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Google Tries To Make It Easy For Anyone To Create Android Apps
from the will-apple-do-that? dept
While Apple continues to want to act as a major gatekeeper for apps on the iPhone, Google continues to go in the other direction with Android. Its latest trick is to release a super simple GUI interface for designing personal apps for Android phones, with the idea of making it easy for anyone to create some software. This has been the holy grail of quite a few projects over the years: this concept of "situated" software. To date, most of the attempts to create such programming tools haven't gone very far (or, at the least, haven't been as widely adopted). Most of those tools have been for the desktop or the web, so it will be interesting to see if it's a different situation for smartphones. I would imagine one of the biggest barriers is mental, not technical, where people who just aren't programmers never even think of the idea of creating their own software. Still, it will be worth watching to see if anything useful comes from this offering. I like the fact that one student testing the program created a "LifeAlert-type" "Help, I've fallen!" app already, which uses the accelerometer on the phone to sense if someone is falling, and then automatically dials a number for help...
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Sounds like a formula for false positives. If someone sits down too fast ...
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There would still be a possibility of false positives getting through, but fewer with such a warning system.
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If the meter detects someone fell too fast the phone can make a siren or other loud noise indicating a fall. If the phone possessor is OK s/he can pick up the phone and cancel the call out. If the possessor of the phone does not cancel the call within a reasonable period of time (some preset time, could be 3 min?) the phone calls out.
Also, one must consider the potential that the phone will break if someone falls or that the signal might not make it through if the person is down near the ground?
The phone possessor can have the option of determining a non response time duration before calling out and sudden velocity change/impact magnitude before the phone deems that someone fell.
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http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5730732.html
It's ridiculous. No regard for prior art or obviousness.
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Ah, right. Fixed.
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Obviously you haven't spent much time with the kind of people who would use such an app. Sitting down too fast? They may as well have fallen down. If the first number dialed is innocuous (caregiver of sorts) this is a non-issue. It'd be nice if there were a list of fallback contacts, finally landing on 911 if all else fails.
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Thief
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Android Dark Helmet Detector
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More information
Mike, why don't you provide a link to some of the tech specs? Otherwise, I see this as a fluff piece, and we'll assume that 2007 just called, and Apple wants their widget development kit back.
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Geeking out a bit
One of the common problems in programming in the business space is to make something 'too generic'. The idea that you can take pieces of applications and plug them in, with specific orders, has been around for a long time, as your (really!) old posts indicate.
The problem comes that when you can do anything and everything with a system like this, people want to use it for everything at once, which makes a convoluted mess. That and it ends up being just as complicated as the original coding language used to make it. NOW, there is room for improvement sometimes, if you can make it less general and more specific for an application... But the tendency is to go the other route.
(Some reference. Careful, it may be hard for a non-programmer to understand:
http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The_Inner-Platform_Effect.aspx (Basic description)
http://thedailywtf.com/articles/the-expert-system.aspx (Example of it becoming as complex as the language)
http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The_Enterprise_Rules_Engine.aspx (Example of it becoming a convoluted mess, with the correct 'non-generic' code being presented succinctly at the top for extra irony points.))
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Re: Geeking out a bit
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Re: Geeking out a bit
http://scratch.mit.edu/
The one thing I don't understand is why people like to type.
Connecting boxes is a lot more easier than writing things up and basically do the same things the written GUI must die!
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Re: Re: Geeking out a bit
BTW I already requested to use the beta this morning after I read the first story on it.
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What for?
"google is somewhat lacking in morals these days
...
it is all bottom line."
Sorry that Google isn't a charity, but that doesn't make them immoral.
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I wrote about it when they re-applied. Not much new in the fact that China said Ok.
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New RAD Tool...
To me, this is no different than how C (or current variants) allow you to embed/extend with assembly code, but just at a higher level.
In the end, anything that prevents you from re-creating the wheel and still maintains some flexibility is good.
Anyone that has developed in the newer Microsoft C#, .NET and so on certainly wouldn't go back to a non-GUI layout tool and so on.
In the end, this is another positive notch in promoting the Android platform versus Apple's approach of selling closed devices. If Google can execute on their iTunes type service and the new Android Tablet and has even a bit of modest success with Android TV and Android for vehicles, etc., Apple is done. However, Android desperately needs iTunes type functionality and a tablet ASAP to compete going forward.
Freedom
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i am just surprised you arent making as much noise about this now as you were when they were "standing up for the internet" or whatever it was you were cheering them on with.
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Re: Geeking out a bit
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then don't have the app call 911. have it call someone who won't fine you.
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glad i am not the only one that irks.
the one that drives me absolutely nuts is "ATM machine."
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PIN number
IP protocol
IRC chat
NIC card
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How many other people came up with this idea?
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Re: Android Dark Helmet Detector
Try pointing it toward the north west ...
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Um. I never said they were standing up for internet freedom or cheered them on. When they originally announced moving out of China, I noted that the public reasons didn't make sense (http://techdirt.com/articles/20100112/2020157718.shtml) and when they reapplied, I pointed out the fact that they pulled the redirect (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100629/0019099996.shtml)despite your claim I did not.
Will you admit you were wrong? Of course not...
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Re: Re: Geeking out a bit
Indeed, there are a few examples of where it works. (I can even think of a couple of games that used this concept.) And come to think of it, this is a pretty smart move, because at some point, new coders will want to do something this new tool doesn't allow with its building blocks, so they will look at the actual SDK for building more complex designs.
The only warning is that saying that this interface prevents developers from making code that is more convoluted is not true. Trust me, people will make things convoluted in any programming language, even gui-based ones. :)
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Medical Alert App
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What's so great about android ?
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