14
Jan
2013-01-14_11h35_02

This Awesome Homescreen Uses Photos Of Real Objects As App Icons, Is Beautiful

Posted by in News

Forget skeuomorphism. Why do we need things that look like objects if we can just use actual objects? That's what reddit user and notable George Bruns ballad davy_crockett thought. Using a combination of Apex launcher's ability to resize the icon grid and MultiPicture Live Wallpaper to use multiple photos for different homescreens, he created a layout that's made up entirely of real-world things. Want to play music? Tap the headphones. Need the clock? Hit the watch! It's that simple.

THINGS

The neat thing about this concept, though, is that if you want to do it yourself, there are virtually no limits to how much your homescreens can differ from this one.

28
Oct
N10_ss

[Weekend Poll] Do You Prefer The Classic 10" Tablet Layout, Or The New Hybrid UI?

Posted by in Polls

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see Pick A Phablet Edition: HTC DLX, Samsung Galaxy Note II, Or LG Optimus Vu II?

The release of the Nexus 7 brought a new phone/tablet hybrid UI to Android tablets. And today, most people agree that it works well - on the 7-inch form factor, anyway. The latest leaks from the upcoming Nexus 10 suggest that Google will keep using that same hybrid UI, despite having a display that's a few inches bigger in each direction.

As David correctly pointed out, the result is that the phone and tablet UIs are now virtually identical.

21
Aug
flixstertiny

Movies By Flixster App Gets Updated To Support New Android Style Guide, 7" Tablets, For Better Or Worse

Posted by in Applications, News

Movies by Flixster has a very interesting design history. The developers behind this app are usually among the first to adopt new Android design guidelines—they had a Honeycomb-style action bar back when the Xoom was the only Android tablet around—and today it got another new refresh. The good news is that now it looks better on the Nexus 7, as opposed to the broken mess it was before. Now, for the bad news.

2012-08-21 12.54.50 2012-08-21 11.56.46 2012-08-21 12.55.00

It doesn't look very good. Not that it looks bad, mind you. But if you were worried that you'd just be using a bunch of giant phone apps with your shiny new Nexus, Flixster isn't going to do much to put you at ease.

18
Apr
image

[For Developers] ADT 20/SDK Tools r20 Previews Are Here - Brand New Property Editor(!), NDK Support, Performance Improvements, Bug Fixes Galore

Posted by in Development, News

As an Android developer, I like to keep tabs on the tools I use every day, especially ones as important as ADT for Eclipse and SDK Tools. As was the case several times before, the Android team in charge of both of them posted previews of upcoming releases of ADT 20 and SDK Tools r20, available for manual download ahead of the final releases.

Yup, you heard me correctly - 20, not 18 or 19. Even though the previous major release was 17, 18 followed up shortly after with some minor changes, and 19, even more minor, wasn't even posted to the downloads page (see here for the reason).

18
Jan
unnamed (5)

[New App] TurboCollage Creates Fun Picture Pile Collages In Moments

Posted by in Applications, News

Adding an entry to the long list of novelty photo apps in the Android Market, SilkenMermaid has introduced TurboCollage - an aptly named app that allows users to make "picture pile" collages in just a few moments, with a surprising amount of control options.

unnamed

Once you selects images to be included in the collage, the photos can be rotated, resized, scaled, and layered, to create a collage that perfectly matches your vision. If you're looking for a more dynamic, random aesthetic, TurboCollage also has a "shuffle" option, which will randomly reorder your photos for a totally new layout.

When you're done creating your collage, you can add customizable text, choose a border, and save the collage, either for later editing, or for instantly sharing with your friends on Facebook.