Hot Topics for Google I/O 2013

Another great event for Android developers, web development enthusiasts, and those looking forward to juicy Google news has come —annual Google I/O, which is held May 15-17 in San Francisco. There has already been a lot of fuss about the event as people as usual expect Google to show some latest developments both in software and hardware sectors.

Key Lime Pie is going to be announced; at least Android latest iteration, which is to start from K is rumored to have that odd name. In comparison to its early versions Android is a mobile platform that is neither a toddler, nor a child any more. It provides both welcoming functionality and steady and qualitative performance rates. However, there is still room to develop and grow. Apart from some trivial things like a longer battery life and several productivity increasing issues, the rumors keep going about improving Google Now, oiling Project Butter and some other staff, which should provide a bit of room for Google Glass that we are hoping to get in 2014. However, that’s not all we are expecting from the event in San Francisco. Google iterations keep on being released each year. So, just another one coming is quite a predictable piece of news.

Most users are eagerly anticipating the event to learn the very truth about Nexus. Is it going to be released? If yes, what Nexus will it be? The same opinion is shared by those who are looking forward to new portables from Motorola. In one of his interviews Larry Page did spill some news on what ideal phones should be like — a better battery and higher durability, faster and easier. All that is what millions of phone holders have been craving for so long and Motorola has a chance to implement all those dreams in an armored never-dying gadget. At least, let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Yet, another thing to think over during Google I/O  is Google TV. Google has been keeping silent on the topic for quite a while.  The market niche already seems to be overcrowded — Apple TV, Roku, Kinect. They all want a piece or several pieces of the pie at the same time providing better services than Google can offer. However, Google is not known for breaking promises or giving up intentions so this year we are anticipating some hot fights at the market.

In general, this year Google has been quite tight-lipped. So, we can expect there’s something up its sleeve, the proverbial rabbit from a hat. The audience is already thrilled and awed. Beware! Too many emotions can be harmful for people’s hearts!

Apple Goes in For Social Networking, Again

Social networking has been booming for about 5 years. At first it used to be just a stylish trend, later — an absolute must to have an account at some of the top-notch social networks like Facebook or Twitter.  Now it is an ordinary media channel with hardly anything new about it. Marketers are aware of it and target them in their campaigns, web app developers  and development companies make sure to integrate social networking features in all the web projects they are engaged in. Users just take for granted that mixture of a personal psychiatrist and Speaker’s Corner to share their views on virtually any subject.

Apple’s Initiative in Social Networking Domain
Despite being a success in almost any field the Apple company is engaged in and turning into gold virtually anything it promotes, there are still areas where Apple’s position seems doubtful and uncertain. Social networking is surely one of such activities. Ping turned out to be a rather painful failure, which gives ground to note that the company’s specialists have a rather vague idea what users need to have in that social channel.

SN Integration – Way to Stay on the Edge
Aware of that the company is paying more attention to deeper integration of apps meant for Apple portables with those networks that definitely know what a user seeks in the social field: Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. Though, some people doubt it to be the end of Apple’s ambitious plans to be the One in all activities it is engaged in. Is Apple plotting anything behind the scene and preparing to unveil it once it is firmly supported by a range of legally valid patents?

Plans and Plots for Future?
Most would agree that it would be quite Apple-like to keep a low profile, developing a new functionality and preparing for an assault without any haste. That would remain just a web buzz if not for the latest news that Apple gained a patent last week meant to cover certain functionality to efficiently manage data in social networks and optimize friend searching mechanisms. Moreover, iOS apps development specialists are said to pay special attention to spammers and stalkers protecting users from high-volume messages which they regard as suspicious.
So, there are grounds to hope that Apple will hit the market with the superb product as it often does. The only thing which blackens the picture is that it might provide reasons for another surge of patent scandals that the company is that notorious about.

Something for Java Developers

While common users are still preoccupied with security issues and threats that Java usage can expose them to, Oracle and Java developers are more interested in tools, which ensure their joining the crowd of iOS developers.
Despite the renowned Apple’s ban to run Java apps and applets on iOS devices, there has always been a range of tools which helped port Java applications to the iOS gadgets.  The list of such tools, which include third-party open source frameworks as well as Oracle’s ADF (Application Development Framework) Mobile, has been expanded by another Oracle release.
Google offers open source J2ObjC translator for Java code to be translated into Objective-C source code, which Apple desires to see on its devices.
Other services which allow Java developers to see their masterpieces on Apple devices are Codename One and Vaadin. Codename uses cloud services for building apps for an Apple device, while Java development and debugging takes place locally. Vaadin is at hand to build apps for the iPad, mainly web apps to be precise. Although the functionality of the service might seem a bit limited, it was quite handy at the launch of the iPad when everybody was crazy about having an app on the device. That array of tools more or less filled the gap and allowed Java developers to join the development whirlpool for Apple mobile devices.
However, the time has come for Oracle to care for its followers once again. New Java Native Interface Proposal was created last month and meant to modify the JDK and provide Java developers with a possibility to pack a Java runtime, native application code, and Java application code without shared libraries. Many Java experts view the release as a kind of an advantage, which will expand Java developers’ abilities within the iOS environment though at the expense of some prior releases such as Java Micro Edition.
The new advances prove that despite security breaches of which Oracle was blamed just a month ago, the company is determined to guarantee its Java developers a comfortable place in the iOS development community. Apple, though not particularly happy with Java apps on its portable devices, so far kept silent on the issue.

The Best Way To Develop Mobile Apps Is Not To Develop Mobile Apps

Gadgets to Perform its Primary Role - Serve as Tools

The mobile development is thriving, new apps appear daily. Some are nice and even fabulous, while others add to the pile of useless garbage at app repositories and users’ gadgets. The most prudent iPhone app development experts and Android app developer companies, though satisfied with the present success are casting a cautious look in the future trying to predict the plausible trends in the field and tendencies at the market. Some seers are more experienced than others as, for example, Gartner, one of the leading research agencies, is. Not long ago it issued a report on the future of mobile application development.

The essence of the report can be described in the following way: the best way to develop mobile apps is not to develop mobile apps. At first glance the assumption may seem quite provocative and devoid of any sense. However, nowadays distinctions between different kinds of apps do become rather vague and uncertain proclaiming the new way of mobile and web app development.

The UI seems to be the subject of the greatest alterations, shifting the app from the focus of a user’s attention to its periphery, making it just a provider of a useful function. The main intention of a developer in 3-5 years will be not to provide an app which fully engages users but to deliver the one which mostly serves not entertains. Poor advertisers! Thus, other modes of input, for example, a voice one, will be given a green light, while multiple modes of input as well as an automatic shift between them will be a serious advantage.

Wearables and connectables are also given some attention. So, people seem to turn into living batteries of their favorite gadgets powering them when jogging in the evening, for example. The battery life issue will be solved but it seems terrifyingly close to the Matrix.

Another thing which is worth mentioning is a form-factor. The authors of the report definitely find it disgusting holding the 4-inch device up by the side of the face. They like something refined and tasty, like glasses reflecting all the output data, processed somewhere else in the pocket or case. The idea may seem too innovative but most prototypes of similar devices are already in testing and in 3-4 years they will be definitely ready to hit the market like the iPhone once did.

No doubts, developers will have to adjust to users’ habits. However, we all know that advertising is a most powerful engine. It can promote any device and make it a vital necessity for billions of users all over the world irrelevant of their likes and dislikes.

Smartphones: Who Shovers The Market

The premier global market intelligence firm IDC issued its latest report on the mobile market shares, and hot talks “what the best smartphone gadget ever is” and “where the mobile development crowd is heading to”are on the rise again. The reality is as follows: Samsung, Apple, Nokia, HTC and RIM are still in the Top 5 of 2012, while in the last quarter results Huawei and ZTE elbowed their less successful competitors from the upper positions and settled there quite comfortably together with Samsung and Apple. There’s, in fact, nothing to be surprised about as both companies operate at the low-cost devices segment and are mainly focused on China, which is a market quite hard to saturate.

The data provided by the respectful IT research agency, however, gives way to a number of rather interesting observations. Firstly, in general, the sales volume is on the rise these days. However, previous IDC’s predictions used to be a bit more optimistic relying severely on the Holiday Fever at the end of the year. The figures show, though, that most people decided to choose a cheaper feature phone rather than a branded smartphone, which is quite unsurprising in the hard times of the crisis. So, despite the fact that a smartphone is the best present ever, some people prefer to keep their money in their pockets.

Secondly, although there has been much said about Blackberry’s inability to return to the Big Smartphone Game and its complete failure in the competition battle, smartphone users are still fond of the company’s gadget and keep its sales high. That’s quite a sign for mobile application development companies, and Blackberry developers in particular. The latter should think twice before giving up this market especially taking into account the re-invented and re-engineered BlackBerry Experience.

Thirdly, even though iPhone and Android app development specialists can sleep soundly as Apple’s share of the smartphone pie is solid and stable and Samsung’s one is increasing there emerges a rather worrying tendency: low-cost gadgets from ZTE and Huawei are coming in just terrifying volumes. It’s no use arguing the very concept of the free market: “where there is demand there will be supply”. However, isn’t that spoiling the very idea of what the gadget should look like, propelled by the late Mr. Jobs, and supported by millions of Apple fans and iPhone app developers community all over the world just several years ago?

IBM released social business applications for tablets

Tablet computers are being used more and more by employees of various companies as a functional working tool. Software development companies try to keep up with the modern tendencies and offer new mobile applications that let use iPads and other modern devices for collective work, social interactions in the real time mode and business communication. The new products can boast of high productivity and compact sizes and allow users of portable devices to get a safe access to corporate communication platforms.

Some business applications will provide a mobile access to the corporate database, while another application, named LotusLive Meeting, will allow the users of modern smartphones and tablets (including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and iPad) to take part in meetings, carried out in the global network.

For example, the IBM Corporation has announced a special business application. Thanks to the mobile client for the IBM Sametime platform, employees can exchange direct text messages in the mode of personal or group chat, while another application – Unified Telephony – can be used for making telephone calls. The optimized version of the product Lotus Symphony Viewer will provide a possibility to view office documents in the ODF format (including text files, tables and presentations) on the screen of the device.

The new applications are distributed for free among the owners of licensed copies of the IBM products. In the nearest future business software development will become more and more popular and the announced programs will be available in the official app stores, such as the Apple App Store and the Android Market.

Software For Developing Pluggable Mobile Java Games

SNAP Mobile has informed about the release of a new library for software developers (SDK 2.0) for mobile games.

The new SDK, having a simpler API, thanks to more effective emulation and testing tools, provide mobile application development specialists all the possibilities for creating plug-in mobile games for a wide range of Nokia telephones and smartphones as well as smartphones from other producers which correspond to the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) 2.0 and Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) 1.1. standards.

Top 10 Most Welcomed IT Professions 2012

Despite the doubts in stability of the American economy in 2012, the research has showed that American companies are going to expand their IT staff. Analytics have found out what IT professions will be called for. The results of the annual research organized by Computerworld showed that 29% out of 353 IT-executive managers are planning to increase the number of their departments by the summer 2012.

‘The demand for IT-specialists in companies of all types and sizes is constantly growing’, says Mike McBrierty, the executive director of one of the biggest recruiting agencies the Eliassen Group. Moreover, according to his own words, the companies are planning to update the infrastructure and restart the realization of the projects postponed for the last 3 years.

As Computerworld claims, in 2012 the directors of IT departments have set teeth for implementing innovations and that’s why the most relevant for future employees will be the following nine main skills.

•    web and mobile application development skills
•    project management skills
•    technical support and maintenance skills
•    network technologies skills
•    business analysis skills
•    Web 2.0 technologies skills – more and more companies are planning to implement these technologies and the demand for php/java/.net software developers won’t decrease in 2012. Also there will be a big demand for Ajax GWT professional web developers as well as the specialists in .Net, PHP, HTML, XML, CSS, Flash and Javascript.

Web App: Android Application Development Tool

At present the range of IT development services has expanded a lot: from simple web applications to video mobile apps. There are several tools for including video into Android applications: Native App, Web App, and AIR video player compiled in the Flash App. Now, let’s talk a bit about the Web App.

Web App is a special way of developing and deploying Android applications. The main idea of this method is in creating the application cover reflecting specially prepared web content. The Web App is a special browser based on the WebView element, the logic of the browser performance and its layout are defined by mobile application development.

The possibility of introducing HTML5 and Flash video player into the user’s interface is an important peculiarity of Android video application development. If you already have a video player already used on the website, you can easily adapt it according to the screen size of the Android device. Although, one shouldn’t forget about the adaptation of the control tools to the capabilities of various devices – smartphone and tablet user’s apply fingers for managing the device and not the mouse.

Using web applications is a very effective way of supporting all the range of new platforms (smartphones, tablets and even TV). One should mention one difficulty – the necessity of time-consuming optimization of web applications for more convenient usage of the application by users in case of slow Internet connection (dynamic content upload).

Advantages:
•    Speed and simplicity of development
•    Using existing web development experience
•    Application interface flexibility – server HTML makeup
•    Continuity of video player design
•    Effective usage of the existing video library
•    Additional cross-platform character of HTML

Disadvantages:
•    Peculiarities of Flash Player performance under Android OS
•    A user may not have Flash Player
•    Limitation of the supported video formats

BlueStacks App Player: Launching Mobile Android Apps on Windows Devices

BlueStacks Systems has presented a free alpha-version of its new solution for convenient launching mobile applications, originally intended for Android mobile devices, on the computers with the Windows operating system. The alpha-version of BlueStacks App Player allows launching Android applications on any Windows machines including personal computers, laptops, netbooks and tablets. In fact, using BlueStacks App Player users can launch Android apps without any additional efforts and modifications.
Apart from the direct benefit for Android app developers, end-users and corporate customers will also benefit from using BlueStacks App Player. The potential field of application of this technology covers practically all spheres of activity – from educational application development for children to corporate mobile applications at any available computer.

According to the representatives of the company BlueStacks, the openness of the Android platform gives an impulse for innovations – this openness has helped to create the solution for launching these apps on ‘non-native’ platform. To some extent, such openness removes the inequality between the people from developed countries and the Third World countries – now even those who can’t afford a smartphone in the nearest future will be able to get acquainted with mobile applications.

Apart from the BlueStacks App Player, the company BlueStacks has presented the Cloud Connect Technology – a special service that lets a Windows device become the continuation of the mobile device. Using the Cloud Connect Technology, the Android application can be moved on the screen of the Windows device in three simple steps: choose, click and synchronize.

The alpha-version of the BlueStacks App Player can be downloaded for free from the site of the producer.