The fact that @ FusionSheep we're now preparing a big news for the next week, made me think about the lifecycle of an application. I need to carefully plan the entering and existance of our flag product on the markets where it will be published. 

It is interesting how much the lifecycle of an application shortened in mobile space in comparison to desktop space. I still, on ocasion, play UFO: Enemy Unkown, but have not play Angry Birds in months now, and actually I'm not planning to.

So I came with some mental framework, how to think about the lifecycle of an app. If you have anything to add to it please share your thoughts below.

For me there exist thee phases of a product. Awarness -- Usage -- End.

Awarness is the time of discovery. It is facilitated by Store presence, reviews of an application, your reputation, app icon and description. Your task as a product officer is to create as good first contact as possible.

Hint #1 make rating easier for heavy user of your app!

To do it just measure programatically how many times user opened your app, and just open some dialog box with this possibility of redirection to an app store to give your app some love. If you're working in android space there is a decent library for that link to github - AppiRater.

Topic of an app icon is pretty interesting. Here is an interesting case study from TapJoy of App Icon Horror.

Second phase is Usage. There is always major promise of how your app will benefit your User, and how easily (s)he can achieve this goal. But, I believe there are major milestones as well.

In this we have following elements, First Use, Support, Update Cycles and New Features.

Hint #2 make a tutorial for the first-timers!

I like the apporach of Pulse.me Application to the Tutorial.

As you can see it's fairly complex application, and helping user understand the process in this immersive way is way to go.

 

Hint #3 plan update cycles in week long iterations, at least in Android.

It takes a week come to the top of the Android Just In list.

Last phase is the End, sad moment when user found that the job your app is doing is not satisfing enough.

Make sure that you're thought launch over in every direction couple of times.

Anyway wish us luck, if all will go as planned next week we will start our beta tests :-). If you want to be a part of this group, send me a email at mailto:info@fusionsheep.com with type of OS/Browser combo you're using (for now only Chrome and FF will have our support), and what mobile platforms you use on daily basis (Android, iPhone/iPad).

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Hello reader,

Here I want to share with you my perception of torunament which is currently ongoing in capital of Poland, European Blizzard Invitational. It will be mostly about event itself and how epic it was. So if you're looking more in-depth information about game or esport please go chceck SCReddit instead.

Poland is a young democration. For some history you can always go to Wikipedia, here I just want to underline that there are possibly way more important problems than some computer games competition in this country, yet thousands of people came from all over the country to root for their favorite players (Tarson and Nerchio, not to mention favorite of many ukrainian player WhiteRA). What makes it so special we can leave to the specialists for example from Stanford. But where it will lead us this on what I want to focus here.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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We had a quick twitter lecture (;-)) by Tomi Ahonen on the fact that SMS is in decline on some markets (currently in Sweden and Chech Republic).

Here are the link to notes about both markets: Chech, and Sweden.

Quick introduction.

As you may now SMS is currently most popular data exchange service in the world (and a matter of fact most profitable), in 2010 ITU estimates 6.1 Trillion of SMS'es will be sent worldwide. Each mobile phone on the planet is prepared to work with this format, so the user base is simply stunning. Usually during holidays time the biggest number of text messages was sent, and it looks that in Chech and Sweden for the first time in history the number was smaller than the last year.

If we will see it confirmed on other well developed markets we may be witnessing significant shift in technology consumption.

Tomi Ahonen suggested that the best candidate for SMS heir will be IM. Why it's unlikely was well pointed by John Kyron  here.

I want to share some thoughts why it can be accomplished by IM:

1. Android has a decent user base, and each Android phone is equipped with gTalk. (market), still it's smaller than SMS of course.
2. IM is free. Even if SMS costs 5 euro cents, cost of IM is nothing. (budget)
3. gTalk is rich with features. Allows me to preview youTube links, links to photos etc. (experience)
4. gTalk is connected to my Google Profile, if I will lost my phone in seconds (if I will use new phone I will be able to be online, with phone number is not so easy) (convenience)
5. Google ID is way more personal than phone number. (experience)

One of the reasons mentioned by John was the fact that the IM market is fragmented. I would say that the problem is not the brand of IM itself (ICQ, gTalk, AIM), but the protocols and integration. After all I can connect to my Fring (one of the leaders of IM integration services): MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, AIM, Facebook, Twitter, SIP and something from Yahoo. So the problem of dependency on the platform is not so relevant. But it goes even further. 

In the near future most of IM services should be based on open(!) XMPP communication protocol, gTalk already is.

Security argument mentioned by John Kyron are also less relevant when it comes to XMPP standard, simply because XMPP has build in security layers like TSL and SASL, what makes it safer than SMS as a matter of fact :-).

Of course we will need to wait, like Tomi suggested couple of years for adoption of this technology. But it's good to know that technology is already in use.

Also IM allows (BB and Android users already know it), for more interesting experience than simple text message, what can be a good information for making this services profitable.

Now if anyone can give me informations what is the market segmentation on devices in Chech Republic and Sweden, and why this two markets looks more advanced that the rest...

To the next time, and hope you found it useful.

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From the website of manufacturer, Tesla Motors we're taking the specification.

What we have there when it comes to a Battery usage:

- it takes 3.5h to fully charge battery at 240 Volts and 70 Amps. What does this mean?

To calculate the cost we need to know how much power do we need to fully recharge. 1W [Watt] = 1V [Volt] * 1A [Amper]. So to fully charge the Tesla Roadster battery we need 16800W = 16,8kW.

On a fully charged battery we can make 245 miles, so approximately 360 km.

On this website we check the costs of energy in different countries of Europe.

Few examples:

Electricity prices:

• United Kingdom cost of 1kW is 0.138 Euro.
• In Netherlands cost of 1kW is 0.241 Euro.
• Poland cost of 1kW is 0.14 Euro.

Fuel prices:

• United Kingdom cost of one litre is 1.41 Euro.
• Netherlands cost of one litre is 1.53 Euro. 
• In Poland cost of one litre is 1.17 Euro.

To make 400 km, in two scenarios, one using electric car, second using fuel powered car in three different countries we will need to spent:

• United Kingdom, to make 400km on electric we need to spent 2,32 Euro, on a fuel 23,15 Euro.
• Netherlands, electric car 4.45 Euro, on a fuel 22.95 Euro.
• In Poland, for electricity powered trip 2.6 Euro, on a fuel 17,55 Euro.

As we can see this can be an amazing investment for companies and normal people as well, but keep in mind there are many other factors to incorporate to calculate the profitability (service costs are the most obvious, and I'm very interested in them, if you have any data about it please let me know).

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Hello busy reader,

Even if Simplicity is not an universal answer for usability problems. Importance of this approach is very important in mobile. The reasons why mobile is unique and requires simplified solutions are few:

1. reaction time of a user is much faster on mobile (especially with touch screens) than it's on desktop computers.

2. mobile is usually used in much more hectic environment. On the street, in a car, I believe soon it will become obvious that each doctor will use some kind of tablet/smartphone to support his decisions. Because of that when user has only seconds to decide designer must create simple tools.

3. space and tools to interact with the interface are much more scarce. Because of that designer must answer a question how to deal with this issue.

So how to create more usable product by simplifying interface?

The solutions can be grouped in four approaches:

A. Removing Features. Get rid of the features user barely use.

B. Hiding Features. Put some of the features behind some layer where they won't be seen all the time.

C. Group Features. Put everything in logical groups. 

D. Displace Features. Move some features to other device to which mobile is a controller and allow navigation in some kind of on screen menu.

Ad A.

Of course is not a such a simple. If you remove some features someone will care. Probably in this context Pareto rule is in use (80% of users use 20% of features), but the problem remains how to find this 20% of features. Also removing the features may lead to more complex interaction with the object. The iPhone philosophy of one Button, in my case is causing lot of problems, because it requires from me constant switching

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Hello busy reader,

In this short post I want to present you some framework how to think about usability. The reason why I'm doing it is strictly egoistic, I want to see better solutions in both products and services, and to get my thoughts on this structured ;-). Let's start with most common miss conception about usability.

Most of us are living in a culture of technology, on a daily basis we use our smartphones, e-readers, laptops, remote controllers, cars etc. All this tools we're years ago designed by engineers for which efficiency and effectiveness was way more important than simplicity. Today when computers are used by majority of population in developed countries, simplicity becomes most important factor when it comes to choose what service, and what tool user will choose from a variety of solutions offered by Today's market.

Why people are demanding from designers less?

1. Simple gets your stuff done faster.

2. We do more stuff Today, than any time before. With limited time resources, we have no time to cope with complicated interfaces and steep learning curve. 

3. No one reads a manuals! We need something simple. Something what we can pick up and use right away.

4. Because we're using technology in safety critical environments (like GPS navigation software), complexity may cost human life.

Simplicity has become a goal for itself for our culture. Alain de Botton, pointed out that cultures are drawn to create the things that are missing from their age and environment. It's anthropological explanation but maybe, just maybe, in our world of relativeness and globalization we aspire to things which are minimalistic, pared down, and simple, because we may be so easily distracted at any time by a stranger in other part of the world. It's an open topic I would love to hear your thought on it.

"Less is more", famous sentence by Mies Van Den Rohe, has become kind of panacea for designers. But it's not the answer, Less is not an answer. As a matter fact what we consider to be usable varies depending on context. The ISO definition of usability contains three elements: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Satisfaction. 

Let's take three context as a examples:

Few weeks ago I was introduced to system created by Comarch, one of the major software producing companies in Poland, for managing financial side of a enterprise. The simplicity was very low, other factors was really high. Overall impression from a perspective user was low, but it's not a point, because Enterprises are not interested in simplicity the main goal is Effectiveness. And this software was terrific in filling this market gap.

A good example of a system which is focused on Efficiency is each huge fast food restaurant. The main goal is to make as many transaction in a small amount of time as possible. That's why Effectiveness and Satisfaction are not so important. Of course they will say hello and goodbye, but you cannot expect the same level of interaction like one you have in a top-notch restaurants where some decisions are made for you and your convenience is as much important as the quality of food is.

Finally we have a Consumer oriented services, like restaurants where you experiencing whole process from the entrance to the exit doors. In this context, Satisfaction is most important factor, Efficiency is much less important. Because in each consumer oriented business this is a main focus, you need to leave Satisfied by any cost. This is the reason you're paying few hundred percent more for a bottle of favorite wine in such places.

If you want to create something Simple for all customers you need to take under consideration all this criteria. And it's not a simple task. 

Tomorrow I will describe how to be closer to designing simpler but usable products. See you Tomorrow!

And thanks for reading. All comments are welcomed :-).

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"Mobile is all about people" that was one of the opening statements made by Peter Giblin, director of the mLove conFestival. But first what is the conFestival? Following Pete's explanation it's a merge of Conference and Festival. On the one hand you have a group of top-notch specialists in the specific field. On the second bunch of frighteningly creative artists. Merge it together, add highest standards of organization, add a sponge of fantastic cuisine. And you slowly will be closer to draw in your mind a picture what mLove is.

From the first day, I knew that it will be one of the most important events attended by me. Beautiful venue, with flaws which only added the flavor. Speakers which shares the passion on the highest world level, like Kazi Islam, founder of Grameenphone IT, company which stated Village Phone program. Powerful idea to provide mobile communication solutions to rural areas of the Bangladesh. Following Wikipedia: "In September 2006, there are more than 255,000 Village Phones in operation in 55,000 villages around Bangladesh. This program has been replicated also in some other countries including in Uganda and Rwanda.

Top specialists in User Interaction like Amish Patel. His speak about future of interfaces makes Star Trek not such a distant future. Gadgeter Marc Mielau, presented common flaws in interfaces around us, and possible way how to make our life more bearable by making them more intuitive.

To unbelievable talk of Lama Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche. Imagine 200 people, very busy people, involved in so many different project, constantly connected to their Twitter feeds, hardwired to the Internet with smartphones, listening to and understanding thousands years old teachings of Buddhism. That was most powerful experience I had during this three days.

Art part was so powerful that words cannot describe it. Projectil team made a Castle a living creature, you can take a look here, but it only gives you a small fraction of whole experience. Anyway it will allow you to catch the idea. 

Fantastic musicians like Rocky and Balls

and a String Quartet from local philharmonic during first day, added additional space to this amazing event.

In final, I want to thank all mLove team for making this possible. If inspiration is a derivate of happiness, you made a world slightly better place, and in the end it's all that matters. 

Thank you all!

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Hello readers,

I want to inform you about small change in our planes.
Rest of our sensors series will be published on www.droidnova.com. It's great place to learn Android. And I think that sensors series, should belong there.
It's run by Martin Breuer from Berlin. He is a great Android progammer.

Still I'll post informations about ongoing progress of the series here with proper links.

Sorry for problems, but I feel it will be better for all of us. You will have access to bigger number of materials, and bigger community.

With best wishes,
Patryk

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Hello busy reader, in following few posts I want to introduce you to Sensors in Android. Today we will build some general picture, in following days we will digg much deaper into this fascinating topic.

Sensors is a overall term refering to ways how Android can detect elements of the phisical world around it. It can be very benefitial. And this technology is now used in great extend in industry i.e. cars now are far more complicated in terms of software than planes.

Android can support following sensors:
1. An accelerometr, to detect motion of the device.
2. An ambient light sensor, telling you how dark or how bright sourrounding is.
3. A magnetic field sensor, to detect magnetic fields nerby.
4. An orientation sensor, tells how device is positioned in all three dimensions.
5. A proximity sensor, detects distance to other objects.
6. A temperature sensor, tells temperature of the surrounding environment.

Of course not all sensors are included in current devices, what for sure is present in HTC phones are:
1. The accelerometr.
2. The magnetic field sensor, and
3. Orientation sensor.

In few following blog posts I will describe how you can work with sensors and what kind of benefits user can expect.
We will start with orientation sensor and we will build simple compass.
Next we will build shake app with accelerometr sensor. In finish we will make steering wheel app. Which possibly will allow you to build some sweet race game.

I hope you will like it.

With best wishes,
Patryk

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This is longest known to me palindrome, it has 224 and was written by Demetri Martin. 

Dammit I’m mad. Evil is a deed as I live. God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt. To be not one man emanating is sad. I piss. Alas, it is so late. Who stops to help? Man, it is hot. I’m in it. I tell. I am not a devil. I level “Mad Dog”. Ah, say burning is, as a deified gulp, In my halo of a mired rum tin. I erase many men. Oh, to be man, a sin. Is evil in a clam? In a trap? No. It is open. On it I was stuck. Rats peed on hope. Elsewhere dips a web. Be still if I fill its ebb. Ew, a spider… eh? We sleep. Oh no! Deep, stark cuts saw it in one position. Part animal, can I live? Sin is a name. Both, one… my names are in it. Murder? I’m a fool. A hymn I plug, deified as a sign in ruby ash, A Goddam level I lived at. On mail let it in. I’m it. Oh, sit in ample hot spots. Oh wet! A loss it is alas (sip). I’d assign it a name. Name not one bottle minus an ode by me: “Sir, I deliver. I’m a dog” Evil is a deed as I live. Dammit I’m mad.

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Hello busy reader,

Here I want to present new handy hack I learned Today. How to pass a xml as a value.

Why you may need it?

Well, it gives you chance to give really nice feedback to the user. Using it with Toast messages is most obvoius choice. User is changing state of some item, and with this you can give him/her feedback refering to specific item.

First we need to define string. Usually you do it in res/values/strings.xml.

If we want to pass string we use %s, you remember it from C lessons :-).

<string name="some_string">state of %s was changed.</string>

Well we may need decimals as well, so:

<string name="some_decimal">There is a %d items in a stack.</string>

The Strings has %d and %s which will be repleaced in next step.

In the Java code the string is fetched with the getString method and the variable is replaced with the right content using Java's String formatter, so in code it will look like:

String message_string = String.format(getString(R.string.some_string), fooBar);

String message_decimal = String.format(getString(R.string.some_decimal), 17);

On the output you will recieve:

"State of fooBar was changed." and "There is a 17 items in a stack".

And that's all :-).

Thanks for your time,

Patryk

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Today I want to show you simple technique how to capture screen of your Android device. To put screenshots of your app on your blog, website or simply to include promotional screens for Market application.

There are are three steps.
1. open terminal and start ddms, by typing ddms in your android ./tools. Ddms is a debuging tool which provides port-forwarding services, screen capture on the device, thread and heap information on the device, logcat, process, and radio state information, incoming call and SMS spoofing, location data spoofing, and more. Check link for more detailed information. (step1.png)

2. When we have Ddms opened. We choose device to debug from left section, in my case it's mine G1 only but you may use emulator as well. So when you use device we can go to step three.(step2.png)

3. After we connected to device, use from menu -> device -> and screencapture. Shortcut is ctrl+s.

Result of whole process is step3.png :-).

C'est tout.

Have fun, I hope you'll find it useful.

with best wishes,
Patryk

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Hello busy reader,

Yesterday evening I was listening to radiolab podcast about dying and there they were citing David Eagleman's book "Sum".
Here I've selected few of always interesting (I don't force you to see it as playful or horrifying =)) life statistics:

- 2 months driving the street in front of your house,
- 7 months having sex,
- 30 years of sleep,
- 5 months flipping through the magazines while sitting on the toilet,
- 10 hours of pain,
- 6 days clipping your nails,
- 15 months looking for lost items,
- 18 months waiting in line,
- 2 years of boredom (looking through the bus window, or sitting at airport terminal),
- 1 year reading books,
- 200 hundred days of shower,
- 2 weeks wandering what happening when you die,
- 1 minute realizing your body is falling,
- 77 hour of confusion,
- 1 hour realizing you've forgotten someone's name,
- 3 weeks realizing you're wrong,
- 2 days lying,
- 6 weeks waiting for the green light,
- 7 hours vomiting,
- 14 minutes experiencing pure joy,
- 3 months doing laundry,
- 15 hours writing your signature,
- 2 days tying shoe laces,
- 67 days of hearth break,
- 5 days driving lost,
- 3 days calculating restaurant tips,
- 51 days deciding what to wear,
- 9 days pretending you know what is being talked about,
- 2 weeks counting money,
- 18 hours staring into the refrigerator,
- 34 days logging,
- 6 months watching commercials,
- 4 weeks sitting in thought wandering if there is something better I would be doing with my time,
- 3 years swallowing food,
- 5 days working buttons and zippers,
- 4 minutes wandering what your life would be like if you can reshuffle the order of events.

Thanks for reading,
Patryk Zabicki

One final word,
Radiolab is one of the most creative, and interesting podcasts in my collection. Support them if you value outstanding and intriguing work =).

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Hell busy reader,

On days like this I'm really happy I have possibility of living in our time.

Not only there is anniversary of fall of Berlin's Wall but what equaly interesting to me, Google Wall maybe had been damaged.

First few words of explanation. I really admire Google work, their philosophy of maing leap with internet applications make easier life for many of us. But what I like even more is ambitious challenger, who walks into the stage and redefines rules of game.

Fact that Rupert Murdoch said that NewsCorp may be discluded from results of Google says that our media services like search engines, Twitter and Facebook, are big enough so there is no one player only. Of course it's still beginning of way of diversification. But Murdoch gave first serious signal.

This ensures me great news from security pointy of view as well.

Another interesting poing which Twitter made was for me, attempt to understand how people process information.

I'm Google Reader user, it's difficult to me to imagine morning cup of tea without reading most important blogs.

My good friend said few days ago, that don't use any RSS reader. He's basing on Twitter. He pointed, when I asked question if he's not affraid of missing some very important informaion, that if information actually IS iportant it will survive long enough in twittersphere.

I'm starting to thinking he's right.
We live in darvinian information times. Theu shall survive only fittest information.

Goodbye Google Reader, you were great but in proper times. Now you're like diesel engine in electric cars salon. Rest in peace.

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Hello busy reader,

It's weekend, so I decide to have some fun, and enhance my Ubuntu experience. Compiz is wonderful tool, to make system looks wonderful. Next step are widgets.

Screenlets is very good application allowing you to customize and add widgets for your Ubuntu. Benefits of this approach are numerous. For me most important are:

- it enhances my productivity by giving me direct access to data from desktop

- my desktop looks really nice right now

The first one is more important of course. Topic of widgets is much bigger than only desktops. I.e. Android provides developers with bunch of handy tools for creating such accessories. Benefits are obvious. If user can work on data from home screen he saves time, and experience is enhanced. Nice thing in screenlets is that it's a open source project, so you can easily contribute. Second it's made in python so it's very handy in development. Hope to see your projects soon :-).

Spectrum of choice is really decent. You can choose different clocks and calendars, rss readers and system monitor also music player or search widget which gives you almost instant access to Google/delicious/Yahoo search engine.

Of course screenlets are not only project which adds widgets to Ubuntu. I simply found it most usable.

with best,

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Today I read very interesting article covering discussion panel which took place on MIT this Monday.
About most important trends in technology for 2015.
http://www.indicthreads.com/5016/top-5-technology-trends-for-2015/

Quick review, border between reality and virtual reality will blur in amazing way. Smartphones right now makes serious impact
how people interact with reality, but this will become even more obvious and interesting in next few years.

You will use Augmented Reality browser to make groceries more efficient, look for place to spent interesting evening.
Even during trip outside the city, you will navigate with you personal assistant.
This will occur in long run.

In short you will use your every day notepad, or task manager augmented with sensors. Which will make your work more efficient.
Just by shaking phone you will be able to clean input fields in you notepad. By pointing phone in specific location you will be able to change state of
some options in your simple tasks manager etc.

Yesterday I received application to review named Screebl, this is quasi-intelligent battery preservation manager. It works in background and is smart enough to recognize if you're current state demands active phone screen.
More soon on www.androidguys.com :-).

And here is video presenting how this program actually behaves: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzgFuUu0oxg.

Enjoy and welcome to the future.

Thanks for your time,
Patryk

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"Future is here but it's not equally distributed." This W. Gibson quote is a start point of what near future is preparing for us. This are my favourite emerging technologies which will eventually make our life much easier.

Computational knowledge for everyone
It's a truism that if you take enough people and give them decision problem. They collectively will do better in task solving task than each one of them separately.
Hunch is filling this hole in web in very elegant way.
First steps in this made Google long time ago, but it was still on very basic and unclear level. Now by answering to few questions you recive on screen of your computer best solution to decision problem, available on-line.
Still there is no reasonable Android app to store this data, so you cannot easily hunt this product suggested by Hunch in Shopping Mall. But in next few months it will be available, simply because they can do it, and API is free.

Social searching,
To ask difficult questions to specific problems, you don't longer put this questions to search engine. The number of websites is just too big. Today you should use other people. Just like in the past :-), significant diffrence is you ask them through your IM, and leave looking for specialist to the algorithm.
So if you looking informations about contributors to Byzantine note notation you don't ask Google. You ask Aardvark and it sent you to medieval historicist who specialise in Byzantine history, frankly said I had this problem few days ago, and only Aardvark was able to help me, Google scholar, Google books was too weak for it.

Augmented reality,
What if you can improve experience from  interaction with reality? Tag items in shop, by prize, and lets say GDA parameters, sort them without checking description on pack?
Picture like from SciFi films becomes reality.

A week ago, Google announced that they are working with TESCO to build API for their shops. Today Tesco, tomorrow Wall-Mart and rest of big players will join this race.
Personally I hate making shopping, too much distractions, it takes too much time, and worse of all you cannot optimize way of making it.
What if you walk into shop, with google map, earlier you have setted list of products you need into application. And let yourself be lead by machine to buy goods.
In few months we'll be able to make so :-).
Or even plan the shopping in your home, synchronize the map with your phone and enjoy the rest.

But the remarkable change will be bring when we merge RFID chips with Augmented Reality.
Walk into the shop, turn on camera in PDA, set filters like type of product, prize, brand, scan the scene in front of you and check on your phone the results, in seconds you know if you can find products you need without looking for it and without nudging personnel.

with best,
p47

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Hello busy reader,

Today I want to cover Android UI creation.

First of all market right now is flooded with apps. Of course there is a long way to create so much content as App Store have. But it is only matter of time, there are a lot of resons why, it's not a place to explain why :-).

Part of my job is to monitor new apps to the market. And check what kind of features they are offering. Few hours a week I spent browsing through market looking for a good standards.

How bad UI ppl can make, it's unbelivable.

Android platform offers few extreamally fast to implement and easy to use UI solutions, which in my opinion should be present in every App which deals with Activities (part of software with User Interface, Android terminology possess a term like Service as well, this kind of processes works in background without UI, pushing occasionally notification to the user).

Here my favorite list:

Context menu
This tool have similar purpouse like Right Click on your computer. When user performs "long-press" on an object, floating menu showes with functions relating to item.

So when in notepad we have object - i.e. note. If we long-click on this object desired context menu should show us functions like delete, make important, edit etc.
It shortens way to make changes user needs. Let's say we have in activity few buttons, like edit, delete etc. If we use Context Menu we spare time of the user from two clicks without cmenu to one. If we multiply it with number of interactions user needs to take during day with our app, we can see how much of his time we can spare.

Handy example is phone contacts list. Long-click on object, reveal a menu with useful for an contacts (View contact, Call Mobile, Send SMS, Edit contact etc.).

Memo: If layout is too clutter, use Context Menu to keep it simple.

App Widget

This is application view, which can be embeeded in other applications (in most cases Home screen), and recieve ocasionally update (developer decide how often).
I must admit this is my favorite Android tool.
Thanks to this little innovations you can push data from Activity to home screen. Imagine app which you need to use few times a day. If you can have access to data from this app just by viewing the home screen it can save your time in so pleasent way. No clicking, no loading, just thow an eye on screen, and you know what you need.

Memo: If your app is used on daily basis, provide data from home screen.

Messages

Toast messages
This is most simple kind of interaction between User and Android. Information is showed in small field, which automaticly fades away. There is no possiblilty of interaction between user and message.
Best suited for simple informations about: status of app (message send, changes saved, note deleted). When you change something whithin your app, provide user information about status update. It's two lines of code.

Frankly said I had this in my ubuntu. When I change something from terminal, I don't recieve feedback what happend, well if something went wrong I recieve update, but only then.

More in this topic during this day,

With best,

p47

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Why no multithreading is greater threat to Iphone than all bad health condition of Steve Jobs?

Few days ago I had a long meeting with iphone developer - Chuck Smith. Thanks Chuck for inspirational and full of new experience and tastes week!

We were discusing differences between platforms.
I took his phone and started playing with it.
First I opened browser to check my emails. UI was neat, in few places better than UI of Android. I've send few of them. But in one of them I received link I needed to check, so I used it. After checking it I wanted to go back to emails. And the first problem, there is no such thing in iphone like Intents, no back button. If I want to open new application I need to take tree steps:
1. use button to go out of current app
2. browse through menu to find app I need
3. click to start app I need
And I need to repeat this moves every time I want to start work with another app, ever this wich I used seconds before! What a waste of time.

How Android is handling this tasks:
Lets say I'm checking my emails, and there is a link I want to check. So I with this link start new Instance (mobile Chrome). When I want come back to email app. I need to use only back hardware button.
Tree times faster than iphone!
I can easily copy this link, start Twidroid (my favourite Twitter client for Android) paste it and send a tweet. One back button and I'm in Chrome again, second and I'm in Gmail.

Now multiply it with number of such Activities you do during your day. Checking Twitter, using Gmail, reading news etc. It's so much useful.

From technical view it's quite fast. When I leave app, it goes into onPause() method. (picture of life cycle of Application).

And now just imagine how well different Apps can work together to increase your every day productivity and experience from using smartphone. You can use task manager, send notes to different apps (Instant Messenger, Twitter, Facebook etc.) with only two clicks.

best,
p47

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Three sources of my recent idea.

I just saw speech of Kelvin Kelly from TED How technology evolves. This speech made me think about significance of Android. And how this OS can impact the world.
About two week ago Andy Rubin, responsible for Android from Google, said that till end of year he suspects 18 to 20 Android handsets. Interview from Cnet.
And last one speach wich I saw yesterday by T. V. Raman, Charles L. Chen from GOOGLE I/O 2009, "Eyes Free User Interaction". Youtube lecture.

This three speeches made me think about how and why Android have a chance to completely redefine work, entertainment, and in consequence the world.

Kelvin Kelly in his very interesting lecture points that technological development is very similar to evolution. He states that Technology is actually 7th Kingdom (for now we had 6 kingdoms of life).

Five rules of evolution and how do they apply to Android revolution:
1. Ubiquity
2. Diversity
3. Specialisation
4. Complexity
5. Socialisation

So how Android is developing this idea:
First of all the fact there will be so many Android phones, gives us as  developers an opportunity to create phone dedicated to particular people (soldiers, doctors, designers, musicians(yesterday I've downloaded first application for a musician,
(gString), etc.). All of these groups will create new niche for applications. And further specialisation will be made. Now I even think about special tools for miners, and drivers, With dedicated for them sets of applications. This is both Diversity and Specialisation.

The fact that in Android there are services like laptitude, twitter, gtalk etc. Makes this tool more usable in Socialisation. When you can check localisation of your friends on Google maps, when taking a walk in the city, it becomes eaasier to socialise on way never seen before. And this is only the beginning. I'm waiting what Wave will bring, and how it will be merged with Android :-).

I will explore this idea further in next posts.

Thanks for reading,
p47

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