Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category

Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb has put together a stellar list of 13 Tools for Building Your Own iPhone App. These are applications with the non-developer in mind so if you’ve been thinking about creating your own iPhone version of your website or blog but didn’t know how, you’ll want to check out this list.

WordPress announced today that they have launched two new mobile themes which will be automatically displayed when readers access a WP blog via a mobile device. The first theme is a version of WPtouch and will be used with modern Web browsers such as those found in iPhone and Android phones and the second is a modification of the WordPress Mobile Edition and will be displayed on all other devices.

If you’re interested in text/SMS reference in libraries, please check out my latest Stacking the Tech column, Text Message Reference: Is It Effective?

“The biblioblogosphere is replete with posts announcing the launch of new SMS (text message) reference services at a steadily increasing number of academic libraries. The appeal of these services is more or less self-evident given the ubiquity of mobile devices on campus.

Journal articles and conference sessions are filled with discussions of products and platforms, as well as strategies to market the new programs including YouTube videos, home page links, and Facebook applications. However, so far little has been gathered about how effective this type of service really is and whether or not it’s something that patrons find useful.”

The folks at Accredited Online Colleges have put together a mega-list of the 100 Most Educational iPhone Apps. Each app has a brief description and a link to the iTunes store where it can be downloaded. Applications are divided into the following categories:

• Brain Exercises
• Quizzes and Flashcards
• Math
• Science
• Geography and History
• English
• Reference Materials
• Art
• Languages
• Productivity

Josh Catone at Mashable puts together a Back to School guide to the Top 10 iPhone Apps for Students. Each list entry details cost, features, and a screenshot. Here are his top five recommendations:

1. BigWords
2. iStudiez Pro
3. Evernote
4. SimpleMind
5. Cram

Eight libraries throughout New Jersey, the NJ State Library, the NJSL Talking Book and Braille Center and Gold Mobile are taking part in a 6-month pilot program to determine the effectiveness of using mobile technologies to provide library services. They are targeting teens and parents of young children, and are offering text messages in both English and Spanish.

A new report on mobile technology adoption and libraries was published by University of Cambridge, authored by Keren Mills of the Arcadia Programme.

“The majority of respondents primarily use their phones to make calls, send text messages and take photographs, although they like to know that the other functionality is potentially available. respondents’ use of different forms of media on their mobile phones was mostly limited to viewing photographs. Some used their phones to listen to music or watch videos, but very few used them to listen to podcasts or audio books and only a small number read ebooks or journal articles. Some respondents commented that they prefer to use their iPod or other media player to access these other forms of media.”

The Duke University Libraries is now offering the most comprehensive university digital image collection specifically formatted for an iPhone. Through DukeMobile 1.1, the University’s suite of iPhone applications, the libraries are sharing digital materials from 20 collections - nearly 32,000 images in all.

From their press release:

“It includes thousands of photos and other artifacts that range from early beer advertisements to materials on San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury scene in the 1960s. Although a growing number of scholarly institutions offer images and other material online, Duke is the first to offer collections that take advantage of the iPhone’s design, navigation and other features.”

Ben Parr of Mashable creates a quick guide to How To Publish Your Blog on the Amazon Kindle. Amazon launched their Kindle Publishing for Blogs program yesterday, a self-publishing tool that allows users to upload their blogs for sale in the Kindle Store - and it’s open to everyone. Mashable’s guide contains the following sections:

• Signing up for Kindle Publishing for Blogs
• Receiving compensation
• Blog distribution on the Kindle: is it worth it?

Athabasca University Press has published Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training and licensed it under a Creative Commons License. The entire e-book is available for download via the AU Press website.

“This collection is for anyone interested in the use of mobile technology for various distance learning applications. Readers will discover how to design learning materials for delivery on mobile technology and become familiar with the best practices of other educators, trainers, and researchers in the field, as well as the most recent initiatives in mobile learning research. Businesses and governments can learn how to deliver timely information to staff using mobile devices. Professors can use this book as a textbook for courses on distance education, mobile learning, and educational technology.”

via Reference Notes

Aaron Schmidt, Digital Initiatives Librarian for the District of Columbia Public Library, has announced that the library has made their code available for their iPhone application. If you’ve been pondering creating your own iPhone app and want to see what they did to create the snazzy DCPL app, you can do so by grabbing their code.

Yahoo!Tech reports that U.S. wireless subscribers sent 1 trillion SMS messages in 2008, three times the 363 billion text messages sent in 2007. “That comes out to about 3,700 text messages annually—or 10 texts a day—for every cell phone subscriber”.

And SMS messaging is even more popular with college students, 94% of whom send and receive text messages according to a recent study by Ball State University. The survey of 300 college students found that text messaging is now the main form of communication amongst college students.

via Textually.org

The Pew Internet & American Life Project published a new report titled The Mobile Difference today. The study is based on two surveys which were conducted beween October - December 2007 of over 3,500 respondants. Here are some key findings of the report:

• 8% of adults use mobile devices and broadband platforms for continual information exchange to collaborate with their social networks
• 7% of adults actively use mobile devices and social networking tool, yet are ambivalent about all the connectivity
• 8% of Americans find mobility lighting their information pathways, but have comparatively few tech assets at home
• 61% are anchored to stationary media; though many have broadband and cell phones, coping with access is often too much for them

Educause has just published another of its all-in-one guides to technology. This time providing a list of 7 Things You Should Know About Location-Aware Applications. The article addresses the following questions:

1. What is it?
2. Who’s doing it?
3. How does it work?
4. Why is it significant?
5. What are the downsides?
6. Where is it going?
7. What are the implications for teaching and learning?

The folks at Ten23 Software have published a 37-page guide called Building PhotoKast: Creating an iPhone app in one month . This free resource is chock full of useful tips and recommendations for everything from design concept to monetization strategies.

And if you need help creating an iPhone application for your blog, you can check out my previous post How to Create a Mobile Website for Your Blog in which I list the tools that I used to create the iLibrarian iPhone application.

via Mashable