Why on Earth would anyone wilingly use an OS where Google thinks they have the right to block or make it really hard to install non App Store apps? even if initially they allow you, they've shown their plan.
Android’s desktop interface leaks
241–250 of 393 posts
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#242Is that tiling window management by default? Huh, finally the right choice to maximize small display area for laptop!
Been true on most chromeos devices for a while!
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#243The visual design is just so bad. Its so ugly and souless. I actually feel bad for the UI designer that had to put their name behind that.
What would you want to see different from this? is there an OS that actually looks good?
Right off the bat:
1. Those loading spinners being bumpy pulled my eyes around the screen wildly to the point that they were experiencing pain. They need to be removed.
2. There is a status bar along the top, and an application launcher docked at the bottom. That's way too much vertical space being used, especially on laptops (which I'd wager is going to be the most used viewing modality for this OS). It should be merged into a single bar along one side of the screen.
3. The dropdown at the top left of each window seems to be taking up a lot of space. Especially when you're trying to fit four tabs on the screen. Get rid of it so the tabs can actually be read.
4. At 27 seconds in, there are two close icons in the focused window. That being bad could be a presentation all in itself.
5. Random padding in the status bar.
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#244This looks like it will help a lot of students and families who are on a budget. If you can just plug your phone into a screen you do not need to buy a separate laptop anymore. The browser extensions are the most important part because that is what makes a computer useful. I am glad to see they are thinking about this.
>This looks like it will help a lot of students and families who are on a budget. If you can just plug your phone into a screen you do not need to buy a separate laptop anymore. Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. But 50 Euros on the used market got me a retired corporate HP/Dell laptop with 1080p screen, intel 8th gen i5 quad core, 8GB RAM and 256GB NVME on which…
The moto g100 is a good example of a midrange phone with decent specs, including video output. It launched at $400, and can be bought for around $200 these days.
It has a Snapdragon 870, 8gb RAM, 128gb storage, a microSD slot, headphones jack, and a big enough battery to last 2 days. It's a little chunky, and it's not waterproof, but beyond that it's just about everything I ever wanted in a phone.
Motorola, of course, has already abandoned it. But it still gets up-to-date Android via Lineage OS and other community made ROMs.
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#245Maybe they will sort out how terrible it is to try and use a keyboard or keyboard like (i.e. remote control on android TV) on Android apps, I hold out little hope.
It's like nobody tests focus + navigation at all.
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a trend with Apple as well. It can be seen in iOS/macOS 26 Tahoe. There's lots of untapped potential in those iPads with M-series CPUs. We've also had rumors of a "MacBook Air Lite" sporting a cellphone A-series CPU. The convergence is happening. I would love to be able to do more with my Google Pixel phone. Right now, the MacBook is my primary workstation, but the possibility of an even more "mobile" productivi…
Apparently people play Fortnite on Mac by repackaging the iPhone app. There's no official Mac app, but the Mac/iOS APIs that Unreal Engine needs are similar enough that you just need to change the packaging.
macOS on Apple Silicon officially supports running iOS apps directly.
There’s no magic trick to it really from the developer side, Epic just ticked the opt-out to prevent it being available on the App Store.
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a trend with Apple as well. It can be seen in iOS/macOS 26 Tahoe. There's lots of untapped potential in those iPads with M-series CPUs. We've also had rumors of a "MacBook Air Lite" sporting a cellphone A-series CPU. The convergence is happening. I would love to be able to do more with my Google Pixel phone. Right now, the MacBook is my primary workstation, but the possibility of an even more "mobile" productivi…
I highly doubt Apple convergence is going to happen. A fully capable iPad would mean less sales of MacBook Air and so on. An iPhone with official docking Desktop UI also never going to happen. Same story.
and you can't install apps as easy on iPhone than on mac right? That's 2 different world that Apple need to cross, and it's unlikely.
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
Auto-hide the task bar at the bottom, and you've basically got the Gnome UI. Works just fine. It's the permanent screen reservation of the double task bar that really eats up the usable desk space. Samsung's task bar (when you enable the DeX integration on a tablet) also supports this and it makes for a fine user experience. Edit: I've enabled "force desktop mode" on my Pixel 9 Pro and hooked it up to my laptop dock.…
Inexplicably, Samsung removed the ability to hide the taskbar with One UI 8 last year.
They rebuilt DeX on Google's desktop codebase. So obviously a lot of features were lost. Hopefully what we'll gain is wider app support.
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your banking app might not work but your bank probably also offers a web page that you can just load up in your browser
There is a growing trend among banks to keep the web app usable only for emergency purposes (notify bank that your phone got stolen or lost and authorize the installation of the bank on a new phone) and only allow functionality on their mobile apps.
I've seen that claim around, but I have yet to see a bank claim to have this obviously unworkable policy, or to see someone identify a bank that does have it.
Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
But no root.
A root account violates principle of least priviledge. With proper design a root account should not be needed.
Maybe, but the user ought to be able to do with their device the equivalent of what a root account can do, even if not especially conveniently. Like seeing what data apps are saving to their devices or spoofing data to prevent apps from gaining unauthorized information. Apps should not be protected from the user, and user should have recourse from apps doings things not in their interest.