Putting Elk on your Lock Screen

A currency converter is not what comes to mind when someone first look at Elk’s iPhone app.

A typical currency converter comes with a keypad to key in the value you wish to convert, and it converts one value at a time. Elk, on the other hand, has no way to directly key in any value. Instead, it presents a table with ten values on each column.

How It Got Started

A rates wallpaper that we created manually in Skitch and set as the Lock Screen wallpaper before we made Elk

The typical currency converter doesn’t work well for travellers for two reasons.

One, when you’re out shopping and dining, it is a hassle to take out the iPhone, unlock it, and launch an app. Two, keying in an exact value into the app takes time and effort. No matter how small the effort may seem, it adds up if you have to do it many times throughout the day.

What we discovered is that most of the time, there is little value in converting an exact value when you’re just shopping and dining.

For example, it is good enough to know that the grande-sized Cappuccino that costs ¥410 ($3.73) is about $3.64 (¥400).

To resolve these problems, we came up with a low-tech solution. Each time before we travel, we manually create a table of converted rates in Skitch and set it as the wallpaper on our Lock Screen.

It is a simple solution that works. We took inspiration from something static and made it dynamic in the iPhone app. It is still a reference list without the hassle of keyboard entry. You can swipe to left or right to increase or decrease the number of digits.

Elk Comes A Full Circle

We love the original idea so much we added support in Elk to create currency rates wallpaper.

By putting Elk on your Lock Screen with our rates wallpaper, you’ll no longer need to unlock your phone or launch any app to convert currencies.

Aside from a static image, we thought it will be fun to create a Live Photo wallpaper as well so that the rates are hidden until you do a 3D Touch on the Lock Screen.

Live Photo with currency rates table created in Elk set as lock screen wallpaper.

As always, the app is free for download. An in-app purchase is required to unlock all the features, including the ability to create rates wallpaper. There is also a 14-day free trial available.

The update, Elk 1.2, is now live in the App Store. Give it a try and let us know what you think!