Deploying Android apps on phones and tablets

There are features like "telephony" that are supported only on phones, if you include them in your application manifest the tablet users will not be able to find the app in the Market. Google's solution to that is to deploy multiple APK under the same package.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHONES (deploy first):

     

It is OK to include android:largeScreens="true" for phones as you will see at the end.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TABLETS (deploy second):

If you want the app to show on the Android market for tablets, deploy another APK with API-Level 9 ( android:largeScreens="true", android:minSdkVersion="9")

DO NOT include, or try android:required="false" android:name="android.hardware.telephony":

After deployment you will see 2 versions on your developer's dashboard:

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Consumerism vs. Classics

Ever popular, cute cats that sing, zombie booths, mindless attention grabbers, full of glitter -- there is a constant flow of products designed to amuse you, to make you want to get them now, instant gratification candies. They don't serve any particular need, more or less like glass beads in colonization era, they offer a cheap thrill for few minutes, maybe weeks if you are a rare person on inflicted with ADD, than they are left unused for what they really are, rubbish.

Whole industries work hard to create a products that are meant to be replaced as soon as the next wave of fad arrives.

On the other side of the spectrum are the products that are beautifully designed, fulfilling their purpose for a need that is long lasting and deeply entrenched in our psychology. These are like classic cars with are as pleasing today as they were in their heyday, there are like beautiful houses, scuptures and master crasftsmen furniture, or small items like a pocket knife, or a fountain pen. Things you cherish and use, and keep on using for generations.

Sometimes, it is important for us, designers of modern products to go back and think - do I provide a lasting value?

Tablet developer: allow full Website access, or do your homework.

There is nothing more frustraiting to people spending $500 to $800 on a new shiny tablet to find out that your app tries to "enhance" your user experience by providing 3 inch phone functionality.
The full-size, mobile safe, site would work quite nice on the tablet, especially with ability to pinch and pan to get to the particular section.
Going a step further, which is actually not that much extra work, is to provide the comfortable experience taking advantage of the vaste real estate of the tablet.
The other day I was comparing Android Gmail applications between 4, 7, and 10 inch screens. The 10 inch was done in nice 2 column layout with small fonts which made easy to view my email content. The 7 inch was nothing, but blown up small phone app, with huge fonts as if Google was assuming all Galaxy Tab 7 users were vision impaired.
The small screen Gmail app wasted a lot of screen with big buttons in editing mode, buttons that should have been in menu with better, more beautiful iconography, I am sure users would learn to press menu really quickly.
Even the Blogger app I am using now has several buttons that take screen space. I assume that Blogger app is used very frequently, so it should be designed for frequent users, too.

Search button & Voice Commands

The search button is gone, so much for idea of everyone using "voice commands".

I tried voice commands for a while but honestly I never liked the idea --  it annoys people around you, and it is as difficult as selecting by hand while driving - which of course I never do.

 More and more manufactures are not including the physical SEARCH button, and it looks like Google gave up on the idea in apps like Market where the search magnifying-glass icon is prominently on top. Also, the Android 3+ tablets are missing all the physical buttons, which I personally miss a lot. Samsung Galaxy 7 tablet has all 4 buttons, but Galaxy 10.1 already does not have any.

I think as the voice recognition improves the button may come back, but for now only simple commands work and Google Voice mailbox is sometimes comical, everyone call me and says "Hello Auntie!"

Factors that can influence downloads of the mobile apps

Taking as a fact that you have a great app, a "shouting", cutting-edge presence on the app markets, good rating and good promotion, what else could influence the number of your app downloads?

Having over a dozen apps out on the market, we noticed that every time we release an update, we have a spike in downloads. The reason is that, when publishing an update, the app market gives you a bust of ranking so you get more often in the search results and may be listed on the first page of rating within the category in which your app belongs to. In addition, surprising users with improvements (hopefully), either its some new features or a holiday re-skining of the UI, works as a gentle reminder and can increase the number of active users which is very important..

Another observation, more obvious this time, is that people tend to download and explore new apps on weekends.

Here is an example of the downloads statistics on ChildrenTV, on the right side you see the number of downloads on the left I showed the weekend days.

Another advise would be - Know your users.

Try to analyze and put yourself in your user's shoes. Imagine his life cycle and try to understand at what point you (your app) can be useful. When is your user more willing to use your product.

Here is an example from the same app, Children TV. Take a guess which is the reason of a massive increase in downloads on this statistics.

If you pay attention to the dates you will see that on vacation the downloads are considerably higher, parents are happy to get their kids busy, kids are happy to watch their favorite cartoons. Boom, mission accomplished.

I will keep updating this article as I notice new external factors influencing downloads, full moon for example :).

Yes, green potatoes are poisonous.

A part of a good diet is to know the toxic plants around you, just as our ancestors would have. 

In the next set of posts, I will try to write about various common plants, but today let's start with one of the most boring of examples, the potato.

Today, if you ask a city kid they probably tell you that french fries grow on trees, right next to the pop-corn bush, even fewer people would recognize the potato plant in the garden.

Potatoes are tubers, and even if they come from South America, which means they were not the food of my ancestors, I do consider them a part of the "caveman diet" in small quantities.  The paleolithic cavemen would not pass an opportunity to eat a tuber rich in starch (sugar).

What is interesting, is the plant is actually poisonous, especially the green parts, potato salad in the medieval witches' days had a totally different meaning. -- Oops, I thought it was spinach! Too late.

As we know potatoes are basically safe, that is unless the store keeps them exposed to light and then you prolong that until they start turning green.

I have to admit that I love "Zuppa Toscana" with sliced unpeeled potatoes in the local Olive Garden and I feel quite safe eating it, but there is also a very good reason why I was taught to ALWAYS peel my potatoes at home. If you were to eat the green potato skin, you could end up with, at least, an upset stomach.

Store your potatoes in total darkness, keep them from getting damp in storage, peel them carefully, while dropping peeled potatoes into the water, and soak them clean before cooking.     

AT&T Android system update pleasantly surprises with a lot of improvements

When I got my Motorolla Atrix, I loved the phone and hated the Operating System. Today I was pleasantly surprised by the 4.5.91 system update from AT&T by the quantity of improvements on different levels.

First of all UI is much more sharp and pleasant. In the old version we had 2 buttons doubling themselves like call and contacts which were opening the same functionality,  just different tabs:

The last OS update has a much better UX, where the "Apps" is mandatory, and you can add another 3 apps on your choice, either its a call button or your favorite mobile games.

Another nice touch is that  you can set and choose profiles, so for the week days you set all you need for work like calendars, TODO apps, sticky notes etc., whereas on weekends you can set home profile or create a Sunday one and choose your sailing, hiking restaurants apps on the home screen.

On the Application screen, the new system displays the market icon and provides a wide range of options on the long press like: add to home, add to group, share, uninstall. Another big improvement concerning app management is that now you can check to allow installation of non-market applications, a restriction that created a lot of trouble for mobile developers before, for me as well.

As minor minuses I would list for now a less recognizable and less attractive icons for browser, camera, voice commands and the worse one - text messaging

I keep discovering my new phone OS and I love it. Now I really feel that I am the OWNER of this phone and not the carrier.

Natural boost of hormones after menopause.

If you are a woman after menopause you may get an extra fix of estrogen simply by munching on sweet potatoes and soybeans. To some degree, Japanese edamame and tofu with cooked sweet potatoes will do the trick.

This is not recommended if you are a woman planning to get pregnant.  Pregnant women naturally are supposed to have very low levels of estrogen, therefore eating these plants wreaks havoc on pregnancies. The phytoestrogen produced in these plants is meant precisely to abort the pregnancy in animals that eat a lot of it and therefore control their population.

Bright light, good mood, sunglasses and beautiful tan

Have you ever wondered why you sunburn while your kid gets a beautiful tan?

If yes, next time you go to the beach take off your sunglasses.

 
Your eyes tell your brain (pituitary gland) how bright is outside, if it is bright brain releases hormones that kick melanin production into high gear. 

With sunglasses on, you are fooling your body into thinking that is dark, but the joke is literally on you, you burn.

Also, the light control of hormone levels affects our moods. 

Next time when you get awakened by the alarm clock before sunrise, try to turn on a bright natural light over your bed and bask in this artificial sun for a few minutes. You will notice that your day will be happier and you get a nicer tan on the beach.

Cholesterol, sunshine and your skin color

If you are a northern european, or a dark-skinned person, chances are that in both cases you might have a high cholesterol levels, but for different reasons.

People originating from hotter regions, over countless generations were getting too much sunshine. Since sunshine destroys the folic acid, causes skin cancer and increases the rate of birth defects, the countermeasures such as darker skin were developed.

Dark skin skin blocks the harmful UVA rays, however also prevents vitamin D creation. The dark-skinned people living in the northern climates may not be getting enough sun.

Similarly, northern Europeans were not getting enough sunrays to manufacture enough vitamin D.

Evolutionary mechanism to ensure generation of vitamin D was to kick cholesterol generation into a high gear. Cholesterol is used in body's production of vitamin D.

Modern people spend much less time outside and are protecting their skin from sun with UVA blockers, therefore the cholesterol goes unused, especially in winter. 

The "civilization" is trying to fix the vitamin D deficit with fortified milk, but we got stuck with extra chrolesterol. 

I am not advising you to go and sun tan, but you should consider spending more time outside if your cholesterol levels are high.

Note that ocean fish-eating populations in northern climates have their diet full of naturally occurring vitamin D.

America is the most romantinc of countries!

I cannot speak for all aspects of american life as being romantic, especially not the corporate life which is devoit of humanity and overly politically correct, but food is a totally different matter!

You see in most of Europe they assume that you are a loner and they serve you appropriatly. Try to get a cup of coffee in Itally and you ind yourself with something that is hard to hold without crashing. Similar way with food.

America is differnt, all into loving shring feelings, they assume that regardless of your current taste you will get a rack of ribs, a bucket of fries or popcorn, and have a gallon of drink.

Oh, of course if your love on doesn't want to share the ribs you ordered.. well you just become a fat pig.

XML file design and formatting

It is well know that XML files are larger and therefore slower that JSON, however with careful design they don't have to be so. Remember the rule:

1) it the tag repeats only once then it should be converted to an attribute, for example:
- name, latitude, longitude, etc.

2) shorten the tag names, but don't go to far so it is still human readable
3) compress (zip) XML files when transferring them over a network

Formatting:
1) put each attribute on separate line, white space does not cost when compressed
2) extend line length to at least 120 characters for readability, your window size most likely allows for more

Biological Clock

This morning I work up and got up at 5:02AM, almost precisly at the same time as I would wake up on any other day, exept it is Saturday and alarm clock was not set, I live in the suburbs that are super quiet with exeption for constant humm of cicadas.

I have read that people think that they have a biological clock, but really this is some distant train, or other sound giving them a clue to a subconcious time reference. It is hard for me to believe in it considering how quiet the suburbs are.

I will do an experiment and change the alarm to few minutes early and see how my body adjusts.

I do suspect that there could be relation to neighbours air conditioning, however distant and quiet it is, or to a singing bird that just started its tweeting now at 5:20.

Collaboration Website

Over the years we have learned that keeping a private, project collaboration site is essential. I have used several solutions from SharePoint, through Wikis and BaseCamp, but one of the simplest to use and most practical is Google sites.


On the collaboration site, you post screenshots of the newest versions and graphical assets for the next iterations of the product. Also, you include the documentation, use cases, and problem descriptions.


The site, when well organized is an excellent tool to update customers on work in progress: "Can you look at page 3.a - product details?"


We try to create a page for each piece of functionality.


It is important to put the most recent screenshots on top of the page, and it is easy to see previous versions as you scroll down. Other, non-visual files can be attached.


Another trick is to set page layout in two columns, which Google sites allow you to do easily. The left column is for developers to post the current state and the right column is for artists to show the vision of what it should be.


A great site saves a ton of confusion and delays. We literally prohibit our people from sending Word Docs, Images, Spreadsheets, etc. via email, or Skype. All useful documentation should be posted for sharing with update alerts and revision history available.

Still comparing iPhone to Android?

I wrote a fun post on my Tech blog, here is the re-post of it.

Disclaimer: I ALWAYS have BOTH iPhone and Android on me, I use both. I had 3 iPhones and several Android models including tablets of both OS.

Apple has a beautiful consistency of the product, and the hardware is just yummy, but as with superior breeds of the animals, does not matter how well groomed and "purified", the diversity and evolution eventually wins as the environment constantly changes. 


An Example of  such changes is that I mostly write my blogs from the phone, I never thought I will be doing it, but it is convenient especially with the Google Blogger app. I would not be able to type the long articles on virtual keyboard, so I rather use an OFFSHOOT of the mobile evolutionary tree, Motorola Droid2. I don't have much love for that particular phone, but I got it for free, no argument there. 


Maybe in few months I will have different needs and I will choose another model. 


So today, the only way you would convince me to switch my DROID2 for iPhone is if I could sell it on eBay and buy a newer, better Android phone (with keyboard). 


For me, there is no comparison, iPhone loose hands down on daily basis.
 
Couple of examples:

1. If you want to have an alarm app (check out our Shame Alarm app) on iPhone you have to start it and leave it in the foreground -- and that is only one of the many problems of iOS, Google solved it long time ago. 
2. I use desktop widgets on my phone all the time, iPhone may have them soon.
3. Switching between running apps, I do it all the time bouncing between email and chat and browser and blogger.
4. I type probably 3 hours a day on my phone, including my blogs, emails, chat, there is no keyboard on any iPhone

I cannot live without the above, and hundred other features users of iOS never heard of.

Google Java Technology: Still comparing iPhone to Android?

Google Java Technology: Still comparing iPhone to Android?: "Disclaimer: I ALWAYS have BOTH iPhone and Android on me, I use both. I had 3 iPhones and several Android models including tablets of both OS..."

Vegeterian Human?

In my writing I often rely on our distant past of humans to determine what we should eat and how we should behave. The adaptations come extremly slowly, and rapid changes are usually not healthy, if you don't believe then feed your cats cooked cabadge and you will see how long it will live.
There are exceptions however, species that are normally carnivorous develop sub-species that eat vegetables. The example would be a panda bear, or certain apes.
Humans have had the sidekick species that ate vegetables too. Paranthropus boisei who lived 2.3 million years ago in Africa had jaws that were massive by today's standards. The muscles around the face were buldging as in these days the fire was not known for these primitve ancestors or ours. We cannot say for sure how different was their digestive system, the stomach might have been bigger than ours as vegetables have very little nuritional value and take long to digest. Otherwise, we have to assume the they still had the basic ominvore digestive system and did not pass the termite hill, or a bird nest when they found one. They were not vegeterian as we think of it.

Current Mobile OS share in USA

1) iOS: 38%
2) Android: 35%
3) Blackberry: 15%

link

eBook Reader vs Paper Book

eBook readers like Nook from Barnes&Nobles and Kindle from Amazon are becoming more and more popular. I was bought on the idea of tablet readers from the first experience.

Here are some major advantages:

• you can store hundreds of books. You can read more books at a time and don't have to carry a back-pack for this
• you can make notes, selections and share the best quotes with friends.
• you can look up for unknown words in the dictionary or internet if available. 
• you can read as well as write book reviews

• you can load and read *.pdf files.

• you can adjust the reader to different light conditions
• you can become your own author, as publishing yours thought, poetry or even recipe book is relatively simple
• by choosing eBook reader over paper book you contribute improving or at least sparing our ecology as publishing industry is very polluting. 

Disadvantages:

• considering that this technology is relatively new, not all the books have been converted to eBooks yet, especially old editions.
• even if you can read for weeks on a battery charge you still have to take care to charge your eBook reader (an often issue for me).

After reading over ten books on the Nook, I had to come back to a paper book only because the edition was not republished since 1967. The reading experience is not very pleasant, though the book is worth it.

First of all, because of the yellowish aged paper the contrast is bad and the font size pretty small and plenty of crooked letters.

Secondly, if you take your sight away or get distracted, because of the small font, it takes quite a while to get back to the place where you stopped reading.

And third, while reading on the train its very difficult to take notes and put your thoughts down.

I am very happy to see that the eBook readers become very affordable. Barnes&Noble Nook with touchscreen is only $99.

Caveman Diet

A while ago, I wrote about cavemen's diet and it has been on my mind.

 
The variety of veggies -- bulbs and roots have been the staple of the diet for our ancestors for most of the last couple of millions of years. It is important to say they these vegetables were natural and therefore very low in sugar, so potatoes and corn are not recommended.

The next set of items on the diet is a rich, seasonal assortment of nuts. 

The archeological finds show that hazelnut shells were found in tens of thousands of people's dwellings. 

Pine nuts, sunflower, and other less usual choices add nicely to the repertoire.

As with everything moderation is the key. It was solved for our ancestors by the fact that trees grew only so much compared to today's thousand-acre orchards and that seasons started and ended quickly. 

Ancestors did not import fruits from Chile.

The last part is they ate a meal, a lot of it, but it was mostly small animals like rabbits and birds. 

The mammoth hunts came once a year during migration, so there were no stakes on the table daily. The fat was always at a premium.

The salt was almost never available, so it should be used on a rare occasion, but the herbs were abundant and a great variety was used daily.

Importance of pair-programming.

The idea of pair-programming makes sense for several reasons, first of all almost always when the developer "bounces" ideas against someone else, they end up thinking through the problem more carefully than a single person who would implement the first idea that comes to mind.
Secondly, the pair, when indoctrinated well cuts much less corners and the product quality increases.
Thirdly, when you loose a developer, and it is not always by "got hit by a bus" but sometimes a happy "got married and went for a honeymoon", then the other developer understands nuances of the project and can continue.
Finally, when you have a nice team, it is simply more fun to get together and solve the problems.
I have build very smart and effective teams in the past composed of senior and very junior members that did great work, enjoyed coming to work and did tours on local microbreweries together -- now, that is priceless.
Not all people like to work in pairs, my answer to that is, try to build teams composed of people who do. You will not regret loosing one loner mad scientist whose work might worked brilliantly, but whose code had to be re-writen anyway once he left.
Talking from experience. Good programers like to share and have fun while doing an awesome job.

Do Events Influence App Success?

Not really, sponsoring the events does not affect the app success.

We have organized over 40 events and at most we could see a daily spike in downloads, but a couple of days after the event metrics were coming back to normal growth.

Break the Organizational Walls

When you hire different people to do a project for you, make sure they literally work together. Throwing the work over-the-fence always results in a mediocre product. Let me exlain.

You hire the best design team and they indeed do a stellar work. You are happy so you give the designs to some brilliant development team. They start working with the design and realize that you are missing the crucial data to fillout parts of the design, now the product is not as good. To make things worse you start testing the app and learn that the customer interaction flows are slightly different then envisioned which is always the case as customers are not able to tell you what the like and dislike before they see and touch it. Your development team is pressed by the timeline, no desinger around, so they photo-chop the original desing to fit the new needs. The monster is born with the intention of fixing it later. Fixing it later never happens.

Get design and technology people in the same room from beginning to the end of the development, or fail.  

Shame Alarm

Never Sleep Through Your Alarm Again!

Have trouble getting out of bed? What better way to motivate you than knowledge that if you fail to get up, everyone from your parents to your co workers to your Twitter followers in Indonesia will know that you lack the ability to perform one of the most basic of bodily functions?

Trust us, when this little alarm clock goes off, you'll move quickly to get to the dresser, because if you don't, someone will know about it.

Shame Alarm is guaranteed to increase your morning productivity! Simply log in to Facebook and/or Twitter, and you'll never fail to wake up again!

Features:

• 8 classic wake up ringtones


• Add vibrate for some extra buzz


• Set alarm to repeat on select days


• Dark interface for perfect night time usage


• Remember, like all third party alarm clock apps, you must leave the app running overnight. Make sure it's plugged in!

Download on iTunes.

client: www.mflatmedia.com

eBook

The application starts with a cover-page splash screen and the option to purchase the paper book. Table of Contents (TOC) lists all chapters and appendixes.

When user opens the page the chapter name shows briefly on top. The reader is able to select text by long-press on the page, share selected text using various popular Social Media applications and highlight selections of text. The application remembers the list of Highlights and Bookmarks.

Status: coming soon on the Android market.

Plant Me Trees

PlantMeTrees is a trivia social game app developed to make people pay attention to the ecological issues. The echo-green design

was suggested by the app’s name. The sticky note is animated and flips after user taps on the answer. High score, Totals, FAQ

can be accessed from the tab bar. 

Status: submitted for approval in the apple app store.

Yachts and Tall Ships

Tall ships, super yachts, catamarans, sailboats, cruise boats and events.

Detailed information for 700+ detailed sailing vessels, all major ports around the world, points of interests and more.

Find out about sailing events around the world, share them with friends and see its twitter feed.

Children Story

"Useful Recipe" - a beautifully illustrated, 16-page, folk story in 4 languages. You select the language by pressing the country flag.

• English 

• Russian 

• French 

• Romanian

Swipe side-to-side to go to the next page of the story.
Tap on the screen to view the text and change language.

Send us your own language translations and we may include it!

Download from market: http://bit.ly/hgZiYv

Budgetary estimates

It is important to create a rough budgetary estimate early and present it to the potential client. This can save you a lot of time in the future as they will know what kind of compensation you are expecting.
We have seen many times over idealists who somewhere got the notion that to develop their application can be done for a thousand bucks, probably from the movies where a "hacker" solves a problem in couple of keystrokes.
Another type of people that we are trying to avoid are more savvy businessmen who take advantage of the fact that most developers are not good at monetizing their skillset and can make them rich for very little. There is of course the third type, the "horse traiders" how get the kick from trying to get the best deal, even if that means a ruin to the developer.
The budgetary estimate sets the correct expectations, shows that your pricing is reasonable and thoughtful and that you are not here to take advantage of the customer, but at the same time you are planning to charge a fair amount for your service.

Updates to This eBook

The field of Mobile software changes rapidly, sometimes from month to month,
therefore as soon as you download this eBook it will start showing signs of being outdated. 

We would encourage you to delete this book from your eReader library and download it again, something which most book sellers will allow you to do for free.

We will attempt our best to keep this book up to date on my blog and expand it based on our experiences and with regard to the comments from you. 

The best way to let us know what you think is to post on: 

• our blog as a comment
• Twitter with a hashtag #MobileRoadmap

Tools for Writing This Book

After trying several writing software tools,

we found it frustrating that only Google Docs allowed online real-time sharing between multiple reviewers and various devices.

Even with Google Docs, editing on the tablet is far from satisfactory.

When we are "on the go", the Twitter, Facebook and recently Google+ to be useful repository of our thoughts, Uki maintains a saying:

“I’m writing an books 140 characters at a time.”

Finally, we decided to write our thoughts down as blog posts.

Roadmap for Mobile Business - The Need for This Book

It has been said many times that the best way to create something of value is to address your own pressing needs. It is also true for this book.


Developing mobile applications with people from around the world creates a need to share not only tasks to be accomplished but also the governing principles and the reasons for how we came to make the decisions that we made, in other words, the organizational culture.


Writing a book in addition to Blog would force us to have a concise, living knowledge repository held up to higher standards because scrutinized by public reviews. We should also make it no secret that books are more prestigious and hopefully add to profitability.


You should read this book if you are an entrepreneur trying to build a mobile product, an executive outlying the mobile roadmap for your corporation, a developer or software project manager improving user experience in your mobile product, or a marketing person working for the mobile industry.

Tech.li Thursday One

On August 5, Edward Domain, the organizer of "Tech.li Thursday One" set the beginning to a new type of event series, a meet-up of young entrepreneurs discussing next steps on their road to success.

The event was co-sponsored by Dan Fedor, the co-founder of Taxi Share which CyberWalkAbout designed and developed. Taxi Share other co-founders were Uki D. Lucas and Ryan Bahrke.
I had an honor to represent Taxi Share Chicago and speak about the application and about Apps for Metro Chicago competition. Please support our app by mentioning us on twitter (@TaxiShareChi) and vote for us on public voting starting 08/18/201.

Heading towards the event, I was expecting a start-up pitch type and media people. Though, I was pleasantly surprised by the turn around. The main goal is to invite start-ups to talk about what kind of challenges they face at the moment, instead of showing charts and prognosis of millions in revenues for VCs.

Most of the attendees were part of one or the other attending start-up I see a great value in it, as some of them are looking for designers and developers another build their business on offering this type of services.

Some of them need users without whom their great idea does not make too much sense, another offer analytic and user feedback service.

Here are the ones that were the first to start at "Thursday One".

Using stereo 3.5mm jack to communicate with IR remote

I was thinking about making a universal 3.5mm jack device (IR and more).

This is not a new idea, versions of it has been around for 7 years, but it is still a cool project.

Griffin had something like that patented for several years, read this article, it is still cool. RedEye Mini has recently covered it commercially. Total Control seems to have Android version.

For IR remote, the first approach is to communicate to 3.5mm jack, it seems that you can pre-record messages as 36kHz - 44kHz, 16bit Stereo square PCM (pulse-code modulation) wave files. Here is a geeky in-depth article from 8051projects.net.

RedMote is providing Android source code and apk as well as few sample WAV files. The design is very cool:

Here are the components needed as provided by RedMote:

Hackint0sh.org (Former Bender) is providing great schematics for the project:

Quoting from the article: "two IR LEDs mounted in reverse [..] each IR LED will emit half the signal/frequency (15~20Khz). Together they will reproduce the original IR frequency exactly like the original remote."


The optimal solution of course it to develop a sound generator and plug in the remote specifications.
Here is a listing of remote specifications.



I also think it would be cool to design Arduino board/shield that would plug in to 3.5mm jack and be able to receive:

• IR emitter for controlling AV equipment (and add some social sharing component to TV watching)
• IR proximity sensor to trigger stuff like alarm, or camera/voice recording
• Ultrasound Sonar for various distance detection
• and more..

It take time and effort to create tutorials, please support my efforts with a couple dollar donation, any amount will be greatly appreciated!

Magnetic Card Reader

Here is a cool DIY project for couple of bucks worth of components:

http://members.cox.net/berniekm/card.html

Hachiko

I have watched a movie Hachiko about a loyal dog that waited for his master on the train station for 9 years. The movie is based on a real story that happened in Japan in 1923. The story is heartbreaking.

tablets in retail

I have mentioned in the previous posts various retailers including Chili's which introduced tablets to their restaurants, now JC Penny created an iPad app for their jewelry department, Nordstrom for wedding and fashion, too numerous to mention and the trend is only going to accelerate.

Product info and pricing comparison.

We already know that over half of today's customers are owning some form of the smart phone, and a large portion on them compare the product information and pricing when shopping. On one hand this could be a trouble for brick-and-mortal retailers as customers find what they want and then order it online, but on the other hand it creates an opportunity. When you show customer online competition's price comparison and match the prices in store as it is today possible in Sears stores the customers will appreciate this customer service and less likely go shopping elsewhere online.

Limited physical space.

The reality in most of the stores is that the space is limited and having every possible model on the shelf is expensive. Having the mobile tablet product showcase and comparison solves the problem as the salesmen can show  one item and talk about 4 other that might not be present. Having a set of WiFi enabled tablets is much cheaper than stocking every possible jewelry, or appliance item.

Mobile checkout

Apple stores spoiled us -- standing in checkout line may be a deal breaker, especially when customer already has spent the time with the salesman. There is really no excuse even if the integration to existing system is difficult. Second part of the mobile checkout is the fact that it could be done from the customer device, there is absolutely no reason why not. If there are standing in the store choose the item, scan/enter the idem number and checkout online the store system should know about the purchase and they should be able to get receipt, disable the security tag and talk about. Instant gratification, no need to ask about credit card, gift card, points -- all should be included.

Customer assurance - a bit of psychology

When I walk into a store, may it be a small Chinatown camera shop, or major retailer, if I can review and compare the product ratings, reviews and pricing with the salesperson and I know that the item is what I am looking for and price is reasonable, not necessary the lowest, as the instant gratification has its value, then I might be inclined to buy on the spot. Otherwise the seller only gives an excuse the customer to walk out and think about it a little more.

Salesmen ain't that smart

Let's face it, when I go shopping for a mobile phone or a camera the salesmen does not know nearly enough to help me -- if he knew, I, or someone else, would have hired him away from that position. Yes, they are very good sales-people out there, but their skills are usually social, most of them lack the knowledge of the details of the full line of the offering. All of this is another reason why having a tool that is attractive and useful in sales process is essential in today's interconnected world.

new website look

Cyber Walk About has a new Website look. We decided to use a blog website to be able to provide you with constant updates (press releases) of the work we are doing. Please note the app links on the left and the page listing on the right.

Let us know if you like it and help spread the word.

http://cyberwalkabout.com/

Art by Sydney

Totally original wallpapers for "Art by Sydney".

Are you bored with the wallpapers in the marketplace; do they all look the same? Well, here's some totally original wallpaper. I photographed all the images and used Photoshop to turn them into digital collages.

Great Features:

- It's FREE

- No pesky ads

- Frequent additions

- Intuitive navigation

- Save to your camera roll

- Email images

- You won't find these images in any other wallpaper app.

Please visit the "Art by Sydney" Facebook page for information, to leave a comment and to like the app.

Download for free on Android Market.

Tech.li writes about Taxi Share Chicago

Tech.li reporter, Jennifer Beese, wrote an article about Chicago Taxi Share Android application in the interview with our partner Daniel Fedor.

full article

Children TV for Android

This application is designed for children to enjoy and adults who want to learn foreign languages.

It was inspired by seeing my daughter search and watch YouTube cartoons. We wanted to create a SAFE and convenient app for our children to enjoy during the long car rides, etc.

You can enjoy videos in 10 languages and filter only the once of you interest:

• english


• french


• italian


• spanish


• german


• russian


• romanian


• ukrainian


• korean


• polish

Filter by age category is also available.

Please note - all videos are hosted and played by YouTube.com player. Our service is limited to finding child-appropriate videos and rating them by language, fun and age.
Enjoy!

Taxi Share

Find people traveling the the same direction as you, share the ride. Call Taxi.

Save Time, Save Money & Share Your Taxi!

Taxi Share Chicago allows you to easily and quickly share a taxi with someone else going to the same popular destination (Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular, Downtown, O'Hare, Midway, etc.).

How it works:

Select your destination, look for others on the map going to the same place (each traveler is represented by a color coded dot corresponding to their destination). Tap their dot/icon and a chat window will appear. Exchange a quick text to confirm your desire to share the ride and that's it! Whoever hails a cab first picks up the other person! The first time you use the app, you will be asked to enter a first name or alias that you can change anytime using the menu function.

Extras:

The menu function will allow you to call a cab company directly, turn your phone into a flashing beacon (signaling your color coded destination) and allow you to input your favorite destinations.

 

 

Download form Android Market: http://bit.ly/g1naeR