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Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

zlauncher.com

41–49 of 49 posts

Re: Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

#41

You have to download and install the APK manually. With the ease of publishing something to Google Play, why haven't they done so? Is it just to limit initial deployment to people who know how to do this? Also "Sorry, we are not currently supporting rooted devices". I wonder why.

I'm also curious why they don't "support" rooted devices to the extent they try to detect it and refuse to start. It's not that there's anything needs to be done to support them - they're no different from any other devices, just provides end-user a method to gain uid 0.

Is Nokia hiding something or what?

Re: Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

#42

I was close to install it, then I read their ZLauncher Privacy Policy and I discovered they read your text messages and call logs, and I abandoned it. I guess, trust really affects our perception of a system, and our willingness to share personal information with it. Unfortunately, if there is no trust, the relationship/interaction man-machine will never achieve its full potential.

How did you think that it would suggest you who to call or notify you of incoming messages?

By not having INTERNET permission, so users can be somehow assured their data's more likely to stay with them. Why the launcher would need one?

Android really needs a sane custom permission system and some content provider protocol standardization (like "this app provides weather data" and "this app may access any providers that provide store prices") and a package manager that support dependencies on them (similarly, "this app needs a news headlines provider").

Re: Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

#43

I tried it. It's nice in some ways, but horribly limited. It defaults to 4 icons at the bottom for the dialer, two of which weren't my defaults (for browser and SMS app). By default I run with 6 icons at the bottom, and another six or so that I go to all the time. It doesn't allow widgets (I have one set up to allow me to toggle wifi and one for a torch). I can see some people loving the simplicity, but for me it's j…

I'm betting they'll add the option to change the defaults at the bottom. Most launchers allow that now, so hopefully they'll follow.

Re: Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

#45
post #15

I was close to install it, then I read their ZLauncher Privacy Policy and I discovered they read your text messages and call logs, and I abandoned it. I guess, trust really affects our perception of a system, and our willingness to share personal information with it. Unfortunately, if there is no trust, the relationship/interaction man-machine will never achieve its full potential.

Really? Because the stall for me was that "sign in with Google+" demands permission to read my email address book. "Fuck" and "you" are the only things that come to mind there.

The demanded google OAuth scopes are:

data-scope="https://www.googleapis.com/auth/plus.profile.emails.read"

as seen in the page source code. Not your address book.

Re: Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

#46

So, where's the proof that this is from Nokia? I can't find a reference to this on a pre-existing Nokia property, the entire thing is on zlauncher.com except where they link to generic Nokia privacy policies and in one spot say to email press@nokia.com - so nothing that indicates they actually have access to Nokia.com. They've created a brand new twitter account that doesn't appear to have been acknowledged by any ex…

That is weird. Also: - They don't list Nokia X in the supported (tested) devices section[0]. - SSL certificate doesn't belong to Nokia - Whois records are hidden trough proxy, doesn't sound like something a company like Nokia would do - They belong to Microsoft now, I don't think Microsoft would allow them to launch this, if this the Mobile Devices section of Nokia. - Domain was bought from GoDaddy. Nokia, like most…

Hi, John Kneeland here. I am a Nokia employee (Googling me enough should prove that) and PM on the Z Launcher team.

We are indeed the real Nokia, the part outside of Microsoft. :)

Re: Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

#47
post #33
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MD5 (zLauncher.apk) = ed8a71a362fe08f614aa79ffb2d77014

Thanks, I found one on a dodgy link which didn't have this md5 but have now persuaded it to download from zlauncher's site. It's freaking awesome. :D

Thanks, we are glad you like it. Please give feedback at feedback.zlauncher.com so we know where to prioritize our next additions!

Re: Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it actually refuse to launch if your device has root?

Yes. RootCloak works though.

Well, that answers my next question: is there a tool that prevents apps from detecting root?

Re: Nokia's New Homescreen Replacement App for Android

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is weird. Also: - They don't list Nokia X in the supported (tested) devices section[0]. - SSL certificate doesn't belong to Nokia - Whois records are hidden trough proxy, doesn't sound like something a company like Nokia would do - They belong to Microsoft now, I don't think Microsoft would allow them to launch this, if this the Mobile Devices section of Nokia. - Domain was bought from GoDaddy. Nokia, like most…

Hi, John Kneeland here. I am a Nokia employee (Googling me enough should prove that) and PM on the Z Launcher team. We are indeed the real Nokia, the part outside of Microsoft. :)

I was going to remove that "claim" part but it was too late.

I don't use Android but this looks like a really good project. It's also good to know that Nokia we knew and loved is still creating consumer software.

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