Comments on: Review: Launcher X

The shortcut is handy, particularly, when you want to transfer a program to the card that has a hotsync conduit. Usually, such an app must stay in internal RAM to sync but with the small shortcut file in RAM and the actual program on the card the conduit is fooled into thinking that the program is in RAM and the program syncs as usual. The only other program that I am aware of that creates similar shortcuts is PowerRun, however, the shortcut is not recognized by the conduit to allow sync (at least the last time I tried PowerRun).

Yet another tool to use in moving files to external storage.

In the Spirit of Umoja,
Ronin

Dave

Now I'm simply ecstatic.

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I've heard information about a 'Homer' function. What is it?

"Homer" is a feature that will be implemented in a future Launcher X release. When complete, it will allow quick launching into your most frequently used apps from within any application.
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Speaking for myself, this isn't a big deal -- I have McPhling, which is excellent, and sounds as if it's pretty much matches Homer's functionality (though there's very little detail about what the latter actually is.)

If I were B. Benc, I'd look into licensing McPhling to ship with Launcher X under the name of Homer. It's a rock-solid hack. (But, come to think of it, I imagine it won't work under Palm OS 5.0).

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[i]"I'm warning you ... if you kill me, they'll just send 008!"[/i]

Jeff Meyer

Add to that its on/off compatibility and frequent error messages and I can only wonder how it got to the market.

I'd rate LauncherX so far at 9 out of 10.
Silverscreen gets a .5 out of 10, for the effort.


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Mark A. Brinkman aka Omnitron
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Time flies like an arrow...
Fruit Flies like a banana.

I have also two screenshots of Launcher X with the Narrow and Narrow Bold fonts included in LX. I designed them for 160x160 (they are only available on low res devices). The two screenshots are here: http://www.retroglobe.com/typography/

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http://www.retroglobe.com

I understand that much change is now occuring in the industry & the same sort of things that held up LauncherX
i.e. the debut of OS5, and new hardware like Tungsten & Clie Nx made for distractions fm the amount of time that the developers have for updating the Silver Screen program for the 330, but as a registered user of S. Screen; for a number of revisions - I would've hoped my $ for registration would buy better & more timely support.

On the SilverScreen side, the SS toolbar is more professional looking, there are user-definable hotspots, the toolbar can be swapped with a tickertape or tabs (double row!)or FireViewer pics, there is already a collection of themes, and the stability seems better as does the speed.

The manual icon cache refresh in LX is a good idea to avoid scanning the card everytime you exit an app. However, this may leave icons for deleted apps behind at times, and you will not newly installed apps until a manual refresh is done.

The SS method is to cache the icons and not perform a refresh unless exiting an app which can add, move, or delete files which makes more sense in my opinion. Works well most of the time, but the rescan delay after a hotsync (about 5 seconds) can be irritating at times.

A few things I did not like in LX is that the brightness control does not work properly on the m515, hacks show up in the menu with their own X-Master icons, and chosing a file from the card which is too big causes a fatal error. I also would like an easier way to get rid of the tabs. Nonetheless, it seems like a good product and I'll have to play with it for a few days before coming to a conclusion.

The new SilverScreen OS5 themes with hi-res icons are just gorgeous on the Tungsten. (See TinyTown, BeBop and Club Mix).

I used to have a specific problem with an app called MyBible because the files were split into so many different files it would slow everything down. I formerly had to load one translation to RAM and another to the launcher folder to balance out the memory/speed issues, as the vendor did not seem interested in giving us the whole Bible in a single file as an option to eliminate the problem. After cleaning up the launcher folder, I moved the MyBible pdb files from RAM to the card, and the now the app loads faster than it did when they were in RAM. So now I have the same apps all in the desired categories, my card is more organized, the apps launch faster, and I have more available RAM.

Ok, time to register.

Here's a machine translation of the first few paragraphs:

What is Launcher X?

Launcher X is a new, alternative Launcher, i.e. program starter. He is the successor of the Launcher III, which had even already many trailers. Launcher X is a program that already for a long time before its completion in October attention excited 2002.

The better Launcher?

The question is now, which is to make it at the program an allegedly so mad product. After the installation one sees a Launcher, which divides its categories in riders, as one already knows it ago from the Launcher III. Why thus the excitement? I would like to examine the program once more exactly.

Love for the detail

Launcher X is, which one notices after a longer application, very well programmed, very stably and in the detail affectionately arranged. High Density on the Tungsten/HighRes+ for Sonys and ski support belongs likewise to the standardausstattung like a complete file manager. The operation is intuitive, i.e. functions are situated exactly, where one them assumed or like one expects it from a good Launcher evenly and also knows from MegaLauncher or the Launcher III.

Ski functionality

Since the Launcher supports X Skins, thus with ensprechenden ski packages its appearance to change can, does not make here it for not much sense to describe the program surface. Again with this program it is however that Skins modify not only the appearance, but also the behavior of the program. Which should be called, I did not know first also, until I had seen a strongly changed Skin...

George