Whether you’ve just switched from an iPhone to an Android phone or own multiple devices, you may feel frustrated to own iPod and iPhone audio accessories (alarm clocks, audio docks, car stereo, etc…) which you can’t use with your brand new Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone 7 device. Although it doesn’t seem to work with every accessory (ex my Parrot Zikmu by Stark), here is a quick and illustrated step-by-step guide to make your own 30-pin iPod connector to audio jack and micro USB charger adapter. If a little bit of soldering doesn’t freak you out, you may continue reading… Read more…
Ever since I got my first iPad in April 2009, I have been obsessed with finding the ultimate keyboard solution to turn it into a versatile notebook. I even shared my own DIY solution but have to admit that I actually never used it as it couldn’t really hold your iPad upright. Apple’s very own keyboard dock could only operate in portrait mode and was clearly not portable enough. Until very recently, the best alternatives were the Origami case combined with Apple bluetooth keyboard, Zagg’s keyboard case (acquired by Logitech) and the Logitech Tablet Keyboard. I have bought all three but never truly adopted them. None of these met the portability and stability required to turn your iPad into a sleek notebook you’d actually want to use. Well, it seems that Logitech’s 3rd attempt – the Ultrathin Keyboard Cover – might be the right one. They seem to have finally come up with the ultimate keyboard for your iPad.
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Global mobile Internet usage is expected to overtake ‘desktop’ within the next 2 years and has already been leading the race in regions such as South-East Asia. Although native mobile apps are still able to exploit more of the ‘lower level’ hardware and system API, modern mobile browsers such as Mobile Safari, the Android 4 browser or Chrome for Android are progressing very fast. The mobile web is technically ready for apps, living the ultimate “native vs web” choice to developers, business and end-users.
If you’re a developer interested in some best practices to design and build better mobile web apps, here is the presentation I recently gave a Buzzcity Developer Garage in Singapore.
A few days ago, Singtel and e27 announced the 2011 edition of Asia’s Top 50 Apps Award. As a independent developer in the region, I decided to submit my main two apps, Muslim Pro and Frenzapp. While trying to include a small “vote” button on my various websites in order to maximize the visibility of my apps, I came across a security hole in the voting system. I could easily have kept it for myself and exploit it to promote my two apps to the top of the leader-board by the end of the contest. It was of course not an option and I quickly, via an email to e27 as well as a public tweet, disclose the hack and warned the community that the vote was at risk of being biased if the organisers did not address the issue quickly. Here is the rest of the story and why I offered to forfeit my apps…
[UPDATE] read the comments, I actually did confirm my request to boycot the contest by removing my app
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“Gone Google“, as described here, usually refers to organizations (schools, universities, startups, MNC’s, etc…) switching to the web-based Google Apps platform for their email, productivity and collaboration tools. A choice that I had actually made on the very first day I founded Bitsmedia and which I posted about on this article.
“Gone Google“ has taken a whole new meaning for me today as I am very excited to announce that I will soon be joining Google and more specifically the Developer Relations team in South-East Asia. For the most curious of you, here are the main reasons which have driven such decision. Read more…
The official release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) is just around the corner (AppleInsider reports that it might be launched tomorrow Wednesday together with the new Macbook Air) and I thought I’d share three very quick tips that could help you get around Apple’s new system once you’ll hit the “buy” button on the Mac App Store.
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