ui - 6/13 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jun

Google Completely Revamps Android Developers Site, Not So Subtly Nudges Developers To The On-Screen Menu Button

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Google's Android Developer's site got a massive overhaul today, with a brand new UI, tons of new features, and a unified guide for developers on how to design, develop, and distribute their apps all in one place. The new site is fantastic-looking. Clearly Google wants to engage developers more and give them more guidance on how to succeed on the Play Store. So, what say we take a tour?

About Android

For anyone who's been kept in the dark, or just doesn't know everything there is to know about Android yet, Google's provided newcomers with a section just to tout the advantages of developing for Android.

Jun

Draw Something's "Fresh New Look" Could Use Some Help, But A Few Tweaks Could Make All The Difference

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, Design, Editorials

With the introduction of Draw Something's "fresh new look!" update a couple of days ago came many design changes, not all of them entirely great. Just for fun, I decided to take a shot at making Draw Something's design slightly "fresher," or at least slightly more sensible. Just like my last design critique, I'll start by taking a look at what issues the current design has, and then make a few suggestions (with some quick mockups) as to what I think could be improved.

What's Wrong

To be completely fair, Draw Something's new look isn't terrible. It's just not what it could be.

Jun

ClamBook Is A Lapdock For Your Android Phone That's Better Than (And Is Compatible With) Webtop

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

Motorola introduces a novel idea with its Atrix phone: a lapdock. The idea was simple. All these Android app can be extremely productive, so why limit them to a single, small screen? Plug your phone into the lapdock, use its frankly-over-powered processor to run a larger screen with a keyboard and trackpad. Well, that's exactly what the ClamBook does. Only it does it way better.

As you can see in the renders above, when most phones are plugged in, you're presented with a tablet-styled UI. The device doesn't appear to be touchscreen, but Android has had support for mouse functionality since Android 3.1, so you won't be stuck.

Jun

Tagy Replaces Rows Of App Icons On Your Home Screen With A Tag Cloud, Lets You Know What You Don't Use

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

One of the nicest things about Android that gets taken for granted is the ability to customize your user interface. While most folks tend to stick to app icons for launching their apps, Tagy offers an alternative approach: a tag cloud. Tagy is actually a set of widgets that let you specify a list of apps, contacts, or bookmarks to appear in a single widget. Then, as you use the widget, the items you use more often will get bigger.

Users can customize the color of their tags to fit into whatever theme they're already using. Additionally, because the items you use get larger the more you use them, you can isolate the less-used apps, which you can then either remove from the list or uninstall altogether.

Jun

[New App] Million Moments By Sony Brings A Subtle (Yet Amazing) UI To Photo Organization

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Looking to help users organize their "cherished moments into beautiful albums – effortlessly," Sony Digital Networking Applications Inc. (SDNA) recently released Million Moments to the Play Store.

Million Moments, as you may have gathered from the heartwarming promo video above, is an app that allows users to not only capture photos, but categorize, label, organize, and lay them out into fantastic-looking albums, all using an undoubtedly beautiful UI.

Blowing other photo apps to smithereens, Million Moments' interface offers a great amount of functionality in a sleek, subtle design. Attaching tags to photos is a breeze, adding captions or other information to photos couldn't be easier, and finished albums are a pleasure to look at.

May

Chameleon: The New Kickstarter Project That Could Revolutionize Tablet Homescreens

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Applications, Apps/Games, News

It's not every day that I get excited when I look at a UI demo, largely because they tend to end up being vaporware. But it's hard to ignore a revolutionary UI when one comes along - and that's exactly what Chameleon is:

Still not sold? Check out this demo video from 2 months ago, when Chameleon was first announced:

It's certainly a stunning UI, and one that manages the rare feat of being equal parts beautiful and functional. But there's a catch: the company initially intended to sell Chameleon to OEMs, but it seems they couldn't find a buyer - so they're taking to Kickstarter.

May

Firefox Beta 14 Goes Live On The Play Store, Brings Along A New UI, Flash Support

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

The browser wars wage on in the mobile space just as it does on the desktop. Today, Mozilla fires another shot across Chrome's bow with Firefox 14 beta. The update, available in the Play Store, comes complete with a new UI, Flash support, and a bunch of other little improvements.

The new version comes with an updated minimum requirement of Android 2.2 or higher. The new UI shows its Froyo-y heritage, too. While the whole app has seen a redesign that's pretty slick, ~~it still uses the old-style menu button interface that's been outmoded since the release of Ice Cream Sandwich~~ it uses no deprecated menu styles whatsoever and conforms to the UI standards of whatever OS version it is running on.

Apr

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Review: The Best Cheap Android Tablet Around

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Reviews

Last Updated: April 30th, 2012

While we're all waiting around for the Galaxy Note 10.1 to arrive and blow us away with its S-Pen powers on a Photoshop-equipped tablet, Samsung has set a couple new tablets loose on the market. Headlining on price, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 competes head-to-head with the Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire. This tablet's advantage: Android 4.0. At $250, it's the cheapest way to get the full Android experience.

When we first heard about a $250 7" Android tablet, it wasn't from Samsung, but ASUS. Since then, ASUS has grown suspiciously quiet on the subject of its cheap tablets (perhaps because of a change in plans?), but Samsung has taken up the mantle.

Apr

Dolphin Browser HD Updated To Version 8.0, Brings A Redesigned Menu Bar, Add-On Sidebar, And Better Performance

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

Dolphin Browser has always been one of the better browser alternatives on Android, and with version 8.0, it's about to get a bit better. In addition to a nice even version number, the update adds a menu bar along the bottom of the browser, an improved Add-on sidebar that's not confusing to look at, and a shiny new Dolphin button for easy access to the Dolphin Sonar and Gesture features.

The new menu bar is more than a little reminiscent of Android's Action Bar, however this one is still only triggered when you press the menu button, so it's not quite as handy.

Apr

[New App] SeekDroid Developer Releases Woot Check, A Fast, Beautiful, ICS-Inspired Woot App

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Applications, News

Whether you are trying to score a great deal or just read the product descriptions, you've probably used Woot before. In fact, there's a good chance you've already used the service on your Android device, as there are several Woot apps available in the Play Store. But Woot Check, a brand new app from GT Media, the developers of SeekDroid, takes things to an impressive new level.

Side note: Technically, Woot Check was GT Media's first app, but it wasn't anything special at the time and what you see here today is a completely rewritten product that benefitted from all the experience of developing SeekDroid.