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Google Calendar's app for Android has been updated with new controls for selecting time, date, timezones, colors and editing repeating events. I wonder if the next Android version will use these controls instead of the existing pickers.

Selecting the time is a 2-part process: you first select the hour and then the number of minutes. The time picker is based on a real 24-hour clock.



Selecting the date is straightforward: Google uses a scrolling calendar that's great for picking a date from the current month or next month. If you want to pick a date from a different year, tap the year and you can quickly switch to 2014, 2015 or any other year.


Here are the standard time/date Android pickers that were previously used by the Google Calendar app. "Each picker provides controls for selecting each part of the time (hour, minute, AM/PM) or date (month, day, year). Using these pickers helps ensure that users can pick a time or date that is valid, formatted correctly, and adjusted to the user's locale."


And here are the original pre-Honeycomb pickers:


The control for repeating events looks much better. "You can now set events to repeat every Tuesday and Thursday, every month, or every 7 weeks, it's completely up to you," informs the Android blog.


Now you can pick different colors for events and calendars:


There's also a different way to select time zones: instead of showing a long list of time zones, countries and regions, Google Calendar lets you enter the country name and it displays the relevant time zones.


I've found it easy to compare the old and new controls because my phone has both the stock Calendar app and the Google Calendar app from Google Play. It's a good idea to disable the notifications for one of the apps if you don't want to get multiple notifications for the same event.

After Samsung Galaxy S4, it's time for HTC One to get a Nexus Edition. It will be available on June 26 from Google Play US for $599, $50 less than Samsung's flagship.

"The unlocked device will run on both AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States with support for high-speed LTE data on both networks. This 'Nexus user experience' version will contain 32GB of built-in storage. Much like the special edition Samsung Galaxy S4 unveiled during I/O, Google will be directly handling future software updates," reports The Verge.

The Google Play version of HTC One will run stock Android, but it will have the same hardware like a regular HTC One. For example, it will have an infrared blaster that can't be used by Google's software because the stock Android 4.2 doesn't support IR. It's likely that a future Android update will add native support for infrared sensors.

I've mentioned in the post about Galaxy S4 that the Nexus Edition is great for Google, phone manufacturers, developers and users. Even if you don't buy this phone, you'll be able to install Google's software or a custom ROM that uses it.

Why use the stock Android instead of HTC's Android flavour or Samsung's Android flavour? It doesn't include so much bloatware, it's faster and easier to update. You'll miss features like HTC's Zoe or Samsung's Smart Pause, but you'll get a phone that's more responsive, has a modern interface and can take advantage of the latest software updates. Still, Nexus Edition phones aren't Nexus phones, so don't expect the same experience. The software wasn't designed with this hardware in mind.

Maybe the 'Nexus user experience' project has a different goal: show the difference between the pure Android and custom Android, running on the same devices. Maybe this will convince users that the stock Android is better and phone manufacturers will have to use it or at least provide an option to switch to it. As the stock Android improves, it's time to use it and build upon it, instead of hiding it behind useless features.

Google didn't announce a new Nexus device at Google I/O, but you'll still get something close to a Nexus phone: Samsung Galaxy S4, unlocked, with LTE support for T-Mobile and AT&T, Google software and quick updates. It will be available on June 26 from Google Play US for $649.

"This is a Samsung Galaxy S4 with the same software experience we ship on our Nexus devices. It's Google's take on Android and it feels awesome on the S4," said Google VP Hugo Barra.



It's good news for everyone. Google can sell a powerful LTE phone that doesn't compete with Nexus 4 because it's more expensive. Samsung has access to Google's software updates, so there's less work to keep up with the new Android versions. Developers can buy a Nexus version of the most popular Android phone and can even use a MicroSD card, replace the battery, use a physical home button and two other capacitive buttons. People who want to buy a Galaxy S4, but don't like Samsung's TouchWiz software, no longer have to rely on custom ROMs. Projects like CyanogenMod will do a better job of supporting Galaxy S4. Even if you buy the regular Galaxy S4, you'll get better software, whether you stick with Samsung's software or you install a custom ROM.

Samsung manufactured 2 other Nexus phones (Nexus S - 2010, Galaxy Nexus - 2011) and a Nexus tablet (Nexus 10 - 2012).

Many people expected to hear some information about a new Android version at the Google I/O keynote. Google decided to focus on new development tools, Google Play Store, Google Play Music and new APIs for Google Play Services.

Actually Google focused on the things it can control and quickly update. Google Play Services is automatically installed by Google Play Store and it adds new APIs that Android apps can use, regardless of the Android version (Play Services requires Android 2.2+). That's a great way to deal with Android fragmentation and it allows Google to announce APIs that can be used by any app and that can reach almost any Android device.


"Devices running Android 2.2 and newer and that have the Google Play Store app automatically receive updates to Google Play services. Enhance your app with the most recent version of Google Play services without worrying about your users' Android version," suggests Google.

For example, Google Play Games services can be used by any Android game to provide features like saving state, leaderboards, achievements, auto-matched players, real-time multiplayer. These services can also be used on iOS and for web apps, so they're even more useful. If Google added these features in Android 4.3, few people could use them and few developers would update their games to support them. Most likely, only Nexus devices would be updated to Android 4.3 shortly after the announcement, while other devices would be updated in 6 months or later or maybe never. Android 4.2 was launched 6 months ago and only 2% of the Android devices run it.

New Android versions are still important, but Google has some other meaningful ways to make Android better. Most Google apps are available in the Play Store and can be updated without waiting for a new Android version. Chrome, Google Search (with Voice Search and Google Now), Google Maps, Google Hangouts, Google Calendar, Google Play Music and the other Play apps can be improved and change the way you use your Android device. Play Services can improve entire categories of apps, add features that improve battery life, make notifications more useful, improve Google+ and Google Maps integration.

Android's flexibility is a double-edged sword. In this case, detaching system apps and APIs from the operating system is a huge advantage and makes new Android versions less important.

Wired publishes an interview with Sundar Pichai, Google's Senior Vice President for Chrome, Apps and now Android. Back in March, Larry Page announced that "Andy [Rubin] decided it's time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google". Now Sundar Pichai is in charge of Android and many people wondered if Android and Chrome OS will merge.

"Android and Chrome are both large, open platforms, growing very fast. I think that they will play a strong role, not merely exist. I see this as part of friendly innovation and choice for both users and developers. (...) So in the short run, nothing changes. In the long run, computing itself will dictate the changes. We're living through a pivotal moment. It's a world of multiple screens, smart displays, with tons of low-cost computing, with big sensors built into devices. At Google we ask how to bring together something seamless and beautiful and intuitive across all these screens. The picture may look different a year or two from from now, but in the short term, we have Android and we have Chrome, and we are not changing course," Sundar says.

He compares Android and Chrome OS with iOS and Mac OSX, which are different, but have a lot of things in common. "We want to do the right things at each stage, for users and developers. We are trying to find commonalities. On the browser layer, we share a lot of stuff. We will increasingly do more things like that. And maybe there's a more synergistic answer down the line."

That explains features like Cloud Messaging for Chrome, launched one year after Cloud Messaging for Android. Chrome also experimented with intents, but this feature is no longer supported.

It's interesting to note that Sundar's biggest Android challenge is to "improve the whole world's end-user experience without changing the open nature of Android". That's difficult to do, considering that most Android devices run old Android versions and some are rarely updated, not to mention that the most popular Android devices run custom operating systems based on Android, with custom interfaces, frameworks and different built-in apps.

For now, both Android and Chrome OS will continue to exist. Chrome's new packaged apps will also be available on mobile devices and it will be interesting to see if they look like native apps. Android tries to fight fragmentation by introducing new APIs using Google Play Services. For now, native apps make more sense on a mobile device than on a desktop computer, but this could change. Chrome OS could follow Firefox OS and run on smartphones and tablets.

Whether your laptop runs Windows, Android or Chrome OS, whether your phone or tablet runs Android, iOS, Chrome OS or Firefox OS, Google's goal is to "bring together something seamless and beautiful and intuitive across all these screens". I call it Google Operating System and it's not Android or Chrome OS.

The latest release of Chrome Beta for Android added an interface for the data compression proxy. You no longer have to enable a flag, just open Chrome's menu, go to the settings, select "Bandwidth management", "Reduce data usage" and enable the feature.


You can start visiting your favorite sites and check back the "Bandwidth management" to see some stats. For more detailed stats, type chrome://net-internals in the omnibox and select the "Bandwidth" section in the left sidebar.


My total savings percentage is 33.5%. It's less impressive than Opera Mini's 90% savings percentage, but Opera Mini is not a browser. It's just a thin client app and all the rendering and JavaScript processing is performed on Opera's servers, so Opera Mini only needs a simplified OBML file. It's more appropriate to compare Chrome's data compression proxy with Opera Turbo, a feature available in the Opera Mobile browser. "In November 2009, the average compression rate for Opera Turbo was 63.6%," according to an Opera report [PDF], while in April 2011 the average compression rate was 60.5%. Apparently, Opera incorrectly defines compression rate as the savings percentage. An explanation for Opera's better performance could be that Chrome is more likely to load mobile pages than Opera Mobile, which usually loads desktop sites. Mobile pages are already optimized, so there's not much to compress.

The Google Translate app for Android has some text files that include translation mistakes (/sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.apps.translate/files/ol/v3r1/c_p). Some of them have been reported by users, blogs, news sites, while others are new. It's not clear why the application needs these lists since Google has fixed these translation errors.

Here are some examples:

German to English: Stuttgart -> London, tischen -> Nazi, Sheraton -> Hilton, StepStone -> Monster, Kilo -> pounds

French to English: le président américain -> Bush, toussaint -> Halloween, Homme -> Female ("homme" means "man" in French, "le président américain" means "the American president")


Spanish to English: Madrid -> London, útil -> helpful Google Translation, amor -> truelove ("útil" means "useful" in Spanish, while "amor" means "love").

English to Russian: jew -> жид (Yid, used as a derogatory epithet by antisemites), altogether -> обнаженная модель ("nude model" in Russian).

English to French: boobs massage -> Ségolène Royal, boobs massage -> Kaamelott Saison, it sucks -> elle suce

English to Spanish: quiz trivia -> vínculo con Israel

Catalan to English: Jordi Pujol -> Abraham Lincoln

English to Latin: English -> Latin, New York -> Romae, New York -> Londini, Milan -> Lib

English to Dutch: please -> iPhone, feet -> meter

Hungarian to English: magyar -> English, Kossuth Lajos -> Abraham Lincoln

Icelandic to English: Sigur Rós -> Foo Fighters, Sigur Ros -> Anastacia

Latin to English: Libri -> Random, Libri -> Reviews, Arma Virumque Cano -> Chairman Meow

Russian to English: Вконтакте -> Facebook, Вконтакте -> Twitter, Вконтакте -> OpenID ("Вконтакте"/VK is a popular Russian social network), ОС -> Windows ("ОС" means operating system in Russian), Уважаемый Дмитрий -> Mr President ("Уважаемый Дмитрий" means "Dear Dmitry", while Dmitry Medvedev was Russia's President), Владимир Владимирович -> Mr Prime Minister ("Владимир Владимирович" means "Vladimir Vladimirovich", while Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was Russia's Prime Minister), скрыто -> email ("скрыто" means "private, secret"), Сплин -> Metallica (popular Russian rock band).

Serbian to English: Mitar Mirić -> Rihanna, Miric -> Jackson

Swedish to English: Runkar -> Heil Hitler, kronor -> dollars

Google's machine translation algorithms are often fooled by proper nouns used in similar contexts (Madrid in Spanish vs London in English, Sigur Rós in Icelandic vs Foo Fighters in English), by measurement units and currencies (feet in English vs meter in Dutch), but there are also non-obvious mistakes.

Google Translate is useful, but you need an Internet connection to translate some text. Google's servers process your request, so language models are always up-to-date, you can translate long texts instantly and you don't need to download huge databases. Unfortunately, Google Translate is especially useful when you visit foreign countries and you may want to avoid the high data roaming fees.

Now you can use Google Translate offline if you have an Android device. Just install the latest version of the Google Translate for Android and you can download the core translation files for more than 50 languages. If you've already installed the application, you need to manually update it. The compressed language files have about 150MB (200MB after extracting the files from the archive) and are stored on your SD card if your Android device has one.

"You can select [Offline Languages] in the app menu to see all the offline language packages available for download. To enable offline translation between any two languages, you just need to select them in the offline languages menu. Once the packages are downloaded, you're good to go," informs Google.




The application works well offline, but you may need to wait a few seconds if you want to translate long texts. Offline translations are less accurate since Google lets you download some simplified language models.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the offline and online translations of a French text from Le Monde:

One of the greatest Chrome features is that it's always up-to-date. You don't have to worry about checking for updates and installing a new version, at least when it comes to the desktop Chrome.

iOS doesn't update apps automatically. The App Store shows notifications when the apps you've installed are updated and you need to install updates manually. Google's Play Store for Android has an option for updating apps automatically, but it's not enabled by default.

The beta version of Chrome for Android started to display an infobar that informs you there's a new version you can install: "Chrome just got better! A new version is available. Update". Sterling, a reader of this blog, noticed the notification when visiting the Chrome Releases blog, but that could be a mere coincidence.


Maybe it would be more useful to ask users to enable automatic updates.

{ Thanks, Sterling. }

The Google Search app for Android experiments with a new search results interface that uses soft colors: light blue and orange. Right now, the regular interface uses the same colors like the web search interface: blue (#1122CC) for links and green (#009933) for web addresses.


While it's refreshing to see new colors in the search UI, orange makes URLs stand out too much. Blogger's new interface uses a similar color for headers and important buttons.

Here's the current interface:


{ Thanks, Andrew. }