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PandaHome versus GDE? Or Alternative Home Replacement?

What is the best Home replacement for Droid?

  • Total voters
    143
blazingwolf said:
Stop killing things and see if that helps. No, free memory is not a good indicator for lagging on the Droid.
Click to expand...

blazingwolf - any evidence to back up your assertions? my experience seems to tell me the contrary - that killing things helps lag and free memory (as shown in Advanced Task Killer) IS a good indicator of lag...
 
i stopped using a task killer due to reading several articles / posts about how using them can actually be detrimental. haven't seen any worse functioning, but don't know if it's better either.
 
minyangmao said:
blazingwolf - any evidence to back up your assertions? my experience seems to tell me the contrary - that killing things helps lag and free memory (as shown in Advanced Task Killer) IS a good indicator of lag...
Click to expand...

My own and several threads with comments that back it up. Right now I am at 35MB free with no noticeable lag. If I kill certain tasks to bring it back to 70MB free I see no difference in performance.

There has also been several threads worth of comments stating that using a task killer can and will affect how your device works.

These threads appear here and on other sites.
 
Well, trying to read the available memory is confusing as crap to me... but this is what mine says:

Avail 16MB+70MB in 21 Other: 48MB in 3

I can't make heads or tails of how that breaks down, but that is with GDE, Weather widget donate, Local, WifiFixer, Audio Manager, Battery Widget, Missed Call, Corporate Calendar, Android Keyboard, Gtalk, and 3 skinned Launcher Dock widgets all running. No lag at all.
 
mrthundercleese said:
Decided to try Home++ and that right there is actually annoying to me along with the notification pulldown showing the background where the notification bar used to be (if it's hidden). The wallpaper thing may be no fault of the dev though and if it can't be remedied then I would rather it not wrap (or at least give me an option). I haven't used any wrapping home themes before so I don't know how that compares.
Click to expand...
I hadn't noticed the windowshade issue because I keep the notification bar always visible.

I don't think it will be long before some enterprising folks come up with "looping" backgrounds that would provide a seamless transition. They may already exist, but I haven't seen any.

I got a prompt response to a bug report from the dev., and am hopeful that these issues will ultimately be fixed!

Dave
 
i know its been posted but i cant even find it..

im helping my friend with her droid and want to download pandahome but ive tried every search combo but it comes up with tons and tons of themes. whats the search string to pull up just the app itself.


also whats the best way to search for just pandahome themes for it or will any theme work?
 
Which home replacement do people feel is the most responsive? I tried Panda and found it to be a little laggy. Home++ was great, but still is a work in progress as it locked up my phone and gave me a few force closes. What about the rest?
 
DanSan said:
i know its been posted but i cant even find it..

im helping my friend with her droid and want to download pandahome but ive tried every search combo but it comes up with tons and tons of themes. whats the search string to pull up just the app itself.


also whats the best way to search for just pandahome themes for it or will any theme work?
Click to expand...

Try Panda Home Full for the paid version and Panda Home Lite for the free version. For themes do Panda Home Themes.
 
DanSan said:
i know its been posted but i cant even find it..

im helping my friend with her droid and want to download pandahome but ive tried every search combo but it comes up with tons and tons of themes. whats the search string to pull up just the app itself.
Click to expand...

"panda home new" came right up :D
 
blazingwolf said:
Try Panda Home Full for the paid version and Panda Home Lite for the free version. For themes do Panda Home Themes.
Click to expand...
There is no paid version of pandahome. A search on "pandahome" without the space or "pandahome new" like the poster above me replied will do.

Also openhome and ahome themes work in pandahome. I find that those are better quality than the current panda home themes.
 
mrthundercleese said:
There is no paid version of pandahome. A search on "pandahome" without the space or "pandahome new" like the poster above me replied will do.

Also openhome and ahome themes work in pandahome. I find that those are better quality than the current panda home themes.
Click to expand...


Duh! You are of course correct. I was thinking of Open Home. My bad. :o
 
DanSan said:
i know its been posted but i cant even find it..

im helping my friend with her droid and want to download pandahome but ive tried every search combo but it comes up with tons and tons of themes. whats the search string to pull up just the app itself.


also whats the best way to search for just pandahome themes for it or will any theme work?
Click to expand...

better solution, applies to anything you search in the market. You can take out unwanted results simply by included the minus sign. So search for "pandahome -theme" :)
 
I downloaded home++ last night Its free and great! has a nice clean layout and 4 screens that "wrap around" which is a nice effect. I recommend it, I'm sticking with it, it's fast and works great!
 
spectrrr said:
I'm going to have to go with none of them... nothing quite "perfect" for me.


dxTop
Likes: sweet double menu bar with "recent" items
neutral: 4-screen diamond concept is designed to make it easy to single swipe to any screen.
dislikes: diamond patter is confusing to me. limited to 4 screens. nothing "more" to the program.


GDE:
likes: permanent phone button and customizable button. multiple transition effects (face, cube, drag) that all work well, AND allow scrolling from one side of the screen to the other. Menu system is intuitive and allows for a little customization by setting up folders. LOVE the application dock widget for the home screen.
dislikes: application dock widget on the home screen does not allow customized user organization, Icons are placed in a completely illogical order - This REALLY bothers me! Dock application menus could use a tad more work. Not very many themes available, many of the ones there are poor quality.


pandahome:
likes: LOVE LOVE LOVE the two trays on the side of the screen for putting shortcuts.
dislikes: I like that you can have up to ELEVEN home screens, and the helpful dots will show you exactly what screen you are on. Apps menu can be sorted to show ONLY a certain letter range, which usually eliminates scrolling to find what you're looking for.
dislikes: No easy way to navigate through the home screens quickly. If you have eleven home screens... well just hope the hell you don't need to get to the other side very quickly!!! No further menu customization beyond the two side trays. Need a little something "more" for the apps menu.


Perfect combination?
dual menus, mapped to long press keys (from dxTop)
home screen transitions and options (from GDE)
FIXED application dock widget (from GDE)
permanent button for phone and something customizable (from GDE)
application sidebars (from pandahome)
"you are here" lights that show what home screen you are on (from pandahome)
sort main applications menu to only display a certain letter (from pandahome)
Click to expand...

You really need to try out Home++ and add it into the mix.

I wonder - since all of these apps are released under CC3 (if I understand the Android / AM system) would it be wrong for a developer to open up all of these apps, borrow the best parts, write code to mash it all into a usable state, and offer it up as a new app? Or does CC3 not allow this (forgive me for not being up to date on the CC3 licensing scheme - but I'm not)....

bruceo said:
Think I narrowed down the problem to SportsTap widget. Once I removed it all of my have stopped.
Click to expand...

Wow. Never thought of that one causing all my issues with home++ - but I did move that to the new home++ screen as soon as I had it installed. It was not refreshing, but everything was worknig smoothly. Then I power cycled the phone. SportsTap started working - and I started getting lags, FCs, and all sorts of evilness.

Looks like I need to go back and try it again....

mrthundercleese said:
Decided to try Home++ and that right there is actually annoying to me along with the notification pulldown showing the background where the notification bar used to be (if it's hidden). The wallpaper thing may be no fault of the dev though and if it can't be remedied then I would rather it not wrap (or at least give me an option). I haven't used any wrapping home themes before so I don't know how that compares.

It is VERY stable though which is great. Only one crash and I've been using it heavily since I posted earlier in this thread. Very good for a beta. Looking forward to the finished product.
Click to expand...

I didn't notice the notification pull-down showing the background - unless you mean how the notification (can I call it a taskbar and not ge slammed? :p) is auto hidden?

blazingwolf said:
My own and several threads with comments that back it up. Right now I am at 35MB free with no noticeable lag. If I kill certain tasks to bring it back to 70MB free I see no difference in performance.

There has also been several threads worth of comments stating that using a task killer can and will affect how your device works.

These threads appear here and on other sites.
Click to expand...

While I understand that task killers should not be used on a regular basis (because they provide about as much benefit as memory 'manager' programs on PCs using Windows Vista / 7 or *nix, I keep mine handy b/c I am an app fiend - and I tend to install multiple apps at one time b/c I am a fairly good beta tester, but this is my first foray into smartphones, so I am decidedly impatient, so I ignore all my basic tenets of installing one app at a time and then evaluating and then moving to my next app....

Therefore, as you can imagine, strange things continue to happen on my phone, (such as my documented lags and near lock-up scenarios which I first attributed to the EVRC-B codec change in the settings, then to Home++ (but which, as I mention earlier, is most likely due to SportsTap widget) - and thus I absolutely have to keep a TM (and more specifically, ATM) around to 'kill all' to give me breathing room so I can at the very least try to figure out what is causing all of my problems....

Dave17 said:
I hadn't noticed the windowshade issue because I keep the notification bar always visible.

I don't think it will be long before some enterprising folks come up with "looping" backgrounds that would provide a seamless transition. They may already exist, but I haven't seen any.

I got a prompt response to a bug report from the dev., and am hopeful that these issues will ultimately be fixed!

Dave
Click to expand...

I was actually thinking the same exact thing. I know I saw software to make panoramic views before, but there was another piece of software that I saw that made something more along the lines of what this app needs - a continuous image that can be wrapped from either edge to the other edge continuously. Let me look for it....

craighwk said:
Which home replacement do people feel is the most responsive? I tried Panda and found it to be a little laggy. Home++ was great, but still is a work in progress as it locked up my phone and gave me a few force closes. What about the rest?
Click to expand...

I am going to try Home++ again - without SportsTap - and see if it plays nicer this time.

superglen99 said:
I downloaded home++ last night Its free and great! has a nice clean layout and 4 screens that "wrap around" which is a nice effect. I recommend it, I'm sticking with it, it's fast and works great!
Click to expand...

See the first post I quoted - that would be the ultimate home replacement app.
 
Perfect combination?
dual menus, mapped to long press keys (from dxTop)
home screen transitions and options (from GDE)
FIXED application dock widget (from GDE)
permanent button for phone and something customizable (from GDE)
application sidebars (from pandahome)
"you are here" lights that show what home screen you are on (from pandahome)
sort main applications menu to only display a certain letter (from pandahome)
Click to expand...

I would add to that aimated widgets and bookmarks button from Home++


Home++ just got me in a roboot loop that didnt end until I loaded up in safe mode and deleted it. Beware!
 
Brenton said:
I keep trying desktop replacements as they appear but I always go back to DXTop. I simply can't go past the application categories and the live folders on my desktop that connect directly to the app categories. I have folders on my desktop for Media, Tools, Apps, Manage, Games etc. whenever I DL a new app, it automatically goes into the folder on my desktop called "testing" (a live folder pointing to apps with no category). Once I have trialled the app and think it's worthy, I categorise it by long click and set category, it then moves automatically from "testing" into whatever folder matches the category I choose. This is the biggest gripe I have with other home replacements, all the apps are just a mess and desktop folders are a chore to keep updated - DXTop does it all for me with very little fuss, exactly what home replacements are meant to do - make things better and easier.
It has a built in dock, has 2 apps drawers; one shows running apps, while the main is categorised by whatever categories you set (or list by size, DL date, name etc), you can change icons easily; both for shortcuts or folders, you can rename app shortcuts, quickly and easily uninstall apps with just a few clicks; no need for more uninstall programs. You can fit 5 apps wide in folders instead of 4. No others come close that I can find. Oh yeah - and fast.
Click to expand...


I cannot get the live folders working... I add a dxtop app folder it has no category as default. But i cant see how to add categories and when I long press an app in a folder there is no option to select a category..
 
Redflea said:
I don't like that it turned off my pattern lock setting...that's a big no-no. Don't mess w/my security settings!
Click to expand...

You can turn off dxTop's slide to unlock and return to your old pattern lock by doing the following:

Tap the menu key
Tap the dxTop icon for the program's settings
Find "Enable lock screen" and unclick it.

Presto. You're back to your original 9 dot pattern power-up screen.

Yes, by the way, I agree; that kind of security is a must have.
 
Glad I found this thread. I have to admit I was about to start a new one to ask about the home screen replacements.

I am liking Panda so far. Seems to be working well on the droid. I wish it had a fixed app bar on the bottom like some of the other offerings instead of the side menus, though those are kind of cool too.

I found the eye candy on GDE was pretty cool, but will probably refund it anyway. It's a bit laggy for me and some of my widgets are not working well. In particular the widgets that came with TouchDown are not populating or working. Oddly enough I couldn't get the GDE application launch bar widget to work. I select it from the menu and it does not show up on the desktop. Is there a trick to that?

I've heard good things about aHome and FreshFace, but it looks like these do not work with 2.0 according to the market. Sweethome got some bad reviews on the market.

Sounds like the diamond pattern for dxTop is confusing and people are having trouble with widgets.

What other options are worth a look? OpenHome? Sweet something or other? Home++?

Thanks,
John
 
I'm liking home++ a lot. GDE was laggy for me and I haven't yet tried the others. Home++ has a nice fixed interface/shortcut bar that minimizes the screen real estate taken up by the UI elements (the notification bar is easy to toggle on and off) and has so far been running very smoothly on my phone. Combined with apps organizer and the pure calendar widgets, it makes for a pretty navigable but unobtrusive interface.
 
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