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Best BT/WiFi/GPS toggle widgets...

Redflea

Android Expert
Oct 6, 2009
2,622
289
I've been looking for a nice looking and functional set of toggle widgets...I have a Droid and there is a power bar that comes w/the OS that includes toggles, but I haven't found it reliably shows the states of the services for me.

The three toggles I primarily want/use are BT, WiFi, and GPS.

I've found two sets of toggle widgets that I really like...they are the best in terms of design/visual appeal, accuracy and reliability that I've found, and I've looked at a lot of toggle widgets. They are:

- B&B (Separate download for each widget: Silent Mode, BT On/off, Brightness Control, WiFi on/off, Airplane On/Off,
- OneClick (Single dowload makes all of them available: 2G/3G, Airplane mode, BT, Brightness, GPS, Phone Vibrate, and WiFi)

B&B widgets: The only problem is that they don't offer a GPS toggle yet...these widgets are, however, gorgeous...they are translucent, beautifully designed, clearly indicate if the service is on or off, show a change when a service is being turned on/off, and have worked perfectly for me. If they had a GPS toggle I'd be done and would have stopped looking. So far I've only used the BT and WiFi widgets.

I've asked the dev if he will do a GPS widget as well, and he said he'd look into it. If he comes through I'll be very happy.

The other set I really like is the OneClick toggle widget set...I am using the BT, WiFi, GPS, and Airplane widgets from this set. All look very nice, allow you to customize their color (including gradient), size/shape and other attributes to your preference, and reliably indicate the current state of the service and show a change when the service is turning on or off.

I like B&B the best by just a little, but I'm using OneClick now since B&B doesn't have a GPS toggle yet (I'm kinda anal about wanting all of my toggle widgets to match :)). If and when B&B comes up with a GPS widget I may likely roll back to that set .

Just wanted to share...I've looked at a lot of the toggle widgets and these two sets really seem to be above the bar...and they are free. Can't go wrong with either, aside from the missing GPS toggle in B&B.
 
Not as beautiful as you're hoping for, perhaps, but check out "Battery Widget" by mippin.com in the Market. It's one small free widget that constantly gives you a battery percentage readout, and when you tap it, it brings up a larger battery-shaped menu that allows you to toggle WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. It has worked flawlessly for me, and it only takes one spot on the home screen.
 
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Not as beautiful as you're hoping for, perhaps, but check out "Battery Widget" by mippin.com in the Market. It's one small free widget that constantly gives you a battery percentage readout, and when you tap it, it brings up a larger battery-shaped menu that allows you to toggle WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. It has worked flawlessly for me, and it only takes one spot on the home screen.

Interesting...does it display WiFi, GPS, and BT status in normal mode? I want that as well as the toggle capability...

I'll take a look at it. I use Battery Life now (I think that's its name) so it would be interesting to have four widgets' work done in one spot.

But the other widgets are so good looking... :D
 
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Now that 2.0.1 made the built in power widget graphite it actually looks real good. I use that along with Ring Toggle Widget (free) which toggles between normal, silent (vibe) and mute (no vibe) and seems to be the only one I can find that will toggle all three. The rest seam to just toggle to the mode that silences audio but still vibrates. I like the ability to also toggle to silent/non-vibe for when I go to bed at night because I hate my phone vibrating on the night stand waking me up. Those are what I roll with and seem to pretty much cover everything I need.
 
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I haven't looked into this in the past couple weeks, but when I was looking into it, I found that Bluetooth widgets either needed to do some funkiness with the GPS or the wifi, or merely took you to the Wireless Settings menu. The only one that did everything I needed was the power control, and I dont think I've had any problems with its status lights. What were your issues?
 
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I haven't looked into this in the past couple weeks, but when I was looking into it, I found that Bluetooth widgets either needed to do some funkiness with the GPS or the wifi, or merely took you to the Wireless Settings menu. The only one that did everything I needed was the power control, and I dont think I've had any problems with its status lights. What were your issues?

The 2.01 power widget didn't report status accurately/consistently for me...in some cases (can't remember the specifics now, it's been a while) the status lights in the power bar were wrong (GPS was on and it said off).

The other thing I didn't like about the Power Control bar was that I don't need the Sync and Display brightness settings on the home page...using the separate OneClick or B&B widgets for BT/GPS/WiFi saves me space for another widget icon (Car Locator) on my home page. :)
 
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Thanks.

The Droid comes w/the power control bar, as I noted above...problem for me was that I don't get to choose which widgets I want (don't want/need screen brightness) and it didn't reliably identify when services were on or off....

how does that not reliably show when they r on or off??? if its lit up with a green bar underneath, its on. if not, then its off. what r u blind???
 
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how does that not reliably show when they r on or off??? if its lit up with a green bar underneath, its on. if not, then its off. what r u blind???

No, not blind, and there's no need to be rude.

My statement is pretty clear - the power bar widget did not reliably show status - i.e., when a service was on, it showed it as off, and/or vice-versa.
 
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I searched online and found the 2.36 version (before the c&d) that works fine. Just downloaded it to my SD card and used app installer.

IRRC, you'll find that one of the BW widgets doesn't indicate GPS status (on/off)...it looks the same either way. I think it was their GPS widget that doesn't update.

Looked at the Curvefish widgets and they are kind of ugly but do have some nice features, including a "Settings" option on the widget. However, the GPS widget has an odd requirement in setup about choosing to restart BT or WiFi, and then didn't seem to work for me to turn on GPS.
 
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I wouldn't call them ugly, but they are functional. I'll take function over form any day especially if it came to the point of developing a thread and agonizing over the decision :)
Looked at the Curvefish widgets and they are kind of ugly but do have some nice features, including a "Settings" option on the widget. However, the GPS widget has an odd requirement in setup about choosing to restart BT or WiFi, and then didn't seem to work for me to turn on GPS.
 
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may be a stupid question - but what is the reasoning for turning GPS on/off? this seems to be a key toggle people want. Is it just to conserve battery? thanks

Yes. TO CONSERVE that battery... so we can do other cool stuff!

I would like one that turns off the Cellular Radio. My old HTC Touch with custom firmware had an app that let me turn off the Cell, and still use bluetooth...
 
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