Like many phone makers, Acer has developed a custom home screen app for its Android smartphone. The Acer Liquid Stream comes with a Home Launcher that looks really slick. It shows the time and date in the top area, and two rows of apps near the bottom, for quick access to your phone, contact, calendar, web browser, and other frequently used apps.
Hit the menu button or drag up from the bottom and you get a complete list of available apps, which you can drag down when you’re done.
One of the things that really makes this Home Launcher stand out is that instead of dragging left and right to see different screens with widgets and shortcuts, when you swipe from left to right you see a history screen showing recently launched apps. Swipe the other way and you get a media screen with links to photos, music, and movies stored on your device.
Want to give it a try, but don’t have an Acer Liquid Stream? Not to worry. A member of the xda-developers forum has grabbed the installer file for the Acer Home Launcher app and posted it online.
The basic app runs fine on my Google Nexus One, although it hides the notification bar at the top of the screen. But, like several other users, I get a force close error when I press and hold the home screen to adjust the desktop wallpaper.
He’s also posted a pretty slick media player called NemoPlayer which works with the media tab on the home screen. But it’s also pretty nice as a standalone media player.
Bear in mind, these apps were designed for use with the Acer Liquid Stream, and there’s no guarantee they’ll work on our device.
You can find downloads at the xda-developers forum. There are a few more screenshots after the break.
