WorkMobile Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

A few days at Mobile World Congress…

February each year, for one week, the entire mobile phone industry camps out in the tapas bars of Barcelona.

Occasionally, some people might stray into the Mobile World Congress, a magnificent event in which the likes of Microsoft, Nokia and Research in Motion try to convince us that the products they showed us last year are somehow newer and shinier this year.

Those sober enough to make it to RIM’s developer event on Monday were treated to a free PlayBook each. Meanwhile, Nokia had a beach party. The Far Eastern companies, like Samsung and LG, were less imaginative. Rather than trying to disguise their lack of innovation with cunning free gadgets and liquor, they actually had some new products. “Phablets” are all the rage. Not quite a phone and not quite a tablet, a phablet is, essentially, a very, very big phone. Samsung’s Galaxy Note has a 5.3 inch screen (compare to 3.5 inches on the iPhone). Some of you will be glad to know that the stylus is back. Sorry, I mean “S-Pen”.

Here at eSAY, we’re dedicated followers of fashion, so expect to see WorkMobile® on the PlayBook real soon, and optimized for tablet and phablet Android devices later this year. Now, if you’ll excuse me, these patatas bravas won’t eat themselves…

Graham (Senior Developer)

WorkMobile™ for iPad

Part of our team has recently been working on a version of WorkMobile™ that specifically targets Apple’s iPad. In Apple’s terms, we’ve made WorkMobile™ “Universal”. This means that a single application can be downloaded from the App Store to your iPhone, iPod, or iPad and it will work on any of the platforms. More importantly perhaps, it means that we get to take advantage of the large screen size when we’re running on an iPad.

At the start of the development cycle, I’ll admit that I was somewhat sceptical about the ease, according to the documentation at least, in which iPhone targeted apps could be converted to Universal. The documentation always says it’s easy, but as a developer I know we’ll usually find 101 tiny little annoyances. All of those niggles need to be hunted down and given a stern talking to, and that’s a time consuming process.

After changing the relevant build settings, we set about building our new iPad sized screens and wiring them up to the code behind the scenes that makes things tick. That task in itself was far less laborious than it would have been in days of yore, largely thanks to the (long overdue, but most definitely welcome) ability to wire up the code to your user interface visually in the relatively new and completely re-vamped XCode 4 (the software used to build applications for Apple’s platforms).

After building and wiring up the new screens, the next step was to get our hands dirty with the actual code and inner workings of WorkMobile™ on the iPad, and see if things go horribly wrong when you flip WorkMobile™ sideways, or upside down. This is where I expected all the dreaded niggles to start appearing. In reality, there were relatively few. For the most part we had to just switch on the ability of the application to rotate when the user spins the iPad around, making sure that WorkMobile™ was always the right way up so we can live up to the “There is no right way or wrong way” of Apple’s marketing campaign. It just worked.

Sure we had to make some changes to the actual inner workings of WorkMobile™ for the iPad version, but far, far fewer than expected.

I guess I’m going to have to eat humble pie (or maybe humble apple pie), and admit that my scepticism was misplaced.

Simon (Senior Developer)

WorkMobile™ for iPad hit the App Store on Monday 19th September and should now be available for download.

Form Headaches? Try Tablets!

When WorkMobile™ was originally envisaged, the drive was to harness the incredible power of mobile phones to replace that nasty, heavy laptop for high quality data capture. In the last year, we’ve seen a huge surge in tablets… lightweight, powerful devices, with large touch-screens, that can provide a whole new experience in mobile computing. Hot on the heels of the iPad, new devices from HP and BlackBerry are pushing the bounds in computing power and portability, along with a wide range of Android powered devices.

One of the great challenges for all companies delivering mobile solutions is to leverage their solution across this ever-increasing range of platforms. New operating systems create new technical challenges, and new device form-factors create new opportunities to improve the user experience.

In the WorkMobile™ development team, we’re excited about these changes in the market, and are working hard to take advantage of our existing cross-platform development strategy that already enables us to deliver our solution to more than 95% of smart phone users worldwide. We’re already working on tablet optimised versions for iPad and Android (users of which can already use the smart phone versions). Our device team are looking closely at the new BlackBerry PlayBook and it’s new Tablet OS operating system, and at HP’s new web OS-based TouchPad, both of which are due to hit the streets in June.

Getting WorkMobile™ to work on every device we can (currently, everything from an iPad down to a €30 Nokia) is what excites eSay’s device team, and is a big part of what makes WorkMobile™ such a unique product. We’re looking forward to delivering exciting new ways to use WorkMobile™ to you over the coming months!

Graham (Senior Developer)

Apple releases iPhone and iPad software update to fix user location tracking

Apple has pushed out a software update to fix a location-tracking bug on its iPhone and iPad devices. The company came under fire after claims the Apple products had been tracking users’ locations, containing a record on the “devices” file of everywhere iPhone and iPad users had been.

Apple’s software update 4.3.3 makes changes to the iOS crowd-sourced location database cache, including reducing the size of the cache, not backing up the cache to iTunes and deleting the cache when location services are turned off.

Apple previously said a bug was responsible for updating Wi-Fi data even when consumers turned off its location services. Apple says it had never tracked users’ locations and has no plans to ever do so.

“The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested,” said Apple.

The update is available to download via iTunes for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad and iPod touch (4th and 3rd generation).

Apple sues Samsung for “copying” its tablets and phones

Apple has sued Samsung for “slavishly” copying its handset and tablet designs. Apple said that Samsung’s Galaxy S handset and Galaxy Tab violated ten of its patents around the look and design of its iPhone and iPad.

“Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung has chosen to slavishly copy Apple’s innovative technology, distinctive user interfaces, and elegant and distinctive product and packaging design,” the suit argues, according to the Financial Times.

The suit notes says the Samsung devices too closely mimic the rounded corners of Apple’s devices, as well as the design of its app icons.

The suit is the latest in a string of patent arguments between mobile leaders, and Samsung has already suggested it plans a counter suit. “Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property,” a spokesperson said.

The move didn’t come as a surprise to some analysts. “There has already been criticism that Samsung copied too much from Apple [in its Galaxy phones],” Bae Sung-young, a market analyst at Hyundai Securities, told Reuters.

However, as Samsung is a major supplier of chips to Apple, he doesn’t expect the suit to be too damaging. “Whether they like it or not, [Apple and Samsung] have to work together.”

New rumour says iPhone 5 will make June release

A fresh rumour originating from South Korea is suggesting that the iPhone 5 will make the usual June release window after all.

In recent weeks it’s all been doom and gloom for Apple fans and early adopters looking forward to the iPhone 5. All signs appear to be pointing towards a late 2011 or – gasp – early 2012 release for the next generation Apple smartphone.

This latest Korean rumour claims that the iPhone 5 will maintain the tradition of launching in June. While it’s acknowledged that WWDC won’t be the venue for the iPhone 5 announcement (as it was for the iPhone 4) it will make a showing shortly after. ETNews claims that KT and SK Telecom have the new handset lined up, and that it’ll arrive in South Korea shortly after the usual front runners (like the US and UK).

Sounds promising, right? Well, not really. There are a number of problems with this rumour, meaning it doesn’t stand up as well as those that point to a late arrival for the iPhone 5.

For one thing, the iPhone 4 has only recently been released in South Korea. We know technology moves fast in the land of Samsung, but three months in between iterations? We can’t see it happening.

Then there’s the fact that there’s no precedent here, either for such a swift release in South Korea or for an additional Apple show so soon after WWDC.

That’s not to write off this rumour entirely, but the weight of evidence is still behind a launch in time for Christmas. Unfortunately.

Apple to add 3D camera?

According to Apple Insider, Apple has lodged an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office entitled “Systems and Methods for an Imaging System Using Multiple Image Sensors.”

The filing relates to a complete system that could take and process 3D images using dual-camera hardware.

As a concept, this is hardly new. Firms like Eyesight already license it to OEMs. But Apple says its method would employ a hardware-based approach that would improve quality with a “deterministic calculation for stereo disparity compensation.”

And to think, it’s only just put one camera in iPad.

Android apps quickly approaching iOS numbers, while Windows Phone 7 hits 10k

App count is often a contentious issue – the argument goes that in this app-driven market the one with the most apps (that’s Apple) is king. It appears Apple won’t be able to make such boasts for long, though.

According to a report issued by Business Insider, while Apple remains in front with 350,000 apps available on its App Store, Google has closed the gap significantly with 250,000.

Yes, 100,000 apps still sounds like quite a gap, but when you consider the relative growth from June 2009 – when Apple had 50,000 and Google had just 5,000 – you’ll realise that the Android Market is growing at a far greater rate than the App Store.

Plotted out as a graph, it shows that Android app growth is rapidly accelerating while iPhone app growth continues to increase at a steady rate. Projecting a little further down the line, it seems the two great app store rivals will be equal within a few months.

According to the report, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 would appear to be eating the leaders’ dust with around 20,000 and 9,000 apps respectively, although in the latter’s case that’s not bad going.

In fact, it’s been reported elsewhere that Windows Marketplace has just passed the 10,000 apps mark. This landmark has been achieved in less time than it took both iOS and Android.

Apple announces iOS 4.3 launch date

The latest mobile operating system from Apple will be released to coincide with the US iPad 2 launch, on 11^th March. The iPad 2 is not due to hit the UK until 25th March. At the iPad 2 launch event in San Francisco, Scott Forestall, vice president at the company, ran through some of the improvements iPhone and iPad users could expect with the updated OS.

JavaScript on iOS 4.3 is set to be twice as fast, bringing improvements to the Safari browsing experience, he claimed. Also the iPad switch will now be able to both mute and rotation lock, rather than just the current lock function.

FaceTime, previously only available on iPhones, will now work between both the smartphones and iPad devices – also thanks to the inclusion of cameras on the iPad 2 – and both multi-track recording and iMovie video editing will become available, with HD sharing capabilities.

Apple launches iPad 2

Apple has unveiled the second version of its flagship tablet device, the iPad 2. In a surprising twist, Steve Jobs – the company’s CEO who is currently on medical leave – took to the stage to announce the device.

“We’ve been working on this product for a while and I didn’t want to miss this event,” he said. The iPad 2 will feature a dual core A5 processor and Jobs claimed the graphics would be nine times better than the first model.

It’s 33% thinner than the first iPad – even thinner than the iPhone 4 – and will actually weigh 0.2 pounds lighter than its predecessor. The iPad features two cameras – one front and one rear – to allow for Apple’s video calling application, FaceTime. It also has an HDMI output with 1080p capabilities.

Jobs claimed the tablet would still have a 10 hour battery life and remain at the same price in the US, starting at $499 (£305) for the 16GB Wi-Fi only model. As an addition, Apple unveiled “Smart Covers.” The flexible products act as screensavers rather than full cases and use magnets to stay attached. They also make the tablet sleep or wake up depending whether the cover is closed or not.

The iPad 2 will be available in both black and white and has been given a UK launch date of 25 March. However, the US will get its hands on the device as early as 11 March.