Tag Archives: mobile application development

New Kindle Line to Feature HTML5 & CSS3

Last month, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos announced that the company would be adding four new models to its Kindle fleet – the Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G and the Kindle Fire tablet. The Kindle Fire will be Amazon’s first touch screen color tablet, based on the Android OS. Today, we learn that the Kindle Fire will also have a new format that supports HTML5 and CSS3, Kindle Format 8 (KF8), lending a colorful and vibrant reading experience to the company’s first tablet.

KF8 will soon replaced Mobi 7, the device’s existing format, making Kindle e-books look and read more like an actual, physical book. Amazon’s announcement claims the upgrade “adds over 150 new formatting capabilities, including fixed layouts, nested tables, callouts, sidebars and Scalable Vector Graphics.” Sure, static words on a page do their job, but KF8 will mean improved flexibility and more visually appealing books. The upgrade will improve digital renditions of children’s picture books, comics & graphic novels, technical & engineering books and cookbooks.

The only drawback is that KF8 will not be compatible with older Kindle devices – “Kindle Fire is the first Kindle device to support KF8 — in the coming months we will roll out KF8 to our latest generation Kindle e-ink devices as well as our free Kindle reading apps,” said Amazon in its FAQs. This announcement will only help to drive sales for the latest generation of Kindles, set to be priced at just $79 for the new base model Special Offers version.

The Kindle Fire is $199 and will be released on November 15th, and is currently available for pre-order. Amazon has priced its new Kindle line aggressively, upping the ante in the tablet market. The Fire is a fully-functional media tablet offering free cloud storage services and much more, and at half the price of an iPad, it proves itself as a formidable competitor.

Technological advances continue to revolutionize the tablet market, and we can’t wait to see what’s next for the iPad and the Fire. The Fire will also feature an app store with games and productivity apps. If you are interested in entering the billion-dollar app market, consider enlisting Blue Interactive Agency. Now offering mobile application development, as well as custom software development and other mobile marketing solutions, Blue is always expanding its service offerings. Call today for more information!


f8 to Focus on New Music Platform

If you’re a Facebook junkie like we are, you’ve probably already logged on and noticed more changes to the social networking site. Like many prior revamps, the latest news feed redesign has gotten a cold reception. The new news feed now displays updates “you may have missed” based on how long you’ve been away. But while most social networking bloggers are reporting on the latest news feed redesign, we found some much more interesting Facebook news; or, at least, trustworthy rumors.

If you haven’t heard, some sources (including Om Malik, an award-winning journalist and well-known tech blogger) are claiming that Facebook and Spotify will become integrated, taking both popular social networking services to the next level. Rumors are claiming that there will be a new Music tab on the left side of the profile screen, next to the Photos, Friends and other tabs that already exist. The Music tab will take users to a new music dashboard on a redesigned profile page. Here, users will be able to listen to music from any of Facebook’s partner services, which will be officially announced at the f8 conference. Industry insiders believe the list will include Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG, Vevo and some other, smaller players.

“Just like Comcast, Spotify already allows you to share the information about the song that you are listening to on Spotify with your Facebook friends,” said Malik, “but the next level of integration is going to be much deeper.” Facebook users will be able to recommend songs, see what their friends have been listening to and listen to any song with the click of a button. There also may be concert ticketing and other cool features.

Stay tuned for official announcements on Thursday, as the 5th annual f8 Developer Conference takes place at The Concourse at San Francisco Design Center. Each year at the f8 conference, Facebook’s ecosystem, which includes developers, partners, advertisers and rivals, anxiously awaits to hear what’s next. As the social network nears the billion-users mark (and also its goal of becoming the first trillion-dollar company), the value of Facebook marketing has never been more apparent. If you’re seeking interactive marketing in Fort Lauderdale, contact Blue Interactive Agency today. From search engine optimization to mobile application development, Blue offers every interactive service to get your business out of the Stone Age and into the future of online and mobile marketing.


iPhone 5: Insiders Reports Underwhelming Changes, October Launch

In the age of instant gratification, adults are worse than kids when it comes to technology. The minute Apple graces us with the latest iPhone model, rumors start spreading about the next. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst for Concord Securities, told AppleInsider on Monday that the fifth-generation iPhone “will sport the same 512MB of DRAM as the iPhone 4” and will feature the same glass front and back of the current model.

So how can we trust Kuo? In April, the industry insider told AppleInsider that Intel was ramping up Sandy bridge boards and Thunderbolt ports for the MacBook Air deployment later in the year, which turned out to be true. Kuo claims that the so-called “iPhone 5” will feature an improved antennae design, but that there will be “little change to its shape, and users will not see a discernable difference in its appearance.” Although the newest generation of the iPhone won’t look much different, addressing the issues with the antennae is a marked improvement, considering that it was discovered that covering the bottom left corner of the iPhone 4 could reduce reception.

Dubbed “N94,” the new iPhone will be available in both black and white at the time of launch, and will reportedly use the same Gorilla glass for its back panel. Photos of the prototype have already leaked to MacPost (above). Tech bloggers and iPhone users alike have been anticipating a higher resolution, 8 megapixel camera, but all we know for now is that the camera modules will be made by Sony and Omnivision, and will be almost the same height as the iPhone 4 camera.

It still isn’t certain when Apple will release the fifth-generation iPhone, but industry analysts believe it will be either the last week of September or October. Apple is rumored to be building 30 million N94 units by the end of the year, and if they meet their goal of selling all handsets in the holiday quarter, it would easily beat the record of 20.34 million iPhones sold in June 2011. The iPhone, and smartphones in general, are expected to be in the hands of 43 percent of the American population by 2015. Now is the ideal time to consider mobile marketing solutions and mobile application development. Blue Interactive Agency now offers these services, as well as custom software development and video production and animation services. Contact Blue today to enhance your mobile campaign.


9/11: “Honor.Remember.Reunite.” with Facebook

How are you honoring 9/11? In the social media world, #BiggestLessonLearnedfrom911 is already a trending topic on Twitter, and Facebook has created an app that allows users to dedicate their statuses in remembrance of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

In collaboration with The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Facebook app maker Involver has created the 9/11 Memorial app that lets users dedicate their status, update their profile photo and/or tell their friends and family how they’re remembering and honoring victims this Sunday. “The goal of the application is to honor and remember victims of this devastating attack on America, 10 years later,” explains Involver‘s Senior Vice President of Marketing Jascha Kaykas-Wolff. The app launched this past Wednesday, giving users several days to begin their personal dedications well before the 10th anniversary of the tragic attacks.

When you donate your status, the application chooses from one of 3,000 victims and dedicates each status to a single one. The database includes victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, as well as the passengers of Flight 93 and the six people killed in the bombing of the World Trade Center in February of 1993. “Coordinated with its launch, the application will be featured on a number of prominent Facebook Pages including the Pages of members of Congress, presidential candidates, federal agencies, non-profits and celebrities,” reports Mashable. Facebook and Involver are also featuring the app on their Pages.

To honor 9/11, Blue Interactive Agency is participating in the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Run tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. Come out and show your support, or donate by clicking here. If you are interested in interactive marketing services in Fort Lauderdale, social media marketing, mobile application development or any other interactive services, contact Blue today at 954.779.2801.


Google Offers Expands to Five More Cities

From Living Social to (the failed) Facebook Deals to every local group-buy coupon service that has sprung up in the past few years, Groupon has seen many copy-cat competitors come and go since its November 2008 inception, so it didn’t come as much of a shock when Google launched its own version of the deal-a-day craze. Google Offers beta debuted in June of this year in its test market, Portland, and has since added the Bay Area and New York City to the list. In Google’s Commerce Blog yesterday, the billion-dollar company announced an expansion into five more cities: Austin, Boston, D.C., Denver and Seattle.

As of today, each of the new cities has at least one available offer, including deals and discounts from local restaurants, retail establishments and tourist attractions. If you live in one of the aforementioned areas, you can subscribe to Google Offers at google.com/offers, where you can receive deals of the day in your email inbox from as many places as you’d like. If you have an Android phone, you may also “buy Google Offers from all eight regions that are currently part of this trial in the Google Shopper app for Android in the “Today’s Offer” tab, and don’t have to subscribe to buy,” says Google’s blog.

Although Google Offers has received its fair share of criticism for lack of originality, the newest daily deals service actually features a much more integrated product than Groupon and many other related services. Google Offers merges Google search, advertising and Google Places with its mobile platform, Android. “This isn’t only done through the optional Android app, Shopper, but also through the upcoming mobile technology, NFC (near field communication), and Google’s mobile payments service,” said Sarah Perez of TechCrunch. On NFC-equipped phones, a simple tap on a Google Places window decal allows you to read reviews, visit the company’s website, search and check for available offers. “At checkout, you can even pay using Google’s NFC-based mobile payments service, Google Wallet.”

If Google Offers isn’t yet available in your city, click here to sign up to receive a notification when it launches in your area. Google’s integration with Android is a smart move that could easily gain them a key competitive advantage over existing group coupon services. If you are looking for mobile marketing solutions in Fort Lauderdale, contact Blue Interactive Agency today. Blue offers mobile application development, custom software development and more. Launch your best mobile campaign today by calling (954) 779-2801.

 


Amazon to Apple: ‘Prepare for War’ in Tablet Market

Online retailer giant Amazon has proved itself as a strong competitor against Apple in the worlds of digital books, music and mobile apps. Now, rumors have the tech community abuzz that Amazon is planning to enter the tablet market as early as October, and industry experts believe the Android-powered device might be the only tablet capable of competing with the iPad.

As we reported a couple weeks ago, HP stopped production on its TouchPad, and lowered its price to $199 for the 16GB and $149 for the 32GB to clear excess inventory. RIM’s Playbook and Motorola’s Xoom gather dust as Apple’s iPad remains the dominant tablet seller. But Amazon’s strong brand recognition, cloud services and Kindle line has the potential to “completely disrupt the status quo,” said Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps in a blog post. If Amazon’s tablet is priced right, at less than $300, and there is enough supply to keep pace with orders, the company could sell 3-5 million tablets in the fourth quarter alone, wrote Rotman Epps.

Given Apple’s policy changes that take a 30 percent cut from the sale of e-books through Amazon’s iOS apps, the relationship between the two companies will become even more strained. While it is likely that Apple will remain the top seller, Rotman Epps believes that with a smart launch strategy, Amazon’s entry into the tablet market will prompt Apple “to prepare for war.” She also notes that the meat and potatoes of Apple’s revenue comes from hardware, making it “vulnerable to a company, such as Amazon, that isn’t seeking profit from hardware sales.” With Android and the potential for several different OEMs to produce their own versions of Amazon’s tablet, Amazon can easily become “a strong second to Apple’s iPad,” said Rotman Epps.

Forrester also noted that if Amazon’s Android-powered tablet “sells in the millions, Android will suddenly appear much more attractive to developers who have taken a wait-and-see approach.” If you are interested in entering the billion-dollar app market, consider Blue Interactive Agency. Now offering mobile application development, as well as custom software development and other mobile marketing solutions, Blue is always expanding its service offerings. Call today for more information!


Apple Affirms Digital Domination in Tablet Market, HP Bows Out

Ok, no surprise there, but hear us out. Several bombshells have recently been dropped that have considerably shifted the tablet landscape. But when you boil it all down, you’re still left with (at least for now) the Apple iPad and Android tablets built by several OEMs, the most noteworthy being Motorola, Samsung, Acer and ASUS.

Apple is quickly proving its stock in the digital survival of the fittest, as HP announces its plans to leave the consumer PC business and shut down the webOS device line, ending the TouchPad after just 49 days on the market. Earlier this week, Google announced that they are in the initial stages of buying Motorola Mobility, the maker of the Droid smartphone and XOOM tablet, outright. Although the company will remain independent of Google, the closing of the deal will establish the billion-dollar search sovereign as a hardware company, allowing it to compete with Android device makers. As ZDNet blogger James Kendrick said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if this merger gives players like Samsung the nudge to get out of the Android tablet business if its sales aren’t good enough to make a decent argument for staying.”

HP bit the proverbial dust and RIM’s financial troubles have taken the PlayBook out of the game, as the Blackberry developer canceled some future tablet models due to poor sales. Though consumers currently have a very limited selection in tablets, Google is hard at work developing the next major version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, which will be the first hybrid of the phone and tablet OS.

Research firm Strategy Analytics reported that of the 15 million tablet shipments in the second quarter of 2011, Apple lapped the competition with 61 percent of the market share, while Android accounted for 30.1 percent.

The brewing tablet competition will certainly make for an interesting year. We’ll just have to wait and see if Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich can freeze Apple’s tremendous iPad sales growth. The mobile market is exploding, and Blue Interactive Agency is now offering a range of programming services in Fort Lauderdale, including mobile application development, mobile marketing solutions, video production and animation services and more. Let our experts help you develop the next big app today by calling 954.779.2801.