The most prominent bug that still pains even the latest OS updates is the broken Facebook sync. Ever since I’ve had an Android phone (and even a little before on my iPhone), I’ve been accustomed to seeing the profile pic of the caller on the screen. Now, all I had was the default “person” image. Thankfully, I’m not alone in this, and someone already created a fix. Meet HaxSync, a brilliant Facebook synchronization client. With just a couple of taps, I got it to sync my profile and contacts from Facebook.

Another bug in the OS can be seen by launching a legacy app (one that creates the “three dots menu button”) and locking the screen while the app is in the foreground. The button actually stays there even in the lockscreen, and if the “slide” style lockscreen is in use, you can open the screen by just tapping this button, without sliding. This could cause unintentional unlocks, and at worst, pocket-dialing. Yes, it’s a tiny bug, but once you notice it, it’s annoying. Can be easily circumvented with another, more secure lockscreen.

Speaking of lockscreens: Face Unlock. It’s a nice feature – indoors and in the daytime. If I try to use it outside, it’s often too dark to recognize my face. Also, it’s not too reliable in the winter due to hats. One not too obvious feature, which I haven’t found documented anywhere is the lock button in the bottom of the screen, just above the emergency call button. It allows you to skip facial recognition, and goes straight to the secondary unlock method. This is really useful in condition that you know prevent reliable recognition since it skips the waiting period while the phone tries to recognize you.

Not everything about the new version is negative, the new features like mobile data limits and graphs, MTP support, the new theme and improved speed all deserve praise. I’ll try to focus more on these in my upcoming post, which most likely is specifically about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus

The Good: IMDB

IMDB Main screen

IMDB Series view

I’ve been completely satisfied with the normal mobile app from IMDB, but when I first opened the tablet version I was amazed. It’s well designed, graphically impessive and fast. Also, it works both in landscape and portrait orientation just like it should. The search prediction is fast and shows information properly and the subpages work well. The only minor flaw is that the windows of the detail pages are a bit too small and require scrolling.

The Bad: Facebook

Facebook "app"

See, no Facebook for Android!

Well, to every tablet owning Facebook user the reasons behind this are pretty obvious. The problem with the app is: there is no app. All facebook has to offer for the tab is the new messenger app. The surprising thing is that even the phone version of the app can’t be downloaded and scaled. So until Facebook releases the next update, better get used to the browser interface.

The Ugly: Speedtest

Not really optimized for tablets.

At least it works

I’m sad to say that this is not the only example of an ugly app for a tablet. Sure, on the phone it looks great, but when I opened it on the tab it looked like an early 2000′s Flash app. You remember those, right? The small screen size guarantees usability problems and it just looks so stupid sitting there in the middle of the screen.

This isn’t the app’s problem per se, but Honeycomb’s scaling functions are not used for some reason. As far as the scaled apps go, most of them are used in fullscreen mode, which leaves the bottom of the app behind the status bar (e.g. Spotify). Oh yeah, and speaking of Spotify, it only works in landscape mode. And on older tablets (Samsung Galaxy Tab) it only works in portrait mode. Why? Beats me.

Stuck in landscape, notice the song position?

Since the Honeycomb platform is relatively new, there are still a lot of apps that could use a facelift for the new resolutions and interface elements of the tablet-optimized OS. Until then, be prepared for some funky-looking legacy apps

-onik

Decided to switch to WordPress on this site, just to check out if it’s as good as I’ve heard Don’t know exactly if a blog is the best choice but I’ll try to fill it with my thoughts and musings, mainly about new tech and coding. Yep, sounds boring but i’ll try to spice it up (if that’s possible).