Older blog entries for lucasr (starting at number 260)

Nexus 7

I don’t usually blog about my new gadgets. But sometimes the gadget is so good that is worth doing so. It happened before when I got my Kindle 3 and now the same happened with the Nexus 7. There are plenty of Nexus 7 reviews out there. I just want to share some personal highlights.

Size and ergonomics. I never felt inclined to buy a 10″ tablet. It might work well as a couch device at home but it’s just too big to carry with me to use on the go. So, iPad, Touchpad, Galaxy 10.1, and others were never really an option for me. Furthermore, the current smaller tablet offerings (7″ or 8″) based on Android are just too crappy to even consider.

The Nexus 7 is small enough to carry with me all the time and has the right ergonomics (dimensions, shape, bezel, weight) to use with one and two hands wherever I am (lying on a couch, standing in the train, holding my new born son at 2am, etc). The size is also perfect for casual gaming—something that I had stopped doing for a while. I strongly recommend watching this interview with Matias Duarte in which he explains the rationale behind Nexus 7′s industrial design.

Performance.  The Nexus 7 has chunky specs for the price. Gosh, this is a quad-core Tegra 3 tablet for £199! The combination of performant hardware with the smoothness on Jelly Bean really improves the UX on the device. There’s virtually zero lag on anything you interact with or do in it. Ah, and battery life is great too.

Android. ICS was the first release that I felt like the whole Android thing could actually become something cool. Jelly Bean is yet another big step in the right direction. It brings tweaks to the task switching and launching flow that make a subtle but big difference. As a result, Jelly Bean is the very first Android release that I’m actually enjoying—even with all the little things I still don’t like about it.

The Nexus 7 is a great product due to a combination of factors. It’s a nice piece of hardware for an amazing price that ships the first Android release that you can feel good about. No, Android is not perfect, Google still has work to do to make it amazing. But, for now, Nexus 7 is here and is awesome—Firefox (Beta) and Pattrn run beautifully on it, by the way :-)

Syndicated 2012-08-01 15:05:53 from lucasr.org

Pattrn on Tablets

Yes, that’s right! I’ve just pushed an update featuring a brand new tablet-optimized UI for Pattrn. The tablet UI is designed to give you quick access to all your stuff—favourites, wallpaper history, and saved searches—from a simple and beautiful home screen—works beautifully on the Nexus 7 by the way. This update also features landscape mode on the phone UI.

This is by far the most exciting Pattrn release to date. Big thanks to Arnaud Vallat, Jake Wharton, Michael Novak, and Roman Nurik for giving early feedback on this release.

Love Pattrn? Tell your friends and followers about it and don’t forget to give a 5-star review on Google Play. What are you waiting for? Download and install the best wallpaper app for Android tablets now!

Syndicated 2012-07-24 14:28:04 from lucasr.org

One Year at Mozilla

Team Firefox 2012 by Rob Campbell (CC-BY)

I started at Mozilla on this same date last year. It was a Wednesday and I was a bit scared. Fast forward 365 days and here I am completing my first year in the company! Wow, time really flies! I’ve already written about my experience in the first 238 days at Mozilla and the same points still apply. Maybe it’s a good time to make a quick summary of what I’ve worked on in my first year.

I was lucky to join Mozilla at the time the mobile front-end team was about to start working on the then-new XUL-based tablet UI. I implemented central parts of the UI such as the tabs side-pane and important pieces of the browser toolbar—besides the usual bug fixes. It was a nice way to get more familiar with XUL-based development. I also implemented things like HTML5 form validation front-end in XUL Fennec in the same period.

Around September last year, I volunteered to be Firefox Mobile’s community steward. The first thing I did was to create an official Get Involved page and compile a list of good first bugs for new contributors. The response has been pretty good and I do want to dedicate a bit more time for contributor engagement in the near future.

Then in October, the Firefox Mobile team got together in Toronto to start working on the new native UI. On this front, I drove the development of core parts of the new UX including the AwesomeBar screen and the new start page. Furthermore, I led the implementation of important back-end components such as the Places database for Android (and respective test infrastructure) and the Remote Debugger support. As you probably know, I’m now working on Reader Mode.

Some quick stats: I joined Mozilla 365 days ago. Since then, I pushed 280 changesets, changed ~12,578 lines of code, fixed 150 bugs, gave 3 talks, travelled to 5 countries, and had a lot of fun. For my next year at Mozilla, I want to focus on bootstrapping more exciting features that differentiate Firefox Mobile from competitors—Reader Mode being the first of them.

I have no doubts that my next year at Mozilla will be filled with even more awesomeness!

Syndicated 2012-07-20 11:14:09 from lucasr.org

The You tab in Pattrn

I’ve just pushed a new Pattrn update with an exciting new feature: the You tab. It replaces the Favorites tab in the home screen with a simple dashboard that gives you direct access to all your stuff.

In addition to your favorite patterns, the You tab offers easy access to all patterns you’ve used as wallpaper and your saved searches. You can add saved searches to the You tab by using the ★ button in the search results screen. Saved searches are a nice way to keep a dynamic list of patterns by keyword or color.

This new update is also an important milestone in terms of getting the necessary infrastructure to build the tablet UI for Pattrn. Stay tuned!

Syndicated 2012-07-09 20:49:14 from lucasr.org

New Firefox for Android released!

Finally! It’s been 8 months of hard work from an amazing team! I’ve written about the new Firefox for Android before when we entered Beta stage. Yes, it’s whole different beast than any previous version: it starts instantaneously, uses much less memory, renders pages much faster, panning and zooming are super smooth, and features a brand new UI.

And this is just the beginning! There’s a lot of stuff coming very soon in the next releases: new tablet UI, new tabs pane, text selection, find in page, Android bookmarks/history import, search suggestions, reader mode, tons of bug fixes, and much more. If you’re feeling adventurous and can’t wait to try the upcoming features, you can see them in action in the Nightly build.

I couldn’t be more proud for being part of this team! You can download the new Firefox for Android now. Trust me, you’ll find many reasons to love it.

Syndicated 2012-06-26 15:25:10 from lucasr.org

Infinite patterns in Pattrn

Many users have been requesting the ability to see more patterns in Pattrn. So far, the list of latest, most popular, and search results have been limited to 50 patterns. Not anymore! In the latest update—now available on Google Play Store—all pattern lists are infinite and will load more patterns on demand as you scroll down.

This new update also features an important performance improvement on the lists. Pattrn now pre-fetches patterns beyond the visible viewport to bring an even smoother experience—hopefully you’ll see less grey boxes. This is a work in progress, more improvements are planned.

In case you missed, you can now follow the latest news about Pattrn on Twitter and Google+. Enjoy!

Syndicated 2012-06-25 13:21:15 from lucasr.org

Reader Mode in Firefox Mobile

It all started at the Firefox Work Week in Toronto back in April. I managed to find some time during that rather busy week to build a rough prototype of Firefox Mobile’s Reader Mode. I’ve been able to focus on it in the last few weeks and it’s now in good enough shape for wider testing.

Reader Mode is about bringing a smooth and beautiful reading experience to Firefox Mobile. It removes all the clutter from web pages and shows you only what you want to read in a minimalist UI. Here are a few things I’d like to highlight about it.

Read now or later. If the current page is convertible to Reader Mode, you’ll see the reader icon in the browser toolbar (see image above). If you tap on it, the current page will be loaded in the Reader straight away. You can also add it to your Reading List to read it later using the corresponding app menu item.

AwesomeBar integration. Your Reading List items will show up in the AwesomeBar results—just like any bookmark or history item—making it super easy to find specific items. The Reading List items will have a little reader indicator (see image above). The Reading List shows up as a top-level folder in AwesomeBar’s Bookmarks tab, if you want to see the full list of items.

Read your way. The Reader UI is minimal but very configurable. You can set the color scheme (light, dark, and sepia), font size and margins the way you want through a simple set of controls (see image above). We might be adding more options like a toggle to show/hide images in the text.

Read any time. Once you add a page to your Reading List, it will be automatically made available offline so that you don’t need an internet connection to access your Reading List on the go.

Read anywhere. Your Reading List will be synced across all platforms where you use Firefox. This means you’ll be able to add a Reading List item in your Firefox on desktop and read it on the go from your phone using Firefox Mobile. This is not implemented yet as we need to have Reader Mode in desktop Firefox before we can enable Reading List syncing there. So, at least for the initial release, the Reader will only be available on mobile.

Firefox Mobile’s Reader Mode is similar to existing reader apps. But, as you can see, the real difference here is that it is deeply integrated in the browser, where you usually read stuff anyway. As far as I know, Firefox is the first mobile browser on Android to provide this feature.

Reader Mode is now enabled in the Nightly builds of Firefox for Android. It’s still a very early development version so expect bugs. Help with testing and feedback is very welcome. Download the Nightly and try it now!

Syndicated 2012-06-21 13:32:33 from lucasr.org

Discover patterns by color in Pattrn

One of the core goals of Pattrn is to allow users to discover new patterns at any time. As you know, Pattrn can automatically set your Android’s wallpaper every day with the patterns of your choice. This is a great way to give your Android a fresh new look and to discover new patterns—especially if you’re using random pattern wallpapers!

Pattrn shows you the colours used in each pattern inside the extended information pane that expands and collapses when you tap the screen. The latest release has a new fun way to discover new patterns: click on a specific colour and you’ll be able to search for other patterns using the same colour (see image above).

Also new in this update is the “View on Web” option which takes you straight to the respective pattern page at COLOURlovers.com. Enjoy!

Syndicated 2012-06-04 15:42:43 from lucasr.org

Get a new wallpaper every day with Pattrn

Things are going pretty well for Pattrn. In just 22 days, it has got almost 600 downloads, got featured in two Android app design blogs,  and got mostly 5-star ratings on Google Play. Not bad! Since its initial release, Pattrn got the ability to save patterns to your Android gallery, a few UI improvements, and some nice performance and stability fixes.

Based on your feedback, I have now pushed an update with a new little feature: automatic wallpaper updates. You can now tell Pattrn to automatically set your Android’s wallpaper every day or every week with your favourite or most popular patterns. Feeling adventurous? You can also set Pattrn to use a completely random pattern as your wallpaper.

Once you update Pattrn on your device and run it for the first time, you’ll be prompted to setup the automatic wallpaper updates. Don’t worry, you can change those options at any time in the Settings screen—accessible via the app menu.

Be inspired by a new COLOURlovers pattern every day! Download Pattrn now on Google Play!

Syndicated 2012-05-28 12:43:11 from lucasr.org

Native Firefox for Android Beta

At this point, you have probably heard the news. Yes, we’ve release the first public Beta of Firefox for Android with all the goodness that we’ve been working on in the last 7 months: the brand new native UI that is lighter, faster, and sleeker. Here are some big picture highlights about this Beta.

Design direction. The new native UI design is part of a wider effort in Mozilla to streamline the visual identity of Firefox across multiple platforms—desktop and mobile. Firefox should feel like one consistent product everywhere. Have a look at Madhava’s slide deck for more information on what the Firefox design team has been up to lately.

Keep in mind that this first native UI release is just the first of many iterations. For instance, there’s a lot of interesting changes coming up as part of our work on the native tablet UI that will eventually trickle down to the phone UI as well.

Panning and zooming. If you’re using the Beta already (or have been using the Nightly or Aurora builds) you’ll notice how smoother panning and zooming are. This is because the Beta features a major revamp on the graphics and rendering infrastructure using tiled rendering and an off-main-thread layer compositor. I recommend reading Benoit Girard‘s and Chris Lord‘s blog posts for further details. It’s worth mentioning that the Mobile Platform and Graphics teams did an amazing work to implement all this in a rather short period!

Places and Sync. The Places database has been re-implemented in Firefox for Android as a private Content Provider for two reasons. First of all, it gives instant access to history and bookmarks even before Gecko is up i.e. much faster startup experience. Secondly, it allows the new native Firefox Sync—which is now nicely integrated with the system’s sync UI—to access your browsing history and bookmarks even when Firefox is not running.

We’ve already started working on new features for the following releases including the native UI for Firefox on Android tablets and a reader mode. As you can see, the upcoming Firefox for Android is a whole new beast. We are working hard to make it the best mobile browser out there. You can help us now testing the Beta as part of our Mobile Test Drivers Program!

With the native UI, we’re creating a new baseline for innovation on Firefox Mobile. And it will only get better from now on. What are you waiting for? Download the Firefox for Android Beta now!

Syndicated 2012-05-21 16:50:27 from lucasr.org

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