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Favorite Home Alternative

What's your favorite home screen?

  • Total voters
    124
I tried Open Home, but was annoyed that programs that create their own shortcuts on the desktop don't work with it. For example, Power Manager. It has the ability to create shortcuts to auto-apply a profile when you click it. It aways makes the shortcut on the normal Home desktop.

I see that Better Cut exists, and an Open Home version of AnyCut, but for other apps that may come out in the future that create shortcuts, how does one deal with this shortcomming?

Is there a way to treat these new home apps as the "real" Home app? I would think not or else the special version of AnyCut wouldn't exist.

Is there a way to copy a shortcut from the normal home to one of the other home apps?

Any other ideas?
 
Just got an update on the paid version. The menu is now more organized and it has auto rotate! Its turned off by default but once turned on it works.

I'm plain, I use the blue iphone theme. I will say I want to make shortcuts to text and call my girlfriend like I was able to do with Anycut but it'll come.
 
Does anyone using Ahome have problems with the home screen populating after being in other apps ? I am ... and it takes 5 to 15 seconds and at times more to have the home screen back to normal ...
 
i dont have it populate my apps. actually i just dont know if i like it. seems to make my phone run slower and i'm tired of the auto rotate and the weather refreshes from landscape to portrait. so i'm back to the default home.
 
msimoens said:
i dont have it populate my apps. actually i just dont know if i like it. seems to make my phone run slower and i'm tired of the auto rotate and the weather refreshes from landscape to portrait. so i'm back to the default home.
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Did your screen return blank (no weather widget) after like spending time in maps or appMarket ?

Mine reload weather after each rotate but that is fast and doesnt bother me ....
 
msimoens said:
its fast but i dont know why it does that. just kinda irritating
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Yes, it doesnt make sense because the clock widget doesnt seem to suffer the same action ...

But the blank screen and wait for my home screen to repopulate is quite irritating ...

I wanted to see if others had the same issue before email the developer ..
 
I have the same issues with no desktop replacement. My normal home screen takes agonizingly long to reload and I have no idea why.
 
dkaufman1 said:
I have the same issues with no desktop replacement. My normal home screen takes agonizingly long to reload and I have no idea why.
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Cool, at least I now know that is just not my setup ... Mine can take average of 17-20 seconds to reload all the desktop items ...

I will try to get an email off to the dev today ...
 
Open Home - Cupcake Full -- a full version now, out as of yesterday - I really like it. I think it is extremely well thought out.

A few Features I have noticed already:

1) Many themes, all of which are free.

2) a cool & practical floating dock which can be brought into view from any page via a tiny icon.

3) virtual keyboard which can be brought up from any page from a tiny icon.

4) The OEM app icons are all upgraded and have a very nice look, and vary according to which theme you load.

5) There are 7 pages, but personally I only use 4 -- I keep the clock page empty for a clean look, but the extra page option is a plus.

6) I discovered pushing the home button always takes you back to the main home page from whatever page you are on.

I'm sure there are other features I haven't discovered yet. The dev says more updates will be coming.

Download AnyCut - Open Home (free) for use with this.

IMHO this is the best home alternative -- it's at least worth a look, as there is a free lite version.
 
The app's dev is thinking it might have been memory but someone with 50 MB free was having same issues ... so they are scratching their heads on the aHome occasional slow Home refresh ! if they come up with some I will you posted ...

Losing a theme's wallpaper is also under analysis ( or head banging ) ...
 
webby said:
I agree. Some new themes, and also icon packages (always free) have been released in recent days that are really of exceptional quality.
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I second that agreement! aHome is a huge security risk with their widget implementation according to a google engineer.
 
Mrqwebb2 said:
I second that agreement! aHome is a huge security risk with their widget implementation according to a google engineer.
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What google engineer said that ? ... Google Source Please ?

Live Folders Coming soon to an Android near you !! unseen power that a widget could only wish to do ?

Current aHome widgets are very scary ... Clock, Weather, Searcher, Notes, battery monitor, & Calendar ...
 
justjimjpc said:
What google engineer said that ? ... Google Source Please ?

Live Folders Coming soon to an Android near you !! unseen power that a widget could only wish to do ?

Current aHome widgets are very scary ... Clock, Weather, Searcher, Notes, battery monitor, & Calendar ...
Click to expand...


Open home here as well...

Here is a link of a letter from "a google engineer" Open Home FAQs - Where are widgets? Better Android Apps

After reading that, I went head and downloaded Open Home. Better Android seems to be the only Dev that doesn't want security holes in his software... kudos to that.
 
dajobo said:
Open home here as well...

Here is a link of a letter from "a google engineer" Open Home FAQs - Where are widgets? Better Android Apps

After reading that, I went head and downloaded Open Home. Better Android seems to be the only Dev that doesn't want security holes in his software... kudos to that.
Click to expand...

Very Interesting letter ... seems reasonable to take care in widgets you install and that they come from a trusted source ... He did mention that Android 1.0 did not used any widgets... But the default Home app had two .. one the Clock and two the Google Search widgets... So if the google code has holes in its security for Home Apps that give things unlimited and potentially unknown priviledges ... Then even shortcuts would fall into this category...

The "unnamed" engineer says that new measures have been installed in cupcake to help prevent possible (maybe unknow "intents" from occurring) but wonder how we will know and how they will effect what shortcuts and widgetes can be written ???

here is a link to statement by a Google Programing Andrew Kameka making comments about the letter to Home Replacement Apps

http://androinica.com/2009/03/16/android-widget-support-poses-security-risk/

Quoting him it is to be noted :

"It’s important to note that there is NOT any known case of user data being exploited by Open Home or any other Home alternative app. It appears this was just a precautionary measure taken to avoid such a scenario. Be mindful of which 3rd party widgets you install on Open Home, aHome, and dxTop until more information is known."

.
 
dajobo said:
With identity theft like crazy out there, I'm not going to take any chances on 3rd party widgets until they get the security hole fixed. Just makes sense to me.
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Good Idea ... however I will take my chance with clock, & Weather ..

I need to check the aHome web site and see how they are addressing this !
 
Ageless Stranger said:
Possibly because Google will release a (hopefully) secure API for widgets and the home screen authors will decide there is a bigger market for using Googles implementation rather than their own.
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Oh I think the secure API will make things better for all ...

But I thought you meant that "widgets would be redundant" or in other words unnecessary !! and didnt know why they would be
 
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