Studio: first app crits

Folks,

Tomorrow and most Tuesdays from here on out, we will review and offer feedback on your app projects. In this first round of crits, I would like to hear you describe your projects in the same categories you used for your written proposals: 
  • Title
  • Tagline
  • Audience
  • Problem
  • Solution
  • Existing Solutions
Also, I would like to see some low fidelity prototypes -- just pencil or pen on paper would be fine. You can show these on the overhead projector in class.

As we continue through the semester, I expect the low fidelity prototypes to get higher fidelity (moving toward storyboards, powerpoint, screen caps, and demos on emulators), and I expect stronger comparisons to existing solutions, if any.

Remember, these crits are graded, and in sum (you will do a few before semester end) will make up 10% of your final grade.

Because of the late notice, I am asking for 2-3 volunteer groups to present tomorrow. I will be especially generous with these volunteers. I will be a bit less generous if I have to ask specific groups to go up (though still generous).

Best,

Ben

Find: Video: BlackBerry PlayBook will “support Android apps”

Would be smart of rim if true. 

Find: It's unofficial: dedicated gaming devices may be losing out to phones

Phones are replacing portable consoles. 

Find: Apple works to keep its design genius

Johnny Ives thinking of leaving apple. 

Find: NVIDIA, ARM, Tegra 3, and Beyond

Nvidia and the future of CPUs and gpus. 

Find: Apple's holding an iPad 2 event on March 2nd ((finds, devices))


Find: Visualized: Android activations mapped geographically, chronologically, breathtakingly (video)

Kinda cool but needs context. 

GoTriangle Data Warehouse/ 3rd Party Apps with Students

Triangle transit api.

Find: Microsoft Research teases Windows Phones controlling Surfaces and crazy desktop UIs

Hey, look, at this point, we just want ourselves some good, old-fashioned copy and paste -- but we'll give Microsoft some credit for looking a year (or two, or ten) beyond that watermark at what could be coming down the pike for human-machine interaction -- and specifically, how phones could play a role. In a presentation and promotional video pulled together this week, Microsoft Research boss Craig Mundie shows how you could tilt your smartphone to control a bubbly, colorful look into your personal life on your desktop machine and how you could snap a photo and then drop the handset onto a Surface for instant transfer (perhaps a bit like HP's Touch to Share), among other gems. Of course, this is all pure research at this point -- it's any guess whether these comments could make the jump to production, and if so, when -- but it's fun to watch. Follow the break for video.

[Thanks, Jake]

Continue reading Microsoft Research teases Windows Phones controlling Surfaces and crazy desktop UIs

Microsoft Research teases Windows Phones controlling Surfaces and crazy desktop UIs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMobileTechWorld  | 

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Find: Developer Preview of Mac OS X Lion

Closing the loop: os x to iOS to os x. Will we dumb down our pcs? 

Find: Everything that can go wrong with Windows Phone 7 update does

Ms blows it with 1st wp7 update. Very bad start.

Find: wp7 teams inspiration

From ny subway maps to movies to ui. 

Find: Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK now available

|||
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Find: Windows 8 preparing for a beta tablet release at September PDC?

Ms plans to use win for tablets, not win phone. 

Finds: Australia's Jetstar Airways takes the training wheels off iPad rental program

Here's a quick and easy way to escape the mediocrity of those tiny low-res LCDs embedded in the seat in front of you: slap down 10 Australian dollars and upgrade to the iPad's IPS goodness for the duration of your Jetstar Airways flight. This rental option has been available on the Australian airline's flights since June, but only in pilot form (insert your own jokes here), and the feedback has been good enough for the company to make it a fleet-wide policy. "Movies, music, magazines, books and games" will all come preloaded, so you shouldn't fret about having to shell out extra hunting around for content. Licensing agreements are expected to be finalized shortly, with the rental program rolling out in full this April.

Australia's Jetstar Airways takes the training wheels off iPad rental program, wants the tablet 'on every aircraft' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW, CrunchGear  |  sourceAustralian Business Traveller  | Email this | Comments

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Finds: Apple maintains lead in mobile app store revenues, but its share is shrinking fast

Growth. You don't have to be Gordon Gekko to recognize that exponential growth in revenues is the mark of both a buoyant industry and, on an individual level, a healthy participant within it. Kudos must, therefore, be handed out to all the top four app stores globally, as each one expended its total revenues by over 130 percent between 2009 and 2010. Interestingly, Apple's growth looks to be slowing down as the App Store begins to reach a saturation point on smartphones, while Nokia's Ovi Store and Google's Android Market blossomed during 2010 by multiples of 7.2 and 8.6 times their 2009 size. Apple's share at the top has shrunken as a consequence, a trend that looks likely to continue when Windows Phone 7's Marketplace and the Ovi Store are melded into one through this year and beyond.

Apple maintains lead in mobile app store revenues, but its share is shrinking fast originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink All About Symbian  |  sourceCNET  | Email this | Comments

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Find: Nokia giving developers free E7 and Nokia WP7 handsets

Nokia's fighting an uphill battle to retain its community of developers as it switches focus to Windows Phone and Microsoft's Windows Phone Developer Tools from what was a joint Symbian / MeeGo smartphone strategy unified under the Qt development framework. As such, Espoo just notified its Launchpad members that they'll be receiving about $1,000 in free hardware in the form of Nokia's new flagship E7 QWERTY slider and a "Nokia WP7 device" just as soon as it's available. Nokia's also tossing in a few other incentives like free access to the next Nokia World / Nokia Developer Summit, three months free tech support for all Nokia technologies (limited to 10 tickets), a free User Experience evaluation for one app, business development assistance, and help publishing apps on the Ovi store. This is also great news for us as the chance of seeing leaked pics of that first Nokia WP7 device have just increased dramatically.
Nokia giving developers free E7 and Nokia WP7 handsets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 07:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Find: Adéu, Barcelona: Mobile World Congress 2011 is over

Find: inPulse smartwatch turns programmable

What would u do with a smartwatch? Ben. 

Finds: The Motorola Atrix 4G Preview

Anand says phones will be better than low end desktops in a few years. Ben. 

Lecture: user context (updated)

Next Thursday we will consider the usage context for mobile devices. Please read the following papers in preparation, and submit reactions at the Moodle:
  • Agathe Battestini, Vidya Setlur, and Timothy Sohn. 2010. A large scale study of text-messaging use. In Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Human computer interaction with mobile devices and services (MobileHCI '10). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 229-238. 
  • Timothy Sohn, Kevin A. Li, William G. Griswold, and James D. Hollan. 2008. A diary study of mobile information needs. In Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '08). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 433-442. 
If you have the time, you may also wish to check out the following papers:
Updated: my notes are online here.

Studio: finalizing the details of your projects

Hey folks,

On Tuesday I'll spend a few minutes with each team to finalize the details of your projects. When you're not talking with me, please feel free to do your reading for Thursday, or background work for your projects.

Visitors aside, our future weeks will have this pattern: one lecture with readings, one studio day, in which a group presents its progress.

Best,

Ben


Find: Intel Shows Off MeeGo Tablet User Experience

More details on meego. I don't see a lot of innovation here. Ben. 

NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra, "Kal-El"

Nvidia tegra 3 as fast as core 2 duo (my new MacBook air). Others begin to think about arm on desktops. Ben. 

Lecture: more on the devices

Hey folks,


Today I'll finish the lecture on devices. I've organized some of the images from last time, with a few new ones, here.


Best,


Ben

Find: Near-Field Communication

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Find: The Wristwatch Looks For a New Use ))

Do any of u wear watches? Probably not. So what should go on your wrist? This article has interesting ideas. Maybe an extra, accessible display for phones? Ben. 

Finds: early preview of Intel's MeeGo tablet UI

Not enough innovation here to create an ecosystem. Ben. 

Find: the Honeycomb features coming to Ice Cream: action bar, 'hologram' visual style

Honeycomb is Android for tablets. Ice Cream is the next version of Android for phones. Here we learn how they will converge. Ben.

Find: Warner packages movies as iOS apps

I think movies and TV shows should all be apps. Ben.

Find: Webbox gives internet access to the developing world

Kinda cool! Should be cheaper tho. Ben. 

Find: LG Optimus 3D's OMAP 4 benchmarked, pulls ahead of Exynos and Tegra 2

A nice comparison of three leading SoCs. Ben.

Find: Texas Instruments shows off minuscule nHD Pico projector chipset

These will be on lots of phones in about two years, I think. Ben.

Find: an Android version primer

Short but sweet. Ben.

Find: Qualcomm's ultrasonic pen

Ultrasonic tracking no special paper needed. Ben. 

Find: Rhapsody won't bow to Apple's subscription policy

Birthing pains in the new online software retailing market. Ben.

Find: NVIDIA announces quad-core Kal-El SOC

Tegra 3 quad core in August displays more than hd. 

Find: Nokia and Microsoft: good for Finland, risky for Redmond

A thoughtful piece about microkia. Nutshell: nokia phone hardware expertise and ms software expertise are a good match. But if nokia customizes too much it will damage the wp7 ecosystem, which would be bad for ms. 
I think bad for ecosystem would be bad for nokia too. Long-term, if wp7 succeeds, how will nokia build its value and differentiate from other hardware makers like htc samsung lg? I see two possibilities: at the high end, by getting better at wp7 smartphones, and by pioneering the low end smartphone with international expertise. Ben. 

Find: Call it "3G" or "4G," America's wireless networks are still slow

A nice review of 4g tech: us will still be slower than many others. Ben. 

Find: Qualcomm unveils next-gen Snapdragon: quad-core 2.5GHz CPU

Not one to let the name Snapdragon down, Qualcomm's gone and announced a much faster generation of the processor family, with speeds up to 2.5GHz per core. The multi-core (one, two, and four) 28nm chipsets, codenamed Krait, will feature WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and FM, support NFC and stereoscopic 3D video / photo (capture and playback), and also boast multi-mode LTE modem integration. Qualcomm claims a performance increase of 150 percent and a power consumption drop of 65 percent over current ARM-based CPU cores. Included is a new Adreno 320 GPU with support of up to four 3D cores. Samples for the dual-core MSM8960 will be avialable in second quarter this year, while single-core MSM8930 and quad-core APQ8063 (for "computing and entertainment devices" -- i.e. tablets) versions are coming early 2012. The power-crazed products housing these chipsets? You'll have to wait even longer to see those.

Qualcomm unveils next-gen Snapdragon family, including quad-core 2.5GHz CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceQualcomm  | Email this | Comments

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Find: Synaptics ClearPad 3250 capacitive touchscreen

New touchscreen tech works w lcds, not just oled. Ben. 

Find: Open Letter from CEO Stephen Elop, Nokia and CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

The official announcement of the ms/nokia deal. Ben. 

Find: Near Field Communications: a technology primer

Nice primer on NFC. Essentially it's improved RFID. Ben. 

Find: Google details low-level Renderscript API for Honeycomb

There's no question that Honeycomb tablets like the Xoom are powerful pieces of hardware, and it looks like Google will be doing its best to ensure that developers are able to exploit as much of that power as possible. A big piece of that puzzle is the company's Renderscript API for the OS, which it's just now starting to detail in full. The big advantage there is that it's a low-level API designed especially for developers who are "comfortable working closer to the metal," which will let applications built with it (including games) take full advantage of the high-end GPUs and dual-core processors found in Honeycomb tablets. What's more, while the API is just now being made public, it's already been put to use in Honeycomb by Google itself -- both the YouTube and Books apps, and the live wallpapers shipping with the first Honeycomb tablets were created with the help of it. Head on past the break for another quick example -- a brute force physics simulation that involves 900 particles titling with the tablet -- and look for Google to provide some additional technical information and sample code sometime soon.

Continue reading Google details low-level Renderscript API for Honeycomb

Google details low-level Renderscript API for Honeycomb originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAndroid Developers Blog  | Email this | ...

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Find: The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

The playstation phone arrives. Ben. 

Find: Jon Rubinstein and Steven McArthur talk webOS

We had a chance to sit down with HP's Jon Rubinstein and SVP of applications and services Steven McArthur just after the company's device-filled event yesterday, and the conversation was rather revealing. Besides being extremely upfront about some tough issues (timing, legacy support), both execs were more than willing to tackle questions about HP's current deficiencies in the consumer electronics space. We've put together a rough transcript of the chat below, and it touches on a lot of issues currently facing HP and its user base -- namely, developer support, future versions of webOS, where the company is headed with devices, and what the overarching strategy will be in the coming weeks and months. We highly suggest you take a look... after the break.

Find: Nokia and Microsoft enter alliance

Nokia hardware and ms software. Could be good. What will make it better than....? Ben. 

Find: RIP: Symbian

This slide was just presented by Stephen Elop and Nokia CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, at Nokia's Capital Markets Day. Although there's no date listed, it's clear that Symbian -- a "franchise" OS that Nokia will "harvest" -- will be wholly consumed by Windows Phone on Nokia devices just as soon as Nokia and Microsoft can complete the transition. It won't be immediate, but it seems like 2012 will be the year that Nokia pulls the cord on life support. Regardless of the actual date, who in their right minds would invest their development time or consumer dollars in a smartphone OS that has no future within the company? One more slide showing the post-Symbian reductions in R&D spending after the break.

Continue reading RIP: Symbian

RIP: Symbian originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Find: Nokia/Microsoft video

Wow, we have to hand it those Nokia social media types, they're on top of their game. A mere couple of hours after Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer took the stage in London, the video of their joint announcement of a Nokia-Microsoft partnership is up and ready for repeated consumption. For those of you just catching up now, Windows Phone 7 has become Nokia's "principal smartphone strategy," MeeGo is getting transformed into an experimental "learning" platform, and Symbian... well, maybe you should sit down for this one, Symbian's being killed off. There's more to the strategic alliance unveiled today, including the WP7 Marketplace subsuming the Ovi Store and some Bing and Ovi Maps interaction, so why not press play above and let the men in charge tell you about it?
Nokia posts video of Microsoft partnership announcement online originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Find: iTunes salvation: Roman Catholic Church approves Confession app

Umm. Next, automated priest machines? 

Find: IDC says 100.9M smartphones sold in fourth quarter, PCs outsold for first time

In case you had any lingering doubt that the smartphone is the new personal computer, just take a glance at IDC's new global smartphone sales numbers for the fourth quarter of 2010 where we learn that some 100.9 million units were pushed in the three-month period -- up a whopping 87.9 percent year over year. That figure compares to 92.1 million PCs sold during the same quarter, which, though a record for the PC industry, was left in the dust of the smartphone's stratospheric rise. This marks the very first quarter in history that smartphones have outsold traditional computers -- and considering the trajectories that both industries are in, we'd be surprised if they ever flip-flopped again. If anything, IDC and other analysis firms might need to readjust the nomenclature in their reports in a few years if (or when) convergence platforms like the Atrix 4G with its Laptop Dock start to gain traction. Of course, to Bill Gates and others, this technological cross-pollination comes as no surprise -- and really, who can argue with a handheld that's packing PC power?

Update: It's also worth pointing out that IDC is still calling Symbian "the market leader" seemingly discounting Canalys' assertion that Android has overtaken Nokia's smartphone OS globally. Guess it all depends upon how your define "smartphone," eh?

IDC says 100.9M smartphones sold in fourth quarter, PCs outsold for first time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink...

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Find: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop rallies troops in brutally honest 'burning platform' memo?

Elops diagnosis is correct. How about feb 10's medicine? Ben. 

HP Pre 3: overdue webos phone update

Looks good. Still needs critical mass. Ben. 

Find: HP's 9.7-inch TouchPad: webOS 3.0 tablet

There she is, the HP TouchPad. It's the webOS slate we've been yearning for ever since probing (then) Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein on our first-ever Engadget Show, but sadly, it looks as if HP has yanked any and all Palm labeling from the final product. Introduced today in San Francisco as part of a newfangled webOS triumvirate, the TouchPad (previously known by Topaz) is shaped almost exactly like the iPad. It tips the scales at 1.6 pounds and measures 13.7mm thick, which is somewhat of a downer for those already put off by the heft found in Apple's slate. As we'd heard last month, HP's shipping this one with its own Beats audio engine, Touch-to-Share (a feature that lets users easily transfer a website, document, song, text or call from the phone to the tablet -- or vice versa -- simply by tapping the two devices together) and a huge reliance on the cloud. Also of note, Jon just mentioned that this is only the "first in the webOS TouchPad family," hinting that the Opal may be just around the bend.

Other specifications include webOS 3.0, "true multitasking," Touch-to-share, instant-on productivity, a 9.7-inch display (1024 x 768 screen resolution), a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon CPU (!), inbuilt gyroscope, accelerometer, compass and 16GB / 32GB of internal storage space. There's also a front-facing 1.3 megapixel webcam, support for video calling, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, A-GPS (3G model only), "twice the memory of a Pre 2" and a set of stereo speakers. Rubenstein claims that this here tablet is "screaming fast," and the software UI we're seeing looks downright luscious. There's a new paneled email application a Growl-like pop-up notification system, support...

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Find: Obama plan to free up 500MHz of spectrum, invest in 4G for rural areas, and build out nationwide public safety network

US getting more mobile. Ben.

Find: HP TouchPad vs. iPad vs. Xoom vs. PlayBook

At last, the webOS-empowered TouchPad, HP's answer to the growing tablet market. And make no mistake, it's coming in with guns blazing -- specs-wise, the slate stands up pretty well to the competition currently in play (e.g. iPad) and the other up-and-comers not quite out the gate (e.g. Motorola Xoom and BlackBerry PlayBook). Stacked side-by-side, it's clear Apple's entry is lacking a bit in both memory (256MB vs. 1GB for everyone else) and front-facing camera -- not that we expect that to be the case for all of 2011. When it all comes down to it, what'll set these slates apart will be the platforms and software themselves -- should make for an interesting summer, no? In the meantime, for the nitty-gritty on technical specifications, venture past the break.

Continue reading HP TouchPad vs. iPad vs. Xoom vs. PlayBook: the tale of the tape

HP TouchPad vs. iPad vs. Xoom vs. PlayBook: the tale of the tape originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Find: HP posts complete 'Think Beyond' event video

It may not have provided a live stream, but HP has at least quickly turned around a complete video of today's nearly two hour-long "Think Beyond" event in San Francisco. Head on past the break to see the announcements of the TouchPad, Pre 3 and Veer as they happened, along with few other surprises. Unfortunately for those watching at home, it seems HP wasn't able to think beyond 360p.
Continue reading HP posts complete 'Think Beyond' event video
HP posts complete 'Think Beyond' event video originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Find: webOS Enyo framework brings pixel density agnostic apps to phones, tablets and PC

Hmm. How is this different from apples web apps fail? Vectors? Ben. 

Find: Monopoly Live adds a nagging, money counting computer

Seems game helper is a good idea. What? No cheating in monopoly? Anti-capitalist! Ben. 

Lecture: mobile device basics

Folks,


Prof. Healey will again fill in Thursday, with a lecture on mobile device basics. You can find the lecture notes here. Many of the sources for these notes are available through our mobile wiki.


Again, there are no readings for this week.


Best,


Ben

Studio: presenting more project ideas

Folks,

Tomorrow evening your project ideas are due on the moodle. In class
Tuesday I'll ask those of you who haven't already done so to present
one of your ideas to the class for feedback.

Chris Healey will be sitting in for me this week.

Best, Ben.

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Find: official Goog hcomb video


Find: EyeSight gesture api on Android & Windows

Is this the co that did kinect tech?

Find: Nokia R&D spending, almost 3 times its peers

Where's the payoff? Ben. 

Find: AMD new top of line mobile gpu


Studio: deeper with app ideas

Folks,


We'll be working harder on our app ideas today. I've got all your ideas from before collated here, along with some new ones.


I have also put the problems we organized with Art Swanson online here. Some of those were hard to read, so I put attached them below.


Best,


Ben

Lecture: design methods

In this lecture we talked about design method: design as an iterative process, and the various stages of that process, as well as what can be done in each of those stages. My notes are online here. I also spent a great deal of time digging up resources referencing design process and adding them to our mobiles wiki.

Find: Google unveils Android 3.0, new Web-based Market

Official hcomb release. Ben

Lecture: a bit more ideation, and design method (updated)

Hey folks,

Today we'll be talking about design method in detail. You can find my notes on the topic here. If time permits, we'll also go over more of our shared app ideas.

Best,

Ben

Homework: project proposal

Hey folks,


Your first homework assignment is out: your project proposal. It's due in one week.


Best,


Ben