Posts Tagged ‘Google’
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Google launched the official page for mobile Android phone developers in the social network Google+, said the official representative of the company Rito Meier in the corporate blog.
The external Android developers will be able to exchange information on this webpage, show their products and be the first to know about updates, test them and ask questions directly to Google employees responsible for Android development.
Android developers will be able to participate in hangouts with the Google team and other mobile development specialists who are interested in the development of the platform. The company is going to hold such video meetings daily and broadcasting will be performed from the headquarters of Google in Mountains View (California).
Google is planning to put on its page video and photos from the official events for Android developers.
The social network Google+ was launched in June last year, following by Google+ Pages in November. Among other pages of the social network, users can find the pages of the Google company itself, Gmail, YouTube and Maps, the Google Chrome browser, Android platform, the special page for Google developers, and others.
Tags: Android developers, Gmail, Google, Google Chrome, Google+ Pages, Maps, YouTube
Posted in Mobile Development | No Comments »
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
This month Google has decided to start promoting Android into masses using the special Android Training program. The main purpose of this program is teaching users to understand Android and, which is more important, to teach Android application development. Every user is supposed to learn how to do everything – from applications for optimizing the performance of mobile device batteries to the development of effective navigation programs which haven’t been applied by anybody yet.
The training will start with basic knowledge in Android, then they will get the information on how to start developing on Android. The system will provide the most actual and relevant information. According to Tim Bray from Google, now the company is enlisting students who would like to receive this education and the training course will start in the nearest months.
The Ice Cream Sandwich mobile platform is a unified operating system for tablets and smartphones. It makes it much simple for mobile apps developers since they will have to understand only one set of codes. Maybe iPhone application development specialists should pay attention to such an opportunity and become more interested in Android?
Tags: Android, Google, Ice Cream Sandwich, iphone application development
Posted in Mobile Development | No Comments »
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
Google presented the new service GoMo aimed at helping software companies (mainly online stores) to improve displaying the content of their sites on mobile devices.
The ‘Gomometer’ function allows analyzing ‘friendliness’ of the site in relation to mobile users. Among the considered parameters are the following – the speed of downloading, the ability to read the text without enlarging the page, availability of the search on the site and other parameters. According to the results of testing, a special report is generated. It indicates the drawbacks of the site and the recommendations on its improvement.
Moreover, the service offers the contacts of offshore software development companies who deal with the development of mobile versions of sites. Out of the suggested variants you can easily choose the companies that suit your needs and budget. Also you can get acquainted with the examples of the sites that comply with the customer’s requirements.
According to mobile apps developers, 61% of users never return to the resources that are displayed incorrectly on their mobile devices. Thus, they speak about the necessity for any business to orient their online sites to mobile devices.
Tags: GoMo, Google, Mobile apps developers, offshore software development companies
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, September 17th, 2011
Google allowed the access to its musical service Music Beta for the owners of mobile devices based on iOS.
In comparison with the Android devices that have their own application Music Beta, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users can interact with this service via the interface of the Safari browser. The users will be able to play music and view the lists of tracks, albums and singers. The playback will continue even if you close Safari.
Google presented its own musical service in May at the mobile application development conference. Till September, Music Beta had been available only for the computers and mobile devices based on the Android operating system. As it is clear from the name, Music Beta is now being used in the beta version only: the access to the service is carried out via invitations and only from the US territory.
Music Beta users can upload on Google servers up to 20,000 tracks from their own collections. One can listen to these tracks in the streaming mode from other computers and mobile devices. In comparison with Apple that has obtained the permission from the musical companies to launch such services as iCloud and iTunes Match, before starting Music beta, Google didn’t signed any agreements with the representatives of the music industry.
Although, as I have mentioned above, this service is available for the US only, mobile phone application developers will try their best and make this service available for all.
Tags: Android, Google, iCloud, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iTunes Match, mobile application development, Music Beta
Posted in Mobile Development, Solutions | No Comments »
Sunday, September 4th, 2011
The social platform Google+, launched about two months ago, starts attracting users by popular social network games. According to the officials from Google, the new social network will soon accommodate such popular games as Angry Birds, Zombie Lane and Edge World. The representatives from Rovia and Zynga say that in Google+ their projects will work the same as in Facebook or on the screens of mobile devices.
Apart from two big web development companies, Google has also signed agreements with Wooga, Funzio and Kabam. According to Google, users will see in their accounts in Google+ a new tab ‘Games’ that will contain games. The users who don’t want to play social games can hide this tab.
Ezra Gottheil, the analysts from the Technology Business Research, thinks that the social network Google+ will allow Google to get the additional growth in the user database since web games are becoming one of the key competitive advantage of social networks.
At present the company offers some promotional actions for games and web developers in Google+. Thus, for fans of Zynga theu offer a 5% discount for buying virtual gaming accessories (in comparison: Facebook offers a 30% discount in case of paying via Facebook Credits).
This news can stimulate software development companies to develop new games for social networks and the competition will increase.
Tags: Angry Birds, Edge World, Facebook Credits, Funzio, Google, Kabam, web developers, Wooga, Zombie Lane, Zynga
Posted in Software Development, Web development | No Comments »
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
At the I/O conference Google announced its new version of Android operating system. The version got the name ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’.
According to CNET News, Ice Cream Sandwich will be released in the fourth quarter of 2011. Various mobile devices including smartphones and tablets can work on this platform. The new Android version will inherit many features of the Honeycomb version intended only for tablets.
The update for Honeycomb 3.1 was also presented at the conference. It can be installed by the owners of Motorola Xoom tablets and Google TV. Among the innovations one can mention the following ones: the updated user’s interface, scalable widgets and a possibility of connecting USB peripherals including keyboards and joysticks.
The representatives of Google also informed that the number of activated Android devices in the world had exceeded a hundred million. Android based devices are produced by 35 manufacturers. According to the company, about 200,000 android applications are available at the Android Market.
The I/O conference is held by Google every year. During the conference Google carries out seminars and trainings for Android application developers as well as announce present innovations.
Tags: Android, Android Market, Google, I/O conference, Ice Cream Sandwich
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Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
iPad application developers have created a new application for iPad and presented it in the App Store. It is intended to change the people’s attitude towards getting encyclopedic knowledge. Qwiki, a sort of visual Wikipedia, provides a user with an easy and interactive way of exploring the world via media presentations and using interactive maps.
The application in many cases repeats the website of the project offering users to get acquainted with the biographies of famous people, monumen
ts, and wonders of the world or exotic animals. All the information is connected with hundreds of places on the map of the world and is presented in the form of presentations with excellent photo and video materials.
After viewing, you can share your favorite information with your friends by e-mail, Twitter or Facebook. The presentation material at Qwiki contains links to other resources related to the given topic as well as additional information and images in Wikipedia, Google, Fotopedia and YouTube. All it makes Qwiki much higher than other Wikipedia resources.
Soon we’ll see similar Android application development and iPhone applications.
Tags: Android, Facebook, Fotopedia, Google, iPhone, Qwiki, Wikipedia, YouTube
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Google Android is popular because of its open source code: practically every developer from any mobile development company can write an application without any licensing. All the development tools are also available in the source code and free (for example, IDE Eclipse). Moreover, the off-the-shelf Android application is easy to sell as the terms of selling at the Android Market are simple and transparent: practically all applications can be sold and only those that don’t correspond to the rules are deleted. However, some mobile application developers are not satisfied with the marketing component of the Android Market.
For free Android application development there is another alternative available – advertising. At present there is a system called AdMob (which Google is going to buy) and also Google has decided to develop its own AdSense for mobile applications (mainly for Android). We can already find many applications using the new advertising system from Google.
So, that’s for you to decide. But we have made our mine — Android.
Tags: adsense, Android, Android Market, eclipse, Google
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
So far the main problem of Android application developers has been the fragmentation of applications for various screen resolutions. Now thanks to Google efforts, this problem has been solved. For these purposes, Google has launched the special library – Android Compatibility Package which is available for downloading to all users.
Not so long ago the launch of Fragments API intended for Android 3.0 was announced. The new API interface should have automatically scaled applications according to the screen size of the device, thus, mobile application developers didn’t have to create several versions of one application for the devices with various screens.
The main drawback of Fragments API was the fact that it wasn’t compatible with the Android operating system lower than 3.0. Now the possibility to use API is available for the users with the Android 1.6 operating system and higher.
This innovation is especially up-to-date against the rapid growth in Android devices at the market. As it is expected, the year 2011 will become the year of Android and apart from smartphones, the market will be flooded with the wave of tablets.
As reported, new libraries can be installed using SDK, the standard tool of updating.
Tags: Android, Fragments API, Google, SDK, smartphones
Posted in Mobile Development | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
Android developers have established their own trade union and have stated seven requirements to Google concerning the terms and conditions of cooperating with Android Market.
What do developers want?
- Abolish a 32% tax on applications
- Fix the viewing options: now Android Market can be viewed only in two ways: Most Recent and Top Selling.
- Open bag tracking
- Increase possible ways of payment
- Introduce the clear rules and the description of the appellation process concerning the deletion of the application
- Direct contact with the team of developers of the Android Market
- Transparency of algorithms (since the open source codes of the Market are closed, sometimes it isn’t clear how the search functions have to work, why the application doesn’t always get into the list “Most Recent” and how the list “Featured Apps” is made).
According to the trade union leaders, the execution of these demands will considerably improve the working conditions of mobile application developers as well as restore the ecosystem and provide better conditions for users.
“If the proposed conditions are not satisfied, we’ll move our applications to the alternative platforms and will use other open platforms instead of Android Market. Moreover, we’ll talk other Android developers out of creating Android products and will constantly work on destroying any statements from Google about the openness of this platform”, reported the statement.
Tags: Android developers, Android Market, Google
Posted in Mobile Development | 2 Comments »
