LevelUp Studio has released a pack of Hero widgets to the Android Market under the name Beautiful Widgets.  Included with the set are widgets for clock with weather, WiFi, Bluetooth, and airplane mode.

My favorite of the group is the Beautiful Home Widget which includes large time display, current city, weather icons, and forecast information.  Geolocation is used to detect the weather and time so no setup is required.  Temperature is available in Celsius or Fahrenheit and a 24hr clock can be toggled.  There is a refresh time you can set for weather updates, or just tap the widget to reload it.

Beautiful Widgets is a paid app currently selling for $1.39.  The developer has already released several updates and added new widgets to the pack.  Go purchase his app so he is inspired to keep adding more.  I’d like to see the browser, text, and contacts widgets ported next.

In case you missed all the Hero/Sense news, here is a video to demonstrate the HTC Sense UI.

[Thank you Alex for the tip]

Beautiful Widgets are HTC Sense inspired.

The Winners

Thank you to everyone who made a submission.  If you were not picked this week, you are still eligible for weeks 2-3 of the contest.  If you would like to submit additional screenshots, feel free to do so on the original contest page.

• What time is it? – Submitted by w cleveland
• I wish I had an iPhone. – Submitted by Jason Peinkofer
• The power of kittens. – Submitted by Maliek
• Minimalist circles. – Submitted by teagone
• Win the contest. – Submitted by foebea

Winners were selected randomly.  Emails will be sent out shorty to confirm your address and country.  I can’t wait to see what new entries we have next week.  We will accept any type of home screen as a winner.  Even the most plain home screen has a chance to win.

If you would like to enter the contest, visit the original post:  Show me your Android home screen

Two weeks left to enter. Show us your Android home screen and win a prize.

Google I/O Winners

Over the weekend, we made a post to give away five free passes to Google I/O.  Since the conference is in a few weeks, I wanted to do an easy contest and pick the winners quickly so they could make travel arrangements.  The response was overwhelming and I feel bad we don’t have enough passes to go around.

On the other hand, it does feel good to reward five readers and give them such an excellent opportunity to attend this event.  There is no real order to the picks here.  I tried to go with the first five people who said they were interested and confirmed they could actually attend the event.

The five winners are:

1. Dylan Anderson
2. Karthikeyan Subramaniam
3. Justin Shapcott
4. Yoav Raccah
5. Jenifer Hanen

Thank you to everyone else who left a comment.  If any of these people back out or can’t make it, I have a list of alternates who are interested.  If your name was not on the list, you can still follow @googleio on Twitter to see if they link to any more free passes.  We look forward to meeting all you guys at the show.

Mobile Site Preview

Default install of WPTouch. Needs some work.

For several months I have been promising a mobile version of the site.  The full site loads in the Android browser, but it is way too slow over 2G/3G.  My brother was planning to provide a custom mobile site, but time has been a factor.  In order to have something working in time for Google I/O, we decided to just load the WPTouch plugin that some of the other Android sites have been using.  The plugin is actually quite powerful and we will be tweaking it over the coming weeks.

Point your mobile browser to http://androidandme.com and the plugin will automatically detect your browser agent and serve you the mobile site.  If you would like to toggle between the full and mobile site, there is an option in the footer of the site.  Check it out and let us know what you think.  We are open to all suggestions and criticism.

RSS Widget

Version 1.0 of the RSS widget.

I had been asking around for someone to create us a widget that would include our RSS feed.  Several developers had expressed interest in helping us out and we may end up releasing multiple widgets for the site.  The first person to provide a working widget was one of our readers Justin.

The widget Justin created is 4×1 cells and expands to the full screen when clicked.  If you see an entry you would like to read more about, another click will launch the new mobile version of the site.  Currently, there are no customization options for the widget.  If you guys have any ideas or suggestions, we would love to hear them.  Again, I am trying to see if Mr. Clark has enough time to design a fancy skin for it.

If you are interested in obtaining a RSS widget for you site, you can contact Justin at email.nex.software (at) gmail.com

Android and Me RSS Widget for Android
Version: 1.0
Developed By: Justin Shapcott
Price: FREE
Filesize: 44KB

Dilbert, Binary Clock, Engadget RSS, Battery, and Note Widgets.

Included in the next Android build are two new packaged widgets.  Users can now add a music player and calendar widget to their desktop.  The music player widget allows basic control over the Music application.  You are given play, pause, and skip controls.  If you tap the widget, it launches the full Music app so you can create and edit play lists.

The other new widget is a calendar window that displays your Google Calendar events.  Again, tapping the widget launches the full Calendar application.  I have placed this widget on my main home screen and it’s a nice reminder of my upcoming agenda.  The full list of official widgets includes:

• Analog Clock
• Calendar
• Music Player
• Picture Frame
• and Search

A quick search of the Market will return many additional free widgets that you can use to customize your desktop.  There are widgets for weather, alernate style clocks, comic strips, RSS feeds, notes, and more.  Almost any application can be turned into a widget and I’m sure we will see just that happen.

Retro Clock, Weather, Calendar, RSS, and Music widgets.

The main benefit of the new widgets is easier access to information.  Instead of having to launch an application and wait for it to load, you can view the information you need directly from the home screen.  I particularly enjoyed the new weather widget from Jeff Sharkey.  When you add the widget to your desktop you can choose from a 1×1 or 2×1 size.  As you add the widget, Google services will automatically detect your location and pull up the latest weather info.  Like most of the other widgets, a quick tap expands the widget area to reveal a 5-day forecast.

Users wanting to test these new widgets out, will have to wait for the Android 1.5 update.  With the recent upgrade, developers now have to define the minimum SDK version that the application is compatible with.  If an app or widget is designed for Android 1.5 and up, then it will not display on the Market to Android 1.1 users.

If you are interested in the upcoming widgets for Android 1.5, check out the contest Justin is running over at Android-DLs.com.  He currently has 15 developers who have entered the contest and will be releasing widgets soon.  If you would like to contribute, you can make a donation to the prize pool or post your idea for any widget you would like to see.

Will widgets overtake themes in numbers of uploads?

On Interaction has also released several widgets for aHome including QuickTweet and QuickNote.  QuickTweet is one of the fastest ways to update Twitter when using the soft keyboard included with aHome.  QuickNote allows you to attach sticky notes anywhere to your desktop and includes several themes.

I have QuickTweet installed and its great for instant Twitter updates.  No longer do I have to wait for Twidroid to load and update if I only want to send a short tweet.  If you are a constant Twitter user, I would suggest giving it a look.

What other types of themes would you like to see from developers?  Are there any widgets you would like to see made?  Have you even attempted to install a theme?