ui - 8/13 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

[Weekend Poll] Ice Cream Sandwich Takes Android To A Whole New Level Of Usability And Polish - But Is It Good Enough For Your Parents To Use? [Fixed]

Posted by Aaron Gingrich in Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Polls

Update: I had the wrong poll displayed for about an hour after posting. Sorry everyone - correct poll is live!

Let's face it: when Android first officially dropped, it was ugly as hell and not exactly designed with non-techies in mind. But as we've seen in the past 3 years (and a few months) since then, things have come a long way (albeit gradually at first) - the look, feel, and usability of vanilla Android became a major focus in the last year or so, especially with Gingerbread (2.3), Honeycomb(3.0), and Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0).

^{Left: Cupcake (1.5). Right: Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0)}

Again, while it just plain looks a lot nicer now, things are much deeper than what can be shown in a screenshot.

Jan

Tasker Updated To Version 1.2 – Includes Fixes For ICS, Customized Graphical Interfaces, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, News

Tasker, an extremely versatile (and popular) app which allows users to schedule (and control) various automated tasks, received an update today, bringing the app to version 1.2.

The update brings a handful of important changes, perhaps the most notable being the addition of "Scenes." Using this new feature, Tasker allows users to design custom graphical interfaces, which appear as overlays, dialogs, or full activities.

Besides Scenes, Tasker's latest iteration also fixes compatibility issues with Ice Cream Sandwich, and includes a tweaked home screen, which conveniently divides Profiles, Tasks, and Scenes in an intuitive tabbed interface.

The update also brings the ability to group profiles, tasks, or scenes into "projects," a new Green Power Premium plugin, and a slew of bugfixes and other minor improvements.

Nov

Google: Software Update Coming To Logitech Revue In The "Next Few Weeks"

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Google TV, Logitech, News, Revue

Logitech may have said that launching the Revue was "a mistake of implementation of gigantic nature" and that it has chosen to ditch Google TV entirely, but it has, thankfully, decided against reneging on its promise of one more software update. And, yes, said software update is exactly the one that was shown to us back at the end of October: the one that brings an updated, usable interface and - drumroll please - Android Market integration.

Indeed, as indicated in the above tweet from the official @GoogleTV Twitter account, the update will be rolling out in the next few weeks, just as promised.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Gmail Gets A Facelift

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Gmail, probably the most used app on my Evo 4G, will be getting a major facelift with the introduction of Ice Cream Sandwich, bringing it into line with - and, in some ways, surpassing - its Honeycomb counterpart.

First of all, Gmail for Ice Cream Sandwich features an "action bar" at the bottom of the screen, much like Honeycomb's action bar, which allows users to create messages, search, sync, and more with just one touch. When messages are selected, the action bar changes to reflect your most commonly used actions, allowing for breezy batch operations.

Adding even more shine to the new UI, the message view has been majorly streamlined, eliminating all the distracting drop shadows and rounded edges we saw in Gingerbread, in favor of simple headers (with lovely contact photos), and even 2-line previews in the inbox, to give you a peek at what's inside each email before you open it.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - New Keyboard, Inline Spell Check, And More Consistent Copy/Paste

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

One of the most useful features of Android, in my opinion, is spell check. When attempting to convey information quickly, it's easy to make mistakes, and it's nice to have a device that catches them for you.

With Ice Cream Sandwich, users can expect a revamped keyboard, inline spell check capabilities, and improved copy/paste functionality.

The new keyboard doesn't look too different from the Gingerbread keyboard, save for its new color scheme and speech-to-text button. The way it performs, however, has seen significant improvement in terms of spell check, and copy/paste functionality.

Spell check now allows users to click on a questionable word, displaying a list of suggestions, or the option to add the word to the device's dictionary.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Redesigned Lock Screen And Virtual Button Bar

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Adding to the heap of shiny new features brought to us in Ice Cream Sandwich, we've got a new lock screen, and of course the fabled virtual button bar.

The redesigned lock screen allows for simple unlocking, or unlocking to the camera app instantly (which, by the way, has zero shutter lag). That's not all it has to offer, though. Users can now swipe down the notification bar to get a peek at what's happening without unlocking their phone. Additionally, the time indicator in the upper right corner is now gone, eliminating the redundancy found in previous iterations of Android.

Next up is the virtual button bar, a feature that has been rumored since the very dawn of Ice Cream Sandwich rumors.

Oct

Mozilla Set To Ditch XUL In Firefox For Android In Favor Of A Native UI, Better Performance

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Applications, News

Last Updated: August 2nd, 2012

Jonathan Nightingale, Mozilla's director of Firefox Engineering, announced recently that Firefox's Android iteration will be moving away from XUL implementation in favor of a native Android UI. Nightingale, seeking to reassure users who may be wary of change, stated "Firefox on Android is a critical part of supporting the open web, and this decision puts us in a position to build the best Firefox possible."

For those not in the know, XUL stands for "XML User Interface Language," and is essentially a language that controls Firefox's front end architecture, creating various UI elements and instances. Mozilla's use of XUL in its Android version of Firefox is what leads to the relatively long startup times users have experienced until now.

Oct

New Dropbox Beta Brings Improved UI, Favorites, Renaming, Bulk Upload, And More

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News

Dropbox, arguably one of the best file storage/sharing services around, recently released the new beta version of their app for Android, making it even easier to access files on the go that may otherwise be spread across several devices.

Besides bug fixes, the new beta includes the ability to store "favorite" files for quick offline viewing, bulk upload for multiple photos and videos, renaming of files and folders, upload from and export to local storage, and last but not least, a hugely improved UI which includes a more appealing gallery view and quick, one-tap access to file options.

Oct

Preview And Download: Leaked Galaxy Nexus/Nexus Prime Ice Cream Sandwich Audio Files, Including Brand New Alarms

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

The Ice Cream Sandwich leaks are continuing today with P3Droid's dump of the audio files found in the next Nexus' Ice Cream Sandwich innards.

From what I can tell, most of them aren't unique until we get to the alarms - a few of them are brand new based on my Google searches:

Fermium.ogg [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Hassium.ogg [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Neptunium.ogg [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Nobelium.ogg [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The alarm sounds are quite futuristic and magical, instantly reminding me of Tron. Considering Honeycomb already started in this direction and ICS' theme is also Tron-like blue, I think we'll be hearing and seeing a lot more audio and visuals in a similar style.

Sep

[Editorial] Let Android Be Android: One Year Later

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Android OS, Editorials

Introduction

It's now been exactly a year (minus one day) since I published my very first editorial for Android Police, Let Android Be Android. A lot has changed since - dual-core CPUs are now table stakes for a high-end smartphone; Android has evolved from an exclusively mobile OS to a software powerhouse for phones and tablets alike; and we've been given several seminars on stretching the truth about the speed of a wireless network (yep, that would be the "4G" drama).

Sadly, one thing has remained almost entirely stagnant: the diminutive amount of vanilla Android devices on the market. In fact, it would be more than accurate to say that the skin situation has been exacerbated since my article on it last year.