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Dumping Go Launcher EX for Zeam!

R

Rafael

Android Enthusiast
I really liked Go Launcher EX when I first tried it a few months ago.
It was a nice step up from the poor Commando stock launcher app.

Over time it has become a pretty good bit of bloatware.
Large, slow, too many menu items added to the stock menu.
More and more it appears to be a venue for selling other Go products.
Nothing wrong with that....but I have no use for it.

I am done with Go Launcher EX.


Tried a few launchers tonight and settled on Zeam.
https://market.android.com/details?id=org.zeam&hl=en

It's small, only 388k. It's very fast. It has a simple menu.
It works.....and I love minimalist programs. With the exception of icon replacement.....it does everything I liked about Go Launcher.

Also....if you have de-binged.....it works with Google-search when you hit the hard search button.
 
Hey Raf,

I would've tried it out,
but since you mentioned that you can't customize icons,
well...you KNOW that's a deal breaker for me. :(
Other than that it sounds good tho. :)
 
I am trying Zeam right now. It seems to be pretty fast. Thje one problem I seem to be having is that no matter what I set the home button to do in the preferences, hitting it takes you back to the screen you were on rather than the default screen.

Is this a quirk with Zeam and the commando?
 
BTG;
Yeah....I forgot about you and your icon preference.
Sorry, man!

bduemig;
You must set the function of the Home button in the Action-bindings menu as well as assigning the "default" screen in the Workspace menu.

Mine works just fine. Commando running 2.3.3.
I hope I helped!
 
I can't get it to work. No matter what choice I make for the home button, i9t acts like the return button and brings me back to the previous screen.

I guess I will have to dump it and try to download again and see if that fixes it.
 
Sorry for the trouble.
If you like.....I can post all of my settings when I get home tonight.
I am a bit busy at work.
 
Thanks for the info and help.

This is not that much trouble at all, but unfortunately, I am a perfectionaist. I will fight with something to get it right even if it is extreemly minor.

When I get home, I will dump what I have and download it again and see if that fixes it.
 
Rafael, where did you find Zeam? Excellent. Small, full featured. Outstanding! THANK YOU! I uninstalled GO after I replicated all my shortcuts and widgets.
 
Did you notice the menu has a link to the app drawer?
This means you can get rid of the app drawer shortcut on the dock bar at the bottom of the screen..... to make room for other items.

Tip: If you only have four icons at the bottom "dock", change the item spacing on the Dock menu to "large" to space them apart a bit.
 
runsondiesel said:
Rafael, where did you find Zeam? Excellent. Small, full featured. Outstanding! THANK YOU! I uninstalled GO after I replicated all my shortcuts and widgets.
Click to expand...

I did a google search on my PC for the term "Android, launcher comparison", and got this:

Android launcher showdown: LauncherPro, ADW, Zeam, GO Launcher and QuickDesk

Nice comparison page.
There are quite a few there that look interesting.
Zeam caught my eye since it had both a good rating and was "minimalist".

Glad to help...........I just stumbled across it. :)
 
I am trialing zeam upon your recommendation raf. It does seem faster for sure, but curiously I notice less operating memory(RAM) available most of the time. It doesn't seem to affect any speed of it tho. I see as little as 109MB where go launcher would usually not go lower than about 150MB. Just android doing it's thing maybe. I'm going to keep trying it out.
 
Rafael said:
Interesting.
What are you using to track memory use?
Click to expand...
Nothing fancy, I just have an icon set to open my running apps and can see at a glance what's being used and what's free. It fluctuates of course as the system ebbs and flows constantly. The last time I saw it drop that low I was using mobile shell. It doesn't seem like it should be doing this tho and I'm wondering what could be going on behind the scenes. So far it has topped out at a high of 165MB and a low of 109MB(free available RAM) I'll keep an eye on it. No question it's faster tho.
FWIW: Launcher 7 leaves the most free available RAM at around 210MB most of the time.
 
Rafael said:
Mine is steady at 202meg free. But I am rooted and debloated.
Click to expand...
So being rooted does that more or less maintain a steadier level of free RAM?
because mine fluctuates alot(unrooted). It doesn't seem to matter one way or the other in performance. I did reboot my commando and saw the free jump to 224MB then slowly drop. Now below 190MB. I don't think it matters as long as there is enough to run the system. I do like the simplicity of zeam tho.
 
I doubt it helps, other than the fact that I probably have less apps running since I removed many of them.
 
doing much better in the RAM dept now. 220's to 230's seems normal now. No clue what was going on before. Great laumcher!
 
Rafael said:
Yeah, mine is running about the same as yours......that 202 figure I gave was lower than usual.
Click to expand...

I must say, what an awesome find. Zeam is so fast and responsive, no issues yet with it at all. I had never heard of it before and I usually keep an eye out for this sort of app. I thought go launcher was nice, it is, but zeam has it beat for action and pure simplicity. :)
 
Agreed!

I was thinking about suggesting they get rid of most of the items in the menu.
"Applications" and "settings" are the only items that need to be there.

Search is redundant since we have a hard search key.
Preferences, Add, and Wallpaper can be reached with a long-press on the screen.
 
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