Google has come up with Android design in January 13, 2012

Friday, January 13, 2012: Google has come up with Android design, a platform which will help developers in developing apps for ICS. The idea behind this is to serve the third-party developers who wish to create apps for a constantly updated operating system. Google felt the need of such a platform particularly with the release of the most recent Android code overhaul, version 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich. Matias Duarte, head of Android operating system team at Google, tells Wired about the recently launched Android Design, a website that will help developers in creation of apps for ICS. 

The site aims to offer a comprehensive visual to third-party application developers. It provides suggestions on everything related to development on ICS including how to implement different visual elements to overall back-end patterns for the OS itself. Precisely speaking, it will help the developers have a better understanding of how the Android team thinks about layout and implementation. The Android team suggests the developers to interact with the developers and designers through the platform and find out ways of maintaining visual integrity. This platform will be helpful for both first-time developers and Android veterans in making apps look less crappy. Duarte says, “We haven’t really had a style guide. We haven’t really given you a lot of guidance on how to migrate your application from a phone, perhaps, to a tablet. 

We’ve done so only by example.” This has been a major complaint from the developers’ end, whenever a new version of Android was released, notes Duarte. With any guide, developers had no choice but to reverse engineer the code from the new version and translate that to the previous version of Android to understand how to move their app to the new software environment. Things become even more difficult because Android averages a new version launch about twice a year. It is a painful job for the mobile developers who want to keep their apps updated. This is where the new guide on Android will come into play. It will get “continually” updated with a running list of features, suggestions, and development methods, including things as granular as software button placement to as large as dealing with screen sizes. “Android has had a lot of terrific developer API level documentation,” Duarte shares while speaking of the code that developers use to understand how Android works and how to make applications for the platform. “But within our style guide we have things [where] we think, unequivocally, this is the way to make it Android.”

Duarte hopes that this effort from Google will clean up Android apps, whether they look like sloppy ports from one version to another, or a rough app from a first-time Android developer. Android guide can serve as a starting point for Android newcomers, which is a way to foster the fast-growing app ecosystem. Duarte touts the site as the second part of Ice Cream Sandwich launch.

Google Apps helps clients and attorneys collaborate at California law firm

Posted by Eric Hunter, Director of Knowledge Strategy and Technology at Bradford & Barthel, LLP Editors note: Today’s guest blogger is Eric Hunter, Director of Knowledge Strategy and Technology at Bradford & Barthel, LLP, a mid-size law firm in Southern California. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say. In the legal industry we have a concept called law2020 - the idea that technology and the economy are causing law firms to change the way they run their businesses to survive in the next decade. Technology like Google Apps and social applications are creating a culture where the legal industry is much more connected with clients and clients have much more access to information about the law. Our primary reason for investigating Google Apps back in 2009 was to start preparing our firm to keep up with this new culture of constant communication and to help employees enhance client relationships through better sharing and collaboration.

The City of Mesquite has gone Google

Posted by Dirk Marshall, IT Manager for the City of Mesquite Editors note: Today our guest blogger is Dirk Marshall, IT Manager for the City of Mesquite, Nevada. We’ll hear from Dirk on the benefits the city is enjoying by migrating 180 users to Google Apps. Situated in picturesque Clark County, Nevada, the City of Mesquite features a thriving community, seven premier golf courses, lush casino resorts and a growing population of happy retirees. Faced with growing budget constraints, the City was ready to upgrade its aging infrastructure and reduce IT overhead costs. We were looking specifically for a better way to align our technology with the productivity needs of our employees and simplify our IT systems. We were already maintaining two networks, Microsoft and Novell GroupWise, to meet our needs. As you can imagine, the licensing and maintenance fees for two different sets of servers were quite high.