Trent Shumay - UBC Alumni/Industry Lecture

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:24:43 -0500

I will be participating in the UBC Alumni Lecture Series on Thursday, January 27:

January Lecture

Speaker: Trent Shumay
Title: iTalk - Modern Mobile Development
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2011
Time: 6 pm (networking starts at 6 pm, lecture starts at 6:30 pm)
Location: C180, UBC Robson Square
Map: http://robsonsquare.ubc.ca/find-us/
RSVP: Michele Ng

Abstract: Developing for modern mobile platforms such as the iPhone, Android, and Mobile Web has become a profitable industry for the specialists and early adopters that currently dominate the mobile development scene. However, outside of that core, there is often a lot of confusion and misconception about the tools, process, and best practices around mobile development. This talk aims to break down the barriers, explaining the methodologies, similarities, and unique challenges of mobile development compared to more established development platforms. We will do a brief survey of development across iPhone, Android, and Mobile Web coupled with the perspective of an entrepreneur staking a claim in that space. Prospective mobile developers, and people trying to understand how to manage and integrate mobile technology with their existing products and services should all find something of interest, and come away with a better understanding of the actual process involved in building mobile software.

About the speaker: Trent Shumay's bio

Windows Phone - First Impressions

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:18:13 -0500

Anyone that knows me well knows a couple of things about me:

1) I drank a pretty healthy dose of Apple Kool-Aid about 2 years ago and have been a fairly devout fanboy since then.

2) I developed Windows software and on Windows platforms for the 15 years of my professional career prior to my new obsession, and have a long history with Windows on a variety of platforms.

In fact, prior to my first iPhone, I used to carry around a pretty terrifying Frankenstein Windows Mobile 5 Dell Axim tethered to my Sony w810i on a hefty 7mb Rogers EDGE data plan. I was pretty high tech, even back in the old days of 2006. ;)

Well. Fast forward a few years, and our old friends over at Microsoft are back in the mix after a much noted absence in the mobile space for a couple of (fairly important) years. Since we've already been fielding inquiries about developing for WP7, it seemed like a good time to see if the folks over at Microsoft had taken their timeout to put together a new game plan, or if they were just back on the field for another quarter of punishment.

After a quick trip to the local carriers to check out the phones, I was actually largely disappointed - but not in the phone! Nobody but Bell could actually give me a live demo of any of the new phones! Note to Canadian carriers - brand new phones, with brand new OS'es need to be open and on the floor. Regardless - Bell also cooked me up a bit of a deal on the LG Optimus Quantum, so that sealed the deal and I was on the road with a hot new WinPhone in my pocket.

To make a long story short - the drumroll started as I fired the phone up for the first time on my own. And - first impression was very good.

The folks over at Microsoft have definitely not been sleeping. The UI is fast, and well organized, and to me, looks a lot like how people that actually use smart phones would want their UI to look. Messaging, contacts, and mail are instantly available in the fully customizable "pin board" motif. Everything else is tucked away in a very simple and speedy main menu. Perfect. I understood this thing right away.

10 minutes later, my email accounts are sync'ing, Facebook is hooked up, and I'm getting status updates and learning things about my friends that I never cared to know. One odd omission, however, is that while FB is an integral part of the experience, apparently Twitter has not made the cut. Maybe it's just a different beast that defies the design pattern of the integrated messaging and feeds system, but it seems like an odd omission. Not that big a deal for me, but I can see Ashton and Demi will have to download an App if they want to share their love with the world Windows-style.

From there, I dropped into my normal pattern of trying to establish "functional equivalence" on the platform. Meaning, that I always try to download the same set of core Apps to get each of my devices to be roughly equivalent so that it's not to big a deal to grab whichever one I want on the way out the door. This is a bit of a mixed bag on WinPhone. Staples like the Twitter App were there and ready to roll. Others, like an official DropBox App were no-shows. MobileMe, of course is not available, but to add insult to injury, me.com decided the browser was IE7 and gave me an extra nasty message. So, we sort of failed the functional equivalence test out of the gate, but hopefully some of the missing Apps will show up in the Windows Marketplace soon.

The next thing I always do is basically to just use the phone, and see how it works at performing daily tasks. In most regards, the Optimus has been a pretty solid performer. The camera worked pretty well, and much like the commercials, the shortcut to camera mode has been handy. One lame thing is that I can't seem to mail videos directly from the device. Photos are slick, and have lots of sharing options. No go on the video side though.

Keyboard and input wise, the touchscreen is a bit jumpy and picks up the odd phantom touch if I hover a finger too close, but not too big a deal. The Optimus is a slider and has a hardware keyboard as well, but I've been conditioned off those with my iPhone and Galaxy S, so it's not a big feature for me. One thing that does stand out, across the board, is that the WinPhone UI is fast. Everything is very responsive, and very high update rates make the screen animations and effects silky smooth. On the other hand, if you think about it, most of the UI is solid colour backgrounds with text sliding in on top.... So if it wasn't fast, that would be troublesome. Either way, it's fast and responds really well.

I have an XBOX Live account from my previous life as a game developer. So, I hooked all that up and was impressed by the integration between WinPhone and Live. If you were a hardcore XBOX gamer, this would be a definite feature. Took a look at the games in the marketplace, and settled on Project Sunburst as my "first" title. This isn't a game review, so I won't get into all that, but the gaming potential of the system looks good and I have been having fun poking around with it, so thumbs up there as well.

Now, onto some of the interesting oddities lurking beneath the surface... The big one, I think is that I am getting this odd sense of Deja vu when it comes to backgrounding Apps and tasks. If I rewind back a year or so, I can remember another notable platform that caught some flack for this. However, it manifests even a bit weirder in WinPhone. For example, I was waiting for a turn to play out in Project Sunburst for a minute or so, and the screen saver/lock activated. No big deal, right? Except - that when I unlocked the screen again, it launched the App back up from scratch. Not only had it not stayed in the background, but the App had literally shut down. I understand not being able to background and that it's up to the Apps themselves to manage that sort of thing in a reasonable manner, but it definitely caught me off guard. Leaving all that in the hands of developers is bound to cause some data losses over time, I would think.

Anyhow - all in all, I have to say that I was more than pleasantly surprised by the whole WinPhone experience. The OS and User Experience seem pretty well tuned to be quick at the things that most people do with their phones. The polish was there on the UI, even if it is a bit simplistic, and overall, it's a pretty usable package particularly for those that have been holding out for a Microsoft offering. I don't see anyone dumping their iPhone or Android device for Windows Phone, but I do see people that are loyal to PC or XBOX picking up these devices and liking what they see. Over time, the App base and OS are bound to improve as well. MS is pretty well known for being a bulldog when it comes to taking a bite out of markets they want a piece of. There's no doubt in my mind that they will continue to invest in the OS, but even as it stands today, this is a pretty solid re-introduction to the mobile market. Anyone that's been waiting for a WinPhone.... I'd say, go for it!

Get your Shop-On!

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 01:18:12 -0500

Just released – the official BlackFriday.com iPhone App! Grab it up and start figuring out what deals you need to hit tomorrow!

Tri-City News Feature

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:45:52 -0500

Hey! We made the paper. Thanks a bunch to Todd and the Tri-City news for picking up the word and helping us to tell everyone about what we’ve got cooking here!

The Finger Food Blog

Trent Shumay - UBC Alumni/Industry Lecture

January Lecture

Windows Phone - First Impressions

Get your Shop-On!

Tri-City News Feature