04
Apr
FB

Facebook’s current Android app has become the subject of much hatred from the Android community – for one thing, it rarely works properly (if at all); for another, its looks have become quite stale. Sadly, we still haven’t seen any plans for future improvements, so Redditor monkfishbandana took it upon himself to come up with a mock-up of how he believes Facebook for Android should look, especially with a beautiful OS like Ice Cream Sandwich.

Update: The mocks were updated to v2 - you can view them here (via Reddit). The original mocks are preserved below.

Facebook developers, take note:

FB mock-up 1 FB mock-up 2 FB mock-up 3 

FB mock-up 4 FB mock-up 5 FB mock-up 6 

FB mock-up 7 FB mock-up 8 FB mock-up 9

Though there are countless improvements over the real Facebook app, a few key features have been excluded for various reasons:

  • The ‘Timeline’ lacks location and ‘studying at’ icons
  • ‘Request’ notifications have been dropped from the action bar and added to the Friends section
  • The ‘Create Event’ and ‘Create Message’ buttons are missing

Still, it’s a pretty impressive first try, especially considering that monkfishbandana claims he’s only spent a few days on it.

29
Mar
image

If you're at all into TV, you've heard of Hulu. Chances are, you're watching something on Hulu right now on your PC, phone, XBOX360, Wii, Roku, PS3, iPad, 3DS, or any of the other supported devices. The list is pretty long, but until today it had one glaring omission - Android tablets. Sure, some tablets, like the Kindle Fire, HTC Flyer, or the Vizio VTAB, were already supported, but they were running Gingerbread and didn't have a proper tablet UI. Well, no more.

Hulu has released an update to the Hulu Plus (app available to Plus subscribers for $7.99 a month) that introduces a brand new tablet-optimized interface and support for the following tablet devices:

  • Asus Eee Pad Transformer
  • Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime
  • Motorola Xoom
  • Motorola XYBoard 10.1
  • Toshiba Thrive
  • Acer Iconia (although it's unclear which Iconia exactly, because the A100 is incompatible - they probably mean the A500)
  • LG G-Slate
  • HTC Flyer
  • Vizio 8" Tablet

It was puzzling to see no mention of any Galaxy Tab variants on that list, most notably the 10.1, and I've confirmed it's indeed listed as incompatible.

24
Mar
play_redesign_thumb

This is the latest in our Weekend Poll series. For last week's, see What Do You Primarily Use Your Tablet For?

A few days ago, a popular reddit post (heads up, NSFW language) drew attention to the fact that the Play Store looks like an absolute mess these days. And it's true - just about everyone on the team agreed with the statement. Liam (our resident designer) agreed so strongly he even went ahead and wrote a post about it, and even went a step further and by creating some renders of how he'd do things. Take a look at the current Play UI (top) and Liam's proposal (bottom):

play_1 play_2

play_liam_1 play_liam_2

We're curious, though: do people really think that Play even needs an overhaul?

23
Mar
image
Last Updated: March 24th, 2012

It's no secret – the mobile interface for Google's Play Store could use some help. A recent comment thread on Reddit points to the fact that many users feel that the Play Store's interface is just a mess. Others suggest that its level of finesse just doesn't jive with Google's overall habits of design. While Google's recent "toolbar" overhaul resulted in a pleasing, easy-to-use interface which successfully unified navigation between all of the search giant's services, the Play Store (at least on phones and tablets) is messy, jumbled, and just feels disorganized. If you haven't examined the mobile interface in a while, let's take a look:

shot_Mar_22_2012_7 Screenshot_2012-03-23-00-00-30

What's Wrong

There are a number of issues that immediately jump out to me when looking at this interface.

01
Mar
htc_one_sense4

Back in the early days of Android, HTC's Sense UI really stood out as a much-needed step up in the UI department, compared both to stock Android and to competitors custom UIs. Like a hard-partying rock star, though, it just didn't age well; it went from sleek, helpful, and attractive, to bloated and borderline obtrusive. Sense 4.0 - which we spotted slapped atop of Ice Cream Sandwich - was definitely a step against that direction in some ways, but still offended some people - Cameron included.

htc_one_sense4

Earlier today, Kouji Kodera, HTC's chief product officer, addressed these concerns in an interview with Pocket Lint at MWC.

25
Feb
image

My favorite gallery replacement app QuickPic, which is notorious for its speed and simplicity, just got updated with a brand new spiffy UI based on the new Android design guidelines that were published at the time of the Ice Cream Sandwich release.

The new UI in v2.0 is now much cleaner and more fluid, with action buttons at the top right and context buttons showing up dynamically on the bottom when they're needed. QuickPic did have to rebuild all the thumbnails, but once it's done so, it loads faster than it ever has.

v2.0 beta

  • New clean UI like Android 4.0(ICS), lots of UI optimizations
  • Replace list mode to explorer mode, support hierarchical folders
  • Bigger square thumbnails without border
  • Fix some minor bugs
  • App2SD for Android 2.2+
  • SC20120225-164134 SC20120225-164208 SC20120225-164245

    Check out the new 2.0 beta in the Market, and if you've never tried QuickPic before, I strongly encourage you give it a go.

    23
    Feb
    astridtiny

    Astrid has been one of the most popular To-Do list apps for Android for years. Today it's getting a facelift and a few extra features. Most notably, Astrid now has a spiffy tablet UI. Making use of the Fragments API, Astrid lays out your Lists panel, your individual tasks, and details on each individual task for easy access. Like so:

    astrid tablet

    Simple, straightforward, and easy. The new UI is being added to more than just tablets, though. It looks like Astrid has paid attention to Google's style guide. The new UI for phones is as slick as Ice Cream Sandwich itself.

    16
    Feb
    unnamed (5)

    Bump, a wildly popular wireless transfer app for Android and iOS, got an update to version 3.0 today, bringing several enhancements to the table. Perhaps the most notable among these is the completely redesigned interface, which Bump Technologies Inc. describes as both simple and beautiful. The UI appears to have been updated to a more ICS-cohesive design, bringing a tabbed interface and "action overflow" button to enhance functionality.

    Besides the new UI, Bump has made contact transfer touch-free, enabled the transfer of "as many photos as you want" in one bump, and added an interesting feature that allows users to discover mutual friends by scanning through both parties' phonebooks.

    07
    Feb
    unnamed (1)

    Google Voice received its first major update in some time earlier today, undergoing a major UI refresh for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices (Gingerbread devices only see minor changes, such as the app icon), as well as new interface for Honeycomb and ICS tablets. Under the hood, SMS offline message queuing is now supported and works for multiple recipients.

    unnamed (1) unnamed

    Screenshot_2012-02-07-15-26-07

    Unfortunately, it still is ungodly slow to load on my Gingerbread phone, and scrolls like something from Android 1.6. I hear it's a lot smoother on Ice Cream Sandwich, though. Hit up the Market to download it now.

    Google Voice

    Download Google Voice from Google Play
    QR code for https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice

    01
    Feb
    vomit

    Yesterday, we saw the first glimpse of Sense 4 on Android 4.0 on the HTC Ville. While watching the video, I assumed that the handset was running Gingerbread since it looked just like previous versions of Sense (save for the updated launcher). The only thing that even slightly resembled ICS is the Roboto font in the clock.

    Then it showed the version information, which made me feel physically ill. This is Sense 4 on ICS? Say it ain't so!

    I use a Galaxy Nexus as my main phone and the Transformer Prime is my main tablet, so I spend a substantial amount of time using stock ICS.