There has been a lot of talk about people's first impressions of tablets running Android 3.0. Many of my friends have noted that the performance is good but not perfect. I had the same impression until I closed most of the 20 (yes, 20) redundant widgets that customers had placed on the homescreens. Once I got it down the the widgets that I would use, there was zero lag.
Since there is so much extra screen real estate, I think it should be used for glanceable information, but at the same time, if the performance is taking a hit, is it worth it? The homescreen is the only place where I ever notice a tangible difference in performance between Android and iOS devices. In many instances, my Nexus S will fly through something that it takes a while for my friends with iPhone 4's to do. Android gets the bad rep though because the homescreen is the thing people see consistently in the stores and even when using the devices.
So, do iPad users want widgets? Would Honeycomb users rather go without? (Yes, in a perfect world we want both, and I'm guessing both Apple and Google will both figure it out soon).
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What do you think of homescreen widgets and their effects on tablet performance?
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Not only do they bog down the home screen at times, they also help drain the battery faster. I love the gmail and calendar widgets but have removed just about all others for the sake of battery life.
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Widgets for me always seem OMGCool at first but I find myself never, ever using or needing them. Dashboard on the Mac is the best example of this.
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Everyone wants it, but your average guy can't actually use it. So Apple's approach does appear to be the right way, although pandering to the dumbest people on the block isn't my idea of a great platform - but on the other hand, the excessively 'manual' route that Android forces people to pick is not good either. Let's hope one of the other OS's actually gets the sweet balance.
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I have a few widgets running on my Xoom, the main ones being gmail for my wife and I, Fancy Weather, Google Search and a few Circle Launchers. I also have a few widgets for music apps (subsonic, last.fm, etc), one agenda app, and Launcher Pro's Friends feed, but these get pushed off the main screen.
I've never noticed any kind of lag beyond the initial bootup, mainly for the circle launchers but the trade off is well worth it.
In full disclosure, I'm a lot less picky about performance issues on the Xoom then on my phone. I'll put on a live wallpaper that would shred the battery on my phone and make it near unusable and it barely has an effect. I could see how an excess of widgets would be a problem but used sparingly there is plenty of power to handle them.
I've never noticed any kind of lag beyond the initial bootup, mainly for the circle launchers but the trade off is well worth it.
In full disclosure, I'm a lot less picky about performance issues on the Xoom then on my phone. I'll put on a live wallpaper that would shred the battery on my phone and make it near unusable and it barely has an effect. I could see how an excess of widgets would be a problem but used sparingly there is plenty of power to handle them.
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I would welcome home screen widgets with open arms. I have grown really accustomed to having a large clock, weather, and power options (wifi, gps, brightness settings) widget on my Droid X. It's not a deal breaker, but it really sucks not having it on my iPad.
I don't think I would ever need 20 widgets on my home screen -- I honestly don't think there that many useful widgets out there.
I don't think I would ever need 20 widgets on my home screen -- I honestly don't think there that many useful widgets out there.
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I would love to see widgets come to the iPad. Especially with the added power with the A5 processor and 512MB of RAM in the iPad 2. It would be great to use up some of the vast amount of screen real estate on the iPad. I use Dashboard on the Mac fairly often and think it would be very useful. Plus, it could open up a whole new avenue for iOS developers.
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I'm a huge proponent of widgets for glanceable information. On my phone's primary homescreen, I have a weather widget, calendar widget, and tasks widget. This lets me see the most important things I have to worry about immediately upon unlocking my machine, without traipsing through three individual apps. Oh, plus Circle Battery Widget, which gives me the remaining juice in 1% increments, vs. the useless four-stage indicator in the notification bar.
I've got a Xoom (that I will probably return in favor of the cheaper Asus Eee Pad Transformer), and right now on the primary homescreen I've got weather, calendar, Gmail, and regular (work) mail widgets going on. I do find, however, that the ability to resize or configure certain widgets differently is something that definitely needs to be added to Honeycomb. (I know that some third party launchers add this functionality.)
I've got a Xoom (that I will probably return in favor of the cheaper Asus Eee Pad Transformer), and right now on the primary homescreen I've got weather, calendar, Gmail, and regular (work) mail widgets going on. I do find, however, that the ability to resize or configure certain widgets differently is something that definitely needs to be added to Honeycomb. (I know that some third party launchers add this functionality.)
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