

Android 2.1’s Best Features in Screenshots - kosofalla
http://lifehacker.com/5443156/android-21s-best-features-in-screenshots

======
andrewljohnson
We have come full circle.

First, we got the telephone and started talking. Then, we got instant
messaging and started typing text messages. And now we say our messages, but
they get translated into text messages?

~~~
sp332
And then we take screenshots of them and post them on our blogs.

------
aschobel
The multi-touch keyboard in 2.1 is a big improvement over the previous
generation, I type much more quickly with it.

I'm a little surprised this hasn't gotten more attention.

~~~
pkulak
Wait, where's this multi-touch? I have the Nexus One and if I hold down one
key, I can't type another. In fact, if I start typing too quickly, I will
often miss letters because I'm not lifting my thumbs up enough.

~~~
aschobel
You can start typing the second key, when you remove your finger from the
first key the second gets activated.

this behavior is new to 2.1

------
kyro
I hate to be 'that guy' who's always putting down Andriod, but there are a few
'features' listed here that make me think Google just doesn't get how
customers actually use their phones. The cube menu interface seems really
impractical, and given how poorly existing Android phones perform at simple
scrolling, I doubt the Nexus One will provide a smooth and fluid experience.
And as for the speech-to-text, hardly anyone will use that. Who's going to be
sitting on the train or in their cubicle with the phone up to their mouths
speaking their message into the phone, most probably multiple times until the
phone produces something that requires minimal editing, when they can fire off
their text in writing and spare themselves the potential embarrassment and
hassle?

~~~
nicpottier
I totally agree on the voice stuff.

Being a new Nexus owner I wanted to clarify that the scrolling app menu is
only for the app menu. Android has a 'home screen' just like the iPhone (well
five of them that you can swipe between) and you can install the app icons you
use the most there. The scrolling menu is basically the 'everything' bucket,
which I like.

It is also buttery smooth, unlike every other Android device I've touched.

I've been an iPhone user for many years and think the iPhone has always been
the bar to measure everything with. Android is catching up with this phone
though, it is REALLY good, especially if you are the type who is willing to
live with a few warts here and there.

------
jsz0
I'm disappointed in 2.x so far. Google is making some good refinements but
they seem to be ignoring two of the biggest usability issues in my opinion:

We need a real multi-tasking UI. If the OS is going to multi-task apps we
should have a way to intuitively interact with this functionality. Installing
third party utilities such as task managers shouldn't be required to use a
major feature of the OS. The "alt-tab" feature and the inclusion of multi-
tasking elements in the pull down menu doesn't cut it for me.

Copy & paste is a mess. It either just doesn't work right or I'm an idiot. I
can't manage to make it select accurate text regions. Usually I just can't get
the copy & paste mode to kick in _at all_

~~~
jcl
I'm curious: What exactly are you expecting to be able to do with multitasking
that Android doesn't already do?

~~~
jsz0
It's just a GUI issue for me. I want a way to easily see which applications
are running and more consistency in how applications terminate or stay running
in the background. Right now I'd say it's 50/50 -- some apps quit when you hit
the home button, some remain running. There's no taskbar, dock or expose style
feature to quickly see what's running or switch between applications. The drop
down menu is hit and miss. A few apps will put up a notification that say they
are still running but most don't. I also think there should be someway to
ensure the core applications don't suffer from background tasks. If I leave
some apps running in the background sometimes my dialpad in the phone app
becomes very laggy to the point of being unusable so I have to get into the
habit of pausing my music before I made a phone call and restarting it
afterwards instead of letting the phone pause it for me.

~~~
hexley
As an iPhone user I'm shocked if that is actually the state of things in
Android. The iPhone automatically fades out music for calls.

And these multitasking interfaces: [http://www.cultofmac.com/kirikae-
jailbreak-app-switcher-for-...](http://www.cultofmac.com/kirikae-jailbreak-
app-switcher-for-iphone-ipod-touch/16471) <http://www.multifl0w.com/>

~~~
jsz0
Sorry if I made it sound worse than it is. Android does fade out the music it
just doesn't do so well handling multiple things at once. I feel like certain
apps (phone of course) should always work more or less perfectly no matter
what else the device is doing. The lack of a good multi-tasking UI just
aggravates the situation because I'll often have 3 or 4 background apps
running that I had _no clue_ about until I notice a performance drag. I'm not
going to run a task manager every few minutes to make sure my device can
operate properly. That's just unacceptable.

------
mikeryan
I have to admit I have a real thing for aesthetics. Maybe one reason I'm
partial to apple products.

But I keep waiting for the Android UI to look nicer. I'd love to see a top end
design firm take a shot at cleaning up the icons etc.

Even that wallpaper is pretty atrocious.

~~~
thwarted
That specific wallpaper is animated. I don't know about atrocious, but I do
find it a little hard to see the icons because the colors are so bright on it.

But complaints about wallpapers are kind of dumb: you can change them, or even
set it to your own picture that is non-atrocious. It's like complaining that
the default twitter avatar icon is ugly. No duh: then change it.

------
bitwize
It looks like a smartphone OS designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

That's kind of awesome.

------
icey
It would sure be nice to also include text-to-speech. Then you could actually
use it without having to get too hands on.

~~~
jrockway
Even Android 1.6 has built-in text-to-speech.

~~~
icey
Hah, I've clearly asked the wrong Android user if it had text-to-speech.
Thanks for clarifying.

