Friday, 24 April 2015

Google Aimed at Harmonizing


Main news conference Google I / O  to unify the course of design and tight integration of most products old and new.
A tough year for mobile application developers continues. First Apple iOS thoroughly shoveled the eighth version, forcing the creators to think about the applications previously unheard of things like widgets. Then, Samsung introduced the same Tizen-Smartphone and now, I suppose, will actively encourage programmers to write applications for it. And now Google, set the heat developers with innovations Android 4.4 KitKat, made it clear that these were the seeds. True, the full announcement of the new OS did not happen, and what will be the next sweet dessert, we learn only in the autumn. But a preliminary version of Android L is about to become available to developers for experimentation. And the field for experiments represented the widest.
Firstly, Google unifies the design of their products, including online services, such as search interfaces Android and Chromebook, using "real design" - Material Design. It is based on rectangular tiles are animated so that their interaction and movement were similar to the movement of objects in the real world, with thin fonts, graphics and concise flat lot of free space to create a visual overload. In all of this somehow felt the spirit of Windows Phone, but no direct visual and functional analogies not just designers were guided by the same assumptions about human perception of information.
It is worth noting that the Material Design should unify the interaction with smart appliances of all sizes - from watches to cars and televisions. "Rectangular tiles", as you may guess, often cards Google Now. By the way, Google announced the development in all these areas: full-fledged TV platform Android TV released in the future, Sony and Sharp, and make friends with Android cars are going to Audi, Chevrolet, Chrysler and even Bentley. Thereby, announced in winter Open Automotive Alliance can start working on the implementation of specific technology. Android Auto also works in the paradigm previously entered service Apple - the car should be "interface" to the resources of the smartphone, and all communication must take into account issues of safety, do not distract the driver.
The platform will allow Android Wear interact with your smartphone via smart hours. The toolkit is already known - Google Now cards on the screen, simple gestures to work with them, voice control for more complex cases. Hours LG now available to order, more elegant version of Motorola will have to wait until mid-July. Complementing the picture another platform - Android Fit, which allows a standardized data exchange between Android-devices and fitness applications.
A snack is another amazing news - cheap and simple Chromebook laptops can run some Android-app. This can be seen as recognition of Google to the fact that the world is not quite ready for a laptop, on which there is only one web browser, and you can - as one more step to building a complete, integrated ecosystem of Android devices, which is somewhere between a TV and a clock should be and laptops.
Google idea is very logical and ambitious. Of course, companies like Google to have weighty presence in all segments of the electronics market perspective, be it televisions, computers, watches and gaming consoles. In this case, the user needs to provide standardized as much as possible similar interface, regardless of whether the person works with a clock or tablet.
Important "but" here are a few. Like to "card" interface to consumers? Let's See. Experience Microsoft said it like it is not everything. Whether application developers to effectively use the new interface to all kinds of devices, will be engaged if any mass production, for example, applications for hours? It is not yet obvious. And the main question - whether the unification of the interface and control methods is necessary? After all, each device has its own size and mode of use of which already follow the requirements for human interaction.