Launcher Apps, which works best on our NC?

[rsmcjr]

I just rooted the NC i gave my wife for Christmas...i'd have done it yesterday but we had guests over...oh well. It is working great!! but I have yet to find a launcher that isn't phone based. What are you using?

 

[markiej]

I tried ADW and Zeam and they both looked about the same, but I couldn't get either of them to work properly (granted I just installed them from the market and rebooted, then chose them when I started back). So I went back to the Nook standard.

 

[rico2001]

Zeam

Sent from my HTC Evo using Android Tablet Forum App

 

[pez]

I was using launcher pro and it was pretty cool but then I heard everyone here talking about
zeem. So I gave it a try and I really really like that one you can really customize the grid of
icons(make more rows or columns) add more pages to the home screen, change what icons
are in the dock very cool!!

 

[gadgetrants]

^ I also prefer Zeam over LauncherPro because of the versatility of the application dock!

-Matt

 

[rsmcjr]

zeam is the one! thank you very much, i have tried adw, launcher pro(which i use on my droid) but zeam is perfect for the tablet format.

 

[markiej]

Any idea why I can't seem to adds shortcuts to alternate launchers on nook color? Or why my book appears to be a pd zoom (see below )?

Sent from my LogicPD Zoom2 using Android Tablet Forum App

 

[rico2001]

Shortcuts don't work with Zeam, we have to learn to live without them for now.

Sent from my HTC Evo using Android Tablet Forum App

 

[gadgetrants]

The shortcut problem seems to be a known issue: Zeam not totally working on my NC - xda-developers Here is how I dealt with the alternate launcher question:

(1) Installed Desktop Visualizer: this is a nice utility that allows you to create "widgets" on your homescreen, which are actually clever shortcut buttons

(2) Installed Home Manager: you can point the widget you create with Desktop Visualizer toward Home Manager, which switches to the homescreen/launcher of your choice (it's a little tricky, let me know if you want details).

Now we have a "button" on our homescreen in Zeam, which when pushed switches directly to the NC homescreen.

-Matt

 

[markiej]

Any idea why I can't seem to adds shortcuts to alternate launchers on nook color?

Just installed Zeam, and found a workaround for the inability to add shortcuts (courtesy of xda). Launch Zeam, click on the all apps button (or within the menu). Then long-click on the app you want on your home screen. It will then allow you to drag it anywhere.

 

[rsmcjr]

yeah i found the same thing with zeam and did the same as markiej, it works fine and moved them to the bottom of the screen in a row, looks a bit like launcher pro only works better on the tab

 

[gadgetrants]

Just installed Zeam, and found a workaround for the inability to add shortcuts (courtesy of xda). Launch Zeam, click on the all apps button (or within the menu). Then long-click on the app you want on your home screen. It will then allow you to drag it anywhere.

Oh, I'm embarrassed that I misunderstood the question!!! I must have assumed:

(1) most owners here have another Android device, and knew the long-press trick (my bad), and
(2) the goal was to get a shortcut to the native B&N home launcher (again, my bad)

In the case of a shortcut back to the NC homescreen, note that even though there is an app for that (it's called...Home!), it's probably missing from your Zeam app tray (and any other launcher's app tray, e.g., LauncherPro, ADW, etc.). That part is a mystery.

But of course you can add shortcuts to pretty much any other app--as long as it's on the launcher's app tray. However, here is an interesting variant of the problem:

What if I want to create a desktop button for something other than launching an app? For example, on the Droid, if you longpress the homescreen, you get a "Shortcuts" option that allows adding not only apps, but also lots of very helpful utilities (e.g., a shortcut to the wifi settings). If you try that process from the homescreen, it fails. (Launcher Pro has an impressive list of things you can add to the homescreen, but I haven't tried it on the NC yet.)

At the moment, one way to address this question is through Desktop Visualizer, which is a bit more versatile than simply adding an app to the homescreen. What it essentially does is allow you to pick from not only apps but also a number of actions, associate that action with an icon/image, and then pin the image to the homescreen where tapping it launches the app/action. I think as we learn to modify the NC more, this will become a more useful utility.

-Matt