Zeam + Gingerbread Keyboard = A Whole New Android
Posted on David Pierce | 5 Comments
Okay, before I even go anywhere, I know this is only for a group of readers, those who own Android phones. If you don’t have an Android phone, you can safely ignore this post.
If you do have an Android phone, though, I’ve made two huge discoveries over the last two days that I can’t help but share. The first is Zeam, a new launcher application (it replaces your home screen, and app dashboard, and a few other screens) that is screamingly fast, super light-weight, simple to use and customize, and has made my phone both noticeably zippier and longer-lasting. It’s not particularly feature-rich, but it looks nice and works perfectly. It’s free, and available in the Android Market (just search for “Zeam”).
The other thing is newer to the Android Market. Gingerbread, the newest version of Android (version 2.3) is full of great improvements and optimizations, and a few of the best ones have been made available to anyone with a recent Android phone.
The Gingerbread keyboard, launcher and wallpapers are all available as free downloads (though a couple of them require companion apps, which cost a bit), and they bring most of the goodness of Gingerbread to your not-as-delicious phone. So far, I’ve only installed the keyboard, but it’s terrific.
Between a new look and a new keyboard, I feel like I’m using a brand-new phone: a faster one with better battery life, and one that makes me less envious of Android 2.3 owners (or even 2.2 – thanks, Samsung, for not updating my phone yet). So, if you’ve got an Android phone, go go go! It’s all free and easy to undo, but I bet you won’t undo.
David Pierce, the founder of Digitizd, is now Reviews Editor at The Verge.
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David! You STILl da bomb-bomb-didio!
I’m loving this combination so far. I’ve gone through just about every other launcher out there, and have uninstalled them all. Zeam just works, and the Gingerbread keyboard is awesome. Preach on, David.
Happy to help. I so rarely post this kind of post, but I’ve been looking for forever to find the right thing, and finally did, so I couldn’t not tell the world. My phone is the ONE thing I use constantly, every day, and it’s typically the most frustrating device I own. Having that solved has been HUGE.
I commented on the fan page about trying zeam out a second time to possibly replace launcher pro. I just couldn’t do it though because of the lack of slide up functionality in zeam that I use a lot in launcher pro. Well, launcher pro started slowwing down and randomly crashing increasing my need for an alternative. Low and behold my search resulted in finding swipe pad and put all of my smart shortcut categories in there. So I’m happy to report my third time switching to zeam is going very successfully. Thanks again for the great suggestion.
John D.