Posted by Elayne Checketts in Event Coverage
September 6, 2010
On Sunday I experienced my first ‘real’ hack day – the Music Hack Day London 2010 organised by Dave Haynes. I only managed to get there for the Sunday afternoon, but glad I did, I got there in time for the final demos – there was so much diversity between them, from large pianos through to accessible music for the disabled. Clearly the room was full of creativity, innovation, motivation, fun and enthusiasm.
O2Litmus were the main sponsor so I have been on the side lines of the organisation for the last few months and considering some of the hiccups that Dave and his crew went through; it looked like the weekend was superbly executed and a great success.
Posted by Tish Grier in Network Smarts, News
September 6, 2010
Happy Labor Day to all the U.S. developers out there! Hope you’re taking full advantage of the holiday!
Developers embracind Android, but significant hurdles remain Even with limited short-term revenue growth, and the fragmentation of devices, developers are reaching out to embrace Android. Why? Perhaps i’s the market potential…esp. in China and with the new iPad competitors. Not to mention that Gingerbread may not be the Android 3.0 everyone thought it might be.
Samsung Galaxy Tab Coming to O2 Germany in October, 27.50 EUR per month The first real condender to the iPad looks to be the Samsung Galaxy, and Germany will get it, along with this great installment plan that may make it affordable.
The Truth About Why Your Smartphone Battery Sucks Simon says “I blame manufacturers and their developers for shipping devices with software that doesn’t maximize usage of the constrained hardware.” In a word, bloatware…..but that’s not all…
“Hilo world”–presenting the Annotator! Annotator is the next application in Project Hilo….
iPhone 3G Speed Test: iOS 4.0 versus iOS 4.1 After watching this nifty little video, the only rational conclusion might be “meh!”
Posted by Tish Grier in News
September 3, 2010
Securing Android LVL Applications Did you know that there are a number of ways to customise Android’s LVL to protect your app? Check this post to find out more.
Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Indonesia to have 1.2 Billion Internet Users by 2015 A new report from The Boston Consulting Group finds that this group–among the world’s most populace countries–will continue to access the Internet primarily through mobile devices and Internet cafes. The report also finds that user habits differ in these countries than in the U.S. and Western Europe, with SMS, social networking, and gaming. From reading this highlight, it’s easy to see how apps directed at populations it these markets have the potential to be big money earners.
Alcatel-Lucent Buys Mobile App Devtool Vendor OpenPlug Alcatel-Lucent, seeking to become a middle-man between developers and service providers, believes owning OpenPlug will make cross-platform development easier, and apps to get to market quicker.
Is Flash on Android ‘Shockingly Bad” or “Shockingly Great?” GigaOm readers remain divided on the subject….and submit some videos to prove it.
Samsung Galaxy Tab Revealed: 7-Inch Tablet Plays Flash Video, Makes Calls Running Android, this tab device supports Adobe Flash 10.1 as well. But will the market for a 7-inch tablet with calling ability create enough consumer demand to further stimulate the Android app market’s growth?
Posted by Tish Grier in News
September 1, 2010
Smartphone Sales Soar in Brazil as Affordale Devices Reach More Consumers The availability of low-cost handsets reaching across all economic levels accounts for the 128% increase in smartphone sales in the first half of 2010 (compared with the same period in 2009.) The most popular feature among Brazilians: TV on their smarphones.
webOS 2 launches early access Hoping to get developers on board with the new version of webOS, Palm has launched an Early Access Program for developers. New great things in webOS 2 include stacked multitasking, identity aggregation, HTML 5 support, and “improvements to binary aggregation allowing JavaScript applications to call up routines written in a proper programming language such as C.”
Archos announces five Android tablets The devices will be released later this month, with more to come out in October. Screen sizes range from 2.8 to 10 inches. The initial five will run Android 2.2, and apps will be available through AppsLib, the Archos section of the Android Apps market. But will this be enough to satisfy consumers looking for something comparable to the iPad?
iPad to reign supreme until 2012 New research from iSuppli predicts that the iPad will reign supreme for at least another 1.5 years, despite the onslaught of new devices from all sorts of manufacturers. Other companies’ products may be hitting the market quickly but their software support and infrastructure probably won’t be able to match Apple’s strength.
Keith Lee’s location gaming firm Booyah launches InCrowd on the iPhone (video) InCrowd is the first app to make use of Facebook Places. (That’s all fine and dandy, but if consumers aren’t comfortable with revealing their locations, will a really good game be the thing tricks them into feeling more comfortable about it?) Check out what Lee has to say about apps, learning and his vision for social gaming on Facebook.
Posted by Tish Grier in News
August 31, 2010
Paid apps 70 percent of the App Store–and just a third of Android Market The Apple App Store is chock full of paid apps, with 629 new apps coming in daily. The average price: U.S. $2.6. But what about Android Market–where only 36% of the apps are paid apps? Is it the spirit of open source? Too many hobbyist app developers? Or something else?
Analyist: Microsoft will spen $400M to market Windows 7 Phone So, now we have a better idea how much Microsoft is putting into their make-or-break project.
RIM Averts BlackBerry Ban in India with 60-Day Securty Test RIM’s averted potential disaster by allowing India to test its monitoring solutions for 60 days. RIM’s working awfully hard to guarantee user privacy while allowing government snooping.
Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to be Located Apparently, the German government and German citizens are not the only ones who are concerned about using mobile handsets to gather citizens’ whereabouts. U.S. citizens, whom it is said are all too quick to give personal information on the Internet, are less inclined to give up their locations. Makes great sense to me!
Porn and pirates hide Android’s money maker It’s not just that Android developers aren’t making the same amount of money as iPhone app developers. Other factors impacting good Android apps are inferior, pirated apps and porn apps–creating major disappointment for Android developers. Google’s got to get with it and start making good developers happy or risk both developers and consumers bailing out.
Posted by Tish Grier in News
August 30, 2010
Qualcomm looking to hire ‘iPhone developer guru’ Qualcomm is looking for qualified candidates who are experienced in Agile software development, and who may have already developed an app or are experienced in game creation. Do you think you have what it takes and want to work for Qualcomm? Check out this post for more info.
An Analysis of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 relaunch Got something in development for Windows Phone 7? Take a look at this analysis by Ramon Llamas on a phone he finds that, unlike other smartphones, “bears no resemblance to its predecessors.” But is Microsoft putting too much money into the Windows Phone 7 launch?
China Mobile plans consumer BlackBerry push Research in Motion and China Mobile are planning a huge push of BlackBerries onto the consumer market over there. Will this make RIM handsets popular among China’s smartphone-hungry middle-class? I’m following that particular horse race closely!
Apple Parts Company With Design Partner Leave it to Apple to create some good drama: the iPhone maker has decided to sever ties with SurfaceInk, which they have worked with for more than a decade. It appears that SurfaceInk has developed its own prototype tablet device, and that does not sit easy with the Apple folks.
Cannibalize Business Development by Popularizing your API
Ever wonder why there are so many open APIs? Could be that it cuts down on marketing costs. But there’s a lot more to it than that, according to Shaival Shah.
