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D'coda Dcoda

Location-based guide for books and literary events [08Mar10] - 0 views

www.springwise.com/...localbooks

6GEO

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 06 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • As the electronic age puts physical bookstores and libraries under increasing threat, Local Books is a great example of how, by encouraging a resurgence of consumer interest at a local level, new technologies can be used to provide a shot in the arm for traditional outlets. Launched in January, it’s a free iPhone app that allows users to search an area for bookstores, libraries and literary events such as readings, book discussions and signings. Local Books is powered by LibraryThing Local—a crowdsourced database of 51,000 bookstores and libraries around the world. Users can search for these “venues” by name or by location. The details provided for venues include maps plus (when available) descriptions, photographs, links, and information about upcoming events at those establishments. Venues and events can be sorted by distance, name, type and date. At present Local Books does not show inventories from bookstores and libraries. We wouldn’t be surprised to see this feature available from them or from someone else in the near future. Could that be you? (Related: Online platform connecting booklovers.) Website: www.librarything.com/blog/2010/01/local-books-iphone-application.php
Dan R.D.

India Predicts - Emerging trends in IT and how to spot them [15May11] - 1 views

www.thehindubusinessline.com/...article2021377.ece

5RFID_IOT

shared by Dan R.D. on 15 May 11 - No Cached
  • Dorai Thodla, CEO of the US-based iMorph Inc. (http://bit.ly/F4TThodlaD), speaks frequently on the emerging trends in IT.
  • This Internet of things will cause another fundamental shift. The shift will be at several levels – at the chip level (hundreds of cores), at the device level (smart phones more powerful than your current laptops), at the interaction level (smart devices talking to each other), application level (smart applications leveraging all these sensors for different uses), and interaction level (caused by touch, gestures and voice inputs).
    • Paul Simbeck-Hampson
      Paul Simbeck-Hampson on 15 May 11
       
      nice clip!
  • In which areas of emerging IT do you see India playing a major role? India can play many roles both as a consumer of the technology and a producer.
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  • if we handle our innovation infrastructure right, we will participate in every major trend. We can detect them earlier now and we may be a causing a few of our own. For instance, one of the top 10 companies in cloud computing is from Chennai called OrangeScape. One of the best charting applications is Fusion Charts from Pune, and they moved faster from Flash to HTML5.
  • We can use some simple tools to gather information from tweets, blogs, web pages, portals and create information pipes. We can apply NLP, pattern mining and machine learning technologies to surface some of the weak signals.
D'coda Dcoda

Building Mobile Web Apps the Right Way: Tips and Techniques [09May11] - 0 views

sixrevisions.com/...-right-way-tips-and-techniques

1UE_NS

shared by D'coda Dcoda on 22 May 11 - No Cached
  • Here’s a quick breakdown of the big differences between desktop and mobile platforms: Mobile device hardware is smaller and generally tends to have lower hardware resources than desktops/laptops. Smaller screens bring about different design considerations and challenges. Touchscreen technology introduces new interaction concepts that differ from traditional input devices (keyboard and mouse). With a mobile device, internet connectivity is not always as reliable as a hard-wired broadband connection, which means internet connectivity is a concern and data transfer could be significantly slower. Although these sound as if they are hurdles to get over, with careful thought and consideration, there’s no reason why they should be. Touchscreen technology is exciting. The smaller screen design will really make you think about how to get the user to interact with your mobile web app in the most satisfying way possible. What we should really be doing is looking at the list of differences above and seeing opportunities to deliver our content in a different way. Building mobile web apps will be a paradigm shift from traditional web development and web design.
  • In the next sections, we will discuss development/design considerations, as well as concepts and techniques for building mobile web apps.
  • Keep File Sizes Small
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  • Dealing with Image Performance We want to try to get rid of as many images as we can. For the images we keep, we want them to be as lightweight as possible. If images are a necessity for particular parts of your mobile web app design, then there are a couple of extra steps we can use to trim off any excess fat from your files.
  • Use Adobe Fireworks for Transparent PNGs
  • Using ImageAlpha If Fireworks sounds like too much of a bother, check out ImageAlpha. Once installed, all you need to do is drag your images into its main window and then tweak the export settings to remove excess data from the images.
  • To learn more about using PNGs in web designs, see the Web Designer’s Guide to PNG Image Format.
  • Leveraging CSS3 Mobile web browsers these days are pretty advanced. Android devices use a mobile version of Google Chrome, whilst the iPhone does the same with Apple’s Safari. Some mobile devices come with mobile Opera and others allow you to install a browser of your choice such as mobile Firefox. So we’re talking about some pretty good browsers in terms of CSS3 and HTML5 feature support. CSS3 allows us to render things through code that would previously have required an image. We can use color gradients, draw rounded corners, create drop shadows, apply multiple backgrounds to HTML elements, and more — all of which can help improve performance and decrease development times.
  • If you look at a typical application interface via your smartphone, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll find CSS3 being used.
  • By using CSS3, we can reduce data transfer — particularly images and possibly excess HTML markup. We let the browser and the device do the work to render the interface more quickly.
  • HTML Canvas If you fancy a little more work, then you can improve speed even further using the canvas element. Although using CSS gradients eradicates the loading of a physical image, that method still causes the device’s rendering engine to construct an image in the browser, which can result in a performance reduction depending on the device and browser.
  • Hardware Acceleration When it comes to mobile web apps, Apple’s mobile devices are a major consideration that we need to be aware of because of the current popularity of the iPhone and iPad. Safari 5 (on all platforms) brings hardware acceleration into the mix. If you’re not familiar with the feature, Apple describes it as follows: "Safari supports hardware acceleration on Mac and PC. With hardware acceleration, Safari can tap into graphics processing units to display computing-intensive graphics and animations, so standards like HTML5 and CSS3 can deliver rich, interactive media smoothly in the browser."
  • Be Cautious of CSS3 Rendering Performance As brilliant as CSS3 is, certain properties can slow down a web page. WebKit-based browsers, for instance, really seem to struggle with shadows in particular, so just be careful that you don’t apply too many of these to elements of your interface until the issue has been resolved.
  • Consider the Offline User Experience Finally, let’s briefly discuss HTML5 offline data storage.
  • D'coda Dcoda on 22 May 11
     
    Very useful, but visit site for complete "how-to"
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

Mobile payment security apps coming to NFC-ready smartphones - Computerworld [26Aug11] - 0 views

www.computerworld.com/...oming_to_NFC_ready_smartphones

3BT_NFC mobile payments

shared by Marc-Alexandre Gagnon on 27 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Four major credit card companies are working with the Isis mobile wallet venture to install mobile payment security applications on upcoming NFC-ready smartphones in the U.S.
  • Visa expects to license its own software, called PayWave, to the upcoming near-field communication (NFC) smartphones sold by the three wireless carriers in the Isis consortium, a Visa spokeswoman said yesterday.
  • All four of the credit networks offer contactless payment software, which today is more widely used on cards containing chips than in smartphones. Isis officials said in July that having all four on board will increase consumer and merchant acceptance of NFC-ready smartphones used to make point-of-sale purchases.
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  • With the various contactless payment applications, customers would likely launch the application on a smartphone with a single touch, and then enter a PIN before waving it at a contactless terminal to make a payment at a retail outlet.
Dan R.D.

Video-Sharing iPhone App Limits Users to 1-Minute Clips [22Sep11] - 0 views

mashable.com/klip

video sharing 1UE_NS

shared by Dan R.D. on 23 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • If mobile video sharing is to follow in the footsteps of its more desirable mobile photo-sharing cousin, which application will users want to use to shoot, share and discover video clips? It’s too soon to tell, but startup Klip joins the fray and is now vying for your video attention. The startup released its application for iPhone on Monday with a focus on letting users share super-short 1-minute video clips — on Klip or with Facebook, Twitter and Youtube — and helping users discover clips from friends or other users based on topics of interests. “Klip re-invents the way consumers experience the world by organizing mobile videos in real time and by connecting consumers with the people and the topics that interest them,” the company says.