Mobile App Testing

Here at uTest, we know a thing or two about the benefits of belonging to a (tester) community – but we’re certainly not the only ones who understand the value. Take, for example, the recent launch of the Application Developers Alliance. Here’s InfoWorld.com with the scoop:

Being led by Jon Potter, former executive director of the Digital Media Association, the Application Developers Alliance is set to get off the ground with promotions at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas next week and elsewhere. While Web developers also would be welcome, the alliance is initially geared to mobile development for platforms including Apple iOS, Google Android, and RIM BlackBerry. The alliance is looking to recruit thousands of developers. “We’re going to be at the meetups all around the country, we’re going to be at conferences, we’re going to be talking to folks, we’re going to be polling people,” said Potter.

Key services included as part of the alliance include:

• a collaboration network, via an online database
• product-testing facilities offering access to multiple platforms and tools
• discounted and free tutorials on trends and technologies, as well as structured training and certification programs
• discounted hosting and cloud services via Rackspace

Read the rest of the article >>>

According to a study released by Xylogic, iPhone users tend to download games (over apps) while Android users favor apps (over games). Here are a few key points from ReadWriteWeb:

The iPhone is the domain of the game. Android is the land of the app. 2011 showed some very distinct trends in user activity on the two major mobile platforms. A study done by Xylogic shows that of the top 25 app publishers for iOS, only one does not produce games. On the flip side, of the top 25 for Android, only about half are game publishers. …

Of the top 150 downloads in the Android Market in 2011, 85 were apps against 65 games. Apps were downloaded 91.5 million times against 33.42 million for games. On iOS, 100 games were in the top 150 against 50 games [sic]. Games were downloaded 71.57 million times versus 25.64 for apps. …

Read more…

Google Wallet encrypts credit card numbers but, according to analysts at viaForensics, not other personal data tied to those cards. Here’s what Out-Law.com has to say:

In its report, the digital forensics company said that Google Wallet only encrypts a user’s credit card number itself – leaving data including the cardholder’s name, transaction dates, the last four digits of credit card numbers, email address and account balances unprotected by encryption.

“While Google Wallet does a decent job securing your full credit card numbers… the amount of data that Google Wallet stores unencrypted on the device is significant. Many consumers would not find it acceptable if people knew their credit balance or limits,” the report said.

Google’s response (as far as I can tell from the article) was that the analysis by viaForensics was done on a rooted phone, not something your everyday user has.

Read more…

As 2011 draws to a close I thought we’d join TechCrunch in honoring the great tech minds that have left us this year. TechCrunch writer, Robin Wauters, came up with a list of 17 notable deaths in the past year and is eliciting names he may have missed from readers:

As we approach the end of 2011, at least according to the Gregorian calendar, I thought it would be good to take some time to commemorate some people who’ve passed away this year, but have lived enough to make an impact on the tech industry – and more broadly, the world – before they did.

Obviously, it’s impossible to list every person in the tech industry who’s made his or her mark and passed away this year, but if you think there are glaring omissions, please let us know.

Here are the names on the list so far:

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011)
Bob Galvin (1922-2011)
John McCarthy (1927-2011)
Robert Morris (1932-2011)
Ilya Zhitomirskiy (1989-2011)
Paul Baran (1926-2011)
Max Mathews (1926-2011)
Julius Blank (1925-2011)
Jean Jennings Bartik (1924-2011)
Norio Ohga (1930-2011)
John R. Opel (1925-2011)
Michael S. Hart (1947-2011)
Daniel McCracken (1930-2011)
Kenneth Olsen (1926-2011)
Patricia Dunn (1942-2011)
Steve Lacey (1968-2011)

To read about each person’s contribution to technology, visit TechCrunch >>>

And we here at uTest wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe New Year!

Since it’s the end of the year dozens of reports and articles have been coming out recapping the “Top ____ Apps of 2011.” We have lists for the top iPhone apps, the top iPad apps, the top Android apps, the top games, there’s a list for almost any category you can think of.

I’ve resisted posting those lists here on MobileAppTesting.com because A.) there are approximately 164 lists floating around online (full disclosure: I totally made up that number, but there are quite a few) and B.) I haven’t found a list I really liked. I was holding out for a list of THE top apps of 2011 – no matter what platform or type, just the ultimate most popular apps from the past year. Mobilewalla has finally delivered! TechCrunch has the scoop:

Mobile analytics firm Mobilewalla has ranked the top apps across all four mobile platforms for 2011, using its own ranking system known at the “Mobilewalla Score.” Instead of looking at raw user ratings, this scoring system is an algorithm that analyzes a variety of factors in addition to ratings, including an app’s position within its own category, volume, social media sentiment and more.

Read more…

Smartphones and tablets were hot ticket items this holiday season – both on wish lists and under the tree. And it looks like one of the main things those happy recipients were doing with their new electronics was … more shopping? According to a report by IMB, sales transactions completed on digital devices on Christmas Day increased by more than 150% over last year! Check it out on TechCrunch:

It looks like consumers in the U.S. were shopping online alongside opening presents this year. According to IBM’s Coremetrics retail data, online sales on Christmas Day grew by 16.4 percent from last year. …

Sales completed from mobile devices grew, reaching 14.4 percent versus 5.3 percent on Christmas Day 2010, representing an increase of 172.9 percent. In terms of specific mobile devices, the iPad led all mobile device traffic to retailers at 7 percent, followed by the iPhone at 6.4 percent and Android at 5 percent.

What are you buying on Christmas Day? Everything you wanted by didn’t get? The report doesn’t mention if those sales numbers include purchases made within app stores/markets, which I assume would see pretty hefty traffic on a day like Christmas. TechCrunch uses the term “retailers” but there’s no further definition. Either way, that’s a drastic increase in only one year!

Read the whole TechCrunch article >>>

Most smartphone media coverage goes to Apple and Android – especially with the recent astounding activation and app sales numbers. But Windows Phones are surely and steadily racing after the big boys.

The Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace reached a milestone 40,000 apps last month and it was predicted to reach 50,000 apps by the end of next month. But Windows is moving faster than anticipated and has already reached the big 5-0(000) mark! Here’s the report from All About Windows Phone:

Here’s the story of teenager Nick D’Aloisio, developer of the Summly app, which caught the eye of a Hong Kong billionaire:

Summly is an iPhone app which summarises and simplifies the content of web pages and search results. Currently it can condense reference pages, news articles and reviews but has the potential to go a lot further.

“I was revising for a history exam and using Google, clicking in and out of search results, and it seemed quite inefficient. If I found myself on a site that was interesting I was reading it and that was wasting time,” he said.

“I thought that what I needed was a way of simplifying and summarising these web searches. Google has Instant Preview but that is just an image of the page. What I wanted was a content preview,” he says.

The first iteration of the app, called TrimIt, clocked up 100,000 downloads and caught the eye of Horizons Ventures.

The private equity investment firm is controlled by Li Ka-Shing, the Chinese billionaire who ranks as the eleventh wealthiest person in the world according to the Forbes rich list. His previous investments include Skype, Facebook and Spotify.

His firm sank $250,000 (£159,000) into the project.

Read the rest >>>

I’m not much of an authority on tech fads. For instance, I was certain that Twitter would fizzle out in a year or two back in 2008 and I could not have been more wrong. But as the saying goes, even a blind nut finds a squirrel once and awhile. In this case, my call on QR codes – that they are a passing fad – looks to be spot on.

Here’s Business2Community.com with the reasons why QR codes are failing:

1. Apps/Software not preloaded on phones: each different code requires its own software. QR codes need different apps then the Microsoft Tags. [there are other variations but for the sake of this article, we can stick to these two]

As well all know, if we need to download something in order to access something we already don’t fully understand the chances are, we won’t do it.  This is the NUMBER ONE reason why I think these scannable codes will never be adopted, unless… phones come preloaded with the necessary software to read the codes.

2. It’s physically DIFFICULT to scan them: steady hands, proper code size, lighting etc are just a few of the reasons why, even if you have the RIGHT software, scanning the codes are not as easy as it should be. A little further down in this post I mention that I used a QR code on my business card. It took me a few tries to get the code large enough to be scannable. This was not only frustrating but costly as I printed business cards 3 times until I got the size right [if I was smart i would have just printed a test on a piece of paper, but hindsight and what not...]

3. Too many variations: this one is simple. As I have mentioned, there are just too many different types of codes. for the general public it becomes too confusing to bother with and as an advertiser it becomes difficult to pick one over the other.

Read the rest of the article >>>

Here’s a great infographic from Meltwater Group with some noteworthy breakdowns of tablet statistics: