A while back, a lot of hype was surrounding a new launcher available for Android, dubbed SPB Shell 3D. The app featured a 3D carousal interface. In 2011, however, the developers were purchased, but up until recently, everything had remained the same. A few months ago a new version of the app was released dubbed Yandex.Shell, but it was only available in Russia. On May 24th, SBP Shell received an update that we now know will be its last, as the company’s new, but still very similar launcher, has received a pretty big and important update.
On Wednesday, he developers released an update for the Yandex.Shell launcher that does several important things for the app. For one, it makes it free, as opposed to the $15 SBP Shell 3D originally costed to download. The other big thing is that Yandex is now available to download worldwide.
As we mentioned before Yandex.Shell should look awfully familiar to anyone who tried SBP Shell 3D, as the two were made and designed by the same developers. The only difference is the original SPB Shell developers are now employees of the Yandex company and have been since back in 2011 when the company wanted to improve the interface in its app. Yandex.Shell 2.0 was the first update that really made the changes apparent, however.
It’s worth noting that SPB Shell 3D is still available in the market, but will not be receiving anymore updates, so instead of spending $15 for it, it’s probably wise to download the almost identical Yandex.Shell launcher, which is free.
In addition to making the app available world-wide, this update also adds new features such as skins, instant search, bug fixes, a new widget panel, and much more. The full change log for the update is as follows:
- Home Screen indicator for apps and widgets
- Widget panel
- Instant search
- Dialer
- Skins for your phone
- Wallpaper for home screen
- All localizations improved
- An experimental “Use hardware acceleration for android widgets” setting added (Android 4.0+)
- Other improvements and bugfixes
What do you think of Yandex.Shell? Will you be using it as your launcher from now on? Let us know in the comments!