14
May
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Expensify App Updated To Version 4.0 With Holo Interface, Puts Renovations On The Company Card

Posted by in Applications, News

For jetsetters and workaholics who require a little more than a legal pad to keep track of their billable expenses, Expensify has done solid if uninspiring duty as a mobile companion for some time. Yesterday the Android app got a brand new, Holo-compliant look, making form follow function right out of the land of Froyo buttons. While this update is the biggest change to come to the Android app in quite a while, the core functionality has not been affected that much, with only some new rule filters mentioned on the Play Store page.

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Expensify automates expense reports with a variety of handy tools, now all the better for a little visual polish.

20
Mar
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Google Play Store Version 4.0 Spotted In The Wild With New Holo User Interface [Update]

Posted by in Applications, News

It's been a while since we've seen a significant update to the look of the Google Play Store - in fact, it's been in its current form since before the "Google Play" brand superseded the Android Market. But it looks like there is a new version in the works, and it's quite a change to the Store we've become used to. Droid Life got a hold of an APK that purports to be build version 4.0.16 of the vending app.

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The interface on display is much lighter than what we're used to seeing, more like the web version of the Play Store.

26
Nov
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Netflix Updated For Android 4.2, New Player UI Comes Along For The Ride

Posted by in Applications, News

Netflix has been gently updating and adding features ever since it debuted on Android, and while today's addition isn't earth-shattering, it'll be welcome to anyone with a shiny new Nexus device. The primary addition to the 2.1 update is full support for Android 4.2, but the player UI has also gotten a pretty big facelift. Bigger buttons and more transparent elements make it a lot easier to pinpoint tracking, and the whole thing seems at least superficially faster.

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The nicest change to the player interface is the ability to force full screen. That won't mean much for those of you already on a 16:9 device, but for tablets with a little extra space up top and bottom, the cropping makes for a nice lack of borders.

29
Oct
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[New App] FlipLauncher Is An Ultra-Quick Way To Launch Apps From Anywhere

Posted by in Applications, News

Most of our readers consider themselves power users, and rightly so. Perhaps you don't have a spare 1.8 seconds to laboriously tap the Home button, then the app launcher, then that app you use every third Tuesday. Well, obsessive customizers, your new best friend on the Google Play Store is FlipLauncher, a free app that embeds up to five completely adjustable launcher ribbons over any and every part of Android.

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Don't let its admittedly plain looks fool you: FlipLauncher is surprisingly versatile. By default, it puts five candy-colored tabs on the left side of your screen. Swipe right on any of them to open up a ribbon, which can hold four apps or shortcuts.

27
Oct
editorial-the-android-4-2-tablet-ui-looks-just-like-a-giant-phones-and-thats-fantastic

Counterpoint: The Android 4.2 Tablet UI Looks Just Like A Giant Phone's, And That's A Shame

Posted by in Android OS, Editorials, Nexus 10

Yesterday my colleague and fellow Android fanatic David Ruddock took a long look at what was revealed in the leaked Nexus 10 images, examining what will almost certainly be the Android tablet interface for Jelly Bean 4.2. I have a lot of respect for David, but in this case I think he's wrong. And since there's little doubt at this point that the Samsung Nexus 10 will have the same basic UI structure as the Nexus 7, I'll go so far as to say that Google is wrong too.

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Having used my fair share of Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablets, I've come to love the user interface, which puts both navigation, status and settings all along the bottom bar.

11
Oct
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Dropbox Version 2.2 Adds More Photo Features And An Updated UI

Posted by in Applications, News

If you hadn't noticed, Dropbox and Google Drive have been having a friendly rivalry ever since the latter popped up on Android. The latest update to the Dropbox app (2.2) makes good on the additional photo features they've been adding over the last year by revamping the user interface, especially for the photos and videos automatically updated to your cloud storage drive. The UI is now more of a gallery than a bare-bones file browser, thanks to the new Photos tab. See for yourself:

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Swiping through photos and videos is now basically identical to the default Android Gallery app, though all photos (and screenshots) taken are grouped by time.

19
Sep
sprints-samsung-galaxy-s-iii-getting-a-small-ota-l710vpl13-brings-swype-better-lte-connectivity-and-more

AT&T Galaxy S III Gets Over-The-Air Update (LH9): Adds UI Enhancements, Jelly Bean Still MIA

Posted by in Android OS, AT&T, Galaxy S III, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News, Samsung

Quick, Galaxy S III users on AT&T: check your device's settings for a new over-the-air download. Just be sure to temper your enthusiasm, because the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update (which we weren't really expecting for another month at least) is nowhere in sight. The latest version of the software is build IMM76D.I747UCALH9, which adds a number of small tweaks that users might find useful.

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There's no official change log as of yet, but according to posts on the XDA forums, most of the additions are designed to make the phone a little easier to use. The most obvious change is a brightness slider in the pull-down menu, seen on some previous Samsung devices and quite a few custom ROMs.

28
Jun
currents

Google Currents Updated To Version 1.5.1, Now Features Improved UI, Enhanced Performance, And More

Posted by in Applications, News

Google Currents has always been a pretty impressive app - arguably the best Android news aggregator around town. Especially praised has been its beautiful UI; however, that didn't stop Google from looking at what it had and making it even better.

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Indeed, the app just hit version 1.5.1, and the UI has been updated to "Android standards." Notably, the top navigation bar now features "auto hide" and "touch-to-show" controls, and it includes the library/trending toggle that was previously located elsewhere. Additionally, Google has enhanced the app's performance and made the usual bug fixes.

If you have already have Currents, you can download the update from the Play Store now; if for some reason you don't have it installed yet, all the info you need is below.

19
Sep
Let Android Be Android, part 2

[Editorial] Let Android Be Android: One Year Later

Posted by 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.

01
Jul
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[Updated: Now With Nexus S 4G] Skype For Android V2 Brings Support For Video Calling On Select Devices, New UI, And SMS

Posted by in Applications, News

Skype, one of the most popular audio/video calling applications on the desktop and now property of Microsoft, has been long criticized for lacking any video support on Android and being generally unstable and prone to crashing. In an effort to rectify the situation and raise that 3.6-star Market average, the company released a major version update minutes ago from 1.0.0.983 to 2.0.0.45.

The update finally brings video calling, albeit to only a small subset of devices:

  • Google Nexus S
  • HTC Desire S
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia neo
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia pro

Update 7/1/11: The Nexus S 4G and the European Nexus S were added to the list of supported devices after a small 2.0.0.47 update today.

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