To start with I will focus on the web view as it stands out in the update list. Previously Pulse News had the ‘Open in Browser’ option to read the posts/articles fully. With this update, that option still remains but another super option has been added to the app known as web view navigation.

Enhanced Web Viewing

Now web view is not something that has suddenly emerged in the past few months. Last week I posted about Readability which had this web view by default. But I don’t think any other good news aggregator app has the web view navigation. So at the out-set Pulse developers deserve a thumbs up.

To see an article in web view you need to click on the title of the post where you’ll see a small link icon. Default navigation functions like back, forward, reload, etc are placed at the top of the screen. Share list, Send to app, zoom in/out are the other buttons will occupy the screen space in the web view.

P.S: Ignore the icon over-lap in the web view screenshot. I’m working on the whole thing.

Social Sharing plus Send to Apps

To be honest, I’m more impressed with this share update as compared to the web view introduction. Previously Pulse News had a common sharing button which included Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and all the other installed apps. In this update the main social networks are separated and all the other apps (like Twicca for Twitter, Buffer, Messenger, etc.) are clubbed into another sharing list named as Send to Apps.

The share icon is linked to the social sharing list whereas the envelope (or mail) icon is linked to the Send to Apps list. Now, the selection of the Send to Apps list icon is quite weird. When I updated Pulse and checked it, I thought the envelope icon would act like as the ‘Send to Mail’ function.

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 So would you give a ‘thumbs up’ to this update or not ?

This article (Pulse News Update Enhances Web View & Adds the ‘Send to Apps’ Button) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

Today Readability released a major update (ver. 1.0.1) which brings back the default share function & the phone’s menu button. The default search button will also work from now on for searching within Readability. However javascript error in the web view still remains unfixed.

If you take a closer look at the ratings & review Readability has received on the Android play store, you’ll find that most people have disliked the iPhone-like slide settings.

Also the app has managed to grab a user base of 10,000 – 50,000 and in most of the reviews, I found that people have liked the UI very much.

Obviously when a new app arrives in the market, people tend to review it differently and we should be fair to the app developers in this case. So update Readability to ver 1.0.1 or download it from the link below.

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Don’t you think Readability has been proactive in fixing the issues quickly ?

This article (Readability Update Fixes the Share Function & Hardware Menu Button) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.

Note that if you are in India then you’ll not be able to see the new menu as Google Maps Navigation is not available here. So you’ll be redirected to the Direction section. I guess only US & Canada are the countries where Google has decided to Beta test this feature.

But we do get a glimpse of the new menu UI just before the app redirects back to the Google maps section. To capture a screenshot I turned off my GPS & Wireless satellite settings and navigated to the Google Maps Navigation section.

Once the settings are turned off you’ll be asked to turn it on again, at that moment you need to tap the ok button and return to the navigation page with the back key. At that point of time, you’ll be able to see the new menu in an inactive closed state. Below is the screenshot of  the actual menu UI (in active state).

[Image Credit]

The Navigation menu looks cleaner and simpler with this update. Just to clarify the version of Google Maps app varies depending on the phone brand and model. So if you’ve an old Android phone then you’ll not get the 6.4.0 version as of now.

You can go to Google Play on your phone and update the app or use this link.

What do you make of this update ? Will the Google Maps (main) menu UI will also change ??

This article (Google Maps Navigation updated with a new Menu UI in version 6.4.0) was published by Mani Viswanathan on AndroidGram - Android News, Tutorials & Tricks.