Blur Vs. Customer Launchers on Bionic

[Eggshen]

If you have "Lock Home in Memory" enabled, try disabling it.

Menu/Settings/Cyanogenmod settings/Performance/Performance settings

This setting would make sense, never knew about it. It was actually off but I'm going to try and turn it on see if that makes any difference.

 

[wseyller]

I'm no expert but android OS seems to know what apps are similiar in their functions. When you install two or more home screen replacements the OS will always ask which one to use unless you check which to always use by default. So I am assuming that when you switch it knows to not keep the other in memory.

I think the Lock Home in memory is a trick to help eliminate redraw issues on some devices instead of refreshing the screen.

 

[Eggshen]

If you have "Lock Home in Memory" enabled, try disabling it.

Menu/Settings/Cyanogenmod settings/Performance/Performance settings

It seems like turning this setting on has fixed the issue, so far *crosses fingers*.
Thank you very much for pointing this out!

 

[mjforte]

It seems like turning this setting on has fixed the issue, so far *crosses fingers*.
Thank you very much for pointing this out!

Another fix I remember from back when I had my OG Droid was this:
If you use ADW or LauncherPro and if after using your browser, email or any other apps for awhile, then if you press the 'HOME' button, if it takes forever to redraw your home screen, and you are sick of that HORRIBLE LAG, then try this: In a terminal emulator:
type "su" (without quotes) and enter.
Then type "echo ro.HOME_APP_ADJ=1 >> /data/local.prop" (without quotes) and enter.
Then reboot.

This really helped solve the redraw problems I had due to the OG Droid's low RAM.

 

[jroc]

I like ADW. Launcher Pro or Go Launcher would be my 2nd choice for custom launcher. One of them got slower after an update and I havent liked it since. I even like SPB Shell 3D. It needs some bug fixes tho before I try to use it again.

Since the Gingerbread update for the Droid X1....I've been rocking the stock Blur launcher. Categories in the app drawer and just the better feel when swiping screens made it a keeper for me. ADW and/or Launcher Pro did app drawer categories too and was one of my fav features but I like the way its done in the newer versions of Blur.

 

[KillerG]

From what I understand (not owning an Android device myself, currently) Launchers benefit mostly from extra customization, but when I went and looked at the newest version of Blur on the D3 and DX2, it seemed very fast and had a lot of customization for a manufacturer skin. But that could mean nothing since I didn't really look into it that much, and I wasn't using the phone personally. It really is just a personal choice, and the best way to get an idea on anything is to really try it yourself. I'm definitely going to check out some of the launchers, see which one I like the best, and use which one I like best.
I wouldn't suggest rooting the phone quite yet, they could just end up unlocking the bootloader, and then allow you to put your own custom roms, which would make it easier, and obviously much faster with a lot more personalization.

 

[2defmouze]

Thanks for everyone's input. Yeah I'm really going to try and avoid rooting, just don't think I'll need it for myself. Definitely a lot of opinions in here, but cleared up a few things I was wondering about so that's good. Def will have to give everything a trial period and decide what works best for me after some testing. This thread has gotten me so much more itchy to get this phone! lol..

 

[KillerG]

Thanks for everyone's input. Yeah I'm really going to try and avoid rooting, just don't think I'll need it for myself. Definitely a lot of opinions in here, but cleared up a few things I was wondering about so that's good. Def will have to give everything a trial period and decide what works best for me after some testing. This thread has gotten me so much more itchy to get this phone! lol..

This forum has gotten me so much more itchy to get this phone.

 

[Preach2k]

I will probably use Launcher Pro Plus!!! And Beautiful Widgets!!!

 

[KillerG]

I will probably use Launcher Pro Plus!!! And Beautiful Widgets!!!

Ahh I heard about beautiful widgets, is it good?

 

[mjforte]

Ahh I heard about beautiful widgets, is it good?

Yes it is! It's basically like the Sense clock widget with the weather but is very customizable as far as themes go. You can also assign shortcuts to different apps by tapping on certain portions of the clock. Such as tapping on the clock takes you to the Alarm Clock app, tapping on the date takes you to the Calendar app, and tapping on the weather gives you more detailed weather info. Here's a screenshot of mine.

 

[KillerG]

Yes it is! It's basically like the Sense clock widget with the weather but is very customizable as far as themes go. You can also assign shortcuts to different apps by tapping on certain portions of the clock. Such as tapping on the clock takes you to the Alarm Clock app, tapping on the date takes you to the Calendar app, and tapping on the weather gives you more detailed weather info. Here's a screenshot of mine.

I had read about that somewhere (probably here) and thought it looked cool. Might be worth the money, I'd have to look more into it, but I like what you got going there.

 

[2defmouze]

Figured I'd just update here rather than make a new thread

Preface: Been liking the stock blur/whatever you want to call it just fine. Seemed to be running very smooth and had adjusted to it nicely (first android phone, keep in mind). But since Android gives us the nice options of installing diff launchers and I said earlier in this thread I would experiment, I took the plunge and decided to start with Launcher Pro...

Wow.. as smooth and slick as I thought blur was.. LP is like BUTTER on the bionic. Its amazing how smooth scrolling home screens is. The app drawer loads much quicker than even the stock one (which was still quick) and the vertical app listing is AMAZINGLY easier to use and also just incredibly smooth. Can't imagine ever going back to that blur app drawer.. its that much better!

Love the 5 icons you get on the bottom of the homescreens now... plus that scrolls too so I think you can have up to 15 or so if you choose.

The only problem I'm having is that I can no longer resize widgets... whenever I try it tells me to buy the paid version for that feature. This isn't a big deal to me as I'm not using many widgets anyway, tbh. So its not a deal breaker but figured its worth mentioning... It by no means detracts from how much better overall this thing runs compared to stock.

I strongly recommend any other android newbies like myself to give it a shot.. free version is available in the app store obviously, its small and has zero lag thanks to your bionic's dual core goodness. Also it gives you a couple different options for transition effects between homescreens.. I played with them all a little but settled back on the standard one I guess cuz I'm a minimalist... but they all work incredibly smoothly as well.

Don't even know if I want to try out ADW, Go launcher or some other ones, this is just too nice to need improvement.

 

[jerrod6]

I also use Launcher Pro on my OG Droid. I'm not sure if you have one of these launchers if the default UI is still in the background or not. I notice a lot of times when I'm in an application on my Droid, when I hit the home screen button or just back out to the home screen, the phone loads all the icons up again. This is really getting annoying as it can take several seconds each time I want to switch back to my home screen.

The phone is rooted with Cyanogen mod and I'm using Launcher Pro. Anyone else notice what I'm talking about? I'm too lazy to mess around and figure out what it is. -.-

I am using ADW on OG Driod and have noticed the screen redraws, but it seems to occur more as I put more widgets on the home screens, so I assumed the redraw is due to lack of memory on the OG Driod.

 

[APeX3181]

I am using ADW on OG Driod and have noticed the screen redraws, but it seems to occur more as I put more widgets on the home screens, so I assumed the redraw is due to lack of memory on the OG Driod.

In ADW, there is an option called "System Persistant" which keeps the launcher from being shut down due to lack of memory (which is why the screen redraws), but the only problem with that is that on the OG Droid, you run the risk of running out of memory and having the app you're using being force closed because ADW is being kept open. Ran into this problem all the time.

For now, I'm going to stick with the stock launcher even though I'm not a fan of Blur. I completely hate their Gallery app (doesn't seem to work well with other programs when selecting a picture for something) and already replaced it. I also managed to get back the old Car Dock app from Google I had on my old Droid since Blur's completely sucks. I also refuse to use their Music app, which to me is just a frozen copy of Android's older app that has since been upgraded.

 

[cdf3]

I'm using ADW EX. I needed more than 5 home screens. I also setup different gestures. Swipe down anywhere on any area of the home screens will open notification bar. That way I don't have to reach all the way to the top of the screen to open it. I have swipe up to view thumbnail view of pages.
I can also change the setup of my app drawer.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

 

[suchashorttime]

Figured I'd just update here rather than make a new thread

Preface: Been liking the stock blur/whatever you want to call it just fine. Seemed to be running very smooth and had adjusted to it nicely (first android phone, keep in mind). But since Android gives us the nice options of installing diff launchers and I said earlier in this thread I would experiment, I took the plunge and decided to start with Launcher Pro...

Wow.. as smooth and slick as I thought blur was.. LP is like BUTTER on the bionic. Its amazing how smooth scrolling home screens is. The app drawer loads much quicker than even the stock one (which was still quick) and the vertical app listing is AMAZINGLY easier to use and also just incredibly smooth. Can't imagine ever going back to that blur app drawer.. its that much better!

Love the 5 icons you get on the bottom of the homescreens now... plus that scrolls too so I think you can have up to 15 or so if you choose.

The only problem I'm having is that I can no longer resize widgets... whenever I try it tells me to buy the paid version for that feature. This isn't a big deal to me as I'm not using many widgets anyway, tbh. So its not a deal breaker but figured its worth mentioning... It by no means detracts from how much better overall this thing runs compared to stock.

I strongly recommend any other android newbies like myself to give it a shot.. free version is available in the app store obviously, its small and has zero lag thanks to your bionic's dual core goodness. Also it gives you a couple different options for transition effects between homescreens.. I played with them all a little but settled back on the standard one I guess cuz I'm a minimalist... but they all work incredibly smoothly as well.

Don't even know if I want to try out ADW, Go launcher or some other ones, this is just too nice to need improvement.

The paid version of Launcher Pro, Launcher Pro+, is totally worth shelling out the money. Resizing is a + feature, as well as the BEST Twitter and Calendar widgets out there. I used it religiously on my OG, and have been fighting the urge to go back to it on my Bionic. I really do like the new Blur interface, but LP+ has a special place in my heart. Fede did an amazing job with making the Android experience a very personalized one, even without having rooted your phone.

And contrary to what a lot of people here are saying, it is NOT a rule of thumb that a Launcher overlay will slow down your phone. Launcher Pro has an esteemed reputation of increasing performance on phones. How? Not sure. But if you research OGDroid Launcher Pro threads, you will find this to be the general consensus.

Good thing about launchers is you can always go back. And unless you take all the stuff off of your Blur homescreens (which I actually advise doing if you decide to commit), when you go back nothing will be changed.

Anyone load up LP+ and want to throw us a screenshot?

 

[neowarcloud]

I like the work that Moto has put into the new version of blur. I only wish that i could get rid of a lot of the crap ware w/o rooting and doing extra work...

 

[Cvballa3g0]

Yes it is! It's basically like the Sense clock widget with the weather but is very customizable as far as themes go. You can also assign shortcuts to different apps by tapping on certain portions of the clock. Such as tapping on the clock takes you to the Alarm Clock app, tapping on the date takes you to the Calendar app, and tapping on the weather gives you more detailed weather info. Here's a screenshot of mine.

which theme do you have?

 

[hokiesteve]

I decided to go the LauncherPro route just for the ability to hide all the crapware icons.