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i have heard alot of hate for moto blur reading reviews on tech blogs and in forums which has always put me off a motorola. however now i have the defy i actually think that blur improves the android experience since its not massivly skinned and you can still tell its android but with a few nicer tweaks
granted the home screens are a heap of **** but nothing that cant be solved but .ADW launcher and the new ex is phenomenal
also ive heard it is a bit of a data hogger but just set it to wi fi only and job done
appart from that their are alot of nice improvments over stock
I think the social network intergration is brilliant and better and easyer than stock
plus the keyboard is much better than stock and better than gingerbreads aswell
the usb managment is better
stock wi fi teathering
i think nicer lock screen
better camera app
better sync with computer and that in browser thing is very nice
all in all i think moto have done a nice job and dont think it deserves the bad stick it gets
what are your thaughts?
Nope!! me to!
Isn't bad at all!! but... it's kite laggy...
but... LauncherPRO or ADW are more complet than default BLUR.
BLUR Consumes a looot of memory by the face, need a good optimitzation.
It's ugly though
Also I'm not sure if the keyboard has anything to do with Motoblur? The Defy does come with the Swype keyboard pre-installed though, you might be referring to that.
The only moto keyboard I have seen is on the chinese rom.
I like the messing tools and widget...some other stuff as well....if it didn't bog down the phone so much it would be okay.
Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk
The 'Multi-touch keyboard' app is from Motorola and defiantly one of the best I've used...
I like motoblur in general. Could go higher on the "cute" factor, but it gets the job done.
sarge78 said:
The 'Multi-touch keyboard' app is from Motorola and defiantly one of the best I've used...
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i agree i think it is the nicest on android and swype is a nice addition ad well
scrannel said:
I like motoblur in general. Could go higher on the "cute" factor, but it gets the job done.
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yeah i think the home screens and widgets dont look ideal and could use a bit of polish their seems to be little consistency their perhaps
I like Motoblur as a whole. The social networking widgets are great, but there's some minor things missing. I'd like to be able to divide the applications into categories such as LG's Optimus phones (I've an Optimus One as well). I tried the LG launcher on the Defy and it works good, however I prefer the Motorola widgets.
ADW feels a little too heavy for my taste.
Swype is great though, not really a Motorola only feature but still awesome that it's built in. Compared to HTC's phones... well I'd like to see some HTC Sense system with the pinch to zoom - viewing all homescreens at once feature.
dave79 said:
well I'd like to see some HTC Sense system with the pinch to zoom - viewing all homescreens at once feature.
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thats available in adw
could you post the lg launcher ive never used an lg android and was close to getting the optimus 1 just fancied the defy a tiny but more
Well, the interface is not that bad. I don't think it is ugly. But I found it unresponsive and laggy, at best. So I went for go launcher.
The message app is quite nice, but I don't use it because I miss the gmail threaded view.
The same goes for the social network app. Links cannot be opened directly making the app completely unuseful, since I have to use another one or the browser to read the complete post.
News widget does not support google reader.
Another big defect in my opinion is the missing opportunity to update system apps. For instance amazon mp3 does not support my locale, and I cannot update it.
Moreover system apps are triggered even if they are not used, sucking system resources. I have installed auto starts and found out it was a complete mess, but cleaning that is a hell of a job, and it's risky.
All in all blur looks unoptimized and half cooked so I think I will go for the deblur rom as soon as I get a win xp machine. I don't feel like experimenting with sbf_flash on linux; in the end this is my first android...
Sent from my MB525 using XDA App
Even if you like Blur, it's impossible to argue against the fact that the implementation is shoddy.
You remove the widgets from the homescreen but it still runs a bunch of processes in the background, absolutely no need to do so.
The likes of the facbook integration in the contacts list is utterly lazy and uesless.
Motorola should offer people the ability to either disable Blur or flash official Blur-free ROMs.
New launcher I been using this morning on my tablet, it uses adw coding so that means adw themes can be used from the market.
Here the link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1017451
Wow, great find! Im going to give this a try firsth thing in the morning
I tried it and might eventually switch. It has a lot of options for customization, so many that I didn't have time to play with all of them to figure out what I might like. I'm back to LP....for now.
I'm back using LP as well. Like VTL but am not a fan of the faded sides and couldn't immediately find a way to turn it off. I did like that you could use some of the themes from ADW though.
Not sure what I think of VTL yet, seems like it has promise. But like the other launchers I've tried, I'm sure I'll like it more once I get use to it and customized to meet my needs better.
Just wondering. My favorite so far is Nova Launcher Prime, but I switched to Go for some variety. Trebuchet, Nova, and Apex are almost identical in looks, so I wanted to try something a bit different. Go used to be annoying with the pop up notifications but I see that they have been toned down quite a bit. I wish Nova had some of the animations Go has. Would also like the option to use different background pics for the app drawer. Still, if Nova had all the stuff Go had and vice versa, there would be no point in trying different launchers, I guess. I do notice that Go seems to eat up a bit more ram, depending on the theme, but it doesn't seem to affect anything.
Also, Next Launcher 3D, there is a free 36 hour trial available. It's actually kind of cool. I've a feeling that these 3d launchers are going to be the norm in the future. I assumed it would suck on the Dinc but it works pretty well. In fact, it feels pretty smooth on CM10.1. Sometimes it may need to load the homescreen for a bit, but what do I expect on this device? It does need some work since some basic features seem to be missing, but that could be the issue with the trial version, I don't know. All I do know is that I'm not forking $16 over for a launcher. Don't know how these 3D launchers can be profitable at these prices, but whatever. Still, I kind of want to keep messing with it. That trial is way too short to actually be able to evaluate the thing.
I used to use GO. Gave up on it as it got more and more bloat, and more and more ads. I vaguely recall reading somewhere they also data mine, but that was awhile ago. As for standard launchers, I like Nova Prime. Seems the most stable with the most features I want. Recently, though, I've been using Action Launcher Pro by Chris Lacy (the former dev of Tweet Lanes). It's pretty nice; minimalistic and has a unique way of doing things, that take some getting used to.
I used to use go by it got very slow on my phone for some reason I like nova it is the fastest by far I have prime. Also it has a thin were u can change the animations speed which is nice
Sent from my ADR6300 using xda app-developers app
PonsAsinorem said:
I used to use GO. Gave up on it as it got more and more bloat, and more and more ads. I vaguely recall reading somewhere they also data mine, but that was awhile ago. As for standard launchers, I like Nova Prime. Seems the most stable with the most features I want. Recently, though, I've been using Action Launcher Pro by Chris Lacy (the former dev of Tweet Lanes). It's pretty nice; minimalistic and has a unique way of doing things, that take some getting used to.
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Same here. I used to use it a while back but the notification pop ups just got on my nerves, so I dropped it. Pretty sure they've fixed it up since then. I only seem to get those when I use the Go Market/Store (not the play store). The bloat seems to be optional since most of their widgets need to be downloaded from the Play Store. I just delete the shortcuts when I first install. As for data mining, well, I haven't heard that one. Hope that isn't the case since I really like the setup I have right now. Nova Prime is good. I just wanted to change things up and Go has more animation options. I do think it's cool that Nova can use the icons from the Go themes though. I read a bit on Action Launcher not long ago. It looks like it might be a good one. Not sure what the shutters are but it seems like people like them. Was looking for the free version and couldn't find it in the Play Store. Not going to fork over $4.00 unless I try it first.
tydiamond11 said:
I used to use go by it got very slow on my phone for some reason I like nova it is the fastest by far I have prime. Also it has a thin were u can change the animations speed which is nice
Sent from my ADR6300 using xda app-developers app
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Go does seem to use a bit more ram, depending on the theme, than Nova. It doesn't seem sluggish to me though. Used it on Tiny's/Neo's CM10.1 and Tiny's CM10.
Kaepernick said:
I read a bit on Action Launcher not long ago. It looks like it might be a good one. Not sure what the shutters are but it seems like people like them. Was looking for the free version and couldn't find it in the Play Store. Not going to fork over $4.00 unless I try it first.
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Yeah, that's a minor point against it (and a gamble) is that there's no free version. I think he should include a free version, limited to only one or two shutters (or none), or something similar to make the app scaled down, much like Prime adds features to Nova. Internet is too slow for me to view the video, but this might have it.
Action Launcher Pro gets a beefy update
Basically, you put a shortcut to an app that has a widget that goes to it. On your home screen, you now have the shortcut with three lines on it. You then swipe on the shortcut, and a widget pops out of it. You can then interact with the widget, or hit Back to dismiss it and go back to you clean home screen. I posted screen shots, using Falcon Pro twitter client. The first is the clean home screen (notice Falcon Pro in the bottom left with the three lines). On the second shot, I've swiped on it, and there's its widget. Pretty snazzy, and helps maximize your space.
Again, this is a minimal launcher (so far) that focuses on being unique, not feature heavy, so if anyone does buy it, don't expect all the bells and whistles like fancy animations and such....yet. I don't know if Chris has plans to incorporate such features or not.
PonsAsinorem said:
Yeah, that's a minor point against it (and a gamble) is that there's no free version. I think he should include a free version, limited to only one or two shutters (or none), or something similar to make the app scaled down, much like Prime adds features to Nova. Internet is too slow for me to view the video, but this might have it.
Action Launcher Pro gets a beefy update
Basically, you put a shortcut to an app that has a widget that goes to it. On your home screen, you now have the shortcut with three lines on it. You then swipe on the shortcut, and a widget pops out of it. You can then interact with the widget, or hit Back to dismiss it and go back to you clean home screen. I posted screen shots, using Falcon Pro twitter client. The first is the clean home screen (notice Falcon Pro in the bottom left with the three lines). On the second shot, I've swiped on it, and there's its widget. Pretty snazzy, and helps maximize your space.
Again, this is a minimal launcher (so far) that focuses on being unique, not feature heavy, so if anyone does buy it, don't expect all the bells and whistles like fancy animations and such....yet. I don't know if Chris has plans to incorporate such features or not.
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Thanks for the detailed info. That vid explains a great deal. It sounds like a pretty good launcher. Is it faster and does it consume less ram than Nova and Apex? Biggest reason I'm using Go Launcher right now is the fancy animations and the different look in the app drawer. I'd be using Next Launcher right now if I decided to fork over the cash (example. not forking over $16), just because I'm in the mood for the effects. If I were to take it down a notch though, Action Launcher sounds like one to definitely try. Could make the 10.1 experience even smoother. I really like that Shutter approach. He should really consider putting out a free version.
Hey, Pons, I found an app that can make widgets act like the Shutters in Action Launcher. It's pretty nice.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ss.popupWidget.ad
That's the free version. The paid version is pretty inexpensive. Thinking about getting it.
Hello, as of today, which is the best 3D launcher for the GNOTE PRO 12.2? I used TSF Shell and SPB Shell 3D on my Note 2. The transition effects looked very cool. However, they don't look good on my large screen Note PRO 12.2. Probably the effects were developed with small screens in mind. I tried Next Launcher 3D and EX, there seems to be a bug as my device got long pauses. On two occassions, I had to force boot my device.
petercohen said:
Hello, as of today, which is the best 3D launcher for the GNOTE PRO 12.2? I used TSF Shell and SPB Shell 3D on my Note 2. The transition effects looked very cool. However, they don't look good on my large screen Note PRO 12.2. Probably the effects were developed with small screens in mind. I tried Next Launcher 3D and EX, there seems to be a bug as my device got long pauses. On two occassions, I had to force boot my device.
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I bought SPB Shell over 3 years ago and it's been abandoned for well over a year now. Can NOT recommend using it. I've also bought TSF, and the others, and Next Launcher looks the best so far if you want a 3D'ish environment.
tdetroit said:
I bought SPB Shell over 3 years ago and it's been abandoned for well over a year now. Can NOT recommend using it. I've also bought TSF, and the others, and Next Launcher looks the best so far if you want a 3D'ish environment.
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Same here, bought SPB years ago when it was probably the only 3D Launcher on the market. I think the company that developed it was bought out by Yandex because for a while they changed the name. I haven't checked out the Yandex Launcher in a while, it was the updated version of SPB.
Been using Nova launcher on all my devices and am really happy with it. Nice smooth effects and lots of customization available. Liked it so much I paid for it. Active development on it.
rhricik447 said:
Been using Nova launcher on all my devices and am really happy with it. Nice smooth effects and lots of customization available. Liked it so much I paid for it. Active development on it.
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I have a question about that one for I've been thinking about installing it on my own Galaxy Note Pro because it looked like one a beginner with launchers can manage and not too heavy on resources - and it supports icon packs. Sorry if this 'should' be self-explanatory. The Nova website does not offer me even a FAQ, let alone a complete tutorial for beginners. I want to use my own wallpapers, not theirs and I don't want to be stuck with just a choice of ready-made themes. I just want to customize what I want where I want. Will the Nova launcher allow me to do this? I have spent the last 2 days with my search engines trying to get the answer to this one question, so I'm afraid to install any launcher at all until I know.
Just install it and try it. You're not going to hurt anything, and if you decide you don't like it, then uninstall it and you'll be right back where you started. Using a 3rd party launcher doesn't do anything different except change the look and feel of your device. It's not going to mess anything up, if you don't like it you can uninstall it to go back exactly like it was previously, but be sure you go through all of the settings and mess around with it first. Look and see exactly what you can do differently. Don't just install a launcher like Nova, come to the first screen you see, and then decide you don't like it. It's kinda like taking a car for a test drive before buying it. There are tons of launchers available today, probably 10 times as many as 2 years ago. I've tried many of them. Some people like certain effects, some people like a minimalistic launcher, some people like tons of widgets, different icons, etc. Everyone likes their launcher for different reasons, but like I said, I've used many, I still try something new if I see it, but I've always gone back to Nova.
Rolldog said:
Just install it and try it. You're not going to hurt anything, and if you decide you don't like it, then uninstall it and you'll be right back where you started. Using a 3rd party launcher doesn't do anything different except change the look and feel of your device. It's not going to mess anything up, if you don't like it you can uninstall it to go back exactly like it was previously, but be sure you go through all of the settings and mess around with it first. Look and see exactly what you can do differently. Don't just install a launcher like Nova, come to the first screen you see, and then decide you don't like it. It's kinda like taking a car for a test drive before buying it. There are tons of launchers available today, probably 10 times as many as 2 years ago. I've tried many of them. Some people like certain effects, some people like a minimalistic launcher, some people like tons of widgets, different icons, etc. Everyone likes their launcher for different reasons, but like I said, I've used many, I still try something new if I see it, but I've always gone back to Nova.
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Thanks for such an encouraging message. (just got told I reached my limit for the thanks button today) If an experienced and knowledgeable user comes back to Nova so consistently, I feel yet more confident about trying it. I don't suppose there's any point in asking you, since you know that launcher so well, if you were able to use your own wallpapers? Because you're not going to tell me! :laugh:
I really do have to get over being a chicken about this and dive in. It's too easy to get into real states of apprehension when I spend all my time by myself on this mountaintop and have such a vivid imagination for disasters and doom - well, alone except for my dogs and cats, who've been thinking me an idiot already for years and won't offer me any advice.
My internet connection in this least-populated county in the state isn't stable or fast enough to deal with widgets that need to update online. I like looking at them but I can't run them, same problem with news feeds. I have the stock weather and still end up checking it on my phone mostly since that is faster. System widgets only tell me what it would be little bother to go check on myself. I even wasted my money getting windowblinds on my PC because I never remembered to use it much. I put weird icons on document files so I can find them when my eyes blur on text titles late at night; it's never just for looks. I change colors to relieve my eyes when I'm staying up on the computer and tablet too long, like now. I do like to be able to find things easily and put them where they're handy for that's what I do in my house too, so I can reach for them in the dark and grab them without mishap. So that's what I'll shop for in a launcher: compulsively neat organization for doomer hermits who already spend too much time looking at a monitor.
Yes, you can use any wallpaper you wish.
Rolldog said:
Yes, you can use any wallpaper you wish.
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Thank you, dear. I installed Nova this morning. Now, I'd like to put another launcher on my Note 4, so I can learn about that one at the same time, perhaps something a bit lighter. Slowing down the operation of my phone could be considered more directly dangerous to my security out here than hanging up my tablet so I'll go for simpler there. Have you a recommendation? That CM Launcher advertises itself as 'light and fast' but it also comes laden with 'security apps' and cleaners that I'm not so sure I want to bother with. I don't do much online browsing with the phone, at least not for long and I don't use social media on it. I also never share my devices because there's nobody around for miles anyway. I'd rather a launcher just be a launcher.
One Launcher that I like a lot, I use it on my phone but it won't work on my tablet because I use my tablet in landscape mode, is Buzz Launcher. Using this Launcher, you can go into their Buzz Launcher themes and download from about 500,000 different themes that other people have created. You can have as many as 9 different screens, all with different themes, and you can use their layout, their widgets and/or icons, and customize it to work with your apps. So, if you download a theme someone on the other side of the earth developed, you click on the icons they have, and if they used an app that you don't have, like if you use a different browser, the after you press on an icon, you can select the browser you use. This way, you can customize their entire themes to work with your specific phone and your specific apps. I change my themes fairly regularly, since it only takes a couple of minutes, and I feel like I have a different phone everyday.
Rolldog said:
One Launcher that I like a lot, I use it on my phone but it won't work on my tablet because I use my tablet in landscape mode, is Buzz Launcher. Using this Launcher, you can go into their Buzz Launcher themes and download from about 500,000 different themes that other people have created. You can have as many as 9 different screens, all with different themes, and you can use their layout, their widgets and/or icons, and customize it to work with your apps. So, if you download a theme someone on the other side of the earth developed, you click on the icons they have, and if they used an app that you don't have, like if you use a different browser, the after you press on an icon, you can select the browser you use. This way, you can customize their entire themes to work with your specific phone and your specific apps. I change my themes fairly regularly, since it only takes a couple of minutes, and I feel like I have a different phone everyday.
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I wish I had seen your post before I got misled by all the complaining in the reviews for that one! In fact, they ought to be paying you to write about their app's features for you've done a much better job than they did at the playstore. There seemed to be an issue of things 'disappearing' for no good reason, themes and icons and such and people were annoyed after having spent hours to download them. Then, 'folder contents get changed every time the phone restarts.' And then there's the 'upsidedown heart butt' icon that apparently no one can get rid of that has caused some consternation, lol. Oh, and multiple 'crashes' too. As usual, few indeed even say what kind of phone they have. I'm inclined to try it anyway now, since you like it and I rather liked their community-based approach to begin with.
So, what I downloaded to the phone yesterday, just to check it out, was one I haven't seen mentioned yet, (maybe just because I don't know where to look) Microsoft's Arrow launcher. I won't mind the howls of laughter. Just plain curiosity, for I haven't tried any of their stuff for android. This is another one that will only work on my phone, not for tablets. I know how annoying they can be on PC's, like everyone else who spends a lot of time on one. They remind me of certain supermarkets that like to constantly rearrange things so that every time I go in, I can't find anything and we all know Microsoft plays the same game with every new OS. They don't really want us getting to know the guts of their systems too well, do they? I was interested in finding the launcher to be free, since their Office apps clearly are anything but and in seeing if they can build an android app that isn't a resource-hogging monster. We'll see.
I've never used Arrow, but sometimes, it's necessary to go into a widget that has been designed and change the settings to customize it to your layout, your location, your calendars, etc, and I'm pretty sure the people who complain get frustrated because they can't figure out how to scale the widget, customize the information, change the icons, update the location, etc, and then they just give up. I usually try to save a couple of homepacks with widgets I like, and then I might try combining them into my own layout and custom icons too.
Getting recommendations isn't worth much, most of the time you have to try it out for yourself. For example, if you asked someone about a new movie that was just released because they just saw it, they might say it was horrible. You might go see it anyway, you find out it's scary, you love scary movies, the person who's advice you got hates scary movies, so it boils down to personal opinion.
Rolldog, may I hear more about 'homepacks and widgets?' If you have a few widgets that you like, do you, and can you, generally keep them with most other launchers you try out? Something you said before, I think it was you, about, if I got tired of a new launcher, I could go right back to Touchwiz and find my widgets and layout just where I left them, stuck in my mind and has me wondering about that little detail: why wouldn't the widgets still be there anyway, no matter what launcher I used? I ought to know all that already but I've had some 'rural life' issues keeping me too busy to spend much time with my devices or even read about them online. But I sure did a lot of shopping on the playstore, paid apps too and pretties for Nova! I'll have to watch that; it's too easy to do when I have a card on file and my budget will suffer. I have managed to discover that the ads in 'free' apps were draining my resources much more than getting the widgets I would like so if I really want something, I support the developer and ditch the ads with the constant 'phoning home' they have to do.
That 'Next' launcher has some nice 3-D effects doesn't it? But it isn't cheap, I notice.
During the announcement, it was shown that the Razer Phone includes a theme store/app with free themes, but does the phone use a known theme engine like Substratum, and can you sideload a custom theme onto the device?
I was playing with it in the AFK area and it seems to be a proprietary theme implementation (not sure though, this is just from what I could tell). It is super quick when applying themes and seems to work really well.
Thanks for replying @Masterfellow - I don't suppose you noticed any elegant and minimal looking themes - or are they all, well gamey and brash? I would want to get rid of that green used everywhere lol, if I owned that phone.
@daniel-t I'll have to disappoint you there mate, unfortunately they were only those. I can't stand those over-the-top themes with overdone ugly icons either lol.
Hopefully the theme store will have public apis/sdks just like Chroma and users will be able to create their own.
I'll post details on the XDA Portal. I have some info shared from their software team.
I would appreciate that thanks!
daniel-t said:
During the announcement, it was shown that the Razer Phone includes a theme store/app with free themes, but does the phone use a known theme engine like Substratum, and can you sideload a custom theme onto the device?
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believe it ships with a licensed copy of Nova launcher prime
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
I could be wrong, but Nova is just the launcher right, it doesn't actually theme the OS as in the notification shade, the system settings screen etc. But Razer's theme implementation does.
https://www.xda-developers.com/razer-phone-theme-engine-oms/
So it is a straight up implementation of OMS, but locked down for now. That is a little disappointing. Let's hope Razer eventually allow third-parties to submit themes.
I wouldnt expect too many min style themes. They have always been known for highly detailed style unlike the plain jane elementary school style theme, like Googles material design
I managed to try out the phone for a couple of minutes, but there was no wifi or data so i couldn't log into the Theme Store, and look around. Razer seems like the sort that would open it up if they thought designers/users would want that. I can't say I have much experience with them though.
Here are some screenshots. Some pics are bad, sorry. But these are the non-gaming ones offered.
https://imgur.com/a/THoVk