I thought the live wallpapers we’re one of the coolest things about Android 2.1. Like the one that shows you an animated mock up of the inside of your phone or the Mario Live Wallpaper, which has stolen hours of my life.
The dynamic desktop is an area with massive imaginative potential; it can be useful, as well as fun, with system meters, live reminders and even web tools all available from your home screen.
What a shame that only developers can build these lovely little toys – wouldn’t it be nice if you or I could make our own?
Well now we can! Thanks to xda-developers neat little app, Ownskin UGC. Its more of a powerful customizer than an actual development tool but its still a very cool idea and they plan to include web functionality soon, which will make it super cool.
Not available from the Android market at the moment, you can download the current version from xda’s own site and if there is an interest we can do a full blown review here. My guess is that this is just the first of its kind and soon we will all be able to customize our phones in deep new ways.
If you don’t want to wait and you’ve got the Android SDK, as we know a lot of our readers do, why not have a go at knocking up one of your own, its really not that difficult especially if you’ve programmed with Canvas or SurfaceView before. The boys in green will tell you how here.