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Z Launcher
- dragos2 12y agoThis sounds kind of similar to what Cover was doing (they got acquired by Twitter). Hopefully Nokia has more resources to turn this into something that actually works.
- Shofo 12y agoI've been using it since pre-beta. Fantastic launcher and a joy to use, so intuitive. Delighted to see Nokia's R&D still going strong and innovating. Most of the greatest mobile telecommunication innovations came from those guys.
- sirkneeland 12y agoJohn from Nokia here. We are thrilled that you like it. Great things to come :)
- steventhedev 12y agoLooks like a really cool idea, especially since the recommendation engine can take into account more than simply time statistics (which their front page doesn't convey well). The best part of this is that it does all the recommendations on device (at least according to their privacy page). If they add a travel/email card system, I'd switch over from the Google Now home/launcher.
- sirkneeland 12y agoHi Steventhedev, Z Launcher PM here. What do you mean by travel/email card system?
- steventhedev 12y agoSimilar to google now cards. Showing travel times based on appointments, flights, etc. Also, exchange rate if I'm abroad, and gate changes/notices. Some of those are less feasible if you have to keep it on-device, but perhaps Google Now offers an API?
- neals 12y agoA bit offtopic, but how do they do the big video/animation in the background of the websiteheader?
- gear54rus 12y agoWhich lags terribly for me in FF32 by the way. Anyone else?
- foomoo 12y agoWorks well for me, FF33 on OS X. They simply have a carousel in which they embed <video> elements, here's a direct link to one of the files: https://www.zlauncher.com/video/Afternoon_H1.mp4 https://www.zlauncher.com/video/Afternoon_H1.mp4
- stuaxo 12y agoSo this is the partvof nokia that doesnt belong to ms?
- Shofo 12y agoYeah, this team is from Nokia Corporation the part Microsoft did not buy (essentially business dev, R&D, some creative and remnants of the N9 (Meego) team that did not leave for Jolla among others). So totally separate from Microsoft.
- walterbell 12y agoGood to know that some stayed. Hopefully Jolla will rejoin the mothership in 2016 :)
- Shofo 12y agoYeah that would be awesome. I had an N9 and loved it. Incredible device in terms of design and OS. It was an absolute shame and a disaster that it fell to the way side for Windows Phone. Nokia had made a massive mistake by neglecting Symbian for half a decade, but I think going with Windows Phone was an even bigger mistake. Meego really could have been huge if they just stuck with it.
- cocojumbo123 12y agoYes, although I couldn't tell how are they called. The official Nokia site lists Networks, Here (maps) and Advanced Technologies (mostly patents) as 3 main divisions.
- sirkneeland 12y agoThis is from the Products division of Nokia Technologies. I am a proud employee of it!
- _jc2e 12y agoGreetings from Networks - good that we got informed via HN ;)
- bru 12y agoI get the following: <Error> <Code>AccessDenied</Code> <Message>Access Denied</Message> <RequestId>B0073107D8E5A45E</RequestId> <HostId>CWGhVGbn6PzNIg5auGU/hJcfGpgJDbvXF5FYiu73dKNH17sQmr+W2WBaLsDHA5YipCiJs9pYEDY=</HostId> </Error>
- roryokane 12y agoIf you mean you get that error when you try to load the website https://www.zlauncher.com/ https://www.zlauncher.com/, you can view and download the app directly from the Google Play Store at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nokia.z https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nokia.z .
- sebabytes 12y agoAccess the index document directly: https://www.zlauncher.com/index.html https://www.zlauncher.com/index.html Worked for me.
- achairapart 12y agoSame for me, probably due to some broken localization redirect. However, this direct link seems to work: https://www.zlauncher.com/index.html https://www.zlauncher.com/index.html
- wasyl 12y agoFirst thoughts: - sending data to Nokia for 'service improvement' isn't surprising, though there's an option to opt-out which (apparently) makes the app no more privacy-invading than any other launcher - it feels very limited, I can't seem to make a shortcut in the bottom row of the icons (even though there's a gap). - 6 apps showing as recently used is not very much. I think I open my apps from 2-3 screens faster than I draw a letter, and I use way more than 6 apps regularly - The UI is confusing. I have two clocks, a gap in the bottom row of the icons and an indicator that suggests I can swipe between screens. But I can only swipe the clocks area, which is small (I actually had to try it couple of times before I learned how to swipe them) - It doesn't seem to recognize polish diacritic characters, like 'Ł' Overall I don't think the launcher will be very useful, for me at least. It's innovative and certainly useful sometimes (when you want to call someone - just start writing his name), but less friendly than Nova or even Google stock launcher (edit) I'm certainly going to give it a shot though
- spacefight 12y agoIsn't suprising? It should be opt-in, not opt-out.
- wasyl 12y agoObviously I think it should be opt-in. I'm not surprised it isn't, though
- tormeh 12y agoThese products can only be made if people don't opt out, otherwise there'd be no profit. And who would opt in? The only reason you can opt out is that most people won't.
- spacefight 12y agoSo what's the business model behind a launcher app then?
- 12y ago
- Osiris 12y agoI tried it out during the beta. I didn't like it. You have to draw the first letter of the app that you want. It's really awkward. I'm using Aviate from Yahoo right now, which has categories for apps. You have "favorites" on the home screen, then a screen with categories, then another screen with every app organized under the first letter. There's also a location-aware popout, but I don't find that one very useful.
- NicoJuicy 12y agoI use Gesture Search (from Google) all the time for calling contacts, perhaps this could be usefull also.
- Keloran 12y agoWhy they using an iPhone to represent the Morning/Evening for an Android app ?
- sirkneeland 12y agoHi, PM for Z Launcher here. That's just a generic smartphone image. Any similarities to smartphones living or dead is purely coincidental!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- edent 12y agoIt's... Interesting. It forces you to think about the names of apps which I find offputting. I look for the colours and shapes of the icons - or remember the location on my homescreen. For example, I couldn't really remember the name of my PodCast app. I scribbled P... then O... then D... Until finally my brain clicked and I remembered it was "AntennaPod". This will, I'm sure, be incredibly useful for people who don't like to organise their phones and who also are great at remembering names.
- NamTaf 12y agoWithout having used it, they should add a feature to be able to assign a custom letter to it so that if you draw "P" it'll still show up. Long press -> add additional letter or something
- 0942v8653 12y agoI'm surprised it doesn't have fuzzy search. With Alfred (http://alfredapp.com http://alfredapp.com) for example, I can type "run" or "cr" and "CodeRunner" will show up. Fuzzy searching is essential for any launcher.
- arjo129 12y agoNot possible to install in my country: wonder whether it was a legal issue or something else that prevented them from allowing an international audience.
- tonylemesmer 12y agoI'm not a massive fan of OS interfaces where stuff moves around without my control. Muscle memory remembers where the icon for Chrome is and if it moves then I have to look for it. Also the list looks like it should scroll, because it has so few items on it, but dragging upwards draws an 'l'. I only use a few apps - email, phone, browser, settings and twitter client. Camera is reached through the lock screen. Other infrequently used apps are available through a separate icon, same as on this launcher. So for my uses this should be a winner. I'll give it a few days to learn my habits and see if it works for me.
- tonylemesmer 12y agoSo a week later, gave it a try, the main screen has too small a list for it to be able to keep even my modest number of apps on. Always found myself searching for something which would have easily fit on the screen. Also having the redundant clock taking up a 1/3 of the screen was annoying. I've gone back to Trebuchet.
- skinofstars 12y agoI lived with this for a month. It took very little getting used to and was pretty pleasant to use. Writing letters for launching works great. However, what I missed most was discoverability. I don't use all my apps all the time, so less frequently used ones dropped out of sight. And if you can't remember the actualy name of it, you'll likely just lose it unless go hunting. If you like to have a controlled subset of apps that are always near the surface, then great. If you like stumbling serendipity, not so good.
- buro9 12y agoThis looks to be somewhere between Dolphin gestures and the old Palm Graffiti writing. As an input method it could be great as I used to be able to scribble in Graffiti faster than I can type today on a touch keyboard. As a search method for an app, I imagine it would be a little clumsy. Most of the performance from the input is gained after the first few letters have been drawn, once your hands are comfortably holding the device and accurately making the shapes in the input area.
- gus_massa 12y agoThis redirects me to https://www.zlauncher.com/es/?redirect=true https://www.zlauncher.com/es/?redirect=true but then I get a 403 error (forbidden). Probably because I live in Argentina and/or my preferred language in the browser is ES-AR,ES, EN
- bigp3t3 12y agoI can't for the life of me imagine why they won't support rooted phones. And I only rooted mine last week.
- rasmuskl 12y agoSeems to run fine on my rooted HTC One with CyanogenMod.
- harkdorse 12y agoWorks fine on my Oneplus one.
- sirkneeland 12y agoWe do support rooted phones as of this version. What device are you using?
- shahocean 12y agonot available in India!
- OoTheNigerian 12y agoCan someone from NOKIA explain why this app is not available to me/my region? This is getting old!
- adnanh 12y agoNot available in Bosnia either...
- alokyadav15 12y agoSame here , Not Available in India.
- brandon272 12y agoNot available in Canada, either.
- snird 12y agoThe concept looks a lot like Yahoo! aviate launcher.
- taude 12y agoIt doesn't look or behave anything like Aviate, except that it provides a way to launch apps, hence why it's called a Launcher. With Aviate, you swipe to expose a list of grouped apps, then swipe again to expose a list of all the apps alphabetically. This looks like you draw a letter to filter to some apps that start with that letter. And that there's a way to have six apps pinned (somehow) to the main page.
- soapdog 12y agodamn, this launcher is not available in my country (Brazil). I have no idea why people opt not to release on multiple countries...
- skibz 12y ago'Unavailable in your country' :( (I'm in South Africa)
- noelwelsh 12y agoWhat burning issue does this solve? I thought there was research showing most people use only a few core apps, so I don't see that many people will have a need for this. I certainly don't.
- noelwelsh 12y agoLook, if you're gonna down vote at least give reasons. I fail to see how "what is the problem this is solving" (the basic question every entrepreneur asks) is not a legitimate question about this, especially given the fanfare it has in the tech. press.
- JoseVigil 12y agoWe have developed RKT Launcher http://www.gesturekit.com/rkt-launcher/ http://www.gesturekit.com/rkt-launcher/ with a similar concept. Its based on gestureKit SDK http://www.gesturekit.com/ http://www.gesturekit.com/ a cross platform gesture recognition tool. You can find it on the PLAY store here http://bit.ly/1okJIfc http://bit.ly/1okJIfc and you have the souce code here https://github.com/RoamTouch/app-rktlauncher-android https://github.com/RoamTouch/app-rktlauncher-android 2015 is the year of the smartwatch technology and we are going to be there.
- AdamGibbins 12y agoHmm, this looks awesome, but appears its not supported on my Nexus 5? Sigh. "This app is incompatible with your device."
- cptskippy 12y agoWhich is peculiar given that the website's imagery is demoing the launcher on a Nexus 5.
- shrikrishna 12y agoIncompatibility is not due to device. Seems like it doesn't support Lollipop, and is geographically limited as well
- donatj 12y agoNot compatible with my Nexus 4 but it is with my ancient Galaxy Nexus? What gives?
- tonylemesmer 12y agoworks on my Nexus 4 (CM11)
- donatj 12y agoUpgraded to Lollipop yet?
- tonylemesmer 12y agoNo, I'm having some issues with cm11 and battery drain so thinking of going back to 4.4.2 at the moment. Might try a sneaky install of lollipop just to see. I'm a nogapps user so new android releases tend not to appeal to me :)
- whizzkid 12y agoPhotographic memory is easier and people are lean to it since you just want to do something with the app and do not want to do something else in between like drawing a letter. I know that Youtube is on the third screen on my phone, and I can just think about what i am about to search in youtube while my fingers are automatically swiping through. I do not use search button on the phone because it requires my focus to type. With this one, you need to focus on drawing some letter. which is little bit harder than just remembering where the app is. Honestly, I could not expect this weak approach from Nokia. They always made me glad with their products. Well, surprise surprise!
- wehadfun 12y agoless tapping more apping
- kcbanner 12y agoThis says it is incompatible with all my devices, which include an HTC One, Nexus 4, and Nexus S.
- namzo 12y agoLooks like it's restricted by Location (Probably US only).
- camillomiller 12y agoSeriously: is the "Z" because of Zorro? In that case, I think it's cool as hell. Nice marketing job. On the "not so nice" side: why are the smartphone illustrations based on the iPhone shape?
- d0m 12y agoI tried it a few months ago and I thought I'd be a big fan.. but turned out it was really annoying to have apps change location all the time time. It's like if the navigation of a website keeps changing every hours, that gets frustrating really fast. Also, I know you can launch apps with a name, but I often don't really know the name of the app (Such as new games I'm trying or something I'm only recognizing with the location/icon). But even if I do remember the name, it forces me to think about it instead of just being a muscle memory. I.e. If I want to check mail, I just click bottom left of the screen, it's instant. But otherwise, I need to think about the name of my email client (inbox) and draw a I. It seems like nothing, but it gets annoying really fast. I would argue that this feature is a very well done replacement of the "Search".. but to launch something quickly, I'm not convinced.
- k__ 12y agoThis seems like the starter UX error everyone makes. Many people are like "well if I change the UI so it just shows what people want, they gonna safe so much time!" Problem with this is, static UIs are remembered easier and have a lower cognitive demand over time. Even if the menu doesn't show "only what you need at a given point in time" after a few tries you are faster in navigating the cluttered static menu than the optimized dynamic one.
- harel 12y agoSo, Nokia is doing an Android launcher? I thought Microsoft were going to scrap the Nokia brand, making Nokia a windows phone company, and now its still Nokia and doing Android? Am I missing something?
- Nokinside 12y agoWhat you missed is that Microsoft didn't buy Nokia or the brand. Nokia only sold its ‘Devices and Services’ business to Microsoft. Nokia was left with Nokia Networks, Business Services, HERE, Nokia Research. MS licensed "Nokia" brand from Nokia for limited time. Nokia can't make mobile phones until 2015.
- wmt 12y agoMicrosoft did not buy Nokia, just its mobile division, and the exclusive right to use the Nokia brand to sell mobile phones for some time. This is the actual Nokia corporation licensing its brand for a Foxconn tablet.
- harel 12y agoYep. a bit more digging and I found out they do this: http://n1.nokia.com/ http://n1.nokia.com/ but without a 3g card, at least until their contract with MS runs out.
- experimental- 12y agoYes, a great deal. Nokia is still an independent company, even though it sold a division of theirs to Microsoft a while back. Microsoft also bought a license to the Nokia brand on select products for a set period.
- andmarios 12y agoI don't like it. It seems like they missed what makes Android so great. For example my alarm clock is also my time widget. Click time widget -> open alarm clock. With ZLauncher my alarm clock is an icon named timely and stays on my screen for a good portion of the day. There isn't any place for widgets nor any customization option which makes my smartphone feel like less than a series 40 feature phone. Another UX problem is that I press the menu button on my phone and it does nothing. How can such behaviour pass through Nokia's design team?
- gotosleep 12y agoIf you guys want an alternative, check out my app launcher: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iojess.conjure https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iojess.con... I've been working on it off & on for 2ish years. It doesn't use gestures for searching, but personally I prefer typing on a keyboard. It also learns what you want to do based on time and day. One benefit of my approach: it isn't trying to be a home screen replacement, so you can use it with any launcher you wish.
- harel 12y agoThis looks interesting - is there an option to try a demo version?
- dserodio 12y ago"Unavailable in your country" (Brazil)