Saturday, January 21, 2012

jQ.Mobi another smartphone/tablet web application development api lanched

Why we prefer smart phones over old non-smart phones. You guys are right, they are capable of storing more contacts, messages and notes. But there is one another advantage they have on old phones.


"Let me call them old phones, because they are old and not smart."


Yes, they have a relatively efficient/new web browser and lots of third party applications. Old phones are also not getting updates that is why their web browsers can only show websites which contain WAP or HTML4 content. According to a survey smart phone users spend more time on applications rather than using internet on mobile's browser. This mean a huge cloud of third party applications is the only reason behind buying a smart phone.


But some of you might not agree with the above conclusion. Third party applications are also available for almost every old handset. They are not productive and easy to use as compared to Computer applications, but they still exist. Today, when we buy a smart phone we expect that its applications will give us a experience close to computer application. People are now looking at smart phones and tablets as an alternative of a computer.


For publishers it is like the biggest hurdle, because there are lot of brands of smart phones out there in market.


"From publishers i mean companies who make applications/softwares. Now don't get confused by the word software, it is another name for application."


If publishers want their application made to run on each brand's smartphone/tablet. They will have to create departments to develop application for each brand. Every department require employees with relevant skills. Now you understand why it is a hefty job?


These companies thought their way out of this problem by identifying, which application is by default available in every smartphone.


"Applications which are already available inside a new device are called default applications. Company install them on the device and they cannot be removed by any user."


They found out that web browser is the only application which is available in every smart phone and tablet by default. So companies started developing api's or libraries which can be used to make applications. These libraries are consist of HTML and javascript files. By including these api's, applications use resources of web browser available inside the smartphone/tablet. Due to the heavy use of javascript in these api's, applications some time run slow on the smartphone. Although these api's are facing compatibility issues, but they are still popular inside the publishers because they run on almost every smartphone/tablet.


jQ.Mobi is another api/library for making mobile applications. They have specially optimized their api to avoid lag or slow down while running on mobile devices. Although their api is in beta testing phase, but i hope pretty soon they will capture nice share of mobile application development.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Grooveshark's HTML5 app is on the news

It is everywhere on the internet that Grooveshark has launched beta version of their music app created in HTML5. Yes, it is a big moment for HTML5 and a good alternative of mobile native app. It occurred that Grooveshark moved towards their web app after getting their native iOS app removed from Apple App Store. The fun part is that you can now access Grooveshark app on any modern browser.


Being a tech savvy person, i was interested to know which mobile api they used for transitions and touch capabilities. Because there are mobile api's available on the internet like jQueryMobile and Sencha Touch. But unfortunately, i got no clue about the api after seeing the source code of their web app. Although jQuery is being used inside the minified javascript files Grooveshark used in their app. Although mobile web apps have a past of being laggy on mobile browsers, but Grooveshark's beta app run smoothly on iOS browser with a simple layout and small footprint of javascript.


HTML5 Tag Check
HTML5 new tags like header, footer, article, section and nav are not used inside the app. Basically due to their limited implementation on mobile browsers. On the other hand they have used script text/templates to speed up client side rendering and updating. Facebook sharing tags are also implemented inside the source to make it available for sharing within your friends.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

StencylWorks a nice tool to easily make games without coding

Games are now getting more popular than movies. Major proportion of game revenue is coming from mobile devices. Even on the freelance websites now most of the outsourced work is related to gaming. After the evolution of powerful mobile devices called smart phones, developers are now capable of making more detailed,eye catching games. Companies like Rovio and Zynga made a fortune by selling their games for web and mobile platforms. Flash gaming is still unbeatable on web giving birth to HTML5 games. No doubt the importance of traditional console or PC gaming is there, but companies are now making mobile versions of their game as well. Game making tools which support variety of platforms are now becoming popular within game developers.

The previous paragraph is all about Corporate GIANTS making cash by developing games with their HUGE studios and a list of teams named inside the credits of their game. But you should not let your hopes run dry, because they also took a start from one or two guys. If your game idea is unique then you should go for it. Think about the guy who gave the idea of ANGRY BIRDS, he was also like us. Once you are done with your game idea, pick a tool that can develop your game easily and quickly. Thats where StencylWorks comes in.

StencylWorks is a FREE game making tool by Stencyl company. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Currently it can publish games to flash,iPhone and iPad but Stencyl has future plans to extend its tool to also publish games for android and HTML5. StencylWorks has a nice website containing a wiki and an active forum to get started with it. StencylWorks is free for the whole development and testing of games on flash and iOS. But to publish your game on App Store you need to purchase their license.