QBurst

For over two decades, Nintendo and Sony have ruled the portable gaming industry literally like kings. But now, winds have started changing direction dramatically!

According to a new research from Flurry, a mobile analytics firm, Android and iOS games have taken a significant lead in the US portable game market in the year 2011.

The study reveals that iOS and Android, which had a mere 19 percent of the U.S. portable game market in 2009 when Nintendo and Sony together had 81%, has grown up to 58 percent in 2011, leaving Nintendo and Sony fighting for the rest of the share. The low price tag of mobile apps and the high adoption rate of new smartphones and tablets seem to have closed the deal for Apple and Android. (more…)

Steve Jobs once declared that he would try until his last dying breath and spend every penny in Apple’s bank account if required, to destroy Google’s Android mobile phone operating system. Steve was a great visionary and he would have foreseen that Android would one day become a big competitor of Apple’s iPhone. Apple’s good relationship with Google began to sour when Google introduced Android to compete with iPhone and Symbian. This took place just 10 months after Apple released its first iPhone. Apple eventually began to remove Google products including Google maps from their iPhone as well as from Apple Stores.

However, that’s old story. Now the buzz is all about the latest version of Android operating system Android 4.0, also referred to as the ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’. Google released Android 4.0 last week in an event at Hong Kong for both mobile phones and tablets. Android now has accounts for around 48% of global smart phone shipments, compared to 19% for Apple. Android 4.0 has a lot of features that users will love.

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Ever wondered whether Facebook can help bring in traffic, sales or clients to your small business? Or if it is really worth the time and effort it takes to optimize a Facebook fan page for your brand? The answer so far seems to be ‘most definitely.’ Although social media marketing can be very tricky, it is a fact that many businesses are igniting their online presence through their Facebook marketing strategy. Facebook is delivering the highest Return On Investment (ROI) of any online marketing medium. More and more businesses are therefore advertising on Facebook to enhance their brand image and sales. Once you create a strong brand identity in someone’s mind, there is high possibility that he will share it among his circle. It is this viral power of Facebook and the potentially colossal exposure, a successful viral can provide, that has turned the largest social website into a powerful marketing medium.

Dominates Online World
Consider that Facebook dominates cyberspace, beating Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL in time spent online. This trend is illustrated in the chart below, which shows a steep rise for Facebook when compared to the slower rise of Google, a decline for Yahoo, a relatively flat line for Microsoft and a sharp drop for AOL. It clearly shows that Facebook has become an integral part of daily communication, at least in the U.S.A, dominating the Internet in a way that is impossible for investors to ignore. (more…)

The era of Smartphones began when Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPhone to the world. Google followed next by introducing Android phones which gave a boost to the mobile application development. Architectural changes in mobile platforms such as iOS, Android, Symbian, etc. have brought out the need to develop multiple versions of the same application.

Today, there are many scripting packages available to develop mobile browser compatible pages, such as DynamicX, Sencha, jQTouch, Wink ToolKit, iWebkit etc. Most of these target only Webkit-based browsers/mobile phones, and are not presented as framework. However, there is now a new player in the market called jQuery Mobile, built on the rock-solid jQuery foundation.

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Canonical just rolled out their newest version of the operating system, Ubuntu 11.10 with the codename Oneiric Ocelot. Ubuntu has a proven track record of releasing updates every six months that include new features, stability improvements and latest versions of the software.

One of the main reasons why we, at QBurst, use Ubuntu on 75% of our computers is the stability it provides. Canonical, the Ubuntu company, has always made sure that their users get updates every six months with a lot of changes. (more…)

A few days back, Apple’s ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ event was held at its head quarters in Cupertino, California. Disappointment struck gadget enthusiasts as expectations for iPhone 5 were laid to rest. Now, with the passing away of Steve Jobs, the company may continue to lose its stock value. The event, however, witnessed the unveiling of more than 200 new features for iOS 5 along with iPod updates, iCloud and iPhone 4S.The iPhone 4S will be available on October 14, 2011 in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan. The smart phone comes in two colors – black and white. At first glance, although it looks exactly like the iPhone, it isn’t the same. Apple’s phone will feature the company’s new A5 dual-core processor. Apple boasts that the A5 is seven times faster than the previous processor. Reviewers say graphics are super detailed. Updates aside, there is one feature which differentiates iPhone 4S from its predecessors – the Siri. We will be analyzing this feature in detail here.

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Version controlling is one of the main tasks in developing an application, no matter how big the application is. The developer will enjoy developing applications when file version control system (VCS) is used. The software life cycle consists of many phases. The major phases are “Integration” and “Maintenance”. VCS is a solution for many problems that a developer faces during the development and maintenance phases of the software life cycle. VCS helps a developer to complete these phases without much struggle, by keeping a log of all changes made by the developer

If you develop and deploy medium to large scale applications, you would have used version control system. The most widely used version control system is Apache Subversion. Apache Subversion or SVN in short, is a Centralized Version Control System. In this system, there is a single central repository. All changes made to documents/codes are saved in this repository. There can be many users (or developers) but all the changes are updated to this central database instantly. (more…)

Mobile applications have picked up in the recent past far beyond market expectations. It is time for businesses to streamline all mobile apps for efficient development and management. MEAP (Mobile Enterprise Applications Platform) or MCAP (Mobile Consumer Applications Platform) serves this purpose. Analyst firm IDC forecasts the industry-wide MEAP revenue in the Americas to increase to $929.6 million by 2014. Many big tech firms like AT&T have already entered into this domain.

What Is MEAP/MCAP?
MEAP/MCAP are terms coined by Gartner, the analyst firm. MEAP/MCAP simplifies the complexities involved in developing and managing various mobile apps for various mobile phones. While MCAP relate to public applications, MEAP relate to applications within an enterprise. In this blog post, we plan to scan through this MEAP platform to understand the need for it and its benefits. Today, mobile apps play an important role in serving many functions of an enterprise – CRM, ERP, HRM. The most widely used mobile phones in businesses are iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. (more…)

Ever noticed the number of items we carry with us when we go shopping? Our wallet is crammed with cash, credit cards, ATM cards, coupons and loyalty cards; not to forget our mobile phone that is always on hand and never leaves our side even when we are paying for items at the counter. Trying to extract anything from our overloaded wallet while still clutching our mobile phone can be an even more difficult feat. This leaves one wondering how simple shopping would be if we could use, just one object to make all our payments. What if we could use our mobile phone to make payments, instead of different plastic cards, coupons or cash?

With technology advancing at a fast pace, we are almost into an era where we can do just that! In the next five years, we would probably be buying just about anything by simply waving or tapping our mobile phones at the shopping counter.

This technology is called Near Field Communication (NFC) and is expected to create a revolution in coming years. NFC makes it easy to conduct transactions, connect electronic devices and exchange digital content with just a simple touch. This wireless technology allows devices to transfer data over short distances through short waves, a touch or a tap. (more…)

For at least some of us, ad messages popping up on the mobile can be irksome. So how about the “50% off your meal now” offer that pops up on your iPhone as you walk past your favorite pizza outlet at lunchtime. Hmm… maybe not so annoying after all!

What if you come to know your buddy is already in there taking advantage of the offer? You could join and have a great time too – at half the price.

Wait! Get a few more of your friends to drop in to make it a group of 10 and your meal will cost only one-fourth.

That is possibly what a combination of Where app, Facebook and Groupon could do – give you a ‘happy meal’! (more…)