Who lives more of an on-the-go life than a business traveler? How does that affect their relationship with their smartphone? UberMedia pulled some interesting facts and stats and found that business travelers turn to their devices to fill a lot of roles. They’re so reliant, in fact, that what is or isn’t available via mobile app actually influences their actions.

• 27% of business travelers have changed their airline preference based on mobile usability
• 54% use mobile wallet apps or payment systems
• 33% use a tablet instead of a laptop for presentations
• Smartphones have replaced some everyday objects such as newspapers (37%), day planners (46%), cameras (54%) and alarm clocks (56%)
• 81% play mobile games at least once a week
• 44% use finance apps at least once a day
• 80% use sports apps once a week
• 44% use shopping apps once or more a day

Software testers, if there’s one thing you could tell a new programmer/developer about testing what would it be? Here’s your chance to add your two cent.

A question posed on Quora reads “What should beginner programmers know about software testing?” Eleven people have responded and answers so far include:

“Even if you have a QA  team, it’s your job to test your code. And by test, I mean really test: not just smoke test, test for code coverage, test psychotic edge cases, stress test, load test, test everything.  Testing your own code is one way to avoid having fires lit under your ass, which is surely a more comfortable way to go through life.” – Andrew Warinner

“It’s not optional” – K. Scott Helms

“Coming up with test cases before you write your code (test driven development) is a powerful paradigm for producing quality during software development.  Write the tests, called unit tests, using one of the available tools like JUnit, NUnit, etc.  Get the edge cases, test the happy path and the not happy paths.  What should your code do if someone passes in a null value as a parameter?   This will make you think about Exceptions before you write your code so that you will develop a exception strategy instead of going back and retrofitting code with no thought about a strategy.   Make sure that you run and pass the tests every time you build your code.” – Jack Menendez

“First of all you need to accept the fact that your code contains defects.
That’s always true. But that doesn’t always mean that you’ve messed up. Sometimes defects come from business requirements or some 3rd party libraries, etc. So – don’t treat defects like something personal. Try to work in combination with testers. If you believe that something needs to be checked – you can always ask test team to do that. Usually we (testers) appreciate such testing thoughts a lot, especially if these thoughts have some difficult technical reason and we most probably would miss that.” – Artyom Silivonchik

The response with the most votes comes from Eric Pepke and it’s one you’ll all likely agree with:

“What you should know is that testers are your friends. They’ll find out things that you didn’t. Learn to love it and take delight in fixing bugs.”

What would you tell a brand new programmer? Let us know in the comments or answer on Quora >>>

Smartphone operating systems often inspire dire loyalty in their users. Once someone owns an iPhone/Android/Windows Phone they rarely switch. But sometimes it’s good to put emotional attachment aside and take an objective look at what each OS really offers – you never know, you might be persuaded to switch.

Rosemary Hattersley, of PC Advisor, took the time to write a multi-page look at the most recent versions of the iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry operating systems. Here’s a recap of some of the pros and cons of each OS:

iOS 6

Pros

• The latest version of Apple’s mobile OS … offers the broadest choice of apps of all smartphones and comes with plenty of Apple’s own apps.
• The likable Safari web browser supports multiple web pages.
• You can easily add multiple email accounts from Outlook to iCloud Mail, Yahoo, Google and Exchange, then designate contacts as VIPs. You can view inboxes separately or show all messages in a single inbox view. Mail is searchable by name or subject via a field at the top of the screen.
• Integration with audio hardware is impressive via both Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay wireless streaming.
• Aside from the sheer number of apps in the App Store, one of the big advantages of iOS is that Apple curates all apps, so rogue installations (and malware) are less likely than with Android.

Cons

• The lack of support for Flash means some websites don’t work.
• Voice search via the Siri digital assistant is largely a gimmick and requires a Wi-Fi connection to use.
• [Document attachments] can be saved locally only if you have certain apps installed which support those file types.

Android

Pros

• Google Ice Cream Sandwich (the version before the current Jelly Bean) covers all the basics, with fancier media management options (Samsung. HTC and Sony) and prettier weather and contact features (HTC in particular) being added on some handsets by manufacturers.
• One clear advantage is the well-developed Google Maps app. Strong mapping, 3D and satellite views are accompanied by built-in voice-control and turn-by-turn navigation.
• Android also offers built-in voice search, NFC support, screen mirroring and contactless content sharing. You can ‘throw’ photos and music to devices across the room and queue up actions in a form of home automation.
• Google Now (which is now available for iOS devices, albeit in a slightly more limited form) serves up useful information based on your past behaviour, but also on location and time of the day.

Read more…

All Things D caught up with Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs recently to discuss the company’s foray into mobile operating systems. The video discusses the new Firefox OS’s roll-out plan (hint: it isn’t coming to the US right off the bat), how the system combines apps and web features and how Firefox OS makes finding information (apps or websites) easier.

An article today on Wired that piqued my interest was the difference in how men and women use apps. While, “the most well-known and popular apps in the App Store tend towards a 50-50 gender ratio split.”, it appears that the way in which men and women use the apps show some interesting differences. Stereotypical findings still exist, most sports and automotive apps are downloaded by men and woman are downloading far more catalog apps, still, some anomalies presented themselves. I’d like to share with you some of the interesting stats I found.

• Catalog Spree reported that men are ever so slightly (about 2-percent) more likely to actually purchase items through mobile apps than women are
• Venmo, an app that lets you easily send and receive payments from friends, reports that 60-percent of its users are male.
• Mobile marketing firm Velti found that men purchase 11-percent more virtual goods than ladies.
• According to Storm8, the sixth largest grossing mobile app publisher of 2012, their gaming titles in this category feature a 75-percent male userbase. However, Storm8 sees 80 percent of downloads coming from women for “social arcade” category of gaming, things like Bubble Mania or jewel-matching titles.
• A larger percent of ladies download books on their mobile devices than fellas, according to Flurry Analytics.
• Photography apps skew more male on iOS (strong on the iPhone, moderate on the iPad), while they lean moderately more female on Android.

I would have to agree with Christina Bonnington, the author of the Wired piece, that although some of these stats are interesting, they still seem to point out that men and women use their mobile devices pretty much in the same way, “both men and women are using their devices for reading content, for playing games, for making purchases, and dozens of other purposes.”

Recent studies have showed an interesting trend in the way in which iOS and Android users consume data and use their handsets over Wi-Fi connections. Although Android dominates the marketplace, it appears that iOS devices captured over 61% of mobile web traffic. A staggering statistic when you look at the fact that “in the fourth quarter of 2012, Android made up 70 percent of the smartphone market according to IDC’s numbers. iOS held a mere 21 percent. Gartner’s estimates for the same period show the same breakdown.” (Read the full article on Wired.)

The statistics for in-flight Wi-Fi follow the same trend too, where researchers are seeing iOS making up 84% of the usage. However, there are several factors that come into play here. First of all, iOS dominates the tablet space and half of all in-flight Wi-Fi traffic comes from iPads alone. It is also important to note that over 41% of iOS users tend to be considered affluent and therefore can afford the charges that accrue when using in-flight Wi-Fi.

Another factor that comes into play in this overall trend is that Android users tend to use their devices on cellular networks more than Wi-Fi. Android users are on the go and using their devices in shorter bursts, whereas iOS users tend to settle in for longer stints on their device through a Wi-Fi connection. As an Android user myself, I see this to be the case. I am always on the go and I find using the cellular network, on which I have unlimited data, to be more reliable. This, of course, skews the data slightly in favor of iOS devices because the majority of these studies were conducted on the usage of devices on Wi-Fi.

It is also interesting to note that, according to the Wired article, “this odd usage discrepancy between iOS and Android could be disappearing though. A survey published in March questioning Galaxy S III owners and iPhone owners found very little difference in the way they use their mobile devices.”

So how do you use your device? Wi-Fi or Cellular Network? Android or iOS?

Happy belated birthday to the mobile phone! Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the very first mobile phone call. Needless to say, the 2 lbs. bricks as big as your head didn’t have apps, but looking back at the very first mobile phones will help us all appreciate just how far the industry has come. (Plus, I’m a sucker for videos that show 1980s era mobile phones.)

The next time you get frustrated by an app, take a minute and remind yourself that at least it doesn’t take 10 hours for your phone to charge.

(A special thanks to Slate for putting this video together.)

In recent years as we have seen a rise in consumers trying to be more green and conscientious of their carbon foot prints, so too have mobile technologies. With serious drains on power grids and major blackouts that have been experienced across the country, some research companies are trying to help bring big data, mobile capabilities and utility companies together. Take Pecan Street, a nonprofit research company headquartered at the University of Texas, Austin. Pecan Street is providing detailed data about consumers’ energy use to help utility companies manage the distribution of energy and help decrease overload on energy grids which cause blackouts.

With the introduction of smarter devices in the home, utility companies are looking to stay in touch with these developments. As an article in Mashable says, “(Utility companies) don’t want innovation to leave them behind.” The utility companies need to figure out how to interface with customers and their devices to being them the information they need to help manage energy distribution, and in turn help consumers to be greener and conscious of their carbon footprints.

[Brewster McCracken, president and CEO of Pecan Street] envisions a world of energy apps that could do everything from informing users when they need to update their insulation or helping them figure out what model of refrigerator would better suit their patterns of use. “These kinds of systems really hit their sweet spot in detecting problems that were really difficult to detect before,” says McCracken.

It will be interesting to see where these developments take us and the impact they can have on the increasing strain on our energy grids.

For more information on Pecan Street’s research read the full article on Mashable.

As an in-the-wild software tester your livelihood probably depends on your mobile device. As a human being, you’re bound to drop that device into a puddle at some point. Whether you get caught in the rain, lounging by the pool or just using the bathroom, we tend to drop our phones a lot, and when they fall into that puddle, it’s time to panic. But don’t! There are options to dry out your device before spending your hard earned money from testing projects on a new device. Check out this great video from cnet on some do’s and don’ts on drying out your mobile device, and keep your money in your pocket!

You’ve designed your app, tested for usability issues and made appropriate changes and fixes. You’re app is almost ready go…. but there’s still an important part of the design process left; your mobile app icon.

Sounds simple enough, but mobile app icon design is a very important part of promoting your app in the app store – and even on your users’ smartphones. The app icon is what draws users in within the app store, and once they download your app, what they will probably see every day. This means your app icon should be as eye-catching and as clever as possible.

Enfuzed recently prepared a list of the 25 most clever mobile app icons (note: some of these are just for fun and have not been endorsed by the said company yet).  Here are some of the highlights:

Coke Machine by Aaron Sampson

Chuck by Marc Clancy

Backpack by Skelet Art

Nutella by Julian Burford

Read more…