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Make Older Gingerbread Android Device Look Like Ice Cream Sandwich [Without Rooting]

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Holo LauncherDo you own any older Android device running on Froyo or Gingerbread? So it’s better to have at least Ice Cream Sandwich in this era of Jelly Bean. I’m not saying that you can change the operating system to Ice Cream Sandwich, but you can change the looks of your operating system. Yes, I am going to tell you how to make older Gingerbread or Froyo android devices look like Ice Cream Sandwich, without rooting.

What I’m talking about is “Holo Launcher” made by a senior member mobint at XDA-Developer. This Launcher is a simple, powerful, fast and highly customizable home replacement launcher. This launcher neither needs a rooted device to run nor consume much battery. It also uses very low memory of your device. The average rating of Holo Launcher at Google Play Store is 4.6 with 17,878 “5 star” ratings out of 23,793 which itself is a proof of its popularity.

It works smoothly on devices with operating system of Android 2.2 or above. You can download it from .

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Holo launcher covers most of the features (in looks) of ICS.

Features of Holo Launcher:

Full ICS Style:

ICS Icons, Folders, Outlines, Drawer Tabs etc.

Screen Shot 1

Custom Desktop Pages/Grid:

Up to 9 desktop pages and 10 x 10 grid. Select Edit Screens from settings, you can set number of pages.

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Custom Drawer Portrait/landscape Grid

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Scrollable Dock:

Up to 7 icons per page and up to 3 pages. From Dock settings, you can set number of dock pages, dock icons, change vertical and horizontal margins, scrolling speed, indicator settings etc.

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Infinite Scrolling:

From Desktop Settings in Launcher Settings, you can check box the “Infinite Scrolling” option. You can also choose the “Elastic Scrolling”. The other options like Transition effects, Scrolling speed, Wallpaper scrolling etc. are also there.

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Gestures:

Swipe up/down on desktop to launch apps quickly. Go to Launcher settings>Gestures and Keys. There you can change the settings for Swipe up/downs gestures and also some other settings like Home Key action, Home key to default screen and Long press menu key.

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Apply icon packs, Support ADW icon pack and Launcherpro icon pack:

Just long hold any icon and then drag it over the icon you want to pack it with.

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Desktop Previews:

Pinch to access desktop previews.

Backup and Restore:

Backup and Restore your settings and shortcuts.

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Other customizable options:

Keep in memory, Home Key action, Hide apps in drawer, hide labels etc.

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So overall this launcher is amazing and makes Gingerbread look like Ice Cream Sandwich. If you buy the “Holo Launcher Plus” from you can add more features to this launcher. The Plus Features are listed below:

  • Unlimited configurable drawer tabs
  • Unread count notifications for call, sms, gmail and K-9 mail
  • Customizable notifications badge color
  • More desktop gestures:
    Pinch in/out, Two Finger Swipe and Double-tap
  • Dock icon Swipe up/down destures
  • Support Go Launcher icon pack
  • More transition effects
  • Widget overlapping
  • 1×1 widgets in dock
  • Other enhancement and customization options

And if you want to get the old look back, you can simple change the default launcher in Android. For more information or any problem visit Application Thread here.

So what you guys think about this launcher? Will you use it change Gingerbread in to ICS? Do share with us in comments.

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