Hasta La Gadget!

You don’t need us to tell you that apps have grown to become a core part of modern smartphone ecosystems. Android and iOS, the two major app-centric OS environments are growing in leaps and bounds, while a substantial part of Windows Phone 7‘s eventual success is expected to hinge on exactly how it matches (or betters) those guys on the app front. So, what better excuse than that to check out this concept golf scoring app from Redmond? Designed using Microsoft’s favored Metro aesthetic, it really streamlines the user experience by employing “multiple touch targets [that] are spread out from one another” and distilling content down to large, easily readable data. We’ve got to say, it’s hitting the right note with us, but do follow along after the break to learn about a few of the WP7 design quirks — such as the drop-down system tray and the reason why rounded app icon corners are undesirable.

Continue reading Microsoft previews Windows Phone 7 app design process with a golfing scorekeeper (video)

Microsoft previews Windows Phone 7 app design process with a golfing scorekeeper (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google stopped selling its Nexus One phone through its online store last month but the device is not dead yet.

Google is now offering the Nexus One as an unlocked phone to developers for $530 so they can use it on any wireless carrier. To order the phone, users need to have an Android developer account, in which case they can just click on the “Development Phones” link from the account, says a blog post on the Android developer’s blog.

The Nexus One will replace the T-Mobile HTC G1 as the official developer phone for Android. The Nexus One is certainly more expensive than the unlocked G1, which was priced at $400. But the Nexus One is also a device that despite its short life as a consumer product, still has among the best hardware in smartphones today.

Google launched the HTC-designed Nexus One in January on the T-Mobile network. But the phone was sold only online and not through T-Mobile retail locations.

Less than six months later, Google gave up on selling the device to consumers citing the poor response to the web store. Instead, it promised to bring the Nexus One into retail stores nationwide. So far, Google has yet to deliver on that.  Google put the devices into retail stores of I wireless, a T-mobile affiliate, with about 250 stores mostly in the Midwest, but it hasn’t announced any retail partnerships beyond that.

For now, the Nexus One remains alive and continues to trickle out of the Googleplex. The device for developers will ship with Android 2.1 and upgrade to Android 2.2 Froyo on boot up.

See Also:

• Google Nexus One Leaves Customers Sour
• Nexus One Reaches Its End in Google Store
• 5 Lessons for Google From Nexus One’s Sluggish Start
• How Google Could Have Changed the World With Nexus One

Photo: (Juliette Culver/Flickr)

Been wondering about Nokia’s strategy for conquering the rapidly expanding app space? Great! So were we, which is why we joined up with a recent dev event carried out by the Finnish company for an update on how and where things are going. It’s a familiar narrative by this point: Qt is all set to become the way that Nokia-friendly apps are made — whether it be for Symbian smartphones or MeeGo-powered mobile computers, coffee machines or infotainment consoles. Nokia did stress that its developer workflow has also been streamlined dramatically, and promised coders a better distilled experience that treats their time and money like the valuable commodities that they are. It’s an encouragingly frank discussion of where things have gone wrong in the past and how Espoo intends to remedy them in the future, and we’ve got it all on video for you after the break — no reading required!

Continue reading Nokia’s app development strategy: Qt, Qt, Qt (video)

Nokia’s app development strategy: Qt, Qt, Qt (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You had to know those freebie WP7 devices for Microsoft employees would come with a few strings attached. We imagined the Redmond brain trust was aiming for some word-of-mouth popularization along with a boost in team morale and proactivity, but as it turns out, things are a little more codified than that. TechFlash has what it claims to be the internal memo announcing the free Windows Phone 7 handsets — from mobile chief Andy Lees, who hasn’t been having the best of times lately — which sets out Redmond’s expectation that employees should “evangelize” the product at every opportunity, while also setting aside some spare time before launch to develop apps (but, you know, only if they really want to). The idea, clearly, is to harness Microsoft’s massive talent pool to try and get a headstart on populating the Marketplace with compelling content; we’re just not too sure the “spare time” bit is going to go over quite as well as the “free smartphone” part. Either way, you’ll find the full email from Andy at the source.

[Thanks, Mint]

Microsoft wants employees to code Windows Phone 7 apps ‘in their spare time’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We oftentimes hear raw numbers of apps bandied about in mobile OS comparisons, but we rarely get any idea of just how many developers are behind the scenes working for each platform. This is the void of knowledge filled by AppStore HQ today, who have gone to their dev directory — claimed to be a complete listing of all 55,000+ coders whose work is currently available for consumption in the Apple App Store or Android Market — and stacked them into neat piles of Apple, Google and Gapple programmers. It’s immediately apparent that single-platform development is the norm (with Apple holding the predictable edge), but AppStore HQ also provides a list of some of the most well known (and well funded) apps doing the cross-platform dance, and suggests that a movement is afoot toward making software available for both sets of users. Then again, the BNET article below points out the difficulties faced by smaller outfits, who might struggle to find the resources required to port their content over and maintain the skills required to be multi-platform, resulting in them sticking to one environment, irrespective of what allures others might throw their way. Give them both a read, we say.

iOS has a bigger dev army than Android, but will cross-platform apps rule the day? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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