GoogleGadgets
Latest
New video of HTC Hero's Android build offers Frenchy vision of widget utopia
The verdict is still out on whether what we've been seeing is indeed some precursor to Android 2.0 "Donut," or (more likely) some elaborate HTC skin designed bring HTC's Android home screen experience up to par with its extensive Windows Mobile reskinning. Either way, things are shaping up quite nicely for the HTC Hero, with another leaked build showing widget functionality galore, including weather widgets that actually show the weather. Interestingly, this isn't a complete replacement for the existing home screen, since in the add widget dialogue you can pick an HTC Gadget, a Google Gadget, or other regular things like Shortcuts, and most everything seems to cohabitate well in the example video. With the rate these leaks are coming, we're guessing we'll be hearing more about the HTC Hero before too long, and if not we've always got the nouveau cocktail jazz electro crossover stylings of Air to keep us calm. Video is after the break.[Via Android Guys]
Don't want Google search but still want Gadgets? No problem
I'll admit that I was a fan of Google Desktop at first, what with the rapid browser previews of searched email and the ability to crunch through web histories and past searches. Over time, unfortunately, GD's reindexing began to feel a mite sluggish, and I eventually regretfully uninstalled it in the interest of better performance. Now, with the announcement of native access to Google Gadgets bundled in with Desktop, allowing me to put my favorite Gadgets right in the Dashboard with no mussing about, I figured I'd give GD another shot, and take the reindexing hit or simply turn the search features off.Guess what? As noted in this comment, a subtle "Choose your own features" link on Google's download page lets you split up the two functions of GD, and just install the Gadget manager without the desktop search component. Very nice!
