Introduction to Mobile Computing

Dr. Frank McCownHarding University

Spring 2010

An Overview of Mobile Devices and Developing Mobile Applications

Types of Mobile Devices

• Handheld devices• Handheld computers• Personal Digital Assistants• Palmtops• Smartphones

Pocket PC Phone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Modern_Pocket_PC.png

Blackberry Storm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blackberry_Storm.JPG http://www.mobileafrica.net/images/apple-iphone.jpg

iPhone

Archos 5 Internet Tablet

http://techplore.com/technology/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/archos-5-internet-tablet_1.jpg http://homebiss.blogspot.com/2009/11/motorola-droid-iphone-3gs.html

Motorola DROID

http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_nexus_one

Google Nexus One• Retail: $530• Not tied to single provider• 3.7-inch 800 x 400-pixel OLED screen• No support for multitouch• 512 MB of built-in flash memory •Preloaded 4 GB SD card•Ubiquitous voice recognition• 5-megapixel camera with zoom and flash• Navigation system using Google Maps and GPS

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/21/canalys_iphone_outsold_all_windows_mobile_phones_in_q2_2009.html

Mobile Devices – The Good

• Always with the user• Typically GPS capable• Typically have accelerometer• Many apps are free or low-cost

Mobile Devices – The Not-So-Good

• Limited screen size and colors• Limited battery life• Limited processor speed• Limited and slow network access• Limited or awkward input: soft keyboard, phone

keypad, touch screen, or stylus• Limited web browser functionality• Often inconsistent platforms across devices• Warning: Blackberry thumb

Mobile Applications

• What are they?– Any application that runs on a mobile device

• Types– Web apps: run in a web browser• HTML, JavaScript, Flash, server-side components, etc.

– Native: compiled binaries for the device

Native App Development Environments

• Java ME • .NET Compact Framework (C++, C#, VB.NET) for

Windows Mobile• Qualcomm’s BREW (C or C++)• Symbian (C++)• BlackBerry (Java)• Android (Java)• iPhone (Objective-C)• Is having so many choices a good thing?

Development Environments

• Most platforms have an SDK that you can download and build against

• Every platform has an emulator that you can use to test your apps

• Most emulators are configurable to match a variety of mobile devices– Various screen sizes, memory limitations, etc.

xCode IDE & iPhone Emulator

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/Creating_an_iPhone_App/index.html

Eclipse and Android Emulator