I recently discovered AppShelf, and it is the most flexible and capable launcher
by far of all those I've tried that I went on a mission to buy it.
Unfortunately, it has been removed from the Handango site (see
here), and the only way to buy it is through a Japanese company called
Vis-a-Vis. The only problem with this is that Vis-a-Vis does not "ship" outside Japan, which means that you can't fill out the forms at checkout (I tried).
There are some screenshots of AppShelf on
the Japanese site that show some of its capabilities; I'm sure that they'd be even more impressive to someone who can read Japanese and knew what the Japanese text is describing. I can tell you that it's highly customizable even if you don't have access to skins (there are a few of these around): you can control much of the look, feel, and functionality just by tweaking the I/F with the provided controls.
There used to be an English version available, but apparently the English translations left something to be desired; a kind soul on 1src.com provided an overlay that improves on the situation -- but there's still no way to buy the product, so after 30 days it will turn into a pumpkin even if you manage to download it and install it.
I contacted the author and had a few email exchanges with him, using Babelfish to generate Japanese (since in his first message told me that his English is not good, to which I replied that my Japanese is nonexistent). He was using translation software too, but the translations were accurate enough that he got my meaning and I got his.
He confirmed that there is no way, other than ordering it from Vis-a-Vis, to get a key, so I'm in a bit of a jam. I have tried literally every other launcher on the market, and none compares in terms of power and flexibility, and I want this one to be available.
What I'm looking for is a bilingual (English/Japanese) Palm Addict who is willing to contact the author of AppShelf and try to work out some sort of deal whereby the bilingual Palm Addict translates and maintains an English version of AppShelf, so that it can be put back on Handango; this can be out of the goodness of the Palm Addict's heart, or s/he can talk to the author about some sort of profit-sharing deal -- I'm sure that if there were an English version of AppShelf available, the demand would be considerable. It really is the best launcher of its kind (there's a philosophically very different one, Hi-Launcher, that's useful to have around even with a good visual launcher).
If there's no interest in this, I won't pursue it; if you're a bilingual Palm Addict and are interested, either post back here or contact the author of AppShelf (Hiroaki Imazeki,
[email protected]) directly.