Interested in winning €15,000? Develop an Android™ app using at least one API from Ericsson Labs and you will have the chance. Ericsson is now launching the Ericsson Application Awards, a global competition open for both students and small/medium sized companies with up to 100 employees. So why not take the chance to use your superior coding skills to win some hard cash? Find out all the details on the Ericsson Application Awards website, and the Sony Ericsson Developer World website.
Tomorrow, the Google Developer Day will take place in Tokyo. It’s a one-day event where you have the opportunity to learn more about Google developer products and meet the engineers who work on them. The event deals with mobile and web technologies including Android, HTML5, Chrome, App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and more. I got a chance to have a chat with Abbas Sumar, Application partner manager from Sony Ericsson who will attend the event. Abbas Sumar is looking forward to an exciting day with the latest trends and developments within Android applications!
Erik Hellman.
Ever wondered how a manufacturer goes about to implement Android on a phone? Interested in how Sony Ericsson works with the Android platform? Erik Hellman from Sony Ericsson will present his experiences from working with Android at the Android Only event in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sept 29-30.
You’ve heard it here first… we’re announcing the rollout of our new Sony Ericsson Device Loaner Program. You guys had been asking for it, and we listened, and decided to take immediate action. To get the program up and running as soon as possible, we’ve partnered with an experienced U.S. vendor, Vienna Channels, to help facilitate the phone loaner service and logistics.
It’s a fairly quick and easy process to get signed up to borrow a Sony Ericsson phone. I signed up myself and it only took a few minutes. Once you’re fully signed up with Vienna Channels, there are a lot of great features on the Device Loaner Program site. For example, from the Products menu on the main page, you can view phone specifications and check real-time inventory levels of the phones available. From the Reports menu, you can even generate custom shipment reports.
Since the program is still new and inventory is limited, only one phone per developer/order is currently allowed. For now, two models are available – Xperia™ X10a phone and Xperia™ Mini Pro – but we will be continuously adding new phone models to the inventory list. You’ll also need to have a valid credit card when signing up, to pay for the shipping costs. If the device is not returned, the full cost of the device plus a 10% restocking fee will be charged to your credit card. The program is initially aimed at the U.S./Canadian market, but if you’re ordering outside of North America, please be aware that you’ll be paying for international shipping fees, plus applicable customs/duties for your particular destination.
If you have any questions about the Sony Ericsson Device Loaner Program, send an email to sonyericsson1@viennachannels.com.
APPNATION 2010, Day 1
I recently had to opportunity to attend the APPNATION Conference in San Francisco, CA, USA on Sept 13-14. My main purpose for going was to provide general media coverage on behalf of the Sony Ericsson Developer World for this two-day event. The show was comprised of over 1,000 app developers, media companies, mobile ad networks, venture capitalists and other players in the app ecosystem. One interesting estimate came from Drew Ianni, chairman and founder of APPNATION, who reported recent research that there will be one million mobile apps available for download by the year 2010.
This Saturday, retro gaming was in focus at the Hackathon developer event in Stockholm. I got a hold of Peter Svensson, organiser of the event, to find out how it went.
Live wallpapers are fun and eye-catching, but an incorrect implementation of a live wallpaper can quickly drain the battery of any powerful Android™ phone. This tutorial will explain how big this problem can be, what the reasons are and show you a code example on how you can avoid this happening to your live wallpapers.
I would like to announce thatSony Ericsson is planning to attend the first ever APPNATION 2010 event this September. The APPNATION conference and expo will be held at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA from September 13 to 14.
Sheana Hogan.
Our very own Sheana Hogan, Business Development Manager at Sony Ericsson, will be attending both days of the conference. Sheana, by the way, is responsible for defining partnership opportunities, driving developer ecosystems, and building strategic alliances with operators and independent software vendors. If you see her, please say hello and exchange a business card.
The theme for this year’s event – Show Me the Money – makes perfect sense when considering the lineup of conference schedule topics, which range from Entrepreneur’s Workshop Series: Where the Investment Dollars Will Flow in the Next 12 Months to Monetization Tactics: Monetizing on Android to App Business Models: How Do You Value Your Product and (What) Should You Charge for It?.
Drew Ianni.
I had the fortunate opportunity to have a quick Q&A session on August 27 with Drew Ianni, the founderof APPNATION, to ask him about the event:
What can attendees expect to get out of going to the APPNATION conference?
- Attendees will be immersed in engaging and informative dialogue surrounding the business of apps and the emerging app economy. Developers of all shapes-and-sizes, media and advertising executives, investors, hardware and infrastructure companies, and the broader app community will be mashed up and learn from one another about discoverability, monetization, new media business models, advertising and marketing strategies, product road maps and innovations, and consumer insights and analytics.
What is this year’s theme – Show Me the Money – all about?
- {The theme} is fundamentally about helping all companies in the app economy learn how to monetize, especially small-and-medium-sized developers.
Not only did I get an exclusive interview with Drew, he graciously provided Sony Ericsson with a super-secret, personal discount of 50% off the registration cost for an all-access, full conference pass. SCORE! Just use the promotion code DIFC50 on the APPNATION Conference online registration page.
Sony Ericsson hopes that you’re as excited to attend APPNATION 2010 as much as we are!
In this post I will cover a few important guidelines on how reduce power consumption of polling Android applications, i.e. applications that regularly connect to the internet, and get more out of the phone battery. I have crated a small sample app that puts all of the tricks into practice by setting up a background service that polls Twitter trends regularly and logs them to a file. By downloading the sample app and applying these guidelines, you will reduce the power consumption of your app by magnitudes, if you haven’t before. Click here to download the sample app.
This post covers a few important guidelines on how reduce power consumption of polling Android applications, i.e. applications that regularly connect to the internet. Attached is a small sample project that puts all of the tricks into practice by setting up a background service that polls Twitter trends regularly and logs them to a file. By downloading the sample app and applying these guidelines, you will reduce the power consumption of your app by magnitudes, if you haven’t before.
We will cover four guidelines:
1. Synchronize you polls with other apps
2. Make polls short
3. Manage your connections
4. Stop your services
