Attention All Android Mobile Developers!! Enter the Rackspace Google Glass Developer Contest to Win $10K

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Rackpace's Robert Scoble desires for a top Google glass developer to walk away with $10,000 bucks!




The contest, promoted by uber blogger and social media wizard Robert Scoble, takes place at TechCrunch Disrupt (Sept. 11, San Francisco).

According to the contest description:

"Six semi-finalists will be selected to demo their app or device in front of Robert Scoble and a group of judges at TechCrunch Disrupt! To apply, you must provide both a written description and video of your wearable computing application or device.

Semi-finalist will be announced and notified on September 5, 2013 and displayed on www.rackspacestartups.com. The demonstration in front of Robert Scoble and the judges will be on September 11, 2013 and live streamed in the Rackspace booth at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. Contestants are responsible for their own travel to and from the event."

Whoops. Looks like The VAR Guy won't have an app together in time for that Sept. 5 semi-finalist round. Instead, our resident blogger is wondering why Rackspace -- the CSP and OpenStack advocate -- is dabbling in this Google Glass contest.

The simple answer: Publicity. But look beyond that folks. The VAR Guy is convinced that Google Glass will become a popular tool for remote IT support. Once the wearable device is widely available, you can imagine Rackspace hybrid cloud support experts tapping into remote Google Glass systems to "see" what's going on in a distant data center.

Surely, the potential applications don't end there. And that's precisely why Rackspace put aside $10K for this developer contest.

http://thevarguy.com/business-smartphone-and-tablet-technology-solutions/google-glass-developer-contest-10k-rackspace

                                                        Live Demo of Google IO

Mobile Developers Will Have a Smile on Their Face With the New Service From AMAZON

pcworld

Amazon web services is now offering mobile developers cross-platform push notifications. Why would developers benefit from this service?

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Amazon pitches Simple Notification Service with Mobile Push as an easier way for developers to add notifications than previously has been possible. Using one API, developers can send notifications to iOS and Android-based devices, including Amazon's own Kindle Fire tablets.

Previously, adding push notifications at a large scale on multiple platforms has been complicated for developers, according to Amazon. That's because each smartphone OS has a different service that delivers notifications. So to support multiple mobile platforms, developers must integrate with each platform, which introduces operational complexity and cost, Amazon said.

Mobile Push is compatible with Amazon's own Device Messaging platform as well as Apple's Push Notification Service and Cloud Messaging from Google. Notification messages sent to a mobile endpoint can appear as message alerts, badge updates, or even sound alerts.

The service can send messages to individual users on specific devices or broadcast identical messages to many subscribers at once. For developers who find themselves with a hit app on their hands, it can scale from a few notifications a day to hundreds of millions, according to Amazon.

Developers can send up to 1 million notifications each month for free. After that, customers pay 50 cents for every million messages published, and 50 cents for every million messages delivered.

 

Mobile Push is built into the existing Simple Notification Service, which is still labelled as a beta and already lets developers send notifications to their users via SMS text message and email.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241598/Amazon_offers_mobile_developers_cross_platform_push_notifications

Great Tips on Producing a Mobile -Friendly Website

Businesses need to realize that a mobile friendly website is a must to promote their products or services. The trend to mobile devices for consumer usage is high. Web developers need to be ready to update existing website to be mobile friendly. Mobdev has some very helpful tips for developers in this process.



1) Make sure mobile users are automatically redirected to the mobile version of your website.

2) Choose the foremost information to include: direct means of communication (e.g. phone numbers, click-to-call function, online booking); main information about services; locations on a map. Longer bios and other texts of secondary importance should be left solely for a desktop website. Include only the things your visitors are most likely to look for.

3) Remember that the user must access the needed pages as quickly as possible, with minimum actions. That's why the fewer pages stand between the user and the action he/she wants to accomplish, the better. To navigate through the website, the buttons should have enough space to prevent users from tapping the wrong button, or trying to hit a minuscule button to make it work.

4) While reducing the number of pages, avoid placing too much information per page. This will inevitably make navigation aggravating, which is by no means acceptable. Make sure that the design allows users to tap and swipe around your website easily. You should also avoid excessive number of images, avoid popups and Flash.

5) Avoid too much text input for users. Typing too much is not a very convenient option on a smartphone.

6) Essentially include the branding elements of your desktop site (e.g. logo, design style or colors) into the mobile website. It may seem a natural decision, but one must think how to do it in the best way to make the mobile site as recognizable as the desktop one.

7) Keep in sight a link to the desktop website. Many visitors may want to proceed there for the information that is left out in the mobile version.

8) Check how your website works on a number of mobile devices: smartphones and tablets running various platforms. Screen size is a crucial issue in any branch of mobile development.

http://www.pr.com/press-release/479670