Android v iPhone - Which is better?

It looks like there is a healthy debate coming up on the mobile apps market and that is who should we be looking at developing for.

I think I already know the answer and will put forward my argument because I want a healthy debate so I am well informed before buying my kit and jumping in.

In an earlier posting on here I was looking about for an iPhone job. I had heard rumours that the USA developers were cleaning up and in some cases demanding $200 an hour because of the demand for apps writers.
This obviously made me want to get an iPhone right away and a MacBook and get right into learning COCOA and XCode so I could claim some of this lucrative market.

Firstly I wanted to find these people that are paying extortionate amounts for developing apps. What I actually found across the Apple developer communities is people who want to sell their ideas for you to run with and see if you can make something with it, or they all want to give you the idea, have you do all the work and write it and then split any profit with them 50/50.
So it seems there are a lot of people that want to leverage the iPhone to make money from apps, but they don’t want to pay developers to do it, they all want rewards from just coming up with a concept. And while original concepts are worth paying for, most of these ideas are bound to be rehashes of current ideas.
I also thought about my own ideas for what could be handy for an iPhone developer, I had loads, from auto handwritten Postcard services from when you are travelling, to help me solve the Rubik’s cube apps.
It turns out that everything has been done before (that is why I can put some of my ideas up here because I know they have already been done).
Everything from shopping lists that are linked into your supermarket account, thru to games that use the accelerometers to bounce a basketball.

I heard recently that there are about 400 new Apps per day coming out on the iPhone so chances are whatever you want as the saying goes (there is an app for that).
So I want to see what competition is out there.

The main runners as I see it in the smart phone world are:
iPhone
Android
Palm Pre
Windows Mobile

I think personally I can dismiss Windows Mobile because even though they are trying to claw back some reputation for their ASP.NET compact framework, they are too far behind now to compete in this market and are better placed for touch screen panels and Pocket PCs and other areas.
I can also dismiss the Palm Pre, because although I love the look and idea of it, I think the fact that they are now under an O2 exclusivity contract is going to stop them from ever getting to the stage to fully compete with the iPhone.

So this leaves Android. Good old faithful Google...
I guess I started writing this post because it has just been announced that Google has launched its free Sat Nav service this week. This is a sat nav service that not only can show Google Earth photographs, but can even go down to use the new Google Street View. It can also hook up with Google traffic watch, and basically does everything that a top end Tom Tom or Road King can do (on a device that costs less and can be used as a phone as well).
I believe with one foul swoop they have probably just killed off the Sat Nav device business and firmly positioned themselves as the best and cheapest (free) service, so who can compete?
I also believe that because Android is Open and the phones aren’t locked then I can take my Vodafone pay as you go SIM and plonk it straight into an android phone and it will work (unlike the iPhone with its locked device state).

So what about the business models and their future?
The best analogy I've heard is that Android is like Windows - runs on many different hardware set-ups whereas iPhone OS only runs on iPhone hardware. So it's the classic Windows vs MAC debate all over again. And the windows approach (lots of hardware support) is the proven winner over time. I don’t want to start a Mac / Microsoft debate on here, and I am not saying which is better, Windows or MacOS, I am saying the business model is making Microsoft more profit still than Apple on the software side. If you don’t agree that Windows software is still making more profit than MacOS software please start the debate elsewhere.
AAANYWAYS..
So now I have insulted Google and called them the Microsoft of the mobile world, my serious point is: I think the Android is going to get stronger and stronger.
I think that is my informed choice of next Gen phone that is the most future proofed.

Also and most importantly. I think that is my choice of phone to start developing Apps for. One great thing about that is they haven’t already been done. I can take some of the more popular apps from the iPhone and Port them over, or I can take my ideas and run with them knowing they haven’t already been developed.

So I guess I have written enough to start the debate. What are other peoples thoughts?
Just as a side note - As for Android devices, I am thinking that the HTC Hero is currently looking like the best Android phone on the market and would be the one that I might go for as my development kit.

So after extensive research and trying to make sure I don’t follow a dead horse (VHS versus BETA MAX and Blu Ray versus HDDVD etc..)
I believe I now know what platform I want to start developing things for.

I’ll let you all know when I have developed my first app and when I have anything cool for you all to have a look at.

Regards,

Lindsay.

Business is booming

Well the IT industry seems to have taken off recently.

I was getting right into the Virtual Reality research and where it could go when all of a sudden tons of work came in.
I have been carrying on with search engine optimisation for a customer, which I may as well mention here:
Ahem! (advert coming up.)
For all your CIM, Marketing qualifications, and Chartered Institute of Marketing courses, we offer Distance learning to get your diploma. Check out our corporate deals.

Anyway now thats out of the way, yeah I have also been having to take on employees. That is a change. All of a sudden I am trying to be my usual recluse code monkey, and now I am having to be in contact to get some others up to speed with us.

It's going great and after a few late nights and strong coffees I think we have come through it fairly unscathed.
We are still writing software applications and most of our customers are still based in the Anglia region, but we seem to be moving a lot more onto flash work now and intricate systems that uses a pretty front end.

Anyway I will try and keep a post in here about how the business is changing now. I am having to handle people, but for now I had best get back to it.

H

Virtual Reality is coming to a PC near you.

Hi again. A quick update to my blog now to show some of what I have been playing with since I wrote my first game to use the Wiimote and nunchuk.

It is obvious that the main intention of the Wiimote and Nunchuk is to provide the gamer with an input device that is a little more realistic than just a joypad with buttons. Part of the Wii's huge popularity at the moment is the fact that you can swing, punch and swoosh the control about and it reacts. People at the moment dont really care that the tennis game doesnt allow you to position your player on the court and tactically read what the other player is doing, as long as it hits the ball when you swing your Wiimote then that is enough for now.


So I had a play around with Wiimote and Nunchuk, and it brought back all of the memories of going to the sea front with my dad when I was a nipper and putting £2.00 (which was a fortune in them days) into the VR machines on the sea front arcades and playing a Dogfighting game with the huge Virtual Reality headsets on.
I find it a bit sad that Virtual Reality didnt take off as much in the end and fully blame the games console for this. Dont get me wrong I love the console, but it did mean that development was lost in the Arcade machine.

On another side note, whatever happened to those Sony Hologram Cowboy machines? They dissapeared off the face of the earth heheh.

Anyway I am detracting.
So I am sitting at home with my new Wiimote Game and I am wondering what can be done to make this kind of thing more immersive and more like Virtual Reality seeing as this is what is being hinted on with the Wii in the first place. I then remember that I have a projector, and some edimensional 3D shutter glasses, so I get them out to play and dust them off and I had a blast.
Now this is something I didnt expect, instead of just copying Wii games and motions, I am now probably the first person who has immersed themselves into a world stood in front of my wall (projector screen) which the shutter glasses makes look full 3D and I am boxing. I am actually seeing the boxing gloves in front of me swinging when I swing my arms. THIS IS GREAT.
And this got me excited.
Perhaps Virtual Reality could get a second wind and make a come back. So now I am thinking about all of the possibilities that a projector, 3D shutter glasses, a wiimote and a nunchuk could actually have, and how this could re crown the PC as the king of the games machines once again.

Before I go on, a brief bit about my games writing history:
I started off 20 years ago writing 2D games moving sprites around on the Commodore 64. I quickly progressed to using STOS on the Atari ST (for those of you not in the know it was a hacked about version of BASIC specifically meant for 2D games writing).
This was all schoolboy hobby stuff and never really went anywhere.
Since then I got my qualifications and got into the wide world of programming applications for business which consisted of loads of grey dialogue boxes with grey buttons that did the job but never looked very cool.
More recently most of the work has gone back to Web applications which although they still need to do the teccy stuff, now demand that they look cool, so programmers had to become designers and vice versa. It was at this time that I realised I could get back into the world of games development and away from the grey boxes. It is also true to say that it is no longer kids spending their £1.99 for a Mastertronic cassette tape down at the local newsagents, but it is a business that is big enough for people who know what they are doing to make a fair bit of money.

Well the good news is I havent forgotten my childhood dreams and I have got back into games development. I have a nice paying contract at the moment for a PC 3D game for a UK company (NDA stops me saying who) and I have had time to mess around with writing a small first game using the Wiimote and Nunchuk as inputs for my own curiosity. Check out previous Blog posts, and my fun stuff website covering it all here.




Needless to say without going down the Wiimote route too far I thought I would have a look and see what has been done specifically for the PC.

WOW - they have even better than the wiimote coming out. I have more details on my website here about my research into this, but I believe I have now taken my interest in this in a whole new direction, and instead of trying to lead a community of developers to make PC games that use Wiimotes, I want to take a closer look at the PC devices that can do far more, and then take a look at how to get ahead of the game and make the PC the ultimate Virtual Reality machine that could salute the Wii but at the same time, show up its limitations in a flash.

Anyway, I just wanted to get my thoughts down really. I need to get back on with some paid work, but the future of gaming looks really good, and I think my vote now goes back to the PC. The 360 and PS3 may have their time now, but PC is always going to be king as far as Virtual Reality fully immersive gaming is concerned.

Like I say check out my website here for a fuller explanation of the devices I have found and how these are going to shape the future of gaming.



Cheers,

L.

My first PC Wiimote and Nunchuk Game

I have done it.

I am so proud.

To be honest anybody looking at it may think that it looks like a load of old pants, but I dont care. There was a fair bit of work involved, but I have completed my first game using a Wiimote and a Nunchuk to control it.

At the moment I havent sorted out the 3D engine license to mass release it so it is playable for people who have a license for the TV3D engine only.

I intend to let anybody have the source code who wants it and who wants to play around with it and make their own additions to it. If you do make any changes then could you please let me know either in this blog or on my website to let me know what other people want from wiimote games.

Anyway the game:
It is basically a punching game. I thought along the lines of the punching games at an arcade where you punch as hard as you can and see the results on the screen.
When you start up the game you will see a smiley face and a couple of boxing gloves and you punch using the Wiimote and the Nunchuk to cause damange to the face.


I want to take this oppurtunity to thank Terry Bailey for supplying the 3D boxing gloves as I am not very good at 3D modelling. I may colour them in at some point if this game starts to prove popular with anybody.
After a determined amount of damage has been caused then you will get a final score on how long it took you to knock Mr Happy out.
You can walk around using the Wiimote direction buttons and you can look around using the Nunchuk Joystick.
Because the Wiimote and Nunchuk are secondary controls then you can also control the game using the PC (using the mouse and cursor keys to move and look around and using the I and P buttons to punch).

It has taught me a lot, especially the intricacies that are involved with understanding the acceleration readings that comes from a controller and translating that information to an in game action.

I may take this game further and add multiple faces that you can hit, and make the images editable so that you can use your own images to punch which might make a nice little stress reliever for some people. I may leave it here and move onto a different game and try out some other types of Wiimote and Nunchuk motions. I havent decided yet.

But if you want to have a play, then please feel free to get the game from my Wiimote Games section of my fun website here:

If you want to leave any comments or ideas then please feel free to leave them on the message section of my website here: Or email me through our Main Software Development Website contacts page here:

Thanks,

L.

Wiimote PC 3d Games controller motion logger

This is an update for where I am with writing PC Games that utilise the Wiimote and Nunchuk.

I firstly got a blank 3D world going in TrueVision3D which I have mentioned on the previous post. Once I had this world with a wiimote and my banana I realised that it is actually a difficult task to study the acceleration outputs of the wiimote and nunchuk and to translate them into motions in a 3D world.
I decided to implement the C# WiimoteLib version 1.0.1.0 from Brian Peek (thanks Brian). There is a test program that comes with his driver that displays all of the outputs of the Wiimote and Nunchuk in a nice little windows application. I have taken that test program and edited it a bit to give me some reuslts that I want to find useful and use for motion translations with my 3D games. The outputs displayed that I am interested in are straight forward float numbers showing the X,Y, and Z axis accelerations of the Wiimote and Nunchuk (-0.5 to +0.5 in strength). I figured that there would be some kind of a pattern to these outputs that would be the same for certain motions. To demonstrate what I have changed in Brians test code consider the following: Lets say you want to play a game like fishing and essentially you want to cast out the rod. Firstly you will raise the wiimote so it will rotate slowly upwards while being raised about 1 foot. Then as it is stationary the only acceleration will be gravity (9.81 metres per second squared in the vertical direction). Then as you whip it acceleration will change to downwards in the vertical and the wiimote will rotate again back to its starting position. This whole motion will show 3 patterns of accelerations, so you can then say when the player is doing a cast because the wiimote outputs will be in a similar pattern to this varying in strength.

I have written a program to try and help me to log all of these motion patterns that I need, and full details of it can be seen here on the Wiimote PC Games section of my fun stuff website.

The next phase should be incorporating these movements to my character in my 3D world and then I can give this character some tasks. Most probably breaking things and smashing stuff up to start with as the punching motion is a fairly straight forward one to get right and measure player strength.


Cheers,

L.

Wiimote and Nunchuk applications on the PC

I have had a couple of days spare between jobs and I thought about some viral marketing for our sister website for fun and useful applications to experiment with. Partly because it is always good for a company, but also because it gives me a chance to write something funky and fun.

Games are always a passion of mine, and I have gained some skills recently with the Truevision 3D games engine, specifically to do with First Person Shooter (FPS) style gameplay. While looking around I became amazed by the breakthrough that has been made with getting the nintendo wii controls to work on a PC. There seems to be a few drivers emerging now and I have had a look at them to see what would aid me the best in a C# set of PC 3D games.

The best used wiimote driver has to be the GlovePIE set up.
I have found problems with this, in that you have to run the GlovePIE program and run a script before you can run your own program. This is too fidly for me. I then saw that somebody had embedded a wiimote driver inside a Half Life 2 mod which looked much better. They havent released their source code yet, so I have had to look elsewhere.
At the moment I am settling on one of two solutions:
1- A C++ driver that I should be able to translate to C# and embed
2- A C# driver.

I think I will go for the C# one because I believe that includes nunchuk support.

I think these drivers will be getting better and more robust. If they could attempt an auto pair setup with the wiimotes then that would be excellent but for now, you have to go through pairing the wiimote yourself before running any code. A quick hint on doing this is hold down the wiimote buttons 1+2, and add bluetooth device, then skip pairing and click finish, the wiimote should now be useable with your PC (I know some bluetooth stacks have had problems with this but I now think that these issues are fixed).

Anyway onto the game. The control is excellent, I have played around with oscillators and seen exactly what the PC reads when the wii is held in all manor of positions and moved.
I am not using the sensor bar for the main reason that I would like it if somebody could just go and buy a wiimote for around £30 and start using it on the PC. The sensor bar is only for steadying the pointer anyway so it isnt needed for the types of games I am thinking of doing.

This does lead me to think that there could be a whole new market opening up here for the PC gaming market. Nintendo have recently announced that they are selling their games development kits for around $2000, which while it is a lot cheaper than development kits for other consoles, it still isn't as cheap as Visual C# Express for the PC (its free). This means there is guaranteed to be a lot more homebrewers ready to develop games on the PC platform but using the wiimote's original input style. It also means there is a much bigger audience for the games.
While trying to find out the legalities with this and what Nintendo may try and do about it, I have come to the conlcusion that if I write a game for the PC, but it also caters for wiimote and nunchuk controlling then that should keep me legal as far as releasing any games to the masses.

I didnt want to get bogged down with the 3D graphics, and game design yet until I was sure that all pieces of the puzzle would work together. So for my first test I have so far put together a little world that you can run around, and in front of you are two objects: A wiimote, and a banana. These items were grabbed from the Google sketchup warehouse, there is no nunchuk there so that is why I chose a banana as it is a similar shape. At the moment the objects mimmick what the user is doing with the wiimote and nunchuk so I am now at a stage where I can introduce objects and physics and rules into the world to come up with some games.
My world screens:



I will keep my findings updated here and on my nintendo wii PC DOTNET section of our sister website. Next I will start to introduce some more objects, and physics and rules.

I dont want to list the ideas as I want to be the first to do them.

Cheers,

altFusion team.

altFusion is now running on other domain names.

We have recently registered some other domain names.
I know that this doesn’t help out with Search Engine Optimisation for our main Cambridge and Peterborough Software IT website, but it does stop anybody else buying up the domains and hurting our web presence. Each domain also has their own page ranking for the pages inside them, and although I am not actively going to promote the other domains, they might bring more traffic in just by being there and allowing indexing over time.
Domains we have now registered and a brief description about that type of domain top level extension are:
1/
http://www.altfusion.biz/ - A general online business extension and altFusion is an IT online business.
2/
http://www.altfusion.net/ - A general extension to say we are on the Internet.
3/
http://www.altfusion.org/ - A worldwide organisation domain. As long as it isn’t postfixed with the uk subdomain then there aren’t restrictions on it like it having to be a charity organisation.
4/
http://www.altfusion.eu/ - A European Union domain extension, that suggests that altFusion is a European company that offers IT solutions and applications for the whole of Europe as well as the UK.
5/
http://www.altfusion.info/ - This is for an information website, and along with this blog I believe that altFusion can always be welcome to offer advice to somebody as well as to provide a full IT system or software application.

We dont see any need to register any other domain names at the moment.
Just as a side note, I have already mentioned that we have got a fun website filled with Games and Gadgets and Widgets and things to experiment with here.

Google Apps.

It was brought to my attention recently that Google Apps had re-branded and are now trying out different tools to help people with their web presence.
We wanted to register a new domain to have a play around with this, so I joined up and registered a test domain here:
Cambridge and Peterborough software developers test partner website.

So I signed up at the Google Apps pages, and registered the domain.

From the front menu there is a bit of confusion with 2 categories of pages to sort out. There is a link to sort out the start pages, and there is a link to sort out the web pages.

I didn’t know the difference, so I thought I would sort out the start pages seeing as it makes sense to start at the start.
What happened then was I sorted out the content, and put on a couple of blogs, a weather report, and a calendar.
I then waited to see this start page turn up at the http://www.altfuzion.com and after about a week, it still never turned up. It always stayed at start.altfuzion.com
So I went back and re visited the account and saw that the webpages were still blank even though the start page was set up. I then set up the webpages which at the moment is a title and a piece of text just introducing what I am trying to do with the Google Apps account.
That now does come up at the intended application URL.
Because I now have an ASP.NET (dot net) website that I don’t want to break so I will leave that alone, and I can now use www.altfuzion.com as a blank canvas to try out any number of tools and technologies.

I have found so far that Google states they do not give any preferential treatment to pages or websites that are held and created on Google Page Creator.
It just has the same precedence as any other website on the internet.

It should be worth mentioning: We have registered our test domain http://www.altfuzion.com to run through googlepages, although with my googlepages account I can actually register 4 domains in total to have other domains to experiment with. These domains are all within the http://########.googlepages.com area however so I don’t really see a need to explore this further, I will be sticking with http://www.altfuzion.com which points to http://www.altfuzion.com-a.googlepages.com/ only for my experiments.




I am now looking into Google Gadgets and Widgets to see what it is about, and there seems to be a wealth of Widgets that have been written for google pages.
Some of these are free and some are costly, but all are supposedly easy to install through my main Google Page Creator.
I am going to have a test page to hold gadgets and widgets that I will make public.
You can view my google widgets test page here.

Questions I have to be answered are:
Can I make a robots.txt and sitemap.XML ?
It does state there is 100MB of storage space. Can I upload pages directly to my space, or do I have to go through their interface.
If I can upload pages, can I upload aspx (ASP.NET) pages, or is there any kind of server side technology that I can utilize?
Is there any database technology that I can utilize on their storage space?