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Those two examples... wow. A cluttered, unusable homescreen (is a ridiculous 3D cylinder of icons really an option?) and a weather widget where most of the tex

Those two examples... wow. A cluttered, unusable homescreen (is a ridiculous 3D cylinder of icons really an option?) and a weather widget where most of the text is unreadable.

shinratdr 14y ago
This is I feel like I can't trust anyone on this sort of thing. I had an Android tablet. Widgets are almost universally ugly and useless. "Beautiful Widgets" is a great example of what passes for well designed on Android, and it's ugly as sin and useless.
- yareally 14y ago
  Did you ever change the theme from the default for the widget? The default is exceptionally bad and mimics the one from HTC Sense (also extremely ugly). Example of it not looking so ugly: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24904191/Screenshot_2012-03-04-21-56-26.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24904191/Screenshot_2012-03-04-21-5...
  - shinratdr 14y ago
    Not bad, but I still prefer the consistency Notification Centre widgets provide. Swiping down from the top and swiping to the side are pretty equivalent actions IMO.
    - yareally 14y ago
      Yeah, if you're comparing those two things, I'd agree it's about the same difficulty to access either. Normally, I just look at my lockscreen though if i want the weather (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24904191/2013-01-05%2000.45.21.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24904191/2013-01-05%2000.45.21.png). I'm using Cyanogen 10 in that screen shot before lockscreen widgets, so that wouldn't be found on stock Android, but I assume there's some sort of lockscreen widget for 4.2 that can do something similar.
      - shinratdr 14y ago
        True. For the record I'm in favour of using device's lockscreen for more, that does feel like wasted space that could be used for more at-a-glance information. When the iOS jailbreak rolls around for my current model I typically hop on board and install LockInfo so I can have twitter & weather at a glance. The thing is though I don't really miss it when I don't have it, it's just a nice extra when it's available so it's never been a convincing reason for me to consider Android. TBH I find LockInfo to look nicer as well. Android widgets always felt really inconsistent to me, however I've never used CyanogenMod and I do like the look of that screenshot. Clean, consistent, and most of all not gigantic and flashy.
        yareally 14y ago
        They also have an option to add your calendar notifications to the lockscreen as well for daily events. I don't have them added there, but it's a nice touch to see what is on your literary next with a quick glance. Cyanogen is really the only ROM I trust and the most professional. I don't agree with all their decisions (though that's kind of typical of any project), but they're more professional than most other projects and have higher standards for gerrit commits they accept. They have a built in updater for their ROMs since Cyanogen 9 (4.0) so no more having to download from a website. Delta updates may have been merged in recently, but have not had time to stay on top of their changes. Killer feature for me though has always been switching music tracks with the volume buttons (like how Blackberry would do it by hold pressing the volume button). I never knew how much I missed it until trying to run one day without it. It's a pretty trivial thing to add to the AOSP source though (add maybe 50 lines total to a few Java files in the framework base) and wished Google would do it. I can only assume there must be some sort of patent/licensing reason as to why they don't. You're right about wasted space and stock devices have yet to really find a good way to use it. I don't really like how Google implemented lockscreen widgets in 4.2 if you tried them out yet. They're either full out maximized (by pulling them down and thus no easier than unlocking the device) or they're minimal. Someone will probably mod them to be more customized in the community I would guess. I'm still using 4.1.2 on my Galaxy Nexus just for stability since CM 10.1 (4.2.1) is still in early development. Random question, but how is the post-jailbreak modding community for iphone? I mean I could look it up, but I'm guessing you have some first hand observations.
cheald 14y ago
Check out http://mycolorscreen.com/ http://mycolorscreen.com/ for a better idea of what Android can do. Those are all actual homescreens, not Photoshop mocks.
- krrrh 14y ago
  Some of these are nice; though it's pretty interesting that the most popular theme right now is a clone of the Ubuntu home screen.
buster 14y ago
Mh, no, the 3D cylinder is not even default ( i think ) and it's just one option of many. I have set it to normal scrolling behaviour as we know from other home screens. The 3D cylinder is just one option. This example shows that you can have a very different homescreen (an option you don't even have on the iOS). Another homescreen with a totally different layout was slidescreen. Sadly it was discontinued: http://slidescreenhome.com/ http://slidescreenhome.com/ My point is: Customization is a great thing to have. Atleast for me. All the examples i show you are just a tiny fraction of what is possible, i just don't care so much for nice looking as i care for useful and handy. The Weather widget is hell of a lot of themes and is quite awesome, the animations on opening etc. They did redesign it recently and it looks just nice. I get that "looks nice" is very subjective but i don't see your point. I can read all texts perfectly fine on the phone. Another point is: I couldn't live without a calendar widget anymore. It's too nice to have the agenda for the next days right on your homescreen.

Those two examples... wow. A cluttered, unusable homescreen (is a ridiculous 3D cylinder of icons really an option?) and a weather widget where most of the text is unreadable.

shinratdr 14y ago

This is I feel like I can't trust anyone on this sort of thing. I had an Android tablet. Widgets are almost universally ugly and useless. "Beautiful Widgets" is a great example of what passes for well designed on Android, and it's ugly as sin and useless.

yareally 14y ago
Did you ever change the theme from the default for the widget? The default is exceptionally bad and mimics the one from HTC Sense (also extremely ugly). Example of it not looking so ugly: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24904191/Screenshot_2012-03-04-21-56-26.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24904191/Screenshot_2012-03-04-21-5...
- shinratdr 14y ago
  Not bad, but I still prefer the consistency Notification Centre widgets provide. Swiping down from the top and swiping to the side are pretty equivalent actions IMO.
  - yareally 14y ago
    Yeah, if you're comparing those two things, I'd agree it's about the same difficulty to access either. Normally, I just look at my lockscreen though if i want the weather (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24904191/2013-01-05%2000.45.21.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24904191/2013-01-05%2000.45.21.png). I'm using Cyanogen 10 in that screen shot before lockscreen widgets, so that wouldn't be found on stock Android, but I assume there's some sort of lockscreen widget for 4.2 that can do something similar.
    - shinratdr 14y ago
      True. For the record I'm in favour of using device's lockscreen for more, that does feel like wasted space that could be used for more at-a-glance information. When the iOS jailbreak rolls around for my current model I typically hop on board and install LockInfo so I can have twitter & weather at a glance. The thing is though I don't really miss it when I don't have it, it's just a nice extra when it's available so it's never been a convincing reason for me to consider Android. TBH I find LockInfo to look nicer as well. Android widgets always felt really inconsistent to me, however I've never used CyanogenMod and I do like the look of that screenshot. Clean, consistent, and most of all not gigantic and flashy.
      - yareally 14y ago
        They also have an option to add your calendar notifications to the lockscreen as well for daily events. I don't have them added there, but it's a nice touch to see what is on your literary next with a quick glance. Cyanogen is really the only ROM I trust and the most professional. I don't agree with all their decisions (though that's kind of typical of any project), but they're more professional than most other projects and have higher standards for gerrit commits they accept. They have a built in updater for their ROMs since Cyanogen 9 (4.0) so no more having to download from a website. Delta updates may have been merged in recently, but have not had time to stay on top of their changes. Killer feature for me though has always been switching music tracks with the volume buttons (like how Blackberry would do it by hold pressing the volume button). I never knew how much I missed it until trying to run one day without it. It's a pretty trivial thing to add to the AOSP source though (add maybe 50 lines total to a few Java files in the framework base) and wished Google would do it. I can only assume there must be some sort of patent/licensing reason as to why they don't. You're right about wasted space and stock devices have yet to really find a good way to use it. I don't really like how Google implemented lockscreen widgets in 4.2 if you tried them out yet. They're either full out maximized (by pulling them down and thus no easier than unlocking the device) or they're minimal. Someone will probably mod them to be more customized in the community I would guess. I'm still using 4.1.2 on my Galaxy Nexus just for stability since CM 10.1 (4.2.1) is still in early development. Random question, but how is the post-jailbreak modding community for iphone? I mean I could look it up, but I'm guessing you have some first hand observations.

cheald 14y ago

Check out http://mycolorscreen.com/ http://mycolorscreen.com/ for a better idea of what Android can do. Those are all actual homescreens, not Photoshop mocks.

krrrh 14y ago
Some of these are nice; though it's pretty interesting that the most popular theme right now is a clone of the Ubuntu home screen.

buster 14y ago

Mh, no, the 3D cylinder is not even default ( i think ) and it's just one option of many. I have set it to normal scrolling behaviour as we know from other home screens. The 3D cylinder is just one option. This example shows that you can have a very different homescreen (an option you don't even have on the iOS). Another homescreen with a totally different layout was slidescreen. Sadly it was discontinued: http://slidescreenhome.com/ http://slidescreenhome.com/ My point is: Customization is a great thing to have. Atleast for me. All the examples i show you are just a tiny fraction of what is possible, i just don't care so much for nice looking as i care for useful and handy. The Weather widget is hell of a lot of themes and is quite awesome, the animations on opening etc. They did redesign it recently and it looks just nice. I get that "looks nice" is very subjective but i don't see your point. I can read all texts perfectly fine on the phone. Another point is: I couldn't live without a calendar widget anymore. It's too nice to have the agenda for the next days right on your homescreen.