In most cases, the relationship between Tasker and Kustom Live Wallpaper Maker is one where Tasker sends data to KLWP, and KLWP triggers tasks in Tasker. The former is easily solved using the Tasker plugin or the JSON method I posted, while the latter can be done by using a Touch action with a Tasker shortcut. Sending dynamic data from KLWP to Tasker is however less intuitive, but not difficult.

To be frank, there are probably several ways to do this, but I just went with my first instinct: AutoApps. João Dias has a tendency to provide solutions to my problems a year or so before I know I need them. In this case, the solution is AutoTools. AutoTools has a feature where you can use a URI to send commands from anything that can “open link”, as KLWP calls it. …

In a previous post I went over over how awesome JSON is as a tool for Tasker. That post laid the groundwork for talking about something I briefly mentioned in my first post about Kustom Live Wallpaper Maker: using JSON to send large amounts of data to KLWP (and presumably its sibling, Kustom Widget Maker/KWGT).

KLWP has a Tasker plugin, but this plugin is basic to say the least. It lets you set a KLWP variable, and that’s it. It’s very useful for some things, like toggles or short pieces of information, but for large arrays and whatnot it’s not ideal. …

Word of caution: this post will require some knowledge of Tasker. There are plenty of guides out there, including ones written by me years ago on Pocketables.

Now, to the topic of this post: making an Audible series notification system. Audible.com is an Amazon-owned service for audio books, and realistically the only real option out there for audio books in my opinion. While I love the books it sells me, the service itself is absolutely horrible from a technical point of view. Everything about its back end and its apps is outdated, to the point where most of what I complained about in a post six years ago is still the case. One of the most annoying issues to me personally is that even though so many audio books are part of a series, Audible offers no way to properly keep up with them. …

In my post about KLWP I mentioned how AutoTools‘ JSON options power part of my setup. Before I cover the KLWP aspect of that, I thought it only logical to dedicate a post to the features’ usefulness in Tasker itself, as it may just be one of the most powerful plugin options available in Tasker at the moment.

To start off, here’s (part of) the official description of JSON from json.org:

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate.

To put that in Tasker terms, JSON is variables and arrays on steroids. It basically allows you to nest arrays and variables in a way that creates a “database” of them that is easy to work with. To give you a visual reference to work with, take a look at some JSON generated by one of my Tasker tasks below. …

My love for Tasker (and its add-ons) is, shall we say, well documented. In the last year, however, it has been joined by another customization app that has plenty to offer people like me who like to make their phone their own: Kustom Live Wallpaper Maker (KLWP).

KLWP and its sibling, Kustom Widget Maker (KWGT), both offer ways to make your own homescreen UIs. Whereas KWGT does this by letting you create widgets, KLWP does it by letting you create your own interactive live wallpapers. These aren’t your traditional “videos” playing as your wallpaper, however, and can be better described as full screen megawidgets that can entirely replace everything on your homescreen, be it icons, widgets, or the need for multiple screens. In comparison, the widget version is a simpler, but more limited alternative that just places widgets on your homescreen along with everything else. They share an editing UI, which uses a combination of a WYSIWYG UI and “formulas”, small scripts with its own syntax that process information like grabbing weather info for a specific day. KLWP and KWGT share many of the same features, but with some differences due to what the underlying “platform” (live wallpapers or widgets) are capable of. …