Rating: 
I am usually not a big fan of themes and customizations when it comes to PCs. In fact, when Windows XP was first released I went out of my way to remove the new look and feel in favor of the Windows 2000 setup. But when it comes to my G1 I don’t think I can live without the various theme applications. The G1’s default theme, while very nice, is also very limited. Third party themes are not just about look and feel. They are also functional. They add many features not available out of the box. In this review, I will examine a theme application called Open Home and talk about some of the features that it will add to your G1.
Details
Developer Email: betterandroid@gmail.com
Price: $3.99
Version Reviewed: 2.7 (some screencaps taken in previous versions)
Features
I have several home replacement applications installed on my G1. For the last two months I have switched between the various apps available while testing, and Open Home is among the best of the lot. In terms of ease of use and features, I don’t think you’ll find a better home replacement application. Here are some of the highlights of this application.
- Multiple Home Screens – Up to seven (3, 5 or 7)
- Themes – Many from which to choose as well as the ability to use themes from other home replacement apps
- Icons – Ability to download icons in addition to the theme’s icons
- Fonts – Downloadable font packs
- Widgets – Included with the app as well as the ability to add others, including both third party and built in widgets
- Task Manager – Ability to view running tasks and processing as well as reclaim memory
- Battery Monitor – Ability to add the current battery percentage on the bottom of home screens
Screenshots
Open Home gives you the ability to add more home screens than the default Android setup. Out of the box, Android allows three home screens. Open Home allows three, five or seven. Personally, I have been using five screen and I don’t really see what use there is for more. Particularly, the more home screens you fill with widgets and icons, the more precious memory Open Home consumes. This causes it to draw the screens more slowly and bog down your system. I recommend you only use necessary icons and widgets, not just with Open Home, but in general. Still, the ability to add more than three screens is very nice. Open Home also allows you to name each screen. For example, I have one named “Widgets” where I keep several important widgets that I frequently use. I also have one name “Photos” dedicated to the Picture Frame widget that comes with Cupcake. Now, when I want to show off pictures of my kids (even though everyone hates that), I don’t have to fumble through folders searching for them. I just slide to the right-most screen and there they are.
There are scores of themes for Open Home in the Android Market, most of which are free. If you can’t find one you like, which would itself be a difficult prospect, you can use themes from aHome, an alternative home replacement application. With all the customization options in Open Home, if you don’t like a particular aspect of a theme you can always change it. For example, if you don’t like a theme’s background or icons, feel free to use your own. Icon packs and font packs, like themes, are also freely available on the Android Market. Most themes comes with a nice set of icons to replace the default icon set (just about twenty at my count). You can also download matching icon sets for many themes that will allow you to add icons for many popular apps so that your home screen is nicely matched up. You can see what I mean by checking out the screenshots above.
Interface
If you look at the screenshots above, you will see the options menu screen of Open Home. This screen can be reached by the added “More” option when the Menu button on your G1 or myTouch is clicked. From here, you can change the skin (theme), icons and fonts and colors. You can even use themes designed for aHome. The Settings menu offers a host of options from changing the number of screens to labeling them. There are also a few settings here that I found interesting. If you look closely at the screenshots above, you will notice a little star on the right-hand side of the screen and a little magnifying glass on the left-hand side of the screen. These provide some added functionality to your home screen, both of which can be disabled from the Settings menu. The magnifying glass, when touched, will shoot you over to the screen containing the Search widget. This is especially useful if you are using five or more screen and want the ability to quickly bring up the search box. I also use this screen for my frequently used widgets and this feature gives me a quick way to access them. The star can also be a very useful option. It allows you to dock apps so that they are available from any screen. Just touch the star and it slide out to reveal the apps you have added. While it shows three apps at a time, you can slide through a larger list of apps much in the same way you would your home screen. While I suspect that it can hold an unlimited amount of apps, don’t hold me to it. I got tired after adding forty apps to the list. The list can even be rearranged in any order and apps can be added and removed as easily as on your home screen.
The screenshots above show four themes (in order): Aero, FadetoBlue, HTC Hero and OS X Leopard. Note that I have a theme flashed directly onto my G1 which changes the entire phone. Note that only the clock widget from the above screenshots is from a theme. The rest of those shown are third party widgets. Also, I am currently using a Hero theme which is why the status bar on the top is also changed as you can see in the last four screenshots. Open Home does not change this. There are many other themes from which to choose and changing between them could not be simpler. There are also matching icon packs for many of the themes as you can clearly see from the Aero theme used in the first four screenshots. One thing that bothers me is there is no icon pack to be found for the ever popular HTC Hero theme but I am still holding out hope for one.
Usability
While Open Home is extremely easy to use, it can, at times, lag a bit. In fact, there were times when I almost couldn’t take it. I am not sure if this is a limitation of the G1 itself or the application but I suspect it more the application. I have tried Open Home, albeit briefly, on the myTouch with a similar experience. However, the developers of Open Home are constantly working to make it faster and have succeeded with each version upgrade. Everything task in Open Home is very straightforward and easily accomplished. Downloading and changing themes, icons and fonts couldn’t be simpler. If you can stand a little lag now and then, and like the ability to customize the heck out of your phone, give Open Home a try.
What I’d Like to See
- Improved Performance – While they keep working on this, and improvements can be seen in recent updates, I’d love to see more speed, speed, speed. I know that this is often an issue with the stock ROM that ships with many Android devices (i.e. the G1) and improved performance can be achieved via custom ROMs, this doesn’t apply to the average user. Until the app can keep up with the phone in its current state I cannot rate it above four stars (okay, maybe I can but I’ll have to wait and see).
- More Icons and Icon Packs – Themes need to contain more icons or at least have matching, downloadable icon packs. Moreover, icon packs need to have more relevant icons, particularly ones that represent the more popular Android apps. For example, the Windows 7 icon pack contains way too many icons that depict things that don’t even exist on any current Android mobile devices, such as DVD icons.
- Even More Themes – There are plenty of themes from which to choose so it’s difficult to complain too much. However, more themes can’t be a bad thing.
- Ability to Export Settings – This is extremely important, particularly for those of is who flash third-parts ROMs onto our rooted devices. There are times when we need to do a factory reset and our data is wiped. Having to setup our entire Open Home environment can be a real pain and a time waster. Other home replacement applications, such as aHome, already have this option and I think this would be a tremendous improvement.
Price
At $3.99, Open Home is reasonably priced. If you are looking for a full-featured home replacement app, look no further than Open Home. You get the best bang for your buck, and with the ability to use themes from other home replacement apps, you save yourself money by only having to purchase one app.
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