Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

Windows Mobile and iPhone OS: results of the year 2009

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Summing up results of the year 2009, it will be quite reasonable to choose the best operating system for successful mobile apps development. So, what operating systems did we have at the turn of the year? Of course, there were Windows Mobile, iPhone OS, Symbian OS, Symbian UIQ, Linux Mobile, Palm OS and BlackBerry OS. Let’s try to investigate which of them has all chances to be called the best one.

Windows Mobile

Ah, this “old woman” still holds the largest market share. It has relatively out-of-date interface, nevertheless Microsoft delays the release of Windows Mobile 7 with touch-screen interface (as they promise) and complete compatibility with older apps versions. Though this OS has undoubted plus (a large number of good and stable mobile applications with rich functionality that was accumulated over the years), it’s not a permanent advantage. It can be lost soon as new operating systems are constantly adding new applications, offering new features and up-to-date interface. In general, if the next version of Microsoft Windows Mobile does not have any pleasant surprises for its users, the company will lose its market share under pressure of other mobile operating systems.

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iPhone OS

Yes, it’s beautiful, yes, it’s quite functional and it has already accumulated a lot of good features and high-quality applications. Due to the fact that iPhone has taken a considerable market share its application are relatively cheap (it’s an important bonus for those who choose a platform for a mobile device). But it has the main drawback: only Apple can produce hardware and iPhone source code is closed for mobile development companies. Nevertheless it’s not an obstacle for numerous Apple fans, Mac + MacOS + iPod + iPhone can be considered as a modern religion, it’s a way of live, no doubt.

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Posted in Mobile Development | No Comments »

Dribs and drabs that can improve web site usability

Monday, December 28th, 2009

Creating a new site use unique design, but when it comes to usability, it is better to use approved models (like most of web developers do). When people visit a new site, they always look for well-known things; they use their experience to perceive new content. People want to use the same modules on different web pages (such as color options, company logo location, principles of navigation, etc).

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Google always makes its links blue, and there is a reason: this color is familiar to most of users (that is why it’s much easier for them to find all the links).

Any other color is not a problem, but users will need some more time to find your links.

An ideal input field for search queries must be 27 characters long

Jacob Nielsen conducted a research to determine the ideal length for search boxes. So he ascertained that most of modern input fields are very short. Despite the fact that you can write quite a long search query, you can’t see all your text. It’s a problem with usability, because it’s difficult to edit such a search query.

The study showed that an average input field has width of 18 characters. According to the research results 27% of search queries are too long to fit in these input fields. But 27 characters wide fields can contain 90% of search queries. Remember that you can determine width not only in pixels and points, but also in “em” (a relative unit of length for current font).

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Input field in Google search is wide enough for long searches

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Apple input field is too short, the query “Microsoft Office 2008″ does not fit in it

In general, it is better to do too long field than too short one, so your users would be able to find all the information without any problems. This is a very simple and useful advice for website designers, but, unfortunately, they often ignore it.

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Posted in Web development | 1 Comment »

Google can fight with Apple

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Two titans of high-tech world, Google and Apple, may come together to fight for competitive advantages. To be precise, this fight will take place on the US mobile phone market. Google plans to start sale of its first smartphone at the beginning of the year 2010 – that is a stumbling-block. It’s a real challenge that may lead to serious confrontation on one of the highest growth and most important segment of high-tech market.

google-and-appleA new Google phones with touch screen is based on Android OS. These gadgets have been already given to the company staff for testing. Google plans to use the popularity of its own brand and make direct retail sales via the Internet.

It’s a well known fact that Google management didn’t plan to enter the equipment market, in the previous years the company limited its activity to mobile software development (Android OS) and internet projects.

Google makes a serious bet on the mobile phone market and evaluates it as a promising direction for the future development. So, now the company does not intend to limit itself to Android software development and online services. apple vs google_2

But analysts are not sure that Google will be able to transfer the success of its previous activities to mobile phones production and sales. Much will depend on its pricing policy. Kathy Watson, a Google representative, declined to comment on the future plans. She referred to the recent publication in the official corporate blog, where we can read that a new device is just a “mobile laboratory” for testing of some new technologies.

However, some Google employees have agreed to provide more detailed information (anonymous statements). According to them, devices were made by the Taiwanese HTC company, and they are thinner and have a larger touch screen than Apple iPhone. Well, soon we will be able to verify this information, because Google phone sales can begin in January, 2010.

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Posted in Mobile Development | 2 Comments »