Astegic Develops Official App for GEOINT 2013

Astegic Develops Official App for GEOINT 2013

Astegic’s latest project has been to develop the official app of GEOINT 2013 Symposium.

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and building a stronger GEOINT Community across industry, academia, government, professional organizations and individual stakeholders. The annual GEOINT Symposium, hosted by USGIF, is the nation’s preeminent and largest intelligence event of the year. Continue reading “Astegic Develops Official App for GEOINT 2013”

iPhone vs Android: The Ultimate Smack Down

iPhone vs Android: The Ultimate Smack Down

iPhone VS AndroidYou want your business to go mobile. You want to create an app that will be found on smartphones across the planet (or at least in the pockets of all your clients). To keep up with the speed of business these days, it’s not really a question of if you should release a mobile app but rather when. So now that you’re ready to take the plunge you need to decide: iPhone or Android. And so without further ado, here is the WWE Smack Down of Smart Phones!

Why go Android?

Did you know that Android actually has a bigger market share than iPhones? True story. And when it comes to hardware, the iPhone just can’t compete. Apple is the only company producing iOS. Android, alternatively, is being manufactured by major firms such as Samsung, LG, and Motorola. That basically means that software and hardware choices and upgrades are a dime a dozen with Android devices.  Apple only has the iPhone and, let’s be honest, it’s usually jail-broken anyways!

Another big plus for the Android is the screen. It’s not limited to the iPhone’s 4-inch screen. And let’s not forget Google’s plethora of built-in apps that we’ve all come to know and love (Google Maps, Google Earth, Gmail, etc.).

The Android battery probably won’t score a TKO but neither will the iPhone’s so it’s hardly a key factor in your decision.

Why choose the iPhone?

While the Android market hosts about 800,000 apps, Apple have already passed the 1 million mark in their app store! And as Apple is pretty strict with their app guidelines, you can also expect higher quality and standards from iOS apps.

And I know that I said Android comes with the advantage of multiple manufacturers but this also works in the iPhone’s favor. Once iOS has been updated, you will be prompted for further releases and be guaranteed the most up-to-date operating system. Android developers alternatively are not always in a rush to stay updated with Google’s latest operating system.

When it comes to games, iPhone takes the cake (and eats it too). It really is the “Ultimate Gaming Device”!

Who Wins the Smack Down?

That really depends on you. There are major pluses with both Android and iPhone. If you’re app is entertainment oriented, the iPhone may be the best choice. If you’re looking to create something that enables productivity, perhaps Android is the way to go. Do you have tons of money and/or resources? Make both!

5 Tips for Developing a Mobile App

5 Tips for Developing a Mobile App5 Tips for Developing a Mobile App

Mobile AppsMobile devices are everywhere. As I look around the room right now I see 2 iPads, an iPhone, a Microsoft HTC and a Samsung…and that’s just for 2 people! We’re addicted to our mobile devices and the apps on every device have, for many, become a primary means of consuming information, playing games, and increasing productivity.

While these apps are very popular, from a developer’s standpoint, there are some inherent problems. Not all devices are created the same and there are some basic guidelines you should follow in order to create mobile apps that work! In this article, we’ve highlighted the 5 points you need to keep in mind when developing a mobile app.

1. Solve a problem

Functionality matters. Whether your app saves time or money, entertains or informs, make sure you are offering something that benefits the user. Perhaps even more important, however, is that you need to create something that hasn’t been seen before.

2. Don’t go feature crazy

It’s easy to get caught up in the momentum of ideas but that’s not always the best for your app. Focus on one thing but do it best. Your app should solve one clear problem. Too many features can just muddle the end product and confuse the potential user.

3. Market, Market, Market!

Just because you get a slot in the coveted app store does not mean you will be immediately overwhelmed with downloads. If you want people to discover your app, you will have to invest in promotion to get the word out.

4. Push Notifications

Notifications aren’t always appropriate but when they are, you should certainly take advantage. Push notifications remind the user of your app and bring them back again and again.

5. Don’t force the mobile version

When a user tries to visit your website on a mobile device, don’t force them into a mobile version. Give users the option to view either version but don’t limit yourself to just one. Screens are getting bigger everyday so a limited mobile version is no longer as necessary as it used to be.

Why should you listen to us? Astegic is the leading provider of custom mobile application development, and consulting services. We have mastered this domain and have extensive experience in developing custom mobile applications for Android, iOS, Windows and Blackberry. Our team brings together deep product design experience, technology expertise and a passion for building world-class mobile apps. That’s why you should listen to us!

Native vs. HTML5 – looked at objectively, the debate is over

Native vs. HTML5 – looked at objectively, the debate is over

Posted by Jonathan Rende on Fri, Apr 12, 2013 @ 04:45 PM

Almost a year ago I wrote a white paper about Native versus HTML5 mobile app development, asking ‘Which option is best?’

Even then, the answer was pretty obvious: look at the question objectively, using a set of clear comparisons, and HTML5 is crushed by native development, even though HTML5 wins on a few points.

Strangely, though, the debate rages on. Just this month, ReadWrite’s Brian S. Hall felt the need to discuss “The Facebook Phone & The Triumph Of Native Apps Over HTML5” as if the issue had yet to be settled.

You could argue that triumph was already clear last August, when Facebook itself abandoned HTML5 for its rebuilt native iOS app. But bloggers and consultants continue debating the question, and customers still ask me about which way they should go.

Why are we still having this debate? My take is that it’s like a religious war, where people aren’t really interested in debating the actual facts. If you do take a serious, evidence-based look at the data that’s available, though, it’s not hard to settle the issue once and for all.

The power of numbers  

A good place to start is with app growth. A recent round up in Information Week  counted 775,000 apps now available in Apple’s App Store and roughly the same number in Google’s Play Store. Add the 135,000 claimed by Microsoft and Blackberry’s 100,000, and you get 1,785,000 native apps in the marketplace.

It’s harder to quantify how many HTML apps are out there. But in a 2012 Appcelerator survey of 3,600+ developers working in both the native and HTML5 space, we found that developers were actively writing roughly 6% of their applications in HTML5. Even if you assume that HTML development has always been as popular as native and then double that figure for a wide margin of error, the total number of HTML5 apps now available still would only just clear 200,000.

Shear volume is on the side of native solutions, then, and I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that that’s shifting. App downloads, meanwhile grew 11% in Q1 2013 over Q4 2012.

 

Nine points of comparison 

But there are plenty of other ways in which native- and HTML-developed apps get compared. In my research, I’ve found nine of points of comparison where it’s possible to make objective calls as to which is superior:

1) Rich user experience (native wins)

85% of mobile professionals in a March, 2013 Compuware survey preferred mobile apps over mobile websites. One of the main reasons was the richer experience users get with native apps. Features like VR, NFC, and passport simply aren’t available in HTML. Where HTML has 30-50 native device capabilities open to it, native developers have access to 6,000-7,000.

2) Performance (native wins)

When it comes to both loading and rendering, whether you have good, weak, or terrible internet access, native is always faster. Click on a calendar event in a native app, for example, and it opens instantly. The time it takes to do the same in an HTML app typically drives people nuts.

3) Monetization for developers (native wins)

Recent numbers from Canalys report that native app developers’ combined income in Q1 2013 was $2.2 billion. In contrast, the monetization available to developers building HTML5 apps is essentially zero. It’s pretty obvious, then, that financially ambitious app owners need a massive incentive to move out of the app store fold.

4) Cross platform development costs (HTML wins, but by less than you’d think)

This is usually seen as a big point in HTML’s favor. The line is that you ‘write once, run anywhere,’ and that’s true, but only up to a point. You certainly have to factor in costs for going native for multiple OSs, although solutions like Appcelerator will help reduce those costs significantly. But they are not zero with HTML5, either, thanks to the next point of comparison: fragmentation.

5) Fragmentation challenges (a wash)

If it’s a challenge to develop apps for multiple platforms (and for different versions of those platforms), even with Appcelerator’s help, it’s not the case that developers writing for the mobile web are writing simply for one HTML5. There are at least 15 mobile browsers in existence, each available in different versions and each supporting different levels of HTML. So there’s a fragmentation challenge with both. On this measure, the two are pretty much a wash.

6) Availability of programming expertise (HTML wins)

There’s no debate here. There are millions of HTML developers out there who will look at HTML5 and say, ‘eureka, I can now develop mobile apps.’ Objective-C, meanwhile, and to some degree Java, are much harder to learn, and people who know them are harder to find and cost more to hire. Again, solutions like Appcelerator’s address this by using JavaScript, a language that pretty much every web developer knows well, but the overall comparison still favors HTML5.

7) Immediate updates & distribution control (HTML wins)

Mobile is all about constantly innovating. Because they don’t sit on the device, HTML5 apps can be instantly updated. In contrast, having to go an app store for an update remains a barrier to offering the best, most up-to-date experience. A win, then, for HTML.

8) Timely access to new OS innovations (native wins big)

Apple and Google offer, on average, 1-3 updates a year that offer major new capabilities. When they are making so much money from their app businesses (see #3 above), they have every incentive to coral those new capabilities within their native OSs and zero incentive to offer them in HTML. Meanwhile, it takes years for the HTML consortium to ratify new standards. At the rate at which device manufacturers are innovating, there’s no way that the HTML consortium can move swiftly enough to compete.

9) Security (native wins big)

People are increasingly worried about security, especially as mobile moves ever further into the enterprise and, frankly, there is no way that anyone could say that HTML is more secure than a native app. Native clearly wins thanks to:

– the security of the source code of itself; browser source code is open for all to see, and to then work around.

– the security of data at rest on the device; on a native app, it’s completely secure. In HTML, the browser is typically not secure and as a result exposes the data it’s accessing within its caches.

– the security of data in transit; when using HTML, you are pretty much restricted to using SSL. VPNs are just too slow. With native apps, you can also run VPNs and other encrypted solutions, without ruining performance.

– URL security vulnerabilities; these are unique to web applications and beloved by hackers. Native apps simply don’t have them, so hackers can’t get into native apps in the same way.

From my perspective, that last set of comparisons are the final nail in the HTML5 coffin. It’s clear that from a security perspective, native is the only way to go.

Overall, it’s a strong 5 to 3 win for native development, with one comparison a wash. The icing on the cake is the shear number of native apps now out there and the low current developer interest in building on HTML5.

Looked at objectively, then, the world has already spoken on native versus HTML5, and it’s bizarre that some people seem to be confused about this still.

At Appcelerator we continue to support developers however they want to build their apps and we believe that HTML will continue to have value in niche areas. But we also believe that success and innovation is built on a solid grasp of the facts; and here they indicate a strong advantage for native development, and have done for a while.

Given the evidence, it makes you wonder: why are we even debating this any more?

Jonathan Rende is the VP of Products at Appcelerator.

Who can unify my communications?

Who can unify my communications?

Posted by Perry Nalevka

As I start writing this blog post I find myself surrounded with devices – Smartphone, Tablet, laptop, TV and a desk phone.  This provides me with great flexibility in the way I can communicate and get my work done but I can’t help but notice that the user experience needs much improvement to allow a smoother transition between screens.

Vendors are doing a good job of making services available on multiple devices but need to spend more time and effort in the fine details. It’s great that when someone sends me a message I can receive it on all of my devices, but do I really have to see the notification in three different places AFTER I have read the message. Isn’t it a little strange when I’m chatting with someone on my iPad to receive the notifications about it on my laptop & smart phone? Shouldn’t it be easier to see all of your conversations with someone in one place.

The idea of unified communications has been around for a long time now, but it hasn’t kept up with the times. When all of the communications was clearly contained “inside the network” this was easier to control and manage but now that much of the communication is happening on top of the network and intelligence has moved into the client the problem got more complex.

It’s clearly time for some innovation here. In the short term vendors will need to respond by ensuring that their service is available in every device and through strategic partnerships and service integrations but ultimately there needs to be some true unification. The question is, will this come from one of the many software startups or will it be enabled in the network (and in which one). In short who will unify my communication?

Mobile Testing & QA Tools – Should I be using automation?

Mobile Testing & QA Tools

mobile-headerI am not going to answer the above question as there is not right answer but hope to have a conversation that will help answer for those asking. With the smartphone revolution upon us and the multitude of applications being released on a daily basis there is an increasing need for tools and automation to test all of these mobile applications. We are partnering and continuously vetting out tools for our customers.  One thing I can see now after 8 years in this space is that there is not one tool that is perfect or that can be called the best.  This is because it highly depends on the application.

Some questions are:

  • What parts of the app can be tested through automation?
  • Is location relevant?
  • 2G, 3G, Wifi, LTE or is connectivity available?
  • Does usability need to be tested?
  • Is this an enterprise or consumer app
  • How important is security
  • Does the backend need to be stress tested?

These are only some questions – please feel free to add more.

I have seen the tools fall into 3 categories with each one having a multitude of solutions:

  • Crowd Testing
  • Remote access to devices
  • Mobile QA / Test automation

Mobile Testing – Automation or Manual

Mobile Testing – Automation or Manual

Posted by Perry Nalevka on 

mobile-application-testing1-300x222

In previous posts we wrote that there is not enough testing being done in the mobile space but we see that the trend is changing as more outsource vendors (like us) are offering Mobile QA as a service.  The next problem I am seeing is that most testing being done today is manual which creates a lot of delay in today’s agile development world.  Although some manual testing will always be needed there is definitely room for more automation.  What’s driving more a more companies toward test automation is also the ever shrinking release cycle they’re facing for their mobile apps. Whether it’s a mobile web app which can see multiple versions per day, or a native/hybrid app which can be released any other week, the need for continuous feedback is critical.