Android Launchers
Sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is….
Not so long ago I mentioned that writing a home screen / launcher app which changed with the environment around you wasn’t something I thought would be too hard and certainly wasn’t something I thought would take tens of thousands of dollars to write.
I had some spare time, so to back this up I’ve put together a quick and dirty prototype for Android 4.0.3/4.0.4 that changes the wallpaper depending on whether your WiFi is on or off. It uses the Android Broadcast Intents for WiFi status changes so with a bit of plumbing it could easily be configurable to change the wallpaper based on which network you’re connected to (e.g. Home or Work), and to make use of any of the other pieces of data Android makes available to you.
How long did it take? 10 hours. Nine of those were spent working on the stock Launcher code so it would compile under eclipse as an individual app that could be packaged, listed on the Google Play store, and downloaded by users.
I doubt it would take much more work (probably a week) to allow for multiple desktop layouts which could be switched between based off any of the Android broadcast intents or location.
Now… Who wants to give me tens of thousands of dollars for it?…. :)