Dynamic and custom colors on a Zooper Widget Battery indicator

This past week on my Android customization series over at Android Authority, I took a quick look at a way to dynamically change the color of a battery element in a Zooper Widget.

The idea is simple, if your battery level is below a certain threshold, the icon or text turns red, if you have your device plugged in, it is all green and the rest of the time your icon and text is simply white.

Zooper Widget is great for this sort of advanced operation, and we didn't even need to tie into Tasker to get the job done. The only downside is that Zooper Widget's Advanced Parameters can be a little much to swallow the first time you dive in. That is why I not only go through the steps and the thought process, but simply give you the string that will make it all work for you.

Make your music charge your phone

While most of us are struggling to keep a charge on our phones and other mobile devices, we often turn to bigger batteries, extra power sources and software power saving measures to get through our day. While all of these measure satisfy our needs, researchers in London have another approach in mind, charging a device with sound.

The premise is simple, kinetic energy is harnessed to produce electricity, we've heard about this in numerous Japanese roads and walkways, and even old wrist watches that shake to charge. Sure, the tech is a little different, but the idea remains the same, physical actions performed on an object can be converted into electricity.

In the case of Queen Mary University in London, the devices are made to be not much larger than a couple quarters in size, small enough to fit inside the average smartphone, and accepts the vibration from sounds to do all the dirty work.