ui - 2/13 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Feb

Quick Tip: Long Press Google Search Suggestions To Pop Them Into The Search Bar

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, Tips & Tutorials

Remember that little diagonal arrow that used to appear next to suggestions in the Google Search box as you typed? The arrows could be used to insert suggestions into the search bar, while you kept typing away. For a while now, though, the arrows have been missing from Google Search. Those that want that feature back are in luck, however – astute Redditor Foxsbiscuits notes that a simple long-press will fling search suggestions into the search bar, providing essentially the same functionality with a slightly more discreet UI.

^{Before and After}

Keeping this handy tip in mind, your searches can be as quick and efficient as ever.

Jan

HTC-Made Au Infobar A02 Set To Hit Japan In Mid-February, Marrying A Highly Stylized Android UI With Playful Hardware Design

Posted by Liam Spradlin in HTC, Jelly Bean 4.1, News

Au's Infobar phone line has been around since 2001, always featuring plenty of color and hoping to bring innovative ideas to the smartphone world through eye-popping, unique design. Bringing another stylized entry to the lineup, Au has posted a brief dossier on the new Infobar A02, designed by Naoto Fukasawa and manufactured by HTC.

One of the device's main claims to fame is its apparent use of HTC's ImageSense chip, allowing for smooth burst capture. It's also waterproof and dustproof, and has plenty of specs to ogle. Among them are its 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 4.7" 720p display, 8MP camera, LTE support, and microSD slot.

Jan

Titanium Backup Gets Update To Version 6.0.0 – Redesigned Menu Another Step In The Wrong Direction

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Titanium Backup, one of the most powerful – and popular – backup utilities available for Android, got an update to version 6.0 today. Don't get too excited though – the version bump consists primarily of bug fixes and optimizations, along with a few updated translations. Oh, and a redesigned menu. Yes, Titanium Backup's design is finally getting some attention, but not quite in the way we'd hoped – take a look at the before and after screens below.

Jan

There's A New Tasker Beta In Town And It's Got A Redesigned Holo UI

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

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.

Jan

Don't Adjust Your Monitors: Google Just Updated The Web Play Store With Its Roboto Font Everywhere

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

If you fired up the web version of the Play Store today and everything felt a little off, don't panic. Google just decided to apply its Roboto font to all text on the site. Stock Android users will already be familiar with the typeface as the default setting for all written words on their Nexus devices. Outside of that family, though, it may be relatively unknown. Which is a shame, because it's beautiful.

^{The new...}

^{...and the old.}

That being said, in times past Roboto has not shown itself to be terribly versatile in scaling down to relatively low-ppi displays such as computer monitors and in this case it seems to work alright for headings, though to my eyes, some of the smaller text gets a little messy.

Jan

[CES 2013] ASUS Announces The Qube, A Google TV Box For People Who Like Their Angles Right And Their Lines Equal Lengths

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in ASUS, News, Qube

Okay, so the Google TV world has been a little stagnant lately. Alright, a lot stagnant. But! This is CES! There are plenty of new devices and gadgets and stuff to play with. While LG is on the other side of the show floor showing of its Google TVs (that is, TVs running Google TV), ASUS would like to introduce you to its Google TV box (that is, a box that runs Google TV that plugs into a TV...TV TV TV Google Google TV Google). The distinguishing feature on this one? It's a cube!

Yes, both the box itself and the UI feature cubes everywhere.

Jan

Tile Launcher Beta Makes Your Android Homescreen Feel A Little More Windows Phone-y

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Whether you use Windows Phone or not, chances are at some point you're going to have to get used to the concept of tiles. Microsoft's putting them everywhere. On your Xbox, PC, tablet... They're unavoidable. If you like the idea of tiles over icons, though, here's an app you might want to try out: Tile Launcher Beta. While it's not quite a clone of the MS-borne smartphone interface (for example, you can still have a custom background), it does place brightly colored squares on a continuous scrolling homescreen.

You know...it kinda grows on you. While I've never been a huge fan of the Windows Phone interface as is, the tiles here are pretty slick and, as in the left-hand screenshot above, with some custom icon tweaking they can be made to look gorgeous.

Dec

Ouya Dev Kit Gets The Full Walkthrough Treatment, Shows Off Touchpad, Battery Slots, Interface And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Games, News

It was only a matter of time after the dev units shipped out that we could expect to see a thorough walkthrough on the part of a new owner, and here it is. Some of what we're seeing in this trio of videos, we've already seen in the official Ouya unboxing. However, a few new details have been highlighted. For starters, in the top center of the controllers, there are touchpads that can be used for cursor control. Also, as we learned before, they will require two AA batteries. Well, that's a bummer.

Of course, what we all really want to see is the interface.

Dec

Llama Updated With Jelly Bean Support, Holo Inspired UI, Event Sharing, And More [Updated]

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Update 2: Llama has been returned to the Play Store this morning as promised, listed as version 1.2012.12.29.1412. As for the pesky silent mode/vibrate bug? This version's changelog indicates that it is "hopefully fixed."

Update: It looks like KebabApps has pulled Llama from the Play Store while the developer sorts out "a pain-in-the-butt problem involving silent mode," in which the app can – for some users – switch what should be silent mode to vibrate mode. KebabApps, in a blog post, provides more information on the issue, along with a (hopefully) fixed download, which users are encouraged to test, and which will be uploaded to the Play Store "tomorrow morning."

Llama, an extremely popular location-based profiling app, was issued an "über üpdate" today, bringing a handful of big changes from a new UI to bug fixes.

Dec

Devs Clone The Google Now Card View UI, Plus A Bunch Of Other Awesome Interface Elements, Open Source Them All

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Development, News

While Android continues to get better about making its UI look gorgeous, there are still plenty of trends that have yet to be standardized in any meaningful way. Of course, part of that may be because they don't need to be. After all, Google doesn't want every app in the world to use the Google Now-style card view (though, so far, Google+, Search, and Currents are already among those that find inspiration from them). This leaves implementation up to developers, like those featured over at AndroidViews. Here are just a few samples of their work: