Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category

Dedicated vs Smartphone GPS

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

I’ve used a lot of smartphone GPS solutions, and two dedicated units. The biggest issue with all smartphone solutions is that you cannot *rely* on them. I’ve used Navicore/Wayfinder, Nokia Maps and Google Maps on Droid. They make nice demos but seriously, you really want to buy a dedicated GPS unit. I paid recently $130 for a new unit on a sale, and it’s far superior to any mobile stuff that is out there.

Just a quick comparison:

+ Dedicated GPS units are more robust. You can rely on them. Smartphone based solutions  do crash. You cannot rely on them. That’s the most important factor for dumping them for any serious usage. They lose signal without being able to restore it without reboot. Theylose data connection (only prob for Google Maps based navisystems, Nokia Maps is offline). They just stop working. Every smartphone based solution had problems (at least after using them some time, not in “demo sessions”…) and the dedicated units don’t (crashes are very rare).

+ Dedicated GPS units have far superior signal strength compared to any smartphone based GPS. Just try it in a parking hall: Dedicated unit will pick a signal no prob, smartphone will not. Smartphone will also lose signal easily when you’re driving where dedicated unit is not. Trust me, I’ve done lots of comparisons running dedicated units and phones side by side.

+ Dedicated units are much faster. Offline maps is the first key requirement where Google Maps based systems fail. I used Google Maps on Droid for couple of months (on T-Mobile) until time wasted restoring data connection, downloading map, getting signal, downloading map again, downloading instructions, … drove me crazy. Dedicated unit gets the route planning done 10x faster.

+ Dedicated units have better functionality and usability compared to any smartphone solution. For example, Google Maps does not have “search along route” functionality which is really nice during any road trips.

Still, I find uses for mobile GPS as well, but not as a dedicated GPS replacement but for “fun usage” e.g. during walking tour in a new city. Just don’t buy mobile GPS solution and imagine that it’s competing in the same league with dedicated units.

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Motorola Droid

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Just bought one today, thinking experimenting something with Android development. If I have time, that is.

The phone at least seems great. Droid is much more responsive than other Android phones I I have tested. Nice high-res (480×854) screen. Ok sliding keyboard, and still the device thickness similar to iPhone which is nice.

My only complaint is very short battery charger wire, looks like standard USB-length, which is not enough unless you want to keep your phone on floor while charging. But in general, really great device and I’m surprised it came from Motorola, I have never liked their phones but this one really rocks.

Btw. Motorola Droid is called “Motorola Milestone” here outside US, since Droid is ™ of Lucas Arts, and exclusively licensed to Verizon usage…

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iPhone and piracy

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Smells like donkey blog had an interesting article about iPhone piracy from a game developer’s perspective. By their measurements, up to 90% of all submitted high-scores were from pirated apps. Wow. But well, it doesn’t mean if they could prevent piracy they would get 10x more sales, of course. And at least they now have much larger user base for their community, heh.

Update: Fishlabs numbers from here support this as well: 95% of Rally Master Pro first-day downloads were illegal.

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Swebapps

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Swebapps concept: Drag-n-drop buttons, click click click and you get iPhone app. Maybe it’s useful for making a dedicated iPhone app for a restaurant, but it’s very limited what you can do with that approach. Calling the creations ‘applications’ is almost generous, since it’s more like ‘mobile optimized website generator’. They also reflect this view by speaking about hosting the application… Maybe it has some uses but don’t expect to make a blockbuster iPhone app with that approach. Their pricing also reflects this: You pay monthly hosting fee, 270 USD per year, but there is no royalty. Probably because you won’t get much either, at least by sales. But yep, maybe it’s a good solution for making dedicated iPhone app for your Backyard BBQ restaurant.

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Rich & poor of iPhone app developers

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Interesting how iPhone apps seem to follow “90/10″ hit pattern typical to game industry: 10% of the apps make 90% of the revenues?

Here’s “million dollar apps” article:
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/10/million-dollar.html

And here’s a different experience (from Slashdot):

“It’s definitely not easy to even earn a little money on the App Store with just a good game, much less get rich. I am the developer of a game on the App Store and have not been paid a single cent from Apple yet. The game is highly polished and has great written reviews and even good reviews from professional sites. It’s only $0.99 to $1.99 (depending on sales). We’ve had a few hundred sales since the beginning of the year. Apple only pays if you break $250 for each region, not for all regions combined, so they keep what little we’ve earned indefinitely unless we make more sales. I’m not going to whore the product out by mentioning it here; I just want to get the message out that this is what’s up with the App Store to other potential developers. I logged over 500 hours developing that game and haven’t received anything for it. So not only is it entirely possible you won’t achieve success, but you might waste a lot of time and resources in the process. The process of getting any information from Apple was miserable, and they treat developers like shit. I used to have a lot of faith in Apple’s good will and have been a long-time Mac head, but after this experience, I’ll still buy Macs, but I will NEVER do any other kinds of business with them again.”

(http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/10/14/2015232/Road-To-Riches-Doesnt-Run-Through-the-App-Store?from=rss)

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iPhone development and “the edge”

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

As iPhone Application Store gets more and more crowded, it gets more and more important to find out what is the “edge” of your product. Clever marketing? Controversial theme? (but not *too* controversial for all-censoring Apple…) Or what?

Great examples: iSnort cocaine snorting “game” (without explicit reference to the drug!), iFart (of course) and this Russian roulette marketing video. There are stuff for every possible category so you really need to stand out of the crowd.

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Android game development on Gamasutra

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

There is an article Developing Games for Android on Gamasutra. Good to see interest from developers beyond all-mighty iPhone. Still, device fragmentation is potentially much worse issue on Android as in iPhone, since Android is, well, more open. Worry with Google (from App developers point-of-view) is that does Google want encourage paid content? At least some developers have been complaining that the paid apps are hidden behind some sub menu and even the best selling apps are not really making much money.

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