One seemingly superficial - but I think important - aspect of apps vs web is the touch UI. The big wow factor for me when the iPhone came out was the way you could shuffle through photos and albums with your finger. Even the other day using the Tweet App for the first time I discovered that you refresh the Tweet stream by drawing down the list and releasing it...the UI then does a little "Hookes law" spring rebound and refreshes. That really tickled my fancy!
After so many years of mouse and keyboard, the tactile newness of the touch interface is a big plus. Regards, Saul On 2 June 2010 03:30, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> wrote: > This relates to our evil empire thread: Tyler White, a designer/programmer > at sfx has built a sophisticated iphone app and tells the tale below. MANY > interesting details about the app development process and the app vs web-app > conversation. > > On the app/web-app front, my main disappointment is yet another failure to > gain a potential cross-platform development environment. It would be nice, > for example, for sfx to be able to have projects include a wide variety of > phones, but if the cost includes customizing the phone apps for each > environment (iphone, android, java mobile (non-smart phones), windows > mobile, ...) we will simply drop back to browser based solutions in general, > and pick-a-platform (likely android) for specific needs not available via > web-apps. > > Java tilted this windmill only to fail, at least in general. AIR, I think, > is the closest to a "rich client" .. i.e. what we used to call desktop apps. > It uses Flash and XML. A mobile version could gain traction on android. > > But how quickly the pendulum swings! I was amused to see that on both my > iphone and ipad the NPR app was built by a third party developer (bottle > rocket, nice name!) who has quickly specialized in taking a web site and > building a custom iphone app for it with many of the advantages Tyler > discusses below. > > -- Owen > > > Begin forwarded message: > > > From: Owen Densmore <[email protected]> > > Date: May 30, 2010 9:01:44 AM MDT > > To: SFx Discuss <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: [sfx: Discuss] Re: Out Now! "The Reading Game" app for > iPhone > > > > Tyler, this is fascinating .. thanks for the detailed response. > > > > This is also important to SFX future projects which will likely include > more than laptops: phones and pads too, along with the whole ambient > arsenal. > > > > One huge challenge is to have a development style that targets different > technologies: iPad/Phone and Android for example .. thus the interest in > PhoneGap. Clearly that approach suffers in quality, as you found out. > > > > So thanks a bunch! This is the first flashlight down a new, unknown > alley and its nice to have a pioneer describe it so clearly. > > > > -- Owen > > > > > > On May 30, 2010, at 1:38 AM, Tyler wrote: > > > >> Thanks Owen, I do have some interesting observations: > >> > >> 1. 75% of the programming occurred over just 3 days of the 6 weeks. > >> > >> 2. Completing the last 3% of the app project took 15% of the total > >> time. > >> > >> 3. Native Obj-C apps work much better than the PhoneGap-type apps, > >> html web apps. Being a web developer before I became an app > >> developer, it was natural for me to investigate PhoneGap and the > >> prospect of creating a full-featured, media rich app using web > >> technologies. The drawbacks became apparent within the first few > >> hours of testing. These type of apps have to run in Mobile Safari (a > >> UIWebView), and although no web navigation bar is necessary, the > >> convenience of using html comes at the high cost of the UIWebView's > >> infrastructure, processing, and memory usage. When I started playing > >> with advanced CSS styling like gradients, transparent PNGs, and > >> Javascript animations, things started to crawl and the experience was > >> choppy - the bane of an iPhone app. I wanted my application to be > >> smooth, with fluid transitions and fades. Most of this cool > >> functionality comes for free with Apples SDK. I wanted it to be > >> lightweight and to run fast. There are Javascript libraries out now > >> that try to mimic the iPhones UI like the navigation controllers > >> (UINavigationController), but they are poor imitations and are just > >> not the same quality as the built-in UI Cocoa elements. Learning Obj- > >> C seemed like my best option. Another reason for learning the native > >> iPhone language may have been that I was accustomed to using PHP and > >> MYSQL to process and store data. Although the iPhone uses mySQL Lite > >> for data storage, the handheld device is not like a webserver (with > >> Apache and extensions) so using PHP/HTML/Javascript/CSS didn't seem > >> appropriate. iPhone uses Core Data to interface with the Lite > >> database. Another reason I went for Obj-C instead of HTML was that I > >> dearly wanted to play with the accelerometer, the microphone, and the > >> multi-touch surface. Touches do not translate very well onto > >> traditional webpages (e.g. no rollovers, etc.). > >> > >> 4. I found that this project, The Reading Game, used most of my > >> programming background, including my web experience. The app is > >> mostly Obj-C, but I do use a web view to play the animated gifs (the > >> rewards) as the iPhone cannot decode animated GIFs for free unless in > >> the browser, the border and shadows on the reward are CSS too. The > >> GIFs were different sizes and my solution was to use CSS to evenly > >> stretch them into a universal DIV. I used string replacement to > >> dynamically change the local html to reflect the specific reward > >> image. > >> > >> 5. The project was fun! I had the an incredible time being > >> constantly amazed at what I was learning how to do. > >> > >> 6. XCode has some amazing debugging tools like Instruments. I was > >> able to track down zombies and leaks. > >> > >> 7. Having a partner to give feedback throughout the process, from > >> concept to creation to deployment to marketing, has been very > >> important. My partner does most of the concept, content, and > >> management. We both do the marketing. We both bring vastly different > >> skill sets to the table and together, we cover quite alot. > >> > >> During the process, I realized how important it was to have someone > >> who is not a programmer, who is not in the top 1 percentile for tech- > >> saaviness, to give feedback. After a few late nights and countless > >> hours of working with code and graphics, my comprehension of the app > >> becomes very different from what other people see. A sort of blind > >> spot in my awareness develops around "my baby" where I don't see the > >> subtle problems or confusions in the interface or flow. It's great to > >> have someone keep the project in check by lending a fresh set of > >> eyes. I would say that my partner, Lissa Reidel, has been the > >> instrumental factor distinguishing the quality of my projects before > >> and after the creation of Legend Apps. > >> > >> 8. The iPad's larger screen and 10 finger detection opens a whole new > >> world of possibilities. It's not an iPhone jumbo, it's an iPad. I > >> hear the 3G is where it's at but I've enjoyed my 1st gen quite a bit. > >> It's battery life, 175 degree viewing angle, it's brightness and > >> portability makes bicycling and hiking with a computation device much > >> easier. > >> > >> 9. We have several more ideas lined up. Lissa wants a reading app > >> geared towards women, I say it should be for everybody, but then it > >> might be to broad. Another idea, which doesn't have a name yet, but > >> is referred to as "Dare," is a constant feed of suggestions that could > >> make you a better you with an element of social networking and > >> realtime search. > >> > >> Another idea is a game, not sure what kind or style yet. > >> > >> Another is a music / painting / relaxing tool. > >> > >> 10. I'm really loving experimenting with these new technologies. I > >> never dreamed of any of this hardware when I was a kid and I had > >> always seen the future as mouse and keyboard. > >> > >> If you have any questions or feedback, please email me. > >> > >> Tyler > >> > >> On May 27, 10:53 am, Owen Densmore <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> Boy, the art work is abs fab! Bast of luck with your new venture. > >>> > >>> It reminded me of a comment made yesterday at wedtech: apps are > becoming hugely popular, eating into browser based webapps. I thought it was > odd until I looked into NPR's and a few others. The experience is far nicer > with apps. > >>> > >>> I'm not entirely sure why. In NPR's case, clearly they were far more > immersive and even small things like not having the browser controls in the > way help a lot on a phone's small screen. > >>> > >>> Any interesting observations or experiences? Did you look at PhoneGap? > >>> > >>> ---- Owen > >>> > >>> I am an iPad, resistance is futile! > >>> > >>> On May 26, 2010, at 10:47 PM, Tyler White <[email protected]> > wrote: > >>> > >>>> Hello Discuss! Please download my new app for the iPhone, "The > Reading Game" -which is also the first app of my new company, Legend Apps. > Learning the Objective-C programming language, XCode, programming the app > and designing the graphics took a total of 6 weeks. I'm glad it's finally > out! Thanks! If you have any questions or feedback, please email me at > [email protected]. > >>> > >>>> http://legendapps.com/get-the-reading-game/ > >>> > >>>> Now onto marketing... :) > >>> > >>>> Tyler > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > -- Saul Caganoff Enterprise IT Architect Mobile: +61 410 430 809 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scaganoff
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