The Great 12 of 2012: Android Widgets (page 3)
Groupon
What is Groupon? I’m guessing that you are already familiar with Groupon’s famous daily deals. The latest of these daily deals are presented in a 2-by-1 space on your home screen.
What makes it good and why should I get it? If you keep getting Groupon’s daily deal e-mails and find them to be a tad intrusive or just so easy to look over, then the widget will be of great use to you by keeping you in the loop with absolutely no effort on your end. (Make sure to turn off the notifications within the app’s settings unless you want to be pestered once a day). [Free]
AudioManager
What is AudioManager? Available with a 4-by-1 or 2-by-1 widget, AudioManager allows you to quickly access Android’s many independent volume settings; alarm, media, alerts, voice, ringer and system volume controls.
What makes it good and why should I get it? Controlling every single audo setting in Android can get to be a hassle, since lowering one volume setting (lets say when your in an app and you lowered the volume, it would only affect media volume) doesn’t mean it will make the others pipe down. Having this widget means you’ll never have to go through each setting again. [Free]
Shazam
What is Shazam? Shazam is an innovative app that lets you identify most songs out there, simply by having the app listen to them for a few seconds. The widget is a quick way to tage songs you’ve never heard before, and you can do it straight from the home screen. (SoundHound, an app like this one, doesn’t offer a widget in its free version, but it does offer a Shortcut for free which allows users to skip directly to the app’s tagging function.)
What makes it good and why should I get it? : What makes it good is that it made me reminisce back to when I was using my iPhone. I remember fumbling through my app list every time I heard a song I wanted to identify, looking for Shazam between all of my apps. Half the time the song would end before I found Shazam and thanks to Android allowing widgets, this will never happen again. [Free]
Navigate Home
What is Navigate Home? OK, let’s be honest, this is not exactly a widget, it’s a handy shortcut that will give you driving directions to your home with a single tap. From, where you would usually add a widget, the menu, tap “add shortcut” then choose “Directions and Navigation” (or “App Actions” then “Directions and Navigation” on Motorola devices), and then enter your address.
What makes it good and why should I get it? It can do this trick for any address of your desire, like your workplace and such, but home is where you would want to go to most (you’re not going to be out in a different part of the city and return to the office, right?). Thanks to this shortcut button you will never have to type in your home address again.
