Updates

LauncherPro v0.4.4 update is up.

Another minor update, here’s what’s new:

  • In 0.4.3, I increased the scrolling speed a bit which caused a bit of lag for some users. I’ve set it back to the way it was before. Will add an option to choose scrolling speed soon.
  • Improved the code for the Nexus One dots. They should perform a bit better.
  • New Elastic scrolling option: this lets you enable or disable the elastic or “bounce back” effect when scrolling through homescreens. (Advanced settings)
  • New app drawer opening speed option: Here you can tweak the speed of the opening/closing effect for the app drawer. Zero is the slowest, 10 makes it appear/disappear instantly. (Advanced settings)

The Android Market is still having issues so I’ve uploaded this one to my server too. Click here to download the APK file.

LauncherPro Beta v0.4.3 on Android Market

I’ve just uploaded a new version of LauncherPro Beta (v0.4.3). It’s a minor update that brings two things:

  • New “Froyo wide” background for the dock. It’s the same as the Froyo background but it covers all five icons in the dock.
  • Next/Previous screen shortcuts with dot screen indicators (like on Nexus One/Froyo). Long-press on a dock icon and choose “Homescreens” to access this feature.

The Android Market has been having some issues lately and many users aren’t able to see LauncherPro on the market.

If you can’t see it on the market, click here to download the apk file.

New LauncherPro Beta v0.4.2!

Just hot on the heels of v0.4.1, here comes a new release! It brings bug fixes and some cool new features :-)

Here’s what’s new:

  • Fixed problem in Android 2.2 where the “Restart LauncherPro” option wouldn’t restart the app.
  • Fixed missing status bar when set to hide notification bar and Notifications was opened from menu.
  • Fixed wallpaper shifting down a few pixels when unlocking the screen.
  • When set to hide notification bar, the status bar will be shown when you press the menu button on your phone. This lets you see what kind of notifications you have, wifi status, etc.
  • New “Advanced settings” screen within the preferences. This will include some settings for those of you who like to tweak.
  • New: Option to choose the number of icons per row in both portrait and landscape mode. The options are 4 and 5 for portrait mode, and from 4 to 8 in landscape mode. (Advanced settings)
  • New: Option to have a 4×5 grid on homescreens instead of the default 4×4. Please note this is experimental. It only works with widescreen devices and in portrait mode. In any other scenario you’ll probably end up with icons and widgets overlaying each other. (Advanced settings)
  • New: Now you can choose a background for the shortcut dock. For now there are three options; No background, Glass shelf, and Froyo-style. More backgrounds coming in future releases.
  • That’s it for now, hope you like the new features :-)

    Don’t forget to post your comments, suggestions, and bug reports in our LauncherPro Forum

Bug fix on LauncherPro v0.4.1

Just a bug fix update, the “Hide Icon Labels” option wasn’t working on v0.4.0. Please update to v0.4.1.

LauncherPro Beta v0.4.0 hits the Android Market

It’s that time again :)

A new LauncherPro Beta version (0.4.0) has been released and is available now on the Android Market.

Here’s what’s new:

  • Performance improvements
  • Tweaked some settings to keep LauncherPro from being touched by most Task Killers. This should solve a lot of force close problems some people had with 0.3.0.
  • Added a few tweaks which may solve force close issues that some people have been having with some widgets. I can’t seem to get any force closes no matter how many widgets I add, remove, and move, so I cannot test whether these tweaks actually solve these issues.
  • Increased the speed of the animation when opening the app drawer just a little bit. Soon you’ll be able to customize the speed to your liking
  • Fixed the bug where rotating the phone while the app drawer was open would close the drawer.
  • Added option to hide status/notification bar. When it’s hidden, you can bring it up from the menu.
  • Added option to hide/show the home button on the app drawer. This gives you a cleaner look and more icons on the screen. You can press the back button on your phone to exit it.
  • Added option to hide icon labels on home screens.
  • New “Drop to Uninstall” feature. Simply drag an app over to the trash can and hold it there for two seconds, you’ll see a “Drop to uninstall” message pop up.
  • Added ability to remove/hide dock shortcuts. Long-press on the shortcut that you want to remove and select “Blank”. If you want to bring it back, long press on the area where the shortcut was and set a new shortcut
  • New dock icon customization options. When you set a dock shortcut, you’ll now get a popup with three options. Default icon to use the application’s default icon. LauncherPro icons to choose from one of the LauncherPro-style (translucent) icons. Custom icon lets you choose any image from your gallery to use as an icon.
  • LauncherPro-style icons for: phone, contacts, messaging, browser, email, gmail, market, talk, and music. More icons coming soon.
  • Added missing highlights (when focused or pressed) to non-LauncherPro dock shortcuts

As always, please post any suggestions, comments or bug reports in our LauncherPro Forum.

See you soon with more updates :-)

Fede

LauncherPro Beta v0.3.0 available now!

It’s here! LauncherPro Beta v0.3.0 has arrived and it brings the much anticipated dock shortcut customization. It’s still very much a work in progress, I’m taking a lot of the suggestions I’ve received for this feature and implementing them incrementally.

There’s also a couple of enhancements and bug fixes. Here’s what’s new:

  • Performance, stability, and memory usage improvements.
  • Fixed the bug where the Search option on the menu didn’t do anything.
  • Dock shortcuts now stay in their place when rotating the phone (leftmost shortcut stays at the bottom instead of moving to the top, etc.)
  • Custom dock shortcuts – Long-press any of the four shortcuts and you’ll be able to choose a new shortcut to replace it. You can add any type of shortcut; applications, contacts, direct dials, music playlists, and more!
  • Option to restore default settings in the Preferences screen (useful if you want to revert to the default dock shortcuts.)

Some users have pointed out some problems with Android Froyo 2.2, mainly that LauncherPro can’t be restarted from the Preferences screen, and that some apps installed to the SD card don’t show up on the app drawer.

The restart issue happens because Google removed an API call that lets apps restart/kill running processes (in the case of LauncherPro, itself). I need to look into finding another API call that will restart LauncherPro. In the meantime you can use Android’s new native task manager to kill LauncherPro and then start it again.

I haven’t had time to look into the SD apps issue yet, and as I don’t have a Nexus One I’m unable to test it on a device. It’s likely that I won’t be able to fix this until Google releases the source code for 2.2.

Here’s some new things coming soon to LauncherPro:

  • Ability to uninstall apps by dragging them and holding over the trash can.
  • Option to remove the “Home” icon from the app drawer
  • Option to use LauncherPro-style (translucent) icons for custom shortcut docks. I will need to create icons for the most-used applications — Please tell me which apps you’d like to see icons for in the comments.
  • Option to hide status bar for a cleaner look
  • Option to hide icon labels

And this is only the beginning, there’s SO much more stuff coming to LauncherPro that will hopefully make it the ultimate Android launcher. And don’t worry, most new features will be optional and performance will always be taken in consideration when adding new stuff. The idea is to make it more feature rich while maintaining the same level of performance.

I’m setting up a LauncherPro forum so that you can discuss any problems you might be having, post your suggestions, and anything else you might have to say. In the meantime, please post any bugs and feature suggestions in the comments below.

LauncherPro Beta v0.2.0 Released!

Alright, so I’ve been working all day on LauncherPro, fixing bugs and adding features. It’s late and I’m tired, but didn’t want to go to bed before publishing the update, so please bear with me.

What’s new in 0.2.0:

  • Fixed missing highlights when navigating app drawer with trackball/dpad.
  • Fixed bug where some widgets would sometimes get dragged when doing a pinch gesture.
  • Fixed force close problems when pressing a shortcut on some devices. (Haven’t been able to test this since I can’t reproduce the bug, but it should work)
  • New: Added a button on the app drawer to go back to the home screens.
  • New: Added options for 4 and 6 home screens. Now you can choose anywhere from 3 to 7 screens.
  • New: Option to auto-rotate the launcher to landscape mode when the device is rotated.
  • New: Option to have the Home key on your device take you to your default home screen instead of showing the previews. If you’re already on the default screen, it will bring up the previews.

That’s it for now. I think I came up with a pretty nice way to handle the shortcut dock customization. If there are no big bugs in the current release I should be able to start working on it tomorrow, though it probably won’t be ready until next week (going to New Zealand for the weekend).

Thanks again for all the comments, suggestions, and bug reports. Keep ‘em coming!

PS: I’ve been swamped with emails about LauncherPro in the past two days and haven’t had time to reply to most of them yet. Please bear with me and know that your emails aren’t being ignored.

LauncherPro Beta v0.1.2 on Android Market now!

Thanks for all the suggestions and bug reports so far!

Version 0.1.2 is ready to test, here is what’s new:

  • Fixed interactivity with Live Wallpapers (I still hate those things, but oh well)
  • Fixed the bug where pressing the home button after opening the SMS app triggered the screen previews
  • New feature: You can now do a pinch gesture to bring up the screen previews! Simply pinch the screen and the previews will appear. Your phone must support multi-touch in order for this to work. The sensitivity of the gesture might need some tweaking, please let me know how it’s working for you in the comments.

That’s it for now. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to implement custom shortcuts on the bottom bar. Also, here’s a couple of things coming soon to LauncherPro:

  • On-screen button to go from the app drawer back to the home screen
  • Automatic landscape mode rotation for phones that don’t have a physical keyboard
  • Customizable shortcuts on bottom bar ;)

Anyway, keep the suggestions and bug reports coming!

Update: LauncherPro Beta v0.1.1

This is a minor update that fixes a bug where widgets wouldn’t update after changing the number of home screens.

As a side note, many people pointed out the lack of interactivity with Live Wallpapers. This has been fixed and will be released soon.

Also, tons of people are asking to be able to customize the shortcuts in the bottom bar. Worry not, I’m already working on this ;)