[SOLVED] Use Pattern Unlock and display "Phone Lost" text

[bamhm182]

Problem: I wanted to be able to show a message to anyone who would find my phone in the event that I lost it. There are some programs on the Market that did EXACTLY this, but I didn't like how they did it. With a pattern unlock, it either wouldn't show the text, or it would crunch the pattern unlock into a VERY tiny space.

Solution: Downloaded the 2 following applications:

WidgetLocker - This application shows a lock screen automatically before your phone's default locking mechanism is shown. HIGHLY customizable, and recommended even if you don't want to do exactly what I'm doing.

Memo Widget - Allows you to make a note and display it in a widget.

1. Open Memo Widget, set up a note saying something like "If you find this phone, contact:<info>"
2. Open WidgetLocker. Add Memo Widget widget to screen by holding down on an empty spot on the screen and clicking widget. Then select your note.
3. ???
4. Profit!

NOTES:
* I was just thinking about this, and it might not be the BEST idea to rely on a widget for the text. Obviously, if you're using both programs, there's 2 things that must work, whereas if you're only using WidgetLocker with a custom background, only WidgetLocker needs to work.
* The default MemoWidget widget cut off some of my text, so solve this, hold down on the widget in WidgetLocker for 3 seconds, then let go. From there you can change the size of the widget to make all the text fit.
* The default MemoWidget widget tries to open MemoWidget when it's clicked. To disable this for WidgetLocker, hold down on the widget for 3 seconds, let go, and click the hand icon in the top right corner.
* The WidgetLocker app shows a notification in the notification bar by default. I like to have as few notifications as possible, so I disabled this by going to Settings > Advanced > Hide Notification Icon.

Hope this helped some people! This was something that I really liked about my Blackberry, but completely forgot about until just now. Might not be a MUST HAVE feature, but you'll be kicking yourself when you lose your phone and don't have this.

Original Post:

Spoiler

First off, I'm on Cyanogen7. Not sure if that matters since the part of the OS I'm concerned with appears the same in cm7 as it does on the stock rom, but I figured I'd point it out anyway.

Now on to the problem. When I turn on my phone, I'd like to show the slide to unlock screen, then when I slide it, pull up the pattern unlock screen. When I set the password to an actual password or to a pin, it works like I want it to, but when I have a pattern password, it brings me straight to the pattern password page when I turn on my phone.

The main reason for wanting to do this is so that I can use one of the many programs that shows all my information when I go to unlock my phone. That way, if someone finds my phone, they can know where to return it to.

 

[MisterB]

First off, I'm on Cyanogen7. Not sure if that matters since the part of the OS I'm concerned with appears the same in cm7 as it does on the stock rom, but I figured I'd point it out anyway.

Now on to the problem. When I turn on my phone, I'd like to show the slide to unlock screen, then when I slide it, pull up the pattern unlock screen. When I set the password to an actual password or to a pin, it works like I want it to, but when I have a pattern password, it brings me straight to the pattern password page when I turn on my phone.

The main reason for wanting to do this is so that I can use one of the many programs that shows all my information when I go to unlock my phone. That way, if someone finds my phone, they can know where to return it to.

Not sure if this'll work, but you could probably make an image file, where you type in your email address or other contact info and then save the image as your wallpaper/lock screen image.

 

[bamhm182]

Not sure if this'll work, but you could probably make an image file, where you type in your email address or other contact info and then save the image as your wallpaper/lock screen image.

This would work perfect, if you could have a different lockscreen and main wallpaper. Unfortunately, I'm only seeing the ability to set one image for both. For now, I'm going to do this, but it just seems a bit... Tacky... to have my information on my standard wallpaper. So if anyone knows how I can do that, please let me know.

Thanks.

EDIT: Cleaning this post up a little. I posted the solution to my problem in the original post. It's remedied by using a combination of 2 applications, WidgetLocker and Memo Widget. Fully explained in the original post.

Hid text so post's cleaner:

Spoiler

EDIT: After looking around for a second, I found WidgetLocker. It seems to be exactly what I wanted (and more, possibly). I'll test that out and let you know what I think of it in a minute.

EDIT 2: After messing around with WidgetLocker for a bit, I can safely say this is ALMOST perfect, and it is exactly what I needed/wanted. The only thing I can think of right now that I'd like to see added is the ability to create a "note" on the screen, so you could just have a black background, and then drag a note onto the screen that contains your information, but you can easily create a background with a note in just about any image editor, and there's probably even some apps on the Market so you can do this directly from your phone. I'm going to contact the dev and see what he thinks about this anyway though.

Another thing to like about it is that you can use custom sliders on any phone, rooted or not. cm7 allows you to use a custom slider, so that feature isn't a MUST HAVE for rooted users, but it's still nice.

EDIT 3: Got a solution to my "easily making well aligned text" problem. This application supports widgets. There's an application called Memo Widget on the Market for free that lets you write a note and use it like a widget. I created a note, added the widget to the unlock screen I had set up, then there was only 1 other problem. When the note was clicked on, it brought them to the pattern unlock screen. This isn't a HUGE problem, but I would prefer that not to happen. After messing around for a minute, I found out that WidetLocker lets you disable touches on a widget. To do this hold down on the widget for 3 seconds, then let go, there's a little hand icon up in the top right corner of the widget you can click on.