SGEntrepreneurs » Android

65bits #171: HR65

SGEntrepreneurs — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:20:40 +0000

Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape: [1] Facebook event outlines ’simpler’ privacy controls, [2] Quit Facebook Day is May 31, [3] Microsoft’s Robbie Bach and J Allard leaving as part of broader shakeup, [4] Apple overtakes Microsoft as being the largest technology company (For a day), [5] Palm’s Matias Duarte joins Google as User Experience Director for Android, [6] iPad 3G early adopters here soon able to use microSIM cards from local telcos. Do click and check out their latest podcast here. You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly.

65Bits #168: Secret location #462

SGEntrepreneurs — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:59:21 +0000

Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape: [1] Google Editions: Bringing E-Books to Your Browser, [2] Adobe shows off prototype Android tablet running Air and Flash ‘flawlessly’, [3] Apple names iPad UK launch date and [4] Apple sells 1,000,000 iPads in revolution’s first month. Do click and check out their latest podcast here. You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly.

TWIA #26.2: Interviews for Barcamp KL

SGEntrepreneurs — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:38:05 +0000

From the live show in Barcamp KL, our crew continues with our special guest Michael Smith from Yahoo! for the last segment of the event where we interview several interesting people across the technology and media space across Southeast Asia in an array of issues: (1) Colin Charles (@bytebot) from MariaDB on his recent trip on the MYSQL conference in Silicon Valley and the latest developments in IT databases, (2) Kugan (@scamboy) Malaysia Wireless blog – trends on smart phone users in across Southeast Asia and his thoughts on the upcoming 4G and Wimax networks into Asian markets, (3) Preetam Rai (@preetamrai), our Mr Barcamp Asia on all the barcamps happening across the region (Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and soon, Philippines & Indonesia), (4) Nazrul from Hackerspace KL & Code Android Malaysia and discussions on Flash vs HTML5 and how developers are caught in between. We thank Yahoo! for sponsoring the ice creams and Barcamp KL which made this live show happen. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs.

TWIA Episode 20: Don’t leave your baby behind

SGEntrepreneurs — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:52:45 +0000

The TWIA crew is back without Mike Foong tonight. We talked about a few events that rocked Singapore from the glitzy gala dinner for the SCS IT Leader Awards to the Google Analytics Masterclass happening in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. With investors centering in Singapore, we cover the Asian Business Angels Forum and iMatch Conference 2010 (with SGEntrepreneurs’ new event “In Bed with …” series. After that, we get back to the news of the day, with the Google-o-meter shifting to staying, Baidu’s shares dropped, the new iCity in Malaysia and finally the unfortunate incident of a South Korean couple leaving their real baby starve to death while nurturing a virtual one. You can listen to the podcast in SGEntrepreneurs here by going to the post directly.

The Events that rocked this week: The SCS IT Leader Awards & Gala Dinner 2010 (and congrats to BL with his award as Young Professional of the Year), Google Analytics Master Class, Asian Business Angels Forum (ABAF) and iMatch coupled with In Bed with the Right Investor (organized by SGEntrepreneurs).
Google, Baidu and China: With Google and the Chinese government reaching some resolution, we see the unlikely impact for Baidu with drops in their share prices.
i-City readying to nurture technopreneurs: i-City readying to nurture technopreneurs with Plug and Play leading the way in Malaysia. We discuss how Singapore and Malaysia might benefit from the growth in both ecosystems.
Couple Let Their Baby Starve To Death While Nurturing A Virtual Child: We discuss the unfortunate incident which happened in Korea and expressed our thoughts on the whole online gaming addiction.

6th Python User Group Meeting

SGEntrepreneurs — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:30:40 +0000

The Singapore Python Group is organizing the 6th Singapore Python User Group Meeting. The meeting will be held on Thursday, Jan 14, 2010, from 7:30pm – 9:30pm in Room 2.2, SMU, SIS (School of Information Systems). Here are the topics which will be discussed in the coming meeting:

Topic : Web2Py – Python Web Development Framework
Speaker : Anand Vaidya
Synopsis : Web2Py is described as a free and open source full-stack enterprise framework for agile development of fast, secure and portable database-driven web-based applications. Obviously, it is written and programmable in Python and Anand will be taking us on a Web2Py tour. All aboard please!

Topic : Python Scripting on the Android Phone
Speaker : George Loo
Synopsis : The Android Scripting Environment (ASE) brings scripting languages to Android by allowing one to edit and execute scripts and interactive interpreters directly on an Android device. These scripts have access to many of the APIs available to full-fledged Android applications, but with a greatly simplified interfaces. George will be sharing how the ASE Python package helps him write and run scripts directly on his Android phone.

Topic : Google App Engine + Django
Speaker : Calvin Cheng
Synopsis : By now, you should have heard of GAE or the Google App Engine as a platform for developing and hosting web applications in Google-managed data centers. You should also know Django as the high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Calvin will bring both of them together as he shares his experiences in running Django on the Google App Engine, having created his personal GAE + Django blog site.

Title : Lightning Talks
Speaker : Open Invitation to All
Synopsis : All (personal) projects that you have done using Python. If you’ve never given a talk before, lightning talks are a good place to start. You don’t need to make slides, but if you do, you only need to make three.

WaveSecure Wins Google Android Developer Challenge 2

Gwendolyn Regina T — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:10:10 +0000

We are happy to announce that tenCube’s flagship product, WaveSecure is one of the winners in the Google Android Developer Challenge 2! Congrats guys.

Mobile Development Workshop – Android Platform

SGEntrepreneurs — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:00:49 +0000

If you wish to start development on a new mobile platform, or wish to train your staff to learn a particular platform, you can start with the Mobile Development Workshop Series for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile coming this Nov-Dec. Organised by the Mobile Alliance and GetSomeOneElse.com, this 3rd workshop will be on the Android platform.

Workshop Outline

What Is Android – Introduction
Getting started on Android
Basic concepts
Publishing on Android
Tips on speeding up development
Demo app tutorial – location-based service app
with DB and using Google maps

All participants will receive a workshop kit with necessary installation files and example code.

Event Details

Date: Saturday, 5th December 2009
Time: 9am – 1pm
Fees: Non-Mobile Alliance Members – $219 / Mobile Alliance Members – $199 / Students -$149
Location: NUS Extension, Park Mall

Singapore PHP User Group Meetup – Nov 2009

SGEntrepreneurs — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:03:31 +0000

The Singapore PHP User Group will have a meetup on 3 Nov 2009 (Tuesday) from 7:30pm – 9.30 pm in Microsoft Singapore (Address: 22 Floor, One Marina Boulevard, NTUC Centre). The focus of this event will be on mobile-web development focusing on iPhone, Android and PhoneGap. If you are interested in turning up for the event, please RSVP to their event invite via Facebook.

Program for November Meetup

1) Intro to Building Native iPhone Apps
Presenters: Sasmito Adibowo, Basil Salad Software

2) Intro to Building Android Apps
Presenter: Leong Hean Hong, Software Engineer, CBS Singapore
Basic overview of the Android development environment and how you can build PHP web services for Android OS.

3) Mobile Web Apps with PhoneGap
Presenter: Michael Cheng, Philosophy in Programming Society
Building cross mobile platform web apps using the PhoneGap framework.

Sponsor:
Venue: Microsoft Singapore

A Guide for Mobile-Web Developers to Smartphone Apps Stores

Bernard Leong — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:32:11 +0000

With the emergence of the iPhone, new opportunities emerge with the long tail economy for the mobile-web entrepreneurs and developers with respect to the mobile smartphone apps store. While there is a choice for a lot of mobile-web development platforms from Google Android to iPhone OS 3.0, most developers are not sure about the market reach, coverage and how many devices that their apps can reach to. Here is a guide on the 5 most well-known mobile-webs store: Apple iTunes Store, Nokia Ovi Store, Google Android Market, BlackBerry (RIM) Apps World and Microsoft Windows Marketplace.

Apple iTunes Store: For Apple iTunes Store, you only develop on two devices which are similar: iPhone & iPod Touch. Till date, there are 2 billion downloads of apps from the iTunes store, and 25K apps on the store. The APIs for iPhone OS 3.0 allow micro-transactions related activities, for e.g., in a game app, where the gamer can purchase additional virtual gifts or goods and avatars. The revenue model for the sales of the apps is split between the developer (70%) and Apple (30%). Usually, the approval process for international apps takes about 14-21 working days. The SDK is available, and the developer signs on either the standard program (US$99) or the enterprise program (US$299). The maximum reach to the iPhone devices out there is about 30M devices split between 17M iPhones and 13M iPod Touch, and the apps store is available in 77 countries. Do take note that it is important to indicate which country the app should distribute to. For developers, the resources can be found in the Apple Developer Centre. In Singapore, you can join the CocoaHeads Singapore to meet up with other iPhone or Mac OS X developers. The most notable apps produced in SG are: Foyage, BuUuk, PieceHunters and Chordica.
Nokia Ovi Store: The store was launched in June 2009 worldwide. Within 3 months, there are already 10M downloads with both content and apps from the store. To develop apps on the Ovi Store, you have a lot of handsets to tackle, but the most notable one is the Nokia N97. In addition to the Symbian OS 9.4 Series 60 release 5 for the development of the app, the developer has to work with the SDK pertaining to the handset. The revenue model for the developer and Nokia is still 70-30 split except that it is taken from the net refunds after subtracting credit card sales & fixed operator billing depending on the telco operators. Although there is no grassroots developer groups for Ovi Store, there are notable apps that emerge: 2C2P, Cell City and BreakDesign. If you are an incubatee under the iJAM scheme funded by Media Development Authority Singapore and under the Future of Mobile scheme, you can work along with Nokia person in charge of developer relations to fast track the approval of the app in the Ovi Store. The developer fee is 50 Euros and you require to have a registered company. The maximum market size for Nokia smartphone devices is about 50M, and for resources regarding developers, you can check it out here.

Google Android Market: Of course, Google Android is a favourite among the geeks. With a selection of handsets, for e.g. HTC Hero, Lenovo OPhone, LG, Motorola and Samsung Galaxy. Although Google has not released the figures on the amount of downloads in the Android market, the approval process for Android is the shortest among all the apps. The developer needs to pay US$25 for annual developer fee, and the payment model is done via Google Checkout. In any case, the revenue model for the developers to Google is 70-30 split with Google using the 30% to pay the operators and billing settlement costs. For resources on Android development, the developer can go to this site for references. The grassroots group for Android development in Singapore is Code Android Singapore, which organize monthly meetings for android developers. The most notable Android apps in Singapore are BuUuk and Foyage in Singapore.
Blackberry Apps World: Very little is known about the Blackberry Apps World, but we know of the examples for the handsets: BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Curve. The operating system inside the Blackberry phone which is catered mostly for business executives is the BlackBerry OS 4.7. The revenue model is the most enticing with the developer getting 80% per sale. However, the annual developer fee is US$200 and it includes 10 app submissions. The maximum reach for BlackBerry users is 21M subscribers and the payment model which the developer and consumer used to pay is PayPal. For resources, you can go to this site for development of BlackBerry Apps.

Microsoft Windows Marketplace: The last of the five platforms is Windows Mobile, with a maximum market reach of 18M users sold to all handset vendors that runs Windows Mobile as the OS, for example, HTC, LG and Motorola MC Series. The operating system is Windows Mobile, and they can sell applications without going through a store, unlike the Apple and Android. Once the Windows Marketplace is up, developers can ride on it to promote their applications, but the revenue model is the developer getting 70% per sale. The developer needs to pay an annual developer fee of US$99 for listing of the app, and the reach is global all over the world. The mode of payment is via credit card and the resources for developers for Windows Mobile can be found in Microsoft website.

A common strategy chose by good developers and entrepreneurs in this space, is to select one platform first, work on all the kinks and gather feedback from users, then start scaling to other platforms. Foyage and BuUuk are the two examples in the adoption of such strategy. It is important to pick the platform where the competition for the downloads against similar apps is minimal. The highest downloaded paid app in Nokia Ovi Store is Gravity, a twitter client which costs US$7.95 while Twitterific Premium costs about US$2.95 in the iPhone store and has to contend with the other clients such as TweetDeck and Twitter app which goes out for free. Hence pick your battles well if you are planning to enter into this space.

Author’s Note: This post is written in preparation for a part of the talk I am giving for 16th InfoComm & Media Horizons: Quad Play Services – Maximizing Opportunities on this Wednesday in Fusionopolis. You can see the slides and read about it in my blog.

Update and Thanks:
[1] Ziyong from Code Android Singapore updated me via email about the Android Market. Free apps market is available everywhere, on devices that signed licensing fees with Google (to get Android Market app on the device). Paid app market are in 7 countries: Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, UK and US.
[2] Daniel Tsou sent me some additional information, making the distinction between Windows Mobile (which is catered for mobile developers), Windows CE (the operating system) and also the newly launched Windows Marketplace for developers to list their app. Have made some modifications to the Windows Mobile section.
[3] DK, An Update on BlackBerry Apps World: It is now available in Singapore. Some of the apps available in the BlackBerry App World includes Facebook, Flickr and Windows Live Messenger and local apps like iCabSG Dialer and Foyage. (5 Nov 2009)

Featured image courtesy of sharpneil.

WaveSecure Now Available For Android Users

Gwendolyn Regina T — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:57:38 +0000

Now Android users will no longer have to lament the lack of a complete device and data security application for them. Responding to numerous requests from individual users and mobile operators, tenCube, the company behind the award-winning WaveSecure application, has now made the app available for Android users.

As WaveSecure for Android is currently in Beta, it is free for all to use. Users who download the beta during this period will continue to be able to enjoy the application permanently. That is an excellent way to get users on board early. They are also seeking your feedback while using the application!

To download the app, search for ‘wsandroid‘ or ‘wavesecure’ in the Android marketplace. Or alternatively, scan the bar code to the right.