How widgets can make your life easier, not harder

[lordofthereef]

This is a better link IMO.

http://iphoneza.co.za/IconSettings/

Installed this, and is truly is much better than sifting through settings, but even so, it is no toggle. I'd like to tap the bluetooth icon to have it turn on. Tap it again, to turn off. Until jailbreak this will certainly ease my frustration though!

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Yes, you can make your life just as easy without widgets. It's amazing, isn't it? I can use the Settings app to do everything.

Thanks for the snarky comment. You either didn't read why I wanted a widget for these specific tasks, or you cared to ignore it. I'd like a one tap answer, not one where I have to go into settings.

Let me go over (again) what I needed to do to turn bluetooth on and off.

Settings>General>Bluetooth>On/Off Toggle

How anyone can think this is more convenient or easy than just having a single toggle on my screen that does this for me with a single tap of the finger is truly beyond me, but you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Bottom line is, for me (and I know many others) having to weed through settings is atrocious.

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Works fine on 5.0.1 here, I've just tried it.

I can confirm.

 

[mrochester]

Settings>General>Bluetooth>On/Off Toggle

How anyone can think this is more convenient or easy than just having a single toggle on my screen that does this for me with a single tap of the finger is truly beyond me, but you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Bottom line is, for me (and I know many others) having to weed through settings is atrocious.

Personally I'd go for the even easier option and just leave it switched on all the time. It will have negligible impact on the battery anyway and it saves you even more hassle.

 

[lordofthereef]

Personally I'd go for the even easier option and just leave it switched on all the time. It will have negligible impact on the battery anyway and it saves you even more hassle.

I tend to be a power user, and come home with about 10% battery left per day. I find leaving wifi and bluetooth on all the time represents about 5% battery. To me, that's not negligible. Then there is the need to switch off wifi in certain times if the wifi is just wanting to be slow.

 

[sk1wbw]

Installed this, and is truly is much better than sifting through settings, but even so, it is no toggle. I'd like to tap the bluetooth icon to have it turn on. Tap it again, to turn off. Until jailbreak this will certainly ease my frustration though!

----------



Thanks for the snarky comment. You either didn't read why I wanted a widget for these specific tasks, or you cared to ignore it. I'd like a one tap answer, not one where I have to go into settings.

Let me go over (again) what I needed to do to turn bluetooth on and off.

Settings>General>Bluetooth>On/Off Toggle

How anyone can think this is more convenient or easy than just having a single toggle on my screen that does this for me with a single tap of the finger is truly beyond me, but you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Bottom line is, for me (and I know many others) having to weed through settings is atrocious.

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I can confirm.

Wow. You win. Android rulz!! how's that for snarky?

 

[lordofthereef]

Wow. You win. Android rulz!! how's that for snarky?

No. For me, widgets are better implemented in Android than iOS. It's that simple. This isn't a pissing contest. Please don't confuse it for one.

 

[sk1wbw]

No. For me, widgets are better implemented in Android than iOS. It's that simple. This isn't a pissing contest. Please don't confuse it for one.

Not a pissing contest? Really? 5 pages of pro android notifications are better than iOS notifications and it's not a pissing contest? Tell ya what. Keep playing with your notifications and widgets while iPhone users USE their phone.

 

[mrochester]

I tend to be a power user, and come home with about 10% battery left per day. I find leaving wifi and bluetooth on all the time represents about 5% battery. To me, that's not negligible. Then there is the need to switch off wifi in certain times if the wifi is just wanting to be slow.

Well if the difference is between coming home with 10% or 5%, I don't see what the issue is since both have got you through the day. It sounds like you're just making things difficult for yourself by constantly switching settings on and off. I'd suggest you just try leaving them switched on and not worry about the 5% battery life. It's actual phone use such a internet browsing over 3G and calls that have the largest effect on battery life so if you're that concerned about the phone lasting, you need to watch those use cases first and foremost.

 

[Dmunjal]

Honest question: How is it handy? (I want to make sure I'm understanding correctly.)

If you're multitasking on the phone don't you have to go to the home screen anyway, or are you multitasking on something else and the the phone is sitting there next to you?

On Sunday, I received a notification that I got a text message. As I unlocked my phone to respond, I noticed my ESPN widget with the latest scores. I was able to scroll through a few of them without launching an app and then bring down the notification screen to respond to a text. I do the same thing with Facebook/Twitter updates and even email. Scrollable widgets are really cool because I'm not limited to the screen space on my home screen.

I've had every iPhone from the original to the 4S and as much as I love iOS (I still have an iPad), these steps take longer as they are all serialized within multiple apps.

 

[matttye]

Personally I'd go for the even easier option and just leave it switched on all the time. It will have negligible impact on the battery anyway and it saves you even more hassle.

Bluetooth and wifi are big battery sappers. Google "how to make your iPhone battery last longer" and nearly every site will recommend disabling those things when you don't need them to be on.

Recommending that people keep them on all the time rather than ask for an easier way to toggle them is on par with Steve jobs telling people they were holding the phone wrong during the antenna gate scandal it's not really an adequate solution is it.

Also, with regards to my wifi shortcut, that takes me to the options and is not a toggle. This is because I switch between the 5ghz and 2.4ghz bands on my router a lot depending on how far away from it I am. I move around my house quite a bit and it would simply be a nightmare to have to go through several screens every time I wanted to do that.

Not a pissing contest? Really? 5 pages of pro android notifications are better than iOS notifications and it's not a pissing contest? Tell ya what. Keep playing with your notifications and widgets while iPhone users USE their phone.

I've said multiple times that I use widgets to save me time. That means less time performing common tasks like toggling wifi and more time actually using the phone. If anything, widgets let you use your phone more, not less.

I'm looking forward to your polite and intelligent response

On Sunday, I received a notification that I got a text message. As I unlocked my phone to respond, I noticed my ESPN widget with the latest scores. I was able to scroll through a few of them without launching an app and then bring down the notification screen to respond to a text. I do the same thing with Facebook/Twitter updates and even email. Scrollable widgets are really cool because I'm not limited to the screen space on my home screen.

I've had every iPhone from the original to the 4S and as much as I love iOS (I still have an iPad), these steps take longer as they are all serialized within multiple apps.

This is it. Widgets tend to flow better because they don't interrupt what you're doing like switching apps what. It's all on your home screens.

 

[derickdub]

The SMS/mail/call indicators light up when you have a missed SMS/mail/call so I'm not sure what you mean by that.

I just don't get why they are there even when you don't have a notification. At least that's how I think it works based on how you explained it.

I like iOS the way it is. It's refined to the point where widgets are unnecessary. At least in my opinion.

Even if they were added, I doubt I'd use them. I see them as a kind of half-assed app. Sort of like Photoshop Elements compared to the full program. They serve their purpose but could never replace the app they're replicating which would make them useless to me, but probably not a lot of others.

 

[mrochester]

Recommending that people keep them on all the time rather than ask for an easier way to toggle them is on par with Steve jobs telling people they were holding the phone wrong during the antenna gate scandal it's not really an adequate solution is it.

It works fine for me . It's not even a problem that needs solving to my mind.

I've said multiple times that I use widgets to save me time. That means less time performing common tasks like toggling wifi and more time actually using the phone. If anything, widgets let you use your phone more, not less.

I think we've gone over this a few times before; widgets will be useful for some people and not for others. I think that has been very clearly demonstrated now. If you need widgets you can buy one of the hundreds of Android based phones. If you don't, you can buy pretty much anything. This is the beauty of competition; you can buy what best meets your needs .

 

[Yumunum]

Not discounting the benefit of widgets or anything, but... Why don't you just turn the lock screen off? You realize that'd solve everything? You'd hit your power button like normal, and you'd have all your icons in one place. Right there for you to touch and get directly to what you want.

 

[macingman]

You're missing the point. My widgets are just widgets that I use to make my life easier on android. You're not limited to the widgets shown in my post, they are merely a sample of the ones that I use.

People commenting on the theme of my phone or the individual functionality of the widgets in my screens are totally missing the point.

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My phones themed...default android ui looks nothing like that. I said this earlier in the thread which you obviously didn't read.

I read your whole post. I know what stock android looks like.

 

[reefoid]

Usual Apple short sightedness going on here I see.

Well if the difference is between coming home with 10% or 5%, I don't see what the issue is since both have got you through the day. It sounds like you're just making things difficult for yourself by constantly switching settings on and off. I'd suggest you just try leaving them switched on and not worry about the 5% battery life. It's actual phone use such a internet browsing over 3G and calls that have the largest effect on battery life so if you're that concerned about the phone lasting, you need to watch those use cases first and foremost.

Actually, turning things off can have a big impact on battery life. I work onsite with clients where I don't have access to wifi for 8-10 hours at a time. Do I really need my wifi constantly searching for networks during that time? No. When I leave the house the wifi gets turned off, and its simpler to do with a toggle. Those arguing that a one tap toggle widget is no easier than having to go Settings on the iPhone with several taps to do the same task are clearly just arguing for the sake of arguing. Its a fact its quicker to use a toggle widget, there is no debate about that.

Even if they were added, I doubt I'd use them. I see them as a kind of half-assed app. Sort of like Photoshop Elements compared to the full program. They serve their purpose but could never replace the app they're replicating which would make them useless to me, but probably not a lot of others.

That comment alone suggests you have little to no experience with Android widgets. Yes, some are minimal extensions to apps, so you still need to use the full apps for most tasks, but there are many top class widgets that are superb. I use, to-do, calendar, email, news and Twitter widgets that mean I rarely have to go into the full apps as all the info and functionality I need are available via the widget.

Not discounting the benefit of widgets or anything, but... Why don't you just turn the lock screen off? You realize that'd solve everything? You'd hit your power button like normal, and you'd have all your icons in one place. Right there for you to touch and get directly to what you want.

Well, that's one solution although it doesn't address how you can access information quicker, just how you can start apps quicker. It also leaves your phone vulnerable if you lose it, so not really ideal.

Some of the responses to the OP in this thread are almost comical. You can bet your bottom dollar that if the situations were reversed and iOS had the widgets then you'd all be ripping into Android saying how inefficient it is and how Google don't care for making a decent user experience.

Widgets aren't for everybody (hell, I went nearly six months on my previous HTC Desire with a totally blank home screen, absolutely no widgets), but I'm now back using them and there is no doubt there is a benefit for me. Just because you can't see the benefit for yourselves does not make it a stupid idea.

 

[mrochester]

Actually, turning things off can have a big impact on battery life. I work onsite with clients where I don't have access to wifi for 8-10 hours at a time. Do I really need my wifi constantly searching for networks during that time? No. When I leave the house the wifi gets turned off, and its simpler to do with a toggle. Those arguing that a one tap toggle widget is no easier than having to go Settings on the iPhone with several taps to do the same task are clearly just arguing for the sake of arguing. Its a fact its quicker to use a toggle widget, there is no debate about that.

I have wifi switched on permanently and for 10-12 hours a day I'm not connected to any wifi networks. I don't see any sort of significant battery deprivation; my phone still lasts easily to the end of the day. Yes a toggle is easier than a settings menu, but then never turning it off or on is even easier again. I prefer the last option .

 

[sk1wbw]

Bluetooth and wifi are big battery sappers. Google "how to make your iPhone battery last longer" and nearly every site will recommend disabling those things when you don't need them to be on.

Recommending that people keep them on all the time rather than ask for an easier way to toggle them is on par with Steve jobs telling people they were holding the phone wrong during the antenna gate scandal it's not really an adequate solution is it.

Also, with regards to my wifi shortcut, that takes me to the options and is not a toggle. This is because I switch between the 5ghz and 2.4ghz bands on my router a lot depending on how far away from it I am. I move around my house quite a bit and it would simply be a nightmare to have to go through several screens every time I wanted to do that.



I've said multiple times that I use widgets to save me time. That means less time performing common tasks like toggling wifi and more time actually using the phone. If anything, widgets let you use your phone more, not less.

I'm looking forward to your polite and intelligent response



This is it. Widgets tend to flow better because they don't interrupt what you're doing like switching apps what. It's all on your home screens.

Dude, I've used them all. I've used cell phones probably longer than you have. I am not trolling just because I hate Android. I have used Android. And Blackberry. And Windows Mobile. And Windows Phone 7. I've used cell phones years before the original Moto StarTac came out. I've used the old analog cell phones, the ones that looked like bricks. I know what I'm talking about.

 

[Yumunum]

Usual Apple short sightedness going on here I see.



Actually, turning things off can have a big impact on battery life. I work onsite with clients where I don't have access to wifi for 8-10 hours at a time. Do I really need my wifi constantly searching for networks during that time? No. When I leave the house the wifi gets turned off, and its simpler to do with a toggle. Those arguing that a one tap toggle widget is no easier than having to go Settings on the iPhone with several taps to do the same task are clearly just arguing for the sake of arguing. Its a fact its quicker to use a toggle widget, there is no debate about that.



That comment alone suggests you have little to no experience with Android widgets. Yes, some are minimal extensions to apps, so you still need to use the full apps for most tasks, but there are many top class widgets that are superb. I use, to-do, calendar, email, news and Twitter widgets that mean I rarely have to go into the full apps as all the info and functionality I need are available via the widget.



Well, that's one solution although it doesn't address how you can access information quicker, just how you can start apps quicker. It also leaves your phone vulnerable if you lose it, so not really ideal.

Some of the responses to the OP in this thread are almost comical. You can bet your bottom dollar that if the situations were reversed and iOS had the widgets then you'd all be ripping into Android saying how inefficient it is and how Google don't care for making a decent user experience.

Widgets aren't for everybody (hell, I went nearly six months on my previous HTC Desire with a totally blank home screen, absolutely no widgets), but I'm now back using them and there is no doubt there is a benefit for me. Just because you can't see the benefit for yourselves does not make it a stupid idea.

I was speaking specifically to the OP. his use of widgets seemed mostly pointless. I wasn't saying widgets weren't helpful. I won't say they're super helpful though. On the 4 Android phones I had, they kinda seemed like more of problem then anything else. You have to choose carefully.

 

[Calidude]

When we get stuff like Live Icons and Notification center widgets in iOS 6 or whatever, people here will writhe in uncontrolled ecstasy as they realize they've been bestowed upon yet another gift from the Apple gods like Prometheus to the polytheists, and they'll curse any person who DARES call it a widget or DARES say that Apple didn't do it first.

 

[takeshi74]

It's better, it's not my opinion, it's a fact.

Better is always subjective, regardless of topic.

 

[Calidude]

Better is always subjective, regardless of topic.

The iPhone 4 is better than the iPhone 4S. You can't argue with my opinion because "better" is ALWAYS subjective.

 

[sentinelsx]

The iPhone 4 is better than the iPhone 4S. You can't argue with my opinion because "better" is ALWAYS subjective.

It is. I find iPhone 4 to be better than 4S. Not in camera department but speed wise it lacks a millisecond maybe, big deal. I would rather take the exceptional battery life i have come to take as granted now.

 

[mrochester]

This thread is just descending into silliness now so it may as well be ended.

 

[MacAddict1978]

iOS does need someway to view content without the need of opening apps. There are Widgets for Android and Tiles for Windows Phone, but there is nothing like that on iOS.

It's better, it's not my opinion, it's a fact. If you want to check your FB feed, in Android, there is a Widget for it and you can just check it by unlocking the phone and it's there. In Windows Phone, there are live updates in the Tiles, so it's there.

In iOS, you have to open the app to check your feed.

I agree. Where I have an issue with Widgets is that they are like battery and processor vampires. It takes 2 seconds to open the facebook app, and its more functional.

Everyone who loads their Android devices up with all that stuff is constantly recharging their phones (in Addition to the OS being resource retarded).

To say widgets are better or not is wrong of everyone... it's a preference. Neither is better, it's about what you like.

How many people ever use Dashboard on OSX? Why did developers kind of abandon widgets on OSX? Well, because people don't really use them. Maybe the weather widget is good... but by the time you open the widget pane, you could have just googled the info.

Something like a flight tracker widget is quicker if you have a flight number than navigating an airlines site, but how often do you need to do that?

IOS probably should have the option for widgets... (and start the flames of how Apple copied Google when Apple technically tried to mainstream widgets first, even though they didn't come up with the idea originally).

When I had my phone jailbroken, I used the hack to install dashboard. Only certain widgets worked (then, only certain ones still work on OSX too) but it really wasn't faster. Not enough that it's a "must have" feature.

Sure, my friends Evo looks all cute with windshield wipers that come on when it's raining (I can look outside the window to see that), but again, when I've not had my iPhone on a charger for 2 days, and he's recharging the second or third time of the day... I have to say, if I had widgets, I'd not use them.

Though, I doubt Apple would have them running endlessly in the background like Android lets everything run wild.

 

[matttye]

Dude, I've used them all. I've used cell phones probably longer than you have. I am not trolling just because I hate Android. I have used Android. And Blackberry. And Windows Mobile. And Windows Phone 7. I've used cell phones years before the original Moto StarTac came out. I've used the old analog cell phones, the ones that looked like bricks. I know what I'm talking about.

I only said that because I've said several times in this thread that I have practical uses for the vast majority of my widgets. The only one that is there to sit and look pretty is the analog clock.

Even if you don't have a use for widgets, you can surely see that other people do?

I agree. Where I have an issue with Widgets is that they are like battery and processor vampires. It takes 2 seconds to open the facebook app, and its more functional.

Everyone who loads their Android devices up with all that stuff is constantly recharging their phones (in Addition to the OS being resource retarded).

To say widgets are better or not is wrong of everyone... it's a preference. Neither is better, it's about what you like.

How many people ever use Dashboard on OSX? Why did developers kind of abandon widgets on OSX? Well, because people don't really use them. Maybe the weather widget is good... but by the time you open the widget pane, you could have just googled the info.

Something like a flight tracker widget is quicker if you have a flight number than navigating an airlines site, but how often do you need to do that?

IOS probably should have the option for widgets... (and start the flames of how Apple copied Google when Apple technically tried to mainstream widgets first, even though they didn't come up with the idea originally).

When I had my phone jailbroken, I used the hack to install dashboard. Only certain widgets worked (then, only certain ones still work on OSX too) but it really wasn't faster. Not enough that it's a "must have" feature.

Sure, my friends Evo looks all cute with windshield wipers that come on when it's raining (I can look outside the window to see that), but again, when I've not had my iPhone on a charger for 2 days, and he's recharging the second or third time of the day... I have to say, if I had widgets, I'd not use them.

Though, I doubt Apple would have them running endlessly in the background like Android lets everything run wild.

With the widgets shown in my original post, I took my galaxy s2 off charge at 6:45am and it's now 6:13pm, so it's been off charge for almost twelve hours. My battery is on 77%. My usage has been typical, sent a few texts, made a couple of calls (via Bluetooth headset and normal).

Whilst some widgets are battery drainers, it should be the users prerogative.. Some people, like myself, charge their phones every night so a battery need only last around ~13 hours.

 

[mrochester]

Whilst some widgets are battery drainers, it should be the users prerogative.. Some people, like myself, charge their phones every night so a battery need only last around ~13 hours.

It is the users prerogative. The user can buy an Android device and have as many battery hogging widgets as they like. The user is free to make that choice.