Fans of Tumblr should go pick up the newly released update on Google Play. The designers of the app took a massive page out of Google’s design tips, giving the app a complete Holo makeover. Needless to say, it looks quite gorgeous. Beyond the updated sexier look, you won’t find any new features or anything of that nature according to the changelog. This one was completely aesthetics.

If you fancy yourself a Tumblr, go check it out.

Play Link

Tumblr Updated for Android, Completely Redesigned User Interface is a post from: Droid Life

Since the launch of Google Now, Google has been moving towards a certain design language with Android and it’s been well received by many people. The core Google apps have been slowly moving away from the Honeycomb look and more towards the Jelly Bean ”Holo“ feel. One app that still feels lacking, however, is Google Music, the dark backgrounds and highlights just don’t mesh with Jelly Bean well. 

One designer put together a great looking mock-up for what the new app could be. Rajesh Handa uploaded an album of screenshots to his Google+ page showing what Google could do with the app as far as swiping and color schemes go, and it looks great. Everything about this app screams Android 4.2 and Google might do well to take some cues from this.

What do you think about this suggested redesign? Head over to Handa’s Google+ page to see the rest of his design mock-up.

Via: Google+

Designer Puts Together What a Redesigned Google Music Could Look Like is a post from: Droid Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

Remember ADW Launcher? It’s back! According to the “What’s New” section in its app listing, everything has been redone. If you check out the video, you’ll see a lot of Holo theme, along with settings and features that match up to today’s hottest launcher, like Nova and Apex. I have to admit that I had forgotten about this launcher, but now that it’s back, I’m ready to give it another shot.

Play Link

Cheers Grady!

ADW Launcher Returns From the Dead, Revamps “Almost Everything” is a post from: Droid Life

One of the old standard root applications from the beginning of time, Root Explorer, received its first decent update in some time today. A new Holo-inspired theme is included, along with crash fixes for Jelly Bean devices and the Verizon Galaxy S3. This new update also allows device files to be listed and create shortcuts for files and folders.

Still using Root Explorer or have you found a new root file manager?

Play Link

Cheers Scott!

Root Explorer Updated – Holo Theme Added, Fixed Jelly Bean and VZW Galaxy S3 Crashes is a post from: Droid Life

With Ice Cream Sandwich and it’s shiny new theme, the Android team has decided that it wants parts of it to remain untouched going forward, even from manufacturer skins. The theme is called “Holo” and can be seen in bits in the images up top. And when we say “remain untouched,” we mean that these themes are required if Moto, Samsung and HTC want to keep their access to the most important Google app of all, the Android Market. +1 to that?

The Android developers team has released a blog post detailing “Holo” and its requirements:

In Android 4.0, Holo is different. We’ve made the inclusion of the unmodified Holo theme family a compatibility requirement for devices running Android 4.0 and forward. If the device has Android Market it will have the Holo themes as they were originally designed.

This standardization goes for all of the public Holo widget styles as well. The Widget.Holo styles will be stable from device to device, safe for use as parent styles for incremental customizations within your app.

This should lead to a more uniform look and feel to Android going forward, something that I think most of us would agree is needed. While manufacturers tend to use their skins to differentiate, this will at least allow you, your mom and brother to all carry different phones, but to still pick up each others and know what the hell is going on.

And on a related note, the Android team also has made it clear that their new handling of themed items should allow for manufacturers to updates their devices much faster:

Formally separating these theme families will also make future merges easier for manufacturers updating to a new platform version, helping more devices update more quickly. Google’s Nexus devices alias DeviceDefault to the unmodified Holo themes.

So a more standardized Android look, plus faster updates from OEMs? I’m happy with that.

Via:  Android Developers

Android’s New Holo Theme Should Help Manufacturers Update Phones Faster, is a Requirement for Android Market Access is a post from: Droid Life