Search Results

Search found 20208 results on 809 pages for 'window mobile'.

facebook twitter digg google delicious technorati stumbleupon myspace wordpress linkedin gmail igoogle windows live tumblr viadeo yahoo buzz yahoo mail yahoo bookmarks favorites email print

Page 6/809 | < Previous Page | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13  | Next Page >

  • ADF updates: mobile virtual developer day & ADF Mobile 1 day Workshop & ADF Architecture TV

    - by JuergenKress
    ADF Mobile Virtual Developer Day Sessions - YouTube ADF Architecture TV – flows WebLogic Partner Community For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum WikiTechnorati Tags: adf,ADF Architecture,ADF education,virtual developer day,WebLogic,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

    Read the article

  • Mobile HCM: It’s not the future, it is right now

    - by Natalia Rachelson
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} A guest post by Steve Boese, Director Product Strategy, Oracle I’ll bet you reached for your iPhone or Android or BlackBerry and took a quick look at email or Facebook or last night’s text messages before you even got out of bed this morning. Come on, admit it, it’s ok, you are among friends here. See, feel better now? But seriously, the incredible growth and near-ubiquity of increasingly powerful, capable, and for many of us, essential in our daily lives mobile devices has profoundly changed the way we communicate, consume information, socialize, and more and more, conduct business and get our work done. And if you doubt that profound change has happened, just think for a moment about the last time you misplaced your iPhone.  The shivers, the cold sweats, the panic... We have all been there. And indeed your personal experiences with mobile technology echoes throughout the world - here are a few data points to consider: Market research firm IDC estimates 1.8 billion mobile phones will be shipped in 2012. A recent Pew study reports 46% of Americans own a smartphone of some kind. And finally in the USA, ownership of tablets like the iPad has doubled from 10% to 19% in the last year. So truly for the Human Resources leader, the question is no longer, ‘Should HR explore ways to exploit mobile devices and their always-on nature to better support and empower the modern workforce?’, but rather ‘How can HR best take advantage of smartphone and tablet capability to provide information, enable transactions, and enhance decision making?’. Because even though moving HCM applications to mobile devices seems inherently logical given today’s fast-moving and mobile workforces, and its promise to deliver incredible value to the organization, HR leaders also have to consider many factors before devising their Mobile HCM strategy and embarking on mobile HR technology projects. Here are just some of the important considerations for HR leaders as you build your strategies and evaluate mobile HCM solutions: Does your organization provide mobile devices to the workforce today, and if so, will the current set of deployed devices have the necessary capability and ecosystems to support your mobile HCM initiatives? Will you allow workers to use or bring their own mobile devices, (commonly abbreviated as ‘BYOD’), and if so are your IT and Security organizations in agreement and capable of supporting that strategy? Do you know which workers need access to mobile HCM applications? Often mobile HCM capability flows down in an organization, with executives and other ‘road-warrior’ types having the most immediate needs, followed by field sales staff, project managers, and even potential job candidates. But just as an organization will have to spend time understanding ‘who’ should have access to mobile HCM technology, the ‘what’ of the way the solutions should be deployed to these groups will also vary. What works and makes sense for the executive, (company-wide dashboards and analytics on an iPad), might not be as relevant for a retail store manager, (employee schedules, location-level sales and inventory data, transaction approvals, etc.). With Oracle Fusion HCM, we are taking an approach to mobile HR that encompasses not just the mobile solution needs for the various types of worker, but also incorporates the fundamental attributes of great mobile applications - the ability to support end-to-end transactions, apps that respond with lightning-fast speed, with functions that are embedded in a worker’s daily activities, and features that can be mashed-up easily with other business areas like Finance and CRM. Finally, and perhaps most importantly for the Oracle Fusion HCM team, delivering mobile experiences that truly enhance, enable, and empower the mobile workforce, and deliver on the design mantras of the best-in-class consumer applications, continues to shape and drive design decisions. Mobile is no longer the future, it is right now, and the cutting-edge HR leader of today will need to consider how mobile fits her HCM technology strategy from here on out. You can learn more about our ideas and plans for Oracle Fusion HCM mobile solutions at https://fusiontap.oracle.com/.

    Read the article

  • Focusing on Mobile @ Oracle OpenWorld

    - by Carlos Chang
    Plenty of exciting trends in the industry today: Cloud, Big Data, Mobile, etc. The first two are amazing of course, but for me, it's mobile, mobile and... MOBILE.   Why? Think back to the mozilla browser (Marc Andreessen's mozilla, not today's mozilla.org), Netscape and the nascent beginnings of the World Wide Web. Amazing times. Companies were just starting to set up their home pages, basic HTML, hyperlinks, images, ooooh, aaaah.  Yahoo! was *the* search engine back then. :-\   Anywhoo, I would pose that mobile today, we are in a similar junction. Sure, there's millions of apps on Apple's App Store and Google Play, but within the enterprise, it's just getting started. I'm talking about going beyond the simple, tactical apps such as calendaring, contacts or directory service lookup. And while mobile first a common mantra, I'm referring to mobile plus which includes and looks upon the whole enterprise holistically and adds new parameters, such as your GPS location, perhaps even your vital signs. (Apple's health kit?)  Everything is going mobile. Everything connected. But with the enterprise - scalability, security, integration, app management, user management, etc. Amazing times ahead. Ok, got that off my mind. Oracle OpenWorld 2014 - Going Mobile!  If you're coming to the big dance, I've highlighted some key mobile sessions below. And if you see me around, and there's a bar within reach, high five me for a beer. I mean, if you read this far, and didn't already jump to the list below, I think you deserve one.   Cheers!  Monday, 9/29/14 at 10:15 AM - General Session: Time for You to Rethink Mobile? Oracle Mobile Strategy and Roadmap Tuesday, 9/30/14 @ 12:00 PM; MW3020 - Develop and Deploy Mobile Applications with Oracle’s Mobile Wednesday, 10/1/2014 @10:15 AM; MW 3022 Introduction to Oracle Mobile Application Framework Wednesday, 10/1/2014 @11:30 AM Accelerate Enterprise Mobility with Oracle Mobile Cloud Service Click here to view the complete Focus on Mobile sessions at this years Oracle OpenWorld 2014, and don't forget to follow @OracleMobile on Twitter. 

    Read the article

  • Creating a window manager type overlay for Mac OS X

    - by zorg1379
    I want to make my own window manager for OS X, or at least give it the appearance of a new one. I have many designs written down in a book, and would like to implement them. These include altering, or even completely removing, menu bars, creating entirely new guis for switching applications, etc. I know that OS X does not have a window manager, and that basically the functions that an X11 window manager would perform are done by Carbon, Cocoa, the Dock application, and the window server. I've read that it would take an incredible amount of reverse engineering to write my own api, etc. at the hardware level. I am still not that good at programming though, and don't have that kind of time. That's why I was thinking of maybe running an application on top of OS X that will function like a separate window manager - and do everything that the normal OS GUI / window manager would do. Is this possible? For example: making a custom button that would appear upon a certain key combination, that could be clicked to access a document viewer, change the time, minimize a window, etc. Is there some way to access functionality to basic tasks / actions like this without using the default OS X button controls, and implementing them with my own GUI? I am talking about more than a simple theme change, I want to completely change the user experience. This means that this application would be run in a full screen mode that blocks out default OS X menu bars. I've heard something about using graphics architectures to plug in your own window manager? Would this be an option too? If so, how would I go about doing that? Thank you,

    Read the article

  • Windows Mobile Silverlight?

    - by eidylon
    Is it possible to develop Silverlight apps to run on WinMo devices? I see all around searching on the web - in articles from 2008 and 2009 - that they were adding Silverlight support in WinMo 6.1, for example: Internet Explorer Mobile The new version of Internet Explorer Mobile adds the ability to easily view full-screen Web pages and multimedia on the Web with a smartphone. Microsoft's press release states the new version takes advantage of "Internet Explorer 6 technologies" and supports industry standards such as H.264, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight. The update will be available to mobile phone partners in the third quarter of 2008, with the first Windows Mobile phones using the new version expected to be available by the end of 2008. But I have found an SL app supposedly geared for mobile devices (as much as I hate weatherbug), but when i try going there in PIE on my WinMo 6.1 device, it shows me the little "get silverlight" image button, but clicking it doesn't do anything. So, what is the story? Is SL/WinMo development possible, or ?

    Read the article

  • Detecting Requests from Mobile Browsers in ASP.NET

    - by Josh Stodola
    I have an existing web site and I would like to create a mobile version of it that is more suitable. For instance, the main site uses drop-down menus and we all know those are quite the fail on mobile devices. I would like to redirect to my mobile version (it will be a subdomain of the current site) if I detect a request from a mobile browser. So when they Google something and come to my site, they will automatically see the mobile version (just like Wikipedia). Does ASP.NET provide an easy way of doing this? If not, how can I do it?

    Read the article

  • Window controls appearing on the right side after updating to 12.10 [closed]

    - by Ankit
    Possible Duplicate: Window buttons stuck on right side After updating from Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10 the window controls(min, max, close) have started appearing on the right side when the window is not maximized, they again come on the left side when the window is maximized. I tried changing it using Ubuntu Tweak, but with no effect. Other suggestion I found was to change it using gconf-editor and changing apps - metacity - general click button_layout but there is no metacity in the apps section.

    Read the article

  • are mobile can be used as a devices to develop application

    - by Richa Media and services
    I say that we can work @ mobile using a technique and work with any IDE and use any OS without problem like work on visual studio and use Window 7 How it possible ? 1. We use Mobile like a CPU and Use a monitor to watch code. We use samsung's techniques to display on monitor. it's give signal to monitor wirelessly to display code on monitor 2 We use Wireless keyboard and Mouse (if user like USB then he also use USB keyboard and mouse) 3. We use a component inside of mobile to control all devices like internet , wi-fi bluethoth. by component user easily setup , control and use feature. 4 don't be confused. i am sure to say that we not use mobile to watch code on mobile screen and Mobile 's keyboard because it's too smaller to work so we use Monitor (LCD) to display code and a keyboard to work comfortably and freely. 5. what are you think if you see a developer who work using this way 6. it is not impossible. give me some feedback and suggestion about your thinking on this technologies.

    Read the article

  • window.onbeforeunload and window.location.href in IE

    - by Zuber
    We are using window.location.href to navigate the user to a page. Also, we have configured the window.onbeforeunload event to alert users in case there are any unsaved changes. window.onbeforeunload = confirmBeforeClose; function confirmBeforeClose() { if (jwd.global.inEditMode) return "Your changes will not be saved :) and you will be punished to death"; } In places where there are unsaved changes, and I try to use window.location.href to navigate the user, I get the alert message. It works fine if I click OK on the popup. However, if I click CANCEL, the JS throws an unspecified error at window.location.href. Any help is appreciated.

    Read the article

  • Mobile Web Framework that will only control rendering and page transitions

    - by rlemon
    I have been using jQueryMobile for a bit now, and there are some things I like about it and others I do not. First I will give a bit of background. I have a light weight mobile application that has a few configurations and 6 pages. Ideally I Would like to load all pages into the DOM (they interact with each other quite often and pages will be switched in the same frequency). The application will post for some JSON every n seconds and refresh the values on the page (yes it is primarily a information display app). with the jQuery Mobile framework the only real thing I like is how easy it is to have a standardized UI a crossed all devices and browsers, I'm really not using too much else out of the framework other than the basic page navigation (if you are familiar with the framework; a bare-bone multi-page design is all i need). Why I want to step away from jQueryMobile is how weighty it is. Not only do you need to include the mobile library, but also the base jQuery libraries. This I do not like because I'm not using jQuery anywhere else on the site. Any suggestions on light-weight mobile frameworks that have a similar rendering as jQueryMobile?

    Read the article

  • Computer Says No: Mobile Apps Connectivity Messages

    - by ultan o'broin
    Sharing some insight into connectivity messages for mobile applications. Based on some recent ethnography done my myself, and prompted by a real business case, I would recommend a message that: In plain language, briefly and directly tells the user what is wrong and why. Something like: Cannot connect because of a network problem. Affords the user a means to retry connecting (or attempts automatically). Mobile context of use means users use anticipate interruptibility and disruption of task, so they will try again as an effective course of action. Tells the user when connection is re-established, and off they go. Saves any work already done, implicitly. (Bonus points on the ADF critical task setting scale) The following images showing my experience reading ADF-EMG Google Groups notification my (Android ICS) Samsung Galaxy S2 during a loss of WiFi give you a good idea of a suitable kind of messaging user experience for mobile apps in this kind of scenario. Inline connection lost message with Retry button Connection re-established toaster message The UX possible is dependent on device and platform features, sure, so remember to integrate with the device capability (see point 10 of this great article on mobile design by Brent White and Lynn Hnilo-Rampoldi) but taking these considerations into account is far superior to a context-free dumbed down common error message repurposed from the desktop mentality about the connection to the server being lost, so just "Click OK" or "Contact your sysadmin.".

    Read the article

  • Reminder - Mobile World Congress - 4 Industry Workshops

    - by michael.seback
    Got 4G? Paving the Road to Profitable and Efficient LTE Network Planning and Monetization, Register by emailing your details here. Achieving Management Excellence through Enterprise Performance Management, Register by emailing your details here. Offer Deliver and Monetize: Mobile Operator Strategies Consumer and Enterprise Services featuring Telenor and Vodafone Groups, Register by emailing your details here. Is Your Head in the Cloud? How to Get it Right the First Time, Register by emailing your details here. With more than 49,000 communications industry attendees, Mobile World Congress is where the industry comes together and you won't want to miss Oracle at this year's show. The 2011 conference agenda will feature speakers representing the leaders of the world's most innovative companies, both from within the Communications industry and from the growing number of adjacent market sectors joining our expanding mobile ecosystem. Join us to learn how Oracle enables innovative services while reducing the cost and complexity of infrastructure software and hardware.

    Read the article

  • Websites or tools similar to Ginwiz (mobile website creator)

    - by t3st
    I have a website which i want to make more mobile friendly(currently its not). While searching about this i found this awesome website Ginwiz; my website can be modified into an mobile friendly site without any additional coding. But i find two disadvantages with this website (free version) 1)We cant add our domain to it with out upgrading (i dont have enough money to pay for it) 2)We can only "Advanced edit" one page Do you know any website which is similar to Ginwiz but can use our domain address instead of theirs (in free version). Do you have any idea about any tools which can be also used to convert my website to mobile website by trimming my current website easily.

    Read the article

  • JavaScript: window.opener.location.href question

    - by vastbeyond
    I need to make a little JS app to scroll automatically through a list of URLs. I've chosen to have the functionality in a pop-up, for various reasons. The syntax to change the opening window's URL is: window.opener.location.href = "http://www.example.com"; This works fine with one URL, but if two statements are called, only one is executed. I experimented with an alert statement between two of the above statements, and the alert event made the second statement function properly: window.opener.location.href = "http://www.example1.com"; alert("hello world"); window.opener.location.href = "http://www.example2.com"; Question is: does anyone know how to get the first and second window.opener statements to work, without the intervening alert();? Also, how can I add a pause between the two statements, so that the second executes a couple of seconds after the first? Thanks so much!

    Read the article

  • JavaScript: 2 window.opener.location.href statements with alert() in between not functioning

    - by vastbeyond
    I need to make a little JS app to scroll automatically through a list of URLs. I've chosen to have the functionality in a pop-up, for various reasons. The syntax to change the opening window's URL is: window.opener.location.href = "http://www.example.com"; This works fine with one URL, but if two statements are called, only one is executed. I experimented with an alert statement between two of the above statements, and the alert event made the second statement function properly: window.opener.location.href = "http://www.example1.com"; alert("hello world"); window.opener.location.href = "http://www.example2.com"; Question is: does anyone know how to get the first and second window.opener statements to work, without the intervening alert();? Also, how can I add a pause between the two statements, so that the second executes a couple of seconds after the first? Thanks so much!

    Read the article

  • OpenGL 2 on Android: native window

    - by ThreaderSlash
    According to OGLES specification, we have the following definition: EGLSurface eglCreateWindowSurface(EGLDisplay display, EGLConfig config, NativeWindowType native_window, EGLint const * attrib_list) More details, here: http://www.khronos.org/opengles/documentation/opengles1_0/html/eglCreateWindowSurface.html And also by definition: int32_t ANativeWindow_setBuffersGeometry(ANativeWindow* window, int32_t width, int32_t height, int32_t format); More details, here: http://mobilepearls.com/labs/native-android-api I am running Android Native App on OGLES 2 and debugging it in a Samsung Nexus device. For setting up the 3D scene graph environment, the following variables are defined: struct android_app { ... ANativeWindow* window; }; android_app* mApplication; ... mApplication=&pApplication; And to initialize the App, we run the commands in the code: ANativeWindow_setBuffersGeometry(mApplication->window, 0, 0, lFormat); mSurface = eglCreateWindowSurface(mDisplay, lConfig, mApplication->window, NULL); Funny to say is that, the command ANativeWindow_setBuffersGeometry behaves as expected and works fine according to its definition, accepting all the parameters sent to it. But the eglCreateWindowSurface does no accept the parameter mApplication-window, as it should accept according to its definition. Instead, it looks for the following input: EGLNativeWindowType hWnd; mSurface = eglCreateWindowSurface(mDisplay,lConfig,hWnd,NULL); As an alternative, I considered to use instead: NativeWindowType hWnd=android_createDisplaySurface(); But debugger says: Function 'android_createDisplaySurface' could not be resolved Can someone tell if there is a way to convert mApplication-window? In a way that the data from the android_app get accepted to the window surface?

    Read the article

  • Top 5 Mobile Apps To Keep Track Of Cricket Scores [ICC World Cup]

    - by Gopinath
    The ICC World Cup 2011 has started with a bang today and the first match between India vs Bangladesh was a cracker. India trashed Bangladesh with a huge margin, thanks to Sehwag for scoring an entertaining 175 runs in 140 runs. At the moment it’s very clear that whole India is gripped with cricket fever and so the rest of fans across the globe. Couple of days ago we blogged about how to watch live streaming of ICC cricket world cup online for free as well as top 10 websites to keep track live scores on your computers. What about tracking live cricket scores on mobiles phones? Here is our guide to top mobile apps available for Symbian(Nokia), Android, iOS and Windows mobiles. By the way, we are covering free apps alone in this post. Why to waste money when free apps are available? SnapTu – Symbian Mobile App SnapTu is a multi feature application that lets you to track live cricket scores, read latest news and check stats published on cric info. SnapTu has tie up with Cric Info and accessing all of CricInfo website on your mobile is very easy. Along with live scores, SnapTu also lets you access your Facebook, Twitter and Picassa on your mobile. This is my favourite application to track cricket on Symbian mobiles. Download SnapTu for your mobiles here Yahoo! Cricket – Symbian & iOS App Yahoo! Cricket Scores is another dedicated application to catch up with live scores and news on your Nokia mobiles and iPhones. This application is developed by Yahoo!, the web giant as well as the official partner of ICC. Features of the app at a glance Cricket: Get a summary page with latest scores, upcoming matches and details of the recent matches News: View sections devoted to the latest news, interviews and photos Statistics: Find the latest team and player stats Download Yahoo! Cricket For Symbian Phones   Download Yahoo! Cricket For iOS ESPN CricInfo – Android and iOS App Is there any site that is better than CricInfo to catch up with latest cricket news and live scores? I say No. ESPN CricInfo is the best website available on the web to get up to the minute  cricket information with in-depth analysis from cricket experts. The live commentary provided by CricInfo site is equally enjoyable as watching live cricket on TV. CricInfo guys have their official applications for Android mobiles and iOS devices and you accessing ball by ball updates on these application is joy. Download ESPN Crick Info App: Android Version, iPhone Version NDTV Cricket – Android, iOS and Blackberry App NDTV Cricket App is developed by NDTV, the most popular English TV news channel in India. This application provides live coverage of international and domestic cricket (Test, ODI & T20) along with latest News, Photos, Videos and Stats. This application is available for iOS devices(iPhones, iPads, iPod Touch), Android mobiles and Blackberry devices. Download NDTV Cricket for iOS here & here    Download NDTV Apps For Rest of OSs ECB Cricket – Symbian, iOS & Android App If you are an UK citizen then  this may be the right application to download for getting live cricket score updates as well as latest news about England Cricket Board. ECB Cricket is an official application of England Cricket Board Download ECB Cricket : Android Version, iPhone Version, Symbian Version Are there any better apps that we missed to feature in this list? This article titled,Top 5 Mobile Apps To Keep Track Of Cricket Scores [ICC World Cup], was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

    Read the article

  • OpenGL ES 2 on Android: native window

    - by ThreaderSlash
    According to OGLES specification, we have the following definition: EGLSurface eglCreateWindowSurface(EGLDisplay display, EGLConfig config, NativeWindowType native_window, EGLint const * attrib_list) More details, here: http://www.khronos.org/opengles/documentation/opengles1_0/html/eglCreateWindowSurface.html And also by definition: int32_t ANativeWindow_setBuffersGeometry(ANativeWindow* window, int32_t width, int32_t height, int32_t format); More details, here: http://mobilepearls.com/labs/native-android-api I am running Android Native App on OGLES 2 and debugging it in a Samsung Nexus device. For setting up the 3D scene graph environment, the following variables are defined: struct android_app { ... ANativeWindow* window; }; android_app* mApplication; ... mApplication=&pApplication; And to initialize the App, we run the commands in the code: ANativeWindow_setBuffersGeometry(mApplication->window, 0, 0, lFormat); mSurface = eglCreateWindowSurface(mDisplay, lConfig, mApplication->window, NULL); Funny to say is that, the command ANativeWindow_setBuffersGeometry behaves as expected and works fine according to its definition, accepting all the parameters sent to it. But the eglCreateWindowSurface does no accept the parameter mApplication-window, as it should accept according to its definition. Instead, it looks for the following input: EGLNativeWindowType hWnd; mSurface = eglCreateWindowSurface(mDisplay,lConfig,hWnd,NULL); As an alternative, I considered to use instead: NativeWindowType hWnd=android_createDisplaySurface(); But debugger says: Function 'android_createDisplaySurface' could not be resolved Is 'android_createDisplaySurface' compatible only for OGLES 1 and not for OGLES 2? Can someone tell if there is a way to convert mApplication-window? In a way that the data from the android_app get accepted to the window surface?

    Read the article

  • Mobile development recommendation

    - by Polaris
    I want to start develop mobile applications and sell it. There are many mobile platforms for which I can begin develop: Windows Mobile , Android, Iphone, Linux based Devices. I want to find out from people who has such experience which platform more comfortable and more profitible for me to use.

    Read the article

  • what are the limitations of mobile phones and web development

    - by Kieran
    simple really.. I am have been asked to do a mobile site (straight html + css (+ maybe jquery mobile later on)). The site will need to support the new type smart phone and the old type Nokia/(Symbian OS) with the web browser. Doubts and reservations aside as to anyone without a smart phone would bother visiting this site it still needs to support it. My first question is do older phones support PNG images and transparancey... But this has led me to a much broader question of what are some of the limitations of developing for older phone platforms is there anything that has caught mobile web devs out and had them scratching their head for an afternoon.. what are the limitations of mobile phones?

    Read the article

  • windows mobile - connection link failed

    - by Glenn
    Windows mobile 6.1 device, attempting to connect via a mobile network and we sometime see the message "Connection Link failed". Can anyone verify what this actually means, I'm beginning to think it relates to signal from the mobile carrier but does anyone have any other ideas?

    Read the article

  • Hey, Google: It’s Time to Add Multi-Window Multitasking To Android

    - by Chris Hoffman
    In 2012, Google’s Dianne Hackborn threatened to revoke CyanogenMod’s access to the Android Market if they moved forward with adding “Cornerstone” multitasking to their custom ROM. Samsung has since created their own multi-window multitasking feature. Dianne Hackborn said this “is something that needs to be done at the mainline platform level” so apps wouldn’t break. She was right — Android needs this as a standard feature and it’s time for Google to provide it. Doesn’t Android Have Multitasking? Android originally stood out from Apple’s iOS with its powerful multitasking. Applications can continue running in the background while you’re using another application. This makes Android powerful — you can even have BitTorrent clients downloading files in the background while using another app. Android still kept the design of a single app on screen at a time. This made a lot of sense when Android only ran on smartphones with small screens. Today, Android runs on everything from smaller smartphones all the way up to huge “phablets” like the Galaxy Note. Android has gone beyond phones and runs on 12-inch tablets, convertibles with keyboard docks, laptops, and even Android desktops. Android isn’t just a phone operating system. Samsung’s Multi-Window Isn’t Good Enough Samsung has tried to add value to Android by adding a multi-window feature. When you’re using a high-end phone like the Galaxy Note or Galaxy S, or a Galaxy tablet, you have the ability to run certain apps side-by-side with each other. There are big problems here. This only works on Samsung devices, and only on specific Samsung devices. To add support for this feature in a way that doesn’t break other apps, Samsung’s multi-window feature also only works with specific apps. You can’t just run any app in multi-window view, only the apps on the Multi Window bar Samsung provides. This prevents third-party apps from breaking, which is what Google was worried about with CyanogenMod’s Cornerstone feature. A feature that only works with a handful of apps on specific devices from a single manufacturer isn’t good enough. This feature needs to work on every Android device — or at least ones with suitably large screens and powerful enough internals. It needs to be an Android platform feature so application developers can ensure their apps will work properly with it on every device. Android developers shouldn’t have to add support for each manufacturer’s own multi-window feature if other manufacturers decide to copy Samsung. Floating Apps Are a Dirty Hack Floating apps also enable real multitasking. Remember that Android allows apps to run in the background while you’re using an app in the foreground. These apps can present interfaces that appear floating above the current app — think of it like using “always on top” to make a window always appear over every other app on a desktop operating system. You can install floating apps to browse the web, take notes, chat, and watch videos while using any app. Only apps specifically designed to run as floating apps will work, so you have to seek them out. Floating apps are also awkward to use because they float over the app you’re using, blocking parts of its interface. Microsoft added floating-window support to Skype for Android. You can have a video conversation and the other person’s face will always appear on your screen, even when you leave the Skype app. Microsoft is using more of Android’s multi-window multitasking power than Google is. Custom ROMs and Root-Only Tweaks Aren’t Acceptable Some custom ROMs are adding this feature to Android. Google threatened to revoke CyanogenMod’s access to the Android Market (now known as Google Play) if they added this feature because it could potentially break third-party apps. Today, other custom ROMs are working on split-screen multitasking. Samsung added their own version to their own devices. You can also get this feature by using a root-only Xposed Framework tweak known as XMultiWindow. If you have root access, you can get multi-window multitasking or any app on your device. This shouldn’t require rooting your device or installing a custom ROM. These third-party solutions often have awkward interfaces and bugs. We need an integrated, supported solution that works the same on every device. Why Multi-Window is Important Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 stands out among tablet operating systems for its powerful multitasking support, allowing you to view several apps side-by-side at the same time. Apple is also reported to be working on adding side-by-side apps to the iPad with iOS 8. On every competitor’s operating system, you’ll be able to view a web page while you write an email, watch a video while you browse the web, or chat with someone while you do anything else. But Android’s still remained frozen in time. Despite all Android’s underlying power — and despite the way Android allows apps to adapt to different screen sizes — Google is resisting adding this feature. Large-screen Android tablets like the Nexus 10 (remember that tablet Google hasn’t updated in over 18 months?) need this feature. So do huge phones, convertibles, laptops, and Android desktops. If tablets are the future of personal computing, we should be able to do more than one thing at a time on our tablets’ big screens. Microsoft, Samsung, and even Apple are realizing this — now it’s Google’s turn. Image Credit: Sergey Galyonkin on Flickr, Karlis Dambrans on Flickr

    Read the article

facebook twitter digg google delicious technorati stumbleupon myspace wordpress linkedin gmail igoogle windows live tumblr viadeo yahoo buzz yahoo mail yahoo bookmarks favorites email print

< Previous Page | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13  | Next Page >