One of the cool things we can do with our Android devices straight out of the box is download a custom launcher and then apply icon packs that will drastically change the way an application’s icon appears. Take the above screenshot for example – I have Nova Launcher installed and have Kovdev’s Tersus icon pack applied. It gives each icon a uniformed square and minimal look. It’s clean, pretty, and super easy to do. 

If your homescreen or more specifically, your app drawer is feeling a bit stale, then AppDrawer is looking to spruce things up for you. It can work with multiple launcher applications such as ADW Launcher, LauncherPro, Apex Launcher and Nova Launcher being some of the bigger names. The replacement app drawer lets you choose what layout you want, whether it be a list like is found in Windows Phone 7 or the scrolling app page found in Android before Ice Cream Sandwich’s release.

You can choose the background color and even the font that you want underneath your applications and the list just goes on. If you’re looking for that little extra tweak to make your phone just how you want it, check out this app drawer replacement.

Play Link

Back in the Gingerbread (and even Froyo) days, there was this original battle between top launchers that we followed ever so closely. For a lengthy period of time, you were either a LauncherPro guy or an ADW EX guy. Both were amazing launchers, but you couldn’t deny that each had their die-hard base of users. After a while, we saw new players enter the market such as GO Launcher and a few others, but for the most part, those two dominated the field. Now with Ice Cream Sandwich, we are seeing a similar battle play out in front of our eyes. You are either a Nova Launcher user or an Apex Launcher user. For fans of Apex, today is a great day as the “Pro” version has been released to the market Google Play Store.

Almost 2 weeks ago, the newest beta of Apex was released and included many of the features that would become exclusive to the pro version. So if your beta expired (and it should have), your best chance to keep current is going to be through this new release. At $3.99, it’s not cheap, but it’s also not expensive. Devs who do this high quality of work need to be rewarded. 

As we draw closer to the end of year, we wanted to reflect on some of the apps that seemed to have taken 2011 by storm.  It was only a year ago that the Android Market hit the 200,000 apps milestone, and now we are talking 10 billion app downloads and beyond. Whether it was a new messaging client, revamped social networking tool, or even a game that consumed our days to the fullest, this was a great year for applications on Android.  2011 also marked the release of the Amazon Appstore, which changed the way developers could market their apps to potential buyers and also showed that Amazon knew people loved free things.

So below, we have a list of the apps that we feel were the most popular, talked about and influential here at Droid Life throughout the year.  We have tried to keep it to apps that were released this year, but might have one or two that were released in late 2010, or that were just too damn good and received a big enough overhaul to leave out.  There are games, utilities, social media outlets, home replacements, and everything in between.

These aren’t in any particular order of importance, so feel free to sift through and weigh in with your opinions via the comments. Did we miss any? Agree or disagree with our top choices?  

Oh that Android Team, such a creative bunch. The Nyan Android is not the only Easter egg tucked away in Ice Cream Sandwich. No sir, a space-inspired “Rocket Launcher” was also included, but can only be found by looking through the available activities on the phone. What I mean by that, is you have to use a 3rd party app like Any Cut or LauncherPro that can turn activities into shortcuts. Once you do, the video above can be achieved.

Tap once to slow the rocket ship, tap an icon to launch it.

Via:  reddit

I feel like it has been ages since we last asked everyone what their current launcher of choice was. Is everyone still using one of the old standards like ADW and LauncherPro or have you gravitated towards some of the more frequently updated replacements like GO Launcher? Is there a chance that some of you have adopted the current crop of stock launchers that Moto, Sammie and HTC are tossing out? I feel like there is some sort of new home replacement that is dying to be found that we just haven’t heard of yet. If you answer “Other”, please let us know in the comments which launcher you are using.

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Want a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich a little ahead of tomorrow night’s announcement? An XDA member took the time to piece together a whole bunch of ICS work that developers have released and then we threw together a quick step-by-step guide on how to make your phone look like it’s running it. As you can see from the screenshot I just dropped above, my device now looks like it is running some sort of ICS port. And this literally took me 5 minutes to do.  

It’s almost time for the kids to go out and get pounds upon pounds of candy for just dressing up in a silly/cute costume and walking from door to door. No apples please, grandma! Koveleski  and Tha Phlash looks to be in the spirit already and has just released two themes that go perfectly for the month of October. Tha Jack-o and Tha Pumpkin work great with ADW EX and even LauncherPro Plus, so we’ve decided to spread the Halloween cheer through a little giveaway.

Update: We got our 5 winners! Congrats you guys, and thanks to everyone for entering!