Tag: z launcher

Nokia May Make a Comeback in the Smartphone Market Next Year

Microsoft acquired Nokia’s devices and services business for a heavy sum of $7.2 billion last year. The Finnish company can no longer use the Nokia brand name on smartphones till Q4 2016, and on feature phones for ten years. Once the biggest smartphone maker in the world failed to catch up with the fast-growing market trends set by Apple and Google. But, as most of us considered, it was not the demise of the titan.

Nokia is planning to bounce back to the smartphone business sometime next year. Reports by online publishing daily Recode suggest that Nokia is gearing to make a comeback in the mobile business, and is working on several new ambitious projects including virtual reality. The company has so far released only two products – an Android app called Z Launcher and the Nokia N1, also dubbed as the first Nokia-branded Android tablet.

The 6600 was one of the most popular devices by Nokia and was almost the star of the movie, Cellular.

It is expected that Nokia will employ the same strategy for the new device as it used for the N1 tablet. The device was launched last year along with a brand licensing agreement with Foxconn. The Finnish company hopes to find a similar brand licensing agreement partner for its next release.

There has been reports that Nokia has “a lot of great stuff in development’, but there is no certainty about the upcoming Nokia product or if the company is making a comeback by 2016. Therefore, the news should be taken with a pinch of salt.

With its latest acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent for $16.5 billion, together as Nokia Corporation, the company has set its sights on Virtual Reality, Internet of Things and Cloud Computing, and is ready to greet the world with brand new treats.

April 21, 2015
Nokia Gets Overwhelming Response on Play Store for The Z Launcher

Nokia may be down but in no way out. After announcing its upcoming N1 tablet, the Finnish giant has now declared its Z launcher on the Google Play Store. Originally announced earlier this summer with a limited beta program, Z launcher is a third-party Android home screen and launcher for Android. The app has received an overwhelming response from its users. It has been downloaded over half a million times within few hours of its announcement.

The Z launcher has an entirely different take on the home screen. It removes the hassle of multiple home screens and provides users with one single page. The new launcher can analyse users’ habits and displays apps that they need most depending on the time of the day. It also allows users to search apps quickly on the surface of the screen; for instance, an F shape will pop up Facebook and other apps that start with the letter F.

Nokia has done some fine-tuning with the Z launcher with improvements to speed and performance, scribble recognition and better prediction algorithm. The app is available for devices running on Android 4.1 to Android 4.4. As of now, the Lollipop version has not been rolled out, but we can expect Nokia to release a compatible version very soon.

November 19, 2014
Nokia Releases the New ‘Z Launcher’ App

These are hard days for Nokia. Once the largest phone vendor by a staggering margin, Nokia has sold its devices and services business to Microsoft and will now try different sectors as it looks toward the future. The company tried something similar by launching an app called Z launcher, a truly novel home screen replacement for Android phones.

Launched on Thursday, this screen app is able to accomplish this by dynamically changing the most frequently used apps throughout the day. Z Launcher is also able to include your contacts and frequently visited websites into the mix and making it a more complete experience.

At the top of the screen are the time, date and the upcoming calendar event. Tapping the time will open Android’s clock app and tapping the calendar event will open the phone’s Calendar app. The remainder of the screen is dedicated to just a few apps, contacts and web pages.

Five static shortcuts appear at the bottom of the screen, while the majority of the launcher screen is occupied by six additional shortcuts. These items lead to a combination of apps, contacts and web pages that you open most often.

If Z Launcher does not offer the apps you are looking for, you can easily bring them up by accessing a feature called Scribble. Scribble works by just drawing the first letter or two of the app or contact you want to access. It then instantly brings you to the proper selection. This virtually eliminates the need to tap, scroll, and hunt for the application or contact you are searching for.

The Z launcher is a very nifty offering from Nokia and it has the potential to completely change the way you use your phone. Smartphones are all about apps, plain and simple. With the Z Launcher, your most used apps take center stage and everything else is a few short swipes away.

It’s currently available only to a limited number of users in a rough alpha release. And while the alpha should run on many Android phones, Nokia has only tested it on the Nexus 5 and the recent Galaxy S models.

June 20, 2014