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I don't see why it is surprising. Credit should go to the Hipmunk team, but it isn't like it isn't impossible or even difficult relative to other platforms to m

I don't see why it is surprising. Credit should go to the Hipmunk team, but it isn't like it isn't impossible or even difficult relative to other platforms to make a good looking app on Android. You can argue about how the tools are worse, user expectations are lower, developer community is less design focused or their taste is worse, but I am not surprised a quality team made a quality app. Android is an important platform, and I am only surprised (and upset) if you make a shit app. If a company can't get it together to make a good Android app, maybe they just aren't a good company.

joeblossom 15y ago
For another company who has built an awesome android app, look at Gowalla. In my opinion, it's one of the best looking apps period. Yesterday I had both the iOS and Android versions of the app open, and by and large, I'd say the Android won out. (Other than it lacks the cool drag to refresh)
- timdorr 15y ago
  I want to shake the hand of whomever wrote their scrolling list code. I've never seen another Android app do it so smoothly before. There's something to be said for 60fps animations on a mobile device.
sshumaker 15y ago
I disagree - android apps are more difficult to polish then iPhone apps, for a variety of reasons. * Bad defaults. (For example, on Android your app will look like crap if you have any gradients, unless you make sure to change the window format to PixelFormat.RGBA_8888 at startup). * Core UI components are ugly and behave poorly * Sluggish performance due to lack of hardware accelerated GUI (especially visible during animations, scrolling, etc) * Extra work to support a variety of screen sizes and input methods (trackball, etc) * Using custom-drawn components on Android that need animation (e.g. SurfaceView) results in inescapable flickering and compositing glitches - and you certainly can't use them properly with transitions. Popular iPhone apps tend to have a lot of UI candy, so this makes it harder to compete.
- guywithabike 15y ago
  I'm surprised you're being down voted -- you're making a decent argument and no one's refuting any of your points. Come on, Hacker News. It's not like sshumaker just posted "omg lol fandroids r dum" -- (s)he backed it up with fairly specific reasons.
- jarin 15y ago
  Having developed for both Android and iOS, I totally agree. It will definitely be big news when a major Android app is noticeably better than its iOS counterpart.

joeblossom 15y ago

For another company who has built an awesome android app, look at Gowalla. In my opinion, it's one of the best looking apps period. Yesterday I had both the iOS and Android versions of the app open, and by and large, I'd say the Android won out. (Other than it lacks the cool drag to refresh)

timdorr 15y ago
I want to shake the hand of whomever wrote their scrolling list code. I've never seen another Android app do it so smoothly before. There's something to be said for 60fps animations on a mobile device.

sshumaker 15y ago

I disagree - android apps are more difficult to polish then iPhone apps, for a variety of reasons. * Bad defaults. (For example, on Android your app will look like crap if you have any gradients, unless you make sure to change the window format to PixelFormat.RGBA_8888 at startup). * Core UI components are ugly and behave poorly * Sluggish performance due to lack of hardware accelerated GUI (especially visible during animations, scrolling, etc) * Extra work to support a variety of screen sizes and input methods (trackball, etc) * Using custom-drawn components on Android that need animation (e.g. SurfaceView) results in inescapable flickering and compositing glitches - and you certainly can't use them properly with transitions. Popular iPhone apps tend to have a lot of UI candy, so this makes it harder to compete.

guywithabike 15y ago
I'm surprised you're being down voted -- you're making a decent argument and no one's refuting any of your points. Come on, Hacker News. It's not like sshumaker just posted "omg lol fandroids r dum" -- (s)he backed it up with fairly specific reasons.
jarin 15y ago
Having developed for both Android and iOS, I totally agree. It will definitely be big news when a major Android app is noticeably better than its iOS counterpart.