Gadgetory

welcome back to Android Q&A my name is Jace and this is where we try and answer your most pressing Android questions but today we're gonna start by asking you a question for example what I want to complete a task with my phone I have to do the following find the app select the app wait for the app to load and then select the content or tasks that I want to complete with that app but what if I told you you could do all of this in one step widgets baby widgets that's right today is all about widgets widgets widgets and to start off we're gonna answer some common questions regarding widgets starting with battery drain some of you are saying chase those widgets are a foul on my battery well yes and maybe not so so if you are using a Facebook or Twitter app that has to constantly ping the server side to refresh that data yes that is gonna drain your battery if you want to live feed within your widget but most widgets like my audible app work Google keep for example or a Flipboard app is not painting back server-side frequently enough to drain your battery in any significant way so most widgets are not a battery drain who's going to be clear careful on which widgets you employ so yes let's start off with battery widget reborn and for those of you who are battery management geeks this is gonna get you excited you can track your battery usage temperature of the device battery history and you can even set up more advanced power saving functions additionally the widget is very customizable there is an ongoing notification in your notification panel that is highly customizable also there is a widget you can set up on your home screen which has quite a few customizable options as well including changing the color of the widget and how much space it takes up a 2x2 or 4x4 move it on to clock now and as the name suggests clock now has a very Google now like theme so if you're looking to spice up your homescreen with an authentic Google look you will love this widget right off the bat there is also a bit of customization that can be tinkered with you can set up for different background options and two color options for the text in addition to the clock this particular widget will also allow you to see quick weather information and an icon of your choice the icon acts as an alternative to toggle off your Wi-Fi connection if you're looking for more toggle spaces than just one clock now provides you with up to six spaces moving on to a popular calendar widget called digit cow Digital offers a lot of different styles and options it has just about everything you think a calendar widget should have full screen month you check a two by four day by day widget check the widget also has a neutral color so you shouldn't have any conflicts with other themes on top of that you are able to control the transparency all in all it's a beautiful widget and unlike a lot of other apps and widgets it has tablets support moving on to what is likely the most popular widget on the Google Play Store that is HD widgets and we think there's two reasons for its success the first reason is that HD widgets is one of the few true widget apps to have an extremely wide range of widget configurations it has literally everything toggle clocks weather data date widgets you name it the majority of these widget configurations can be combined as well the second reason for its wild success is the sheer amount of customization that HD widgets offers you can tell this is a really good widget app when you can spend 20 minutes configurating the widget to just your liking each individual widget can be customized in a number of ways you can change the color of the text background colors and clock colors so what kind of widgets if any would help you and your Android experience the thing I love about my Audibel widget and my Google keep widget and my Flipboard widget combined with Google now is that it minimizes that the steps the finger jumping that I need to do to complete the tasks and get to the content that I want so what widgets would help you let me know in the comments below thanks for watching android army my name is Jase love the connector through here on Google+ or Twitter you don't want to forget about our Android Authority forums where you can win t-shirts and Google Play cards every month don't forget to check that out you want to forget about my brothers in Android Josh Joe in the tech ninja Kevin lawn and Chris yes talk to you next week on Android QA