launcher

Of all the great features that come with Android, I think perhaps my favorite is endless customization. If you don't want to root the device to go deep into modifying, there's still so much you can do with just apps. For example, you can give yourself a fancy home screen.

I've gathered a small handful of my favorite home screen apps here, but nothing that requires root access. Rather, these are the sorts of apps you can install and play around with on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Come next weekend, you just might have a completely different-looking … Read more

Jelly Bean Launcher makes your home screen look and feel like you have Android 4.1 instead of an older version. There are a few weird issues with the execution, but Jelly Bean Launcher is a nice compromise if you don't want to root.

You can make this launcher your full-time home screen by making it the default app. The launcher grabs a few widgets from your current app's menu to paste on your home screen. It doesn't check your current home screen layout, though, so you'll be stuck rearranging things to make them match. Since … Read more

Launching applications via keyboard shortcuts can increase your productivity. Quicksilver for Mac studies your habits and helps you achieve better control over your Mac. It functions very similarly to the Mac address/search bar, but with extra functions and even quicker launch options.

Quicksilver for Mac comes packed with its own installer, which makes the installation quick and easy. Once the free app has been installed, you can access it by pressing the Quicksilver hot key. To extend the functions of this app you can download some additional plug-ins available from the developer's Web site. There are default preset … Read more

Is your Android phone looking a little stale? Fortunately, there are dozens of great customization tools and launchers available for Android to give your handset a fresh new coat of paint. Download these top free launchers and give your Android device an almost unrecognizable makeover with minimal work involved.

GO Launcher EX

GO Launcher has been around since the Froyo days and has its fair share of features that still keep it an old favorite among Android users. It's a robust launcher that transforms your Android experience, allowing you to customize your icons, grid, and dock dimensions; transition animations; … Read more

Facebook Home is a full-on launcher replacement for Android phones that places Facebook's many services at the core of your Android smartphone experience. So if you don't like Facebook, then move on.

Launchers are full-on custom replacements that do more than just give your phone a new coat of paint. Facebook Home not only splashes your home screen with full-screen photos and status updates, but also blurs the line between SMS and Facebook chat. Though your main Android operating system still powers your device under the hood, your phone will hardly be recognizable when compared with the stock … Read more

A mobile device can easily amass a hundred applications over time, and most of them rarely get used because of the clutter. This is especially true on older devices with Android 2.0 through 3.0, as these devices provided no way of organizing the files beyond moving the icons around on the screen. Easy Launcher solves this dilemma and adds some other nifty features.

Once the simple installation is completed, Easy Launcher automatically begins organizing applications. The home screen is then divided like a filing cabinet with tabs. The tabs represent the various types of applications, such as games, … Read more

Google's Chrome OS app launcher is now available to Windows users, the search giant announced today.

Available through the Chrome dev channel -- which means it's not a final build -- the application houses all of a user's Web-based apps in one space and allows the user to open them outside of the browser. The apps that work with Chrome's app launcher are written in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS but can be opened while a person is offline.

According to Google, the app launcher icon will show up on the Windows taskbar. However, in order to … Read more

Most of us appreciate Skype for its simplicity, but there are some users who wish this popular voice-over-IP software application had more features to offer. If you wish to add some more powerful customization options to Skype, use Multi Skype Launcher. It lets you log multiple Skype accounts in at once and adds a few more customization features, but eliminates most of the stuff that makes Skype so user-friendly.

Most users will struggle making it through this program's minefield of an install process. There are at least three very sketchy programs that try to install themselves during setup. Even … Read more

Go Launcher EX is an inventive app that you can use to customize your Android home screen into something unique.

After you install the Go Launcher EX app, you'll have the choice to use its own launcher interface or the default launch screen for Android. You can switch between these two options by clicking on the home link. The app's interface is quite rich in controls. The main menu is divided into three categories, Main, Plugins, and More, under which there are different options and features such as Go Widget, AppCenter, Preferences, Wallpaper, Themes, and Go Store. You … Read more