There's a paucity of launcher apps for the
iPhone, and there's a very good reason for that: Apple doesn't allow them.
Specifically, it doesn't allow apps to interfere with each other, which means
one app can't call another one. But apps can open URLs, and that's why links to
the App Store from within apps you're running always bounce you through Safari
first.
Into the mix - The home screen can contain any mix of actions (which
have button backgrounds) and groups (which have no backgrounds)
Launch Center Pro takes advantage of this
ability by providing highly customisable buttons that are, in effect, nothing
more than hot links to websites. What's clever about it is that many apps use
'URL schemes', whereby a URL with extra data on the end actually triggers an
event inside an app. And that means Launch Center can initiate specific
actions, rather than just opening apps.
Launch Center's home screen is a 3 x 4 grid
on which you can place any 12 buttons you want. There are two kinds of icon:
those that look like app buttons, with rounded rectangular backgrounds, are
'actions' that perform just a single function; those that have no rectangular
background are groups. Tapping and holding on a group temporarily replaces all
the other icons with the contents of the group, which means you can tap and
then slide to activate your chosen task.
TAPPING THE
EDIT button lets you customize the interface, and actions and groups can
be assigned anywhere. Each icon can be customized, with a choice of dozens of
icon images in several categories. Each of these can then be placed on a choice
of five metallic and five plain round-cornered backgrounds.
Tapping an empty space brings up the Action
Composer menu where you find the scope of the built-in actions. Among the
triggers are basic bookmarks that launch a website in Safari, a screen
brightness toggle, turning the flashlight on and off, and speed dialling a
contact. Some apps have multiple actions - for example, you can send a new
email, or send an email to a particular contact, or send an email with a preset
body and subject. You can tweet, or tweet the contents of the Clipboard; you
can perform a Google search, or a Wikipedia search, or get directions using
Google Maps.
Many third-party apps also support URL
schemes, and all the known ones are built into the Action Composer. These
include launching apps such as BBC News, Camera+, Dropbox, Instagrama and
Kindle. What's of more interest, though, is that a growing number of apps
support URL schemes that trigger specific events. So the six Skype events, for
example, allow you to pick actions that launch the app, call a specific number,
call a specific contact, chat with a contact, leave voicemail or view your user
info.
What all this means is that, in many cases,
you can dive straight into the event you want without having to first locate
the app, launch it and then perform the function. The fact that you can tap and
slide to enter a group and choose an action within it means it's often faster to
open Launch Center, tap your Contacts group and then slide to a stored favorite
than it is to open the Phone app, switch to the Favorites pane and then choose
the contact from there.
Group therapy - Tapping and holding on a group will open that group, and
you can then slide directly to the action you want to trigger
Launch Center is still, necessarily,
somewhat limited in its ability to trigger events, and that limitation comes
from other app developers (including Apple): they may or may not choose to add
URL schemes to their apps. This leads to sometimes frustrating anomalies, such
as the fact that you can change the brightness of your phone but you can't turn
Bluetooth or 3G on and off. For this type of event, we have to wait until Apple
or third-party developers modify their software to be compliant. But where
Launch Center does score highly is in its adaptability. Because it allows you
to write custom URLs, you can access search functions for just about any
website with only a little effort (see right).
As long as it's been used recently. Launch
Center Pro opens in an instant; if it hasn't been opened for a while, it takes
a few seconds to boot up. But it's an intriguing time-saver, and has earned
itself one of the coveted four slots in our iPhone dock.
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Information
Price: $3.22
From: App Store
Info:
support.appcubby.com
Needs: iPhone 3GS
or later, iOS 5
Pro: Intelligent
app and event launcher. Highly customizable. Can create its own URL launches
Con: Needs more
built-in app triggers
Ratings: 4/5
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