[Android Software Development] tyl3rdurden:
WARNING: HUGE TEXT WALL

TL;DR: Its about design

Nice discussion starter wetbo529. I approve. It is a lot better than others who really can't read the OP and yes hearing a different opinion then 'looks great' is quite fascinating. I appreciate you taking the time for the feedback instead of the regular circlejerking. Now as a developer of this project, I would like to respond and hope to hear your further opinions :) I am not offended or anything and I like this discussion a lot. So let’s address your concerns.

So yes it is a cut up sense launcher 1.1 lockscreen that allows you to access multiple categories immediately instead of having a one place ‘all app dumpster.’ Could you explain why you think it is dry though? I personally am quite the fan of it. Sure you may have seen it on sense devices back in the day but it’s never been incorporated into a launcher where you can access apps on a two tap basis according to the app category you put it in instead of having to scroll through it. And why do you think the launcher is too big? It is no larger than the amount any other launcher bar such as ADW’s, Launcher Pro’s, GO’s and takes up the same usability screen amount. Sure it is size wise bigger but, it does not take up another grid. It uses the same 1 horizontal grid just like any other launcher. Also as screens are getting larger that is why it allows for more elaborate designs. If you just want to fill it with more boring icon grids then this launcher really isn’t for you. It’s about usability AND design. Other launchers have great usability but lack the design in my humble opinion. It’s about using the given space better for less unnecessary touches and getting to whatever you want the fastest while looking slick.

A lot of the actual usages in the launcher are in no way ‘special’ or ‘unique’ in the sense that it has never been thought of before. Everything action is possible via other apps. However, that’s not the point. It’s about HOW it’s executed. So at this point if you don’t care how your launchers look then I suggest stop wasting your time by reading this. That’s not our intended market and it is impossible to please every single Android user out there that has varying tastes. The giant clock, yes it’s a giant clock. A clock. Nothing ground breaking. But that’s not the point. It’s about the design. It looks beautiful. It’s minimalistic and just looks really nice. Here is a good analogy: Clothes. Jeans all save the same purpose for being pants. They cover your legs. However there are so many different designs because everybody has varying tastes in how they want it to look. Maybe you don’t care but I like to have variety of clothes that look good. Using a smartphone is an intimate experience and most of us buy it to use it on a daily basis. We will be interacting with it every single day and multiple times throughout that day. The launcher is something I have to see every time I pull my phone out. I want that to look good so even while doing small things like texting and tweeting, I have these beautiful widgets greeting me that looks simplistic and has great animations. Android is a great OS but in its stock form, the looks aren’t great. With ICS some new things will be brought to the table but again, it’s not for everyone and one size fits all is not the point of Android. It’s about customization and having different options and choices. If you aren’t a fan of the design well, perhaps the other themes might fit your taste but hey if this launcher’s design and aesthetics isn’t your thing, I’m sorry and hope you can find something else you will enjoy :)

On the issue of ADW and Launcher Pro, they are pretty much the same, let’s not lie. Sure they are different but the baseline is all the same with just varying small degrees of customizations with the transitions or different dockbar graphics along with tiny different functions. They have the dockbar, app drawer. The end. ADW is great as it offers more comprehensive theming options but it just changes the color and some unique icons for apps. By all means if that’s good enough for you that’s great! But we want something more than that. Circle launcher… it’s not really a ‘launcher’ in the Android sense. I think it’s great and I have it myself but it’s a glorified folder with some different options for the looks of it. Maybe I’m over simplifying and I suppose you could simplify ours and say ‘hey yours is just a launcher too with a dockbar change’ but hey if you can come up with some total revolutionary way of changing our whole way of interacting with Android, by all means make it happen :) Now Wave Launcher on the other hand, also not a traditional ‘launcher’ but I love it. It’s WebOS like and allows you to access apps in anywhere. Now that’s new and I have it also and love using it. It’s a great app.

Now, (yes I’m nearing the conclusion as I rambled on enough) you are a consumer but you are but one out of the many. Sure some will share your opinions and we can never make everyone happy but appeal to a certain target group. Our target group is those who like some flair with a minimalistic design and couple tweaks to make our interactions with Android simpler. If you aren’t the ‘design’ kinda guy sorry you aren’t our target group. I personally (I can’t say for others in our team) am working on this to bring another option to the table for Android users. Sure we are starting small with only a launcher but there always has to be a first step and after this we will continue to bring on further apps to complete the envisioned ROU experience. People seem to like it with our ever growing video view count with 130K views at this time of writing. A lot of them are excited and I think have good reason to do so. I am super excited as well. The reason why I’m working on this is because of my passion. I love programming and hope to bring something that I and others are so excited about to reality. This is an amazing experience. When so many other concepts have failed, we are in active development trying hard to bring this to the people who want as soon as humanely possible. It’s because of this I can continue to labor and manage to stare at this flood of code even while constantly pounding my head wondering why the damn thing isn’t working. Money was never my priority for this project and my passion for bringing this great concept will always be what motivates me to continue working on this. I’m sorry if our project isn’t for you and wish the best luck to you as well. Cheers!

To other members:

This will NOT be a ROM anytime soon. Its fine as standalone apps and there is no reason to fork another android branch just for this. MIUI is pretty different from CM enough to warrant the different ROMs. MIUI aimed to bring a more iPhone like experience at first that CM clearly had no intention of doing so and made it something bigger by having such a comprehensive theming engine that CM did not have that is capable of theming virtually everything and anything. CM has separate tweaks that AOSP does not have and is aiming to be a more unified Android experience that manufacturers have not provided and its source is available for anyone so that they can continue to expand their support devices and bring the latest OS that manufacturers/carriers won’t provide to rejuvenate otherwise end-of-support devices. MIUI on the other hand to the extent of my knowledge does not provide source code thus showing it having a different ideology that is fundamentally different from CM while they are both based off of Android.

Beta testing is NOT OPEN YET. It will be later on in November and we will be sure to notify you guys so I would appreciate if you stopped asking but whatever. We’ve been saying this for a while but not enough people seem to read it.

I also would like to apologize for the recent lack of activity and failure to meet the deadline we set for showing off new stuff. We will show new stuff to you guys soon as this project is not disappearing anytime soon. Thanks for all of your guys support. It really helps.