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Android |OT2| - Patent pending

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S

SimleuqiR

Member
Battersea Power Station said:
Something about the focus in that image makes it look fake.
Click to expand...

Nah, I think the focus is fine. If this is fake is a very well thought out one. Fits perfectly with how the new Google+ app looks and functions. Again, if a fake, props to the person that mocked it up.


Hellraizer said:
that looks really good.
Click to expand...


Cipherr said:
Now that looks good. I could live with unified messaging that looked like that. Easy on the eyes.
Click to expand...

I just want the service and app to work seamless with Google Voice. Wouldn't mind if Google just flat out replaced the Voice and Gtalk apps with this app.
 
G

gcubed

Member
SimleuqiR said:
Nah, I think the focus is fine. If this is fake is a very well thought out one. Fits perfectly with how the new Google+ app looks and functions. Again, if a fake, props to the person that mocked it up.







I just want the service and app to work seamless with Google Voice. Wouldn't mind if Google just flat out replaced the Voice and Gtalk apps with this app.
Click to expand...

i would hope that at least GTalk goes away
 
Z

Zeppu

Member
gcubed said:
i would hope that at least GTalk goes away
Click to expand...

Needs backwards compatibility with gtalk though. Through Gmail/G+, the old Talk desktop client (or release a new one), the many Jabber clients, and of course the Talk app on older Android versions.

Otherwise they dunne goofed.
 
B

buhdeh

Member
Zeppu said:
So you think anyone from the Facebook app team has actually ever used the app? I mean seriously when the fuck are they going to fix the backstack? Why is it that clicking on notifications (either in the notification shade or in icons up top) and pressing back take me back to that screen. Some times, when I'm chatting with someone while doing other things I end up pressing back tens of times and the goddamn app takes me back between chat window and notification screen.

Seriously. Fix this shit.
Click to expand...

The Facebook app is complete garbage. Some deep parts of the app have god damn iOS UI elements in it. Animations are still jerky even after going "native". Almost every part of the UI from the photo viewer to the notification pop-up is much, much worse than the iOS app. Why in the hell does this app still have a legacy menu button when it has a DRAWER MENU?

Thing is riddled with bugs (slide open your chat contacts list then close it again and hit the home button - the first icon on my home screen gets highlighted). And the worst thing is that the pull to refresh doesn't even refresh likes or comments for any posts. You literally have to force a refresh by using the gear icon on the news feed button to update them.

AND don't even get me started on the Facebook Messenger app. If anyone knows a good alternative to using that piece of crap, please let me know.
 
O

OriginalThinking

Member
buhdeh said:
The Facebook app is complete garbage. Some deep parts of the app have god damn iOS UI elements in it. Animations are still jerky even after going "native". Almost every part of the UI from the photo viewer to the notification pop-up is much, much worse than the iOS app. Why in the hell does this app still have a legacy menu button when it has a DRAWER MENU?

Thing is riddled with bugs (slide open your chat contacts list then close it again and hit the home button - the first icon on my home screen gets highlighted). And the worst thing is that the pull to refresh doesn't even refresh likes or comments for any posts. You literally have to force a refresh by using the gear icon on the news feed button to update them.

AND don't even get me started on the Facebook Messenger app. If anyone knows a good alternative to using that piece of crap, please let me know.
Click to expand...

I think they need to leave the Android app as it is for users on Gingerbread and below and completely re-write it (again) for versions 4 and above. And do something about the godawful UI.
 
T

ThatObviousUser

ὁ αἴσχιστος παῖς εἶ
Nicktendo86 said:
It is fun and games and is one of the reasons I love android. Have you looked in the iOS threads? They have nothing to discuss other than how to get icloud to work.
Click to expand...

KuGsj.gif
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Can't take it any more. Heading home now so I can update this phone and mess around with it a bit. :D

My first taste of Xperia 4.1.2 outside of Xperia Z, so it will be interesting to see what it's like.
 
G

gcubed

Member
Zeppu said:
Needs backwards compatibility with gtalk though. Through Gmail/G+, the old Talk desktop client (or release a new one), the many Jabber clients, and of course the Talk app on older Android versions.

Otherwise they dunne goofed.
Click to expand...

the entire android system relies on gtalk. I'm assuming it will be backwards compatible. I'm also expecting the desktop to convert to "babble" as well for gmail/g+/desktop, etc
 
O

OriginalThinking

Member
http://officialandroid.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/get-inside-your-favorite-movies-with.html

We’ve added info cards to the Google Play Movies & TV app so you can easily learn more about the actors, related films and even what song is playing in many of your favorite movies. When you’re watching a film on your tablet, simply press pause and cards will pop up with information about actors on screen. You can tap on an actor’s face to learn more about him, like his age, place of birth, his character in the movie, and his recent work, or scroll through the info cards to learn more about the movie or soundtrack. When you resume the movie, the cards will disappear.
Click to expand...

This is kinda cool. Only works with movies you've downloaded from the Play Store mind. - Wait, no maybe it works with non play stuff too. US only though, so I can't test it.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
-Pyromaniac- said:
isn't it the same as the xperia z though.
Click to expand...

Of course not. Just installed it, messing about a bit now. It's ultra smooth, better than CM10 on my Sensation. Dolphin is super awesome on it as well, and the stock browser is nicely optimised.

I also love that Sony don't restrict which apps you can disable. Since it's for my dad I disabled Facebook, G+ and deleted Twitter.

The screen is astoundingly good, definitely the best I have seen outside of Xperia ZL and the HTC One. Amazing quality, didn't expect anything like this for a mid-range device for £150.

The build quality is passable, it definitely feels more expensive than it is, but it's not great. I don't expect more than this though given the price.

The size is amazing though, a high end phone of this size would be a killer device for whichever company releases it. It's about the same size as the iPhone 5 (nor surprising given that it has the same sized screen.

All in all, it's a great phone, and for £150, there is nothing else like it on the market that is as stylish and has as good a screen. I have no idea why it was getting such poor reviews earlier when it was released, maybe the 4.1.2 update makes it more usable, but I think it's just review sites having some bugbear about phones with shit specs (even though the price reflects those low specs).
 
Z

ZetaEpyon

Member
Groof said:
Gonna repeat what I said in the Apps for Android thread, but the language packs are really huge. The Japanese one was some 150MB.
Click to expand...

150MB is really huge? That sounds entirely reasonable to me for having translation available without a network connection...
 
G

Groof

Junior Member
ZetaEpyon said:
150MB is really huge? That sounds entirely reasonable to me for having translation available without a network connection...
Click to expand...

Considering the full featured, offline-ready Japanese dictionary app, that has even more features than Google Translate has, that I used on my old iPod is under 100MB, I'd consider 150MB quite large for a language pack.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
So my first impressions of the Xperia J is that it's awesome. Honestly I would prefer to have it than my Sensation right now. I was actually thinking about getting one for the next few months to tide me over until the Xperia H2 flagship comes out.

Screen on time of 1h40m and the battery life only went down by 5%. :O

On my Sensation that would be 50%!
 
G

Groof

Junior Member
zomgbbqftw said:
So my first impressions of the Xperia J is that it's awesome. Honestly I would prefer to have it than my Sensation right now. I was actually thinking about getting one for the next few months to tide me over until the Xperia H2 flagship comes out.

Screen on time of 1h40m and the battery life only went down by 5%. :O

On my Sensation that would be 50%!
Click to expand...

How new is this phone?
 
Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station

Member
OriginalThinking said:
But it's not free right? What was your idea?
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's $1500... I can't afford it but I feel like I need to make it happen. It's just such a cool opportunity.

I just did a 15 second video about how I would use it as a fencing coach to help in my training. I didn't think it was effective enough to win, but I have a feeling they had other criteria. I saw a guy that got selected that only posted "#ifihadglass it'd change how I view the world" or something like that... weird.
 
G

Groof

Junior Member
I wish they'd just integrate the Asian language keyboards into the stock keyboard. Can be a hassle to switch at times.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
Groof said:
Ah man, would've been great for my gf after she got her S3 stolen. Instead she goes with the S3 Mini... bah!
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is not as good as that phone. It's a lot cheaper though, £150 from O2, and it has a 4.1.2 update to apply out of the box which is nice. The performance is amazing to me, but I'm coming from a hateworthy Sensation so it's probably not that great to someone coming from a GS3.
 
G

Groof

Junior Member
zomgbbqftw said:
Yeah, this is not as good as that phone. It's a lot cheaper though, £150 from O2, and it has a 4.1.2 update to apply out of the box which is nice. The performance is amazing to me, but I'm coming from a hateworthy Sensation so it's probably not that great to someone coming from a GS3.
Click to expand...

Well spec wise the S3 Mini has the Xperia J beat, but would there really be that big of a difference in real-world performance? I mean, you seem to be finding it running well and this is almost half the price for somewhat similar specs, even though the J seems to have been released earlier than the S3 Mini.
How're you finding the battery so far, though?
 
O

OriginalThinking

Member
Battersea Power Station said:
Yeah, it's $1500... I can't afford it but I feel like I need to make it happen. It's just such a cool opportunity.

I just did a 15 second video about how I would use it as a fencing coach to help in my training. I didn't think it was effective enough to win, but I have a feeling they had other criteria. I saw a guy that got selected that only posted "#ifihadglass it'd change how I view the world" or something like that... weird.
Click to expand...

Time to sell that Kidney.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
Groof said:
Well spec wise the S3 Mini has the Xperia J beat, but would there really be that big of a difference in real-world performance? I mean, you seem to be finding it running well and this is almost half the price for somewhat similar specs, even though the J seems to have been released earlier than the S3 Mini.
How're you finding the battery so far, though?
Click to expand...

Amazing battery life, it has a 1750mAh battery and very weak specs, so it's not surprising.

The performance was probably quite poor running ICS, I think JB really helps phones like these because it allows GPU based rendering and since the software rendering sucks up so much power it allows lower spec phones to seem much more powerful than they really are.

It's like all of those iPhone guys saying that their 800MHz A9 is better than a dual core 1.5GHz A9 because iOS is better programmed. The same is true for JB > ICS.

I showed my gf and she loves it (Sola) and my sister was over just now and she was looking at it quite jealously even though she has an Xperia P! I think that she will not be as bothered once JB is out for her phone.
 
G

Groof

Junior Member
zomgbbqftw said:
Amazing battery life, it has a 1750mAh battery and very weak specs, so it's not surprising.

The performance was probably quite poor running ICS, I think JB really helps phones like these because it allows GPU based rendering and since the software rendering sucks up so much power it allows lower spec phones to seem much more powerful than they really are.

It's like all of those iPhone guys saying that their 800MHz A9 is better than a dual core 1.5GHz A9 because iOS is better programmed. The same is true for JB > ICS.

I showed my gf and she loves it (Sola) and my sister was over just now and she was looking at it quite jealously even though she has an Xperia P! I think that she will not be as bothered once JB is out for her phone.
Click to expand...

Oh man, reading this I can't wait until JB becomes the standard for every phone. Just thinking about the fact that there are still some phones out there with GB is sickening. Thanks for all the insights though, hope you keep enjoying the phone! Seems like it'd make a great backup phone if anything were ever to happen to my N4. Cheap and powerful.
 
O

OriginalThinking

Member
You guys heard of Action Launcher before? It's a launcher replacement by Chris Lacy the guy who developed Tweet Lanes, or at least until Twitter decided it didn't want 3rd party clients. Anyway there's an update to it today which adds a killer feature called "Shutters" which I don't think has ever been available in any other launcher or even a custom rom before (could be wrong, I haven't tried every one) It's a brilliant idea and should probably be part of stock. I'm not going to spoil the surprise, watch the video first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GJJynAG3jQQ

You can find the Launcher here, though I don't think the latest update is live yet.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrislacy.actionlauncher.pro
 
G

Groof

Junior Member
OriginalThinking said:
You guys heard of Action Launcher before? It's a launcher replacement by Chris Lacy the guy who developed Tweet Lanes, or at least until Twitter decided it doesn't want 3rd party clients. Anyway there's an update to it today which adds a killer feature called "Shutters" which I don't think has ever been available in any other launcher or even a custom rom before (could be wrong, I haven't tried every one) It's a brilliant idea and should probably be part of stock. I'm not going to spoil the surprise, watch the video first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GJJynAG3jQQ

You can find the Launcher here, though I don't think the latest update is live yet.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chrislacy.actionlauncher.pro
Click to expand...

That's... amazing. I've been neglecting Action Launcher for a while, maybe it's time to check it out.
Oh and his accent is thick as fuck.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
Groof said:
Oh man, reading this I can't wait until JB becomes the standard for every phone. Just thinking about the fact that there are still some phones out there with GB is sickening. Thanks for all the insights though, hope you keep enjoying the phone! Seems like it'd make a great backup phone if anything were ever to happen to my N4. Cheap and powerful.
Click to expand...

IMO it translates like this:

GB - XP
ICS - Vista
JB 4.1 - Win7
JB 4.2 - Win8

GB really fixed a lot of stuff with Android and made the experience bearable, ICS fixed a lot of the background stuff but introduced a lot of performance problems also, and JB 4.1 rolls up a lot of updates and fixes the ICS performance problems. 4.2 was just unnecessary and no one wants it.
 
O

OriginalThinking

Member
zomgbbqftw said:
4.2 was just unnecessary and no one wants it.
Click to expand...

Hyperbole much? I'm all for constructive criticism, but unnecessary and no-one wants it? Erm I did and I'm much happier for it on both my Nexus 4 and 7.

If by this comparison you are saying that 4.2 is worse than 4.1, I don't buy it. The swipe keyboard and customisable lock screen alone are reasons enough to upgrade. That and 4.2.2 bringing improved battery life.

4.2 is by no means perfect, but neither was 4.1. Bit of an overreaction by yourself.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
OriginalThinking said:
Hyperbole much? I'm all for constructive criticism, but unnecessary and no-one wants it? Erm I did and I'm much happier for it on both my Nexus 4 and 7.

If by this comparison you are saying that 4.2 is worse than 4.1, I don't buy it. The swipe keyboard and customisable lock screen alone are reasons enough to upgrade. That and 4.2.2 bringing improved battery life.

4.2 is by no means perfect, but neither was 4.1. Bit of an overreaction by yourself.
Click to expand...

Those features could easily have been rolled into 4.1.3, 4.2 exists to sell Nexus devices.
 
Z

zomgbbqftw

Banned
OriginalThinking said:
You do realise then that 4.1.3 would be exactly the same as 4.2 except for the name? So your point isn't that Android 4.2 is worse, it's just that it should have just been called 4.1.3??
Click to expand...

Yes. Google called it 4.2 so they could sell Nexus devices and push them ahead of OEM devices for a few months.
 
G

Groof

Junior Member
To be honest, that's true. Every Nexus release brings with it a new version of Android, so they had to do something for the N4. 4.2 could've been KLP, but 5.0 will probably take that crown now.
The swipe keyboard is so good though, almost made up for the other shit.
 
T

Threi

notag
OriginalThinking said:
Hyperbole much? I'm all for constructive criticism, but unnecessary and no-one wants it? Erm I did and I'm much happier for it on both my Nexus 4 and 7.

If by this comparison you are saying that 4.2 is worse than 4.1, I don't buy it. The swipe keyboard and customisable lock screen alone are reasons enough to upgrade. That and 4.2.2 bringing improved battery life.

4.2 is by no means perfect, but neither was 4.1. Bit of an overreaction by yourself.
Click to expand...

you are right...and that is just like Win8.

the comparison stands :)
 
O

OriginalThinking

Member
zomgbbqftw said:
Yes. Google called it 4.2 so they could sell Nexus devices and push them ahead of OEM devices for a few months.
Click to expand...

Just like they do for every version of Android... You can level this criticism at Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, ICS, Jellybean 4.1, Jellybean 4.2... but that wasn't your point. Your point was that nobody wanted 4.2. Which isn't true.

There were genuine concerns about performance degradation on the Nexus 7 and Bluetooth, mostly fixed by 4.2.2 (and a lot of the problem turned out to be something funky going on with Google Currents) though the tablets biggest problem is the shitty I/O of the Tegra 3. The rest of it was hyperbolic nonsense about the clock widget font on the lock screen.
 
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