Category Archives: Mobile applications
Guest Post: Top ways to make the BlackBerry fun
by Muhammad Azam, a professional writer and gadget enthusiastic
A BlackBerry phone is all work and no fun. Or it was at least when the company launched its series of handsets quite some years back onto the market. Now that there so many apps and the games available on the market, isn’t it time that you converted your smartphone into something fun as well? Using the right BlackBerry apps and games will make it fun for you even when in the office. The device which was originally targeted as a workaholic tool is no longer the same. The Black Berry market has extended beyond just email terminals and RIM has targeted the BlackBerry towards teenagers and the people who have not started work yet. They can still make use of BlackBerry phones to connect to the world over Wi-Fi and a 3G network, of course. Continue reading
ARM security innovation for smartphones and e-commerce
UK chip maker ARM has jointly developed a new security standard for smartphones that by-passes the need for other devices like bank card readers and secure ID tags, while also also allowing content to be shared more easily between handsets.
Trustonic, a venture with partners Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient, has been in gestation since April this year and is said to allow the new security standard to be incorporated into every level of a smartphone, from the chip and OS through to applications. Continue reading
Revolutionary messaging app, ZMS, confuses GoMo
Rating: it’s nothing to do with SMS
When the authors of the ZMS app for Android and iOS , inZair, described the product as, “Set to revolutionise smartphone messaging,” – they managed to confuse us here at GoMobile Towers. We thought the product (because of the name) was revolutionising the text/SMS market. The blurb talked about ZMS users specifying the time and/or the location that recipients receive their text, picture, video or voice messages. Initially, we thought that would enable us to trigger an SMS when we reached a particular venue, for example. Sadly, this ability only applies to those with the app loaded and the app creates a ‘ZMS’ rather than an SMS or MMS. Continue reading
Guest Post: Mobile tools that increase business productivity
by Pearlie Davis, a staff writer for Andgeeksh
Today’s business owners need to be mobile in order to help their businesses grow and run more smoothly. That means working out of the office—and that means they need to connect back to the office when they’re on the road, travelling, and dealing with staff and clients half way around the globe using mobile tools. The days of business filing away paper documents and meeting one-on-one with clients and contractors to conduct business are long gone. The current business landscape demands that businesses be mobile –as far as browsing, shopping, buying, meeting and marketing goes. So here are four mobile tools that effectively increase business productivity – on the fly. Continue reading
Antenna makes mobile app development more Open
Rating: Latest version of AMPchroma uses Java, HTML5 & others
It appears thatAntenna Software has recognised the changing scenery in the mobile app sector and has moved to makes its platform more ‘Open’. To this end, the company has introduced an open client that enables app developers to deploy applications built with standard languages and third-party development tools. Antenna’s own native cross-platform mobile development environment now supports Java, and is available to Antenna customers for free. The move is intended to sustain Antenna’s place as the leading mobile application development platform for enterprises. It quotes Gartner Research’s Magic Quadrant for mobile application development platforms here to substantiate this claim. Continue reading
Guest Post: What responsive web design doesn’t fix
Improving mobile web access Part III
by Geoff Dennis – director with Insight Manufacturing & blogger on Swuse.com
In my previous article ‘Guest Post: Improving mobile web access – Responsive Web Design‘ I described how, using Responsive Web Design (RWD), a single web site solution can be developed for a multitude of formats. It automatically re-sizes its layout and content according to device-specific parameters such as screen width. The approach has many benefits which are outlined below. Continue reading
Fiksu launches Android beta of FreeMyApps
Rating: Reckons Android community will ramp up fast
Following up on its very obvious success in the iOS world – where users drove 1,000 per cent growth in 2012, Fiksu has just released a beta version of its FreeMyApps app for Android users. Potential testers should go to the FreeMyApps site here to download the program and side load it onto their Android handset. The full version is expected out on Google Play later in December [2012]. What this app does – in addition to app discovery, is reward users for actually downloading and trying out an app. Hence Fiksu believes the Android FreeMyApps community will ramp up quickly as the hundreds of thousands of current FreeMyApps users on iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches will be able to do cross-platform social sharing. Continue reading
Jumio’s payment technology used by mobile startups
Rating: Built into forthcoming Drinksquare app
Payment technology is becoming increasingly important as developers struggle to monetise their mobile apps. Which is probably the reason why specialist mobile payments and ID verification company, Jumio, has been able to announce that some 20 new European and US based companies have signed up with it in this quarter (Q4 2012). It’s not just mobile web sites that can utilise Jumio’s technology, mobile apps can do so too. Continue reading
Guest Post: Don’t Panic – new smartphone apps for natural disaster survival
by Jay Acker, who works with US-based Safety Services Company
There’s an app for almost everything these days, including staying alive in an emergency. Within the last year, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross have developed free full-featured smartphone apps to help users prepare for and survive a natural disaster, taking full advantage of the portability, interactivity and connectivity of a smartphone. Continue reading
MACH helps make it easier for German kids to purchase apps
Rating: GlobalCharge provides operator billing to its app developers
There’s blithe assumption that the ‘unbanked’ amongst smartphone users are all citizens of developing countries. Overlooking the fact that young kids have neither credit or debit cards with which to buy apps or make in-app purchases. That problem disappears with MACH’s direct operator billing service. This has just been made available to some 80 million German mobile subscribers across all the major German networks thanks to a tie up with micro payments specialist, GlobalCharge. By allowing charges to be made directly to an end-user’s mobile phone bill (contract or prepaid), GlobalCharge’s clients can broaden their customer reach and creating new revenue streams from their mobile apps or content. Continue reading
madvertise finds developers charge iPad owners more for apps
Rating: Something to do with them being generally young & wealthy
Major insights into European mobile app market are being offered in the the latest madreport from madvertise – one of the largest mobile audience targeting platforms in Europe. Key findings include the fact that there are more than three times the amount of iPhone apps available to download compared to the iPad. That’s despite the fact that over 100 million iPads have been sold to date, with iPhone sales coming in only a fraction higher at 108 million. However, despite less units being sold, the iPad actually has a higher percentage of paid apps. So it’s expensive to own an iPad – that’s official. Continue reading
Ad blocking software causes stir in mobile industry
Adverts on smartphones and other roaming devices could become obsolete under plans by the firm behind the world’s most downloaded online ad-blocking software to launch a mobile version of its product.
Tomorrow [27th November 2012] Eyeo – developer of AdBlock Plus – will launch a version of its popular program for Android phones in a move that is likely to cause major headaches for the rapidly-growing mobile advertising industry. Continue reading
Guest Post: Improvements in mobile web access & what’s driving them
by Geoff Dennis – director with Insight Manufacturing & blogger on Swuse.com
Mobile devices come with a variety of screen sizes and resolutions, far more varied than those in use with desktop computers.To deliver web content at an acceptable resolution for reading on a mobile device, the standard approach for a long time was to determine what device type it is such as iPhone 3GS. Next, look up the properties of this device in a database, and deliver content in a form that would seem to be the best fit to those properties. With such a wide variety of devices to cater for, testing that the content is displayed properly is constrained to the most popular devices in use at any given time. Continue reading
3UK claims highest number of smartphone customers
Rating: Useful data on apps and mobile internet usage, too
The nice cosy chat with 3UK which GoMobile News enjoyed with 3K was literally peppered with info and stats which are pertinent to our readers. Our personal favourite was when CEO, Dave Dyson revealed Top Ten apps which 3UK customers actually use, which might not necessarily be the ones you might have expected. Some of these apps are slightly skewered by the kind of service which 3UK actually provides. For example, the operator has long provided access to Skype via the switched network as well as via the mobile internet. However, they are probably a fairly accurate reflection of the behaviour of UK mobile users in general. Other items of interest are comparisons between the UK operators Home pages and the percentage of customers who already possess a smartphone rather than just a featurephone. Continue reading
GoMo applies today for MWC 2013 admission
Rating: Yup, the registration process has now opened
Historically, the GSMA always used to delay the registration process for media representatives for a while after regular attendees were allowed to register their interest in attending its flagship event – the Mobile World Congress. However, this is not the case with MWC Barcelona 2013. The registration process opened for absolutely everyone today [November 13th 2012]. Press need to go here. GoMobile News would urge all of its readers to register as soon as possible because this is very definitely a not-to-be-missed event and regarded by many as the place to be if you even remotely regard yourself as a shaker and mover in the mobile/cellular world. Continue reading
