Apple iOS: Launch Center by AppCubby, First Look

by Fred Lewis
3 min read

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNDMTIW7dEo?rel=0&w=600&h=335]

Above is the official Launch Center product demo from AppCubby. Our Fred Lewis took a look for himself. For $1.99, he says, it ought to do what its name says it will, right? Right?

I just finished reviewing AppCubby’s Launch Center,  available for $1.99 in the Apple AppStore.

After trying this app, it turns out Launch Center has the wrong name. Here’s why.

Launch Center Almost Launches Apps

Launch Center is a new app that its maker AppCubby released for the iPhone at MacWorld | iWorld 2012 in January.

Within Launch Center, you create buttons that do things on your phone — including start an app, call a friend, start an email, send a text, post to Twitter or turn on a flashlight.

 

There is also a scheduling option that, at first glance, sounds like it might be used to launch apps automatically.

 

Unfortunately, the Launch Center scheduling option doesn’t actually launch apps.

What Launch Center does is send you a Reminder at the scheduled time, to launch an app. (You have to enable Alerts for Launch Center, in the iPhone Settings, in order for this to happen.)  Then you have to notice the Reminder and click on it to launch the app.

 

So the Reminder actually launches the app. Not Launch Center.

I was hoping I could use Launch Center to launch my Meebo app every day at 4am while I’m asleep — because Meebo signs itself out after a day or so of non-use.  But  Launch Center can’t do this. Launch Center sends me a Reminder at 4am, but that Reminder is old by the time I wake up and is no longer on my lock screen. So I don’t see the Reminder unless I go digging through my old Reminders. By the time I remember to do that, I might as well remember to just launch Meebo myself.

In fact, Meebo creates its own Reminder when it times out. And guess what? Clicking on Meebo’s Reminder launches Meebo.

The problem is: Apple won’t let any apps launch apps, not in a true way.

Apple made a partial exception in this case, allowing a Reminder to launch an app, as long as there is human intervention — you have to click on the Reminder, so there is no automatic app launching going on.

The only way to really get automatic app launching is to jailbreak your phone. By leaving this restriction in force, Apple is just encouraging more people to jailbreak their iOS devices. And I do believe there is an app for that.

Note: To launch an app other than the ones included in Launch Center’s menu, you create a new Website Launch and then, for the URL, enter a  URL for your app as follows:

theappname://

ie.  the URL meebo://

will launch Meebo

I’m Fred Lewis for aNewDomain.net

Here’s AppCubby’s David Barnard, who says he is admittedly “a little biased,” doing a demo:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNDMTIW7dEo?rel=0]

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