A new version of LauncherPro (v0.7.6.0) is now available in the Android Market.

Before I get to the changes, a little warning. I’m going to Uruguay tomorrow until Tuesday, so if there are any bugs in this version, I won’t be able to fix them until Tuesday. Update at your own risk :-)

Ok, so here’s what’s new:

For all users:

  • For Droid X/Droid 2 users: Added support for SMS notifications on the dock when using custom icons.
  • New: LauncherPro Shortcuts!. This deserves a rather lengthy explanation.
     
    LauncherPro Shortcuts are a new way of creating, adding, and sharing custom shortcuts for LauncherPro. Shortcuts are created and shared as LPS files.
     
    LPS files are self-contained shortcut files that have all the info needed to make a shortcut, including the label, icon, and Android intent (more on intents in a bit). They are written in a new format that I created for this purpose, which is based in XML. Don’t worry, I created a web-based tool for creating these files so it’s as easy as filling out a form and downloading the resulting .lps file.
     
    A shortcut always needs an Android intent to be “executed” when the shortcut is clicked. Intents are the standard way of launching activities/apps and sending information and commands to apps in Android. If you want to create your own LauncherPro Shortcuts, please read this page for a detailed explanation of how intents work and how to make your own.
     
    LPS files need to be stored in your SD card, either in the root of the card, or inside the folders “download”, “downloads” or “lpshortcuts”. To add an LP Shortcut to a homescreen, long-press on a blank spot, choose “Shortcuts” and then “LauncherPro Shortcuts”. If you have any LPS files in the previously mentioned folders in your SD card, they should show up on the list. You can click on “Create New” to go to the web-based LauncherPro Shortcut Creator tool. You can also access the LauncherPro Shortcut Creator tool from your computer, and then put the generated LPS file in your SD card.
     
    Here’s a topic in our LauncherPro forum where you can share and download LauncherPro Shortcut files.

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  • New option: Display memory usage. This is only meant for testing/debugging/troubleshooting purposes. When enabled, LauncherPro will display its current heap memory usage (in kilobytes) on the screen. Android has a heap memory limit per app of 24mb for high-resolution devices (Droid, N1, etc) and 16mb for medium-resolution devices (Hero, G1, Legend, etc). If you’re having memory-related force closes, this feature might help you understand why, and tweak or remove stuff from your homescreens until you achieve a safer memory usage. You can enable this under Preferences > Advanced Settings (it’s at the very bottom). Note: this feature is quite CPU intensive, so scrolling through homescreens will probably be less smooth when this is enabled.

 
For LauncherPro Plus users only:

  • Fixed the QuickContact popup not showing on the Messaging widget when the sender doesn’t have a photo assigned.
  • Fixed not being able to move/remove the card-style Messaging widget when there are no SMS messages on your phone.
  • Fixed the Calendar widget displaying multi-day events only on the first day. Both the calendar and agenda views should now display these events on each day they take.
  • Tweaked the Calendar widget to use better localized strings for dates.

 

That’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish the Friends (Twitter + Facebook) widget next week or the one after. It’s the most complicated widget (as far as coding goes) in the LauncherPro Plus series yet so it’s going to take more time than usual to finish it.

Click here to download the APK file.