*Spark is an app from HipLogic which is designed to replace your Android Home Screen with something… different. Instead of a customizable set of screens which you can place shortcuts and widgets haphazardly on, *Spark has a more streamlined look. It’s still customizable, but not quite as much as the default Android Home Screen.
At the top of the *Spark screen you’ll find a weather widget, followed by a tray for program shortcuts, news headlines, deals, and your current status and the latest updates from Facebook and/or Twitter. You can disable any of these widgets if you don’t need them, and you can customize which application shortcuts show up in the shortcut tray. You’re not limited to three — you can slide the tray to the left and right to load additional shortcuts.
You can click on any widget for additional information, such as a detailed weather forecast, more news stories, or your Facebook Feed or Twitter stream.
At the bottom of the *Spark dashboard there are three shortcuts. The icon in the center brings up an app drawer with all of your installed programs. The phone icon launches the phone app. And the globe icon launches your web browser.
Unfortunately, it’s when you do these things that the whole *Spark paradigm sort of starts to fall apart. The app replaces your home screen with an attractive, easy to use alternative — but it doesn’t necessarily look like anything else on your phone. And that means the transition from, say, *Spark to the phone app is a bit jarring as you switch from one color scheme and UI to another.
Also, the app isn’t nearly as customizable as other Android Home Screen apps. The news, weather, and deals widgets are powered by CBS News, Weatherbug, and Groupon, respectively. There’s no way to change these default services. You can only disable the widget if you don’t want to use it at all.
Still, *Spark is available as a free download, so it doesn’t hurt to check it out. It’s available from the Android Market, or you can download the app from sparkmyphone.com.
You can find some more screenshots after the break.
via Android Guys
Note that the app is also available for Symbian!
Look another spelling error. “hone app”. Nice.
And have you ever thought of adding links for those browsing on a phone? Taking a picture of a qr code is difficult when it’s on your phone. Maybe make the code clickable and take you to the market? Phandroid manages it.
There are two links in the post, and I’ve fixed the typo.
Sent from my phone