Nokia reborn: Nokia’s new Android launcher is wonderfully simple and shockingly innovative

On June 19th of this year, Nokia was reborn. The company that had been known for years as a cell phone pioneer had sold off its devices business, and the world was waiting to see what new paths Nokia might take. There are a few, as it turns out, but one of them saw the company release a surprisingly innovative newAndroid app this past summer, and it just got a big update that users will love.

Earlier this week, Nokia announced on its Z Launcher blog that the like-named app, which is the first stand-alone Android software Nokia has ever released, has been improved in several key areas. For those who did not see the original news, Nokia’s Z Launcher app is a nifty Android launcher that makes accessing the contacts you correspond with most frequently and your most commonly used apps a breeze.

Here are the full details of Nokia’s new Z Launcher update, as noted in the company’s blog post:

• Performance improvements
• Speed improvements across the board!
• Faster startup
• Faster loading of apps, contacts, and websites on the homescreen
• Faster first-run performance, especially on lower-end devices
• Design enhancements
• New animations
• Going to homescreen, launching apps (we are still working on these, please let us know what you think in feedback)
• Improved contacts search and listing in Z Launcher, more consistency in preserving your preferences across Z Launcher updates
• Improved web search results
• Improvements to “Call…” and “Text…” actions
• Collapsing contacts so one person won’t take up two spots on your Home screen (so you won’t see “Call John” and “Text John” at the same time)
• More reliable creation of “Call” and “Text” for the people you connect with the most
• Reducing accidental app launch if you scribble too quickly
• And many more bug fixes to improve the reliability of Z LauncherZ Launcher is currently in closed beta but those interested in trying it out as soon as possible can sign up here.

First hands-on with the Nokia X family - Video

Introducing the new Nokia X family of devices - the Nokia X, X+ and XL. The Nokia X smartphone family combine Nokia design, build quality and gives you access to the world of Android apps, benefits from signature Nokia experiences including MixRadio and HERE maps, and offers an introduction to Microsoft's most popular services such as Skype, OneDrive and Outlook.com.

Nokia X and X+ are official: Built on AOSP and running Nokia services

'Nokia X takes people to Microsoft's cloud, not Google's.'

Today at its press conference in Barcelona for MWC 2014, Stephen Elop of Nokia introduced the Nokia X and X+, two new low-end devices running Android. Both phones have a 4-inch display and iconic Nokia design, with the Nokia X+ having better internal specs and an SDcard slot.

The devices are built on AOSP, but do not use any of Google's services. As Elop said at the press conference, "Nokia X takes people to Microsoft's cloud, not Google's." It leverages Nokia's HERE Maps, Outlook.com, Microsoft OneDrive and Skype among other apps to fill in the gaps left by removing Google's cloud services.

Of course because it runs Android, Nokia is making it simple for Android developers to move over their apps to the Nokia store for download on the Nokia X and X+. The process is said to be very simple, according to Elop, and if users want to take things into their own hands the phones will also support sideloading of apps from the internal storage or SDcard.