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MOBILE WEBS VS SMART APPS TECHNOLOGY.

As a future developer, I get asked
my opinion on mobile web vs. rich
app development quite often, and
understandably so. For most mobile
developers, this is one of the very
first questions we face when we
begin planning to build an
application. And to be honest,
there’s really no “correct” answer to
the question. If I absolutely had to
break it down to a couple distinct
criteria, the decision would likely be
based on the following:
OS/Hardware-specific feature
requirements
Development budget
Development timeline
Target audience
Before I get too much further, I feel
I ought to explain that a vast
majority of my mobile development
experience has been with Android,
so you’ll likely find that most of my
examples revolve around it. With
that in mind, let’s carry on.
OS/Hardware-specific
feature requirements
HTML5 and native mobile browsers
are quickly getting to the point
where the gap is quickly closing
between what can be accomplished
from inside a browser vs. what can
be done from a native (rich)
application. However, there is still
one significant feature that separates
the two in my opinion: push
notifications.
I’m not very familiar with the push
notification system for iOS, but I
have implemented Cloud-to-Device
Messaging (C2DM) for Android
several times, and it is incredibly
useful for server-to-device
communication. You can use them
to get a device to “call home,” start a
process running on the device, or
even deliver a short message. The
only feature that comes close to this
in HTML5 is the WebSocket. But if
the user closes the browser, your
channel of communication is
severed.
Another reason why you might
choose to build a rich app is
because your requirements demand
a long-running service that persists
in the background. A background
service may be needed for indefinite
location tracking, device monitoring,
or lengthy calculations/processes.
One of the features I like most about
Android as a developer is the way
intents were designed. Intents allow
you to not only integrate other
applications into your own, but also
integrate your application into
others. A good example of the prior
scenario would be launching a thrid
party barcode scanner application
from within your own app and
receiving a UPC code back. As far as
the latter situation is concerned,
many apps will allow you to “share”
content with other apps, so it’s
possible to get your app to appear
in the list of possible choices (for
instance “sharing” a place from
within Google Maps). This unique
interoperability is definitely a very
strong case to build a native Android
application over a web app.
Development budget and
timeline
I doubt there are very many
developers out there who’d
disagree with me when I say that
mobile web development is grossly
cheaper than developing a native
rich app. Granted, 95% of my
development experience is web
development, so it’s fair to say that
it’s what I know best. However, the
fact that you can develop once and
automatically target every web-
enabled platform is quite a powerful
one. Compare this to developing,
say, an Android, iPhone, and
Blackberry app separately, and it’s
easy to see the advantage here.
As far as development timeline is
concerned, I don’t think I need to
say much more. Obviously
developing one web app is quicker
than developing multiple rich apps,
so let’s move along.
Target audience
OK, I’ll admit it. I’m an Android
fanboy. So when I first started doing
mobile development, I completely
neglected iOS and only focused on
Android. No wait, let me try that
again. I completely thumbed my
nose at iOS and all my iOS-using
friends. It didn’t take me long,
however, to realize that if I was
really serious about being a full-time
mobile developer, I simply could not
ignore one of the top two mobile
OSs, no matter how much I
disagreed with Apple’s philosophy or
believed in Android’s success.
So, the easiest and quickest thing for
me to do was develop a mobile web
site for my iOS-toting friends. The
result was actually quite impressive,
as I had created a nearly identical
copy of my Android app for the web
using webkit transforms via some
javascript I found/borrowed/
modified for my own purposes, to
create independently scrolling areas
(something that is not easy to
accomplish with mobile web).
At first, my peers were pleased that
they now had a way to use an app
they had been begging me to port
for months. But as soon as the
novelty wore off, they quickly
realized that the mobile web version
just wasn’t quite as slick as a native
rich app could be. Even though they
could create a bookmark on their
home screen to make it appear as a
native app, the differences were still
noticeable (namely the lack of push
notifications, which I get around by
sending emails).
Conclusion
Now I’ve presented a select few
arguments on both sides of the
case. Clearly there are a lot more
factors that go into this decision, but
I feel like the ones I’ve mentioned
have been the biggest determining
factors in my own personal choices.
There really is no right or wrong
answer at this point, and at the rate
the mobile tech industry is evolving,
everything I have just said may be
moot tomorrow.
As things stand today, I feel that the
best approach is to target both
mobile web and rich apps if all your
determining factors allow for it. But
this is clearly a subject that will need
consistent reevaluation as time
progresses. Eric Schmidt himself has
been quoted as saying “HTML5 is
the way almost all applications will
be built, including for phones” so
I’m confident in saying this is a topic
to keep your eye on.
On a final note, I encourage
everyone reading this article to
watch this video if the subject matter
discussed piques your interest. It’s
the Android vs HTML5 session from
Google I/O and I discovered while
writing this article that it was
uploaded to Youtube, as it was not
streamed live from Google I/O.
Hopefully I have answered a few
questions for you, and if not feel
free to sound off in the comments!

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KENYA AS THE FIRST INCUBATION CENTER WHEN IT COMES TO TECHNOLOGY ENHANCEMENT.

Kenya has been selected as the home
of the first of five incubation centres
around the world that aim to promote
a knowledge-based economy.
The new hub named m:Lab was
launched on Thursday with the aim of
creating a new space for Kenyan
developers to collaborate on
developing applications for mobile
phones.
Kenya was selected due to the
country’s rising profile as a software
development hub.
The development means that Kenyan
SMEs in the sector will now be have
access to a 13 million Euro kitty over
the next two years to fund their
growth.
The joint partnership between
infoDev, a donor-funded ICT for
development agency hosted by the
World Bank, the Finnish Foreign
Ministry and Nokia, will provide the
funding for the initiative.
“We are helping businesses improve
value in the sectors that have the
most potential to contribute jobs and
exports – for Kenya, this means ICT,
agri-business and tourism,” said
Johannes Zutt, country manager for
the World Bank.
The programme brings together three
tracks – mobile application
development, business incubation
and technology entrepreneurship –
together with a supporting track of
analytical work in the field of ICTs and
Innovation Systems in Agriculture.
Information PS Bitange Ndemo said
the country was hoping to push the
contribution of the ICT sector past
agriculture to being the country’s most
significant GDP producer.
“We aim to raise the contribution of
ICTs to the economy from the current
Sh5 billion to over Sh25 billion in the
next five years, and to do this, we
must put in place sustainable
solutions to enable the growth of
SMEs in the sector,” said Mr Ndemo.
Analysts say the technology sector has
increasingly been driven by an
emerging middle-class population
with potential to buy smart phones as
well as rising industry investments by
players.
Demand for mobile apps presents a
huge potential for developers, brands
and end-users but players will need
to invest time and resources if they are
to fully gain from the fast-growing
mobile marketing global industry,
expected to be worth Sh1 trillion (US
$17.5 billion) by 2012.
“Mobile application marketing is a
rapidly growing engagement and
advertising channel for local and
international brands today. Increase
in use of apps by young population
and emerging middle-class is spurning
an unprecedented growth which may
help companies focus on more eye-
balls of their target markets in a totally
new dimension,” said Mr Oyolla.
Locally, the growth of mobile internet
subscription coupled with a significant
adoption of smart phones are key
factors driving the mobile application
segment in Kenya. In its January 2011
report, Communications Commission
of Kenya (CCK) noted between July
and September 2010 that 98 per cent
of the Internet market share being
through mobile devices.
“In the end, we expect to have win-
win situation. Developers will have full
local support to develop and sell in a
global marketplace to millions of
consumers while brands will be able
to engage their customers via
immersive mobile apps for continuous
relevance and loyalty,” said Mr Oyolla.

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REASONS AS TO WHY YOU SHOULD BUILD YOUR OWN PC.

Why would you still want to build your
own PC today?
There are a proliferation of desktop
PCs, Laptops, Notebooks, Netbooks,
and Tablet PCs on offer that not only
give great performance but also come
packaged in various impressive styles,
formats and sizes to suit the vast
majority of PC owners’ wants and
needs.
Today’s PC is without a doubt a very
‘Personal Computer’! There are
computers aimed at gaming, video
and photo editing, quiet PCs, Media
Center PCs, PCs with remotes. Why
would you even consider building
your own PC!
Not only that but the media are telling
us that Laptops, Netbooks, Notebooks
and Tablet PCs are taking over and the
desktop PC is on its way out….. but is
that really the case?
Well sure, today’s choice of ready-built
off-the-shelf PCs is truly fantastic. But,
great leaps and bounds have also
been made in the PC components
market too. After all, that’s how we
have such a vast selection of ready
built PCs on offer!
Component wise there are so, SO
many really impressive pieces of kit
out there for any budget and I still
firmly believe it makes perfect sense to
spend a little time designing the
perfect custom built PC to suit your
needs and then creating this beauty
with your own fair hands.
Hey buddy, why would I want to do
this with all that’s on offer straight off
the shelf? Heck, I can pop down to my
local store, select, purchase, take it
home and be up and running in no
time at all!
Well, yes that’s true, but in the long
term, I still believe there are many
valid reasons to build your own
computer.
So why do I believe this? Why should
you go to all the effort and hassle of
building your own computer?
Well, quite simply, you will get exactly
what you want for how much you
want and you will end up with a PC
that is tailored precisely to your own
personal requirements and budget
that you will be able to upgrade when
you want in the future.
Manufacturers of retail PCs can force
component suppliers to ridiculously
low margins meaning that they have
to save on quality to satisfy the
consumer’s demands for cheaper and
cheaper systems.
Yes, there are people out there who
will do all of this for you for a small
price. But, if you do this all yourself
you will end up with a PC that you
personally know inside out, will be
able to fault find and repair yourself
should the need arise, have individual
guarantees for each and every
component that makes up your PC
and know what parts to change when
you next want to upgrade.
Personally, I have two desktop PCs on
the go at any one time, one for
current use and the other in the
background for swapping over with
after completing a new build or
upgrade thereby never losing the use
of my main PC.
I have only ever bought one ‘off the
shelf’ desktop PC, the rest have all
been built myself – once you’ve done
this for yourself you will get such a
kick out of it you will never want to go
back to purchasing a ready made
system – believe me!
A lot of people are switching over to
laptops for their main PC and there is
no denying that they are very handy –
I have a couple myself which I
regularly use for on the move,
business or casual computing.
However, you cannot beat a good
quality desktop PC setup for getting
down to some serious work or
gaming. Nice comfortable desk and
chair, large desktop mounted monitor
adjusted with the top of the screen
level with your eyes, ergonomic or
gaming keyboard, responsive mouse,
awesome graphics cards, fast hard
drives and always up to date
performance wise – heaven!
And how quickly does that nice shiny
new laptop become outdated and no
longer suit your needs?
There are no real options for
upgrading one of these beyond
memory and drives… and if you are a
serious user you’re going to want to
upgrade on a regular basis.
There are lots of online resources for
helping you build your own computer
so you will not be on your own when
it comes to anything you are not sure
about – so don’t be afraid… give it a
go why don’t you!
So let’s look at the Top 5 reasons for
building your own computer shall
we…..
1. Future Proofing
Selecting a quality case and power
supply are key elements of a future
proof PC. Many off the shelf retail PCs
will, especially in the case of the
power supply, use lower quality
components that are not likely to have
anywhere near the lifespan of a
quality unit. Plus, the power supply
ratings of many are dubious to say
the least.
With a quality case and high power
rating quality power supply you are all
set for a future upgrades without
needing to replace these long lasting
components which you should find
will last you for a good 7+ years. The
author has many PCs built like this
with quality power supplies and has
never experienced a failure and a
couple of these are now close to or
beyond 10 years old!
A quality case will also be much more
flexible than the typical type that retail
PCs use even though I must admit
some of the retail cases are
exceptionally aesthetically pleasing to
the eye.
Typically, though, there is little room
for adding another graphics card or
upgrading the present card with a
high end extended height / length
GPU.
2. Motherboard
Retail PCs tend to use low end
motherboards tailored specifically for
the high volume retail PC vendor and
are generally less easy to upgrade,
have poor support and are difficult to
locate drivers for etc., although the
processor should be fine as a quality
AMD or Intel part will still be fitted
whatever the motherboard make.
Even good ‘Named Brand’
motherboards destined for retail PCs
will tend to be tailored for high
volume and made to a price and
specifically tailored for the retail PC
manufacturers.
Also the BIOS can be very limited on
pre-built machines and you may well
be locked out of many functions such
as overclocking etc.
3. Bloatware
A particular hate for many of us is the
pre-installed bloatware that seems to
come with every retail PC and is
generally a pain.
A clean fresh install of Windows 7
from your own installation disk will
give you a much nicer computing
experience, no unwanted advertising
software and adware
Also, increasingly, there is no system
disk supplied – the installation
software complete with all of the
advertising and bloatware is stored on
a hard drive partition and should you
need to carry out a repair or reinstall
it will just load all of this rubbish back
on.
It has got to be much better to install
your own and have a proper backup
disk and no adware.
4. Warranty and Support
This is generally a very painful drawn
out process if you should happen to
suffer a problem with long extended
phone calls trying to obtain support –
at least if you purchase your own
component parts they will all come
with their own warranties and you will
be able to swap out or replace them
yourself with no hanging around
waiting for support at the whim of
your supplier.
And, if you want to upgrade at any
time there are no problems with the
guarantee not being honored
because you have been inside your PC
invalidating the warranty!
5. Your Own Creation
The best reason of all has to be that
it’s all been put together with your
own fair hands
Boy does that feel good eh!
The sheer pleasure and satisfaction it
brings on successfully completing
your first build
You will come to know all about the
inner workings of your PC and you will
have chosen the components and
how your PC looks and it will all be
exactly to your very own specification.
In Conclusion
Upgrading is far easier generally with
a PC you have built yourself as you will
have created it with a future upgrade
in mind and will not be frustrated by
graphics cards that won’t fit in the
space available, power supplies that
haven’t got the required connector
type or output power capability or
RAM that simply won’t work in the
retail manufacturers motherboard as
you can’t identify what the heck it is!
You will be able to choose quality
hand picked components, not parts
made to a price.
Also you will have the ability to choose
your monitor and get a quality screen
rather than a monitor made for the
masses.
If your computer breaks down you
will now be aware of what goes on
inside and with a little online research
and help should be up and running
again in no time at all.
You won’t save money purely down to
economies of scale – the retail
manufacturer buys in high volume
and can purchase at much better
prices than you can but you will still
be able to build yourself a much
higher quality PC for the same price.
By spending time researching the
components required to build your
own computer you will gain an
understanding of how your PC works,
how it does what it does and how to
fix it if it should go wrong.
You can configure your machine in
ways that will not be available on
retail PCs such as maybe using a solid
state hard disk drive for your
operating system and a large
mechanical hard disc drive for storing
all of your data etc.

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THE CUTTING EDGE OF TECHNOLOGY.

Safaricom is seeking to boost its
income from data business by training
engineering students on latest
technology in the sector in
partnership with Chinese
telecommunications equipment
manufacturer, Huawei.
The two firms will collaborate with the
University of Nairobi, Moi University
and Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture and Technology to review
their curriculum to match market
demands.
The three-year deal is expected to
benefit students and lecturers from
the institutions by training them at
Huawei’s facility on Mombasa road in
Nairobi. “African education system
has been criticised in the past for
being too outdated in that there are
gaps between what is learned in class
and what the industry needs to catch
up with the rest of the world” said, Li
Dafeng the Huawei President for
Eastern and Southern Africa.
Safaricom is expected to offer hands
on job training on latest GSM
technologies and provide market for
local mobile software applications
developed by the students as part of
the deal.
Safaricom will market the mobile
software applications through its
portal Safaricom Live and share the
revenue on an agreed ratio.
“We, recognise that Safaricom can’t
remain static as a provider of pure
connectivity; a seller of the dumb pipe.
We have to move up the data value
chain and we shall be coming to you,
the universities, to map out areas we
can further our partnership, especially
in E-learning and E-health,” said Mr
Nzioka Waita, Safaricom director of
corporate affairs.
The local mobile software application
industry is at its nascent stage of
development but has attracted more
than 3,000 developers stationed at
Ihub and M-Lab, an information
technology incubation centre on
Ngong Road, Nairobi. Globally the
mobile application download
currently dominated by Google’s
Android and Apple is valued at more
than $15 billion. It is this market that
technology firms are eyeing.
The Information PS Bitange Ndemo
said such partnerships should be
encouraged. “Technology changes
every day and for students to remain
relevant in the job market or in their
own entrepreneurial endeavours they
require modern training facilities,” said
Dr Ndemo.

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