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Ive tried on the iphone and iphone 3g, when i pinch google maps on those phones it just zooms in or out, it loads the map as a single image and you navigate anywhere on that image. But when i pinch on an android phone (ive tried on the nexus, slide, vibrant g1, g2 and evo) it has to load a new image and from what i can tell, wherever i pinch to, it then loads an image of the maps at some point relatively near where i zoom. So where the iphones load the entire map and just zoom to wherever you pinch, android has to load different images and they arent where you actually pinch, like it has a number of levels it can zoom to, and when you pinch it, it just loads the image it has thats closest to where you zoom. Its disorienting and extremely not smooth, but then i might not even bring this up if i hadnt used iphones so much, so i guess thats my fault. Maybe that doesnt make sense, if you try on an iphone then an android you cant miss it. Its actually a big deal, especially since it should work better on an android phone. Does anybody know what i am describing and can anyone explain it better than me and possibly explain why and if we could expect it to get better?
Im almost positive i started this exact same thread some time ago. But im still looking for answers maybe this thread will be more productive. Google maps is the best app on android i think, it does a lot of great stuff, its so useful and the gps navigation is just awesome. But damn if it isnt almost adulterous how much smoother and coherent the zooming is on the stupid iphone version (at least the last few iphones, ive never touched the original iphone). Like you, If i wasnt aware of how well it works on the iphone this would likely be a non issue, i mean google maps on android obviously has zooming issues but i wouldnt know it could be different if not for apple so i might not care.
i am also really curious to learn the technical explanation, and whether or not we should just get used to it. But its a very blatant effect thats happening so its surprising not much is said about it, i guess the people who havent messed with google maps on an iphone wouldnt even notice it as something that could be better and more accurate in the first place.
And I wouldnt mind that it has to load a new image for every pinch if it would just load an image of the level of zoom i pinched to, but youre spot on, it seems like it has certain levels of zoomed images, and it loads the image that is nearest to the one you pinch to. I mean almost everytime i zoom in or out, i have to take time to figure out what its showing me because it really isnt loading an image of where i think its going to be. And like you ive tried it on all sorts of androids, the ones you said plus the incredible, droid, and droid x and its across the board. still love the app, and im pretty sure apple doesnt get the free google navigation although i may be wrong on that. but its embarrassing that the stupid iphone does it so much better, it just aint right.
BTW i was messing with my friends I4 the other day, and the screen looked microscopic. I mean, its the most brilliant, crisp screen in existence on a mobile device, but i have a vibrant ive been using and compared to it, and even my nexus, that I4 feels like a g1!! i dont know why they are so proud of that 3.5" form...
Google Maps has several, predefined levels of zoom. Both on mobile and on desktop. You can easily see that - look at the ruler at the lower left corner and note the ~x2 changes.
On Android it just goes from one level to another.
I've never used iPhone, so I wouldn't know, but since the levels of zoom are the same across implementations, I guess that it's something else rather than "any zoom". I'll try to take one to play with to see what's the difference and find an explanation you're looking for.
Jack_R1 said:
Google Maps has several, predefined levels of zoom. Both on mobile and on desktop. You can easily see that - look at the ruler at the lower left corner and note the ~x2 changes.
On Android it just goes from one level to another.
I've never used iPhone, so I wouldn't know, but since the levels of zoom are the same across implementations, I guess that it's something else rather than "any zoom". I'll try to take one to play with to see what's the difference and find an explanation you're looking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any luck finding a 3g or newer to try Google maps on?
I think that setting aesthetics aside, I'm real interested because sometimes ill have a point picked out on the map, like and address or store or whatever, and I've zoomed in and the image it loads doesn't even have the point anymore, I have to scroll around and find it. But the point is clearly front and center while my fingers are still touching the screen, after ive pinched to my desired level. But then once I remove my fingers, its like rolling the dice to see what maps image its going to load. I really like Google maps, its one of the best things about android phones, navigation is superb. But the zooming problem is on every android and since its smooth and accurate on that "other" phone I'm sure it can be just as good on android. Hell its an android app for crying out loud!!!! So I'm interested to see what you determine.
I didn't have a chance to play with iPhone, but I've checked my own Google maps again, and I believe I know the reason for the behavior you're describing. It's a known bug, if I'm not mistaken (which doesn't make it less annoying). In any case, it's worth reporting to Google.
In Google maps on Android, when you pinch to zoom, you see the zoom-in to whatever is between your fingers. But when you release your fingers, the point to which the map zooms is - dead center of the previous screen, which does or doesn't correspond to the place you were zooming to. Try to do the following - load a map on any zoom level, move it so the center of the screen will be easily identifiable, and try to zoom on any point which isn't the center. As long as you'll keep your fingers on the screen - you'll see the point you're zooming into, and when you release - note that you have this object, that was right in the screen center before, zoomed in.
It's funny that this bug appears only on Android...
http://www.google.ms/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=29c21834e668f277&hl=en
Here's another guy that noted it (and wrote his own code for multitouch controller):
http://code.google.com/p/android-multitouch-controller/
I believe there's no bug report on this yet, I didn't find one. So I opened one:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=12259
Please star the issue.
Hi,
I just have a general question about the on screen display of the HTC one. I'm using HTC ROM 4.2.2; not rooted (I do not plan to root in near future since this device is brand new...)
I know this device is 4.7" with 1080p resolution, but currently the on screen display bugs me a little.
As pictures are better than words in most cases I've made screenshots of three different devices.
I know that's 7" to 4.7" to 3.7" , but somehow I can't understand why I am seeing on my 1080p HTC One almost as less as on my HTC Desire Z!? I excepted at least a viewport similar to the the Nexus 7.
On the other hand, if I view websites I'm almost on par with my Nexus 7; yes I have to zoom in a little to read those medium/tiny letters, but that's given...
Well, to make long things short: is there a (hidden) option somewhere deep in the maze of menus which adjusts me (at least) the mail app?! I've tried to change all "font size" settings I've found but with no actual success.
Btw. I'd like to keep the stock email app... since I don't need more functions or stupid ad-banners when using 3rd party mail apps.
Thank you!
Kind regards,
Ok, just found out that this seems to be a HTC bug... though, gmail app renders the same html mail as expected (say:complete without scrollbars, but still readable in terms of font size )... So I thought to seek and install the stock email.apk since this was doing good on the N7... partly a success...the mail is at least readable in landscape view (just scrolling vertically..), in portrait mode it is a bit smaller than in the HTC mail app (still no satisfying font size)... I conclude that there must be a global setting somewhere... which affects the email apps html renderer....
(just talking to myself )
Except for having android wear the new Samsung and LG watches don't seem to represent any major improvement over the gear. They still have a 1 day battery life and neither one has a camera. As strange as it may seem, I find the gear camera very useful.
My understanding is the LG has a 36 hour battery life with the screen on all the time. So, you can see the time constantly like a regular watch. It gets brighter if you engage the interface.
I wish the Gear did that.
I think I only get about 2 hours of screen on time for the Gear.
screen on
screen on is nice although the screen is a lower resolution. I think the lg spec page indicates battery life is 1 day, but testing will tell.
The resolution looks good enough for the screen size in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBWNZTYPbzA
I'd take always on screen with that resolution over the screen time of the Gear with the higher resolution any day,
Actual watch is kinda ugly though
moto
yea, they're really pushing the round moto as the "beautiful" watch, but price is supposedly above $300.
I actually like the look of the gear live, the way the metal curves over the wrist look kinda cool. Plus at £169 it's not that expensive really, the only thing I want confirmation on is can we answer calls on it ? I like being able to take a call while driving or working.
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk
Actually, I like the look and interactions with the notifications on the LG better than the Gear.
Not sure if all Android Wear UIs will be the same, or some customisation will be done by each brand.
LG G Watch Unboxing and Initial Setup: http://youtu.be/TLYgU3XErGU
Sent from my SM-N900 using XDA Free mobile app
hoddy4 said:
yea, they're really pushing the round moto as the "beautiful" watch, but price is supposedly above $300.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will gladly pay more than $300 to add the moto to my watch collection.
Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium HD app
No speakers on any of the first 3 Android Wear watches. They have mics so you can voice interact with the watch, but you wont be able to conduct a call from any of the watches.
Bladder61 said:
No speakers on any of the first 3 Android Wear watches. They have mics so you can voice interact with the watch, but you wont be able to conduct a call from any of the watches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So can they do the following?
Make a call
Can we load music, movie, ringtones
Can we add apps like google play music
Otherwise, what can we use that 4gb internal storage for
Tia,
Ian b
richlum said:
The resolution looks good enough for the screen size in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBWNZTYPbzA
I'd take always on screen with that resolution over the screen time of the Gear with the higher resolution any day,
Actual watch is kinda ugly though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, the Gear 1 is able to keep the screen on all the time (but it kills your battery sooner ofcourse)
I am on Null_23 and installed "Studio Clock" from Play Store.
This clock (it's an app, no widget or watchface) has the option to keep the screen on, which works perfectly.
1 click on the screen makes it brighter.
After a few seconds it dims the screen again.
EDIT : Ok, just tested a little more : watch will stay on untill a notification comes in. After that it will switch off.
no microphone and no camera
no microphone and no camera equals no go for these new phones relative to the gear.
hoddy4 said:
no microphone and no camera equals no go for these new phones relative to the gear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The new Android Wear watches do have mics. Its the primary way you interact with "OK Google". The watches are always listening and from reviews respond instantly to "OK Google" even in a noisy room.
I still think the hardware on our Gear 1 is superior to the AW devices. Hopefully we may get some Devs that can figure out how to get AW on our watch.
hoddy4 said:
no microphone and no camera equals no go for these new phones relative to the gear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he ment speaker and not microfoon.
The new Gear watches don't have a speaker for calling.
In fact, as far as I have seen, they can't be used for calling whereas our Gear 1's are able to
thanks for the correction. the point is that the gear hardware is in some ways superior to the new ones.
You have to think of Android Wear devices as "Nexi." They are the wearables equivalent of AOSP meaning they're all functionally the same. Everything they do (so far) is tied to Google Services which is great if you're "all in" with Google as the main provider for what you do on your phone. The Tizen Gear's are a better choice if you are more dependent on some of the Samsung apps and services. Android Wear is really just Google Now on your wrist. At least as it currently stands. And once a notification is dismissed it's gone which, based on how I use my current Gear, wouldn't thrill me.
The watch starts off dark (and dims after 5 seconds; this is immutable for now). To wake up the always-on display, you can press the lock button, twist your wrist (and wait a beat or two), or tap the display. If notifications await you, they show up in card form, which you can swipe away to dismiss or swipe up to expand. Swiping to the left reveals finger-friendly icons for making the next move, like opening the notification in your phone or launching into navigation.
You can swipe down from the top to view the date and your battery life meter, or mute and unmute the phone. A long press calls up wallpaper motifs, most of which Google supplied, though a few are Samsung's own. Holding on the lock button invokes the Settings and its various options.
Still, most of what you do on the Gear Live you do with your voice: setting alarms and reminders, navigating, and composing a text message or email to contacts. Samsung, by the way, has splashed out with adding its own stopwatch interface in addition to Google's. You can ask to see your heart rate, which triggers the monitor to do its thing; you can likewise demand to see how many steps you've taken.
Notification displays come in the form of miniaturized Google Now cards and pass along information like stocks, weather, sports scores, and social interactions. You can also control a music player and field phone calls. Notifications are larger and easier to read than notifications seen on Samsung's other wearables, but this is more controlled by Google than by Samsung, whose customized contributions are heavily curtailed with Android Wear.
Google's voice-driven interface has its ups and downs: we did manage to execute several voice commands, including sending short texts and email messages. But, one drawback popped up immediately: you can't approve or abort a message if Google's voice engine misinterprets you, or if you change your mind. Grammarians also won't like the usual issues that come with voice transcription -- mainly irregular capitalization and punctuation you have to voice yourself.
Android Wear is meant to be always-on: in the default mode, the Samsung Gear Live (and LG G Watch) have displays that are bright and colorful, but power down into dimmer, black and white displays that always stay lit to some small degree. As a result, our early impression on battery life isn't good. We got less than 24 hours of use on a full charge. Making the screen go fully dark after a few seconds should help, but then you'd need to wake it up to see the time or do anything else. Battery life seems like it could be a major drawback on the first generation of Android Wear watches.http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-gear-live/
Use Outside
BarryH_GEG said:
You have to think of Android Wear devices as "Nexi." They are the wearables equivalent of AOSP meaning they're all functionally the same. Everything they do (so far) is tied to Google Services which is great if you're "all in" with Google as the main provider for what you do on your phone. The Tizen Gear's are a better choice if you are more dependent on some of the Samsung apps and services. Android Wear is really just Google Now on your wrist. At least as it currently stands. And once a notification is dismissed it's gone which, based on how I use my current Gear, wouldn't thrill me.
The watch starts off dark (and dims after 5 seconds; this is immutable for now). To wake up the always-on display, you can press the lock button, twist your wrist (and wait a beat or two), or tap the display. If notifications await you, they show up in card form, which you can swipe away to dismiss or swipe up to expand. Swiping to the left reveals finger-friendly icons for making the next move, like opening the notification in your phone or launching into navigation.
You can swipe down from the top to view the date and your battery life meter, or mute and unmute the phone. A long press calls up wallpaper motifs, most of which Google supplied, though a few are Samsung's own. Holding on the lock button invokes the Settings and its various options.
Still, most of what you do on the Gear Live you do with your voice: setting alarms and reminders, navigating, and composing a text message or email to contacts. Samsung, by the way, has splashed out with adding its own stopwatch interface in addition to Google's. You can ask to see your heart rate, which triggers the monitor to do its thing; you can likewise demand to see how many steps you've taken.
Notification displays come in the form of miniaturized Google Now cards and pass along information like stocks, weather, sports scores, and social interactions. You can also control a music player and field phone calls. Notifications are larger and easier to read than notifications seen on Samsung's other wearables, but this is more controlled by Google than by Samsung, whose customized contributions are heavily curtailed with Android Wear.
Google's voice-driven interface has its ups and downs: we did manage to execute several voice commands, including sending short texts and email messages. But, one drawback popped up immediately: you can't approve or abort a message if Google's voice engine misinterprets you, or if you change your mind. Grammarians also won't like the usual issues that come with voice transcription -- mainly irregular capitalization and punctuation you have to voice yourself.
Android Wear is meant to be always-on: in the default mode, the Samsung Gear Live (and LG G Watch) have displays that are bright and colorful, but power down into dimmer, black and white displays that always stay lit to some small degree. As a result, our early impression on battery life isn't good. We got less than 24 hours of use on a full charge. Making the screen go fully dark after a few seconds should help, but then you'd need to wake it up to see the time or do anything else. Battery life seems like it could be a major drawback on the first generation of Android Wear watches.http://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-gear-live/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The gear is very difficult to view outside. I hope the new watches improve on outside useability. Also, I don't understand why the use of solar power is not used to increase battery life since these devices (unlike a phone) are often in sunlight. I'm not sure if the technology is not ready or the cost is still too high, although the I know that I would be willing to pay more for significantly better battery life.
hoddy4 said:
The gear is very difficult to view outside. I hope the new watches improve on outside useability. Also, I don't understand why the use of solar power is not used to increase battery life since these devices (unlike a phone) are often in sunlight. I'm not sure if the technology is not ready or the cost is still too high, although the I know that I would be willing to pay more for significantly better battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Solar power seems like a cool idea but at the current technology, the rate at which it recharges the battery under regular exposure to sunlight is very very slow. It would barely make a difference. Plus not a lot of people like to be out under the direct light (cancer and crap, y'know).
Another idea would be the watch being able to recharge by shaking (like some flash lights). We move our arms a lot but I don't know how much kinetic energy is needed for it to be effective.
Gear Manager and Battery Life
I am somewhat surprised by the apparent differences in gear battery life when using different versions of the gear manager. I haven't by any means done a scientific study, but different versions seem to effect battery life more than others. Don't know why this is.
Once you've saved a screen memo (like a shopping list in my case - I saved it by accident by inserting the s-pen), can you still get it back on your screen off memo? Now when I take my s-pen out with the screen off, I get a blank memo. I really wish there was a way to get it back to the screen off memo so I could use it while shopping without using much battery or opening my phone. Thoughts?
you can pin it clicking pin icon, recall later double clicking the pin, but if your main concern is battery, well the phone is running, screen is on regardless if it's full on or in screen off memo mode and background apps are running, so not much of a difference. You're better off picking up dark theme and dark wallpapers and have lower battery usage screen off or not. If you want to be really scientific about it, download program to monitor and record battery usage, write on paper what time what mode your phone was and what was battery drain exactly and compare. Personally, I think there are much more effective ways to save battery, like above mentioned dark theme or manually killing unused apps.
YDMV
pete4k said:
you can pin it clicking pin icon, recall later double clicking the pin, but if your main concern is battery, well the phone is running, screen is on regardless if it's full on or in screen off memo mode and background apps are running, so not much of a difference. You're better off picking up dark theme and dark wallpapers and have lower battery usage screen off or not. If you want to be really scientific about it, download program to monitor and record battery usage, write on paper what time what mode your phone was and what was battery drain exactly and compare. Personally, I think there are much more effective ways to save battery, like above mentioned dark theme or manually killing unused apps.
YDMV
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But once it's been saved and it's only found in your Samsung notes, can you still pin it? I don't see the option.
A black screen would certainly be way less battery than the white one, but really it's about convenience. I can not even unlock my screen and still get to my grocery list versus having to unlock it. Small thing I know, but it is definitely more convenient when pinned.
Sorry, I don't know if and how you can pin already saved note to AOD display.
pete4k said:
Sorry, I don't know if and how you can pin already saved note to AOD display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like you can't.
That's annoying. It's as if you can't put your s-pen away for fear of the auto save.
I think the original idea was to have a way to make quick hand note, like writing somebody's phone number you just met on the street, or quick memo at the meeting and I used it in such a way many times, nothing more. You can pin saved note to the home screen and reach it there easily, after opening the phone. One reason your idea may never be implemented could be security, you never know what important info people could have there and having that info so visible may be against current trend of securing things. You may use it for nothing more than shopping list, but for example I used it to write complicated passwords to bank accounts and computer networks etc.
Also, it seems screen off memo is Samsung Note series exclusive feature, so it may be trial and error for them to figure what exactly people want and do with it. Taking away Action memo and it's advanced features, which was available on older Notes and no more suggests to me they still trying to figure it out.
pete4k said:
I think the original idea was to have a way to make quick hand note, like writing somebody's phone number you just met on the street, or quick memo at the meeting and I used it in such a way many times, nothing more. You can pin saved note to the home screen and reach it there easily, after opening the phone. One reason your idea may never be implemented could be security, you never know what important info people could have there and having that info so visible may be against current trend of securing things. You may use it for nothing more than shopping list, but for example I used it to write complicated passwords to bank accounts and computer networks etc.
Also, it seems screen off memo is Samsung Note series exclusive feature, so it may be trial and error for them to figure what exactly people want and do with it. Taking away Action memo and it's advanced features, which was available on older Notes and no more suggests to me they still trying to figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, in general.
I saw people suggesting in reviews that it could be used as a grocery list and I liked the idea. I saw one review showing someone using it at the store actually. Maybe it was staged.
Android Auto for Phone Screens was supposed to be a simple stop-gap leading up to the launch of Google Assistant’s Driving Mode, but with that feature still nowhere to be found, Google is making some improvements. This week, Android Auto for Phone Screens is being updated with improved Google Maps support.
As first spotted by the fine folks over at Android Police, Google has made some tweaks to how Google Maps appears on Android Auto for Phone Screens. The smaller of these changes comes from the information bars. Previously, Maps had these locked to the top of the display, but now they “float” over your active navigation. There’s also a speed limit icon now!
The bigger changes, though, come in the landscape view. As seen in the comparison below, Maps in landscape mode now shows more of the map itself, even if you’re viewing various settings for navigation.
Not too long after launching in cars, Google granted users the ability to run a version of the Android Auto UI on their phone display directly. With the arrival of Android Auto’s revamped UI, though, the company also announced it would kill off the phone screen version… only to backtrack on that a few weeks later with “Android Auto for Phone Screens.”
That’s important backstory to keep in mind for one simple fact — Google is now clearly giving attention and development resources to this “stop-gap” measure. Might that mean this product will stick around longer than we thought? It’s certainly the strongest evidence in favor of that.