dxTop - Home Replacement

[marvin]

I am trying out dxTop. dxTop is one of the home replacement apps available in the market.

It is unique in that you have five screen but their relationship to each other is different. There is a center screen that is "HOME". This screen is at the center of a cross that is three screens high and three screen wide. You navigate to the other screens by swiping left, right, up and down.

Instead of three tabs at the bottom of the scrren you have two. One is for the applications tray and the other is a task manager. The task manager shows what is currently running, what is running as a service, and what has recently run.

By swiping your finger sideways over the tabs you can display an application dock that will hold five application icons. These will be available on all of the screens. You can long hold on an empty area to pop up a context menu for adding icons to the application dock. Icons can be drug onto the dock from any of the screens. Icons can also be drug onto the screen from the dock. You can reorder the icons using drag and drop.

Other features include a new slide to unlock screen, another analog clock widget (available in 2x2, 4x3, and 4x4 sizes), and dxTop picture frame.

Here are some screen shots with the dock and with the tabs:



The applications tray with the apps sorted by date (most recent first)



The task manager:



Doing along hold pops up a menu of options to view info about the app. kill it if it is running, or locate it in the market.

Long pressing on the menu button does not bring up the virtual keyboard, it brings up the application tray. Lost is the ability to pop up the virtual keyboard and start typing to search your contacts. To display the virtual keyboard you can tap in any text entry area.

Best Feature

The application dock is nice because the apps in it are available on all five screens. Of course, you lose the dialer and contacts tabs, so two of the apps in the dock replace that functionality. My other three are Ring Toggle, a browser shortcut to google search (take that AT&T), and Aurora Search (to search the contents of the phone).

Summary

So far I like dxTop., but I have really used it for a long period of time so take the comments here as a first impression.

DxTop is $2.99 in the Android Market and there is a detailed tutorial, a faq page, and forum available for support.

[ATTDroids]

[Spoonman]

with it replacing the regular home screen. is it releasing the resources used for those actions? or does this just overlay the old home?

[gwalborn]

I also settled on dxTop after trying Panda Home and one other (don't remember just which one). Panda Home has TONS of features, but it seemed a little buggy and (far worse) it messed up my home screen when I want back to the standard Backflip home screen. dxTop is not as feature-rich, but is probably easier to learn and customize as a result. I'd recommend dxTop to anyone as it significantly enhances the home screen.

gwalborn

[marvin]

with it replacing the regular home screen. is it releasing the resources used for those actions? or does this just overlay the old home?

As far as I can tell it is a complete replacement for the stock home app. When I view what's running in System Panel the satndard home is there but inactive. If I Home in System Panel and navigate around the phone load a few apps, view menus, etc. and go back to System Panel it does not start back up.

It isn't a theme it replaces the home app that comes with the phone.

[marvin]

Application Tray

The application tray works differently than the stock app.

Hiding Icons

A long press brings up a context menu that gives you an option to hide the icon in the tray. You can turn off the display of the stuff you don't want. To view the hidden icons press the menu button and select 'Change View'.

From the Change View sub-menu you can change the way the apps are sorted or view the hidden apps.

I have not tried switching back to the standard home app after hiding icons so I don't know if it makes them hidden in that menu too.

Create Shortcut

To put a shortcut on the screen long tap and then drag the icon. You don't have to drag it all the way to the screen just move it a bit and it will showe up on the screen underneath.

Rename Screen Shortcuts

If you long press on a screen shortcut you get a pop-up context menu that will allow you to rename some shortcuts, but not all.

[TechN9ne1730]

Where can i find the 2 parts in red?

[marvin]

The widget at the top of the screen is from Open Home. Even if you don't use Open Home you can use it with dxTop or the standard home app. It has toggles for WiFi, bluetooth, GPS, auto-sync, and the last one is for screen brightness.

The bottom row is the dxTop application dock. you just swipe over the two tabs and the dock opens. swipe again and you have the two tabs back. Ther is more info on the app dock in the first post in this thread.

[TechN9ne1730]

Thanks for all the info.

[dchandler]

Everytime i try to launch a theme i get an error

[marvin]

Everytime i try to launch a theme i get an error

I haven't tried any themes yet. Too much other stuff to play with (I mean - "Set up to utilize the phone in the most efficient manner").

Have you tried more than one? Same error with different themes?