Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Tips & Tricks: Replacing the Carousel with GoToApp Demo

Thanks to another amazing tip yesterday from Rachel, we've caught wind of an exciting app that can substitute for the carousel! Between this and Billy's tip on Tuesday, you all are making my job easy! But anyway, there are plenty of people get tired of the carousel or feel the whole thing gets unwieldy if you have a lot of apps, and this should seriously help with that.

Up until now, the only real option for switching away from the carousel was to use Go Launcher EX, but that came with it's own problems. There are conflicting reports of whether or not you can get it from Amazon or if you have to sideload it. And then there are the tiny or distorted icons that you really can't do anything about. It worked, but for a lot of people it was not ideal.

But thanks to Rachel we've got a handle on another (free) solution: GoToApp Demo. Despite being called an demo, this is really the full app.
Let's be clear at the outset that this app is not a launcher, so it doesn't replace the carousel in the truest sense of the word, but what it can do is create an entirely new interface displaying the apps on your drive to make navigation quicker and easier. It is similar to an app we mentioned last week, Apps Box, but this one seems more expansive. Let's take a look at a few screenshots before getting into the nuts and bolts a bit.


Now there are a few things about using this app that you should keep in mind. You can fully customize which apps go into which folders, and the way to do that is with the + sign you see after creating a folder. To remove apps, like with most things, press and hold until you are given the option.

As Rachel pointed out, even though this app isn't a launcher, there's a way to avoid going back to the carousel every time you exit an app. In the GoToApp settings, you'll find a way to make the app appear with your notifications, and so you can use that to return to your menu instead of hitting home and returning to the carousel.

Several enthusiastic reviews say that GoToApp Demo is the most useful application they have on their Kindle Fires. Will you feel the same way about it? There's only one way to find out! And thanks again to Rachel for this great tip. If anyone out there stumbles upon anything else that helps make their Fire better, be sure to let us know so we can spread the word!

24 comments:

  1. THANK YOU -- I despise the carousel - I'm moving current reads to favourites - which also holds all my recipe books and other things I want to recommend to people and notes and and and....
    I can't wait to try it out

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  2. Hope it works out for you, Ceiladgh! Thanks for visiting!

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  3. Thank you for telling us about this. It looks like it is going to work great. Don't like the 2D icons sitting on that shelf.

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  4. Glad you found this useful, Mike. Thanks for visiting!

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  5. I'm confused...if it is just a nicer looking interface and if you can't launch your apps from it, then other than looking nice, what's the value?

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    1. Sorry for the confusion, maryc. Yes, you can access and use your apps from it. You can basically use everything in your Fire right from within this app. The point I was trying to make is that your Fire doesn't start-up using this app, so you have to go to it once it's booted up.

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  6. Ooooooh, no problem then. I'll get it. Thanks for the quick response.

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  7. *LOVE* Thank you Rachel and KFD!

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  8. Glad you found it useful, Aprille!

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  9. I've been using this app for a couple weeks and love having all my apps in one easy-to-access place. You can put your apps in the category that YOU want them. It's very easy to use and convenient. Yes, I know you can just click on the 'Apps' tab, but this sorts them all, making it a bit easier to find them.

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    1. Thanks for letting us know about your experience! That's great you've been doing so well with it! :)

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  10. wait does that mean I can sort the stuff into folders so I don't have to sort through all the books from my kindle ? That would be great. I have two kindles and all the books from one appear on my fire even though they are not actually in my kindle fire. It is a little annoying having to whiz by all of them

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  11. I'm still playing around with it, and so I'm not sure you can sort books, but you should be able to access the reading app.

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  12. I tried it and was disapponted to find out I can't make a folder for Books to put in all the books on my Fire with subfolders, i.e. "Books I've completed", "Favorite books", "Newest Books", etc. So, I have uninstalled the app and will wait until an app is developed to help us sort our books.

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    1. Yes, it's really not a solution to the book sorting problem. Sorry it didn't help you, Julie.

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  13. Thanks, I will wait too Julie. I wish they already had it as you can do it on the regular kindle. Seems like it should be easy for Kindle FIre to do it as well.

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  14. Unfortunately you can't sort books yet but other reviewers of this app mentioned that as well so hopefully the dev will add that feature. A way to sort bookmarks would be handy too.

    I'm still using this app and am really liking it. I created a folder for daily apps that I use or want to remember to check each day, a folder for games and kid apps, and a folder for online apps that I need to be on wifi to use (this is handy when I am ready to turn off wifi to save battery but want to check if there are any apps I want to use first.) I also like how you can reposition the folders in any order.

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  15. Yeah, there definitely are a lot of great uses. Thanks again, Rachel!

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  16. On a side note does anyone know how to turn off the autocorrect for the keyboard? In settings I have the auto fix off but when using it here (on the web) it keeps changing words. For example when I type wifi it changes it to wiring. So frustrating!

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  17. Go to Settings > More > Kindle Keyboard for all of the options related to the keyboard, but Amazon recommended the person who asked to call them about it, so you might want to do the same.

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  18. The auto fix keyboard is a bug i sent them a help ticket weeks ago. Still not fixed. Cant turn off auto correct.

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    1. That;s good. The more people who let them know about these issues, the better. Thanks for visiting, salsaguy!

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  19. I can't really see how to make new folders with my own names I've picked for them. The app itself made a few folders and sorted the apps, but how do I make my own folders? Thanks.

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  20. Hi Julienne, here's how to do it: tap and hold on any of the folders, such as gallery, to bring up a menu that'll have OK, New, and Cancel at the bottom. Tap New and that'll let you make a new folder. Hope that helps!

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