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iPhone SDK

In March of 2008, Apple released an SDK, or Software Development Kit, that allows independent software developers to design applications for the iPhone, write the programs and test the software to see if they will work properly on the iPhone.

IPhone owners can find all kinds of applications at the Apple App store. If you’re a developer, you can post your application for free or for a fee, depending on what you’ve put into it and what you want to get out of it.

It costs $99 to download the Standard SDK and $299 for the Enterprise version, or you can ask a company  like Webdatamation to create an iPhone app for you.

SDK provides an environment for development tools that is similar to other Apple environments. Developers will find the source editor and graphical debugger look familiar and are intuitive to use.

Apple also provides an iPhone Simulator with SDK that allows a developer to run an app on the simulator, see how it would act in an actual iPhone environment, and then debug the app locally with the iPhone simulation.

In order to facilitate optimization, use the development instruments to collect and compare data. The instrument panel allows you to display the data graphically and in real time, making optimization easy.

Other development tools for SDK users include a drag and drop interface builder, an iPhone reference library, and a coding how-to reference that gives you examples of code you can add to your app to make it more functional, or simply serve as examples of ways you can develop your own.

Look for the videos and documents that cover all kinds of topics, and join the developer’s forum to get questions answered and to answer questions from other iphone developers.

If you want to create iPhone apps to promote your business, Apple’s SDK is your method of reaching the tech-savvy group of customers who own Apple iPhones by developing apps for the iPhone.

Android Development to Build Your Company

Android is a new, open platform environment for use on all kinds of mobile devices. It is an alternative to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile proprietary operating system.

The Android system is the result of an open collaboration between Google, T-Mobile, Intel, and other industry leaders all bent on offering mobile device users the best, fastest, and most innovative mobile experience available.

Because of its open nature, there is a great deal of cooperation and open communication between developers, leading to an enhanced user experience for anyone with a G1 mobile device.

Android allows developers and manufacturers to ship out innovative new features faster and cheaper than ever before, and it opens up a huge development market for creative developers to provide customized quality solutions.

Most mobile phone providers have android-based phones, and the number of applications for Android phones is growing. The system is running on more and more phones, and will continue to grow in popularity as more applications are developed for the platform.

The open source philosophy is a real appeal of this phone to many people, including developers at Webdatamation.

Webdatamation’s offering in the Android development front is FileDroid – the best overall file manager for your Android powered phone.

FileDroid fills a void in the Android market. File management in the native Android environment is cumbersome and a bit sloppy. FileDroid is the best value in correcting that problem with Android’s file management, with it’s small application size and multiple features.

Development is ongoing, and more features are being added constantly. It’s garnered great reviews so far, and will only continue to improve.

Android development is a great way to get your business’s name out in the public sphere for communication. Product development, such as developing applications for Android, can build a buzz for your business and give you some new ways to promote yourself online.

If you have a great idea for an Android Application but lack the time and expertise to develop it, contact us. We can develop an application for Android and quickly put it to use for your business.

Data Centers configured to take a “nap”!

The modern work culture now allows its employees to take a “power nap” in between stressed out work shifts. Servers now have an equal demand! Researchers from the University of Michigan have declared a new mechanism by which power-hungry computer data centers can save up to 75% energy by putting these servers to sleep, when not in use.

Thomas Wenisch spearheaded this research, who also happens to be assistant professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His team performed an analysis on the power consumption and data center workloads. They used mathematical modeling techniques to optimize their findings. Their proposed technology would include “PowerNap” that conserves energy by eliminates almost all power used by servers that are idle and RAILS (Redundant Array for Inexpensive Load Sharing).

Most of the energy wasted by these servers is because of the enormous amounts of energy they draw while they are configured to meet peak processing requirements on demand. This is much higher compared to the normal demand. However, such servers when remain idle cause considerable energy losses together with loss in power delivery. In addition to this, their cooling mechanisms too, increase power consumption two-three fold.

The researchers made a quite interesting observation that typically, industrial data centers are utilized 20-30% on the average. This means, almost one fifths of their time is spent doing nothing. What is more surprising is the fact that they still consume at least 60% of the power while the are idle! Aw! Now that’s got to burn a hole in your pocket!

Just like ordinary laptops, Wenisch and his team has come up with this idea of applying the same underlying technology to hefty data centers. Techniques such as voltage scaling and dynamic frequency comparatively, do not help to conserve power by larger factors and are hence, not as efficient. However, the “sleep and wake up” process has to be fast enough so that there isn’t any considerable delay in between servicing requests and placing unique demands on them. These servers typically exhibit recurrent and concise bursts of activity so this posed a challenge for the team.

Wenisch has made a point in a podcast that the carbon footprint of Czech Republic is as high as tat of all the world’s data centers! Therefore, he claims that “PowerNap” is all set to bring about the necessary savings in power consumption. However, in order to continuously co ordinate the sleeping and waking, “PowerNap” would require a new operating system designed for its specific purpose.

Ready for a Nap there Mr. Server?…oops…for you, we now have “PowerNap”!

Comparing Umbraco and DotNetNuke

So if you are going for an open source Content Management System (CMS), which should you choose: DotNetNuke (DNN) or Umbraco.

Both have the advantage of being open source programs, which means they are constantly updated and improved. There are many plugins and applications created by a core of invested users, increasing functionality and removing bugs with regularity.

Still, there are plenty of differences, as anyone who has used both systems will note.

Here are some things to consider about Umbraco:

  • It can be edited in Microsoft Word, making for easy editing for most users.
  • There are OSS or commercial install options
  • A high-quality, highly functional CMS
  • Install gives you a blank page – no template, not much of anything else – This means plenty of freedom and flexibility – freedom to succeed or freedom to fail. Success of a site is entirely up to a developer, meaning you must have a highly qualified and creative developer who also knows legal compliance and standards compliance.
  • Umbraco has high requirements for hosting, so it is difficult to find a “shared” hosting environment that will support it
  • Still working on good ecommerce solutions
  • Version 4 has better support for Safari and Firefox
  • There are good plugins available, and a management system built into Umbraco

By contrast, here are some items to consider about DotNetNuke:

Has a proprietary feel, despite being open source

  • Dot NET developers like it, those who are not dot NET developers have trouble with it
  • Based on Microsoft’s ASP.NET, which is the most popular web technology currently
  • Cheap to use and reduces total development costs – no ongoing licensing fees
  • Full access to source code so it can be altered to fit individual organizations
  • Can manage text, image, documents, links, events, news, banner ads and threaded info
  • Supports multiple websites
  • Installs easily
  • Can manage site hosting, content, security, web design and membership in one program
  • Multi-language ability
  • Fully extensible and scalable
  • User friendly interface and intuitve site wizards, help icons and interface for those familiar with Dot NET
  • DNN has a large user base (125,000 registered users) and a core programming team dedicated to the system, so it is a large community. There are also an increasing number of third party developers of plug-ins, etc. for DNN

Which open-source hosting program is right for you? It depends on your abilities, wants and business model. Either way you go, using an open source CMS might be the way for you to save money and still have a strong, attractive site.

Social Networking-The journey from toys to tools

“Follow me on Twitter!”

“I’ll add you on Facebook!”

“Hey, we are Orkut friends!”

“I’ll subscribe to your RSS feed right away!”

You will agree, these are some of the most touted phrases that we use when we “network”. However, this is not the way the journey had begun. The transformation from toys to tools was a revolution that brought out a whole new “Social Economy” in “Social Networks”.

Emotions have been replaced by emoticons, expressions have given way to smileys and the English Language has seen drastic reforms in the present era. Yes, we are using a super condensed and more “expressive” way of communication, thanks to social networking.

Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and many others took birth in the World Wide Web and primarily made their presence felt as networking toys. Little did we realize then, about the enormous networking capabilities they had. Soon, along with inviting our near ones to hang out at a party, we were “inviting” them to our online profiles on these websites. There were friends, friends of friends; can I say an online “big bang”?

Yes, the concept might be surreal, but the sheer fascination and excitement to be a part of this revolution paved way for the dynamics of theses toys to mutate into tools. It would be quite difficult to point out the exact period when this transformation took place, but you knew it was there when you were networking more online rather than calling up or e-mailing the same people. Your business cards and identities changed during this era and now included information of your online profiles or networks.

“Human networks” is the word of the hour. We have been consistent in synthesizing our conversations through these digitally woven, close environments, with a wide array of inbound and outbound hyperlinks dominating our online presence. We are scheduling meetings, hanging out, having conversations, sharing interests, making a social statement in a world of our own. All these worlds come together in the digital universe. The good news is, we are getting addicted to it every day and striving to reach its epitome.

“To err is human…” What is human? Is it an online Avatar or the one who sits behind it and controls its actions? Are our online counterparts facing an identity crisis?

The principles associated with this new social economy have brought about the tools in toys and I am now a part of it. The trick of the trade is to propel your identity towards the proper direction and your intended audience.

Welcome to the world of social networking once again…have you noticed the change?