Some details about Gingerbread's UI changes

By Jerry Hildenbrand
published

We're hearing over and over that Gingerbread will bring some UI changes to Android, but not a lot of details just yet.  We've seen some hints of the new interface changes courtesy of Google HK, and now we get to see some of the actual code changes thanks to a couple of Googlers and the UI tips and tricks lecture they gave at the San Francisco Android User Group.

The change we will notice first is the fix for color banding in image gradients.  All bitmaps are now in true 32 bit color with their own transparent Alpha channel, and that's going to take care of the color banding issues we see in some pictures today, and jumping straight to true 32-bit color helps plan for the future as well.  For all you imaging geeks (I know you're out there) be sure to download and check out the full set of slides from Romain Guy's website to see the other big changes coming with drawing, animation, and rendering.  [SFAndroid.org via theDroids and Romain Guy]

Jerry Hildenbrand
Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.

7 Comments
  • That is some serious geek talk.
  • Jerry I love the knowledgeyou bring to this site. Oh and Phil is pretty smart to I guess.
  • No more colour banding? EXCELLENT.
  • Make sure the 3G/1X/3G dance has more rhythm this build.
  • This is a big deal to me. Full 32-bit color on the desktop now? THIS makes me want gingerbread.
  • The slides seem more like programming 101 stuff, (ok, maybe 302) directed at efficiency and writing tight code (something sadly lacking in today's programming world). Any hints at the Gingerbread interface are tangential at best, and pretty much opaque as far as users are concerned.
  • I'm all for nice rendering. It's not the big enhancement/improvement I was expecting, but I guess it's a good start. I guess this will really just be a relatively minor update.