Rumors, rumors, rumors….

Finally back from my conference and now playing catch up. Will start up my regular posting as well….anyway several BIG rumors that I have heard in the last week.

1. I personally heard from a good source (someone who would know/that I trust) that the iPad 3 will be coming out in March. Just confirms all other rumors but hearing from this source is a pretty good indicator that it is definitely coming soon.

2. Google might be releasing Jellybean (android 5.0) which will boot with dual cores in the Q2 of this year! Wow and ICS isnt even on any phones except the Gnex. However, I would suspect this would only be on tablets at first. link to article

 

Android Design

Found this very cool. Google has released some design tips/guidelines for android developers. While somewhat simple, this is a great start to designing mobile apps. This was created due to differences in their new OS ICS from Gingerbread and Froyo. Now if Google would just release their own developer software so that I wouldnt need to use eclipse:)

http://developer.android.com/design/index.html

Google working on Siri alternative for Android?

While Android has had voice recognition since it first came out, it does not have AI like Apple’s SIRI so it comes as no surprise that they would be working on something similar. Just today there are two articles talking about two different ways Google might be doing this.

The first article by droid life says google is working on a siri alternative called Majel. You can read about it here

The second article by mashable says that google recently acquired virtual assistant software called alfred. You can read about it here

Apple’s Siri vs Google’s Android Voice Control

Apple’s new iPhone 4s introduced voice to phone communication. At first I was not too impressed with this feature as I have a droid 1 that has had voice to phone communication since 2009. However, after reading about SIRI I realized this was a significant step up from Google’s voice commands but in the end would not be a significant deal breaker for me to switch to iPhone.

What can they both do:

text message
Find location on map
Make phone calls
Play music
Web searches
Email
Open the browser

Now where is the difference? The major difference is that Google voice relies on commands like ‘call john smith on cell’. Whereas SIRI relies on natural language such as ‘call my mother on her cell phone’ You can also ask SIRI questions like ‘what are my meetings for the day’ and SIRI will know to look at your calendar. This would be important for people who cannot remember or do not want to remember the commands. This introduction in AI is a significant step in voice communication with the phone and Apple has a slight advantage. However, I should point out that Android does have 3rd party apps that are supposed to do the same thing as SIRI.

A difference in favor of Android is that SIRI does not give text to speech voice directions like Google voice does. You need a 3rd party app for apple to do that. In light of that, there are rumors that Apple will soon have a good GPS system just like android does.

So overall is SIRI a deal breaker? I think it depends what you want. It seems like either way you can make each phone function the same using 3rd party apps (GPS apps for apple, AI apps for android).

I guess the main question is, are you going to talk to your phone?

Here is a good source with more explanation: http://gigaom.com/mobile/speech-smack-down-siri-vs-android-voice-actions/

Mobile Website Development

Here is a comparison chart that I give my classes when showing them the difference between developing for the internet and mobile web. I will be showing this chart this year at AECT during my presentation on mobile learning:

 

•Many columns/tables->1 Column
•Defined Width->% Width
•High speed->3G/4G
–Data Usage problems
•Large Screens->small screens
•Keyboard->touch screen/small keyboard
•Html->wml | html/flash->html/html5/c++/Java
•Very compatible ->Device type (unless html)
•Plug ins->limited
Please see my video which discusses these in more detail: https://raypastore.com/wordpress/2012/04/mobile-website-design-guidelines/

Mobile App VS Mobile Websites

Here is some useful information on the topic that I recently gathered to do a presentation on a mobile learning study I am working on at AECT:

Apps

–Need to be installed
–Can be on OS
–Device dependent
Browsers

–Can be used on any phone with internet
–Not on OS

Development:

•Google Android
     –Java Programming

•iPod/iPhone/iPad
     –C, C++

•Other Options?

     –Android
          •Google App Inventor
          •Flash
          •HTML

     –Apple
          •HTML

     –All phones (apple, android, blackberry, windows)
          •HTML and HTML5