Over the weekend, a new WidgetLocker beta was released for users, bringing new lockscreen options and functionality. For starters, users can now have a bezel on both sides of the device, which will allow for the placement of app shortcuts and also a camera shortcut, much like you see on Android 4.2. Shortcuts can be customized, much like everything else in the lockscreen replacement app. 

Changelog:

• Bezel Swipe left for apps.
• Bezel Swipe right for camera.
• Jelly Bean clock font option.
• Redesigned settings page.
• Fixes for home button on some devices.
• Optimizations
• No longer supports Android 2.1 and 2.2.(Android 2.3 required)

To get your hands on the beta, you will need download the regular version from Google Play. Once you are in the settings menu, long press on your volume down button and you will see a new option appear for “Labs” mode. From here, you can then download the beta update right to your device.

Play Link ($2.99)

Cheers Corey!

WidgetLocker Beta Updated, Brings Bezel Swiping and Jelly Bean Options is a post from: Droid Life

Nova Launcher and WidgetLocker received updates today to include support for “unread counts” on icons for Gmail, SMS, missed calls, Google Talk, etc. TeslaCoil, the makers of these two, created an app that works with them called TeslaUnread that allows your most commonly used apps to show unread counts from your home screen or lock screen. The app has to be used with either Nova or WidgetLocker in order to work, but it’s free, so you shouldn’t mind having to install it. As you can see in the photo above, it even works with custom icon packs.

Along with the support for TeslaUnread, the Nova update included new gestures, reverse wallpaper scrolling, support for GO Launcher icon packs, and a bunch of other fun things.

Play Links:  Nova Launcher | WidgetLocker | TeslaUnread

Nova Launcher and WidgetLocker Updates Introduce Unread Counts, Other Goodies Too is a post from: Droid Life

WidgetLocker has easily become one of my favorite apps of all time. What once started out as a decent lockscreen replacement with what felt like beta options and settings, is now a full-blown and polished beast. With multiple lockscreen options available directly through the app, you also have a massive theme community to make your lockscreen as customized as you could possibly imagine.

In today’s update, we get the removal of that nasty legacy menu button for ICS devices that do not have a physical menu key (meaning I can finally use it on the One X), the ability to add up to 8 and 6 actions through ICS and Sense lockswitches, additional root options for ICS users, and more.

Play Link ($2.99)

Cheers Paolo!

WidgetLocker Update Removes Legacy Menu, Adds More Actions From ICS Lockscreen, and Other Awesomeness is a post from: Droid Life

We use our phones for a huge assortment of tasks during the day and even more throughout a week or even a month. If a phone’s look and operation changed with what activity you were doing, you may just save a ton of time in the long run. Introducing SmartShift Lockscreen, a way to have your phone look and operate based around everyday tasks that you perform. To give an example, say you just sat down in your car and throw your phone into the car dock. The app recognizes this and changes to a user set profile that has your maps, GPS, and navigation all on the lockscreen. At the gym? As soon as you plug in your headset, the device changes to a lockscreen that has all of your multimedia apps right there at your fingers. 

Along with all of the custom usage, the thing that makes it stand out much like WidgetLocker, is the fact that you can completely customize the look. Icons and themes are available which gives you the ability to make your device look however you want. It’s a well thought-up app and runs $1.50 in the Play Store. Watch the video down below to get a good feel for all of the app’s uses.

Play Link ($1.50)

Click here to view the embedded video.

SmartShift Lockscreen, Create Custom Lockscreen Profiles to Suit Various Needs is a post from: Droid Life

Our long time DL homie, MrPicolas, turned us onto the Ultimate Custom Clock Widget this weekend and we have been hooked ever since. If you are familiar with WidgetLocker, then you will know how this type of deal works. A developer created what you can call a shell of an app that allows the creative minds in this community to express themselves. What I mean by that, is through UCCW, you are able to load custom clock skins from your favorite designers with ease. This is the type of app that designers tend to flock to, as it gives them an outlet to share their styles and influences through tons of Android devices.  

Instructions:

I’ve got to admit, that even I still struggle at times with apps like these, so I’m going to give some basic pointers that will hopefully help you. First step is to install UCCW from the Play Store. Once that is installed, you need to hit up the “Clock Skins” link below and start surfing through them all. Once you find one you like, download it to your phone. From there, you will need to extract the contents of that file into the /sdcard/UltimateCustomClickWidget folder. If the contents extract into a folder, pull them out of that folder and into the UCCW folder. Now, head to a home screen and create a new UCCW widget (4×2 is probably your best bet for a size). Tap on the widget that appears to load the UCCW edit screen, press “menu” and then “Import skins.” You should see the file you downloaded listed and can choose it. Enjoy your new clock!

Those  are “basic,” OK? This stuff can get much more advanced than that, so you will simply need to play with sizes and file locations. As I said, I’m still struggling with some of these as many of the designers do not list out instructions for you to get their clocks to work.

There are some amazing clocks to be had though, so take some time tonight and create your next home screen masterpiece.

Links:  Clock Skins | Play Link

Cheers Picolas!

Ultimate Custom Clock Widget is the WidgetLocker of Clocks, Time to Spend Hours Creating Your Next Look is a post from: Droid Life

So much for that post this morning about GO Locker when WidgetLocker is dropping bombs like this. In the latest update for the most popular lock screen app on the planet, we get a massive list of new toys. Most notably is the Ice Cream Sandwich lock screen that works flawlessly while making you almost feel like you have the new OS running on your device. Couple it with all of those ICS tweaks we gave you last week and you might actually trick someone into believing it.

Android 4.0 lock screen isn’t the only big time addition here though. How about the Honeycomb and Sense 3.0 screens as well? Or the new clock that you can see featured in my shots above? A new UI interest you? One of the best app updates I have seen in a while. Nice work TeslaCoil team.

Market Link

Cheers someone that I can’t seem to find now!

WidgetLocker Receives Massive Update, Ice Cream Sandwich Lock Screen Included is a post from: Droid Life

We’ve featured WidgetLocker on DL a couple of times now, but had yet to really dive into the theming side of this lock screen replacement app.  Then today happened and we stumbled onto an XDA thread that has been compiling beautiful lock screen themes for almost 2 months now.  I’ve featured 3 of them above, but trust me when I say that this doesn’t even touch on the 70+ variations of custom sliders that you can sample from.  For those of you into the minimalistic lifestyle, this would be your goldmine.

Download:  simplismSense | WindowsPhoneMin | MNML Light

*Themes created by qwerty160, dbrits, and zHk3R.

Instructions:

1.  To install these, simply download the file to your phone and move it into:

/data/com.widgetlocker.teslacoilsw/themes

2.  Then from your WidgetLocker lock screen, add a new custom slider.
3.  Choose from the Theme pull down menu.

The rest of the 70+themes can be found at this XDA thread.  FAQ here.

Download: 70+ WidgetLocker Themes – Your Lock Screen Never Looked Better is a post from: Droid Life

The lock screen is one of the most important parts of a phone; it allows us to see multiple information sets without unlocking our phone. Most importantly, we can see items in our notification bar and the time; other features include being able to mute/unmute the phone without going into the settings menu.

At it’s core, this is all very basic functionality. Clearly, Google believes that the functionality we have is enough, and an average user should be able to get by.

However, what if we want… more? It’s the nature of Android to have a degree of customization over other phones, so why should the lock screen be any different?

Enter WidgetLocker. In a sentence, WidgetLocker replaces your lock screen with its own version – one that you can customize. With this customization comes increased functionality; users can add new sliders which accomplish pretty much any task the user can think up, like opening your SMS inbox or opening another app. To someone who likes being able to perform certain actions at a moment’s notice, this is invaluable.

The app recently upgraded to version 2.0, which brings a number of improvements. Most notably is the performance fixes and the inclusion of themes, the latter of which makes customization even deeper. One hesitation I had about the old version was its insistence on using the horizontal slider graphics; in this new version, you can skin your unlock bar in horizontal, rotary, Motorola or even iPhone styles. With the new sliders come new icons, and with those new icons come custom notifications through ADWNotifier. However, since I run GO Launcher EX, I didn’t get a chance to test functionality. Those using HandCentSMS and ChompSMS have options for pop-ups to appear over the lock screen.

This is all a matter of artistic preference, but I’m guessing a lot of people reading this review are more concerned about how it runs. This has always been a bit of a moot point with my reviews, as I’m running a dated phone (overclocked Milestone) which doesn’t seem to like running certain apps too well. WidgetLocker is one of them: because that extra layer is always running, sometimes it slows my phone down to a chugging pace. Attempting to utilize the unlock screen before I did an audit of all my apps (and uninstalled a few) commonly led to a ten second gap between when I “unlocked” the phone and when I’d actually get to my home screen.

This, sadly, is inexcusable. I’m guessing faster phones (and Gingerbread, since it’s been optimized for that distro) will handle WidgetLocker a lot better, but for those without access to cutting-edge hardware, this could be a problem.

Otherwise, my only complaints about the app are few and nitpicky:

• Unlocking the phone will play the default Android “unlock noise” about 5-7 times in quick succession. This is only fixed by going into the Android settings and turning it off completely. There’s no option to keep the default noise in WidgetLocker settings, so you’re stuck with their new sound.
• The grid is a little off from where my default slider position is; this is visually annoying after I’ve been used to something for over a year.
• Themes are downloaded by redirecting you to their blog via a browser. This is infuriating, as it makes the task of theming needlessly difficult. Beautiful Widgets does an amazing job of having a user gallery in-app; even GO Launcher runs a custom market search for you.

But really, these are all nitpicky things. The real reason I won’t be keeping WidgetLocker on my phone is that I don’t use it; my lock screen looks exactly the same as the way I had it before the app. I figure there is nothing on my phone so pressing that I absolutely need to access it before I unlock. I’d rather my phone unlocks in a timely manner all of the time than add a layer that causes it to do otherwise.

But maybe I just don’t have the creativity.

You can find WidgetLocker on the Marketplace for $1.99.
—
Matt Demers is Droid Life’s app guy – you can find his work here three times a week. His Twitter is always open, and his e-mail won’t kick you out of the bar, either.

Review: WidgetLocker 2.0 is a post from: Droid Life