If you’re keen to take a look at what Rich Comms can do for your app and would like to see just how easy it is then our new guide and video will certainly help.  The guide and video provide a heads-up view to help you start exploring the potential of Rich Comms in your own apps, covering topics such as,

• joyn on Vodafone
• Jibe Mobile App-to-App APIs
• Rich Comms under the hood
• Jibe Mobile SDK overview
• How to get started
• Sign up for the Vodafone developer Jibe Mobile SDK trial
• Download the Jibe SDK
• Register your test devices ...

If you are looking to make your Android app available across multiple markets, then you’ll need to implement multiple language support in your apps.

Android has excellent features that make implementing and managing multiple languages easy, and you should take full advantage of that in your apps.

Supporting multiple languages is the most important aspect of localisation and you can find out more in our tech guide here.

All the headlines recently show that mobile network and smartphone privacy are a very hot topic (for a taste, see this latest furore over Apple’s collection of location data). Increased attention from regulators, advocates, the press and our customers is creating the perfect storm for privacy in the mobile ecosystem. To help stay on top of it all, our industry association GSMA has been working over the last year (with Vodafone’s strong support) to create a mobile privacy framework: the Mobile Privacy Initiative.

What’s happening in mobile privacy?

As part of the MPI, GSMA has released Privacy ...

Getting your app in front of users, converting visibility into downloads, and converting downloads into revenue, is an increasingly complicated trick to pull off.

Both stores and apps have rapidly proliferated. What used to be a problem of availability (if you weren't "on the deck" there was nowhere else to go) is now a problem of visibility (you're in the store, but no one is finding you).

To get you started we’ve created an article that pulls together some basic advice for app developers on why you should be marketing your app. Read the full article here ...

Intents are one of Android's "Big Ideas". From the beginning, Android was conceived as a "mobile mashup platform". We commonly think of mashups in a web context, as a "remix" UI displaying data from multiple services within a page. With apps, and Android, the opportunity is a little bit different, but the idea is the same – to enable developers to aggregate and build on the work of others, and to "stand on the shoulders of giants" when creating new apps.

In Android, "remixing" other apps to build your own app means re-using the functionality and UIs of other apps ...

If you have followed our widget samples series, you should have a good idea of what the JIL/WAC APIs can do for you, and how to use them in your code. The samples have covered a selection of JIL features like using the accelerometer, playing audio files, getting and displaying maps and location, and using the PIM APIs to display contacts from the address book.

As well as JIL-specific topics, the samples have also covered more general topics like how to structure a widget, and how to create dynamic overlays and multi-page widgets.

If you have looked at the ...

This is the last of the widgets in our Widget Samples series. All but the simplest widgets are likely to benefit from using multiple pages. The Multipage sample implements a two-page, list-based widget that demonstrates basic page building and switching techniques.

On launch, the widget displays a Navigation list; selecting an item from the list builds and switches to an appropriate details list; a back button returns the user to the main page. It's a simple example, but the techniques are universally useful. You can reuse the sample code as a starting point for your own projects.

The screenshots ...

Address Book sample widget

Our Widget Samples series continues with the Address Book sample widget, which demonstrates how to fetch and display address book entries from the phone's address book and launch actions from contact details. For example, selecting a phone number detail launches the phone dialler; selecting an email address detail launches the messaging editor.

The address book API is part of the JIL/WAC PIM API, which enables widgets to interact with the phone's on-board address book and calendar. For example, widgets can create new address book and calendar entries, search for and read existing entries ...

Audio sample widget

Our Widget Samples series continues with the Audio sample widget, which demonstrates just how easy it is to add sound capabilities to your JIL apps and games. Whether you want to create a dedicated audio player, or add sound effects to a game or app, the JIL/WAC audio API is simple and easy to use, and supports play, pause, resume, stop, and repeat play, for local and remote files.

Common audio formats are supported including MP3, for high quality audio playback, and WAV (useful for samples and effects). Depending on the phone, MP4 (i.e. AAC ...

Geolocation sample widget

The latest in our Widget Samples series is the Geolocation sample widget, which demonstrates how to use the JIL geolocation API.

Location-awareness can add a unique dimension to your mobile apps, enabling you to create presence-based services and include geotagging, mapping, and navigation functionality. The JIL geolocation API is easy to use, does exactly what it says, and makes it easy to give your apps that mobile edge. You can use this sample widget as a starting point for own widget projects.

The sample demonstrates:

• How to make a location request and handle the asynchronous result
• How ...