Hello,
My Nexus 5 just received the Android 5.0, Lollipop, upgrade.
In general, it's nice. The phone seems faster and more responsive – probably the new pre-compiling. Everything B4A seems to work, except one of the first apps I wrote years ago has a problem somewhere.
The first thing I noticed, however, is that I now have to dismiss three screens before I get to the homepage where apps are viewed.
First you have to unlock by swiping from the bottom left hand corner towards the upper right corner. Is this obvious? It took me a minute or two to figure that out - nowhere does it say swipe here. Then you get to the pattern entry screen where you have to enter your pattern. Okay, this takes you to the phone call screen, although you can't access text messages, I don't think. Dismiss this screen and the homepage with apps shows up.
This is just bad design!
80% of the first page is whitespace. 50% of the second page is unused. The third page is worthless. The homepage has a dedicated button to make a phone call, or access text messages. There is a button to open the camera or you can access anything else. Why do I need to dismiss a phone page? 90% of the time what I want to do is access an app.
But, this also creates an opportunity. Is it possible to replace the lock screen and sequence for getting to the homepage? Anyone know what this type of app would be called – is it a lock-screen app? Is it possible to write an app which executes at this early stage? Is it possible to do this in B4A?
If I were to do this I would get rid of the third page and combine pages 1 and 2. I would get rid of the icons at the bottom of the lock page and get rid of the thing that scrolls down at the top of the page – it's almost impossible to pick up the phone without accidentally triggering these functions.
I guess notifications show up on the lock page now. Make it a 2-D scrolling view with one line per notification and one or two notifications tall.
Barry.
My Nexus 5 just received the Android 5.0, Lollipop, upgrade.
In general, it's nice. The phone seems faster and more responsive – probably the new pre-compiling. Everything B4A seems to work, except one of the first apps I wrote years ago has a problem somewhere.
The first thing I noticed, however, is that I now have to dismiss three screens before I get to the homepage where apps are viewed.
First you have to unlock by swiping from the bottom left hand corner towards the upper right corner. Is this obvious? It took me a minute or two to figure that out - nowhere does it say swipe here. Then you get to the pattern entry screen where you have to enter your pattern. Okay, this takes you to the phone call screen, although you can't access text messages, I don't think. Dismiss this screen and the homepage with apps shows up.
This is just bad design!
80% of the first page is whitespace. 50% of the second page is unused. The third page is worthless. The homepage has a dedicated button to make a phone call, or access text messages. There is a button to open the camera or you can access anything else. Why do I need to dismiss a phone page? 90% of the time what I want to do is access an app.
But, this also creates an opportunity. Is it possible to replace the lock screen and sequence for getting to the homepage? Anyone know what this type of app would be called – is it a lock-screen app? Is it possible to write an app which executes at this early stage? Is it possible to do this in B4A?
If I were to do this I would get rid of the third page and combine pages 1 and 2. I would get rid of the icons at the bottom of the lock page and get rid of the thing that scrolls down at the top of the page – it's almost impossible to pick up the phone without accidentally triggering these functions.
I guess notifications show up on the lock page now. Make it a 2-D scrolling view with one line per notification and one or two notifications tall.
Barry.
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