What IT Skills Are in Demand in Order to be Hired by Companies in 2014?

As employees in the IT industry we need to always expand our skills in order to stay competitive. Companies are searching for employees with the following skills in 2014.

It appears that employers are greatly interested in web developers who know open source languages. Also, Java skills, Ruby and Python development backgrounds.

There are demands for platforms in the mobile space for development of mobile applications.

Data analysis is back in demand which includes the standard database developer ,data engineers who structure data with Hadoop and data scientists who can evaluate the information.

Cloud computing is becoming very popular so those skills are needed in IT companies.

Now you can see how important is be trained to meet the continuing requirements in the technology sector and to compete in the job market.                                                                                      http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/535662/hot_it_job_skills_2014_mobile_web_development_big_data/

Interesting Tips From a Seasoned App Developer

A self-taught programmer has been producing apps for over 10 years.  He has been successful writing apps and has shared some tips to help app developers.

Satisfy your own needs

My most popular apps are ones that I’ve developed for myself to satisfy my own needs with devices that excite me. If you want a capability on your device, chances are there are other people thinking the same thing. Having a problem you want to solve for yourself means that you are more committed to it and actually understand it. It’s also a lot more fun.

Take feedback and act on it

Without exception it has been feedback from highly engaged users which has allowed my apps to keep developing over the years, to improve and stay fresh. I respond to most customer emails myself and aim to do so quickly. This seems to have a lasting halo effect as customers recommend my apps to their friends. Many people are surprised and very pleased to get an email from the real developer rather than a support minion.

Keep it simple – but not too simple

You’ll typically get most feedback from the highly technical users who want lots of complicated features and options. These guys are great, they have some killer ideas, but they are not the majority of your users. In order to keep the broader base happy, you need to keep things simple. Palm OS used to talk about ‘the zen of Palm.’ They obsessed about letting users act in as few taps as possible. Apple has embraced this desire for simplicity — though, with Apple, making things beautiful can sometimes get in the way of achieving the goal.

Looks matter

When I started developing, apps were called applications, and we cared more about what they did than how they looked. Times have changed. For your app to be a success, it needs to look good. Spend that bit of extra time (and maybe money, if graphic skills aren’t your thing) to give it a bit of polish.

You can’t predict success

Apps are like pop songs. You write the app, you polish it and you release it. You don’t know whether it will be a hit or flop. That is true even after your first successful app. Most pop bands are one-hit-wonders, and most developers will struggle to follow initial success. I had low expectations for the app that would become my most successful project, and others that I was super-excited about disappeared without a trace. You do your best, release your app, then move on if you need to.

Small is good

I have been accused of lacking ambition, but I like my small, low-risk approach. I don’t have employees, I have never spent more than a few thousand pounds to develop, design, and launch an app. Many developers are working towards a big launch on borrowed money, hiring an expensive team of rock star developers and publicists, hoping and hanging on for that ever elusive venture capital or big tech buy-out. I look at most of those app ideas and wonder why they didn’t just build their app in the evenings, launch it, and see what happens. Most will disappear without a trace, but a good idea that fulfills a need will gradually find a market. And probably has as much chance of hitting it big as any other decent app, with a lot less risk.

 http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/18/insights-from-an-app-developer-veteran-think-simple-low-risk/

Do You Need Advice in Designing a Successful Mobile Friendly Site?

                                              konnecingu.com

If you are a website developer or work with web developers then you know the big talk in the office is responsive sites for mobile devices.  You may need some help in this process and here are some tips that will get you on the right track.

Here are 10 tips that may help you.




1. Be Concise

What is your goal behind designing a mobile website? That is fetching users when they need as quickly as possible, with least possible swipes, taps, and attention required. If you find a screen that can be removed, remove it – there must be nothing extra in a mobile site.


2. Keep it simple as ABC

As a developer, designer, or a website owner, you should not forget that simplicity is an implicit requirement for a mobile-friendly website. To retain the friendliness in your mobile site, you must avoid too much content. Usability aspects of the mobile website also require a simplified method to design, layout, and navigation. It’salways a good idea to keep file size and load times down.

Your visitors will run away if you place too much information on one screen page. You must plan something for the interface and navigation so that any visitor can easily walk through the pages of your site, without any pressure on attention.


3. Practice Responsive Web Design

Checking your website in a few web browsers and launching no longer do the job. You need to follow a well-rounded method and optimize your site for a vast landscape of desktop and mobile browsers.

Utilizing the cutting-edge techniques such as HTML5, CSS3, and web fonts will result in a successful mobile site that can be accessed on any mobile device.

4. Define the Context

You need to define what is necessary in your business that must be first popped up when people visit your site in their mobile devices. You don’t take the same actions on your mobile device as on the desktop when browsing a site; therefore, you have to be careful when choosing features and content for your website.

You need to think from the visitors’ point of view and understand what they’ll look for. It can be a feature of direct communication between you and visitors, such as a click-to-call, a phone number, a feature of online booking, etc. Besides, you should avoid lengthy bios and omit content load on a mobile version.


5. Structuralize the things

If you have a lot of information to be presented your mobile site, organize the things in a digestible way, i.e., a collapsible navigation. A single single-column structure eases the navigation and eliminates the glitches.

6. Keep it short

Typing is often painful in the world of tablets and smartphones. Hence, you shouldn’t allow too much text input for users. Requisites like sign up form should be kept short as more number of fields reduces user satisfaction and interest.

7. Make it interactive

A mobile site has to be interactive, especially when a user takes any action while browsing through the site. For example, a button must change visually when a person clicks, as it indicates that something is in progress.

For example, iPhone turns white-colored link into fully blue when you click on a particular link. This visual feedback is common to most people and you’d be advised to make the most of it.

8. Define your brand

When you are putting all the things into consideration, you shouldn’t forget defining your brand. Make sure your brand is instantly recognizable when you showcase it with logo, colors and style. There’s always a way of wisely using them into the design, without messing up usability.

9. Don’t mess up

Don’t make your mobile site fuzzy, instead keep it clear. You might want to redirect visitors to the full version in case the full information is needed.

10. Ensure Mobile Compatibility

Test your mobile website with various mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones, on various operating systems and screen resolutions. You can also take a help of web-based emulators to test your mobile site.

If you take on all, or even most, of these rules of thumb you’ll make design for mobile quite easier on yourself.

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Read more athttp://www.searchenginejournal.com/10-rules-thumb-design-successful-mobile-friendly-website/68512/#cx9JbzUCTKLyimQ7.99

Awesome Tips for HTML5 Games Development

Tips For HTML5 Developers

 

Consider your audience. Look at the demographic and what devices they’re using. If you have web metrics, use them to determine the core range of devices your visitors are using and target your solution at those devices.
Design your game with your technology in mind. Yes, this should always be the case, but the limitations and fragmentation in HTML5 make it even more pertinent. WebGL will let you make a great 3D first person shooter, but its unlikely to (read: not going to) work on tablet if that’s going to be one of your target platforms.
Become familiar with caniuse.com. It’s a great way to quickly check the support for any HTML5 feature that you would like to use across practically every browser or device.
Get your hands on as many devices as possible, running as many different OS versions as you can. Simulators will help during development, but to get an accurate picture of how your code is performing you have to be running on device. There are some great community-led device testing labs like Open Device Lab that will give you access to a huge range of devices. Otherwise scour places like eBay to find old handsets and add them to your test lab.
Keep abreast of the ever-changing landscape. The HTML5 specification is constantly shifting, as is device support, so you need to keep on top of these developments as they happen. This is especially relevant to areas like sound, where features like the WebAudio API can radically change the capabilities.
Stay agile throughout development. What works today, may not work tomorrow. What isn’t available to you today, may be tomorrow. Allow yourself the flexibility to adapt to these changes as they happen throughout your build.
Think about ways to scale your functionality. A mobile first approach isn’t just for traditional web design. Look at ways that you can create a good experience on mobile and then layer on functionality and effects for other platforms as they permit. Target those devices using user agents or media queries and deliver a tailored experience relative to each.
KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). By all means test the limits and try to push the capabilities, but remember that you’re working with a technology that’s in its infancy, and an overcomplicated or overambitious project is only going to cause you pain down the line.
Consider the lifespan of your content. Capabilities are changing all the time, and your content can become dated very quickly as new features are enabled on devices. If your game is going to be live for a reasonable length of time, allow yourself time to go back and both bug fix and update it.
One last one? Oh yeah. Test on every device you can, as often as you can.

http://www.netmagazine.com/features/10-tips-html5-games-development

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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?

                                                  voxville
                                                          

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