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Mobile Browser Detection: many samples, including Apache modRewrite(!)
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Category Archives: Articles
Running Windows 8 inside VirtualBox
Small step-by-step guide on how to install and run Windows 8 Developer Preview under VirtualBox.
Wunderlist for Android is going native, drops Appcelerator Titanium Mobile
Appcelerator’s approach to the Android platform has made another victim, a significant one: 6Wunderkinder’s popular Wunderlist ditched Titanium Mobile (TM) for Android, and is now a native app.
“(…) Wunderlist is now native – smaller, faster and more stable.”
Matthew Bostock, 6Wunderkinder’s blog
Translated, Wunderlist got rid of TM’s biggest problems:
- Size: even the smallest “Hello World” app weights at least 1.5MB (this is still huge in the mobile world – do the same thing using native Java and the app will only weight a few KB);
- Speed: TM for Android slow. This is mainly due to the fact that TM for Android is using Mozilla’s Rhino as its javascript interpreter, written in Java, running inside Dalvik’s VM, and not compiled to native ARM, as google’s V8, SpiderMonkey or any JS engine written in C or C++ would;
- Stability: this one is not really, in my opinion, TM’s fault. Due to the fact that Javascript is dynamic language, and Titanium does not compile or even do any proper syntax check, the quality of the code is probably to blame here.
Appcelerator reacted two days after 6Wunderkinder’s announcement, stating that Titanium Mobile for Android will use, somewhere in the future, google’s V8 engine. This comes, however, with a still significant drawback: only devices running Android 2.2 or newer support android’s NDK, and therefore the natively compiled V8 Engine. According to Appcelerator’s own benchmarks, this will at least double the performance. Remains to be seen if the “Size” problem will be solved: V8′s binaries will still be inside the app’s package…
Now that WebOS died, which is the best development crossplatform for iOS, Android, RIM and WP7?
Yes, the excellent WebOS is defunct, and it will never be the mainstream player as, at least technically, it deserved. For all of us developing for the mobile world that don’t have the time or budget to develop natively in all the mainstream platforms, its one less player to target. Myself, personally, am deciding/evaluating available options for true cross-platform development targeting iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.
My requirements are:
- Native UI components must be used – maintaining the native look and feel for each platform is important (PhoneGap is out of the picture because of this);
- The same code base (or at least most of it) must be used in all platforms;
- The UI must scale well between Phone and Tablet formats and screen densities (DPI);
- The application must perform smoothly, speedwise, even in lower end devices;
- Some access to the device’s hardware: GPS, sensors, camera.
I have found some platforms so far:
- Titanium Mobile: this is my current number one, but i don’t think Windows Phone 7 will be supported. Plus, the Android implementation is a bit clumsy: the JavaScript core is not interpreted by the OS, so a java JS interpreter is included- this makes the application big and slow. In iOS this problem does not exist, as the system’s javascript interpreter is used. On the plus side, native UI components are supported and a very nice, Eclipse based, IDE is provided;
- PhoneGap: this one also uses JavaScript, but is completely HTML/JS based: the application runs inside a WebView, and has no bindings to native UI components, it relies on third-party JS libraries to build the UI, such as Sencha Touch or jQuery Mobile. It’s a browser on steroids basically, and doesn’t float my boat.
- RhoMobile: haven’t tested or reviewed this one yet, opinions anyone?
So, i need your opinion about these or other development tools: are they any good? Have you used them in a project? Comment below.
Titanium Mobile’s Android development now less painful than Prostate Exam – Mobile SDK 1.8 (!) + Fastdev
A few days ago, Appcelerator announced a really cool new feature: Fastdev for Titanium Mobile. This thing cuts dramatically development times for Android apps as all the wait time spent recompiling and re-publishing the app to the emulator simply disappears!
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Titanium Mobile SDK 1.8 available
Titanium Mobile SDK 1.8.0 is already available in the Appcelerator’s continuous integration (CI) area: Just choose the “master” branch and download the latest SDK files for your O.S.!
Updated Titanium autocomplete for 1.5.1 using Eclipse and Aptana
Here is the uploaded javascript header file, updated for Appcelerator’s Titanium Mobile version 1.5.1. This can be used with Eclipse+Aptana’s autocomplete, using the method described by James David Low a while back.
Titanium Autocomplete
James Low has a AppCelerator Titanium’s API AutoComplete for Eclipse+Aptana. Download it here http://jameslow.com/2010/05/31/titanium-autocomplete-eclipse/
I haven’t tried it yet, I’m using notepad++ still, but I’ll give it a go ASAP!
c# for iPad?
Yet a another alternative to Objectve-C/XCode has arrived: MonoTouch, the non Microsoft dotNet implementation, supports the new useless computer-without-a-keyboard -slash- big iPhone, Apple iPad.
Using .net assemblies inside SQL Server: Quick start guide
Are you are an experienced .net programmer and you are too lazy to learn TSQL stored procedures, triggers or functions? Yes? Then read on this quick start guide on using .net assemblies inside SQL Server using SQLCLR.
