We're moving

Hi!

It's been a long time without news here. This will be the last post in Blogger.

I've decided to have a more dynamic Web presence, to continue publishing news about my apps and to have where to talk with their users.

So Month Calendar Widget and its extension apps are heading to the brand new MCW and extension apps Google+ community.

See you there!

Month Calendar Widget 1.5.5 and MCW Lockscreen Extension 1.0.0 are out

Version 1.5.5 of Month Calendar Widget is on Google Play now, and this time it's accompanied by a new app: MCW Lockscreen Extension 1.0.0, the first extension to the widget. The idea of an extension is to provide new features as an option, without bloating the main widget. More on this in a separate blog post, I promise!

MCW version 1.5.5 brings these new features:

• Compatibility with Android 4.4 KitKat and Google Experience Launcher: The widget was tested and works perfectly under the latest Android version, 4.4 a.k.a. KitKat. For those users that have the new Nexus 5 smartphone which comes with the new Google Experience Launcher (or for those of you that have downloaded GEL separately), MCW works without problems with it too. Take into account that this new Google launcher simplifies the widget installation a bit, and now it works more in the line of versions up to Gingerbread. You start by pressing and holding in an empty space on home. See How to put Month Calendar Widget on your Home screen
• Extensions support: MCW now has an extensible architecture that allows to download separate apps from Google Play that work together with the main widget, and complement it with new features. The first one is MCW Lockscreen Extension, more will come in the future. Most probably next extension will deal with the long awaited Google Calendar connection
• Download extensions directly from Settings: From the Settings screen you can now see which extensions you have installed, and if one of them it's not, you can download it from there by just tapping on the name listed
• Resizing for all launchers: The widget is resizable natively with this version, that means it works with all launchers, provided you are using Android 3.x or later. Please note that this feature works only when the Stretch widget option is activated. If you don't show it stretched, resizing will "lie": the widget will occupy more space in the screen but will look the same. Another note: if you resize the widget too big, dates will probably look too small. A future version will make font sizes adjustable while resizing happens.

MCW Lockscreen Extension version 1.0.0 as I said is the first extension that complements Month Calendar Widget, and once installed it simply allows putting the widget in your lockscreen (Android 4.2 or greater is required). In the Google Play app description you will find how to use MCW in the lockscreen.

By the way, this extension app is the first paid app I'm releasing, hope that it will sell well ;). Future extensions most probably will be paid too.

EDIT Nov 29 - Just one final clarification: the introduction of extensions doesn't mean the basic widget, that is the Android widget that you are using for free, won't be updated anymore. It will. This will be explained more extensively in the blog post I mentioned at the beginning.

As always, I welcome any feedback you may have. Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Month Calendar Widget version 1.5.0 is out

(Old news by now, the app was updated on October 3rd, but this post must see the light :)

A new version of Month Calendar Widget, 1.5.0, is on Google Play now, bringing these features:

• Layout adjustments for tablets and high resolution devices: The widget looks better on tablets and newer high resolution devices, such as Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. The highest resolution available in Android, xxhdpi, is now supported
• Compatibility with latest Android version: The app now targets the latest Android version to date (Jelly Bean 4.3) and follows Android design guidelines regarding padding and sizing, i.e. will coexist better with other home screen widgets. Also this prepares the way for new features only available to Android 4.x and greater
• Simplified instructions screen: The instructions screen is more clear giving a helping hand to users who don't know how an Android home screen widget works. It looks nicer too :)
• Show days of previous and next month option: This new option toggles the visibility of days from previous and next month. When used they are shown dimmed
• Stretch widget option: This will stretch the widget boundaries to the edges of its assigned space (3 cells wide by 2 cells tall for the 3x2 version, 4 cells wide by 3 cells tall for the 4x3). Using this option the widget will have a wider layout, opposite to the "classic" square layout of the calendar
• Settings button on the widget for easy acces to configuration: A little settings button can occupy the lower right corner of the calendar. Tapping it will bring the Settings screen. No need to remove/re-add widget anymore to change something
• Show/hide settings button option: If you prefer a cleaner look, the new Settings button can be hid. If you need to configure the widget again, you must remove/re-add it as usual

A pair of notes regarding the new Stretch widget option:

• When using a bigger than "normal" system font size, this option can solve the often reported issue of clipped dates. Not a definitive solution, but acceptable in my opinion. (By the way, I could make the dates font size fixed, but that way I would be overriding the user preference, and choose to do not so)
• Using this option with some launchers like Nova and Go, you'll get a resizable widget (warning: It won't look very well if you resize it too big). The resizing feature for all launchers will come anyway in a future version, with a more polished aspect

I hope you enjoy this version, it took longer than expected but I'm pretty sure it's worth it.

Month Calendar Widget version 1.4.0 is out

A new version of Month Calendar Widget, 1.4.0, is on Google Play now. At first glance it seems the same old widget, and yes, from a visual and functional point of view it is, but it has two major improvements:

• As I wrote in the previous post, the widget now adapts itself better "to the myriad of different screen resolutions and sizes in the Android world, while paving the way to future enhancements that will take advantage of new Android features and also will allow more widget customization". Version 1.4.0 introduces a new flexible layout that accomplish these objectives. If you have seen in your widget (for instance) the last row of dates clipped, it should look good now with 1.4.0. Regarding features now made possible thanks to the internal redesign, an example is widget resizing (although this feature brings some tricky issues such as how to make fonts bigger/smaller and what to do with the fixed size graphics arrows)
• Navigation between months now is faster. The arrows feels more responsive to touch, even in the smaller 3x2 widget

Last news in version 1.4.0 is a removed feature: the Autoadjust column width setting isn't needed anymore because of the mentioned internal redesign. The option was introduced in version 1.3.0 in order to solve misaligned dates in some devices. The layout improvements of 1.4.0 make this setting unnecessary.

Next step: define a clear roadmap for Month Calendar Widget, including the future pro version.

Stay tuned!

Month Calendar Widget surpassed 1 million downloads

Great news!

Yesterday Month Calendar Widget surpassed the 1 million download mark!

Thanks to all who downloaded it and gave feedback. Specially to those who sent emails and waited a lot for a response (that times are gone, recently I took the good habit of answering pretty soon).

What's next? Right now I'm finishing details of version 1.4.0 which will bring more adaptability to the myriad of different screen resolutions and sizes in the Android world, while paving the way to future enhancements that will take advantage of new Android features and also will allow more widget customization.

Thanks again!

I can reply reviews in Google Play

Hi Month Calendar Widget users, great news.

Since today I'm allowed to reply your reviews in Google Play. I cannot promise to answer every review, but I always read all of them and will continue to do so in order to improve the app.

Please make sure you read carefully the app's description before posting your review, and also when possible use kind words ;). By the way: Spanish is my mother language, and I know English and Portuguese. I will answer in English when receiving comments in other languages.

Thank you all.

Month Calendar Widget Version 1.3.1 is out

Version 1.3.1 is now on Google Play. The widget looks good now for Android 4.x users that saw a clipped widget on version 1.3.0. Also Android reports the correct sizes, 3x2 and 4x3.

Many thanks to N.Ch., d_k and Keving Hastings, the users that helped to diagnose the problem.

Sorry for the inconvenience introduced in the previous version. Stay tuned for more upgrades in the future.