Posts by Andy Nugent
59 posts • joined Thursday 10th July 2008 08:22 GMT
Re: Fragmentation?
We have an app with 100,000+ downloads in Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.attidomobile.passwallet). They come from 1637 device models. 56% of the downloads are from the 10 most popular models, 5 of which are which are Samsung (Note, S1/S2/S3 and Nexus).
Fragmentation is a problem in that people with obscure devices (we have 520 different models with a single download on that model) will shout quite loudly when it doesn't work perfectly, but in reality you can test on 5-10 devices and pretty much cover you user base (either using the same device or something similar enough so as not to see issues).
I'm sure this is a bigger issue if you're using native code or writing the Facebook/Twitter apps where you'll have 100m+ users, but they they have larger resources for testing.
Compared to developing PC software, where people could be running on hardware they've put together themselves, the number of variants of Android is trivial.
Re: Don't need to download dodgy apps
Not sure which version of Android it was introduced in, but you can "disable" pre-installed apps. It's in the app manager where you'd normally un-install 3rd party apps.
Re: Fantastic - except...
1. https://www.asus.com/Tablets_Mobile/PadFone_Infinity
2. Think you can still use normal MicroUSB.
Original PadFone had the keyboard as well (https://www.asus.com/Tablets_Mobile/PadFone/) so you might be in luck.
Re: Fiddling the results?
I think they're probably concerned about people on the other side of London calling the helpline as they're having trouble with their FreeView.
Download links
If anyone's interested in trying out the apps; PassWallet (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.attidomobile.passwallet) & codeREADr (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skycore.android.codereadr).
Re: Limited capacity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#Card_security
Surface Pro vs MacBook Air not iPad
Surely the Surface (running WinRT) is competing with an iPad, and the Surface Pro's main Apple competition is the MacBook Air? In that they both run the full versions of Microsoft and Apple's OSs, and are both spec'd to run full applications. You just get a touch screen thrown in with the Surface Pro.
By all means continue to criticise the Surface Pro for using more space for the OS than the MacBook Air does, but at least compare like for like.
re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?
Do you think it's possible the marketing company was hired to do the campaign before the phone was ready?
Re: Whats not to like here?
But if you see them both as your personal devices, do you need to be able to use them both at the same time?
For me the main two advantages are (1) I only pay for one SIM & (2) when I plug my phone into the tablet over lunch / on a train / whatever my phone gets recharged from the tablets battery (Admittedly, I'm presuming that's the case on the Padfone2, as that's how the Padfone one worked when I saw it demoed at MWC).
Plus other benefits like watching a video / playing games / writing an email / etc. on the tablet and you can then just carry on with the phone.
Re: Default maps
Which country is that? Genuinely interested, as I've used Nokia Maps for years (N80 first phone I had with it I think) and have never had any issues.
Re: Way to go.....
Windows Phone 7.x apps will work on Windows Phone 8. It's the other way around that may be a problem (if your app uses the new features or contains native code for example).
@FordPrefect
Have you ever actually used Windows Phone for more than 5 minutes? Serious question, as people seem to have very strong opinions for how awful it is but very few seem to have ever owned / borrowed an actual device.
Re: Are you serious?
I recently switched from a Nokia Lumia 800 to a Samsung Galaxy S3.
Yes the "resuming..." of apps on Windows Phone got annoying, and any improvements in the multitasking would be a huge benefit.
But I've seen the S3 fail to respond significantly more times than I ever saw on the Lumia 800.
Bringing up the list of apps and returning to the desktop are prime examples. I don't even have a lot of widgets on the S3 (mostly full screen task / calendar / mail / etc.)
Admittedly there may just be something wrong with my device, it's just an observation.
But my impression from using WP devices (I've also used a HTC Pro 7 in the past) was that the processing power (or lack of) wasn't a huge issue. It's almost like it's been designed to run with that (locked down) spec.
Two questions
1) How does it perform using OpenGL on Windows? Is this performance boost down to them optimising the app for the OpenGL version?
2) How many of the app optimisations done for OpenGL would also be applicable to the Direct3D version?
Re: That and
I thought the apps will be compatible with WP8, and it's the other way around that's the (potential) problem?
So you write an app now and it works on WP7.5 & WP8.
You write an app in future, and if you use some new features, such as native C/C++, it'll only work on WP8.
Or did I miss something / get the wrong end of the stick?
Posted in Nokia details 808 Pureview release
Re: Erm yes it is
You can choose to output the 1:1 pixels if you want, which results in 34 or 38 MPixel images depending on the aspect ratio (Nokia have released a paper detailing the tech), so yes you're right that you can't output 41 MPixel images, but you can easily choose not to have the scaled down ones.
However, I think one of the main selling points is that you either get digital zoom that's reasonable quality (as it's not stretching the image) or you get low noise 3/5/8 MPixel images due to the over sampling.
Posted in Nokia details 808 Pureview release
Re: Oooer
They won't be unfamiliar with the code, part of the Symbian outsourcing was that Accenture took some of the Nokia staff on.
Posted in Crime Map
That's correct. All crime data is linked to streets. So you see spikes outside shopping centres and similar places that attract large crowds.
re: Have you seen my phone?
I think you might be missing the point. Your girlfriend will watch TV using her core gadget.
The screens just become peripherals anyone can use.
You walk into a hotel room, and the TV links to it.
You get on a plane/train/car and the display mounted in front of you links to it.
You sit at someones desk and you get your desktop on their display / keyboard / mouse / whatever.
You give a presentation and the projector links to it.
You're going out climbing/skiing/biking, so you take a bulky ruggerdised display to link to it.
You're going to work so you take you thin, large screen, iPhone-esque handset to link to it.
etc.
You upgrade to the new 4G 8-core version, and all the other screens/peripherals still work.
Lots of practical issues (battery life mostly) others have mentioned. But a very cool idea.
re: No surpise
We've had other websites offering downloads of our FREE apps. Some even charging for them (we've had customers email us asking for a refund!)
Why a "huge risk"?
"In theory, buying an HP Touchpad was – and still is, if you manage to get your hands on one – a huge risk."
I really don't get this. Yes, if you're going to spend £500 on a tablet, I can see why most would buy an iPad. More apps. Better support. Future updates. Etc. (I'd personally buy an EeePc Transformer, but you get the point).
But people didn't spend £500, they spent £89 / £115.
Given that there's not likely to be a new web, image, video or audio format to become popular overnight, I really don't see why getting a pretty solid device that covers most of the use cases for a tablet for a fraction of the price is "risky".
Posted in Nokia snubs UK with N9
Title
If Nokia / Microsoft are worried that the WP7 devices won't be able to compete with the N9, it doesn't say a lot for their chances against iOS & Android.
And @StrictlySocial, I've only had a brief play with a Mango device, and to be honest I'll reserve judgement until the app updates have come out to make use of the multitasking and the bugs are ironed out (I can't actually get it to add Twitter / LinkedIn accounts, even though the authorization completed, etc).
But the current release is basically a feature phone with a big screen and large price tag. I got one to try out through work that cost £450: using RunKeeper was a joke (brush any of the buttons and it shuts down), Last.fm client that shuts off when you want to do anything else, no Twitter/FB notifications for messages, etc, etc.
Why isn't this more common?
Seems like a really good solution in theory, is it just not beneficial in practice?
re: cosy
"U really think that producing a film in 3D doesnt cost any more that producing one in 2D, SERIOUSLY ????"
Which other films have the ticket price linked to the production cost? Do low budget films for £1 to see in your cinema and the summer blockbuster £10?
Generally if you spend more making a film you hope to make the money back by selling more tickets, not by making the tickets more expensive. Why should 3D films be treated any differently?
NFC in US C7-00 or in PR 2.0
Is the NFC functionality added exclusively in the Astound, or is it a feature added in SW update PR 2.0, which the European C7-00 will get eventually and the Astound is launched with?
re: Sigh.
"Don't hold out much hope for M$ if they want to make themselves look serious competition when they can't update their coding to at least change a name in a text file."
I'm not aware of any APIs that actually return the name of the OS, just the version number. So I'd say the problem lies in Steam having not been updated to handle version numbers greater than 6.0.
@BristolBachelor
Using the Flickr APIs? Not saying he should have to, but you can access all your metadata (tags / groups / sets / etc) through them. Re-adding comments / restoring the original photo URLs I don't think are possible though.
re: Yes, you're missing something
"If that wasn't enough, they're still managing to shrink on total shipments in a growing market."
No they're not. Sales of smartphones are up quarter on quarter for the last 18 months. They haven't been rising as much as the smartphone market has been expanding, so market share has been dropping.
Making MeeGo apps cross architecture?
Wouldn't this be more about taking MeeGo apps from ARM based smart phones and getting the same binaries to run on the Intel based netbooks (which would have faster processors / more memory / etc)?
And the Apple slant was purely because it was reported on MacWorld?
Posted in Angry Birds take wing on Android
re: Pricing
So you think the iPhone version, with a mass market 100 million plus possible customers, should cost the same as the N900 version with a fraction of that userbase?
Posted in Android terms point to operator billing
"Ovi does promise operator billing at some unspecified point in the future"
Ovi's had operator billing in the UK and a lot of other countries since last year. As a developer, I wish they didn't, as then we'd actually get the 70% revenue from Ovi that you get from Apple.
Posted in BBC grabs stock photo of own building
Is this a story?
Really, someone paid a couple of quid to use stock photo rather than wasting half an houe to go downstairs and take a picture.
Posted in Nokia tops iPhone and BlackBerry (again)
iPhone people's first smartphone
I think a significant reason for the increase in smartphone sales is that people who bought iPhones previously never had smartphones.
I'm basing this purely on personal observation, but it would explain why phone geeks (and I include myself in that) critercised Apple for lack of multitasking, etc. and people who bought iPhones didn't really care (because no phone they'd had previously did those things either).
Posted in Nokia launches ash cloud tracker
Nokia?
It clearly says the app is by Bolser Agency. You are aware that Nokia don't develop the apps in the Ovi Store?
Posted in Apple opens SMS door for third parties
Operator billing charges
Don't most networks charge more than 30% as their cut of premium rate SMSs? Some of them over 50% (I think Virgin is the highest in the UK). So developers aren't going to see any more money that they do through the app store.
"While the network operators couldn't (and sometimes still can't) see beyond voice revenue, faster-moving entrepreneurs realised they could quickly rent a premium-rate number and start selling bleeps and blips for real money, and even now the UK industry is dominated by third parties while the network operators spend their time searching for "the next ring tone"."
Except the network is taking a huge cut of all the revenues of those 3rd parties, without really having to do much.
Posted in First Freeview HD TV goes on sale
re: How much?
So you don't have time to watch TV, but you have time to read reviews for TVs and comment on them?
re: Makes sense
"No phone features, so what's the use in a name/number pair? name/e-mail with optional number on the other hand DOES make sense on the iPad."
----
"In fact, both of these capabilities are part of the USIM application, which can be installed on a SIM of any size or shape as part of the 3G standard."
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Did you even read the article before commenting?
@Paul, how about...
In defence of Paul, the error message that comes up when the C: drive becomes full is something like "out of memory". Which invariably leads to users (we're an app development firm) reporting memory leak bugs, when in fact you just need to get them to store the data on the memory card.
Price contradiction
"But unlike netbooks and notebooks, which both offer bigger displays than smartphones have, NetTabs are lighter and cheaper."
"NetTabs will cost more than most smartphones, Deloitte added."
Given that smartphones are generally more expensive that netbooks, how does that work?
Or are they working on the basis that smartphones are free (if you sign up for an expensive 2 year contract)?
Posted in Nokia Booklet 3G
Nice looking, over priced & under spec'd
What would the mark be it it had an Apple logo on it?
Re: 10Mp
Don't buy one then.
Maemo in Ovi Store
"In related news, the Maemo marketing bods also apparently let slip that Nokia’s Ovi store – an download portal akin to Apple’s App Store – will eventually house both Symbian and Maemo applications"
Maemo 5 has been a publishing option in the Ovi Store for weeks (if not months).
re: UK pricing...
"Thanks to a Mr. G. Brown whose incompetence has led to a poor £ / $ exchange"
The £ is now at the same level it was 10 years ago against the $.
Or are you referring to the years when we were getting $2 = £1? I'm guessing that had nothing to do Mr. G. Brown.
Posted in Nokia netbook to land on 22 October
re: Contract laptops..
Yes, because most people upgrade their laptop more often than every 2 years.
Posted in Texting peer released from prison
@Bunglebear
He wasn't found guilty of "death by dangerous driving", he was found guilty of "dangerour driving", which was why the sentance was lower.
Rightly or wrongly, it was deemed that the texting had nothing to do with the death.
Posted in Nokia sweetens juice-monitor app
re: Andrew Bush
The company I work for have got an app in closed beta testing at the moment that shuts down applications and switches off features (GPS / Bluetooth / etc) as the battery level drops.
Email beta@battery-extender.com if you're interested in giving it a try.
