Hasta La Gadget!

The Sony Xperia Arc is a super slim Android Gingerbread-running handset. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Choosing one mobile carrier over another is, for many, a fairly arbitrary decision. The service they offer doesn’t differ that much. Coverage may be a factor if you live in the sticks, but for most people that isn’t an issue either. And the hardware is largely the same, just repackaged or rebranded.

So how can carriers like AT&T and Verizon differentiate themselves from the competition? How can they entice customers to sign up for their service as more people embrace smartphones and pricey data plans?

Apps.

AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have all launched developer-centric programs to beef up innovation and their carrier-specific app arsenals. AT&T just opened its third developer Foundry, in Palo Alto, California. Verizon offers a number of developer tools and a dedicated Android app store. Sprint has a wealth of tools and advice through its developer program.

“So far, carriers haven’t been thinking about the dev side as much. These developer centers are a first step toward that,” says John Basso, chief information officer of Amadeus Consulting, a custom software and app development company.

Historically, carriers haven’t done much to differentiate themselves beyond costly marketing campaigns for specific devices. Manufacturers, on the other hand, might try things like modifying the look of their devices through “skinning” the OS, one example being HTC Sense.

But seeing how a thriving app store is a cornerstone of a successful smartphone platform, it makes sense for carriers to work with developers to entice their own apps and entice customers.

“By providing these developer services, the carrier becomes a solutions provider,” Gartner analyst Michael King says. “Potentially, carriers gain credibility, as an application guru. They also potentially gain exclusivity to certain applications.”

AT&T’s Foundry program is an interesting way to attract developers. It is comprised of three physical facilities and a virtual developer’s portal. The physical centers provide access to resources developers “couldn’t get anywhere else.” They also act as a sort of incubator, with fast pitch sessions that can be used to get funding and allow AT&T to help them bring their product to market.

“The AT&T developer center is acting as a think tank, a place where developers can connect, use best practices and share code,” King says.

AT&T gives devs access to a number of APIs and phone features, like its exposed messaging API, in-app billing API and WAP push in its online portal. It has been working with developers for six years now.

“We’ve got a very rich history of interacting with the developer community,” says Carleton Hill, vice president of device operations and applications development, about AT&T. “We actually had a developer program with Bell-South two-way pagers. We’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Verizon, on the other hand, wanted to separate itself from the Android ecosystem and launched its own app store: What used to be called V CAST Apps is now Verizon Apps. It differs from Google’s Android Market in that its search is powered by Chomp. The search engine lets you search for apps by name, just like Google, but its standout feature is the ability to search by topic or function of an application.

“Whatever it is beyond the name of the application, that’s where Chomp comes in with the technology and algorithms we’ve been working on over the past two years,” said Chomp CEO Ben Keighran.

For instance, if you type in “fun games,” he says, “You’re going to see better results — things from Zynga, from Rovio. You’re also going to see recently released games that may not be from very big brands, but are gaining a lot of traction.”

Verizon Apps looks to be a more regulated experience than Google’s Android Market, as well. Verizon is positioning it as a “premium store” — more carefully groomed, more easily searchable.

Sprint provides a number of services through its developer program. “We’re not trying to recreate what other developer communities, like Android, do,” said Sprint spokeswoman Jennifer Walsh. “We’re trying to help them take advantage of the unique features of Sprint devices.”

For instance, when the EVO, one of the first smartphones to include a front-facing camera, debuted, Sprint helped developers get used to using and incorporating the feature in their apps.

The company also offers two programs and tries to help developers target their apps to them. Sprint Zone offers app suggestions based on what your phone can do. Sprint ID bundles apps, widgets and services according to particular interests, like MTV or fantasy football. Sprint has also hosted an annual developer’s conference, which is now 11 years running.

“With these programs, developers potentially get distribution, tools for testing, resources, access to a customer base and access to other developers,” says King.

But are these services developers actually need?

Right now, the mobile scene is still young, and the tools used to develop for it, as with any new innovation, lag behind the technology.

“Neither carriers or manufacturers have a program where I can take a test, pay a fee and get every phone they come out with each year. A lot of issues come in with hardware,” says Basso. With experience programming in .NET, he says that this is what Microsoft does with software, and it works really well.

“Mobile emulators and debuggers are very weak, they’re immature. They’re not very useful,” Basso says. “So developers have to download the app and test it out on a phone themselves.” This can be expensive, if not impossible, if you want to test your app on every available device.

There are services that allow remote testing, but they can be of limited value to serious developers. The vast array of screen sizes and spec changes mean apps often aren’t “one size fits all.” The availability of APIs and SDKs is helpful, but seems to assume there won’t be any device problems.

“It’s very hard to test across all the different permutations, and you do need to test across them, ” Basso says, because there always are device problems.

And unlike browsers, easy-to-access metrics about device popularity aren’t available, so it’s difficult to choose which handsets are going to end up being the most popular.

Basso thinks that, with regard to AT&T’s Foundry program, it would be immensely helpful if carriers built developer centers in every city (or teamed up with local companies to do so), made all their devices available for testing and made it easy to wipe the device’s data afterward.

Basso sees the carriers’ developer-focused efforts as a way to deal with an area in which they’re woefully deficient. They’re putting energy and money into an area they don’t quite understand. But, he says, if they start doing things like providing physical developer centers with pre-release demo devices to work on, it will definitely spur innovation and attract more notice.

And then maybe you’ll have a good reason to buy that new smartphone, tablet or future device.

Additional reporting by Mike Isaac.

We’ve heard of keeping up with the Joneses, but this is getting ridiculous. First it was Verizon, then Vodafone, and now Ma Bell — with an assist from Ericsson — has built an innovation center in Silicon Valley. This new center completes the triumvirate of AT&T Foundry facilities (the other two are in Texas and Israel), and is a part of the company’s strategy to accelerate the process of developing and delivering new products to its customers. Right now, there are over 100 projects in development in Palo Alto, and AT&T is looking to add more. Those who are chosen gain access to AT&T’s networks and expertise to ensure that new projects play nice with all of the company’s gear, and it’s already produced a few things that were on display at the center’s grand opening. Want a sneak peek at what’s in AT&T’s innovation pipeline? Read on past the break to get it.

Continue reading AT&T Foundry innovation center opens its doors in Palo Alto to help devs do what they do

AT&T Foundry innovation center opens its doors in Palo Alto to help devs do what they do originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Server and Tools Business President Satya Nadella, amongst others, took the stage at Build today in order to showcase something a bit less consumer-facing: Windows Server 8 and the revised Windows Azure platform. Fret not, though — this all plays a vital role in how you’ll be enjoying Windows 8 in the months to come. A Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview will be made available to coders starting today, enabling devs to concoct Metro-style applications with HTML 5, JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic and C++. We’re told that the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview is available today for Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers and will be made available to the public on Friday. Microsoft also announced that Server 8 would provide multi-tenant infrastructure for cloud services, while the Azure Marketplace would expand to 25 new nations in early October. Those hoping to dig deeper can head on past the break (and visit the source links below).

Continue reading Windows Server 8 and Azure platform introduced, Metro-style app building starts today

Windows Server 8 and Azure platform introduced, Metro-style app building starts today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A screenshot of Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 at Microsoft’s 2011 BUILD Conference. Image: Microsoft

We’ve been hearing about Windows 8 for months, and today we can finally tell you it’s got a smart tile-based user interface, robust developer options and what is essentially a complete revamp of Windows 7 to bring Microsoft’s new OS into the mobile era.

Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 during the keynote at its BUILD developer conference Tuesday morning. Executives showed off the operating system’s versatility on a variety of mobile and desktop platforms, pointing out features like cloud-based photo sharing, streamlined contact management and the Metro UI overhaul. The OS is Microsoft’s first earnest push into the tablet space and it looks, at first glance, anyway, like it’s a true competitor to mobile operating systems like Android and iOS.

We got an early preview of Windows 8 earlier this summer. The OS is designed for PCs and tablets and uses a live tile-based touch UI with multitasking capabilities. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that we’d be getting Windows 8 tablets next year. As promised, everyone attending BUILD got a free tablet.

Microsoft has until recently been tentative about entering the mobile space, and not without warrant — Microsoft’s legacy is software built specifically for the PC. Whereas iOS burst on the scene in 2007, followed a short time later by Android, Windows Phone 7 arrived in late 2010. Microsoft’s last OS, Windows 7, was clearly designed for the PC experience rather than the tablet experience.

So far, it looks like Windows 8 is making a big splash, particularly with developers. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve learned Windows 8 offers.

Overview and Hardware

Two major changes have been made to Windows 8: it improves on Windows 7 directly (which means that anything that runs on Windows 7 will be compatible with Windows 8), and the company has rethought what Windows can be.

One of the central themes of today’s keynote announcements was Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the user experience all the way down to the chipset.

Developers at the conference received one of 5,000 Samsung Windows 8 tablets. The tablet includes an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer, as well as NFC and built-in AT&T 3G. It’s also got a tool that shows you how much data your using, which is pretty cool. The slate pairs with a docking station and a wireless keyboard. From close-ups and screenshots during the presentation, it appears to have a 120 gig Intel G2 solid state drive. (Also noteworthy is that the developer tablet is basically a Windows 7 slate skinned to run Windows 8 — it’s not actually the first ‘Windows 8 device.’)

Windows 8 can run on ARM or x86 architecture, and Microsoft showed off its OS running on multiple devices including ASUS and Acer ultrabooks, an Intel tablet and a Toshiba all-in-one setup. It’s interesting that Microsoft would choose to allow its OS to port to so many different devices, on different chipsets, with different screen sizes, particularly when we’ve watched Google struggle with Android’s ability to do that. But it looks like its user interface may be better suited to that task than Android’s.

Mark Rendle, principal software architect at Dot Net Solutions, really likes Microsoft’s Metro UI.

“It looks like they’ve scaled it up really well, and I like the way it fits to different screen sizes,” he said.

A suite of Windows 8 running tablets appear onstage at the BUILD Conference. Image: This Is My Next

For Developers

“I’m excited that I can leverage all of the existing skills that I already have and choose what is best for writing a new Win8 app,” said Ed Blankenship, a .NET developer and technical lead at Imaginet.

Windows 8 allows developers to use a number of tools to create “Metro style” (that’s the name for their user interface) apps: HTML5/JavaScript, C/C++, and/or C#/XAML. Windows president Steven Sinofsky said that there are 1800 APIs and objects built into the system you can use to help build Windows apps. In Visual Studio 11 Express, there are also a variety of preset templates.

From what we can see, the app-making and uploading process looks pretty streamlined.

When an app is completed, Windows has a few super-convenient built-in tools to port it over to the Windows App Store. You can select a price, a trial period length and choose the appropriate app categories it belongs in from a drop down menu. Windows’ app store will be “transparent” about its approval and certification process, showing users what stage of approval they’re in with its web interface. The app store itself has the features you’d come to expect: price listing, ratings, an option to buy or try, screenshots, details and reviews.

“I love that Windows 8 will run anywhere and any app that can run on Windows 8 will run on any device. That’s really key – I can develop & debug on a tablet running Windows 8,” said Blankenship.

You can’t do that with other platforms available today. Developers normally have to build that infrastructure themselves, often a huge time sink. But now, devs can easily get apps into the Windows Store.

“Microsoft really knows how to leverage its ecosystem and keep [developers] happy,” Blankenship said. “I know that’s what will be a driving factor for success with Windows 8.”

A look at Samsung’s Windows 8 tablet that developers received at BUILD. Image: Slashgear

A Few Apps

Like Windows Phone 7, Windows 8 has a large social aspect built-in. In a departure from the desktop-oriented OS’s of the past, Microsoft has redesigned or reskinned a number of services. Windows 8 also takes advantage of the growing cloud-based storage movement.

“The interaction between apps on and between devices is really exciting,” Rendle said of Windows 8, citing the Contracts API as one he was particularly excited about using.

For instance, the new email client looks pretty slick: It’s a two panel setup that meshes with the Metro look and feel, with an optional third panel that comes up when you’re going through email folders. A contacts app neatly arranges your friends and acquaintances as a grid of square photos, which you can click to get more information. The email client and contacts app won’t be shipping with the developer release of Windows 8.

The photos app can pull images from services like Flickr, Facebook and SkyDrive after you’ve connected with your accounts. The app treats remote storage and SkyDrive’s cloud storage as if data is stored locally. Email and SkyDrive can sync with Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) devices.

As far as entertainment on Windows 8 goes, it looks like Xbox Live will be ported over to the OS.

“Applications are really powering the system with new capabilities, and as you get more applications, the experience gets richer and richer,” Julie Larson-Green, a Microsoft vp, said about Windows 8 and its app environment.

In the demos, there were a few features, such as photo sharing across SkyDrive, which bugged out in the keynote demonstration but worked fine in earlier press meetings.

Other Features

It’s got boot protection, so when Michael Angiulo, CVP of Windows Planning and Ecosystem, tried to launch a Samsung tablet with an infected USB key, the booting process stopped before the system could fully launch.

A few keyboard shortcuts were introduced: Windows – C opens up the Charm menu (a cross application searching and sharing toolbar with an option for switching between desktop and Metro views), Windows – Z opens the app bar and Windows – F does searches. Traditional Internet Explorer shortcuts still work.

A redesigned task manager also made its debut; it can be viewed as a straightforward list of apps and an end button or as a full view with usage statistics of each of the processes.

Multi-monitor and remote log-in features are made easy, with the ability to swap between a desktop view and Metro view with a simple keyboard shortcut. VHDs and ISO images are also treated like local drives.

Many feared that traditional Windows problems, like the need for drivers, would plague Windows 8, but from the demonstrations at BUILD, everything seemed to run very smoothly. Accessories like a webcam worked instantly after being plugged in. Windows 8 takes mouse, keyboard or touch inputs, and there’s also a digital pad you can use a stylus with for drawing or writing.

Getting Windows 8

You can get access to a developer preview release of Windows 8, with or without development tools, beginning at 8 p.m. PST. The Windows app store will not be active in the preview release (which is not to be confused with a beta release of Windows 8), but the release does include a number of sample/SDK applications.

“I think Microsoft will really need to find a way to drive adoption of Win8 as fast as possible to
encourage the developer community to create these new-style apps,” Rendle said. The fact that the software is available as a public preview should help with that fact.

No date for a Beta launch of Windows 8 has been announced.

“We’re going to be driven by the quality, not by a date,” Sinofsky said.

Why code for Windows 8? Besides the robust developing options, Microsoft estimates that 400 million people will eventually adopt the Windows 8 ecosystem.

“Microsoft has made a significant investment to entice existing developers to build for the Windows 8 platform,” Blankenship said. “I can’t wait to get my hands on the Developer Preview build tonight!”

Videos and livestreams of Microsoft’s conference are available at buildwindows website.

There’s been a lot of speculation surrounding what’s going down at this week’s Microsoft Build developers conference, and now we’re here, in the land of the cartoon mouse (that’s right — right around the corner from Disneyland), hoping to get to the bottom of all the Windows 8 talk. We’ve already been privy to a number of previews and teases and even caught a quick glimpse of a handful of ARM-equipped Windows 8 development devices. We’ve reported on an upcoming Windows 8 App Store, a WP7-style Start Menu and, most recently, some super speedy boot times. All of these are part of a much bigger puzzle, one that’s already promised to shake up the Windows brand, but we’ve yet to get a full reveal. If you ask us, it’s about time Microsoft let it all hang out, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. So keep it locked here for updates from the Anaheim Convention Center — we promise you won’t regret it.

Protip: Use our “build2011” tag for all the Build news this week!

We’re live from Microsoft Build 2011! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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