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MOBUG 2014 | The Soho Hotel, London | March 24 

 "All things mobile" conference                                                           Register online at www.mobug.org

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Aviate Alpha for Android

Published on 10-10-2013 08:00 AM by acurrie

One of the things that makes Android very different from iOS is the availability of home screen widgets. From what I've seen iOS is largely modal -- that is, designed to keep you focused on one thing at any given time. Android widgets, on the other hand, allow you see data from multiple apps at once. It's a lot like GNOME vs. KDE on desktop Linux. Anyone? No? Fine... Aviate Alpha for Android is a launcher that takes the idea of widgets to the next level, updating your home screen with relevant information depending on the time of day, your location and what it thinks you're doing. It's an ambitious idea; let's see if it works... Aviate has four screens; this is the main one. You can choose a light or dark theme, add a photo from your gallery -- or, if you'd rather, a more traditional widget -- and 10 shortcuts to your most often-used apps. Swipe to the right and you'll see some more of your apps, organized into collections. It's important to note that this is already done for you when you first launch Aviate, and the categorization is impressively accurate. Oh, and if you don't like where something is you can easily move and/or delete it. At the bottom of that screen is a button that will take you here, showing all of Aviate's available collections. You can choose to show or hide any or all of them. Swipe to the right once more and you'll see all of your apps, organized from A-Z. That strip down the right side of the screen enables you to jump directly to apps that start with any particular letter of the alphabet. This in itself is really handy. Now we get to the contextual stuff... When you swipe to the left from the main screen you'll see something called "Spaces". Tap on any of the first four icons and the header of your main screen will change. The other two options are to help you ascertain your location. There's some fairly deep integration with Foursquare and other location-based services here, but it could be better -- I was indeed near a place called Manpuku when I grabbed this screen but closer, in fact, to other venues where I've checked in more often. We'll now cut back to earlier that morning to see what can happen to the header on Aviate's main screen. It's actually a drop-down menu that, in this case, shows an upcoming appointment along with even more shortcuts to apps I might want to use at this specific time of day. Like any other shortcuts they can be edited and/or deleted as you see fit. Aviate will even go so far as to suggest apps relevant to the "space" that you're currently in. Clicking on the addbutton above will take you directly to the appropriate listing in the Google Play Store. I've been using Aviate for a week now and it's a keeper. The location-based features need a bit of work but are certainly usable in their current form. Even without them Aviate is a good-looking, intuitive launcher that doesn't seem to affect battery life in any negligible way. Though available on the Play Store Aviate is currently in a closed beta, so you'll need to register here and wait for an activation code. It's worth it.

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Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch review

From The Verge:

The Gear’s camera and phone calls are both surprising and delightful, but they’re unfortunately isolated highlights. When all is said and done, I expect the Galaxy Gear will be looked back upon as a rough first draft that helped the Korean chaebol steer a better course en route to the goal of producing a real smartwatch.

Read the full review by clicking on the source link.

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Will it Blend? iPhone 5s and 5c

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Samsung announces the Galaxy Round, a smartphone with a curved OLED display

Samsung has taken the wrapper off its rumored smartphone with a curved OLED display. The Galaxy Round, which will launch on SK Telecom in South Korea, has a 5.7-inch 1080p screen the same size as seen on the company’s Galaxy Note 3, but there’s a difference — it curves on the vertical axis in a similar fashion to some of Samsung’s OLED TVs. 

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Apparently the ad is cooler than the watch itself.

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Finger in the air question for Blackberry customers/consultants

via Paul Mooney

I am currently moving to Proof of Concept on a customer that wants BES10 service for new devices.

One customer.  That’s it.   I remember the days of doing 2 BES installations a week (from 2.2 to 4.x) many years ago.  Lots of MDM/Traveler installations.  Gartner’s recent recommendation to find an exit strategy for Blackberry Enterprise houses has not helped the abandonment.  As opposed to media suggestions I wanted to ask constants and specialists and try to get an idea on takeup.  What are your plans for BES on your (or your customer’s) site.

Go to Paul's blog

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MOBUG 2014 Conference is now OPEN FOR REGISTRATION

MOBUG 2014  |  March 24 |  London 

MOBUG is a new conference with new ideas and we believe a new approach to content.  We want to bring you speakers who have wide ranging strategic or technical ideas yes but we also want to connect you with other’s who want to talk mobile and present some of the best solutions available.  

Find out more

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Toshiba introduces five new business laptops, introducing its first mobile workstation

With consumer laptops taking a hit from the popularity of tablets, Toshiba may have made a wise decision to turn its attention to business notebooks.

On Monday, the company has announced five new portables designed to appeal to enterprise buyers, including its first mobile workstation.

The Tecra W50 (shown above) joins other new mobile workstations like the HP ZBook 14 and 15 and the Dell Precision M3800. However, it's not an ultrabook, like the ZBook 14, or offering a super-high-resolution display option, like the ZBook 15 and Precision M3800. It does include an Intel Haswell Core i7 processor, Nvidia Quadro graphics, and color-calibrated 1,920 x 1,080 15.6-inch screen.

It's also fairly portable, weighing in at under six pounds, and won't totally break the bank at its starting price of $1,999 when it becomes available on October 18.

If you want a business-class Ultrabook, the 13.3-inch Portégé Z30 tips the scales at a mere 2.6 pounds, while being just 0.7 inches thick. It uses Haswell ultra-low-voltage processors and comes with either a 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive. It likewise will go on sale on the 18th, with a starting price of $1,279.

Though it doesn't qualify as an Ultrabook, the Portege R30 sure resembles one: one-inch thin, 3.2 pounds, magnesium alloy chassis. But the R30 uses full-voltage Haswell processors and comes with an increasing rarity in PCs: an optical drive. It can also handle up to 16GB of RAM and either a 750GB hard drive or 512GB solid-state drive.

The R30 is due next month, but Toshiba has not yet disclosed pricing for the laptop.

Finally, Toshiba has added the mainstream 14-inch Tecra Z40 and 15.6-inch Z50 to its lineup. Like the R30 (and Z30), they are crafted from magnesium alloy and make use of AirFlow II cooling technology. And like the Z30, they make use of Haswell ultra-low-voltage Core i5 and i7 processors, but offer hard drive options along with solid-state storage.

They can be equipped with optional Nvidia GeForce 730M graphics, yet remain fairly light at 3.2 pounds (Z40) and 3.9 pounds (Z50), respectively. Both systems have a starting price of $1,229, though the Z40 will be ready to order on October 18 and the Z50 will not be available until November.

via ZD Net

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Bring your own device (BYOD) and the migration of computing from the desktop to the smartphone and tablet has been a boon for business—but it also has introduced a security hole that puts companies at substantial risk.

The security threats introduced by mobility include data loss from devices that are misplaced or stolen, rooted or hacked devices that expose the device and the corporate data on it to malicious code and theft, and a multitude of new vectors for hacking. And, of course, more ways for viruses and malware to enter into the work network.

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Government approves BYOD for public sector staff

The government has issued security approval for public sector organisations to offer bring your own…

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UK Government Approves Windows Phone 8 for BYOD Scheme

Windows Phone has recently passed the FIPS certification. This qualifies Microsoft’s mobile…

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Smartphones! How do I dream about my future mobile device? Will it be a friend for all seasons or a task manager for me when I’m lazy? Will it be a ringmaster of all my crazy apps? Or will it be a jack-of-all-trades? When I first boarded the smartphone journey with a handful of apps […]

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Say what you will about Samsung's large-screen Galaxy Note devices, but the company has reportedly sold 40 million devices in just two years, with about 30 million accounting for the year-old Note II.

According to FocusTaiwan and spotted by SamMobile.com, Samsung reached the...

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Via PMOONEY.NET

Mobug is now OPEN for speakers and attendees

Gab, Ab, Eileen and I have been beavering away on mobug.org.  Already with five sponsors (to be announced in the coming days), a great venue and a plan we are firing ahead for September.  Now we have just opened up the site for full registrations and also session submissions.  Do you want to attend and/or speak at the first Mobility User group conference? Go take a look.  Comments on the site welcome as ever.

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via pmooney.net

The inaugural Mobile User Group event

The mobile market is the fastest growing market in the world.  Just like every other technology, there are different sectors, tools and skills required to integrate mobility to your business.  Be it small scale, mid size, enterprise or government, there are many considerations and masses of information and vendors.  User group events have always been very successful at cutting the hype from the content, the marketing from the reality and the sales from the skills.

On September 9th in London, the first UK Mobile User Group event will run.  A single day covering different tracks in mobility.  All vendors, all technologies welcome.  As with the other user groups we have arranged over the years there will be no cost to attend, as your investment is your time.  Come for a day to find out what you need to know to work with mobility. Be it blackberry, MDM, MAM, device manufacturers and glimpses of what is to come.   This is aimed at technologists and strategists, management and development.  Hopefully it helps everyone.

We are *really* excited about this User Group event.  Spaces will be limited as we are testing the water, so if you want to go, register here.  If you want to sponsor and demonstrate your technology or solution, click here.

March 5, 2013 · Filed under Mobug