One of the best things about toting around an Android phone is the way you can make it yours. Wallpapers, widgets, icon sets, even system apps can all be customized just about any darn way you please, and Christmas is a great time to do it! We dug around and found a few things you could use to get your Android phone into the Christmas spirit, check 'em out after the break.
Wallpapers
Did you notice we've set up a wallpaper gallery where you can share as well as download wallpapers built for your Android device? It's filling up with some great stuff, including some awesome holiday wallpapers. Whether you want something sparkly, subtle, fun, or observant, you're covered. And you can download them straight to your device via e-mail. Getting into the Christmas spirit was never so easy.
Live wallpapers
Live wallpapers are pretty unique to Android, and there's a slew of them available with a Christmas theme. 20 pages full to be exact! You're bound to find something there that tickles your holiday fancy, and all tastes are pretty well covered. My two favorites are Snowflakes Live Wallpaper by Chris Cooper ($1.49), and Christmas Girls Live Wallpaper ed. 2 by ATPUA (free). You'll find hundreds of others to choose from if naughty Santa girls or falling snow isn't for you.
Christmas themed widgets
Just like the live wallpapers, there's a ton of Christmas themed widgets available for Android. Countdowns, advent calendars, clocks, stickers, even a battery meter or two. A couple of my favorites are Christmas Snow Clock by 7art Studio (free) and Christmas Battery Widget by Mr. Fixit (free). Widgets are a great way to see information at a glance, and when they get you in the Christmas mood they're even better. Go grab a few!
Icons and themes for third party launchers
Android users know that you're not stuck using the home screen launcher and application drawer that the folks who made you phone decided on. There's plenty of other choices out there, like ADWLauncher EX (an office favorite) or Go Launcher EX (winner of the popular vote), and they can be customized in ways you've never thought of. From changing icons, to reskinning the whole launcher, you'll find something to fit any taste in the Android Market. The best part is that you can try any of them out, and if you find it's just not for you, uninstall it with a click. No permanent changes are made to the factory settings and you're right back where you started. Every Android user needs to check out a few custom system apps, it's half the fun of owning one!
Got your phone (or tablet) all decked out for the holiday season? Share your pics and setup in the forums, we all would love to have a look. Merry Christmas, and happy holidays, folks!
Reader comments
Dress up your Android for Christmas
Or don't change last numbers of image on my link past number 31. She's nice but personally I don't
The girl in the picture is Nicole Graves
More important, do those things start bouncing or something with the LWP version?
wait a min... I always thought Xmas was about birth of Jesus? whats up with the pornstar with huge augmented cleavage on the home screen???
The christmas wallpaper (pictured) is a scam, it puts two fake widgets on your homescreen(s): "search" and "market", both designed to try to fool people. The description is taken right off of wikipedia and it doesn't even run well, it runs like crap and looks stupid........
Did you even research these?
I wondered where those two apps came from. Almost yelled at my son. time to delete.
Would someone please be able to tell me what icon package is used for the first image?
Re: funky permissions on the Santa's girls app: Some would say this kind of thing doesn't happen in the WP7 app store...but then again, what does?
She got some nice "headlights". :D
I definitely don't see an android there
That girl wallpaper has some not so nice permission requirements
That's exactly what I was gonna say. AC should definitely NOT be promoting that one.
Jerry's wife must be out shopping with Phil's wife today what with all the things these two lonely guys are posting today.
Christmas Tits! Where's that mistletoe when you need it...
- "Naughty Santa girls"
- Verizon still showing those crappy "I really want to be a robot" ads.
Sigh. Maybe 2012 will be the year that Android tries to get women to buy their phones instead of blatantly pushing us toward iStuff.
Verizon*
Verizon's advertising is just stupid and his remark about "Naughty Santa girls" was a joke. I'm not sure if you're an Android user yourself or not but you might remember a phone called HTC Rhyme which was pretty much made for females. So... yeah. Android isn't pushing anybody away.
A phone. A single phone marketed at women. Give HTC a cookie.
Meanwhile, Apple makes a whole line of them. You may have heard of these "iPhones". Women buy them in larger numbers than Androids.
And yeah, I'm a huge Android fan. But this kind of catering to 14 year olds and male centric advertising really pisses me off. It's like Android providers, advertisers, and blog writers don't even want my business.
You're being absolutely ridiculous.
"Meanwhile, Apple makes a whole line of them" - They sure don't, they make one, generic model, as does almost every other OEM.
How is Android targeted at men? Verizon sells Droid branded phones, as in, George Lucas robots, how is this Android fault? One slightly chauvinistic article and you write off Android as being male focused?
Again, you're being absolutely ridiculous.
Wake up, man.
I don't even know what that means...
It means... hand over your "man card".
No one knows what it means, it's provocative it gets the people going.
KANYE or Stepbrothers
you do realize its called marketing for a reason. if the company's making all of this content you dont like were not benefiting from it, i think they would try something different. maybe one day, kittens and good old fashion family fun will be outselling half naked ladies and call of duty, but for now, I'm pretty sure all the real money is in the latter of the two.
you probably shouldn't get too pissed off from the people that are just giving everybody what they want. get pissed off at everybody that wants that kind of content.
I don't need advertisers to cater to tired gender stereotypes to sell me a product. You may want that, but I, as a fellow female Android owner, would find that incredibly insulting.
Android is more of a geek phone than an iPhone is, and if all you want to do with a phone is play games, text, and surf the web, which is what most women, and probably most men, want to do with their phone, then you'll gravitate toward the iPhone because it's well-established, well-supported, easily recognized, and doesn't require a ton of comparison shopping to buy. There's also a much wider variety of accessories available for it, and you can be guaranteed to find ones designed for your phone in any store that sells electronics.
As much as I like that christmas girl live wallpaper... One has to wonder why it needs full network access as well as access to your browser history.
Yeah, I wondered about the bookmarks and history permission, as well. As much as I like to have nice ornaments displayed to celebrate the season, think I'll pass on this one (unless someone can vouch for the purpose of the permissions).
Yea, I was going to download until I saw the permissions associated with the app. It's not an SMS app, it's a live wallpaper.
Why not use Avast! give it root permissions, and revoke the access to the items you don't want it to have access to.
Or is rooting to scary?
Pretty sure thats LBE Privacy guard, never seen avast do that (I have both installed)
Better to apply normal wallpaper - it's Nicole Graves - http://www.mobilenations.com/
Just a warning to everyone, don't Google image search her if you have family around. It won't be a Christmastime, family-friendly search result. :)
Or don't change last numbers of image on my link past number 31. She's nice but personally I don't like fake ones.
Watchdog keeps alerting me that this app is using over 40% of my Cpu continuously. No thanks.
I love Christmas balls! ;)
With or without glitter?