Mobile Devices

Mozilla is obviously trying its level best to bring its new Firefox OS to the fore this year. While it is clear that the company would not be able to offer serious competition to the current frontrunners of Android and the iOS, its main target is the lower-end smartphone market.

Mozilla now also aims to pull in app developers and mobile carriers to support its platform. The Geeksphone Keon and Peak smartphones are already available for developers. The company additionally plans to introduce more devices in the near future.

While the mobile platform itself did not evince much interest from app developers, the latest update to the Firefox OS Simulator - version 3.0 - did attract quite a few eyeballs. Offering some interesting new features and functionality, this update may encourage more developers to play around with the platform.

Will Mozilla be successful with its plans this year? Will its new operating system be taken seriously? Share your opinions with us!

Mobile app development can turn out to be an expensive affair, especially for independent developers who are just starting off in this field. The lack of funds can sometimes stall projects indefinitely, resulting in the developer's lack of enthusiasm to proceed ahead with fulfilling his or her ambitions.

The developer needs to invest money not only during the app development stage, but also later, while promoting and marketing the app. In such a case, receiving external financial support in exchange for rewards or benefits helps stabilize him or her; thereby far reducing the risk element involved in this industry.

While you can find many sources to fund your project, one emerging popular trend is crowdfunding. This method of funding involves several individuals or groups coming together in order to offer financial support to individuals or groups belonging to the same industry.

Have you tried tying up with crowdfunding networks? What is your opinion about the same? Share your thoughts with us!

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Last week, Mozilla released its Firefox OS Simulator 3.0, an updated version, which now presents new features and functionality to devices running the Firefox OS. The company announced the new upgrade on its developer pages, Mozilla Hacks.

While the Geeksphone Keon and Peak are already available for app developers, Mozilla plans to release more devices in the near future and currently aims to pull in more individuals and companies to build apps for this mobile platform.

The upgrade brings features such as API simulation, rotation simulation, manifest validation and many bug fixes for installing and updating apps. This build also includes a new version of the Firefox rendering engine, plus an updated version of Gaia, the Firefox OS user interface.

Those of you wanting to check out the new simulator version will have to first install Firefox, choose "Web Developer" from the Options menu and then select "Firefox OS Simulator".

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Google will be hosting its annual developer conference, Google I/O, from May 15th to 17th this year. Many of us are excitedly looking forward to this event and there is much speculation about what the giant may have in store for us this year.

I had posted just yesterday about how the company may be thinking of introducing its Android 5.0, aka the Key Lime Pie OS version. There are also rumors of Google introducing the Nexus 5 smartphone at this event. I personally doubt that may happen, as the Nexus 4 is just gaining steam in the market. I really do not see the company coming out with the next-generation phone quite so soon.

Incidentally, the guys over at AndroidPit think that the I/O would see the LG Nexus 4 getting a substantial facelift. The latest in the line of rumors concerning this event is that LG would be unveiling a 32 GB version of this device, which would also include CDMA and LTE. The company, sources believe, could be tying up with Sprint and Verizon to introduce this phone in the market. If we are lucky enough, the handheld could even include Android 5.0.

We are bound to hear many more such rumors in the days to come. Anyways, the Google I/O 2013 is sure to throw up some interesting stuff - that's for sure.

What do you think will be the outcome of this conference? What are your expectations from Google this year? Share your thoughts with us!

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The Executive Chairman of Google Inc, Eric Schmidt, has prophesied the Google would reach the 1 billion mark in terms of Android smartphone users, by the end of this year.

Schmidt additionally clarified that the company would not be blocking access to a new app from its rival Facebook, which replaces the homescreen on Android devices. For those not in the know, the new Facebook Home app now prominently features its own messages and newsfeed on the homescreen, thereby grabbing the lion's share of user attention.

Regarding the recent antitrust motion against Google, Schmidt said that the EU regulators would soon be evaluating a proposal to complete an investigation into the company's practices within this year.

Android is currently regarded as the best mobile phone software, with more than 750 million devices in use globally. Schmidt expressed a hope that the number of Android users would rise to nearly 2 billion in the next couple of years or so.

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Just the other day, I had told you about Marmalade introducing a revolutionary concept of porting iOS games with ease, across several major mobile platforms. The award-winning cross-platform tool now extends its reach to the Windows Phone 8 OS. Late last month, the company announced the launch of its first couple of games for the platform, using the Marmalade SDK.

The two games in question - 6th Planet and Propel Man - are very popular among regular mobile gamers. These apps have now been ported and deployed to the WP8 OS by the company's in-house team of developers and are currently available for download on the Windows Phone Store.

Microsoft is working really hard to regain its once strong position in the mobile market. At this time, adding on some of the most successful apps to its own Store would definitely prove beneficial to the company as well.

Anyways, getting back to the subject at hand, the Marmalade SDK offers an entire spectrum of services, including mobile game porting, geo-location, social media integration and much more.

Visit the Marmalade Website to know more about their services.

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RunRev yesterday announced that its team will soon launch LiveCode 6.0, the first open source edition of its app development software. The company's cross-platform formatting environment has, up until now, been available as a paid service.

After successfully raising $749,000 by way of funding for its open source version, the company is now all set to announce its community edition, which would be available completely free of cost for those who would like to develop apps for the desktop and mobile platforms. The program includes support for all the major operating systems, including iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux.

RunRev has also made several improvements to its current platform, in order to make the entire process easier for app developers, to enhance workflow and to achieve faster app performance as well.

The team at RunRev will soon be conducting a series of workshops, dealing with topics such as programming for beginners, open source app development, app marketing and so on, at its annual conference to be held next month.

Stand by for a preview of LiveCode 6.0. We will be bringing you a feature on that one very soon, guys!

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A group of Google's rivals, including Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, Expedia and others, have jointly filed a complaint against Google, alleging that the search giant, offering its Android operating system for free, is anti-competitive and, in that sense, is against market growth. This 17-member anti-Google group calls itself Fairsearch Europe.

In the complaint filed with the European regulatory board, the companies say that the company is using its Andriod OS as a "Trojan Horse", to deceive partners and monopolize the mobile marketplace, thereby controlling consumer data.

Google requires that vendors who want to use its services such as the Play Store, Google Maps and so on, also preload some of its other services. Such an approach, Fairsearch alleges, eventually aim to lock out the market competition. A media release from this group states that Google's predatory approach to dominate the market makes it difficult for other similar providers to procure a fair enough ROI.

The Commission has been tailing this issue since the last 2 years, confirmed the board's antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia. Google has faced antitrust claims in the past, regarding its search business both in Europe and the US. Whereas the Federal Trade Commission stated that the giant did not break any laws, the EU authorities may not take the issue lightly and would most likely investigate the matter with great seriousness.

Since the last year, Microsoft has been making a focused effort on regaining the market position that it had lost out a few years ago. Android and iOS have been the undisputed market leaders since the last 3-4 years and now, Microsoft is clearly trying its very best to include itself among the top players in the field.

While the Windows Phone 7 OS and its subsequent versions went far beyond the original Windows Mobile platform, the company has now registered an all-time high with its latest operating system, Windows Phone 8. Featuring several improvements over the previous versions, this OS has received critical acclaim from industry experts.

The company is also experimenting with hardware and software in its latest line of smartphones. Its latest offering, the HTC 8X features an innovative new design with a slightly different UI, which stands apart from the regular Android and iOS fare that we have all been used to, up until now.

The only major issue with WP8 is that it is lacking the quality and quantity of apps that is so necessary for a brand to shine in this industry. Of course, the versatility of the OS and the many conveniences it offers is not going unnoticed by app developers, who are now slowly but steadily being attracted towards this platform.

What is your opinion about Microsoft as a brand? Will it emerge as a top contender in the mobile market this year? Will it be able to offer serious competition to Android and the iOS?

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Marmalade, a leading cross-platform tool for mobile app development, recently introduced Marmalade Juice, a unique technology which enables iOS game developers to deploy their apps to other mobile platforms without having to manually port them, thereby also helping them reduce costs, while also reaching more number of users.

Developers can use this facility to recompile Objective-C and native OS APIs within the Marmalade SDK, thereby making them available for the Android and BlackBerry OS', as well as select smart TVs. Currently, Marmalade Juice is the only multi-platform formatting SDK which works with Objective-C to help deploy iOS apps to other platforms.

One such popular game app on iOS, "Tap Paradise Cove", is already catching up well with the masses. The company claims that this app has already registered over 1million user downloads on Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.

Game app developers interested to know more about Marmalade Juice can visit the company's Website.

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