android Android

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Android?s KitKat photographed; we break down all the changes

Side-by-side comparisons of the old and the new.

 

 

It looks like we've finally gotten a glimpse of what the next version of Android, codenamed KitKat, will look like. Italian Android site TuttoAndroid has scored some pictures of the new OS running on a new Nexus phone, which it's calling the "Nexus 5." (It's unclear if the site is using that as an informal name or if it has inside information.) These are the first images that really show the new design changes in store for KitKat. It looks like there will be a lot less black, less blue, and more transparency.

 

This first shot (above) is our clearest look yet at the front of what we'll call the new Nexus, showing off the trademark round earpiece. Other than that, the front of the device is mostly a screen (surprise!) with fairly slim-looking bezels. This image gives us a peek at the lock screen, with the main new addition being a camera icon in the lower right corner. Again, we see a device sporting white notification bar icons, which have showed up in previous leaks.

 

Above is a comparison of a leaked photo and the current Jelly Bean app drawer. The notification and system bars have taken a cue from Motorola's skin and are now transparent. Like the Moto skin, they will probably revert to black when running an application. The app drawer background is also transparent, ditching the stark black look of Jelly Bean and instead showing the wallpaper. The "Apps" and "Widgets" tabs at the top of the app drawer are gone, along with the Play Store shortcut. TuttoAndroid notes that while the tabs are gone, the widget pages are still accessible by swiping past the app pages in the drawer.

 

The grid has switched to a 4?5 layout, like the Google Play Edition phones, and the icons themselves are now much bigger. There's also iPhone-style page notation, which shows a row of dots for each app page, just above the home button.

 

There are a few icon differences, too. The "Google" and "Google Settings" icons have been switched from square to round. It also looks like the stock Gallery is dead; alphabetically it would be between "Email" and "Gmail," but it isn't present in this shot. It seems to have been replaced by "Google Photos," an app which we suspect is an updated and renamed version of "G+ Photos," since they share the same icon. By the same logic, Movie Studio, a long-abandoned movie editing app, looks like it has also been cut, since it would be between "Maps" and "News & Weather." The two blurred-out app spaces are a complete mystery. They can't alphabetically start with "Google" since "Google+" would be sorted last. Normally there is nothing between G+ and Hangouts on a new, stock device?they could just be testing apps.

 

 

There are a lot of differences here, too. The home screen dumps the line separating the dock from the scrollable pages and replaces it with more dot pagination, just like the app drawer. The app drawer icon loses the outlines and shadows in favor of a frosted-glass circle, and the phone icon is now much more abstract.

 

Keep in mind that this is all running through Google Translate, but it looks like TuttoAndroid is reporting that additional home screen pages can be added by dragging an icon or widget to the edge of the current home page. The site also says Google Search can now be accessed as a home screen page, in addition to the usual upward swipe. The last page on the left will also be Google Search, similar to how the search function was accessed in iOS 6 and earlier on iDevices, by swiping to the left from the home screen. The report says KitKat will always be listening for voice commands, similar to the Moto X, but it's unclear if this means it listens even when the phone is off or just when the phone is on and the home screen is loaded. It's worth noting that the Snapdragon 800 ships with hardware for a voice-control-enabled standby mode, just like the Moto X, but no device currently takes advantage of this.

 

The report wisely notes that since this is a beta build, everything here is subject to change. At the very least, though, this leak can be taken as confirmation that the look and feel of the core OS is finally getting an update.

 

Source: Ars Technica

[+Warwagon MVC]

all I noticed was a different wallpaper and new icons.

[2xSilverKnight]

all I noticed was a different wallpaper and new icons.

It;s a homemade wallpaper for the website in question (advertising), and this is a 4.x update, what did you expect ? UI overhaul ?

 

 

5.0 is still in the work.

[AJerman]

Still, it's about as much of a UI refresh as we've seen in just about any version jump so far. There's actually quite a bit different. Some of it looks like it's for the better, a little more clean up, a little more polish. Other things look like they changed just to change them like the icons.

[Growled Member]

Still, it's about as much of a UI refresh as we've seen in just about any version jump so far. There's actually quite a bit different. Some of it looks like it's for the better, a little more clean up, a little more polish. Other things look like they changed just to change them like the icons.

 

I get that impression as well. It looks much better to me.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

looking nice. I can honestly say that While I love my windows Phone I miss playing around with Android. but at the same time, because im not constantly messing with code my phone is much more stable since its all locked down lol.

[Jub]

Looks gorgeous. Perhaps no striking differences, but the additional polish they keep putting out really makes the difference. I can't wait to flash it.

 

Also, littleneutrino, tiny off-topic: does Windows Phone actually have all that is required these days? When I had my Titan, I felt a disturbing lack of app support. I love the OS, but there was just that... void.