Nokia reborn: Nokia’s new Android launcher is wonderfully simple and shockingly innovative

On June 19th of this year, Nokia was reborn. The company that had been known for years as a cell phone pioneer had sold off its devices business, and the world was waiting to see what new paths Nokia might take. There are a few, as it turns out, but one of them saw the company release a surprisingly innovative newAndroid app this past summer, and it just got a big update that users will love.

Earlier this week, Nokia announced on its Z Launcher blog that the like-named app, which is the first stand-alone Android software Nokia has ever released, has been improved in several key areas. For those who did not see the original news, Nokia’s Z Launcher app is a nifty Android launcher that makes accessing the contacts you correspond with most frequently and your most commonly used apps a breeze.

Here are the full details of Nokia’s new Z Launcher update, as noted in the company’s blog post:

• Performance improvements
• Speed improvements across the board!
• Faster startup
• Faster loading of apps, contacts, and websites on the homescreen
• Faster first-run performance, especially on lower-end devices
• Design enhancements
• New animations
• Going to homescreen, launching apps (we are still working on these, please let us know what you think in feedback)
• Improved contacts search and listing in Z Launcher, more consistency in preserving your preferences across Z Launcher updates
• Improved web search results
• Improvements to “Call…” and “Text…” actions
• Collapsing contacts so one person won’t take up two spots on your Home screen (so you won’t see “Call John” and “Text John” at the same time)
• More reliable creation of “Call” and “Text” for the people you connect with the most
• Reducing accidental app launch if you scribble too quickly
• And many more bug fixes to improve the reliability of Z LauncherZ Launcher is currently in closed beta but those interested in trying it out as soon as possible can sign up here.

Google’s Material Design is about to change the way we look at the worldwide web

Home screens for Docs, Sheets, and Slides are officially here!

ven when you’re not connected to the Internet. 

Android L’s Material Design is not reserved only to the Android operating system or Google’s mobile apps, as the company wants to use the same design principles it formally unveiled at its I/O developers conference this year across the web. Furthermore, the company wants app developers to include the same Material Design elements in their own apps, and Google has so far showed what Material Design apps are supposed to look like. To further showcase Material Design, this time on a functional web page rather than by providing just concept images, Google has updated its Google Drive home pages (for Docs, Sheets and Slides) to Material Design.

Now when you visit www.google.com/docs,www.google.com/sheets, or www.google.com/slides, you'll find an easy way to get back to your most relevant and recently edited documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

And don't forget: you can quickly create something new with a click on the + button, edit Office files by installing the new Chrome extension (http://goo.gl/yHbngd), and once you enable offline editing, everything on your home screen is editable e