Design & Development
Programming Apple Push Notification Services
January 12, 2010, by weimenglee
One of the key limitations of the iPhone is its constraint on running applications in the background. Because of this, applications cannot keep running in the background when the user switches to another application. So, applications that require a constant state of connectivity (such as social networking applications) will not be able to receive timely updates... Read More
Sending SMS with SMPP, Kannel and Java
There are many technologies and protocols that can be used to send and receive SMS from an application. This article focuses on sending SMS via a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), with the help of the Kannel SMS gateway. In order for an application to send a SMS, it generally has to communicate with a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) over the Internet. To understand in more detail consider the following example. A Media service provider wants to send a program timetable as an SMS to its end customers. The application is running on a Linux based java application server... Read More
Understanding User Interface in Android – Part 4: Even More Views
October 29, 2009, by weimenglee
In this final installation of the Android Views series of articles, we shall continue our exploration of another category of views - Menu views, and some additional cool views. The views discussed include: Context Menu Options Menu AnalogClock DigitalClock WebView... Read More
A Guide to Mobile Emulators
October 14, 2009, by mokil
In a previous article, I put forward a three-point plan for testing mobile Web sites. One of the points involved the use of emulators for first-pass device testing. This article concentrates on configuring emulators for mobile site testing (it also highlights emulators that can be used to test mobile applications too). It outlines the different types of emulator available, the best ones to use, and the various ways in which they can be used. For the uninitiated, an emulator is a software program that aims to replicate the functions of a specific piece of hardware or software... Read More
Understanding User Interface in Android – Part 3: More Views
September 29, 2009, by weimenglee
In the previous article, you saw the various basic views such as the TextView, EditText, Button, and how you can use them in your Android applications. In this article, we shall continue our exploration of another three categories of views - Picker views, List views, and Display views. The views discussed include: TimePicker view DatePicker view ListView view Spinner view Gallery view ImageView ImageSwitcher view GridView view... Read More
