Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus • Hacker News Board

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#41

Post by jarek » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 3:56 AM UTC

seunghomattyang wrote: post #36

flyosity wrote: post #16

From the review at This Is My Next: "The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since its inception is still there." You have got to be kidding me. How is it that Android still doesn't map a user's finger movements with nearly 1:1 accuracy on the screen? Pinch, zoom and flick response times on the iPhone have been superior to Android for years, even with significantly less powerful hardware (comp…

I think it comes down to the fact that most of the Android users don't care about the responsiveness. Maybe there exists this mentality at Google that since Android is expanding pretty well, why bother spend extra resources into GUI acceleration or design? And to an extent, that makes perfect sense. Most Android users don't care enough about responsiveness to pay more (sometimes less) for iPhone or don't even know sm…

  We are simply spoiled by the Apple's way of doing things: 
  fixing things that aren't broken for the betterment of UX.

Absolutely. Notifications UI before iOS 5 is only one example that comes to mind.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#42

Post by psychotik » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 3:56 AM UTC

jarek wrote: post #34

psychotik wrote: post #29

9 releases in 3 years -- anyone else think that's too much? I'm a mobile developer and just keeping up with Google/Apple updates is a huge task. It's almost come to a point where they ignore serviceability of products and just keep churning out new ones, expecting the eco system to keep up. And given Google's 'excellent' QA, my code is full of runtime-conditional checking to enable/disable features based on the user'…

I thought Honeycomb was a tablet-only release. It will necessarily have a lower market share than universal/phone Android releases.

Sure, but API concepts introduced in Honeycomb are (hopefully) being propagated through v4.0 and beyond. So apps have to catch up when they move to v4.0. There was a big push to get apps to build UIs which work on phone and tablets, which not many developers adopted because of immense number of bugs in their Compat Libraries. v4.0 is just going to make it worse -- my users are still running 2.2/2.3, so I can't abandon them. And I refuse to maintain multiple code branches.

If you know the details and spend a few minutes thinking about what's involved in making stuff 'just work', you'll realize how painful it is. Google's solution is to let devs release multiple APKs per platform - that is it's own maintenance nightmare (bugs/servicing, testing, dev environments, etc).

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#43

Post by kgen » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 3:57 AM UTC

flyosity wrote: post #16

From the review at This Is My Next: "The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since its inception is still there." You have got to be kidding me. How is it that Android still doesn't map a user's finger movements with nearly 1:1 accuracy on the screen? Pinch, zoom and flick response times on the iPhone have been superior to Android for years, even with significantly less powerful hardware (comp…

They just added Hardware Acceleration: http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html so I imagine it's going to take a bit of time for apps to catch up.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#44

Post by eren-tantekin » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 3:58 AM UTC

ethank wrote: post #23

tdoggette wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same size as the screen on the Nexus S, but the buttons are now just a part of the screen, so the diagonal is bigger.

That doesn't address the question. The nexus S was and is a bear to use. Your thumb can't cover the width of the screen and the usable arc in one finger operation doesn't give you 100% coverage.

It's a matter of personal preference. Also depends on how big your hand is. I am, for instance, not satisfied with my 4 inch screen and selling my Nexus S to buy a 4.3 inch android.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#45

Post by kgen » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 3:59 AM UTC

camdykeman wrote: post #12

I've got to say, I've had high hope for ICS, both as a user and developer but this OS looks extremely disappointing. From a user perspective, the interface is super cluttered. Its like Windows, just a screen full of icons and battery-eating widgets. http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/galaxy-nexus-android-ice-... Check the video out on the link. Watch how long it takes him just to find the camera for the demonstration…

To be fair, human memory and attention span is much smaller than that of the system so I imagine the curation is more useful mentally than technically? Same reason that once in a while, I purge my 20 or so odd open browser/ide tabs.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#46

Post by jarek » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 4:01 AM UTC

olivercameron wrote: post #38

jarek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by sales, an awful lot of people seem to agree with their assessment.

Let's not forget the relatively high return rate[1] on Android devices. 1. http://androidcommunity.com/android-return-rate-30-40-on-som...

Does that information come from the same source that informed TechCrunch of the leak of information about U2 listeners?

The article in question is http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/26/androids-dirty-secret-shipp..., and the claim in question is "many return rates are approaching 40% said a person familiar with handset sales for multiple manufacturers." And that's exactly the amount of detail provided. Forgive me if I'm not bowled over.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#47

Post by yohui » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 4:02 AM UTC

camdykeman wrote: post #12

I've got to say, I've had high hope for ICS, both as a user and developer but this OS looks extremely disappointing. From a user perspective, the interface is super cluttered. Its like Windows, just a screen full of icons and battery-eating widgets. http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/galaxy-nexus-android-ice-... Check the video out on the link. Watch how long it takes him just to find the camera for the demonstration…

Funnily enough, the camera app was right there on the first home screen. He literally swiped right past it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6QbAX_E3-k&feature=playe...

You can also access the camera from the lock screen. I'm not sure that's a good example of how the interface is difficult to navigate, actually, rather than of how easy it is to fumble a demonstration.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#48

Post by tullidil » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 4:03 AM UTC

camdykeman wrote: post #12

I've got to say, I've had high hope for ICS, both as a user and developer but this OS looks extremely disappointing. From a user perspective, the interface is super cluttered. Its like Windows, just a screen full of icons and battery-eating widgets. http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/galaxy-nexus-android-ice-... Check the video out on the link. Watch how long it takes him just to find the camera for the demonstration…

I'd argue that an interface is only as cluttered as a user allows it to be. Plenty of people I know own iPhones with similarly cluttered home screens. You point out how the guy in the video takes a while to find the camera but I've had that exact problem looking for it on friends' iPhones, and that's knowing exactly what the icon looks like. Any interface can be made cluttered given a bad enough user.

I'm not a developer, just a 4th year CS student who doesn't even own an Android handset yet, but I do agree about how apps being kept running even when side-swiped away is kind of troublesome. It would be nice of we were offered some sort of option as to whether we'd like to permanently close it - but that distinction and its effects are probably lost to a majority of handset users, and is probably Google's justification.

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#49

Post by Zaim2 » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 4:04 AM UTC

ethank wrote: post #22

flyosity wrote: post #16

From the review at This Is My Next: "The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since its inception is still there." You have got to be kidding me. How is it that Android still doesn't map a user's finger movements with nearly 1:1 accuracy on the screen? Pinch, zoom and flick response times on the iPhone have been superior to Android for years, even with significantly less powerful hardware (comp…

I did a whole post about how Google needs to head over to Pixar and borrow the seminal book "The Illusion of Life" by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. Learn some animation ( http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2009/11/29/the-illusion-of-sm... ) Two years ago! You'd think they'd get animation, finger mapping, etc down by now, considering the arms race in Android seems to be around screen size and processor power. I appreci…

Matias Duarte seems pretty passionate about moving Android forward at least: http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/exclusive-matias-duarte-i...

Re: Google, Samsung unveil Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Galaxy Nexus

#50

Post by tullidil » Wed, Oct 19, 2011, 4:08 AM UTC

ethank wrote: post #18

4.6" screen? Do they not understand user experience at all? The arms race on screen sizes is getting ridiculous. It's like having a paperback book in your pocket. Why can't they increase pixel density but keep it in a dimension good for one handed operation with normal sized thumbs?

Not disagreeing with virtues associated with compactness and pixel density, but to quote Tim Bray: "When I switch from the NG to my Nexus S, I think “This is pleasingly compact.” Then when I switch back to the NG I think “My eyes are happy.” Because the upside, of course, is that you have a great big honkin’ huge ginormous beautiful screen!" via http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2011/10/18/ICS-and-Ga...