ClockDesk

Give your old Android device a second life as a stylish, ambient desk clock & smart display.

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📖 Overview

ClockDesk transforms any idle Android tablet or smartphone into a modern, glanceable bedside or workstation companion. Designed with both aesthetics and utility in mind, ClockDesk pairs rich personalization with built-in OLED burn-in prevention and energy-conscious rendering to ensure safe, long-term continuous display use.

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✨ Key Features

🕒 Personalized Clock & Typography

• Multiple Clock Styles: Choose from clean digital styles, minimal typography, and customizable layouts.
• Custom Font Engine: Load your favorite .ttf / .otf fonts and fine-tune variable font weights and axes.
• Fluid Visuals & Shaders: Smooth entrance animations, and ambient shader effects.
• Dynamic Palette Theming: Seamlessly extracts dominant and vibrant colors from backgrounds.

🖼️ Dynamic & Interactive Backgrounds

• Day / Night Cycle: Live astronomical calculation adapting background gradients and moods based on your exact local sunrise and sunset.
• Weather-Reactive Atmosphere: Backgrounds that respond visually to real-time local weather conditions (rain, snow, clouds, clear skies).
• Custom Wallpapers: Import personal photos with built-in aspect-ratio cropping, configurable blur strength, and dimming controls.

🧩 Modular Smart Chips System

• Glanceable Widgets: Drag-and-drop customizable chips that display critical information without clutter:
  • ⛅ Weather Chip: Live conditions, temperature, and detailed forecast dialogs.
  • ⚠️ Weather & Battery Alerts: Severe weather notifications and high-temperature / battery-state warnings.
  • ⏰ Alarm Chip: Next scheduled alarm time and countdown.
  • 🔄 Update Chip: Direct notification and changelog when new updates are available.
• Extensible Plugin Architecture: Third-party applications can supply custom chips via standard Android intents (com.nxd1frnt.clockdesk2.ACTION_QUERY_SMART_CHIPS).

🎵 "Now Playing" Music Integration

• System Media Session: Automatically detects and displays playback status, track metadata, and album artwork from active media apps (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, etc.) with playback controls.
• Last.fm Support: Native integration to display your live scrobbling activity directly on screen.
• Modular Music Sources: Reorder and toggle media providers using the unified plugin system.

🛡️ OLED & Screen Longevity

• Burn-In Protection: Subtle, periodic pixel shifting to prevent static image retention during continuous 24/7 desk use.
• Smart Pixels (AMOLED Saver): Selectively turns off a grid pattern of OLED sub-pixels to drastically cut power draw and heat generation.
• Power State Optimization: Automatically adapts update frequencies and rendering overhead when running on battery or in low-power modes.

🖥️ Launcher & Kiosk Friendly

• Home / Kiosk Mode: Can be set as the default Android Launcher (HOME intent) to turn older devices into dedicated smart displays.
• Interactive Drag-to-Position: Freely adjust the position of clock and widget elements to fit your setup and stand angle.
• Settings Backup & Restore: Export and import your customized configuration with ease.

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🛠️ Tech Stack & Architecture

• Language: Kotlin
• UI & Design: Material Components 3, AndroidX ConstraintLayout and custom OpenGL Shaders.
• Image Processing & Graphics: Glide, AndroidX Palette, ColorPickerView
• Networking: Volley HTTP library with caching for weather and geocoding services
• Storage & State: AndroidX Preferences with JSON backup/restore engine

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Minimum Android Version: Android 6.0 Marshmallow (API 23) or higher.
• Recommended Setup: Keep your device plugged into a dock or charger with landscape orientation enabled.

Permissions

For the best experience, ClockDesk utilizes:

• Location (ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION / ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION): Required for automated sunrise/sunset calculation and local weather forecasts.
• Notification Listener Access: Required if you want the "Now Playing" widget to read media sessions from apps like Spotify or YouTube Music.

Installation

1. Download the latest APK file matching your device architecture (or Universal) from the Releases page.
2. Allow installation from unknown sources if prompted.
3. Open ClockDesk, grant optional permissions, and follow the interactive tutorial to customize your desk clock!

Building from Source

Ensure you have the Android SDK and JDK 11+ installed:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nx-d1frnt/ClockDesk.git
cd ClockDesk

# Build debug APK
./gradlew assembleDebug

# Output APK location:
# app/build/outputs/apk/debug/

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🔌 Developing Plugins

ClockDesk 2.0 features an open plugin contract allowing external apps to provide custom widgets and music sources:

• Smart Chips Action: com.nxd1frnt.clockdesk2.ACTION_QUERY_SMART_CHIPS
• Music Plugins Action: com.nxd1frnt.clockdesk2.music.PLUGIN

Implement the plugin intent filters and contracts in your Android app to seamlessly display custom telemetry, IoT metrics, or media feeds on the ClockDesk display.

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome!

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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_{Created with ❤️ by nx-d1frnt}