Category: Technology

MoMo Ahd: Smart Skills That Every Mobile Developer Needs To Master

Mobile Monday Ahmedabad Event Announcement:

Over recent years, mobile applications have become key in providing solid experiences for both consumer and business smartphone users, increasing the rate of mobile application development. The mobile technology landscape keeps on evolving, the business needs keep on changing. So how do you cope with the ever dynamic landscape? How do you emerge as a top developer? Mobile Monday provides you a platform to master the skills that every mobile developer needs to have. For our upcoming event we have invited an industry expert specially for the developer community to discuss the current and future state of mobile applications, including smart skills that every developer need to master in order to continue innovating and what consumers can expect from mobile applications in the future.

Not to miss session for Mobile developers willing to master Mobile Development. We will also have a developer contest where we will ask 10 smart questions to the developers during the event. The winners will get exiting gift vouchers for the smart answers !!!

How can we forget The MWC 2014 !! You didn’t go to MWC….no worries, we have a person specially for you at this MoMo….who has been there and witnessed it all…Come and take your pick..!!

Speaker Profile:

Mr. Avinash Birnale | VP – Technology, Quality @ Endeavour Software Technologies

Avinash is working with Endeavour Software Technologies as Vice President Technology and Quality for Endeavour Software. He has wide range of experience in mobile software, web application and desktop application development. He is the technology evangelist and a thought leader. In his current role at Endeavour he leads the technology and quality control & assurance teams. He is mentor to enterprise architects and technologists at Endeavour. He has hands on experience in developing large scale enterprise solutions with deep mobility focus in Healthcare, Retail, BFSI and digital content. He has been architecting enterprise solutions for almost every mobile platform and form factors, ranging from market facing consumer application and team mobility alike. He provides important insights into industry trends, mobility adoption advice and strategic consulting to Endeavour’s premier customers in Retail, Healthcare and BFSI. He leads Endeavour’s Mobile Opportunity Assessments (MOA™) initiative to build Enterprise Mobile Strategy (EMS) and Roadmaps for our customers that have resulted into ambitious mobility implementations.

Avinash is science graduate with specialization in mathematics and holds masters degree in computer applications. Avinash is an active PMI-PMP. He is the passionate technology reader and blogger with immense love for automobiles and photography. He speaks at various developer conferences and shows about mobility and provides guidance to developers. Avinash has 12+ years of experience in Mobility alone.

Date & Time: 22nd March, Saturday | 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Venue: CIIE, IIMA New Campus, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad

Register Here!

March 14, 2014
Mobile World Congress 2014 – Highlights

The Mobile World Congress is an important pilgrimage for mobile enthusiasts. The Mobile World Congress 2014 was a hit show with more than 85,000 attendees from 200+ countries. Clearly Mobility was important for everyone ! Though I did not see any earth-shattering innovation, it was a good glimpse of the dominant themes in the mobility industry. It was a good investment of 3.5 days spent on networking, meetings, discussions and walking 70,000+ steps!

Quick Highlights:

1. Wearable Gear: Wearable Devices emerged as the highlight of the show. The Wearable Tech is now live and mainstream – bands, glasses, watches. Samsung Gear2 , Sony Smartband were the new launches. Interesting use cases for healthcare, fitness and other industries.

2. Connected World: Connected Cars, Smart Homes, Smart Cities & Internet Of Things were the clear new trends to look forward to. Connected Cars were on show everywhere. All major car brands showcased the future of cars. Beyond accessing apps, it would be nice to see diagnostics go to the next level.

3. More & More Devices: New devices keep coming from biggies – Samsung S5, Sony Xperia Z2 etc. Lot of new companies debuted with new devices. Dozens of Chinese-Asian companies are going direct and selling pretty sexy devices. I was impressed by Yoto, Jello and Fairphone. My Pick – Yota Phone

Yota Phone is a cool innovative concept. It provides a second screen on the back of the device that provides always-on access to important, real-time information without draining the battery. It saves battery by 5 times! Russian Device

4. OS Wars: OS Wars may get hotter with the push of Firefox. Tizen is getting stronger – it is on the new Samsung Gear. Even Ubuntu, Sailfish are getting steam in Europe. I liked Sailfish – built on Meego.

5. The Zuckerberg Show: Mark Zuckberg was the man to watch out for. His Whatsapp acquisition was timely and he was in news. At MWC, he became an Internet Evangelist & defended Whatsapp purchase.

6. $25 Smartphone Push May Become A Reality.

7. App Development Skills Are Given. In Enterprise Mobility, Cool Solutions and Real Platforms matters. Plain vanilla development services do not matter – think Mobile App Program. Basic App Development is equal to Website Development. No Respect.

8. Basics Still Matter: Nokia Launched Android Phone – X. Continued Focus on Asha Series. Blackberry Again Focused on Enterprise Services.

9. Beyond Mobile Devices: Lot of interesting accessories.
Slimport – Powerful for direct display to large screens.
Looq – Extended Arm for The Perfect Selfie ! Yes – Accessory for Selfie!
Woodero – Perfect Wooden Case for iPhone / iPad
Eye Tracker – Play Fruit Ninja With Eye Movement!
Oral B SmartBrush – Using Bluetooth technology, the interactive electric toothbrush connects to the Oral-B App that provides real-time guidance while you brush, and records brushing activity as data that you can chart on your own and share with dental professionals, helping to create smarter and more personalized brushing routines.

Mobile World Congress was one of the best organized conferences – I have been there earlier in 2010 and 2012 – but this was the best. The event was well coordinated with Barcelona City Council and Government Authorities.

As we arrived at the airport, there were nearly 30+ counters to issue MWC Badges. Wow ! The efficient shuttle services, event management at ground, cab movement etc was very well coordinated. Cheers !

February 28, 2014
FaceBook’s Purchase Of Whatsapp – Its About Mobile Leadership !

Facebook Buys WhatsApp for USD 19 Billion ! This has been one of ‘the’ topics to discuss in the last week. Even at the Mobile World Congress, it is a big topic. Two customers called me saying that let us work on billion dollar ideas. Social media, startup communities, VC board rooms, office conversations are all talking about this big deal.

It is an important event. I had the following thoughts on the deal:

1. Mobile is the gateway to human interaction and life – we already know that. The deal re-affirms that.
2. WhatsApp had overtaken Facebook as the most addictive mobile app. Whether I am in London, Barcelona, Bombay or any village in India, WhatsApp is the app people are hooked to – the first morning ritual, the last evening habit, the multiple updates throughout the day. The first people check after a flight lands is WhatsApp! The CEO’s executive assistant shares important files through WhatsApp. Domestic help reviews the stationery/vegetable choices. Taxi Driver at an airport pickup can identify his customer. In short, WhatsApp was the app that mattered a lot to people in their daily lives. Hence it mattered a lot to FaceBook to claim its mobile leadership. “No one in the history of the world has ever done something like this,” Facebook Chief Executive rightly Mark Zuckerberg said that.
3. WhatsApp is a hit with youth. And youth are at the centre of mobile revolution.
4. WhatsApp is big in many emerging markets and it helps to grow and consolidate Facebook in these markets. WhatsApp is adding 1 million users a day.
5. The acquisition is a costly one. USD 19 Billion. Facebook is paying through ample amount of stock and that hurts less as anyone who knows the stock maths. Also, compare price versus importance of WhatsApp as seen in Point 2. Also, the per user price is reasonable as compared to Facebook’s purchase of Instagram or Google’s purchase of Youtube.
6. Facebook may have also feared that WhatsApp could have been sold to another giant – Google, Yahoo, Microsoft. Competitor fears are real !
7. People may also feel that Facebook is running out of ideas and is desperate. I think Facebook is being bold and courageous. I am sure they may have lot of ideas being cooked but they have not shied away from open market purchases to defend the mobile leadership.
8. The challenge for Facebook is to ensure returns on the deal within next 12-18 months. Consumer taste is fickle. WhatsApp may give way to something more exciting. Hence Facebook will have to use the users and the time to continue to excite the consumers with new offerings.
9. WhatsApp, Instagram show the power of simple ideas executed well. It shows the power of focus. It shows that small teams can win big! The valuation of WhatsApp is bigger than outsourcing giants like InfoSys, Wipro etc.
10. Funnily, Blackberry had WhatsApp in it with BBM ! Had it been agile and moved it to cross platform and added features – it would have been different story. Today Blackberry’s worth is less than WhatsApp sales price.
11. The deal is great news for entrepreneurs and idea bulbs. It shows that sky is the limit for the right idea. It will encourages thousands of people to create the next big WhatsApp. That is wonderful !

Facebook Purchase of WhatsApp is definitely an important milestone !

Ideas Win! Simplicity Wins! Entrepreneurship Wins!

February 25, 2014
The Best iOS Apps !

The iOS7 Apps Reflect The New Age Design Philosophy – Minimalist, Light, Sleek ! iOS7 Apps Are Brighter, Lighter, Animated And Replete With Translucency, Layers and 3 D Effects

Some Of The Cool iOS7 Apps Are:
Evernote – Favorite Note App
Yahoo Weather – Best Weather App
Tweetbot 3- Twitter Client
Fantastical 2 – Awesome Calendar App
Clear – Great To-Do App
Mileage Log+ – Mileage Tracker
Foursquare – Amazing Check-In App
Reeder 2
TeeVee 2
Screens 3
Flipboard

November 29, 2013
Soylent : The Future Of Food?

Everyone has pet ideas and interesting concepts that are pure fun, very energizing and often seemingly impossible. I have my list. One of the ideas in the list was Annapurna Tablets. The idea was simple. Body needs food. Food takes lot of time. I really hate time spent on lunch. Even dinner – if I am busy. Many of my friends and colleagues visit home for lunch – waste of time, fuel and break from thinking. My mother or wife have to worry about the menu for the lunch – especially difficult for a person like me. Why not have a tablet that gives you all the necessary ingredients of the daily food? Going beyond the normal supplement pills ! Imagine a pill for dal, chawal, roti, subzi etc. It helps in many time. Saving precious time for you and your environment. In a country like India, it will release the time from housewives – as this becomes their major chore. They can invest in other productive areas including their passions, kids or helping family business.

The joy of food increases. You really cherish those lunches and dinners of full food. You really spend time with friends and colleagues and spouse when you go out for lunch or dinner.

Of course my parents always warned me. But this will not allow the natural growth of your body. Many body parts exists such to help us digest food. Including teeth ! I agreed to some points.

Annapurna Tablets was a thing I never thought would happen. Mine was just wishful thinking and part of my friend conclaves. I am sure that there are lot of people thinking on same lines. I was overjoyed and extremely excited when I saw the concept of Soylent. It addresses the very same issue.

Soylent is an efficient form of fuel for humanity for the first time in history. Soylent is an affordable nutrition drink with all the essential ingredients the healthy body needs. It is an substance that is intended to replace food – just mix the powder with water and drink.

The name Soylent is inspired from the 1973 movie Soylent Green

What Soylent consists of ? Read It Here

Soylent seems like the future of food. Cut the emotion out of food. Do not worry about what to eat. Just eat Soylent which addresses the needs of your body. Have the same thing. It is time efficient. Saves money as well. Steve Jobs did not worry about what to wear – saves decision making and one less thing to worry !

And when you really want to enjoy food – do that. The same food may test better !

Of course Soylent may be very controversial as well. I am sure enough research has been done on it and its effect. It is ready for delivery in US from early 2014. It will soon open for international orders.

Maudene Nelson, a dietician at Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition. “Nutritionally I don’t think you can make a food that delivers everything,” she says. “This is an obsessive way of making food choices. It’s not obsessively overeating. It’s obsessively micromanaging.”

The dream of replacing food has been around for hundreds of years, popular with science fiction writers and utopian communities, says Amy Bentley, an associate professor of food studies at New York University. “In the 19th century, Victorians talked about the meal in a pill,” she says. While the idea may appeal to a small group of people who find eating to be a chore, she says, “for better and worse, most people find food pleasurable.”

Soylent is a revolutionary concept. It is a major mindset shift for mankind. Can it solve the world’s hunger problem? Or it will be just a Silicon Valley techie’s time-saving tool only? Let us see !

References:
Soylent Website
Businessweek Article on Soylent

November 22, 2013
TechGig Webinar – Trends In Enterprise Mobility

TechGig.Com Webinar was a great opportunity for me to interact with the IT Professionals in the industry. The best part was the Q&A. For anyone who missed it, please find the Webinar Video!

About The Webinar:
Mobile Computing is forcing the way people live since its inception. It has already conquered the consumer sphere. Now it is setting sight on the corporate counterpart and it is expected to be the next big productivity driver. We define Enterprise Mobility as “the set of technology, applications, processes and policies that support the possibility to perform business activities anywhere at any time”. Over the next year, 35% of employers plan to provide more flexible work arrangements for employees. This is the power of Enterprise Mobility.

Going Mobile is not as easy as it seems to be, for that enterprise needs solid mobile strategies.

Enterprise mobility not a Fad and it is going to be the one of the most important way the organisations work. There are a few organisations who have achieved it in the right manner; some are still struggling to adopt it. Try to learn from then what the dos and don’ts for your Enterprise are mobility and how to achieve the right kind of strategy for your business.

Key Discussion Points
• Enterprise Mobility Trends
• Evolution of Enterprise Mobility
• Pain Areas of Enterprise
• Strategies for Enterprise Mobility
• Case Studies

October 24, 2013
Subroto Bagchi On Re-Inventing Oneself !

Subroto Bagchi – One of the most wonderful and humble persons you will ever meet ! I had the good fortune of meeting this amazing human being and brilliant mind today.

Subroto is one of the highly popular and engaging authors. His books connect with us due to the sheer honesty and genuineness. I have read all his books and I am his ardent fan. Hence I grabbed the opportunity to meet him today when CII organized the round-table discussion with him. I and few other IT Professionals met him at EDI, Gandhinagar today.

Utpal asked Subroto about the different roles described in his book. Subroto explained the different roles as under:
1. Rainmaker – Every organization needs these people – people who can get business. Every sales person should be a rainmaker.
2. Thought Leader – People who can see ‘Day After Tomorrow’. People who are visionaries and connect dots which do not exist !
3. Ninjas – People who can get flawless execution done without process violation within the time and budget constraints.
4. Coach – People who can train and mentor people.

Every organization needs a good mix of these roles to succeed. Organizations cannot be just Ninjas alone or Rainmaker alone.

He urged everyone of us to get a formal assessment done and understand where we stand. What is our dominant profile. And dominant profile is like our DNA – it cannot be fundamentally changed. Formal assessment will lead us to our growth – sometimes we think we are Leopards though we might be actually a Jackal !

I (Ash) requested Subroto to share how we transformed himself and grew himself in MindTree’s journey from ‘Idea To IPO’. Subroto explained that he thought there were four key pillars:

1. Humility : Humility is very essential. We need to be receptive. Actually, CEO has to be like beggar !
2. Unusual Sources : Seek information and ideas from unusual sources. Cultivate white space time – it is very important. Important ideas do not need to happen in board rooms – they might happen in bath-tubs. And when bathtub ideas happen, do not wait for market validation or excel forecast – trust your intuition !
3. Mental Agility : Practice mental agility. Mind needs to be agile and challenge itself. Sometimes mental agility happens with displacement – change of city etc.
4. Sense of Purpose : The most important factor ! The purpose determines your power in life. The practical examples of Intel, Microsoft and Dalai Lama drove home this point effectively.

Very beautiful insights – worth internalizing in life !

Subroto also explained that entrepreneurs need to create more leaders – leaders who can see the big picture and who can have critical questioning ability. Entrepreneurs fail when they always surround people who think like them and are sycophants.

Subroto recommended the following resources:
1. Book: A Whole New Mind – Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future is a book by Daniel H. Pink
2. Movie Documentary : Infinite Vision
3. Book: Leading with Questions – How Leaders Find the Right Solutions By Knowing What To Ask

Apart from the amazing experience, my reward was to get his personally autographed book ! Happy !!!

September 13, 2013
Jobs: The Genius Is Missing !

Jobs Movie is a big letdown.

I am an Apple fan. I am a Apple consumer since early 2000s. I have been interested in Steve Jobs, his leadership, his presentation skills, his innovation. I am aware that he was a flawed and an eccentric character. I loved Walter Issacon’s biography. Naturally, I was doubly excited about Jobs movie since its announcement – it married my two interests – Apple and Movies.

Jobs movie captures only some moments of Jobs’ eventful life. The events are also given a passing reference. Jobs life has a perfect screenplay, which is not exploited fully.

Apple produces glamorous products with story and magic around it, Jobs Movie does not !

Steve was a great marketer and a greater businessman. He had a strange ability to spot magic and push people to innovation. He rallied the troops at Apple and made it the most valuable company in the world. This is not captured in the movie.

I found that Woz was made to sound like a comical character – a second rung side-kick. Sculley episode was totally underplayed. The Lisa part was not given equal justice as well. The way Woz was cheated, or stock options denied to early members, making of Macintosh etc could have been effectively exploited. The dialogue between him and his designer at the end sounded very very fake and gospelic. You see that funny episode and other small moments like parking in disability spot.

Many people expecting to see iPhone, iPad and other stories will be highly disappointed. This is outside movie’s frame. So is his cancer episode. For non-tech masses and many emerging countries, the context will be missing.

The movie does not do justice to Jobs. It has many parts of his life but sum is lesser than parts. The movie could have been in the same league as The Social Network to become a business case study for leadership and technology business. It is not !

The genius is missing in the movie.

August 24, 2013
AppFest 2013 – The Complete Report

Vaibhavi Oza wrote a note on the AppFest 2013 Experience. I am sharing it as it gives a great picture of the event.

Ahmedabad was proud to witness one of the most happening Appfest in India. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) hosted the Second AppFest at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) from July 26 to 28. In their own words they have not expected such a huge crowd to turn up for the participation.

The event was divided in three days Talkathon, Hackathon & Challengathon. On day one we saw a lot of industry experts talking about various issues that bothers app developers.

Session started with talk on building android apps: challenges and solutions, where speakers like Anand Virani from Qualcomm, Ravi Vyas from Vserv talked on how to build cooler, richer apps and how to monetize the android apps.

The session was followed by the Best Practices from industries where Satyajeet Singh, Cleartrip Mobile shared his experience and journey of going mobile, also Pawan Agarwal from Gaana.com talked on the selection of platform, which were the real lessons learned from their experiences.

So once you know what challenges in building app are and what are best practices in industry the next thing comes is the Marketing of those apps and getting maximum downloads. Where Ninad chhaya, Mansa Gajaera & Smeer Ganpathy threw some light on what is to be done to make the apps marketable. Some of the things they highlighted were keeping the things simple and emphasize on knowing what your customer wants.

In the session followed by this the speakers talked about going beyond your comfort zone for app monetization and app release. The thing they highlighted was that there are more innovative and smarter ways to launch your app and think beyond Google App store!

The session followed by that was on Using the Facebook Platform to the best potential for your app where Alexandre Corso, Asian BU Head, KRDS- Facebook Experts India, gave insight on how effectively using facebook can help the developer.

Session followed by this was again some industry highlights on marketing the apps and according to the Abhay Johorey, Head Airtel Online, Bharti Airtel, Secrets of successful User Acquisition is there is no Secret! The product has to be the best and there is no way you can keep the consumers more involved and engaged.

The other sessions were on Monetization of apps, making money out of freemium strategy, Earning revenue by building Businesses around App gave some serious insights to the developers.

The last session of day was On Entrepreneurship – Challenges of a freelance developer and raising investment, the session talked about bootstrapping, best practices for small developer operations

and managing small team dynamics. Industry experts speak about fine-tuning processes, planning for new developers and how they can approach for gaining VC investment.

All the sessions were followed by the Q&A sessions where participants came up with their queries and questions and the speakers has tried their best to address them.

The day two we saw the different side of Gujarat developers, Designers and tech savvy people came up in great numbers there were total 45 teams for hackathon and 20 teams for challengathon! Each team consisting of an average of two people!

To Summarize I will put a few quotes from the speakers on what works, what not works and what is important! So here are some of the secrete mantras form the speakers.

“Don’t Just make an Easy App, Think about the Usability as well” – Amber Krishnan
“God is in Details & that differentiates the Good app from the OK app”- Satyajeet Singh ( Cleartrip)
“Focus on Native Experience than a Feature set”- Pawan Agrawal (Gaana.com)
Understanding what kind of App will click to user is important- Sameer Ganapathy Digital Disney UTV
“Secrets of successful User Acquisition is: there is no Secret” – Abhay Johorey ( Bharti Airtel)
“Make A Story Around Your App, that will engage your user ” – Sameer Ganapathy Digital Disney UTV
“App market is crowded No Doubt in that but, there is always some gap, identify that gap and make an app that fills that Gap ”- Zarik Nabi, Milestone Interactive
“Consumer insight is the most important factor, keep your audience in mind when you build your app, listen to feedbacks and keep revamping the app ” – Zarik Nabi, Milestone Interactive

And finally take away for me, the three days were full of excitement, fun and learning what industry expects! There exist a gap in what we develop and what industry & consumer wants!

July 30, 2013
Innovation At Zero Budget – Inspiring Story !

A little more than a year ago, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, TED Curator Chris Anderson and his colleagues met a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, who told them a fascinating story. His family raises livestock on the edge of a vast national park, and one of the biggest challenges is protecting the animals from lions—especially at night. Richard had noticed that placing lamps in a field didn’t deter lion attacks, but when he walked the field with a torch, the lions stayed away. From a young age, he’d been interested in electronics, teaching himself by, for example, taking apart his parents’ radio. He used that experience to devise a system of lights that would turn on and off in sequence—using solar panels, a car battery, and a motorcycle indicator box—and thereby create a sense of movement that he hoped would scare off the lions. He installed the lights, and the lions stopped attacking. Soon villages elsewhere in Kenya began installing Richard’s “lion lights.”
Richard’s story was compelling and he was invited for a TED Talk, which was a great success.

Lessons:
1. Innovation can happen anywhere – even in African Jungles
2. Innovation does not require a team of NASA Scientists or PhDs
3. Innovation does not require big budgets and R&D Centre.
4. Innovation need not be complex.
5. Dreams come true !

Watch This !

July 9, 2013