a widget or an application

[constellanation]

excuse my computer illiteracy, but I was just reading the review of the new flip clock in the market and he said if the sdk becomes available he'll rewrite it as a widget.


I thought the words application and widget were interchangeable, now I'm led to believe they are not, what gives?

what are the implications of widgets on android?

[JRG1392]

An application is it's own standing program that runs when you choose to open it. A widget is a program that is always running and it's part of the desktop.

[constellanation]

An application is it's own standing program that runs when you choose to open it. A widget is a program that is always running and it's part of the desktop.

wouldn't that make something like locale a widget? and not an application then.
and why can't these "applications" always run if its necessary for their purpose?

[momentarylapseofreason]

wouldn't that make something like locale a widget? and not an application then.
and why can't these "applications" always run if its necessary for their purpose?

Is Locale running on the desktop? No...

That's what makes a Widget a...... widget

Examples of widgets are the round clock or the google search bar. The reason the SDK hasn't been released yet is due to security threats. Should be here sometime around Q1 of 2009.

[constellanation]

Ok. So one runs on the desktop the other in the background. Once again computer illiteracy here, but wouldn't something running hidden in the background have just as much possible malicious coding as something on the desktop?

[jmejiaa]

Android is designed so when a program is running in the background it is really in pause mode or something. You can do some things, like I guess locale does but I don't think the program is running 100%. With a Widget you now have an app running 100% of the time. Once the Widget sdk is available I expect to see some awesome widgets like stocks, clocks, weather, sports. a lot of real time stuff right on your desktop.


Ps... With a widget sdk I'm guessing it would be a lot easier to make a universal virtual keyboard.

[constellanation]

starting to make a bit more sense now, thank you.

in other words once there are widgets then people will really start to complain about battery life

[momentarylapseofreason]

jme, If I remember correctly, it has something to do with the way the Widgets send and receive info from the "main program" that posed a security risk. Pretty sure I read it somewhere in the developers section on Google. But hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself will jump in here.

[constellanation]

The sending and receiving of info makes sense since I'm supposing the widget has access to the innerworking code of the device where as the app only has access to that info once?