The Changing Face of five alternate shells for Android - 3DNews

main trump mobile OS Android is a complete freedom of action and the ability to change everything for themselves. Do not like the default manager calls, camera, file manager or browser – replace them with others, the benefit that is available in Google Play huge selection. And if you are not satisfied with it – please use alternative sources for installing applications. It also fully applies to the inner sanctum of a mobile device – the interface of the operating system. If iOS maximum that can be done – is to change the wallpaper and icons location, the Android allows you to completely replace the default launcher. Many device manufacturers are using this opportunity to kastomiziruyut shell for quick access to their services. They do not give way and the developers of popular Web sites: in particular, Facebook has recently introduced app Facebook Home – an alternative shell for android-devices, which are also pre-installed by default in the company’s own smartphone, released in conjunction with HTC. In this review, we will introduce readers 3DNews with the most popular launcher that you can install on top of the standard shell Android

Facebook Home

• Developer: Facebook
• Size: 258 KB
• Price: Free

just nine days since the launch of Facebook Home app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. Initially it was available only in the U.S., but now the Russian users can install it from Google Play (for the application also must have installed Facebook and Facebook Chat). While continuing to operate a serious limitation – at the moment Facebook Home runs only on a limited number of devices: HTC One X, One X + and One, First, Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S4. Apparently, this is due to excessive resource-intensive applications, which can handle only flagship devices. The developers promise to expand the range of compatible models, but until that happens, the owners of all other devices have the ability to install a modified version of the application that runs on any device running Android without having to rue. You can download it at specialized forums on mobile themes – for example, 4PDA.

The installation procedure is standard for applications from non-official sources need to copy the program file to the machine in the format. apk, then open it and click “Install” (the security settings in the device should be ticked “Allow installation of applications not from Android Market »). Please note that in addition to the Facebook Home, you must also install the modified Facebook applications and Facebook Chat, after removing them from the unit, the official version, if any were present. After successful installation of all Trinity can run Facebook Home, log in to your account, wait a bit – and on your smartphone / tablet will be loaded with a new shell. It does not replace the built-in launcher, and you always have the option to go back to the standard form – it should press the “Home” menu and “What to use?” Choose Launcher. If you are so like interface of Facebook, you’d want to use it all the time, then check the option “Default for this action” and select the Facebook Home.

new shell has a fairly nice view, but its ability to most Android users will seem primitive. On the desktop, displaying your latest news from the tapes Facebook, as a background to which the entire screen displays related images. It can be added to posts huskies and comment, and see the comments of other users and add them as a friend. To navigate between the new and old news, you need to scroll the screen left and right. At the bottom of your profile picture is floating in a small circle, which can drag the menu icon, chat, Facebook, or “Back” button. In the menu you can add status, photos, geo (and for that you will still be transferred to the host Facebook), or switch on the panel “All Applications”. Any notice of application pop up in the middle of the screen as horizontal stripes, and received messages are displayed on top of Facebook application running in the top right corner, in the form of a circle with a photo interlocutor and have adhere d to it with the text rectangle. On the message can immediately write back, and for users of the U.S. and Canada is a feature of voice calls. In this description of the functionality can be completed.

Appendix earned mostly negative reviews in the press and among users in Google Play. Use Facebook Home in its current form, by and large, does not make sense: no new features shell does not provide, but it makes it difficult to use all the other functions of the device. In addition, the shell actually retarding the budget for android-devices. However, we will check for updates – it is possible that in future versions of the app will acquire additional features and will work correctly on most vehicles.

Yandeks.Shell

• Developer: Yandex
• Size: depends on the device
• Price: Free

Yandeks.Shell – is the most popular alternative interface for Android, which has an impressive interface and advanced features over the built-in launcher. This application was developed by a Russian company SPB Software, which was acquired “by Yandex” in 2011. Prior to absorb it spread charge called SPB Shell 3D; original version presented in the Google Play now – you can buy it at a price of 400 rubles, if you are not satisfied nashpigovannost services «Yandex».

Yandeks.Shell The main difference from the standard shell – an unlimited number of desktops (remember them by default there are five). Fans of widgets will definitely be satisfied: they can now install them in unlimited quantities, without thinking about the lack of space. Moreover, the widgets themselves became more – to those that are available by default, added a set of “Yandex”: news, weather, search, calendar, messages, bookmarks, clocks and more. They are quite informative, have a nice view, and most importantly – are made in the same style. In addition, it is possible to add the panel holding on a separate desktop: weather, photos, calendar, time, moon phase, notes, calculator, news, poster and TV program. All this allows you to make your workspace more diverse, functional and useful.

Another chip applications – a three-dimensional mode switching desktops, it is called “Carousel.” You can enter into it, making a pinch with two fingers on the screen – this will reduce the scale of the desktop, and you will be in 3D-mode, which allows you to see all the panels at once, rapidly scroll through them and move to the desired desktop, which requires to do a reverse pinch, increasing scale. Some widgets (eg, recent messages and calls in the call log) in a “carousel” begin to “come alive”, which gives it a more modern look. From the “carousel” you can switch to a linear mapping panels, which allows you to change desktops in some places – this is extremely convenient, especially if more than five. Here you can set the new panel, and archive old, if necessary, to bring them back into place.

Probably many readers 3DNews, does not like the “brand” Build Chromium and other “Yandeks.Bara” wondering aloud how the presence of “Yandex” in the appendix. It is associated with individual widgets and panels (poster, news, weather, search, TV program, photos and news of the day), the app also adds in your browser, address book, and search. Using them is not required, but the hardware search button on the device (if present) will activate a search for “Yandex” without any alternatives. The other, much larger applications is the lack of high demands on hardware resources. Yandeks.Shell tends to slow down and hang on most budget models, especially if carried away and fill it with lots of desktops, widgets and panels. But for owners of high-power devices, he will be an excellent alternative to traditional interface.

Apex Launcher

• Developer: Android Does
• Size: 2.7 MB
• Price: FREE / 121.99 rubles.

Developers Apex Launcher went the way of the modernization of the standard shell: the first impression that you can appear after the installation – which, in fact, nothing has changed. But after a while you can find a lot of additional customization options. In addition, you can please the nice smooth interface – if the device gets a second life and begins to respond to any touching better than iPhone. This is especially true for low-end phones, and twice – in the transition from “heavy” launcher like Yandeks.Shell.

Apex Launcher has two versions: free and professional, which has some additional features, but, in principle, the most important thing is available for free. It is noteworthy that the application can be installed on the SD-card – the other launchers in the survey work only from the internal memory. As we have said, the convenience of the shell consists of small things, and the first thing you should pay attention – this is a configurable number of desktops. They can be from one to nine, with the move between them as you can in a circle, and the usual way – the right and left of the main (principal can assign any). Pinch your fingers on the screen to zoom out desktops – you can see them all on one screen and quickly move to the right (and in the control mode, even swap them).

Docking bar at the bottom of the screen has also become functional: it now scrolls to the side, and it can be mounted on an unlimited number of elements, not only the icons and widgets but – for example, your favorite contacts, browser bookmarks, or e-mail shortcuts . The changes were also the main menu, where there is a list of all the applications. First, you can change how it is displayed – for example, make it into a vertically scrolling list. Second, applications and widgets can be divided into groups (this feature is only available in the professional version), which is quite convenient when large numbers. Initially, there are three groups: the “Applications”, “Downloads” and “widgets” to add a new enough to enter the name of the list and checkmark the items that should be there to carry.

Settings Apex Launcher is extremely rich and can change the appearance of the shell beyond recognition. You can specify the size of the desktop grid (how many icons and widgets should be placed there), the scale of icons themselves, their distance from each other, choose the display style folders, disable the docking bar and status bar to activate the tablet display mode. However, it is worth noting that if you change the size of a standard grid, many widgets can not be displayed correctly, and, by and large, these options are not good. However, by far the animation settings like the owners android-devices: you can use a spectacular sequence modes desktops (“deck of cards”, “cube inside / outside” and so on, more than the paid version), exit from the main menu, scroll to include flexible . For fans of modifying the interface connection is available for additional topics to the launcher, which include new icons, fonts, wallpapers and more. They can be downloaded in Google Play – available to choose from hundreds of free and paid in order to suit all tastes, from all kinds of abstractions and ending imitation Galaxy S3, iPhone 5 or Firefox OS. Quite interesting options of application behavior – you can set the type of change the screen orientation, vibration conditions, the action buttons “Home” and use gestures: pinch, swipe up / down / two fingers, double tap can hide / show the status bar or dock panel , lock the desktop, trigger a search, etc. It is always possible to export a further recovery in the form of backup.

Unfortunately, for all its virtues in Apex Launcher is present and a significant drawback, which allows us to recommend it to everyone, without exception, to users to install widgets on the desktop app requires root privileges. If your device is not rutovannym, you will have to do without them or pay attention to a different shell.

GO launcher EX

• Developer: GO Launcher Dev Team
• Size: 7.5 MB
• Price: Free

GO Launcher – this is not just an alternative shell for Android: this launcher is built around an entire ecosystem of plug-ins, widgets, and various other add-ons, which is supported by the same company-developer. Sam GO Launcher EX is available for free, but when you start you’ll find on the desktop a set of labels for the installation of additional applications, games and widgets from Google Play. Moreover, the shell provides its own application store GO Market, where the links to the products promoted by the developers (most of which are not related to GO Launcher).

As in Apex Launcher, in GO Launcher EX is available up to nine desktops, and generally has a similar application settings: you can change the grid size and the scale of the icons to add gesture controls, hide status bar to scroll between icons in the dock panels, etc., even a set of types of animation when scrolling screens identical (sphere, cube outside / inside, etc.). Available import and export settings, change themes – in general, the developers clearly borrowed some ideas from each other. However, when installing a number of additional potential applications GO Launcher EX is revealed wider. Add them easily enough: if the desktop hardware button press the “Settings” menu appears launcher with buttons, which include references to the plug-ins and widgets to the application in Google Play. Let us consider some of them.

GO Locker – an alternative blocker screen. It displays a clock, date and scheduled alarms and to activate you need to move down a special socket by gripping the icon Phone, Unlock or SMS. There is the possibility perelistnut screen to the right (it activates the app “Camera”) or left (there appears desktop with widgets), you can also add protection from release by entering the PIN-code, graphical code or gesture.

Other recommended to install the app – it’s GO Media Manager. It adds a menu “All applications’ ability to view thumbnails of images, videos and music tracks on the device, as well as to control them, which is nice, especially if you use the built-in viewer shell Gallery GO GO Music and Audio Player – no need to switch between multiple separate applications . Another useful addition to GO Launcher called Toucher: it adds a small launcher circle that clings to any place of the screen. Touching it, you will board the “fast action” – lock your device, go to your home screen, open one of your favorite applications or change the basic settings (enable / disable sound, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.).

Interesting

widgets to the shell is also available a lot: calendar, stickers, weather, battery, download manager, settings, clock, contacts, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, search, bookmarks. We should also mention the GO SMS Pro – complete replacement of the application to work with SMS, which has a nice interface and many additional features, for example, send and receive messages directly from the desktop.

GO Launcher EX can advise users who are tired of the standard features of Android and I want to try the new interface, where all in the same style – from the rounded application icons to the tab bar on the desktop. However, it should take into account that a large number of add-ons and widgets shell will be outperformed by the standard launcher and for its smooth operation of the device with no need of the weakest configuration.

TSF Shell

• Developer: TSFUI
• Size: 7.2 MB
• Price: 515.93 rub.

conclude our review of the application TSF Shell, which is expensive and not likely to appeal to all users Android, however, is quite interesting because of the unusual interface with an abundance of animation and three-dimensional graphics. When you first look at the new shell think of it like a science fiction movie – quite futuristic design, all flies, but it is unclear what is what is and how to use it, so that old habits are not fit. Habitual dock bar at the bottom of the screen is not: instead, in the lower left corner of the button is displayed, clicking on which you deploy the bar of icons of applications – it can be left or turn back. The number of icons on the panel is not limited to – a lot of them when they are reduced in size, but the developers have borrowed the famous chip Mac OS – touch the icons on the tape increases their scale, so the application you want to run is not difficult.

In

TSF Shell is available up to twelve desktops and switch between them you can spend three ways. The most simple – scroll to the right and to the left; course, with the available different types of animation. The second option – using a three-dimensional “carousel” that is activated when you click on the icon in the upper right corner (you can click on it and move appeared “carousel”, without lifting a finger – everything happens very quickly). The latter method – a “ladder” of panels, it appears during restore order between desktops. It all looks visually impressive, but very confusing at first. This is further exacerbated by the fact that the menu “All applications” while scrolling is displayed along with other desktops, with the jump in the normal way it is impossible – there is not an icon on the screen.

Another new interface – a sidebar that pops up on the screen on the left or right of tripping on a fixed tab. In this panel, there are four sections, between which you can switch two of them – the standard (apps and settings), and the other two are located widgets TSF Shell. Among them, there are enough interesting animated widgets: clouds, airplane, photograph polaroid frame (which is inserted into a picture), and others – they can “revive” the screen, moving on it. This reduces the battery life, but the option is easily disabled. Extremely spectacular looking and more practical widgets: clock, weather, music, gallery, stickers, SMS-messages – they need to be installed separately. They all appear in three dimensions, “volume” screen gives also the fact that in this shell is no standard distribution icons and widgets on the grid – you can place them anywhere on the screen one above the other. Hold down y our finger on the icon or widget displays a menu of operations on them: move, delete, rename, change the icon, even on the line relative to other objects, and open information about the application in the settings or uninstall the application itself.

is worth noting that, despite all its bells and whistles, TSF Shell works surprisingly fast and stable even on slower devices. It can be recommended for users who appreciate the futuristic design and is easy to perceive the changes in the interface.

Conclusion

As you can see, the alternative launchers for Android allow you to change the look and principles of management operating system to almost beyond recognition. Whether you want to improve access to social network Facebook, the services of Yandex, update bored interface or simply to increase the number of desktops – for this is the appropriate envelope. The only thing you should pay attention when choosing besides personal taste preferences – this demanding application performance to mobile devices. If you have a budget handheld device is recommended to restrict Apex Launcher or TSF Shell, owners of devices with a RAM capacity of more than 1 GB can be used successfully and all the other launchers. Members of flagship models from HTC and Samsung, as well as all the hosts rutovannyh gadgets have the opportunity to get acquainted with the shell Facebook Home. Successful experiments with your smartphone or tablet!