Month: November 2013

November 20, 2013

New Google Now Animation, New Holo Color (?), Blue Inconsistency!

Google Search/Now recently got a pretty significant UI update. It finally adopted the much awaited pull-to-refresh paradigm, and the settings layout has become much more streamlined.

Screenshot_2013-11-16-07-29-09 Screenshot_2013-11-16-07-29-13

Though, the pull-to-refresh has changed a bit. In fact, it has become much better. In Gmail and other G apps, the pulltorefresh requires you to swipe down pretty far. The new pulltorefresh found in Google Now allows you to swipe less (if that makes any sense), and it comes with a welcome sliding animation, letting you know that you indeed swiped down.

We even get the new Kit Kat toast!

We even get the new Kit Kat toast!

Screenshot_2013-11-16-07-29-54

This isn’t the only thing that the Google Now update has given us: We may have gotten a new Holo color!

Credit to AndroidPolice.com

Credit to AndroidPolice.com

New Blue?

New Blue?

 

I personally love the new shade of blue, but I’m really disliking the continued inconsistency Google is showing throughout it’s products, even with colors. The new Google Now blue isn’t #HoloYolo blue. And even the YouTube website updated the Like button and like/dislike bar to another shade of blue! Why, Google, WHY?

The like bar is a different shade of blue.

The like bar is a different shade of blue.

The OLD YouTube website Like Bar.

The OLD YouTube website Like Bar.

By the way, I’m loving the new use of Roboto Condensed! Do you?

Anyways, enough ranting for today. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments down belooow.

November 17, 2013

Padding in App Permissions

There just isn’t enough padding in the app permissions setting –  either that, or it’s not centered properly. Either way, it’s hard to miss this one.

Not centered!

Not centered!

P.S. : This is 4.3 Jelly Bean. I’m not aware if Google has fixed this in Kit Kat. Let me know if they have!

November 9, 2013

New Kit Kat Clock app – some annoyances.

Kit Kat brought a much needed Clock app update. We get a few useful UX improvements, like an extra tab for alarms, etc.

But, when you press and hold on a tab to see what the item is, the toast notification shows up right under your thumb. Uh, what? My thumb isn’t see-through, Google.

Screenshot_2013-11-03-18-35-15

Also, on the timer page, it feels like the “Start” button is too short. It just doesn’t feel like the right height; I can’t explain it. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think. Also, the numbers are so small! The whole APP just feels out of place, especially with it’s dark UI.

Screenshot_2013-11-03-18-34-58

Edit: Although, maybe the dark UI exist so that you don’t kill your eyes at night. Maybe?

 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments down below.

November 6, 2013

Custom Kit Kat transparency, vs iOS custom status bar colors

With Kit Kat, app developers will be able to request the Status bar and Navigation bar to go gradient-ed transparent – and it looks good.

nexusae0_translucent_thumb

I just wish they enabled this at an OS level, so it would be applied to all apps. Get ready to see LOTS of inconsistency across apps, especially considering the developers who don’t want to update. 

The inconsistency doesn’t end there, however. Even between Google devices, there is disparity in behavior of the transparency. As you can see, the N7 and N10 don’t show it, for some reason. 

nexusae0_kk-android-44_thumb1

 

During the initial leaks of Kit Kat, there was a rumor that devs would be able to request custom colors for the status bar and navbar for their apps. That really excited me, as it was a new feature in iOS 7 as well, and it really makes apps look amazing.

Change-Navigation-Bar-Background-Color

Sadly, it’s not the case, and all we get is gradient. And I’m going to be honest here, I hate gradient.

 

What do you guys think? Do you prefer the iOS style or Android? Let me know in the comments down below!

November 1, 2013

Why I’m disappointed by Hangouts’ “SMS integration”

Google unveiled Kit Kat 4.4 last night, along with many updates to it’s apps. Hangouts was one of them, and it received a much requested feature – SMS integration.

We expected this to be as seamless as iMessage – easily transitioning between SMS and Chat message. But this is not the case.

It turns out, the SMS app is basically only built into the hangouts app, nothing more. There is no ‘integration’ of any kind.

 

You can switch between text and chat, but they are mutually exclusive threads. Not impressive at all.

You can switch between text and chat, but they are mutually exclusive threads. Not impressive at all.

Even when you sync a contact’s G+ profile with their photo, the SMS thread is still separate from the Chat thread, thus defeating the purpose of ‘integrating’ the two services.

It’s a little hard to explain, thus the lack of screenshots to back it up. I just hope Google fixes this, and makes it as compelling and seamless as I hear iMessage is.