"Android and Windows phone app development" 

A 

 Comparison

 
Do you feel like an alien when you see windows app and its IDE.Don't worry even i felt so in my initial phase of  learning about windows app.Now let us see whether your are eligible for windows phone app development.Ask yourself the following questions

*Am i good in UI design of android?
*Am i confident in webservice technology?
*do i have basic knowledge of c# and xaml?
*Am i willing to learn a new technology?

If the answer is "YES" let us proceed.Here i am not dealing with all complicated stuffs of programming,what i am doing is just giving you a brief introduction.The easiest way to learn this beautiful technology of Microsoft is by comparing what we know about android development with windows app development.

Let us look on to the IDE.For android app development,we use Eclipse(configured for android app development) or android studio.We have a lot of other IDEs from various vendors but as far as the Google documentation is concerned the above mentioned IDEs are officially recognized.For windows phone  app development we use "Visual Studio for windows phone" and surprisingly this is a free software from Microsoft.There are various versions  available in the market like VS for windows phone 2010,2012 etc, and you can use any one of it depending on your requirement because  VS for windows phone 2010 support app development for windows phone OS versions up to 7.2 only.

Now let us see UI design of windows app,We use XAML for designing UI which is much similar to XML that we use for android app's UI design.If we are friendly with WCF , WPF or Windows 8 applications of windows XAMLwont be a Latin word for you.We will look into this later.Even though we use JAVA as the development language for android(According to Google documentation),we can also use HTML and JavaScript(Phone gap) or C# (Xamarin plugin and ofcourse it is a paid plugin). In case of Windows phone app we use C# as the development language and if you have any previous experience in using C#,with no doubt start developing windows phone apps.

If you see the the mobile app market let it be playstore,appstore or itunes there is a similarity between majority of applications,that is most of them are webservice oriented.Whatever technology you use there is a generalized method for implementing webservice.Since Windows also support JSON and XML,it is not an issue.

Google glass

“Necessity is the mother of all invention” What might be the necessity that led to “Project glass”? What is this Google glass? Is it something like a Google Goggles? When Google is going to release it? Will it be a vaporware? The tech world has already answered a few questions related to this “Mysterious Glass” but others are still a big question mark. Google have announced 2014 as the release date for this glass, this has ignited various questions sprouted out of curiosity about this Glass .With“Google glass” Google is attempting to produce a wearable computing machine. Google is not the pioneer in this field; companies like Xybernaut, and ViA Inc had already tested their fortune in wearable computer manufacturing. Olympus, has announced that it also has a head mounted display specs. Olympus has been working with these glasses since 2005; the glass is named as Olympus’ neato specs. The prototype is called MEG4.0. Apple had also applied for a patent for some kind of head-mounted display back in 2006. Then why “project glass” turned out to be blast in tech-world? I think such a question is a waste of time, Because Google is the one who is moving with this so called “Project glass” for developing a computing device Known as Google glass, and it must draw the attention. Google have backed this project with some of its very best people and the chance that Google glass becoming a vaporware is very less. Olympus in 2005, Apple in2006, now Google in 2011, Is this a race created out of technological innovation, or a dog fight to stand first in the market? Whatever be it, technological innovation must be embraced.

Google's Glass will probably consist of a transparent LCD or AMOLED display, placed just in front of your eyeball. Glass can locate its position with the help of camera and the GPS. The Camera is not big deal stuff but it does its job. Selection and scrolling of information displayed on the mini display can be controlled by your head movement. Google glass also function on voice commands. There is also a talk that the device will run Android, and will have motion sensors. The network connection may be provided through 3G or 4G data connections. Glass can connect to a Smartphone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth 4.0, a direct communication with the cloud is also possible. It is amazing that this small device does cloud communication with no tension, and Microsoft is still struggling to achieve it. It is assumed that the processing system and the power back up are hidden under the frame.

Now what all a Google glass can do? It functions as small information retrieval device, you get information about everything that you see, and apart from this it does a lot of other deals for the user. This is the key difference Google glass and a Google Goggles, Google Goggles is software that can search the web based on photos. Google's glasses can provide you, directions to a destination or a text message from a friend can appear before your eyes, converse with friends in a video chat, take a photo without taking out a camera or phone or even buy a few things online as you walk around. If you watch the promo ad of Google glass, there is nothing that it can’t do. If it is providing such awesome features, what would be its price? No worries about this, its price are predicted to be around the price of a Smartphone which is likely to be between $250 and $600.Google had also announced that they will collect orders for this new Smart Glass from programmers attending its three-day Google I/O conference. The payment must be $1,500 for a pair of glasses and will receive them by early next year.

The public is annoyed with some other question. Can I wear a Google glass if   I am already wearing a glass? Don’t worry; Google is experimenting to embed the display within your existing spectacle. Will this device turn out to be an advertisement board? Can you imagine a situation where there is an advertisement board just in front of your eyeball? Answer to such question is, “let us wait and see”, various other talks are also rounding the gravity of this Glass; some are pointing out the privacy problem associated as the camera records whatever you see. Another issue pointed out is about the distraction and associated accidents that a display just in front of your eyeball can cause. This is a serious issue, but I am sure that there will not be any road accident due to driver’s distraction, as Google with Toyota has already released the Car with no driver.

Will this device mark a change in the field of wearable computer? Question like this don’t have any predefined or predicted answer, what we can do is, wait..........The tech-world still remember the day when cities like New-york and Tokyo had large queues waiting for their first glimpse over Apple’s iPhone .We have also seen HD DVD,Zipdrive, SonyRolly,Mobile ESPN etc, which came with loud enthusiastic applause and turned out to be a big failure. Let us don’t predict the future, Let us see it...