JeffKirvin.net

iLauncher 3.0 tips the balance of power away from Pocket Plus. Here’s why.

Dangit, I was all set. I’d narrowed down my Today screen modules to just a handful, picking the best from SBSH, Spb Software House and other companies. It all worked, and worked well.

Then SBSH upgraded iLauncher.

The new 3.0 version is a huge jump over the older version. Here are the highlights:

• Better looking taskbar meter. Okay, maybe I’m shallow, but this looks a lot better as a smooth line without all those weird little fake gradations.
• Hidden tabs. You can now have tabs that aren’t displayed when you’re not using them.
• Virtual tabs. A lot of the stuff that you had to create a tab for in 2.x have dedicated virtual tabs in 3.0. For example, you no longer have to designate a tab as the shell tray tab, because now you have a tab called “* Shell Tray Tab *”. Anything you put in that tab shows up in the system tray. You have a “tab” with one allowable item called “* Left Softkey Tab *”. Anything you assign there will show up on the left soft key on the Today screen, replacing Calendar. This is a powerful feature that it takes a bit of thinking to grok in fullness.
• Safe Mode. Just like the *ahem* competition, iLauncher can now boot in safe mode, either automatically or by clicking on special button that appears on the bootscreen. Just the thing for removing ill-behaved software that just won’t get out of memory.
• Button mapping. iLauncher comes with four quicklaunch shortcuts that you can map to buttons. These shortcuts can launch anything iLauncher can launch, including settings applets and documents. Use your imagination.
• Speed Dial shortcuts. iLauncher comes with a new class of shortcuts you can create. Now you can create shortcuts on your today screen to direct dial contacts, create a new SMS and other stuff. Very cool stuff, especially when combined with the quicklaunch shortcuts. Call your most-called contact with a single hard-button press? Yep, you can do it.
• Task Manager. This is the biggie. Tap and hold on the X in the upper right corner and a pop-up window appears, showing all running tasks, items to close the current or close all and a small icon only toolbar at the bottom (which is populated by yet another virtual tab in the iLauncher settings). By default, a single tap on the X minimizes rather than closes the application, mimicking the system default behavior, but this can be reversed to close the apps with a single tap. The application name and the X next to it are independently selectable (with stylus or d-pad) so you can switch or close tasks from this menu. Oh, and yes, it has a shortcut as well, so you can open the task manager with a hard button press.

Compared to Spb Pocket Plus, what is it missing? Not much. I’m still waiting on a brightness slider and I’m missing the enhancements to the File Explorer and Internet Explorer Mobile. But I’m gaining far more, and will be sticking with iLauncher at least until Spb leapfrogs them again. I love a competitive market.

If you bought iLauncher on June 1^st or later, it’s a free upgrade, otherwise, it’s a bank-breaking $4.95 to upgrade from 2.x. Worth it either way in my opinion.