Develop Bugs

ADW Launcher vs Launcher Pro

Can anyone tell me the pro's and con's of both launchers.. I might give them a try sometime next week..

you can try yourselve both its better than reading. ADW Launcher users tell you adw is faster beter etc and LP userr tell you the same about LP just try it.
I use adw about 1 day and I change to LP becouse I dont use all options on adw he have a lot settings Lp is easyier for me.

or try zeam very quick and low memory usage

If a launcher doesn't have touch wiz like app drawer it's useless. Hundreds of apps aren't manageable in other ways.

I choose ADW because it's more smooth when swiping between homescreens. And there's a lot of themes for this launcher, too. I have tried LP but it's not that good. It has better widgets though.

I switched to ADW, launcher pro just isn't as snappy. The app bar is a nice feature too. Launcher pro does have some nice widgets though.

Launcher PRO PLUS for the widget and popup!!!

Bec07 said:
If a launcher doesn't have touch wiz like app drawer it's useless. Hundreds of apps aren't manageable in other ways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Launcher pro is not able to arrange applications ?

EarlZ said:
Launcher pro is not able to arrange applications ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, at least not yet

frauhottelmann said:
Nope, at least not yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it does have the very cool scrolling 3D app drawer where everything is in alphabetical order. I find it much much easier.

Launcher Pro has really nice widgets. Also ADW hides the status bar on me every so often - not sure why... very annoying and makes it unusable.

Bec07 said:
If a launcher doesn't have touch wiz like app drawer it's useless. Hundreds of apps aren't manageable in other ways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what makes touchwiz a great launcher.
I really hope LP follows suit, I need a customizable app drawer.
btw, ts I use launcherpro, /w donated version.
The widgets that come with lp are irreplaceable

I've tried both and love that lo is capable of hiding bloatware apps. Since I'm new and not into rooting, I like that I can get crap outta my face if I don't want it!
Sent from my GT-I9000M using XDA App

brendonsled said:
This is what makes touchwiz a great launcher.
I really hope LP follows suit, I need a customizable app drawer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But the fact that you can't hide icons make it horrible for me. That's a major reason I use LauncherPro, apps that already have homescreen shortcuts or that I don't use wont clutter up my app drawer.
ADW has the same feature I believe, I might try it sometime.
The actual process of organising apps in touchwiz into some reasonable order is so slow and painful that I couldn't stand to do it anyway. Alphabetical order with all the crap hidden works just fine for me.
A nice feature that was added recently to LauncherPro is changing the grid size in the homescreens. You can use that to get more fine control of your widget positions and to fit more shortcuts and widgets. You can choose whether or not to re-size the widgets according to the new grid as well.

i personally like LauncherPRO better than the rest.
it works & feels very much alike ZLauncher from PalmOS
it has all the options i was exactly looking for.
well worth the $3 for the extra features, even though i don't even use them

I use LP plus.
I´ve used the option to hide stuff that I install, and insted have a folder for games and one for tools on my home screen. means that the app window wont get cluttered up.

Both are really good and I won't say one's better than the other.
I've always used ADW since I owned the Magic and the launch of the Galaxy, and in that time I've flirted with LP but alwys went back to ADW, however, last week I tried LP again and I've stuck with it this time.
Basically I can't choose between both but I'm extremely happy using either, try both and make your choice.

frauhottelmann said:
Nope, at least not yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi
what you can do is :
creat folders on the last home screen for exemple.
lets say a games folder : stick all your games in it, and go to LP settings, take the link for the game apps you put in that folder and hide them so they dont apear any where else.
i dont know about adw but LP has scrollable widget possibilities and combined to some market aps it really is neat.
as usual its allways a question of personal preference.

plemen said:
Launcher Pro has really nice widgets. Also ADW hides the status bar on me every so often - not sure why... very annoying and makes it unusable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your disappearing dockbar is probably due to you pressing the app drawer and swiping upwards. Just go to ADW settings and disable the dockbar. This dockbar is a relatively new feature that enables you to have 2 dockbars (something similar to the scrolling LP dockbar).
ADW has a custom groups feature in its app drawer so you can select what apps you want to see. Unfortunately you can only view one group at a time, but its definitely a much better way of organising your apps than just in alphabetical order. And you can hide apps easily this way too. I really like ADW's swipe actions on home screens as well, last time I tried LP it didnt have this option.

Despite all the features of ADW, Launcher Pro feels just way snappier. Its customisation settings are well enough. The widgets are good too.
Too bad it's not open source like ADW. A may goto ADW when the animations are made smoother.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

[Q] Touchwiz vs other launchers, touchwiz using hardware better ?

So I played around with a couple of other launchers (LauncherPro and ADW), but have a feeling that TouchWiz might be hardware accelerated by using the GPU chip on the i9000 where as others probably aren't ?
For example enable a resource hungry live wallpaper and open applications. Now scrolling the applications is still very smooth on the touchwiz where as on the other launchers I tried, I can feel scrolling the app list becomes much more choppy because the live wallpaper seems to be running in the background.
That made me wonder if Touchwiz is perhaps using GPU acceleration instuctions taking advantage of the samsung hardware, or perhaps Touchwiz is just more clever to temporarely disable live wallpaper when it's not visible, where the other launchers still have them running in the background when viewing app list.
Maybe it's a placebo effect, but it also felt like phone got warmer using other launchers (indicating they use more processor and perhaps not taking advantage of samsung hardware GPU in the same way like Touchwiz does).

pressfirenow said:
So I played around with a couple of other launchers (LauncherPro and ADW), but have a feeling that TouchWiz might be hardware accelerated by using the GPU chip on the i9000 where as others probably aren't ?
For example enable a resource hungry live wallpaper and open applications. Now scrolling the applications is still very smooth on the touchwiz where as on the other launchers I tried, I can feel scrolling the app list becomes much more choppy because the live wallpaper seems to be running in the background.
That made me wonder if Touchwiz is perhaps using GPU acceleration instuctions taking advantage of the samsung hardware, or perhaps Touchwiz is just more clever to temporarely disable live wallpaper when it's not visible, where the other launchers still have them running in the background when viewing app list.
Maybe it's a placebo effect, but it also felt like phone got warmer using other launchers (indicating they use more processor and perhaps not taking advantage of samsung hardware GPU in the same way like Touchwiz does).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ill give a try to touchwizz right now

I think it runs great to, but as long as you can't set the middle as default, it's not for me. Anyone found a way to do this with rooting yet?

Harboe said:
I think it runs great to, but as long as you can't set the middle as default, it's not for me. Anyone found a way to do this with rooting yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use SGS Tools.

Doesn't work. Just tried it again on Froyo. :-(

You can change the default page in froyo touchwiz, but you have to edit the .apk to do it. But it's very simple.

SGS tools worked for me to edit touchwiz. I have 3 homepages and set 2 as my default homepage by setting it to 1(0 is the first page). I am on JPM tatyamas lite ROM
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

BlockbusterF said:
You can change the default page in froyo touchwiz, but you have to edit the .apk to do it. But it's very simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do i do that?

There s an application in the market. Use the keywords sgs default screen. Use it. I think you ll need root though.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

Doesn't even take a resource-hungry live wallpaper for me. If I enable any live wallpaper it will make LauncherPro quite laggy, in the app drawer but also a bit on the homescreen itself, whereas TouchWiz stays perfectly smooth.

I guess it would make sense that TW would be better tailored to the SGS it's included with as opposed to other launchers that need to maintain compatibility with everything, but I'm still pretty surprised. My interest is piqued now so I'll just have to give it a go!

I can confirm all findings here. I use launcher pro but its laggy, even with no live wallpaper but with 3 full pages of widgets. Considering gpu performance on benchmarks you expect it to be smooooooooth.
Will be interested to see if the performance improves.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Have a go with Zeam.
Simple, minimalistic and smooooood imo.
Coming from LauncherPro.

The LauncherPro widgets would be sorely missed though

AOSP Froyo Launcher is also very very smooth with/without Live Wallpaper give it a try...
You must push the Apk to System/app to use the Launcher.. ;DD
I´ve the Link push and then enjoy...! ;DD
http://www.multiupload.com/1LTATKVMXD

Gave it a go using TW for a day and I have to admit it does seem a helluva lot smoother than Launcher Pro, even with a LWP on. Colour me impressed!
danamoult said:
The LauncherPro widgets would be sorely missed though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I eventually had to admit defeat and got back to LP for the widgets too. Will see if I can find equivalents to use with TW.
Borky_16 said:
AOSP Froyo Launcher is also very very smooth with/without Live Wallpaper give it a try...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will give this one a go too. Cheers.

I'm a TouchWiz fan for it's looks and smoothness.
Sure it isn't as customizable as all the other launchers out there, but on it's own TouchWiz looks great IMHO. I know a lot of people who hate the iPhone-esque look though so appearance is just all a matter of personal taste. Still, for me TouchWiz is great; no need to go through the trouble of finding the perfect theme/icons or setting things up perfectly to your liking.
I'm obsessive compulsive though so I guess it really does take me forever to set everything up exactly the way I like them to be. I've tried LauncherPro and some other launchers and I got overwhelmed and tired with all the control I had over the look and feel of my SGS. Don't get me wrong...I love customization and the whole process of doing so...but I'm just too OC.
Added to that was how they just didn't feel as smooth as TouchWiz. Even on a freshly flashed and cleaned up phone alternative launchers don't seem to match TouchWiz in terms of the overall feel. Maybe it's just me
So even if I may not have a great looking and extra-functional dock, resizable widgets, and hundreds of layout possibilities..sometimes simpler is easier and better.
I might change my mind once I get bored of my current layout. Haha!
I'll tinker with the apk's and see what customization possibilities I can unlock while sticking to TouchWiz.

TW: If I wanted an iPhone, I would have gotten one. Scrolling right finding an app drives me insane. I disagree with some in this thread on its performance. IMO it's not fasther than e.g. LP once you put stuff on the home screen
ADW: used to be great, I don't know what they were thinking with the last couple of releases, it has gotten incredibly slow.
LP: love it. Unlike some other people that replied: I hate the widgets they look ugly as they offer no option to make them transperant. Has the prettiest dock and allows you to custom set the homescreen grid. Especially the latter is awesome
Zeam: Love it, very similar to LP in daily usage actually, but faster.
I'm sticking with LP for now because it allow me to set a 5 icon application grid which saves you 2 minutes scrolling through your application grid per day. The dock is the prettiest so I guess it has the best customizability vs performance balance. If just want the fastest out there go with Zeam.

i'd go with LPP too

schiphol said:
TW: If I wanted an iPhone, I would have gotten one. Scrolling right finding an app drives me insane. I disagree with some in this thread on its performance. IMO it's not fasther than e.g. LP once you put stuff on the home screen
ADW: used to be great, I don't know what they were thinking with the last couple of releases, it has gotten incredibly slow.
LP: love it. Unlike some other people that replied: I hate the widgets they look ugly as they offer no option to make them transperant. Has the prettiest dock and allows you to custom set the homescreen grid. Especially the latter is awesome
Zeam: Love it, very similar to LP in daily usage actually, but faster.
I'm sticking with LP for now because it allow me to set a 5 icon application grid which saves you 2 minutes scrolling through your application grid per day. The dock is the prettiest so I guess it has the best customizability vs performance balance. If just want the fastest out there go with Zeam.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On froyo you can do a pinch gesture to bring up an overview of all your panes of apps. I find it a quick way to find and jump to the app youre looking for. I feel it's rather zippy especially with voodoo in place. That's just my opinion though! JUst wanted to comment on your complaint about scrolling right.

[Q] What launcher do you suggest?

Hey guys and girls this will be my first android device and reading up on all the apps and widgets is a little daunting.
So this is the question : im going to be changing my dock icons because they remind me to much of my current Iphone 4, So i need a launcher?
What launcher does everyone suggest i try out and why?
I dont mind paying for a launcher just as long as its not to buggy or a memory/power hog.
Thanks in advance.

i'm going to go for LP Sense:
https://market.android.com/details?id=fr.clockwidget.lpslatesense
runs great on my Hero...just need to get a SGS2

why use a different launcher off the block.. try the new twiz 4 launcher that comes with it first for a while..

I personally like ADW EX i like the swipe animations and the overall feel of it on my EVO. I have seen it run slowly on lower power devices. The level of customizations that are available to the user is amazing. And you can get it for free in some Roms. Thats how i stumbled upon it. It has several ways to anaimate screen swipes. But if you want a true 3d effect try shell 3d. I dont know of a way to get it for free but i did try it out for a while and it was pretty cool, but it even felt kind of slow on my evo.

Ive gone with slide screen its beautiful, how about a lock screen, this drag the background thing is so poor
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

Try LauncherPro.. The best in my opinion

I tried launcher pro and finds its not smooth atm on this phone, it feels a bit jerky when going in to the apps window.

Jabbypants said:
I tried launcher pro and finds its not smooth atm on this phone, it feels a bit jerky when going in to the apps window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's weird, it's flawlessly smooth on my Galaxy S 1. However, if you're using a live wallpaper then the transition into the app drawer (and then scrolling through it) is stuttery.
Apart from that, I'd throw my vote to LauncherPro too, especially if you buy the Plus version.
Reasons:
- Easily resize widgets and change homescreen grid sizes
- Virtual looping of homescreens (get to the end and it'll flick back to the farthest, no need to scroll all the way back)
- Homescreen transitions (instead of boring sideways scrolling can have 3D flips or the widgets rotate away)
- 'Plus' adds lots of extremely handy smooth, scrollable widgets almsot identical to what HTC Sense provides
- These widgets have now been made theme-able as of the latest update
- Can use in landscape or portrait
- Scrollable dock (scroll through 3 docks of 5 icons each)
- Dock icons and background can be changed, so my icons look like WP7's
- Can set an action for swiping up from any dock icon (eg: touching Internet icon launches the browser, but swiping the Internet icon instead displays a list of bookmarks!)
- On my Galaxy S was smoother for me than ADW

minty1978 said:
i'm going to go for LP Sense:
https://market.android.com/details?id=fr.clockwidget.lpslatesense
runs great on my Hero...just need to get a SGS2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to use the wp live wallpaper so I don't need a clock, but I do like the animated weather on wake up ( reminds me of my HD2 love you forever and ever ) so that sounds like a good pick.
what about go launcher ? any thoughts?
And I've seen touch wiz in vids I like the tiled widgets but I dislike the dock icons looking like iPhone. so can I Change the dock icons to stock android without a launcher?

Jabbypants said:
I tried launcher pro and finds its not smooth atm on this phone, it feels a bit jerky when going in to the apps window.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its pretty smooth on mine apart from the pinch to zoom for homescreen preview.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

NIK516 said:
And I've seen touch wiz in vids I like the tiled widgets but I dislike the dock icons looking like iPhone. so can I Change the dock icons to stock android without a launcher?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I dun think so. You would need to use another launcher if the dock is definitely a no-go for you.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

I'm using go launcher atm but I'm also a big launcherpro fan
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

minty1978 said:
i'm going to go for LP Sense:
https://market.android.com/details?id=fr.clockwidget.lpslatesense
runs great on my Hero...just need to get a SGS2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why
fancy widgets is a lot more customizable, has that skin, plus a lot more features lol

mrvirginia said:
why
fancy widgets is a lot more customizable, has that skin, plus a lot more features lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i actually don't use the LP Sense clock, I use FancyWidgets, like you say...far more customisable.
See screen shot:

My suggestion
What about the VTL Launcher 1.6.2 ??

It's a matter of taste really, GO Launcher, LauncherPro and ADW are all great. SPB Shell 3D is good if you like eye candy, but pretty expensive.
Sent from my Legend using XDA Premium App

minty1978 said:
i actually don't use the LP Sense clock, I use FancyWidgets, like you say...far more customisable.
See screen shot:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you set the weather widget and have the animation, like rain but have the widget invisible?
I just want to see my wp clock wallpaper and have the weather show like the clouds and the rain and thunder but not see the widget? if you cant ill settle for picking a small widget?
Thanks again for all the replys guys they are helping a tone.
Also what launcher has more icon themes ?

Launcherpro for me. Smooth as silk, really quick and it just works...

Launcher pro is not as smooth as before with sgs2. it was better on my htc desire.

I have been using AWD EX as not being able to change the messaging for Chomp SMS on the touchwiz was driving me mad. But I am getting cronic lag on switching screens. Not all the time. Just often enough to be anoying. Reading what others have been saying, I can only assume we need to tweek the phone a bit.

Favorite Launcher?

Nothing came up in the seach so thought I'd get some input on launchers. It would be nice to hear why you prefer certain launchers over others.
Feel free to add my rom and kernel are great, I dont bother with any extra launcher.
Ive been using Go Launcher for a while now, I really like it.
A quick thing I noticed was that they put a settings button back on the bottom with back and home where it belongs. Not sure why google took this out, theres room for it.
The abundance of customization is nice.
Lots of homescreen transitions (I love the cylinder one)
Lots of dock control, really like how clicking and swiping a dock icon can launch separate apps.
App drawer settings are good, I really dislike the iphone horizontal page turn set up of the standard app drawer so having a vertical scroll is a great option. Changing the grid size, easily hiding apps, having the all/recent/running tabs.
Gesture settings, already so many ways and apps to get to things quicker, having this built in is a bonus. I got used to it in dolphin browser so it was a welcomed addon. Also simple things like swiping down anywhere on the screen to pull down the notifications bar is something Im not sure I could go without now.
Nice theme selection, Although I dont bother with any.
Lots of other great GO apps and go widgets.
I used to really like the whole menu system they have when you long press on a homescreen to pull up widgets, wallpapers, themes etc until ICS added the widget previews right in the app drawer. Thats missing in Go Launcher and is one of the few things I wish it had.

I have liked Apex a lot. Seemed like I could setup a single 6x6 screen with smoothness better then I could with Nova. In both cases I used the betas with Jelly Bean patches in them.
Also, there is a whole thread here about launchers:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1771170

whitedragonz83 said:
Also, there is a whole thread here about launchers:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1771170
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, I guess since I put favorite in the seach it didn't come up.

My favorite is whatever comes stock on my current ROM. To me, the advantages of different launchers aren't that great to have to mess with one more thing.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

Nova Prime

i have nova prime but since jellybean i've taken a liking to the stock launcher.

nova prime

I use Apex. I would use stock but I need a scrolling dock

[Q] launchers

I'm not going to ask which launcher or anything like that. I already have one in mind if I do decide to go that route.
What I want to know is if they are worth it or not? Do they slow the phone down at all? As it seems as an overlay to an overlay.
I see some, like nova, have a add-on for unread counts for messages and calls and things. Is this saying that without this add-on I won't have a count for missed messages or a notification at all?
Thanks you for the input

launchers
In comparison to the stock LG launcher you'll find you'll actually have a smother experience. Launchers like holo or nova are really light weight and have a smaller footprint in memory than the stock launcher. When you choose a new launcher as default the lg launcher is closed. Or at least resources are being prioritized to the default launcher. I'm a beginner when it comes to how android handles processes so maybe someone else can offer a better explanation. The addons for nova add unread counts to icons on homescreens, app drawer and folders. You'll still get all notifications through the status bar. Its just eye candy and extras you get for the paid version of the launcher.

BadFish79 said:
I'm not going to ask which launcher or anything like that. I already have one in mind if I do decide to go that route.
What I want to know is if they are worth it or not? Do they slow the phone down at all? As it seems as an overlay to an overlay.
I see some, like nova, have a add-on for unread counts for messages and calls and things. Is this saying that without this add-on I won't have a count for missed messages or a notification at all?
Thanks you for the input
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Won't hurt to check out other launchers. If you dont like them simply uninstall and your back to where you were

ADW is old school and basic, I prefer that. Holo is decent so is Apex, but my go to is always Nova. They're all fun to play with.

It's worth it. I use Nova and it's faster and has more organization and customization options than stock LG or AOSP. Just the speed and being able to hide apps from the app drawer is worth it for me. For reference, Nova runs way faster on my Nexus 7 than the JB launcher.

lots of good options. Nova is a great one, but I like Apex and Holo.
To answer your question, if you don't install extensions, then you won't have the message count on the app icon, but that's all it does. I personally don't like it, so I have never installed it.
Honestly though, if you aren't a "power user" who likes to tinker with all of the options in the launcher, Apex, Holo and Nova are all very similar.

Can someone explain the dock as overlay option? Isn't the dock always visible on the home screen?
Sent from my LG-LS970

BadFish79 said:
Can someone explain the dock as overlay option? Isn't the dock always visible on the home screen?
Sent from my LG-LS970
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Default, the dock is basically an extra row of icons ON the desktop, that carries over from screen to screen.
Dock as overlay changes your dock to being a row of icons that is on a layer separate from your desktop. As an example, you can turn this on and turn on a slide up gesture to toggle dock, which would give you a kind of mini app drawer on top of the desktop. If you did not turn this on, toggling dock would bump your desktop icons up and down, as it would then be a part of the desktop and not be a layer on top of it.