Have an iPhone, but prefer the way Android’s app launcher works? Now there’s an app for that. AndroidLoader is an app for jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch devices that replaces the dock at the bottom of your device with an Android-style arrow. Tap the arrow and a window will pop up from the bottom of your screen showing a list of applications. You can scroll… Read more »

Zlaunchy is a program launcher for Google Android which takes a kind of old-school approach to text input. Instead of displaying a QWERTY keyboard, the app brings up what looks like a phone dialer with letters assigned to each number on the keypad. To find an application, just start hitting the corresponding letters. For instance, if you want to find all the apps from Amazon… Read more »

The developers of the Claystone Android home screen replacement have uploaded a public beta version to the Android Market. Previously the only way to test Claystone was to download and install it manually. Claystone provides a unique home screen interface with a series of custom widgets and icons, and virtual home screens that don’t take up the full screen. This lets you place widgets, app… Read more »

I’m pretty sure I’ve never looked at my Android app launcher and thought, you know what would make this better? 3D graphics and icons that move just enough that they’re actually kind of hard to open. But that’s exactly what homescreen 3D offers. That said, while the app isn’t exactly useful, it sure is kind of pretty to look at, especially if you run the… Read more »

Ever wish the home screen on your Android phone looked more like the Zune HD launcher? Yeah, me neither. But there’s an app for that anyway. Zune Home is a $0.99 app available in the Android Market that replicates the basic look and feel of the Zune HD app launcher. Instead of a series of shortcuts and widgets, the Zune Home screen features a list… Read more »

I’m a big fan of keyboard-based app launchers such as Launchy for Windows or Quicksilver for OS X. If you have a large number of apps installed on your computer, it’s often easier to pull up the program you’re looking for by hitting a hotkey combo and then typing in the first few letters of the app than by sifting through the Windows Start Menu… Read more »

One of the quirky things about Google Android is that in order to switch applications or interact with a Home Screen widget, you have to tap the home button to leave the current app and then press another button to launch the widget, app, or other item you’re looking for. When you’re done, you have to navigate all the way back to whatever you were… Read more »

Like the look and feel of Microsoft’s new Kin phones, but don’t feel like buying a phone that won’t actually let you run third party apps? No problem. KinLauncher is an app that provides a Kin-like program launcher for Windows Mobile. The user interface sort of falls apart once you actually click a link on the program launcher and realize that you’re still stuck with… Read more »

HelixLauncher is a third party program launcher for Google Android that gives you a handful of features you don’t get from the default Android launcher. The most noticeable is an app dock that hangs out on the bottom of your home screens. You can place up to four apps in the dock, and they’ll show up no matter which home screen you’re on. You can… Read more »