Guest Blogger
Enterprise Mobility: A Hybrid Client is Better than a Web Browser
May 1, 2012 by Nitin Garg
Web as a development platform for enterprise mobile applications is gaining momentum. It make sense to develop a single HTML5 application and run it on multiple mobile devices. And today’s web browsers are doing great job keeping up with HTML5 standards. Then why do you need a hybrid client? The question is simple and so is the answer. Things are built keeping some objectives in mind.
A Web Browser is a general purpose web-client to show and capture information online through web-pages. No doubt a great tool, but enterprise mobile applications need more. Let’s take a quick look at some of those important requirements:
A Hybrid Approach
1. Offline Support: They should work offline. Yes, HTML5 is there but it better suits to applications that require temporary storage or where life-span of information is small. Life-span of enterprise data on a mobile app is generally more than a day
2. Data Security: Security is one of the major concern in enterprise mobility. You can’t leave your data with web browsers because there is no proper data security. A hybrid client can provide a secure and robust way of storing and retrieving the information.
3. Auto-Provisioning: A hybrid client can auto-provision your enterprise applications based upon the authentication. End-user does not to worry about which web-app is for me and which not.
4. Version Updates: What if you need to upgrade application on the device of your end-user but he has some pending updates for the server? You can provide a robust way of optional, delayed or compulsory upgrade through a hybrid client.
5. Transaction Handling: An app running on mobile means no guarantee whether you are in network or not. Handling transactions when you are in offline mode is a big headache with web apps. But a hybrid client can handle them nicely and automatically.
6. Data Size Limit: HTML5 has data size limitations. A hybrid client can overcome these limits and allows you to store data based upon your device storage capacity.
7. Device Integration: Enterprise applications are very demanding these days. You need integration with GPS, NFC, camera, phone book, calendar etc. You can’t do most of these things through web apps. But a hybrid client can make it happen by exposing the native device capabilities to web-apps.
8. Native Push Notifications: Native push is really cool feature when you are not using an app and you need to be alerted with its notifications. With web apps, when you are online, you do not actually need native push but what if you have exited your web app. You can’t get any push notifications specific for that app. A hybrid client can allows you to receive these notifications and to handle them automatically without any user-intervention if needed.
9. Mobile Advancements: Mobile devices are getting smarter and powerful day by day. You can’t keep up with these advancements and leverage them in your mobile web applications until your device web-browser starts supporting them. Further, we all know that HTML5 is quite slow in keeping up with these advancements. A hybrid client can fill this gap. It can provide you the opportunities to keep up with these innovations and make your app more powerful, productive and future-proof.
Using web-technologies for developing your mobile application provide tremendous benefits like JavaScript as single programming language for multiple OSs, ease of development and debugging, skills-availability, open standards etc. But, in most cases, a web-browser is not enough to run an enterprise mobile application. And so a hybrid client like AMP Hybrid Client can provide, your web apps, the power of device native technologies and simplicity of web-technologies.
What is your take on it?
Will the Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone Be All it’s Cracked Up to Be?
April 12, 2012 by admin
The following is a guest blog post, contributed by Mobile Masters reader and member, Tyler Moore. 
Tyler is an alumni of the University of Utah and is a tech, mobile and social media enthusiast. He is a professional writer for SatelliteInternet.com.
It was really only a matter of time before other designers and companies took a look at the iPhone and said “You know, we could probably do this or that better than Apple is doing it.”
The Android was a big step forward, offering an open source app store allowing anyone to publish without fear of censorship under Apple’s iron fist; and now Nokia is getting in on the action with the Lumia 900. Addressing “poor design” in the iPhone, here’s what it supposedly does better than Apple:
It’s 99 Bucks
The iPhone’s steep price tag seems to get steeper with each generation, so the 99-dollar Nokia will offer users a chance to play palm-sized games, browse the web and chat online all for a reasonable price tag. Right in the middle of a recession, not everyone can afford an iPhone, but most of us have spent more than 99 bucks on a nice dinner.
Easier Interface 
While the designers have been somewhat vague about this, they have promised an easier interface for the phone, suggesting that users won’t even have to touch the screen if they don’t want to. Whether that means improved voice command functions or a phone that reads your mind remains to be seen.
Streamlined Usability
Along with the easier, hands-free interface, we’ve also been promised streamlined usability. Where Android and iOS are compared to “dollhouses” with furniture that users can rearrange, the Nokia is promised to be more in-depth, intuitive and open-ended without sacrificing ease of use or clarity of design. This is in part thanks to the Windows operating system, which we will also see in the upcoming Microsoft web phone.
This is what’s promised of the phone, which just hit the market, but there’s no telling whether or not the product will be the groundbreaking new gadget that Nokia is promising. Voice command is already present in a lot of devices this year, and the new Microsoft Windows phone is offering much of the same open ended accessibility and user-friendliness.
In short, it’s going to be a crowded year for phones. This is for the best, in the long run. For the longest time, iPhone was really the only game in town, and then came Android, leaving users with two options, both a bit on the pricey side. Now, we may have half a dozen new phones to choose from by the end of the year.
Nokia’s statements would seem to be going after the iPhone demographic whereas the new Windows phone is likely to appeal to people who have never even considered spending more than $60 on a cell phone. Whether this proves to be a good strategy or not, only time will tell. What we can say is that they’re definitely going after a loyal fan base.
Where Nokia is promising a technological revolution, Apple is promising more of the same, but better. Microsoft is offering user-friendliness and Android offers a fun alternative. Users will simply have to wait and see what the future has in store for the phone market.
Guest Post: Mobile World Congress 2012 Wrap Report – Where was the creativity?
March 6, 2012 by admin
Clare Grant, VP of Marketing Communications, Antenna 
The pre-fabricated buildings are being dismantled, the Huawei Pegasus has been led back into its stable, and the pretty, largely Eastern European females that are used shamelessly by certain exhibitors have gone back to their day jobs and universities. Yes, Mobile World Congress 2012 has come to an end.
This year, as in two previous years, there was a question-mark over the industry’s ability to demonstrate buoyancy in the face of the troubled economic situation in countries across the globe. However, apart from the protests outside the front gate on day 3, the show projected a form of technological and financial confidence that political leaders will want to encourage (and claim credit for) with all their might.
The Samsung Galaxy Note
Nokia unveiled the 808 PureView, a smartphone with a 41 megapixel camera, the Google Android pod (you couldn’t really call it a stand) was constantly buzzing as punters queued to grab free smoothies and ice cream sandwiches and watch a clever robot make bling phone covers by punching gems into metal, while Samsung unveiled a device which doubles as a pocket projector, and had a team of artists drawing portraits on the new Galaxy Note 10.1 to show off its capabilities.
At the end of each of the first three days, attendees gathered for private parties—with Cava-flute-clutching crowds spilling out of the major booths—or clustered around the fountains at the head of the Fira to watch jets and walls of water fly in every direction accompanied by music composed by the likes of Vangelis and Howard Shore. In other words, far from being austere, MWC 2012 was actually pretending towards excess. And it’s just possible that that excess was meant to cover the dearth of something other than money – namely: creativity.
Phones which can project and take hi-res photos are nothing new – nor are they ‘game-changing’; Android is proliferating like mad but the devices all look the same (regardless of who manufactures them) and they’re still not that much fun to play with. BlackBerry presented nothing which suggested they can turn around their current fortunes (there was a consensus amongst attendees that their stand was ‘quiet’ for most of the show) and Microsoft’s Windows 8 showcase was notable for the lack of love and attention they showed Nokia hardware, rather than the reverse.
I don’t think I’m alone in saying that MWC 2012 revealed that the industry as a whole is desperate to hide the fact that it hasn’t had any big ideas for a while and doesn’t have any brewing. In the past, all eyes would now have been on Apple to take advantage of the situation by announcing a few big ideas of its own, but there is increasing scepticism that it will be able to continue innovating as effectively without the help of the late Steve Jobs. Apple’s new tablet device is due to be announced this week and the word on the mobile street is that it’s going to be more of an iPad 2.5 than an iPad 3. The next Steve is surely out there somewhere – but no-one’s found him yet.
Time Saver: Put a Phone in Your Watch
June 29, 2011 by Nitin Garg
Watches are getting smarter. The i'mWatch and the LiveView keep you connected at the wrist.
For a long time, I’ve been thinking: Wouldn’t it be great to use my watch as a smart device for e-mail or SMS notifications that come on my mobile? If the notification seems interesting, I could dig my mobile out of my pocket and read it. Or I could also use this tiny, but handy, display panel to see who is calling me. Even better - what if I could answer the call from my watch? And then, hang up and play my music through that same watch?
It’s here. An Italian company, Blue Sky Srl , has created this smartwatch and they call it i’mWatch. A brilliant idea. However, Blue Sky Srl is not the first company to build it. Sony Ericsson had already created a similar watch called LiveView.
There is a significant difference between them. LiveView has an interactive display panel that can talk to your Android Smartphone through Bluetooth technology. But i’mWatch is a true, smart device because it runs on Android OS. You can run you own Android application on it, and it can also talk to your iPhone and Blackberry devices as well.
Because these watches talk to your mobile through Bluetooth, they can also talk to your Bluetooth headset. With touch screens, the combination of a smartphone, a smartwatch and a Bluetooth headset – life is easier.
I’m looking forward to the future of the smartwatch. As it becomes more powerful and more intelligent, doors will open for more opportunities. We can already bump smartphones to exchange contact information. Wouldn’t it be great to bump without holding your smartphone? You just need to wear a smartwatch, which will detect the bump pattern and pass it over to your smartphone. Forget bumping – just shake your hands together!
Nitin Garg
Nitin Garg is a Technical Architect at Antenna Software. Architectural thinking is one of my favorite hobbies. I see some interesting similarities between life and mobile – both are small and everybody wants more out of them :) . Follow me on Twitter @cool_mind
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