Spark Minute » Mobile

Android Developers’ App Jealousy

David Spark — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:42:20 +0000

Here’s some of my coverage of AnDevCon in Burlingame, CA, where I was reporting for Dice. For more coverage and job news, check out Dice News.

Ever been jealous of someone else’s success? We’re all guilty of this, even Android developers.

At the Android Developers Conference, or AnDevCon, in Burlingame, California I asked attendees what application they wished they had developed. In order to induce developer jealousy is to hit the right mix of branding, programming, clever mashup, and fun. Watch this video for a lineup of great apps and great app ideas.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve done on a mobile phone?

David Spark — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:33:34 +0000

Here’s some of my coverage of Mobilize 2011 San Francisco, where I was reporting for Dice. For more coverage and job news, check out Dice News.

Accessing information you couldn’t get before or communicating with friends and family in ways you’ve never done before. These are just some of the very cool things people have done with their phone in just the last three months.

At the GigaOM Mobilize Conference in San Francisco, I asked attendees to share with me some of the cool things they’ve done with their mobile phone recently. Here are their answers.

Stock photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Roundup of 2011 SFMusicTech’s new technologies showcase

David Spark — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:50:45 +0000

Here’s a short rundown of all the companies that showcased at SFMusicTech’s new technologies showcase. For more, read my coverage of this session at last year’s conference.

Tracks.by – Claim they’re the most viral way to grow a band through Facebook. The product was created from what they learned promoting Lil Wayne on Facebook. They successfully grew Lil Wayne’s fanbase from 1 million to 30 million “Likes” on Facebook. Some elements in Tracks.by that help:

Identify your top fans by including a “love” button. Those who “love” the musician can get an email any time a new track is released.
Each piece of content gets its own page meaning people can “like” each piece of content and share it with their network.

They admit they currently have no business model. They’re just focused on creating the most viral product possible.

ThingLink – Insert a band’s content inside an image. The images are shareable on social networks and embeddable on any website or blog. Claims engagement on the images ranges from 6 to 53 percent. For the show, they announced ecommerce tags in the images.

Digitalmusic.org – Created by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), it’s the online home for the digital music business. They’re trying to solve common problems in the industry such as distribution and archiving standards.

The Orchard – Distribute client’s content to online stores and social network sites. Their client base is about 20 percent of the music that’s on iTunes. At the show they announced the marketplace which is a collection of apps for their client base, to help sales and marketing of music. For developers, utilize The Orchard’s API and their clients can use your app to pull in their assets. Examples include a digital press kit and a tool to optimize your site for mobile music distribution.

Harold Lee demoing Rock Prodigy

Rock Prodigy – This is the real version of Guitar Hero, which only simulates playing the guitar. If you really want to learn how to play the guitar and play a game, Rock Prodigy steps you through the process by playing just a few notes, then a few more, until you’re playing all the notes of the song, all while scoring points along the way. Difference is you’re actually playing a real guitar rather than a toy guitar. Like Guitar Hero they have access to downloadable licensed music, so you can be playing “Sweet Home Alabama” with Rock Prodigy. Currently just an iOS app that’s $.99 app in the iTunes app store.

GET IT Mobile – A platform to get and share mobile applications. Platform includes website buttons and widgets, landing pages, Facebook tabs and apps, Smart Links, QR Codes, and SMS keywords. Elements are autogenerated. Just makes the development of additional features much easier.

MusicAlly Pro – Music archiving and production tool. Designed to help you deal with the editing and reviewing process. Everything’s stored in the cloud and versions are saved by sessions. Uploading is done automatically so you always know you’re listening to the latest version.

TuneWiki – Lyrics made mobile and social. Can see where other people in the world are playing the song you’re listening to right now. Lyrics scroll alongside with the song as you’re listening to it on your mobile device. Can share lyrics out with a message via any platform. Allows to open up a conversation around lyrics.

Bopler Games – An .MXP4 application. An artist or music fan can add their favorite song to any game. For example, you can play “Breakout” as the blocks thump to the beat of the music. Free to play and they make money selling digital assets to upgrade play.

Headliner.fm – Tries to solve the promotion part of an individual band’s music business by sharing your music through other artists. That mean you can get access to other bands’ fans if they recommend your music. Their big announcement is they are now partnered with Soundcloud.

Rexly -Adds a social layer to your music player on your iPhone, both passive and active. Core social feature is a feed of the music your friends are listening to right now. One of the most popular features is the ability to hide music that’s your guilty pleasure or maybe music your kid listens to that you don’t want the world to know you like.

Plus Music – Google Chrome extension that finds MP3s across the web. Type a band name and it’ll pull up the music. It also allows you to right click a band name you find anywhere around the web and it will instantly play music from that band.

How to make cheap-to-free mobile calls internationally

David Spark — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:51:04 +0000

There are so many different services that provide alternative ways to make international phone calls via your mobile phone. They all cost less than the “international” plan your mobile provider offers which is usually at least $1/minute.

If you use the services recommended here, international calls will probably be at most $.29/minute and probably a lot less. If you’re going to Europe, mobile phone costs will be as little as $.02 a minute to even free.

Before you choose a service

Make sure you have a phone with the right network chip (GSM or CDMA) for where you’ll be traveling. In general, Asia uses CDMA and Europe uses GSM. Although, you’ll be pretty safe with GSM for international travel. It’s pretty much available in all developed nations. Here in the U.S., Sprint and Verizon use CDMA and AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM.
If you’re going to swap SIM cards in your phone with an international carrier, you’ll need an unlocked phone. If you purchased your phone from a carrier, contact or check their website for steps on how to do this. AT&T nor Verizon will help you unlock your iPhone, you’ll need to hack it or pay for software to do it.
Either unlock your phone, or purchase a cheap phone with the appropriate chip to where you’re traveling. Unless you’ll be constantly traveling internationally, don’t buy an expensive “worldphone” which has both kinds of chips and is usually larger.
Don’t buy your SIM card beforehand. Purchase your SIM card, plus pre-paid minutes, when you arrive at your destination.
In except one case, all these services require you to prepay minutes, at least $5-$10. That’s often more than enough for a simple vacation.

Here are some recommended services. I’ve included the pros and cons of each.

Google Voice – Great to make international calls if you’re in the U.S.

You can port your mobile number over to Google Voice to take advantage of all the features such as integration of multiple phone numbers, speech-to-text transcription of voicemails, and free conference calling on top of cheap international calls. Most providers charge $20 to port over, but Sprint is making it a lot easier by offering porting for free. In fact, if you port over to Google Voice, all your international calls on Sprint will go through Google Voice.
You can make calls through the website or through any mobile phone (even if it isn’t Internet-enabled). Or, if you have an Android-powered phone, and you have the Google App installed, you can make calls directly from the phone’s native dialer.
You can’t get an international number or forward calls to an international number.

Jajah – Great for calling family internationally

To use, you must register for the service. Here’s the process. Enter the phone numbers you want to call, and you’ll get a local number to add to your phone. You’ll use that number to dial your friend. If the person you’re calling becomes a Jajah member as well, depending on where they are, you can talk to each other for free. Check the rates sheet to see where you can call your friends for free.
If you’re traveling, and switch SIMs, you’ll need to update your list of numbers with all new local numbers.

Skype To Go – If you’re going to be on your phone all the time

Similar setup to Jajah, but they also have a flat fee subscription that ranges from $8-$20/month for unlimited calling depending on where you’re calling.

Truphone – Great for traveling and calling locally or staying connected back home

Call locally where you’re at, plus call cheap to international calls. Give your family and friends a local U.S. number (works with Google Voice) to call while you’re traveling. No matter what international SIM card you have, people will still be able to reach you via the U.S. number. Plus, those calling you in the international location can use that local SIM number.
Doesn’t use your local pre-paid minutes if you’re calling within a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Has an unlimited plan for $12.95/month, but extremely limited locations for calling mobile phones.
Must install the Truphone app on your phone. Must have an Internet-enabled phone. Not available for all phones.
Having app constantly running can drain battery. Bring an extra battery.

Mobile Globe – Contract-free calling

If you don’t want to make a commitment to any one provider, Mobile Globe offers a call back service where you just SMS the number you want to call and you get a call back connecting you with the other party.

Final Tips:

Plan ahead.
Except in the U.S., you almost always pay a different price for calling a landline vs. a mobile phone. If you have the option, call a landline phone. It’s always cheaper.
If and when you purchase a local SIM, especially in a country where you don’t speak the language, ask the attendant at the store you purchased the SIM to set up the phone for you and add additional minutes. It will be impossible to follow the voice menus if you don’t speak the language. Give the salesperson a nice tip as a thank you.
You can check the prices, but in general they’ll all be the same. What you’re ultimately looking for is the service that provides the best convenience for where you’re traveling.
You don’t have to settle on just one. You can actually use a combination of these services.

I know this isn’t all the services, so if there’s one you really like a lot more, please let me know.

Stock photo images courtesy of Shutterstock.

VIDEO: Andy Ihnatko’s take on Apple’s iPad 2 launch

David Spark — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:35:28 +0000

After doing a ton of coverage of the Game Developer’s Conference, and completely ignoring the iPad 2 launch, I connected with long time tech journalist friend and one-time fellow junior high school classmate, Andy Ihnatko, who is also a technology columnist for the Chicago Sun Times.

I asked Andy what he thought of Apple’s iPad 2 announcement and he gave me his take. Watch.

My five favorite videos from Silicon Valley Code Camp

David Spark — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:50:50 +0000

Couple of weeks ago I attended Silicon Valley Code Camp, a weekend-long developer education event at Foothills College in Los Altos, California. Coders descend on the campus to attend as many of the 196 sessions on coding that they possibly can. I shot and produced a ton of videos of the event for Dice, the online board for tech jobs. I’ve put together my five favorite videos along with the other fifteen. Tip of the hat to my editor Ray for doing an awesome job on all the videos, especially the first one. Watch.

My five favorite videos from Silicon Valley Code Camp

	Presentation horror stories
	End of Show Recap: Silicon Valley Code Camp
	Top tips for developers on creating a great user interface
	What’s your proudest developer moment?
	A great explanation of “cloud” computing in two minutes

The rest of the videos from Silicon Valley Code Camp

	Why Silicon Valley is better than Europe for entrepreneurs
	From Code to Product to Business to Brand
	Tips for developing your iPhone app
	Build custom apps fast with LightSwitch
	Patent attorney’s advice on how to protect your brilliant idea
	What is Google’s Prediction Engine?
	Foothill College’s Dean invites Code Campers
	How to bring data into a Silverlight application
	Biggest mistake in product development is not testing for scale
	What do developers need to know about networking?
	Tackling issues with Python and Google App Engine
	Tips for developing across Windows Phone 7, Android, and iPhone
	How to run a successful developer conference for five years
	Utilizing Adobe’s Flex to quickly create apps for the enterprise
	How easy is it to develop in Windows Phone 7?

Why are you developing a mobile app?

David Spark — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:00:12 +0000

What are we doing on mobile?

It’s one of the most common questions heard. It’s often asked as a kind of a reflex.

We find ourselves asking that “What are we doing in mobile?” question just because “it’s the thing to do.”

Mobile is hot.

Everyone has a mobile device.

We have to be in mobile.

What are we going to do in mobile?

But stop and ask yourself, why do you want to be on mobile?

11 questions to ask yourself before you choose to develop a mobile app

How will someone enjoy your service better or differently in mobile? – Is there something about the mobile experience that can heighten the value of your application? When going from the desktop to mobile, the mobile version is often a crippled version because both input and output are limited. Is that sufficient for your application? Would people want/need to have access to your/their content through your app if they were out and about?

Do you just want to be in mobile because it’s the flavor of the day? – I know others have hammered you with the question, “What are you doing in mobile?” and the peer pressure is getting to you. You just have to have something in mobile. Is that the real reason you want a mobile app?

Do you just want to be in mobile to extend the reach of your brand? – It’s understandable that you would want to be in mobile to extend the reach of your brand. How awesome would it be if people had your application on them wherever they went. You could continue the relationship with the customer when they’re away from the desktop. That would be phenomenal marketing and it would keep your customers. Once they’ve installed the application, there’s no additional cost to get them to come to your site/application. Of course you want to build a mobile app, until you start asking yourself these other questions.

Would people really want to put your app on their phone? – According to IPG Labs, average heavy mobile app users only have about ten apps installed on their phone. While people may go to an unlimited number of websites, the reality of mobile app use is actually very limited. Your app is vying for a spot on the user’s phone. Are you creating a compelling reason for the user to download, install, and use your app?

Can your brand withstand a half-assed mobile app? – Oh I know you think your mobile app is going to be awesome. But chances are version 1.0 of your mobile app is going to suck just like version 1.0 of your website sucked. You remember that pile of garbage? For most of us, the first version of our website was crappy (remember “brochureware?”), and the same has been true with mobile apps which often just look like an advertisement for the company’s website or desktop application.

At the early stages of development, when you’re making mistakes, a website is more beneficial than a highly personal and intrusive mobile application that a user elects to install and keep on their phone. If you do create a half-assed mobile app (likely at the beginning), even if it’s a short term experiment, it can do long term damage to your brand. Is it worth it?

Does your opinion of other applications decrease when they don’t have a mobile version? – While a crappy mobile app can do damage to your brand, the lack of one will probably not affect your brand at all, unless it’s critical to your application that you have a mobile component.

Do you need a mobile app or just a mobile-optimized website? – If what you’re trying to do is create a mobile app for your content site, wouldn’t it be better just to create a mobile-optimized website rather than a whole new mobile app?

Do you have access to great developer talent in mobile? – This is a critical issue. If you don’t have the access to talent you’re going to either have to hire a recruiter, spend time looking through tech job boards, cull through resumes, and conduct interviews.

Do you know how to gauge a mobile developer’s talent? – If you’ve never built a mobile app before, or haven’t spent time in that world, your ability to judge talent will be suspect and that unfortunately is going to hurt you down the line.

Are you ready to find the talent and spend the time and money to develop across multiple mobile platforms: iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone? – The advantage of a web app or desktop app is you don’t have to build across multiple platforms. Even if you’re developing a desktop application, a single PC application will reach 90 percent of your audience. Not the case with mobile. If you want that kind of reach you’ll have to develop across three different application environments. And unfortunately, “build once, run everywhere” was only the promise of Java. It doesn’t work across multiple platforms and it doesn’t work even within Android with its multiple versions across multiple handsets with different functionality and different screen sizes.

Watch my interview with Lino Tadros, CEO of Falafel Software talking about developing across multiple platforms.

Are you willing to spend the money to reach the audience you want? - You need to develop across all these different platforms to get the effective reach you want, plus you’ll have to spend money marketing your application and convincing people to install it on their device.

Before you ask the “What are we doing in mobile?” question, make sure you’ve answered all these above questions first. Mobile is not just the flavor of the day, it’s a major business decision that has new costs and risks associated with it just like anything else.

Creative Commons photo attributions to Kevin Lim (inju), Robert Occhialini (bump), Judy Breck, marcopako.

End of Show Recap: Silicon Valley Code Camp

David Spark — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:25:06 +0000

Silicon Valley Code Camp has concluded and it’s been a huge success. Close to 2,000 people came to sit and learn in more than 196 sessions about coding or sessions of interest to coders.

Didn’t have a chance to come? Not to worry, I have a short summary with some of the highlights. Check it out, and make sure you register for next year’s event.

For more videos from Silicon Valley Code Camp, check out the “Dice Out Loud” YouTube channel and join Dice’s Facebook page. And for career news and advice in tech, read Dice News.

Co-Hosting TWiT’s “Tech News Today”: Video in the Toilet

David Spark — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:38:44 +0000

On Wednesday I got a chance to co-host “Tech News Today” with Becky Worley. It was a really fun episode. I got a lot of nice props from the people in the chat room. Why is the episode called “Video in the toilet?” Watch the episode for my big reveal. Watch.

APPNATION Conference: End of show recap

David Spark — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 22:03:00 +0000

At the end of the APPNATION Conference in San Francisco, I shot a wrap up piece summarizing a short list of the highlights at the conference. One big takeaway: A lot of people are looking for developers.