Showing posts with label Apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apps. Show all posts

Monday, 14 July 2014

Google shows more of their core apps in Material Design

The first time we got a clue of major redesign in Android was when the Gmail's Material look was leaked. Although we haven't got Gmail redesign yet, we did get a taste of what Material's going to be when Google+ got its update.

When at I/O, Google revealed Android L, it was proven that we were getting a major design change to the stock Android UI in rather long time.

Material Design is a set of design guidelines set by Google for app developers to follow and Google has got some great references for developers by showing off their core apps in the L look.


Calendar app across various screens

Calendar on mobile

Chrome Browser

Contacts

Photos

Gmail or Email Mobile

Gmail or Email on various screens

Play Music/NewsStand/Play Games

Google Keep

Maps on Tablets

Maps Mobile

Play Music Mobile

Play Music on Tablet



Gmail on tablet

Youtube


Thursday, 1 May 2014

Google releases standalone apps for Docs and Sheets.

We all know Google has been trying to give a tough competition to Microsoft's one of the most important revenue source with its online Docs, Sheets and Slides web apps. And it has been quite successful with its approach as Students and various organisations have been moving to Google's productivity suite in wake of trying to reduce expenses by not buying Microsoft Office. Also a part of its increasing popularity is due to rise in sales of ChromeBooks and Android devices that bode well with Google's services.

Image

Image

For Android Google already has Quick Office for editing Microsoft Office compatible documents while Google Drive did a pretty good job with Google's office formats.

 

But today, Google has launched the standalone apps for Google Docs and Google Sheets for Android and iOS. Now this raises the question as to why Google need 3 different apps to deal with productivity.? Why is Google so confused as to what to do properly.?

For the tech geek customers, this may not be that much of a concern, but for an average consumer, this is creating too much of confusion as they couldn't figure out the purpose of each services. Google should now either combine all of these services in QuickOffice or better, separate productivity aspect of the Google Drive app for Android and iOS and combine all Google's productivity suite in one app rather than 2 different apps: Docs and Sheets and keep QuickOffice for editing Microsoft compatible documents.

ImageImage

Image

 

With the 30 minute testing of both the apps (Android versions) that I've done, I could find no remarkable difference in functionality of the Docs and Sheets compared to the the functionality Google Drive app gives. Although if you yourself want to try out the apps, here's the link to the Android and iOS apps.

Update: Google has now updated its Drive app and removed document editing support from the app. Instead, it'll prompt you to download the standalone apps.

Google Docs Android.

Google Sheets Android

 

Google Docs iOS

Google Sheets iOS