List of Recommended Widgets

[Daucus]

widg·et n.
1. A program that performs some simple function, such as providing a weather report or stock quote, and can be accessed from a computer desktop, webpage, mobile phone or subscription television service.
2. a small device in a beer can which, when the can is opened, releases nitrogen gas into the beer, giving it a head

Let's compile a list of our favorite widgets that we use on our home-screens on the Droid. Do not get this confused with apps, cause there is plenty of lists for those.
To enter in a widget: Give a brief description of the widget, cost, category (to make searching easier for newcomers and for us to organize the list), and an optional picture of the widget in action.

Calendar

Android Agenda created by Everybody All the Time
This widget auto-syncs with your google calendar, and allows you to add events right from the home screen. Very simple and easy to use. Cost free

Smooth Calendar created by Carl Cedergren
Places a simple 1x4 calendar widget on the screen. Cost free

Clock

Beautiful Widgets created by LevelUp Studio
Awesome, skinnable, large clock with weather and date. Click the weather for forecast, clock for alarm, date for calendar by default, but an update was just released today and you can now select ANY app to launch for each. Cost $2.00

Weather & Toggle Widget created by Android Apps
Places a Clock and Weather (skin-able) widget on the home screen for easy viewing of current time and weather. Cost $1.99

Email

Gmail Unread Count created by Alexander Blom
This widget basically replaces the simple gmail icon with a new icon. It displays the number of unread mail in the corner of the icon. Cost free

Misc

MotoTorch Led created by Ryan Alford
Adds a Icon widget that simply turn your phone into a flashlight for easy access. Cost free and 99cent Donated version

Power Control comes stock with OS
Places a 1x4 widget on the screen to have easy access to shut off GPS, Wifi, brightness, Bluetooth, and auto-sync. Cost Stock

Slideshow Widget created by Doug Hansknecht
Places a picture frame on the home screen, showing a new picture periodically. Tap on a picture to open it up in the picture viewer. Cost 99 cents

Money

FireWallet created by James Gramata
Not for the paranoid. Shows bank account balances from the firewallet app. Allows direct access to the main app screen, or to post a transaction quickly to an account. Offers a button for easily switching between which account is viewed as well. Cost Free (30 day demo) and $6.99

Music

News

Social

Facebook comes stock
Easy access to update Facebook status and to view friends status. Cost Stock

Googole Buzz Widget
Direct link to buzz, ability to post pics from the camera or gallery directly to buzz (without having to wait on the picasa to buzz sync to occur and with the ability to comment on your picture as you post it instead of posting later), ability to "share link via buzz" added to browser. Cost free

Weather

Beautiful Widgets created by LevelUp Studio
Awesome, skinnable, large clock with weather and date. Click the weather for forecast, clock for alarm, date for calendar by default, but an update was just released today and you can now select ANY app to launch for each. Cost $2.00

Weather & Toggle Widget created by Android Apps
Places a Clock and Weather (skin-able) widget on the home screen for easy viewing of current time and weather. Cost $1.99

 

[Daucus]

reserved for later

 

[Champers]

MotoTorch - one click access to camera LEDs
Smooth Calendar - 1x4 calendar widget
Weather & Toggle Widget (weather widget donate) - Flip clock/weather
Power Control
Slideshow Widget

 

[dodgersrgood]

beautiful widgets! its only like a little over a dollar
battery life (FREE)
internal and sd card storage left
screen mode widgets, auto-rotate, lock pattern on/off
and the fml widget is pretty funny

 

[jacklope]

MotoTorch
Facebook
Last.fm
Pandora
Google Search with Voice Search

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Power Control (STOCK)

Battery Left (FREE)
Displays the estimated time your battery will die/percentage left/gives quick access to battery use/info/etc.

Beautiful Widgets (Beautiful Home widget) (PAID)
Awesome, skinnable, large clock with weather and date. Click the weather for forecast, clock for alarm, date for calendar by default, but an update was just released today and you can now select ANY app to launch for each. :-D

CalWidget (FREE)
A simple agenda widget that offers syncing to multiple calendars with customizable colors and sizes.

Googole Buzz Widget (FREE)
Direct link to buzz, ability to post pics from the camera or gallery directly to buzz (without having to wait on the picasa to buzz sync to occur and with the ability to comment on your picture as you post it instead of posting later), ability to "share link via buzz" added to browser.

FireWallet (part of a PAID app)
Not for the paranoid. Shows bank account balances from the firewallet app (I've code-named my accounts and don't put any account numbers or anything in the app for my own security). Allows direct access to the main app screen, or to post a transaction quickly to an account. Offers a button for easily switching between which account is viewed as well. (I keep this on an outer-lying screen while using Helix for additional homescreens, so there's little chance people will see it accidentally and I like it...I rarely let someone play with my Droid unsupervised anyway.)

Sorry to not provide prices for the paid ones, but I can't access

 

[RedBull]

Music - "3" - Free
Internal Memory/External Memory/Battery Life - Mini Info - Free

 

[Daucus]

Power Control (STOCK)

Sorry to not provide prices for the paid ones, but I can't access

Thanks. I'm looking up the prices for ya

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Power Control (STOCK)

Sorry to not provide prices for the paid ones, but I can't access

Thanks. I'm looking up the prices for ya

HOLY ####! FireWallet costs THAT MUCH now!? I bought it when I had the G1 and I swear it was only $2-3. Still an incredibly handy app, but dang...

 

[givequicheachance]

I figure everyone knows about some of the popular apps like Aldiko, Astrid, Documents To Go, Pandora, etc, so here are a few that I haven't heard anyone else say much about:

Calendar

Calendar Pad Pro
Paid app that syncs your google calendar. Unlike the stock app, you can see events and categories in month view. Don't remember the cost.

Misc

Sleepytime
Paid app, plays white noise (dozens of sounds ranging from the ocean to crickets to chimes to vacuum cleaners) Great timer function, sounds are great. I don't remember how much I paid, but it was less than $3 and it was worth it.

Music

Music Control Lite
Uses the stock music player, but allows it to map controls to the hardware camera button, allowing you to pause/play/skip without taking your droid out of your pocket. Free.

Social

Nimbuzz
Best IM app I've found (ebuddy is spotty and ugly, meebo works great but the text and [especially] the emoticons are teensy). Works with AIM/MSN/Yahoo/Google Talk/ICQ/About a dozen others. Cost Free





On a side note, I see a lot of people talking about/buying/downloading clock apps. If that's what you want, far be it from me to judge, but what do people use giant clock widgets for? There's a clock in the notification bar that you can see on every homescreen, and if you need a larger clock to watch you can always pull up the stock clock app which looks very nice. Why would you want one as a widget? Am I missing something?

 

[Jonny Kansas]

On a side note, I see a lot of people talking about/buying/downloading clock apps. If that's what you want, far be it from me to judge, but what do people use giant clock widgets for? There's a clock in the notification bar that you can see on every homescreen, and if you need a larger clock to watch you can always pull up the stock clock app which looks very nice. Why would you want one as a widget? Am I missing something?

I purchased beautiful widgets because 1. I can customize the look and 2. I really like how it combines the clock, date and weather all in one widget with shortcuts to respective apps. I like that I don't have to put a boring icon on my screen for the alarm clock, calendar, and any sort of weather app and I really like how clean it all looks. Plus, the dev is AWESOME and very responsive. I purchased his Twitter app (touiteur, which also has widgets) even though I'm not a big fan of Twitter just to support his quality work.

BTW, I've seen free apps that work just like that calendar you paid for...

 

[solorca]

Here are the ones I use...

SetCPU - For overclocking purposes.
Power Control
Touiteur - It isn't fantastic, but it's the best Twitter widget I've found so far.
Facebook - Again, it's not perfect, but it works.
Beautiful Widgets - For time and weather
News and Weather - I only use this for news
Mixzing - Easy access to my music.

 

[ChefGregg89]

Beauliful Widget is best 5 stars!

 

[chrisnoxid]

Heres a few I'm using that haven't already been mentioned (i think):

Audio manager - set level for ring, music ect.
3 Banana - notes
Data counter - keeps track of data usage
Urban dictionary - useless but funny
Pure Calendar - calendar

 

[jsh1120]

Agenda Widget: Shows events on Google calendar. Various sizes. Very convenient.

Screen Mode Widget: Supports skipping the lock screen when turning on the phone. Enables turning on with power, camera, and volume buttons. (Some like, some don't; I do.)

Audio Manager: Widget for an app that controls audio for various sources independently. Paid version provides various skins.