Panda Home

**banden** · #1 (**permalink**) 12-11-2009, 06:12 PM

So after some flustration with Home++ and not really liking the buttons on the bottom I went looking for another home replacement app that doesn't change too far from vanilla.

I'd been turned away from Panda Home because I found all the themes to be just gaudy, but it's latest update has added additional pages and stability.

Tried it out and after tweeking it a bit I really like it. Still feels like an android but with the added functionality of multiscreens... ability to customized desktop shortcuts and the side bars give an additional 12 slots for apps from the main screen.

If Home++ is starting to wear thin... Panda Home is a nice alternative once you cut through all the crappy themes and skins.

Side note: Anyone know of any good simple skins maybe to make the application slide thing more like the Motorola Droid stock interface?

**breakmyfootoff** · #2 (**permalink**) 12-11-2009, 06:52 PM

I was running both Panda and Home++ on mine and ended up liking Home++ better of the 2. I liked the Power strip because it keeps things like the Phone button and Task manager accessible on all screens, plus it seems to be pretty fast and smooth and I REALLY like being able to set the wallpaper to static so it doesnt scroll with the icons. If you want to have a totally Android appearance with Panda, just go into the theme settings and select "default" and it will give you all the Android icons and app menu appearance back

**banden** · #3 (**permalink**) 12-12-2009, 12:37 PM

Yeah, I'm on the default now. But the slider to open the apps list is the 1.5 Android slider. I do like that I can tap to open it, but I'd rather it be the lower profile motorola slider.

I really just want vanilla with the extra pages. What I really would like is to combine features of both into one.

I sent a request to the Home++ developer to modify the power strip to look less out of place on the high resolution screens. To me they were a low res eyesore on an otherwise very sharp and detailed screen.

**blazingwolf** · #4 (**permalink**) 12-12-2009, 12:40 PM

What's wrong with the icons in the power strip? Just don't like the fact that they are all white? They look good on my Droid.

**banden** · #5 (**permalink**) 12-12-2009, 02:42 PM

Haha, they are fuzzy and look pixelated like they were designed for a screen with a quarter the ppi. I do like that they have a snazzy reflection below them. I'm not saying they were poorly designed... just not designed for this kind of display.

I was loving home++ but with the upgrade to Panda a couple days ago I went back over to it and was quite impressed.

-Multiscreen (from 1 to 11)
-More dockbar settings
-supports themes from ahome/openhome/freshface now.

**breakmyfootoff** · #6 (**permalink**) 12-12-2009, 05:45 PM

Panda is definitely not a bad Home replacement, it really works pretty well, and the little sidebars that slide out can be pretty handy. Choosing between the 2 is just going to be a personal preference issue. Supposedly the developer of Home++ is working on an app that will only add extra pages to the stock Home, that sounds like what you're looking for, just need to keep an eye out for it's release