Music In Your Pocket

Mobile application development is rapidly becoming the most powerful tool for a developer to make the world even more compact than what it has already been compressed into. Merely a touch on the phone screen or a button press can get you whatever you need, where ever you are. Other than conversing (basic phone feature). It can make us laugh and cry (instant messaging), Guide us to our path (GPS navigation services), fulfill our business needs (email configuration), do social networking (Facebook, Twitter etc), share stuff (File sharing using Bluetooth), listen and even make music and videos (media applications), play and develop incredible games (mobile games development) and a lot more.

An Advertisement hub
Mobile advertising is rapidly growing in the area of providing brands, agencies and marketers the opportunity to connect with consumers beyond traditional and digital media and directly in a personal level through their mobile phones. It optimizes campaign effectiveness and strengthens consumer satisfaction.Mobile application development is the process by which applications are developed for small low-power handheld devices such as personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones. These applications are either pre-installed on phones during manufacture or downloaded by customers from app stores and other mobile software distribution platforms like Apple app-store, android market etc.Many big names of the world are associated with Mobile application development. It includes Apple (i-Os in i-phone and i-pad), Google and Open Handset Alliance (Android), RIM (Blackberry), Nokia (Symbian) etc.

Something for Everyone
Gone are the days when smart phones were seen as a high-end gadget only for the techies and business people. Now the Mobile world has got a bunch of Mobile applications for every individual, be it a banker, a shopkeeper, a housewife, a mother, a student, a sports trainer, a cook, a business man, a gamer, a music lover, a musician, a dancer, a teacher, a police man, a doctor, a cab driver, a kid, a retired individual, an insurance professional, a manager, an accountant, a law professional, a security officer, a cyclist, a runner etc. Whatever you are and whatever you do, you will definitely find applications fitting into your work and life in the mobile app markets.Some of the far-reaching mobile applications include Talking GPS for blind people, Language converter application, Real-time games, Real-time GPS tracking apps, Waze: Real-time crowd sourced traffic data application, Parker app: Real-time parking space info tracker and many more and guess what? The best apps are yet come.

A Developer's point of view
Mobile applications development is done on many platforms: Apple's I-OS (running on i-phones and i-pads), Google's android, Blackberry, Symbian, MeeGo/Maemo, Windows phone 7, Java ME, Air/Flash Lite, BREW, BREW MP, Samsung BADA and WebOS etc. Now, if a Mobile application developer has to choose from one of the available platforms then, each one has its own unique set of features, which attracts a developer to go for them. Apple's app-store is offering more than 300,000 mobile applications and other competitors like are coming close rapidly.

As far as the cost factor is concerned, most of the mobile applications are available in the market starting from as low as free to $.99 to $6, along with trial versions of these apps for free. But it does not mean that we have to pay to get any application to work in our phone. There is a bunch of very useful apps which are available free in the market, For example Skype, Google voice, Word press, AppMiner, I-Books, Facebook, Pandora-radio, Find my phone etc can be downloaded free of cost. The utility of these applications does speak for their value-for-money aspect, which is making us buy them, to help us live a better life.Though, taking every aspect into account, including the brand popularity, consumer demand, ease of development, future technology, competition, flexibility, increasing number of users etc. Apple's I-OS and Android are on the top.

Android's best feature is that it uses the open source java as it's development medium, which is attracting developers with any development background to go for it. As, it reduces any kind of dependency to develop its applications where as i-OS development is done in MAC environment only.

So, let's get mobile!

Bob Findlay On Android Music Apps

In my usual style my introduction to the mobile music scene was very much an 'act now, think later.' I would also like to add to this by owning up to the fact that mobile phones and so forth are not my forte'. Case in point; with my cell phone I can send texts, make calls (rarely) and just last week I learned how to take photos with it.

My children sit there with their iPhones, clicking, sliding and laughing at whatever is on display. My curiosity got the better of me one day and I asked my daughter if I could use her phone to send a 'tweet.' Sounds simple, eh? Well, dear reader, after 5 minutes of frenzied clicking, sliding and trying to type I gave up. I handed the phone back to my daughter who carried out the aforementioned action in a matter of seconds. I am definitely middle-aged.

I don't know what 'urged' me to consider a mobile phone app or apps but I dived in head first to every free plan available (more of the cost later). I developed all of my apps at the same time, progressing to a certain point with one and then progressing to the same point with others. I must say, I did find the design and content side of were very enjoyable. As I neared the end of the creation of all my apps, I discovered a common thread running through them.

They were all instantly available on Android. 

For the purpose of this entry, I researched the Android to see exactly what made it so popular. If you go to a cell phone shop or open websites of Samsung or LG, you will notice that most of the phones run on Android OS. Android is an operating system for smartphones developed and owned by Google. Apart from Nokia and iPhone users, most people prefer to go with Android OS. All the versions of the Android namely, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread has been very popular. And now people are anticipating for the phones that will run on Ice-cream. (corny joke).

What people love about Android is that it gives you plenty of customization options. Just like other Google products like Gmail or Chrome web browser which gives plenty of options such as applications and extensions to customize it to their fullest, even Android OS is one such platform that you can customize by installing a wide range of applications.

Compared to any iPhone, Android phones are cheaper and offer better features. Both iPhone and Google have the same turn-by-turn navigation i.e. Google Maps. Since the app is a product from Google and so is Android, it is very obvious that Android phones will receive better support and services than an iPhone or any other phone running different OS. As mentioned before, Android brings to you plenty of apps to customize your phone. Many apps are available for free. However, there are many apps that need to be purchased. However, the good thing is you can try all the apps and if you don't like any app, you can ask for money back within 15 minutes.

Another advantage Android phones have over iPhone is that it has got removable battery. So when you know that you need to replace the battery, you can simply go to shop and purchase a new one. Many Android OS phones are high-end phones that come with many advanced hardware features such as HDMI. You can simply connect your phone to your television with HDMI feature.

Since Android is available on different brands like Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, etc you get wider options when it comes to buying a new phone. Also, many of the phones have higher storage capacities because Android users are bound to install plenty of apps, download stuff over the web, and storing movies and music files on it.

Another cool thing about Android OS is that the web browser fully supports Flash. It means you can watch Flash content without any glitches on the browser. You will not experience any choppiness or slowness while browsing. Also, you can watch videos inside the browser and you do not need to download any extra app to separately view the videos present on the site.

Of the apps that I have created are all free to download, I consider the two which offer free access to the music stores of my own choice thus giving my followers the ability to purchase my albums at the cheapest place online whilst maintaining superior sound quality. 

My Number 1 favourite app, however, is the questionably named 'Infinite Monkeys.' Don't be fooled by the name. The features, professional look, ease of use and amount of material contained within it are second to none. This app is one of few that will be available, hopefully within the next few days, as an iPhone app. It shall be announced on my 'mobile music' blog.

Happy Listening.