Launch Center Pro is a Speed Dial for Everything on the iPhone

[spblat]

Ooook I guess I'll bite - why would I want a 3rd party app to do something like search google or send an email? It's just as many taps away in the native apps.

Searching google:

Home button. Home button again to get to first page. Again to get to spotlight. Type search. Wait a bit. Tap Google.

or...

Launch safari. Wait a bit. Tap search bar. Wait a bit. Clear what's there. Type. Search.

or...

Launch this app. Tap google search. Tap query. Go. No waiting.

Speed dial someone:

Find and launch phone app. Wait a bit. Choose favorites or contacts. Dial.

or...

Launch this app, tap shortcut to your contact.

Here's another nice use case. If you have something in the clipboard you want to pass to Waze (maybe in an e-mail, or maybe something you found in Google Maps), this app is perfect. Copy the address, Launch Launcher, click the shortcut, and waze launches with a search for what was in the clipboard. Without this app you wait for Waze to launch, swipe to navigate, tap to search, tap again, paste, go. And if you're moving you have to dismiss the "passenger" warning. Genuine time saver.

If you think it's stupid, then it's stupid. The time I spend tweaking it will almost certainly be more than the time I save using it, but I still like it. Frankly it's a reminder of the kind of thing Apple should be doing to improve springboard, which admittedly pales in comparison to the sort of cleverness you see on the Android home screen.

maybe it needs to be in a new thread but i'd love to hear about what functions/shortcuts other users have created.

right now i'm trying to figure out some custom URL's like foursquare check in, facebook status update etc.

So far the only luck is entering them as web shortcuts, downside is you may need to keep entering your password. I did add google calendar new event, facebook post so far.

I think this thread is as good as any.

Here's how I set up a spring-loaded phone menu. It has members of my immediate family, plus quick access to my contacts and a dialpad, in one screen.



And the way it lets you choose between multiple numbers in a contact is nice too (forgive the lame example).



I wasn't an owner of the original app, and I'd be a little bummed if I had been. So it goes; their explanation (and later acknowledgement of a bungled process) sounds plausible to me. I'm eager to see what they have cooking next. A database of apps and the kinds of parameters they accept via URL would be most awesome.

 

[McGiord]

Can this App allow me to enable disable Bluetooth without browsing all the Preferences?

 

[brucku]

my take

I picked up this app last night and at first was very skeptical. Why would I need a launcher, I already have springboard?? Here's my take.

This app does the 2 core jobs of a great app very nicely:


1) The interface is very nice looking & customizable

2) The app does something that no other app (to my knowledge) has done before. It brings action oriented tasks to the forefront of your choices. This means that you can have a button that says Call my wife, Text my wife, call the office, search google, search yelp all right next to each other. It then goes a step farther and allows you to organize these actions into categories or "groups".

When playing with the app I noticed that it also makes for a gorgeous speed dial (only) application. Recently I went looking for one because my phone favorites are getting too long and it is taking me longer to call the people I dial all day long, because I have entries for friends that I call once per week. Now I can pull 6 or 10 of those friends out, make them their own group in Launch Center - and get back to work during the day.

The app's biggest shortcoming for me is the requirement for group use based on the hold/drag principal. If you are holding your phone with one hand and tapping with the other, this isn't such a big deal but if you are using it with one hand, holding down the group button with your thumb hides a few of this tiles because your finger is in the way - this leads to a little disorientation in each group entry. I would love to see the ability to enable "tap" or "double tap" for group entry. Then each group would effectively be a launch center of it's own. I am not asking for nested groups, but I would like it if i a single group felt as easy to use as the main starting page. Let's remember you just gave us the ability to perform 14 super specific tasks in one app screen - it's going to take my brain some time to make a decision each time. I'd like to be able to look up from my phone for a split second during this mental process.