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LauncherPro Update Brings New Dock Features for Plus Users

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LauncherPro is moving right along as Federico promised, and the most recent update (versioned 0.8.0.0) brings with it a host of bugfixes and a cool new feature for those who’ve purchased the Plus version. Federico’s calling it Dock Popups and it looks really cool just from looking at a screenshot of it. You can set up certain dock icons to present you with a popup window whenever you swipe up on it. For now, he’s only included two popups – unread SMS and missed calls (both of which will show the obvious information and allow you to act upon it there) – but has promised to deliver more soon (and we know he’s a man of his word.) Take a look below for the full list of changes before heading on to the Android market (or his website) to update.

launcherpro-popups

For all users:

  • Fixed force close issues when setting the homescreen grid rows/columns to 1.
  • Fixed the problem where increasing grid size with auto-fit would make it hard to move items to the bottom right area of the grid.
  • Changed folders to always open full-screen regardless of the grid size.

For Plus users only:

  • Fixed a force close issue with the Friends widget.
  • Fixed the Friends widget not being able to post comments to Facebook.
  • Added an option for the Calendar widget to set the week to start on Monday instead of Sunday (after releasing the update, I found a glitch where busy days are marked wrong with this setting on, will be fixed later today in 0.8.0.1).
  • New Feature: Dock Popups! A perfect complement for dock notifications and dock swipe actions, the new dock popups give you quick access to information without leaving LauncherPro. In this release I’ve included two popups: Missed Calls, and Unread SMS. More popups will come in future updates. To enable them, long-press on the desired dock icon, choose “Swipe gesture action”, then “Show Popup…” and choose the popup. Now when you swipe that icon up, you’ll get a popup showing you the selected information. Both of these popups mark all items as read/viewed when you open them, so they’ll automatically clear the dock notification bubble. You can click on an item (SMS or call) to open it in their respective apps.
Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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25 Comments

  1. This was October 1st’s update, not today’s.

  2. This was actually released on Friday.

  3. Thanks! Haven’t been near my PC the entire weekend to know.

  4. One bad thing — once the messages appear in the popup, they’re marked as read, even if it only displays the first part. I’m sticking with ADW for now but will be interested to see how the rebuild/refactor works out.

  5. As above would like an option to not mark messages as read.

    also it may be coincidence but my phone seems a bit slower since this update..

  6. Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit. Another dumb fucking update. Have to find another LP configuration that doesn’t cause terrible screen redraws. Stop updating with all the social crap, and get back to the basics: A good launcher with useful features.

    This is also a few days late.

  7. this developer is highly dedicated to his app, he’s definitely one of the best out there, im going to purchase the plus as a sign of support

  8. I asked a long time ago if they could simply make an option in the people widget to NOT display the names cause it basically blocks the users picture..

    still havent seen that yet..the app is updated often though but I wish we could get a couple options for that damn people widget!!

  9. @Christ

    you need a new phone.

  10. Hey Guys, I think Quentyn is well aware of when this update came about. I think most of us on here are looking for the latest and greatest breaking news, however sometimes when an app is as popular as Launcher Pro you still do a shoutout on it whether it is late-breaking or a couple days late. This at least gives those who do not have the app a look at what improvements the app is providing. I use Launcher Pro Plus and Love it and believe it’s good to see articles on such a deserving app and developer every now and then.

  11. @Chris: What “social crap” are you talking about? This launcher runs flawlessly on my Evo and it is smoother than the stock Sense UI. The widgets that are available such as the Friends or Twitter or whatever are a) not hurting you if you don’t use them (I don’t either) and b) directly added as a result of people finding those to be a stumbling block when switching from Sense. Quite a few folks online prefer the flexibility of LauncherPro but like some of the “social crap” that Sense offers. By adding the LP alternatives, Federico is directly addressing a major concern of current and potential customers. Sounds good to me! You can keep it as fancy or as stripped down as you want. I personally only have a few widgets for the display of power management, time, battery, calendar, and weather. It runs very smoothly for me and I don’t mind that there are options for social widgets if that was something I was interested in.

  12. @MG: Agree. I updated a few days ago as well but I didn’t read the changelog so I wasn’t aware of this new feature until I read this article. Good stuff!

  13. how do the bar swipes work? I am not seeing it on my phone even though I have missed calls and emails.

  14. I somewhat agree with Chris, enough with the bs social features… give me real stuff, not fluff and I’ll gladly pay double. These features are a great step in that direction.

  15. If you want a lean launcher/home program, try zeam. It is similar to laucher pro but is designed to be simple and lean.

  16. Reminds me a little of Sweeterhome. I wonder what happened to it. Anyways, will this be in the market now since just about 30 countries will have been added since last week and the upcoming one to offer paid apps?

  17. @Tony….If you have your Phone and/or SMS icons in your dock bar then you simply long press on the icons until you get a popup that will give you three options. Select “Swipe Gesture Action” and then select “Show Popup…” Once that is done you simply tap the icon and drag up and you will see a popup with your missed calls or SMS’s.

  18. Was more or less referencing the fact that with each update, it still has a tendency to add some stuff that is a little less useful. And in my personal experience, every time I update to the newest launcher pro, I have to go in and change one of my memory usage settings, or something else, because the screen redraws keep coming back each time he releases a new version. As far as the “Sense” feel, I don’t like the sense UI, so I didn’t buy a phone with it. Problem solved. Good job to the developer as I’ve been using his launcher for a good while now, just would prefer for him (which I believe he has said he is going to do) to develop a launcher without all of the social networking stuff.

  19. @Maj

    Are you THE Maj?

  20. @Chris: Everyone needs something different, this is only one launcher app for every Tom, Dick and Crabby out there who wish to use it. You don’t want the sense-like features, don’t use them, but that doesn’t mean others wouldn’t want them. The developer is trying hard to create a one size fits all application for every possible scenario out there but he’s no god. So just turn off the features you don’t want to use and be thankful you have a choice to do so.

    And the developer mentioned in an interview he was inspired by Sense-UI to create this launcher, so it’s not really your call to diss Sense.

  21. I love Launcher Pro and bought plus. The other exciting news is that the dev is working on a from the ground up rebuild of LP. WOOT!

  22. Since Google has made his country one of the ones that can now charge for apps, when is he going to put the plus version in the market so i can buy it there. I dont want to use Paypal and would rather bill it to my carrier. Anyone have any news on when thats coming.

  23. Will this work on my iPhone 4?

  24. HELP
    Launcher Pro has stopped me from accessing my screens and lost my 16 boxes too
    hard boot does nothing
    how can i get rid of it without reinstalling os system!!!!!
    force close – stopped working again again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    rg

  25. Would love to see the option to resize dock icons. I’m trying to use text instead of graphics and there is way too much space between the dock icons.

    Great app…got the plus. Love it!

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