be that much better. I would prefer to have the old notification bar in the bottom corner though :/ I used to use that mod on my note 2 and I loved it!!!!
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
what features are you using with nova prime over nova free? i have about $75 in google credits but just can't bring myself to spending the $4 or whatever it is for prime...it seems like the free version has everything i need...i don't use gestures or care to increase icon size or have folders in the app drawer...i'm curious to find out, thanks!
maximus96 said:
what features are you using with nova prime over nova free? i have about $75 in google credits but just can't bring myself to spending the $4 or whatever it is for prime...it seems like the free version has everything i need...i don't use gestures or care to increase icon size or have folders in the app drawer...i'm curious to find out, thanks!
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My favorite thing to with Nova+ is get rid of the app drawer shortcut and make the home button open up the app drawer. Not sure if that is a plus feature or not.
It's been getting a lot of hate, and I can't figure out why. I'm coming from Sense (which I liked a lot, and this one doesn't really compare to), but I'm not seeing anything too terrible about the stock launcher here. It's just kind of meh.
Are you guys just seeing a ton of lag? Because I don't think I am.
I would agree with you. It's less wow than Sense, but I like it better than TW. It's smooth enough for my liking. I don't have any lag. I'm still learning it, as I've been with Sense or TW for last 2 years...
I just wish I could theme it the way I would like to. It's nice they have themes available for download, but they all look like they were designed for teenage girls in mind for the most part....too pastel and too bright. I'm more of a fan of darks and rather violent looking...
Th3Bill said:
I would agree with you. It's less wow than Sense, but I like it better than TW. It's smooth enough for my liking. I don't have any lag. I'm still learning it, as I've been with Sense or TW for last 2 years...
I just wish I could theme it the way I would like to. It's nice they have themes available for download, but they all look like they were designed for teenage girls in mind for the most part....too pastel and too bright. I'm more of a fan of darks and rather violent looking...
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Yeah - me too. I've been on sense since the evo 4g, and never used any other smartphone ui, so this one is taking some getting used to for me also. I'm starting to get used to the brightness and how colorful everything is, and some of it's even starting to grow on me. I'm not seeing much lag - and I tried nova, but it broke stock messaging, and smart notice (which I didn't think I would like at all, but I've really been digging it).
and the less said about tw, the better
fachadick said:
Yeah - me too. I've been on sense since the evo 4g, and never used any other smartphone ui, so this one is taking some getting used to for me also. I'm starting to get used to the brightness and how colorful everything is, and some of it's even starting to grow on me. I'm not seeing much lag - and I tried nova, but it broke stock messaging, and smart notice (which I didn't think I would like at all, but I've really been digging it).
and the less said about tw, the better
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I still have an Evo 4G. My 6 year old uses it to play games with...she still loves the thing. Runs great, except the usb port broke straight out of it, so charging requires battery removal until I fix it...LOL
I was thinking of doing the "Blinkfeed for all" install on the G4, but really like how UX works, though Accuweather's predictions have been terrible so far. Keeps telling me to bring an umbrella for rain and it hasn't rained here in over a week LOL.
I honestly didn't actually like anything about the stock launcher and went to Google now launcher.
JedixJarf said:
I honestly didn't actually like anything about the stock launcher and went to Google now launcher.
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Same. Why do I want these stupid smart cards when Google already forced their Google now cards down my throat
Because it's not Nova.
Seriously though, I'm too attached to the gesture controls that came with Nova Prime to use any other launcher. When combined with Five Wallpaper, I get a mostly buttery smooth experience with numerous customization options. I don't mind some of the LG background items like menu theme.
fachadick said:
It's been getting a lot of hate, and I can't figure out why. I'm coming from Sense (which I liked a lot, and this one doesn't really compare to), but I'm not seeing anything too terrible about the stock launcher here. It's just kind of meh.
Are you guys just seeing a ton of lag? Because I don't think I am.
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I can't figure out why all the hate either. I'm coming from TouchWiz and this is so fresh and new to me. I love my G4
Major0CEL0T said:
I can't figure out why all the hate either. I'm coming from TouchWiz and this is so fresh and new to me. I love my G4
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Well I can understand hating TouchWiz, what a pile of @#$%.
I spent a full week with the stock LG launcher and while it's fine, functional, works well, etc... I just prefer Sense and BlinkFeed better (too bad they can't build a decent device) so as of today I have sense and blinkfeed on my G4 and it's sweet!!!
ThePhoneGeek said:
Well I can understand hating TouchWiz, what a pile of @#$%.
I spent a full week with the stock LG launcher and while it's fine, functional, works well, etc... I just prefer Sense and BlinkFeed better (too bad they can't build a decent device) so as of today I have sense and blinkfeed on my G4 and it's sweet!!!
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I have a feeling there will be a decent number of us on the G4 that were HTC users who just couldn't see upgrading to the m9 and will be missing Sense.
TW is just so heavy...coming from Sense, it was like going from driving a Lotus to driving a Dumptruck.
I don't hate the stock launcher, but I do prefer Nova. Mostly because I can resize the grid. I like to use 6x5. Plus I can resize widgets any way i want. And of course it's faster, plus gestures.
I used it all of 1 minute while the google experience launcher downloaded. But then again I came from an 3 years of nexus use.
Stock launcher is actually really cool. I love love love the domino transition effect. My only complaint was the lack of icon packs and the icon background (to make them uniform). The theme packs were ok but contained limited icons.
Nothing I didnt like but what it lacked aka what Nova could do more.
player911 said:
Stock launcher is actually really cool. I love love love the domino transition effect. My only complaint was the lack of icon packs and the icon background (to make them uniform). The theme packs were ok but contained limited icons.
Nothing I didnt like but what it lacked aka what Nova could do more.
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Try this guys! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jbrtechies.LGlollipop
Stock OEM launchers are terrible. Had to switch to Nova after a day. It's clunky and barely customizable. And it has terrible, terrible themes.
What's good about it and the only thing good about it is the Smart Bulletin and Smart Notice widget. Also, LG calendar widget is good, too.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
I was really hung on the Google Launcher on my Nexus. So I downloaded on my LG4 as well.. But it only gives 4 apps per row. That's way too little on a 5.5 inch phone..
The stock launcher isn't bad.. Only think I would like to see is that a swipe to the right would give me Google Now instead of LG thingie..
I dont hate the stock launcher im coming from the note 4 with tw so this is a step up but i prefer nova on all phones
Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk
I think I remember the Stock launcher being somewhat customizable as far as number of apps in the bottom row (I like 7) and it allows widgets to resize. The Themes do kinda suck but still pretty cool to have an option. They are just icon packs basically.
The App Grid doesn't really bother me any more. I have 3 homescreens. Full Page Twitter Widget, Blank Home, Full Page Facebook Widget (currently broke).
If they released a huge LG Home MIUI theme with tons of icons, then I could use it. Otherwise, I like my icons to be uniform (similar background / style). Plus for some reason Verizon pulled out the themes support on their G4
Th3Bill said:
I would agree with you. It's less wow than Sense, but I like it better than TW. It's smooth enough for my liking. I don't have any lag. I'm still learning it, as I've been with Sense or TW for last 2 years...
I just wish I could theme it the way I would like to. It's nice they have themes available for download, but they all look like they were designed for teenage girls in mind for the most part....too pastel and too bright. I'm more of a fan of darks and rather violent looking...
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I'm using this theme and I love it. It themes everything across the board: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jbrtechies.LGlollipop
---------- Post added at 12:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:59 AM ----------
Xcore66 said:
I used it all of 1 minute while the google experience launcher downloaded. But then again I came from an 3 years of nexus use.
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I guess the only thing you are not able to double tap to sleep your device, correct? I love Google Launcher I used to have it on my G3 , but with xposed and GEL Settings so I have all the functionalities.
I played with it for a couple of hours then went to my go-to Nova!! Especially don't like that the launcher doesn't rotate.
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