I like the idea of the recessed app icons in the wood, but there are a couple problems:
1. The background is static, so swiping between pages feels weird because the icons fall out of their little cubbies and a new set replaces them. The feeling of being "recessed" is kind of lost when you scroll and it kind of kills it for me.
2. The names of the apps themselves kind of play second fiddle to the app icons. The actual name area isn't given any kind of connection to the recess, so they feel disjointed from the apps themselves. For some reason it's kind of hard to look at both the icon and the name at the same time.
I've gone back to just the straight wood one, but I love the concept of the recessed one, just not sure if it could work for me due to issue 1 up there.
Great contributions across the board, great thread.