Remember back when Google showed off what Tasker could look like if it updated to support the new ICS guidelines and we all drooled? Then the dev behind it said that there's already a UI overhaul in the works and we started squirming in our seats? Well, today's the day we all freak out, because today the developer released a beta of Tasker 4.0b4 that shows off a completely redesigned interface.
If you want to get in on this action, you can download the APK here. There are two separate download links, one for those who have purchased Tasker from the developer directly in the past, and one for those who bought it from the Play Store.
The overhaul certainly looks nicer than the weird purple bubbles of the Gingerbread and earlier era. However, there are still a large number of quirks. For starters, while the app uses ICS+ style tabs, you can't swipe between them, which is something you don't think about much until you can't do it anymore. Also, when selecting actions, it very confusingly requires you to hit the "Up" button (in the top left corner with the arrow pointing to the left side of the screen) to accept changes. This is very strange and not intuitive at all.
Some things are just quirks that can likely be attributed to the app being a beta (like the lack of swiping gestures), however some things are simply baffling. When selecting ringtones, you can type in the name of the track you want to select, but you do not have the option of a regular ringtone picker.
Ultimately, it's hard to look at this redesign as something that is a finished product. In fact, it needs a lot of work before it's ready. Of course, in our world, we're used to high-profile companies releasing things that function nearly flawlessly and still calling it 'beta'. This is closer to what an actual beta product looks like and we're willing to give Tasker the benefit of the doubt because it has been so good to us over the years. If nothing else, it's just great that the developer is attempting to bring the app into the new Android era of UI design.
Source: Tasker