Nokia 808 (via Nokia)

There have been some pretty compelling smartphones showcased at this year’s Mobile World Congress. However, the crown of ‘best new mobile handset’ went to Nokia and their 808 PureView smartphone. The phone houses a 41 megapixel sensor with a Carl Zeiss lens which is able to cram 7 pixels into 1 (using Nokia’s proprietary technology) that helps the phone take 1080p pictures and HD movies at 30 frames per second! The images taken can then be uploaded to the net instantly to GetMeRated, Vimeo or a host of other social sites using apps downloaded from Nokia.

The 808 uses a Xenon flash that can capture video and images in low-light which is a problem for current smartphones. Another feature in the PureView is the ability to record sound with ultra-low bass at up to 140 decibels. The recorded bass can only be played back in true Dolby Surround sound (provided you have headphones capable to do so). As for the phones display screen; it uses a 4 inch AMOLED screen with a nHD resolution of (16:9) 640 X 360 capable of displaying 16.7 million colors.

(41 megapixel brings professional medium format digital photography to the masses. Everyone gets to be Ansel Adams with this sensor.)

The 808 PureView comes with everything you’d expect from a top of the line smartphone in terms of connections, including USB 2.0 (why not 3.0?), HDMI and Bluetooth 3.0. It also comes equipped with a dedicated GPU with OpenGL 2.0 that is capable of playing 3D games. A dual-core 1.3Ghz processor, 512MB of ram, and 16GB storage fill out the rest of its specs. The launching OS is Symbian Belle, an all but outdated platform. Though, we are sure to see the 41 MP camera on future Windows Phone handsets. The Nokia 808 PureView is available now (unlocked) for $895.00 US but should be available soon for most major carriers in the coming weeks or months.

For those who want to know:

35mm film = 10-16 megapixels

Medium format film = 31-62 megapixels

Large format film = 149 megapixels to 1.15 gigapixels

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

(via TechNet study)

Some say the mobile device "app gold rush" is over. Both the iOS and Android markets have the better part of a million applications each, how can there be room for more? I disagree. I think the field is flush with possibilities. So far, 466,000 jobs have been created in the "app economy" business. There is room for more.

The App Economy generated $20 billion USD in 2011 alone, according to the TechNet study on the industry. The revenue includes app sales, in app advertising gains, virtual and physical goods sold due to apps. The major contributors to the app markets are not surprising: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Facebook site apps, and Windows Mobile/Phone. (I would say Blackberry may be a dwindling market for the developer, beware.)

(Left) App jobs per state  (Right) App jobs per city (via TechNet study)

Geographical location was also obvious in the report. California state, USA, takes the crown having 23.8% of the jobs. New York, Washington, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida round out the top 10 in order. Being close to the OS company in Silicon Valley is a popular choice for app developers, while others want to be near advertising/media concentration in New York.

Growth is predicted, by the report, to be significant in the coming years. Between 2010 and 2011, an increase of 45% was seen in the job want ads. If you have the skill, the jobs are plentiful.

App career growth chart (via TechNet study)

With feature phones (dumb-phones) outnumbering Smartphones 4:1, globally, as of 2011, the app market has the potential to grow 400%. Take $20 billion and make it $80 billion to give another perspective. There are 82.2 million Smartphone users in the USA(2011), those numbers will only grow over time. I liken this to the adoption of computers in the home. At first slow, now every home has several.

Want to get started? Try the Goolge/MIT App Inventor. No coding needed.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

See the full TechNet study, attached to this post

(Via PhoneGap)

Have idea for a simple phone app? Why not release it for the 4 big mobile operating systems at the same time: Windows Phone, Android, iOS, Blackberry, symbian, bada, and webOS.

PhoneGap 1.3 was recently released bringing along with it the most useful cross platform development environment to date. The new update mostly is to give Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) full support of the features. The backbone of PhoneGap is based on web development standards, which innately bridges between the platforms already. The core relies  upon Java, HTML5, CSS and many native PhoneGap tools to get the job done. The best part is, PhoneGap is open-source. 

Originally developed by the company Nitobi, now part of Adobe, the PhoneGap framework (aka Apache Callback) has seen many contributors add to the project, most notably, RIM, IBM, and Microsoft. 

Unfortunately, according to the licensing agreement, PhoneGap can only be used on free apps. However, nothing says developers cannot make money with in-app advertisement. Take a look at the PhoneGap website to get started.

See more software development in the Knode OS forum.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14