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Android can be beautiful

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101–110 of 163 posts

Re: Android can be beautiful

#101

Post by ajross »

Steko wrote: post #96
mtgx wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Google would force manufacturers to stop using the 320x240 resolution. The browsing experience is very poor on such a resolution, unless you're using Opera Mini perhaps, and I imagine it's hard for developers to refit their apps for such a small resolution, too, as even menu text will take a lot of space on that resolution. I also wish they mandated everyone has at least 512 MB of RAM in their phones, and at l…

Wouldn't high end mandates just lead to the low end being dominated by forks? Wouldn't that be worse for (1) customers, (2) android's reputation and (3) Google?

Exactly. The free-with-contract market is real, and wants smartphone features. If "Google Android" doesn't want that market (which isn't insane, iOS doesn't want it) then something else will fill the niche, and "AOSP Android" is the most likely candidate.

The grandparent's desire is isomorphic to wanting Google to force users to spend more on their phones so she has to spend less on her software. That's not a good business tactic.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#102

Post by ajross »

bct wrote: post #88
tensor wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit more surprised by the lack of comments about openness. You would think, that being a site for hackers, being able to install whatever you want on your mobile hand held computer would be a big deal. I mean, most people here would likely not even think of buying a laptop or a desktop that restricted them in the ways that iOS does. Consistency and looks are good and important, but to me, secondary to control.…

The secret to understanding HN is that it's not actually a site for hackers. The word "Hacker" in the title bar is written on a board that was nailed up over the word "Startup".

It's a digression, but there's more truth to this than the snark would indicate. Five years ago, this was a site for hackers building companies, and the emphasis was clearly on the "building" part. It rapidly took over from similar spots (/r/programming, slashdot) as the center of consciousness for web-focused developer discussion. Now, it's entirely preoccupied with the "companies" part -- what platforms to target, how to manage funding, etc... Many of the hackers seem to have gone silent.

Or else they've migrated somewhere else, and I haven't been able to find them...

Re: Android can be beautiful

#103

Post by [deleted] »

mtgx wrote: post #70
Adirael wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a way to see how the fragmentation (most important for me: screen size) is at this moment? I've got a low end android phone (Galaxy Mini) which works well but I can't install a lot of stuff (Path comes to mind) because of screen resolution. I think the mobile OS market is going to end looking somewhat similar to the PC OS market, but changing Windows for Android. The market share race is impossible for Apple…

I wish Google would force manufacturers to stop using the 320x240 resolution. The browsing experience is very poor on such a resolution, unless you're using Opera Mini perhaps, and I imagine it's hard for developers to refit their apps for such a small resolution, too, as even menu text will take a lot of space on that resolution. I also wish they mandated everyone has at least 512 MB of RAM in their phones, and at l…

[deleted]

Re: Android can be beautiful

#104

Post by Steko »

ajross wrote: post #101
Steko wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't high end mandates just lead to the low end being dominated by forks? Wouldn't that be worse for (1) customers, (2) android's reputation and (3) Google?

Exactly. The free-with-contract market is real, and wants smartphone features. If "Google Android" doesn't want that market (which isn't insane, iOS doesn't want it) then something else will fill the niche, and "AOSP Android" is the most likely candidate. The grandparent's desire is isomorphic to wanting Google to force users to spend more on their phones so she has to spend less on her software. That's not a good bu…

"AOSP Android"

Warning massive derail... One thing the tech commentariat has slacked off on is better labels for different Android flavors. I'd suggest:

AOSP = "Opendroid" (forkdroid?)

stock Android (Opendroid + Google services/ecosystem) = "stockdroid"

Android + Touchwiz/Sense = "Samdroid"/"Sensedroid"

Opendroid + Amazon services/ecosystem = "Amazdroid"

Re: Android can be beautiful

#105

Post by Nowyouknow »

angry-hacker wrote: post #41

I like the screenshots but I don't understand the navigation of the page and why would you hijack the default scrollbar of your browser? I'm surprised that so apps look WP metro style

You can also make the screenshots smaller if you look at the sidebar on the left.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#106

Post by wahsd »

Slightly off topic, but anyone else notice that that site/page seems to somehow choke on something. It spun up my CPU over something, I think resizing the images or something. Don't have the time to look or care.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#107

Post by corporalagumbo »

cooldeal wrote: post #81
Osiris wrote: post #54

I'm bit surprised by all the comments about "Consistency". All of us use the web every single day and every single website looks completely different, all with their own styles, layouts, color schemes, etc. I would think that web designers, and designers in general, would be happy with the flexibility to create their own thing rather than having something that pretty much looks like everything else. The web used to h…

>I, personally, don't see the problem with lack of visual design consistency. I prefer to not have every app on my phone look the same. I see a problem with that. It's that many(most?) apps have 1 or 2 developers with hardly any design experience, and no designers. So it's important for the default look and feel to be usable and stylish which iOS and Windows Phone do. This does not mean that they all look the same, b…

You are massively overestimating the design and quality of WP apps.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#108

Post by ionforce »

ajross wrote: post #102
bct wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The secret to understanding HN is that it's not actually a site for hackers. The word "Hacker" in the title bar is written on a board that was nailed up over the word "Startup".

It's a digression, but there's more truth to this than the snark would indicate. Five years ago, this was a site for hackers building companies, and the emphasis was clearly on the "building" part. It rapidly took over from similar spots (/r/programming, slashdot) as the center of consciousness for web-focused developer discussion. Now, it's entirely preoccupied with the "companies" part -- what platforms to target,…

I would love to find a community for programming-related issues void of all the startup nonsense.

Any ideas?

Re: Android can be beautiful

#109

Post by bad_user »

georgemcbay wrote: post #89
untog wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true, actually. Google has released a compatibility library to allow developers to target old versions: http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/support-library.ht... So older Android versions can use modern apps. Both the examples I gave (Foursquare, Spotify) work with both newer and older versions.

There are some pretty gaping holes in the compatibility library. Luckily the most important of these (ActionBar support) is covered by a great 3rd party library (ActionBarSherlock). If anything, I think the existence of the compatibility library and ABS show that Google is dropping the ball a bit on the core Android framework. Why even have these be extra (and in one case 3rd party) libraries? Where possible why not…

But Android was designed to allow fallback to older versions. Can you think of a case where you cannot? If anything the compatibility libraries stand as proof.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#110

Post by [deleted] »

cs702 wrote: post #47

Android is no longer an ugly-duckling platform trying to catch up with iOS, but a beautiful platform that truly rivals iOS in all important ways -- and now surpasses it in terms of market share. However, mobile app developers have only recently begun to transition from "we need an app for Android too, quick!" to "we need great apps for both Android and iOS," so it will take a little while for all those ugly, hastily-…

[deleted]
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