Category: Opinion

Podcasts

If some you will think that I have been living under a rock šŸ§—ā€ā™‚ļøĀ – that’s fair šŸ¤·šŸ½ā€ā™‚ļø. In the past year I got totally hooked on podcasts. I know, I know – the first podcasts started appearing as early as 2003Ā and exploded in popularity around 2010.

I guess it’s better late than never.

I was always a semi-news junkie, listening mostly to news in the car (and reading news a lot). The news on the radio is usually repeated over and over again so it can get boring rather fast. But the world of podcasts has opened a completely new world to me. The sheer number and the quality of podcasts is simply amazing. With so many amazing and educational podcasts, it’s like having a private radio station where you build and customize the playlist and can listen anywhere and anytime. Podcasts provide superb education, entertainment and are free.

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My short time with T-Mobile: the good, the bad and the ugly

After 15+ years with AT&T Mobile I decided to switch to T-Mobile. The reasons I switched to T-Mobile are in the Good section. The reasons are went back to AT& are in the Bad/Ugly sections. I was with T-Mobile for five days and used the phone in the Bay Area (east bay and San Francisco).

The Good

  • Excellent customer service. Any time I reached out to them on Twitter via DM, I’d get a reply within 10-15 minutes. They genuinely want to help youĀ šŸ‘
  • Price. T-Mobile monthly price per line is usually $10-$15 cheaper than AT&T or Verizon. For example, right now they have a promotion where you pay $40/line. For three lines it is $120 and the nice thing is that all taxes and fees are included. In California, you get close to $5/line in taxes and fees. They also include Standard Netflix subscription (with 2 or more lines), that’s another $10.99Ā šŸ¤‘
  • I like their Un-Carrier principlesĀ šŸ™Œ
  • It’s also fun to watch their CEO John Legere tweetĀ and make fun of the competitionĀ šŸ¤Ŗ
  • Extra benefits such as texting and data abroad (although at very slow speed), free in-flight texting on Go-go enabled flights (and one hour free internet)Ā āœˆļø
  • If coverage where you live is not good, T-Mobile will send you a free CellSpot or signal extender for free. CellSpot connects to your WiFi and creates a mini cell tower right in your houseĀ šŸ“¶

The Bad

  • Coverage is weak. In places where their coverage map shows strong coverage, you get weak coverage. My service was showing 1-2 bars most of the timeĀ šŸ‘Ž
  • T-Mobile support will offer you a free CellSpot or signal extender if coverage where you live is not good. I think they know their coverage is not good so they right away offer these units for freeĀ šŸ“”
  • Call quality (voice) is not as good (at least compared to AT&T).ā˜ŽļøŽ
  • Many other people are also reporting that they have bad service/coverageĀ šŸ““
  • Anytime you tweet about bad coverage (like here), T-Mobile support will respond (that’s good) and tell you they will help. After a few tweets like that you realize there is nothing they can do (they can’t magically add more towers)Ā šŸ™…ā€ā™‚ļø
  • T-MobileĀ CEO John Legere making of the competition is fun at the first. When you realize the service is far behind the competition, these tweets are not as fun anymoreĀ šŸ˜¶

The Ugly

  • Coverage inside buildings is very bad and in some cases non-existent.Ā  I was in the heart of San Francisco with virtually no coverage inside an office building even thought their coverage map said it was in strong coverage areaĀ šŸ˜”

The Disappointment

I was eager to try T-Mobile due to everything I listed in the Good section. I was genuinely surprised and disappointment at how poor quality their service/coverage is in 2019. I always knew that T-Mobile was behind AT&T and Verizon in coverage but I didn’t realize how far behind, even today. I complete understand that each carrier has some areas where coverage is not good but I was expecting much stronger service/coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area and coverage inside buildings is even worseĀ šŸ˜”

I think T-Mobile knows its network is not as good and so has to be different than AT&T/Verizon on something else – and that something is lower prices (and that does attract new customers).

I like T-Mobile and what they stand for. T-Mobile is in the process of merging with Spring. I hope after the merger is finalized, they will significantly improve their coverage and I will give them another tryĀ šŸ™

Appery.io Wants to End The HTML5 vs Native Debate With New App Auto Update Capability

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Ben KepesĀ in Network World article: Appery.io aims to end the HTML5 vs native debate.

Mobile Enterprise Solutions: MEAPs or DIY Tools?

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Today, many companies looking to enter the world of enterprise mobile app development seemingly face a difficult development strategy choice: DIY tools vs. traditional enterprise mobile app development platforms (MEAPs). Choosing the right strategy for your enterprise can be a daunting task, especially when complicated by theĀ influx of many business users within enterprises that want to participate in mobile development. In that case, Ā the lowered skills barrier would make DIY tools an attractive choice,Ā but the results of such tools are not typically enterprise grade, due to their lack of flexibility.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the two options. It’s important to remember thatĀ both options have pros and cons, and either choice requires compromise. The options become largely a choice between flexibility and efficiency.

Continue reading “Mobile Enterprise Solutions: MEAPs or DIY Tools?” →

What Makes an Ideal Low Code App Development Platform?

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Photo from unsplash.com

The Current State of the Mobile Landscape

If someone stepped forward a decade or two ago and claimed that, in the near future, we would all have pocket-sized touchscreen devices that acted as gateways to multiple technological feats such as browsing the internet at high speeds, playing graphics intensive games, hailing cabs, booking flights, scheduling restaurant reservations, and purchasing products, you probably would have thought it nothing more than a creative mind’s wishful thinking. And who would have blamed you? At a time when these devices existed only in the realm of science fiction, no one would have believed, much less predicted, that one day, these incredibly high tech, hand-held gadgets would have such a huge impact on our day to day lives.

Continue reading “What Makes an Ideal Low Code App Development Platform?” →

The Hybrid vs. Native Question Answered: Appery.io + Ionic

 

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The debate between developing hybrid vs. native apps has been going on for a long time, and while itā€™s sure to continue long into the future, the argument for the hybrid model is getting stronger every day.

Making the Switch

Some of the topmost brands have recently ditched native and gone hybrid. With hybrid frameworks like Ionic and Apache Cordova (PhoneGap) becoming more mature, the assumption that a native app performs better is outdated.

In fact, the trend towards HTML5 and hybrid apps is stronger than ever; a recent Gartner report says that 90% of all Enterprise apps will be HTML5 or Hybrid by the end of this year.

Continue reading “The Hybrid vs. Native Question Answered: Appery.io + Ionic” →

Appery.io to Developers: Happy Xmas, the HTML5 vs. Native War Is Over

Great article by Adrian Bridgwater on Apepry.io adding support for Ionic Framework and low code platforms.

While ‘low code’ platforms are often thought to enjoy a lower level of serious interest from the hardcore developer community (yes, even in the face of a popularised visual based coding practices), Appery.io’s ability to use Apache Cordova and provide access to more native device capabilities is good news, as is the firm’s total combination of software application development tools, backend services (there are plug ins too) and its ability to bring forward template (or you could say ‘predefined’) integration options with other third party services. Did we mention visual data binding too? No – ok, well that’s in there too. The SDK integration here with Ionic may not quite be the one-for-all programming panacea that it is being positioned to be, but Salesforce is a fan and this company is growing in stature. If it can reign in the big claims and keep its code base stable, things could stay interesting.

Read the entire article ā†’

You Probably Didn’t Know These Apps Were Hybrid

You probably didn’t know that Amazon App Store, Evernote, Twitter and other are hybrid apps.Ā ReadĀ 8 High Performance Apps You Never Knew Were Hybrid.

Mobile App Development Choices

A great post from the PhoneGap team onĀ different choices to be considered when choosing a mobile strategy. The article reviews five mobile app approaches:

  1. Native Mobile App
  2. Web Mobile App
  3. Hybrid Mobile App
    1. Web hybrid mobile apps
    2. Native hybrid mobile apps

Read more ā†’

Why Do HTML5 Mobile Apps Have a Bad Reputation?

A great post by Josh Morony (site, Twitter) on why HTML5 mobile apps get bad reputation. The truth is HTML5 is great for mobile apps, make sure to read the article.