Gadgetory

Google has drastically changed the Android interface over the last couple of years but there are new up-and-coming platforms that implement gestures and swipes that make navigating a little more intuitive and fun I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and these are five ways you can make Android look a little more modern Matias Duarte Google's director of Android user experience has really worked his magic on Android if you compare Android 2.3 Gingerbread with Ice Cream Sandwich or jelly bean the differences are very clear you have lock screen widgets which were recently introduced in jelly bean you also have a more refined notification shade with gestures and expanding notifications and even a quick settings page and the entire interface from the home screen to the deepest settings menu looks refined and much more cohesive but when you compare Android to its toughest competitors the up-and-coming mobile operating systems such as Ubuntu phone OS or sailfish OS or even BlackBerry 10 which all implement gesture control and navigation the Android experience could definitely be improved less tapping more sliding this is where these applications really come into play the first of which is called action launcher it was developed by Chris Lacey the guy who created tweet lanes one of the more popular Twitter clients on Android and it completely changes the way you use your homescreen sure you can have up to five pages but there is no more application drawer it is replaced by the action launcher which is accessed by a left-to-right swipe from the left side of your home screen an alphabetical list of every application installed on your phone is displayed and you can quickly scroll through them by letter but that is only the beginning of the changes of action launcher it has a search bar at the top of the screen which lets you quickly access any of the applications as well you also have quick access to Google Play and also an action overflow button on the top right corner there are also folders but these folders are different you can change them to a cover which is essentially an icon that you can tap and open an application or you can swipe upwards and reveal the contents of the folder it's a genius idea that works really well if you don't like the look of the folders its straightforward and intuitive and I absolutely love the idea of covers our friend Domenico deserves a shout out for the second application he showed it to us last week on pocket now live and I've been in love with it ever since its called of box and basically it is the experience you would get on Ubuntu phone OS on Android a swipe from the side of the display unveils a list of your favorite applications which are user-defined and it allows you to quickly switch between applications it's quick intuitive and I love it their settings such as being able to change the side of the display how sensitive it is and other things and there's a premium version as well the free version works great although there are some notable bugs next up is - clock widget it's created by one of Google's own and many have said that it should be the default clock widget I tend to agree it works just like any other clock widget by giving you the time but it also implements extensions which can be downloaded from the Play Store or they might be incorporated with applications you already have installed I have mine set up to show how many unread tweets I have in Falcon Pro how many unread emails I have how many unread items there are impressed battery whether any alarms or calendar appointments I have coming up it's full of features and there are more and more applications being added to the list of extensions by day without question the widget I get asked about the most is battery widget reborn it is a big distinguishing widget that sits on your home screen and pretty much everything about the way it appears can be changed its color can be altered its transparency and its size it can be resized down to one by one square or it can be fullscreen you can also change what happens when you tap the widget it can take you to your battery info or the built in settings for the application there is also a notification shade feature that shows you an estimated time your battery has left how much time it will take to charge you for phone is plugged in and other information about your battery the fifth and final application that will make your Android phone look a little more modern is beautiful widgets it's not a new application that's been in the Play Store and very popular for a very long time but level up studio recently updated the application to adhere to the Android design guidelines with that they added an expanding notification and it's what I found myself using all the time for referencing whether slide down the notification shade and you have a very beautiful expanded notification they took full advantage of that feature tapping it also takes you to a full page weather update of course these applications are probably the tip of the iceberg if you use different ones feel free to share them in the comments below or on the site give the video a thumbs up if you liked it and subscribe to the channel also you can find us on your favorite social networks Twitter at pocket now it's Google Plus at plus pocket now or facebook.com slash pocket now I'm Taylor Martin and I will see you next time