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I am seeing widget locker priced for $1 on Amazon and was thinking of getting it but I would first like to know if there are draw backs with my phones wake time and battery life? I use CM7 and MIUI as my roms. Any feedback would be appreciated.
anyone????
I've been using it and I can't tell a difference with battery life .. works pretty smooth
I no longer use it but when I did I loved it. Every now and then a little hiccup with the interface but nothing major. No battery issues at all.
Sent from "The EVO" using XDA Premium
I had a few issues with slow wake times, but only occasionally. When unlocking to LauncherPro it would sometimes take 5+ seconds - no problems with ADW Ex or any other launcher/app. All of these issues were prior to the update that included themes, everything past that worked great except widgets and CM7 theme chooser.
I'm not using it at the moment as I realized I rarely would launch anything from it & I'm happy with the MIUI lockscreen. It's worth the full price, and definitely worth a buck. MIUI has the only lockscreen that I don't think is ugly, so next time I switch roms I'll definitely install it again.
I think you should get it.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
plainjane said:
I had a few issues with slow wake times, but only occasionally. When unlocking to LauncherPro it would sometimes take 5+ seconds
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Click to collapse
Widget Locker -> Settings -> "Five Second Rule"
"Widget Locker delayed by five second rule. This is due to pressing the home button less than five seconds ago. Check settings -> Five second rule for Help."
Personally I love it, You can add applications, Widgets(!!!!), and separate settings to your lock screen. You can also set an alternate background on it from the rest of your phone. And there's actually an entire thread with a whole bunch of different sliders for unlocking.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=968613
wanfaltm said:
Widget Locker -> Settings -> "Five Second Rule"
"Widget Locker delayed by five second rule. This is due to pressing the home button less than five seconds ago. Check settings -> Five second rule for Help."
Personally I love it, You can add applications, Widgets(!!!!), and separate settings to your lock screen. You can also set an alternate background on it from the rest of your phone. And there's actually an entire thread with a whole bunch of different sliders for unlocking.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=968613
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually it wasn't the five second rule, I had the root bypass option checked and it usually happened after the phone had been asleep for more than 30 minutes. Plus the five-second rule has to do with loading WidgetLocker, not with unlocking. The problem did not happen with any other launcher or when unlocking to any other app that was already open, just to clarify.
I never had that problem on the newer versions. But I also haven't ran LauncherPro in a long time, so I cannot say if the problem persisted.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
I like widget locker but I too would get hiccups so I eventually just did without it. Btw using it on cm7 either freeze or unistall theme manager. They don't play well together.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
I bought widget locker and just got tired of the unlock wake time and sometimes unresponsiveness. It might work a lot better on your phone, but for me it became too much of an annoyance. I would also encountered the previous lock screen pop up and quickly turn back into widget locker screen and just became frustrated and reverted back to CM7 stock lockscreen..maybe lack of user knowledge on my part, but did not have the time..you might have a different experience.
Widget locker works great on my phone. Only problem was with my poweramp lockscreen widget. That, widgetlocker, and my phone lock would hiccup.
Had no problem with it.
Sent from :insert cheesy line here:
I really like the idea of widget locker alot, but like alot of others have said it would have lag when opening to launcher pro most of the time.I really wish it played better with my setup cuz its definitely worth the price.
I had it for a while too. I don't use it any more. I stopped because I had some lag time when waking the phone. I'm sure I'll use it again. Maybe the problem is fixed now.
Widget Locker works great on my CM7 rom
I've used both MIUI and CM and haven't had any problems with Widget Locker. They developer has been really good about emailing when I had questions too.
For a buck how can you go wrong? I have to break myself of the cheapskate thought a lot of times. I feel like making app purchases is life or death, but will spend money in other areas with much less caution.
I'm sure all of us have wasted $1 on more frivolous things, like a double cheeseburger.
Hi, just want to know how many of you guys feel that lockscreen widgets are useful and use them. I have never used them till now. Let us know.
Personally, I use dash clock widget with a bunch of extensions. Most of the info I like is all on 1 widget. Missed calls, texts, Google voice mails, weather, battery, BBS, gmail and a few others. As far as other widgets go I also use Google sound search as well as the "my work clock" widget. I can punch in and out without unlocking the phone. Quick and easy:thumbup:
That's really all I use but it all comes in handy I think.
i only use the origin clock
Sent From My AK Kernel Powered Gnex
I use DashClock and Flipboard. This thread would be better with a poll FYI.
Only missed it widget
Just use the clock...
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda app-developers app
RoyJ said:
Personally, I use dash clock widget with a bunch of extensions. Most of the info I like is all on 1 widget. Missed calls, texts, Google voice mails, weather, battery, BBS, gmail and a few others. As far as other widgets go I also use Google sound search as well as the "my work clock" widget. I can punch in and out without unlocking the phone. Quick and easy:thumbup:
That's really all I use but it all comes in handy I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for telling about dashclock. I dint know about it. I am using it now!
renuk11 said:
Hi, just want to know how many of you guys feel that lockscreen widgets are useful and use them. I have never used them till now. Let us know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have one, and it's the camera. I find lock screen widgets annoying.
I never got the utility of the lockscreen in the first place. If your phone is not password/pin/whatever locked, why would you want to touch the screen 1-2 times more just to get to the main screen with all your usual apps/widgets or to the full menu?
And all the info you could put on your lockscreen, you can put on your main screen in a better, more personalized way.
I tried a few times to use a lockscreen (a total of a few weeks over the last 2.5 years), but I always deactivated it after a few days.
Just my 2 cents.
i only use them by accident and that suxx. me wants them gone for good
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Dashclock is basically what the lock screen should be all about - an extendable piece of quick info.
I just use dashclock and poweramp. I tried to use calculator but when i was using it the screen turned off everytime. So i gave up.
Enviado de meu Galaxy Nexus usando o Tapatalk 2
I have disabled them completely with Lockscreen Policy app. Got enough widgets on my homescreen...
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Just dashclock. With camera widget diasabled
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
I guess most of them thinks it's useless. Even I feel the same. I don't understand why Google introduced it.
Probably because they needed to ship some features with the N4 and didn't have much else to present. The whole 4.2 series looks like a cherry picked filler between the JB and next major release.
madd0g said:
Probably because they needed to ship some features with the N4 and didn't have much else to present. The whole 4.2 series looks like a cherry picked filler between the JB and next major release.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have got a point there.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
I use Dashclock, the stock camera widget, and a flashlight widget on a regular basis. The lock screen widget feature certainly isn't groundbreaking or anything and it does seem like a bit of an after thought (for example, Dashclock is what the stock clock widget should have been as others have mentioned). I do like the idea and see it as a quick intuitive way for getting to things quickly without having to unlock your phone first. Sure you had the shortcuts on the lockscreen before that would take you directly to the camera and what not but with the lock screen widgets the operation seems a little faster, more stream lined and fluid.
Really though, I don't see why you would want more than 3 lock screen widgets. There is the main home page one that you see whenever you wake up the phone, which most people have either the stock clock widget or Dashclock and is therefore mostly for informational purposes (do you have any new emails, text messages, time/date, battery percentage, etc). Then from there you can swipe to the left or the right to easily get to the other two widgets which are more functional in the sense that you can interact with them (camera, calculator, flashlight, etc.). If you have a 4th one you have to swipe a second time and at that point you have to wonder "why not just unlock the phone in the first place".
i just hate them i use pattern lock and while i try to unlock the screen moves arrfgghh thts soo fukn irritating :banghead::banghead::banghead:
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
I used to disable them with Lockscreen Policy, then I started using Dashclock.
I am currently back on the stock weather widget for my ion, but I have been trying out others. I really like the stock one, although I wish it would find you with GPS, and follow your location etc. It's just clean and simple..just looking to see what others ones may be good as well.
personally i dont use one, not even stock..its a waste of data and consumes ram plus if it's using GPS then it keeps waking up your phone which leads to battery drain..
I use the stock one on my XS.. I don't really care about the weather info displayed on the widget.. It's just for show on my homescreen coz it looks good there...
Jackmax32 said:
I use the stock one on my XS.. I don't really care about the weather info displayed on the widget.. It's just for show on my homescreen coz it looks good there...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude you made me laugh with your shameless sincerity
I use the stock widget for normal current stuff...and the weather channel app for radar. I used to use accuweather's app, but they completely rearranged it and it gets an update every other day because of bugs...and its slow as shat now. The weather channel app is much better currently imo...
in either case though...i've never come across one weather widget that looks as good as the one included with Sony's skin. I never use the widgets included with any weather app, as they're not even close haha. Just wish the stock widget could follow you, rather than having to put up multiple widgets for different areas...
the stock seems to be the best one out there but i noticed that the readings it gives, are totally wrong. I mean the weather was like cloudy and it was showing sunny, the other day. So i've removed it. Also i agree with Jackmax32, idc about the weather, it is only good for the eyecandy (showing off)
Forgive me Moderator, this is a few questions, but I am not familiar with what would be 'a question' if it is not, please feel free to change. Thx
This is my first LG phone. I am not sure if I have some questions because of that, or because of the specific phone, or due to the screen size.
1. What is the fitness app all the way to the left screen?
It is not in the widget list or app list. Is it just LG Fitness?
2. I want to use the native launcher for a change, it appears so much better than TWiz. But I do like my 4x1 widgets to span the whole screen. Can you widen the widgets to do that? Or would that require a 5x5 screen which LG's launcher can't do
3. If I were to use Nova, I suppose the answer to #1 above would answer this, but if that LG Fitness is the same app, I could place a widget for that on one screen, provided it has one. What is the best fitness app with a widget?
4. I have a big selection of wallpapers. In the past I would normally use PicSpeed or Backgrounds HD to set the wallpaper normally selecting wide. I am a little confused as one of the apps I am using, with one size wallpaper I have (either 1980x1020 or 2550x1420) when set on the homescreen flickers a little, then the screen itself, not the home buttons or notification bar, turns black. I set it again, with what app I can't figure out and whether I select full screen (wide) or just normal, something fixes it? Any idea?
5. Lastly, I had read that the screen on the LG is wonderful, may take a little of the battery, but also that it is a little dim. Well I agree.
But it was a LOT dim when my battery is at 14. As much as I thought I knew, maybe I don't let my phone get that weak, but even with the battery saver off, it appears that Android has a built in mechanism to lower the brightness at some point. Would that be correct? And I use Brightness Toggle Widget app. Weird but on all other phones, it was in sync with the phone - when I would change it on the widget, the phone would change. When I would change on the phone, the widget would change. Can someone shed light on that. Do some apps just not update or work on certain phones. Is there a better app to use a widget where you can set the brightness at selected interval %'s
Thanks to anyone who has any ideas or answers to any questions
Eric
eric0668 said:
Forgive me Moderator, this is a few questions, but I am not familiar with what would be 'a question' if it is not, please feel free to change. Thx
This is my first LG phone. I am not sure if I have some questions because of that, or because of the specific phone, or due to the screen size.
1. What is the fitness app all the way to the left screen?
It is not in the widget list or app list. Is it just LG Fitness?
2. I want to use the native launcher for a change, it appears so much better than TWiz. But I do like my 4x1 widgets to span the whole screen. Can you widen the widgets to do that? Or would that require a 5x5 screen which LG's launcher can't do
3. If I were to use Nova, I suppose the answer to #1 above would answer this, but if that LG Fitness is the same app, I could place a widget for that on one screen, provided it has one. What is the best fitness app with a widget?
4. I have a big selection of wallpapers. In the past I would normally use PicSpeed or Backgrounds HD to set the wallpaper normally selecting wide. I am a little confused as one of the apps I am using, with one size wallpaper I have (either 1980x1020 or 2550x1420) when set on the homescreen flickers a little, then the screen itself, not the home buttons or notification bar, turns black. I set it again, with what app I can't figure out and whether I select full screen (wide) or just normal, something fixes it? Any idea?
5. Lastly, I had read that the screen on the LG is wonderful, may take a little of the battery, but also that it is a little dim. Well I agree.
But it was a LOT dim when my battery is at 14. As much as I thought I knew, maybe I don't let my phone get that weak, but even with the battery saver off, it appears that Android has a built in mechanism to lower the brightness at some point. Would that be correct? And I use Brightness Toggle Widget app. Weird but on all other phones, it was in sync with the phone - when I would change it on the widget, the phone would change. When I would change on the phone, the widget would change. Can someone shed light on that. Do some apps just not update or work on certain phones. Is there a better app to use a widget where you can set the brightness at selected interval %'s
Thanks to anyone who has any ideas or answers to any questions
Eric
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 its like a page and can be got rid off
2 yes you can
3 dont know
4 i think zedge would work for you
5 the screen does not dim unless you have battery saver on
hope that helps
jaythenut said:
1 its like a page and can be got rid off
2 yes you can
3 dont know
4 i think zedge would work for you
5 the screen does not dim unless you have battery saver on
hope that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank You first of all. Yes, sort of. Not that new, I don't give myself credit. LOL But thank you very much
1. I knew it can be gotten rid of etc, but I am unlike most, I like it. It can't be had in other launchers can it? The best I could find was using a shortcut to a Nova Activity which can find a lot of hidden things there. Works well, as an app though, not a widget
2. How can you widen them to full screen in the LG Launcher, if you would be willing to share. Thank You
3. Refers back to #1. Thank You
4. Thank You
4. It does help as far as getting the proper size wallpapers. I guess my problem is finding out which apps work, not to find them, but to set them on the phone, that you are not downloading from Zedge and are a different size, probably smaller. But I'm not able to pinpoint the problem any more than 'probably smaller' Some work fine, some don't
eric0668 said:
Thank You first of all. Yes, sort of. Not that new, I don't give myself credit. LOL But thank you very much
1. I knew it can be gotten rid of etc, but I am unlike most, I like it. It can't be had in other launchers can it? The best I could find was using a shortcut to a Nova Activity which can find a lot of hidden things there. Works well, as an app though, not a widget
2. How can you widen them to full screen in the LG Launcher, if you would be willing to share. Thank You
3. Refers back to #1. Thank You
4. Thank You
4. It does help as far as getting the proper size wallpapers. I guess my problem is finding out which apps work, not to find them, but to set them on the phone, that you are not downloading from Zedge and are a different size, probably smaller. But I'm not able to pinpoint the problem any more than 'probably smaller' Some work fine, some don't
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2. You can't resize widgets on the LG Launcher, you need Nova for that, I'm pretty sure.
you can expand widgets
It depends on the widget themselves. If the developer allow resizing it can be resized, but if not then it can't.
Example PayPal doesn't allow resizing while Eye in the Sky does.
Hi all,
From a processing overhead and memory standpoint, I was wondering if it's better to have one big widget or many smaller widgets. I have a big widget that has a lot of functionality, but I've noticed that it tends to make my phone (Galaxy Note 3) jumpy, especially in things like games. If I remove the widget from my home screen, everything smooths back out. I know that Zooper takes all of the widget elements and renders them as a single unit, so I didn't know if maybe it would help smooth things out if I broke the widget up into smaller ones. Or would that just make it worse?
Thanks,
Jeremy
Sorry to hi-jack but have a similar question
Is it would be better to have one app, say zooper or UCCW taking care of all my widget or many app, Zooper, UCCW, simple calendar, beautifull widget. And in addition, one big widget or many small... would be on a lg g3.
Any hint?
Well I found that one big widget does a few things.
Multiple widget configuration:
First. A bunch of small widgets have redraw issues (widget disappears then redraws on the screen and reappears) Especially if widgets overlap.
Second. It becomes a nightmare for hotspots to not overlap.
Third. There's quit a few issues with which widget to keep up front and which widget to move to back. (Becomes a juggling act getting everything just right)
One big widget with lots of modules:
First. Way easier to make a apk for playstore.
Second: Very little redraw issues.
Third. Way easier to make multiple different colored versions of the same screen.
Fourth: Can get very confusing to yourself and others if you didn't name the modules as you went along.
Fifth: if you share your creation, the end user will need to change there background to add close as possible to your widget color, because there will be some type of margin somewhere on that screen, even if set to none.
So in conclusion, I find better performance with full screen pages. It makes my life easier. Plus list glitches from redraw.
Of course your milage will very though.
thinker5555 said:
Hi all,
From a processing overhead and memory standpoint, I was wondering if it's better to have one big widget or many smaller widgets. I have a big widget that has a lot of functionality, but I've noticed that it tends to make my phone (Galaxy Note 3) jumpy, especially in things like games. If I remove the widget from my home screen, everything smooths back out. I know that Zooper takes all of the widget elements and renders them as a single unit, so I didn't know if maybe it would help smooth things out if I broke the widget up into smaller ones. Or would that just make it worse?
Thanks,
Jeremy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As someone who cut down from over 30 individual Zooper widgets to 9 large-ish ones, I'll have to say that I strongly prefer fewer larger ones. Previously, Nova often crashed and notified me it was due to any one of the 30 or so Zoopers which had crossed the limit of my device.
Furthermore, as @sandman7793 says quite rightly, redraws are a pretty major issue whenever booting up or switching between apps/homescreen pages.
In addition, it is much easier to manage large number of modules in fewer widget than jumping to and fro between several smaller ones to copy a slight adjustment you may have made to one of them. Simply put: fewer widgets, fewer hassle.
Thanks for the info. Guide me in one direction. As for battery life, one better than the other, since you tried both ways?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app
ere1nion said:
Thanks for the info. Guide me in one direction. As for battery life, one better than the other, since you tried both ways?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, it's a bit hard to tell. I never tested Zooper in isolation for its effect on battery life. However, based on the performance improvements with fewer widgets, including decreased redraw issues and just fewer homescreen widgets to power at any one time, I'd say fewer widgets of little variety probably has better battery life (although, the effect may be minimal to none at all).
Is it possible to have one widget cover the entire screen? I thought 4x4 was the biggest available.
Also, is there a way of combining two widgets into one? For example, I have a 4x1 weather widget and a 4x3 weather bitmap icon which, by the sounds of it, would work better as a single widget.
TheStretchedElf said:
Is it possible to have one widget cover the entire screen? I thought 4x4 was the biggest available.
Also, is there a way of combining two widgets into one? For example, I have a 4x1 weather widget and a 4x3 weather bitmap icon which, by the sounds of it, would work better as a single widget.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is possible to have one widget over the entire screen, but it may depend on your launcher. Some launchers, like Lightning, Nova and Themer, allow for easy resizing of widgets to be as big or as small as you want. The best way to do it is to place a new Zooper widget on your home screen, and before you tap it to start editing it, resize it to the size you want. Then when you go into edit mode, Zooper will pick up on that size and behave accordingly. For example, I have a 6x5 and a 6x3, neither of which are available options when dropping a new widget initially.
As for combining widgets, I haven't found a good way of doing that yet. I think you'd have to create a new widget, import the one with the most elements into it, and then manually create the rest of the elements from the other widget and configure them. An alternative may be to export the .xml for both of them to a computer and add the two together there. This way you should at least be able to get all of the elements into one widget, but then when you load it into Zooper, you'll need to move the elements around because they'll probably overlap at that point.
Other than that, if someone knows of a better way, I'd be happy to hear it.
Referring back to my original question that kicked this thread off, thanks to everyone for your input. @sandman7793 especially had some great points, which I really appreciate. I've done some more digging, and it looks like some of my performance issue was actually related to Greenify rather than Zooper. I was seeing jumpiness in things like games because I had them under my list of apps to forcibly keep hibernated. Oops. Once I figured that out, everything is working smooth again.