USER REVIEW JT Inverted Productions Inverted Apps. - AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III
REVIEWJT Inverted Productions Inverted Gapps
Verizon Galaxy Nexus (Toro)
ROM: Codename Android 10/6 nightly
Kernel: Faux -jb-021
RECOVERY: TWRP 2.3.0
GAPPS version: 3.2.2 (4.2 Gmail)
I'm reviewing (as made obvious) Justin's Inverted Gapps 3.2.2
First, the people.
Justin will be the first to tell you that “JusTun Bean Inverted Gapps” is somewhat of a misnomer. The three members of the team that I'm familiar with are Justin860, Tun_SD, and cajunflavoredbob, all here on XDA.
Tun_SD is the themer. And he is GOOD. His apps are second to none, that I've seen. Clean, black, and fully functional
Justin860 is the modder of Aroma, for this package, and the brain behind all of this (as far as I can tell). Aroma installer, is seamless, and well designed.
The most recent to join the trio is cajunflavoredbob. He took up the duties of creating the quickflash zip when, due to time constraints, Justin pulled back from it. Now, to be honest, I have not used the qiuckflash version, personally. So, this review will concentrate on the Aroma installer, and on the apps themselves.
Justin expects you to read the forums, before you ask questions. An art that is quickly becoming lost on XDA. But, if you are the first to post up about an issue, he and Tun_SD are on it QUICKLY. By the time this review is posted up, it will be a version behind. Not due to major bug fixes, but due to additions to the package, fine tuning, and tweaks that these three insist upon. This has been especially true lately, with the arrival of Jellybean on the scene, the update to 4.1.2, and the impending arrival of 4.2. The version coming out this weekend has been hinted to include instagram, and (if I saw the screenshots right) facebook. As I said, these people are not satisfied with putting out a package and sitting back.
Aroma.
Aroma, on the surface can seem to be confusing, until you use it. It's nothing to do with the flash package itself. But more due to the fact that it is a format that is rarely used. I had never heard of it before using it.
That being said, you enter it in recovery, same as you do with any other flashable zip. You select it, and a couple of seconds later, a clean new interface pops up.
All you do, is click next, agree to the terms (which are essentially a disclaimer, and a statement that you agree that you know what you are doing. No, he doesn't collect any information), click next again, and a third time after you read the changelog. Then you get to the meat of Aroma. You will have two options. Aroma file manager, and the installer. You click on the installer, and you are presented with a list of options. The first section involves wiping options. The second offers whether or not to install regular Gapps, the third involves whether to install inverted gapps, and finally the last section asks if you want extras.
Once you go through those, you are presented with a list of all gapps, and several system apps that have been themed (People, Calendar, Email, MMS, and contacts), By default, all Gapps, and system apps are selected for you. You simply deselect any that you don't want inverted. Click next
If you choose extras, you get another list, which includes Apex and Nova launchers, Apollo Music, ES file, Dropbox, MIUI music, and RomToobox lite. In the third section, you get a trio of sample themes that TUN_SD created as well, and are known to work well with the inverts, and the option for the GNEX boot animation. Of these, the only things checked are MIUI music, and the themes.
Two Caveats, before we get into the apps.
1. If you are fond of themes, some of them may not work well with these apps. Not a detriment to either the themes or the apps, just a fact of the way frameworks and various '[email protected] work.
2. The GNEX boot animation is hit or miss on some devices. If you select it, and it doesn't work, there is no harm to your system, it just won't overwrite whichever animation you have in place.
Once you click 'install', you are given a live actions list, which tells you everything that is going on, and a bar down at the bottom, which gives you a running completion percentage. Obviously, I have to assume that the percentages are accurate, but it is enough to make me wish thaat flashing ROM's and other recovery installs were that precise in letting me know what is going on. It would be a great troubleshooting tool.
Once the installs are finished, you click next one more time, then "finish". At this point, it boots you back out into your recovery, and the phone reboots with no other prompting from you. Since you (at the minimum) wiped dalvik, in aroma, boot will take the standard extended time.
Justin states in the OP that you need to do a full wipe, before flashing the inverts the first time. The reasons are the same as for any other full wipe. You are altering, deleting, and replacing system files. just do it.
Apps.
General. When you first boot your phone, you will be prompted with a slew of permission requests. It's the way Google is doing Gapps now. Go through, and accept them. There are some with multiple aspects to approve, and in those cases, you will be prompted with multiple requests on the app (Search and G+ come to mind). It also doesn't always seem to take the first time, in my experience. G+ required a couple of attempts, before sign in was successful. No big deal. Just don't panic if it doesn't sign in the first time, every time.
Secondly, Paranoid Android seems to have some compatability issues, due to the fact that DPI can be altered on the app level. Not a deal breaker, to be sure. But the first trouble shooting step should be to check your app settings in ROM control, for anyone using PA
Google Plus
This one, like all of the apps is a standard inversion. Where it excels is how deep the inversions go. It's not just on the surface, but all of your menus options and text are inverted, as well, while retaining the stock feel. The icon is stock, while the status bar notifications are grey, as opposed to the stock white. Obviously, a theme will alter this aspect of it.
When you open the app, after set up, all of your icons in the menu are stock, but the background for both the sidebar menu and notifications are black, with white text. No surprises, there. On the sock app, the bacground is grey. So, there are no major changes, as far as color.
On the stream, though, Major color difference. Instead of the blinding white, you have a completely black background. And, obviously, the text is white on the invert.
The overflow menu, on the standard app is white with black text. On the invert, it is a slightly lighter shade of grey, just short of black to help differentiate between the menu and the underlying stream.
All of the menus and sidebar options (find people, profile, hangout, etc..) carry this through.
The nicest thing about this app, and all of the others is the complete lack of lag or glitchiness that accompany some of the inverts from other themers. I'm not sure what causes it, but it is definitely missing here.
Gmail
This is the leaked 4.2 that came out last week. Yeah. Didn't take them long at all. Again, stock icon and greyed notification. Opening it up, you have full inverted white/ grey text for unread/read messages, on black background. Anyone else noticing the trend? The icon's down below are all greyed. Swipe away functions are fully intact, as is automatic zoom out, when you open a message. Pinch to zoom also works flawlessly, with no glitching or lag.
The compose mail screen carries the theming through, with greyed text on black background. Same with the menus that accompany it. On the labels screen, custom labels are differentiated with a white header above the checkbox. Again, advocates of multicolor themes may find this slightly stark. But, it gets the job done, without any undo complications. On the message itself, if you chose to move it to a different label, you do get a touch of color, with a holo blue checkmark in the box. Beyond that, the only real dose of color comes from retaining the stock icon in the upper left.
Play Music
Opening up play music, you get more of the same. The icon in upper left is intact, and the only other real dose of color is the holo blue separator between the search/playstore/and overflow icons and the content listings. The indexing tab on the right of lists is also a holo blue. Understated, and it fits very well. Beyond that, the background is black, text white, and album art is left intact, as well. Hitting the overfow menu, you do have the nice blue check mark on the “on device only” box. Yes, this app review is a little less “comprehensive”, but redundancy has it's limits. There are no missed png files here, and erverything just works. Tapping on the play store icon will take you to the next app in our journey
Play store.
This one, along with currents, is a slightly different case. It was actually themed by a member named Kufikugel, as oppsoed to Tun_sd.
Once you open up the app, the background is black, with white primary text for each of the subsections. Here is where the expertise comes in. All of the featured headers (Travel -today- , Games, books, music, and apps) retain their stock coloring on the header text... except “Recommended for you” and a couple of the games that are on the front page. Those have been turned from black text to white. That, ladies and gents, equates to hours of poring through xml's to find which ones to alter. Be appreciative. The same thing carries throughout each of the subsections.
Here is where a little delineation from Play Music crops up, though. And, to be honest, if I hadn't gone straight from one to the other, I wouldn't have noticed it. Instead of the holo blue separator, you get the greyed out bar, with a white highlight under whichever section you are in. The name of the section (I.E. Featured) is also a pure white, as opposed to the greyed out text for the sections to each side.
However the front page of the subsection still retains stock header colors, with the aforementioned exceptions. Swipe over to the listings, and you get stock app icons with white text on black background. The star rating is opposite from what I would expect, however. The filled stars are a grey, with the final star(s) being white. I would've thought that the themer would have filled with white, and left empty stars grey.
Clicking on the app itself, to go into description, the only thing I would like to see different is more separators, between sections. You have a thick white bar between the app icon, and the install/purchase button, and the screenshots, but nothing between screenshots, download count, description, and the rating chart. Once you get into the reviews, and everything below, you have thin grey separators. That is the one part of this package that I have found, so far, that seems unfinished.
If you go into an app that you already have installed, you have a more complete scheme, with bold separators between the app name/icon, and the uninstall and open/update buttons. Then another between those and the screenshots. Again, nothing between download count and the allow auto update checkbox (which gives you that blue checkmark, for a touch of color), a thin one between that and rate/review, but not between rate/review and whats new or description, or reviews. Once again, everything below that has the separator.
If you click on the stars to rate the app, your selection of stars is holo blue, with a grey for any stars you don't highlight. And there is a blue separator between the title and comment section, but a grey one between comments and your cancel/ok selections.
Again, let me say that this is probably the most difficult app to theme, in the package. The separators aside, I think that Kufikugel did an excellent job.
Docs/Drive (pick a name).
On this one, there aren't a ton of mods to do, so the interface is a pretty basic invert. White text, greyed icons and grey separators on a black background. The menu is a dark grey, with light grey separators.
If you go into “My Drive” you have the same. Any starring you do will show up a dark blue, in the star. Not quite as light as the holo blue you see elsewhere. The indexing tab on the right is the holo blue that you have read about, so far. The separators are still the light grey, and text a vibrant white. When you click the arrow to the right of an object, and go into the sharing section, the top bar is a greyish blue, with the hue covering over the icons. The separator goes back to holo blue, as well. Text is either white, or greyish white. And the separators go back to the same ight grey thin line. It seems to fit a little more, in this UI, making the blue one up top more of a primary separator, and the rest secondary. If you have contact pictures for those you have shared with, they show up intact, as well. Beyond that, the theme carries through all of your menus, and settings. Holo blue top separator, and grey after that, with blue check marks.
Google Reader.
I'm bypassing this app, because I'm not even sure HOW to use it. I signed in, but I don't have any content synced to it. So, I will forgo this review in favor of someone with experience with the app.
Google Talk.
Not nearly as many layers as Play Store. But, I think the success in this one is in how well everything still works. The ***** about Gtalk/Messenger is how they tie into Google Plus. With this one, the UI is complete. Profile pics are intact, grey separators are all there, along with the color coded circles to indicate friend status.
I just jumped on video chat with my wife (she's a convenient guinea pig), and the theming carried over to me receiving the call, and it popping up on my screen as a regular call would, black background, and vibrant greens/reds for the answer/ignore options. Once on the call, the background behind the images remained black, as well.
Again, the app just works. That is all.
Google Voice.
This is the other app that I'm going to forgo. The reason, to be blunt, is that Gvoice irritates the hell out of me. And i'm not going to go through the hassle of setting it up. Suffice it to say, all of the other apps are 99% flawless. What are the chances that this one is screwed up? If you use Gvoice, install it.
Google Now
Swipe up from your lock screen, or home screen, and you are presented with Google Now. The underlying background is the same dark grey you get for your menu in the other apps, with the cards being completely blacked out. I would have liked to see some kind of border here, on the bottom, if not completely wrapped around. It would have made it a little easier for me to tell the individual cards at a glance.
Your primary text on the card is white, with secondary being grey. And the icons for sports teams, system apps, and weather remain stock. Tapping the mic on the black search bar brings up the obligatory black screen, with the read soundwave, or whatever you'd like to call it, surrounding the icon in the upper right. Voice functions are as good as they have been, with no lag. One thing I did notice, sending a test text to my wife, after I pressed send, a white screen popped up for a second. It was web results. I think I would have liked to see that themed to black, as well. But, I'm pretty sure that doing so would require theming google search itself. Something, as of yet, not included in the package.
Google Currents
This is the other app that was themed by someone other than Tun_sd. This one goes to Sn1per.
Opening up the app, you have your black background, along with the icons for each of your feeds, and white text. Switching over to trending, you wind up with the black background with white text and holo blue subtext.
Hitting a feed in your library, I noticed the background to be hit or miss. The Verge came up with a white background, as did The Daily Beast. Whereas Space.com and 500px both had black backrounds... Not sure if that is feed based, or what is going on there. I tend to believe that it is feed based, since it seems to depend on the content itself, more than the general app layout.
OK. Now the nonGapps
People.
Open it up, and the first thing you see is the bright blue header. I want to say it's holo, but it seems a little bright for that. I will say I would probably like that one to be toned down, just a touch. Night time viewing still makes it a little glaring on the eyes. That aside, the hue carries over to the icons in that section, with a white underlining (a la Play store) to indicate which subheader you are working with. Going down, Primary dividers are separated with the same holo blue (real holo, instead of the superbright version) text and separators. Secondaries retain the light grey. Text is bright white. Under the alphabetized listings, this translates to the letter breaks are in blue, and individual names are in grey, with white text and icon photos. You maintain the blue indexing tab, and the pop up letters that come up as you scroll are on a translucesnt grey background with white text.
Open up the contact, and you have the same bright header up top. If the contact is starred, it is white. If not, the star is a slightly darker shade of blue.
The headers for each section are also the holo blue, with blue text. The text in the section remains white. The overall background isn't black, so much as a VERY dark grey.
MIUI Music
Having not used MIUI before, I'm going to be doing this review without any comparisons to the non themed version.
The UI seems to be similar to Play Music, in the way it's set up, if not in the graphics, themselves. In the upper left, you have the total number of songs on your Sdcard, and a large graphic (a musical note, in my case) taking up the upper half of the screen. Below that, you have a breakdown of your music, all of which are black background under white text, with the barely noticeable separators. Clicking on one of them (artists, for this example) shows the content, with an overall count of that section in the upper left. If you use the right side alphabetical scroll tab, it shows a toast box that is holo blue, with the letter in white text. One thing I did notice was that the indexing tab didn't seem to move, along with the scrolling. It stayed on “A” the entire time for me. Bringing up a song, brings up the album art, and controls, along with the song title. No separators here, but a slight difference in color between the 5 icons that control the info, playlist toggle, eq, loop toggle, and shuffle toggle, and the back, play/pause and forward controls. Right below that, where there is a separator, there seems to be a repeat of the title. But it is so dark that it is pretty much useless. I'm not sure if that is something to do with the app, or the way the theme was made.
Calculator
Not a whole lot to talk about here. The buttons are outlined in greyish white, with a nice fade to disappearing at the bottom. The characters are holo blue, and nice and large. The menu is the same slightly lighter grey with separator and white text. Functional, basic, quick to use.
Calendar
The initial display still defaults to weekly view, which I haven't bothered to change. But, instead of the glaring white/grey, you get a solid black grid with the days separated by holo blue grid lines. The top text, including month/year, calendar icon, and overflow menu are all in a muted grey. The days of the week are a little different, from what I was expecting, with the weekdays being in white, and the weekend in holo blue. I guess Tun is excited for the weekend. Either way, if you have a mon-fri job, it makes for a nice differentiation at a glance.
Swapping to month view, holidays are color coded to a brown bar. Not my personal favorite, but that can obviously be changed in settings. And the day you are on is highlighted in holo blue. Clicking on the day, and the event (holiday in this case) is also highlighted in the same brown, with white text. The hour separators are the same holo blue.
Adding an event, your default email address is selected in a darker blue, almost purple, and whatever line you are editing is underlined in holo. Beyond that, the text is either grey or white, depending on the section. Pop up menus for each section is the same slightly lighter shade of grey, with white text
Messaging
Completely black background here. Holo separator, at the top, then the grey ones throughout the rest of the theme. Clicking on the icon brings up the individual's message history, with the same separator layout.
This version of messaging is the CM10 version that has the pop up option. Again, theme conflicts can cause an issue, here. There have been a few instances of the messages running off the side, on the pop up. If that happens to you, check the theme.
As for the pop up, itself, you get two holo separators. One on top, just below the contact info, and one on bottom, just above the close and view buttons. Clicking on the reply section underlines it in the same holo, and pops your keyboard up. Once again, no glitches or hangs on either aspect of the app, save for the aforementioned text overflow.
I'm pretty sure that covers all of the apps.
I'm also very sure you will enjoy them, thoroughly. Aside from a few minor inconsistencies, they are outstanding. And, in this user's opinion, the best out there.
In summary, you have this:
A group of people who are very receptive to bugs, and not shy about admitting the few that do crop up. Once they know about them, they are very aggressive in fixing them.
You have a very well themed set of apps, that are clean and pretty consistent across the board.
And you have a set of apps that just work. No glitches, or performance issues.
Wow thorough
Great write up
Sent from my Nexus 7
Nice review thanks for taking the time to write it.Next time I update my rom gonna give this a go.Thanks to Justin860, Tun_SD, and cajunflavoredbob, for there time making Inverted Gapps :good:
Good Write up.
Think I got it now. always wondered about Aroma. Thanks:good:
Related
Text color
I ran into this "problem". I changed my background to a picture and used the bg 4 all utility to have the same background on all manila tabs, but now my backgrounds are also changed in the SMS reading panel 'threaded sms), the contacts screen and maybe some others screens too. Because this text is in black, my changed background makes the text very hard to read and it should be changed to white if possible. Does anyone know if and how you can change the text color? I searched the forum, but didn't find answers.
same problem i have also this problem. i deleted this app.but i love it help help help is there anyway to make this problem
Would also like to know if there is any update on this, the other alternative I have posted a thread for is how to have a little more customization over where the background goes, e.g. select to leave default background on contact edit window etc etc. Hopefully someone can help? Jody
Update on this, found http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=479112&highlight=curtain The stocklite CAB allows what we were after, only the manilla tabs get the background, the ones with the white background remain. I am running it successfully on Dutty V3
I haven't personally tried the background for ALL tabs and apps yet, but this does sound intriguing. I have spent ages playing around with an APP that changes ALL the text, pop-up, bars, scrollbars, title, background etc etc colours, in an attempt to have a completely black background and crisp white text (ie. like TF3D). However... there are limitations to this, and it is VERY hard to achieve a consistant and fuinctional look (since many colours are shared, and quite often you come across a pop-up or menu items that are the same colour). But... if the APP you mention underlays a black background image in PocketOutlook without actually changing the preset windows colour... this may actually work. Here's the freeware to tweak colours (UI Tweaker): - http://mobile-sg.com/software/?p=UITweaker&platform=ppc I'm definitely interested to see if anyone else gets somewhere with this?
Text message layout
Hi, i was just wondering if there was a way of changing the look of text messages. Its all fancy when it touchflo showing the last message received, but as soon as i reply or go to all messages, its a horrible white screen and very plan. Anyone got any solutions to this? Thanks.
Hi Consider upgrading to one of the latest Rhodium/Topaz ROMs where HTC have included this area of Windows Mobile within their customisation and done a reasonable job of hiding our very own Ugly Betty (WinMob 6.1) Regards H
the other way around is using a proggie like sktools to change system colors of winmo parts (a bit like righclicking on our win PC desktop/properties/appearance) just changes colors anyway
Programs that change the system colours seems like a great idea until you start doing it, i too hate the boring messaging colours, i wanted white letters on a black background, but although u can easily change them u soon realise its not workable, changing "window background colour" to black also changes signal bars to black, & it also changes internet pages such as facebook to black, but when u then change text colour to white for messaging it leaves web pages with black type on black ! & notification text would also be black on black, you end up trying different combinations for ages then reverting to standard.
yup thats the crap of it like in pc windows anyway
partially sighted/blind help me for the interface
Hello everyone, I am an Italian partially sighted, and then I have big problems of view. I note with regret that Android is very configurable, but with more difficulty. I have a HTC Desire with root privileges. I would simply like to change most of the interface, not pleasure, but to use it, for example, I have to change anything that has white background with black background and then put white text, here's a list: - Change backgrounds with blacks and whites to white text (it is called high-contrast) - Change buttons with clear background and insert new ones with black background and white text - A little larger all the characters - Enlarge icons - Have all black keyboard with white keys - Have different software with a black background and white text How do you see there. I am a programmer and I also know Java and I have the android SDK installed, the only lacks experience in this system since I got two days ago. I installed without success, Open Home, in the sense that I did not get good results. Can you help? I am willing to install something already done or create something from scratch I just do not know where to start, I know that Android is based on the topics of XML, but I do not know where in the system, such as retrieve and re-enter . Excuse me for my bad english Thank you all. Ale
I would be interested in the results that could be achieved by one of the active themers around here, in response to OP's request. I do not have the difficulties that OP does with his vision, but I think that black everywhere with white text is far more attractive. I'd be especially interested in a mod for the GMail app, Market, People, etc. I hope someone can help out so the OP can really get some use out of his phone
[Q] How do I make images like this?
I recently saw images in the themes section, that I loved and subsequently now use for my phone. Shown: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=781455 and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=783946 Now, how do I resize the images properly? Scale, resize? Differences? What program to use (free, I'd prefer)? How to add that black bar so lovely at the bottom of the images and the text there? I tried figuring it out, but I couldn't figure out how to search how to do that specific thing. Any help would be great! I want to start making images in that fashion for other applications, as those are very limited.
When I had my Hero, you could download Desktop Visualizer - this will allow you to associate certain pictures to the icons you want. It will also allow you yo resize them....my suggestion is start with a big icon and resize it smaller - smaller to big makes it look grainy...as for the dock bar....I used (use) LauncherPro - under LauncherPro setting you can change the dockbar....hope this helps!!
The black bar at the bottom looks to be a custom dock for LauncherPro. I've seen it in collections of LP Docks before (I'm unfortunately not immediately able to find it, but google it and spend a few minutes, and you ought to find it no prob). As for the icons, Simi Folder would be one way to do it if what you're linking to is a folder. Not sure for just an icon that links directly to an app -- you can certainly resize icons in LPP, but I'm not sure off the top of my head how to do it and maintain the scale. You could probably compress it using Photoshop such that when it gets stretched, it looks correct? I dunno, someone else may have better ideas...
I believe people are misunderstanding what I'm asking. I know how to get it all set up on my homescreen and such. I have the setup like that currently, no problem, using DesktopVisualizer and LPP. I'm more asking about how they placed those bars on the image and the writing. See, they have an image that they got from wherever on the internet, put that minimalistic black transparent bar on the bottom and wrote "Texts" there, so that one would use it as a tile of sorts (as the theme they're going for is an "Android Phone 7" sort of thing"). I want to basically get images from wherever in the internet as well and use them for other applications. Like, create a, say, "Market" one, where the image I found will represent in some form, a market, and then put that black transparent bar in the image and type "Market" in some font in the corner like they did so that I can then use DesktopVisualizer to use the image as the icon in the manner shown in those posts. I'm assuming you can't just go and place a huge image (####x###) as the icon and hope it fits right. They resized theirs down to like 355x115 or something. Every time I try to resize something like that, though, it does not like it in the least. So, I'm wondering how they did that, too. In a sense, they're like icon sets, if you will, and I want to then expand their offerings, as they only offer "icons" for a few applications or needs. God, what a text wall. Sorry!
I wouldn't mind knowing myself, I'm all for customizing my Evo, and the more I learn the better I can do so.
I'm sure it's a relatively simple process, I just simply don't know how and wouldn't even know how to search for it. Like, what, "black bar on image?" Ha! Hundreds of views, hardly any replies! You'd think this wise community would know!
totalanonymity said: I believe people are misunderstanding what I'm asking. I know how to get it all set up on my homescreen and such. I have the setup like that currently, no problem, using DesktopVisualizer and LPP. I'm more asking about how they placed those bars on the image and the writing. See, they have an image that they got from wherever on the internet, put that minimalistic black transparent bar on the bottom and wrote "Texts" there, so that one would use it as a tile of sorts (as the theme they're going for is an "Android Phone 7" sort of thing"). I want to basically get images from wherever in the internet as well and use them for other applications. Like, create a, say, "Market" one, where the image I found will represent in some form, a market, and then put that black transparent bar in the image and type "Market" in some font in the corner like they did so that I can then use DesktopVisualizer to use the image as the icon in the manner shown in those posts. I'm assuming you can't just go and place a huge image (####x###) as the icon and hope it fits right. They resized theirs down to like 355x115 or something. Every time I try to resize something like that, though, it does not like it in the least. So, I'm wondering how they did that, too. In a sense, they're like icon sets, if you will, and I want to then expand their offerings, as they only offer "icons" for a few applications or needs. God, what a text wall. Sorry! Click to expand... Click to collapse The text is just in the image, it isn't some magical add-on. It is probably just a black rectangle and then transparency adjusted to taste. There are a handful of win7 style icon packs like that. You could use one of those as a template (for size) and use your own images and text. Minimal PS or GIMP experience needed. Just keep the aspect ratio of the images when you are resizing them and provided they aren't absurdly larger than the ~355x115 or whatever size you are aiming for they should still look fine.
The second link says it comes with photoshop templates. You could always just download the 30 day free trial of photoshop.
looks like a simple photoshop job to me, just add a second layer above the background, rectangle marquee the section you want to be the transparent bar, then paint bucket the area with a black (or any color) at 50% opacity, then add text.
jstalford said: The second link says it comes with photoshop templates. You could always just download the 30 day free trial of photoshop. Click to expand... Click to collapse Wow, can't believe I missed that. Oops!
Those are pretty cool looking layouts nice find.
What's wrong with ICS and the Galaxy Nexus
First off; I love Android. I think that Ice Cream Sandwich has led to a greater harmonisation of the Android operating system and adds a bit of polish to something functional. Google's apps are starting to feel like they belong together, rather than giving a sense that they're being produced by different teams who have little contact. However, I'm no fanboy. I don't buy a product and deny that it has flaws just because a certain company produced it *ahem *. So here it is; one humble man's opinion on what's wrong with Ice cream Sandwich. 1. Blue theme.... really? There's a reason that designers avoid blue-on-black. It offers poor contrast, and looks cheap; much like the Geocities sites of the 90s. The blue taskbar and app icons used in ICS just don't go with... well... anything. It's all well and good being able to customise your home screen, but when anything except a blue background clashes it's all a little redundant. 2. The stock icons themselves are disgusting. We all knew this from the leaked screenshots, which forums were praying were fake. Mostly, they just don't look like they belong to the same set. There's no consistency. Half are blue, half are not. Some are three dimensional, and some are traditional, flat icons. Some are different sizes. They just don't work. They look cheap, childish and don't match the 'magazine' style of the UI overhaul. It's like someone realised at the last minute that they'd forgotten to redesign icons, so just did a Google Image search and used the first of each that they found. 3. Google Plus pages won't open in the Android Browser. This one is just plain embarrassing. Google's flagship device can't view Google's new hub outside of the restrictive app? The browser just panics and shuts down with no option to report it. Did no-one test this? 4. Google Talk isn't in the sharing options. That's right, click on the share icon within an app and it'll show you every way of sharing except Google Talk. Following the above, it seems like Google is boycotting their own services. 5. Speech to text for UK language setting is insane. After a few words, it seemingly switches to using your contacts directory as a dictionary, rather than real words. You end up with a full sentence made entirely of surnames and forenames. I cannot believe that no-one tested this. 6. Removing the search key doesn't just remove the ability to search from some apps; it means that you can no longer assign functions to long press, or use voice command from any app. You have to return to the home screen each time. This is a huge step backwards. 7. Similarly, this has led to a non-removable search box on the home screen. Not only does it take up space, but the white icon doesn't work on a light background. The customisability of Android has just been taken down another notch. Sure, you can use a 3rd party launcher, but with no search button, you need the box there for searches. 8. A minor point, but Android can't seem to decide if going for a futuristic hologram look, or the Windows Phone 7 style magazine layout. It's like Mathias Duarte turned up, and they said “Make our OS beautiful... but it still has to look like ugly old Honeycomb (TRON)." All in, it just feels a bit cheap and confused. 9. The soft keys which Google has opted for in ICS are not well positioned. The home key is far too close to the space bar, which is infuriating when typing. 10. The action bar is horrific to use. It means that the menu and search keys jump around the screen. So you're in the Facebook app and want to see the menu. Where is it? Well it's not where it used to be and there's no action bar. Oh wait, three dots have appeared in the soft-key bar. Ugly and inconsistent, but OK. Switch to messaging. Where the heck is it? Ah it's in the top right now! The little scamp. Now you're in Gmail. Where is the menace? I know you're here somewhere... Ah, there! In the action bar in the bottom right. Android Market: back up top! There is just no consistency and it makes everything feel disjointed and unpredictable. The action bar essentially negates the large screen on the Galaxy Nexus. The row of soft keys, plus the action bar actually leads to a lower proportion of screen space for the app than on previous versions of Android. 11. Cut, Copy & Paste: What the hell were they thinking?! This doesn't just jump around based on app, but depending on which page of an app you're in. And even then, the buttons are different every time. Take Gmail for example. Copying text from the body of an email: a menu appears in place of the action bar at the bottom. However, in the 'compose' screen this menu appears at the top, but with different icons. Another 'paste' button (but not using the paste icon) also appears above the selected text, but no cut or copy buttons. If you try and make a selection from a link, a long press summons a pop-up dialogue where paste is an option. That is four ways of pasting, just within the Gmail app. Not to mention, that they've opted for icons with no words. Unless you're accustomed to using old Windows machines, this may as well be code. It's like it's intentionally trying to confuse you. 12. Relationships with app vendors must be non-existent. If I was releasing an update to a platform which relies upon people being able to install apps, I'd make sure that the most common apps work on the new platform before release. This could involve providing phones and assistance to the big names. As it stands, neither Facebook nor Whatsapp (two of the top 5 most downloaded apps) work. Both of these are communications related. I feel cut off from the world. I'm sure this could have been sorted before release. Swype is another big name that doesn't support the screen resolution. Google launched the Galaxy Nexus weeks ago. Facebook was initially unusable due to the absence of a menu button. The app was updated today to a version akin to the iPhone. However, the drag-to- refresh animations don't work as they should, and the damn thing will alert you of 'new messages' every 30 minutes if you have any unread, regardless of whether or not they are new. Atop this, Facebook will still not sync with official Google devices as Facebook does not properly use Google's contact API. Rather than being stubborn, Google should be helping Facebook, or seconding engineers, as they know full well that the majority of their users will require his service. I appreciate that a lot of this is out of Google's hands, but this is just a warning to early-adopters – be prepared to lose the services you use most. 13. The browser is still useless with forms. Try entering text in a field. It'll type past the edge of your viewport and you can't scroll to the cursor. The viewport should follow the cursor. You can't zoom in and out because you can't get 'hold' of the web page due to the full-screen text entry field. 14. Horizontal lines everywhere. Did I mention that text fields are now horizontal lines? Text boxes are indistinguishable from divides and text doesn't sit on the lines so you never know where one ends and the other starts. As I said, all in, it is an improvement. However, there is a heck of a lot of room for improvement. There is still a feeling that things aren't really designed, or connected; just a bit haphazard. I'm just hoping Cyanogen pulls something wonderful. For the standard consumer, the experience aspect is still playing catchup with Windows Phone and iOS.
I agree with most of what you are saying... nothing makes me angrier than trying to use google search on android's mobile browser, and not being able to add additional words onto the end of my search string because I can't Freaking scroll the text over to enter it in. (I do think this is a webpage issue possible though, because it happens on iphone as well) I think they should have gotten rid of the flip button (task switcher button) and have that be the settings button, then just have the HOME button be a long press for task switching.... simple, effective, makes sense.. consistent. I guess having settings in the app allows developers to have more control, but I think consistency would be better.
mike freegan said: First off; I love Android. I think that Ice Cream Sandwich has led to a greater harmonisation of the Android operating system and adds a bit of polish to something functional. Google's apps are starting to feel like they belong together, rather than giving a sense that they're being produced by different teams who have little contact. However, I'm no fanboy. I don't buy a product and deny that it has flaws just because a certain company produced it *ahem *. So here it is; one humble man's opinion on what's wrong with Ice cream Sandwich. 1. Blue theme.... really? There's a reason that designers avoid blue-on-black. It offers poor contrast, and looks cheap; much like the Geocities sites of the 90s. The blue taskbar and app icons used in ICS just don't go with... well... anything. It's all well and good being able to customise your home screen, but when anything except a blue background clashes it's all a little redundant. 2. The stock icons themselves are disgusting. We all knew this from the leaked screenshots, which forums were praying were fake. Mostly, they just don't look like they belong to the same set. There's no consistency. Half are blue, half are not. Some are three dimensional, and some are traditional, flat icons. Some are different sizes. They just don't work. They look cheap, childish and don't match the 'magazine' style of the UI overhaul. It's like someone realised at the last minute that they'd forgotten to redesign icons, so just did a Google Image search and used the first of each that they found. 3. Google Plus pages won't open in the Android Browser. This one is just plain embarrassing. Google's flagship device can't view Google's new hub outside of the restrictive app? The browser just panics and shuts down with no option to report it. Did no-one test this? 4. Google Talk isn't in the sharing options. That's right, click on the share icon within an app and it'll show you every way of sharing except Google Talk. Following the above, it seems like Google is boycotting their own services. 5. Speech to text for UK language setting is insane. After a few words, it seemingly switches to using your contacts directory as a dictionary, rather than real words. You end up with a full sentence made entirely of surnames and forenames. I cannot believe that no-one tested this. 6. Removing the search key doesn't just remove the ability to search from some apps; it means that you can no longer assign functions to long press, or use voice command from any app. You have to return to the home screen each time. This is a huge step backwards. 7. Similarly, this has led to a non-removable search box on the home screen. Not only does it take up space, but the white icon doesn't work on a light background. The customisability of Android has just been taken down another notch. Sure, you can use a 3rd party launcher, but with no search button, you need the box there for searches. 8. A minor point, but Android can't seem to decide if going for a futuristic hologram look, or the Windows Phone 7 style magazine layout. It's like Mathias Duarte turned up, and they said “Make our OS beautiful... but it still has to look like ugly old Honeycomb (TRON)." All in, it just feels a bit cheap and confused. 9. The soft keys which Google has opted for in ICS are not well positioned. The home key is far too close to the space bar, which is infuriating when typing. 10. The action bar is horrific to use. It means that the menu and search keys jump around the screen. So you're in the Facebook app and want to see the menu. Where is it? Well it's not where it used to be and there's no action bar. Oh wait, three dots have appeared in the soft-key bar. Ugly and inconsistent, but OK. Switch to messaging. Where the heck is it? Ah it's in the top right now! The little scamp. Now you're in Gmail. Where is the menace? I know you're here somewhere... Ah, there! In the action bar in the bottom right. Android Market: back up top! There is just no consistency and it makes everything feel disjointed and unpredictable. The action bar essentially negates the large screen on the Galaxy Nexus. The row of soft keys, plus the action bar actually leads to a lower proportion of screen space for the app than on previous versions of Android. 11. Cut, Copy & Paste: What the hell were they thinking?! This doesn't just jump around based on app, but depending on which page of an app you're in. And even then, the buttons are different every time. Take Gmail for example. Copying text from the body of an email: a menu appears in place of the action bar at the bottom. However, in the 'compose' screen this menu appears at the top, but with different icons. Another 'paste' button (but not using the paste icon) also appears above the selected text, but no cut or copy buttons. If you try and make a selection from a link, a long press summons a pop-up dialogue where paste is an option. That is four ways of pasting, just within the Gmail app. Not to mention, that they've opted for icons with no words. Unless you're accustomed to using old Windows machines, this may as well be code. It's like it's intentionally trying to confuse you. 12. Relationships with app vendors must be non-existent. If I was releasing an update to a platform which relies upon people being able to install apps, I'd make sure that the most common apps work on the new platform before release. This could involve providing phones and assistance to the big names. As it stands, neither Facebook nor Whatsapp (two of the top 5 most downloaded apps) work. Both of these are communications related. I feel cut off from the world. I'm sure this could have been sorted before release. Swype is another big name that doesn't support the screen resolution. Google launched the Galaxy Nexus weeks ago. Facebook was initially unusable due to the absence of a menu button. The app was updated today to a version akin to the iPhone. However, the drag-to- refresh animations don't work as they should, and the damn thing will alert you of 'new messages' every 30 minutes if you have any unread, regardless of whether or not they are new. Atop this, Facebook will still not sync with official Google devices as Facebook does not properly use Google's contact API. Rather than being stubborn, Google should be helping Facebook, or seconding engineers, as they know full well that the majority of their users will require his service. I appreciate that a lot of this is out of Google's hands, but this is just a warning to early-adopters – be prepared to lose the services you use most. 13. The browser is still useless with forms. Try entering text in a field. It'll type past the edge of your viewport and you can't scroll to the cursor. The viewport should follow the cursor. You can't zoom in and out because you can't get 'hold' of the web page due to the full-screen text entry field. 14. Horizontal lines everywhere. Did I mention that text fields are now horizontal lines? Text boxes are indistinguishable from divides and text doesn't sit on the lines so you never know where one ends and the other starts. As I said, all in, it is an improvement. However, there is a heck of a lot of room for improvement. There is still a feeling that things aren't really designed, or connected; just a bit haphazard. I'm just hoping Cyanogen pulls something wonderful. For the standard consumer, the experience aspect is still playing catchup with Windows Phone and iOS. Click to expand... Click to collapse yawns, i respect your opinion. But i can list 15 things wrong with IOS5 as well. Overall ICS and android has matured over the few years android has existed. No product software/hardware is perfect. Most of the issues can be corrected with customization. Like i said i respect your complaints and opinions, but i just feel they are picky...Comparing the OS from my G1 to what android is now, i LOVE IT
Thanks for typing this up. While I still plan on buying it, I like to get a well-rounded opinion about the device and software. I have to agree with #12. Launching this device exclusively on one carrier and then delaying it is very embarrasing. I know, the better developers will have a Verizon account or buy the phone unlocked from an international dealer, but still not good. It makes it more difficult for app developers to work their apps for ICS. I had to laugh at Eric Schmidt's thought that ICS will be #1 for development in 6 months. ICS wont be off exclusivity or on any other devices for at least 3 months.
First of all, the theme Android has used for Honeycomb and ICS - holographic, blue themes, etc. - is awesome. Everybody has their own opinion but for me it's no turn off. As far as action button placement, Google's central idea on that is leave it to the developer to say where it goes - in the top bar? Bottom ribbon action bar? Wherever is more appropriate for the app design. Matias himself said he's pushing Android to a more unified UI style without straight-jacketing it (ala iOS). As for apps being compatible with new releases, it's up to the developers to keep that up. Google is not responsible for if Swype or Facebook doesn't update their app before a new release. And for saying Google should help Facebook, why should they? You realize Google has their own social network, don't you? It sounds like you do know that in the past Google has let Facebook basically hack their way into your contacts list separate from the Contacts API, but later blacklisted that because it didn't conform to their data exportability policy and API. "the majority of their users will require his [sic] service." Since the 2.3 update that cut out Facebook's hackish ways, customers who want Facebook integration in their Android phones should get something non-Nexus. That's why Google is advertising the deep integration with G+, not social media in general.
mike freegan said: First off; I love Android. - cut - Click to expand... Click to collapse Couldn't agree more. This could easily become the best Android phone I've bought (and I had them all), but at the same time it's the first one (and only one) I cannot stand because of the too many hiccups and bugs it has. Can you believe that I haven't put my main SIMcard in it yet? I keep playing with it at home, trying new roms and kernels, but when it comes to using it as my main phone... we're a long way from it! - The Stock browser is not that good (have you tried to write something in a forum and then move the cursor back in the text to change a word? Good luck with that!!) and Dolphin Browser is not yet supported. - As we know, Flash doesn't work yet (this is just hilarious). - The stock Keyboard in the browser doesn't correct your mispelled words, and Smart Keyboard Pro doesn't work all the times. - speakers are too quite, I have found a workaround using Volume + (but beware! The version available in the market is not working). - if you try any animated wallpaper, UI will slow down painfully. In the end as much as I love its gorgeous screen and huge potential, as things are now, I find it one of the most detestable phones out there. Great job, Samsung/Google!
Nice write up....but so many of your complaints are just because you don't like them. Really your complaining about the color.... I'm sorry so much bothers you because honestly ICS makes Android and the Galaxy Nexus a great phone! Windows phone is a far cry from being compared to Android and IOS. I'm all for putting out there the faults of devices but if you say I like Android -cut- I hate everything about it bla bla bla....um... how can you like it if you think another brand or device works better?? Wouldn't that mean you like _____ << insert favorite OS here??
Danny80y said: Windows phone is a far cry from being compared to Android and IOS. Click to expand... Click to collapse But on my Lumia 800 I can write effortlessly on this and every other forum, and things just work well!
I agree, colour is generally subjective. But what they've gone for is almost universally accepted as a poor choice by designers. And to the dude above: I know very well that I can patch around a lot of these issues. I mentioned that in the article. However, most users buy this phone, don't root and don't change much. ICS is good. IT could have been great. And saying Google shouldn't be concerned that third party apps don't work is incredibly ignorant.
I was just using Whatapp two days ago and it was working fine. Is there something specific you were having problems with?
Three words. Point Zero one.
jrl022 said: I was just using Whatapp two days ago and it was working fine. Is there something specific you were having problems with? Click to expand... Click to collapse Mine FCs on startup. I think having group chats may kill it. I've read this in a few places.
All I see is waaah waah wahhh
I have to respectfully disagree with most of your observations. I love almost everything about the redesign. I don't miss the search button at all. I love the color scheme, and don't really care about app incompatibilities because well, it's a Nexus device. It's a brand new OS version and really made for early adopters. Developers will work out the kinks and you'll see more ICS support for common apps in the next week or two, I'd guess. I do agree with you about the inconsistent action bar. Google should put it in one place for all their core apps. 3rd party apps, you can't dictate, though. I don't mind the slight difference in look in some apps, though. I love the new People app and the way it's set up. But I don't think it fits in everywhere, so I'm glad they didn't force it in all over the place and try to look like WP7. I can't comment on the UK speech settings, as I'm in the US and not using it. Really lame if it doesn't work, though. I also don't really mind the new text box look. It was a little confusing when I first saw it, but they're not that hard to recognize after you get used to it. I have mixed feelings about the permanent search box. I like it because it doesn't take a ton of space - especially with the 720p display. But I wish there was more customization. All that said, I think the positives hugely outweigh the negatives. Most of what you posted is a little nitpicking. I don't blame you complaining about things not working as they should, but beyond that, I think the OS has come a very long way and looks amazing all around. Google has already said this is just the beginning of Android's design changes to make it more accessible and fun to use. I can't wait to see Cyanogenmod's finished launcher. I know they made the search box removable, but we'll see. I do still love the stock launcher, too.
The ultimate question is: Would you use another OS? I sure as hell would not! ICS is the best thing out there right now by far.
The ultimate question is: Would you use another OS? I sure as hell would not! ICS is the best thing out there right now by far. Click to expand... Click to collapse agreed. i can't go back to either iOS or GB after using ics for the last 2 weeks Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
To add the injuries, here are some things that are bad in ICS: 1. Contact photo is still low resolution after synced with GMAIL Contacts. This issue has not yet been solved for years already! Why? Do you run out of storage space to hold high resolution images? 2. The app drawer icon position in the button bar cannot be changed. I hate that thing, because I can't put Phone app there. Why? If the argument is to never loose the app drawer, at least give ability to change the position. 3. Request Desktop version on the web browser doesn't stick! Grrrt...! Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
gogol said: To add the injuries, here are some things that are bad in ICS: 1. Contact photo is still low resolution after synced with GMAIL Contacts. This issue has not yet been solved for years already! Why? Do you run out of storage space to hold high resolution images? 2. The app drawer icon position in the button bar cannot be changed. I hate that thing, because I can't put Phone app there. Why? If the argument is to never loose the app drawer, at least give ability to change the position. 3. Request Desktop version on the web browser doesn't stick! Grrrt...! Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App Click to expand... Click to collapse lol. Grrrtt. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
To sum up your entire post: Nothing's perfect. We know. But Google has done a superb job fixing many things, and hey will continue to improve in new updates to 4.0.
mike freegan said: First off; I love Android. I think that Ice Cream Sandwich has led to a greater harmonisation of the Android operating system and adds a bit of polish to something functional. Google's apps are starting to feel like they belong together, rather than giving a sense that they're being produced by different teams who have little contact. However, I'm no fanboy. I don't buy a product and deny that it has flaws just because a certain company produced it *ahem *. So here it is; one humble man's opinion on what's wrong with Ice cream Sandwich. 1. Blue theme.... really? There's a reason that designers avoid blue-on-black. It offers poor contrast, and looks cheap; much like the Geocities sites of the 90s. The blue taskbar and app icons used in ICS just don't go with... well... anything. It's all well and good being able to customise your home screen, but when anything except a blue background clashes it's all a little redundant. 2. The stock icons themselves are disgusting. We all knew this from the leaked screenshots, which forums were praying were fake. Mostly, they just don't look like they belong to the same set. There's no consistency. Half are blue, half are not. Some are three dimensional, and some are traditional, flat icons. Some are different sizes. They just don't work. They look cheap, childish and don't match the 'magazine' style of the UI overhaul. It's like someone realised at the last minute that they'd forgotten to redesign icons, so just did a Google Image search and used the first of each that they found. 3. Google Plus pages won't open in the Android Browser. This one is just plain embarrassing. Google's flagship device can't view Google's new hub outside of the restrictive app? The browser just panics and shuts down with no option to report it. Did no-one test this? 4. Google Talk isn't in the sharing options. That's right, click on the share icon within an app and it'll show you every way of sharing except Google Talk. Following the above, it seems like Google is boycotting their own services. 5. Speech to text for UK language setting is insane. After a few words, it seemingly switches to using your contacts directory as a dictionary, rather than real words. You end up with a full sentence made entirely of surnames and forenames. I cannot believe that no-one tested this. 6. Removing the search key doesn't just remove the ability to search from some apps; it means that you can no longer assign functions to long press, or use voice command from any app. You have to return to the home screen each time. This is a huge step backwards. 7. Similarly, this has led to a non-removable search box on the home screen. Not only does it take up space, but the white icon doesn't work on a light background. The customisability of Android has just been taken down another notch. Sure, you can use a 3rd party launcher, but with no search button, you need the box there for searches. 8. A minor point, but Android can't seem to decide if going for a futuristic hologram look, or the Windows Phone 7 style magazine layout. It's like Mathias Duarte turned up, and they said “Make our OS beautiful... but it still has to look like ugly old Honeycomb (TRON)." All in, it just feels a bit cheap and confused. 9. The soft keys which Google has opted for in ICS are not well positioned. The home key is far too close to the space bar, which is infuriating when typing. 10. The action bar is horrific to use. It means that the menu and search keys jump around the screen. So you're in the Facebook app and want to see the menu. Where is it? Well it's not where it used to be and there's no action bar. Oh wait, three dots have appeared in the soft-key bar. Ugly and inconsistent, but OK. Switch to messaging. Where the heck is it? Ah it's in the top right now! The little scamp. Now you're in Gmail. Where is the menace? I know you're here somewhere... Ah, there! In the action bar in the bottom right. Android Market: back up top! There is just no consistency and it makes everything feel disjointed and unpredictable. The action bar essentially negates the large screen on the Galaxy Nexus. The row of soft keys, plus the action bar actually leads to a lower proportion of screen space for the app than on previous versions of Android. 11. Cut, Copy & Paste: What the hell were they thinking?! This doesn't just jump around based on app, but depending on which page of an app you're in. And even then, the buttons are different every time. Take Gmail for example. Copying text from the body of an email: a menu appears in place of the action bar at the bottom. However, in the 'compose' screen this menu appears at the top, but with different icons. Another 'paste' button (but not using the paste icon) also appears above the selected text, but no cut or copy buttons. If you try and make a selection from a link, a long press summons a pop-up dialogue where paste is an option. That is four ways of pasting, just within the Gmail app. Not to mention, that they've opted for icons with no words. Unless you're accustomed to using old Windows machines, this may as well be code. It's like it's intentionally trying to confuse you. 12. Relationships with app vendors must be non-existent. If I was releasing an update to a platform which relies upon people being able to install apps, I'd make sure that the most common apps work on the new platform before release. This could involve providing phones and assistance to the big names. As it stands, neither Facebook nor Whatsapp (two of the top 5 most downloaded apps) work. Both of these are communications related. I feel cut off from the world. I'm sure this could have been sorted before release. Swype is another big name that doesn't support the screen resolution. Google launched the Galaxy Nexus weeks ago. Facebook was initially unusable due to the absence of a menu button. The app was updated today to a version akin to the iPhone. However, the drag-to- refresh animations don't work as they should, and the damn thing will alert you of 'new messages' every 30 minutes if you have any unread, regardless of whether or not they are new. Atop this, Facebook will still not sync with official Google devices as Facebook does not properly use Google's contact API. Rather than being stubborn, Google should be helping Facebook, or seconding engineers, as they know full well that the majority of their users will require his service. I appreciate that a lot of this is out of Google's hands, but this is just a warning to early-adopters – be prepared to lose the services you use most. 13. The browser is still useless with forms. Try entering text in a field. It'll type past the edge of your viewport and you can't scroll to the cursor. The viewport should follow the cursor. You can't zoom in and out because you can't get 'hold' of the web page due to the full-screen text entry field. 14. Horizontal lines everywhere. Did I mention that text fields are now horizontal lines? Text boxes are indistinguishable from divides and text doesn't sit on the lines so you never know where one ends and the other starts. As I said, all in, it is an improvement. However, there is a heck of a lot of room for improvement. There is still a feeling that things aren't really designed, or connected; just a bit haphazard. I'm just hoping Cyanogen pulls something wonderful. For the standard consumer, the experience aspect is still playing catchup with Windows Phone and iOS. Click to expand... Click to collapse 1. Don't care .the only thing that is weird is white background in people app. I'd prefer it to be black like in missed call section. 2. Really? Icons brother you that much when you can change them? 3. The whole google isn't working properly in Android browser. Try searching for images in desktop view and tell my chow do you change to larger images ... this is issue that needs to be addressed directly to Google its not a browser issue 4. I presume you're an American. Here on the old continent we don't use gtalk. Well at least none of my friends is using this. We have things like Skype which is far more popular in EU 5. I'm guessing you're from Texas then . Well my accent isn't really British and everything I date 9 out of 10 times is spelt correctly. Ha I can even say that I use dictation more than actual keyboard. Its easier for me to say the text message then type it especially with my second language which Android keyboard does not have dictionary. So I can speak in either one of the two of my languages and its veeeeeeery accurate 6. Blame the developers not Google. They should be ready for new os 7. I love the search box its easy and accessible. 8. I love tron design. However I have to agree its a bit of hit and miss when it comes to design but colours can be changed in custom roms I bet that CM team will do it . 9. Wtf are you taking about. I'm typing this msg and didn't press home bar even once. Anyway try taping between space bar and home button .... it won't even work. Have you got arthritis? 10. Don't see problem here either. 11. Anything with action bar that you don't know what it does just press and hold on the icon there will be pop up window. 12. Again blame developers. Look at rovio. They could update their games at the same time for all devices and os but they choose not to. If the developer can be bothered to update his app in timely manner than who's fault is that? 13. agree with that. 14. Huh? Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium