PlayBook or Bust – The Final Chapter
It has been a little over 4 weeks since I first posted my intentions to attempt creating an application for the PlayBook in 9 days. I figured that I owed it to you guys to post a final word on it, and update you on the last few things.
For those who haven’t followed along, I decided to challenge myself to create an application, from scratch and with no prior programming experience, in 9 days. The endeavour ended up spanning a full 4 weeks, from start to finish, even though I succeeded in coding a fully working application within the 9 day timespan.
PlayBook after purchase – where’s the love?
We all love our gadgets, and whether you are doing it out of love or just being conscious of fashion, any gadget lover is going to accessorize. You’ve just gone out and laid out plenty of cash to have that shiny new device, and you want to keep it safe. It doesn’t hurt if it looks great too, because who really wants to carry around a foam rubber brick?
A month ago, the buzz in my twitter timeline was everyone pre-ordering their iPad 2. One thing that I noticed quite quickly, was that almost every single person that said they had pre-ordered was already looking to order a case for their new acquisition. This is before they had even gotten a shipping date, much less had the device in their hands.
PlayBook or Bust – Final Day
It has been a long 9 days, and I have to apologize that I haven’t been a little more regular with updating you guys. I knew that this was going to be a challenge, but I didn’t fully grasp how much of my time and effort it was going to take up to accomplish. For those who haven’t been following along, here’s the brief synopsis.
Last week, I announced here that I had presented myself with a challenge. RIM was offering up a free PlayBook to anyone submitting an approved PlayBook application by today, and my desire for a PlayBook caused an idea to form. I decided to try my hand at it, and attempt to create an app, despite having no experience with programming or development. I gave myself 9 days to do it, setting today as the deadline, as today is the last day to qualify for the offer.
Amazon Cloud Player: The long sought-after musical grail?
This morning’s tech news was abuzz with the news of the availability of Amazon’s latest musical venture, the Amazon Cloud Player. Hailed by the company as an innovative way to “securely store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC,” the news was met with great excitement by many an audiophile. According to Bill Carr, vice president of Movies and Music at Amazon, “The launch of Cloud Drive, Cloud Player for Web and Cloud Player for Android eliminates the need for constant software updates as well as the use of thumb drives and cables to move and manage music.”
Carr’s statement is part of Amazon’s official press release, which explains how the service works. What are the obvious questions that come to mind? Does it really work? Is it easy to use? What else can I do with it, besides listen to music? Of course, according to a Reuters’ report, Sony was less than thrilled to learn that Amazon had given customers the ability to stream their purchased music, without it granting licenses that extend to music streaming. This raises one last question. Is there a potential for illegal music sharing via Amazon’s service?
PlayBook or Bust – Update
I’ve been quiet for the last few days, dedicating all of my free time to this project as the deadline looms nearer and nearer. I have been living and breathing the development process for almost a week now, and figured I was due to give you an update.
In my last journal entry, I had mentioned that i had been attempting to jump into the coding process, but had found that my knowledge wasn’t quite up to par for the task I was setting for myself. So I took a step back, unplugged, and hit the books.
Storybook iPad App Comparison: Nursery Rhymes, Alice Lite and Goosed-Up Lite
There is little doubt that the advent of tablets, like the Apple iPad and Galaxy Tab, have changed the way we compute. Unlike a decade ago, when we were tied to desktops, mobile computing has allowed us to do all things digital in an untethered fashion. Even the laptop cannot be called a truly mobile device, since its design and dimensions prohibit carrying and showing content on it to others in a comfortable fashion. The tablet has taken portable a step further by making it comfortable, as well.
The natural progression of mobile computing has impacted our lives in ways most people never imagined they could. Among them are a flurry of apps that seek to replace the traditional hard and softcover fairy tales that our parents read to us as children. While there are many more, I sat down and took a look at three popular fairy tale apps designed to be read to children. How do they stack up? Does a price tag automatically indicate higher quality than that found in free apps of the same type? Here’s what I found when comparing Nursery Rhymes with Story Time, Alice Lite and Goosed-Up Lite.
LiveProfile for BlackBerry hits open beta
Yet another cross-platform messaging app has hit the smartphone market, and although LiveProfile has been out for Android and iOS for a bit already, it finally came into an open beta for BlackBerry today. Aiming to be another “BBM-like” experience, it has a host of features that BlackBerry users will recognize.
Visually, the app is quite polished, and I have to say that I really do enjoy the look of it on my 9800. Up until now, I have been using WhatsApp for my cross-platform needs, which is quite functional, but tends to fall a little short on visual appeal.
PlayBook or Bust – Day Two
Day two of my personal challenge to create an app for the BlackBerry PlayBook in 9 days, and I’m significantly the worse for wear. I spent the day yesterday searching the internet for various tutorials, guides, and basic programming instruction manuals. Surprisingly, the best resource I was able to find so far comes direct from Adobe, and includes a pretty decent walkthrough of some of the basics. I also managed to find a pdf version of a programming manual for beginners, which I converted into an eBook and loaded on my BlackBerry for easy access.
My synapses are fried, and it’s only a matter of time before I start dreaming in actionscript. However, I have found that thus far, I’m retaining and grasping a lot of what I’m absorbing, and have begun scratching out my own pseudocode, with two separate apps starting to take form on paper. After spending four hours last night and another four already today doing nothing but reading theory, my brain is crammed full of possibilities. I sat down today on a knowledge high, attempting to start the process of actually coding, but I have found that translating my grasp of theory into practice is a bigger leap than expected. I quickly ground to a frustrated halt.
Color for iPhone and Android: Social media for the geographically collocated
The latest in an ever-lengthening line of mobile apps for social media-philes was released yesterday. Simply called “Color”, it is a free app with versions for iPhone and Android. Based solely upon the name, one would assume that it was a photo editing or effects app. In this case, the name doesn’t describe the function as much as the goal it seems to hope to achieve…bringing a little more color to our social lives.
The man behind the venture is Bill Nguyen, who has made a name for himself in launching and selling ventures and later selling them to companies like Apple Inc. With Color, Nguyen and company are seeking to change how people interact socially on a digital platform, while in an actual real-life, social situation. According to Nguyen, the evolution toward a primarily mobile computing environment is resulting in a transition to a “post-PC world”. This all sounds exciting, but what does the Color app actually do? We’ve laid it out in simple fashion that users can use to decide if this is a “fundamental shift” of which they want to be a part.
PlayBook or Bust – Day one
Today is day 1. I spent the evening last night in the BlackBerry Developer Zone, downloading and installing all the various components required for me to develop an app for the BlackBerry PlayBook. I also sent my request in for my signing keys, and I’m still waiting to be contacted back by RIM as to whether I have been approved as a Vendor.
Setup and configuration took me almost three hours, following the instructions on the BlackBerry website step by step. A little lacking in a few areas, like perhaps telling you that the exe you are going to run is only going to put an iso file on your hard drive for use with VMWare. Kinda missed explaining that step, but got it figured anyway.
Biggest issue I ran into out of the entire process, I couldn’t get VMWare to install. After half an hour of wrestling with it and Googling, I finally managed to get it to install. Turns out the exe doesn’t run on Win 7 SP1, you have to use command line to extract the contents and install via the extracted setup file. A small warning about the compatibility would have saved me some time, but no matter, it’s done. Maybe it’s a form of encouragement, giving you a real sense of accomplishment before you have even coded a single module, because you managed to get everything set up properly.
