Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Android can be beautiful

androidniceties.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 163 posts

Re: Android can be beautiful

#141

Post by tensor »

kgarten wrote: post #139
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.…

Unfortunately, your phone with Android is not a computing platform, because you cannot run everything you want on it without jailbreak. I needed to root my phone (Google Nexus Galaxy, unlocked) and void warranty to install jellybean :( Google makes it a bit easier, ... Yet, my iphone is also jailbroken and I can run anything. I would love to have a truly open phone with a truly open-source os (like Maemo was). No cri…

You did not "jailbreak" your phone. You merely ran the company provided developer tools to unlock the boot loader. You did not need to crack any security and you can be confident that the unlock tools will work just fine on next version of the OS. You can re-lock the boot loader so I would imagine that it would be hard for anyone to figure out that you've tampered with it.

It is also possible to run any standard app without unlocking the boot loader. You only need to unlock or root your phone for non-standard apps or modified versions of the operating system.

This is not at all the same thing as iOS jailbreaking and the level of control iOS exerts. It might be nice to support a stock way of using root, but the fact that I can run any program developed according to the standard OS apis is enough for me to consider it a proper computing device.

My definition would have at minimum:

(1) Be able to run any app designed for the system. (2) Be able to buy or receive apps from any source.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#142

Post by bonch »

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-…

If only that pesky piracy problem could be addressed, developers might actually make money on Android.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#143

Post by rimantas »

eyevariety wrote: post #80
rimantas wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> like the big dogs are prioritizing Android Who are those big dogs? Google? :) Microsoft? :)) Apple? :)))

I meant the big app developers. Its a throwaway comment for sure. I was just trying to encourage the original idea of the post while taking out its legs by pointing out how most of these don't look as good as they do on iOS.

So why not to name a few big app developers and their apps?

Re: Android can be beautiful

#144

Post by rimantas »

tensor wrote: post #78
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'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.…

And many want their smartphone to be just a smartphone. OTOH being iOS developer I have a plenty of room to hack.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#146

Post by qxcv »

Yhippa wrote: post #145
dbreunig wrote: post #98

It's comical/ironic how difficult that site is too browse.

Scrolling down is too difficult?

No, but scrolling across is difficult. And they hijack all the scrollbars so that they can show you a light grey box instead of the slightly lighter grey box which your browser normally shows. If they just displayed everything vertically and didn't mess with the scrollbars it would be an infinitely better site.

Oh, and their theme locks up Firefox, however I'm willing to blame that on FF rather than the designer(s).

Re: Android can be beautiful

#147

Post by corporalagumbo »

Mythbusters wrote: post #133
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-…

What does this site have to do with android anyway? Isn't the article basically saying, its possible to develop good looking apps on android? The problem with android is that it never had any design language like iPhone and the Windows Phone have. They give a framework for an app developer to work within. It inspires them to make consistent beautiful designs. Android has always been this free-form thing which I think…

Have you even used Windows Phone? The market place is so hideous it makes me want to gouge out my eyes.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#148

Post by corporalagumbo »

bookwormAT wrote: post #135
Mythbusters wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this site have to do with android anyway? Isn't the article basically saying, its possible to develop good looking apps on android? The problem with android is that it never had any design language like iPhone and the Windows Phone have. They give a framework for an app developer to work within. It inspires them to make consistent beautiful designs. Android has always been this free-form thing which I think…

http://developer.android.com/design/index.html

It's shocking how much clearer and more inspired this guide is than the equivalent for Windows 8. Makes me pessimistic about Microsoft's competency.

Also, the Google guide is much nicer to look at itself than MS's.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#149

Post by roryokane »

Adirael wrote: post #55
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-…

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 don’t know about screen size fragmentation, but here’s a chart of Android OS versions currently in use: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html. Android 2.3 Gingerbread is the most common version right now.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#150

Post by kgarten »

tensor wrote: post #141
kgarten wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, your phone with Android is not a computing platform, because you cannot run everything you want on it without jailbreak. I needed to root my phone (Google Nexus Galaxy, unlocked) and void warranty to install jellybean :( Google makes it a bit easier, ... Yet, my iphone is also jailbroken and I can run anything. I would love to have a truly open phone with a truly open-source os (like Maemo was). No cri…

You did not "jailbreak" your phone. You merely ran the company provided developer tools to unlock the boot loader. You did not need to crack any security and you can be confident that the unlock tools will work just fine on next version of the OS. You can re-lock the boot loader so I would imagine that it would be hard for anyone to figure out that you've tampered with it. It is also possible to run any standard app…

sorry, maybe I was not clear. Some devices running Android you have to "jailbreak" (this depends on the carrier/ manufacturer). I bought the google nexus galaxy exactly, because I just need to unlock the boot loader and can get root on it.

I just have the feeling that Google gets too much praise for their "open" Android. It's not my definition of "open" (especially in the light of their current threat towards acer http://marketingland.com/google-acer-android-aliyun-21631 )

I think I agree with you it's a computing platform (if talking about the Nexus brand). Yet, the kindle fire for example is not a computing platform (also running Android). iOS feels more like an appliance (although with the $70 developer program bonus you can do mostly anything you want with it... until Apple revokes your dev certificate :). Yet, I would love to have a really open computing platform (like Maemo was) for my phone.

edit: clarifying that I mean the nexus brand concering the computing platform.

Post reply on HN