Awesome Widgets Bundle. Personalize Your Android Home Screen & Make it Awesome!
by Paul Wilks
Jan 11, 2012 10:05 AM –
Install
Awesome Widgets Bundle is a cool widgets app for your Android homescreens. Including over 40 weather/clock and toggle widgets, it’s incredibly customisable and offers some skinning options you get with apps like Beautiful Widgets. It’s simple to use, hosts lots of options and offers new ways to brighten your device.
Price: Free, $0.99 via AndroidTapp Store
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Lots of widget styles to choose from!
- Massively customisable, with lots of choice!
- Preview pane!
- Great weather options!
Cons
- Dated menu UI.
- Options might be overwhelming for some.
Features:
Awesome Widgets Bundle is a cool widgets application that allows you to create all kinds of useful homescreen widgets. If you’re familiar with apps like the popular Beautiful Widgets, this is very similar in concept. You have a smattering of default designs but you can download many more in-app. There’s a considerable selection too, so there really should be something there for everyone.
There is a huge array of customisations available that put even Beautiful Widgets in the shade. Both when you create a weather clock and the toggle bar you are presented with a smorgasbord of options and choices. Now, while this might be overwhelming for many, for the aspiring modder there is a lot to get stuck into and experiment with.
The app features a neat preview pane at the top of the widget-creation screen. This lets you see exactly what your widget will look like. Perhaps this is only a small thing, but some apps neglect this kind of useful feature.
There are lots of widget details to tweak and enough probably to pacify the most ambitious of modding masochists. For some this might feel a little overbearing- being confronted with such a menu of options, but for the enthusiast this is a brilliant option for really getting a handle on the look and feel of the widget.
Compared to similar apps I found the UI for the menus, etc. to appear a little dated, but this is only a minor quibble as it bears little relevance to how the widgets themselves look.
What struck me hardest about Awesome Widgets Bundle was the range of skins available, and the intricate level of customisation you can make to the widgets. The developers seem to have left no stone unturned in creating a powerful and highly configurable app, ideal for people who like to move away from default aesthetics and create their own themes.
Watch on Mobile
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Awesome Widgets – Widgets
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Awesome Widgets – Completed widget
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Awesome Widgets – Toggle widget
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Awesome Widgets – Location and icon settings
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Awesome Widgets – Create a widget, find a skin
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Awesome Widgets – Change pictures, download more
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Awesome Widgets – Widget settings
Usefulness:
Hugely useful for taking control of your clock, weather or toggle widgets. There’s such a wealth of customisations that it will help you create a great widget that fits into your theme perfectly. Also rather brilliant is the fact that tapping the clock will take you directly to your clock app, weather will take you to a more detailed weather page too. In most cases this is something taken as granted, but you’d be surprised how many apps don’t have this kind of shortcutting, so it’s great to see here.
Ease of Use:
I wouldn’t say Awesome Widgets Bundle is the very easiest app to use. The menus are often not wholly clear. However, for an Android veteran this shouldn’t be an issue. This is actually balanced somewhat by certain features that make the app more intuitive, such as the preview pane.
Frequently Used:
If you utilise the widgets properly, like the clock and weather functions, you’d perhaps use it as regularly as you turn your device on to check the time.
Interface:
The widget interface is pretty cool, looks good and provides shortcuts to essential aspects of your device such as the clock app. The backstage menus feel a little dated and are not as intuitive as perhaps they could be. It’s tricky though to incorporate such a level of customisation, and still maintain and fully coherent and easy to use UI.