Make your Android power widget even more powerful
We’ve been talking lately about how you can improve Android battery life and keep your device running all day. One of the most useful tools in controlling Android power consumption is the Android power widget that’s built right into the operating system.
As with most things in Android, though, your options don’t end with what Google has given you. Hey, this isn’t Apple — it’s an open system, baby — and that means you can replace practically anything with a pimped-out third-party alternative.
In the case of the Android power widget, there’s good reason to do so.
[Craving even more customization? Learn how to change Android folder icons next.]
Extended Controls: The More Powerful Android Power Widget
Android’s default power widget gives you one-touch toggles for your system’s Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, autosync, and display brightness settings. And that’s all quite handy. But it doesn’t have to end there.
A fantastic app called Extended Controls takes what the power widget started and pushes it to a whole new level. Extended Controls, available for about a buck in the Android Market, lets you build a custom Android power widget from scratch. You can get all the standard switches, along with the options to add a host of other buttons to the bar.
Some of the numerous one-tap toggles you can include:
- 4G data
- Hotspot Wi-Fi
- USB tethering
- Autorotation
- Silent/vibrate
- Screen timeout
- Autolock
- USB mass storage
Extended Controls lets you control the look and feel of your new power widget, too: With a couple of clicks in the app’s main menu, you can change your widget’s color and transparency level along with the look of the individual icons. You can adjust the shape and color of the indicator lights beneath each switch, too.
One final perk worth mentioning: Extended Controls comes with the option to display your current battery charge — as an exact percentage — right within the widget.
Now, that’s what I call Android Power.
Codealis 
No trackbacks yet.