Oracle brings cross-platform Java dev to mobile devices
Oracle is augmenting its Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) to allow developers to create mobile applications for Apple and Android devices.
The advantage the newly released ADF Mobile will offer is that a developer can write an application once and have it run with no modification on either the Apple iOS on Android.
"You don't have to learn different languages to deploy on different platforms," said Bill Pataky, Oracle vice president of product management. "We abstracted away the differences of the devices and paneled them in the framework."
This extension to ADF probably wouldn't be suitable for the weekend developer hoping to make the next version of "Angry Birds," Pataky said. Instead, this product is suited for helping developers extend their ADF and non-ADF enterprise Java applications to mobile platforms. "Any Web application, including a website, can be integrated into the mobile application," he said. Read more...
Samsung increases smartphone storage capacity to 128GB
Samsung Electronics' semiconductor arm has begun volume production of 128GB embedded memory modules for next-generation smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, the company said on Tuesday.
An upgrade to 128GB would double or quadruple the storage capacity compared to today's high-end smartphones. Apple's new iPhone 5 has up to 64GB of integrated storage while the recently announced Optimus G from LG Electronics and Nokia's Lumia 920 both have 32GB.
Consumers watching and shooting video along with cameras that have higher resolutions will drive the need for more storage capacity, while the inclusion of more integrated storage lessens the need for a card slot, allowing smartphones to become even smaller, according to Francisco Jeronimo, research manager at analyst IDC. Read more...
Facebook bolsters efforts to build smartphone
Facebook is revitalizing its effort to create a smartphone, recruiting engineers who have experience with mobile devices, according to a story in the New York Times Sunday.
Facebook has kept its renewed effort to come up with a smartphone quiet, avoiding putting ads on public sites, according to the article, which cited unnamed sources inside the company, people briefed by the company and people who had been the target of recruitment initiatives.
Facebook wants to release a smartphone by next year, and has picked up former Apple engineers who had worked on the iPhone, as well one who worked on the iPad, according to the article. Read more...
Facebook to acquire Instagram for $1bn
Facebook has announced that it will acquire photo-sharing service Instagram in a $1bn cash-and-stock deal.
"I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook," said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement announcing the acquisition of what the release referred to as the "fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices." Read more...
The dangers of mobile management for you, the user
The subject of personally-owned mobile devices like tablets and smartphones being used on the corporate network is a hot one. I posted about it here, but it's a much wider issue than I covered in that piece. Many companies are concerned about the proliferation of personally-owned devices showing up in the workplace and are now in the process of developing and deploying mobile device policies and technologies to help enforce them.
Most of what's been written to date has been focused on the issue from the company's perspective, or from the perspective of an IT manager. However, I think it's about time that someone went to bat for the end users who own and operate these devices. Since I fall into both categories, I figure I'm qualified.
Deciding to start using a personally-owned mobile device or computer for work purposes or on the corporate network can have some consequences that you've probably never thought about. For instance, let's assume that you carry your Apple iPhone with you to the office and that you attach to a corporate 802.11 wireless network to access the Internet. At my company we have a separate "guest" network for connectivity of this type. Read more...
Samsung files four more patent claims against Apple
Samsung Electronics filed four additional patent claims against Apple on Friday in a German court while also going to trial over three other patents that the Korean company alleges are infringed by Apple.
Two of the patents are related to telecommunications standards, and the other two are related to "the utility of mobile devices," according to a statement provided by Samsung.
Samsung said it has developed technologies and protocols "for the efficient and reliable functioning of telecommunications networks and devices."
"While Samsung has at all times met its obligations to the fair licensing of its telecommunications standards-related patents, Apple has infringed by using without license Samsung's intellectual property in its mobile devices," the company alleged. Read more...
SOS Online launches cloud backup for mobile devices, Facebook
SOS Online Backup today announced a cloud-based backup service for mobile devices, desktop systems -- and Facebook.
The company said it expects to start backing up Twitter and Gmail data in December.
The new SOS Online Backup Home 5.0 product, which allows users to back up data on five or fewer personal computers under a single license, includes SOS Social Backup, a new Facebook app that stores social media data, such "friend" contact information, photo albums, and message threads.
"In case your account becomes corrupted, not to mention when you want to shut down your Facebook account and move to Google+ or LinkedIn, you can take all your contacts and photos with you," said SOS Online Backup CEO Ken Shaw. Read more...
Apple’s App Store may be the biggest, but other stores offer more average downloads per app
It’s one of Apple’s biggest selling points for its mobile devices: more than 400,000 total apps, all screened by Apple. More than 1 billion total downloads to date. And more than 100,000 apps created with just the iPad in mind.
But while the iTunes App Store is definitely the most successful App Store around, greatly outpacing sales in the Android Market and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry App World, it’s not necessarily the best place for individual apps to make a mark. More developers flock to Apple’s iOS platform because there’s money to be made there – often more and more reliably than on other platforms – but new market research suggests if you want an app to be downloaded a lot, you should take it to one of the little guys. Read more...
Mozilla to build mobile OS for the Web
Mozilla has launched a new project to build an operating system for mobile devices that will run applications primarily on the Web.
"We want to ... find the gaps that keep web developers from being able to build apps that are -- in every way -- the equals of native apps built for the iPhone, Android, and WP7," a group of Mozilla developers wrote on a new wiki page about the project.
They call the project Boot to Gecko (B2G) and say the plan is to build a "complete, standalone operating system for the open web."
The goal appears similar to one that Google cited when it initially started work on Android. In an online discussion about B2G, Andreas Gal, one of its lead developers, said the ultimate goal was "breaking the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile devices world." Read more...
Apple updates software to fix tracking glitch
Apple Inc on Wednesday released a software update to fix a problem that enabled its mobile devices to collect and store customers' location data, making good on a promise it made last week.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave, had promised to adjust the company's mobile software to store less location data after a firestorm broke out over whether Apple was monitoring the whereabouts of its customers. Read more...