The new widget comes in two sizes, large and small. The widget has a notification system that can alert you of new stories with an icon, LED, or vibration.

Large Widget
The large widget is 4×1 and displays the most recent post title and blurb, along with a timestamp and ‘read more’ link. Clicking the entry will launch the widget into full screen mode.

Small Widget
The small widget is a mini 1×1 and displays the most recent post title (sans blurb), along with the timestamp. Clicking the entry will launch the widget into full screen mode.

Full Screen Mode
The widget in full screen mode displays the 10 most recent posts, our most recent promotion (in the top corner), and buttons to refresh the feed and launch the mobile site. Pressing Menu when in full screen mode will bring up the Settings, shown below.

Settings
The settings allow you to change the update frequency and notification preferences. When using the large or small widget, you can choose to turn on notifications that will alert you each time we make a new post. The alerts will place an icon in your notification tray along with an optional LED alert or vibration. You can even set the LED color to differentiate the alerts from those in your other apps.

Alerts
When a new story is posted and you’ve got notifications turned on, a small icon will appear in your tray. Each icon will display the number of stories posted since you last checked the widget. Clicking on the alert in the tray or launching the widget into full screen mode will clear the alert.

Installation
The widget is currently available in the Android Market. Here is a direct link.. Alternately, you can scan the QR code below with your phone to be taken to the Market page. Once you’ve got the widget installed, simply long press in a blank spot on your home screen. A menu will come up where you can select ‘Widgets’ and then select Android and Me Large or Android and Me Small.

If you were a upgrading, please uninstall before downloading the new version.

Scan to download.

The new version has been out for a day or two already and has already been downloaded over 1,000 times. Thanks for all the support you guys show our site, it really makes doing the work much easier. Also, keep an eye on the widget for a new contest announcement sometime in the next few days…

So what do you think? Do you guys like the new version? Is it an improvement over the old one?

When we got our new Ion phones at Google I/O the first thing we noticed (aside from how much cooler a free phone is than one you had to paid for) was the lack of a physical keyboard. Getting used to the soft keyboard was only a slightly painful process, but we found it much easier when using Better Keyboard. Better Keyboard is a paid app ($2.99) from Better Android that enables some really cool features like skinning, gestures, enhanced layout and accuracy, and, most recently, a T9 input method.

I’ve been in love with Android for months now and have wanted to participate a little more actively, but my talents are mostly design and web related. I don’t see myself cranking out a real app anytime soon, so these skins seemed like a perfect chance to play around with 9-patch graphics and the tiny bit of XML the app uses to build the skins. Making the skins seemed simple enough, they provided a sample skin for download and inside you’ll find a bunch of pngs that make up the skin. I made a couple sets of keys, zipped them up, then sent them to our friend Justin at nEx.Software (creator of BarTor and our RSS Widget) for packaging and signing (and answering all my random, stupid questions).

Again, these are FREE skins for the PAID app Better Keyboard. If you do not have the app Better Keyboard installed and activated, these skins will not work. They will just show you a screen saying you need to buy Better Keyboard. Some people in the market seem confused about that point and can’t seem to figure things out, so we put together a small guide for installing and activating Better Keyboard, which you can find below.

Bright shiny white skin with bright blue highlights for a clean, tech feel.

Glossy black and yellow skin with high visibility, great for sunlight or low contrast situations.

Many of you requested a pink skin. Here it is.

Activating Better Keyboard and a new skin

1. Purchase and install Better Keyboard from the Market.
2. Under Settings > Locale & Text > Text Settings, activate Better Keyboard (screen).
3. Next, do something that requires the keyboard to open, like clicking in a text area, pressing the search key, etc. Once the keyboard is on screen, long press on the ‘?123′ key to bring up the input settings. Select ‘Input Method’ (screen) and then select Better Keyboard. Better Keyboard should now be enabled.
4. To turn on a skin you’ve downloaded, first enter the Better Android settings; either by launching from the app tray or by long pressing ‘?123′ and selecting ‘Better keyboard settings’ (screen). Select ‘Better Keyboard Skin’ (screen) then simply select the skin you want to activate (screen).

For more info about Better Keyboard, visit the publisher’s website, Better Android Apps.