Microsoft hopes to draw Android developers to Windows Phone

Microsoft is trying to woo Android application developers, offering them help in porting applications to Windows Phone.

The company has released a Windows Phone API mapping tool for Android developers to help them find their way around the Windows Phone platform. Developers should think of the tool as being like a translation dictionary, Senior Technical Evangelist for Interoperability Jean-Christophe Cimetiere wrote in a blog post.

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It has also published a white paper, "Windows Phone 7 Guide for Android Application Developers," describing the differences between the two platforms, including the way they handle inactive applications and multitasking.

For Windows Phone to become a success, Microsoft and partners like Nokia have to convince developers to add the operating system to the list of platforms they target.

Android and Apple's iOS are the most popular operating systems among developers, according to a survey by VisionMobile published this week. It found that 67 percent of developers target Android, and 59 percent target iOS.

Windows Phone is the seventh most popular platform, with just 36 percent of developers working on apps for it: More still target Symbian, the OS that Nokia is abandoning in favor of Windows Phone, the survey found, although Symbian's share fell to 38 percent in June from 46 percent a year earlier.

Microsoft has already reached out to iPhone app developers with specific Windows Phone guidance and an API mapping tool for iOS.

This summer, it plans to expand the scope of the API Mapping tools to include the features in Mango, the next major upgrade of Windows Phone.

Enterprise software developers are starting to show an interest in having their applications running across a range of mobile devices. Last week, German company Software AG acquired Metismo, developer of a platform that can convert Java apps to run natively on Android, BlackBerryOS, Windows Phone and webOS.

Adobe Mobile Application Development

Ryan Stewart, a developer evangelist for Adobe Systems will be showing how the mobile landscape has changed in the last few years and how Adobe is allowing developers and designers to create apps for the various mobile markets in weeks rather than months or years. With the introduction of the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 and all of the tooling that goes with it developers and designers can now create applications that target the iPhone, iPad, Android and the Blackberry Tablet platforms with ease.

Ryan will speak about the tooling that is now available and the workflows that designers, user experience designers, developers and QA testers can use to deploy applications that can target multiple platforms.

Register (free):
http://tismtechadobe.eventbrite.com/

Facebook is preparing an iPad app

According to the New York Times,Facebook is finally making an official iPad app. While Facebook's iPhone apphas been in the App Store from day one, it's been a long, long wait for an iPad version of the popular social networking site. When asked about the possibility of an iPad app last November, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly said such an app wasn't in the works because "The iPad isn't mobile."

It looks like that was an ephemeral "no" worthy of Steve Jobs. According to the Times, Facebook's iPad app has been in testing for nearly a year, and Zuckerberg himself has been closely involved in its development. People familiar with the app's development say its design is "slick" and well-optimized for the iPad's screen, and it includes photo/video uploading features tied directly to the iPad 2's built-in cameras.

Thus far, iPad users unsatisfied with the way Facebook's site functions on a touchscreen-based device have had to make do with third-party applications. I've been using Friendly for iPad, but I'm still curious to see how Facebook's official app turns out. As we heard earlier, Facebook is also planning an HTML5 application platform called "Project Spartan," but according to the Times' source, that is intended to "supplement" the iPad app rather than compete with it.

Source : http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/16/facebook-is-preparing-an-ipad-app/

Bridgepoint Education Presents a Retrospective Study of Mobile App Development Process at eLearning DevCon

SAN DIEGO, June 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Visitors to this week's annual eLearning Development Conference (DevCon) in Salt Lake City, Utah, learned about the creative process behind Rockies Mobile, University of the Rockies' seamless online classroom and campus app.

The far-reaching learning app was designed and released for University of the Rockies students by Bridgepoint Education (NYSE: BPI), the Rockies' parent company, and the retrospective analysis was presented by Cory Jones, Bridgepoint's software development manager. Jones explored the three-month process behind building the Rockies Mobile app, from the prototype phase to the app's introduction, including an overview of the best and most demanding parts of the process.

"The development and introduction of the Rockies Mobile app was a challenging process and would not have been possible without the talent and skill of an incredible product development team," stated Ravi Rajaratnam, Bridgepoint Education's vice president of solution delivery. "The quality, effectiveness and popularity of the application are testaments to Bridgepoint's success."

eLearning DevCon is an annual gathering of the best and brightest people employed at the intersection of modern academia and technology. The conference delivers targeted sessions on the influence of new technology on education, as well as the influence of education on new technology. More can be learned about eLearning DevCon at elearningdevcon.com.
Source : http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/339301

Great Little War Game HD 1.4 – Tons of New Features for iPad and Retina

Appcelerator®, the leading mobile cloud platform for rapidly developing native mobile, HTML5, desktop, web and tablet applications using web technologies, today announced the availability of Appcelerator Titanium Studio™ for building, testing, and deploying cross-platform applications. Titanium Studio offers companies of any size the ability to rapidly create rich cloud-connected applications using their existing web teams and is based on the patent-pending development technology acquired from Aptana™ earlier this year.

Titanium Studio allows web developers to build, test, and deploy iOS, Android, BlackBerry, PC, Mac, Linux, and HTML5 mobile web applications within a single development environment. Built on Aptana Studio's Eclipse-based IDE, recipient of the 2011 Eclipse Community Award for Best Developer Tool, Titanium Studio offers a full-featured source code editor, code completion, Git integration and robust debugging capabilities to rapidly develop applications across these platforms. Titanium Studio integrates seamlessly with iOS, Android, and BlackBerry SDKs for testing and new Fastdev technology allows a developer to make real-time changes to their code while the app is running in the simulator.

Titanium Studio also makes publishing to the iOS, Mac, Android, and BlackBerry app stores simple by easing the certificate and provisioning pain often associated with these stores. Deployment to Engine Yard and RedHat's upcoming OpenShift platform is planned for this fall.

"Our goal is to enable rapid innovation for the cloud-connected enterprise by providing an integrated solution for mobile, desktop, and web development," explained Jeff Haynie, CEO, Appcelerator. "Titanium Studio delivers on this promise by enhancing developer productivity, improving application quality, and easing integration with the cloud."

HotelTonight, iPhone's #1 free travel app, used Titanium to get to market quickly, and achieve 500,000 downloads in less than five months. "In a category like travel it's important to rapidly innovate, stay ahead of the competition, and create a compelling user experience," said Christopher Bailey, CTO of HotelTonight. "Titanium helps me do all that and more."

Pricing and Availability

Titanium Studio is available now as a free 30-day trial as part of Appcelerator's Indie and Professional subscriptions. For more information and to download Titanium Studio, visit www.appcelerator.com.

About Appcelerator

Appcelerator is the leading enterprise-grade, cross-platform development solution on the market today, with over 1.5 million developers using its software to power over 20,000 cloud-connected mobile, desktop, and web applications used by tens of millions of users every day. The company's flagship offering, Appcelerator Titanium, is the only mobile cloud platform to enable fully native, cross-platform development, from a single codebase, at web development speed for these three platforms. Appcelerator's customers can leverage their existing skills and open, industry standard technologies to decrease time-to-market and development costs, increase customer adoption and revenues, and enjoy greater flexibility and control. For more information, please visit www.appcelerator.com.

Team lead with Python/Java programming skills

One of alaTest's Software development teams is looking for a leader with a strong software development background.

Together with the rest of the team you’ll be responsible for developing and maintaining the logic and the infrastructure of the whole data flow that is a central and critical part of alaTest business. From fetching data sources like partner feeds and websites and loading the data into the database to making it available through an API and to the website.

You will be responsible for maintaining and improving the infrastructure for handling large volumes of data with as short lead time as possible. The role also includes the responsibility for improving logic and infrastructure for application parts concerning Java, Python, MySQL and Solr.

Source : http://www.arcticstartup.com/jobs/480

New iPhone app helps business startups

Those with a great idea for a new business but no idea where to start can breathe easy.

“There’s an app for that,” said Pravina Raghavan, district director of the New York District Office for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The Small Business Administration has released an iPhone app that puts an array of resources directly at a user’s fingertips. For instance, it acts as a sort of GPS, pointing users to where they can find free, local help.

“It will put you into connection with our small business development center, score and our women’s business centers, which are just resource partners to allow you to actually evolve your ideas,” said Raghavan. “So you could have a conversation saying, ‘Hey, I want to start a new barbershop,’ to ‘I’ve got a business plan and I need help financing,’ or, ‘I really want to know how to use social media.’”

Speaking of which, the app also allows users to follow the SBA on Twitter and access some of the agency's popular training tools, like the webinars they've posted on YouTube.

Source : http://centralny.ynn.com/content/features/546271/money-matters--new-iphone-app-helps-business-startups/

New iPhone App Helps Business Startups

Those with a great idea for a new business but no idea where to start can breathe easy.

“There’s an app for that,” says Pravina Raghavan, district director of the New York District Office for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The Small Business Administration has released an iPhone app that puts an array of resources directly at a user’s fingertips. For instance, it acts as a sort of GPS, pointing users to where they can find free, local help.

“It will put you into connection with our small business development center, score and our women’s business centers, which are just resource partners to allow you to actually evolve your ideas,” says Raghavan. “So you could have a conversation saying, ‘Hey, I want to start a new barbershop,’ to ‘I’ve got a business plan and I need help financing,’ or, ‘I really want to know how to use social media.’”

Source : http://bronx.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/money_matters/140511/new-iphone-app-helps-business-startups

E3 2011: appMobi adds features to its HTML5 mobile app development platform

You have a great idea for a mobile game, but you don’t know how to turn it into reality, and you want to focus on making the game, not learning a programming language. If this is you, then you should take a look at appMobi because it just might be exactly what you need.

With appMobi, you use HTML5 to create your games. One of the common concerns developers have had with HTML5 is whether it’s fast enough to create games. In response to this, appMobi developed DirectCanvas, a new technology that accelerates the HTML5 canvas element and speeds graphic rendering by 500 percent. Other appMobi enhancements include a JavaScript achievements engine, in-game payments functionality, and multimedia-capable push messaging, which means that appMobi can be used to create any kind of mobile game.

Source :  http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/e3-2011-appmobi-adds-features-to-its-html5-mobile-app-development-platform/

MobiForms Mobile Developer Now Supports Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

The latest version of the revolutionary mobile development tool MobiForms 6.0 now offers support for Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Up until now developing for Apple iOS devices required in depth professional programming skills with mandatory learning of Apple's obscure version of C called Objective-C and the Apple iOS/iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit). MobiForms replaces these tools with one simple, intuitive, drag and drop interface. No Objective-C programming is required.

The major advantage of MobiForms is that unlike the Apple iOS/iPhone SDK you do not need to own an Apple Mac to run it. The MobiForms Developer will run on both a Windows PC or an Apple Mac. With MobiForms you avoid paying the expensive yearly membership of the iPhone Developer Program. The MobiForms adhoc deployment approach also avoids the Apple App Store and the Apple app approval process which alone can take weeks.

MobiForms now makes it possible for novice or experienced programmers alike to quickly create mobile business applications for Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Additionally, the same app can be run on other platforms like Windows Mobile and Android smartphones and tablets.

MobiForms supports the native Apple iOS camera, GPS integration and SQLite database connectivity for off-line mobile database storage.

MobiForms offers all the tools in one "box" for the creation and deployment of any type of mobile application - from surveys to field service, from signature capture to bar coding.

One MobiForms application supports multiple device types including Tablet PC, Pocket PC, Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Google Android and now Apple iOS devices.

MobiForms with Apple iOS support can be downloaded from the MobiForms web site at: http://www.mobiforms.com.

Source :  http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/news/2011/jun/02/news4.html

Software AG Buys Metismo To Support Mobile Apps

Software AG, a business process management, data management, and integration vendor, announced Tuesday that it has acquired Metismo Ltd., a U.K.-based provider of a device-independent mobile application development platform.

The purchase of Metismo, the terms of which were not disclosed, gives Software AG a solid footing in mobile computing, a direction that's crucial for enterprise software vendors in order to meet demand for business-oriented smartphone and tablet-based apps.

Source :  http://www.informationweek.com/news/development/mobility/229700192

Sunrise Outsources Software Testing to SQS Software Quality Systems

SQS Software Quality Systems, the largest independent provider of software testing and quality management services, has signed a managed services contract with Sunrise, the largest private telecommunications provider in Switzerland. The deal with Sunrise follows other recent testing and assurance wins for SQS with major customers, including Specsavers and Deutsche Bank.

SQS took over software testing and quality management for Sunrise in early 2011 and this new deal cements the growing partnership between the two companies. SQS won the contract following a competitive tender and will be carrying out all the software testing required for the four main annual releases of Sunrise applications until the end of 2013, with an option for Sunrise to extend the agreement.

In early January, SQS took on all Sunrise staff from the Technology Quality Assurance team enabling both partners to ensure that existing expertise was retained and the handover of services was seamless.

Source :  http://rfpconnect.com/news/2011/6/2/sunrise-outsources-software-testing-to-sqs-software-quality-systems

Native App vs. Web App: Which Is Better for Mobile Commerce?

The Mobile App Trends Series is supported by Sourcebits, a leading product developer for mobile platforms. Sourcebits offers design and development services for iOS, Android, Mobile and Web platforms. Follow Sourcebits on Twitter for recent news and updates

One of the primary beneficiaries of the smartphone (and now tablet) boom is the mobile commerce space. Mobile commerce revenues may still pale in comparison to their ecommerce brothers, but we’re already seeing signs of mobile commerce’s potential.

Source :  http://mashable.com/2011/05/23/mobile-commerce-apps/