Life by Bits & Numbers

People that are fascinated by Apple usually don’t look around for other things, they like the polished products that just work. But for other people and technologists it’s not like that. We usually are looking for the best tool for the job. So my point here is that not many Apple fans even heard of Chrome OS. Yes, they probably heard about Chrome browser (and this was very smart move by Google by the way, first to release the browser by the same name for many reasons, but one reason is that people are getting used to the Chrome web experience).

Anyways, the question that I really wanted to address here is: was the development of Chrome OS and the Chromium project in general a response to the iPhone OS thread and the coming (now released) iPad or maybe it was exactly the other way around?

So Google started actively working on the Android OS about 2 years ago while iPhone was already available but doing the first baby steps. The pace of development of Android was quite fast and at the moment these rival operating systems  are somewhat comparable in futures stability and usability. Some are lacking on Android and some are lacking on the iPhone. Last year Google started working on the Chrome OS which is essentially an operating system inside the browser and just about a month ago Apple released the iPad to the public. While there are already a few tablets running on spin offs of Android OS, Google is rumored to be soon releasing its own tablet and what it will run is yet unclear.

Anyway however, it seems that Google is targeting the same space that the iPad does right now with its Chrome OS. Simple operating system. Or is it an operating system and can it be compared with the iPhone OS which is actually an operating system. Very limited at that but still. If the Chrome OS would be the strictly in browser OS it is questionable how it will stack up against iPad. Users are used to having free access to their file system and being able to install software rather than use webapps. In that sense the iPad is revolutionizing and laying out the ground for the change of computing paradigm we got used to so far.

It is not clear what came first (as the concept) and what was developed first but it would be sure very interesting to watch this evolution of computing in the near future.

The next version of the BlackBerry Eclipse plugin will fix most of the annoying things about blackberry development.

Some of the most important things are:

1) No need to restart emulator for new build to be loaded to the emulator (Hallelujah!!!)

The new build should be just loaded onto the already started simulator, pretty much as on Android and iPhone.

2) Ability to add external libraries i.e. *.jar files to the project

This is actually pretty peculiar since RIM was pushing hard 3-d party (external library) integration as one of important concepts and obviously it would be very beneficial for the BlackBerry ecosystem but if you did not want to use JDE, there was pretty much no clean way to add external library. That is until the 1.1 plugin comes out from beta, or at least that what was promised at the New England BlackBerry developers meetup.

3) The BlackBerry plugin would follow the “Eclipse way”

The 1.1 plugin is very different from previous version. Instead of following the “JDE way” it will be much more the natural “Eclipse way”. This is both good and bad. This is very good for developers that have experience with Eclipse and just now start to develop for BlackBerry. This will however be somewhat painful for the seasoned developers who got used to the old plugin and will need to discover many things from scratch. (I personally felt quite lost with the new 1.1 plugin and decided to stick with the old one until 1.1 comes out of beta).

You can download the beta of 1.1 from here (you would need to have BlackBerry developer account which is free and can be obtained with simple sign up immediately)

During the Super App webcast Mike Kirkup covered many questions from the attendees. I have gathered many of those in the webcast summary. He did not get through all of the questions and promised to answer all of the questions on blackberry development forum. He did just that and here is the Q&A extracted:

[Q] The problem I found with a super app that was tightly integrated with the address book is that people were looking to see an icon and not something that was just part of the existing BlackBerry UI.

[A] A good point.  Many users will still expect a simple icon for the application whether only to provide information on how to leverage the application or how to manipulate settings.  Fixmo is a really good example of this point.

[Q] Is there a way for my app to get notified when new notifications are shown on the device?

[A] Unfortunately, no.  But this sounds like a great feature request you should log via the BlackBerry Issue Tracker.

[Q] Is there a way to include full camera control in the application?

[A] Yes.  Check out JSR 135 (MMAPI) for more information on how to include the camera field within your application including the ability to modify zoom and flash settings.

[Q] With the definition of a “Super App” being one that you cannot live without, can a game be a super app?

[A] Great question!  Yes, a game definitely can be a “Super App” or take on many of the characteristics of a Super App including being notification driven, contextual (even location based), integrated with other applications and so on.  It isn’t hard to imagine having a game that you love so much that you can’t live without it.

[Q] Can I make a Super App by developing a BlackBerry Widget?

[A] Yes, definitely.  One of the most important attributes of the our Widget technology is that you can fully integrate your Widget into all of the same APIs that are available to Java applications whether exposed already through Javascript APIs or through your ability to write Javascript to Java APIs.

[Q] Do you plan on setting up a program to certify applications as Super Apps?

[A] No, we do not currently have any plans for certifying applications as a Super App today.  The concept here is to help people really understand not only the capabilities of the BlackBerry platform but also the possibilities on better engaging your users.

[Q] We have developed a collaboration application which works on a “pull” basis.  How can we leverage push?

[A] Check out our newly launched Push Services page for more information on how you can start leveraging push in your application whether for the enterprise or consumers.

[Q] Is it possible to add a custom menu item in any third party application?

[A] Yes, although not in a granular fashion today.  As part of the ApplicationMenuItem API you can specify that you want your menu item included in all applications on the device but you do not get to pick which applications if you don’t want all apps.  Can you submit a feature request in the Developer Issue Tracker if you think this is a good use case.

[Q] Suppose the application flow is such that screen 1 pushes screen 2, screen 2 pushes screen 3 and from screen 3 the user needs to go to screen 1.  Should the application push screen 1 again or pop screens to get to screen1?

[A] You should definitely maintain the proper ordering of the screens on the stack for the user such that your application will automatically pop off the top screen on the stack when the user presses the escape key.  So, in this case, it depends on your ultimate goal of the screens.

[Q] This is a great presentation but it gives very little to seasoned developers.  Will you have additional presentations with more details and more code samples? (Editor: this, I think is actually my question slightly rephrased)

[A] Yes, definitely.  This is the introduction to the concept of Super Apps and you will see additional webinar presentations that go into substantially more detail on all of the key aspects of bringing Super Apps characteristics to your application.  The Big Ideas, Little Screens UI Webinar from Brian this month is a perfect example of more involved webinars.

[Q] What are the OS or device requirements for the Javascript examples provided?

[A] These are part of the new BlackBerry Widget technology and require v5.0 handheld software.

[Q] You mentioned the Super Apps website.  Where is that?

[A] www.blackberry.com/developers/superapps

He also promised to keep posting answers so see the original forum thread here for more information

AT&T will host a webcast about building secure mobile applications on April 1-st. It’s interesting to see how the mobile ecosystem is going crazy right now, every brand  trying to get as much people involved as possible.

The MotoDev, Verizon Developers portal and AT&T developer center being promoted to potential developers very aggressively lately. Those companies (carriers, manufacturers etc…) understand that the platform value shifted to having quality consumer applications. Those, supplied by small companies and indie mobile developers.

The webcast  info:

Who Should Attend:
Developers who are building applications with networking or messaging functionality.

When:
Thursday, April 1, 10:00-11:00 AM Pacific Time

What you will learn:

• Evaluate threats to your mobile applications
• Prioritize security features that should be enabled in your applications
• Minimize risks to your applications

You can sign up here for the webcast

As an added bonus AT&T smartphone will get drawn between participants in the webcast.

All actual attendees can enter to win an AT&T Smartphone. Winner will be notified via email after the Webcast.

You may need to know your iPhone or iPod Touch device ID (or UUID) for many reasons. Whatever reasons those are there are couple of very easy ways to find out what is your iPhone or iPod Touch device ID.

Mac or Windows:

1. Connect the device to your Mac or PC.
2. On the “Summary” tab in iTunes, click the “Serial Number” label. You’ll notice “Serial Number” changes to “Identifier”.
3. Click on “Edit” in the menu at the top and select “Copy”.
4. Now you can paste the device ID into an email.

Mac + XCode

1. Start XCode
2. Go to “Organizer”
3. In the “Summary”  tab you will see the connected iPhone or iPod Touch’s ID under the “Identifier“

There is also a free Hmm UUID app that will show you your iPhone or iPod Touch device id.

Last night I have attended local New England BlackBerry developer meetup group. It was a great event with nice turnout of about 50 developers with special guest – Mike Kirkup – director of developer relations at RIM.

Mike is a great speaker and a great guy in general. BlackBerry developers are truly blessed with Mike in that sense. So much has been done to ease up on the hurdles of BlackBerry development recently that it is becoming cool to be BlackBerry developer once again.

The meetup was hosted by a local software development company – SoftArtisans. They develop SharePoint solutions for BlackBerry.

Mike was give the stage and he went over the BlackBerry super app concept which was similar to the BlackBerry super app concept webcast he gave recently but a little different of course with some stuff oriented more towards developers.

The highlight was of course the free panel Q&A session which was afterwards. Mike, as usual, did a very nice job answering the questions of the many developers who brought up interesting questions.

Upcoming Products

• BES Express (or BESX) which is the free, striped down version of the BES server. This will allow smaller businesses to put their employees on BESX without hesitation which originated from the costs of licensing associated with putting employees on BES.
• Upcoming WebKit browser which will be blazing fast and super blazing fast for JavaScript.
• There will be no iPad like device.

“No iPad, no BlackPad, BluePad, RedPad etc…”

• Advertising APIs. Right now RIM is conducting a closed beta with their partners and should be soon available to all independent developers. There is no cap on the volume, meaning pretty much anyone would be able to integrate advertising in their apps.
• Push APIs (well this is not an upcoming event actually, it went live today at 9am). Push API is available to everyone now and is free!
• App World 2.0 will soon be launched. The next version of the app world will support not only the PayPal but also the carrier and credit cards. The share of developers will most likely be different across all the optios and across the different network operators as well. PayPal option will remain 20/80% split with 80% going to the developers.
• In a few weeks the new Eclipse plugin for BlackBerry development version 1.1 should be released, which will address many issues existing in the older 1.0 browser. The official release of 1.1 which should go out of beta will be fully supporting 64 bit systems.

Upcoming Events

• Very soon we would have “fast simulator experience” so painful to many developers that when announced, it was followed by applause storm. So fast simulator experience means no more restarting the simulator to load the newly compiled version. (Yey!)
• More aggressive promotion of the App World. Mike mentioned that RIM intentionally kept the App World low profile for the first year letting the carriers figure out their distribution strategies.
• Super App competition. The super app competition will be carried out with a different prize distribution model than previously. RIM decided instead of rewarding a few leading application with big bonuses, reward more developers with moderate bonuses. Mike mentioned that they expect 3000-4000 apps submitted to the contest (both new and existing apps can be submitted) and if your app passes the first criteria of actually being a super app, then you are already entitled to something. Mike threw out “a free device” in the air but I guess it is not yet decided. They may go with a free device or maybe discounted developer conference or maybe we could choose. Let us know in the comments what you would prefer. The prizes will be handed out at BB Dev Con in San-Francisco at fall and the submission deadline will most likely be July 1-st but this is not confirmed yet.

The painful question of over the air (OTA) OS upgrade was raised and Mike said that carriers feel  fairly confident with pushing OTA OS update starting with OS 4.6 since 4.5 being the first OS where OTA OS was introduced had some issues and bugs. He mentioned that from carrier’s experience OTA updates have a very high conversion rate. In the 80%-s while even the through browser+USB update is less than 20% conversion rate. Until most of the devices are 4.6 and up and carriers are more aggressive pushing updates to the devices, we will be stuck with the need to support older devices as old as 4.2.1. Which leads us to further interesting figures:

Update

You can read additional notes summary at Chris Wong’s blog

You can download the Super Apps slides by Mike Kirkup which were presented at the meetup.

Today many people that will open their gmail will be faced with the dialog about Google buzz. This is a new service from Google that in a sense makes your gmail inbox into twitter like account. But it is more than twitter like account. It includes conversations and embeddings from other sites like Picasa, Flickr, Youtube etc…

The interesting question marks that raised in my head are:

1. Is Google trying to compete with huge success of Twitter? (They are not trying to compete per se, they want the realtime information that’s available on Twitter and is not (yet???) available to Google.
2. Is this a step forward to Google Wave?

Maybe it’s actually both 1 and 2 and something else that we can not yet see in the big picture

Google Buzz is also available on Mobile:

And here’s the announcement of Google Buzz on the official Google blog

It’s not a secret that Eclipse plugin is very buggy and although it has improved a lot over the time, the blackberry plugin still has a lot of issues and quirks. One of the problems that have been bugging me a lot was that sometimes the *.jdp file gets corrupted. This is the file where BB plugin for Eclipse saves most of the meta data for the project, including the files that are included in the project and consequently need to be compiled. So, many times I had problems with SVN meta data files corrupting this project, or sometimes perfectly legitimate *.java files that get stuck in the *.jdp file, but do not exist anymore. The result of the *.jdp file being corrupted is that your application does no longer get compiled and redeployed when you run it. And the worst part, Eclipse would not explicitly let you know about this. It would silently fail and not re-deploy the app. So unless this is the first time you run the application, or the changes you made are not visually obvious, you would not know about this. But this is completely separate issue. One of the many issues with BB Eclipse plugin already covered. Each time I have been struggling (sometimes for significant amount of times). Couple times I was able to manually delete files from the *.jdp file (although this is not recommended by RIM) and this solved the problem, but mostly I had to recreate the whole project from scratch, which if your project is large and, which is more important has dependencies on libraries, may become painful if you need to do this every few days.

So the easiest way I found so far to solve this problem is:

1. Delete the *.jdp file (you can just rename it to *.jdp.OLD)
2. Delete the project from Eclipse (right click the project and choose delete). DO NOT however check the checkbox “delete the contents of the project from disk”
3. Create a new project and point it to the same place.

Since all the Eclipse project related files remain untouched, you should get your project exactly at the same state it was before it got corrupted, minus the corrupted part. Why – because when you re-create the project Eclipse plugin should re-create the *.jdp file.

If you need to pop up a dialog or any screen actually from a process that runs in background on BlackBerry, it is fairly easy to do, unfortunately it is (as pretty much everything with BlackBerry development)  easy to figure out how to do.

The following piece of code should do the trick:

		synchronized (Application.getEventLock())
		{
			Ui.getUiEngine().pushGlobalScreen(new CLAScreen(), 1, UiEngine.GLOBAL_QUEUE);
		}

There are also a few things you should be aware of when using this code:

1. Your backgroud process should implement UiEngine. Easy way is to extend Application.
2. If you change UiEngine.GLOBAL_QUEUE to UiEngine.GLOBAL_MODAL, the dialog will block your thread until it is closed