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Mobile apps

Weekly recap: 10 business apps for the iPhone, roadblocks to cloud computing, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on the roadblocks to cloud computing, the best iPhone business apps, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Lessons from a big iPad Enterprise Adopter
Is your company thinking about adopting tablets? If so, here’s an article you’ll want to read. It’s an interview with the manager of mobility at one of the biggest corporate iPad adopters in the world. Find out what he learned in the process, as well as why their company has switched their focus from native apps to mobile web apps. …

Weekly recap: 10 business apps for the iPhone, roadblocks to cloud computing, and more…Read More »

What do your web apps look like on a smartphone?

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EducationWith smartphone adoption rates setting records, it’s time that you asked yourself one question: What do our web apps or web sites look like on a smartphone? After all, the probability that your users will access your apps/site on a mobile device is growing daily.

Now, the best way to address the growing mobile trend: Create intelligent web apps that automatically adapt to each device. But, while that may be the best option, what if your company doesn’t want (or isn’t ready) to create mobile apps yet? Can you just ignore mobile users? Of course not. At the very least, you must ensure that your web apps aren’t completely unusable on a smartphone.

Why is that important? Because some common web design elements don’t translate over to mobile, and will negatively impact usability for smartphone users. What are they? While I’m sure there are more, here are 4 common web design elements that will cause problems for smartphone users: …

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Yes, you can use GPS with mobile web apps (with proof)

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EducationThere’s a lot of misinformation being spread about mobile apps. Just last week, I read yet another article from yet another mobile app “expert” that made me cringe. The article falsely claimed that native apps are necessary if you want to use the phone’s hardware sensors, like the GPS.

Okay. Let me set the record straight: No, they’re not!

Native apps are not required to use the phone’s GPS, and that’s just the beginning. Mobile web apps can actually access almost every hardware sensor that a native app can access. If you’d like to learn which sensors a mobile web app can access, read this article.

So, how can you access the GPS using a mobile web app? It’s simple, and we have two short tutorials and a demo to prove it. …

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7 reasons why mobile web apps are better for business than native apps

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EducationIf your business is planning to build native mobile apps, ask yourself this question: Are you building native mobile apps because you need to, or because you think you have to? While native apps are popular with consumers, they’re quite impractical for most businesses.

To understand why, let’s first look at why native apps are popular with consumers. Native apps do a couple of things very well: They deliver highly graphical interfaces and they’re easy to find and download. While these are important factors for consumers, are they really important to your business?

For most businesses, the answer is a resounding “No”. Unless your business needs highly graphical applications, mobile web apps simply make more business sense. How so? Here are 7 reasons why mobile web apps make more sense from a business standpoint: …

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Hybrid vs. Native vs. Mobile web comparison chart

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EducationNative, mobile web, or hybrid? For companies considering mobile apps, that is the million dollar question. Which direction do you take?

The answer: It depends. There’s no single correct answer that applies to every situation. Each option (mobile web apps, hybrid apps, and native apps) has its own advantages. The right path for your company depends on a variety of factors, such as: What are you trying to accomplish with your app? When do you need it? Which skills do you have in-house?

Here are a couple of options to help you figure out which path is best: First, you can check out this white paper that takes an in-depth look at the topic. Secondly, we’ve put together the following comparison chart for each mobile development method. It compares the main differences, advantages, and disadvantages of each. …

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How to upload photos from a mobile web app

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EducationHere’s a question for you: Suppose your company needs a mobile app that lets users upload photos from their current location. Does this job require the more difficult native approach, or will a simpler mobile web app meet your needs?

If you read the “6 ‘native’ features you can use with mobile web apps” article, you already know the answer. While file uploading sounds like a native-only feature, it’s actually very simple with mobile web apps. Today, I’m going to show you how. …

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How to use GPS in your mobile web apps

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EducationHere’s something you may not know: Did you realize that mobile web apps and native apps are nearly equal in terms of capabilities? It’s true. As you learned in this article from a few weeks back, mobile web apps are much more powerful than most people think.

As promised in that article, I’m going to go through some of those “native” features and explain how to use them in your mobile web apps. Today, let’s take a closer look at the first feature on the list: GPS. Specifically, I’m going to show you how to use GPS in your mobile web apps, and also give you a few ideas on ways to use it.

Ready? Let’s get started… …

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6 “native” features you can use with mobile web apps

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EducationWhat’s the difference between a native app and a mobile web app? Let’s start with the basics. A native app is downloaded and installed on the device, while a mobile web app is accessed through the device’s browser. Native apps must be built separately for each platform, while one mobile web app works on every platform.

Following me so far? Now, let’s get into the confusing stuff.

What can a native app do that a mobile web app cannot do? This is where a lot of businesses seem confused. Many believe that mobile web apps are nothing more than a web page running inside of a mobile browser. They believe that native apps are the only way to fully take advantage of the mobile device’s hardware.

The truth is, mobile web apps are capable of much more than most people think.  What can mobile web apps actually do? I’ve created a list of 6 “native” capabilities that many businesses don’t realize are possible with mobile web apps.  Over the next couple of months, I’d like to write up posts covering each point in more detail, with examples and tutorials on how you can add these capabilities to your mobile web apps.  Sound good?  To start things off, let me first share the 6 “native” features that you may not realize you can use with mobile web apps: …

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Build a web (and mobile) app in 30 minutes without programming

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ProductivityIf your company plans on building mobile apps this coming year, or if you just wish there was a faster way to develop enterprise web applications, you should really try the newly revamped m-Power Trial.

The m-Power Trial was recently updated, and now also lets you build a mobile web app. In roughly 30 minutes, you will create an enterprise web app, along with tablet and smartphone versions of that web app. The best part: Everything is done without programming!

You can try it here: m-Power Trial