LauncherPro for Android adds Gmail widget and new home screen transitions

LauncherPro, one of the most popular third-party launchers for Android, has just received an update, taking it to version 0.8.4. This update brings two new features, and lots of fixes.

First off, users of the paid LauncherPro Plus have gotten a new LauncherPro widget, this time for Gmail. This widget matches the style of all the other LauncherPro widgets (for Contacts, Calendar, Twitter, and Facebook) that are only available if you've bought the app.

The new Gmail widget lets you quickly glance at your Inbox, and tap on any received email to view it. The viewing action will happen using a LauncherPro-specific viewer, because Google apparently doesn't allow external apps to trigger viewing a specific email conversation thread. Replies, however, will happen inside your phone's Gmail app, since that event can be directly accessed from third-party applications. Since one Gmail widget only displays one Gmail account's emails, if you have more accounts, you can set up a different widget for each account.

Also for LauncherPro Plus buyers, the Facebook login procedure (for using the Facebook widget) has been changed, hopefully eliminating all problems people with low-res displays have had. A change in the Twitter implementation for the Twitter widget should also fix issues people have seen with status updates.

For every LauncherPro user, including those with the free app, two more home screen transitions have been added -- 'Flip' and 'Rotate 2'. Those should give you a solid number of transition effects, if you're into that sort of thing. Also coming to all users are fixes and improvements for Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Most notably, the 3D drawer now functions as intended in Gingerbread, and you should see dramatically improved graphics performance and perceived smoothness as well.

Because of a recent change in the Android Market's terms and conditions, you'll soon be able to get the Plus version from the Market -- and only the Market. Up until now, the upgrade happened after you paid via PayPal -- and if you'd still like to get Plus via PayPal for some reason, you need to act fast, as the option will go away in a few days.

Download LauncherPro 0.8.4 from the developer's website directly, or from the Android Market

Tags: android, android launcher, AndroidLauncher, apps, launcher, LauncherPro, launcherpro plus, LauncherproPlus, utilities