Given that, is it worth the effort to support your App for Intel and MIPS architecture. Though it is configuration option, it is the additional SQA time to certify the devices based on those designs.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Android supported architecture - ARM, Intel , MIPS
Android binaries can be generated for ARM , Intel & MIPS architectures. However as per ARM's report, their processors are used in 95% of the mobile handsets
IOS 9 released
IOS 9 had been made vaialbel for beta testers and app developers and it is expected to be launched for public in September.
What's new with IOS 9?
What's new with IOS 9?
- No drastic changes, IOS 9 looks identical to IOS 8
- Proactive personal assistant - concept similar to Google Now
- News app
- Multi-tasking - only for iPad - View 2 apps at once
- Updated Maps app
- Updated notes
- Low power mode and improved battery life
- iCloud Drive app
- HomeKit
- Trusted WiFi
- 'Rootless' security system
- Music streaming service
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Google to launch Android Pay at I/O Developer Confernce
Google is set to officially launch Android Pay during Google I/O conference. Android Pay will allow businesses to add mobile payments to their apps, to which users can upload credit card or debit card information.Using the API, developers can enable tap-to-pay transactions leveraging the Near Field Communications (NFC) feature on the Smart Phones.
Cortana on Android and IOS
Microsoft is bringing Cortana to IOS and Android. Cotana is the Microsoft's version of personal assistant, which is similar to Apple's Siri and Google Now.Microsoft’s phone companion will help Windows 10 PC owners find relevant apps on their Android, Windows, or iOS phones to make use of OneNote, OneDrive, and many other apps and services.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Android Muffin (6.0) expected to launch in Google I/O conference
There are reports that Android M will be launched in upcoming Google I/O conference. Given the fact the Android Lollipop has only 10% adoption so far, OS launches are going at much faster space.Just look the fragmented adoption of Android OS versions,
Thursday, April 9, 2015
IOS 8.3 released
Apple has released IOS 8.3 release. One of a major feature is they have added 300 new characters to the emoji keyboard that offer racial diversity. There are lot of performance improvements in the areas of app launch, app responsiveness, messages, WiFi etc, the things that are commonly used. And of-course ton of bug fixes as well.. It will be interesting to see adoption rate for this version of the OS..
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Android Material Design Apps
One of the big improvement with Android Lollipop is the introduction of material design concept.
Here is the community forum where people are showcasing apps designed around material design concept..
https://plus.google.com/communities/108905768919281054977
Here is the community forum where people are showcasing apps designed around material design concept..
https://plus.google.com/communities/108905768919281054977
Friday, March 20, 2015
Scrum meetings - By developers or user stories?
What is effective in Scrum meetings? Going over by user stories (assigned for that Sprint) or going over by developer?
In the case of user stories, you go over the all the user stores assigned for that Sprint, check the status with the developers & QA assigned to that user story and identify any blocking issues.
Another option is to just go from one developer to another and ask him what he is working on.
I feel doing scrum meetings by user stores is more effective as it helps to track the story better and identify blocking issues. Just going over what developers are doing one by one doesn't convey the whole picture..
Sprint Planning
As a Product Manager, Sprint planning is a balancing act. It is finding a right mix of items from,
Feature Backlog - Maintaining a active list of feature backlog is critical. The input to this list could come from variety of sources - Customer feedback, Competitive Gaps, Product Roadmap, Engineering feedback etc. Prioritizating the feedback in terms its impact and cost will be helpful prior to sprint planning.
Backlog Bugs - Active bug list is just the nature of software development process, again it is important to keep the bug list prioritized so that it can be appropriately assigned to a sprint.
R&D - A sprint activity cannot be just development of new features and fixing bugs. Certain activities require investigation and may not end with something that is shippable in the sprint.
Out-of-scopes - These are unplanned feature requests or changes that have solid business justification. Again this is the nature of software development process to have change requests come in during the middle of development.
Now let us look at allocation for the above. The allocation may vary from kind of products, but this is the model that I follow,
Feature Backlog - 50%
Backlog Bugs - 10%
R&D - 10%
Out-of-scopes - 30%
The next step is looking the team capacity. This is simply number of developers & QA available for the Sprint cycle. As an example, if you 10 developers and 5 QA available and the Sprint cycle is 2 weeks, the total available capacity is 30 man-weeks. Now spread this capacity as per the allocation model above,
Feature Backlog - 15 man-weeks
Backlog Bugs - 3 man-weeks
R&D - 3 man-weeks
Out-of-scopes - 9 man-weeks
Now go back and estimate the cost (man-weeks) of the prioritized feature backlog. Then it becomes easy to decide which features can fit because we've already estimated the allocation for new features.
Feature Backlog - Maintaining a active list of feature backlog is critical. The input to this list could come from variety of sources - Customer feedback, Competitive Gaps, Product Roadmap, Engineering feedback etc. Prioritizating the feedback in terms its impact and cost will be helpful prior to sprint planning.
Backlog Bugs - Active bug list is just the nature of software development process, again it is important to keep the bug list prioritized so that it can be appropriately assigned to a sprint.
R&D - A sprint activity cannot be just development of new features and fixing bugs. Certain activities require investigation and may not end with something that is shippable in the sprint.
Out-of-scopes - These are unplanned feature requests or changes that have solid business justification. Again this is the nature of software development process to have change requests come in during the middle of development.
Now let us look at allocation for the above. The allocation may vary from kind of products, but this is the model that I follow,
Feature Backlog - 50%
Backlog Bugs - 10%
R&D - 10%
Out-of-scopes - 30%
The next step is looking the team capacity. This is simply number of developers & QA available for the Sprint cycle. As an example, if you 10 developers and 5 QA available and the Sprint cycle is 2 weeks, the total available capacity is 30 man-weeks. Now spread this capacity as per the allocation model above,
Feature Backlog - 15 man-weeks
Backlog Bugs - 3 man-weeks
R&D - 3 man-weeks
Out-of-scopes - 9 man-weeks
Now go back and estimate the cost (man-weeks) of the prioritized feature backlog. Then it becomes easy to decide which features can fit because we've already estimated the allocation for new features.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Mobile security - A comparision
There is a nice article in InfoWorld comparing security aspects among the mobile OSs.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2889365/mobile-security/mobile-security-ios-vs-android-vs-blackberry-vs-windows-phone.html?nsdr=true
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2889365/mobile-security/mobile-security-ios-vs-android-vs-blackberry-vs-windows-phone.html?nsdr=true
- IOS gaining in enterprise corporate apps
- Google recently released Android for Work.
- Requires Andorid Lollipop OS. Older OS versions require Android for Work app installed
- Partially addresses malware problem among Android apps
- IT admins can prevent users from installing unapproved apps in the business workspace. IOS uses rigid sandboxing to keep apps from acessing other apps.
- Encryption is not mandatory on Android devices, where as IOS devices have been encrypted by default for a while.
Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policy support compared
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Google makes full-disk encryption optional for Android devices
Earlier Google had announced that devices shipping with Lollipop pre-installed would have encryption as "out of the box" option.Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet are shipping with encryption activated. However recently announced Lollipop devices such as Mot E and Samsung Galaxy S6 aren't being fully encrypted automatically. There have been performance concerns regarding enabling full-disk encryption as noted in reviews of Nexus 5 devices.
Android Pay - Google's Payments platform
Google has launched mobile payments framework called Android pay. It enables developers to integrate mobile payments in to their apps using an API layer. The credit card data will be stores locally so that no data connection is needed for making payments. To prevent fraud, Android pay will use "tokenized" card numbers - which means that a one-time credit cad number will be generated for each transaction.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Android for Work
Google had introduced Android for Work, which is aimed at corporate apps, It is common nowadays for employees use their personal phone for work-related acclivities as well. Google is making it easier to do that by having the work-related apps marked with Android badges that will distinguish them from other Apps. As a part of this effort, it is also introducing Android for Work, an online store for business apps.
Some challenges for Google,
- Google is focused on consumer mass-market, not a strong enterprise presence
- According a analyst, many enterprises believe that the Android OS is not secure enough. According to research from Good technology, Apple has 73% of enterprise activations, while Android has only 25%.
- Android Lollipop (which is required for Google for Work feature) has only been adopted on 1.6% of Android devices.
Some challenges for Google,
- Google is focused on consumer mass-market, not a strong enterprise presence
- According a analyst, many enterprises believe that the Android OS is not secure enough. According to research from Good technology, Apple has 73% of enterprise activations, while Android has only 25%.
- Android Lollipop (which is required for Google for Work feature) has only been adopted on 1.6% of Android devices.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Is Android phones better?
Gottabemobile explains why Android platform is better than iPhone,
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/02/17/nexus-5-android-5-1-lollipop-update-details/
1. More choice with Android - Tons of Android phones for sure..
2. Micro SD Card Support - Useful for additional storage espacially if you take lots of videos or photos
3. Google Maps
4. Easy to clear cache to get space back - On iPhone you need to delete teh app and re-install to get space back
5. Widgets - On Android users can choose widgets to show the lock screen and on their home screen
6. Android customization - This I think is a double-edge sword...
7. Default App choices - This is true, iPhone does not let you choose nre default apps.
8 . Split screen multitasking - IPhone does not let run 2 apps run on the same screen, but you can do that with Android.
9. Multiuser mode - You can create a separate account with limited access for your kids, iPhone doesn't support that.,
10. App source - Android makes it easier to install app from sources other than the Apps store (ex side loading)
11. Use phone a remote control - Some Android phones have IR port that lets you control TVs, cable boxes etc..iPhone needs separate accessory to do that,,
12. Download music/movies from anywhere - On iPhone the choice is limited to iTunes, On Android there are more choices.
13. Google Now - Better than Siri, as some claim..
14. Mobile payments & NFC - iPhone is limited to Apple Pay
15. Notifications - Gottabemobiel claims it is better in Android, Not sure about that, it seems subjective.
Note - Above is list of items as reported by Gottabemobile with my thoughts on those items..
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/02/17/nexus-5-android-5-1-lollipop-update-details/
1. More choice with Android - Tons of Android phones for sure..
2. Micro SD Card Support - Useful for additional storage espacially if you take lots of videos or photos
3. Google Maps
4. Easy to clear cache to get space back - On iPhone you need to delete teh app and re-install to get space back
5. Widgets - On Android users can choose widgets to show the lock screen and on their home screen
6. Android customization - This I think is a double-edge sword...
7. Default App choices - This is true, iPhone does not let you choose nre default apps.
8 . Split screen multitasking - IPhone does not let run 2 apps run on the same screen, but you can do that with Android.
9. Multiuser mode - You can create a separate account with limited access for your kids, iPhone doesn't support that.,
10. App source - Android makes it easier to install app from sources other than the Apps store (ex side loading)
11. Use phone a remote control - Some Android phones have IR port that lets you control TVs, cable boxes etc..iPhone needs separate accessory to do that,,
12. Download music/movies from anywhere - On iPhone the choice is limited to iTunes, On Android there are more choices.
13. Google Now - Better than Siri, as some claim..
14. Mobile payments & NFC - iPhone is limited to Apple Pay
15. Notifications - Gottabemobiel claims it is better in Android, Not sure about that, it seems subjective.
Note - Above is list of items as reported by Gottabemobile with my thoughts on those items..
Stetho : New Android debugging platform from Facebook
Facebook has released a new open source debugging platform for Android. According to Facebook, "
https://code.facebook.com/posts/393927910787513/stetho-a-new-debugging-platform-for-android/
The integration to Stetho within the Android application is simple enough, fee calls to link the library and one of the network helpers.
It uses the Chrome Developer Tools to serve the UI,
https://code.facebook.com/posts/393927910787513/stetho-a-new-debugging-platform-for-android/
The integration to Stetho within the Android application is simple enough, fee calls to link the library and one of the network helpers.
It uses the Chrome Developer Tools to serve the UI,
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
IOS 8 Vs Android Lollipop
Here is an interesting review of IOS 8 Vs Android Lollipop OS from Mashable,
http://mashable.com/2014/11/15/ios-8-vs-android-lollipop/
Summary.
- Feature-wise both OSs are on parity. Google provides lot of options to replace the default Google's built-in tools (browser, mail client or chat client). Not so much with IOS.
- Look and Feel - Google has introduced the concept of mateiral design with the release of Lollipop. But bigger OEMs (Samsung, HTC, Xiomi) use their own skins. Apple introduced massive UI changes in IOS 7.
- User Experience - With Google Now, Android wants to anticipate user's next move. Apple has kept Siri as a background player that comes up primarily on command..Apple's focus has been on use-of-use and working seamlessly on other devices.
http://mashable.com/2014/11/15/ios-8-vs-android-lollipop/
Summary.
- Feature-wise both OSs are on parity. Google provides lot of options to replace the default Google's built-in tools (browser, mail client or chat client). Not so much with IOS.
- Look and Feel - Google has introduced the concept of mateiral design with the release of Lollipop. But bigger OEMs (Samsung, HTC, Xiomi) use their own skins. Apple introduced massive UI changes in IOS 7.
- User Experience - With Google Now, Android wants to anticipate user's next move. Apple has kept Siri as a background player that comes up primarily on command..Apple's focus has been on use-of-use and working seamlessly on other devices.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
IOS bigger presence in enterprise, Windows gaining
According to Citrix Mobile Analytics Report, the numbe rof mobile devices managed in the enterprise grew 72% in 2014 compared to 2013. IOS made a whopping 64% of mobile devices, while Android made 27% and surprisingly Windows had 9% share in enterprise usage. Windows market share is surprising given overall it has less than 4%. As per the report, Windows is gaining share from Android in the enterprise space.
Friday, February 13, 2015
Outlook iOS/Android App security concerns
Newly released Microsoft Outlook App is completely bypassing Exchange ActiveSync security policies, according to security firm Rapid 7.
"Any ActiveSync policy defined on the server is completely ignored," wrote Sigurdson in a post on the security firm's Web site. "Your company can define a sophisticated passcode or encryption policy that will have absolutely no impact on devices if this new e-mail client is used by your employees."
"Any ActiveSync policy defined on the server is completely ignored," wrote Sigurdson in a post on the security firm's Web site. "Your company can define a sophisticated passcode or encryption policy that will have absolutely no impact on devices if this new e-mail client is used by your employees."
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Developer options for App review in ITunes & Google Play
There is an interesting article on options for developer reviews in ITunes, Google Play and Windows.
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2015/02/11/reviews-in-app-store-android-ios-windows-phone
Personally I like the option to get back to the reviewer in Google Play, which is not available in ITunes. Few of the users reported technical issues with our App in Google Play I was able to reach out to them and get better understanding of the issue and fix them. With out that, most of the time you end up guessing what the issue could be...
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2015/02/11/reviews-in-app-store-android-ios-windows-phone
Personally I like the option to get back to the reviewer in Google Play, which is not available in ITunes. Few of the users reported technical issues with our App in Google Play I was able to reach out to them and get better understanding of the issue and fix them. With out that, most of the time you end up guessing what the issue could be...
Crash analytics for Android Lollipop better than IOS 8
As per Crittercism data, crash rates for Lollipop are better than IOS 8,
Android Lollipop: 2.0% crash rate
iOS 8: 2.2% crash rate
This of-course depends on data based on devices that report crash data to Crittercism.
Data for other Android platforms,
Android Lollipop: 2.0% crash rate
Kit Kat: 2.6% crash rate
Ice Cream Sandwich: 2.6% crash rate
Tracking crash data through platforms such as Crittercism is key to improving the performance of the App.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Smartphone OS market share - Feb 2015
Comscore has published their latest Smartphone OS Platform market share data for the US market.
It looks like Android slightly gained some share from Blackberry platfrom.
IOS 8.3 Beta release
Apple has released IOS 8.3 beta on Monday Feb 9th. They have also included the updated version of XCode 6.3 Beta with this release.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/02/09/apple-supplies-first-beta-of-ios-83-to-developers-issues-noteworthy-update-to-swift
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