• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Better Launchers?

H

Hawk777th

Newbie
I just went to the early released GB for my X. I really like GB but I am getting fed up with Beautiful widgets and Launcher pro they both seem really laggy all the time is there some thing better out there?
 
Hawk777th said:
I just went to the early released GB for my X. I really like GB but I am getting fed up with Beautiful widgets and Launcher pro they both seem really laggy all the time is there some thing better out there?
Click to expand...
It may be that you have something running in the background that is causing the lag. I have been using LauncherPro and Beautiful Widgets for months and I don't see any lag.

That said, yes, there are lots of alternatives. Alternative home/launchers include ADW EX, Go Launcher, Zeam, Open Home, aHome, Spark, Slide Screen, Panda Home and lots more. Search for launcher in the market and you'll get a nice list.

As far as replacing Beautiful Widgets, I'm not sure if there is an app that has all of the features included in BW. However, you can search for widget and/or weather and see what you can find.

I hope this helps.
 
Launcher Pro is kind of iffy for people, either it works great or it doesn't. First try doing as BV suggested and if that doesn't work give Go Launcher EX a try.
 
Airmaxx23 said:
Launcher Pro is kind of iffy for people, either it works great or it doesn't. First try doing as BV suggested and if that doesn't work give Go Launcher EX a try.
Click to expand...
Hmm.. I wasn't aware that LauncherPro was glitchy like that. I'll keep this in mind for the future. Thanks for the info.
 
ardchoille said:
Hmm.. I wasn't aware that LauncherPro was glitchy like that. I'll keep this in mind for the future. Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

He's working on rewriting the whole app but it's taking him longer than he expected. I used LP a lot and then it started getting glitchy on me so I went to Go Launcher EX and I love it, I really like the swipe gestures for the home screen and dock icons. I go back and try LP once in a while (tried it yesterday) but it's still buggy for me.
 
Airmaxx23 said:
He's working on rewriting the whole app but it's taking him longer than he expected. I used LP a lot and then it started getting glitchy on me so I went to Go Launcher EX and I love it, I really like the swipe gestures for the home screen and dock icons. I go back and try LP once in a while (tried it yesterday) but it's still buggy for me.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I knew Fede was re-writing it from scratch but I didn't know it was taking longer than he expected - I just thought he was busy with the community.

Can't wait to see the rewritten version. LauncherPro Plus works perfectly for me so I'm assuming the new version will be faster and smaller.
 
ardchoille said:
Hmm.. I wasn't aware that LauncherPro was glitchy like that. I'll keep this in mind for the future. Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

It wasn't for me, then I went to gingerbread and it was bad. I did the update that was released shortly after gb and it helped but didn't fix it on gb, then I went back to liberty on froyo and now it force closes which it didn't do before the gb update
 
Personally, I'm using GB blur launcher and have adjusted to it nicely. That's saying a lot coming from me, who is a big GoLauncher and LPP devotee.
 
if LauncherPro is acting a little laggy for you then you might want to spend some time messing with the memory settings in the advanced options menu of LP...i had some funky occassional lag and have really cleared it up...

ive had a lot of success with Go Launcher and ADW EX as well...so go ahead and try those out...

the stock Blur Launcher is nice...and is very responsive...its just not smooth enough for me with the screen transitions to keep it...its the one thing i can't get around...im currently running LPP with the blur app drawer though...

As for what makes the Blur launcher not as smooth? im not sure, but i have a guess based on messing with LauncherPro's settings...if you turn off screen caches in Launcher pro it gets a little jittery (probably worse than blur)...which leads me to believe that the moto launcher may not cache the screens like Launcher Pro (or other launchers) does...

as for Beautiful Widgets...what exactly is lagging??...since the last couple updates ive had lag with the "elastic effect" for the forecast
 
Metfanant said:
if LauncherPro is acting a little laggy for you then you might want to spend some time messing with the memory settings in the advanced options menu of LP...i had some funky lag and have really cleared it up...
Click to expand...
If and when you have some time, how you have tweaked the settings might be a big help to many. What worked for you? What are your current settings? :D
 
JB in AZ said:
If and when you have some time, how you have tweaked the settings might be a big help to many. What worked for you? What are your current settings? :D
Click to expand...

ive got some time right now ;)

Memory Usage Preset: Moderate (although this doesn't seem to matter as much)

Use Homescreen caches: YES
Homescreen cache type: Light
Build caches as needed: YES
Clear caches on exit: NO (but ive messed around and it made no difference)
Prevent force-closes: YES

Now...a couple little things...and these seem to be wonky coding on Fede's part...

when you set the screen caches to "Light" it messes with the "Flip" screen transition...and it looks bad...don't use it if you're going to set your caches to "Light"

when you set screen caches to "Condensed" it messes with transparent widgets on your homescreens...as you scroll between screens the widgets become SLIGHTLY more opaque and then when the screen stops scrolling they adjust their transparency back to normal...its not very noticeable, but now that i mentioned it you will see it...drove me nuts...

I also have my minimum scrolling speed for screen transitions set to 100, and the opening speed of the window previews set to 10(instant) and using these settings launcher pro is real snappy for me...

over the next few days if i have time im going to slowly (one option at a time) increase the memory usage of LPP and try to figure out EXACTLY what it was that was causing my occasional lag...
 
Man, I am really liking Go Launcher Ex, but is anyone else noticing a crazy battery drain on the droid x? I honestly can't tell if it's all in my head or not. Battery stats has it (right now) at about double what launcher pro was it, and where's my droid power has it at .19% versus launcher pro's .04%. Do I just need to let it settle in a while? I did a few searches and it seems like every now and then someone pops up saying it's a battery drain, but I really don't know if I just need to ride it out or what.

I really like the launcher though, i just got so tired of launcher pro rebooting my phone three or four times a day and getting really laggy.
 
Metfanant said:
if LauncherPro is acting a little laggy for you then you might want to spend some time messing with the memory settings in the advanced options menu of LP...i had some funky occassional lag and have really cleared it up...

ive had a lot of success with Go Launcher and ADW EX as well...so go ahead and try those out...

the stock Blur Launcher is nice...and is very responsive...its just not smooth enough for me with the screen transitions to keep it...its the one thing i can't get around...im currently running LPP with the blur app drawer though...

As for what makes the Blur launcher not as smooth? im not sure, but i have a guess based on messing with LauncherPro's settings...if you turn off screen caches in Launcher pro it gets a little jittery (probably worse than blur)...which leads me to believe that the moto launcher may not cache the screens like Launcher Pro (or other launchers) does...

as for Beautiful Widgets...what exactly is lagging??...since the last couple updates ive had lag with the "elastic effect" for the forecast
Click to expand...

And how may I ask are you doing that? Cuz really thats the only thing I like about GB launcher for the X. If I could do that with ADW Ex...
 
jroc said:
And how may I ask are you doing that? Cuz really thats the only thing I like about GB launcher for the X. If I could do that with ADW Ex...
Click to expand...

I don't use ADW, but if you create a shortcut, the menu that pops up has "App Groups" in it - that's the Blur app drawer. Select App Groups, then choose All Apps, and boom.

This ONLY works if you're running BlurHome in the background - that is, if you haven't deleted or renamed it. Also, if you long press and select create shortcut on desktop, it will force close because it's trying to create a shortcut on the BlurHome desktop, not the ADW desktop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom