Reality Mechanic has recently launched a companion product to Balsamiq Mockups to help Android developers quickly prototype their UX designs, enabling them to get early feedback from customers and clients. Mockups2Android(m2a) is an Android application that reads Mockup files and converts them into working Android prototypes.  Buttons, checkboxes, lists, maps, camera controls and more all come to life, as you designed them, without the need for a developer. A UX designer can then use an actual Android phone for user testing before committing to expensive development iterations. If you need to make a change to the UX flow, simply complete it in Mockups and m2a will do the rest. It’s that easy! m2a supports all screen sizes and is perfect for prototyping on phones and tablets.

Below an overview of how Mockups2Android works :

About Reality Mechanic

Reality Mechanic is a start up based out of Auckland, New Zealand. We are passionate about streamlining the design process between concept and beautiful UX. Mockup2Android arose out of our need to quickly demonstrate and revise UI designs to our customers. For mobile applications, Balsamiq wasn’t cutting it, so m2a was born.  Our immediate plans are to complete our control support in m2a in addition to completing an iPhone version.

More details can be found on our website at www.realitymechanic.com.

HERNDON, VA – May 9, 2011 – Solving the problem of Android™ apps communicating with other devices, application developers can now use ORBexpress to connect their Android apps to any platform, anywhere, announced Objective Interface Systems, Inc. (OIS). Developers also solve the Android device fragmentation problem by using a standard interface on all platforms. ORBexpress for Android provides an easy-to-use communication protocol for connecting disparate systems. OIS is the world’s leading provider of high-performance communications middleware solutions.

As the popularity of mobile platforms increases, software developers are challenged with connecting and extending existing applications to mobile devices. The current Android SDK has a well-defined development interface for communication within the individual Android device environment but lacks a simple lightweight application-level abstraction for distributed communication. With ORBexpress for Android, integrating these applications across different systems is simplified. Using ORBexpress for Android, developers can now easily connect Android apps, regardless of the Android platform, to applications on desktops, laptops, enterprise servers, Android devices, and other mobile devices using a common protocol.

ORBexpress for Android enables applications to communicate real-time in the background while still maintaining an extremely responsive UI. ORBexpress fully supports multi-threaded distributed applications on all platforms. As a result, developers can communicate off the Android OS without impacting the application’s responsiveness. ORBexpress is a proven and reliable communications infrastructure that enhances time to market. Developers using ORBexpress for Android focus on their unique application development challenges, not building infrastructures.

“Communicating between apps on the Android device is easy, but connecting Android apps to other devices or other applications is a challenge. ORBexpress gives you an easy path to share information across your enterprise, regardless of the computing device,” said Charles Rush, Senior Vice President at OIS.  “ORBexpress simplifies the infrastructure, and shortens the development schedule required to connect Android devices to other applications regardless of location or platform.”

With ORBexpress, Android apps can now interoperate with existing applications everywhere. ORBexpress enables transparent Android app communication to enterprise applications and other devices across architectures, programming languages, and operating systems.

“ORBexpress acts as the communication mechanism on the Android device,” said Chuck Abbott, Senior Product Engineer at OIS. “This technology seamlessly opens up Android Apps to the world with the simplicity of an open standard framework that is widely deployed and well supported.”

About OIS
Objective Interface Systems, Inc. (OIS) is the global provider of communications middleware solutions for distributed and heterogeneous systems. OIS offers ultra-low latency, real-time connectivity software development tools for use in complex and demanding environments, such as aerospace, defense, automotive, telecommunications, financial, medical, and consumer electronics. The ORBexpress product family is widely deployed as a communications framework for inter-process communication.

ORBexpress is a high performance, secure real time implementation of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard.  The ORBexpress product provides a common communication platform that is available on a variety of processors, operating systems, compilers, and in C++, Ada, Java and VHDL for FPGA implementations.  For more information and product evaluations, visit www.ois.com.

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ORBexpress is a registered trademark, and Objective Interface and OIS are trademarks, of Objective Interface Systems, Inc. Android is a trademark of Google, Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Google have just announced App Inventor, a new tool in Google Labs that makes it easy for anyone – programmers and non-programmers, professionals and students – to create mobile applications for Android-powered devices.

App inventor will not only make Application development for Android easier, but it will even change the way people use their mobile phones. We have previously mentioned that Google Android is targeting developers, and today we are discovering that it’s trying to make application development easier even for non-programmers.

No other mobile platform will be able to compete with Google on this side. The only negative point for Android remain the differences/incompatibilities between versions, especially that we started already talking about Android 3 – Gingerbread.

From App inventor website :

To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a developer. App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app’s behavior.

An online development environment will definitely make a revolution for the Android platform, even if you will say that applications will be limited in features compared to advanced programming capabilities.

With App Inventor you can create location-aware applications, for example to help you remember where you parked your car, an app that shows the location of your friends or colleagues at a concert or conference, or your own custom tour app of your school, workplace, or a museum. Or simply apps that use the phone features of an Android phone such texting, camera, sensors, … etc. But if you are more familiar with webservices you will be able even to interact with your favorite websites such Amazon and Twitter… etc.

App Inventor  gallery already include apps such :

DROIDMuni : displays schedules for the San Francisco transit system. After the user selects from one of the transits lines and choosing a direction and particular stop, the application will display the lines next arrival times. Once the user has retrieved the desired arrival times, they are able to set up to four favorites which are saved and stored based on their unique e-mail address. Using the DroidMuni remind feature, the user can set a reminder to be notified when a bus is a specified number of minutes away.

ParkIt : allows users to locate their car on their Android phone. After clicking the “Park It” button, the app stores the users car’s location until the “Find It” Button is clicked. The “Find It” button displays the user’s current location, and the user’s car’s location using latitude and longitude. When the user clicks “Show On Map”, GoogleMaps is activated, and the route to the car is displayed.

Drum Kit : allows the user to hit seven different parts of a full, labeled drum kit and hear each drum’s respective sound. This app allows the user not only to learn more about the drums (i.e. the names and sounds of the drums), but also to have fun and create their own beat.

Super Hero Game : a fantastic Quiz game that tests the users true Super Hero Knowledge. Each screen shows a different character from a superhero world and asks a question pertaining to that picture. The user types in the answer and clicks submit. The program responds with a RIGHT or WRONG and the user is prompted to go on to the next question. The question will change as well as the picture. If the user wants to quit at any time they can GIVE UP and the program closes.

Where’s Speedo : allows a user and a users friends or family find each other. The app detects the user’s location and sends it to the users friends or family using the app. The app allows the user to view the location of another user on a map. It also allows the user to set how often the app sends his/her location.

I think we should expect more amazing apps from this magical inventor ! Behind the app inventor a research work conducted in MIT including the Open Blocks Java library used by the blocks editor, Open Blocks visual programming which is closely related to the Scratch programming language, and Kawa Language Framework and Kawa’s dialect of the Scheme programming language used to translates the visual blocks language for implementation on Android.

App inventor is still invitation only, and you can complete this form to get an invitation when available.

Alexandria, VA, February  05, 2010 – ThinkFun Inc., the leading creator of mind-challenging games, announces the much awaited and highly anticipated launch of its original Rush Hour as an Android application, available for free in the Android Market beginning today.

“Our customers around the world have been asking for a Rush Hour app, the i-phone version was introduced in November 2009, and now the Android application joins the Rush Hour family” says Bill Ritchie, ThinkFun co-founder and CEO.

Rush Hour is the smartest and most challenging logic puzzle on the Android platform and is packed with exclusive features, such as:

All New Challenges — The free application has 35 original challenges and the $1.99 full version has 2500 Challenges — With each version, the challenges range from beginner to expert that will entertain novice players and test advance players with super-hard expert levels.

Perfect Score — Rush Hour for Android tracks the number of moves players make to get out of the traffic jams and compares them to the shortest, most efficient path possible. Even exceptional gamers who manage to solve all of the puzzles can’t claim mastery of Rush Hour until they have tallied the perfect score on each challenge.

Solve Button — No matter where they are in their challenge, the solve button will show players how to solve it, and then put them back where they left off so players can learn and complete the challenge themselves.

“There are plenty of unauthorized Rush Hour knock-offs out there,” says Liz Deakin, Director, Marketing and Sales at ThinkFun “we are the original, the best, and the owner of the Rush Hour brand, the Rush Hour content, and the Rush Hour magic”.  You can find the Rush Hour/Android app for free in the Andoid Market on your handset – categories:  Games – Brain & Puzzle.

About Rush Hour

The story of Rush Hour began almost 15 years ago, when famed Japanese inventor Nob Yoshigahara traveled to America looking for a game company that shared his vision of excellence and his passion for puzzling. Bill Ritchie and ThinkFun co-founder Andrea Barthello knew right away they had found something special in Yoshigahara and his puzzles. The inventor changed ThinkFun forever, and remained a close friend of the company until his death in 2004. The original Rush Hour board game continues to be a world-wide best seller, winning numerous gaming awards including the Best 25 Toys in 25 Years Award by Parent’s Choice Magazine.

About ThinkFun Inc.

ThinkFun Inc., located in Alexandria, VA, is a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of innovative, educational games and services. ThinkFun understands the essential link between “Think” and “Fun” and is committed to developing products that ignite the mind, motivate learning and encourage fun play for all ages whether in school or at home. All of ThinkFun’s products organically teach problem solving and critical thinking skills…preparing today’s kids to be tomorrow’s adults.

Follow ThinkFun: Web: www.ThinkFun.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ThinkFun
Facebook: www.facebook.com (ThinkFun Fan)
YouTube: www.youtube.com/ThinkFunInc

Two years ago, Google revealed the open handset alliance, or the Google’s initiative to dominate the mobile market. The idea sounds crazy for many observers, but since there is a giant called Google behind it, everything is possible. An open source mobile operating system is not something new, many other initiatives are there even before OHA but nobody talk about then … Google knew how to make everybody talk about their Android and it was obvious for everybody that a Google phone is coming someday…

That day is today, and Google have just announced officially the availability of their Nexus One phone the new “Superphone” where “Web meets phone”. That’s already two slogans to market the new nexus one, it’s a Superphone, forget about smartphones. It’s also a new Web experience for mobile users and people who still new to Android.

The hardware is pretty attracting : Thinner and lighter than iPhone, automated brightness adjustment , amazing sensors, noise canceling headphones, 5 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, … and get ready to see all of these features running under Google Android 2.1 !

There are some downs for Nexus One since Android still missing some features mainly the multi-touch support, the Nexus One screen is amazing but seems to be very gourmand in energy so stay near charger or avoid using full-brightness screen all the time.

Google Nexus One is already available at http://www.google.com/phone/

The unlocked edition is available at $529 in US, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore. T-mobile provides also an unlocked edition of Nexus One at $179 with a $80 monthly plan including  500 minutes/unlimited SMS/unlimited data. You can still get the T-mobile version without any plan by paying an additional $379 !This is the Google phone number One, and there will be certainly more Android phones coming in 2010.

The mobile market war is not only about Android and iPhone, many other mobile giants are already in the market including Nokia with their Symbian OS, MSFT with Windows CE, Palm with their amazing WebOS… We don’t forget also that Google have just acquired Admob, the largest mobile advertising network, for $750 million.

If 2009 was the year of Android, what do you think about 2010 ?!