So You Want to Build an App...

Android app sales figures, and why its still great to start a mobile app business

Farhood — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:22:48 +0000

Edward Kim writes an interested (albeit unverifiable) post about how much money he made from app sales. Read it here: “My last Android app sales figures, and why its still great to start a mobile app business. – Edward Kim.”

Common Misconceptions About Touch

Farhood — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 17:47:46 +0000

Touchscreens have been with us for decades—and they’ve been the mobile input method of choice for many of us for about 5 years. In fact, many junior designers and developers—or at least those who were late to the mobile party—have never owned a mobile phone for which buttons were the primary input method.

But there are still very few designers who seem to know how touchscreens actually work or how people really interact with them. In my work as a UX design consultant, working for many different organizations, I’ve encountered lots of myths and half-truths about designing for touchscreens.

Common Misconceptions About Touch :: UXmatters.

Consumers are becoming ‘digital omnivores’

Farhood — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 05:05:41 +0000

“Consumers are becoming ‘digital omnivores,’ adopting all sorts of smart, web-connected consumer technology with lots of cool sensors.”

Siri Coming to Chevrolet Cars in Early 2013

scj02 — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:00:06 +0000

General Motors will introduces Apple’s chatty voice assistant Siri into several of its car models in 2013. The feature will be available to iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 owners, and Siri will be working through these cars’ standard Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system. Users will be able to make hands-free calls to contacts on their iPhone, play songs in their iTunes library, listen to, compose and send messages and add appointments to calendar.

via: Siri Coming to Chevrolet Cars in Early 2013.

Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures are Disappointing

mzl10 — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:38:20 +0000

An FTC study has examined both the privacy policies and actual practices within each of the 400 apps -Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market- that were selected for review, finding that only 16 percent provided a privacy policy to parents before downloading and 20 percent after downloading. The disclosures provided were often full information that would be difficult for most parents to read and understand and many of the policies lacked details that would indicate the type of information gathered and how it would be used.

Fuze Is the First Native Video Conferencing App for Mac

scj02 — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:10:19 +0000

FuzeBox launched Fuze for Mac, the world’s first native video-conferencing app for OS X. FuzeBox is one of the only apps that was built on Apple’s campus. By going native on the Mac, FuzeBox was able to add more features than it has in the browser-based version as well as take advantage of everything the Mac has to offer, including the retina screen.

via: http://mashable.com/2012/11/29/fuzebox-mac/

Twitter Adds its Own Image Filters App

mzl10 — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 01:09:51 +0000

As a result of losing the direct viewing of Instagram photos Twitter went swiftly ahead in releasing a photo filtering service. The service will be very familiar to Instagram users who will still be able to share their filtered photos but they will appear as a simple link rather than a rich media preview of the photo, which is just bad user experience.

Police concerned with Apple iOS 6 mapping system

Farhood — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:54:50 +0000

An absolutely negative PR blow for Apple, and their mapping system is now threatening people’s lives as described in this short article: Victoria Police Online News Centre – Police concerned with Apple iOS 6 mapping system.

Judge in Apple v. Samsung case, calls for peace!

tjw11e — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 00:35:11 +0000

Just a few months ago, “a San Jose jury awarded Apple more than $1 Billion dollars in its case against Samsung, the trial’s judge, Lucy Koh, is now aiming to settle the issues between the two companies.”

““I think it’s time for global peace,” Judge Koh told Apple and Samsung’s lawyers at yesterday’s hearing, according to the A.P Specifically, she’s referring to a calming of the patent wars prevalent in the technology world over the past decade, and which the Apple v. Samsung case is a poster child.”. “While one analyst predicted that Apple would be the overall winner in yesterday’s hearing, it appears that Judge Koh isn’t leaning towards either company. Samsung is aiming to cut its massive fines in the trial and is calling for a new trial, while Apple is pushing to increase the fines and potentially ban the sales of certain Samsung phones. Koh didn’t seem to favor either of those outcomes.”

Stayed tuned for the latest news in the Apple v. Samsung case, “it’s expected to hit the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., and it could potentially reach the Supreme Court, according to the AP.”

http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/07/apple-v-samsung-lucy-koh-peace/

iPhone-less Japanese Carrier “Docomo” losing subscribers at a fast rate.

tjw11e — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 00:28:42 +0000

Rewind back a few years, before the iPhone took over the world. Japanese phone carrier NTT Docomo was the subject of every U.S. report on how mobile in Japan rocked in every possible way. Well that was then, Docomo has just reported its biggest-ever loss in subscribers: 40,800. The reason?” As Reuters notes, competitors Softbank and KDDI carry the iPhone. Softbank grew by 301,900 subscribers, and KDDI grew by 228,800. Since receiving the iPhone 5 Softbank and KDDI are using it t capture Japanese customers.” And it’s the lack thereof that is causing NTT Docomo its worst subscriber results ever.”

In its final defense to stop the bleeding, Docomo has introduced the new “Disney” smartphone, which is ran on Android. So the question here would be….”is whether Disney can put NTT Docomo into the net gainer’s club another time or if Japan’s largest carrier will finally see the light and start carrying a truly diverse set of phones.”

http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/07/without-iphone-japans-biggest-mobile-carrier-is-losing-subscribers-at-a-record-rate/