Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms

Seems just the other day - actually it was two weeks ago - that we divined that HP, imagining blowing Google away, would pull out the stops to get the webOS that it bought, put in a tablet that failed in the market, dropped, then open sourced - life's funny like that - in shape to publish the code in stages. And what do you know - surprise, surprise - HP Wednesday committed to a timetable for getting the thing out in steps by September under the lenient Apache 2.0 license. See, here's the schedule: Timing Milestone/Code published January Enyo 2.0 and Enyo source code Apache License, Version 2.0 February Intended project governance model QT WebKit extensions JavaScript core UI Enyo widgets March Linux standard kernel Graphics extensions EGL LevelDB USB extensions April Ares 2.0 Enyo 2.1 Node services July System manager ("Luna") System manager bus Core applicatio... (more)

webOS Doomed from Conception: NYT

The TouchPad tablet that HP brought to market last year only to kill it a few weeks later for lack of sales was doomed to fail according a story in the New York Times Tuesday. HP subsequently wrote off a nasty $1.6 billion to cover the cost of its folly. It had paid $1.2 billion in mid-2010 to buy Palm and the webOS operating system running the tablet. The Times' story, which quotes the former senior director of software at Palm Paul Mercer by name as well as several other anonymous ex-HP and Palm employees, claims the widget - like the Palm phones HP also discontinued - didn't... (more)

Top Five Mobile Challenges for CIOs in 2012

2012 is shaping up to be a challenging year for CIOs as they figure out how to safely embrace the slew of mobile devices entering their networks. Smartphones and tablets are seriously threatening the IT status quo, and CIOs who fail to adapt and get ahead of this technological upheaval risk getting pink slips and seeing themselves replaced by more agile colleagues. Clearly, 2012 is the year that organizations of all shapes and sizes must come to terms with their mobile problem. Here are five serious mobile challenges CIOs will have to deal with in 2012: 1. BYOD stressing networks... (more)

InterDigital Gives Up Looking for a Buyer

Remember InterDigital? That's the Pennsylvania patent-licensing company that hired Evercore Partners and Barclays Capital last summer to sell its patents, raising punters hopes that Google would buy it to console itself for losing the $4.5 billion Nortel mobile patent auction to Apple, Microsoft and friends. Players bid its stock up 50 bucks to a high of $82.50 in three days on such speculation little suspecting Google would turn around and buy Motorola Mobility and its patents a few weeks later for $12.5 billion. Well, Monday evening InterDigital's board announced that it was gi... (more)

Book Review: Essential Windows Phone 7.5 App Development with Silverlight

This book starts with a great introduction to the Windows phones. It introduces Metro design language, hardware specifications, input patterns, the application lifecycle, out-of-the-box services, live tiles, and the marketplace. By the time you are done with the introduction you have a solid understanding of the Windows phone context. The book continues with ten more chapters. They include Writing Your First Phone Application, XAML Overview, Controls, Designing for the Phone, Developing for the Phone, Phone Integration, Databases and Storage, Multitasking, Services, and The Marke... (more)