Short Takes: August 1, 2010
By SD Times Editorial Board
August 1, 2010 —
Don't get a grip, Apple!
I'm holding off on purchasing the iPhone 4. Every smartphone is susceptible to the "grip of death," but Apple's external antenna seems to exacerbate signal loss. Its designers pushed the boundaries of industrial design, and Apple engineers came up with flawed design.
While it is still the best smartphone on the market, I'd rather wait and see what long-term solution Apple devises before shelling out US$300 to AT&T and being stuck in a two-year contract. Nobody that I know directly has experienced the issue, but I cannot discount what appears to be a genuine problem. — David Worthington
Tablet war was beginning...
Tablet or slate devices are a hot-button topic this year. After Apple launched its iPad in April (and proved there is certainly a market for these devices), other software makers are trying to create something to compete. In the beginning of July, LG announced its plans to launch an Android tablet by the end of the year, while HP, which already has experience developing tablet devices, recently purchased Palm, a company with a strong operating system, webOS.
Microsoft is not to be forgotten, either. At a recent annual partner conference in Washington, D.C., the company boasted about new tablet-style devices running its Windows 7 operating system.
Which one will prove the best contender? We can only guess. — Katie Serignese
Take a trip to SoftCity
In the last issue of SD Times, I wrote about an iPhone app that was a horrible idea: the mobile vuvuzela, that obnoxious horn made famous at the World Cup football (soccer) matches in South Africa. Now, I’ll give credit to an iPhone app that I believe is truly valuable: mobile access to SoftCity’s Café.
That website, the company claims, is the first social commerce site dedicated to software. With the iPhone app, users can follow software discussion threads, get software recommendations from experts, and in certain cases even speak directly with the developers who have written applications, to question them directly about features or functionality.
It’s available immediately and can be downloaded for free from the iPhone App Store. — David Rubinstein
Is GoogleVille the future?
Google has pumped more than US$100 million into Zynga, the company behind the bafflingly popular FarmVille and FrontierVille “games.” Speculation is now centered on Google’s aspirations at competing with Facebook now that Google has its own game division that mirrors Facebook’s.
According to A.J. Patrick Liskiewicz, a writer for Media Commons, FarmVille’s real popularity comes from the social obligations it creates between players, making it more a chore than a game. Is this how Google plans to spur user adoption, by having users peer-pressure each other? I’m tempted to say that that’s not a good business model, but I can’t be sure. — Adam LoBelia
Related Search Term(s): Apple, Google, mobile development, SoftCity
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/34524
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible
|
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers
|
|
ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
|
|
Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions
|
Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
|
|
Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
|
|
RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
|
|
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
|
The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing
Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...
|
|
Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic
As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...
|
|
Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank
One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...
|
|
Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications
Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...
|