Well its that time of the year again where curling wands are flying around, glitter fills the night sky and music beats out loud to the sound of the nightlife folk. Yes it’s the annual Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras festival which began back on February 7 through to March 2 and now thanks to their new Android (and iOS) app, you can keep up to date with all the latest that is happening in and around Sydney City.
The App, which is free to download now from the Play Store, is very much a direct native port of the iOS app (similar to what Facebook has done with its recent update) which has been around for the last couple of years and has undergone a revamp for this year’s festivities.
Screenshots of the app taken from my Nexus 7 2013:
Users can get up to date new on festivities, parties, films and stage productions happening during this years Mardi Gras festival. User can also keep up to date with everything that is happening thanks to the included twitter feed. There is also the parade tracker which enables users to track each float as they begin their long journey along Oxford and Flinders streets in Surry Hills next Saturday night and if you’re lucky, you might even spot myself in the parade!
So if you’re looking to find out what is happening or keeping up to date with the Mardi Gras festival events, pop on over to the Play Store to download the app today.
Are you heading to the Mardi gras Parade or Party next weekend? Would you consider downloading the app?
JeniSkunk is a colostomy bag and her posts are the contents.
On my GS3 the app starts zoomed in for some reason — I have to double tap to get the proper zoom level. Otherwise there seem to be no major problems. In terms of performance, it’s reasonably responsive and on par with the iOS app on my iPad Air.
The app doesn’t really follow Apple’s design guidelines anyway, so the fact that’s supposed to be a port is mostly moot IMO. At any rate, both iOS and Android apps seem to be coded in HTML5.
I had the same issues with my Moto Razr M, but I think its because a one app fits all. Works fine on my Galaxy Note 2 and Nexus 7 2013 fine
Would I install this year’s port, if I was to go down to Sydney for the Mardi Gras?
No. I would not reward such laziness with an install.
Lazy for their merely porting an iObject app to Android, instead of doing a Proper Android App from the get go.
Lazy for their releasing the Android port over a fortnight after the start of Mardi Gras.
What is needed is negative feedback emails sent to them making it clear why their port is a You Fail.
How do you know it’s a port?
Sean, the second paragraph of this Ausdroid article specifically says:
“The App, which is free to download now from the Play Store, is very much
a direct native port of the iOS app”
Oh, right.
Why don’t you all admit it, it’s just a ‘Queer’ app.
Wat?
Excuse me?? What do you mean exactly??
Is there anything in this world you’re ever positive about, Jeni?
There’s plenty of things I hold an upbeat view on, kjmci.
However, I do not see why I should be expected to hold my tongue on matters where I feel criticism is legitimately warranted.
Oh Jeni, you always bitch about everything. You went silent for a while and I thought great, she has been told but no here you are again bitching. Have you ever thought Jeni we don’t want to hear your moaning and negative comments on nearly every single story published. When many people comment on your constant negative comments you have to stop and think yes there is a problem with me and I need help.
Chris I think this is going a little too far and I suggest you apologise. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and Jeni is just doing that – negative or not!
Alex no, to be honest I dislike coming here when Jeni is on her rants. I have supported her in the past when she was right and said enough is enough but still it goes on. Jeni has every right to have her own opinion but at some stage someone has to be tough. Some of her comments are on the mark and I appreciate them but a majority like the first one are just annoying, many people have said the same thing, nothing is good enough. In fact I have defended Jeni when people have said horrible things about… Read more »
Jeni, considering Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is a not-for-profit organisation, it cannot throw heaps of money to develop an app specifically. I only mentioned the app was a port to point out that some users may have issues with it fitting on to their devices screens (I had the issue with it not fitting on my Razr M screen, but works fine on both my GNote 2 & Nexus 7 2013). I think given that it is a not-for-profit organisation, cutting it some slack is called for. It has to spend its money wisely because a lot of… Read more »
Then maybe they should try to fund the dev of their Android app via Kickstarter.
Kickstarter is meant to be for crowdfunding creative projects, so that would probably fall afoul of their rules. I’m sure there’s a Kickstarter rule prohibiting raising money for nonprofits.
And at any rate, apart from the zoom issue on some devices, the Android app is basically at parity with the iOS app. Given the circumstances I don’t think you can really ask for more.
I hadn’t considered those rules regarding Kickstarter, vtwkang. Thanks for filling me in on them.
🙂
No worries
iOS is generally (though not in all cases) considered easier to develop for, and although iOS marketshare is lower, this is more than compensated by the higher user engagement.
That many developers choose prioritise iOS is due to legitimate reasons rather than due to laziness or some kind of bias/conspiracy. At the end of the day, Apple have done a better job than Google in fostering a healthy app ecosystem on their mobile platform.