New Tools, New Toys ...

In an earlier blog post we mentioned that Lansa had a new mobile-oriented app coming out that looked promising. Well LongReach has now been released, we've loaded it up on our iPad and from what we've seen so far it looks good. One of our clients had been "shopping" for a low-cost solution for document distribution to their mobile sales force. It looks like LongReach may fit that role nicely and at a price of $0, it certainly meets the low-cost criteria. We'll report back once we've had a bit more time to explore. One thing we will say though, the documentation that's installed on the iPad is a great improvement over that of most apps we've seen. Once we've had to use it in the heat of battle we'll be better able to comment on how useful it is in practice, but it looks good and appears to be comprehensive.

The only obvious downside that we can see is that it requires four (?) ports to be open on the firewall, so those of you who live under the sway of the local Mordac may have to usesome persuasion to get them opened up so you can give it a spin.

Another recent announcement, this time from Profound Logic is that their new workbench for Profound UI can be plugged in to RDP. That is great news for their users as they can now develop all of their RPG code within a single environment. Hopefully this will be a growing trend and we'll see more and more IBM i tool vendors take advantage of the RDP tool set.

We have a new toy in the family--our first smartphone. Since we are both Mac users and also have iPods and an iPad, it might surprise you that we don't already have an iPhone. Trouble is there is no cross-border data plan that we can use and to get an iPhone would require that we add a data plan at $50 a month to our already exorbitant monthly cross border plan. And that would not give us any data access while traveling in the U.S. That just seemed like too much money for too little functionality to us. So when we saw a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go Android phone on sale at Best Buy the other week for $75 including the first month, we figured why not give it a shot.

The good news is that we now have data access while in the U.S. and, for that matter, a backup GPS. We can even use Skype to call back to Canada (and it works very well we might add). The bad news is that we really don't like the Android interface in the Samsung model we have. We know different phone manufacturers have different Android implementations, but this one is just not very intuitive. We may not have an iPhone but on those occasions when we have borrowed one, we found it very easy and intuitive to use. Same for the iPad and iPod touch, which we do have. At least this version of Android just doesn't cut it. We know we have many Android fans among our friends, but we can't help feeling it is the ability to code for it in Java and not have to pay a developer license fee to Apple that is the main attraction--it's hard to believe it's the user interface!

Comments

[J Taylor]

I guess when it comes to UI, 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. I have a Droid X and would describe the UI as the closest to perfect I have ever seen. I cannot compare it to an iPhone since Apple's PC requirements kept me from ever looking at one.

[Jon Paris]

As far as I know there are no Mac requirements any more. The latest version of iOS did away with that.

[ProfoundLogic]

Hi Jon and Susan! Thanks for mentioning our new RDP plug-in on your blog. One thing though, looks like the link in the article isn't working... Anyone who's interested can learn more about accessing the plug-in in this press release: http://profoundlogic.com/press.rpgsp?prdate=2011-11-14

[J Taylor]

When I went looking for a real smart phone, you had to run Windows or Mac to use an iPhone, so I went with a Droid. I had heard that Apple was going to drop that requirement but did not realize that it was already done.

I would say the fact that iPhone development requires a Mac is a bigger obstacle then the $99US subscription fee.

[Aaron Bartell]

I am a fanboy of both Android and iOS. I have an Android phone, an iPad2 and do all my development on a Mac (OSX Lion).

Overall I would say Apple does have the best user experience. Something to definitely pay attention to because that's a platform you want to be developing for. But Android is growing so insanely fast that I also have to make sure to pay attention to that space. As others have noted, developing for Android is significantly easier (in my opinion), but that might not always be the case. Things like PhoneGap.com will make it much easier to develop a single app that runs on both Android and iOS. I have completed my first simple PhoneGap app and was able to run it on both Android and iPad without changing a line of code, nor did I have to write a line of Objective-C (what a relief!!)

Anyways, glad you have a smart phone. It changed my life for the better and worse :-)

AaronBartell.com

[J Taylor]

I think it is safe to say that both Android and iPhone are here to stay, and we developers will have to deal with it.

Aaron, funny that you should mention PhoneGap. A few weeks ago I was tasked with evaluating the possibility of developing connected apps for both platforms. I posted the question online, and Scott Klement posted a link to a discussion given by someone else at a user group meeting that mentioned PhoneGap briefly. It looks promising and it is encouraging that someone has had preliminary success with it. I must confess that I was a little disappointed that PhoneGap does not eliminate the Mac requirement for iPhone development, although I understand completely that is beyond their control.

[Aaron Bartell]

>I must confess that I was a little disappointed that PhoneGap does not eliminate the Mac requirement for iPhone development, although I understand completely that is beyond their control.

Actually, there is a commercial aspect to PhoneGap that I believe could help you with this. Check this out:

https://build.phonegap.com

Note I haven't yet used PhoneGap Build but may do so in the future as my adoption of it increases.

Let me know if you have any questions with PhoneGap dev as I have been through the hoos a little (haven't done extensive work, but have developed and published one app: http://bit.ly/u0BYUE)

AaronBartell.com

[Jon Paris]

Just drink the koolaid and buy a Mac. I've never regretted it and I'm pretty sure Aaron would agree. Mac is to PCs as IBM i is to ordinary computers.

[J Taylor]

No arguments here (but I don't control the purse strings). Personally, I start with the assumption that non Microsoft /Windows products are of higher quality . Unfortunately, corporate IT is inexplicably enamored with Windows, and forcing a superior platform to an inferior mold can be a bumpy ride.

[J Taylor]

Aaron, missed your post. PhoneGap Build still requires a Mac.
https://build.phonegap.com/docs/ios-builds

[Aaron Bartell]

JTaylor, thanks for finding that. Note you can pick up a certified use Mac to accomplish this. For example: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_mini

Not inexpensive, but not that bad if you are looking to write iOS apps (investment).

AaronBartell.com

[J Taylor]

I figure the Mac is going to happen. iPhone is just too big to ignore, and there isn't really another way to get there.

Back to the iPhone vs Android. All iPhones are made by Apple to the same performance and qualify standards. Not so with Android, which are made by everyone under the sun. My Droid X was the flagship device when it was released. That might, at least partially, explain why I hold my Android phone in higher regard.