Widget Locker

If you dont have this app you should check it out.  What it does is allow you to customize your lock screen including widgets and apps.  Very cool.  Let me know what you think

Does it let you actually open widgets from the lock screen without unlocking them, or just view them? Viewing them seems logical, but accessing them doesn't since you'd be able to accidentally open them which is what the lock screen is there for. heh

  Kevin, thanks for the post.  I really enjoy this app for the quick access to some apps like navigation while your on the road, and apps like shazam for quick music grabs.  The fact that you can change your lock screen drag bar is great too.  I also like that i can change the contrast of the screen very quick when i turn the phone on.

Yeah this is kind of not obvious and I should fix in a future version, but you when creating the custom slider change the ringer action to something else and then change it back to ringer and you'll get a choice of which modes to include.


I assume the delay you are talking about is when trying to get to the all-screens view in Sense UI? This is indeed unfortunately, Sense won't respond if WidgetLocker sends the messages too fast so WidgetLocker has to pause for half a second. HomeHelper is optional, reasons to use it are described in Settings > Tutorial page 3 or http://www.teslacoilsw.com/widgetlocker/faq

Definitely one of my favorite apps.  It allowed me to put a widget called extended controls on my lock screen.  Extended controls allows you to create at customized widget that controls nearly every setting on your phone from bluetooth to the mobile hotspot and with widget locker you can do this without unlocking the screen.  It also allows you to control your volume rocker without unlocking the screen and the custom slider is great.  I created a custom slider that launches my camera and qik right from the unlock screen.  When you choose one side to be camcorder it let's you default it to your camcorder or qik, your choice.  And of course, being able to immediately launch shazam can be very convenient.

I am a recent "rooter" of my Inspire and since then I have been experimenting with custom ROMs, new lock screens etc. I have found a lot of great new customizations but WidgetLocker is high up on the list as one of the best! (No - you do not have to have root access to use WidgetLocker). I was also a skeptic of getting this app, with my major concerns including the price tag, effect on battery life and smoothness of functionality. After taking the leap and giving it a shot I was pleasantly surprised. I fortunately had the benefit of having root access so I have not had any issues with "home-helper" and such, all I did was disable the 5-second rule from advanced menu (must have root access to do this) and its running like a charm. I immediately gravitated to the "iPhone look" for my slider (see screenshots below). I was also extremely happy with the degree of customization I could achieve. As WidgetLocker is a "always running" process, it defaults to have an icon in your notification bar - BUT this is easily removed from the advanced menu (THANK YOU KEVIN for giving us this!). I am not sure how other Inspire handsets are running WL but as for me, it works GREAT: battery-life has not been affect as far as I can tell, I have a completely customized lock screen (simple, yet functional) and it is stable. In short WELL worth the $2.99. I am happy to pay for apps that are backed with great development :-)

For the record I am running an HTC Inspire 4G (duh!) with Fresh Inspire 3.4.0.1 ROM (baseband radio 2.15.00.09.01) on Stock kernel and running LauncherPro. Rooted using UnrInspireked.

UPDATE: I have discovered that I will still see the stock lock screen in between unlocking with WL and keying in my security PIN. It is crucial to realize that this has been bypassed if you still use HTC Sense! In other words, this is only an issue if you are using WL with a launcher app (such as ADW.Launcher or LauncherPro)Kevin addresses this in his FAQ so please read it! As you can see above, I am using LauncherPro (thus I have the pesky stock lock screen after unlocking WL and before keying in PIN). As much as I enjoyed using LauncherPro - I have found that I would rather have complete use of WL in Sense, than have to sacrifice the functionality of WL to the eyecandy of LauncherPro. In all honesty, the "tweaked" Sense UI that comes with Fresh Inspire 3.4.0.1 is very nice so it was not that tough of a decision to go back! ;-) I will post new screenshots tomorrow after reverting to Sense UI

Another Update: As promised, screenshots of WL after going back to HTC Sense (dropped the LauncherPro). Still running Fresh Inspire 3.4.0.1 by Flipz (same baseband and still stock kernel). You may notice the lock screen changed a bit - added a custom slider on the left to take me directly into my camera. Makes it much more convenient to take advantage of the great 8MPx camera.