Challenges with hiring Android, BlackBerry, iPhone development resources - Whitepaper

At the ScreamingToaster consulting practice, I have been talking to small, mid, and large size businesses, in every imaginable vertical, for the last 3 years. The need for mobile initiative rollout was nonexistent for the last few years (since 2008). However, with 2011 everything has changed. IT and investment budgets are thawing and there is a huge market opportunity to leverage to make a lot of money in the smartphone software and services space. Hardware companies and telcos are leveraging this market and making a lot of money from it. Software on the other hand, is woefully outclassed and outpaced by hardware and infrastructure. If you join us, with the simple solutions outlined above, we can turn this problem into an opportunity and reinvest out way out of this decade-old rut of web-complacency!

The future of mobile is multiplatform - Whitepaper

As the smartphone segment continues to grow, and more consumers become accustomed to the greater capabilities delivered by these cloud connected mobile platforms, your business has to evolve as well to meet these expectations. This not a question of technology. It is a question of keeping your business competitive, and leveraging the new revenue streams that are now possible, as tens of millions of smartphone users use their devices in their daily life, and spend a lot of time, energy and money on them and through them.

Why the “mobile web” is useless, aka, “how to spot the fake mobile web app” - Whitepaper

Introduction The term mobile web is used interchangeably with the word app, but in reality they are not at all the same and these terms cannot be used interchangeably. They really aren't mobile apps at all, they are just tiny webpages you view in your smartphone’s web browser. Mobile websites are a cheap and easy way to let people view some parts of your website on their smartphone, and they are inexpensive to build. However, these mobile websites cannot do very much, and usually only allow people to read static content and do not integrate with a smartphone’s native applications or functionality. They are VERY basic and very “one way” as in the content flows from the owner of the website, to the reader.

Hype driving iPhone/smartphone app development

Building mobile apps is a hype-based decision, and Apple is the one generating this hype. It is not a business decision. Apple has made it super easy to make simplistic mobile apps, most of which are just mobile web views. Most iPhone apps on the App Store are simplistic, meaning they don't really do anything interesting, and don't take advantage of the iPhone’s capabilities. Companies are doing the least amount of work and build the simplest app they can, just to be part of the hype. The simplistic iPhone apps more companies make are just an attempt to be part of the cool crowd and the hype. They are not a commitment to mobile, and don't involve any real risk, investment, or foresight. iPhone development is so easy that many web developers are able to create simple web view “mobile apps” and this is good enough for most companies because they just need something to show to be part of the crowd.

How much should Android, BlackBerry, iPhone app development cost? - Whitepaper

My hope is that this article will help people get a more realistic sense of pricing for their next mobile/smartphone project and initiative. Smartphones are new. This space is constantly evolving. It is always expensive to create novelty. Smartphones are not even close to being a commodity yet, so don’t make the mistake of applying commodity pricing models to it.

Update of the smartphone market (Android, BlackBerry, iPhone) - Whitepaper

The smartphone market is still in its infancy right now. While there is a lot of buzz around smartphones, it’s important to keep in mind how small this market really is. The number of smartphone units sold annually in the US are measured in the order of 10’s of millions. Of the 350M or so US citizens, around 30M have smartphones (that’s less than 9%). In contrast, feature phone sales are measured in the order of 1000’s of millions of units sold worldwide. Laptop sales are in the order of 1000’s of millions of units worldwide, as well. So, this is still an emerging market. Not to say that it is not growing rapidly, and faster and stronger than anyone would expect, given the recent global economic crisis, and US economic meltdown.

3 Steps to avoid failure with your first attempt at smartphone app development on Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry - Whitepaper

The first step is for you to select the right mobile platform for your mobile initiatives. The following table outlines the major differences between the major platforms and can act as rough guidelines to help you match your requirements to the right platform for you.

Introducing Zen Application Framework for BlackBerry - Whitepaper

We use the Zen Application Framework exclusively to build our mobile applications, and so can you. Zen is free for all ScreamingToaster Consulting clients, and its source code comes as part of the deliverables at the end of every consulting project. Zen training courses are available upon request to consulting clients only. ScreamingToaster has a commitment to open source software (OSS) and democratizing knowledge for the good of the developer community, and humanity as a whole, which is why we give Zen away for free to our consulting clients. Our clients can make changes or additions to the applications we build them, and they can also use Zen to build applications in-house after taking our BlackBerry developer training courses.

Whitepaper - Smartphone mobile software testing

I hope I provided some insight into how we polish and refine our products before they are made ready for public consumption. This is also why we don’t believe that giving our apps away for free is a sustainable business model for us. There’s more to an app and a company and people than the price tag. As savvy consumers, you have to look at all that you’re getting. You’ve paid a lot of money for a BB, and even more for the voice/data plan just to make it go. When you put an app on it, make sure that this app will add value to your purchase, and not take away from it by bricking the device, making it unresponsive, etc. Some people like to think about the upfront cost of an app, while forgetting the entire lifecycle cost. We don’t. We are committed to delivering a tremendous amount of functionality, fantastic customer service and support, at a great value. Doesn’t mean it’s free, but if you add up what you’re paying for what you’re getting, you will be happy at the bargain you are getting it at.

SproutCore – Apple MobileMe JS library

SproutCore is Apple's open source JS library. Pundits claim that it will kill Flash and it can be used to write desktop apps for web browsers. Using a JS library that uses CSS styling that makes it resemble OSX's look and feel doesn't make it a desktop app :) .

JWebPane update

JDE 5.0 Beta

RIM just released a new JDE version, you can download it here. Here’s a review of an early release of OS 5.0 on an actual Bold. 5.0 is going to be an awesome OS! In writing software for OS 4.6 for some time now, I’ve run into lots of limitations in media capture that are being addressed by 5.0! Video capture is coming in 5.0!

Oracle acquires Sun

Sun has just been purchased by Oracle, as you must have read already. After the IBM buyout offer fell through, Oracle snapped Sun up. I’m selfish. I have a software company that uses lots and lots of Java technologies, and I’m wondering what this means to me in the long term :) . I’m sure there are lots of changes that Sun employees are going to have to go through, but I’m not worried about that, just being honest.

Objective C introduction for Java developers, and creating iPhone apps with Java

This is a great video that shows Dr. Arno Puder giving a one hour presentation at Google. The highlights are a great introduction to the Objective C language for Java developers. The syntax is very strange, and very Smalltalk-like. Very interesting language... no runtime garbage collection, it uses reference counting.

JWebPane (WebKit for Java) details

JWebPane details from the new tech lead of the component... Looks very promising.

JavaFX 1.0 released - where is JWebPane?

JavaFX 1.0 was released last week, and it's great that it's out for Windows, but there are lots of things missing from it (like support for OSX or Linux). The biggest missing item for me is the Webkit browser component called JWebPane. I have been looking forward to using this component for months now, and it's still not out.

Google Protocol Buffers

Google's Protocol Buffer technology - Protocol Buffers are similar to XML schemas, that you can compile from a language neutral schema definition into code (in different languages like Java, C++, and Python). However, there's no XML involved here, it's a lightweight binary encoding/decoding mechanism. You create your schema definitions in a .proto file and you compile that into Java code that you include with your applications (services, and mobile apps).

More on Java WebKit and Filthy Rich Client presentations

More information on WebKit for Java (JWebPane) for JavaFX. Great presentation from Chet Haase & Romain Guy at this years JavaOne 2008, Filthy Rich Client session with a timingframework fix.

JDK6 Update10 Beta D3D problems - 15x slowdown fixed

15x slowdown on certain Java2D operations using the d3d hardware accelerated pipeline on JDK6 Update 10 BETA Build 22.

Native font rasterization limitations in Java 6 Update 10

2 issues with native font rasterization on Java 6 Update 10.

Native font rasterization in Java! :)

Native font rasterization in Java! Finally!

Java SceneGraph Effects Framework

Java SceneGraph Effects Framework API demos.

Sun SPOT Overview

Detailed overview of the Sun SPOT - Small Programmable Object Technology.

Text component add-ons for Java Swing/SwingX

XSwingX, created by Peter Weishapl, is a set of components that add much needed functionality to textboxes, and textareas. You can add prompts inside of text components themselves, and add "buddy components" to these text components as well.

Web browser and Flash player for Java Swing!

Integrate native browser components and Flash player into your Java Swing apps with DJ!

Java SceneGraph API released

Lots of wonderful things are happening for Java desktop apps. Enter the new SceneGraph API for Java. What is a SceneGraph? Java2D is an immediate mode API, which means that your code is executed when the screen must be refreshed/painted, and your code draws to the screen immediately. SceneGraph in contrast is a retained mode API, which means that you declare what you want to happen and when. But the API figures out the caching, dealing with repaints, clipping, and lots of other low level details that you normally have to deal with - which makes it easier to use!

Why I still love Java

Java is an awesome language. I'd forgotten how wonderful it is, until I started coding in other languages and environments. Java does not face the innovators dilemma, it's stronger than it's ever been before!

SwingLabs SwingX 0.9.1 released