One of the things I love about the Android interface is the use of widgets on the home screen.  Widgets allow you to put virtually any information right in front of your face where you need it most.  My only complaint is that not nearly enough companies utilize widgets effectively.  Fortunately, aniFree is out there for all of your widget needs.  You probably remember them from my recent view of their previous offering, aniAgenda.  Now they are back with the extremely flexible aniWidget app.  They sent me a copy to check out for this review, so let’s go ahead and take a closer look.

AniWidget is a fantastic little tool which puts all the power of eight widgets one tiny space.  You can choose to display:

• a clock
• current date and time
• monthly calendar
• daily agenda
• notepad
• weather
• newsfeed
• tools (including flashlight, radio toggles, and more)

What is nice here is that the standard aniWidget module takes only a quarter of the screen, meaning you can fit up to four independent widgets on the screen.   In addition to that standard widget, there is also a larger (1/2 screen) widget, which includes a larger version of the weather widget, larger newsfeed widget, and several different combinations of the remaining standard widgets.

Once you have setup the widget, toggling between the various options is easy.  There are two hidden buttons on each widget.  One on the lower right will flip to the next widget in the cycle.  If that is too slow for you, however, just tap the tools button on top (it is centered on the standard widget, but in the upper left corner on the large widget).  This will open a new panel, which allows you to set any widget in that space, access the settings, toggle any of the tools, or seek additional assistance from the help screen. 

There is also a third hidden button in the upper right hand corner, which allows you to interact with the widget.  This button changes, based upon the widget you have activated.  For example, from the daily agenda view, it will jump to your agenda.  Tap the same button from the notepad widget to create a new note.  Weather and news will find a refresh feed button in that space.  And, well…you get the point.

Now that you know how these widgets are going to work, let’s go ahead and take a look at how they look.   I have to admit that while I was impressed by the functionality in this one, I was a little disappointed by the look of some of these widgets.  Not that there was anything wrong with them, they just felt a bit plain. 

Sure, you can customize the face of the clock widget, but I was really hoping for a little more razzle dazzle out of these widgets, something that would really “wow” the people who glance at my phone and see them running.  For the most part, what you got was a translucent white background with some text or icons.   No fancy borders, graphics, or other animation.  There is a bit of a tradeoff here, as fancy graphics and animation could clutter your screen or slow your device.  Nonetheless, it would have been nice to have seen a little more attention spent on the lock and feel of the widgets, making them a little more attractive on the screen.  The clock is a great example of this.  With several different faces, you could add a little customization and flair to the widget.

I really think aniFree is onto something with this one.  It allows eight widgets to take the space of one.  And each is useful in its own way.  I was really quite impressed overall by the functionality and flexibility of this one.  I would have liked to have seen a little more attention on the look and feel of the widgets on the screen.  That being said, I think the functionality of a widget like this far outweighs any concerns I may have had with the look or feel of the interface.  This one functional spectacularly well, packaging some of the most necessary features into a single flexible widget.

AniWidget was developed by aniFree, and is available in the Android Market for $2.99.