Nexus 7: Settings and menu issues

In my last post, I talked about the network options on Nexus 7 tablet, and mentioned that there is not data service or option of "internet pass through".

Now if you open Play Books application, click the menu at the upper right corner of the display, you would see "Settings" option, which means it is a "Setting" option you can use to set Play Books.

Now when you open the "Settings" option, you would see
a. Auto-rotate screen, under which it says "Use system setting", and you can not change it, and if you want to change it, you would need to go to the "system setting".

b. Download over Wi-Fi only, under which it says "To reduce carrier data charges, don't download over mobile networks", and you can check on or off the box on the right side. Because the current version of Nexus 7 is Wi-Fi only, there is not feature of network data service, so this option item is meaningless, no matter you check it on or off, you would be always downloading data over Wi-Fi.

c. Automatically read aloud, under which it says "Automatically read aloud when application starts if accessibility is set", and there is a check box on the right side.

So basically, only item c need to be listed on this view, and allow user to choose, item a and b should be invisible and hidden.


Oh, there is other issue when you compare the menu of Play Book and menu of Play Magazines.

On the menu of Play Books, there are the following option items:
a1. Make available offline
b1. View as list (or View as carousel)
c1. Refresh
d1. Accounts
e1. Settings
f1. Help.

On the menu of Play Magazines,
a2. View by title (or View recent)
b2. Show archived magazines
c2. Manage subscriptions
d2. Refresh
e2. Settings
f2. Help

It is very obvious that the order of the items is not the same.
At least, the last 3 menu items in Play Books would be

Refresh
Settings
Help

and the first two items would be

View as list
Make available office

which would make it a little bit better.

And for Play Magazines, in "Settings", there is an item "Account",
which has similar function of "Manage subscription".

Looks like "Play Books" and "Play Magazines" are designed by two teams/designers,
and developed by two separate teams also. Otherwise, this kind of issue would not happen in the these two products.

If you look at other apps, such as Play Movies, Music, YouTube, they have similar issues on the menu.