Mailbox gets a fresh coat of Material Design in latest update

Another popular app is getting a fresh coat of Material Design. This time it’s the Dropbox-owned email app, Mailbox. If you’ve never used Mailbox it’s the app that started the craze of snoozing emails. Many apps have adopted that feature, but Mailbox was one of the first to implement it, long before Google Inbox came around.

With this update you can expect the normal smattering of Material goodies. A new floating action button allows you to create new emails, the slide-out drawer is cleaner, and the Search button has been moved to the top bar. Mailbox is a really nice email app if you’re someone who struggles to get to “inbox zero.” It treats emails more like a to-do list, which forces you to take action or archive. Not everyone will like that approach, but it’s free and worth a shot.

What email app do you use on your phone?

Mailbox | Google Play Store

AllCast 2.0 brings a fresh Material design makeover [DOWNLOAD]

Even when you’re a developer as big as Koushik Dutta, getting your apps up to speed with Google’s Material design isn’t the easiest of tasks. Sometimes you need a little help and he got just that thanks to designer/fellow blogger Liam Spradlin who whipped up a fresh new Material look for AllCast in its new 2.0 update.

It’s not like AllCast was bad looking before, but this brings the app up to speed with Google’s Material guidelines. Small changes to the slide-out navigation menu can be found with slick new icons, along with the gallery view also receiving some love.

Without a doubt, AllCast is one of those must-have Android apps for Google’s Chromecast owners as it allows you to cast just about anything to the dongle. Whether it’s media stored on your device, or in the cloud, AllCast makes it all possible. The free version of the app caps video viewing at 5 minutes, but there’s also AllCast Premium which will run you .

AllCast (Playboard) | AllCast (Play Store)

Google Play Music gets fresh new Material Design makeover on the web

After watching as Google’s Material Design guidelines have crept its way into many of the search giant’s online services, today the Google Play Music website is getting a little bit of love. The UI now finally looks a little closer to the makeover the Android app received not too long ago with big high-res artist photos for backgrounds, circle photos on the artist page, and FAB.

The website also adds a handful of new keyboard shortcuts and even a handy popup player with easy access to your music queue. Apparently the new redesign was an attempt at making the web view feel more like an app. Google UX designer Bran Rea told The Verge:

“We’re moving towards making the web feel more like an app and less like a series of web pages strung together by links. The new header, the slick transition as you scroll, the collapsible nav, new animations, these all feel like things you expect in an app not on the web.

For the increased focus on big, immersive artwork, when you’re listening to music, you can get lost in it (in a good way). With the new album and playlist pages, you enter an immersive world focused on the music you’re enjoying.”

We know it’s not specifically Android related, but given that Google Play Music is such a popular music streaming service for Android faithful, we figured it was worth a shout out. If you don’t see the changes yet on your side of the world, don’t worry. It’s a gradual rollout and you should be seeing it in the coming days.