Sunday, May 29, 2011

LifeSignals app optimized for Honeycomb Android 3.0

As I mentioned in the last post, I was fortunate enough to have received one of the new ultra slim Samsung 10.1" Honeycomb tablets while attending Google IO 2011.  I just received the tablet back from the developers who were working to optimize the graphics and performance on Honeycomb.  It has really turned out nice, as you can see in the video link below.  Samsung has done an incredible job with all aspects of this new Tablet.  I am impressed with the size, weight, screen resolution and overall performance.  I have been an iPad user since its inception and have not found an Android Tablet that could replace it until now.  This is every bit as good as a consumer media consumption device for me but has the advantage of being Android O/S and running our applications.  The quality of the video conferencing is really amazing.  I will capture a video of that next time.
Enjoy the video link below:
http://youtu.be/Ckbx-6gy5ME

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Google IO 2011

I was invited to attend Google IO by friend and business associate Steve Jacobs from Apps4android.  Steve is engaged with Google on a mission to make Android phones and tablets more accessible to the blind and other visually challenged individuals.  Steve and his team do some excellent work and his collaboration with the Google accessibility team has payed dividends for the visually challenged all over the world.  Steve has also worked with us in the same vein, to enable the Androiter application to be fully accessible.  We demonstrated the system at his pod on the 3rd floor of the Moscone Center last week.  We demonstrated the system hundreds of times over the two days of the event and had rave reviews. 
Google IO was really a terrific event.  Exciting keynotes on both day 1 and day2, exceptional sessions, a diverse and energetic group of 5000 developers, parties, food, all contributed to a significant buzz and quite a bit of fun.  From a mobile health perspective, there were several significant takeaways.
·         Google announced that over 100 Million Android phones have been activated.  I don't need to wax philosophic about that level of success in just 2 and 1/2 years.  It speaks for itself.  100,000,000  wow.
·         Equally staggering, there are 400,000 activations of new Android devices every day!
·         There are 36 OEM's producing phones and tablets globally
·         There are 215 Carriers selling Android phones
·         There are 450,000 registered app developers
·         There are over 200,000 apps available in the Market
·         There are 1 billion apps downloaded every 60 days at the current pace
·         There have been 4.5 Billion downloads as of last week
LifeSignals made a conscious choice to use the Android platform to develop our mobile health and wellness applications.  It appears to have been a good choice. 
Thanks to Steve Jacobs and Google for such a fun and informative event.  Also thanks to Google, Samsung and Verizon for the free 10.1" Galaxy Tab and 4G hotspot.   The new tablet is sleek and gorgeous and makes a great platform for our applications.