Tips and Tricks for Android Users
Posts tagged launcher
ADWLauncher Settings
Nov 28th
I’ve mentioned the preview setting in ADW Launcher previously. Recently I installed the Cyanogenmod 7.1 release on my Nexus S and started using that as my daily phone for a bit. There are a few additional settings in there I’m really liking. I like the dockbar a lot more than the main dock. What I really like to tune for is density of the screen. I wish there was an effective way to swap to the dockbar all the time. Instead what I’ve ended up doing is:
- Enable the dockbar
- Bind swipe up to show the dockbar
- Bind swipe down to app the app drawer
- Disable hiding the dockbar on app launch
And what I end up with is a dockbar I can drag shortcuts into/out of, and I just use the swipe action to open the app drawer. My homescreen ends up looking something like this:
You have to use the swipe up to bring up the dockbar instead of the main dock, but once you do it sticks around.
Getting the Most Out of Froyo
Jul 14th
If you’ve got Froyo on your phone now and you’re looking to make sure you know about all the changes, check out this Android 2.2 review from AnandTech. It walks through all the differences compared to the 2.1 release, and there are a few good points in there. Everyone knows about the hotspot functionality for instance. But I had missed the automatic updates from the Marketplace till just now. Maybe there’s something in there you missed too.
Long Press on the Home Key
May 29th
Intuitive to Nokia users, but I don’t think folks coming from other platforms have picked it up. If you press and hold the home key you get a list of recent apps, which makes switching around a lot easier if you’re bouncing back and forth. Here’s what the app list looks like when it comes up:
Launcher Dock
May 28th
Another widget I’m running now that I have Cupcake installed is “Launcher Dock”. It’s a 1×1 widget that holds launchers for up to 8 apps. I put some of my less frequently launched (but still relatively frequently used) apps in there so that I can have all their icons on the main screen. This is a shot of my main screen with a configured Launcher Dock by the bottom right corner, just above the San Mateo weather widget:
When you tap the widget once it brings up a selector with launchers for each of the apps you’ve added plus an icon to start the widget configuration interface. Here’s what mine looks like after tapping on the widget:
And what the configuration interface looks like if you tap on that center icon:
I think it’s a pretty slick widget. Great way to increase launcher density if you have a few widgets taking up some space. And it looks pretty good there on the home screen.