Blog - Tips

This week the GSMA announced a new set of Mobile Application Privacy Guidelines to help developers design privacy into their apps. Vodafone helped create these and we have committed to implementing them for all new own-branded apps in the next 6 months. A number of other major mobile operators have committed to implementing them – see the press release with supporting statements from the companies.

We know our customers care about their privacy. Take a quick look at this infographic. And we hear from many developers who are looking for help in navigating this difficult area. These guidelines are an important ...

The GSMA today announced the first in a series of activities designed to help users and operators manage the growing traffic and signalling demands generated by smartphones and mobile applications. The GSMA has created a developer’s guide which will help application developers ensure their applications are more user- and network-friendly. Along with this guide, the GSMA is launching the “Smarter Apps Challenge” competition to drive the development of efficient mobile applications.

The guidelines consist of a set of recommendations for application developers that will enable improvements across a number of areas including application connectivity, power consumption, network reliability and ...

Creating an app that looks good, works for the most possible customers and is easy to find, can seem like a challenge. When in fact it really doesn’t need to be, especially as sometimes the best recipes for success are surprisingly simple.

And to make it life easier for you we’re here to help with some straightforward tips and advice in the following articles:

The look of your app is important

For users, it's the first quality indicator they see. Attractive design, clear and effective layouts that feel optimal on the user's device, and high quality ...

So you’ve heard about our new app store ‘Vodafone AppSelect’ and you’d love to have a play and see what it’s like, but you don’t have a device. Well you now can via the Vodafone Handset Cloud where Vodafone AppSelect is available on a number of real live devices. It’s FREE to register and use this service, and is also a great way to test out your apps on a variety of real handsets. Find out more and how to register for the service here

Below is an example of a number of devices in ...

With the recent launch of Vodafone AppSelect our customers are looking for apps that stand out from the crowd, and creating useful and innovative mobile apps isn't rocket science. In fact, the best recipe for success is surprisingly simple:

• Match your own skills and interests to an everyday problem, and solve it better, or with a difference
• Stay focused on the user experience
• Pay attention to the details

To help get you on the right track we have a paper that offers five straightforward tips to help you plan and implement successful mobile apps, covering,

• Tip 1—Solve a ...

Earlier this week Vodafone hosted Smart Accessibility workshops in Belfast and Madrid. At both workshops there was a great turn out, and even better ideas and insights shared. Attendees from both the developer and accessibility communities joined together to share valuable info and there were even some great demos too.

For the Belfast workshop there were some fantastic presentations that looked at ‘an introduction to accessibility’ and advice from the industry on how to develop for this market. There was some pretty impressive technology on show that included voice recognition – and in fact how this can help in everyday life ...

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 ...

We’re pleased to announce that we can now accept your Live Wallpapers for Android. They will appear in the Vodafone Shop in the markets you select during the upload process and all you need to do is add the following line to your APK manifest file:

<uses-feature android:name="android.software.live_wallpaper"></uses-feature> 

If you have any questions about them then please post on our forums

Have fun!
The Vodafone developer team.

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 ...