Latest in app launcher

Have you ever thought that there might be a reason Android users brag about their customizability? Sure, as an iPhone user, you can add and configure apps, change your wallpaper, and otherwise make yourself feel at home. But at the end of the day, you've only changed a few small details. If you happen to have jailbreaked your iPhone and are enjoying Cydia, you can do more. But users with stock iOS are able to do much less. Don't believe me?
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Most Android launchers are relatively similar: Nova, Apex, and friends usually offer what you'd expect: One or more homescreens with some third-party widgets, an app drawer, and app folders. And then there's Chameleon: A bold rethinking of the launcher -- not quite on the order of Facebook Home, but definitely distinguishable from most other launchers. Being different doesn't mean it's necessarily better, but it does merit a close look, especially given its slick aesthetics.
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Alfred is a task launcher for Mac OSX - hit a shortcut, start typing the name of a file, folder, contact, application or search term, and bam - there it is. Since version 2, the concept of workflows was introduced - essentially, user-created plugins that can extend the functionality. My mind was blown - this in an incredibly powerful app, possibly the most useful I've come across yet. To use workflows, you must have the PowerPack purchased for $25.
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Computers should be about getting things done faster and more efficiently. This is where the award-winning productivity Mac application, Alfred comes in. Using a few keyboard shortcuts, and/or keyword commands, Alfred enables you to quickly, among other things, find and launch applications and files, do various types of web searches, access text you saved on your clipboard with a simple keyboard shortcut, and more.
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For many users, Android is the mobile operating system that revolutionized the smartphone market thanks to the level of customization it allowed. Don’t get me wrong: the iPhone and the Blackberry (and more recently, Windows Phone) all have their place in the market, but nothing beats the out-of-the-box capabilities for personalizing an Android. And what iconifies the smartphone experience better than the home screen?
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As Android phones grow ever larger, so does the need for a quick way to launch apps one-handed. Try holding your Galaxy S III or Note 2 and launching an app with just one hand and you'll see what I mean: It's nearly impossible to reach all the way across the screen, making traditional "app drawer" launchers impractical.
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For me, a big part of a smartphone being "smart" is about automation - my phone should know when to switch Wi-Fi on and off on its own; it should be smart enough to be silent when I want it to be silent, and to ring at other times. Generally, it should just do what I want it to do without me having to remember to fiddle with settings throughout the day. There are a few ways to accomplish that.
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SwitchApps lets you switch between running apps and launch your favorite apps – two things Android already allows for – but does it with its own special kind of flair. The basic version is free, but I’ve decided to spring for the $1 Pro version, which I’ll be reviewing here. In one sentence: SwitchApps is a tiny button overlaid on your screen at all times, which you can interact with using multi-touch gestures.
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My original horror story when first upgrading to Windows 8 was having no idea how to comfortably launch applications anymore. By default, there is no Quick Launch toolbar and the Start Menu has been gutted to the point where it's almost foreign. Thanks to some third-party tweaks and advice, both issues aren't very hard to fix. Even if you prefer the new style Windows has taken on in the latest version of their OS, let it be known that there are applications out there that can ease the pain of launching your most commonly-used files, folders, and applications.
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Look at your phone. Now look at me. Now look at your phone. Now me. Okay, how many apps do you have installed on your droid? 50? 100? I bet you don’t even know! To start those, you probably pop open your launcher’s app drawer, and scroll through screen after screen suffocating with a dense grid of icons, looking for the one you need. You could be using Google Gesture Search for those infrequent apps. It’s an official Google app, and it’s free.
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Following an annual tradition I started last year, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight the best and most useful apps from this past year. By now we all take for granted how relatively inexpensive mobile apps are, though many of them are very much a part of our daily workflow for getting things done. From a mobile pro camera app to a food recipe manager, these apps are what make my iPhone and other Apple hardware devices worth the investment.
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Up until Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) came along, Android’s interface felt somewhat less polished than iOS’s. But with Android 4.0, Google made a clean break with the previous visual style for Android, introducing Holo – a clean, dark theme, with thin typography and a very modern look. With Holo came a new default launcher, and when Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) came out, that launcher just kept getting better.
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Sometimes I feel as though the world is divided. Some people like iOS, some people like Android. Some prefer Windows Phone, and some use Blackberry. For some reason, the mobile OS we choose sort of became what defines us. If you think about it, I’m sure you have some sort of opinion of iOS users that’s pretty different than what you think of Android users. And if you have a favorite OS, you simply can’t understand why anyone would choose otherwise.
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I use my iPhone several times a day for various purposes, so any way I can find to do less tapping and execute actions in a few less steps is important to my day-to-day workflow and productivity. Apple doesn't allow third-party developers much room for automation and shortcut actions on its iOS devices, but Application Cubby's Launch Center Pro helps you build app launch actions that can save you some tapping and frustration.
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There are plenty of apps for Android, which make launching applications a snap, through the use of shortcuts, widgets, notification items, and more. But sometimes, the fact that this only works for launching applications can leave much to be desired. You may wish you could have shortcuts which automatically call someone with a single tap, or create a new text message to a specific person.
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