The Widget Craze: Your Solution of Choice?

[n00neimp0rtant]

It's hard to ignore the obsession with widgets on our phones today. Four solutions exist for iPhone so far, and built in solutions already exist for Android. It seems like widgets are almost the next "apps." Here are the solutions for iPhone so far.

IntelliScreen (Rock) $9.99 - Been around the longest (well before the Cydia Store), provides at-a-glance information about the applications running on your phone, including email, SMS, and weather. Scroll through information like lists. NOT open to developers.

Cydget (Cydia) Free - Exploits built-in iPhone plugins to place useful information on your lockscreen. Scroll through cydgets by tapping Home button. Open to developers.

SmartScreen (Cydia) $5.00 - Places pages of rather large Dashboard-esque widgets on your lockscreen, displaying weather, calendars, Twitter feeds, and much more to come in the future. Scroll through widgets like SpringBoard pages. Open to developers.

QuickWidgets (Cydia) Free - Like a mix of IntelliScreen and SmartScreen; places widgets of movable, scrollable information on your lockscreen, as well as buttons for quick access to necessary apps, like your Camera.



Here's my run-down. IntelliScreen is my least favorite; I feel like the information is cluttered together, you can only fit so much on one screen, and there's really no buttons besides the refresh buttons. Cydget is a good concept, but I don't really feel like they are "widgets." It really feels like I'm switching between backgrounded apps. I bought SmartScreen, and it works pretty well, but I feel like there are some crucial widgets (calendar?) missing right now, and some of the reorganization is messed up a little. In addition, it seems like only one widget can fit on a page. I have yet to try QuickWidgets, though I plan to soon. (I have stayed away because iSoft's stuff has made my phone crash quite a bit in the past.)

[CaptainChaos]

I lead a widget-free existance

[hollow0]

Yeah I was widget free and didn't care much for it until I saw quickwidgets. It's still in beta but works very well. Hopefully the final release will make modifications and fix certain issues. I hope it'll also remain free. Btw quickwidgets is far better than any of those other ones. Intelliscreen is overpriced. I'm not paying $10 for clear notifications on my screen..pfft! I just think some things should be free. I mean that option should be default. Windows has it... Yes I know it's not a windows phone but still.. It's the concept. Ok enough complaining >.< have a nice day

[n00neimp0rtant]

UPDATE: Tried QuickWidgets, my new #1 favorite.

[soulthoughts]

What would be nice to see is a list of what widgets are available for each app. I would use widgets if they had one that could show my upcoming events from my calendar. This one is crucial for me. It's why I use Lockinfo.

[n00neimp0rtant]

Wow, can't believe I forgot about LockInfo. If you browse the categories in Cydia, you can see a folder for Cydgets, and SmartScreen has an online gallery here. QuickWidgets are all built-in, however.

[wim66]

I just have LockInfo and a HTML background on my lock screen.
There aren't any real great widgets (yet) IMO.

[periperi]

i usually use quickwidgets but sometimes i go widget free

[Chefanim]

I paid for smartscreen, but I dont use it yet. So far nothing has really been that exciting for me. I would like widgets on the homescreen, Android style. Or maybe even better, put them on that spotlight screen that I never use... Just my .02

[battlecrushr]

Yep if we could get htc and android style widgets. Would be cool. I use quickwidets and it's awesome but sometimes like rite now I take it off

[n00neimp0rtant]

Yep if we could get htc and android style widgets. Would be cool.

The one thing that I DON'T like about QuickWidgets is that it's not open to developers. While it is the greatest widget solution yet, it is unfortunate that we have to live with only the widgets that iSoft decides to come up with. I might pay up to $10 for QuickWidgets if it opened up and got a solid developer base.