This is cool, sort of? Not sure if I want the card look EVERYWHERE including the notification pull down. But nice concept:
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Mobile OSs Android 4.4 KitKat revealed?
- Thread starter paulbennett95
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I hate this. I never use Google Now because it never gives me anything relevant besides weather and traffic. Outside of that, it's not even a hands free assistant. If I want to send a text, I have to use the touch screen. If I want to send an email, touch screen. Creating a calendar event? Yup, still have to use the touch screen. And with shipment notifications, I never use my Gmail for that. I use my main email address. And other apps (specifically slice) can monitor 5 inboxes for shipment notifications. Google Now can only monitor Google accounts and it is extremely limiting. It also always suggests the worst restaurants.
And the app switcher I don't like at all. It is doing the same crap that Apple did with Expose and spaces a few years back. With Snow Leopard, you could enable expose and see all your windows laid out and you could see exactly what was happening in every window. Ever since Lion, they crippled it. Now if you have even 2 windows, the second one gets occluded and you can't see what was going on. Same principle here. I love the way it is currently implemented. I can see snapshots of every app and scroll through them easily. They just need to let you swipe away more than one at a time and add a one click clear like they have for notifications.
I like the cards theme and hope they implement something similar, though I'll agree with appledes7 in that I wouldn't want everything to always be layered and occluding everything from view. I do use Google Now a bit and find it more robust than Siri, but again as appledes7 mentioned, it leaves a lot to be desired regarding a touches interface.
Regardless, even if Google does go in this direction, I don't think it would be in 4.4.
Nothing that we didn't kind of already know, but ya: http://www.androidauthority.com/android-4-4-release-timeframe-271198/
German Kit Kat team spills the beans on Android 4.4 release timeframe
German Kit Kat team spills the beans on Android 4.4 release timeframe
Will Kit Kat be available for the Nexus 4 and the 1st Gen Nexus 7 ?
I'd wager yes.
I like it a lot. But like you said not in the notification shade. Too cluttered.
I like this, the notification bar is a little too cluttered but the UI everywhere else looks nice to me.
God I love Drive. That movie exudes style and coolness.
I hope 4.4 is a big update, because Android development seems to be slowing down nowadays. Last major upgrade was 4.1, which was over a year ago.
How do you figure its looking stale? One, it can look like whatever you want. Two, what outcry? All I'm seeing are people who either didn't like the color scheme to begin with (thus "stale" isn't quite the right word) or people who happen to like Google's new card look that they are implementing for their apps and could see that being android's new look.
I'd hardly call any of this an outcry. Sounds more to me like you're implying people want Google to copy apple. Do I need to remind you the jump from gingerbread/honeycomb to ice cream sandwich? A redesign was already done. If there's another one it'll have nothing to do with apple and iOS 7. It'll be a natural progression that grew out of Google now. And technically, its been happening already as more and more of their core apps are adopting that look.
word is they slowed it down so other phones could catch up to the current OS. I'm sure 5.0 will be a nice upgrade
I agree that Android can be customized to look anyway a user likes it to be. Look what happens when the masses complain that an OS looks stale. You get the giant cluster _ _ _ _ known as iOS 7, belch. The iOS 7 flat design may turn users to the dark side.
If what you're saying is accurate that means they gave us multiple software updates in a year's or so time. Who else does that? (Certainly not apple.) Not to mention their core apps have been updating individually throughout the same year. Most recently, gmail, chrome and chrome beta, Google keyboard, translate, wallet, Maps, music, and whatever else I might have forgotten.
Also, how major or an advancement can they really make? Android already does so much. There's room for improvement of course and new features but what does "big update" mean exactly?
A redesign maybe? I am indifferent about this. Android can look like whatever you want anyway. I like the new card look that's been going around their core apps so I could go for android adopting this look on a more universal level, sure. But its neither here nor there for me if it doesn't happen with 4.4.
My one hope is they unify Google voice and hangouts. Hangouts is great but it needs to grow too.
4.4 sounds like it might help address fragmentation for both users and developers. Cool.
Anyway don't know what "big update" means.
I wonder if the new default gray theme does mean colors can be changed.
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Screenshot-of-Google-Korean-keyboard-app-shows-Android-4.4_id47627
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Screenshot-of-Google-Korean-keyboard-app-shows-Android-4.4_id47627
They also slapped on Keep at some point during the year, rather out of the blue. One of the best looking core apps IMO and one that I use every single day, which I was very happy to see since I was missing an uncomplicated alternative to Apple's iCloud synched Notes.
I feel like things are happening with Android literally all the time. If there's one OS that isn't "stale", it's Android.
Not to mention all the 3d party functionality evolving all the time, which basically also could count as OS upgrades as it's all allowed to tie in directly to the core functionality of Android phones. Keyboards, for example.
Very well said. When I was listing all the recent Google apps being updated individually, I almost listed Kii keyboard, an app that I've set as my default keyboard.
Again, the beauty of Android -- any app you like, you can make default. You can also make the app the default thing to share to if it's an app that does that.
For example, if I want to share the below wallpaper, it recognizes that I use DropBox the most, and it'll set the default to share to that.
If I want to share to something else? Just a button away:
And I can obviously share to anything. Flexibility leads to usability.
EDIT: I just noticed it lists Whatsapp at the top, which is the second app I share to the most after DropBox. Smart. And Gmail, indeed, the third most.
Keep is great! It's rarely talked about, but it's a great app, especially going between the Nexus 7 and my HTC One.
I have to agree.
I mean an update that changes how you use the phone. Everything since 4.1 has been under-the-hood or some minor cosmetic/functionality addition. I want Google to focus really on design, and I'm not just talking visually. Android as a platform is still quite a ways off from feeling polished and cohesive (even the head of Android design knows this), and in UX they are struggling. I know the people on this sub forum really only care about the technical capabilities of their phones, but even something like a cool universal gesture, better animation, customization center would be very much appreciated. And the Holo aesthetic never looked good, it certainly is getting stale (luckily being superseded by "cards").
I know what you mean. I'd like to see some larger change as well. Maybe 5.0 will bring change.
I like the stock Android UI better than any of the custom ones, but the icons bother me. They're all ugly, are inconsistent sizes and don't seem to be high resolution. The same apps on iOS have beautiful high resolution icons. With 1080p displays being common now, there is no reason to not update Android icons to look better.
Looks like you are well on your way to becoming a bona fide productive poster around here. Good luck.
Michael