So I’m going to try and relax a little and put quick blurbs out here.  I’ve also discovered the benefits of Twitter in the past year, so I’m going to use that as well.  We’ll see if I can get this concept back off the ground.  It may mean less “tags”, “ratings” and in-depth commentary, but let’s face it…all anyone wants to know is what’s the next cool app…so that’s what I’m going to try and deliver on.

OK, so all kidding aside there are two new “events” with this post.  One, an explanation of widgets.  Two, my FIRST 5-star rated app!  I was starting to get worried that I would only ever write about 4-star apps…but finally if there was ever an app worthy of a 5-star rating…it’s this one.

Before I get too far into the app, let’s do a brief refresher on what a “widget” is in the first place.  Well, honestly it’s what I love MOST about Android.  Let’s break it down like this.  Apple gives the user a consistent experience across devices because they force the user to use their platform exactly how they designed it (slightly easy to learn out-of-the-box).  Android gives the user a completely customize-able experience that allows each person to dictate how they want the platform to look/work (thus creating a slightly higher learning curve…but let’s face it, that’s what you have me for).  Android accomplishes this by the use of “widgets”.  A lot of different apps have widgets.  For example, weather apps, news apps,  radio/music apps and contact management apps all leverage widgets to give a user easy access to their application without the need to open the app.  That means you can see you calendar, the weather and the latest news by simply turning the device on.  Now that’s cool!

Widgetsoid2x Setup Screen

So what do we need this “Widgetsoid2.x” app for?  Well I’m glad you asked.  Widgetsoid2.x gives the user a completely customize-able widget experience.  Yep, it’s getting deep now.  This app allows each user to dictate the colors, icons and arrangement of any widget the user wants to create (as pictured to the right).  It also allows for the creation of widgets that make it easy to turn bluetooth on/off, WiFi toggling, Vibrate mode, Airplane mode, not to mention easy access to call contacts, send emails or texts, etc.  If you can dream it…this app probably does it.  Sounds a little complicated right?  Check out this YouTube Tutorial the author of the app created to help you manage his creation.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pyf7U1cByI.

Widgetsoid Notification Bar

But one of the coolest things this app allows you to do (and the reason it gets a full five-star rating) is the ability to place these newly created widgets in your notification menu.  That’s right, you heard me…I can have a widget to manage all of my different modes in my notifications menu rather than on a home-screen.  Check out the picture to the left.  As you can see I have my 7 favorite contacts in my pull-down notification menu for easy access.  Anytime I need to call one of them, I simply pull down the notification bar and tap on their picture.  You can put any (and pretty much as many) widgets as you’d like in your notification bar (and it even lets you anchor them to the top of the bar).

I can’t stress enough that you should take some time and play around with this.  It’s not the normal install it and use it type app that I usually write about, but that doesn’t mean it won’t make a world of difference in your smart phone using experience.  And of course if you have any questions you know you can hit me up in the comments and I’ll be more than happy to assist.  So click the link below and get to tinkering…you’ll be happy you did.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.jim2

P.S. – The app is free, but he does have a donation app you can purchase if you’d like to thank him for his work.