Okay Geek Farm
The Top 5 Typo Widgets for Android
Darryl Cobb
Are you a geek that happens to believe the statement that less is more? Or maybe you have a totally awesome wallpaper that you’ve spent hours creating or finding, and you don’t want a widget to take away the attention from your carefully chosen design. Well, T3ch H3lp has what the doctor has ordered! We’ve have gone out to find some of the classiest, best looking Typographical Widgets (Typo Widgets) in the Android Market (including one that isn’t there), so you can just download, install, and enjoy.
1. Tajm & BattStatt
These are very clean widgets; now the reason I decided to put both of them together is they are basically the same widget. Tajm is a typographical clock and BattStatt is a typographical battery indicator. They work the same way for changing the color (via a preselected color picker) and also have the same options for switching backgrounds.
Tajm gives you the option of just having the time, or the time AND the date, and you only get one size widget. If you have Launcher Pro Plus you can make the widget align across the screen but the text will not be any bigger. BattStatt gives you four options; 1x1, 1x1 (Numbers Only), 2x1 and 4x1. Both widgets support English and Swedish languages.
Cost: Free
2. Simi Clock
This is a very clean and crisp looking clock for your Android theme, and there are a lot of customization options. Besides the usual color for background and text, you can change the date format to your liking, and you even have control over the size of the text (by points instead of generic sizing) and you get weather options that you can customize. You can choose Fahrenheit or Celsius, update interval, and if you even want it in the first place.
Another option it has is the ability to launch up to four different apps depending on where you tap the widget. Very nice if you don’t want a lot of icons on your home screen covering up your exotic wallpaper or just interfering with your theme. And for my fellow Galaxy Tab owners, there is a custom widget for the larger form factor (5x1) along with the standard sizes; 2x1, 3x1, and 4x1.
Cost: Free
3. Clockr Evolution
Here is another clock that doesn’t use numbers by default but takes a very different route than Tajm, and it offers A LOT more features for customization. For starters, you have can use the RGB slider to match the font color perfectly with your theme instead of a pre-determined selector, and you can choose between font sizes from “smallest” to “biggest”, as well as select the alignment. Something else that’s pretty neat is you can choose between lowercase, uppercase, or “default” and the ability to choose an alternate color for the middle part of the widget. As for using the alternate color for the middle part of the widget, you’ll see how that plays out once you use it. You also can add a drop shadow, semi-transparent background, but it doesn’t give you the option to change the background color and you are able to toggle the date. This is a great widget for your clock - you will not be disappointed.
Price: $1.49 (There is a free option called clockr but it doesn’t give you as many options to customize with.)
4. OneSeven Pro
This is a very simple widget; it only shows you what day of the week it is, but it does so very well. It gives you the option to pick small, medium, or large for the font size, and the widget comes in 2x1 or 4x1 and it comes with the usual color options. It gives you the option to launch any application you choose when you set up the widget, which I personally use it for my camera. You can change the color of the background and you can elect to choose a semi-transparent or glass background but that is only in one color. It’s a simple widget like I stated before but it will compliment a minimalist design very well. If you really want to add some meaning to the day I’d select your “Calander” app to launch when you tap the widget.
Cost: $0.99
5. TypoClock
Now this isn’t a widget you will find in Market yet but it should be. I found this on XDA Developers created by a poster named Semicuda and it is a very nice widget. It’s a clock widget that also gives you the date but does so in a very fashionable way. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of customization options but you can change the color using hexidecimal tags, scale the widget up or down, or choose to add a drop shadow to it. It does play off of a jail broken iPhone theme and it will definitely make your Android device stand out. The good thing is there has been steady updates to this widget.
Cost: Free, and you can download it HERE (I would STRONGLY suggest you donate to the developer for his efforts though.)
6. Honorable Mention: Beautiful Widgets
Even though Beautiful Widgets isn’t really a typographical widget, I’m highlighting to themes, one for the clock and one for the weather, that provides that effect perfectly. The clock theme is called Black Cashmere by Cashmere & Khaki and the weather theme is Letters by Tim Porter. If you purchased Beautiful Widgets, these themes are free to be downloaded.
And that should cover my minimalist Android fans out there. As always if you have any questions, feel free to email or post a response. Also, if you feel I missed one please let me know.
