How I Android - Josh's Nexus 4 (Lockscreens and Launcher)
How I Android - Josh's Nexus 4 (Lockscreens and Launcher)
2013-02-14
probably one of the greatest things
about androids the fact that it is so
customizable you'd be pretty hard
pressed to find to Android phones or
tablets that look exactly alike so with
that in mind we know certainly that
sometimes you want to see how other
people structure their android phones
and devices and you're just kind of
curious to see what kind of function not
either taking advantage of so that's
exactly what we're going to show you
from our end so in this new segment
we're going to take a look at primarily
the home screens and the lock screens in
jellybean 4.2 on the Nexus 4 and just
how I structured them for my tastes so
it's josh of a guard from android
authority what's going on everybody and
this is how I Android
alright so let's go ahead and jump right
in so obviously this is the google nexus
4 this is the there you go this is the
phone sporting the latest version of
Android jellybean 4.2 which added a lot
of functionality to the two parts of the
experience that we're going to take a
look at today which is the lock screen
and the launcher the main reason why I
wanted to start how I Android with those
two particular ones or because they're
the first things you see before you get
to any other part in the phone anyway so
what better place is to start all right
so let's go ahead and jump right in so
we're going to start off with our lock
screen obviously and our lock screen
right here in jellybean 4.2 it added
functionality to what used to be just a
plane with the widget on it and now what
they added our lock screen widgets but
in reality of their really screams so if
you swipe from the edge here you'll see
that it starts to appear on the side so
these are like a bunch of different
screens actually and you can add a lot
of them I only have three I usually like
to keep things at three including my
home screens which you'll see later so
let's just jump right in on the left
side there on the leftmost screen the
first one I have my calendar pretty
self-explanatory I just like to have my
my appointments available so i can
either add one or see what's coming up
next and then on the other side you have
the permanently placed camera widget
which gets you right into the app real
quick but in the middle you'll see that
i'm using a not the stock android jelly
bean clock but instead i'm using one
called dash clock we just did a review
on this application and actually turned
out to be quite good I only thought
about a day or two ago and i've added it
right on after i tried it out so that
just goes to show you how easily
customizable android is because your
particular setup could change at any
given time really easy on the eyes it
looks just like the stock jellybean
clock on the left you have notifications
on the other side and when you swipe
down you get an expanded view of those
you can do text messages your next alarm
calendar entries email whether all of
that so it's a really nice lockscreen
clock to have very functional so a
functional simplicity that's something
that I'm always going for here and that
only fulfills the criteria and of course
you got the google now the bottom which
I use quite a lot and then the unlocker
right here in the lower third alright so
we're going to go ahead and jump into
the launcher so let's just unlock and
here we are you'll see that i'm not
using the stock the stock launcher that
comes with jellybean 4.2 the reason
being is as much as i love it there are
a couple launchers out there that keep
the same design motif as the stock
launcher which is what i love about it
but also add some extra functionality
underneath to make things a little bit
more a little bit little bit more
customizable and a little bit easier one
of the main things for example like i
said before i like having three screens
sometimes when you see 5 i've even had
devices that had seven screens on them
it's just kind of too much for me I like
to keep only the things I need on my
screens and three is the perfect number
for me to put what I need so that being
said coming from the top to bottom the
launcher that I use is called nova
launcher it's one of the most popular
ones on the market right now stock
Android user interfaces really good
already so why not just be able to
change those same elements rather than
adding too much on top of it so we'll
get into a couple of the more advanced
settings that Nova allows me to do and
the reasons why I like it so much and
it's a really a look at how I put
together my android but anyway here you
go so I like the having the search bar
at the top because it's an easy way to
get to the searches also like i said
before google now is an app i use a lot
so this is another user way to get to it
this wallpaper is one from a website
called minimal wall and it's a very very
good website full of a bunch of
different apple wallpapers and
backgrounds rather that helped to
simplify the look of your desktop i like
to put the wallpaper there and whatever
space is not taken up by words i just
populate with the widgets calendar on
the first leftmost screen on the
rightmost screen I have a reader widget
it's the widget for greader which is a
great RSS feed reader and I have it set
of course to android authority so if i
ever want to get some news reading done
i can just go over to my right most
screen and i will be able to look at the
headlines
and read from there so the one in the
middle is a little bit more important
it's called active photo it's another
paid application that basically allows
you to put a widget of a picture of
whatever you want onto your screen and
then you are able to click or press upon
the active photo widget and it will do a
number of different customizable
functions primarily having to do with
contacts so for me I have this picture
right here for now but it's only for the
purposes of this video because normally
i have my girlfriend there and I would
just press on the widget and it would
give me the quick contact pop-up you can
have it go straight to a call straight
to a text or anything like that but for
me I have all the options available call
text email anything like that in case I
need to do something different active
photo is a great widget for your
smartphone it's a easy way to get a
picture of someone who's important to
you onto your phone while remaining
functional it's not just a static photo
all right so you can see the picture
that I have there in replacement six
seasons in a movie anyway one of the
cool things about Nova is that it allows
you to have more than one dock space and
that's really cool I group my
applications into specific categories
and those folders are then put into the
dock so we have communications right
there for obvious reasons messaging
quite a few messaging apps there I
always have an app drawer button in the
middle because if someone takes my phone
and they happen to be on the other doc
and they're kind of confused they can
always click on that and find what they
want to find connecting right here for
the browser and a few services and
finally the photography of course at the
end so these are the apps I use on a
daily basis but on the other screen I
you have ones that are regularly used
but maybe not daily like readers like
the geto like I told you before also
read it all of my social programs right
there AB drawer button navigation maps I
do use the Oh quite a bit as well to
find a nice little cafe nearby in order
to work and finally the media so yeah
that's pretty much it but I wanted to
show you one last thing one great thing
that I love about nova launcher is the
ability to add gestures gestures in
general like if you were going to just
is a simple one if you were to hold on
the home screen on any other blank space
this would come up with different things
you can add to the home screen kind of
like earlier versions of Android but
also you can double tap and that brings
up the Nova settings but those aren't
really the ones that I use the ones that
I use it involve a two-finger swipe so
let's imagine that I am talking to
somebody and they want to schedule lunch
with me I'll just bust out my phone
unlock it do a two-finger swipe down and
my calendar appears right there really
really easy really fast and allows you
to get right to what you need to do you
can set these gestures to open pretty
much anything so that's really awesome I
can also swipe upwards and that one in
particular is for Google Drive which is
to me I use Google Drive yes but I use
it primarily as the docs functionality I
like using it because if I make a
document inside of Google Drive it's
just like in Google Docs since they've
emerged the tomb I just kind of put down
some thoughts quick notes or anything
like that and I'll have like one whole
document full of ideas if I come up with
ideas and stuff like that so I hope you
enjoyed the video we're going to be
coming out with more versions or more
episodes rather of how I Android dealing
with a lot of different tasks that we
need to do in our daily lives like
taking pictures maybe even upload an
Instagram for whatever reason or things
like navigation or connectivity jotting
down notes like for me when I do my
google Drive all right so that was just
a quick look at what I do on my Android
device at least in terms of how I
structure my launcher and the lock
screens and it's just a quick look that
is available for you so that if you look
at someone else's set up on their phone
will give you ideas on how to customize
your phone and that's one of the great
things about Android is that it is so
highly customizable that no two phones
are essentially the same now remember we
have videos coming out all the time on
the android authority channel so make
sure you subscribe to the channel either
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we're going to put one up right there
alright guys well thank you so much and
remember to stay tuned to android
authority calm because it is your source
for all things android
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