Mobile application development – Gabriel Catalano®

Upon request: via topdesignmag.com // Need inspiration?, love Game Character Desings? // @topdesignmag

Awesome Detailed Game Character Designs

The popularity of the video games many multinational companies are persistently developing better and more adventurous online games in keeping with the demands of the people. The characters in these games are also erected by the creative geniuses i.e. the web designers.

20 Very Creative Emblem Type Logos For Your Inspiration

Written by Bogdan

A logo is the heart and soul of a business and without it, the brand’s identity will never be memorable. Just like a book, a good logo must tell a story and must stick in the viewer’s mind after the first second. There are many types of logos, such as wordmark, combination marks, iconic logos.

POPULAR ALL TIME | design-newz.com |

POPULAR THIS WEEK

Facebook’s Voting Reminder Has Curious Timing | allfacebook.com

Justin Lafferty

At the start of Election Day, Facebook pointed out that users will gradually see a prompt at the top of their page (and as a notification on their mobile app) to declare that they’ve voted and motivate friends to do the same. However, many users noticed that the prompt seemed to be timed to follow moments of inactivity, presumably following a user’s journey to the polls.

Earlier today, many users noticed that the prompt (as seen below) was not on their page this morning, but popped up after they were away from the computer for a while:

This “I’m a Voter,” button has proven to be pretty popular. In the 2010 election, the prompt drove an extra 340,000 users to the polls, according to a University of California, San Diego study.

A Facebook spokesperson said that there’s no hocus pocus going on, noting that notifications were “rolling out throughout the day.”

Readers: When did you see the “I’m a Voter,” prompt on Facebook?

Justin Lafferty articles…

How To Start Developing Your Own Apps

See on Scoop.it – Gabriel Catalano the name of the game

Software development is going mobile, bringing applications to phones, laptops and tablets everywhere, including the classroom. Continuar leyendo «How To Start Developing Your Own Apps»

Best Practices: New Twitter Headers and Mobile Updates

Twitter rolled out a slew of changes today. The big conversation piece: The addition of profile “header” images. These images are just like Facebook and Google Plus headers. But on Twitter, the new header section also houses your all-important profile picture, name, handle, bio, location, and website.

This update affects both Twitter’s web client and their mobile app, which was a surprise to many brands. Read on for best practices regarding the new Twitter headers, and the new mobile app.

New Twitter Headers

Your profile picture now lives in the header section. Following/follower stats sit just below the header.

The basic navigation remains the same: clicking the tabs in the left-hand column (Tweets, Following, Followers, Favorites, Lists) keeps users on your profile. So, if someone comes to my profile and wants to see who I’m following, that list will display below the new header section.

Header Setup, Dimensions & Tips

Uploading your new header image is simple:

Prepare an image. Bigger is better as long as you don’t exceed 1252 x 626 (theoptimal viewing size across all devices). Remember, your bio and other information will display over the top of the image. So pick something that’ll keep that text readable. Anything smaller than 700 or so pixels wide looks like a game of Minecraft, though.
Log into your Twitter account.
Head to “Settings” from the drop-down menu in the top right of the Twitter menu bar. From here, select “Design” as if you were going to change your profile’s theme or background image. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see the new header image option.
You won’t need to spend a lot of time editing the size of the image you want to use. After you choose an image, Twitter lets you customize how you want to display the image. This is why I recommend choosing a large image to upload, as you can easily zoom in and out to get the right look.

And, since it always helps to have the actual dimensions: In the web client, the header image itself is 520 x 260. Continuar leyendo «Best Practices: New Twitter Headers and Mobile Updates»

Facebook Mobile Hits 543 Million Users [Update]

http://www.socialbakers.com

With the Facebook Mobile application becoming faster, how fast is its user base growing?

In May, the Facebook Mobile application for mobile devices had 488 million users. And by the end of June, it reached 543 million monthly active users. That represents a 57% Facebook mobile penetration from the 955 million strong user base.

Faster Application = Faster Growth?

The application has been often criticized for being too slow and unresponsive, but about two weeks ago, Facebook issued a massive update to its iOS app and it is now much faster and easier to use. Not to mention that iPads finally support Timeline and it looks great on the retina screen. Facebook for Android has also gone through a smaller update resulting in faster photo uploads.

Mobile Platforms – The Biggest Changes

North America continues to be the strongest Facebook Mobile continent with over 161 million monthly active users and South Africa, Nigeria and Japan still rule the ranking of the countries with the highest Facebook Mobile penetration. But check out the numbers concerning the penetration of individual mobile platforms! During the last quarter, Facebook for Android has grown the most in absolute numbers (22.5 million new users) and iPad increased its mobile Facebook base by 45%! Now that Timeline is available for iPad, it will be interesting to see how the numbers grow.

Facebook Mobile Infographic

Check out, Share and Like the infographic below and compare it to the results we issued in May.

Continuar leyendo

New Translator App that can read signs and menus | via whatworkswhere.com

This new translator app can read printed text and translate it for you on screen. The new app, created by Quest Visual is called World Lens, is leading the way in mobile translation tools. The app uses Augmented reality technology to read street signs, menus, and most printed text which it translates for you and displays the English version on the screen of your iPhone. I believe this technology is the future of things to come mobile apps.

Check out the video below and see for yourself.

The translator app currently only works on Spanish to English, but according to John DeWeese and Otavio Good from Quest Visual “We won’t stop until we get all the way across the globe”. The guys are focusing on European languages to start and expanding from there. For those of your who aren’t iPhone owners it looks like you will have to wait and see as there are no immediate plans to roll out World Lens on Android or the other mobile platforms. Which is a shame for you as I believe this is the must have travel app on the market.

What does this future… Continuar leyendo «New Translator App that can read signs and menus | via whatworkswhere.com»

Concepto de gamificación o “gamification”

Vamos a hacer una pequeña introducción al concepto de gamificación o “gamification”. En esencia, se trata de aplicar la mecánica de los juegos en otros entornos.

No es una herramienta nueva, lleva entre nosotros mucho tiempo y dentro del mundo web se ha asentado en grandes plataformas como puede ser el caso de foursquare.

Gamification no se trata de un juego para potenciar un producto, sino de implicar al usuario a través de pequeñas dosis de retos y recompensas a fin de conseguir que estos realicen ciertas acciones.

En el entorno web tenemos diferentes opciones para integrar la gamificación: Continuar leyendo «Concepto de gamificación o “gamification”»

How to Turn Your Smartphone Into An Emergency Kit | by Michael Soenen

Mashable

Michael Soenen is the chairman and CEO of EmergencyLink, a free medical ID network which makes it easy for anyone to be prepared for an emergency. Follow the company@EmergencyLink.

Technology can help you find a restaurant, locate a parking spot, and even get you a date. But how can mobile appsimpact the more crucial aspects of a person’s life, like safety and well being?

While apps can’t replace your doctor or local police, there are many that can make a major difference in an emergency. Here are nine that will help you prepare for, react to, and report such situations.

Prepare

Emergency preparedness isn’t just about extra batteries and jugs of drinking water. It’s about making sure you have access to the right information when you need it most. The following apps allow you to prepare for emergencies before they occur.

pMonitor: pMonitor lets parents use location alerts to, for example, know when a child arrives at school or is headed home. Users can create alerts for potentially dangerous situations as well. So if you have an elderly parent, you can set an alert that will ping you if that person happens to fall. In other words, this app will let you know whenever a loved one is in a bad situation so that you can respond.
Pocket First Aid and CPR: This app is useful to keep in your phone as a CPR tutorial. It can’t replace a certification, but it does offer best-practice reminders on how to properly administer this life-saving technique. It can be particularly useful to have a mobile app to walk you through the steps during a crisis when it’s easy to seize up.
Safety NET: This app is great for an elderly parent or a disabled loved one, as it monitors for things like falls or collisions. It then automatically alerts a previously selected emergency contact to call for help.

React Continuar leyendo «How to Turn Your Smartphone Into An Emergency Kit | by Michael Soenen»

Just 15% Of Smartphone Users Trust All Mobile Apps With Personal Info

marketingcharts.com

Only 15% of smartphone users trust all mobile applications with their personal information,according to [download page] a survey released in July 2012 by TRUSTe, conducted by Harris Interactive. Instead, mobile app consumers take a variety of steps to protect their personal information: 38% research the app online, and 34% check to see if an app has a privacy policy.30% will read that privacy policy (if it is provided), and 21% check for a third-party trustmark or seal. 19% will ask friends about trustworthiness.

Only 14% of smartphone users this year believe that their app stores only offer privacy-safe apps. That is down significantly from 25% in 2011, reveals the “2012 US Online and Mobile Privacy Perceptions Report.” Faced with a mobile app they distrust, 85% of smartphone users do not download it, while 8% limits the information they share with the app, 4% limit their usage of the app, and just 3% report they do not change their behavior.

Smartphone Users Uncomfortable Sharing Many Forms of Data

Smartphone users feel safest sharing their gender with mobile apps, with 49% saying they would consent to do so, with age (36%) and email (35%) following. On the other end of the spectrum, just 1% would consent to sharing their list of contacts, 3% their photos and videos, and 5% their home addresses. Only 6% of app users would consent to sharing web-surfing behavior, a key element of online behavioral advertising (OBA), and 58% expressly indicate they do not like OBA. Finally, 28% say they would not consent to sharing any personal data with mobile apps.

University of California-Berkeley researchers in July found a similar reticence about sharing personal contacts. While 82% of mobile owners store contact information on their devices, 81% of device owners would probably (30%) or definitely (51%) not allow social networking applications to mine those contacts for friend suggestions, and 93% would probably (18%) or definitely (75%) not allow a coupons app to mine the list in order to offer coupons to their contacts, per findings.

50% Would Opt Out Of OBA Continuar leyendo «Just 15% Of Smartphone Users Trust All Mobile Apps With Personal Info»

Facebook compra Spool, camino a conquistar el mundo móvil

Por Juan Diego Polo | wwwhatsnew.com

Ya os hemos hablado en algunas ocasiones de Spool, una aplicación que nos permitía guardar en el móvil los enlaces de la web para visualizarlos más tarde, disponible como extensión para Chrome y aplicación Android y iPhone.(…) Continuar leyendo «Facebook compra Spool, camino a conquistar el mundo móvil»

Games Dominate Mobile Apps, Set for Revenue Growth

Games (49%) and social networking (30%) capture the largest proportion of consumer’s time spent with mobile applications, according to January 2012 analysis from Flurry, which notes that it does not track Facebook usage, such that the social networking category is actually larger than represented. Entertainment (7%) and news (6%) are the other major categories by consumption, though both trail the frontrunners by a large margin.

Apps Increase Lead Over Mobile Web

Flurry’s analysis shows a significant shift in daily interactive consumption over the last 18 months between the web (both desktop and mobile) and mobile native apps. Using Flurry Analytics data for mobile consumption, and comparing it to publicly available data from comScore and Alexa for web consumption, the analysis finds that smartphone and tablet users spent 94 minutes per day using applications in December 2011, compared to 81 minutes in June 2011. By contrast, during that time period, the average time spent on the web shrunk, from 74 minutes to 72 minutes.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/

Apps Increase Lead Over Mobile Web Continuar leyendo «Games Dominate Mobile Apps, Set for Revenue Growth»

How to Plan Mobile Enterprise Development Using Forrester’s POST Strategy

According to a new report from Forrester, mobile development has gone from being a separate silo to being mainstream. As more and more IT departments will be called upon to create mobile applications, Forrester recommends managers and developers adopt its POST (People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology) strategy. POST was actually created for marketing and business development professionals, but the company explains how to apply it to mobile application development.

(…) By Klint Finley

Forrester logo According to a new report from Forrester, mobile development has gone from being a separate silo to being mainstream. As more and more IT departments will be called upon to create mobile applications, Forrester recommends managers and developers adopt its POST (People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology) strategy. POST was actually created for marketing and business development professionals, but the company explains how to apply it to mobile application development.

Executive Summary

[http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/define_mobile_development_strategy/q/id/56935/t/2?src=RSS_CustomFeed&cm_mmc=Forrester-_-RSS-_-Document-_-6]

Developing mobile applications used to be an arcane activity pursued by highly specialized developers, but no more. The surge in popularity of Android devices, BlackBerries, and iPhones has application development professionals gearing up to incorporate mobile development into mainstream development processes. The first step in taking mobile development mainstream is defining your strategy. Learn from your peers in consumer product strategy by applying Forrester’s POST method to your mobile development efforts. Begin by understanding what types of mobile users you need to support. Next, determine your objectives, and then build a strategy based on your desired offering and level of corporate commitment to mobile. Once you have completed these three steps, then — and only then — should you choose from among the six mobile development styles at your disposal and the vendors that offer mobile platforms and tools that can aid your efforts.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Use The POST Method To Get Started, But Keep Your Options Open

WHAT IT MEANS

Mobile Development Is Crossing The Chasm
Supplemental Material
Related Research Documents

People

The process begins with profiling your target audience. Forrester identifies four types of mobile users:

Task workers
Information workers
Wannabes
SuperConnecteds

Each has their own requirements and you need to determine what those are before starting. Continuar leyendo «How to Plan Mobile Enterprise Development Using Forrester’s POST Strategy»

How Men and Women Use Their Smartphones Differently

The genders may be equal, but their smartphone usage may not be. While there have been no readily available studies on how men and women may use their phones differently, we suspected that there had to be trends to separate the two. In an effort to get an idea of just how wide the gap may be, we asked some of the most hardcore iPhone and Blackberry junkies what they thought. The results may surprise you!