[Android Apps and Games] Surfinette:
Hello everyone,

Well I guess I need some dev help on this one. Let me explain…

I’ve been looking for the perfect photo widget for ages (ie more than 2 years!)… and have never found something that would fit my needs… until very recently, I found this one Photo Widget in the google play store.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.mdzwonek.photowidgethd

This Photo Widget is potentially the best and coolest photo widget on the Android planet.

It has the following great features:

1)	Resizable

2)	One-tap launch of the photo gallery of your choice

3)	One-finger swipe through your photos directly from the widget itself

4)	A very cool look: Photos are shown as a stack, and a stack that look a bit different every time you swipe with your finger through the stack… which give a very natural feel for a stack (not a basic fixed stack of rectangle like the Samsung photo stack widget)

5)	A slide-show in the planning

Now, the bad news are:

1)	This widget is extremely buggy: almost unusable UI, random FCs in settings, sometimes very slow while swiping up to the point that some photos won’t even load (I suspect very large file won’t ever load at all)…

2)	The free version (which comes with one set of low-res frame) is ugly, so ugly that if you add the fact that is has so many bugs in it, nobody would want to keep it on its phone or would like to pay for the “paid” version which only offers additional frames…

But I’m very stubborn and since I felt this widget had huge potential… I insisted on using it. I found a way to load pictures (despite the buggy UI), found a way to use a different frame (without using the paid version, nor modifying the apk) by theming the widget through the Miui Theme app.

So here how it look on my phone in different sizes, cool isn’t it?

As you swipe through the frames, you’ll notice they show under a different angle. Cool, isn't it?

And here with the “ugly” original (low res) frame that comes with the free version, ugly isn’t it?

Now, I’d be willing to donate to the dev of this great widget, but only if I’m certain that this widget is still being developed. Unfortunately, I believe it’s not…

It’s not been updated since April, ie more than 6 months despite tons of bugs in the UI

I’ve been sending emails to the dev reporting bugs, congratulating him, encouraging him to pursue development,… I never got any answer (and this despite the fact that on its google play store page, he encourages users to report to him).

So here are my questions here for devs on XDA

1)	Given the development of this great widget seems stuck dead in the middle of nowhere, would it be possible for someone else to takeover its development without the permission of the original dev? I don’t know if it’s even possible (by breaking the APK), but would this be considered stealing? I’m against stealing apps myself (I pay for the apps that I like), but given this one is obviously no more being developed and currently so buggy that it is almost unusable…

2)	Alternatively, and probably best, would a dev here be willing to start over from scratch the development of a similar widget with the very same cool features as I described in the beginning of my post?

For those willing to try it, here how to load pictures in the widget without having a blank/empty picture…

1)	When you 1st load the widged, it will look like this where the dark blue rectangle represent an empty frame that you have to load or delete…

To delete the empty frame, you have to put your phone in landscape mode to see part of the Action buttons…. Scroll a bit down, and delete the empty frame.

2)	Now you want to load an entire folder with pictures in it. Put your phone back in Portrait mode and hit the folder button. Then hit the back button and navigate through your folder and select the one with your pics. Hit the Confirm button several times.

Your screen should now look like this.

By going back in landscape mode, you should again be able to delete unwanted photos. Hit Start when you are ready. Be careful not to choose too large picture files, or they won’t load and you'll get stuck with this:

3)	If during any of the previous steps, the widgets FCs then try again, maybe with a different picture folder…

I sincerely hope a dev will be willing to embark in this great project.

And of course, if the original dev of this widget comes across this post, please do not hesitate to join in the discussion and start over developping this widget again... I so much wish this development to continue so that this promising widget works properly.

Of course, I volunteer for testing any new devlopment...

Cheers

Surfinette