In our battle of the home screen launchers, we found that ADW and LauncherPro filled pretty specific niches in the Launcher world. If you don’t want to pick between them, and you don’t need some of the more advanced features, Go Launcher is a great alternative. It includes the themability and screen gestures of ADW, while adding the scrollable, customizable, gesture-filled dock and smooth performance of LauncherPro.

It also has a pretty interesting setup for the app drawer, which lets you sort your apps by those running and your recent apps (as well as a full list). It also includes a task killer in the app drawer—which you know how we feel about already—as well as some pretty intuitive ways of organizing and uninstalling apps right from your home screen. You can even have up to thirty home screens, and reorder them through a handy home screen overview.

Overall, this is a pretty great launcher. It’s fairly young, however, and still missing the more advanced features that let you, say, really speed up older phones—but if none of the available launchers have made you perfectly happy yet, this is definitely one you'll want to try out.

Go Launcher is a free download for Android only.

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Check Out the Video Here.

If you don’t think you have seen enough of the HTC Desire HD over the past week or so, maybe HTC’s own video detailing the phone in — what else — HD on their YouTube page. Take a look at the uni-body construction broken down to just the casing and a full run-down of specs in this over seven minutes video. Enjoy the calming overview, chant it as your mantra to get over hump-day, or just plain become convinced that this is the handset you need. Check out the video below:

[via Engadget]

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What if cellphones knew what sort of moods we were in? What if they could anticipate to whom we’d crave to talk? What if they knew which calls we’re waiting for? If Intel has its way, they soon will.

The cell phones of 10 years ago look like ancient relics compared to the smartphones of today. But our iPhones and Droids may be primitive compared to what’s coming next. Justin Rattner, Intel’s Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, explained in a keynote at Intel’s Developer Forum this week that the next big thing in mobile devices will be “context-aware computing” from devices that anticipate your needs and wants. Read: psychic cell phones.

How is this possible? PC Magazine explains:

All this works…by creating a cognitive framework for managing context. It centers on a context engine that unites information from extensible analyzers, inference algorithms, data stores, and sensors, and then distributes them to the appropriate applications. The framework protects context information by putting the user in complete control of it: The user may specify what context is released, when it’s released, and to whom it’s released.

For example, a sense system embedded in a cell phone might know whether a user is running or walking, and whether they are outside or in a well-lit indoor area. Combined with inputted information (i.e. whether a user is free at a certain time), the phone could offer suggestions on what a cell phone user might want to do next.

Eventually, Intel might actually produce truly psychic cell phones. Earlier this summer, we learned about Intel’s Human Brain Project—a collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh that uses EEG, fMRI, and magnetoencephalography to figure out what a subject is thinking about based entirely on their neural activity pattern. The technology won’t be ready for at least a decade—and that’s just fine with us.

Fast Company empowers innovators to challenge convention and create the future of business.

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There’s lot going on in home automation giant Crestron’s new Core 3 OS, but up there is the fact that it runs on basically anything—from the iPhone and iPad to the Samsung Galaxy tablets sprinkled around their booth.

Core 3 supports HTML5, Flash, h.264 video, and from it you can control AV equipment, lighting, climate control and pretty much anything else networked into the system. [Crestron]

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Sony Ericsson has finally gotten around to shipping yet another pedestrian Android offering, this time the Xperia X8. Much in the same vein as the X10 Mini, this handset features Android 1.6 and a custom SE interface. There is, naturally, a promised update to Android 2.1 by the end of the year, but seeing as SE has yet to deliver on promises for their other Android handsets, we’d suggest you not hold your breath.

The phone features a 600MHz processor, 3-inch capacitive HVGA display, and a 3.2MP camera. 128MB of on-board storage provide a basic amount of space for apps and other goodies.

We are still waiting for Sony Ericsson to deliver a truly top-of-the-line smartphone experience with Android, but more and more it seems like their development just isn’t moving at the same pace as the rest of the mobile world. If they do manage to release an Android-based PSP phone, forgiveness will be granted swiftly.

[via Android and Me]

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HTC’s companion site for all of their new Sense devices – currently the HTC Desire HD and the HTC Desire Z on the Android front – has gone live and is waiting for new and excited Sense users to join up. Unfortunately, most people won’t get the pleasure of using the site to its full potential as the phones best equipped to take advantage of them have yet to be released. Regardless, you can try and sign up now ahead of HTC launching the phones to the public. Andrew from Androinica did just that and put together a nice round-up of features you can expect to see upon being granted access. Head over there now to take a look.

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What would you sacrifice for a phone that charges by inducting heat from your body? An OS? A brand-name you can be proud of? A touchscreen? That’s the question I pose to you, after spotting this concept Nokia phone.

It’s been dreamed up by English designer Patrick Hyland, who envisions the phone to be made from copper and capable of drawing heat from your body (or something like an overheating laptop), converting it to energy. That’s by way of a thermogenerator that’s been placed in the copper E-Cu phone (“E” for environment, and “Cu” for copper, naturally).

I’m not so sure the increasing prices (and demand) for copper will ever make this phone a reality, but in the meantime it’s nice to see someone use the Nokia name for good. Unlike, err, Nokia. [Dezeen via Recombu]

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If this is true, I’m underwhelmed. After HP purchased Palm, I was really hoping for something better, fully touch-based, with a better high resolution screen, and with a new slim design. Perhaps this is just an update to the old model, and we should expect something more exciting for CES2011. Something like the rumored 960 x 640-pixel touchscreen Roadrunner HD.

We will know about the Palm Pre II soon enough: MobiFrance claims that the Palm Pre II launch is imminent. [MobiFrance]

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Daily readers know we rarely comment on color changes, so when a new shade crosses our pages you know it’s worth ogling. The HTC Legend, which in my opinion is the most gorgeous phone around, now comes in black.

It was previously only available in silver, but this “phantom black” shade keeps the aluminum materials for an even more stunning look. Can you tell I’m excited? I really am. Sadly it’s only available across Europe, joining the white HTC Desire which appeared a few weeks back. Both will be on sale in October.

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The Mozilla Seabird, part of the Mozilla Labs’ Concept Series, is an experiment in how users might interact with their mobile content as devices and technology advances. Drawing on insights culled from the Mozilla community through the project’s blog, a focus quickly developed around frustrating physical interactions. While mobile CPUs, connectivity and development platforms begin approaching that of desktops, the lagging ability to efficiently input information has grown ever more pronounced.

Interaction

The Seabird, then, introduces a few possibilities into how user interaction might evolve with the advancing motion capture and projector driven innovation in the market. First out, the Seabird imagines how a multiple use dongle might augment the crowded gestural interface with greater precision and direct manipulation of content in 3D space.

Pico Projector

With mobile phone companies such as Samsung, LG and Motorola moving towards display applications for projectors, the technology remains open for expanding user interaction and input at the same time. The Seabird, on just a flat surface, enables netbook-quality interaction by working with the projector’s angular distortion to deliver interface, rather than content. With the benefit of a dock, each projector works independently and delivers laptop levels of efficiency.

Design

The form development took its cues from various aerodynamic, avian and decidedly feminine forms. Its erect posture intends a sense of poise while its supine conformity to the hand reconciles that with the user’s desire for digital control. The curvature of the back also serves a functional role in elevating the projector lens elements when lying flat.

Seabird is a community-driven exploration and does not mean that Mozilla has plans to produce an OS or hardware at the moment. Find out more about Mozilla Firefox for Mobile here.

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Just because Nokia’s been slow to deploy MeeGo doesn’t mean the developers over at MeeGo Wiki have to be. They’ve already managed to port the operating system to a Nexus One, Dell Streak, and HTC Desire.

It’s not quite the full user experience, and is definitely a “only try this if you know what you’re doing” type of situation. But I’ve been enjoying what I’ve seen out of MeeGo so far, and this is no exception. Although some of the projects are a little further along than others—there’s not much you can discern from this Dell Streak video, for instance, other than it’s been done:

Still, the glimpses we do have makes me hopeful for Nokia, although it’s not a great sign that we’re seeing it on everyone else’s product before one of their own. [MeeGo Wiki via SlashGear]

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Android: If you use Android’s awesome turn-by-turn navigation, you probably use the Car Home app to easily operate it from a car mount. Google’s updated the app and moved it to the Market, à la Gmail, adding a few cool features along the way. Now, you can add custom shortcuts to the screen that navigate you to a certain address, call certain contacts, or launch applications. Hit the link to check it out. Note that it’s for 2.2 Froyo only, and may not be available for some phones (like some HTC phones that replace it with their own Car app). [Car Home via Google Mobile Blog]

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Services like Gazelle and ecoNew are great, because you can sell them your old, unwanted gadgets for a decent price, and they’ll be recycled, which is better than just throwing them in the trash. Ecosquid makes this process easy.

Instead of manually entering in your info on multiple sites, Ecosquid acts like an Expedia or a Priceline or an Orbitz, searching all those sites for you and spitting out the best offers. An example!

Above is the 16GB iPhone 3GS. The top four offers are there, giving you a pretty comparable payout for sending in the phone. There are some more results below too, like AT&T, Motorola, Best Buy, reconnect, Apple and Cell Phones for Soldiers, plus two more pages of various organizations that offer $0 for your stuff. My guess is you won’t make it past page one most of the time.

Ecosquid! Just like you’re not going to search individual airline sites unless you’re married to one specific carrier for luxury or points reasons, you probably don’t care which recycling service your old junk goes to. [Ecosquid]

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Check Out the Video Here.

It’s been announced that Samsung’s chosen Atmel’s maxTouch display technology for use in their Samsung Galaxy Tab – something they also did with their Samsung Galaxy S phones. HTC also decided to go with maxTouch for some of their more recent, beefier Android handsets (with the HTC EVO 4G and HTC Droid Incredible being confirmed subjects). For those that don’t know, Atmel’s panels register virtually unlimited amounts of touches for smooth multi-touch performance and makes overall use of a touchscreen device noticeably smoother.

At least for the Galaxy Tab, it contradicts what I wrote about the device’s touchscreen responsiveness in my hands-on impressions, but it could just be due to the fact that the device was running unfinished software. Here’s a full list of what makes these panels as good as they are.

Unlimited touches
Low power consumption
Fast response — completely redraws screen every 4/1000 of a second (4ms) to eliminate recalibration issues
Excellent signal-to-noise ratio for superior precision — 3x better than competitive products
Superior performance for first-touch response — 3x better than competitive products
Unambiguous, unlimited touch support
Responsive user interface: > 250 Hz report rate for a single touch
Extremely low current consumption: < 1.8 mW in “touch-ready” state
Two touch adjacency of less than 10 mm on a 4.3? touchscreen
Small footprint with few external components
Supports stylus, fingernails, and gloves
Grip and face suppression functionality: avoids false touches
Size and angle of touch supported
Screen sizes up to 10.2? are supported by a single chip
Proximity channel support

Atmel says to expect maxTouch technology in other tablets in the coming months – which we assume will come from the likes of HTC, Motorola, and others.

[via AaM]

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Eager for a piece of WP7? Here are the top phones you should consider, broken down by US carrier. You’re welcome.

T-Mobile

HTC 7 Mozart
It trumps the WP7 handsets announced by LG and Samsung today, with an 8MP camera and Xenon flash, and also has Dolby Mobile and SRS Wow HD for “virtual surround sound.”

Otherwise, it’s very similar to the other WP7 phones HTC has announced, with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM and 576MB of ROM, and 8GB of internal storage. The phone itself measures 119 x 60.2 x 11.9mm, and weighs 130 grams. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a G-sensor, ambient light sensor and GPS are natural inclusions.

HTC 7 HD7
Check out what Matt has to say about the HD7 here.

Dell Venue Pro
Want something different from your WP7 smartphone? How about a vertical slider, with a 4.1-inch screen?

AT&T

HTC 7 Surround
At 3.8-inches with a 480 x 800 resolution, it’s a little larger than the Mozart, and internal storage is just 8GB, which is half what the Mozart contains. Considering this is a media-tuned device, that’s a little surprising. The processor is powered up at 1GHz, and there’s 512MB of ROM AND 576MB of RAM.

Weighing 165grams, it measures 119.5 x 61.5 x 12.97mm, and has the usual assortment of specs such as Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, a g-sensor, ambient light sensor, and a 5MP camera with LED flash, capable of 720p video recording. Inside, a 1230mAh battery lurks.

Sprint

HTC 7 Pro
Internally, it’s roughly the same phone ticking away as the various other WP7 handsets HTC is launching, with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, 576MB of ROM and 16GB of internal storage. That extra memory will be hugely appreciated, I’m sure.

It’s a little smaller in size than some of the other handsets, despite its slide-out keyboard. It measures 117.5 x 59 x 15.5mm, and weighs 183.5 grams, and is crammed full with the usual specs, along with a 5MP camera with LED flash (capable of shooting 720p video), and a more powerful battery at 1500mAh.

Updating live.

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