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Thursday, May 23, 2013

App tips and tricks for developers in 2013

Anton Faulconbridge of RantMedia writes:

2013 promises to be an exciting year for the app industry. With the number of smartphone users almost on par with laptop, desktop and tablet users, this is a crucial time for app developers to bring fresh and innovative material to the table.

Whilst many industries are drying out, the smartphone technology sector continues to flourish and a wave of app developers who sit up and take notice of new trends are likely to do well compared with slapdash competitors. Let’s take a look at some savvy tips and tricks to stay ahead of the game in 2013.

1. Flat design matters

You know those skeuomorphic designs which try to replicate real life as much as possible?  Yeahh. Don’t do that. If you’re wondering what the heck skeuomorphic stands for, it’s basically a design interface which aims to look exactly like real-life counterparts. For example, the notes app on the iPhone is designed to replicate a real note book and comes complete with a lined paper and a border design.

These old fuddy duddy designs are slowly being driven out by a new wave of ‘flat design’ interfaces which are minimalist, functional and altogether more sophisticated.

2. Take advantage of push notifications & location

One trick mobile app developers don’t want to miss is integration of location services and push notifications. Of course, GPS and push notifications are old news in their tradigital sense, but used in new ways can provide a more targeted service.

Push notifications which alert the user without the app being opened are a great tool for pushing your app, one example being social media notifications such as retweets, new followers and likes.

When you have a high number of apps on your smartphone device it’s easy to forget they are there. Location services are useful in this way, for example if a user lives in Cardiff and is signed up to a deals website, they could receive push notifications about deals in the area.

3. Buttons are old news

Whilst we may never tire of that 2005 Chemical Brothers album, Push the Button, we’re eight years on and it’s time to revolutionise the way we use buttons, at least in an app sense.

There are many ways to enhance the user experience and move away from usual button methods, multi-touch functions such as swipe and pinch will give your app an edge. The main challenge for an app developer is to incorporate new techniques without taking away from the user experience.

4. Quality takes time

Getting your app to the top of the app store list is no easy feat, it’s a saturated market out there. Producing high quality apps is one sure fire way to stand out from the crowd and get noticed. Although there are costs and extra time involved in producing high quality apps, this increases your potential of being popular with users and the chance of a worthwhile ROI.

Anton Faulconbridge is the director of RantMedia, an app development agency in Cardiff. Anton divides his time between training up app developers in Cardiff and sharing advice with the World Wide Web!
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Opinion Articles

A Sure Signal from Vodafone

Mark Bridge writes:

Today I've been using my mobile phone at home. For many people that’s not an unusual thing to do – but it is for me because, around here, coverage indoors isn’t particularly good. Downstairs it’s previously been non-existent. But this morning everything changed.

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Physician uses cell phones to bring health care to the poor

Natalia Ardanza of voanews.com writes:

In Africa there is another use for mobile phones. Public Health workers in Kenya are now using mobile phones to gather health information from patients in remote areas and upload it to the internet for instant analysis at distant centers. And it is all happening thanks to Dr Joel Selanikio.

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Making dumb touchscreen phones was a smart move

Mark Bridge writes:

I remember a report from last year that said ‘non-smart’ touchscreen handsets – generally those without a popular operating system – would be bad news for mobile operators.

Conventional touchscreen smartphones tended to result in higher-than-average ARPU thanks to their early-adopting tech-loving users, their web-friendly browsers, their email programs, their app-friendly operating systems and their fast 3G connectivity. However, dumber touchscreen devices – those with a manufacturer’s own proprietary OS and perhaps a clumsier browser – could generate 23% less ARPU than smarter phones. So, if touchscreen dumbphones weren’t good for networks… and weren’t really good for consumers either… manufacturers wouldn’t really bother with them. Right?

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"Hello Nexus One" I say...

James Rosewell writes:

Mark’s been encouraging me to write an opinion piece on the Nexus One for the last few days and I’m finally putting fingers to keyboard to share my experiences. It’s taken so long because this phone has so many features. On a positive note I could go into details about the gorgeous screen, the Android Marketplace that will out-sell Apple’s over the next 18 months, the built-in satellite navigation service and the speedy processor that makes everything run smoothly in real time. Or on a less positive note, the touch screen keyboard that sucks (think carefully about this if you’re a heavy texter or emailer, it’s even worse than the original iPhone), the lack of ActiveSync for Calendars and Tasks, no support for WMA music files or the clunky zoom functions on the web browser.

However I’m going to focus on voice dictation. Nexus One is the first phone I’ve used with this feature.

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The Amazon Kindle prepares to fight the Apple iPhone and Tablet

Mark Bridge writes:

Here’s a curious thing. Firstly, Amazon creates the Kindle. It starts selling the Kindle in the USA with a mobile deal that lets users download electronic books and newspapers wherever they are. Then it starts selling the Kindle to us in the UK, although – hang on a moment – it’s not talking about a UK mobile deal. Instead it still seems to be ‘roaming’ from the AT&T network. Next comes the larger-screen Kindle DX – also roaming away when it reaches our shores. And now Amazon is talking about third-party downloadable applications for the Kindle. Yes, a mobile device with downloadable apps. Hold that thought; I’ll be returning to it.

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