4 Mobile Application Development Trends This Year

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Blog, Mobile App Development

Developers don’t need us telling them that the mobile application development landscape changes constantly. But let’s pause just for a minute and look at how it’s changing. The best place to start is with the 2015 State of the Developer Nation report from VisionMobile. According to the report, there are 4 trends mobile app developers should be taking note of.
  1. Apple’s Swift
Anyone in the tech industry knows it’s hardly ever a case of “if you build it, they will come.” Adoption of new technologies can take time. So the rapid rise of Apple’s Swift language for iOS apps is worth mentioning. According to the report’s survey of 8,000 developers, one in five of them were already using Swift a few months after its launch.
  1. Growth of Cross-Platform Tools
Mobile application development is seeing an increase in the use of third-party tools. According to the report, 83% of respondents are using the tools for things like testing, analytics and crash reporting. Even more noteworthy, the use of cross-platform tools has increased from 23% to 30% in just six months.  Cross platform tools worth mentioning are Xamarin and Oracle Mobile Application Framework (built on Apache Cordova) So what goes into choosing the right tools? Tech execs seem to agree that it’s important to choose a stable provider that will be in it for the long haul.
  1. Enterprise Apps Are Making More Cash than Consumer Apps
Smartphones are flying off the shelves and mobile application development is teeming with activity. But it’s not guaranteed that your app is going to earn much. Developers working on enterprise apps are actually more likely to make cash. 43% of developers working on enterprise apps hit $10,000 per month or more in revenue. Only 19% of consumer app developers hit that milestone. A lot of consumers aren’t too keen to shell out money for apps but businesses seem to be more than willing to pay for software that helps their employees be more productive.
  1. The Internet of Things is Super-Hot
A lot of developers are investing their energy in the Internet of Things (IoT) even though it may take a while to pay off. Over 50% of developers report to be working on some sort of IoT project, and many seem to be doing so as a hobby. And it’s no surprise that the biggest areas of interest right now involve mobile application development, particularly on Android and iOS. To Sum Up the Report It is still early days, but VisionMobile’s report claims a huge upside in IoT for the developer community. Those products with the best software are going to be the most sought after. And developers will become essential to creating competitive apps.

So we get a picture of a mobile application development market that is evolving rapidly in pretty much everything from languages and tools to economics and device platforms. Keeping up with the changes can be just as challenging as doing your actual job. But that’s exactly why mobile is such an exciting endeavor right now.

Want to know which apps are tops for 2015? Check out my blog, 9 Great Apps for 2015.

Enterprise Mobility: Security Risk or Worth It?

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Blog, Mobile App Development, Sales Strategy, Technology Tips & Tricks, Technology trends

For the first time in computing history the enterprise is being influenced by its employees and consumers technology through IT consumerization.  IT consumerization is the blending of personal and business use of technology devices and applications.   Many companies have embraced a mobile-first strategy. But when employees are left to their own devices, InfoSec experts face unchartered territory. However, enterprise mobility can be and is in my opinion is absolutely a strategy enterprises cannot continue to ignore.

The trend towards enterprise mobility can indeed add to concerns over BYOD (bring your own device) security. And even though such systems are key to business operations, they’re not regularly maintained or tested for vulnerabilities, mainly due to availability concerns.

Enterprise mobility really is a double-edged sword: it helps provide broad data access along with communication capabilities for a great deal of the workforce, often at little to no direct cost. It also aids in opening up security issues that can range from vulnerable apps to security issues and employees accessing sensitive corporate data via unsecured networks.

Many CISOs and CIOs tend to realize that while security technologies and mobile device management do play a role, clear policies are essential to harnessing the benefits of BYOD. The aim of such policies needs to be to increase user productivity and satisfaction while ensuring compliance and the utmost security.

It Is A Risk Worth Taking 

So where do you start building a mobile security policy? Simple: start with what makes you uncomfortable. Devices need to meet “trusted device standards” in order to comply and employees should use VPN clients to gain access to the company network. What’s more, employee-owned devices should support security policies and frameworks that keep enterprise data secure at rest and in transit.

The trend towards enterprise mobility with critical systems and data can add to the concerns over BYOD security.  While some security policies are indeed standard procedure, you need to identify which functions, data and applications need protection most in order to understand how enterprise mobility could expose them. Some companies, such as Cisco and Oracle, use MDM (mobile device management) and MAM (mobile application management) to do application installs / removals, containerization and encryption of enterprise data, and in some cases remote wipe for loss prevention.

BYOD does bring many benefits when it comes to empowering your staff with timely information, offering flexibility and increasing productivity. Enterprise mobility also have many customer benefits such as improving consumer loyalty, streamlining customer support process and reducing support costs.  The benefits far outweigh the risks, but every company has unique situations and that’s where BYOD security technologies and policies should be focused.

Take the First Step

Enterprise mobility necessitates partnership with business leader involvement coupled with the understanding that not all risks are bad. The first step should be to establish a committee of business and tech leaders to identify the data and critical systems that should be considered when formulating the BYOD policy. The next step should be to review policy and technical controls based on potential risks and threats to your current operations.

Based on this sort of analysis, security officers and CIOs will be able to determine how to enhance and enable their enterprise mobility programs to moderate business risks.

Learn more about Oracle’s Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)

Looking for a partner to help your enterprise mobility needs, check out OpenArc.

9 Great Apps for 2015

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Blog, Mobile App Development

Earlier this year, Digital Trends created a list of 208 exciting apps for 2015. While a comprehensive list of this nature is an exciting feat, sometimes too many choices makes choosing harder. So here is a much simpler list to just give you a taste of what is out there.

9 Apps You Should Be Using in 2015

Here are nine especially great apps to start checking out, one from each of Digital Trends’ various categories.
  1. Entertainment: Endless TV
If you like watching TV, but don’t like watching commercials, then this might be the app for you. People watch TV online as much as they watch it in more traditional modes. For many people, online TV is more popular than traditional TV.

However, while online TV options are great, there are still many commercials and buffering to contend with. Endless TV is designed to eliminate both of these problems.

*** If you are a Comcast / Xfinity customer – then Xfinity TV GO app is really nice for plane trips as you can download some networks show like Showtime’s – Ray Donovan!
  1. Work and Organizing: Slack
Slack allows you to communicate better with your co-workers. It encourages inter-office communications and then allows you to save and organize your files and messages in one place. Along with real time messaging, you have options to file share and have group conversations. If you work at a software development shop like I do, then you will love the integrations with Jira, GitHub, Bitbucket, Drive, Heroku, Jenkins, Papertrail, Trello, Stripe, Zapier and many more.

All this, and you can sync the app across multiple platforms including the Apple Watch.
  1. Security and Utilities: MyScript Calculator
The MyScript Calculator is more than just the standard phone calculator. It actually recognizes your hand writing and turns it into equations. Because this works similar to a notepad, you can copy the info to the clipboard in order to save it.

It is also easy to erase, undo, and redo parts of the equation. Basically, it gives you the ease of writing out formulas on paper with the convenience of having technology do the math for you.
  1. Around Town: Drync
Drync helps you remember the name of the wine you are drinking when you know you will not be able to remember it later. Scan the bottle, and it will track it and let you order it. You can read reviews, learn about various wines, and find new wines to try.

If you are or would like to be a wine connoisseur, then getting an app like Drync could be great for you.
  1. Social and Chat: Brewster
Brewster allows you to combine all of your contacts across various platforms and puts it into one database. This way, no matter how you know them, you can more easily keep track of all of friends and acquaintances. Having a one stop source for this information can help make organizing contacts much easier.
  1. Fitness and Health: Mimi Hearing Test
If you are unsure how well your hearing is, but you do not want to make a trip to the doctor to get it tested, then the Mimi Hearing Test app could be great for you. It allows you to test your hearing and then shows you the frequencies you can hear as well as how well you compare to people your own age.  If you have young children this is a nice app to have.
  1. Travel and Maps: MotionX GPS Drive
The MotionX GPS Drive app allows you to view real life traffic maps while it gives you turn by turn navigation. It is set apart from other similar apps by its large, easy to use buttons and its lane guidance. In addition, it has a parking spot meter.   This app is still missing police and traffic camera warnings like Waze which many have come to rely on.
  1. Photos and Creativity: Flic
The Flic app allows you to look at your pictures in a Tinder-like scenario. When you want to get rid of pictures, it allows you to search through your gallery and swipe right keep the photo or swipe left to delete it. This makes it much easier to clean out your photo stream.
  1. The Dark Arts: Cydia
For those who are a little more interested in breaking some rules and who are a little more tech savvy, there are apps you can use when you jailbreak your phone. For those of you who fit into this category, Cydia is an alternative app store where you can find many cool apps within.

If You Don’t Like Any of the Options …

Of course, if you want something specific and nobody else has created it yet, you can just make it yourself. Innovation is always welcome and needed in our society. It is going to be a great year for new and exciting tech.  

How to Tell the Difference Between UI and UX Design

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in User Experience & Interface Design

Anyone with any type of design knowledge is aware of UI and UX design. But for those without a design background, developing a solid grasp of what you want from a designer can make the job much easier and more to your liking.

Valerie Chang included a very informative infographic on how to become a UI/UX designer on her article for Design Taxi. The infographic is very helpful, but for those who are more interested in using a UI/UX designer than in being one, this how to is for you.

Know the Basic Difference between UI and UX Designs

According to the infographic discussed above, developers spend 50% of their time fixing things that could have been avoided by proper implementation of UI/UX concepts. So you see how important these design methods are. But what is the difference between the two?

One of the first things you should learn is the basic differences between these two design styles.
  • UI (User Interface) design is more about the looks of a site. How are things set up? UI works on the front end side of the site. Where is the content displaying? How are the visuals appearing? This is what UI is all about.
  • UX (User Experience) design deals with the journey itself. How easy is the site for users? UX designers deal with human interaction within the site. This style of design is one that is more frequently misunderstood. UX is important because the harder it is for a potential customer to use a site, the less likely they are to come back. UX design is geared towards creating the best site possible.
Speak the Languages

If you are not a designer, you might hear designers throwing out terms that you have no idea about. It can sound like gibberish. When you speak with your designers, you do not need to first obtain an advanced degree in web design. However, you should start to grasp a few basic terms and concepts in order to communicate better with them.

Once you grasp the basics of their language, you can start to grasp their purposes, how they operate, and why these are two different design styles, which in turn will help you work together to create the site that you have always envisioned but did not know how to create.

There are several types of things that would be helpful to learn.
  • Tech. Designers use different types of technologies, and while you do not need to know how they work, it is a good idea to learn their names. The big ones might already be familiar to you. HTML5, CSS3, Twitter Bootstrap, JQuery, and XML are all programs frequently used by designers.
  • Tools. Similarly, the tools designers use are all likely somewhat familiar to you. These include the Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, After Effects, and Sketch.
  • Tasks. One of the best ways to learn the difference between UI and UX is to look at the type of tasks being assigned. Do you need to create a visually appealing homepage or mobile app? Are you trying to create a sitemap or app map? Learning the types of tasks each set of designs require and then figuring out which set of designs each task applies to will help you understand the importance of both as well as how they differ.
Step 3: Do Your Research

If you are really interested in learning more about what goes behind UI/UX design do some research. There are lots of ways for you to learn as little or as much as you want.
  • Ask the people who are currently doing the UI/UX design for your site (this is often one person, but if you do not have at least one person, you should think about getting one. Some things just need to be done right.)
  • Read a book or an article. However, if you do this, just keep in mind that anything to do with web design or technology is constantly changing. By the time you finish a book, it could already be outdated.
  • If you really want to know a lot about this field, take a class.
Now that you know how they differ, you are a step closer to getting the website or mobile application that you want and need.  

5 Places the ‘Internet of Things’ Is Changing

Written by Brooks Canavesi on . Posted in Technology trends

Technology is everywhere. More than just our phones, tablets, and computers are being created equipped with incredible features all spurned from the technological advances of recent years. As Internet functionalities have made its way into more and more devices, it becomes harder to pass a day without using some sort of smart feature.

What Is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of things is a term for the growing trend of putting the Internet into non-computer/phone objects. In other words, it is the act of literally connecting the Internet to things. A good example of an Internet of things device is the Apple Watch. It is a form of wearable technology, which falls under this category.

5 Places Being Changed by the Internet of Things
Here are five day-to-day places that are already greatly influenced by the Internet of things.
  1. Smart Houses
In today’s environment, even houses have to have a high IQ. As technology grows, homes are getting smarter and smarter. Technology for homes has created many incredible devices that can be monitored and run from a smart phone.

There are many examples of smart house features, with more being added all of the time.
  • Lights can be turned on and off and dimmed from a phone with smart light bulbs.
  • Temperature can be controlled through phones or computerized monitors to ensure it is the desired temperature at the right times.
  • Security features are added to many homes so that it can be remotely monitored at any given time.
  • Doors are being equipped with keyless entry that senses a smart phone when it is near.
  1. Customer Management
The Harvard Business Review wrote an article that shows just how much the Internet of things has changed customer management. Take Disney’s MyMagic+ as an example. With this service, Disney can track guests through a bracelet that lets them schedule their day. Then, with the tracked information, Disney can tell them a place to take a rest if they are ahead of schedule or what they might want to skip if they are running late. It also allows the guests to enter their hotel rooms with the bracelet.

This is just one example out of many that shows just how this phenomenon has entered the customer management market.    
  1. Wearable Technology
Some of the most well-known advances in the ‘Internet of things’ arena is wearable technology. From the Apple Watch to Fitbits to Jawbones, everybody seems to have some sort of wearable technology to show off.

These tech gadgets allow you to monitor physical activity, see how much you are sleeping, and stay connected to the digital world around you.

On top of all of that, even pets can get in on the action. Devices such as smart collars allow owners to track the whereabouts of pets from a phone or computer.
  1. Cars and Other Modes of Transportation
After wearable technology, cars and other forms of transportation are probably the next widely known type of technologically advanced devices. Standard car features now include traffic-equipped GPS devices, built-in Bluetooth capability, cameras, monitors, and alarms. And those are just the standard features.

New cars on the market today can tell you when you are starting to drift in another lane; stop you before you run into something; tell you if anything is behind you; and make it easier to connect hands-free to social networks. There are also cars that make it easy to track if it has been lost or stolen.
  1. Health Care
Even health care is being effected by the Internet of things. Set aside all of the technology being used in doctor’s offices and hospitals, let’s just look at personal health care options.
  • You can monitor and check your temperature and blood pressure through devices that you can connect to your phone.
  • You can find doctors and book appointments when you need to do so.
  • You can check your symptoms and be connected to doctors in real time in order to have consultations.
It has never been easier to check and monitor your health without needing to go to the doctor.

Change Is Everywhere

As the Internet of things grows and prospers, more and more of our day-to-day activities will be centered around these objects.