Nice… I just received a copy of Android in Action 3rd edition, which I co-authored, translated to Portuguese!
(I would like to learn Portuguese.)
ceo
Tag Archives: Android
Article: Parse cloud-based services for Android apps
My latest article on Mobile & Cloud computing…
Summary: Explore the advantages of storing mobile application data in a private cloud with this introduction to the Parse SDK for Android. Mobilist C. Enrique Ortiz introduces the Parse API classes for cloud-storing and manipulating users, data objects, and files for your mobile applications.
See Parse cloud-based services for Android apps (IBM developerWorks).
Android Platform Versions (2012)
Below is a snapshot of the Android platform distribution, as of September 2012.
As you can see, the majority of the devices out there, close to 60%, are still 2.3 (Gingerbread). This is followed by ICS with close to 21%. Froyo 2.2 is 14%.
I hope that by March (but more likely, summertime or later) of 2013, that by then the majority of the Android devices out there are 4.0+. This would make the Android app developer’s life in general much simpler — by (1) minimizing the number of major Android platforms to deal with, and (2) making it easier/cheaper to implement (or move up to) the recommended Android design guidelines. The result of this includes (1) cheaper to develop/maintain apps, (2) consistent apps per developer, and (3) consistent look/feel/behavior across the app market.
For this to happen, device manufacturers and operators must help transform the above piechart to be mostly 4.0+ Android devices. They can help by literally selling less (and even better, stop selling) Gingerbread/2.3 and older devices. If you look around you will see that operators are still selling Gingerbread devices. And we need Google to have more cojones with respect to this and stimulate, if you will, both the device manufacturers and operators to move forward — this transition is taking forever! (Note: Gingerbread was introduced on December 6, 2010.)
Some customers may leave feedback as “why the app does not follow the Android UI guidelines”, or “why the app doesn’t support the ICS UI paradigm” — but again, 4.0+ is just a smaller fraction of what is out there!
In the meantime, there is the Android Support (Compatibility) library. Also, see Backwards Compatibility (Android Design Patterns).
ceo
On SmartTVs: The Vizio Co-Star (2012)
Vizio Co-Star is NO-GO.
Part of creating a product is providing proper customer support throughout its life-cycle. A product life-cycle begins with product envisioning, followed by definition, followed by create/build, followed by going to market (which on itself consists of different aspects including customer support).
Vizio has failed to deliver my product. And has failed to make *me* a satisfied customer — after waiting for almost a month for the delivery/return-process to work itself out, they could have sent me the package again, perhaps with rush delivery for all the troubles I have been through. But they claim they cannot do that (I don’t believe them); they should take a lesson from Zappo’s book. Instead they will refund me and I have to reorder. But I won’t reorder. Maybe their Co-Star is a kickass product, maybe it is not; the only way I am reviewing the Co-Star is if they send me one. In the meantime, I will continue using my Android tablet for Netflix streaming and apps on my TV. I will wait for a competing Android TV product, and maybe I will end up buying an Apple TV.
Read more on the comments section.
I will categorize this one under “#FAIL”.
I believe SmartTVs will open new/great opps for content/developers; and this will be especially true when intersecting this w/ Mobile.
So, to begin researching this in more detail, I’ve ordered Vizio’s Co-Star. Based on Google TV (click on the previous hyperlink to see the specs) it has everything needed to play/hack-away.
Crafted by VIZIO’s years of entertainment expertise, Co-Star packs the powerful features of Google TV into a sleek, intuitive interface. Combining live TV, the Web and apps into one experience, it allows you to search and access content from all of them without interrupting your viewing.
Of special interest to me is the combined experience across TV & apps that the Co-Star supports; think about it, your app overlaid on top of the video stream — if this plays out as I hope, this is very, very, very powerful, and is what I’ve been waiting for:
- Merges live TV, web, and apps into one interface
- Search across live TV, web and apps – simultaneously
- Picture-In-Picture – Apps & Live TV
Price: $99 — great price.
So stay tuned; I will report back…
ceo
Starbucks App == Mobile + Convenience
The Starbucks App for Android 2.0 is out on Google Play (see announcement on VentureBeat).
Good to see…
(I was one of the people who contributed design & dev to this product, specifically the Card Management tab/functionality, plus some other.)
Starbucks have proven, starting with their iOS app, that consumers are ready for mobile payments — as of April 2012, Starbucks apps have done over 42M mobile payment transactions (see announcement on VentureBeat).
Awesome…
Convenience is always a big winner. In the case of Starbucks it is about payments, rewards and store information right on the palm of your hands.
There is another important aspect here. It also shows that stores must have the whole infrastructure in place to be successful:
- The POS that are enabled with the appropriate readers and software,
- The devices/smartphones with the SW and functions (the apps), and,
- The scalable service infrastructure with the appropriate back-end integrations, and the right kind of services-and content — in the case of Starbucks, authentication, payments, rewards, store information and related-integrations.
It is then that users will adopt this in masses; and, yes, it is about convenience.
(Card management tab with Pay Now, and embedded PayPal Integration for Card Reload)
Digital cards are at the center of the app. The app, which is global-ready, allows smartphone-users to load the digital cards (dollars, pounds, etc, depending on country) via credit cards and/or PayPal — all within the app, thus maximizing the user experience. The digital cards are then scanned at the stores. For this, the app uses 2D-barcodes that are scanned/read by the POS using regular barcode scanners, consummating the transaction.
Looking forward, this app is a good candidate for NFC and/or other proximity-based technologies. If the NFC infrastructure was in place, that is, the readers and the NFC-capable smartphones, I will bet that it would also be a winner. But full, pervasive NFC deployments are still are a few years away, delaying its adoption. As a result, today, 2D-barcodes is the way to go.
(This is not real, just a concept scenario that I put together for the Starbucks app with NFC support)
As mobile app designers, the important thing is to design your application in a way that 2D-barcodes or NFC or other are just interaction channels — the key is keeping the rest of the app- and related supporting infrastructure (servers, authentication, exposed services, payment infrastructure and so on) properly abstracted. As a side note, this is a reason why Square is ready for the future — it has all the infrastructure in place, and today their reader is the Square-reader, and tomorrow it can be something else. Starbucks is ready too.
ceo
Reminder | Tonight May 24th | Android Dev Austin
Update: we had a great event! — see some photos of the event. Thanks to our speakers, and to our sponsor Evernote.
If you are in Austin, Texas, a reminder about tonight’s event: “Android app performance, optimization and analysis”.
See you there!
ceo
Android Dev Austin (May 2012) | Topic: “Android app performance and analysis”
Update: we had a great event! — see some photos of the event. Thanks to our speakers, and to our sponsor Evernote.
Topic – “Android app performance, optimization and analysis”:
For headcount purposes, please register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3493177187
Food and drinks will be served.
We have some goodies to give away, courtesy of Google’s Developer Advocate group.
Event Info:
Date: 5/24/2012
Time: 6:45-9pm
Where: Evernote Corp. 6504 Bridge Point Pkwy, Suite 400 Austin, TX. 78730
Agenda – “Android app performance, optimization and analysis”:
0 ~ Intro, and a word from our sponsor, Evernote
1 ~ The Evernote Android SDK
2 ~ Using the Memory Analyzer tool to find memory leaks/inspect memory usage, including soft vs weak references (useful for memory analysis), and using the built in Android profiler to find performance hotspots
3 ~ Introducing CoreDroid (An OSS app framework to ease up some of the pain of app development)
4 ~ Android Performance monitoring and configuration SDK with InstaOps (mobile application performance monitoring and configuration management system)
5 ~ Open discussion
Also, if interested, you may want to bring your computer — the folks from InstaOps will also explain how developers or dev-ops can use InstaOps’ SDK and tools to improve mobile performance. So if you are interested into diving into the code (including code walk through), please bring your laptop.
Thanks to our sponsor, Evernote.
And thanks to Google’s Developer Advocate group for the goodies/give aways.
For more information visit the Android Dev Austin website.
ceo