Firstly Mods sorry if this is the wrong section I didnt want to clog up the Development and Hacking forum. Please feel free to move this to the appropiate place.
......
I've got an idea for a little calculator app with specific functions which I know will go down very well with independent store owners. I've programmed a very crude prototype for Windows using my very very simplistic Visual Basic skills.
The problem is for this app to be useful I need it to run on peoples phones as a third party app so as its portable, and here's where the idea totally falls flat, with all the different platforms like Windows Mobile and Symbian i'm just wondering what would be the best platform to go for and if its possible to create a version that might work across a wide variety of different phones maybe using Java.
My ideal target audience will more than likely be Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson users as opposed to Windows Mobile users.
Would it be just easier to commision different versions and how much should i expect to pay for a basic auto calculation app. I'm thinking of commercially selling the product is there any disadvantages of getting a third party to program the application?
All advice is appreciated and thanks in advance for any replies.
Well, I am not very familiar with the platforms you listed as preferred, but from what I know you will have to go with Java to accommodate them all.
It is still likely that you may need several versions if you want to properly accommodate the form factor of different phones.
There is no such thing as a best platform for a calculator app, which does not have specialized hardware requirements. Unless of course you are planning on a graphical interface so screen size or touch screen are major considerations.
If you really want someone to program for you for one time only, you may be interested in this site: www.rentacoder.com
As for price there are several considerations:
1) How much stuff does the app really do? How robust is it?
2) Are there other apps that preform same or similar functions and how much do they cost if at all? A quick search of the net may reveal that your idea has already been implemented as a freeware.
3) Will your software have a home? Basically when distributing commercial software you have to take in to consideration such things as registration, technical support for your customers and future updates.
Sites like www.pocketgear.com will let you easily distribute your app for as little as 5$, but many customers are unlikely to pay larger sums for an app that does not even have its own web site, let along a number you can call if you run in to trouble.
Thanks that was very helpful, i appreciate all the info.
Is there anybody with specific knowledge about programming for the other platforms?
Hello fellas,
we just relaunched our old directory for free SmartPhone software and PocketPC freeware. Now there are such a neat things like top downloads in this month, specifications of devices etc. What would you like to see more there? What's missing? You are such a huge community of mobile-related enthusiasts, that we desperately want to know your opinion
Please flood us with your feedback.
Hello,
just out of curiosity, i am collecting youtube movies of all mobile userinterfaces. The idea is to create a historical representation on how user interfaces have become what they are today. Hopefully seeing all userinterfaces next to each other gives us insight in the things to come.
The list can be found here:
http://www.petervrenken.nl/research/UserInterfaces.aspx
Do you guys know any movies that should really be included in the list?
I've mainly added the IPhone interface and Windows Mobile interfaces i know about, but the list should not be limited to these devices only.
Greetings and thanks in advance,
With the NHL season coming up, as well as Mango, I was wondering how easy would it be to develop an app?
Would like to do something simple (in theory) with schedule, favourite team: live score/stats. Score Push/Toast/Tile notification. Maybe team news, or league news.
Heres is the stupid part, I have no experience ever developing an app, nor have any programming knowledge.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I assume you will need Visual Studio 2010 and will have to know .Net 4 and use VB or C# as a choice of language.
Not really sure about anything else past that.
there are plenty of tutorials around which will help you with that. the designing bit is not difficult at all: it's very intuitive in fact. you'll need to go through some basics of coding though. I recommend the dev education resources in the app hub (create.msdn.com). Best of luck with the app!
Thanks for the replies. I look around and yes as mentioned the designing process is a pretty intuitive and the coding seems like something I can probably find help with.
Question that I have now, is how would be able to get the actual data? Are there services to which I can connect to have live scores, stats, news, etc?
I know these are newbie questions, and I know I can probably just find the info on various websites, but I am the type that like to get a conversation going and perhaps find someone that can help out..... in return I promise to make an awesome app!
N0MN0M said:
Question that I have now, is how would be able to get the actual data? Are there services to which I can connect to have live scores, stats, news, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the hard part. I considered doing something similar previously but there don't appear to be any free services for sports scores. I remember stumbling upon FanFeedr but didn't really look to deep into it.
I kind of figured ESPN would just update SportsCenter with Mango features that add everything I had in mind eventually.
Best of luck with your NHL app! I can help if you have any questions I’ve already written a multi-league football app that does the things you mention (and a few things you didn’t )
Probably the best way to start is to try and write some code that reads RSS feeds; that way you’ll be writing your team and league news functionality which will immediately make the app useful. You could then e.g. have a page that displays news for each NHL team such as using the following RSS feeds:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/rss
(note the terms and conditions on the Yahoo one say not for commercial use; but if you’re looking to make it a paid app there will still be plenty of sites that let you use their RSS feeds for free).
To start coding it there’s a tutorial video on how to write a simple RSS reader using visual studio and expression blend here:
http://www.windowsphonegeek.com/videos/creating-an-rss-reader-for-windows-phone-7-in-5-minutes
For getting the live scores data (e.g. as an xml feed) you’re most likely going to have to pay for it (and people who provide it charge wildly different prices so have a good shop around). E.g. these people seem to be popular and do NHL (although they’re not the company I use so can’t comment on what they are like – mine only do football)
http://www.xmlteam.com
http://showcase.xmlteam.com/index.php/samples/showfixtures/8/l.nhl.com
Also note that getting access to data from a provider is only the first step – you’ll also need to write some code on a web server somewhere that transmits the scores and other data out to users of your app. Most sports data providers will not want each individual app user to download from them; so they’ll expect just you to download from them, and your users to download from you (i.e. for that you need to write a ‘web service’ on your web server/hosting company, probably attached to a database).
If that all sounds too scary, and/or you’re not looking to spend any money yet (which is probably wise) why not make the main focus something other than the live scores? e.g. perhaps you could make the news reporting better than other apps out there - e.g. lots of different news feeds for each team - really in-depth background on each team, perhaps a way for fans to talk to each other, ability to post things on Facebook about their team, tv schedules, toast messages for news headlines as they come out, player profiles, pictures… etc. etc. You could even type the scores in yourself if you still want them or just provide links to websites from within the app. Have a hunt around though as you sometimes find fan sites that put live scores and stats into free RSS’s.
You asked how easy it is; mine took about 3 months (and I’m a developer with 14 years’ experience of Microsoft technologies) but it all depends how many features you’re trying to write, and how professionally (I wanted to write the best). There’s so many great forums and examples of code out there you’ll be up and running in no time.
Hope that helps,
Ian
I am launching a new holiday discussion website. Mobile usage is going to be very important part of the site but I am in a bit of a dilemma. I have 15 years experience with web design, but nothing with mobile.
It would be much appreciated if someone knowledgable on this area could spare 10 minutes of their time to help me with somethings. For me it's about catering for as much of the market as I can whilst still at a budget. I believe that to cater for 99% of the market I would need to create several apps, mobile version etc which just isn't practical.
What is more important;
- Have an iPhone app
- Having a good mobile version of the site which is compatible for all mobiles?
- Are there any other popular handsets I should consider an APP for.
1) Should I just scrap an iPhone APP and go for a mobile version of the site?
2) What are the fundamental advantages of going for an iPhone APP? Apple has massive market share in terms of mobile market but should I consider making APPS for any other handsets?
3) Are there are shortcuts I can take to say developing a mobile version and then easily turning this into an APP? Is there one standard layout I could develop for mobile which would then work on most phones?
4) Do all iPhone apps get approved? Could I develop an APP and then it not get approved?
5 From reading forums I would need to design the app in different layout sizes for different iPhones? Again is there a size I should use which would work on all or a size you would recommend?
Thanks for your time.
Adam