Follow Us:
15

Chameleon Launcher closed beta arrives for a select few

By on August 3, 2012 at 12:23pm in Mobile News

Remember Chameleon Launcher, that awesome Kickstarter-backed project for Android tablets that earned a lot of money before needing to be ignominiously shut down due to a administrative error and relaunch several weeks later with promises of a phone version? Phew.

Well, lo and behold, the Ottawa-based team at Teknision, led by the effortlessly energetic Gabor Vida, has launched a beta version of the tablet launcher to a select number of people. Unlike most betas, however, the app is not being distributed by messy proprietary APK files — the company has put it in the Play Store but it limiting its use to backers whose email addresses have been priorly registered with the company. I received my email last night but Teknision is smartly rolling out the invites piecemeal so as not to overload their servers.

Unfortunately, judging from the 29 one-star ratings, most people don’t understand what a closed beta means. Teknision has been very forthcoming about the limited beta, and from what I can tell it being in the Play Store does not violate the Developer Policy at all. I couldn’t find mention of any abrogation for betas being distributed through the Store, though I would recommend Teknision puts “CLOSED BETA” in the title to prevent too much disappointment.

This also highlights a few of the limitations of the Play Store itself; Ryan from Teknision had no way of addressing the many one-star complaints (because the company has not been selected by Google to be a part of the pilot program for developers) so instead he had to post a response in the guise of a review.

We’re really happy that Chameleon is coming along — it’s one of the most exciting things to happen to Android tablets, period. When we’ve been granted access to the beta, we’ll be sure to talk all about it.

Related posts:

  1. BlueStacks App Player beta arrives, brings Android apps to desktops
  2. Chameleon promises a better homescreen for your Android tablet (Kickstarter)
  3. Nova Launcher 1.0 released for Ice Cream Sandwich devices, is the best custom launcher on the platform
  4. IM+ for Android releases public beta with a dozen improvements

Discussion

15 comments for “Chameleon Launcher closed beta arrives for a select few”

  1. People… are stupid.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 28 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Shensmobile | August 3, 2012, 12:31 pm
    Reply to this comment

  2. This is the same issue that goes on, on XDA-Developers. People don’t realize that they’re mainly for development and people feel that even though they’re normally tagged ALPHA, BETA, NIGHTLY or TESTING, it still means stable and then get angry when something stops working…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 13 Thumb down 0

    Posted by deltatux | August 3, 2012, 12:35 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • Like OMG this nightly is full of bugs and is missing all da [Samsung|HTC|LG...] stuff, tots not recmend – FAIL, 0 star.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 3

      Posted by ns.dev | August 3, 2012, 12:44 pm

  3. Can’t wait till it comes out of BETA, Would look beautiful on my Galaxy Tab 10.1

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Azzo | August 3, 2012, 12:40 pm
    Reply to this comment

  4. Looking forward to spending my play store credit on this for my Nexus 7

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Sean | August 3, 2012, 12:40 pm
    Reply to this comment

  5. So wait… my sense-of-entitlement pass doesn’t make this work? 1 star.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 15 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Marc | August 3, 2012, 12:44 pm
    Reply to this comment

  6. This looks really great. Would Apple allow an app like this that fundamentally changes the OS?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 3

    Posted by Bobblehead | August 3, 2012, 1:53 pm
    Reply to this comment

  7. Rip battery life. This launcher rapes it

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 1

    Posted by kris | August 3, 2012, 2:11 pm
    Reply to this comment

  8. pretty good… once they get the bugs out and add more widgets it will be the best launcher available

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0

    Posted by p | August 3, 2012, 3:00 pm
    Reply to this comment

  9. Wow, this looks slick. I’ll definitely be buying it once it’s out to use on my Nexus 7.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Mike | August 3, 2012, 4:09 pm
    Reply to this comment

  10. I have tried similar launcher on the hp touchpad. it worked very well.. Cant wait for this!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0

    Posted by TKG26 | August 3, 2012, 6:35 pm
    Reply to this comment

  11. looks a lot like Meego and the proto-meego tablet ui

    wonder if these guys will get sued when its finally released

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 1

    Posted by stylinred | August 3, 2012, 7:40 pm
    Reply to this comment

  12. XDA will have this beta open to the general public in a matter of days.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 1

    Posted by W Young | August 3, 2012, 7:50 pm
    Reply to this comment

  13. blackberry is the best

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 5

    Posted by ARYANA | August 3, 2012, 7:53 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • Is Chameleon launcher available yet for the Blackberry playbook?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 2

      Posted by ARYANA | August 4, 2012, 9:50 am

Post a comment