Nokia's newly minted Technologies arm which was not part of the Microkia deal has just made its Z Launcher for Android official. Its a very simple and powerful way to access everything on your phone and web.
In terms of design it looks very spartan, you have a clock and calendar events at the top followed by a list of apps, contacts, frequently searched items based on your usage. The list is contextually aware about the time of day and it adjusts itself based on your usage, so it will get better with time. For getting to your apps, you don't need to find it from the apps list, although an alphabetical apps list is also available. The Nokia Z Launcher has handwriting recognition built in, so you can just type the first letter of the app you want on the homescreen and you will be presented with a list of apps, contacts as well as web searches you made starting with that letter.
It works great and you can even add more letters to open a particular contact or app. Its a very basic launcher otherwise, there is no widget support as of now and no Google search bar at the top to launch Google Now. But its still in beta and you need to sign-up to get access, which you can do at the link below.
Source: Z Launcher
Via: The Verge
