The Galaxy Note occupies an odd space in the smartphone segment, positioning itself deliberately between phone and tablet, as evidenced by Samsung’s marketing material for the device. We take a look at the Note and see whether it’s all it’s cracked up to be.
Review: LG Optimus 3D (P920)
If you haven’t been living in a secluded cave in the mountains somewhere, you’ll know that three-dee is a bit of a fad at the moment (or, that’s what the manufacturers want you to think). Everybody and their dog is jumping on the bandwagon. Yes, we’re even seeing phones getting the 3D treatment. The LG Optimus 3D is the first of these to have landed on South African shores. We spent some time with it to see whether the 3D helps or hinders an otherwise solid device.
Application Showcase: Android South Africa
We take a look at a few South African centred applications, either developed locally, or targeting the local market.
Application Review: Swiftkey X
Android is known as a mobile operating system that gives you choice. One of the choices presented to you as a user is which input method you would like to use. Quite a while ago, Swiftkey appeared as a beta, and we’ve been using every iteration of it since then, the latest being Swiftkey X.
Google Launches Android Design Guide
Before we start the actual content of this article, we know we’ve been very quiet over here at ZADroid. So, a very happy 2012 from all of us! This is going to be a big year for Android, especially in South Africa, and we’re going to be there to tell you all about it.
One the criticisms surrounding Android from the beginning is that there’s never been an official set of design guidelines and interface patterns. The result was a slew of very functional, but very spartan (some might even go so far as saying ugly) looking applications. When Google appointed UX expert Matias Duarte, things started heading in an altogether more consistent direction. Today, Android finally gets something that other platforms have had from the get go: a guide dedicated to both design standards and best-practices for user interfaces and interaction patterns.
The site, dubbed simply Android Design, aims to both give developers and application designers a deeper understanding of the creative vision and principles for Android going forward, in addition to being a straightforward, to-the-point resource for the best way to create a consistent, beautiful user experience on the Android platform.
Speaking to Wired, Matias Duarte points out that the launch of the Android Design Guide was inevitable:
“We haven’t really had a style guide,” Duarte says. “We haven’t really given you a lot of guidance on how to migrate your application from a phone, perhaps, to a tablet. We’ve done so only by example.”
“Android has had a lot of terrific developer API level documentation,” Duarte tells me, speaking of the code that developers use to understand how Android works, and how to make applications for the platform. “But within our style guide we have things [where] we think, unequivocally, this is the way to make it Android.”
“This is the second part of our Ice Cream Sandwich launch,” he says. “As this site goes up, I can feel like it’s finished. Like ICS is truly complete.”
The site has three main focus areas. Style, which covers everything from from themes through to typography. Patterns tells you how the user expects to interact with your application. Building Blocks is a “directory” of the standard user-interface elements that are available for development of an Android application.
One Response to Google Launches Android Design Guide
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This… just seems like a bloody good idea. Well done Android!