Android design guidelines - a quick overview of Android L and Material Design

As we move ever closer to the official release of Android L, more and more developers are updating their apps with Material Design. Material Design is the name given to Google's latest design principles, which you will see in full force not only in Android L, but across most platforms, at least for Google's apps and services.

We've talked about this before, especially when Google opened their Google I/O app and code for all to use as a development reference.

Google improves your security, adds SSL to Chrome Extensions

Google has improved security but ensuring your connection from your Android device all the way to the browser on your computer is secured using normal HTTPS connections. Specifically, Google has added TLS/SSL to their chrome.sockets API.

You may be wondering if all Chrome extensions are secure or not, and for the most part, I think you will find that they are. Standard websockets have been in play for years, and they are fully SSL compliant. This news simply provides developers an alternative, Google-built for Google-products, tool to secure Chrome extensions.

Developers: Google updated the I/O 2014 app with Material Design and you can have the source code

Instead of allowing the Google I/O 2014 app to go to waste now that the conference is over, Google has updated the app with full Material Design and Android L, and you can now download the full source code and use it as sample code for your own development.

This is great for developers that perhaps are new to Android, or just do not have a natural knack for design. Material Design, like it or not, is a very fluid and consistent experience that is meant to span your entire application, and, indeed, the entire Android operating system. I took a quick look at last month, and I must say, I think I like it.