Nintendo 3DS

Most of posts before, I have been talking about mobile devices related to Tablets or Phones, however there are another important branch into this market, and this is Nintendo with its DS and Sony with its PSP, among the most important.

This post will talk about the released characteristics that will come bundled with the renew Nintendo 3DS.

Three Hot Tables To Come

Recently, I talked about the presentation of the Blackberry Playbook, now I will summarize the characteristics of those three tables that are going to lead the market and the must have for all others. Here we go:

BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM strikes back

Research In Motion (aka RIM) has shown the new BlackBerry playbook, the first tablet of RIM and that is quite the competition of the iPad but with the professional markets in mind.

The hardware device in question promises a lot, with a dual-core processor at 1GHz (Cortex A9), 1GB of RAM, and a 7-inch screen. The operating system is "completely new", called BlackBerry Tablet OS, developed by the people of QNX. Here is a demonstration video:

iAd as good expending platform.

iAd is a mobile advertising platform, linked to IOS 4, which belongs to Apple, and against other offers such as AdMob Google, rather than be a banner with a web link that takes us out of the application, is just a mini application coded in HTML5 + CSS + JavaScript that allows interactive advertising within the applications, and is a good source of income for free or cheap applications cost.

This platform is already running a few months and seen some success stories that have made it profitable to see it, concluding several means that, in principle, iAd is a success.

PayWave on iPhone

Visa has a system called PayWave that allows "contactless payments" using a special card that "wave" on a reader device that accepts payment, without touching or insert on it. Now the same technology is being tested using iPhones in New York, specifically, in the subways of New York.

Well, like other wireless systems, is based on RFID technology using an special microSD memory card, enabling the use of other phones, not just iPhones. People who receive these payments from Visa are also on the subway, on the bus, and thousands of taxis in New York.

As the video shows, it will be necessary unlock the iPhone, open the application, pepare the pay and then move close to the "reader", here is an example:

App Store Functionality Rules

Few weeks ago, Apple released a guide to what we must or must not to do in order to ensure that any application submitted for the App Store become approved. This guide, simple and very close in wording, sets those parameters to be taken into account, and also to be aware of the latest changes in policies and restrictions that have happened in the App Store since the beginning of September.

Open Feint

OpenFeint is Aurora Feint's project and effort to become a popular company that boost the development of games for Android mobile devices, thus wanting to take lead turning the game market on Android into quality games.

iPhone has established as a great platform for mobile entertainment. Meanwhile Android comes  far away with very little attempts to turn the video game market in the SO Google more formal. OpenFeint, the developer for mobile platforms promises to bring a lot of popular games to Android. According to Jason Citron, CEO of Aurora Feint (creators of the project OpenFeint):

Mittratter - Source Code

Ok, the Compilated App has been released here: Mittratter and its post related: http://mittrasw.blogspot.com/2010/09/mittratter-twitter-client-for-osx.html. What would help to other programmers trying to implement oAuth into their developments will be the source code used by Mittratter to sign into Twitter's Servers. Also I will give a brief explanation of how does this thing work.

As I explained here and here, now Twitter uses the oAuth Procedure, well the code behind is quite tricky and might confuse at first sight. Mittratter is an application developed in Objective-C, so the code is going to display here helps to implement those functions into iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad developments as well. Don't forget to do a quick review of the Twitter API where few libraries and implementations could be found. Well, let's get started.

Mittratter - Twitter Client for OSX

Yesterday, I was writing about the Twitter oAuth Authentication Method, well today I will release Mittratter, it is a simple Twitter Client developed with Objective-C and XCode. It took me few hours of development to understand the way oAuth works, Twitter and available documentation about it.

With the App running, I will give an example how exactly this works:

Twitter oAuth Procedure

After one week figuring out how to interact with the Twitter oAuth implementation, I could came up with a simple client that connects to their servers, obtains valid credentials and post as if you were at the web page.

Well, it took me quite a long time to understand how this oAuth authentication procedure works, so I will explain what I learned about:

Since August 31 , 2010, Twitter's servers doesn't allow anymore the "Basic Authentication Mode", in other words, any client or simply cURL statements were capable of send information and then update the status, get timeline or send private messages. Clients apps were those responsables for the user/password handling and their respective responsibility: if an app could be hacked or the credentials management weren't good enough, that information could be broadcasted to third parties and arrive to undesirable hands.

Android Users upgrade more often

Bring into order the irrational number of versions for mobile OS that exists within the two dominant platforms (IOS and Android) is such a complicated task. Moreover, even ignorance by the user about advantages and obstacles that fix many manufacturers (see HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson) for supporting new OS versions for old devices, does not help. Nevertheless, according to a recent study by Localytics Android users are more likely to stay updated in comparison of iOS users.

The firm has compared the data statistics for the two smartphones that have been more updates this summer, and Droid Motorola and iPhone 3GS. Some facts to keep in mind is that Android 2.2 for Motorola Droid was released on August 12 this year, while IOS 4.0 was released on June 21. The findings indicate a clear and significant advantage in the number of updates registered by Android. After two weeks, 96% of users had upgraded to the new Droid Froyo, as opposed to 56% who had done the same for iOS 4. Even more, just couple of months after launch only 80 percent of iPhone 3GS users had updated their handsets (shown in the graphic above).

HTCSense.com

HTC isn't anymore that chinese company that used to create Windows Mobile phones and quite strange addition to the business world where WB were widely used. Nowadays HTC is a global company that has bet on Android as a primary OS working with WB 7 as well, but there is one aspect that unites them all, that's HTC Sense.

Sense HTC began as a custom interface for Windows Mobile and Android terminals in order to differentiate the general look like from other phones that came with Android, is perhaps the problem facing these companies that use Android, having a different interface, it's like "cheat" the user with the believe of something completely different.

70% of Android Phones has 2.x version

Or mabye should I say "There are still 30% unfortunately owners with previous versions", commonly accused for this to "the Fragmentation of Android" caused by Google¡ and mobile operators, whom are able to decide whether apply an upgrade or not. However, nowadays, 28.7% of the Android phones have installed Froyo 2.2, while 41.7% have version 2.1, which is the most widespread and commonly used (my MotoDext with 2.1 jeje), there are still 12% and 17.5% with Android 1.5 and 1.6 respectively.

These numbers were published on the official web for Android developers, mainly to target their efforts in producing applications that are available for each version of the platform, so that the developers must decide whether to cover as many users as possible or concentrate on newer versions, depending of the largest number of devices.

The first graph shows the current distribution of the different versions of the OS, taking into account the devices that have accessed the Android Market over a period of two weeks. The second graph shows, for a longer period, which runs from early March until the first of September, the evolution of the percentage of devices that each version had.

Eventually, version 2.2 is likely to grow stronger, as it has done so far its predecessor. Do not forget the Tablets! At least until a new version of the Google OS is available and the cycle begins again falling apart or Google finds a solution to the situation. An ideal solution would be that new versions of Android came ready to be installed on both low-end phones as high end/new ones.

iFixit iPod Touch Teardown

Those guys from iFixit ripped apart the renovated iPod Touch and with this we came up with new information about its hardware:

Google Instant

Now google is not just fast, it's instant!!

Yesterday, the Mountain View Giiiant decided to shake up the universe of users with a new feature on its search engine: Google Instant. This innovation has caught many by surprise, since this is a major change on what is probably the most efficient service and popular from Google. With Instant Google, searches are now dynamic, and the results are displayed as you enter text. Is it just a proof of concept, or are we really facing the future of Internet search?.

Since long ago I keep Google.com as home page in all my web browsers (Opera, Safari and lately Chrome). I haven't even tried Bing or Yahoo search, so Google has become a habit for me. In this way I have seen their changes over time, especially those related to drastic changes made to their interface. Instant Google's presentation drew the attention of nearly all digital media (also this blog), therefore, we expect a lot in the coming days.

Twitter API Has Changed

Since the August 31, 2010 one of the most famous micro blogging social networks or Twitter for everyone, changed their API (aka Application Programming Interface), so all those applications that used to communicate to Twitter's servers via Basic Authentication, they will become useless (like "Status Widget in Moto Blur from Dext).

I realize of this event because I was programming a small client for OSX, so when I tried the old curl -u user:pass twitter.com/account/verify_credentials.xml to check the authenticity of the user/pass provided twitter told me: "Basic authentication is not supported". The documentation of this change says:

Transitioning from Basic Authentication to OAuth isn't simple for everyone. You're going from an approach where you send a login and password with every REST API request you make to one in which you're first having to acquire user authorization, and then sending credentials that both identify your application and the user in every request.

Well, if we want to keep using their services we must complain with their new rules. In further post I will  explain how to use the new method using Objective C

Apple Game Center

For sure many people are considering the iPhone/iPod Touch (along with IPAD) a growing market nowadays. Developers and companies sees that their business can be successful, examples like Angry Birds (over six and a half million downloads) are a true reflection.

Next week there will be the IOS 4.1 upgrade, and among the news will be the inclusion of so-called Game Center. Few developments are already working with the APIs that Apple release to integrate controlled multiplayer titles, with the main objective of enhance and make easier the collaborative online game, with some interesting ideas.

Console online gaming is already a staple and stably integrated advanced models, especially the Xbox Live, phones have even more potential because we carry them everywhere, so that the majority of casual game used in such devices propose to share items with friends.

August 2010 App Stores Report

Thanks to the company Distimo we have a report of how the most important application Stores for mobile phones are behaving. This document is available to anyone who wants to know a little more about, here and reports only the results in the United States. The summary of what's shows this document will be related to Apple App Store and Android Market.

It is interesting to read that the Android Market is the store with more free applications hosted in their servers, with the 60%, when we have and iPhone App store with the 29% of share and a 26% for the iPad App Store. This means that we could find more free apps in a Android Device than a iOS one, although most of those are not even worth downloading.

Prog: Accelerometer on iPhone/iPod Touch

In this post, I am going to talk about the accelerometer on the iPhone/iPod Touch and how to use it via SDK. The Wikipedia says that

An accelerometer is a device that measures proper acceleration, the acceleration experienced relative to freefall.

Well the accelerometer inside the device help us to detect the relative position in relation with the gravity, measuring the answer of the 3 movement axis: x, y and z, so this allow the device to detect its orientation (portrait, landscape, face up or down), a shake or the relative values in specific moment in time.

And accelerometer sensor is not only used on Phone devices, also many high end cameras uses for the image stabilization; the cars to detect the vehicle acceleration; watches for runners that include footpods; the Nintendo Wii with the accessory Wii Motion Plus or the six axis control of the PS3 includes one. Well let's talk about how to get the values of this sensor in side the iPhone/iPod.

More Tablets

I was totally wrong, I said that this year would be for the iPad and the 2011 would be for the rest of the tablets but that's not true, we will have among us the Samsung Galaxy Tab and few others that we are going to talk about:

ViewSonic ViewPad 100

Processor: Intel Atom N455 1.66GHz

Memory: 1GB DDR3

Display: 10.1 inch 1024x600-pixel Multi touch capacitive

Video: 1.3MPx Front Camera

Sensors: Gyrometer, accelerometer,

Battery: -_-

S.O: Android 1.6 AND Windows 7 (Dual boot!!)

Storage:  16GB SSD

Connexions: USBx2, Micro SDHC, SIM, miniVGA

Wireless: 802.11 b/g, bluetooth, A-GPS

This is more a netbook compressed ripping appart the Keyboard.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Berlin, Germany once again is hosting the IFA Technology Fair, where Tablets (that I talked about here) are demanding great attention. One of the stars has become the officially announced Samsung Galaxy Tab. This is a Tablet with the means of huge Smart Phone because shares most of the characteristics of the Samsung Galaxy S. Here are some  tech specs:

Display: 7-inch TFT-LCD, 1024 x 600-pixel resolution

Processor: 1GHz Hummingbird CPU Based on ARM Cortex-A8

Memory: 512 MB RAM

S.O: Android 2.2 with TouchWiz UI

Video: 3 MP rear-facing camera with auto-focus and LED flash, 1.3 MP front-facing camera

Storage: 16 or 32 GB 

Dimensions: 190.09x120.45x11.98 mm, 380g

Battery: 4,000 mAh (7 hour movie playback)

Connectors: 30 pin connector for charging and accessories (like iPod style)

Sensors: Gyroscope, geo-magnetic, accelerometer, light, 

Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0

As we can read, this device is well charged with high end smartphone hardware, but with a 7 inch display with the objective to entertain. Many people are complaining about the Android as a operative system because this has been designed to work on phones, although my answer is that Android will be a well adaptation to this device, mainly because the new development tools on 2.1 and so on, the resolution of the screen doesn't affect on the compiled programs, with little or no change, programs compiled for smartphones will work well on the Galaxy Tab

Well we just wait for it to arrive and take our hands on it.

iPod Touch 4G

Yesterdar, Apple had an event in San Francisco where were shown the updates prepared for their full line of iPods: Shuffle, Nano and Touch.

The images below shows the redesign of the Shuffle (once again with buttons) and Nano (now a really nano) without the the old fashion Click Wheel, which next in the list to disappear would be the iPod Classic for sure.

After a little review, we are going to review the iPhone without Phone: iPod Touch 4G:

If Browsers would be Students

I watched this image and I got lots of fun, it seems quite the reality..