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Topic: Hardware

Android Design V2 features stencils

Summary: As the iPad and Windows 8 are readied for market, Google is doing what it can to jumpstart Android development for tablets (and smartphones). Today, Google launched Android Design 2 UI frameworks for developers.

Paula Rooney

By for Linux and Open Source |

With the iPad 3 and Microsoft Windows 8 en route to market, Google is under the gun to rally Android developers to tablet development.

To that end, Google announced today that Stencils feature will be included in the next round of Android Design Version 2 tool, made available today.  

"With these stencils you can now drag and drop your way to beautifully designed Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) applications, with grace and ease. The stencils feature the rich typography, colors, interactive controls, and icons found throughout Ice Cream Sandwich, along with some phone and tablet outlines to frame your meticulously crafted creations," said one Google developer who posted the news on the Android Developers blog on Google.com.

The stencils were made availabfor interinteractive design platforms Adobe Fireworks and Omni OmniGraffle and more will follow, Google says.

Android Design is a set of UI frameworks developed for Android 4.0. Design was first made available in January.

Topics: Hardware, Android, Google, Laptops, Mobility, Tablets

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7 comments
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  • WOW, only works with Android 4?

    That seems a major issue as most Android devices out there are running on previous versions and vendors don't seem to have much incentive to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich.

    Since developers go where the money is, usage of this development tool will probably be a bit slow to take off. Time will tell.
    Cynical99
    Reply Vote

    • What a lie

      Look at the charts, every 6 months and you will see that these phones are being updated but the custom skins take time to adapt. They are however being updated and having the Same OS on the phones as on the tablets means, development will for the tablets will be tops among any OS in about 8 months time.
      slickjim
      Reply Vote

      • funny, most people can't afford to upgrade and the vendors are slow

        your comment seems a bit nonsensical. I for one won't upgrade for some time and most people keep their phones until the contract is up, twoish years.

        Most manufacturers don't seem to be offering Android 4 just yet either. It takes time to create a phone and OS combination that works. Plus, the current gen phones will dominate for a some time. That's typically older versions of Android.

        Hope you don't run a business, or if you do, you'll need lots of backing!
        Cynical99
        Reply Vote

  • Android on tablet is dead...

    Android on tablet will go through a slow death... With Win 8 and Ipad3 , consumers and Enterprise are not going to buy google's snoopy software...
    owllnet
    Reply Vote

    • You know what is funny...

      The Cleaning company we use at our work sent a rep in to inspect the quality and she was entering all notes on an Asus Transformer and, a friend of mine that works in security was given a Galaxy Tab 10.1 instead of a laptop.

      Personally, I wouldn't want a tablet for full-time work but, the point is these Android devices are being used by some companies and it will become a larger slice of the pie as things move forward.
      slickjim
      Reply Vote

  • far from dead but manufacturer's need to get it together

    I've not tried ICS on any tablet. I have rooted my phone with it. Although not 100% functional at this point I do like what I see.

    There are roms for my Nook color as well but waiting for it to get further along before installing.

    So here's the thing, Nook will never officially support ICS on my older color. Samsung says it won't work on my Galaxy S 1. Modders are proving quickly that it can and will happen.

    The Nexus seems somewhat popular, X10 has a cheapo tablet running ICS(although low end tablets normally don't give you the best experience). So where is all the ICS updates for the early adopters.

    It's not Google's fault, manufacturer's are spending too much time on the next big project and not the people that already shelled out serious money.

    If anything hurts Android, it'll be the manufacturer's and not the operating system.
    REDPINXC
    Reply Vote

    • It is googles fault, they are the os provider and they are the ones who

      could have gotten a contractual commitment from the oems and chose not too.
      Johnny Vegas
      Reply Vote
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