New Google Play Website

[divinebovine]

Oh man, don't even get me started on sorting and filtering. It's so hard to find apps and there's no reason, Google is the master at search engines but put zero effort into Play store. I was thinking last week that someone ought to grab the complete catalog (either with a web spider or, preferably, using a back-end API) and then put up a better store. It would link to the apps' pages on Google Play, just giving you better search results/sorting/filtering.

Specifically I'd like to sort and filter by size (extremely important to me) and permissions.

 

[NafeesAhmed]

Its pathetic , yesterday i visited play store but apps were not showing i dont know why -_-

 

[funkylogik]

Sounds like a plan Bovine. Im surprised it hasnt been done. I havent used the AppBrain app in ages, is that any good?

 

[divinebovine]

I havent used the AppBrain app in ages, is that any good?

I checked out their website, it's slightly better than Play and cleaner.

 

[nickdalzell]

How do you get the black background funky? I checked and no such option exists in settings. May not get rid of the awful pastels and oversized icons, but at least the whitespace is gone.

On my Nexus 10 if I launch Play Music, as it loads it does a flip animation and then I get a full screen version of the Play Music icon just before I see the app, exactly the same manner as Windows 8 does when you launch apps.

 

[Gmash]

The newer design on all of the Google apps is terrible. I can't believe people are actually arguing that they look better. The old Play store especially looked much nicer.

 

[nickdalzell]

The remark about harking back to the age of CGA graphics hit the nail on the head. It is exactly that--rehashing early GUI themes. Then we start seeing the stylus return. What's next? Return of floppy disks? I knew it was inevitable but that doesn't mean that I don't feel saddened that Android is the next in line to be made for first-graders. Perhaps this bridges the gulf between the Kid's tablets like the Nabi, and tablets used by adults?

 

[Clementine_3]

I think part of the reasoning is that Android has a perceived image problem...it's complicated and made for geeks. If you dumb it down to a first grade picture book it no longer looks scary and anyone can suddenly use it.

 

[nickdalzell]

But didn't android become like the most popular system, even beating iOS? They did that without dumbing it down to metro. Heck, iOS often gets pegged because it comes off as meant for idiots. Why would any Android fan want that? The very thing they hated from iOS? Either worshipping Google or worshipping Apple. Before long no one will even be able to tell them apart.

What is interesting is how the same user hates Windows 8 because it has a toddler approach to the UI, but uses and even praises the pastel oversized ui that Android is turning into, no problem. Android UI design reminds me of my car's HUD. And that was 1992! A shame really, come from a life of iOS, finally get over my rocky start with Android, finally start loving the platform, and BAM! everything goes pastel on white.

 

[funkylogik]

How do you get the black background funky? I checked and no such option exists in settings. May not get rid of the awful pastels and oversized icons, but at least the whitespace is gone.

On my Nexus 10 if I launch Play Music, as it loads it does a flip animation and then I get a full screen version of the Play Music icon just before I see the app, exactly the same manner as Windows 8 does when you launch apps.

Its an aosp theme im using bro but you can also flash an inverted google apps package. All root only obviously.
Apart from anything, on LED displays, white wastes a LOT of battery power comgared to black. Also i find it easier to look at. The AF agp has a "dark" option

 

[funkylogik]

View attachment 58087

 

[nickdalzell]

On AMOLED displays white eats battery.

Shame, what good is that beautiful screen when all you see is pastel? When klp is released, it will all be pastel. Somewhere Google must have pondered "hey, like, dudes, fifty percent of our users theme their device like iOS, so well, why not save them and everyone else a step and make everyone love the benefits of iOS? Wait! We can't do that without risking a law suit. So let's take the best of webOS and Windows 8, theme it in high contrast pastels, include some floral wallpaper, and presto! Key lime pie! It's brilliant!"

 

[funkylogik]

Lol its not so much that white wastes power but black uses none so black is good on amoled.
This is why im an android fan but not a google android purist. The android community give us choice

 

[Gmash]

I have a feeling that the changes in executive leadership of the Android division at Google have played a part in the "change for the sake of change" attitude we have seen recently. People like to put their own stamp on things. Personally, I think Google is getting a cocky, "to big to fail" attitude lately. They don't care what people like anymore, they think they know better and we will eventually stop complaining and just submit. Too bad they are mostly right because there is really no viable alternative that's not even worse, but I think the old days of "don't be evil" are in the rear view mirror.

 

[funkylogik]

Tbh im not so sure. I know for a fact im not the average android user.. same with most people on this forum. We're more geeky than others whether we like it or not so maybe google are giving the average user what they want. Android isnt the underdog anymore. Maybe google will leave people like us behind but the 3rd party community will just get stronger :beer:

 

[mikedt]

I have a feeling that the changes in executive leadership of the Android division at Google have played a part in the "change for the sake of change" attitude we have seen recently. People like to put their own stamp on things. Personally, I think Google is getting a cocky, "to big to fail" attitude lately. They don't care what people like anymore, they think they know better and we will eventually stop complaining and just submit. Too bad they are mostly right because there is really no viable alternative that's not even worse, but I think the old days of "don't be evil" are in the rear view mirror.

Perhaps I might start seeing Google having more to do with Android in China now? ...and things like paid apps on Play becoming available.

Google already does quite a bit of business in the PRC, but it's more to do with advertising AFAIK...because it's $$$$$$

 

[nickdalzell]

With all due respect, funky, the "average" user wants iOS.

 

[funkylogik]

They must be trying to find their way into the PRC mate.. think of all that untapped money to be made from Play content :thumbup:

 

[Rxpert83]

With all due respect, funky, the "average" user wants iOS.

I'm not sure that's true anymore.

True, in androids earlier days when apple was restricted by carrier or too high of a price that could be said

But now apple isn't confined to a carrier, and android is still top dog on terms of number of units. The s4 is actually pretty close to ip5 in terms of number sold at the same points in their lifetime, and both are high-end high-$$$ devices. Apple users flocked to the s3 and s4 because they were bored with iOS and underwhelmed by the ip5

You could still argue price, and I'll guess well finally see when apple announces their cheaper versions.

 

[funkylogik]

Tbh where i live (and i know its more about image and branding than the OS) iphone has a pretty bad image lately. Youre maybe right though that the average person wants something that "just works" but thats where the oem skins like TW and Sense come in :thumbup:

 

[nickdalzell]

Price isn't a point anymore. The S4 costs $100 more than an iPhone if you look at both devices unsubsidized. Either way I see far more iPhones than Android phones. Average users don't need all the levels of customization in Android, they just want their instagram, Facebook, and texting. This is the demographic Google is changing for?

Don't even need skins, Google has them covered with hideous pastels and large icons, ensuring they never tap the wrong item by mistake, so who needs a ten-inch screen? This is their fix for fragmentation? Making Android look large on any size screen? Heck, I was hoping for evolution to 3D interfaces on translucent glass, like the computer Tony Stark uses, instead, I get a so-called "modern" OS that looks like a rehash of computer GUIs in the 1980s, or rather will, as so far thankfully it is limited to apps so far. Although more and more apps, Google and non-Google, are conforming. Almost like they are attempting the "one size fits all" approach, tweaking it where it is the software that's one size, rather than hardware.

 

[mikedt]

They must be trying to find their way into the PRC mate.. think of all that untapped money to be made from Play content :thumbup:

Possibly, but I do get the idea that Chinese don't like to pay for things if they can help it. Most people still don't have credit cards, it's very much a cash society. They don't sell music on-line here. Sites like Baidu give it away(ad-supported), and with the approval of the music industry. Because that's probably the best they can do, short of everyone pirating/stealing it, which is what normally happens. Google tried to do a free(ad supported) music service, but pulled the plug on it last year because of poor figures apparently. :musicus:

The People's Republic gives us a lot of those wonderful free apps and games, like the GO suite of products, and the browsers, such as Dolphin, UC and Boat. Many ad-supported Chinese apps and games do use AdMob, which is Google.

Think half the population of China now has an Android device, it's something like 700,000,000 devices. Maybe Google wants to try and get a better piece of the action. :beer: Go in any China Mobile store, and that's all you see is Android phones, except for perhaps a few really cheap candy-bar phones in the corner.

 

[EarlyMon]

The old layouts gave you info you needed to understand what you might be getting into with an app, and easy to find alternatives.

Knowing user trends on apps is not unimportant.

Reviews were supposed to be our voices, not just advertising. That started failing when Google+ was required to comment. It's worse now.

When it comes to apps, forget layout theory.

Android grew to number one without it.

And apps rose to the top by happy users saying good things.

Put me down as hating this new nonsense.

 

[mikedt]

Tbh where i live (and i know its more about image and branding than the OS) iphone has a pretty bad image lately. Youre maybe right though that the average person wants something that "just works" but thats where the oem skins like TW and Sense come in :thumbup:

It's very much the same here. The must have phone, if you had the money, was the Apple iPhone. Not now, it seems to have changed. It's white Samsungs, I see them everywhere now, cheap ones and expensive ones, although quite a few are KIRFs.

The apparent decrease in iPhone popularity in China, might have had something to with this...
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/0...d-to-ditch-extravagance-and-uphold-frugality/
"China bans television ads for luxury goods in bid to ‘ditch extravagance and uphold frugality’"

There are Samsung ads on TV, but no Apple ones now.

 

[nickdalzell]

Kentucky is over saturated with iPhones, especially white models, mostly older 4's. At work, everyone has an iPhone. Boss has a 4, his wife a 3GS, their daughter a 4, and another employee a 3GS. I'm currently the only one with an Android. Their son had their Droid X smashed by a golf cart and he replaced it with none other than yet another iPhone 4. In my family, mom has replaced her aging BlackBerry Torch with a Galaxy S3 ( per my advice, she had never heard of it or Android) but my sister, her husband have iPhone 4's. Some of her friends also. iPhone is huge around here. If it is Android, it often is a child's phone, and almost always a Galaxy S3. The S4 isn't selling yet.