Posts Tagged
Mobile
Within education there is a big debate going on about whether or not it is a good idea to let students bring their own mobile device (BYOD) to school to use in the classroom. As an educator who has been given the opportunity to test pilot an iPod Touch adoption in our school district, I definitely have my own thoughts on this issue. I think, whether we like it or not, we have to prepare and encourage students to bring their own devices. But, no matter what side of the debate we land on, one thing is for sure, the web is going to be a powerful place for education. It is a space that if developers can conquer and create great products, they will do well in the education space.
Now, we can also debate for a very long time about the future of technology in education and the how the web will or will not play a part in that. But, for now, I think it is the way to go, especially for its low cost and its accessibility. For example, for the past few weeks, I have been playing around with Presefy, which is a web based application that you can use to share your presentations. I originally started using it to see if it could work in my classroom and as a way for others to use it as well.
Just under a year ago, we took a look at Podio, a social and online work network rolled into one and we liked it very much, so much so that we gave it a extremely well-deserved score of 9 out of 10. Since writing that review, the Podio team have been working extremely hard on the product and there are plenty of new features to show for their efforts.
Read on after the break to find out what exactly they are! (more…)
You can’t sit down and design a new app or site every time inspiration strikes. Even if you were going to actually make a new app, you need to plan it out before. You could just pull out a napkin and pen and start drawing, or you might want to use a prototyping app to get a more polished design a bit quicker. Prototyping and wireframing web apps are not exactly few and far between, but a fairly new release has enough notability to let us take a look.
Codiqa is a prototyping tool for mobile interfaces that, in a similar fashion to actual development environments like Xcode, lets you visually build up an interface for a mobile resolution and then export an interactive, useable, jQuery-powered prototype that you can load up on a device. Rather than just throwing together a mockup of your idea, you’re actually taking the first steps towards making your app a reality. Let’s take a look. (more…)
I’m a web developer; that’s my jam. I enjoy making websites, and I really enjoy trying new technologies, techniques, and hacks for websites. In 2012, that means making websites responsive. While the ‘Responsive Web Design’ movement started a few years ago, it’s really starting to pick up steam with better browser support for HTML5 and CSS 3 across all devices. Then, book and training form great organizations like A List Apart, and tools like jQuery Mobile and ZURB’s Foundation, make it really easy to create websites that are supported and look great across all devices.
The changing technology allows us to push websites forward into the realm of mobile without sacrificing quality, features, or content. There’s no reason mobile sites should be any more limited than their desktop counterparts today. So what does all this hubbub mean for web apps? We can’t really be sure how web apps will evolve, but I have a few ideas based on what I’ve read and some things I am personally doing.
Sometimes email and Facebook and Twitter and everything else isn’t enough. Sometimes, you need to send an SMS. For many of us, that sometimes is more often than we might think; no wonder unlimited SMS plans are still in vogue most places. When you send SMS messages that turn into a conversation, you can quickly send more messages than you even realize. And even though smartphones keep threatening to make SMS obsolete, the frank truth is that SMS is here to stay until everyone you ever txt has an internet connection on their phone and is using the same messaging app.
So you need to send an SMS, but pulling out your phone to txt while you’re sitting at your computer seems rather odd. Why not put the larger keyboard to use, and just send an SMS from your desktop? There’s a number of apps and sites that let you send free online SMS messages, but there’s one you likely already have open: Gmail. If you didn’t know you could send SMS messages right from Gmail, keep reading to see how you can sta in touch with everyone through Gmail, even if they don’t have email on their phones.
In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting MobDis. The developer describes MobDis as a mobile marketing platform for agencies servicing local businesses. Using MobDis, agencies can build amazing mobile sites for businesses so that their customers can find the businesses on their mobile phone. To increase the effectiveness of the mobile site, MobDis provides including lead generation tools like forms, store locators and coupons to convert visitors into customers.
Read on for more information and screenshots!
I’ve witnessed an ongoing debate in recent months over a specific part of the iOS SDK that allows developers to embed web content into their app. This specific class, “UIWebView”, has given the opportunity for some developers to masquerade web apps as native apps by simply embedding their web-based app within a native container.
This approach to app development is an interesting, and controversial one. There’s many pros and cons including the biggest, cross-platform compatibility. Today we’ll take a look at these “UIWebView”-based apps and investigate whether they’re good or bad for developers and consumers. (more…)
In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Mob.is.it. The developer describes mob.is.it as the best online tool for easily and effectively building mobile optimized websites and mobile web apps. With our online website builder users can create their mobile optimized pages in a couple of clicks: drag’n'drop content, change look’n'feel as easy as pushing a button and go live in a snap with the one-click-to-publish feature. Totally free for 21 days, then as cheap as $3/month.
Read on for more information and screenshots!
In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Mobile Web America. The developer describes Mobile Web America as a simple to use, online application for your business to create a mobile site and secure its mobile presence. We utilize the content of your existing website and create a mobile version on-the-fly. Logos, themes, branding, content, videos, maps and more are automatically transposed to the mobile version with no programming knowledge required.
Read on for more information and screenshots!
In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Moably Mobile Website Builder. The developer describes Moably Mobile Website Builder as Moably’s first product, a mobile website builder, lets anyone create a mobile version of their website and blog with no coding required. For free. Five easy steps using Moably’s Mobile Web App Builder will produce a quality mobile website and blog.
Read on for more information and screenshots!
