Hi Sebastian
As an owner of an open source HTC Magic Android device, I'm pleased that
you mentioned it. As an aside, though, its user interface makes me
appreciate how good the interface for my iPod Touch is - something I talked
about in my ironical description of the device as "This Year's Technology
That Has Blown Me Away":
http://www.slideshare.net/lisbk/this-years-technology-that-has-blown-me-away
One related application area in which the Android is ahead of the iPhone
is augmented reality. I tried the Layar app for the first time last week
when I was in Oxford for a conference. While sat in the Eagle and Child
waiting for a colleague to arrive Layar showed me the location of other pubs
and historic buildings in the vicinity (there seem to be a lot in Oxford :-)
and also provided access to Wikipedia entries, geo-located Flickr photos,
etc.
The next day at the conference I used the app to try and find people who
were tweeting at the Said Business School. Didn't really work - but a
possible use case for the future. There's a screen image in my post at:
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/what-no-event-hashtag/
Helen has pointed out the accessibility potential for such mobile
devices. And this is an example of where I would disagree with the view
that all applications must be universally accessible on all devices. If you
have a large potential user base of iPhone users and development is
affordable (as Paul Boag speculates is the case) then I think it would be
mistaken not to develop a native app from a point of principle. But I do
agree with you that access should be available from other devices, perhaps
via a Web interface.
Brian
--------------------------------
Brian Kelly
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK, BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +44 1225 383943
Web site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Managing institutional Web services [mailto:WEBSITE-INFO-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sebastian Rahtz
> Sent: 23 September 2009 11:37
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: iPhone Apps
>
> On 23 Sep 2009, at 11:21, Dan Martin wrote:
>
> >
> > reasons demand for instance an iPhone app. Plus newer browsers are
> > starting
> > to allow geo-positioning data to be passed from the handset to the
> > web-app
> > (Safari does this on iPhone), and so that allows for Location Based
> > Services
> > via web-apps (e.g. simple example - plotting user on campus map)
>
> This is obviously essential functionality, and it does currently need
> a range of approaches.
> Google gears fixes some of it, and there is even a way of getting up
> info from a Blackberry.
>
> Don't forget the poor folks with relatively old devices with no GPS at
> all. As a backup, we allow users to say where they are by text input
> (eg address, postcode etc)
> --
> Sebastian Rahtz
> Information Manager, Oxford University Computing Services
> 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone +44 1865 283431
>
> Sólo le pido a Dios
> que el futuro no me sea indiferente
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