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Following a lengthy interview in October where he gave us insight into the future of Android and Google’s view on iOS and Windows, Android’s head of user experience Matias Duarte sat down with The Verge to discuss his work on Android and more specifically, Ice Cream Sandwich. During the interview Duarte elaborated on his competitor’s design choices, where he says iOS looks cartoonish and explains if it were “put on a website or magazine, you’d laugh at it, it would look childish”. Host Joshua Topolsky also calls him out for saying Windows Phone looks like “bathroom signage in an airport”, to which he didn’t comment.

Matias gave a few demos using a Galaxy Nexus, including one of live video chat effects like blurs and warps that alter your face in real-time. He also explained his view on photography features calling traditional features of point and shoot cameras such as white balance “crap”, saying “if it’s not immediately obvious, it’s something the machine should be taking care of for you”.

Duarte also defended Google’s choice to create the new Roboto font for ICS, which he also recently explained in a blog post, as well as addressed the controversy of ICS’s Face Unlock feature (which was recently tricked using a photo).

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As we first reported following a leaked promo video, Google is today rolling out a pretty big update to Gmail that will provide some major enhancements to the interface.

There isn’t much more included in the update than previously revealed, but the changes, including streamlined conversations, elastic density, new HD themes, improved search, and “smarter navigation”, were definitely worth the wait.

The “better search” comes from a new drop down panel that allows you to select filters and advanced search options, while smart navigation is part of the overall UI redesign allowing you to always see your labels and chat, as well as customize the items in the left pane. You can now use arrow keys to navigate the interface, too.

Elastic density is a nice addition, allowing you to select one of the three predefined settings that will control the spacing between items in your inbox. The settings include “Comfortable”, “Cozy”, and “Compact”. Streamlined conversations are perhaps the biggest and best change, providing a new dynamic conversation view seen below:

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Samsung wrapped up their Galaxy event in London last night (above) where they made a November 3rd UK launch date official for the 5.3-inch Galaxy Note and also gave us a closer look into the S-Pen SDK and “S Choice” apps designed specifically for the Note’s built-in Wacom digitizer stylus tech.

Among the “S Choice” apps that will be available upon launch include OmniSketch, Zen Brush, ComicBook!, iAnnotate PDF, ZigZag virtual whiteboard, and Soonr Workplace. The majority of these apps are art-focused sketching, animation, and annotation apps, but Soonr Workplace is a productivity suite of sorts that includes document collaboration among other features.

Samsung will be making the S-Pen SDK available to devs starting in December so they can start developing apps specifically for the stylus. If you haven’t yet got a chance to check out the S-Pen in action, the video of yesterday’s event above has some live demos of artists creating some pretty incredible creations using the apps we just told you about.

The Galaxy Note packs in a 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display, 1.4 GHz dual core processor, 5100 mAmp battery, supports native 720p video, and has a 7 1/2 mm thin design. Samsung will continue to roll out the Note to the rest of major European markets by the end of November. You can check out the latest Samsung Galaxy advert here.

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Seen in the viral video above endorsing Ed Lee for mayor of San Francisco is Google’s vice president of Local, Maps & Location Services Marissa Mayer, and, director of Product Management focused on YouTube, Hunter Walk. You might also notice a couple of other notable appearances including Twitter’s Biz Stone, and will.i.am of  The Black Eye Peas.

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We first got a look at the Samsung Galaxy Note at IFA in Berlin early last month. While they’ve teased a November release date since, we haven’t heard much from Samsung regarding their stylus-equipped, hybrid tablet/smartphone until today.  The advert above, which in our opinion is done quite well, proves Samsung’s marketing team might actually be headed in the right direction.

Focusing mainly on the 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display and “S Pen” stylus apps, the advert shows off the advantages of apps designed specifically for the stylus. The user in the ad starts with an image, uses the S Pen to draw, saves and crops an image, adds that the cropped image to the drawing, and finally sends it.

The ad ends with the tagline, “Phone? Tablet? Feel Free, It’s Galaxy Note”, an obvious hint at making your own decision as to whether you consider it a tablet or phone. Either way, as the gimmick and shock value of the stylus wears away, the Galaxy Note is starting to look more and more enticing. If you’re unfamiliar, the device sports a 1.4 GHz dual core processor, runs Gingerbread (ICS?), 5100 mAamp battery, native 720p video, and is 7 and half mm thin. We’re expecting to learn more when Samsung takes the stage at their Galaxy Note event in London tomorrow. Stay tuned for the latest.

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Samsung has just released a couple teaser videos, which don’t seem to be teasing much other than the fact they will be making an announcement at IFA in Berlin on September 1st. As you can see from the video above, it’s essentially your average, run-of-the-mill smartphone ad but with the devices themselves blurred out by a mysterious glowing light. However, the thing that really gets our attention is the “Something Big is Coming” text at the end of the video.

While the ad clearly shows an actor placing the device up to his ear (indicating a phone rather than a tablet), there is also a suspicious amount of thumb typing in landscape mode going on and the glow on the device right at the end of the video above appears to be significantly larger than others. Perhaps hinting at a hybrid device of sorts.

There is no shortage of rumoured devices from Samsung that could easily be announced at IFA. We told you about a huge leak that gave us insight into seven Android smartphones and two tablets the company is currently working on. Perhaps the most impressive device from the leak was the “GT-I9250”, a 4.65-inch device running Ice Cream Sandwich and sporting a 1280x720p resolution. However, at this point it could very easily be anyone of the tablets or phones we know Samsung currently has in the works. We’ll be covering the announcement live as it happens so stay tuned for the latest.

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YouTube’s Brian Glick gave Google+ a short feature update this evening. We’ve enjoyed watching YouTube video in Google+Hangouts ever since the product launched earlier this year, but today you can now start watching a YouTube video with just one click. After clicking the “Start a Google+ Hangout” when watching a video on YouTube, you’re brought into the Hangout you know and love, where you can invite your friends to take part. We’re looking forward to seeing how much traffic this drives to Google+. (via The Next Web)

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Remember WDYL, the Google-owned site affectionately named What Do You Love? It rolled out quietly last month to no fanfare as a glorified Google.com frontend to present search results across numerous Google products with pretty layouts. It has gotten some press time before most folks forgot about it so Google made this little video to remind us of the project and showcase the power of HTML5 and Google search.

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Google is now testing an experimental design on YouTube, called Cosmic Panda. The new design is not enabled by default, but you can use it today by enabling it in YouTube’s TestTube.

The design is totally new and focused on channels, playlists, and videos. Besides the obvious style change, other features include auto-refresh commenting, dark background on video pages, and much more. Give it a try yourself.

via The Next Web
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