Rhomobile announced that its Rhodes smartphone app framework now supports Android 2.0, allowing interested companies to utilize their HTML and Ruby skills and create native applications for the Android platform. As a result, using the company’s RhoHub, development costs can be reduced by up to five times.
Among the RhoHub features we highlight:
Support for multiple platforms — including iPhone, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android
Developers can write apps in HTML and simultaneously build for all smartphones
Generate UIs and sync source adapters from a high level object description
Collaborate with other users by sharing projects
Hosting of synchronization server for backend app integration and availability of offline data
As for the availability information, RhoHub comes in three “flavors”: the Free tier is for public apps with 3-runtime users and 50MB disk space; the Basic service allows for 3 private apps, 3 private collaborators with 100-runtime users and 2GB disk space; and RhoHub’s Premium service which offers 100 private apps, 100 private collaborators with 1000-runtime users and 20GB disk space… Additional information is available from Rhomobile’s website.
In preparation for the incoming X10, Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) has opened up a new tool for developers called WebSDK. As you might imagine, it allows developers to write mobile apps in web languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript, not unlike Palm’s webOS or BlackBerry’s recently-launched widgets. The system is all based around the open-source PhoneGap project cooked up back in March. It’s not just Android getting the love – Symbian phones will also be compatible with WebSDK, and combined with the Kurara/U5 leak earlier today, Sony Ericsson is clearly not forgetting Symbian, even in the wake of their burgeoning Android romance.
As expected, Adobe has announced that the latest versions of Flash and air are packed with APIs for mobile, like multi-touch, gestures, accelerometer, mass storage, peer-to-peer, and UDP networking. Lately BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) has been pretty vocal about their upcoming Flash support, but webOS, Android, Symbian, and Windows Phones are all a part of the Open Screen Project, and will enjoy the same treatment. Using video players in the browser is the big thing, but really only the beginning – Flash opens up a whole new area of native and web apps that we have yet to really see on mobile, outside of the odd appearance in Fennec or Skyfire. iPhone remains conspicuously absent from the party, and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) may have some catching up to do once all of these platforms get settled in to the new technology. If you’re a developer, you can get started with Flash Player 10.1 from the Adobe Labs here, or air 2 here.
O2 (NYSE: TEF) Litmus (which is the mobile and web application development community from O2) is ready to spread it’s wings – and they’ve decided the best way is a targeted marketing campaign for 1 million O2 UK customers.
For developers this is a bit of a boon, since there should be a steady flow of consumers over the course of November – and moreover, they are targeted be a group that have criteria such as whether the O2 customer owns a sophisticated device that would be suitable for experimentation with apps, have they previously used mobile data services and which customer segment they sit in.
Developers should go to www.o2litmus.co.uk to make sure their apps are uploaded in time.
O2 Litmus (which is the mobile and web application development community from O2) is ready to spread it’s wings – and they’ve decided the best way is a targeted marketing campaign for 1 million O2 UK customers.
For developers this is a bit of a boon, since there should be a steady flow of consumers over the course of November – and moreover, they are targeted be a group that have criteria such as whether the O2 customer owns a sophisticated device that would be suitable for experimentation with apps, have they previously used mobile data services and which customer segment they sit in.
Developers should go to www.o2litmus.co.uk to make sure their apps are uploaded in time.
The latest Android platform, codenamed “Eclair” (like the delicious pastry), features support for multiple gmail accounts, exchange support, support for Bluetooth 2.1 and improved media playback, just to name a few. Armed with the source code, developers are going to have the tools they need to bring at least some of these new features to other Android smartphones.
Need For Speed played the poster boy role for RIM’s OpenGL ES announcement, but they’re definitely not the only ones who are excited about the new options for developers. Here’s a quick demo of Concrete Software’s PBA Bowling, coming to the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Storm2. Sega also said that they have started work on getting their extremely successful Super Monkey Ball franchise onto the Storm2. The OpenGL support is limited to certain hardware constraints, so right now only the Storm2 and Curve 8530 (oddly enough) will support the enhanced graphical capabilities. It’s worth noting that though 3D is the big thing, OpenGL can also do some good work on the 2D front. Check out the earlier announcement from the BlackBerry Developer Conference for more info.
There’s no denying that the overall BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) UI feels a bit old, but today at the BlackBerry Developer Conference, RIM took some big steps to freshen up. A new Theme Studio and will allow developers to really go to town, including options for screen transitions, animations, and all of the usual tools needed to put a theme together. The Studio includes a Theme Builder for the usual font, icon placement, dialog box colouring, etc., and a Composer to create animated graphics. Awhile back in OS 4.5, themes saw a pretty beefy upgrade, and this new tool will equally open up some doors. A bunch of Adobe tools plug right in as well, making it easy to import assets and even preview themes on a device proper attached via USB.
On top of the new theme tool, a new plug-in for Eclipse should make app developers lives easier by opening up a lot of user interface options. All you have to do is drag and drop elements you want (like a carousel, or picture viewer), and you’ll see them all on various BlackBerry devices, in full WYSIWYG glory.
For a closer look at the Theme Studio, you can get downloading over here, and the new GUI plug-in will be available mid-2010.
AT&T (NYSE: T) Developer Summit has been announced recently. The event will be held at the Palms resort in Las Vegas on January 6 in conjunction with the 2010 CES, targeting developers who want to reach AT&T’s 81.6 million customers.
Among the AT&T people who will attend the conference are CEO – Ralph De la Vega, CTO – John Donovan, CMO – David Christopher, and senior VP of Devices at AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets – Jeff Bradley.
AT&T will also use the event to announce the members of a new third-party Developer Advisory Council, which will provide a forum for key wireless industry influencers and developers to give feedback to AT&T executives on major initiatives in the near and long term.
The 2010 AT&T Developer Summit is free to attend and additional details are available from a dedicated website.
Gaming on BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) has never been what you would call breathtaking – a few low-key casual games here and there and the preloaded Brickbreaker could handle the lion’s share of twitchy boredom. Well, the platform is taking a big jump as OpenGL ES support has gone official and is currently available in the beta BlackBerry JDE we had mentioned earlier.
The in-app purchacing sounded vaguely iPhone OS 3.0, and OpenGL even moreso, but between these multimedia improvements and BlackBerry’s existing expertise in productivity, the whole platform is feeling a lot more balanced. Shown here is Need for Speed, which we’ll have some hands-on footage of shortly, complete with gesture controls for brake and boosting, and accelerometer use for steering. There’s going to be at least one other big name game showing off what OpenGL on BlackBerry can do, and we’ll be sure to check it out.
More goodies from the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Developer Conference today: fresh location-detection options using cell site recognition, and push services for those who want to leverage RIM’s biggest advantage in mobile computing. First up, cell site recognition is a big one for location-based apps who want to keep battery drain down (GPS takes a significant toll). Anyone with 5.0 will automatically update the database of cell towers and their locations; a very cool use of crowdsourcing. There’s also new reverse geocoding that will tag specific coordinates with a proper street address – a nice addition that we’re already seeing in action in Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps for Mobile. On top of those two, RIM has introduced an API for estimated travel time within the U.S. and Canada; the time is generated based on aggregated traffic conditions and speed limits cross-referenced with distance.
Good stuff all around, but push services are probably bigger news for most developers. Push Services will enable apps to pull down up to 8 KB of data with all of the righteous immediacy that makes BlackBerry e-mail oh-so-very awesome. It’ll be interesting to see how this service will fare once it’s out in the wild and what developers use it for (push Twitter, anyone?); Web Signals have been testing the waters for a little bit with Alliance Members, but we’ll have to wait to see how much apps can really do with 8 KB. An added bonus, for devs who thought they might have to pay for it, is that Push Services will be available for free.
Both the new geolocation and push services are available specifically in devices with OS 5.0 and up, and will be available in the first half of 2010. You can try out some of these new options in the beta 5 Java Development Environment that was just released today. For more information on the upcoming push service, check out RIM’s page.
In preparation for the incoming X10, Sony Ericsson (
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O2 Litmus (which is the mobile and web application development community from O2) is ready to spread it’s wings – and they’ve decided the best way is a targeted marketing campaign for 1 million O2 UK customers.
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