This last week was crazy for HD Widgets. We took part in Google’s 10 Billion promotion and the results far exceeded our expectations. We thought we’d see a big bump in users, maybe 20k-30k. Instead we had 150k downloads in a single day!  Our app hit the #2 spot on the Paid Apps lists on Monday and now we’re settling down among the top 20 apps. From launch to top 20 in 5 weeks – yeah, crazy. Big thanks to everyone =)

HD Widgets also got a few updates yesterday. The big one was custom hot spots – you can now pick what app is launched when you click the clock and date. Weather and forecasts will continue to launch the big weather activity screen. And finally any of the hotspots can now be turned off. Also, we added about a dozen new Galaxy Note sized widgets and fixed some time-related issues.

What’s next? We’re going to take care of the basics in small steps for now, and save big updates for big releases. Next for Cloudskipper is better library navigation, including Folders, Podcasts, Genres, and Options Menu shortcuts. For HD Widgets we’re working on new switches and switch groups, as well as some new widgets (4×1 header, 2×1 clock).

That’s it.  Happy Holidays everyone!

https://market.android.com/details?id=apps_timed_promotion

We’re seeing 50-250 downloads per minute and it’s only 8am! Should be a busy day =)

In the meantime, we are paying attention to your feedback and ratings and we’re learning a lot. For example, there’s a bunch of new devices that have awesome new screens that don’t fit into existing parameters. We’ve been scouring Craigslist and Amazon so we can pick up these devices and start making HD Widgets (and Cloudskipper) work just as well on those devices as those we already possess.

We just picked up a Samsung Captivate to replace one of the Galaxy SII we had on loan. We’ve also ordered a Galaxy Nexus and expect that this week (just in time?). I’m picking up an Evo 3D Wednesday morning. That just leaves the Galaxy Tab and/or Note for us to figure out the 5x? size widgets.

We really care about design and quality, so the Android emulator just isn’t enough. By having these devices in our possession we can figure out obvious pitfalls in advance. We should have fixes for QHD devices in the next day or so and we should be ready for XHDPI screens a few days after that.

We have you guys to thank for making it so we can afford to keep up, so… thanks! =)

Big thanks to all of the blogs, writers and everyone who’s downloading. Your support is mightily appreciated!

Phones & Tablets

HD Widgets 2.0 moves from Tablet only to all Android Devices
- Android Spin

HD Widgets expanded for phones and 7-inch tablets
-Android Central

HD Widgets v2.1 now supports phones and 7″ tablets
- Android Community

HD Widgets 2.0 brings support for more screen sizes, more widgets
- Android Guys

HD Widgets App Receives 2.0 Update, Brings Support to Smartphones
- Talk Android

Tablets

HD Widgets Gives You Beautiful Weather and Clock Widgets for Your Android Honeycomb Tablet
- Phandroid

Sweeten Your Honeycomb Experience with HD Widgets
- Android Guys

HD Widgets App: Made for Honeycomb and look amazing
- Android Community

Cloud.tv introduces HD Widgets – fully customizable widgets designed specifically for Honeycomb tablets
- Android Central

HD Widgets For Android Devices, Look Especially Snazzy On Honeycomb Tablets
- Droid Life

HD Widgets gives Honeycomb custom clock, weather, and toggle widgets
- Androinica

Cloud.tv Launches HD Widgets App For Honeycomb Tablets
- Talk Android

HD Widgets offer Big Widgets for Big Screens
- Android Spin

HD Widgets 2.0 is a universal app for Android phones and Honeycomb tablets, and is the first to offer 7″ tablet size widgets (6×2, 6×1, 3×5).

Existing users may update for free on all of their Android devices.

The app’s UI provides an early taste of Ice Cream Sandwich, particularly in the tab & page navigation. In fact, swipe is fundamental to the core experience: almost all navigation and customization is done via left/right swipe gestures.

As a widget app, HD Widgets 2.0 was made to be as lightweight and flexible as possible. The app uses 4 unique apks based on screen size & resolution. Each version supplies only the images necessary for that particular device, thus reducing storage space while providing pixel-perfect resolution.

This latest release is totally reorganized and built for future expansion. The old Preview activity has been replaced with two new activities: Active Widgets for finding and customizing existing widgets and Themes to preview each theme’s collection. Quick Tips have been replaced with a User Guide to help new Android users who are unfamiliar with widgets. Finally, all HD Widgets are now organized by size groups (1×1, 2×1, etc) making it easy to locate them at the start of your widget menu.

We didn’t expect to do a giant huge update – we only wanted to get it ported to phones. But soon into development we realized this was going to be a brand new app (4 actually) under the hood. Existing 10″ tablet users will notice only a few changes: widgets are thicker and there’s a few new ones. But the phone app and 7″ tablet layouts are entirely new.

This also took much longer than we had planned. We can finally return to focus on Cloudskipper for the next few months. We’ll work on bug fixes but we’re not planning to add any major features to HD Widgets until after Cloudskipper 2.0 is released. Still, we may toss in one or two new themes, just to keep things interesting or if we get wrestless.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with testing and support, and additional thanks to everyone who bought the app – you make it easy for us to keep this up.

For everyone else – support the cause! Get off the fence and go download HD Widgets now =)

Mike’s Desk

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Motorola Xoom 10.1, Samsung Galaxy S II, & Nexus One

Radley’s Desk

Motorola Droid 2, Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Droid Eris, Acer Iconia Tab A100, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, & Nook Color (shot on an iPhone 3GS)

Note: all cables have been removed and tucked away in the interest of good taste…

Oh yeah…

500k. Half-million. 500,000 Cloudskipper installs. Wooooot!

We’re pretty happy today. When we started Cloudskipper this year, we set a goal – can we hit 500k installs by fall? It was a big test and milestone for us, so time for happy dance =)

Thank you everyone!

(happy scene thnx to Monsieur Jacques)

We finally have product pages and if you look close enough you’ll get a hint of what’s coming.

We’re hoping to get support and community services up before the end of the year. We don’t mind answering questions one-on-one, but it may be helpful to have something available for quick searches.

Long weekend… big week ahead =)

Big thanks to everyone for your support. Keep sending us feedback. Lots more to come!

Have a great weekend… and don’t forget to go download HD Widgets =)

Big thanks to the tech bloggers and everyone who took a look, especially the downloaders

Here’s our round-up:

HD Widgets Gives You Beautiful Weather and Clock Widgets for Your Android Honeycomb Tablet
- Phandroid
(bonus points for the ultra-seo title, wow!)

Sweeten Your Honeycomb Experience with HD Widgets
- Android Guys
(winner: most clever title)

HD Widgets App: Made for Honeycomb and look amazing
- Android Community

Cloud.tv introduces HD Widgets – fully customizable widgets designed specifically for Honeycomb tablets
- Android Central

HD Widgets For Android Devices, Look Especially Snazzy On Honeycomb Tablets
- Droid Life
(special “stuff my dad says” award for use of “snazzy” in title ^_^ )

HD Widgets gives Honeycomb custom clock, weather, and toggle widgets
- Androinica

Cloud.tv Launches HD Widgets App For Honeycomb Tablets
- Talk Android

HD Widgets offer Big Widgets for Big Screens
- Android Spin

Thanks again everyone!