Author Archives: admin

Rumor: Microsoft launching tablet on Monday

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Microsoft has plans to announce something big on Monday but at this point we do not know what. Rumors are that it will be a tablet to compete with iPad:

http://mashable.com/2012/06/14/microsoft-is-launching-an-ipad-killer-report/

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/15/will-microsoft-show-its-own-windows-8-tablet-on-monday/

What will this mean? Well we need to see the device. Kindle Fire is an awesome device that competes already and is doing really well. I have a Kindle Fire along with my iPad and I love both. Do we need more devices? Well the three markets that microsoft can really do well in are: Business, Movies, and Gaming. Right now none of the tablets are really business friendly – well Android ones are kind of but MS could add office. Companies are so limited when they decide to buy their employees iPads. A business friendly tablet would be nice. Movies – They could add netflix and amazon and with books they could add all the apps. This is good because iPad does  not allow amazon, amazon doesnt have nook, etc (though android has all). Finally gaming – xbox is the best gaming system and if they could find a way to really link the two together – like allowing users to somehow play their arcade purchases (or even real xbox games) ms would win the tablet war in a second. Everyone with an xbox would want it. Really though Android does most of this stuff and iPad is very popular. Can MS get a chunk of the market? I guess we will see.

Last day of class until August! What do professors do with their summers?

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Even though summer has started at the university, I have been teaching a summer course: Computer Interface Design. The course was a blast. I taught HCI and design principles then went into Adobe Photoshop. I covered almost all of Photoshop and think my students really enjoyed the class. It was a lot of fun with some really good material that will be very useful to them when they leave UNCW and begin their careers. Now what do I do with the rest of my summer since I now have ‘off”? Well to be honest, I do not have off. Professors never really get time off. My job is my life so I am working everyday. I do not work for the sake of getting a paycheck (well I do to an extent) but I work to better our world, myself, education, my family, etc. My work is fun and I enjoy it. So this summer I will be finishing up a research paper, writing another, organizing 2 research studies for next year, collecting data for a research study, getting very familiar with mobile app development for the iPhone/iPad and Android based devices, and working a lot with HTML5 and Javascript. So over the next 8-10 weeks, those are my goals. I do plan to take a 2-3 week vacation at some point in July. Otherwise I am working all summer. Summers off? Not in higher ed…that is if you want to get promoted and be successful in your field.

Do all employees need social networking training?

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A new start up company thinks so: http://mashable.com/2012/06/13/social-media-digital-royalty/

Personally I do not think they need training dedicated to it per se but some training on the topic can never hurt. That is unless employees are doing something they shouldnt be. I think this is no different than during new hire training when you learn to avoid sending emails out or instant messages out that might hurt the company. If anything, having training on social networking might actually give companies more say about your account…maybe? Maybe not but I think if anything a general training approach is not the answer, this training will need to be tailored to each companies culture to address their specific issue. So while this start up is a nice idea, I do not see why someone would hire them over the current trainers they use – social networking is not rocket science. A 13 year old could probably tell you what is appropriate and not. Additionally, many older employees are very conservative and hesitant towards these sites, so this type of training may only really be relevant to younger employees. Companies might find it more efficient to work with agency like EU Workers to hire candidates who already possess the necessary digital skills rather than investing in extensive training.

Administrators can sort applications into productive and unproductive app groups to break down productiveness across different teams, departments, or individual employees. Work monitoring software goes beyond the core time tracking functionality of tracking clock-ins and clock–outs or managing schedules and workloads.

Testing and Publishing your app on iOS vs Android

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Well I have now published on both several times and here are my thoughts:

Android: In order to test your app you have a choice of testing it virtually or saving it as an apk. Virtual testing is easy and works pretty well. The downfall is that eclipse requires you to create a virtual device instead of just providing one. While this step only takes a minute to complete, it does take some time to figure out how exactly to do it. My recommendation is to make this process easier for eclipse users. Now publishing the actual apk file is very easy. You first need to buy an Android developer license for $25. Then you publish through the publishing wizard which guides you through creating your apk file. It takes maybe 1 minute to publish. At that point you can put the app on your device or upload it to the Android store. Once submitted to the Android store (Google Play) your app is in the store immediately and ready for people to download.

Mobile presence is now a business must-have, and companies with minimal to no presence are seen as lagging. Enterprise-developed apps are the new normal. A premium technology partner for mobile app development is devsdata. Mobile users have high expectations, which must be reflected in your mobile applications and their usability, performance and features, always keeping your customers in mind for a great user experience. Mobile app testers Massachusetts help to improve your mobile app, can help you test your app in a public or private cloud, or we can set up a mobile testing lab on your premises.

iOS: Once you have completed your app  you are ready to test it out. In order to test it out you can choose to test it virtually or on your devices. Testing virtually is easy, xcode provides a virtual player and you just click the play button. This part is much easier than Android. However, everything else is significantly more difficult. First, you need a Mac, you cannot publish an app via a PC. Then, in order to test on your device, you must have the develop certificate which cost $99 per year. Once you make the purchase you must log into apple development center and register your device. Once you register your device you need to create a developer certificate and a provisioning development certificate just like those from a licensed ios app developer. And you need to give your app an ID. These installations are not easy for the novice user. I spent about an hour setting it up and getting it to work right. Once you are satisfied with your app and want to publish, you need to create a provisioning distribution certificate and install that. The important thing is to make sure all of your certificates align with your app otherwise it wont work. Then from here you publish your app via xcode using the organizer. If there are errors it will not publish. Now it might seem simple to use the organizer however it is not. It took me about 10 hours to figure out to actually use the organizer. Why? It is a new feature on xcode and Apple’s own tutorials tell you to publish via the Application Loader, which is the old way and no longer works with the new version of xcode. So there was no way to know to use the organizer. Thus all resources I could find online, including Apple’s were telling me incorrect information. I was very frustrated with the whole process. It probably took me 10-15 hours to actually take my finished app from my computer to the app store. At that point, your app is not on the app store. Instead Apple has to review and approve of it. It took me 7 days and they rejected my app. I didnt actually understand why as their explanation did not say or let me know if there were an error or not. Apple, just create a publish wizard like eclipse. Why the need to 3-4 certificates to publish the app?

Overall, Android is 100x easier and more user friendly. However, the disadvantage is that anyone can publish anything to their app store which could mean there are more bad apps to sort through. However, good apps might be rejected by Apple (and it has happened) so Apple’s tight control is not an advantage and most ‘tech’ people do not like that control. In my opinion, if you are new to app development, go with Android. If you are doing this with your school, use Android.

Apple WWDC Keynote: 1pm EST today!

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Updates:

Google Maps gone. Apple has own maps with turn by turn directions. They finally have what Android has since 2009:)

New Macbook Pro – goes on sale today

iOS6 announced

SIRI comes to iPad 3

Power Nap – updates your mac while it sleeps

iOS6 – Do not disturb feature looks pretty cool

iOS6 – facebook integration does not look cool

Facetime finally does not need wifi – I think skype is king here anyway

Apple Rumors: WWDC

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Here are the rumors that we are anticipating for WWDC on Monday:

iOS – well this has been confirmed but we still do not know the details

Apple Maps -Apple will drop Google Maps for their own version that will have text to speech directions

Siri for iPad – Finally siri support for iPad. Not sure why it is already not on iPad 3, maybe it was iOS 5 that didnt allow it for whatever reason

Macbook Pro -To be updated with the ivy bridge.

iPhone 5 – This would be the biggest surprise as we are pretty sure this is a fall release and the 4s is still selling like crazy.

Facebook Launches App Store: Major Privacy Concern!!!!!

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Well facebook has launched their app store for Android and Apple iOS users. So you can now download apps via their store but there is one issue: Facebook automatically tells me what apps my friends have and recommends apps to me based on their apps. Do they want me to know which apps they have? It tells me specifically who has what app. In my opinion this is kinda like someone looking at my browsing history because it actually is telling me what sites my friends used. For instance, it is telling me who has used match.com. I do not like this and I do NOT know how to stop it. Here is how to manage which apps can interact with facebook but this still doesnt solve the problem (actually it might, I just do not know for sure). If anyone knows how to prevent please let me know.

1. Log in to facebook
2. Go to privacy settings (top right corner for those on a PC)
3. Click ‘edit settings’ on the ads, apps, and websites section
4. On the apps you use section, click edit settings then edit the settings for each app

Facebook please make this easier to change.

Link to facebook app store: http://www.facebook.com/appcenter

Actionscript 3: Get rid of movie clip in Array

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In order to get rid of a movie clip in an Array after it is played, use the following code. This can go in the timeline as an enterframe or within a button function. Mine initiates when a button is clipped. In my flash file, movie clips are played at random and then once it is played, it is removed from the array so it can no longer be played:

//storeArray1 is my array created above this in the code. MovieClip(root) is used because
//I call this from inside a movie clip
var myNumber = Math.floor(Math.random()*MovieClip(root).storeArray1.length);
trace(“myNumber “+myNumber);
var activeCarton = MovieClip(root).storeArray1[myNumber];

//removes this element from array
MovieClip(root).storeArray1.splice(activeCarton,1);

//shows me which options are still in the array
trace (MovieClip(root).storeArray1);

Learning styles: The good, the bad, and the ugly

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Learning styles. I hear about them from my students, we teach them in our classes, and I see them as a variable in many research studies. So are they good? bad? What are they useful for?

Lets start out with the good. During a learner analysis it is good to know as much as possible about your learners. So a learning style inventory can be one of many pieces to the puzzle. However, I would never use it as the only piece and I would probably hold it as least important.

Now lets move to the bad. Designing curriculum based on learning styles has not been shown to improve learning. For instance, look at this study:

http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv13692

Why are learning styles not good? Well lets say that 60% of my learners are visual (this is a common stat I see in the literature). What does that tell me to do with my instruction? Honestly, it does not tell me anything. There are a number of much more important things I need to consider and think about when developing instruction. First of all is information processing – how many concepts can a learner work with at one time in short term memory? Then I think about dual coding theory. I know that learners minds of comprised to two channels for learning: visual and auditory. Each has a certain capacity in working memory. Another concept in cognitive load. If I give a learner too much information they will start to forget because their working memory is overloaded. Then I think about the multimedia theories – learning (problem solving objectives) is greater when learners view a combination of visual and auditory content rather than just one of those individually. All of these theories, which have much positive research backing do not support learning styles. If 60% of my learners are visual, showing them only visuals will not increase their learning. In fact, only visuals would hurt their learning whereas a combination of visuals and auditory learning (such as video) has been shown to increase their learning. I realize I spoke very briefly about several theories which require a much deeper understanding but if you are interested about them, please feel free to look them up on my blog as I have written about all of them.