Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Facebook App Have 44 Million Users in Stead of 100 Million

August 30th, 2010

The latest declaration of Facebook has clarified the total number of iOS Facbook app users; and this is not 100 millions but 44 millions.

The figure may be disappointing for Facebook, which has been successful to attract a magic figure of 500 million users world wide; but they are successful to attract almost 44% of the iOS device users including the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users. It’s worth a mention that Apple has sold around 59 millions of iPhones by June, 2010.

In their statement, Facebook has said, “There are currently 44 million monthly active users of the Facebook for iPhone app. We recently changed the definition of mobile active users to exclude those who have only liked or commented on stream stories. Instead we are counting “active” users as people who have taken explicit actions within an application.”
This has put a full stop to all the speculations in the iPhone developers community about the actual number of the users. Although the magic figure of 100 million is a myth as of now, it still indicates that the iPhone Facebook app is hugely popular in the App Store. The pace of growth of Facebook in last couple of years, and the popularity of the app in App Store clearly suggests that the iPhone app developers and other service providers can use it successfully for a more effective branding purpose.

Tags: Facebook, iOS devices, iPhone, iPhone Facebook app, iPhone Facebook app users

Qualcomm is Looking for ‘iPhone Development Guru’ for a ‘Secret Project’

August 30th, 2010

The rumor that Apple is coming up with their CDMA model with Verizon has caught up some more fuel with a corporate engineering opening at Qualcomm. The new proposed opening has contributed in the speculation that technical preparation is going on to launch the CDMA iPHone.

Apple presently sells the iPhone 4 in US via AT&T. The experts in the iPhone development industry believe that Apple has gained enough of its users with this GSM connection, and to grow further iPhone 4 should catch up with some other carrier too. Here comes Verizon, the wireless operator popular to support the CDMA standard, a channel access technology used by various radio communications as the alternative to GSM.

Eventually, Qualcomm has built up the first ever CDMA cellular base station in the early ’90s. So definitely the company has the enough expertise to support Apple CDMA.

Qualcomm, the chip supplying giant, which also has a strong R&D house in wireless telecommunications, is going to hire an “iPhone Developer Guru” for a “secret” assignment.

“The iPhone has no secret for you? Well, that’s what you think… join us and develop the most challenging product of your life!”, the job profile in the online advertisement reads.

“You are driven by a very strict development discipline, well versed in Agile, and your passion is to bring product in the hands of consumers,” Qualcomm job posting adds.

They have specified that they are looking for someone who has been “exposed to application or game development on mobile for years”, and who has developed and deployed apps on Apple’s smarphone.

“Join us now: we are small fast moving team working in a lab 24hrs/day!”, says the posting.

The experts infer that the new member will be responsible basically with iPhone software designing and development. However, iphone application developers also think that this person’s responsibilities may not be limited to this only.

“…we expect you to be part of the team and contribute to all aspects of the product development including Android, Web development, Server side development and operation aspects,” Qualcomm adds has given enough reason to think so.

The skills and experience required for this position include:
Objective C, Xcode, C;
Multi-threaded application;
File, network & socket programming;
OO design, UI design;
Client-Server design;
J2EE, Tomcat; Jboss;
JSON; HTTP, SSL;
Test Driven Development, Unit Tests.

Finally, the academic background required says: “a Master’s is preferred, although not having one is not necessarily a problem.” Qulcomm adds, “if you’ve been programming since you’re kid and have the right experience and skills, we would like to see you.”

Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPhone Development Guru, Qualcomm, Qualcomm iPhone job, Qualcomm job post

Report says iPhone 3GS drops more calls than iPhone 4

August 5th, 2010

May be this would be an appropriate message which Apple could ever give to all the people who point finger at the iPhone 4 Antennagate issue. In a recent research conducted by Changewave Research iPhone 3GS was reported to have more dropped calls than iPhone 4. Even though surprising, the researchers claims with affirmation that they are quite sure about their findings.

iphone-4-dropped-calls

5.2% of iPhone 4 owners reported dropped calls during the month of July, while 6.3% of owners of the iPhone 3GS. However the report takes perceptions of iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 users rather than itself checking it itself. Also changewave said that a negative publicity has made many iPhone 4 users unhappy about the new iPhone.  If only the research findings are right we must say this is a cool news for Apple as the lot of  negative news have crept in to the blogosphere and people are still voting for the iPhone despite the negativity around.

Tags: iPhone, iPhone Development tips, iphone4, receptionissues

Microsoft allures iPhone and iPad game Developers to make apps for WP7

June 24th, 2010

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 seriously needs some applications and games and instead of hiring a team of skilled developers they prefer alluring existing iPhone and iPad game developers.  Well the high note is existing iPhone app developers now have got an extra option to earn money.

windows-phone-7iPhone and Android games were the major target markets for developers to cash in on. But with the intervention of Microsoft with good freebies, there might be few game developers who would fall for the other side of the Window. The ray of hope for Microsoft and also an attractive application for all game developers is the XBOX 360 Live integration in the WP7. This particular integration may make iPhone game developers  jump to latch on the opportunity before any one else gets into the business.

The strategy by Microsoft could be transfer the existing XBOX fan base to mobile gaming too and also make its first serious appearance as a “Mobile Gaming Brand”. But questions still exist how the company will go on from here on in roping in iPhone game developers and in keeping them interested and rich.

Tags: iPhone, iPhone Development tips, iphonegamedevelopers, microsoft, news

No Unlimited Data Plans for iPad / iPhone from AT&T

June 2nd, 2010

Apple sold about 2 million iPad in less than 60 days with unlimited dataplan. It’s bad that, iPad owners in America may not get unlimited data package from here on and not only just iPad owners but iPhone owners too. There seems to be some major changes with tariff of dataplans.

There are two plans namely, Data Plus and Data Pro.

DataPlus is the cheapest plan, that provides you with 200MB of data for $15 per month. Right now, iPhone users pay $30 for unlimited dataplan which is quiet double of latest 200MB plan. If you exceed 200MB in a month with $15 plan, then you need to pay another $15 to get more 200MB.

DataPro is the plan with 2GB of data priced at $25 per month and if you exceed the limit you need to pay $10 for additional 1GB. This plan is designed for the heavy data users on iPhone / iPad. According to AT&T, 98 percent of their total iPhone data users never crossed 2GB in a month. If you never crossed 2GB over a month on your iPhone or iPad then this plan might gives you the feeling of unlimited dataplan.

These new changes are signaling me that the new iPhone gonna have some major changes with respects to it’s carrier support. It might be with AT&T’s exclusivity for iPhone or AT&T is trying to provide better service to their customers.

Tags: AT&T, DataPlans, iPad, iPhone

Next Generation iPhone’s Commercial might demonstrate video chat.

May 25th, 2010

Television commercials for Apple’s next generation iPhone will reportedly showcase the device’s video chat abilities and will be shot by an Academy Award winning director.

Engadget confirmed through a source that Apple’s new commercials will be directed by Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for his work on “American Beauty.” The tipster said that Apple’s next-generation handset is being referred to internally as Mammoth/N90, which is basically a code name of the device.

“A trusted source has confirmed to us that the ads will feature at least one spot where a mother and daughter are having a video chat conversation using the new front-facing camera that’s been spied on the face of that iPhone floating around Vietnam and Northern California,” editor Joshua Topolsky wrote.

Engadget also discovered actors on Twitter who revealed that they are auditioning for the commercial. One actress in New York confirmed the spot will be directed by Mendes, while an actor in California said last week he was off to an audition.
This news perfectly holds in favor of the leaked iPhone news, which was covered by Jason Chen (Bolgger at Gizmodo) last month with screenshots of the device with front camera.

So, iPhone Developers get ready for the new iPhone!! What are your plans? Let u know via comments below.

Tags: iPhone

Apple Says NO to Adobe But ok with Apps Built on PhoneGap

April 19th, 2010

Unlike other mobile platforms, Apple iPhone has two known platforms, Cocoa Touch and WebKit Engine that iPhone developers can use to build their applications.

A native iPhone app is built on Cocoa Touch & a web app is built using pure JavaScript, HTML & CSS; which runs on WebKit Engine built into the iPhone. Web apps, are open & can easily be consumed by the user through the Safari for iPhone (by visiting the URL).

But there is another way that developers can make use of the WebKit engine. One can write their app in JavaScript, HTML & CSS and put it under the Cocoa Touch iPhone App Wrapper which will make it a native app, as if it’s built using Objective-C & can be released in AppStore. There are several tools which help you in doing this – PhoneGap is probably the most famous among them.
Since the release of iPhone SDK 4.0 (Beta) for the paid developers; there is change in User Agreement for iPhone SDK 3.1.3 / 3.2. You may refer to our previous post on this Apple Says No to Cross Compilers: iPhone Developers ok with it ?. But this concept of development is very much appreciated by developers because iPhone supports interpretation of JavaScript from it’s built in WebKit engine and often makes things easier. Apple has recently updated the Phone Gap guys that the they would not be effected by the change in section 3.1.3 / 3.2 and apps built on PhoneGap would be judged on their merit and not based on the framework.

Jesse Macfayden actually updated an old post with the following statement..

“I have received word from Apple that the above is STILL true! If you were concerned by the recent changes to Apple’s iPhone developer agreement, this has ZERO impact on PhoneGap!

Apps built with PhoneGap will continue to be reviewed based on their own merits and NOT dismissed/rejected because they use PhoneGap.

So enough with the crazy speculative rumour mill. Let’s get back to making apps with HTML+CSS+JavaScript.”

We found this pretty interesting that Apple would allow apps built through such tools when they have actually banned apps built in Adobe CS.  What do you think of this as an iPhone application developer? Have you ever used such a tool or do you plan to use them for your application development?

Tags: Adobe, Cocoa Touch, CSS, HTML, iPhone, JavaScript, news, Objective-C, PhoneGap, WebApp, WebKit