Price: $199 (with contract), $399 (without contract)

Internet: 4G/LTE enabled

Operating System: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

Size (H X W X D): 135.5 x 67.94 x 9.47 mm (LTE), 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94 mm (HSPA+)

Display Size: 4.5″ Super AMOLED

Memory: 32 GB (LTE), 16 GB (HSPA+)

Processor Speed: Dual-Core 1.2 GHz

Camera: 5 MP (continuous auto focus), 1.3 MP (front facing)

Video Camera: HD 1080p 1920×1080 resolution @ 24fps (rear facing)

Overview

I used the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for several weeks on and off. I must first disclose that my day-to-day phone is an iPhone 4S. However, I’ll try to make this review about the Galaxy Nexus and not about the iPhone versus the Android operating system. Some of my comparisons will use the iPhone though, because that’s what I know best. Also, since I co-own Appsolute Genius, I’ll be using an IQ scale in my ratings (Genius, Above Average, Average, Below Average, and Mentally Handicapped).

The packaging of the Galaxy Nexus was a rather plain white box.  It didn’t make the immediate impression of other phones I’ve used.  However, I must say that my experience was actually very good with this phone.  My impression was that this was a definitely my favorite Android device to date.  I wouldn’t mind using the Galaxy Nexus everyday.  It’s does have a few flaws and I wouldn’t trade it for an iPhone 4S, but it’s a very nice device.

One of the things I noticed with the Galaxy Nexus is the sheer size of the device.  This is very big phone that comes with a beautiful screen but is hard to hold.

I also setup the Face Unlock feature of Android 4.0.  As a bit of a geek, I was really excited to try it.  Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the hype of the commercials.  You are supposed to be able to hold it up to your face and have the phone unlock instead of typing in a code.  It just doesn’t work reliably.  I did get better at it but I feel like it will confuse and frustrate the average user.  Finally, with 32GB on the LTE version of the phone, that is plenty of space for most people.

Overall, I wouldn’t say that the Galaxy Nexus is a Genius, but I would say that it’s Slightly Above Average!

Hardware (Above Average)

When I first opened the box, I thought this might be the biggest screen I had ever seen on a phone.  It turns out that it is about the biggest on the market!  The screen is very nice actually and very bright.  However, in practical use, I often had to use two hands to do certain things — this is not a phone for someone with small hands.  The overall feel of the phone was very solid though.  It didn’t feel cheap and plastic like many Android phones.  It also has a slight curve to the screen that feels very nice when talking on the phone.

Speed (Above Average)

A 1.2 GHz Dual-Core processor is very, very fast but not groundbreaking these days. However, I don’t think you’ll find the Galaxy Nexus to be slow.  I did notice a lag is when I turn the orientation of the phone for portrait to landscape. I do believe that is more or an Android issue as it happens on other Android devices I own.  I also noticed some lag in moving from one app to another or in using the web.  This was a bit of a surprise due to the processor in the device.

Low Light Photo from Galaxy Nexus

Camera/Video Camera (Average)

When is the last time you carried a point and shoot camera with you? It’s been a few years for me, and I’m a big amateur photographer (just checkout my Facebook page and you’ll see). My phone MUST have a good camera!

Low Light Photo from iPhone

When using the camera, I thought the speed was very good. It was very comparable to an iPhone 4S.  I was a bit surprised that they only included a 5 MP camera so I lent it to a customer to computer analyze the pictures.  They confirmed what my eyes had told me.  This phone wasn’t up to par with the iPhone 4S and actually wasn’t as good as the iPhone 4.  That’s kind of shocking with Android’s flagship device!

As for the video camera, it was a very similar experience to the camera.  The frame rate of the camera was 24 fps (frames per second) compared to the 30 fps of the iPhone 4S.  This led to a noticeable improvement in the quality of the recordings.

Battery Life/Charging (Average)

Most people who’ve owned a 4G/LTE Android phone have realized that the battery life is not up to par as many need recharging after 5-6 hours. As a business user, my basic requirement is that my phone makes it through the day without needing to be charged. The Galaxy Nexus doesn’t really measure up in battery life.  I seemed to go through the battery quickly every day and not get to the end of the day.  However, if you carried a car charger or spare battery around, you should be fine.

This post was written by Appsolute Genius’s Martha Jean Schindler. You can follow her on Twitter at @mjschindler.

I usually find it difficult to relax, both mentally and physically.  My brain never wants to shut up and shut off, and sometimes my back seems bent on pressing a diamond out of the carbon between my should blades.

You probably know this feeling too. It’s especially annoying on weekends, when all you really want to do is chill out, relax, and get ready to take on the next week with renewed vigor and enthusiasm.

Well, I have a solution for you.

This is my personal cocktail of apps that I use to reset my mind and refocus my energy on what really matters.  These apps help me empty my mind of extraneous stress debris, refill it with inspiring ideas, and ease back into a fun and functional groove.

Step 1: Relax with Andrew Johnson

I discovered this app a few years ago when I worked in a stressful job at a call center (funny how all I really need to say to appropriately convey the amount of stress involved at the job are the words “call center”). After 8 hours of making and answering oft-unpleasant phone calls, I arrived home each day as an irritable bundle of frayed nerves.  This started to negatively impact my personal life.  I mean, even my cat complained that I was grumpily scratching behind her ears.  This just wouldn’t do.

I needed something to help me chill out — something like yoga, maybe.  I recalled that some of the moments in which I truly felt the most relaxed and at peace came at the end of a college yoga class.  Our instructor would have us lie on our backs, close our eyes, and then she would systematically tell us to isolate and relax different muscle groups. The combination of soothing music, cool floor, and attentive release of previously ignored muscle tensions resulted in a state of pure, rejuvenating relaxation. This is what I needed.

Since my initial idea to hire a personal yogi to follow me around each day and bark orders at me to relax just wasn’t feasible, I resorted to plan B: the app store.

I scoured the app store for a solution to my problems. I found many apps that promised to fill my ears with calming sounds of ocean waves gently lapping on the beach, bird songs blissfully twittering through the trees, or white noise softly whispering imaginary sweet nothings.

But I didn’t want that. I wanted my yogi, my relaxation coach.  I wanted… Andrew Johnson.

Wait, don’t laugh.  You can’t underestimate the power of Andrew Johnson’s soothing, accented voice (which, incidentally, relaxes me further by reminding me of past and future vacations in Europe and the UK). He guides you through the same process of relaxing major and minor muscle groups that my favorite yoga teacher used. He even helps you visualize a physical journey into… well, I never remember that part, because I’m usually contentedly asleep before he has a chance to finish.

The app lets you choose two settings, one to gently wake you up after a self-determined period of relaxation and one to lull you to sleep and leave you there. Since my primary problem was an inability to shake phone-call-induced fight-or-flight feelings long enough to fall asleep, I always listened to Andrew Johnson right before I fell into a deep, relaxed asleep.

Now that I work for Appsolute Genius, I no longer need to listen to the app before going to bed. Instead, I use it to clear my mind before moving on to new projects, or to help me work through a complicated thought. The more I use it, the better it works.

Step 2: Information with Stitcher’s Podcasts

I’m a podcast junkie. In fact, I just checked my stats on Stitcher, and in the past few days I’ve listed to 57 podcast episodes. That’s just ridiculous.

I wake up in the morning and immediately listen to news podcasts in lieu of reading a newspaper or getting sucked into the infinite news spiral of the intarwebz. Then I pump myself up with marketing industry news from a slew of marketing and advertising podcasts.

But for the weekend, I need more fun stuff.  I need podcasts with stories, technology, creativity, and even (dare I say it?) FOOD. This informs me AND puts me in a good mood.

I’ve used many apps to listen to podcasts, but Stitcher is my favorite.  It automatically updates and streams the podcasts I subscribe to. I can create my own podcast stations according to any parameter I choose, for example by topic (marketing, news) or provider (TWIT, NPR).  I can also easily share the podcasts I’m listening to via Twitter and Facebook.  And I’ve just recently started taking advantage of their “Front Page” feature, which helps you easily run through audio clips of top news.

Basically, Stitcher is awesome, and if you harbor any love for podcasts, I strongly recommend that you check it out.

Step 3: Inspiration with Spotify

Oh. My. Gawd. Nothing has satisfied my music listening needs over the past year than Spotify. I once went through this crazy, short-lived phase of cutting out all unnecessary expenses from my life (I know, right? Ridiculous.) and eliminated cable TV, Internet at my apartment, and even my Netflix subscription.

But I couldn’t bring myself to break things off with my Spotify premium subscription.

When I’m not listening to podcasts, I’m listening to music. And that music almost always come from Spotify, whether it’s on my phone or on my laptop.  I can find just about any recording I want, even most obscure ones, in their vast database (and honestly, if I can’t find it, I probably don’t need it).

Although many people find the feature annoying, I love the fact that my Facebook feed can feature all the songs I listen to on Spotify. Maybe I just don’t have enough sense to be ashamed of showing the world that a self-professed music snob still occasionally listens to the Spice Girls.  Or maybe I just really like how easy it is to share music with my friends on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and more.

Spotify probably won’t satiate every music lover’s cravings.  If you adore vinyl albums and eschew the sound quality of mp3′s, Spotify might make you gag. But for a girl like me who loathes physical media of all kinds and wants to have everything floating in the cloud just within fingertip reach, Spotify is the answer.

The Romantic Weekend Wrap Up

There’s a surprising lesson in this relaxing weekend app cocktail we just trysted through.

The secret to an amazing mobile app is as simple as the secret to a successful romance: be something that someone can’t live without.

Make something that integrates so thoroughly into someone’s life, that solves so many problems so perfectly, that she can’t imagine going one weekend without it.

That’s your challenge. Go forth and do it.

This post was written by Appsolute Genius’s Martha Jean Schindler. You can follow her on Twitter at @mjschindler.

I have always been a music and sound freak.

Back in college I worked as a sound system roadie for a big rock act. I collected well over 10,000 vinyl albums and read every thing I could about rock and roll. I went on to teach the History of Rock and Roll as adult enrichment at a private college for a bit. I had a weekly radio show for a couple of years purveying “Blues, Soul and Rock n Roll.” I spent years making mix tapes and CDs so my businesses would always be full of music.

You can probably understand why anything that plays music well gets my attention — especially if it lets me take my own peculiar music tastes with me on the go, like the Apple iPhone.

The trick then becomes getting this portable music player (that conveniently also makes phone calls) sound like my blasting big system at home.

So when I see press releases that promote mobile apps that enhance the sound of your iPhone, I perk up my ears.

Two apps that got my attention recently are Air Studios’ AirVinyl and SRS’ MyTunes.

Air Studios’ AirVinyl

The press release for AirVinyl says that Air Studios, founded by Sir George Martin in 1969, worked with the developers at Bappz Ltd. to “add retro harmonics and ambiance” to the songs you play on your iPhone.

George Martin is the superb engineer who produced all of the Beatle’s recordings. Anything that would help your iPhone sound like Martin’s version of what records should sound like should be great. So I went and got it, for 99 cents.

The look and actions are perfect. You are presented with a classic turntable and tone arm with woodgrain and brushed metal detailing. You choose your songs from a crate like flipping through vinyl albums. The nicely shadowed tonearm responds to your touch and moves where you place it on the “record.”

Putting a record on the turntable and moving the tonearm onto the record starts the song with the distinctive sound of needle on the lead in groove of an old vinyl platter, complete with scratches, which continue throughout the music. The ambient warmth and enhancement do lend a retro sense to the proceedings, and overall I find it a nice experience. There is also the choice to use a cassette deck interface which allows you to make or play playlists from iTunes.

The only problem is, sometimes the app doesn’t work. You’ll put an album on and the starting scratch begins and one note plays — then nothing. Also, the cassette area isn’t at all intuitive in how it works or how to even get off that screen.

I want to love this app, and I do use it occasionally, but the glitches make me disappointed. There are no help screens, even online. They have recently added AirPlay capability and there is a nice iPad version. Your mileage with this app may be better than mine.

SRS’ MyTunes

SRS Labs make great software and hardware sound enhancement tools for computers and mobile devices. Their psychoacoustic 3D audio processing technology, named WOW, has been around for a while and I actually paid for it several years ago for iTunes. So when I saw SRS had come out with a audio enhancement for iPhone and iPod, I had to get it.

MyTunes is a player with all manner of features that give you powerful control over your sounds. The free version includes the player, DJ style transitions between songs and limited access to Pro features. Upgrading to the  $6.99 Pro version unlocks their WOW HD adjustment or advanced multi sliders and knobs that add punch to vocals, surround space, “TruBass” and definition. Unlike many sound apps, these features actually make a big difference.

While using this app, you may have to adjust your volume to keep from distorting. There are 10 and 3 band equalizers and presets; a normalization button to keep play levels consistent over all your songs. There are settings to build workout and party mixes basked on settable beats per minute.

You can also set the speed of playback which somehow doesn’t change the vocal pitch. This can be handy for speeding up audiobooks or podcasts or to slow down a guitar part to learn.

There are all sorts of settings for changing the way your brain perceives the sound experience. SRS’ technologies make two speaker seem like a 3D surround system. You can choose what sort of speaker you are using from earphones (in ear and not) and different sized external speakers.

Here is a nice review of the app from MacWorld – http://tinyurl.com/c2vo73n

This is a truly effective app that does indeed enhance your listening experience. In fact, I have started using it instead of the standard Apple music player. I feel like it was worth the money to upgrade.

However, like AirVinyl, you occasionally get to places in the app and don’t know how to get back, or you see features that you want to use but have to sort of luck up on where they were located in the app. But I like the sound so much I just work around these frustrations. A less effective app with these annoyances would have already been deleted from my device.

There are other interesting sound apps around of varying quality and value, including one or two that look a lot like AirVinyl. There is even one called iVJ lite that does just one thing. It adds vinyl scratches to whatever music you are listening to in other apps. It consists of one big knob to increase the presence. It actually provides more use and value than many of the other sound enhancement apps I looked at.

What keeps coming to my mind as I review these sound apps is that all apps are still something of a wild frontier. While Apple does police their store and require some consistency, there is nothing like the “Human Interface Standards” Apple maintained for a decade or so, standards which assured you that if you knew one Mac program you knew 70% of all other Mac programs. As mobile apps increase in popularity and use, perhaps competition will weed out sloppy or confusing controls and will increase ease of use.   Whatever the case, we at Appsolute Genius will continue to see consistent intuitive user friendliness as a value we insist on.

This post was written by Appsolute Genius’s Paul Canzoneri.

As I sat at my first mobile development conference in the basement of a hotel, I listened to a speaker talk to us about creating connected apps.

He said that as app developers we can safely assume that the user will always have 24×7 high-speed network access.

Of course, none of us in the basement classroom could get a connection and I learned my first important lesson – know your audience.

And as an app developer, you also have to know how to properly serve content to your audience.

So how do you know how to serve content to your audience with your app?

For some applications the answer is easy.  When a company wants to make almost-never-changing data available then we can just store it locally in a native app.  But this is not usually the case.

As developers, we want to give our users the best experience AND the latest data.  So how can we achieve the balance?

Why not web apps?

With the advent of HTML5 and the ability to develop web applications that look great on mobile devices, this might seem like the perfect answer.

Unfortunately, web apps have their limitations:

• Navigation is slow
• They don’t have a presence in the app store
• They can’t access anything on the device such as the camera or contacts list
• They are completely non-functional when a user has slow or no connectivity

If your audience is a sales team that travels to remote unconnected areas, you’ll likely not want to put your product data and prices into a mobile web app.

If your user is likely going to be home on a high-speed wi-fi then it could be appropriate, but you’ll still have to work with the limitations.

What about a Hybrid app?

Hybrid apps combine the functionality and user interface elements of native apps with the contents of a web apps.

This resolves some of the issues that web apps have and can be  ideal if you already have a mobile site and want to include the existing web content.

User content giants such as Facebook and Netflix maximize their use of the native user interface elements to boost performance, usability, and device integration when delivering their content.

However, you’ll likely want to avoid having every screen load a webpage, and if your app only needs to get a few pieces of data or some sets of data, creating a web app from scratch then wrapping it in a native app is often a time consuming and unnecessary step for very little or even negative return.

Can I host my data?

For large companies that already have the server infrastructure to host and make their data available to the internet via web service, this is ideal.

A native app can query the web service and populate the data in the application.  Without downloading and rendering a webpage in a browser, the application is much more responsive and navigation feels snappy and natural.

If there is limited or no connectivity then other parts of the application can still function, and the developer has the option of storing some or all of the data locally and just refreshing when necessary.

Data syncing is perfect for allowing someone stuck in a basement conference room to run upstairs, pull the latest data, and then have access to it when they have to head back down for another talk.

However, if you don’t have your data in this format already, and don’t have the infrastructure to handle hosting it yourself, what are your options?

What about the Cloud?

So we’ve determined that we want to make data available to app users, and the cloud sounds perfect.  It’s elastic, very available, and we don’t have to deal with server hardware.

Simple?

Put your data on the cloud and create a web service front-end, and then maybe a portal so you can easily have someone in the company update the data, then create an app to display that data.

Traditionally, this is when your simple app idea turns into a huge project with more complexity and costs than you imagined.

However, if you need more than occasional updates, you’ll have take the plunge into either hosting it yourself or creating a cloud backend.  Enter BaaS.

What is BaaS?

Having gone through the previous options, I think it’s fairly clear that there is a need here for simple, cost effective ways to create a backend for an app.

BaaS is Backend as a Service and it’s a fairly new option for app developers.  It simplifies the process of putting data in the cloud and pulling it into your app, much the same way WordPress simplified getting your website created.

With the basic infrastructure and common pieces already in place, the developer can just add the data, customize where it’s needed and get back to doing what we do best – app development.

This is perfect for smaller  companies or budget constrained corporate departments that were previously priced out of having dynamic, data rich apps.

So there you have it:

Content served with a balance between best experience AND the latest data.

So you’ve finally done it.

You’ve decided your business needs a mobile app to fully engage your customer.

Now your only lingering worry is, “How will I get my loyal web customers to use my application?”

The old adage of, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” comes to mind, and to some extent it’s true. Even if your users download your application, you can’t make them use it. This is doubly true if you already have a vibrant web community use to visiting your site through  the browser,  or a passed link.

However, with a little planning and thoughtful design, the Android OS can help direct users to actually use the application.

Users are sometimes given a choice of how to open links.

Maybe you have seen this happen before. You get a text message or email on your phone with a YouTube link. When you click on it, you get a popup asking how you want to view the link, for example either with a web browser or Google’s YouTube app. There is no guarantee that you, as the user, are going to choose the YouTube app, but you were given a very clear opportunity.

So how did Google pull it off? Hidden APIs, private tools sets?

The answer, none of the above! Google, like many other good developers, has leveraged the power of Android ‘intents’ to direct users to their app.

Let’s dig into this. What exactly is an Android intent? Here’s a quote directly from the source:

“Intent messaging is a facility for late run-time binding between components in the same or different applications. The intent itself… is a passive data structure holding an abstract description of an operation to be performed”¹

Basically, when designing Android, Google wanted to create an eco-system in which all apps are on the same footing and can replace any core component. They didn’t want to lock users into using only one kind of text message service or phone dialer. Any developer can write and release their own replacements for almost every device action. Intents allow a generic way for the OS to describe an action and then choose the best application to perform it.

Let’s say you are writing a tiny email app. You want to support opening email attachments, but don’t have thousands of hours to devote to a media gallery or PDF interpreter.

No worries, tired developer. Just create an intent with a reference to your file location and its file type and ask the OS to handle it. Android will check all the installed apps for intents that match your request. When it finds the best match, it will launch and open your file. If there are many apps that support your action, the user will be given a list and asked to choose what they prefer. With this intent system a developer can leverage existing activities and share information between applications.

Now that you understand how the OS can direct the usage of apps using intents, you can put them to use in your own app. You can define intents in your application to best handle requests made to your website URLs. If your website uses well-structured, semantic URLs, you can easily build intents to mirror your site’s basic navigation structure and associate them with activities in your app.

Now users will be prompted to use your app whenever they follow a link from your site. This will drive users into your app and give them the best possible experience with the power of an application.
¹http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/intents/intents-filters.html

Apple Inc. (Photo credit: marcopako )

This guest post was written by Appsolute Genius CTO Andria Jensen.

Apple recently started to reject apps which use a Unique Device Identifier (UDID) to identify the device itself.  The UDID has been used since the beginning of app creation to link a unique device (iPhone, iPod, or iPad) to an app or user account, and in turn recognize that device later to maintain settings, data, etc. contained in the app for a specific user.  For anyone not familiar with the UDID, think of it as a social security number for apps.  On its own, that number may not be very useful to someone who gets their hands on it.  But, when combined with other identifying information, such as name, address, date of birth, etc. it can lead to a lot of privacy issues.

A popular twitter app, Tweetbot, was recently rejected for using the UDID in their latest update, with Apple citing privacy issues as the reason for the rejection.  Their blogpost about the rejection has gotten many iOS developers in a panic about what to do in their own apps so they aren’t facing a rejection with their next submission.

In Apple’s defense, developers have known about this new guideline since August 2011, and have been warned that eventually the support for UDIDs would be removed altogether.  But, as developers generally do, many of us have waited until the last minute to switch over our code from UDID usage to something else.  So, if you are one of those developers, here are a few situations where you may be using UDIDs and what you can do to comply with Apple’s new guidelines:

• Problem:  You use Flurry, Urban Airship, Localytics, or some other 3rd party SDK which makes use of a UDID.
• Solution:  Many apps use services such as Flurry for analytics or Urban Airship for push notifications, both of which have historically used the UDID to identify iOS devices.     Flurry and Urban Airship have both released new versions with a different approach to device identification, which will replace the UDID and allow apps to comply with Apple’s guidelines.  Ad SDKs are generally pretty guilty of collecting identifying information, and the UDID is no exception.  If you are using something other than iAds at this point, be sure to verify that the SDK you are using is not collecting UDIDs.

Almost any well-supported or paid service has already upgraded their SDK to make use of some other identification means to replace the UDID.  All you should really need to do is upgrade to the latest version of the SDK.  However, if for some reason the particular SDK you’re using has not yet addressed the UDID problem and has not announced plans to, you may want to start looking for its replacement.

• Problem:  You use the UDID to authenticate the device as unique for a particular user of the app.  Maybe your app restricts the user to only a certain number of devices, or in the case of some banking apps, uses your UDID to help identify you as a trusted user of your account.  Many apps, games in particular, have historically used the UDID to create a user account and profile, to bypass a more cumbersome registration process.
• Solution:  Apple has provided a recommended way to generate a uniqueIdentifier.  They have suggested calling the CFUUIDCreate to create a UUID, and then writing it to the NSUserDefaults for the app.  This will create an ID unique to the app/user combination.  If that user uses a different app (even in the same suite of apps), a new UUID would be assigned for that app/device combination.

• Problem:  You store app settings specific to the user’s device on your server, so that the device settings can be restored if the app is deleted and reinstalled at any time.
• Solution:  Implement iCloud in your app.  You can store any settings or data that needs to persist in iCloud, by using the key-value or document storage.

• Problem:  You MUST have a unique identifier for the device – not the device/app combination.  It has to work exactly the way the UDID did.
• Solution:  I must admit, I can’t think of a case where this is a true must, but I’m sure that someone could convince me otherwise.  If you must have a true UDID, a few 3rd party solutions have presented themselves as ways to replace the UDID.  Companies such as OpenFeint, AppsFire, and Crashlytics have announced offerings which they claim will replace UDIDs in a way which will pass Apple review.   You may have to present the user with a notice that an identifying number is being collected from their device, though, for privacy reasons.

I’m sure I haven’t covered everything here.  There are likely many other UDID problems I didn’t think of, and different approaches that I’ve presented to solve them.  I’d love to here your feedback.  What problems are you seeing with the transition away from UDIDs and what are you doing to solve them?

iCloud (Photo credit: BasBoerman)

This article was written by Appsolute Genius CEO Brian Cauble.

iOS 5.1, released on March 7, isn’t a large change, but there are definitely some things that will improve your iPhone experience. Check the list below for the things that matter most to you.

1. 20 Mb limit for Over The Air downloads changed to 50 Mb. This allows you to download bigger apps while you’re out and about do that you don’t have to wait until you get to a WiFi hotspot.
2. Battery improvements. Have you ever wondering if iOS 5.0 was using you’re battery faster? Well, it wasn’t all in your head. iOS 5.1 should really help your battery performance.
3. 4G icon for AT&T iPhone 4S users. Did your iPhone 4S suddenly turn on 4G? No, it uses something called HSPA+, which isn’t really 4G but is faster than 3G.
4. Camera shortcut on the lock screen. This will be one of the few changes you’ll be likely to notice. There is a camera icon on the lock screen now. Just press it and slide up, and the camera pops up. This makes it much faster to take a picture if your phone was locked.
5. Camera face detection highlights faces. If you take a lit of pictures of friends, it will be more noticeable when the iPhone locks a face.
6. Siri has learned Japanese. Siri is a pretty smart lady. She picked up Japanese in a few months!
7. Photos can be deleted from the photostream on the device. If you use iCloud, you can have a photo go straight to a specific photostream for friends and family to see. Well, now if you forget this is turned on and take a naughty picture you don’t want mom and dad to see (which none of you would ever do anyway, right?), you can quickly delete it from your device and photostream without having to go to the iCloud website. This feature may save you from an awkward Christmas dinner.
8. “Use cellular data” option has been added to iTunes match. Now you can control whether iTunes match uses your data from your carrier or is limited to WiFi.
9. Improved speed and reliability of iTunes match. iTunes match is already great feature — imagine always having your entire music library with you. However, Apple has improved the performance to make iTunes match work more smoothly.
10. Location services has been improved so that you can see which apps are currently using location. Some apps use location when you don’t really want or need them to, which can drain your battery. Now a direction icon shows up in Settings->Location next to apps that are currently using your location.

Image via CrunchBase

Each year that Appsolute Genius has been in business has come with new challenges.

At first, our challenges were all about getting our company known and explaining what an app was to people we met.  Slowly, the challenges grew to working on more complex projects and handling many projects at once.  Then a time came when we were challenged with building a company culture and keeping a group of coworkers focused on the same mission and purpose.

If you know me well, you probably know that these challenges are what drive me and a big part of why I do what I do.

Mobile development has come so far in the last 3 years!  The development tools have improved so much and the capabilities of the mobile devices have increased so quickly.

To give you a frame of reference, when Appsolute Genius started building apps for mobile, 15% of the US used a smartphone and Blackberry owned about 40% of the US smartphone users.

Today, over 50% of the US uses a smartphone and Apple & Google own about 91% of the US smartphone users.  And here’s another stat that will blow your mind: more iPhones are sold per day than babies born! I think you get the point.  Mobile is growing very, very fast.

The latest challenges we face involve a few misconceptions about what we really do and what it takes to build an app successfully.  Don’t we just hire some smart developers and lock them in a room to code something? Can we just use a wizard to create an app for Apple and Android?

With a maturing mobile market, many tools are coming to market that promise that you can build your own app or that you can have an app for a fraction of the price of hiring a custom developer.  This is an issue that we can certainly understand as a business owners.

There are two tips we would give you when looking at these platforms.

1. First, what is the quality of the app the “build your app” produces?  Your app will represent your brand whether your customers use it or your employees.  It must be look really good and be very easy to use or building an app will not be a good experience for you.  Think back to the first website you built.  You might have even built it yourself.  Did you eventually replace it with a better website?
2. Second, when you work with a custom app developer, they should really be tailoring an app to meet the needs of your business.  If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to wear a one-size-fits-all gown at the hospital, you probably already know that one size doesn’t really fit all.  This is still true in app development.

Another current challenge we face involves companies asking us why they shouldn’t do the project in-house or just hire an inexpensive freelance developer to build their app.
The more we’ve thought about this, the more we’ve really dug into what makes us valuable to our customers.  I believe it comes down to a several key points.

1. First, we have a lot of experience building apps with companies both big and small!  We’ve run into just about every problem you can imagine whether it is dealing with the Apple submission process or having a truly difficult bug to track down.
2. Second, building apps for over 3 years, we’ve learned a good deal about how users use products when they are mobile.  We generally refer to this as mobile usability but it involves digging into how people think when they are on the go.  Have you really thought about people use a phone versus a tablet?  We haven’t just thought about it.  We’ve discussed it, argued about it, asked users about it, read studies about it, and more.  You get the point!
3. Third, we keep up with this industry each and every day.  We are so into mobile that we spend time reading 30 pages of release notes and 200 page design guidelines — for both Apple and Google.
4. Finally, we assemble a team for each project or customer.  This team could have a designer, an iOS (Apple) developer, an Android (Google) developer, a web service developer, a project manager, and a mobile strategist.  All of these people have significant experience with mobile, and it really does make a difference.

Like I said, these questions have really forced us to understand our value and ultimately forced us to continue to grow as a company.

Mobile development has been a truly wild ride due to how quickly it’s grown.  While we do run into questions and even misconceptions, we wouldn’t change anything about our experience.  We have been able to meet and work with so many interesting businesses, and we believe we’ve been able to make a real difference in companies.

We welcome the chance to answer your questions and learn more about your company.  Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or need help with mobile!

Written by Appsolute Genius CEO Brian Cauble

We found an article from Billboard.biz covering SXSW Music‘s panel discussion on the topic “Bringing The Arena To Your Phone.” Although the discussion is music-industry focused, the experienced panel (which consists of Anthony Volodkin of The Hype Machine, Eric Garland of Big Champagne and Live Nation, Matthew Adell of Beatport, and Alexander Kisch of VEVO) offers challenging ideas that anyone developing a mobile app should consider.

Our favorite word of advice come from Eric Garland, who warns against developing superfluous mobile apps. “Unless you’re solving a problem or creating a great experience, no one will care,” he says.

Click here to read the whole article.