Android Does
19Nov/10238

Introducing the New Fancy Widget Pro

As you probably know, the new version of Fancy Widget was released towards the end of last month. Within a few weeks, it has already gained popularity of its predecessor. The number of downloads on the Android Market has passed the 100,000 mark earlier this week. This is great news, and we couldn't achieve this without all our users' support.

At this point, I would like to take a moment to look back at the project and think about the future of FW. The past few months have been rather busy for me. First, I redesigned FW from the appearance to its internals. After release, I kept getting feedback and suggestions from users every day. On the one hand, I really enjoy the interaction with you guys, and I kept adding new features to make FW better. On the other hand, I've also spent a large amount of time on this project in the past few months. Although I'm not a full-time developer, I put almost all the time that I could use into the development, customer support, and localization (thanks to everyone helping with the translation by the way). Even as a free app, I've been trying to provide high-quality service to our users. So far, I have replied almost every single email and most of the comments on the website. As you would imagine, I can't go on like this forever. There will be some changes to keep the project development alive and active. Today, we'are glad to announce a milestone for the Fancy Widget project. From now on, there will be two version of FW: a free version and a paid version.

If you like the free version of FW, chances are that you will also like the paid version, which is called Fancy Widget Pro. The pro version includes everything in the free version, and it also has a bunch of exclusive features. Although the free version will not get all the new features in the future, it will continue to get regular updates and improvements. In fact, here is the first major update since release. Here's what's new in FW v2.1.0:

  • New: skin support. This is one of the most requested features. Now it's here, and for the free version too. With this feature, you will be able to customize the widget even more. For example, you can change the clock font and color by installing a clock skin. However, you will have to install skins manually to the SD card, and then choose which skin you want to use from within the app. To get you started, we created two skins: Crystal LED (a clock skin) and Comic Weather (a weather skin) and they are available for download below. In order to install a skin, you need to first download the archive file, say crystalled.zip. There will be a folder called crystalled after you unzip the archive. Now you need to copy this folder to your SD card under the directory: /Android/data/fancywidget/clockskins. You need to create this directory if it does not exist. If you are trying to install a weather skin, please copy the folder to /Android/data/fancywidget/weatherskins. After you are done with this step, you will be able to see the skin in the FW settings activity. Note that you can only see up to 5 installed skins from the list, but the pro version does not have this limit.
  • New auto refresh options. In previous versions, there is a switch to turn on/off auto refresh at configurable intervals. Now, it has been expanded to a list of four options to give you more control. The "Always" and "Never" options correspond to the on/off switch in previous versions. You can also make the widget abide by global syncing rules, so that it only perform scheduled updates when background data/auto-sync is enabled. With this option, you can control auto-syncing conveniently in one place (from the accounts and sync settings or from the power control widget).
  • Improved battery usage in certain conditions (e.g., air plane mode).
  • Improved widget loading time.
  • GPS confirmation. If you turn on GPS location updates in the widget settings, but the GPS is disabled in your system settings, you will see a confirmation message that may take you to the location settings panel so that you can enable GPS there.
  • Removed some translations (e.g., Spanish). The translation for some languages are ported from the old Fancy Widget and is out-dated. If you would like to help with the translation and bring it up to date, please let us know.
  • Other bug fixes and improvements.
  • New app icon.

That's it for the free version. Now for the pro version, here are some exclusive features:

  • A new weather provider: WeatherBug. This is also the default provider in the pro version, but you may switch back to Google Weather if you like. WeatherBug provides more detailed and accurate weather information, and is more stable than Google Weather. When WeatherBug is the current weather provider, you will see the WeatherBug icon on the top right corner of the forecast activity.
  • Weather alerts. Severe weather alerts for your location will be delivered through notifications. Note that this feature only works if you use WeatherBug as your weather provider. You also get the options to aggregate multiple alerts into a single notification or turn off alerts completely.
  • A set of new clock/weather widgets. You can now choose from a 4x2 home (clock and weather) widget, a 4x1 home widget, a 4x1 clock widget and a 4x1 weather widget. There will be more coming in future updates.
  • Convenient in-app skin management. The pro version features the Fancy Widget marketplace, where you can browse through lists of clock and weather skins with preview pictures. To try out a new skin, you can just download and install it onto your device with a single click or two. The market also keep track of the status of your installed skins. You can easily install a new skin, update an existing skin, or remove an installed skin all in one place.
  • A new widget style option. The old flip clock style is back and even better, it is also skinnable. For each skin, you may get completely different looks by applying different widget styles. It's fun to play with different skins and styles.
  • Weather animations. This is another highly-requested feature, and now it's finally here. Weather animation is enabled by default on the forecast activity. There's also the option to enable unlock animations (disabled by default), but it is still experimental and may be annoying sometimes. You will also notice an option to turn on sound effects (e.g., rain, thunder). This feature is also experimental and is disabled by default.

Since the skin feature is newly added, there are not many skins available for FW at this time. The two skins that we created are available for download to all users. If you are a pro user, you can also find these skins in the FW marketplace. A screenshot is given below to give you an idea of what they look like.

If you are a skin developer, or are interested in making your own skins, you may send your skin to us so that it will be listed in the FW market for other people to download and use. The two skins we released may serve as a guide and example to get you started with your own designs. We will release a detailed skin developer's guide in the next few days.

Download Crystal LED Clock

Download Comic Weather

The pro version is now available for download in the Android Market for $1.99. If you like FW and enjoyed the free version, you may consider buying the pro version to support the future development of Fancy Widget. As always, please feel free to leave your comments or feedback to help us make FW better.

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Filed under: Fancy Widgets Leave a comment
Comments (238) Trackbacks (3)
  1. David
    November 30th, 2010 - 07:15

    No weather icon for “moderate drizzle.”

    Severe weather alerts seem to reappear. Not sure if this is WeatherBug sending the same alert multiple times (alert slightly changed possibly?) but every time I clear out the notification it comes back a few hours later.

    ( REPLY )
    • Dennis
      November 30th, 2010 - 09:12

      Thanks for reporting. It will be fixed and you will see an icon for “Moderate Drizzle” in the next update.

      Weather alerts are updated every time the weather/forecast is updated. You may turn off weather alert notifications in the settings if you don’t want to see them, but you will still see the red alert icon in the detailed forecast activity.

      ( REPLY )
  2. #HasH#
    November 30th, 2010 - 10:02

    There is also no weather icon for “Moderate snow”.

    ( REPLY )
  3. Holger
    November 30th, 2010 - 12:32

    Hello, i love your app, but have one issue. If I unlock my Nexus, not the first side of fancy widget is shown, but the second page with the five day forecast. Sorry for my english, i am german ;-)

    ( REPLY )
  4. Vlatko
    November 30th, 2010 - 14:14

    When can we expect an update? Sorry, I just can’t wait :)

    ( REPLY )
  5. user
    November 30th, 2010 - 16:00

    Where exactly is the FW market. Where are or where exactly can i find other skins besides the two provided.

    ( REPLY )
  6. John
    November 30th, 2010 - 18:19

    Purchased widget today and cannot get it to display on my verizon motorola droid. where can I get help doing so?

    ( REPLY )
  7. Matrix44
    December 1st, 2010 - 04:38

    There is bug in the FLIP clock widget style, name of the city and date are cut. I have Samsung Galaxy S.
    Thx

    ( REPLY )
  8. David
    December 1st, 2010 - 05:28

    My location isn’t always refreshed even after a manual refresh. If I turn on GPS and enable “Use GPS location” then my location is set correctly after a manual refresh.

    Google Maps will pull my (general) location without GPS fine.

    ( REPLY )
    • Dennis
      December 1st, 2010 - 09:17

      Do you also have trouble with automatic location update?

      ( REPLY )
      • David
        December 1st, 2010 - 09:50

        Yes, but not always. Sometimes my location is updated (automatic or manual) and other times it is not (automatic or manual).

        I’ve been watching this the past couple days to see if it just wasn’t performing an automatic update while I was on the road. This morning it reported my location correctly right before I left home (around 6:58). One hour later while I’m at work it was still reporting my location as my home location (I live and work in different cities). Forecast screen said the last refresh was 7:58.

        ( REPLY )
  9. James
    December 2nd, 2010 - 21:59

    Great app. I have a Droid X and the weather icons, especially when the forecast opens up, seem to be low resolution and are not sharp at all. Higher resolution would be great to have. Also there are clock Widgets that actually move with second hand so it does seem that android does support widget animation for clock flipping.

    ( REPLY )
    • Dennis
      December 2nd, 2010 - 22:14

      I haven’t tried it on Droid X, but the graphics looks fine on my Droid. I know about the clock widget you were referring to. That is NOT the widget animation as I mentioned in the FAQ. The clock is updating the widget every single second with a different image to make you feel it is animated.

      ( REPLY )
  10. musashiken
    December 2nd, 2010 - 23:08

    I just bought the paid version, but I can’t seem to load any skin from the skin market. It keeps trying to load but there’s no internet activity… and yes I can surf the net and the android market and speedtest works.

    ( REPLY )
  11. Vlatko
    December 3rd, 2010 - 09:44

    How’s the update coming along?

    ( REPLY )
  12. James
    December 3rd, 2010 - 14:10

    Thanks and the animation I could care less about :) the resolution is not so much on the default weather as it is the other ones on the Droid X. Great app.

    ( REPLY )
  13. Anil
    December 12th, 2010 - 22:53

    Hi
    I have purchased app and will post review on your website and market.

    I have 3 suggestions to make it better.

    1. Instead of animation in background (after we unlock phone) , why not animate the weather icon itself ?
    2. Animation starts a bit slowly on my Galaxy S. Not an issue. Just check if you can start animation a bit faster.
    3. Make animation intense like HTC Sense. Do not move the animation from left to right or vice-versa. Show it on screen. (or keep this behavior optional so other users who like current animation are not upset)

    You have done a great job and this is my 1st purchase on Android market. Worth buying.

    ( REPLY )
  14. Greg
    December 15th, 2010 - 17:48

    I purchased this today so that I could turn off the animations. Specifically the unlock animations. I don’t like that I have to wait for the animations to stop before I can do anything. However, I went into the settings and disabled all of the animations and they are still there. I even rebooted and rechecked the setting and the animations are still happening. Any suggestions? Thanks, otherwise I love it!

    ( REPLY )
  15. Donhu Rickerby
    December 16th, 2010 - 10:49

    Hey, i purchased your app a few days ago and im very pleased with. Im running it on a htc hd2 with the CM6.1 rom. The app is already awesome, but it would be nice to incorporate in there somewhere the ability to specify a background (the panel) for the different widgets.

    For instance i use 2 widgets on my homescreen the home and forecast, and i want the forecast not to have a background but the home to keep the background.

    Not sure if this will actually get implemented. Its jus a suggestion from me :)

    I dont purchase many apps but i did yours, good job, nice work!

    ( REPLY )
    • Dennis
      December 16th, 2010 - 11:15

      Thanks for your support. There is no option to set different background for different widgets at the moment. But in the next version, you will be able to get around this using clock skins. With the next update, the home widget (4×2) and forecast widget (4×1) can use different background images, so applying a transparent 4×1 background will get you what you want.

      ( REPLY )
  16. bez
    December 28th, 2010 - 17:40

    does the weather animation work on the boost mobile i1 (android 1.5)
    im interested on going pro…

    thanks a bundle..

    ( REPLY )
  17. Jesse
    December 30th, 2010 - 06:41

    Hi, Great product! I purchased the Pro version for my Nexus 1. When I attempt to download skins, I get the message “Failed to download skin”. What am I doing wrong?

    Thanks

    ( REPLY )
  18. Sean Allen
    January 11th, 2011 - 14:44

    LOVE this app! Reminds me of EMMU? app that I used to run on my HTC PPC6800, using the HHC app. Please contact me, as I would like to design up some more clock and weather skins. THANKS

    ( REPLY )
  19. David
    January 12th, 2011 - 23:10

    Just bought FW Pro after using FW for a while. Found that with Pro I need to tap the screen a second time after unlock before I get a response from the unit. Not a show stopper, but took a while to determine the app causing the behavior. Didn’t occur with FW 2.1.3. Wondering if it’s unique to my HTC D Inc. Unit NOT rooted. Thanks.

    ( REPLY )
  20. Bob Loy
    January 21st, 2011 - 21:17

    I purchased pro so I could get the animations I had w/ sense. The skins don’t apply. I only have the same clock I did (modern) before I got pro. It says current, I’ve tried blue water and blue acid, and have restarted the EVO a few times and keep going back to the skins. Also I haven’t seen the animations at all, I selected on wake, stay on after wake etc. but haven’t seen one yet.

    ( REPLY )
  21. Bob Loy
    January 21st, 2011 - 21:19

    Also added weather bug since it’s the one FW is supposed to use, but I don’t see any where to set it in FW.

    ( REPLY )
  22. Bob Loy
    January 21st, 2011 - 22:10

    I “trashed” the clock and then added fancy home and the clock is right now. Animations are working also.

    ( REPLY )
  23. Bob Loy
    January 21st, 2011 - 22:31

    It seems like it requires trashing the fw every time you want to apply a new skin, is that the way it is right now?

    ( REPLY )
  24. marpat
    January 27th, 2011 - 06:44

    Hi,

    first of all, excuse my english i’m french !

    i just purchase fancy widget pro on the android market, i’ve received acceptation mail but download is still blocked at “transaction authorization”.. when i touch “cancel” then the label is “buy”, i touch it to download it and “transaction authorization” again…

    what can i do ?

    thanks

    ( REPLY )
  25. Eric Bernstein
    February 8th, 2011 - 14:15

    I am looking for a clock app that will allow for a home setting as well as current time and conditions where i am. For example this week I am in Utah which is 2 hours back from my home time Virginia Beach. Will this app allow for this…trying to find app similar to HTC clock. Will gladly buy!!! Thanks!!

    ( REPLY )
  26. Matt Messner
    February 14th, 2011 - 09:05

    Hey Dennis,
    I love the paid version, it is amazing, but there is on problem. I have the weather update settings on, ect..it says the high today in Phoenix is going to be 61, but its 81 outside right now, the weather seems to be way off everyday. But love the widget but please fix weather issue.

    ( REPLY )
  27. Matt Messner
    February 14th, 2011 - 09:07

    sorry, i forgot to mention, i have the G2

    ( REPLY )
  28. Onfus
    February 22nd, 2011 - 08:37

    Hello! I had bought the paid fro version and my phone was updated and after reinstalling, is going back to the un-paid for mode, can this be fixed?

    ( REPLY )
  29. Shawn
    March 1st, 2011 - 17:58

    I bought this on 2 phones and the one phone says it’s not properly licensed.

    How do i fix this? Ive tried to Uninstall and reinstall twice

    ( REPLY )
  30. Lisa
    March 8th, 2011 - 06:08

    I have downloaded the fancy widget pro but cannot see the weather on the homescreen. I set my location like the site has directed but still cannot figure out how to get the weather on the homescreen.

    ( REPLY )
  31. Long
    March 11th, 2011 - 21:48

    Just got free version to check out this great looking app! I read: “Note that you can only see up to 5 installed skins from the list, but the pro version does not have this limit.” Installed 5 skins in android/data/fancywidget/clockskins and it worked great. I then added more skins, while removing others (to keep testing 5 total) and application will no longer recognize skins at android/data/fancywidget/clockskins. Uninstalled app, deleted /fancywidget folder and reinstalled with no joy. Any suggestions?

    ( REPLY )
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