Design nitpicking at its finest

[QueBert]

Up to 2.3 I'd agree. 4.0 onward has made real strides towards consistent design. It's clearly not all the way there yet but it's light years beyond the pre-ICS days.

I recall reading somewhere that Mattias Duarte indicated they're not close to done with polishing up Android which can only mean many more improvements to come.

Pre ICS sucks, ICS isn't even really good imho it just seems that way for people who used Froyo or anything before it. ICS on it's own is meh, same with JB. I don't have much faith in Google bringing everything together anytime soon either. I mean the icons aren't even the same size. I know it doesn't effect functionality, but it's the most annoying visual thing imho. Google also can't seem to figure out what the back button's suppose to do. Perhaps by 8.0 they'll have taken Android from a Source Forge like project into what feels like an actual OS.

 

[Eug]

As far as I'm concerned, anything before 4.0 was seriously ghetto. They're starting to hit their stride with 4.1 and 4.2.

BTW, one of the first things I noticed coming to Android was the icons weren't the same size. However, I don't actually mind that so much.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I agree with some things:

1) The stupid circular camera nav is dumb. I want to see what's under my thumb so I move my thumb aside. Oh wait, if you move your thumb aside you're accidentally selecting another menu option. Doesn't work.

2) Voice actions timer: I already said this when people posted Google Now vs. Siri and the guy said "Set timer for 5 minutes." Siri counts down, but google now just sets an alarm for 5 minutes later. What if you set the alarm when you're at 7:55:59. It sets it at 8:00 which is only 4 minutes. It's an approximation. Now with 4.2's native stopwatch and countdown feature, they didn't figure to integrate. And not to mention as cool as the 4.2 clock is, it's completely a different theme. It doesn't embrace the Holo Roboto theme.

3) Inconsistent menu location. Google Apps have it at the top, but most apps have it at the bottom on the Nav Bar. Gmail looks the most clunky with the software nav keys and a software toolbar in the app. On top of that there's a Menu button for the app and a menu button-like icon for replying to the email.

4) NOTIFICATIONS: In 4.2, ALL notifications trigger a vibration in vibrate mode REGARDLESS of the in-app setting. So Gtalk and Gmail vibrate like hell all day long in my pocket despite having the vibrate button unchecked in app. I know Google calls this a feature, but my question would then be "WTF is the point of the vibrate button in-app?" It may be a feature but its implementation is either incomplete or inconsistent.

On the notification topic, they also changed how notifications work. When sound is on, apps don't vibrate. In 2.x there was a "Vibrate" option in Sound where you could select "Always" "Only when silent" or "Never." That's gone. So not only do you get vibrate on steroids when your system is in vibrate mode, you get NO vibrate when your system is in sound mode. WTF?

It's not so much that Google isn't making progress. They are. They're introducing new features and at the same time changing things up. Take sound/notifications:

2.x: Everything was perfect. You could control ringer, notification, system volumes separately. You could set vibration controls too.
4.0: Linking ringer and notification? System volume could still be set
4.1: System volume now linked.
4.2: System volume is gone. You're forced into some whacko vibration mode which you have no customizability.

It's a step backwards honestly.

Things like clock they improve on but then it doesn't fit in at all with the overall system.

They encourage people to make tablet apps, then they kill the tablet UI and go to a hybrid UI even with a Nexus 10. It's whacked.

I'm assuming with KLP that we'll be getting a pretty rock solid version of Android. Honestly, I can't fathom what Google is going to be doing with it.

One thing I really wish and hope is that they implement some sort of lock down to it so that OEM customizations are only a layer that can be removed regardless and to have more control over Android as a whole. What I mean by more control is to take away control that other cellular providers have over it and give Google a foothold in their own product (Wallet anyone?). Pipe dreams, I know.

For one they could've just allowed ANYONE to download Wallet to begin with and then check if your phone has NFC or not. It's blocked or undownloadable for many phones. I had a Nexus S and it just didn't let me install. Finally when I got to run it, it didn't let me run because it was "disabled."

Why even perform these checks? What if devs allowed all their apps to be regulated by carrier/country. Ridiculous.